Book 4: Arcane [Thor]

Chapter 1

An uncontrollable fire. An uncontrollable rage. Flames. Heat. Destruction. Death. The smoke was suffocating. All vegetation consumed by the blaze. Every building barely standing. One could hardly make out the remains of the palace, the gold beginning to melt under the intensity of the flames. Then there was the sun, which had turned red in the sky. Asgard, the once all might realm, had been reduced to ashes.

Thor stood in the remains of the courtyard. The stone beneath his feet had been cracked from a heavy force. The screams of his people echoed in the air. The dying shouts of the Asgardian warriors and civilians.

How? How had this all happened? Their defenses, gone in a fell swoop. From the destroyed palace a large form rose from a crouched position. A monstrous figure with skin covered in lava and flames. The cracks in some areas made it look like a volcano had come to life. It had no eyes, the sockets glowing brightly with a sinister grin on its features. His hands gripped a flaming sword to hold it high overhead.

"I am your doom!" the voice boomed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thor sat up with a start, eyes wide, and wildly looking around the dark room for any signs of the enemy. But whatever he had seen in his dream was not present. Only a nightmare. That didn't ease his mind. It had been reoccurring as of late, a pattern really. He wasn't sleeping well because every time before he turned in, the god was almost certain it would come again. The Asgardian was beginning to realize it was a vision, not a memory or something his mind merely conjured up. That fact didn't calm him either. Visions more often than not spelled bad news. And now it concerned his realm. The thought of it being consumed in flames had a cold sweat break out across his skin as a hand ran through his long hair to push it out of the face. Eyes squeezing shut, Thor attempted to slow his racing heart, while slightly slouched forward, when there was movement beside him.

A low groan made Thor aware that his companion lying beside him was waking. The guilt for disturbing her made him feel terrible. She had been training long and hard as of late and needed as much rest as possible. His presence in this condition didn't help.

"Thor?"

The voice was raspy and low from sleep, the whisper reaching through his racing mind and offering comfort.

"My apologies, Anya," he spoke lowly. "I did not mean to wake you."

The young woman sat up beside him as a yawn escaped the lips, but otherwise still attentive to the state he was in.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing–"

A hand wrapped around one of his biceps to stop him there, the other one reaching forward to rest on a cheek causing him to look her in eyes through the darkness. The moonlight from outside made the area around the curtains glow and offered some light, but it wasn't hard to miss Anya's gaze.

In complete darkness if one look hard enough, they could see the flecks of red scattered about the pupils due to the Aether coursing through her body. It made the young woman appear otherworldly alongside her unique features he was so attracted to. And over time since leaving Asgard, he had grown to accept that the Aether was now a part of Anya. The pupils were the only thing of her outward appearance that showed the young woman harbored something unnatural. Her gaze made him speechless, as the denial died on his tongue.

"Try explaining it to me again, but this time with the truth," she said.

The god ran a hand down his face to try and shake the lingering thoughts and vision. Just closing his eyes made him relive the destruction of Asgard.