Songs for this chapter: "Implosions" by Agent Fresco; "Run Boy Run" by Woodkid
Chapter 11
"Sif, there is a fresh hunt in from the valley. Come and eat something." Fandral said, quietly entering the king's chambers escorted by one of Thor's remaining healthy guards.
"I am not hungry." Sif said.
"Sif, you are pale. You must eat." Fandral said. His voice was harder this time.
"Are you my king, Fandral?" Sif yelled at him.
"No, my lady." Fandral said quietly. This behavior had become commonplace for Sif since Thor fell ill. His tone softened as he added, "I only worry for our king, of course. He needs you at your full strength."
"Our king needs me by his side." Sif said coolly. "You may go, Fandral."
Fandral closed his eyes, sighing as he left the room. Volstagg waited for him outside in the main hall of the Kings Quarters. Sif only permitted one person inside at a time.
"Any luck?" Volstagg asked.
Fandral shook his head. He looked at the guard who escorted him and said, "See that Lady Sif is brought something to eat."
The guard nodded at him and Fandral took Volstagg by the elbow, pulling him swiftly away from the ears of the guards.
Once they were a safe distance away Fandral spoke, "She is worse than before. I fear her sanity is slipping away in her grief."
"What can we do? Force her away from him?" Volstagg asked.
"I am beginning to feel that may be the only option. She will not leave him of her own accord." Fandral said.
"There is no where to put her though." Volstagg said. "She will return to him if unrestrained and all the extra prison cells are full with those in quarantine."
Fandral sighed.
"The problem will likely work itself out." He said quietly after a long moment. "No one who has contact with the ill remains uninfected for long."
"Did she show any signs?" Volstagg inquired.
"None that I saw."
One of Heimdall's guards approached them in a full run. All of Heimdall's guards were linked to his mind so they could relay his observations and requests throughout the palace with immediacy. It was the most difficult position to secure in Asgard.
The guard, who showed signs of the illness in his skin, said through his panting, "My lords, Heimdall needs your assistance at the Observatory."
"What has happened?" Volstagg asked.
"Jane has returned. She did not come alone." The guard said, out of breath. "You will require the magic neutralization chains."
"Why?" Fandral asked. "Who is with her?"
"Loki."
Fandral and Volstagg shared a shocked look.
"Do not tell anyone this news." Fandral said to the guard in a low voice. He looked around before adding even more quietly, "Especially not Lady Sif."
The guard nodded and said, "Heimdall urges you to hurry."
As Fandral and Volstagg made haste from the King's Quarters, Abigæl slipped silently from the dark corner she was hiding in and made her way to the king's chamber. The guards permitted her without question or accompaniment. She had been spying on Fandral for weeks and they all understood.
"Lady Sif," Abigæl said as she entered the king's bedroom chamber. "There is news to report. Heimdall has sent for Fandral and Volstagg. My lady, Jane Foster has returned to Asgard and she brought Loki with her."
Sif spun to face Abigæl.
"Loki is imprisoned here already." Sif said.
"I fear that may have been another trick, my lady." Abigæl said. "They both seemed convinced it was him."
"What is their plan?" Sif asked.
"They will imprison him immediately, my lady. They are bringing the magic neutralization chains with them."
"And what of Jane?"
"They did not say."
"She will come here." Sif said quietly, almost to herself. She stood and looked down at Thor. Her expression hardened. "I will be ready for her."
~.~.~
Midway down the Rainbow Bridge, Jane crossed paths with Fandral and Volstagg who were on horseback.
"Take Glenr, my lady." Fandral said, motioning to her saddled horse that raced behind them.
"Thanks!" Jane said. She slowed her run and climbed easily onto the back of her white steed. She noticed neither Fandral nor Volstagg looked like the dying people in her vision, so that was a relief.
"Things are very different here now." Volstagg said to her. "You are unsafe here."
"Yes, I know about the sickness." Jane said. She didn't explain how she knew and they didn't appear confused by this. They must assume Heimdall told me. She thought.
"Heed caution, Jane." Fandral said. He rode his horse closer to hers and added in a low, serious tone, "Sif is not herself. She is mentally unwell. Her behavior is unpredictable and unstable."
Jane nodded. She was not worried about Sif. She knew that she was more powerful than her now that she had magic.
"You can't kill Loki. Our fates are linked." Jane told them.
Fandral and Volstagg gave her a nod of understanding and then gave a yell to their horses to run and continued on their way to the Observatory.
Jane clicked her tongue at her horse. Glenr took off in a full gallop towards Asgard and her Jötunn agility made the ride easy. As she neared the palace gates, she realized she was still in Human clothing. She quickly conjured the atoms of her fabric and rearranged them into Æsir appropriate dress, relocating her journal and the vial of orka from Nál to concealed pockets within the garb. She looked down to briefly inspect her work and groaned. Her dress was a deep grey with several accents of bright green. She rolled her eyes and kept riding.
Inside the palace an eerie quiet filled the length of its central Iðavöllr Hall. Glenr's hooves echoed loudly on the limestone floor. No one was around to stop her entry as she turned Glenr down the hall that led to the King's Quarters. Finally, only several doors from the king's bedroom itself did someone bring her horse to a halt. Jane saw it was Sif.
Jane dismounted and greeted her. "How is he?" she asked.
"Unwell," Sif said. She looked pale and it was clear she had been crying throughout the last several days.
"May I see him?" Jane asked, starting to walk forward before Sif replied.
Sif pushed her sword blade to Jane's throat and asked, "Where were you?"
"Midgard," Jane replied, hoping Sif's sword would not draw blood. She worried about her self control still and she didn't want to hurt Sif. "I came as soon as I could. Please, Sif, I just want to see him."
"This began right after you left." Sif hissed. "How do I not know that you do not bring more folly from your mortal lands?"
"Sif," Jane looked at her with begging eyes.
"Take her to the prisons." Sif commanded.
"Sif, please!" Jane cried.
She had a choice to make now. She could reveal her magic and see Thor or go to the dungeons with her secret still intact. Fandral and Volstagg were glad to see her, so perhaps it was only Sif's emotions causing this reaction to her return. Fandral did warn her about Sif's erratic behavior. Fandral will release me from prison, right? She thought. She wasn't certain. But she knew she had to see Thor for herself if she had any chance of knowing how to save him and avoid her fate of ruling Asgard. She created an illusion to match her exact appearance in that moment and then transported herself into the king's bedroom.
Thor lay helpless on the bed, his skin sallow and grey. Even though she had foreseen this, she'd never imagined him truly sick and the image was haunting. She hurried to his side and reached to hold his hand. She realized he looked grey because his veins were black.
"Thor," she said softly. "It's me. It's Jane."
His eyes fluttered slightly and he said in a hoarse whisper, "You should not have come."
"I had to come." Jane said. "I am going to save you, Thor. All of you."
Thor opened his eyes, their blue color cloudy and the whites speckled with black veins.
"How?" he asked.
"She's inside the chamber!" Sif's voice called from the hall.
"I'm going to find a cure." Jane said. She smiled at Thor. "I will find it or create it. I'm not going to let you die. It's not an option."
"What has happened to you, Jane?" Thor asked. "Why do you wear that color green?"
"Seize her! She uses magic!" Sif cried as she burst into the room with all Thor's remaining guards.
"Jane?" Thor's eyes questioned her. "What have you done?"
The guards took Jane into magic neutralization chains and pulled her from Thor's side.
"I will save you, Thor." She said to his surprised face. "I promise."
~.~.~
"So this was your brilliant plan?" Loki said from his corner cell as the guards and Sif marched Jane past it. "Bravo, Jane."
Jane didn't look at him. They led her to the cell next to his, but it was full of Æsir with the same grey skin that plagued Thor. A prison guard approached them and addressed Sif.
"My lady, all the cells are occupied by the sick. This woman looks well." He said.
"Put her in with Loki then." Sif said. Her eyes flickered darkly to Jane's before she added, "They can flyte day and night using their treacherous magic."
"Oh, great, she knows." They could all hear Loki say with a groan from his cell.
The guards pulled Jane back to the front of Loki's cell and one turned off the Æsir magic that held the walls intact. The others stood guard over Loki as Sif undid Jane's chains and shoved her inside. She could feel the difference in Jane's body density. She realized Jane was no longer human. Was this always their plan? She wondered. To turn Jane Æsir for Fandral, or...? Sif could not even finish the thought it was so distasteful. Jane might be a talented liar, but surely even she would not take interest in Loki.
The Æsir magic went back into effect sealing the cell and Sif sneered at the pair of them, pushing her new concerns away long enough to say with confidence, "When this is over, you will both rot in here forgotten while Thor rules Asgard."
"Look around, Sif," Loki said. "This is more a quarantine ward than a dungeon. Who will be left for Thor to rule?"
"Thor is dying." Jane said softly to Sif. "Please, let me help."
"A Midgardian wench has no means to help a god." Sif said and turned on her heel.
"Ouch," Loki said sucking in air as they watched Sif leave them. "What is it they say on Midgard? Oh yes! She told you, Jane."
Jane sucker punched Loki and he flew across the cell, the Æsir glass shimmering gold as he slammed into it. Jane conjured a wall between them, pleased to find that she could still do magic within the cell itself. She sat in the far corner of the cell wishing she were in Jötunn form so she wouldn't have to cry. Loki's impish laughter peeled through her illusion wall, but he stayed on the other side of it giving her privacy.
~.~.~
After Sif locked Jane in Loki's cell, she did not immediately leave the prisons. Instead she decided to pay Lorelei a visit. She wanted answers.
"Leave me." Sif commanded the guards. She could not have Lorelei's sorceress power over men risk her own safety.
Once she was alone in the isolation chamber, Sif undid the cell's magic and entered it. Lorelei blinked a few times, adjusting to the light that came on with a visitor's presence. Sif removed the silencer from her mouth and stepped back outside the cell, quickly resealing it.
Lorelei coughed and cleared her throat. It had been months since she had use of her voice. Finally she smiled at Sif and said, "You look wretched, Lady Sif. Did Thor finally marry that mortal?"
"I have come to speak about your involvement with Loki." Sif said, ignoring Lorelei's words completely.
Lorelei frowned and finally said, "I really do not see why. That was ages ago. Centuries. Before Amora was banished. Before you and Thor were even together."
"I do not mean your sexual involvement. I mean your recent act as his accomplice to regicide." Sif said.
"Regicide, really? Sounds fascinating, especially since Loki died last year." Lorelei's eyes flashed. "But I have not a clue of what you speak."
"We shall try this a different way." Sif said. Her voice was calm, unnerved, but inside her fury was beginning to climb to the surface. "Can you do a concealment spell?"
"Yes, of course. That's basic magic."
"Could you conceal a person?" Sif asked.
"Depends," Lorelei said. "Is this person Odin?"
Sif said nothing.
"I will take your silence as confirmation." Lorelei said. "The answer would be no. I could not conceal Odin unless he requested me to do so and lowered his charm shields. The King of Asgard is well protected against magic. His sons on the other hand..."
"So you admit to working with Loki then?" Sif said.
Lorelei laughed.
Sif glowered at her. "You dare mock me, Lorelei?"
Lorelei laughed harder and leaned towards the glass, "You are such a blundering fool that you are hardly even worth my mockery, Lady Sif."
"You will give me answers!" Sif screamed at her.
Lorelei pursed her full lips into a smirk and said nothing. Sif seethed, her breathing coming out in ragged bursts of rage. She decided to leave before she lost further control of the situation. Fixing a threatening stare on Lorelei she said, "You will admit to your manifold of crimes, even if I have to force you to do so."
Sif turned around sharply and left the isolation cell, the lights extinguishing once she was gone.
Hours later, after the sun went down and the dungeons were in the darkness of the moonlight, Loki passed through the illusion wall. He had already forgiven her for betraying him to Heimdall, though he was undecided whether or not to express his sentiment to Jane. He did not yet see the benefit in doing so, plus he felt a bit awestruck at her actions still. She is limitless. He reminded himself as he sat next to Jane.
"Is Thor really dying?" he asked her almost inaudibly.
Jane nodded. Her hours spent here so far proved to her that there was no sound privacy in the dungeons.
"You've been crying." Loki said.
Jane looked away. She had cried since Sif left them. It felt hopeless. Not only would Thor die likely within days, she had no means to help him from here. Not to mention Sif appeared to be seeking vengeance on her finally. On top of that, she was locked up with a psychopath whom she'd betrayed earlier that day. He would likely try to murder her tonight so none of this would matter anyway. She'd be just another name in his book of bloodshed.
"You should not be so concerned." Loki said. "I do not mean to rule a vacant Asgard. We will stop this plague, Jane."
She looked at him and asked, "How?"
"Two geniuses who can do magic locked up together in a glass house for five thousand years give or take?" he smiled. "We will think of something."
"You would kill in my sleep." Jane said.
Loki smiled and cupped Jane's chin with his hand. He let their eyes glow red a moment before he said, "Our fates are linked, Jane. I would no sooner kill myself."
Jane took Loki's hand and removed it from her chin.
"I wish you hadn't damaged so many people I love." She said.
Loki looked away, his eyes fading back to green.
"I wish that, too." He said into the darkness.
They sat there in silence until eventually falling asleep some time later.
~.~.~
When Jane awoke, she found herself on the hard floor, slunk against the wall. A heavy arm draped over her ribs and a messy mass of sable hair was in her immediate eyesight. She closed her eyes to push her senses forward and realized this was an illusion. She sat up, dissolving the sleeping illusion of Loki, and turned to find the real Loki had put their fake wall back up. He'd created a small opening in this one and she stood to peer through it. Loki was perched by the cell glass, his legs stretched in front of him, reading a book.
"Where did you get that?" Jane asked, walking through the wall, which shimmered away at her touch.
"Good morning." Loki replied. "Sleep well?"
His smirk reached his eyes as he looked up from the book. Jane realized he looked immaculate and that she likely looked like a mess. She wondered how long it would take her to remember her magic for random things like personal hygiene. She conjured the dirt, dried sweat, and oil from her body and hair and rearranged the atoms of her dress into new clothing, focusing hard this time to avoid more green.
"Red?" Loki frowned at her new fabric choice. "How overdramatic."
"The book, Loki?" Jane asked. Her neck was stiff and she wondered what magic would help that. Really just a bed would do the trick, but who was going to give them a bed?
"Leftover from Frigga. This is my old cell." He explained. "There are more over there."
Jane followed his gaze to a stack of tattered books. But that wasn't the only thing in the cell. A plush sitting chair and matching ottoman, a goblet and platter on a small circular table, and a daybed filled the space. He had concealed them from her the day before.
"You let me sleep on the floor when you knew we had a bed?"
"It's not a very big bed." Loki said. "Besides, you're common and I am royalty. I assumed you would have given it to me anyway."
Jane opened her mouth to respond but remembered the lack of sound barriers and thought better of it. If Loki wanted to punish her for turning him in, so be it. She strode to the books and began to examine the titles.
"Only two will be of use." Loki said over his shoulder. "Reading one of them now. You should start on the other—Darkness of the Realms it's entitled."
Jane found it separated from the stack and took it with her to the sitting chair.
"What is yours about?" she asked.
"It's written in Vanir. It's their account of history. They had a plague once, though it was disguised as a war with the Jötnar so Asgard would not think them weak and invade."
"You can read Vanir?" Jane asked. "Their alphabet is impossible for me."
"Frigga was Vanir. She taught me her mother tongue." He said. "But like I told you before as Odin, Vanir is the hardest language of the realms to learn. Most Æsir give up. You speak it beautifully, for what it's worth."
"Not much right now it seems, but thanks." Jane muttered. "So have you found anything yet?"
"I have," Loki frowned. "But it's not the same symptoms we're seeing here. If you can't find anything in that one, we'll have to visit the library."
Jane looked at him confused. "What? Are they giving library passes to prisoners now?"
Loki laughed.
"Jane, that's adorable." He said and then pointed to his temple, "No, we'll have to go through here."
"How do we take the books though? We won't physically be there."
"I like to call it a Loki Transcode since I invented it." He said. "You store the molecular components of the book in your mind and then transfer them into the physical books we have already here. The bigger the borrow, the bigger book we need as a base."
"That's...amazing!" Jane exclaimed.
"I know." Loki smiled.
"But, wait, how do we get there at all? The cells stop any form of magic from leaving their walls, right? How would we exit the cell?" Jane asked, seeing the flaw in the plan.
Loki put a finger over his lips as they pursed into a smirk. He then said out loud, "Yes, all the cells prevent any form of magic from leaving them. It is the securest prison in all the Nine Realms."
Jane pushed her mind into his and thought, "So how do we do it?"
"Hang on," Loki thought back. "Putting up a screen so people don't notice we stopped talking."
He flicked his wrist and an illusion of Jane and Loki standing in a replication of their cell filled the space by the glass. They were having a fairly civilized conversation about prisons throughout the galaxies. Illusion Jane was pointing out the humanitarian flaws of the Kyln, the infamous prison located in the Andromeda galaxy, and illusion Loki was countering with recognition of its communal aspects, which were notably lacking within the Æsir prison. Both points of view were originating from the real Loki's brain of course and the real Jane found herself drawn into the discussion based on both its content and the absurdity of it. She wondered if Loki used to have debates in here between himself and an illusion of someone else to combat loneliness.
"Frigga oversaw the final redesign of this particular cell when I was initially sentenced to life in prison." Loki thought to Jane in their real forms while he continued to run the illusion. "There is an opening here by my head. It's too small for the ungifted eye to see, but large enough to permit me—us—to project an illusion within a limited field. The field essentially extends to the library, but she could not control the radius, so it's that distance in all directions."
"So you could project an illusion to her while you were in here?" Jane thought.
"Technically yes, if she was close enough, but magic is permitted inward to the cells from anywhere, so she always projected to me." Loki thought back.
A memory of Loki's began to form in his mind. In it Jane could hear his voice saying ruefully, 'You're not,' but she could not see who he was speaking to. He cut off the memory abruptly and Jane could feel his emotions becoming overwhelmed with grief.
"So, where exactly is the opening?" she thought quickly to distract him.
"Close your eyes and focus on the Æsir magic's energy field along the cell glass next to me." Loki thought and Jane closed her eyes.
She felt his emotional relief at her interruption even though it was subtle, almost subconscious. Jane realized she was beginning to be able to read more of who Loki was than just what was revealed in his most forthcoming thoughts. She had to assume he already developed this skillset and therefore know quite a bit about her, perhaps even some things that she did not even acknowledge about herself.
His words about how he and Frigga had been unable to keep secrets from each other ran through her mind and she wondered if he knew that she had the gift of Mimir. She purposefully had been keeping it from him even before she figured out exactly what it was. He would have had to dig deep, and she didn't think that she had made her mind vulnerable to him long enough for that to occur.
"Do you see the gap?" Loki thought after a moment.
Jane realized she should focus and with her eyes still closed she observed the space on the glass near his head. There was a miniscule blank spot in the shimmering gold of the force field just next to his eye in her line of sight. It looked black from this vantage, but she knew it was merely see-through.
"Yes," she thought. "It's very small."
"Exactly," Loki thought. "So, there you have it. The passageway to the library. See Jane, you can get everything you want in one place...a library, a privacy screen, a bed, and me."
Loki's thoughts became exaggeratedly sexual and Jane pulled herself from his mind with an eyeroll. As he held his head in the pain of her removal he let out a long, maniacal laugh.
"And I hate you." Jane said simply, rubbing her eyes to ease the pain of the mindlink.
Loki dropped the illusion screen and continued to laugh while Jane tried to push his forced thoughts of kissing her against the stacks in one of the darker spots of the library out of her head. Most of his thoughts had not been of just kissing her, but that was the particular part she could not shake. The way he imagined how her lips would feel under his touch lingered in her mind. All his crass thoughts had been tainted with false emotion except for this particular one, as if he'd not been able to mask his unbridled excitement because it was too raw.
She stole a glance at him as she tried to remind herself of all the terrible things he had done. He had stopped laughing by now and was not looking at her, perhaps on purpose, and she found herself getting more excited than less as she took in his features. She quickly looked down at Darkness of the Realms and opened it to the table of contents.
