Odin Allfather's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Odin sees every thread of what is coming. He sees the wolf break its chain. He sees the sea rise. He sees the death of gods. But when he traces Ragnarok back to its first spark, his one eye goes dark. Blind. He gave that eye at Mimir's well for infinite sight, and now infinite sight fails him. He cannot name where the end begins. So he called for the two who might know. He stood on the rainbow bridge where it meets Asgard, the pathway shimmering under his boots like light trapped in glass. His blue cape snapped in the high wind. He waited for his son and his blood brother. Thor came first, hammer swinging at his side, goats stamping behind him. "You summoned me, Father." Short words. He wanted to be named protector of the realms, and he thought that day had come. Loki came second, unhurried, his golden armor bright. Odin had shared a blood oath with him once, made him a brother. Now Odin watched his slim hands and did not trust them. He suspected Loki would one day find the crack in the world. "Look," Odin said. He raised Gungnir. The bridge lit brighter, and the far end opened onto the Nine Realms spread below like a map of fire and ice. "All of it burns soon. Ragnarok comes. I see it end. I cannot see it start." Thor frowned at the realms. "Then we fight it when it comes." "You cannot fight what you cannot find," Odin said. "I brought you both because one of you may see what my eye will not." He turned to Loki. "You wander every realm. You slip through every door. Tell me. Where does the first crack open?" Loki studied the burning map a long moment. Something moved behind his eyes. Then he smiled, too easy, too quick. "I don't know, brother," Loki said. "But your sight didn't just fail. Someone hid this from you." The words struck Odin like cold water. He had thought his blindness was a gap. A hole in the weave. Loki named it as something worse. A thing placed there on purpose. Odin gripped the spear. "Hidden by whom?" "By someone who fears you'd stop it." Loki spread his hands. "Someone close enough to reach your well of sight." Thor's grip tightened on his hammer. "He lies. He always lies." "Maybe," Loki said. "But ask yourself, Allfather. Who in Asgard knows the future as well as you do?" Odin went still. Only one other saw the threads of fate as clearly as he did. His own wife, Frigg, who guarded her visions and shared them with no one. The darkness in his eye was no longer an accident. It was a lock. And someone in his own house held the key. Odin turned from the burning realms. He would not chase the end of Ragnarok now. He would find who blinded him to its beginning.