Chapter 12: Transformation, Part Two

A/N: I-left-you-with-that-cliff-hanger-forever-I'm-so-sorry. Let's get on with the story…

Ice. Cold wind and frozen water, the lands of her ancestors stretching out under her naked blue feet. Snow. Great spider-beasts on the hunt, their fur gleaming in the diffuse sunlight.

The walls of the Temple high around her, and the surface of the Casket cold under her hands. The chill of the ice crown in her hair.

Something missing, a hollowness under her heart where the pulse of her child had beat. And her heart calling for blood, lips whispering words into the Casket's ancient core. A promise.

'You will give away your son, Laufey. And with that you will give away your life and your throne.'

The sound of feet and armed guards drawing near. Touching her hand to the casket one last time.

'Protect my child, casket. Remember my daughter.'

Loki had woken up screaming enough times to have mastered two things.

Getting her voice under control quickly and assessing if screaming was actually warranted.
In this case, the answer was no.

She was too warm, and laying in an uncomfortable position on a cold floor, but not actually in pain or any major discomfort.

Snapping her mouth shut, she opened her eyes…
…to see an icicle's sharp tip a hair's breadth from her face.

Exhaling, she carefully turned her head, surveying her surroundings.

There was ice. A lot of ice, sharp edges and jagged ends of broken ice-pieces everywhere, all around here. She could barely move enough to put a hand to her belly. Which thankfully had not been pierced by an icicle.

Her child was fine. That was good.

But she was also surrounded by a cage of blade-like icicles, preventing her from moving more than her arms and her head. And apparently her magic had abandoned her. Splendid. She pushed down the panic welling up in her chest and tried to think. Her mind came up with nothing useful.

Having spent quite a lot of time in Anthony Stark's presence recently, Loki felt reasonably certain that the appropriate Midgardian expression for this was 'fuck'.

Where was the damn seer when you needed her?

[Jotunheim, nearby]

"Loki!"

The only answer he got was the rushing sound of ice-cold wind. Thor put his cupped hands to his mouth.

"LOKI!"

Unsurprisingly, his call stayed unanswered.

The Ragar was an unwelcoming place, barren except for a few formations the wind had carved out of an ancient glacier, cold and white-blue and devoid of life.

Thor pulled his fur-coat tighter around himself and cursed his sibling for the umpteenth time.

Loki, where are you?

"Thor."

Raising Mjölnir, Thor whirled around. No one was behind him.

Shaking his head, he pressed a hand to his chest where the protection amulet was hidden under his clothes. Long years of training (and Loki's furious admonishments) had taught him better than to take it out and touch it where he could be observed, but it's shape against his skin still made him feel markedly saver.

The old tales said that the Ragar's magic did strange things to your mind. Thor was beginning to believe them.

Adjusting his grip on his hammer, he trudged on towards the spot the enchanted parchment in his hand indicated.

The last place Heimdall had seen Loki, before she had disappeared.

He had walked for what might have been a Midgardian hour when he ran into the invisible wall.

And fell on his behind in a rather undignified manner.

Well. Clearly there was magic at work here.

He could feel the wall, but his eyes saw nothing, not even a line in the snow or snowflakes hitting an invisible barrier.

The thunder god spent some time hitting the unseen obstacle with Mjölnir, before a niggling voice in the back of his head informed him that this might not be the wisest course of action. A voice that sounded rather like Loki.

Sighing in defeat and exhaustion, Thor sank down onto the snow, leaning his back against the magic barrier.

"I simply wish to retrieve my sister. Is that too much to ask?"

He thought he heard someone say "No.", but before he could even turn his head to look for the speaker, the ground swallowed him.

When recounting this occurrence to his comrades later, Thor would pretend that he had shouted in alarm like a warrior, but he really did not shout in a manly manner.

His squeak would have made an Asgardian field mouse proud.

When he could tell his hands from his feet again, the crown prince of Asgard found himself laying on top of a sizeable pile of snow and ice, inside what appeared to be a fissure in the frozen ground of the Ragar, the light of Jotunheim's un-warming sun shining down on him from above.

Before him, the fissure widened, turning into the entrance of what appeared to be a cave inside the ice.
He would have tried to leave the fissure immediately, if not for something silver catching his eye.

There was a cup laying on the cave floor, made of silver and covered in strange markings. And there was a small stone bowl full of coals. When he touched them, they were still warm.

Had Loki hidden here, in this cave inside the ice? Sought shelter from the harsh wind, or the spider-like beasts he had seen in the distance?

Frowning, Thor looked around the small cave, searching for any sign of his sister, or her magic.

Nothing but ice, the cup and the small fire pit.

He was just about to give up and return to the surface, when he looked at one of the cave walls, noticing something strange.

There were small cracks in the ice, and it looked almost like someone had broken it open with a tool and then melted it so it froze back together. Very odd.

Knocking against the ice, it sounded hollow. Thor grinned.

Found you.

Breaking the wall down with Mjölnir was a minimal effort, and when the icy dust cleared, Thor was looking inside a larger second cave.

Full of icicles. He stared, dropping his hammer next to himself.

The cave was filled to the brim with sharp, jagged pieces of ice, some small as daggers and some longer than broadswords, glittering in the muted light. When he touched one, the blade-like edge nearly drew blood.

Squinting, the thunder god tried to make out anything that might have hidden behind this chaotic assortment of ice pieces. For a moment, he thought that he saw a flash of blue.

Picking up his weapon, Thor braked himself before calling out.

"I can see you. Show yourself!"

There was a tense moment of silence where he stood waiting for an attack, before an incredulous but incredibly familiar voice said

"Thor?"

from behind the ice.

"Loki?"

"Thor! What in all the Realms are you doing here?"

Still wary –it might be an illusion he was talking to after all- Thor broke down a few of the icicles and moved further into the second cave.

"I was looking for you and now I have found you. But should not I be the one to ask you what you are doing?"

"I do not owe you any explanations!"

If this was an illusion, it was a very good one. Thor sighed.

"Loki, you broke your agreement with the Avengers. You world-walked. Without me. To Jotunheim."

There was a long awkward pause.

"Thor, could we have this argument after we have returned to Midgard? I promise not to complain overmuch should you shout at me."

The thunder god frowned in suspicion. That did not sound like Loki. At all.

"Are you real?"

"…Are you serious?"

Thor tapped his foot in irritation.

"The Ragar's magic has played tricks on me before. Illusions can easily mimic voices, but they seldom possess the knowledge of those they are imitating."

Loki's voice was full of mocking exasperation.

"I am aware Thor, I taught you that."

"You did."

"…And?"

"Tell me something only Loki would know."

"I am…(sigh) never mind. Well, let us see…you like Asgardian dumplings."

"Many people know of that, since many people come to the Harvest feast every…"

"All right, all right, let me think! Err…as a child you tried to wield an iron pan like a shield and broke your own foot."

"Someone might have told you that, it's a well-known story."

"Thor for Valhalla's sake!"

"I am sorry, but I have to be certain."

It looked like the blue thing shifted behind the ice before Loki's voice said

"You're afraid of the dark."

Thor felt his face split into a grin.

"It is you."

"Yes, you buffoon, now do me a favour and make yourself useful by breaking down these ice pieces."

Thor lifted Mjölnir and got to work.

It took an astonishingly long time before Thor had broken most of the ice.

He was just about to smash large horizontal icicle when Loki said

"Careful now. I'm lying under that."

Thor blinked. Then he –very gently- tapped his hammer against the icicle, catching it with a hand wrapped in his cape when it fell off.
Then he blinked again. There was Loki, laying flat on her back, in her blue Jötnar form and clothed only in a thin, ill-fitting shift.

"You are…"

"Blue?"

"I was going to say 'dressed rather light for this weather'."

Loki shot him a sour look.

"Hilarious. These are Aggys' clothes."

Thor raised a brow.

"Aggys?"

"The...I will tell you later. Would you mind if we left this uncomfortable setting?"

"You will explain it. All of it."

His sister nodded somewhat wanly. Thor frowned, noticing her strained features for the first time.

"Loki, are you injured?" Then something else occurred to him. "Why didn't you melt the ice?"

When Loki looked up at him, there was a terrible expression on her face, like someone had hollowed out her eyes and filled them with dull red stones.

"My magic. It's gone."

A/N: And I gave you another cliff-hanger. Err…sorry?

Anyway, just so you know, the second half of this chapter is un-betad since my beta reader left for a short trip and I wanted to finish this in her absence. I did my best with proofreading though. Please leave a review and let me know what you think!