Author's Note: Thanks to dracomalfoy666 for the favourite/follow.
Advice
Loki followed behind the millennia old, eight and a half foot tall, scribe Grima as he looked around the thick, cloudy ice columns and at the arched, clear ceiling of the Recording Hall. The least important shelves were in the middle and the most important shelves were either recessed into the walls or, as was their destination, in Thrudgelmir's vault.
Grima stopped in front of a glacially thick, black-ice door, "Prince Loki, as the vault was sealed by the joteld only you can open it."
For some morbidly curious reason that made him ask, "What would happen if you tried to open it ?"
Grima ran a hand over his wise, wrinkled face before saying, "The energy would kill me if it sensed me. We are not permitted to enter the vault on your father's order."
"My 'father' is dead, Grima and I the one who killed him, his orders matter not anymore." He replied as he put a hand on the door, remembering Grandfather's advice about summoning joteld.
Flashback
"You can summon the frost-fire with any strong emotion, but anger is almost always assured to get a flame going. We're the only ones in this part of the hall, so, you can't hurt anyone, go on...try it." As he finished Grandfather held out a hand and a middling white-blue flame appeared in it.
He didn't really have to think as he pictured the look of delighted surprise when he'd beaten Thor at sparring for the first time - blond-hair messed, those blue-eyes shining as the tanned-skin flushed in pride and embarrassment.
It did surprise him how high the flame went though, from his palm to a few inches above. Disbelief flowed through him as he raised the flame to eye-level and exclaimed, "I...did it ?"
"Yes, Loki, yes, you did. That's a very good height for your first summon too."
Mother and Gunnr the valkyrie who'd brought him here walked up. Gunnr sat down in front of himself and the hall's golden wall as Mother sat beside him.
"That is very impressive, isn't it, Gunnr ?"
"Indeed, Frigga and he's gotten used to Valhalla much easier than I thought he would. Though having yourself and Bergelmir here surely helped."
When he nodded the joteld flame flickered and died as he wondered how Thor and Father were handling things.
End Flashback
This time he focused on all the fear, sadness and worry that Thanos' return to his mind had caused him. The cold flame flared up the door and overflowed onto the floor before he struggled to stop it as Thanos laughter echoed in his mind. Fresh fear and anxiety flooded through him with the thought, 'He's getting closer ! We're not ready in the least.'
Calmed as the giant door swung silently open, then he turned to look up at Grima, whose purple-kilt was dark against the white-furs and orbs in the shelves, "Do you want to see it ?"
Grima held up his hands, "No, my Prince, I couldn't. No scribe has ever-"
"Then let yourself be the first, Grima. Come, explain things to me. Like this...what is it ?" He'd strode into the rose-colored chamber and bent to pick up an orb from the lowest shelf; then let out an undignified yelp as it shocked him, "What do you think I'm Thor, you stupid thing ? I can't give you power, ouch, stop that ! Grima, why is it hurting me ?", he quickly put it back.
Hesitantly, Grima replied as he walked in, "I-it wants you to use the joteld, that is how the recording-orbs in the vault are started."
"Mother said you knew Great-great Grandfather kept the recording of his battle against Bor and Malekith."
"Yes, it's in the back on the pedestal, it was in a much lower place until King Bergelmir decided it needed an honoured place."
As he walked, he couldn't help wondering if 'father' had any of his battle with Father after Grandfather's death. That made him remember how, after he'd asked Mother and she'd responded with Grima and the Recording Hall, Thor had wanted his company to ask Father about Malekith's castle...and Thanos.
Flashback
They stopped in front of Father's study and Thor knocked on the door. When Father answered they entered the sunlit room, they approached the oak table and he noticed that once again Huggin and Muninn, Father's ravens, were perched on Father's shoulders.
Father looked up at them, "Did Andvari truly give you the ring so easily ?"
He shook his head, "No, Father, he did not."
Thor clenched a hand around Mjolnir as he growled, "We were told that we need to find Malekith's castle before we can get the ring and we have to defeat a dark-elf to do it. At least, Thanos doesn't have any dark-elves on his side."
This time he wasn't the only one who flinched at the name, at the same time Huggin and Muninn in response, croaked harshly and flapped their wings angrily.
A brief sigh from Father who clenched a tanned-fist on the table-top, before saying, "Loki, there is something I should have told you-"
That made him interrupt Father as gently as possible, "I already know, Father. When Thor and I were in New York with Jane and the others, Th-, he pulled me back into the Chitauri Space and told me it was impossible for you to help me, be-because you'd already been his prisoner.," He walked up to Father reaching to take his hand as he stared into familiar dark-eyes, disbelief coloring his tone, "B-but, that can't be right, how could you have been his prisoner, you're the Allfather !"
White-haired head shook as a mirthless laugh left Father's lips and the hand once again clenched into a fist under his own, "I may be now, but I wasn't always. Once upon a time, I was 'just' Odin Borson, Prince of Asgard, and very much like Thor. I was brash, barely thinking ahead, unless it was a battle plan and not even then, I had only started courting Frigga at that time. I hated the thought of having to rule Asgard, not because I didn't want my father to die, but because I hated the thought of having to order people around. I also hated the thought of only ever being remembered because of my father. So, I stole a ship and decided to leave the Worlds I knew behind me without even telling Frigga.
Somehow I ended up in a World filled with meteors and mysterious, dark-gray stone platforms and buildings that crackled with purple-energy. I was swarmed by ugly, grey-skinned beings in odd ships powered by the strange energy and when I woke up I lay shackled and manacled on a white-stone platform to a circle of the energy.
The Other, pale-skinned and grey-eyed, dressed in his purple robes offered me to join him, of course, I refused the offer. Almost immediately, the torture started I've never known pain like that before or since, the only thing I remember before I broke completely was begging the Other to kill me. The next thing was Frigga slamming her sword's hilt into the side of my head before she blacked out. Sh-she was covered in so much blood I thought she was dead and I cried too, wishing I could have controlled myself. Somehow, somehow a Norn appeared on the platform with us, the blond one called Skuld. Skuld took us out of the Chitauri Space and near Yggdrasil. Skuld healed Frigga with her magic and Urd's Well. I figured after I was pulled back once and he told me that he wouldn't stop until I was dead, that if I wanted to stop him and keep out of my mind, I needed a spell powered love and life - the most powerful spell that I'd ever never heard of...yet. Skuld told me I had a good idea, but even if I knew the spell nothing would be powerful enough to hold the spell, except, perhaps, an oak branch that had been dipped in the well.
When Frigga woke I told her that I planned to sacrifice an eye so that I could have the knowledge to try and stop him. I met Huggin and Muninn when I was searching for the oak branch, they told me that he was connected to his name and could pull anyone he wished into Chitauri Space if they thought or remembered it, but that if they 'thought' or 'remembered' it he would not bother with them. So, Huggin became my thought and Munnin my memory until I completed the spell and they offered to stay with me and help me. It was my own fault I was tortured by him and I never dreamed that one of my sons would be picked by him to continue it. If I had never fled Asgard, he wouldn't have targeted you, Loki." Father gave him a remorseful look as he stopped talking.
'Connected to his name ? Thank the Norns that he never pulled Thor in then. I just wish we could stop him, not just his mind-control.'
That made him shake his head, "No, Father, he would have found me anyway even without you. We should be glad that he never found out about the Tesseract while Laufey was King of Jotunheim or we would have been doomed. Father there must be someway to get rid of him, but first we need to find my Great-great Grandfather's ring, before anyone has a hope of facing him."
Father pulled his hand away to nod, "Your Grandfather, Thor, had an orb that followed him into battle so that he could see what he did wrong later. After Malekith had fled and Ymir had left, Bor looked for Malekith's castle, but the orb cuts out before they reach the castle if I remember correctly."
Thor let out a huffed, "Well, I will look for it anyway as Loki is going to look at Jotunheim's records.", before bowing to Father, turning and leaving.
"We will find the rest of the stones for the Infinity Gauntlet, Loki, it's one of the only things that can truly stop him or has a hope to at any rate."
End Flashback
Grima held out a hand as he nearly walked into the pedestal. The orb was just like another on the shelves in appearance, but this one meant so much more than the other ones. 'It's time to see what you saw Great-great Grandfather. Please don't disappoint me.'