Chapter two.
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It had taken only a few days for Loki to plot his travel to Midgard without using Heimdall or the Bifrost. Having to stay focused on that task, on solving the puzzle that he had created for himself, had succeeded in keeping Loki's mind from wandering back to the assumed Dottir Myrkr. It was not the girl that he thought about, but rather the questions surrounding her existence and her presence in Asgard. Each time he started to think of those questions, Loki would focus that much harder on how to travel to Midgard without being seen by the Gatekeeper. Even as nothing was distracting him, not five days after his late night visit to the girl, Loki stood standing on the outskirts of her village on Midgard.
He had contemplated shifting his appearance to resemble the girl, but although it would cause chaos and fun within the village it would also bring unneeded attention. Instead Loki chose to leave his appearance without change and moved casually through the village. It was only a matter of moments before he was able to find the girl's father, remembering his face as he watched the oaf of a man lumbering through the forest after the much quicker girl. Even though the day was barely half over, the girl's father was in a drunken stupor as he stumbled and fell three times before he arrived at his hut. Just as the man was pushing the animal skin flap aside to enter his meager hut, Loki made himself known.
"How long has your daughter been missing, now? Seven weeks? Eight, perhaps?" The man startled at the sound of Loki's voice, his drunken state causing him to fall to the ground before Loki's feet. Feeling a surge of power from the position, Loki reveled the moment in silence as he waited for the oaf to respond. The man did speak, but his works were slurred beyond understanding. Loki started to lift his leg, intending to roll the man over with a kick of his foot, but the flap on the man's hut shifted aside. Loki placed his foot back to the ground as the woman, shorter than he by two heads and with the golden hair and blue eyes that were common of the Midgardians of the area, opened her mouth and spoke.
"He stopped counting after the first day. He stopped counting and took to the ale and mead after the men of the village beat him for his failure. We are nothing in this village anymore. They only keep us here so that when you return you will accept us as a sacrifice and not bring a war to our lands." She sighed deeply before stepping out into the cold and starting to drag her husband inside. Loki did not move to help her and remained silent as she struggled to pull the much larger man out of sight. When she did not return, Loki entered after her and found that she had left the man on the ground just inside the hut. The woman simply stood waiting for the stranger to speak, as she knew he would. He did not disappoint, as a moment later Loki offered a smirk before he opened his mouth to ask his questions.
"You? If I am not mistaken your words were 'when you return', which indicated me."
"The Gods will reign down war upon us. A stranger in our village asking about Aesa just weeks after her twenty-fifth year can only be a messenger from the Gods." Loki was pleased to have learned the girl's name, not that it was one of the important questions but it did eliminate at least one. He nodded his head as if to agree, letting the woman before him, Aesa's mother, make the assumption as it did not matter to him.
"Tell me what you know of…Aesa."
"She…"Loki watched the woman intently as she struggled to find the words to use, a single tear escaping and creating a trail down her dirty cheek. The woman looked away for a moment, staring at nothing and everything all at once, before continuing. "The elders told of girls born with...the blackest hair and eyes that were so different. Dottir Myrkr, they called her. My husband used it…for money…food…anything she needed. But it was him that took it all. Aesa was…our hope. She would be sent to you and be returned to us with the knowledge to save us from famine…war…death. But my mother and my grandmother passed me the tales, the truth." She turned her eyes back to Loki, sadness and grief shown in her hard gaze. "You take them and you impregnate them and then you kill them. They never come back, never. Dottir Myrkr are only born to die."
Loki regarded the woman before him as her tears flowed freely down her face and she collapsed to her hands and knees. He first thought that she was worshiping him, but as sobs racked her body it was clear that she was too paralyzed by grief to continue. He was not completely satisfied by her answers, but did not want to spend too long on Midgard lest Heimdall discover his presence. He turned from the pitiful sight displayed before him and left the girl's parents to their pitiful life on Midgar. He had not taken more than three steps away from the hut before Aesa's mother called after him.
"Please, please I beg you. If she is truly alive, give her this." Loki turned to see the woman extending to him a tightly bound scroll of parchment. It was small enough to be completely concealed in the palm of his hand, and as he examined it he saw no harm in bringing it with him back to Asgard. He accepted the scroll and left the woman in silence, seeing as she had played her part and he no longer had use for the simple creatures of this realm.
The journey back to Asgard was without event and Loki strolled through the halls high off of his successful travels. The parchment crinkled under his balled fingers as he made his way back to his room, his mind turning over the little amount of information that he now had about Aesa. He turned a corner and his thoughts were interrupted as his brother, Lady Sif and the Warriors Three spotted him. They made their way towards him, all of them sporting their armor and weapons. Loki slid the parchment into his sleeve and from the distance none of them were able to see his actions. Once the group had gotten close enough, Thor embraced his brother and spoke of the adventure they were about to embark on, as he included Loki without a word from his younger brother. A nod of the head was all that Thor needed and the six warriors were off on their next adventure. Loki slid the parchment from his sleeve and safely secured it within his boot, shoving his thoughts of the Dottir Myrkr from his mind until he could return to his room or chance another visit to the girl who now had a name…Aesa.
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As the days turned into weeks once more, Loki's curiosity and frustration both grew. Healers were holding a constant watch over the girl, over Aesa, for an unknown reason. It was as if Odin had discovered what Loki had done and was thwarting the Prince without ever speaking a word directly to his son. It would only seem logical, since Odin seemed to intensify his gaze on Thor with the threat of war hanging over Asgard. Loki did not return to Midgard again, feeling as if he had received all of the answers he ever would from Aesa's mother. Loki had finally stolen a moment away to read the parchment she begged him to take, and he hoped that it would hold even more answers to Loki's questions. He had excused himself from the Great Hall in the middle of a feast, knowing that he would not be bothered for several hours as those attending the feast would soon be drinking their fill of mead and not bother with searching for him. Standing near the fire in his quiet room, Loki pulled the small scroll from his pocket and did not waste time when unrolling it. His eyes devoured the words, searching for the answers he was beginning to crave.
The scroll had been written by the Elders of the village, the intended recipient being Aesa on the night of her twenty-fifth year. It spoke of their thanks for her willingness to end her life so that they all may live. It described in detail the story that Aesa's mother had shared with Loki, lending truth to the grieving woman's words. Loki immediately spotted the discrepancy between the words he read and the ones that he had heard in regards to the impregnation Aesa's mother spoke of. The Elders wrote of an exchange of essence between the Gods that were to take Aesa but they did not warn of a pregnancy. Loki chose not to spend much thought on that piece of information, but instead he stared at the advice the Elders had left as their parting words.
The Gods, with their frightening height, unnatural skin and eyes as red as blood will frighten you but do not fear them.
Loki immediately knew that the Elders had described the Frost Giants of Jotunheim and not those of Asgard. Thousands of potential answers ran through his thoughts, each of them more outrageous than the last but all of them revolving around his father. It was by Odin's command that the girl had been brought here, but why? Loki threw the scroll into the flames near his feet, destroying the description of the Gods that the Midgardian Elders had described. If it was made known that Odin had knowingly stolen a sacrifice meant for the Jotuns resulting in a war arriving in Asgard, it would not bode well for his father.
It was only after the scroll had become nothing more than ashes that Loki slowly paced his room. He allowed his thoughts to flow through him, searching for the missing piece to the puzzle that had now been created. It seemed that he would need to stop acting as a timid child and bring his questions directly to his father. Loki clasped his hands behind his back as he continued walking a path through his room, pausing for a moment when a faint sound fell upon his ears. Closing his eyes and straining to hear it once more, Loki focused hard as he waited. Before he could even take another breath, Loki heard it again.
Aesa was screaming.
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The more that the healers tried to restrain Aesa, the more it felt as if her skin were on fire where their hands held her arms, shoulders and legs. She struggled against the man and two women even as they spoke calming words, her ears not hearing their voices over her own shrill yells. As if a wild animal had possessed her, Aesa screamed and thrashed and fought with all that her weak body could manage. One of the women placed her hand on Aesa's mouth in an effort to dull the girl's screams. While the healer did succeed in stopping Aesa's screaming for a moment, it was only because the girl had bitten down on the fingers covering her mouth hard enough to draw blood.
And this was the sight that Loki had seen upon his entrance into the small room. Aesa had started her screams once more, continuing to struggle against those that restrained her and a small trail of blood falling from her lips. It was not with urgency that Loki approached the bed, nor was it was caution. He coolly observed the scene before him, watching as the healers tried with renewed vigor to restrain Aesa. The healer that had been bit had left the bedside for a moment, returning with a heavy net made of tightly wound chainmail that was meant to capture ravaging beasts. It seemed nearly impossible that one Midgardian was able to defend against three Aesir, and Loki would have scoffed had he not witnessed it himself. Before Aesa could be trapped under the net, Loki made his presence known with a calmly spoken command.
"Stop." Even as the girl's movements stilled and her screams ceased, the healers did not stop restraining her. The healer holding the net was about to throw it upon the girl's now prone form when Loki spoke again. "Must I repeat myself?"
The healer's arms dropped immediately and her head bowed in respect towards the Prince. All of the healers slowly moved away from Aesa as Loki approached the bed, his pace remaining leisurely. He came to stand on the left side of the bed, noticing that the forcefield was no longer surrounding Aesa's body and that her eyes were still open. He hesitated for a moment before grabbing a thick blanket that rested near his feet, bending slowly to retrieve the fabric and feeling Aesa's gaze burning into him as he stood once more. Extending the blanket towards the girl, Loki waited in silence for her to reach out and accept it to cover her still naked form. She made no such movement and so Loki finally locked eyes with the girl as he spoke in what he hoped was a soothing tone of voice.
"Cover yourself."
It was the third command that Loki had given the girl, and it was the third command that she followed without hesitation. The Prince allowed that thought to linger in his mind as Aesa lifted her hand and took the blanket from him. She brought her other hand up as well, draping the blanket over her body slowly as if the movement caused her pain. Her gray eyes had moved from Loki's face and began to properly take in her surroundings. She narrowed her eyes in the direction of the healers, who had all gathered at the foot of her bed, as she gingerly began to shift her body in order to sit up. When she sat fully on the bed, Loki turned to leave seeing as the girl had calmed. He did not know what had calmed her, thinking perhaps that the healers no longer had her restrained is what caused her change in demeanor. Before Loki had fully shifted his weight to move, Aesa's hand quickly took ahold of his. He looked from their joined hands to Aesa's face, watching as her eyes fluttered as if she were fighting sleep. She let out a small sigh before her voice, quiet and pleading, left her lips.
"Please… stay."
Loki could only assume that the girl had recognized his face or at the very least his voice from when he had collected her from Midgard. He wondered briefly if she remembered their last encounter, which had ended with her magic throwing him across her room. His eyes studied her face for a moment, taking in her disheveled appearance as his gaze roamed her body. Although it was not in a sexual manner that Loki looked upon Aesa, he still felt as the predator would when closing in on their prey. With the girl awake, Loki would now have leverage to force the answers he required from his father. If Odin would not give him the answers directly, he would use the seemingly blind trust the girl had placed into him in order to get what he desired. He tried to place a reassuring smile on his lips, but the result was more of a devious smirk that mirrored his thoughts. Loki turned to address the healers, his hold on Aesa's hand tightening.
"She will require food, water and clothing. See to it that anything she needs is brought to her. Send a handmaiden if you must."
"Shall we fetch the Allfather?"
"Obviously."
Loki's tone was a bit more biting that he had hoped, but the healers, students as he would come to find out, really should not need as much instruction as this group seemed to need. He watched their retreating forms before turning his attention back onto Aesa, the girl's grip becoming like iron on his hand. When he was once again fully focused on her, Loki could see the sudden sheen of sweat that covered her body and he could see glaze that had turned her eyes to a darker hue of gray. Loki brought his free hand up to Aesa's forehead but found that her skin did not feel heated as if from a fever. At the increased contact, Loki did not miss the slight quiver that ran through Aesa's small body.
"Your touch…" Loki made to pull both of his hands away, but after a short struggle Aesa had managed to grasp his wrists in her hands. She sat up, bringing his hands to her face and placing his fingers against her cheeks in what seemed to be a trance. Loki waited in curious silence, seeing no danger in what the girl was doing, as Aesa's eyes drifted closed once more with a deep sigh. Loki contemplated pulling away when he realized that somehow the girl was feeling pleasure from his touch, or in the very least finding relief. Before he acted on his thoughts Aesa spoke once more, her voice clearing than the last time she spoke but her eyes still closed in bliss. "What is…happening to me?"
"I believe I have an answer to that for you." As Odin's voice echoed off the stone walls of the small room, Loki pulled away and the movement broke Aesa from her trance. The Prince took a few steps back as Aesa pulled the blanket tighter against her naked flesh. Odin saw the state that the young girl was in and turned to address his son. "Come with me, Loki. We will leave the girl in peace while we discuss what these new developments mean for her…and for you."
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