Trials

Chapter Eleven: Lambs and Wolves

"Your attention, please! Proceedings are commencing," Finnulfur announced, standing in front of the magistrate's chair, elevated above the smooth stone floor by three stairs. "There are three presenting parties to this hearing. When I call your name, step forward into your assigned box and answer the questions put to you. Prince Loki Odinson."

Loki stepped up to just behind the line that divided everyone else from Finnulfur, hands fidgeting at his sides.

"You have initiated this case, correct?"

"I have, Lord Magistrate," Loki said, relaxing a bit. Everything was beginning exactly as the information from the Library of the Law had said.

"And do you bring it in your own name, or the name of your father?"

Loki hesitated, blinking. He took a breath and answered. "My father has nothing to do with this," he said, confused. When he and Thor had studied the formalities of the legal system and even observed a civil and a criminal trial, this question had never come up, nor had anything he'd seen from the Law Library informed him he'd be asked this.

"Then you are here today not as a Prince of Asgard, but as citizen of Asgard. Correct?"

"Yes, Lord Magistrate," Loki answered easily, now understanding what Finnulfur had been asking. Loki didn't want a decision based on his title; he wanted a decision based on him being right.

"Good. There will be no influence or imbalance, then, based on title or status – yours or anyone else's. And as a citizen of Asgard, you have the same rights to initiate a case before a magistrate, in defense of the rights you hold in common with every other Asgardian. Any additional rights you have as a son of Odin All-Father will not come into play here. Do you understand?"

"I understand. And I seek no additional rights."

"Then I ask for your oath, as a true and honorable citizen of Asgard in good standing, upon the blood of your ancestors and before the eyes of all of Asgard, that you will speak only truth in these proceedings, with no intent to deceive, mislead, or obfuscate."

"I swear, as a true and honorable citizen of Asgard in good standing, upon the blood of my ancestors and before the eyes of all of Asgard, that I will speak only truth in these proceedings, with no intent to deceive, mislead, or obfuscate," Loki said, fist pressed to his chest. It was a solemn oath, a grave one whose weight Loki felt with every word. He may laugh at throwing rocks at an approaching army, but he took his commitments – and his oaths – seriously. A sworn oath held tremendous import on Asgard; deliberately breaking it would be shameful beyond words. This one was also an easy oath to make. Fond as Loki was of the occasional pointed deception, he had no intention of lying here – he would never even consider it. There was a time and a place for mischief, and this was unquestionably not it.

"Very well. Your oath has been heard and recorded; may it bind you more surely than any chain. You may step back."

Turning to the men on Loki's left, Finnulfur went through the same questions with Tyr and Sorkvir – except for the one about fathers and titles. Both likewise swore their oaths, and like Loki, neither had elected to employ a representative.

"Now to the matter at hand. Loki avers that his right to a fair judgement at his Trials was violated. Have I stated your basic claim accurately, Loki?"

Loki again stepped forward into the recognition box, directly in front of Finnulfur. "Yes, Lord Magistrate."

"Tyr and Sorkvir aver that Loki did receive a fair judgement at his Trials, thus no right was violated. Have I stated your basic response to Loki's claim accurately?"

Both men stepped forward and stated their agreement, then Sorkvir continued. "I have a statement I would like to make on behalf of both Tyr and myself before presentations begin, if I may."

"It had better be appropriate, but yes, you may."

Loki watched Sorkvir nervously. He hadn't read anything about statements in advance of the actual presentations. He was a striking figure, Sorkvir, very tall, barrel-chested, thickly muscled arms, with long red hair and an equally long red beard, both with numerous small braids worked into them.

"Neither of us is pleased with the outcome of Loki's Trials, or with the fact that we stand now before the First Magistrate to debate it. It was clear to us, as well as to everyone in attendance, that Loki is perfectly capable of successfully passing the Trials. Therefore, in order to avoid the formalities of a hearing, we wish to make an offer to Loki. We offer to allow him to repeat his Trials without penalty or prejudice, with the initial Trials and judgement purged from the official record, and upon his successful completion of them to declare him a warrior of Asgard, as he was meant to be."

Sorkvir stepped out of the box and back to his side of the line, and turned to look at Loki for the first time. Loki stared back. This was an entirely unexpected development. Tyr had already told his mother, when she'd asked, that he could retake the Trials, but this offer was unsolicited and quite respectful. And yet…

"Loki? Your response? You aren't required to make one, in fact, but I would encourage you to make your wishes known. If you do not respond, I will assume that you want to proceed with your petition."

"I…," Loki began, then remembered he needed to step forward.

"Loki!" Thor hissed from behind him.

Loki ignored him and stepped into the box, though he was feeling a bit tongue-tied.

"Pssst, Loki!"

Loki closed his eyes for a moment. "May I please consult with my brother?"

Finnulfur spared Thor a long glance, then looked back at Loki, a deep frown bringing out lines on his face. "Is he your law advisor?" he asked in a voice that made it clear he already knew the answer.

"Ah, not exactly. I mean no," he hastened to add, remembering his oath. "But…he's my older brother. Sometimes he advises me," he said with an awkward smile. He tried to assure himself that it didn't cross the line into "intent to mislead." Thor did sometimes advise him; Loki didn't always take his advice.

"Very well. You may consult with your advisor," Finnulfur said.

Loki hurried out of the designated trial boundaries and back to where Thor stood, just outside of it. "What?" he whispered as soon as their heads were together. Thor was the only outside observer here; he'd asked Mother not to come, and she'd agreed.

"You're going to accept, aren't you?"

Loki frowned and straightened his back, but before he could answer Thor had grabbed the back of his head and pulled him close again.

"You have to accept. Loki, this is a trial. An actual, real, recorded-for-posterity trial. Against Tyr and Sorkvir! They're giving you a way out, a way to avoid all this. Just repeat the Trials. There's no question you'll pass, they even said so. And everything will be the way it should be."

Loki was wavering. It would be the easy way out, but it just seemed wrong. And as he thought about it, he realized that Tyr and Sorkvir wouldn't be offering this so freely, before Finnulfur himself, unless they believed they were going to lose. "I don't think I can do that. I-"

"Loki, come on! Did you hear him? There won't even be any official record of you failing anymore. You've had your shining moment, you've brought two of Asgard's greatest warriors before a magistrate, isn't that enough? Just accept their offer. You can-"

"My 'shining moment?' This isn't about a shining moment! This is-"

"Yes, it is, and you know it. It's all about the shining moment you had to have when you used magic to-"

"Loki," Finnulfur called out, causing both boys' heads to jerk up and swivel around, "if you could kindly finish consulting with your advisor?"

Loki turned back to Thor to flash him a look meant to tell him to keep quiet, then trotted back inside the boundary. "I apologize, Lord Magistrate. While I appreciate the offer from Tyr and Sorkvir, I cannot accept it," he said firmly. "I already proved myself in the Trials, and therefore I do not need to repeat them."

"Very well. Have you anything further to say at this point, Sorkvir? Tyr?"

"We do not," both men answered.

"Then Loki, you have brought this case. Without delving into arguments or evidence at this point, please state it for the sake of justice in Asgard."

Loki nodded, stepped forward, took a deep breath. He had memorized this part. "Four days ago, I had my Trials, as has every Asgardian before me. I passed the endurance, skills, and strength portions without difficulty. In the battle trial, too, I was doing well. I had taken only a few hits from Tyr, and I'd even given him one. Then, in the last minute of the battle, exactly as I'd planned, I used a small bit of magic to temporarily blind Tyr, and I used that moment to put the tip of my sword to his chest and claim victory. However, instead of acknowledging my victory, Sorkvir and Tyr claimed that I broke the rules and that I had failed. But no one had informed me of a rule forbidding magic. Indeed," Loki continued, giving a single sage nod of his head to accentuate the gravity of his words, "no one provided me with any list of rules explaining what was allowed or not allowed. Because I was unaware of the rules, and more importantly unaware that I was breaking one of them, and then judged to have failed my Trials, my right to a fair judgement was violated. Thank you for hearing my case before Asgard, Lord Magistrate."

"Tyr and Sorkvir," Finnulfur began, turning to the famed warriors as Loki released a breath and let his shoulders sag just a bit, "it is your right to present your arguments disputing Loki's petition, and to question him and any others you deem relevant to the matter at hand. Before you do so, though, please state which elements of Loki's statement you dispute, for the sake of justice in Asgard."

Sorkvir stepped forward. "Lord Magistrate, for expediency, Tyr and I have agreed that I will speak for both of us."

Finnulfur nodded his assent, while Loki watched Tyr's profile with a frown. It was Tyr he most wanted to acknowledge that he had passed. It was Tyr he'd defeated, and Tyr who'd first uttered the word "fail." Sorkvir may have agreed once Tyr spoke, and it was Sorkvir who really should have explained all the rules as it was his task to ensure each individual trial was conducted fairly, along with administering oaths and monitoring safety, but it was on Tyr's head he placed the blame for this situation.

"We dispute none of it, save the part that brings us here today, that Loki's rights were violated because no one explicitly told him he could not use magic."

"To be clear, you agree that no one did explicitly tell him he could not use magic. Correct?"

"Correct. We hold that he did not need to be explicitly told this, that it is implicitly clear to all Asgardians and should have been to Loki as well."

"It is encouraging, then, that the facts themselves are not in dispute, and the matter to be determined is limited to whether those facts involve a violation of Loki's rights. And, as conveniently enough with your last statement you have already begun your arguments, you may formally begin your presentation now."

"Thank you, Lord Magistrate. The heart of Loki's complaint is that no one specifically told him he was not allowed to use magic. Loki, what is at the heart of the battle trial?"

Loki stared at Sorkvir in surprise. He hadn't expected to be asked any questions so soon, and he found his mind disturbingly blank of anything resembling an answer.

"Loki has passed his examinations," Finnulfur said. "Please make your questions a little less open-ended."

Loki gulped and tried not to look too relieved.

"Of course. Loki, what is the purpose of the battle trial?"

That one wasn't much easier. But it was marginally clearer. "It's the culmination of the other three trials, and of everything you've learned to that point. It's meant to show that…that you can defend yourself, and you can attack. That you can do so successfully."

"It is all those things, yes. It's also about showing that you know what it means to fight with honor. It is simulated one-on-one combat, the pinnacle of what true combat should be about. Endurance. Skill. Strength. Honor."

Loki clenched his jaw and held his tongue. He was not supposed to speak unless recognized by Finnulfur or questioned by Sorkvir. And apparently that meant he was going to have to stand here and listen to Sorkvir insinuate that he had not fought with honor.

"Do you think it would have been acceptable for you to use magic to improve your speed in the endurance trial?"

"No."

"To lighten the weight of the objects you lifted in the strength trial?"

"No, of course not." As if I would know how to do either of those things anyway.

"Then you do understand that magic is not permitted in the trials, even if you were not specifically told this, yes?"

"N- I mean…yes, in those examples. I haven't demonstrated my strength if I…somehow change the weight of what I'm lifting."

"And you haven't demonstrated your capacity for battle if you use magic instead of a weapon, have you?"

"But…if the battle trial is simulated battle…isn't battle ultimately about winning? With honor, yes, but also with versatility and…and cleverness, and every skill and every weapon at your disposal, including magic."

"Magic is a weapon?"

Loki seized on that. He had never really thought about it in that light before, but Thor often evaluated the magic Loki learned in terms of its usefulness against an enemy. Sometimes it seemed that was the only aspect of it that made it legitimate for serious use in Thor's eyes. "Yes, it is. Another weapon to use against an enemy," he said confidently. Why didn't I think of this argument before? They can't see it as some kind of cheating or lack of honor if it's just another weapon.

"I see," Sorkvir said in that manner of adults who wished to patronize you. Loki had always admired Sorkvir, and it was strange and confusing to see him acting this way. "Loki, was the sword your first choice of weapon to use in your Trials?"

He hesitated before answering. Does he mean to suggest magic was my first choice? I wouldn't know how to fight an entire battle with nothing but magic. "No," he said. "It was throwing axes."

"You decided you wanted to use throwing axes. And having made that decision, what did you do about it?"

What did I do about it? Loki thought, not quite understanding the question. I asked- His face fell. He got it. Sorkvir had laid a trap, and he'd gladly run right into it. He felt like a child caught breaking a rule. And like he'd just lost this trial.

"Loki?" Finnulfur prompted. "What did you do about your decision to use throwing axes?"

"I…ah…," Loki began, struggling to find some way out of this. Running away to Midgard was looking much more appealing. Finnulfur looked like he was growing impatient, and there was no way around the answer, not that he saw. "I asked permission."

"Why?" Sorkvir asked immediately.

Loki grit his teeth. This was almost as bad as the moment Sorkvir had publicly announced his failure. Only the "publicly" part was different. "I knew that the sword was the standard weapon, and that if I wanted to use something else instead, I had to get permission."

"By your own words, you did use an additional weapon in your Trials: magic. Who did you ask for permission to use magic?"

"No one," he said, staring holes into the floor.

"Why not?"

Loki looked up, surprised. Tyr had asked that, not Sorkvir. Tyr's lips were in a tight line, and Loki thought he looked angry, though he wasn't sure why. Tyr should look triumphant; he'd just won.

"Answer the question put to you, Loki," Finnulfur chided. "Why didn't you ask permission to use magic, when you did ask permission to use axes?"

"Because…" His mind raced. And he saw a light at the end of this oppressively dark tunnel. "Because it's not the same. Tyr told me I couldn't use axes because that would result in battle at too much of a distance, and at the Trials you have to demonstrate battle at close quarters. I was right in front of Tyr when I created that light. And… I know I said that magic is a weapon, but that's not quite right," he said, hurrying along as another idea occurred to him. "Magic is just…magic. Energy. Control of energy. It's neither good nor bad. It's not a weapon itself…but it can be used as a weapon, in battle. And that's the same as a rope. I used rope in my Trials, and I didn't ask anyone for permission. Rope can be used as a weapon, too. I used it to surprise Tyr, and I even got a hit on him then. That's no different than using magic to distract him, and then claim victory. I shouldn't have said it was a weapon before; I never thought of it as a weapon. I thought of it as a tool, just like the rope, and no one said I failed for using rope," Loki said, full confidence returned. As sure as he'd been convinced he'd lost just moments before, he was now convinced he'd won. He'd been addressing Finnulfur, but now he snuck an evaluating look at Tyr and Sorkvir; Sorkvir was frowning, and Tyr, as was typical of him, remained impassive.

"An ax is also a tool. Its original purpose was chopping trees into logs. Yet you asked about that, did you not?" Sorkvir asked.

"Because I meant it to be my weapon at the Trials. Because I'm good with an ax, and the sword is not my strongest weapon. If I'd meant to fight Tyr with nothing but magic, I would have asked permission. But that never even occurred to me. I wouldn't even know how to do it."

"But you did fight Tyr with magic," Sorkvir insisted.

"No. I…I'm sorry, Lord Magistrate, when I said magic was a weapon, that was not a lie, or an attempt to mislead, but it was a…a poorly thought-out answer. I never thought of it that way. I thought of it as…a tool, or a skill…a tactic, like any other. It's something I can do that few others can, so I wanted to demonstrate my skill. It never occurred to me that anyone would object."

"Yet you not only did not ask permission, you didn't tell anyone at all, did you?"

"No."

"Because you knew what the answer would be."

"No!" Loki said, raising his voice in frustration. Sorkvir had just called him a liar, when he'd given his oath not to lie.

Thankfully, Finnulfur stepped in. "Sorkvir, no more of that. This is a chamber of law, not a battlefield. Loki has already stated quite clearly that he did not anticipate any objections to his use of magic."

"Forgive me, Lord Magistrate, Loki, I overstepped. Loki, did you truly never have even the tiniest suspicion that you would not be permitted to use magic?"

"I did not," he answered, sticking his chin out stubbornly. Sorkvir could ask a dozen times, a dozen ways, and the answer would be the same.

Sorkvir gave him a hard look, but Loki just stared back. "All right. You said that you wouldn't know how to fight with nothing but magic. Why not?"

The question threw Loki. Again he didn't know where Sorkvir was going, and he was leery of walking into another trap. "I don't know. I just don't. I don't know how to do very much with magic. Just a few small things."

"Well, how did you learn to use a sword?"

"Ossur taught me. My father some before that. And then other trainers, too. You and Tyr taught me."

"You were formally trained throughout your youth, like every boy, yes?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because every man of Asgard is a warrior, and he must be prepared to defend his realm, or another, as directed by his king. Especially a prince. And the sword is the standard weapon."

"But you were trained on other weapons as well, were you not?"

"You know that I was. You trained me on some of them, Sorkvir," Loki said impatiently. His own arguments were simple, basic, self-evident. These proceedings were really not going as he had expected.

"Did I ever train you to use magic in battle?"

"No," Loki said sullenly, for now he knew the point Sorkvir was trying to make.

"Did any of your other trainers ever teach you to use magic?"

"No."

"In fact, were you not reprimanded once for using magic during training?"

"No! I never-" Oh. There was that one time… He turned and glanced back at Thor, who wore an unmistakable grimace. "Yes, once," Loki admitted, but before he could defend himself Sorkvir was continuing in what was beginning to feel like an assault Loki could not defend against. That he wasn't even allowed to defend against. The brief moment of triumph was past; this incident would not cast him in a favorable light.

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Thanks as always to all readers and reviewers...I hope you are enjoying Law and Order: Asgard. ;-)