Loki smiled.
It was an honest smile.
It was that bad.
Thor tried his best to smile back at his brother, but it was a sad smile. It was a smile that was fighting a losing battle against the tears that were threatening to spill over any second.
Because it was just that bad.
The god of thunder watched on from where he stood, at the very front of the crowd, next to their father.
His father.
The old man.
The fool.
He glanced over his shoulder at Odin. He showed no sign of emotion as he watched his adopted son climb the rickety steps up onto the old creaking platform. He was tugged every step of the way by two guards, who obviously understood the gravity of the situation. They held it in their sombre expressions.
They knew.
Thor bit his lip to hold back the cry he could feel clawing at his throat, and he clenched his hands tight. His knuckles went pale. Despite the rage boiling unpleasantly in his gut, he couldn't help but look up in awe at his younger brother as he stood on the platform looking like…
…Looking like a god.
He held the crowd in the palm of his snowy pale hand. He could feel their fear. He could play up to it. He could wield the power they were giving him.
He looked down over the edge of the platform with a cold expression. One that you could almost call proud. He met the eyes of everyone in the audience with a condescending glare down his nose. Everyone's attention was finally on him. He had what he had always wanted.
That was what he wanted them to think anyway.
But Thor knew. He knew better than anybody what it was Loki truly wanted.
He only wanted to be equal.
He had said as much, but who would believe the Liesmith? Who would believe a madman?
Who was it that had driven him to insanity?
Exactly.
Odin called out for silence in the yard. His voice echoed past the pillars and through the halls. Surely all the Nine Realms would have heard. He stood. He stepped forward. Thor could still see Loki over the Allfather's shoulder, though a part of him wished he couldn't.
Then the king began.
He recited the list of every crime that the trickster god was guilty of. It was a short list, but the crimes where, in the eyes of almost everybody, immense. Worthy of the punishment that had been chosen for him.
Only after Odin had concluded his list did Thor realise that his brother hadn't been looking at the king, but at him. Loki was staring down at him with his startlingly green eyes.
They were glistening.
In the sun?
With tears?
Thor would never know.
He met his brother's gaze and offered a smile. The best smile he could muster. He wanted his brother to remember him as happy. He banished his thoughts to the back of his mind. He fought back his tears.
He smiled.
Loki nodded his thanks over the crowd. It was a simple gesture, but to Thor it felt like a comforting hug from his brother.
Something he would never feel again.
Thor yelped as his brother was jerked violently to the side by a sharp tug on the chains that bound his hands. His magic.
He was placed by the guards under a pole.
A pole, from which hung a noose.
One guard held the god in place while the other artlessly draped the rope ring around Loki's neck, leaving it to rest on his shoulders as he set about tightening it.
Loki said nothing. He barely blinked.
The first guard went to place an old sack over Loki's head, but Loki shrugged him off. The guard insisted. Loki shook his head. The guard scowled, but the god was having none of it.
And Thor couldn't help but smile.
His brother. Defiant until the very end.
And in a way, he was glad. If Loki didn't wear the sack, the citizens of this golden city would see exactly what they had done. They would see the innocence they had taken. The purity they had destroyed…
The guard tightened the noose around Loki's neck.
…They would see the expression of a dying man…
The second guard shoved him into place above the trap door.
…They would feel the life drain from him…
Loki smiled. The lever was pulled.
…They would hear his neck…
…Break…