It's eerily silent as the people of Asgard collect slowly around the water's edge, their faces turned down to the small candle cupped in each of their hands. The sky is grey in mourning, and the only sound to be heard is the stiff whistle of the wind as is cuts through the dead branches of a nearby tree. As the people reach the edge they place their candles into tiny boats before setting them in the water and pushing them off in respect and mourning.
There is a larger boat, floating on the water's edge, it's interior filled with candles. Odin and Frigga stand next to it, their heads hung in mourning. Thor stands nearby them as well, though his face is turned towards the distance, looking out at his brother who sits alone by a tree, shrouded from view.
"You will always be in our memory. You were like a daughter to us, we loved you, and you will never be forgotten. May the rest of your days be well," Odin says with a sad but strong voice.
He and Frigga then place their candles into the boat and push it off the shore, watching silently as it floats away, a swarm of tiny individual boats, each with a single candle inside, following behind it as it moves slowly out into the waters.
The people watch the candles float away until they disappear, dispersing afterwards, never saying a word. Odin, Frigga, and Thor stand for a while, staring off into the distance of the ocean, their grief radiating throughout the kingdom. Frigga touches Odin's arm gently, her face turning towards him in sorrow. Nodding, Odin leads them back to their horses.
Loki sits on a rock next to a tall tree, his face pale and sunken in, his expression holding no emotion. He watches the whole funeral from the tree.
Their was no grief left in him, there were no tears, just emptiness, just a hole that had been punched through his chest.
He looks down at the unlit candle sitting on the ground next to the rock, its significance meaningless to him.
"You said she would be safe," Loki cries to his father, the tears running down his cheeks.
Loki clutches his shaking hand, trying to stop it, trying to focus on the cool air seeping into his bones.
"Her fate had already been predetermined. There was nothing we could have done to stop it," Odin responds in a schooling tone.
Loki closes his eyes, digging his nails into the soft flesh around his wrist.
"I loved her, Father!" Loki cries in agony, his knees becoming weak.
"Loki," Odin's voice cracks in pain, "I had no choice."
Loki opens his eyes and freezes when he sees her standing in front of him, her blue eyes filled with tears, her long black hair flowing weightlessly in the wind, and her pale blue dress clinging to her small body.
He closes his eyes quickly and opens them again to see Sif standing in front of him, wearing a long, dark colored dress, her eyes filled with sadness. He breathes a sigh of relief.
"The night before she... died, she... lent me this bracelet of hers because it matched my dress. I never got around to wearing it, and, I feel guilty for keeping it this long, but I was too afraid to pull it out of the drawer where I had put it... so I... gathered my courage and brought it here with me today, so I could give it to you because... I think you might appreciate it more than I would have."
She holds out the bracelet in front of him, it's small, delicate material wound into a multi-color rope. It was the bracelet that she never took off, one that she had had since the first time he saw her.
Loki slowly reaches out and hesitantly takes the bracelet into his hand. A flash of her laughing face shoots across his vision for an instant before disappearing, leaving him looking down at the bracelet lying in his hand.
"I'm truly sorry for your loss Loki. I know she meant a lot more to you than she did to anyone else," Sif says quietly before walking away to join the Warrior's Three who were waiting for her.
Loki closes his fist with the bracelet inside, the pain and agony beginning to swarm him.
"Laralei," he whispers before pressing his lips to his fist and closing his emerald eyes.
A single tear trickles down his cheek.