Loki had landed in a sprawling heap, and the boats pilot had left him where he feel. Thor on the other hand landed calmly and gently put Jane on a bench seat in the prow while Wren moved to the back of the boat.

"All went well?" She asked.

"As well as can be expected. One or two men came down with unexpectedly fierce hangovers and had to be sent to their chambers to recover... but no one we didn't expect." Eric said with a slight smile.

"Are you going to be alright?" Wren asked.

"Of course, my lady. It's often been rumoured that there was a touch of human in my ancestry... I'll say you asked and I couldn't refuse you." He gave her a sad smile. "It may as well be true."

"Eric..." Wren bit her bottom lip.

"Send word when you can... we worry about you." He clapped her on the shoulder.

"Goodbye, Eric."

"My lady." Eric nodded.

For a moment, Thor thought Wren would leave it at that, but then she huffed and looked up at her friend. "Just once, if you're never going to get to talk to me again... there is no one around to care... wont you just call me by my name?"

The huge man sighed sadly, then with surprising speed he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her warmly. "I will miss you, Wren... but I know you will be a great Queen..." He pressed his forehead to hers for a moment and then pulled away. "Take care of the boys. They're both of them pathetically useless without you." Without waiting for her to respond he stepped backwards off the rear of the boat and tumbled into the water.

"Someone will be along to fetch him soon." Thor said.

"I know... He's a survivor." She didn't turn around to face him. "He'll be fine."

"You seem to be just lousy with suitors these days, don't you little bird?" Loki asked from where he remained sprawled on the deck.

"What would you care?" She still didn't turn. "What have you ever cared? The Allfather was right, you are poison of the most insidious kind. The more one drinks, the blacker one's life becomes..."

"And that is all I am to you, a blackness... a shame for your past."

"Don't you dare pretend you didn't do this to yourself! To me!" She turned on him then and screamed down at him such that Thor was worried she'd draw her swords. "I did nothing shameful! Nothing! All those whispers, all those dark looks, and all I did was fall in love with a man who wasn't who he seemed to be..."

"And there it is." Loki hissed and struggled up to his knees. "There it is! All your protestation, all your denials, and in the end you cannot hold it in. What I am is repugnant to you! The moment you found out..."

Wren took a step back, her head shaking, and a bitter, hysterical laugh escaped her so harshly it sounded like it hurt. "Found out... for such a clever boy, you grew into truly stupid man." She leaned over so their faces were on a level and stared at his eyes. "The morning of Thor's coronation, when the Frost Giants broke into the vault... what did I say to you? When you tried to rush off with the boys without me, I grabbed your elbow... what did I say?"

Loki blinked at her for a moment and then his mouth opened in surprise.

"When Laufey tried to assassinate the Allfather... the night you killed your true father, how did I know? Why did I run, half clothed and armed the length of the palace? Why was I so frightened, Loki?" She straightened and with an almost triumphant expression she said. "Your secret... your dark and terrible secret, the one that would change everything. The crime I would never forgive...? I have known exactly what you are since I was eight years old. Asgardian, Jotan, what matter to me, you all see the world with only your eyes. You're blind! You've always been half blind things stumbling against each other in the dark. But I always knew..."

"You... how could you never speak of it? Not even to me?" Thor asked.

Wren looked at him helplessly, and for the first time she seemed somewhat contrite. "I was a child... at first I didn't understand. Surely everyone must know? Maybe no one cared? Maybe it was impolite to mention it...? I had no way to know, so I did what everyone else did. In time I became angry. We were so close," she looked down at Loki, "we were so close and you never confided in me. This huge thing we had in common. We were both strangers here, and I was so angry at you... so hurt that you never shared it with me... eventually, a ridiculously long time later, it finally occurred to me that perhaps not everyone could see it. Maybe only a very few people knew..." She laughed and shook her head again. "I was hundreds of years old before the idea that you yourself didn't know even occurred to me... and by then, what could I say?"

Loki hadn't moved, he seemed not even to breathe. "You knew..."

"I knew when my first thunderstorm so terrified me that I ran to your room, and you sat up all night with me. I knew that day in the training room when... when you kissed me for the first time. And I knew... I knew when you slipped into my room... when..." She swallowed and couldn't continue.

"Wait." Thor was blinking like a man drunk and confused. "Wren, did he..."

She rolled her eyes and turned her back again, unable to face him. "He took nothing from me that I didn't want him to have... you're people have bizarre beliefs about such things, as though a woman becomes somehow diminished if... Just take your hand off your weapon, brother."

"You knew," Loki said again, completely oblivious to any other information. "So... you lied. On Earth, you said..."

"I never lied." She cut across him. "I never lied. You just can't accept that I never cared... I fell in love with a man, not a blood line."

"You fell in love with a monster." Loki hissed.

"That may be so... but it had nothing to do with your blood."