Loki stood as proudly as his restrains allowed him. Opposite him sat six members of the Elder Council. In his peripheral vision, he could just see Thor. Everything about him, from his clothes to his posture spoke of a fight.
Behind him, he could feel more than hear the vibration of a mass and the hate coming off of it. Odin and Frigga were sitting in the far corner behind the elders, simply watching for the moment.
Everything he saw was very slightly warped, like he was watching it through a thin screen of smoke. It was a result of a truth-spell that his former teacher, the best magician in Asgard just placed on him. He was familiar with the workings of the spell of course, because he had once hoped to use it in an elaborate prank.
"Do you admit that on the day your brother should have been crowned a king you cloaked three Frost Giants from Jotunheim so that they could slip into Asgard and steal back the casket that your father righteously won upon them?" asked one of the elders. Loki smirked inwardly. If this was the way they meant to interrogate him, they were making it awfully easy for him.
"No," he answered lightly.
"No?" repeated the elder, sounding slightly appalled. Loki put on his most polite and pleasant façade. It was obvious to him that the elders weren't as knowing about the spell (or him for that matter) as they should be. There was no reason to use it very often and if there was, the defendant was probably so scared by the concept of truth-spell that he spoke the truth anyway. As it was, Loki knew the spell was very sensitive in the matters of opinion – it saw truth as what the person it was placed upon saw as the truth. Loki didn't think Thor should have been crowned that day, he didn't see Odin as his father and he most certainly didn't want the Frost Giants to steal the casket. Luckily, the spell also couldn't make him share this.
Another elder spoke up, clearly catching on a bit better than the first.
"Do you know of which day we speak?"
"Yes," admitted Loki, feeling the force making him do so.
"Did you in any way assist the Frost Giants in entering Asgard?"
There was also no way out of this. "Yes."
"Did you do it in hopes that they would claim some of our relics? Or any kind of Asgard's possession?"
"No," answered Loki, nudged by the spell. He was actually rather pleased with how this was turning out. He could read a certain degree of disgruntlement on the faces of the elders, as well as hear discontent whispers from behind him. Were they all really expecting him to come up here and start spilling detailed descriptions of mayhem and death that he meant to unleash on Asgard?
"Did you do it in hopes that any Asgardian would be hurt or killed by them?" pressed the sharper elder.
"No."
Another wave of whisper.
"Spell's not working!" yelled someone in the crowd.
"Silence!" ordered another elder. The crowd quieted down.
"Why did you do it then?"
Loki thought quickly, exploring the possibilities of his answer. He decided that it would be best to stay as vague as possible.
"For protection of Asgard," he said, trying not to sneer at the shocked and appalled faces before him.
"For protection? Enlighten us. What's that supposed to mean?"
"It was my belief that the events of that day, if completed in that time, would only serve to hurt Asgard," he explained smoothly, fully concentrating on pushing the spell limits as far as possible. He didn't spare a thought for Thor.
"Speak clearly," spat the elder at him. "You meant to disrupt Thor's coronation then."
"Yes. So that it would be postponed," he nodded, this time adding more information that was necessary, for his own sake.
The elders briefly conferred between themselves.
"What about the second time that you brought Frost Giants to Asgard? Do you deny that you had attacked Heimdall and proceeded to bring the king of Frost Giants Laufey and his consorts to the palace to slay Odin Allfather who was without defence in the Odinsleep?"
"I do deny that," bowed Loki slightly.
"Why then?" gestured the elder, at this time used to Loki's unsatisfying answers.
"I temporarily detained an unfaithful servant to lure an enemy into a trap so I could kill him, which I did."
Silence cloaked the whole room. Loki could feel Odin's eyes on him, but made a point of concentrating fully on the Council.
"A... servant?"
"Yes. Or should I remind you that I was the rightful king of Asgard at the time?"
An elder who hasn't said anything yet spoke up. Loki realized that he was in some way related to Sif.
"And how will your silvertongue help you lie your way out of sending the Destroyer to kill your brother Thor, the Warriors Three, and Lady Sif?"
"I cannot lie, the Council has seen to that," noted Loki with a mocking air of grace. "Lady Sif and Warriors three had left Asgard without my permission. I had every right to punish them."
"And your brother?"
Loki stopped for a moment. He had been able to omit Thor in his answer because the elders repeatedly called him his brother, just like now. Did they not know? He had been expecting them to pull his Jotunheim heritage on him right away, to claim that he had found out and decided to shift his loyalty to the Frost Giants, but those charges were passed now and still no sign of it. Also, as much as Loki would like to mock the elders and think them stupid, they were on the Council for a reason. If they knew that he was not in fact Odinson, they would have stopped referring to Odin as his father and Thor as his brother, since it was rendering the spell almost useless.
He was not able to answer and so he didn't.
"Answer the question. Did you intend to make the Destroyer kill Thor?"
For the first time in the whole trial, the spell had truly taken hold of Loki and made him speak against his will. The answer slipped his lips before he realized it.
"I don't know."
While the elders were only further annoyed, Loki was deeply shaken. If he was free to lie to the Council, he would have said no to minimize his punishment. If he'd been free to lie back on Midgard, in middle of fight with Thor or one of his freaky friends, he would have said yes, to taunt him and hurt him. He wouldn't spare a thought for any sort of introspective contemplation of his actual feelings at that point.
In the corner of his eye he saw Thor looking at him.
"That's enough," decided one of the elders exasperatedly. "The Council will now confer."
And with that, they left and Loki was brought into one of the side rooms, three guards watching over him. On the way, he avoided everyone's eyes and held his head high instead. The wait was tedious and uncomfortable, interrupted only by the magician lifting the spell.
After an hour, he was summoned back.
"Loki Odinson," spoke the head of the Council. So they really didn't know. "We have reviewed the charges brought against you and decided. You are sentenced to ninety lashes of whip delivered in three separate days and half a year of palace arrest. If your behaviour is deemed flawless after that time, your offences will be fully forgiven and forgotten and you will be restored as prince of Asgard and it will be a crime from that day on to mention your previous misgivings."
Loki didn't even try to hide his scoff. Humiliate him and contain him. That's what they wanted.
He expected to be taken down for the lashing (something he had yet to decide whether was a small or a big price to pay), but instead most of the room was cleared out and only the elders, Odin, Frigga, Thor and several guards stayed. He was brought to a wall by one of them and asked to strip from waist up. He did so slowly and deliberately and felt sick satisfaction when he heard moth- no, Frigga, gasp. His formerly smooth, pale skin was marred with furious scars of cuts, slashes and tears. All part of his Chitauri negotiations. He could heal them, and he was planning to, in time, but it would have been very unwise when he was still in the land of The Other and after that he had more urgent matters.
He was chained up with his arms spread wide, his torso leaning on the cold golden wall. He could tell that the executor (and the weapon) of his punishment had entered by another disapproving sound made by Frigga.
Good thing about the following moments was the lack of any sort of prolongation or attempt to school him or scare him.
Without any words, without unnecessary pauses, he was delivered the thirty blows. He was gritting teeth in pain, trying to make as little sound as possible. His back soon felt as if on fire and he could feel ribbons of blood trickle down. Several times, he could feel one of his older scars reopen and that was when he had most trouble staying silent, the whole ordeal was however over quite soon. When he heard the guards approaching, presumably to release him, he tried to steady himself, but succeeded only half-way and wavered a bit on his feet when he was free of the chains.
He left the room without sparing a look at anyone. To his relief, he was brought to his old chambers and not the cell.
One look was enough to discern that nothing has changed, the room was kept free of dust, but his belongings were unmoved. Satisfied, he moved to the bathroom, longing to wash the blood off. Removing his trousers and shoes proved to be a bit of a challenge, since it involved stretching the skin on his back when he leaned forward, but he managed, and in a minute was standing under the soft, lukewarm stream. The contact of water with the wounds was painful at first, but slowly it started to help with the healing. He didn't push his magic reserve, relying on the help of the water element instead. When he exited the bathroom, his wounds were still sore, but the bleeding has stopped and they were covered with thin layer of skin. Loki didn't doubt that the second part of his punishment would come tomorrow and didn't see a reason to fully heal wounds that would appear so soon again anyway.
He lowered himself on the bed slowly, hoping to get much needed rest. The day had dragged out, it was already dark.
He was almost asleep when the door silently opened. He didn't need to open his eyes to know who it was.
"Go away," he murmured. "I'm sleeping."
To a point, Loki has always been aware of the potential impression he had on maidens if he put some effort into it, with his long, deceivingly strong limbs, raven hair and expressive eyes, but to his credit, in his sleepy state, he could never imagine the impact he had on his brother just then. There was no pose, no pretence.
His long body stretched out naked on the dark sheets, covered with old and new lashes, strong and delicate at once with ruffled hair and heavy eyelids. To Thor, there was no creature more perfect at that moment.
Loki slowly resurfaced and grasped the mood of the situation.
"Thor?"
Instead of response, he felt the mattress lower.
"Sleep," said Thor in a voice so quiet that it was hard to discern his tone. "I'll keep an eye on you."
"Yes, I was just about to put my diabolical escape plan into motion," Loki answered, his voice muffled by the sheets. He startled a bit when Thor moved towards him, pressed his lips into Loki's hair and whispered to him: "You know that's not what I meant. Now sleep."
And so he did.
A/N Thank you all so much for your positive reviews. I'm having so much fun writing this and I'm so glad that someone enjoys reading it.
I have two long chapters written and waiting to be edited (and of course ideas for more) , but I might have to slow down with putting them up here, since I've just failed an anthropology exam because I put all my time into writing. Two or three days between the chapters can be expected now.
As always, thanks to UKSarah for being my beta.
