Loki watched after Frigga's retreating form for a moment, dumbfounded, before turning back to Laufey's still form sitting before him in the shadows. What in the world could she be thinking, leaving me down here with this thing?! he thought, his indignation building as he studied the frost giant surreptitiously.
"I suppose," Laufey said quietly after a moment, his voice still rumbling in the small chamber, "that you would like to know why your mother left you here, little prince." There was a hint of mocking in his tone, and Loki bristled.
"Do you have something to tell me? I am tired of people dragging me around today, only to be disappointed by a lack of worthwhile information in the end." First Odin, then Frigga, now even this frost giant was going to mock him by dangling some unknown truth before him and snatching it away. Well, Loki thought, I'm not having that. Whatever he wants to tell me, he will tell me.
He moved to stand before Laufey and peered up into the giant's eyes. "What do you know?" he asked with what he hoped was an air of authority.
Laufey chuckled. "Would you like to know why you did not freeze against my touch, little prince?"
"Stop calling me that!" Loki shouted. He cleared his throat, composing himself and adjusting his robes, closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then looked back up at Laufey. "My name is Loki Odinson, and you will address me as such, or as Your Highness. 'Little Prince' seems so…"
"Familiar?" Laufey filled in for him.
"Yes. And inappropriate for a prisoner of war." Loki finished, hoping the flush did not show on his face. Odin had never given him a nickname growing up, and something about this frost giant doing so now felt incredibly uncomfortable.
Laufey chuckled again, and shook his head. "Well, Your Highness, there are things about Jotunheim that your father never told you."
The way he said "father" made Loki's skin crawl. The contempt was overwhelming, and Laufey's lip curled into a snarl when he said it.
"Look, I am sure you are displeased at being captured-any of us would be. But that is no reason to try to rewrite what happened. My father wasn't the only one who fought on Jotunheim-my brother and I fought there, too, and the battles were well-won. You lost, plain and simple."
Laufey stared at him for a long, hard moment before continuing. "I have been a prisoner here for longer than you know, Your Highness. The battle in which Odin took me prisoner was fought centuries ago-on Midgard. My capture was part of a larger pact, one to which I agreed under duress, that surrounded the kidnapping and holding of my only son by Odin."
Loki had been rolling his eyes, chalking this recounting up to the ramblings of a prisoner's deranged mind, until that last. His father had mentioned, in the course of his and Thor's studies of the Jotunn War, Laufey and his pillaging of Midgard...but never mentioned a son.
"What son?" he asked, suspiciously narrowing his eyes as his curiosity piqued along with a new and growing sense of dread.
Laufey smiled a sad, knowing smile and arched an icy eyebrow at Loki. "Odin found my son, seemingly abandoned, in an old church. In truth, his mother had placed him there for safekeeping-to hide him from the battle, so she might continue the fight without putting our infant son in danger. When she fell in battle, I returned for our son, only to find Odin holding him. He used his magic to transform my son's appearance to make the child look more like him.
"When I protested, he offered me a proposition. One that would end the war we fought, that would bring peace between our worlds." Laufey paused for a moment, drawing a deep breath, remembering the moment of defeat.
Loki's face darkened and he reached up for the torch in the wall. "I have heard enough of your lies." He muttered, turning to the wall and stepping down off the platform, summoning up the force field. "I am Loki Odinson, brother to Thor, son of Frigga, and you will not cloud my mind with such nonsense as this."
Laufey's face was sad as he turned to face the young prince, standing defiantly outside the cell glaring at him. "As you wish, little prince. Ask Odin for the truth, then. The whole truth." And with that, he turned his back on the torchlight and resumed his solitude.
