The Rise Of A Porter

Odin arrives in Asgard a little too late and will only be greeted by the news of both Thor's and Fenrir's disappearance. That news itself was infuriating enough, but when he realised that Vale had slipped into the eternal slumber, his heart broke into a thousand pieces and enraged him at the same time. 

The eternal slumber of the Asgardians was equivalent to the comatose state found in the humans. There was no telling when Vale will wake up from his slumber, that is if he ever did. Also, he might not be the same ever again, despite walking up. 

In his blind rage, Odin immediately ordered Loki to be bound in chains, just like Thor had told Magni to do before leaving. But then Odin took the order to the next extent and told the Valkyries to keep lashing Loki with the whip made out of the bones of frost giants without any break. 

The bones of the giants were strong enough to injure the gods but were not enough to grant them death. It was Odin's preferred way to torture someone to insanity. However, he had not used this method since the days when he was arguably as strong as Shiva.

Since then, Odin had decided to walk on the path of a proud warrior. Giving his enemies merciful and often honourable deaths and not letting them suffer despite their crimes. However, after hearing what Loki did, he no longer cared about his beliefs.

He wanted Loki to suffer as much as possible, and to do that, he did not care if he had to drench his throne once again with the blood of those who stood against him. Seeing him like that, even the gids from other pantheons who wanted to save Loki did not dare to express their minds in front of the All-father. 

However, Odin wasn't the only one affected by this catastrophe that Loki had pulled off. Baldr, who never really cared about anything, no longer left the side of his brother Vale. He was still as silent as before, however, his eyes were fuming red with rage. He wanted to take revenge on the bastard to put his brother in such a pitiful state. 

Apart from Odin's family who was distressed about the loss of three of their sons, Thor, Vale and Loki. Yes, Frigga still considered Loki to be a son of hers after everything he did. The rest of the three remaining Odin's sons were enraged. But none like Baldr. 

Seeing this, most of the Asgardians were tensed up. Even if they were trying their best to hide it. According to what Grea prophesied, Fenrir's breakout from the clutches of the gods would signify the beginning of the end for the Asgardians. Thus with Fenrir now gone, all of them were worried if that aeons old prophecy will finally come true.

However, some countered that there had been discrepancies in what Grea had prophesied. For example, it was told that Tyr would be the one to slay one of Fenrir's children during the last great battle, but as all of them knew, Tyr was already dead. On top of that, Fenrir did not have any children of his own as he had spent all of his time inside the bowels of hell. 

Not only that, Heimdall was supposed to blow his great horn, the Gjallarhorn, to mark the start of the final battle. But he was no longer a part of their pantheon nor was he 'alive' as a god to use the Bifrost. All in all, there were a lot of things that did not match with the version Grea had told them about. 

This sparked a debate between the gods as they tried to come to an agreement on whether the Ragnarok was about to happen or not. Most of them denied it, however, it was not a result of their reasoning, but that of panic and fear.

It was as if they were forcing themselves to believe that it wasn't true. Hoping that if they didn't believe it, it wouldn't happen. All of this was happening in absence of Odin or any representative from his family. Thus Mimir took it upon himself to lead the discussion. 

However, while they were busy discussing that, the doors leading to Odin's war court were thrown open and in walked someone whom no one would have ever believed to see there... it was Baldr. He walked up to the throne and sat beside it. 

All of the gods immediately bowed their heads down in respect. Something which most of them had never bothered to do before. Usually the whenever someone from Odin's family appeared in the court, all of the gods had to remain silent till they were allowed to speak.

But Baldr had never spoken a word before, at least in front of anyone. It almost made them think whether Baldr had forgotten how to speak altogether. Either way, the gods did not know what they should do now. Thus most of them decided to follow Mimir's suit and stay silent.

In the meantime, Baldr's careful eyes were gazing over all of them. As if he was looking for hidden enemies within the ranks of Odin's 'allies'. After what seemed like centuries, Baldr finally dropped his gaze and sighed. 

"No wonder that bastard was able to play you like fools." Baldr's thunderous voice echoed throughout the halls of the courtroom.

All of them were stunned into silence as they heard Baldr speak for the first time. His voice was nothing like any of them could have imagined, but more importantly, the words that he spoke stung them even more. 

Even if he was an Odinson, how dare he mock the court like that? Even Thor did not disrespect them to this extent and yet Baldr was humiliating them by calling them fools.

"You look surprised. Is it the first time someone had called you fools?" Baldr said with an expressionless face, "No wonder we were failing time after time. Do you 'gods' want to know why I called you fools? It wasn't because of your obviously low intelligence, but because of your cowardice."

All of them got more and more surprised and shocked with every word that came out of Baldr's mouth. Only Mimir was quick enough to catch on to what Baldr was trying to achieve there. 

The spirit of the gods had been broken from recent events. So much so, that some of them were even planning to leave Asgard altogether. What was a good leader supposed to do at times like these?

Encourage the warriors and raise their spirits, and nothing raised the spirit of an Asgardian more than being told that they are worthless. Because in that case, their hearts were ignited that which would compel them to prove otherwise. 

That was exactly what Baldr was doing by calling the Asgardians cowards. Baldr's challenge would make them prove their worth to him. Which would then, ignite the power and the spirits of the others as well.

This chain reaction would make them forget about their worries regarding Ragnarok and do what they did the best... fight till their last breath and enter Valhalla with their heads held high. 

'Well done, young one... well done..' Mimir thought to himself as the corners of his mouth twitched with happiness.