Jötunheim

Chapter Eight: Frustration
~BlackRoseRaven

Antares and Innocence soon left the fae-enchanted forest behind, and the land they entered next quickly became barren and hostile. They stopped at the foot of a mountain pass to finally tend to their injuries and damaged equipment, resting for a few hours, but as twilight began to fall, the two decided to ascend a little and see if they could find a safer place to rest on higher ground.

The natural pass up the mountain led them to a plateau, and Antares couldn't help but whistle a little at the sight of a massive stone wall painted by flickering flames near the sundowned horizon... and perhaps, beyond that, framed in the red sky, a stretch of grasping branches.

But it was too dark to see more than an outline, that vanished completely as night quickly fell, the stars offering no hints. The wall near the horizon, however, they could both still clearly see.

“So that's probably Giant's Reach. Which means we're almost there... maybe two days of travel.” Antares said after a moment, looking thoughtfully into the distance. “That's... pretty high security, though. I mean, medieval-level high security, but all the same...”

Innocence grunted in agreement: the entire wall was lit up almost as bright as day by torchlight that seemed unnaturally powerful, and she could see a lot of movement down there. What she couldn't see was any way to get past the wall: it looked solid all the way across, which meant... “We're gonna have to fly over it, aren't we?”

“Not necessarily.” Antares muttered as he tossed off his pack, and he dug through it for a few moments before pulling out a set of binoculars. He peered through these, scanning the wall before he clicked his tongue and said: “There.”

Innocence looked at him moodily, then snatched the binoculars from the stallion when he offered them and peered through, scanning back and forth until she noted what he'd been looking at, complaining immediately: “Oh good, there's barred windows and arrow slots. We can get shot while trying to squeeze inside.”

“It means we can get inside the wall.” Antares said pointedly. “And that means there's definitely doors.”

“Probably on the other side! And trapdoors up top.” Innocence huffed, then scanned across the front of the wall and groused as she locked on a figure in armor: “I see a minotaur patrol. He's got a big-ass axe. He doesn't look very friendly.”

She raised her gaze and scanned along the battlements, noting the pattern of high merlons and crenels, the elaborate hoardings and the occasional gatehouse, topped with massive, ominous-looking orbs of crystal, the mare muttering: “Oh great. Magical anti-air artillery. Guess we're not flying over either unless we want to get zapped out of the sky. There's not a lot of guys on patrol up top, though...”

“Okay, so maybe climbing over is our best bet, then.” Antares said mildly, and Innocence huffed at him.

“So now my ideas are good?” she complained, then she looked back through the binoculars and muttered: “There's weird humanoid guys down there too. They're large and ugly-looking, skin's really bad, like permanent sunburn-looking, super gross. I can't tell if he's wearing furs or he's just really hairy.”

Antares motioned for the binoculars, and Innocence passed them after a moment more of peering at the weird, large, ugly thing. It only took the stallion a moment to identify the savage-looking thing that Innocence had locked on, the stallion muttering: “Orcling. It's half-orc and half... minotaur, I'd guess.”

“Why do humanoids have to fuck each other all the time?” Innocence asked plaintively, and Antares cleared his throat loudly. “No, seriously. Half-orc, half-elf, they're all weird hybrids. You never hear about half-ponies.”

“Uh, Sin?” Antares dropped his head towards her pointedly.

Innocence glanced down at her claws, then huffed and hugged herself, grumbling: “I'm not half-anything. I'm... all-special.”

“You certainly are.” Antares sighed and smiled wryly, then he shook his head and put the binoculars away, muttering: “We'll... figure out how to get across there once it comes to that. Hey, for all we know, they might not be hostile.”

“Oh, yeah, they look super friendly to me.” Innocence grumbled as she automatically went about the process of setting protective wards around their campsite.

Antares was almost tempted to try and push a little further up the mountain, but even he wasn't stupid or cocky enough to think that he wasn't going to get stabbed if there was anything out there waiting in the dark for them. At least the plateau wasn't at ground level, and they were camping to one side of it, near a jagged ridge of stone.

He had already been stabbed once today, thank you very much.

The stallion absently reached up and touched the patched wound on his shoulder as he surveyed the tent, and then he turned and gestured at Innocence, saying: “Go get some sleep. You'll need your energy for tomorrow.”

“Make me something to eat!” Innocence whined, and Antares couldn't help but smile before he sighed and nodded.

“I spoil you, kiddo.”

Still, he was glad for the distraction.

He cooked meat dumplings for them, and they sat around the campfire afterwards, talking, bragging to each other, making up tall tales about the day they had literally just lived through. Thirty elves became a hundred in Innocence's retelling, and Antares retorted that he had clearly come to her rescue just in the nick of time to protect her from the evils of the elf king.

But mostly they just enjoyed each other's company, and the food, and the fact that they were here, still alive, still working their way towards Yggdrasil, which Antares could swear was waiting just beyond the edge of the horizon.

Innocence retired with only a little fretting to the tent, once Antares reassured her that if any elves attacked, he'd wake her up right away. Of course, that was easier said than done, since within ten minutes Innocence was snoring like a bear and he knew that he could literally hit her with the frying pan and she would barely stir.

He smiled despite himself as he finished searing the pan clean, watching as the blue flame dissolved every last speck of meat and grease. The smell was wonderful, delicious enough that he hoped it didn't attract any of the local wildlife...

His eyes flicked up to the edge of the ring of wards encircling the camp, and he studied the entity standing there, watching him silently. He didn't bother to pretend he hadn't seen it, or that he didn't realize it was watching him: instead, he sighed as he set the pan aside on a rock, and then he climbed to his hooves and cracked his back, saying mildly: “I already hit my quota for ass-kicking today. I'm gonna have to charge you extra if you want a fight.”

“I am currently in observation mode. I do not wish to engage in combat.” the mechanical mare stated, and Antares smiled slightly as he walked to the edge of the circle, his horn lighting up bright enough to let him get a good look at the mare... and he couldn't help but whistle as he noted she had somehow fully repaired herself, fake outer skin and all.

She frowned at him, and Antares cocked an eyebrow, not sensing any hostility from the robot this time before she stated: “You will not be permitted to reach Yggdrasil.”

“By...” Antares looked curiously at the mare, because somehow, from the way she said that, he got the feeling it wasn't exactly a direct threat.

“I will stop you if necessary. But current data simulations show that Anorthite and Ilmenite will reach the target first, as planned.” the mare-machine said calmly.

Antares frowned: those were obviously codenames. That brought a question to mind, but Antares resisted asking it for now, instead questioning: “So why are you here? It's super creepy to just watch us hang out, you know.”

“Caution, and safety.” answered the mare-bot. “Observing you allows me to adjust and update my data models regarding your behaviors. Remaining within a proximate distance also ensures that any hostiles that may be tracking my data signature will be distracted by your biorhythms.”

“Cool, cool. We're bait. Glad we can keep you safe, why don't you step inside and warm up by the fire?” Antares asked dryly, gesturing moodily at the blue flames in the distance.

The mare-bot studied him for a moment, then said: “Sarcasm.”

“Yeah. So uh... what are you?” Antares asked bluntly.

“Classified.”

“I mean, I know you're a robot and all-”

“Classified.”

“And you were definitely made by someone who has knowledge of Clockwork World-”

“Classified.”

“Whether it's Thorn or Valthrudnir-”

“Classified.”

“That doesn't matter.” Antares stopped, looked moodily at the mare for a moment, then said plaintively: “Lady, I just want to know what to call you. I don't want your... blueprint or whatever. I just want a name. Can you give me a name?”

The mechanical mare looked at him for a few moments, then said: “Classified.”

Antares groaned and slapped his forehead, dragging a hoof down over his face as he mumbled: “I guess I shouldn't have expected anything else from-”

“But you may refer to me as Six.”

Antares uncovered his eyes, blinking in surprise before he leaned towards her curiously and asked a little overeagerly: “And you're a pony? Like a robot pony, you're a-”

“I am an android. All information beyond that is classified.” answered Six, and the android shifted backwards when Antares leaned towards her with interest. “Do not engage. Retaliation will be immediate and-”

“What? No! I don't want to fight you. I kinda want to poke you but then I bet Prestige would get mad at me. And you look like you would, too.” Antares quickly walked in a circle around the mare, leaving and reentering the ward, both purely because he was kind of amazed at how realistic the mare's body was and how much her body language told him, and because he wanted to test a theory that was proven right as he walked back in front of the mare and into the safety of the warding ring, smiling at her with renewed interest. “You know, for someone who doesn't want to fight, you sure fought us hard before.”

“Hostility will not be tolerated.” answered the android.

“Oh, Sin is hostile to me all the time and I tolerate it just swell! Hey, do you recognize slang? Or weird word use? Like if I say 'Sin is a bitch' followed by 'Sin is bitchin',” do you understand that one of those is offensive and the other's not?”

The android simply stared at him for a few moments, then answered: “I am capable of learning.”

“Cool.” Antares smiled, then asked: “Your mission-”

“Classified.”

“I know, I know, classified, but I'm not actually asking about your mission, Six. I was going to ask that if we stay out of your way, will you stay out of ours?”

The android looked at him, expressing the faintest, strangest hint of emotion before it said almost reluctantly: “Yes.”

“Awesome. You wanna come sit by the fire?” Antares asked, and the mechanical mare stared at him as the stallion grinned before he scrabbled quickly at the ground, then pried one of Sin's crystallized runes carefully up with telekinesis. The moment it was lifted free, the entire warding ring fizzled out, and the stallion looked up at the android cheerfully as he ushered: “Come, come, come on, sit down with me for a bit.”

He scurried around and attempted to nudge Six forwards, but the mare-bot immediately neatly scissored her rear legs up and locked them around his throat, Antares wheezing loudly as the android warned: “Hostility will not be-”

“Overreaction!” Antares wildly slammed his hoof against one of her ankles, then he glared at her as he complained: “My marefriend will get really mad if she sees us like this, so please let go and please let's just go sit!”

The android surveyed him calmly for a moment, then loosened her grip and dropped neatly back to the ground. She continued to watch him as Antares looked at her, and then he pointedly rose a hoof, wiggled it, and then reached out and poked her several times in the rump. “Forward, please. Also, see? Touching. But not bad touching.”

“Contact is unwarranted. Please do not touch me.” the android stated, and Antares huffed, but dropped his hoof. Then he squinted at her pointedly, and the mare-bot tilted her head slowly. “Query: what are you trying to accomplish?”

“I'm pushing you. With my mind.” Antares said seriously.

“This is false. There is no magic or psionic force present.”

“Horses of Heaven.” Antares sighed and rolled his eyes, then he walked past the android before simply gesturing her to follow, and after a moment, the mechanical mare finally did so.

He sat on the other side of the fire, absently spinning the rune he'd lifted from the ward, and the mare lingered at the edge of the firelight, surveying their campsite before she stated: “You prepared a meal earlier. A large portion of this meal was meat.”

“It tastes good.” Antares said with a shrug, and when Six only continued to look at him from her strange, stiff standing position at the edge of the fire, he smiled and said: “I know you're uh... what did you say, not a member of any nation or whatever... but I've met a few ponies like you before from Clockwork World, and I bet you're gonna lecture me about nutritional value and natural order and stuff.”

“No.” Six surprised him by saying. “Where did you acquire it?”

“Sin hunted a few deer in Looking Glass World. They haven't developed at all like they have in some worlds-”

“Is this morally correct?” Antares frowned and cocked his head as Six asked: “Should a being of superior intelligence and will be permitted to exercise such a level of power over its inferior? You have killed and eaten another living creature for pleasure. A being of a tribe that, while not as evolved as you, has shown promise of evolution in other worlds.”

Antares shifted a bit, and Six said: “I have made you uncomfortable.”

“Well, not you. The argument, sure.” Antares hesitated, then said: “I don't know. I don't have all the answers. I know that they don't have the same uplifted level of consciousness as we do, but they do have emotions... perhaps wants, and desires, even if they're much more basic and primitive than ours.

“I don't really give it a lot of thought.” Antares admitted with a shrug and a smile. “I can justify it a lot of ways, but ultimately, I guess I'm not going to change and I don't feel what I'm doing is entirely wrong.”

“A culling can be necessary. It is better to use the remains than waste them.” Six said, and Antares winced a bit, earning a curious look from the android.

He chewed at his lip, then said finally: “Sometimes there's no 'greater good.' There's just 'wrong' and 'more wrong.' You deal with the cards you're dealt, but...”

He broke off, looking at the rune he was still twiddling with telekinesis, and then he put this down before he smiled over at the android and said: “You don't seem so bad, Six. Just don't turn out too much like Thorn.”

The android tilted her head, then turned her eyes up as Innocence emerged from the tent with a loud yawn, smacking her lips and looking tiredly at the two. She stumbled over to the campfire, then paused beside her brother, looking at him as he waved a hoof at her, before she slowly turned her eyes to the android, staring at it for a few moments before she shouted furiously and leapt over the firepit at her.

She slammed her claw into Six's face, then squawked and danced backwards, shaking her foreleg wildly as she howled: “What the shit are you doing here? Oh god dammit that hurts.”

Six looked nonplussed as Innocence danced angrily in a little circle, while Antares introduced politely: “Six, this is Sin, you may remember her from the last time she broke her claw on your face. Sin, this is Six. Play nice.”

“No.” Sin grumbled, and then she huffily spun and dropped on her rump, suckling quietly on her throbbing claw as she glowered at the android.

“Hostility will not be tolerated.” Six stated.

“Eat shit.” Sin huffed.

“Fecal matter has no nutritional value.”

“Yeah, well... neither do you!” Sin retorted, then she winced when Antares bounced a pebble off her head, whining: “She started it!”

“No, you did.” Antares corrected, before he tossed her the rune he'd pried out of the ground, and Sin grumbled and took it, slouching off to repair the ward. “We're super friendly. Really.”

“Your behavior is largely erratic.” remarked the android.

“Your face is erratic!” Sin shouted, a moment before she plugged the rune back in, then grimaced a little as she looked out into the darkness as the ward sizzled back to life. “Creepers up there”

Antares cocked his head, and Sin looked moodily up through the darkness, seeing the creatures wandering above more through magic than her senses before she shook her head and returned to the fireside. “Phantasms or specters or something, I dunno.”

“Wights.” corrected the android, and Sin scowled as Six explained: “Photon readings indicate-”

“Oh here we go.” Sin muttered.

The android simply looked at her, and Innocence gestured several times grumpily at the android, complaining: “You're as bad as Thorn. You're going to tell us about 'readings' and 'measurements' and 'historical data' and 'Sin magic can't solve everything' and look, lady, I don't tell you your job, so don't tell me mine.”

Six tilted her head slightly, and the scaled mare huffed and added: “Why are you here, anyway? Are you like, spying on us?”

“Spying indicates deception. I am observing. Analyzing. Learning.” Six answered.

“Spy.” Innocence narrowed her eyes. “Thorn's the spy. Thorn's watching us through your creepy eyes, I know it.”

Antares cleared his throat awkwardly, and Six studied the mare for a moment before she stated: “Thorn Blackfeather is your sibling.”

“He's a douche!” Sin snapped, and Antares snorted in amusement.

“You do not like him?” Six questioned, and there was an odd hint of concern in her voice. Not for them or Thorn, but rather...

Antares looked at her, studied her with interest: normally his acuity didn't work very well on mechanical things, but whatever an 'android' was... she definitely had something in there. Whether her emotions were preprogrammed or not, she was also learning, making decisions, figuring things out on her own...

“Well... no.” Sin mumbled. “He's cool. He's an asshole. But he's the only other brother I have as far as I'm concerned. I mean. Full-brother. The demons are all... half-siblings. So I just have to do half as much for them because they're all dumb. Even Nistle.”

Six nodded slowly, then said: “I am fond of Nistle.”

“He's cool. She's cool. Whatever the hell it is, they are cool. They is so fuckin' weird to use for a single person.” Innocence complained. “I don't like it.”

“You don't like anything.” Antares said, before he asked curiously: “What do you like about Nistle?”

Six looked at them for a moment, then made a strange whirring noise before she said shortly: “Classified.”

And with that, the android spun around and ran to the edge of the cliff, leaping off it and vanishing into the darkness. Innocence shouted in frustration after the robot, but Antares only sat by the fire, musing over what had been confirmed before he said without bothering to raise his voice: “She wasn't sent by Thorn. She was sent by Morgan.”

Innocence immediately halted in her tantrum, blinking before she turned and looked at her brother, then groaned and slapped her forehead, muttering: “Of course. Nistle. How the hell else would she know about Nistle? And even Thorn doesn't... I mean, he couldn't put a soul in a robot like that, but... but...”

She shivered, not wanting to imagine it, but Antares only smiled briefly before he nodded slowly and murmured: “That's what it seems like. Clockwork-level technology, but a bound soul inside that mechanical frame. And we're helping test her efficacy.”

Innocence ground her teeth together, then she shouted: “Mom! Momma, I wanna talk to you!”

The flames stirred, and the night grew darker, but there was nothing else: nothing but a sense of being watched, silently, as Antares sat back, and Innocence stomped back and forth before she growled: “Okay, fine. Don't come out! But I... Momma, how could you? I don't care about the soul tampering, I don't care about what we're really doing here, but...”

Sin slumped her shoulders, mumbling: “How could you lie to us?”

Antares smiled a little, walking over and silently reaching up to wrap a foreleg around his sister, and she rubbed at her face before she grumbled: “I'm... I'm not crying. I'm not sad. I'm just mad. Shut up.”

Antares nodded, saying softly: “I know Sin, I know. Your evil heart is broken.”

“Shut up.” Sin rubbed at her face, then huffed a few times before she looked up and almost glowered at Antares. “You know what? They wanna play games? Fine. We can cheat too. We're going through Giant's Reach tomorrow. We're doing it my way.”

“I feel like I'm going to regret agreeing to this, but I also hate seeing you cry like a little girl, so...”

Innocence huffed and headbutted the stallion several times, then dropped her head, and the two simply sat with each other for a little while, reflecting in silence that nothing could ever be easy.

Giant's Reach was both the last bastion of defense before Yggdrasil, and a hard border that protected and suppressed the territory of the earth giants beyond, the final protectors of the World Tree, but also barbarians, nomads, and infrequently tyrants when they managed to cross their own defensive perimeter.

The towering, forty-foot walls, lit by eternal ragefire, were staffed by outlaws: criminals and slaves who had no rights, and who had either been sent here or chosen to live in this quasi-exile as soldiers, keeping the earth giants under watch and assisting in the protection of Yggdrasil from both obvious threats and meddlesome tourists. The only way to pass through Giant's Reach was with the approval of Jötunheim's only true authority, its apathetic rulers, the storm giants.

Giant's Reach had suffered precious few breaches over the countless years it had stood: its walls had resisted armies and gods, Jötnar and monsters. Armed not just with silvered weapons, but thunder-orbs provided by the storm giants, they could generate an all-but-impassable barrier of lightning to further fortify the barrier of stone and steel, and ensure that anyone trying to simply fly over the defenses would be zapped out of the sky.

They had nothing to fear, except perhaps a few earth giants deciding to leave for a day trip and crawling over the wall before enough of a group could mass to push them back.

So when they heard the roar, guards turned curiously towards the wasteland, but no one paid any heed to what it might be until one of the minotaurs outside the wall yelled: “Something's coming!”

Guards leaned between and over battlements, trying to see what was rushing towards them in the distance before eyes widened as another roar echoed through the air, shaking the very stone foundations of their fortifications. Soldiers rushed to activate the thunder-orbs, but even as they crackled with static and lightning lashed through the air in front of the wall, the great black dragon rushing towards them didn't so much as hesitate in its charge.

The beast howled, a goliath not of flesh, but black crystal, with eyes that glowed like blue spotlights and mighty pistons pumping across its back. It smashed into the barrier of lightning, then writhed in fury as electricity coursed violently over it, the guards roaring and shouting along the wall and for a moment, feeling hope and relief-

The black-crystal dragon slammed a claw forwards, dragging itself through the almost-solid barrier of flashing light and magic, seeming to grin as its entire body began to glow brightly with magic. It snarled and hissed as guards stared in horror and disbelief, before one of the guards howled to retreat as he recognized too late what was happening.

The supercharged construct tore through the barrier, smashing into the wall and ignoring the arrows the bounced pointlessly off its gemstone body, the axes and maces that hacked and clanked against its crystalline form as the beast scrabbled quickly upwards, then leapt over the top of the wall and pounced on top of one of the massive, boulder-sized thunder orbs. It clung to it, body beginning to vibrate violently as ivory light started to glow through black crystal, and then a mocking voice sing-songed through the crystal dragon's jaws: “Tick-tick boom!”

The guards had a moment longer to stare or try and flee, and then all they knew was white light and sound so loud it silenced the world, bodies and ancient stone flung in all direction as the overcharged dragon detonated both itself and the thunder-orb beneath it. The explosion shook Giant's Reach for miles, knocking soldiers sprawling, obliterating stone and ancient steelwork and scarring the earth for hundreds of feet.

Innocence huffed as she led Antares forwards into the smoldering wreckage that was left behind, the stallion wincing a little and awkwardly mumbling: “Sorry... um, sorry...” to the scattered, confused, and injured soldiers that were sprawled across the ruins, the stallion grimacing as they passed several that had been crushed beneath a pile of heavy stone slabs. “Uh. Maybe you could have gone easier on them?”

“Nope.” Innocence grumped as they headed to the breach her bomb had blasted in the wall: the edges of the few stones that stuck out of the cratered earth had melted like wax, and fragments of the crystalline dragon that were embedded in the ground here and there sizzled and crackled with unfathomable energy.

Antares carefully avoided both of these things while Innocence simply knocked debris carelessly out of her path with telekinesis, not so much as looking at the terrified soldiered clustered past melted barricades and crumbled walls as they passed through what had once been interior wall, and was now nothing but a blasted wound in Giant's Reach.

It was like walking through a small spot of Muspellheim, and once they reached the other side, Antares politely cleared his throat before he gestured at the obliterated forty feet of wall behind them and said kindly: “We are not doing it your way again. Ever.”

“Spoilsport.” Sin huffed, then glowered as shouting began to rise in the air around them: the soldiers who had just been stunned by the blast were crawling out of their stupor, and reinforcements were quickly moving in from both sides, angry soldiers yelling at them as Innocence grimaced and began to run, calling: “Time to go!”

Antares had to agree, calling one last awkward 'sorry!' before he bolted off after his sibling: voices roared at them and several arrows were shot sloppily after them, but the equines had the advantage of speed: that, and it seemed like as they sped away from the wall, something else caught the attention of the soldiers that were swarming in to try and protect the gap in their bulwark.

Innocence flagged after twenty minutes, wheezing loudly as she slowed rapidly to a halt, groaning as she almost fell against a nearby tree as they stopped beside a stream. Antares skidded to a stop as well, meditating on where they were before he frowned a little, then suddenly leapt up into the tree, hopping neatly up the thick branches until he reached the top of the pine, the thin trunk bending with his weight as he hung off it and whistled quietly at the sight of the goliath in the distance. “Hey Sin. Float up here.”

Innocence grumbled, but jumped into the air and flew quickly upwards before she frowned in surprise, floating a little higher than Antares was as she followed his gaze: just over the horizon, great, massive branches stretched towards the sky, reaching miles upon miles outwards from its massive trunk.

“That tree could contain a city.” Innocence muttered, and then she squawked when Antares jumped onto her back, flailing her arms wildly as her magic sputtered around her body and she sailed awkwardly to the ground, Antares hopping off just before she landed in a thump on her face.

“Yeah.” he agreed, then he smiled over his shoulder at her as Innocence scowled at him from the earth. “Hey, we're almost there. And all thanks to you, little miss murder.”

“Little miss murder magic, thank you very much.” Innocence said primly as she popped to her claws, sniffing disdainfully before she strutted past Antares in the direction of the World Tree. “So what are you waiting for?”

“Nothing at all.” Antares said with a wry smile, and he followed quickly after the mare after one last check over his shoulder, all too aware that they couldn't afford to waste any time.

Yggdrasil, and Mimir, awaited ahead, and their rivals were close behind.