Asgard. 960 AD.
Within the shining golden halls of the throne room sat the King of Asgard, the ruler of the nine realms.
Odin Allfather.
Yet, this wise king was not currently performing his duties.
Instead, his legendary lance, Gungnir, lay leaning on his throne while his gaze remained locked on the murals of his throne room.
Or rather, on what lay underneath those murals.
A past marred in bloodlust, loss, misplaced arrogance, and betrayal.
A past that he wished to forget, yet could never do so, for they were still a part of him, a piece of his heart forever lost.
A beautiful past, filled with the laughter of his beloved daughter, whose innocence and brilliance were lost to bloodlust and destruction as a result of his own ambitions, his own arrogance, and mistakes.
A beautiful past, filled with the love and warmth of his first love. The Earth Goddess, who left him after the banishment of their daughter, cursing his name to her last breath as she threw herself into the Ginnungagap. Unable to cope with the loss of their daughter.
So lost in memories was he that he did not even sense the arrival of his queen and wife.
As her hand fell on his shoulder gently, he took a shuddering breath before schooling his features.
"Does my king still wish to be lost in memories of times long past?"
Odin smiled gently as he held her hand, his loss suppressed with the love he felt from his beloved.
"If my queen wishes me not to, then I won't."
"Heh, you've quite the silvertonge."
"I learned from the best."
The Allfather got up from the throne and turned to his wife, Frigga of Vanaheim. The goddess of marriage, prophecy, clairvoyance, and motherhood, and took her into his arms, seeking comfort for his scarred, burdened heart.
A comfort that his beloved gave him without reserve as her hands ran through his long, golden locks.
"Rough day?"
"Hm. Nothing out of the ordinary. Same old conflicts between the nine realms. Same old bickering. Same old plots from the Johtun. Same old schemes from the demons of Muspelheim. Same old negotiations with the Dwarves of Nidavellir."
"Then, what made you lose yourself in memories of old like this?"
"...I don't know. I just thought of my actions, and thought of what could have been if I had held the wisdom I now hold in those days."
"You cannot change the past, my love."
".....I could."
Frigga smiled at her husband's words.
"Let me rephrase it. You should not change the past."
"Hm. You are right. Too dangerous, no matter the method."
"And there is the wisdom you are so famous for."
Odin chuckled at his wife's words and took her hand in his own, guiding her down the stairs and out of the palace.
The royal couple slowly strolled through Asgard, basking in the countless stars in the night sky.
The peace that Odin earned after spending his life seeking power and only realizing what it truly meant to have power and wisdom when he was asked to sacrifice the one thing that he loved the most. A test of the Soul that finally broke his arrogance and showed him the error of his ways.
As they strolled through their realm, they soon arrived at the crowning achievement of Asgard. One that cemented their place as the rulers of the Nine Realms through their ability to deploy their armies wherever they so chose. The rainbow bridge created by the previous king of Asgard, Bor Burison, the father of Odin.
Bifrost.
And at its helm, keeping an eternal vigilance as was his duty, was a young man who was considered a child in terms of the Aesir.
Heimdall. The Gatekeeper of Asgard.
The 150-year-old Aesir merely took a knee in front of his king and queen, his all-seeing eyes facing the floor in deference.
"My king. My Queen."
Frigga smiled at the man that she had seen grow up, while a touch of warmth flashed through Odin's eyes.
"Heimdall. How are the Nine Realms?"
"They are as they should be. My King. Everything is going according to how it should, and everyone is accounted for."
Frigga tapped her husband on his shoulder with a mock glare.
"Enough talk about work. Have you eaten yet? Heimdall?"
"....No. My Queen."
Frigga's eyes brightened at those words while Odin huffed in amusement.
"Then, join us as we head to the halls. I hear they are throwing a feast after our Einherjar returned from their latest expedition into Muspelheim's badlands."
Heimdall's lips twitched at those words as warmth filled his heart.
Queen Frigga had always been like this in the short century and a half he had known her. Warm, loving, motherly.
It was no wonder that the divinity of motherhood was drawn to her in her youth on Vanaheim, just like her unbreakable vow of love to Odin drew in the divinity of marriage to her on the day of her wedding.
Yet, despite this invitation from the loving queen, he could not abandon his duty.
Just as he was about to turn her down with respect and continue his watch, he saw his king and queen's intertwined hands, and a new idea bloomed in his mind.
With a knowing smile, Heimdall placed his sword, Hofund, in the pedestal and bowed to his rulers while noticing the approving look in his king's eyes. He knew at that moment that he had made the right move.
"In that case, I shall go to the halls and see to it that they are prepared for you."
Frigga's eyes held confusion as the man left the observatory hastily, leaving them alone under the beauty of the infinite cosmos.
However, her confusion turned to exasperation and fondness when she saw the mischievous glint in her husband's eyes.
"You are really a piece of work, you know that?"
"Can't blame me, my love. I just wish to spend some time with you alone."
"Says that king who spends all his time handling the affairs of the Nine realms."
Odin simply smiled and hugged his wife happily, lost in the feeling of her warmth.
However, things changed when both their senses picked up on something that nobody but them, and possibly Heimdall, could have picked up on if he were here.
A tear in reality. A bleeding wound that opened up under the influence of unfathomable, unknowable power.
Worse yet, this tear opened up right above the skies of Asgard, right above the Observatory of the Bifrost.
Right above Queen Frigga.
Before Odin could even warn the woman, she was already prepared. Her eyes shining with a silver light as the power of Seiðr, the birthright of the Vanir, coursed through her, preparing for the attack that was to come.
Odin did not hesitate either as Gungnir flew from his throne room, landing in his outstretched hand, ready to pierce any enemy that is to come without fail.
Yet, what happened next left them both stunned.
A golden comet shot out of the tear in reality and landed gently in the arms of the woman with a distinct hum of alien technology.
The moment the comet left the tear, the rules of reality reasserted themselves and snuffed out the anomaly.
The comet, however, remained in Frigga's arms. A testament to her strength as the object was easily larger than her torso and weighed enough to crush a human flat.
Slowly, as the seconds passed, the golden dome of energy faded, revealing the true form of what had landed on her arms.
A giant pod of alien design. Shaped like a ball with a crimson viewport showing the interior. And what they saw inside took their breath away.
An infant.
A baby boy with messy black hair and a strange armor lay within the pod.
His black eyes stared at the woman with a curiosity and apprehension inherent to children, yet also shone with a strange intelligence.
However, the most distinctive trait of the baby was the strange monkey-like tail wrapped around the boy's waist, twitching with each moment made by the two adults, showing that it may be prehensile.
The sight left Frigga breathless as instincts she never knew she had took over.
Gently putting down the pod, she tapped the pod with her fingers while muttering in the language of magic, forcing the mechanisms inside the alien machine to activate and open the hatch.
With a hiss of atmosphere venting, the pod opened up, frightening the baby, who started to cry involuntarily at what he perceived as a threat.
However, his cries came to a stop as the Queen of Asgard picked up the boy gently into her arms.
Her finger approached the baby, intending to see his response, only for the infant to grab a hold of her finger with unfathomable strength for a child. His strangely intelligent eyes were now staring at her with wonder as the power of her Seiðr made her glow with a golden light.
Slow, ancient chants left her tongue as the power of magic flowed through her and into the baby. Searching for any signs that would point to his origin. Yet, all she got was emptiness.
Of course, Odin was not idle during this time. His own power, the Odinforce, flowed through the area, trying to track the tear in reality and searching for whoever was responsible for this incident.
Yet, he too failed to identify the source of this anomaly.
"He is not Aesir. He feels more like a Midguardian."
Frigga hummed as the baby's eyes slowly closed, falling into slumber under her warmth, as her power gently brushed his mind, searching for any recent memories.
She succeeded. Yet, what she saw in his memories left her heartbroken.
"He is not Midguardian, my husband."
She connected her own mind to her husband's and showed him what she saw.
A King imperiously declaring the boy a danger to his race.
A king, who sentenced the boy to exile, simply because he was born stronger than others.
And the sight of what was probably the boy's homeworld, destroyed by a strange creature that looked like a white lizard.
With those memories came words and language that they could not understand, and images without context.
What they did know for a fact now was that this boy was probably the last of his kind.
"What shall we do with him? We cannot leave him like this."
She whispered, making sure not to wake up the baby, while Odin looked at the boy with worry.
Yet, deep beneath the worry, he also felt something else. Something he had not felt in nearly a thousand years.
".....I am not sure. You are right that we cannot leave the child to die out here. Normally, we would place the boy with a family of his own race and give them refuge in Asgard. Yet, this is the first time that a race has been reduced to a single survivor like this in recent memory. There is simply no precedent. Alternatively, we could leave him on Midguard, but I do not think it is wise to leave someone like him among those primitive folk. We could try to look for a way to let some other force in the galaxy take him, such as the Nova Corps, but that is too risky and would make them think we cannot handle our own affairs, giving them the chance to try their incessant attempts to establish their embassy in Asgard. Again."
"Then, I have an idea."
Odin did not say anything and simply watched as his wife did something that he had already guessed she would do, given her nature.
Once again, the language of magic flowed through her voice, declaring to the universe of her intent, as her divinity flowed through her fingertips and into the boy.
"....You are really something else, my love."
Odin sighed and placed his own palm on the boy's head as he, too, spoke with Odinforce, reinforcing his wife's decision.
Under their combined power, the boy's skin tone changed, reflecting the divine radiance of his new mother, while his eyes changed color to reflect the pure blue of his new father.
With their decision made, Odin declared with his voice laced with Odinforce, and all of reality heard his proclamation.
"Hail! The birth of my eldest son. Baldur!"
And so was born a legend that would change the fate of Asgard and the nine realms as a whole.
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