“WHAT DID YOU DO?” Freyja shouted, slamming the doors open to the long hall.

  She stormed in, glaring down the long table at Thor. Freyja wore a full suit of golden armor, wings off the side of the helm, long spear in hand. She stopped at the end of the table, waiting for Thor to answer.

  He sat in his chair, mug in hand, axe leaning against it. One leg was over an arm as he leaned against the back, fingers tapping on the wooden arm of the chair. Thor smiled as he stared down the long table at his fellow Divine Being. He’d felt her Presence as soon as she had appeared in his camp.

  “Hello,” he said, smiling as Freyja’s eyes grew redder with anger. “What do I owe the pleasure of the visit?”

  Thor took a lot of joy in seeing how hard Freyja had to work to hold in her anger. She was stronger than him, her Concept one of the most powerful in the universe. Any fight between the two would be long and brutal, but Thor had no doubts that she would win in the end. Goading her was not the smartest thing he could do, but Thor was the Storm. Storms were a force of nature, they did not cower or kneel. They pushed forward, not stopping until they were out of strength. He was not afraid of her.

  “You took her from me,” Freyja said, leveling the spear at him, tip glowing with a golden light.

  Still Thor did not move.

  “Kelly Brady was not yours,” he said.

  “So you admit you were involved.”

  “Involved in what?” Thor asked, lifting his leg off the arm of the chair, leaning forward and placing his mug on the table. He stared down the length at her. “Kelly Brady made her choices. They were not made for her. No matter how much you tried.”

  “I tried?” Freyja said, incredulous. “What I did was give her power to protect her people.”

  Thor laughed, the sound loud, spreading through the room. It made Freyja’s glare increase, anger and fury mixed.

  “Protect her people? You seriously do not expect anyone to believe that?” he asked, slapping his hand on the arm of the chair. “You never cared about those people. The people were just a means to your goal. Yes, you would have benefitted if they had gone through your portal and became your followers. But that was never the goal was it?” Thor asked, leaning forward. “You only cared about Kelly Brady and only so far as to what she could bring you.”

  “And what is that?” Freyja asked, lowering her spear.

  “The husband, Lochlan Brady.”

  “Who is yours,” Freyja said, smiling, as if she had won some debate. “I would never have stolen him from you like you did Kelly Brady from me.”

  Thor laughed. Not as loud or boisterous. There was a tone of menace to the laugh.

  “It is just the two of us,” he said, purposefully not looking to the corner of the room and the deep shadows. “Do not try to play with words. We will speak plainly here. You would not have needed to steal Lochlan from me. You would have used his wife to lure him to your side.”

  It was Freyja’s turn to laugh. Normally it was a musical sound, full of life and hope. Now it was cruel. Freyja, the Dawnmother, was the Concept of Life. Life was wonderful, it was beautiful and full of hope. But it could also be cruel and hateful, full of spite. Freyja was all things and none.

  “And you used the husband to bring the wife to your side.”

  “No, I did not.”

  “Do not lie,” Freyja said, slamming her hand on the table, cracks formed in the thick aged wood. “You want to speak plainly, then do so. I know that Kelly Brady visited you here, that you brought her here. You used your connection to her husband to turn her to your side.”

  “No,” Thor said, smiling, an easy one. “I just told her that if she ever needed it, my power would be hers. All she had to do was call. Just as any of us can do at any time to any of the Adapted. I did not break any of the rules of our station.”

  “And those rules, designed to keep us from fighting amongst ourselves and destroying worlds, state that the choice must be made willingly and with no conditions,” Freyja said, both hands on the table, leaning forward. “No Divine Being gives power without conditions.”

  Thor just smiled. Freyja’s eyes widened, staring at him in shock.

  “You offered it freely?” she asked, stepping back, completely surprised.

  “I did,” Thor said, nodding his head. “No strings or conditions. Kelly is a Stormmaiden by free choice.”

  “But Kelly Brady and all those people are part of Clan Brady, and you are the Patron,” Freyja reasoned, smiling at Thor as if she had figured out some grand scheme. “Your power grows through their fealty. So there were conditions. You gave her the power and gained her people.”

  Thor chuckled, shaking his head.

  “All those people were already part of Clan Brady while Kelly Brady still called you her Patron,” Thor said. “They had all sworn their Clan Oath before she called to me.”

  Freyja raised the spear, pointing it at Thor again.

  “You planned all this.”

  Thor laughed once more, the boisterous one back, echoing through the long hall and out into the wild snow storm. He shook his head, laughing as he looked at the Divine Being facing him.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Do you really think I’m capable of such a plan?”

  Freyja turned and left, throwing the doors open and leaving them open, the cold wind blowing snow into the long hall. Thor’s laughter followed her.

  ***

  Thor flicked his fingers, the doors closing. With another flick, the fires in the pits along the walls flared up, quickly melting any snow that had gotten in, getting rid of the chill.

  “Did you really need to do that?” a voice called from the shadows.

  “Which part?” Thor asked, grabbing his mug. He went to take a drink, looking into it disappointedly. With a sigh, he flicked his fingers again and the mug filled up. Smiling, he took a long drink.

  “That part,” Loki said, stepping out of the shadows. They pointed to the fires. “It was already warm enough in here and it is not like the cold would affect you anyways.”

  “True, but it’s all part of this,” Thor said, waving his hands at the long hall and then himself. “The longer I spend in this form, the more natural it becomes.”

  “The longer this aspect of you spends,” Loki corrected. “This is part one part of you after all.”

  Thor nodded his head, agreeing.

  “She will be a problem later,” Loki said, taking the seat to Thor’s right. “Freyja will not forget this.”

  Thor shrugged.

  “We knew this would upset some of our fellow Divine Beings.”

  “Just wait,” Loki said, chuckling. “This is only the beginning.”

  Thor leaned forward, staring at Loki. The Trickster looked back, the smile faltering.

  “What is it?” They asked.

  “How much did you push Freyja?” Thor asked. “And don’t lie. I know you were poking at her.”

  Loki smiled, holding up their hands in surrender.

  “How did you figure it out?”

  “I’m not as stupid as you all think I am,” Thor said, leaning back with a shrug.

  “I may have poked and pushed a little bit here and there,” Loki said. “But not that much.”

  Thor speared Loki with a glance.

  “It got the results we wanted, did it not?”

  “I suppose,” Thor said. “But Freyja is not someone we want as an enemy.”

  Loki waved a hand dismissively.

  “She’ll soon forget and move on.”

  “And if she doesn’t?”

  Loki smiled. Thor didn’t like it, too evil. But that was the Trickster. There were always plans within plans and somehow, no matter how the plans went, good or bad, the Trickster came out on top.

  “I have a plan for that.”

  Thor shook his head, taking another drink, not for the first or last time wondering how the whole plan would work out. It was a very long term one, the results would not bear fruit for a hundred years, maybe more. The result might not be what they wanted.

  It would be interesting, that was the only guarantee.

  The Connected System had grown boring. Just more of the same, over and over. For the Connection itself, that was desired. But for those at the pinnacle? The Divine Beings? Some of them wanted something new. They were bored and tired of the same thing over and over.

  Unleashing the Unfettered into the Connected System would change the status quo. It would be anything but boring.

  He was the Storm. Wild and untamed. Thor was looking forward to what Lochlan Brady and his family would do to the Connected System. It would take time, but he had time. He was the Storm. He would wane, growing weaker, but would come back stronger.

  ***

  The portal opened, cutting a hole between worlds. He stepped out, looking out onto the new world. Parts of it were like his home world of Draenok. Parts of it at least. The trees were similar. Mountains in the distance. The ambient Spirit was weaker, but that was to be expected.

  Gul’Dak stepped away from the portal, lifting his bone axe as he sniffed at the air. Others started stepping out, spreading around the clearing. They knew what to do, as Warleader directing the erection of their first camp was not something he needed to command.

  If they didn’t know what to do, then he would step in and instill discipline.

  It felt strange being in a weaker body. He had been Level 50 and now was locked at Level 25. He paused, feeling something a little different. This was not the first time Gul’Dak had stepped onto a newly Connected World. Not the first time he had been forcibly deLeveled. He knew what Level 25 felt like and this was not it. Opening his Status, Gul’Dak laughed.

  It was deep and harsh sounding, tough like the Orc it came from.

  Level 30.

  That meant that someone on this miserable backwater of a planet had already gotten beyond Level 25. It was hard to believe but Gul’Dak was happy. It had been a long time since he had been challenged.

  Gul’Dak had argued with the elders. It didn’t make sense to arrive on this planet called Earth right away. Let others, like those many blasted clans of elves, fight over the early scraps. The orcs would come in later, when the natives had Leveled and been strengthened from the early trials. Then it would be a worthy challenge.

  It looked like Gul’Dak had been right.

  Again.

  He loved it when he was right.