13137/Kakophonia

Kakophonia
Date of Scene:	22 October 2022
Location:	Asgardian Embassy
Synopsis:	Zatanna, Jane, and Sif try to put together the notes on rings and other things. Plans are set, ideas thrown out, and none of the possibilities look good.
Cast of Characters:	Sif, Jane Foster, Zatanna Zatara

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Sif has posed:
It had been a short time since the events at the Starport. Sif had disappeared immediately upon their return to Midgard without a word to her friends and allies. For days, there had been nothing.

Until today.

Calls were made through the Embassy to try to find those who had been present during the battle. Sif was at the Embassy and would be there for the day. She was open to meetings for anyone that wanted to join.

Waiting in the lounge, the drink cart was present was was a table of food to nibble on. Sif was sitting in a chair by the window. There was a tenseness to her that wasn't usually there, eyes a bit dark beneath them.

Jane Foster has posed:
A short time can be difficult to parse, even for mortals whose lives end in the twinkling of a dawn to dusk cycle compared to their near-immortal and immortal allies. Sometimes, nothing happens in a decade, and sometimes a decade's worth of history happens in the space of a week.

Those at the Asgardian Embassy know Jane, of course. They have seen her drinking with Thor and heard her lauded for the conversations held in here, understanding a culture distant from her own. Midgard's face at the Congress of Worlds, if ever that august body is summoned, looks neither droll nor cowering by the loss of Earth's greatest defender. In Asgardian minds, anyway. Odin's slumber and Thor's disappearance create their own waves, ones that the brunette is at pains not to add to.

She wears black jeans; a cropped black jacket; a deep red, high-collared shirt. What remnants of bruises and lacerations she took against the dark elves and giants remain hidden away, and her ghastly pallor from earlier in the week seems to be somewhat returned to normal. But her eyes lie.

They know things they should not, stained by an evident lack of sleep. Bruised, nearly. As she enters, a small token of gratitude is left in the form of an offering. Such gestures are the basis of divine power, not very important nowadays, but marked the same. A lightning-scorched stone, that's all. Then she seeks Sif out, as implacable as the tide, and not nearly as forbidding.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Resiliency is the hallmark of an experienced magic user or so Zatanna was brought up to believe. If the trick doesn't work, try again, if a demon knocks you down, get up. It took a heavy sleeping potion and ten hours straight of sleep to begin to recover from the Malekith abduction. Recovery has consisted of many hours among Shadowcrest's extensive library, devoted to discovering who and what Malekith is and fretting at the Embassy's silence.

Within an hour of the invitation, Zee has left her safe harbor of books and research and ported to within a block of the Embassy, dressed in a boxy jacket over wide-legged pants and a bright blue crepe shirt.

Still pale and tired, she is led to Sif by one of the guards at the door.

Sif has posed:
As each woman enters, Sif rises to her feet. She is in her armor again, though no cloak as she is indoors. No dresses this time. "It is good to see you both," she intoned. "I hope you are well despite the circumstances of this meeting." Which was to discuss that abduction, the threat of Malekith, and the next steps. "Please, help yourself to food and drink, if you wish."

She waited to see if they wished to partake before she continued. "There is much to speak of. In addition to the loss of Thor, our King has fallen into the Odinsleep." Since she wasn't sure if they knew that yet or not.

Jane Foster has posed:
//Nana korobi ya oki.// Put that in Swedish and it's exactly what Jane's mentor Erik Selvig would say, supposing he wasn't actually drunk or raving half-naked on the lawn of Greenwich Observatory or something. Jane lies beyond the help -- or hope -- of certain facts, like there being an end to the midnight oil or a candle reduced to a puddle of wax after being burnt at both ends. Niceties for people with the need to worry about things. Sometimes all you can do is endure.

Like putting one foot in front of the other. Jane masters this, giving a polite nod to the guard escorting her, she who left for Asgard and never returned to the embassy a couple days ago. "Greetings, Lady Sif. Ms. Zatara. My regrets it should be under the current situation." They share the same self-such opinions.

Her voice is still spun out, worn in its way down to the bedrock of what she is. "I had heard. The Prince Regent." No statement lent beyond that is needful. Just a title. "Their lady mother attends to Odin, I trust?"

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Zatanna searches the stoic warrior's face, seeing the traces of worry in the stern set of her mouth. Approaching her, she touches the woman briefly in commiseration, saying, "I'm relieved to see you Lady Sif. Not having word from anyone has been difficult. Did you go home to family?"

The hot tea on the sideboard speaks comfort to the magician. She quickly pours herself a tea then settles in a chair across from Sif, setting the cup on a side table within easy reach. "There is, indeed, a lot to speak of...among them the Odinsleep and what it portends. Besides, the Ring that Thor carried and..." visibly hesitating to evoke his disappearance, she glances at both women "... and his whereabouts."

Sif has posed:
The touch from Zatanna is met with Sif placing her hand atop the other woman's. Then she releases and moves to find a seat. Might as well sit as this is going to be an evening of heavy topics. She takes a deep breath and releases it slowly as she moves forward.

To Jane, she gives a nod. "The Queen is ever at his side. Prince Loki is seeing to Asgard for the time being." Her tone is neutral. No concern that Loki is in charge. She saw his reaction to both the fall of Odin and the loss of Thor. "He has my trust to have Asgard's interests foremost in his thoughts."

Mention of Thor and the ring do have her looking back over to Zatanna. "I went to the Starport and examined the landing where the events took place. At the location where Thor would have been standing, there is a portion of the landing gone. It is not like a scrape but as though a curved portion disappeared." She curled her hand, sketching a half arc like a bowl in front of her. "I thought perhaps magic might tell us more? And what can you tell us of the ring that Thor gave you?"

Jane Foster has posed:
The petite creases formed in Jane's jeans and shirt smooth out when she descends into a seat, arranging herself in the consciously stiff formality that accompanies a decided dual sense of presence. She both pays great heed to the goddess of war and the magician, and exists entirely in another introspective realm that keeps swallowing up thoughts whenever they stray from a narrow path.

The bruised shadows in sepia eyes track Zatanna making tea and the faintest evidence indicating other cares or concerns. She may not be Jemma Simmons, but her ability to diagnose physical maladies is uncanny. Likewise to Sif, the assessments made in the cavernous gaps between when she speaks.

"I would know more of the ring," she inquires quietly, and then folds her hands flat into her lap. Somewhere, that mind slowly turns. But not nearly fast enough.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Magic. Zatanna withdraws into her memories of that night for a moment, tea forgotten, eyes downcast and distant, reliving the cacophony of battle and the searing pain of being gripped in the fist of another's deadly magic. She looks up, brow creased, "Then I must return to the Starport to scry. Do you know anything of the Ring's history, Sif? Did he mention it to you or tell you how he came by it?"

She pauses and allows herself a slow sip of tea while she assembles her memories into something coherent enough to relate. "It is no coincidence that Thor wore that ring, to my mind. It was planted on him or given to him with bad intent. For a moment at the end, I felt it flip the spell at the starport, reverse it and turn it on its head. Not many talismans or amulets contain that type of power, that much I know. I can try to trace its origin. Would Prince Loki have an idea?"

Sif has posed:
"I did not know of the ring," Sif admits but there is a dark frown now on her face at mention of what she had feared. "I know nothing of it or it's history." It had been given to him and it was the catalyst for the dark spell that ruined the intention of the ceremony. "I saw, when it was handed to you, that it had writing of Alfheim upon it. I could not read it from the distance though. Do you have the ring with you or can you recreate what was written upon it?"

Then she glanced over to Jane, taking more time to notice those circles. She doesn't ask the question though she is tempted to do so.

Jane Foster has posed:
The little the brunette moves is simply by semiconscious processes. A lifetime of moving and shifting dies hard. Dull though the facsimile may be, Jane occasionally alters her position if only to leave the others assured. No human is perfectly stock still, none of them, even in the doldrums of sleep.

She slopes her fingers across her knee, absorbing the news that Sif and Zatanna proffer. Opening her mouth to say something, she thinks the better, biting back the words. Weariness, a lack of sleep, must collude to leave her in such a position. "Then let us walk back to the basics of what we know already. The ring, its first appearance, its make. Writing and when we first discovered it."

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Lips pressed into a grim line, "Then I will tell you what I gleaned from it. It is not from Earth but another realm, of that much I'm certain. It had an inscription and has a spell laid on it."

She sets her teacup back on the table, after a deep breath, she leans forward slightly, speaking in a low confidential tone, "It is dangerous to magic wielders. It reverses intentions and spells. Only a trickster would an object like it. It needs to be kept under lock and key. I believe that it must be worn by or near someone using magic." She sits back, the crease still etched between her eyebrows.

Sif has posed:
Those words are filed away as Sif considers. Then she gives it voice so they can hear where her thoughts lead. "The writing was definitely from Alfheim. If I can see it, I can translate it so we know what it says. The only person in Alfheim I can think of to give such a token to Thor would be the Queen herself." And that frown is even darker as she considers that. "I wish to speak with her. To confirm if she did. And if so, why she would betray our alliance in this manner."

She looks between them. "Unless either of you has a different viewpoint on that?"

Though she does consider a moment. "Zatanna, when you scrye at the Starport, will you be able to find the realm we were taken to? To see if we can recover Thor?" She pauses and takes a breath, holding it a second before she continues. "As Loki pointed out, with no body, there is no proof. The other option would be a trip to Niflheim once more."

Jane Foster has posed:
Jane absorbs the information in slow blinks. A cat in the area might fawn over her, but anywhere else, she merely expresses some degree of conscious consideration. Her silence spools out like an abundance of twine, knotted but twisting smartly. "Was it set to trigger by proximity? Was the significance less on Thor's person and more to be close to you when you started casting?"

She draws herself up a fraction and nods faintly at Sif, the barest elevation of her chin indicating that gesture. "The Queen expressed interest in Thor. Attraction." Another lengthy beat stretches out, her private thoughts assembled and smoothed over before being offered to the other women for their consideration. "I present a possible vector of delivery. She may not have realized and someone used her, or she may have acted knowingly. Motive? I doubt her to be akin to the Enchantress, but perhaps she wanted something."

Her sigh is barely audible. "We already saw that someone tried to kill Dorin and the perpetrator seemed unlikely." Another instance of her pinching her brow in thought. "What if they aren't acting of their own free will? Underhanded means would be likely given they drew Malekith into this. I find it difficult to see why Alfheim would cooperate at all with Svartalfheim. Unless there were something dire behind it."

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Zatanna exhales, blowing air between her lips, visibly sinking into herself as she considers, "Find the realm? Yes," said reluctantly. Shaking her head, eyebrows pinched in concern, "Do not expect to find him there, Sif. Malekith is wily enough to take him someplace else and will set a trap in that place expecting us to return searching for Thor." She fixes her blue eyes on Sif, "I am cautious but would go if it furthered the cause."

At Jane's question, she straightens, mirroring her posture and blinks like a cat as she considers Jane's words, "I believe it was triggered by magic. Like a trap snare set in the woods, waiting for the unwary. So, no, not for me but for any magic."

Surprise registers in the magician's face at the mention of Thea Queen. "So, that is the current I caught. But a gift from her? It is hard to imagine her wishing Thor ill. But not hard to imagine someone setting the dwarf on Dorin. That I could credit to Malekith or one of his minions."

Sif has posed:
At Jane's theory, Sif nods slowly. "It is possible. If she did not know it was bespelled. Perhaps it was given to her by another." Which brings something to mind. "Korek is captured but he had approached Thea Queen a time back. He had provided her a ring he wished to see used in the spell. His claim, to be included in the tale when it was spoken of in the future. Perhaps someone is behind the ring from Alfheim as well."

Then she glanced to Zatanna. "We can wait on going to that realm. Instead, we will seek out in Niflheim." Sad when the realm of the dead and Hela herself was less frightening, thanks to Malekith controlling that other world.

Jane Foster has posed:
Jane once again recedes into silence. She doesn't like that as her default state, but staying stock still and simply absorbing things like a ghost in the corner -- a sheet with sunglasses on -- would help nothing.

"Malekith should be avoided." Her dim statement expires, given so little force that it might well be a whisper.

"The Queen of Alfheim delivering trouble unknowingly through the ring is more what I thought, Ms. Zatara. Not our archer friend." Is it fair to call Thea a friend? Probably not entirely not.

She rubs her shoulder slightly. "So we have two rings. Korek's. Alfheim's. Finding a link between them may not be easy but not impossible. It would help if both were perplexingly valuable metals, found in few places. Or embedded with a spell that could be traced to a common caster. Denominators."

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
"So, the ring from around Thor's neck, so freely given in our cause came from Alfheim. Then perhaps, if Thor wore it so close to himself, it was a royal gift from the Queen of Alfheim?" She flares her hands interrogatively at both women, while casting a look of sympathy at them, feeling their loss as her own.

"And the assassination attempt could be nothing but Malekith readying himself to pull us to another dimension, a diversion by the King of Liars." Slowly, head tilted to one side, "So, I am beginning to see a thread here. Would we dare to return to Alfheim to ask?"

Sif has posed:
"I dare."

Sif's words come out in a low tone, a hint of threat there. Not for the women she is currently talking to. But for anyone that was responsible for this entire situation. "If someone at Alfheim is behind this, they have woken a sleeping dragon and will reap the flames for their trespass. I intend to go and ask." Then her voice goes back to normal. "Perhaps it would be good if I have someone who is able to moderate since I am of ill will toward them, despite not knowing the truth. Yet."

She considers. "I also will travel to Niflheim. To see if Thor is in Valhalla or Hel. If he is not, we know he lives."

Jane Foster has posed:
"They aren't about to stop us." Jane speaks a flat, plain statement there. "Alfheim would risk the wrath of the Prince Regent to lock us out, or they rouse strong questions by failing to cooperate. Vanaheim and Alfheim are Asgard's traditional allies. The dwarves of Nidavellir, more neutral, but warmer in relationships now than otherwise." She ticks these off simply enough. "Svartalfheim, Jotunheim, and Muspelheim aligned against them." The explanation is largely for Zatanna, since this is probably truth enough for Sif.

She stares off into the foreground, brow wrinkled. "It's too neat Alfheim's queen acts as is. Why would she? It doesn't add up. A ring written in their own tongue is painfully obvious, and it would defy logic that a realm that prides itself on grace and wit would do /that/. It's a puzzle I do not care for."

Her gaze flickers back to them again, still carrying the weight in the corners of her eyes and proof of absent sleep. "Niflheim is perilous enough, doubly to an Aesir now when it's known Odin sleeps and Thor is gone. I intend to accompany you there, Lady Sif. Some small advantages I might offer there, such as they are."

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Looking from under her eyebrows, Zatanna smiles grimly at Sif. "With me by your side. But I cannot promise you that I will be a moderating influence." She holds a finger up in the air, "Unless, it takes us one step closer to finding him. She will not make this easy for us."

Still, focused on the Goddess of War, "I would like to travel with you to Nifheim. I will understand your refusal if you give it."

Speaking to Jane's speculations, "It does seem a strange type of logic, doesn't it? But the link can't be ignored."

Sif has posed:
"I would welcome you both at my side," Sif stated to them both, giving them an actual smile. People who didn't know her well got the tight-lipped version, the carefully schooled and polite. But she has fought beside these women. Bled with them in conflicts. She thinks of them as sister-in-arms, despite them not using swords. "You are both formidable and I am honored to call you friends."

She focused on the tasks, ticking them off on her fingers. "A trip to Alfheim to ask questions of the Queen. If you can show me the words on the ring you have, Zatanna. At some point before the trip. So we have it translated." A glance to Jane. "I agree it is a bit obvious for them but if she was forced into this act, then I would know who was moving the pieces on the chessboard."

Then second finger was ticked. "A trip to Niflheim to confirm if Thor is there." Then the third finger. "Zatanna should speak with Thea about the ring she has. See if it perhaps has the same attributes as the one from Alfheim."

She looked between them. "Is there more we are missing? Another direction I am not thinking of?"

Jane Foster has posed:
"Formidable? That's high praise, and undeserved on my part. Though I appreciate it, my lady." Jane's not exactly up to arguing further than that, other than casting a pale grey shadow of doubt over the compliments. Accepting kind words, Sif's or not, isn't something that comes naturally to her. "Alfheim holds tantalizing prospects. Is there any chance of speaking with other friends -- Vanir, perhaps -- who might have travelled there and would be sharp to any changes? It doesn't help that bloody knight was so curious about things."

She might go after that tea belatedly, offering to refill Zatanna's cup in the process.

"Ask Ms. Queen about her dealings with Korek, perhaps? Is there any support she needs from that front? I am sure to have some direction after... some of this comes together. I fear I'm not the use," she admits, "I would like to be."

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Zatanna straightens subtly at Sif's words, she smiles warmly, her gaze shifting to include Jane with a quick small nod, "I hope I live up to that compliment, Lady Sif. It is my honor to name you both as friends and to fight by your sides."

She takes a deep breath, "I will have the words on the ring to you within the hour. Count on it. And then, I will look for the Red Arrow. Perhaps she is home in Gotham."