The Forgotten God

The sky was dark, the kind of inked blackness that sucks the energy from your bones but the concerned lines that broke the old man's face were not because of the darkness but rather its timing. It was midday by his estimarion but with the nature of things recently many of the gods had abandoned their typical duties to safeguard their respective realms.

"Odin," a soft feminine voice calls. It's a musical sound surely. And one that brought comfort to the old man who shifted upon his throne to turn to the woman he called his queen.

"Frigg." Odin, Lord of Asgard spoke at last breaking what had been a long, uncomfortable fast of silence. "I do not like the way the omens of the sky speak to me."

Frigg, Queen of the Aesir nods with the regal grace that had long stolen the stone heart of her husband. She had been pensive, lost admist her own thoughts and worries but had at long last relented.

"The Greeks will not relent at our gates and Asgard will surely bleed if their allies take upon themselves the offers the Olympians have offered," she paused as she gathered the rest of her thoughts, "though it disgusts me. Perhaps a compromise is the best course of action my love."

Odin's face darkened as his brow furrowed with quiet; stoic rage. His wife was speaking sense as was her nature and his anger was not with her or her ever wise counsel. The Lord of the Aesir had no love for the Olympians who had once upon an age basked in the mercy of his court fleeing the wrath of their titans. But like the serpent rescued from the fire they had now turned upon their saviors and sunk fang into flesh.

Asgard was in a perpetual state of war and would not fare well with the Greeks if they were indeed accompanied by their newfound allies. Frigg was maddeningly correct in her deduction of the state of the realm; and the fragility of their defense at the present moment.

There was no guarantee if Asgard compromised that the Olympian court would even keep their promises. They were renowned and notorious for their shifting natures. Zues with his skies and Poseidon with his oceans, they had turned upon their own father and castrated the once great being. The bloodlust of their court was well known to Asgard. Zues' son Ares and Odin's son Thor's thunderous battles had shaken the nine realms to their cores as evidence of this. So much so that even the frost giants; not typically shaken by such events, took notice.

The Olympians had another advantage that nobody wanted to give voice too. The nature of their divinity. The Aesir could be killed whereas the methodology of dissembling the Greek pantheon was lost to time. But surrender was and could never be an option. Weakness would be met by brutality and callousness not mercy and compassion.

Frigg shifted uncomfortably in her throne as an idea struck her, "we need not make war if we could instead marry into the pantheon. Their power would be diluted and if they broke their oaths their own river styx would weaken them enough to make an even battlefield."

Odin's unpatched eye widened... it was a brilliant strategy in it's own right. The Olympians would regardless of whether promise was kept or not be at a severe disadvantage. Odin thought briefly of the story he had heard from a traveling poet of the Greek battle with a city they called Troy... this was the Asgardian's version of the trojan horse. But like the wooden construct it would have to be fashioned in the form of a most outrageous and irrefutable gift.

And then it struck him. Hel. Hel would be the sacrificial lamb that would poison their fledgling enemy. If she would agree of course but even death would see reason to this plan as long as she were not disrespected in the pairing. But a union to the Greeks would be tricky. Hades had his bride in Persephone and unlike his brothers was faithful even doting to his bride. But then whom?

He turned to his queen and explained his thoughts. She listened and nodded approval and agreed it would ultimately be Hel's decision.

Hel was not amused upon her summoning. She did not enjoy the Asgardian court and was not warmly received by the Aesir.

She arrived at the proper time a dressed respectively to her station, her features beautiful and cold like a statue carved of ice and ashes.

The plan was explained at length and a smile crept upon her face. She indeed had a God in mind. One who bore no loyalty to Olympus not the Aesir. One who was truly his own and one who would bring to fruition the fruits of her schemes. While the Aesir got fat off their sacred fruit and worried of the end of days clinging to foolish immortality surely she would rise beyond both.

She knew they were being kind because she was currently useful but that they would discard her as soon as she was not. Just as the Greeks did to Thanatos her husband to be.

But if only the goddess of death had foresight to what was to come surely she would have reconsidered her options.