Around Asgard, the unconscious citizens were beginning to stir. The mages had been the first to fall because of their connection to the barriers, but they were also the most used to their energy being destabilized so they were the first to recover. They awakened not long after Odin, and after that the rest of Asgard began to stir as well.

Slítas sat curled next to Loki's side while everyone started to stir as Odin fed Loki energy from the Odinforce to stabilize the child's Seidr. He looked up at Odin and then back down to Loki, and laid his head on Loki's chest with a sigh of relief as Loki's slow heartbeat stabilized. Odin picked up Loki in his arms with Slítas, and moved them both to the throne room where he could keep an eye on them. Laufey's son was laid onto Odin's throne so he could rest in peace, and then he gave orders to those who had stirred to scatter and find out exactly what had happened.

Time passed, and people brought information and scattered here and there until Loki finally stirred from his sleep. It was gentle this time, and not accompanied by pain. He wasn't aware of where he was as his eyes opened until his vision came into focus.

Once it did, he found himself curled up on the seat of Odin's throne and unable to understand how he had gotten there. Slítas clicked, and Loki rolled onto his back to see his pet snake had draped itself on the back of the throne. It seemed he had been watching over Loki as he slept.

Loki smiled at his serpent reassuringly, and Slítas seemed to relax. He lowered himself from the back of the throne and Loki raised a hand to scratch him under the chin. His hand shook from exhaustion from the movement. Something happened in the room, and Loki let his hand drop limply to his chest.

With effort, he rolled back over and faced the throne room. His father was standing at the base of the steps that led to the throne with Gungnir in hand. Scattered around him, still looking a little dazed, were other Æsir. He recognized General Tyr, Commander Vir, Freyja, the armchmage of Asgard's magic users, Akir, and others.

"WHAT HAPPENED?" Odin demanded the gathered group impatiently and slammed Gungnir against the ground.

Loki winced at Odin's shout, and felt his temples throb in time with his heartbeat. He couldn't bring himself to be annoyed at his father for his sore head, so relieved he was to see his father safe. With effort, Loki managed to sit up in Asgard's throne, resting against one of the arms. Although his Seidr was stable enough for him to be conscious, it was going to be awhile before it recovered to anything akin to normal levels.

"The Weapon's Vault and the Treasury are untouched," Vir began to report. "Other than the shade that attacked you sir, there doesn't appear to be any signs of trouble. Likely you were the target."

"I have gathered as much," Odin told Vir impatiently, "now, do you have any idea what happened?"

"It's rather straightforward," Freyja interrupted Vir before he could answer. "We have a rouge shadow mage."

"That should be obvious at this point," Tyr argued. "He means about being knocked out. How did that happen?"

Freyja looked away darkly, in as bad a mood as everyone else present. "The barriers were damaged."

Loki sat a little straighter when Freyja said that although his half-asleep look didn't go away. Had Freyja just said the barriers were damaged? There was no way. Nothing could damage the barriers. They had been made by Gaea herself, and were not a mortal construct.

"Slítas," Loki managed to whisper hoarsely through a sore throat.

Slítas turned his head towards him from watching the adults.

"Watch me," Loki ordered.

Slítas understood and nodded. With someone to watch over his body, Loki snuggled into the throne and projected his consciousness to the barriers. After a moment of nothing happening, Loki felt his grip on his exhausted body slip away. A ripple of energy traveled across his incorporeal form, and he felt warmth like pure light as the untainted power of the barriers warmed him.

Something was wrong though.

"I have the mages who have recovered working on the barriers as we speak," Freyja continued. "The damage isn't critical, I can tell you that right now. They're looking at the pattern of the damage to figure out what was done to damage it, like looking at the injuries on a body to find the murder weapon."

"You don't sound very hopeful," Odin pointed out cautiously.

"I'm not," Freyja replied as bluntly as ever. "I simply don't understand what happened. Gaea made them to be untouchable."

Loki knew the energy that had cracked the barriers from fragments still embedded in the wounds. He knew the energy, but it had been a century since he had last felt the Tesseract's power so he almost didn't believe it. The Tesseract was back.

He withdrew from the barriers in shock, and winced as he returned to his body. Normally the barriers gave him a dose of their energy, but this time he was only left even more tired than before. Even breathing felt like an effort almost too much to be worth it, and Loki supposed that his Seidr was simply too low to be dosed. There was no way to recover from this other a nice long several-day nap.

That was the moment when footsteps echoed in the corridor and Thor burst into the throne room. "Father! Loki and Tilaria are-"

He stopped talking after he ran a few steps into the throne room, sliding to a stop and staring at a sight he never expected to see. Loki was sitting on Odin's throne as if he were king of Asgard. Why was he on father's throne?

"Loki!" Thor smiled in relief after a moment of letting the surprise fade. "You're okay!

Loki tried to nod, but found he was too exhausted and only bowed his head. Locks of his raven hair, normally neatly combed back, fell in front of his face. He didn't even have the energy to raise his head.

Two things were running through Loki's mind. He was glad that Thor was alright because he had been fearful about leaving him unguarded, and the other thing was that he truly wished he could raise his head. Being so tired after a single skirmish made him look like a weakling, and everyone called him that often enough without him needing to prove them right.

His magic still hadn't gotten a chance to recover, and Loki cursed his healing factor. Although he had immense power and measurable stamina, once he burned himself out then he was tapped. It took him two or three times longer than it should to recover his Seidr, so he was in bed longer then he should be. It was why he was weak, and right now he needed to at least pretend he was fine.

Try though he might, he just couldn't find the strength to raise his head. Thor noticed how tired Loki was and he was startled, having never seen Loki in this sort of shape. He took a step forward, and his bright expression become a little more somber out of concern for Loki.

"Loki is exhausted," Odin assured Thor, "but not severely injured. It appears the assailant attempted to assassinate me while I was unconscious. Loki was able to repel them long enough for me to come to my senses."

"Assailant?" Thor whispered, and then asked louder. "You mean the person that hurt the barriers?"

"Aye," Vir interrupted the young prince softly, "a shade."

Thor stared at Vir now, having heard horror stories of shades and their masters.

Odin thought Loki would have come down by now, but realized that the shade had taken too much of his lifeforce for him to move and so addressed Thor. "Thor, why don't you take your brother back to his room? He needs rest."

"Not Fey?" Thor asked curiously.

"I've healed the damage done by the shade already," Odin said in a shooing voice. "We adults have to discuss what happened."

Thor must have agreed with his father because he skirted Odin and ran up the steps of the throne to where Loki was sitting. Loki was too tired to greet Thor or say something nonchalant like he usually would, and his lack of a response seemed to unsettle his brother more. It wasn't tired as in he couldn't keep his eyes open because he needed sleep, but a very different kind of tired.

"Loki," Thor greeted when he reached the throne Loki was sitting on, "are you okay?"

Loki managed to raise his eyes if not his head and whispered through a sore throat that made it hard to swallow, "fine."

Thor knew that Loki wasn't fine, but was relieved that he was acting otherwise. If Loki was badly injured that he admitted his injuries, then Thor would be worried. Slítas dropped form the back of the throne onto Loki and slithered up the sleeve of his jacket like he usually did while Thor helped Loki to his feet. Loki didn't have the energy to stand on his own Thor discovered after a moment, so Thor wrapped one of Loki's arms around his shoulders so he could help him walk.

"Father," Thor called out as he helped Loki walk down the steps. "Where's Tilaria?"

"Pardon?" Odin asked, surprised by his son's question.

"Tilaria," Thor repeated. "She was in the courtyard with us when she passed out, but she and Loki were gone when the rest of us woke up. If Loki's here, then where is Tilaria?"

Odin could only stare at Thor, and then look back at the other adults present. "I haven't seen her. She wasn't with Loki."

"Then where did she go?" Thor asked in concern. "She was unconscious like the rest of us so she shouldn't have gone anywhere."

Things were quiet as Thor's question was thought over, and Tyr realized first how it was possible.

"Unless she was moved," Tyr answered Thor. "Perhaps out assailant had a second objective besides your life, Allfather."

"Under the circumstances," Odin responded slowly. "I cannot discount the possibility."

Vir clapped a hand to his forehead in exasperation at how ridiculously out of control this situation was becoming. "Wait until Hallien hears about this. Last time she came she almost got killed and now we're supposed to tell Hallien 'oops, we lost her.'"

"Vir," Tyr growled at his brother, "that is not helpful."

Vir shrugged innocently while Odin grimaced at the Commander's wording. He might wish Vir had a little more tact, but it did not denounce the fact that he had a valid point. What were they going to tell Hallien?

"Are you sure Tilaria was with you?" Odin asked his older son.

Thor nodded. "She was talking with Loki when the barriers started ringing."

"Ringing," Freyja repeated softly. "I believe you're right Thor."

Loki agreed with Freyja. The Tesseract's energy had made the barriers resonate, but how could he say that it was the Tesseract that was now hurting Asgard? A century ago, Loki had been the one to lose it in the Void around Asgard so Nira would not gain custody of it. By doing so, the Tesseract had essentially been put "up for grabs." Whoever had it now, had it because Loki had been too weak to protect it.

"Right about what?" Thor asked blankly.

"Our shadow mage made the barriers resonate," Freyja repeated what Loki thought aloud without knowing it. "You know how sometimes a singer can shatter glass with their voice?"

Thor nodded.

"What happened to the barriers is similar to that," Freyja tapped her forehead with a finger to scold herself for not realizing it earlier. "In theory, if you can match the frequency that something resonates you can shatter it. That's the technique called Shatterpoint that's usually used by mages to break defensive wards."

"So you're saying that because the shade was able to resonate their magic like the barriers, that they can shatter them?" Odin asked darkly.

"Perhaps," Freyja replied. "The barriers do not exist on a mortal plane however, so the magic of mortals like us should not be able to able to affect them."

But the Tesseract could, Loki thought silently. It had the infinite power that even an Elder God could not match. If anything could destroy the barriers, then it was an Infinity Stone.

"The new problem that comes to mind is that in order to make the barriers resonate, our shadow mage or a friend of theirs had to have been on Asgard to do it." Freyja shook her head, "and the barriers never alerted anyone that there was a foreigner here."

"So our shadow mage is Asgardian," Odin finished for her, "and they likely have access to something a mortal should not."
Everyone was quiet as Thor helped Loki down the last of the steps and started to walk across the throne room. Loki could feel Tyr and several of the others glancing at him arrogantly as if they couldn't believe he was so weak. He didn't have a defense for them, and didn't mention the Tesseract. It was clear that the Infinity Stone of Space being responsible for the shadow mage's power had already come to mind.

"Vir," Odin ordered suddenly. "Take some of your Star Guard and spread out. I want to know if anyone else is missing, and if Tilaria is still on Asgard. I want her found if she is."

Vir could tell that Odin meant now, so with a "yes sir" he left to relay the orders.

"What I'm more worried about is how the shadow mage was able to turn the barriers against us," Tyr said somberly. "They have always been our first and strongest line of defense, and now they're almost a liability. If they want, the shadow mage could shatter the barriers."

"Everything has a breaking point," Freyja reminded Tyr in a shockingly gentle voice considering she was speaking to Tyr. "As I mentioned earlier, that it what the Shatterpoint technique takes advantage of. A shatterpoint akin to a fault line, where applying pressure will make something break. Comparing the technique to a glass being shattered by a singer's voice is the perfect example, and it seems our shadow mage has discovered they can use the Infinity Stones against the barriers like a high note in a song."

"What race has access to an Infinity Stone level of power?" Tyr demanded.

"The elves," Akir, who had apparently invited himself without anyone noticing, cut in. "They are almost our equal."

"Don't start blaming anyone." Odin warned sharply.

"I doubt it's the elves behind the attack and Tilaria's disappearance," someone else inputted as they glided inside.

Odin could only be so surprised to see his queen make her entrance. "Meaning what, Frigga?"

"Why would Hallien send Tilaria here just to snatch her back?" Frigga asked. "It isn't logical, and that means it can't possibly be Ljósálfr. Dökkálfr are ruled by their emotions so I could see them doing something like this, but not a Ljósálfr."

That was true, and it calmed everyone down a few notches. Thor silently managed to inch to the doorway without their mother noticing they were here. He and Loki quickly made themselves scarce.

"What about Daris then?" Akir asked, raising a valid point for once. "He's a Ljósálfr, and he is on the loose."

"That I can see," Odin told Akir strongly. "Tilaria was partially responsible for his defeat last time, so it would make sense that she be targeted by him now. It would be foolish of him to rouse Asgard's anger though, as he kept his feud contained to Alfheim last time."

"Daris is hardly stable if the reports from Alfheim are even halfway accurate," Freyja chuckled. "I could see someone as deranged as him pressing his luck like this. The Tesseract was also lost to the Void a century ago. If he has found some way to tap into its power without being vaporized then it would explain how he was able to do this."

Yes, and Odin knew exactly whose fault that was. It was because of Loki that the Tesseract had been lost, although he knew his foster son had had little say in that matter. Taking Loki from Jötunnheim had obviously been a wise call as Odin had few illusions that he would have survived the shade had Loki not interfered, but the boy was still trouble.

Odin nodded to concede the point. "It seems it might be wise to speak to Hallien about this."

Akir gave Odin a befuddled look. "Speak to him and reveal to the Light Elves that a single mind-broke rouge had us on our knees? If they find out that happened they might see us as weak, and could move against us. Everyone knows they wish to dethrone us and rule the realms in our stead."

Odin could not ignore Akir's point either. Although Asgard was close allies with Vanaheim, their relationship with Alfheim had ever been strained.

"Things could become very bad for us very quickly." Akir muttered in a pained voice, and rubbed his forehead to fight off the headache that lingered from being unconscious.

"We need to secure Asgard, and see if anything else was tampered with," Odin said quietly. "We'll look for Tilaria in the meantime."

Damage control first, huh father? Loki thought as he and Thor left the throne room. He supposed he understood Odin's position. The safety of Asgard came before one person, and right now Asgard was in sore need of damage control. A shatterpoint hidden among the barriers was the worst possible thing for an enemy to discover.

Loki didn't know for sure if Daris was behind this attack, but it no longer mattered who the shadow mage answered to. The shatterpoint had been found, and Asgard was now in serious trouble.


This is the trouble with relying too much on a single thing because if someone finds a way around that thing then you are in trouble. The story's name is the same as this chapter because this is where the story's name begins to make sense. Although there have been other "shatterpoints" (like Sif arguing with Tilaria during the meal and her disrespect starting to break Tilaria's control over her emotions and upset her) this is where you get the name for it.

The theme of shatterpoint as well as the word itself will continue to reoccur throughout the story. Everything has a breaking point, and that is the dominant theme of this story. That's why it's also the name of the story.

The shatterpoint idea is from Star Wars. Dokkalfr are similar to Romulans, and the Ljosalfr are like Vulcans. Like the Romulans and Vulcans the two Eladrin species are cousins, and they really hate each other.