Frigga drew out a book flowing with gilded designs from a shelf. She cracked it open to confirm it was the right one, then turned to a three legged table surrounded by three comfortable chairs. She added the book to a growing stack, pausing to count. Ten. Not enough. She'd been allowed twenty. She turned back to the shelves.

She paced down them, running her hand over leathery spines. She paused at a thin line amongst thicker sets and withdrew a green book tinted in purple. A small smile graced her lips. He certainly wouldn't want this now. She flipped the book open, skimming the contents. Drawings meant to entice children danced before her eyes; lively summaries of Asgardian legends complemented them. Loki had loved this one.

Frigga shifted her gaze from the book to the room, the vast palace library, long, tall and overwhelming for the uninitiated. An alcove not far from her was adorned with rugs, pillows and soft furs. For a moment she saw herself, younger, joyful, on a cold winter's day sharing a fur wrap with Loki, both of them eyes wide in excitement as she read. "Another one, mother. Another. Pleeeease." Always another story. She had thought once he might become a writer.

Frigga sighed. Those times were long passed, she thought bitterly, yet she turned and walked back to the table, placing the thin book with the others. Maybe it would remind him of simpler times, good times. Eleven. Nine more.

As she walked the rest of the library searching for the right books to interest her imprisoned son she hoped this gesture would cause more of a crack in his armor. Almost a year had passed since he had been hauled off to the dungeons. She visited him when she could, stealing moments here and there when she thought no one was around. But these visits were ghostly, she conjuring Loki before her and she appearing before him in the prison, neither truly physically present. They could communicate, but never touch. So they confined themselves to words and these came awkwardly in the beginning.

After her initial visit and Loki's lashing out, Frigga had approached cautiously. To her relief, he did not demand she leave the next time she reached out to him, but they kept themselves to small talk, Loki sarcastically discussing the boring life of prison and inquiring of events outside his four walls. She shared as she could. She thought hearing of what he could not see might hurt him, but he listened without malice. Her visits went this way for some time. She attempted more personal subjects from time to time, but he would not be baited. That is, until their last conversation where for a moment he had let her spy within...

"Asmand's wife is with child for the twelfth time. Twelve," Loki said, seated in a chair, elbow propped on a table, finger tapping his upper lip. "I advised him to spend more time in battle to get his exercise."

Frigga smiled at the joke. Loki had come to know his guards perhaps even better than they themselves. He had always been perceptive, reading people just like he read books. "I should visit her, encourage her. Two children was enough for me to handle. I cannot imagine twelve."

Loki laughed shortly. "Two and servants aplenty to deal with them."

"Well, yes, but you cannot say I was not there for you both."

"Yes. You were there. Often." His eyes lost their mirth and he clasped his hands in his lap. She caught his faraway , thoughtful look. Perhaps now was the moment.

"I'm still here," Frigga said tentatively.

"Hum?"

"I'm here, Loki."

He looked back to her. "I failed twice."

"Failed what?"

"Failed..." He shook his head and abruptly stood. "And so what? It was but my right!" He had suddenly shouted and Frigga feared he would send her away like he had before. His voice lowered. "They didn't lie. He didn't lie."

"Who?" Frigga asked, hardly breathing.

Loki's eyes lost the glazed look and she saw the insight fade. "Every deed has its evil reward. Protect Asgard as best you can and suffer the fate of boredom to death." He rubbed his eyes. "I think I haven't had a nap this hour. You may go." He walked away from her and settled onto a bed, closing his eyes...

So it was that Frigga had sought Odin out to request she be allowed to send Loki books. She'd been hesitant in the request but it had been granted immediately. She could hardly wait to send them. Now they would have more to discuss. Perhaps this would finally open the door to Loki's soul.

A week elapsed before Frigga was able to find time to visit her youngest son again. The restoration of the Bifrost had allowed Thor, his warrior friends and the Asgardian army to bring order back to the realms, much of it requiring battle. News of victory in Vanaheim had been sent and Frigga had been consumed with preparations for another celebratory banquet, making solitude a rarity. Yet she desperately wanted to know what Loki had thought of the books, if they had stirred anything within him. When she found herself alone in her chambers for mere minutes, she took her opportunity. Standing before the cauldron next to the open porch, she conjured a link between herself and her son. Loki turned his head to her at her appearance.

"I didn't think you would come today."

Frigga felt immediately wary. His tone had an edge to it. "And why not?"

"I assume a celebration is in order. Another victory for the mighty son of Odin." He spat out the last phrase with contempt and revealed the source of his foul mood: the brother he hated. Thor rarely came up in their conversations, but any time he did Loki turned immediately bitter and angry.

Frigga did not respond. Defending Thor would only push Loki farther away. Loki clasped his hands behind his back, paced a distance and stopped. "Odin continues to bring me new friends. How thoughtful." Ah. So that was how he knew. The influx of prisoners from Vanaheim.

Frigga ignored the comment and instead asked what she had come to know. "The books I sent. Do they not interest you?"

Loki turned, pacing back. "Is that how I am to while away eternity? Reading?"

The bitterness in his tone pricked at her, the ungrateful way he spoke. All the time and thought she had put into choosing the books and they hadn't meant anything to him? "I've done everything in my power to make you comfortable, Loki," she said.

"Have you?" he asked sarcastically. Frigga began to regret visiting him this day. Loki leaned forward, hands resting on the back of the chair. "Does Odin share your concern? Does Thor? It must be so inconvenient them asking after me day and night."

Frustration built in Frigga, not least because she knew the answer. Odin did not ask after Loki. He let her make Loki comfortable to comfort her, not because he wanted to. And Thor? After a short period of mourning the brother who used to be he had not mentioned Loki but once to her and that to warn her. And because she could not defend them, Frigga answered swiftly and frustratedly. "You know full well it was your actions that brought you here." This isn't the time to push him! she argued internally, but the door had been opened and it could not be shut.

Loki didn't yell. He calmly raised his hand dismissively. "My actions?" He paced again, so restless today. "I was merely giving truth to the lie that I've been fed all my life. That I was born to be a king."

Frigga swallowed. Yes, the lie that had destroyed their family. The lie she regretted. Even so, he talked so dismissively of his actions on Earth. Did all the deaths he had caused roll off his back so easily? Did not even a shred of guilt remain to show her that he could be redeemed? "A king? A true king admits his faults. What of the lives you took on Earth?" Tell me you feel something, anything, for the human lives you snuffed out!

"A mere handful compared to the number that Odin has taken himself."

This rankled Frigga. Odin had defended the realms at the cost of his own safety. How many times had she almost lost him and yet he did it all for the greater good. "Your father..."

"He's not my father!" Loki's anger and shout was so loud and unexpected Frigga took a step back from his image. His eyes smoldered, rage barely under control. They hadn't spoken of Odin until now. If he denied his father, did that mean...

"Then am I not your mother?" she whispered.

Loki paused, a small breath escaping his lips, conflict in his eyes shaded as he composed himself. "You're not," he said with mustered confidence.

The words stung Frigga, but she read the lie in his eyes. Once when he had been a child and thought a punishment unfair he had said he hated her, that he wished she were not his mother. But later he had penitently approached her, clasping her arm and solemnly declaring that he loved her and she was the best mother in Asgard. Now as Frigga stared at her second son she saw he wanted to believe what he was saying, but could not.

Frigga let out a short, sad laugh and stepped towards him. "Always so perceptive about everyone but yourself." She held out her hands. If only she could touch him, draw him into an embrace.

Loki's face fell, bravado vanishing. She was his mother and he knew it. He shook his head, lowered his eyes, and reached out to take one of her hands, but of course she was nothing but air in his cell and his hand passed right through.

"Mother."

The voice that spoke was not her youngest's, but her oldest's. Frigga broke her connection with Loki, blinking back the dampness that had appeared in her eyes as she turned from his fading image to face Thor. She'd been caught again.

"You still see good in him, don't you?" Thor asked, his tone heavy with doubt. He'd discovered her visits to Loki two months ago. He had warned her against defying Odin, but even so kept her confidence.

Frigga forced a broad smile on her face, hands behind her back. "Welcome home, son."

"Why indulge him?" Thor continued to question. "The gifts, the visits."

Frigga took her oldest's arm and walked with him along the porch. "I think if you ask his guards, they will tell you I was never there." He did not need to fear Odin would catch her at her magic.

"Mother, Loki is not the boy you once knew," Thor reminded her. He had said so when he warned her before, telling her that Loki was dangerous.

"Nor are you," Frigga returned. "And I loved you no less when your father banished you to Earth." Her unconditional love was not one sided.

"Do you ever regret sharing your magic with him?" This was asked in curiosity, not to chastise.

"No. You and your father cast large shadows. I'd hoped by sharing my gifts with Loki that he could find some sun for himself."

Thor shook his head. "I admire your optimism, your compassion. I wish I could still share it." Frigga wished such a thing as well, but Thor had been quite hurt by all Loki had done to him. If trust were to ever be regained between them, it would be slow and perhaps a matter of thousands of years.

They mounted the steps to the bright, sunny porch and Frigga left conversation of Loki behind. "Now am I to take it by your presence that the nine realms still stand?" she asked, lightening the mood with a little teasing.

"Yes, they do," Thor smiled. "I came to give father the good news."

"And you thought to find him here." Why else would he have entered her chambers without announcing himself? "You will find him where he is most at ease."

Thor laughed. "Combat practice then."

"Of course."

"Well, then, I take my leave."

Frigga nodded and Thor squeezed her hand before he let go. She watched him depart, the smile falling from her face. As much as Odin and Thor ignored Loki's existence she could not. To her there would always be a gaping hole in what had once been a complete family. She should have seen Loki walking with Thor to their father to announce the victory of two sons, not one.

Preparations for the Vanaheim victory banquet kept Frigga occupied the rest of the day. Yet she mulled over her most recent conversation with Loki throughout. She sensed more behind his denial than feelings of betrayal from Odin and herself. More than once now he had mentioned "they" or "he," but she could never get him to elaborate. Who had he met in his exile and what had they done to him, or more importantly, told him?

Night came and the banquet began, swelling through the night to a fevered pace brought on by good food, choice wine and boastful talk. Frigga pretended to enjoy herself, offering perfectly timed smiles and laughter. In truth, the celebration was marred by a mind consumed with her sons. First, Loki. She felt his absence keenly as she looked around the hall and recalled his beautiful smile and easy laughter, his stories and bragging of his trickery. To think now he sat far away from her in a stark cell, never to experience the joy of companionship and triumph again.

And then there was the son in front of her, Thor, once so full of energy, now only smiling here and there, much of it forced. He should have been basking in the safety of the realms, but their security turned his mind to another concern. Recently he had taken to visiting Heimdall nightly. She had asked him several months ago if he inquired about the mortal. Thor had said "no," but she suspected this was true no longer.

Frigga glanced around the hall and sighted Thor smiling softly and pushing to a stand from a table. He skirted the edges of the revelers, heading to an exit. Even tonight he would see Heimdall. Frigga stood. Loki she had to approach carefully, he a skittish hare that could go underground any moment. But Thor remained open to her. She had to take her graces where they came.

Thor stopped as Frigga followed, waylaid momentarily by the Lady Sif, who held his attention only briefly. He walked away and had disappeared by the time Frigga reached the door. She pushed it open and stepped outside to see his cloak disappearing around a corner. She hurried to catch up and gasped when she turned the corner and found Thor leaning against a wall, arms folded over his chest, smiling at her.

"I know when I'm being followed," he said, chuckling.

Frigga shook her head and playfully batted his arm. "I'm sure you do, but there was no need to frighten me."

Thor pushed off the wall and held out his hand to her. She took it, sidling up to him, then, locking her left arm with his right, they paced down a well-trodden path. "What do you need?" Thor asked.

Frigga looked sideways at him. "You're going out again like you have every night in recent months." He didn't offer any explanation, so she did. "I think that perhaps now that the realms are mostly in order, your thoughts turn to one particular realm...and one particular woman."

Thor let out a long sigh. "Father wishes me to revel."

"But this is against your heart."

"Yes."

Frigga paused for a few seconds. "You feel for her. But, do you truly love her?"

Thor laughed shortly. "There is not a woman who has caught my eye nor invaded my mind as she has."

Frigga recalled her own young love of Odin she could have described in such a way.

Thor stared into the distance as he talked. "Life fills her, hope sustains her. She is curious, steadfast, brave. She gave me something to live for when I had nothing."

Frigga may not have met the mortal, but she knew that whatever this woman had done in Thor's exile had been the changing of her son. She wondered exactly what such a woman would look like and act like in person. Frigga tightened her grip on his arm, halting his progress. He looked to her and she stared into his guileless eyes.

"Your father only seeks to protect you. Stories of Asgardians pairing with mortals rarely end in peace. Much pain is suffered by both parties."

Thor's blue eyes softened. "And you have not seen pain?"

Frigga nodded sadly. "Yes, but this is a different kind of pain. It is the pain of brief love, the knowledge that the one you love is incapable of lifelong companionship. Trust me in this."

"I do trust you, but even that will not sway my heart."

Frigga smiled gently. "I did not think it would. I only want you to understand your father's fears for you and to know what you are getting yourself into."

"I know what I am choosing." He nodded to her, let her go and strode quickly away.

"I assume he goes to the Bifrost again," a deep voice spoke behind her.

Frigga turned to find Odin standing a few feet away. "Yes."

Odin let out a irritated breath. "He is soon to become king and I have attempted to counsel him regarding an appropriate queen, but he complicates the matter."

Frigga answered gingerly. "He cannot help his heart."

Odin snorted. "His feelings do not matter. His loyalty as king is to Asgard."

"Asgardians have loved mortals before."

"And how did they end? Broken, dispirited. Asgardians and mortals are not meant to mix."

"I told him pain is part of intermixing with mortals. He knows, but he does not care."

"I thought he had learned something on Midgard—selfless duty to his people."

Frigga sighed. "He did learn this lesson, but he also met a woman who became his hope in his exile."

Odin ground his jaw.

"I suppose you did not foresee such a possibility when you sent him away."

Odin narrowed his eye at her. She met his gaze unswervingly. He might be the Allfather, but he could not control all events. "You still think Thor's exile wrong."

Frigga blinked innocently. "I know why you did it and since you did, you must accept all the consequences of your decision." Odin grunted. Frigga stepped up to him and grasped his broad shoulders. "Do you not remember the elation of young love?"

Odin's frosty eye faltered and he returned her gesture, holding her shoulders. "I will never forget."

"Will you not let Thor enjoy such himself?"

"There are more appropriate choices here. I know you have had your eye on Sif."

"She would be a fine companion for Thor and a good queen...But he does not love her. He must love his queen as his father loves his."

"Kings do not always marry for love."

"But you did. I assume you do not regret it."

"No."

"Well, then..."

Odin squeezed her shoulders. "Let us talk no more about such things tonight." He let her go to link elbows with her and direct her back to the banquet.

Frigga smiled to herself. He'd become uncomfortable. She was winning the argument, but she submitted to his request. She'd given him enough to think about tonight. She leaned her head against his shoulder as they walked and gripped his arm tightly, grateful for loving a man whose warmth and arms always ushered her into a place of peace and safety.

Frigga rubbed her eyes and shook her head. She had been in the library for some time now. The banquet had ended, but she had been restless, thoughts of Thor and marriage replaced by concerns for imprisoned Loki. She kept thinking of Loki's cryptic "he" and "they." She yearned to know what had happened to him in exile, who had taken her disappointed, angry son and used his vulnerability to their advantage. It occurred to her that the place she had been earlier in the day might hold the answer and she was foolish not to have thought of it sooner.

Frigga ran her eyes over the scroll unrolled before her. It contained an ancient map of the universe, but regions of it were blank, a meticulous script declaring "unknown" over various sections. She glanced at the numerous other scrolls and books laid out at her table. So far she had found mention of many places in the realms beyond, but she could not guess which or if any had been Loki's abode. She sighed. At least she had armed herself with information for her next conversation with her youngest. She could push him on details and perhaps piece together where he had been. Maybe then he would tell her more and begin to heal.

"My queen."

Frigga looked up to see the royal healer and her friend. "Eir."

"You turn to study?"

Frigga smiled and sat back in her chair. "A little."

Eir's eyebrows rose and fell in curiosity, but being used to her station, she did not inquire further. "I have come to tell you something." Her countenance became serious and Frigga sat up again, alert. "Thor left Asgard."

"Another battle in the realms?" She had thought the realms safe enough for the army to take care of the leftovers without its prince commander.

"Not one that your son can fight."

Frigga furrowed her brow.

"He went to Midgard and brought a mortal back with him."

Frigga gasped softly. "The woman he loves." Odin would be angry. "He better not tell his father."

"The king knows. The woman is in danger and may die."

"What?" Frigga rose from her seat.

"Her body has become the vessel for a great power, too great for her survival. It will gradually destroy her."

"Eir!" The voice that called the name was that of the Allfather. Both women turned. "I have heard your report to the queen. I will talk with her myself now."

Eir bowed her head and departed. Odin took her place at the end of the table and the couple stared at one another. Frigga spoke first. "Can she be saved?"

"I do not know."

"Do you want to save her?"

Odin's mouth settled into a grim line. "You think I would let her die?"

"I think you would not want to deal with her."

"I do not want to, but her people cannot heal her. Perhaps even we cannot."

"Why?"

"Do you recall the Dark Elves?"

Frigga nodded slowly. Bor had defeated them and from all accounts they had been a vicious people bringing death in their wake.

"I believe this mortal has stumbled upon and awakened the Aether of Malekith."

The Aether, a powerful force that changed matter into dark matter they thought destroyed. It was in the woman Thor had given his heart to? "What can we do?"

"Not much can be done. But we must keep the mortal here. What is in her cannot be trusted outside of Asgard."

"So you have no hope to give Thor?"

"The healers are searching for ways to extract the Aether, but it may not be possible." Frigga saw frustration then in her husband's expression.

"You do want to save her and not just to claim the Aether."

Odin blinked his eye. "Thor is devoted to her. My advice does not matter to him."

Frigga smiled slowly. In spite of his forthright opinion, even he could not deny the love of his son. "Where is she?" Now that the mortal was here, it was Frigga's duty to meet and evaluate she who might be queen of Asgard for a time.

"With your son. I don't know where."

"I will find them."

As Frigga walked past Odin he grasped her wrist. "Thor will not change his mind on this mortal. But if we cannot find a way to help her, he must be prepared to let her go. And she must be prepared to die."

Frigga nodded solemnly. She would do what she could to prepare her son and this woman for eventualities, but she hoped their love would not face such a dire termination.

Frigga searched several places, all Thor's favorite haunts. She finally spied them at the back of the palace near the docks. She slowed, considering the mortal as she approached. The girl was unassuming, petite, though pretty. She seemed to smile easily. As Frigga drew closer, Thor leaned into the girl and they kissed. She paused, letting them have the moment to themselves. If Eir was unable to help the mortal, they might not have much time and however fleeting his love, Frigga wanted Thor to harbor no regrets in regards to her. When they pulled apart, the mortal spoke.

"What's going to happen to me?"

"I will find a way to save you, Jane," Thor replied with conviction.

"Your father said..."

"My father doesn't know everything."

Frigga took the opportunity to approach and playfully interrupt. "Don't let him hear you say that."

Thor shared a smile with his mother. "Jane Foster, please meet Frigga, queen of Asgard, my mother."

The girl looked startled and pulled back, awkwardly nodding her head. "Hi." Clearly she had had no training in court etiquette. Little matter. She could be taught.

Frigga walked straight up to her and took her hands. "I have wanted to meet the woman who has stolen my son's heart from his mother."

Jane looked uncertainly to Thor for a moment and he laughed. "She's teasing you."

"Oh...Oh." She smiled and nodded to Frigga again.

Frigga laughed. "Do not be afraid of me, child. I am a queen, but also a wife, a mother and a friend."

"Yes. Of course." She still sounded unsure.

Frigga dropped her hands. "Tell me about yourself."

The girl smoothed her robe nervously. "I'm an astrophysicist. I work in London." At Frigga's blank look she hurriedly added, "It's a city on Earth." Frigga nodded, encouraging her to continue. Jane glanced at Thor and continued on. "I suppose that's about all."

Frigga smiled. "We are far more than what we do."

"Yeah. Uh..."

"I have already spoken to my mother of you, Jane," Thor rescued his mortal. "Of your indomitable spirit, your drive for knowledge. The hope you gave me on Earth."

Jane's cheeks flushed pink. "I guess there was that."

"Come," Frigga said, "our conversation would perhaps be easier in a more comfortable place." As they mounted the stairs back towards the inner palace, a sudden loud klaxon sounded and Thor jerked around. "The prison."

"Loki," Thor declared. Frigga thought he jumped too quickly to such a conclusion and she fervently hoped he was wrong. Please don't let Loki make his situation worse.

"Go," Frigga told him. "I will look after her."

Thor nodded and broke from them, hurrying away. As Frigga watched him go, she considered. She did not believe it was Loki, though if he had been offered a way of escape, he certainly would have taken it. She turned her attention back to the girl looking worried and confused.

"Come with me." She began to walk and Jane paced obediently next to her, still a bit stiff in the presence of a queen. Frigga meant to remedy that soon.

As they passed into the palace, Frigga heard Odin down the hall and the pounding of marching feet. He came into view speaking to a guard. "Send a squadron to the weapons vault, defend it all costs. Secure the dungeon."

"Odin!" Frigga called out.

He stopped when he reached her. "Frigga." He looked at the guard. "Go!" He turned his attention back to her. "It's a skirmish. Nothing to fear." But his eye did not show so.

"You've never been a very good liar," Frigga chastised him. He was deeply concerned.

Odin ran his eye over the mortal. "Take her to your chambers. I'll come for you when it's safe." His voice softened at the end, revealing his concern for his queen.

"You take care," Frigga returned, just as worried. There was more to this than an escape attempt from Loki.

"Despite all I have survived," Odin reached out and gently touched her right cheek, "my queen still worries about me."

Frigga tried to ease his fear. "It's only because I worry over you that you have survived." She smiled at him, and walked on, Jane following.

What did her husband fear so much? What danger did he anticipate that he felt she and Thor's woman needed to be secured in her chambers? As a group of soldiers passed, she deftly drew the sword of one of them out of its sheath. The soldier either didn't notice or was too intimidated to question the queen's need and marched on. She spoke to Jane. "Listen to me now. I need you to do everything I ask and no questions."

"Yes, ma'am," Jane replied emphatically. Frigga smiled. She at least had the girl's trust if not yet her confidence.

Frigga entered her chamber first, then held the door for Jane who entered and glanced around curiously. She wandered over to the porch and its octagonal pool. "This is beautiful."

Frigga retrieved a pillow and a couple blankets from a couch and entered the porch. She settled them against the wall of the pond. "Here. Make your yourself comfortable."

"Thank you." Jane removed her outer robe and slipped down onto the pillow. Frigga sat down next to her. Strange that a mortal should look so much like them. But for where they had been born, there was little difference between them. Frigga found herself disheartened that this girl's life should be so short.

"How do you feel?" Frigga asked.

"I'm alright," Jane replied.

"All this," Frigga gestured around the chamber, "it's different for you."

Jane laughed. "I'm not exactly the kind of person that gets invited to places like this. The best I do is a fancy restaurant on a date." Frigga had tilted her head and Jane covered. "Not that I go on many dates. I mean, not since I met Thor. Really. I don't."

Frigga shook her head in amusement. "I don't know what a 'date' is."

"Oh. It's like, when you go out with someone. To get to know them. Because you might want a relationship with them."

"Ah," Frigga replied. "Courting."

Jane smiled. "Yeah. Like that."

"You may not be invited to many places like this, but this may be your home some day."

"Uh..."

"If you intend to marry Thor."

"We haven't talked about...marriage."

"Not yet." Frigga's eyes twinkled.

"What exactly has Thor told you?"

"Not much," Frigga admitted. "But he has been busy. The realms have needed him."

"He said it's why he couldn't come back for so long."

"Yes." The two fell into silence for a moment, Jane glancing around the room, Frigga watching her. She did not know much about her, yet there was something wholesome in the girl. She projected ease and compassion. Thor would need such a queen at his side. Just as Frigga had tempered Odin, this woman could temper her oldest son. "Do you love Thor?"

Jane looked to her, eyes wide. "Uh..." She laughed nervously.

"A mother needs to know. Do you truly love him?"

Jane's expression resolved and she replied confidently. "Not a day has gone by that I haven't thought of him." She swallowed, but looked Frigga in the eye. "Yes, I love him."

"He has found a good woman," Frigga said. Jane smiled bashfully.

There was an electric buzzing and Jane glanced over her shoulder at the porch balcony. A shimmering gold had appeared.

"It's the shield," Frigga explained. "To protect the palace."

"Oh. Good."

The shield was only raised in the most dire of emergencies and Frigga's heart thumped uncomfortably. So it was more than a prison escape. Another crackle and the shield abruptly shimmered out of existence. She stood up, startled.

"What is it?" Jane asked, standing as well.

Frigga didn't answer as she stared out at the sky. Several muted impacts sounded and the floor shook lightly under their feet. The palace was under attack.

"What's happening?"

Frigga still didn't answer, her mind swirling with recent events. She slowly looked to Jane. The girl's eyes were potent with fear. The Aether would be a powerful weapon in anyone's hands. Could someone else know of its discovery? She could think of no other reason someone would attack Asgard directly and if the shield was down that meant they had breached palace defenses. No. We will not lose this woman my son loves. He has lost too much. I will not let him lose her.

"We must conceal you," Frigga spoke hurriedly. "Your life is in danger."

"My life?"

"There are many who would want to claim the power within you for themselves."

Jane swallowed hard.

"I am trained in magic."

"Science."

Frigga cocked her head.

"Never mind. It doesn't matter," the girl said in a rush. "Yes. Magic."

"Come over here." Frigga walked into her chamber and gestured to a small room. "You will hide here." Jane stepped into the room. "Whatever happens, do not leave here." Jane nodded.

Frigga paced back to the pond. She closed her eyes and imagined everything as she wanted it to appear. An image of the girl appeared before her sitting on the edge of the pond.

"How did you do that?"

Frigga glanced back to see the girl poking her head around a column. "There is not time to explain. Stay hidden."

Jane nodded and backed out of view again. Frigga picked up the short sword she had set on a table when they entered. She had felt it vital to have it, but she had not anticipated actually using it. She walked back into the porch. Moments ticked by, Frigga breathing slowly in and out. Maybe she was wrong and Jane was safe. Maybe...but then the doors to her chamber were flung open. Frigga concentrated on the false of image of the girl, making her appear to be talking as she sat by the pool. A creature entered the porch, pale, eyes clear blue, pointed ears. An Elf? And perhaps a dark one? But the Dark Elves had all perished.

The image of Jane rose and cowered protectively behind Frigga. The Elf came on, striding around the other side of the pool towards Frigga. Frigga gripped the short sword tightly, memories of her father's weapons lessons echoing in her mind. "Stand down, creature, and you may still survive this."

The Elf ignored her as she expected. "I have survived worse, woman."

"Who are you?"

"I am Malekith and I would have what is mine." Jane. Frigga looked towards her false image. Her heartbeat quickened. She would be forced to fight.

The Elf foolishly made for the false Jane. Frigga struck with the sword, slicing his right cheek. Blood welled up in the wound and he turned angrily, drawing his own weapon. As the Elf struck out at her, Frigga's years of training belied the weapons master behind the comely queen. She spun, blocked, defended, attacked, every step like a coordinated dance. Two years ago, when Laufey had appeared in her husband's bedchamber and she'd been struck down so easily, she had renewed her training, recalling old lessons until they became second nature once again. So it was no surprise that this Malekith was no match for her. In but moments, she had her sword at his throat. She smiled in triumph. But then her heart faltered. The Elf looked beyond her and she turned too late.

Her sword made no contact with the second intruder. Instead an enormous creature swiped her attempt aside and gripped her neck, cutting off her breath. He lifted her off her feet and she gaped like a fish. He turned her and set her down so she could see Malekith striding towards Jane.

"You have taken something, child. Give it back," the Elf threatened. Jane trembled in terror as the Elf reached out and found his hands slipping through air. Frigga grinned as he whipped around. "Witch!"

As Malekith stalked back to her, the creature holding her secured his hold on her neck, but left it loose enough for her to talk. She felt the point of a sword to her back. For the first time Frigga knew she might die. Probably would die. To protect a mortal. And with sudden clarity she knew this was the way it was meant to be.

"Where is the Aether?" Malekith demanded.

Frigga smiled haughtily. "I'll never tell you," she spat out defiantly.

"I believe you," the Elf responded.

Frigga grimaced as the sword was thrust straight through. There was a burst of pain, then a warm sensation, a prickle radiating from the point of entry to her head and feet. She felt herself falling and could do nothing to prevent it. The crash to the floor mattered naught as she hardly felt it. She blinked once, twice, closed her eyes. She heard a muted voice yelling "No!" then the shock of a lightening bolt searing against her eyelids. Thor. He had come. He would save Jane. And he would love her and she him.

Frigga began to shake. Odin. If only she had spent one last night in his arms. If only she had known she would die today, she would have made his bed hers for one more night.

Loki. Oh my Loki! He would be alone now, no one to heal him nor defend him. If she had any choice, she would have stayed but only for him. Who would take up his cause now?

Frigga stiffened, then felt strong arms lift her head. A warm, familiar, calloused hand graced her left cheek. He was here. He who had been her only love. Her husband. Her Odin. His arms so safe. Frigga relaxed into the comfort of his touch and the dim light beyond her eyelids faded into darkness.

Author's Note: I have drawn on a deleted scene that expands Frigga's prison talk with Loki by following it with her talk with Thor. This places it at a different place in time than in the movie. Also, hang on. There is still another chapter coming.