Chapter Two
"Thor…" as he heard his name, his demeanor gentled once more.
"Th-thank you." a tear slid down the ivory plane of Loki's left cheek, red like the King's cape, red like his rages, red like his desires, red like every death he'd ever borne witness to, and… red like blood. In the end, traitors bled no differently from heroes; the victors not more nobly than the defeated. Perhaps in their own minds. Yes, in the collective mind of Asgard, the blood of an æsir shone differently from the blood of perhaps a lowly Jotun, but as their sire could plainly see, it was not so.
Perhaps it was then he vowed to see his brother well again, see him as a brother once more, perhaps this had occurred much sooner, but the vow was made regardless.
"You bleed, brother mine. Why do you bleed?"
"I know n-not why. P-Please, I know I am a l-liar. I am. tr-truly… but I d-don't know. I only know the pain. N-Nothing else. Y-You must believe me! Y-You must! I can f-feel it consuming m-me. I don't know why!" these four words, he repeated. He laid coiled up like a chilled child, rocking side to side with fear blazing from his emerald eyes.
"I believe you. Set aside your fears for this moment, Loki… we shall see you right soon eh, brother?"
The thunderer spilled his comforts freely, watching in despair as his once- and now again-brother seemed to lose himself in his chants. "Oh, Loki… you fool… I believe you. I truly do. Look at me, please."
A liesmith with the gift of truth within his grasp would hold it close. Yes; he would not divulge it, choosing instead to weave his own twisted narrative. But for every second the scheme ran, he would never allow his chin to dip. Not even slightly. Even at his maddest moments, Loki had been a proud man. A true God, to all who beheld him, if not the kindest one available. He would not grovel like this, wouldn't allow his prized mind to be poisoned such as this, nor his stature to be reduced to such a pitiable thing.
This time Thor trusted him. This time Loki held the truth behind his eyes when their gazes met.
Where sapphire had met emerald one brother had seen the other and the blatant truth emerged that both had cause to be fearful.
"Look at me, Loki. Stop this… I shall do whatever is in my power to see you well once more, but you have to stay with me. Are we in agreement?" Thor had grasped his brother's chin gently at the start of his plea and held it slightly firmer when he came to its end. "Are we in agreement, brother?"
"Yes." Loki said no more than this, but seeing how much effort it cost him to speak, the noble king of Asgard merely held both his prisoners gaze and hand and left him to his silence.
"Good. At my side then, Loki."
And so it was, even when the guards came to carry the ailing captive to the healing quarters.
"Has the pain lessened at all, brother?" Thor asked, stooping slightly to catch the answer as it drifted past on an exhale; "No." the tormented man looked guilty, saying so… actually guilty. "Loki? For Valhalla's sake, brother, it is not your fault. Do not fret so, will you?" the king's leathered palm came to rest on rough cloth, feeling bone and tendon slide and grind beneath it where it grasped Loki's shoulder.
"I shall see to it you're fed well, Loki. I'll have the kitchens prepare something immediately."
The liesmith snorted, incredulous; "They w-would never oblige y-you for one so lowly as I… and I c-cannot e-eat, regardless…"
"You cannot…? Well, I shall see to the rectification of that issue… and no cook will deny an other from their king, lest they are a fool. But… mayhap mother would be so kind as to prepare a broth for you. She misses you, you know." Thor's smile widened when he saw the expression of peace that washed over his tormented sibling's face at the mention of that blessed woman. It was the most sincere calm they'd shared since the start of this whole debacle.
"I m-miss her too… does she h-hate me? Like your father does?" and the fear Thor saw here trumped even Loki's fear of the mad titan. He thought himself hated by perhaps the only person in the universe he still thoroughly loved. Thor wanted to disagree with the notion that Odin hated him but he was aware that it was by Frigga's graces he still lived.
"She doesn't. She could never. Come to think of it, neither could I. You will always have a place in our family, Loki. I know you doubt this, but it is true."
Loki choked on his answer and chose to keep it caged behind his lips. Thor theorized that it must have been something spiteful, but he was less certain of this now than he would have been before he had been summoned to the cell.
"I can't… breathe…" Thor immediately halted, bidding the guards at either end of the gurney to do the same. He knelt beside his ailing brother as he began to buck on the narrow stroke of fabric, tried to still the frantic motions as gently as he could. "Stop it! Loki, stop this; you'll only harm yourself further!"
Sensing the growing desperation that radiated from Loki's quivering form, he laid his hand softly over stricken green eyes and touched his lips to the liesmith's ear. "Breathe now," he softly bade. "Breathe, in and out. You can breathe, brother." the hand came up to caress sweat-slicked hair. "All pain can be mastered, Loki. This I know you can do… in and out, that's how it goes, just breathe…" his other hand, the king used to hold his brother's fast-chilling counterpart. He could feel its nails leaving bloody crescents in his skin for all the force Loki's fear had leant him.
"Hush, brother, hush… breathe now, or you may yet turn blue!"
At long last, Loki succeeded in drawing a breath full enough to sustain him.
"I'm supposed… to be blue… you dullard!" he panted, a smile at the edge of his greying lips.
And yes, the thought should have horrified the king, at the very least alienated him somehow, but with such a clear glimpse of the brother of old before him… well, what could he do but laugh?
"I have missed you, brother…" he scooped the diminished form off the gurney and took off running before the guards could mount a protest. Loki was caught between laughter and pain as they speedily neared the gates of the wretched prison that had kept him for so long, and Thor would later swear to have felt the relief flood his body as he charged outside like a freshly unleashed youth.
Then, sunlight hit his brother's face, and all halted. Loki stiffened, breathing once again stilled, and cried his crimson tears… oh, sunlight, such blessed light! He had no memory of it, it seemed. He remembered only the damp and stifling dark with its hands that clawed and eyes that glared and its many changing faces, its inhabitants; so infused by it they allowed it to turn them into savage beasts with no regard for anyone or anything… it was so dark, dark enough to extinguish a life, as slowly as it dared… dark enough to ward off hope. Too dark to see, too dark to even draw breath… too dark…
"Loki!" said man came to with a jolt, staring blearily into the concerned face of a thunderer. "Be at peace, Loki. It is no longer dark! Please, brother, I know not of this darkness… we are outside, can you not see the sunlight?"
"S-Sunlight…" Loki thought of more than sunlight, letting the light stab him so savagely and so deliciously in the eyes… what it meant, this light, was freedom. Perhaps not from the heavy chains he still wore or the threat of the mad-titan nestled away inside his skull, but this light… it opened up the vast expanse of the universe, so that if even just in that moment, he could be truly free. He felt like he imagined Heimdal did; saw everything, heard everything, reveled in the tumult and the peace of the universe as it clashed with itself and sought to tore itself apart and yet held like the most tenuous and most glorious construction creation could ever have devised… oh, sunlight!
"You laugh, brother…" any concern had been eradicated by the sound, and Thor decided he could leave his brother in the sacred open for a moment longer, before he had to charge on toward the healing room. The guards Thor had managed to escape from caught up with them during this brief respite, but they had not the heart to voice anger or tamper with the moment they had intruded on. They simply stood, as the captive prince basked in the light and the king held him firm, smiling in a way that seemed to eradicate all the shadows from all of Asgard… and when their king said it was time to go, they went.
Thor eyed the gurney they still dangled between them, held his brother slightly firmer to his chest and charged on. He felt the tremulous beat of Loki's heart against his armor, saw his eyelids flutter… but every inch of his being shone with happiness, and somehow, that made him both less and more afraid. What if this feeling of euphoria was simply the last avenue his brain took before it reached a dead end?
Six-hundred-eighty-one steps it took to reach the healer's quarters, and for every one Thor strained to ensure his brother's heart still beat and his lungs still drew breath… sometimes he paused, fearful and unsure, but he always found reassurance. Again, and again, until at long last the broad doors loomed before him.
Some unfortunate subjects lay moaning nearest to the door, but… well, sod them and their bloody hunting accidents. Odin had once said that a true king would never yield to favouritism, but then; if there ever existed a more talented liar than the liesmith himself, it would have been the allfather.
"I request aide on the Prince's behalf!"
At this request, healers speedily stole Loki from Thor's arms and placed him on a bed. Together, they called forth magic that seemed to dance like sand in the wind, showing information Thor didn't doubt was somehow vital, even if he had no idea how to read it.
He could see his brother's eyes sweep over the orange coloured magic that incased him, reading it with such profound comprehension Thor felt like the thickest person in his own realm, and the proudest brother you could ever hope to find.
"Are you doing well, then?" the king inquired after spending too many moments left out of vital knowledge.
"No." the word spewed forth between choppy intakes of breath that should have answered the question before it was ever asked, and although a certain exasperation shone through at having to answer it, the true venom which had marked Loki's every word of late remained missing. For that, at least, Thor could be glad.
Slowly, perhaps deliberately or perhaps guided by sheer panic, the liesmith's hand broke through the enchantments to seek another to hold. His brother could do nought but oblige, running calloused fingers over the dried blood that caked Loki's palm, as it did seemingly every other inch of him.
He spotted a bowl of warm water and a cloth near a bed to his left, it's inhabitant smiling at him as he went to take it. "Thank you, kind sir." there weren't many Asgardians left whom could look upon Loki so kindly, after all. Thor vaguely knew the man as one of seven brothers… so mayhap he knew the feeling. Between brothers there was a covenant, a promise, to look after one another even in the midst of a feud, even in the absence of a proper blood relation, even when all others would leave the stricken sibling to their fate, between sworn brothers there would always be care.
Thor gently took his brother's hand and washed it with the cloth, spinning meandering tales of days long gone in which they had been no more than a pair of princes seeking entertainment in peacetime. The air around them swelled with the scent of herbs and the warmth of comfort.
"Thank you…" mumbled Loki, his eyes shining brightly with pain regardless of how calm he willed himself to be.
"Do not thank me yet, Loki. Not yet. Tell me what I can do to help, thank me after I've done it, but not yet. And… brother? I'll do whatever you require of me, but… not that. I will never do that."
"Please…" Loki begged. A smile formed on his lips at the futility of it.
"What is it you fear so much?" after many a minute wasted in deliberation, this was the sentence Thor chose to breach the unstable silence.
It was at this moment, Odin stormed into the healing rooms with the brazen recklessness that so marked his kin. Not too bad an answer, incidentally...