A few days after returning from the Moon Monastery, Loki was still brooding, and as the Valkyrie knew; when their master took to brooding, he isolated himself.
Fen was patrolling the woods around Asgard Tower late one night, when she looked up and saw a cat in a tree.
"Are you done sulking?" She demanded
The cat looked down at her, then spoke in Loki's voice.
"How did you find me?"
"Please, Lokkun, I know you." She shrugged, "When you want to be alone, you shapeshift into something inconspicuous, and forget that I can detect the shift in your scent profile when that happens."
Loki the cat jumped down from the branch, into her arms, purring contentedly .
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing..." Loki replied,
"What's wrong?" Fen urged
Loki was silent, "I finally had time to just sit and reflect on what I learned after our audience with the World Tree, and contemplating just how royally f@£ked my life is. I mean, making myself whole has been my singilar focus since I woke up in that vault, and now, to accept that I'll never be whole again..."
"That is f@£ked up," Fen noted, "hence the sulking,"
"I wasn't sulking," Loki pouted
"Right now, you're disguised as a cat," Fen said, holding out cat Loki.
"Okay, I see your point," Loki replied
"Now, enough procrastinating, you need to get to the moo ." Fen said, proceeding towards Aagard, cat in hand.
* * *
Solving the issue of getting to the moon was much easier than they had originally assumed. Loki, being such a clever person, was prone to overthinking, when, as it turns out, the solution was painfully simple; brute force.
They stood on the roof of Asgard, the moon gowing brightly in the night's sky above.
"Once you get there, we can Bifrost to your location in moments." Yggdrasil said
Loki nodded, from his mantle, six spectral wings sprouted behind him.
With a powerful burst of anima, Loki launched into the sky at unimaginable speed. [Skywalk] wasn't just a flight skill, it was a movement skill exclusive to celestial beings that allowed them to move within the cosmic void.
Loki has forgotten how amazing it felt to fly on her own wings again. The feeling of absolute freedom that she had long denied herself.
In several moments, she had pierced through the outer atmosphere of the planet and touched down on lunar surface.
The moon had about significantly less gravity than the planet, and almost no atmosphere to speak of, anything mortal would die almost instantly. Looking out at all the stars and other worlds out there, Loki contemplated simply flying away, but knew it was currently impossible. Loki's gias bound her to this world, she was physically incapable of leaving the world isolation barrier.
With a disappointed sigh, she reached out to the others, and moments later, Fen, Thor, and Yggdrasil appeared before her in a flash of light.
"Wow," Thor said hopping in place, "this is really fun."
She tossed her hammer high and watched it slowly descend. She caught it, only to be smacked by Fen's tail.
"Stop playing around," Fen chided,
"She's right, we're here for a reason," Yggdrasil said, crouching down and placing a hand on the ground. She closed her eyes and focused, sending out an anima pulse, not long after, she felt a reaction on the far side of the moon.
She opened her eyes and looked up, seeing Loki had extended one of her wings over her, which was now impaled with three crimson energy lances.
"Got a hit?" Loki asked casually as she ripped one of the lanes from her wing, only for it to dissipate in her hand along with the other two.
"Yeah," Yggdrasil said, "on the far side,"
"Let's go,"
* * *
After an indeterminate amount of time, they reached the far side of the moon, where they encountered another being, seemingly waiting for them.
Before them was a creature that looked similar to Loki's true form, a titan, except it was bright red, without a halo, and only with four detached wings at its back. It's body was damaged, with thin white cracks across its left side.
It was sitting in a large rock, gazing longingly out at the cosmos.
{Greetings,} the titan said in a male voice, without even turning to face them, {apologies for the sudden attack, you were the second to set foot on this rock in eons. The last one arrived a while ago and wasn't very friendly.}
At his feet rested the head of Saint Silver, golden blood staining the ground.
The Valkyrie looked on in shock, Saint Silver was easily on par with them, and yet he seemed to have been killed rather easily.
{Who are you?} Yggdrasil demanded
The titan turned to face them,
{I am Arkannon. High titan, and former herald, of the 2nd legion.} He gave a respectful bow at them, {It is an honor to meet you again, 3rd Prime.}
{You... know me?}
{Of course. You are the sibling of my master, the 2nd prime.}
At that, Loki stiffened, memories of a red titan filled her mind, the red titan smiling down at her as Loki was wracked with a deep, existential pain.
Loki stumbled,
{What's wrong?} Fen asked
{Do you remember your sibling now, my lord?}
{■■!} Loki said,
{What was that?} Thor inquired
{Her prime's true name... her ynvok.} Loki explained, {We've gained other titles over the eons, we even named each other. But there is nothing like our true names... it's the intent behind our very existence.}
{It's good that you remembered, ■■■.} Arkannon nodded.
Hearing her own true name called unlocked something deep within Loki's soul.
{But what does it mean?} Yggdrasil asked
{It doesn't translate,} Arkannon shrugged,
Loki glared at Arkannon, {You know why I am here, right?}
Arkannon nodded, {Aya?}
{You sent her down there,} Loki accused {they used her, and bled her dry,}
{I did.} Arkannon replied, {I was always interested in Aya. She was a simple titan grunt, far below the elites or even we high titans, much less a Prime, but she treated with us like a true equal.}
{Of course, she was my herald.}
{My Prime hated the idea of her, I was appointed as a herald to compete with your own, and as I got to know her, I realized I liked her.} Arkannon mused, {when you and the rebel legions were banished, she was condemned by association, but I saved her. Most other grunts were shattered in their fall, but I held her burning form in my embrace, keeping her together.}
{Then why?} Loki demanded, her eyes hard, {why sell her out?}
{We crashed into this moon, buried ourselves deep,} Arkannon continued, ignoring Loki's demand, {I was dormant for eons, until she came. Her presence reawakened me, but by the time I had dug my way out, she was already gone and the planet was a lifeless husk.}
The Valkyrie looked out at the planet in grim contemplation, why didn't they remember such a cataclysm?
{Shockingly, the planet recovered far too quickly to be natural.} Arkannon said, {I wanted to learn why, luckily, the moon witnesses and records all happenings on the planet, so it was easy to set up an observation post,}
{Enough blabbering,} Loki snapped, impatiently, {why did Aya go down there?}
{For you.} Arkannon replied, {Just as I had sensed the presence of my Prime when the planet burned, she sensed your presence as the world began regenerating. She wanted to aid your efforts however she could, so she went down there, built herself a roost atop the tallest mountain, to monitor the planet more closely while keeping in cpntact with me up here. When some mortals found her roost, she took them in, taught them what she could, made them better, but then others came for the fortress, and to protect her new followers, she lifted it into the air, but doing so fused her to it and she became stuck, a part of their new floating Monastery there.}
{But what is all that bulls#!t about the 'Moonlit Mother'?} Fen demanded
{A gross misunderstanding,} Arkannon chuckled, {they at first called her the 'matron from the moon', and over the centuries the title became warped.}
{So why are you still here?} Loki demanded,
Arkannon turned to face her, then opened his tunic to reveal slivers of green within his red form.
{When I held her as she burned, pieces of her were burned into me.} He explained, {I'm not suicidal enough to return to my Prime like this, so I abandoned the 2nd legion and have been in hiding ever since.}
{Why here?} Yggdrasil asked
Arkannon shrugged, {My Prime would never think to look for me on a world she already destroyed,}
{So what happened with that?} Thor pointed at the head of the World Pillar at his feet
{I'm in hiding, so I masked my presence here. When this thing showed up, it tried to find me. That posed a risk so I killed it.}
Arkannon then took a closer look at the Valkyrie, a grim smirk tugging at his lips, {It's good to see you all again, even if like this,}
The Valkyrie looked at each other
{We've never met,} Fen said
{And yet you each carry within you shards from the High Titans of the 3rd Legion, multiple of them.}
Fen had long suspected that they had titan shards within them, Loki was sentimental that way. It was also the most effective way to create the demigods known as the Valkyrie. Jörmungandr would have leapt for joy to have her theory confirmed so blatantly.
Arkannon then stood up, {I suppose it's time?}
Loki nodded, a blade of emerald energy manifesting in her hand.
Arkannon just smiled, {I see you've remembered how to do that trick?}
Loki just nodded, [AnimaControl] worked exactly as it was described.
{I've been waiting for this since Aya went down there,} Arkannon sighed, {I'm so tired of hiding, but I'm not brave enough to leave this rock.}
{You could resist?} Loki offered
Arkannon laughed, {Me? Resist a Prime? Even fallen and in peices, like you are, I'm no match for you. You're a fragment of the only truegods in this cosmos.}
{For what it's worth, I'm sorry,} Loki said, {my actions broke the legions, caused so much suffering,}
Arkannon just shrugged, {your actions made us actual people, not just tools in an endless cycle of war, destruction and rebirth. You made the cosmos more interesting.}
{You will not be forgotten, I promise.} Loki said
{Thank you,} Arkannon smiled,
Loki stood in front of the other titan. He was taller than her. Arkannon closed his eyes, then Loki drove her green energy blade into Arkannon's chest.
There was the sound of breaking glass, as the cracks on Arkannon got bigger, bleeding white light. As Arkannon's form shattered into fractals of light, he released a burst of energy that surged through all that was present.
All of a sudden, the moon trembled.
"Was that a moon-quake?" Fen asked, switching back to common.
Suddenly, an impossible wind started up, lifting layers of moon dust in a swriling cyclone before them.
The cyclone converged and all of a sudden ceased. Now standing before them was a being, a feminine shape made of glittering silvery moon dust. The being stood at twelve feet tall, and was completely hollow, existing only as an elaborate sleeveless gown, with sleeve gloves, and a long veil all covering her non-existent body.
Beneath the veil was nothingness, but the silhouette on the veil showed the faintest impression of a feminine face, with a motherly smile.
"An incarnate vessel?" Fen exclaimed.
Incarnate vessels were bodies created by celestials, higher dimensional beings, to interact with the lower planes. It was only possible with higher complexity beings, so World Pillars and other deities like Saint Silver, or even the Valkyrie weren't substantial enough to need one. Loki's, as a fallen titan, was trapped within her incarnate vessel.
Fen readied herself for a fight, but then Loki held up her hand, stopping her. She turned to the new deity that stood before them.
"Do you know who you are?" She asked
Even without eyes, or a face, they could tell the figure looked directly at her.
[I am the Moonlit Mother.] She said
"That's impossible," Fen retorted, "Arkannon said the Moonlit Mother was a misunderstanding, she doesn't actually exist,"
Loki just laughed, "No, she was an idea that got misinterpreted, an idea cultivated by Aya's existence through the Sky Monastery. She was who the Lunar Paladins worshiped as they were empowered by Aya's essence, even the Faery realm acknowledged her."
"No way," Yggdrasil muttered, "a thoughtform?"
"Yes, and that's not even the best part." Loki grinned, "After I shattered Arkannon, instead of fading into the cosmic background, his essence was absorbed by the conceptual root he inadvertently helped create. The persona of the Moonlit Mother."
[Correct.] The Moonlit Mother nodded
"Wait, so a thoughtform can just become a god?" Fen wondered
"Of course," Loki scoffed, "anything complex enough, with enough invested power can become what you'd call a god."
"Wait, but if this is her incarnate vessel, what is her true being?"
"We're standing on it," Loki said, "the moon is just as alive as the planet below. It's the perfect vessel."
[Yes] she said, [Lord Loki, I know why you came here.]
She held out her hand and moon dust rose from her open palm and formed a small round object, an eye.
She handed the eye to Yggdrasil
[This contains what I observed of the world during the time of the great cataclysm a million years ago. It also possesses insights that may be of use to you, young administrator.]
"But you didn't exist until a few minutes ago?" Thor protested
[True, but I am the manifested will of the moon itself. I have watched over this world since the night titans burned through the sky, billions of years of memories exist within me,]
"I had better bring this back to the Faery realm, given it followed me here," Loki said, gesturing to the head of Saint Silver, killed by Arkannon.
"They won't be happy," Fen cautioned
"Well I'm not happy either," Loki scowled, "it's obvious why it was up here to begin with."
[Please, if I may impose on you, Lord of Change?] The Moonlit Mother asked, [As a new overseer of my own domain, I would like to extend my greetings to my fellow celestial.]
"Trust me, she's already aware of your newfound existence." Loki said
"Can we go now?" Fen asked, "all this dust is bad for my fur,"
[Be warned, fallen one,] The Moonlit Mother cautioned, [your actions this day will be noticed,]
"I'm aware," Loki said, "but I have time before any major parties take interest."