It had been two days.
Two days, and he was growing restless, even more anxious than he had been when they first shut him up in here and he could nearly touch each wall at the same time but he couldn't use his magic and he couldn't do anything and he hated it.
At first he had thought that Odin was probably arguing with Frigga over whether or not to trust him. But then the minutes turned to hours and the hours turned to a day and he thought Odin had decided to ignore him. He'd tried to get the guard's attention to bring a message to the king but had failed.
He'd begun to worry then that the king had left already.
Another day passed and finally, finally, as he perched on his bed and listened, he heard what he had been waiting to hear: the tell-tale footsteps of the king.
He got up and crossed the small cell to hold the bars and wait there. Odin favored up close contact. He believed the more eager you appeared, the more eager you were. He didn't know that the most dangerous Loki had ever been was when he sat back and watched.
And there he was. Tall and gold and imposing, his staff—why had he brought his staff?—thrumming with power he could feel even with the boundaries that kept his magic sealed.
Odin looked firm, regal, and as though he wasn't quite sure what to make of his adopted—or was it stolen—"son". He gave him that look rather often, on those rare occasions he came down and talked to his wayward relic.
"Tell me your dream," the king said.
Loki raised his eyebrows. Odin does all things for a reason, he remembered someone saying. What reason could he possibly have for saying that? All this went through his mind in an instant, before he gave a small bounce of impatience and tapped the muzzle. He could pick apart the king's acts later. Right now all that mattered was—
Suddenly he was seized with a very powerful urge to know exactly where she was. It occurred to him that the attack could very well happen right now, with the king talking to him. The prison was easy to seal.
Odin lifted something and said, "Write what you saw." Paper.
Loki grabbed it and wrote, Where is Frigga?
Odin frowned. "Why does this matter now? We speak of the supposed future, not the present." Running through his words was an undercurrent of I do not trust you, I will not tell you where she is, I believe this is some sort of trick.
Frigga had spoken with her husband. She had likely told him all that had happened, and convinced him to come talk to her son.
But she didn't know, because he hadn't told her, all that he had dreamed.
This, again, passed very quickly through his thoughts as he began to write, I dreamed she died alone when they overran Asgard.
Odin read the note and drew himself up. "I assure you, such a thing could not happen. Our forces vastly outnumber the dark elves, and the Allmother is not so easily beaten.
Loki had begun writing as soon as he said the first sentence. Whether it could happen or not is not the issue. She must be protected, no matter what.
"Why do you care what happens to the queen?" Odin asked.
Loki scowled at him for an instant, analyzing what would prompt him into the quickest but wisest course of action. He wrote, She is my mother.
Odin frowned. "You claim us as your parents, then?"
And Loki was suddenly aware of just how great an advantage not being able to talk was. When he got into his games of manipulation, sometimes he got in too far and, as Agent Romanov had spectacularly proven, he was likely to blurt out the truth.
In this case, the truth that wanted to come out was, No, I completely disown you as any sort of parent, but because she is the only one who was always supportive of me and the only mother I ever had, I choose her as my mother; she is the only valid option. That would not help his case with Odin, who favored respect.
He shrugged in answer.
And he was glad of the muzzle again, because he was very nearly smiling. He didn't think the king would appreciate such a gesture.
But Odin didn't even notice. "You told the queen that I would be called away. How did you know this?"
Loki froze. "You have?" he started to ask, but muffled the words before the muzzle could punish him for speaking. He hurriedly scratched, Have you?
"I am not answering your questions, you are answering mine. How did you know this?" Perhaps he did have a valid point. Some would say his mind had a propensity to connect to darkness. If he had seen an army or the future, it may have come from the very sources who were trying to take Asgard. It didn't, but that wasn't even what he had asked. He had asked how he knew he would be called away.
Loki wrote as quickly as he could, It explained why you were not with her, defending the citadel to your last breath. He started to show the note to Odin, then finished his previous question. Have you been called away?
Odin frowned at the note. Again. But it was not confusion, as was his reaction to Loki's claim of Frigga as mother, but anger. "How am I to know this is not a trick of yours?"
Ah. Good point.
The god of mischief, as the mortals put it, could very well try to take Asgard while the king was away.
But he was not simply the god of mischief. He was, at least now, the son of Frigga. Why should Odin believe him? Because it concerns my mother.
Odin seemed to relax, just barely. "I know not whether to believe you."
Loki reflexively tightened his hands into fists and the paper crumpled. He carefully relaxed and smoothed out the paper, tapping his most important question at the moment. Have you been called away?
The king paused. "The light elves' ambassador has asked I aid them in their battle with the dwarves."
No. Helheim take it, sometimes he hated always being right. He shook his head, urgently, trying to communicate his message of Don't go don't do not go without words.
"Why should I not go?"
Because the light elves were weak and the dwarves, when they chose it, could be trickier than he and they never forgot their grudges and he supposed to some of them the fact he was muzzled now would only remind them of the time they beat him.
He wrote none of this. It wouldn't matter even if he hadn't had the dream. The light elves were quick to pay debts, and this would be a large one.
But he wrote, as it was all that mattered at this moment, There is a chance your wife could die.
"I cannot hold back from fighting because of a mere dream, Loki."
No. No he couldn't.
At least send Thor to deter them from attacking while you are gone.
And then Odin said something which drove fear deep in his soul. "I cannot, the way Thor left is closed for a fortnight." The king blinked, perhaps wondering why he had given such information to someone he didn't trust.
Loki didn't notice. He breathed deeper, closer to hyperventilating than anything. His dream could not be coming true.
"How do you even know that your dream is real?" Odin demanded.
Loki thought, Because the future is always in motion and when I fell, I fell through the cracks and the abyss of time and space and it bled into me and I can see it, I can see what will happen sometimes, not all the time. I know it is real because I am the Liesmith and one must know the truth to lie.
That last one he could use. He wrote it down.
Odin shook his head. "No, Loki." And he turned and strode away.
Loki did pull at the bars then, knowing it was useless but submitting, just this once, to a useless action for it's possible cathartic properties. No, Loki. The Allfather did not believe him, did not believe in him, had disapproved of him once again.
What will it take for you to believe me? He wanted to cry out. But he could not. Odin had gone.
Odin was going.
He blinked. The enchantment that prevented him from reaching his magic would lessen. He would be able to break past it. He could get out. (Odd, that he thought of it as getting out and not escaping. Two weeks ago he would have wanted to escape. He had wanted that. But two weeks ago he had begun to dream.)
But breaking the bounds would take a great deal of energy.
Loki let go of the bars, strode to his bed and sat cross-legged upon it, pulling Frigga's blanket over his lap. He closed his eyes and focused on the barrier.
He felt a slight twinge, the barrier reminding him that it was power and he was not, and that it was strong, stronger than he. It was unmoving, unchanging. Right now. He searched, prodding at the barrier until he found where Odin's power connected to it.
He felt Odin begin to turn his thoughts inward and he withdrew, waiting.
Then he felt the unmistakable sensation of an army leaving, that feeling of air being pulled from the room. Odin had gone. So soon? It must have been his plan for quite some time, and he came to his once-son just before he left.
But his vigilance was gone now. Loki tested the barrier again and found where it was anchored in the Allfather's absence.
The earth.
Loki sighed heavily. Not in defeat, of course not, more frustration than anything else. Odin, he thought, still wanted him to prove himself, so he had strengthened the boundary. It would be much harder to break the barrier now, much more painful.
Perhaps I need not break it.
He nodded once, eyes still closed. Shadows and the tentative were his domain. If anyone could slip through, he could.
A/N: And we're nearly there. Two more chapters to go! :)
