Angel of Music
Chapter Twenty-One: From the Beginning
Loki struggled to hold on; the slightest move made him move away.
"Please, Loki…" Vyperia begged.
Loki looked to Odin.
"I could have done it, Father!" he cried out. "I could have done it!"
Vyperia wearily glanced at Odin, who slowly shook his head.
"For you!" Loki said softly, "For all of us…"
"No, Loki…"
Vyperia turned her eyes to Loki, pleading with him.
Loki searched his father's eyes for some kind of approval or redemption; but all he saw was disappointment and regret.
"Loki, no," said Thor quietly, as Loki's face hardened.
"Darling, listen to me!" Vyperia cried toward him, knowing that look. "It doesn't matter what Odin thinks of you! It doesn't matter!"
Odin glanced at her. Such a calm girl was reduced to one who bargained with death.
"Loki, grab onto me…I'll pull you up!" she called down to him.
Yet as she implored and begged him, Loki's eyes met hers one last time.
Then he let go.
"NO!" Thor screamed as Loki fell back toward the wormhole.
Vyperia's gaze emptied as she watched Loki fade from her. Steady tears renewed and fell from her eyes, and he was no more than a fallen star…
Vyperia's eyes searched down into the star-speckled galaxy as her eyes stared at the circling pit of darkness that had swallowed Loki whole. Her face paled into a shell-shocked expression. Odin glanced at her with cold authority, even as he hauled his first born, Thor, by the leg to pull him back to the safety of the Rainbow Bridge. Odin side-stooped Vyperia and grasped the leg that she held onto with a clammy hand. Vyperia glanced at him as Odin did what she couldn't find the strength to do.
When Thor was pulled back to the edge of the Bridge, Vyperia saw that tears fell aggressively from his eyes; his cheeks were red and his eyes burned with sincere sadness and regret. Thor handed the Staff of the King to Odin, who took it with a strong hold of a father who was boring through the death of his second-born son.
Yet even as Odin helped Thor up to his feet and vaguely offered a helping hand to Vyperia, she looked at him in ruthless scorn. Fury-burning blue lit up in her eyes. She refused Odin's hand. Vyperia turned her head to stare down at the turning abyss once more, heart-broken and grief-stricken.
Thor's blonde hair was matted to his cheeks by his tears; his glossy eyes watched Odin's retreating back as the All-Father walked back to his home to return to the throne of Asgard where things would hopefully resolve to what they once were. Thor lowered his gaze to Vyperia, who still nestled her shaking body on her knees. He looked upon her in the strongest sympathy that any god could ever have for a widow, yet he could not find it in his heart to tell her that Loki was truly gone. Although she looked melancholy, Thor knew that there was no doubt a lot of anger bubbling just beneath the surface; she was just in shock, much so that she couldn't politely process what had transpired.
It wouldn't take long, though. It was just a matter of minutes. Then the Goddess of Guardianship would show just how angry that she could be. That was not Vyperia's true nature, though; always, she proceeded to be a personality of curiosity and knowledge. Although Thor and Vyperia had argued over years and years of right and wrong, her morality seemed at best pointed to forgiveness, logic, and reason; yet from when he was banished, it seemed that Vyperia's logic had rounded to an emotion-driven fact. Loki had influenced her, and now he was gone...
"Vyperia, please." Thor's voice was a steady beat, but a broken one. The deep utterance was one of a man who was holding to the nature of being strong for those who could not be strong for themselves; yet Vyperia could hear the hurt in his voice.
"Don't 'Vyperia, please' me."
Thor's eyes widened slightly when he heard the savagely low voice of fury in Vyperia's voice. He couldn't blame her, but he feared that she would react rashly. However, 'rash' was a bizarre word to use after what had happened in the last few hours.
Jotunheim's Realm would have been in splinters if the Bifrost hadn't been destroyed after Thor had reckoned the Bridge. The laboratory itself had plunged into the abyss below, swallowed by the Unknown as it had swallowed Loki. The Asgardians knew that Odin was awake now. They knew that justice had to prevail. Vyperia was left alone to learn the consequences of her actions. Her sentence would be the axe, and Thor knew this. Things couldn't return to as they were. Loki had sent the Destroyer after he and his friends; Jane was almost killed in the battle in that little town. Vyperia's neglect of Jotunheim and Midgard would be hard to repeal, especially if Vyperia was blinded by rage and hate for an All-Father who showed little grief and care about his adopted son.
Thor had broken a truce with Jotunheim and Asgard, and his punishment had been banishment. For Loki, if he hadn't fallen, he most likely would have faced the same sentence. Now, Vyperia had caused several deaths on Jotunheim, caused havoc on Midgard, and broke her oath that she had taken when she had come of age to become the Goddess of Guardianship. Odin was not a forgiving man; and he certainly wasn't going to be lenient with Vyperia if he alone was so severe with Thor.
The law was true; treason was a warrior's most dishonorable act.
Vyperia had wronged the oath of a goddess; and for this, she had to make payment. Whether or not Odin would heed to Vyperia's stand as a queen would be here say, though Thor highly doubted that the All-Father would think that Vyperia was innocent in Loki's temporary rule. Since Odin returned to the throne, he was King again. Loki's rule would be revoked, and Vyperia would no longer have the status of Queen.
"Vyperia, it hurts. I know this," said Thor gently.
Although he knelt down beside her, although he spoke with much-deserved candor and sincerity—although Thor looked at her with softness that he had learned from Jane and his mortal companions—Vyperia's mouth clenched in anger and her eyes glowered at him when she turned her head to meet him. In a deadly whisper, bit on venom that didn't spit from her mouth, she hissed,
"Why did you come back?"
Thor was stumped for a moment. He thought that she would mutter soft cries of remorse and broken-hearted pleas for Loki. Instead, he heard the harshest wind emit from her lips, dark and unsteady. Dangerous. Thor wasn't afraid of her, but Vyperia wasn't chosen by Loki as a queen for just her looks.
Vyperia was deadly.
"What?" Thor said, taken aback.
"Why did you have to come back?" Vyperia said angrily. Her voice spat fury as she rounded on him.
Thor rose to his feet when Vyperia struggled to stand.
Her voice was hoarse with rage and distraught; there was no way that she could understand what she was saying. Yet Thor looked at her as if he had insulted him in the strongest of ways. He empathized with her grief; he felt her loss. He had lost a brother, as she had lost a husband. Vyperia's word were in anger, and Thor tried to understand.
Thor held out a hand for her to see his reasoning and the obvious inevitability.
"Vyperia, I was worthy to return to Asgard," began Thor gently. His low voice would have resonated with the angriest of mortals. Vyperia, however, was as Asgardian as they come, and her teeth clenched as she listened to his explanation. "Loki lied to me, and I came back because I knew that what he was planning was wrong. You must understand."
Thor didn't raise his voice.
He wouldn't treat Vyperia in anger as he had treated Loki. No. She needed to be understood, to be empathized.
Yet Vyperia showed her teeth as she bared them with rage,
"YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE COME BACK!"
In the deep silence between them on the Rainbow Bridge, Vyperia's voice roared. Her voice was scratchy like an old crone's tone; it wasn't attractive at all. In spite of her astounding beauty in the light, and her voice was like an angel while she spoke in dulcet tones, Vyperia sounded atrocious and ugly when she screamed in raucous anger. In the light, she was a beautiful matron. In the shadows, she was everything that a child could fear.
"Vyperia, you do not know what you are saying."
"YOU RUINED—EVERYTHING—!" Vyperia panted as tears began to fall down her face.
Thor jumped slightly when he heard the light sounds of a snake's hiss emit from Vyperia's throat. Her lesser powers exhibited reptilian reactions, a hiss or venomous spit were signs of anger. Thor already knew this, but it was one level to irritate the living fire out of a woman; it was another to rouse a furious serpent. Thor watched her with uncertainty. One could comfort a woman, and she would fall into his arms. Or he could comfort her, and she could kill him on the spot.
Vyperia muttered a small sob, but her face remained absolutely livid.
Thor's fingers around the Hammer, Mjolnir, tightened in anticipation as Vyperia took a step toward him in angry repose. She seemed to struggle to breathe, but she wasn't giving into a seizure or cardiac arrest. Vyperia was angry enough that she couldn't find enough breath to use to insult him; and that alone explained to Thor that she was deeply upset.
"You ruined everything," Vyperia repeated. She jutted a finger into the metal plate upon his chest. It made a dim ching noise. "You ruined my life. Mine. I was queen. I had a husband. He took me by his side on the throne, and then you came back. You could have spent your life on Midgard. I know about that woman, that scientist. Jane Foster. You were prepared to spend your entire life down there, WHY DIDN'T YOU!?"
Yes, he could have stayed on Earth with the lovely Jane Foster and her hilarious band of scientists...
"You and Loki were killing people." Thor said incredulously.
"Frost Giants," Vyperia corrected. "And I only obliged because Loki wanted it done, and it seemed like it would make him proud."
"Loki's pride—?" Thor announced incredulously once more, but Vyperia interrupted him with renewed fury,
"Not his pride, you imbecile." Vyperia snapped infuriatingly. "Odin. Your father. And everything would have been as it should be until your self-righteous save-the-day hero buttocks came inside the room and destroyed everything that Loki had been planning from the very beginning. This is your fault!"
Thor opened his mouth to argue, yet Vyperia forestalled him with louder tones,
"It is! You should never have found Mjolnir in the first place. You were supposed to remain arrogant, conceited, and strut about Midgard, lost and forgotten! This is all your fault!"
"IT'S NOT MY FAULT!" Thor's voice thundered in the silence.
Vyperia winced as he yelled at her in his deep, rolling voice. It halted her momentarily, for she fell back a little way to step out of the direction to where he was yelling. It didn't take her long to recuperate, for she stepped up to him and poked him in the chest with a pale finger.
"IT IS YOUR FAULT, OAF!" Vyperia screamed. "IF YOU HADN'T COME BACK, ODIN WOULDN'T HAVE KNOWN ABOUT THE TRUTH! ODIN WOULD HAVE BEEN—"
"HE WOULD HAVE BEEN RULING ASGARD UNDER FALSE PRETENSES!" Thor bellowed self-righteously. "Father would have awakened and took back what was his. Loki wouldn't have stayed on the throne as long as I was alive-!"
"WHY DO YOU THINK HE SENT THE DESTROYER AFTER YOU!?" Vyperia shrieked furiously.
Thor halted as she had, except he wore a look of hurt rather.
"Vyperia, that can't be true."
"Thor, you were the golden boy. The first son, the heir to the throne. All of Loki's life, your father made himself look like a hero when he rescued Loki from the abandoned ice, but he wasn't. Loki was a tool for Odin's back up plan with Laufey. Loki was never meant to have the throne of Asgard. It was a toy. A trick, a plight, and your precious father knew of this!" Vyperia shrieked furiously, and she jabbed a finger into Thor's chest. "Your father, not Loki's. And you come back to announce to me that Loki would not have wanted the throne under false pretenses? AT LEAST HE WOULD HAVE A THRONE!"
Thor stepped back, staring at her. Vyperia's breathing was erratic. Her face reddened. Her knuckles were pale. Tears ran down her face. She was begging for oxygen as she inhaled and exhaled at an alarming rate.
"Vyperia," Thor breathed, "You can't excuse his wrongs by bad parenting."
"I can," Vyperia said through quick breaths. "I can. I have. I helped Loki through out his entire life go through Odin's favoritism of you. Loki knows what he knows because Frigga taught him magic. Odin did nothing. I was his safety net. He chose me."
Thor shook his head, "Vyperia, you should never have bargained for a throne that didn't belong to you. You and my brother would have ended up together anyway-"
"I didn't do it to get a throne, Thor," Vyperia argued. "He chose me. I married him, and we would have ruled Asgard together. And whatever children we would have had, I would have told them the truth from the very beginning, as it should have been done with Loki. Your blessed father knew that, and still he refused. I didn't marry him for the throne; he married me because he and I know what those hand-maidens think of me. I know what they say! He did it for me! And the throne was mine. It was mine. I had power. It was mine!"
Thor stared at her, surprised. Vyperia was never one to hoard power, but it seemed that she had a taste of what being Queen was about. Thor hated to wonder what she would have done if Frigga was in Odin's place. Would she have created this master plan to gain Frigga's place? Oh, he couldn't bear to think of it.
"The throne was yours," Thor said quietly. "No longer."
Vyperia glared at him. Thor stepped toward her.
"The throne no longer belongs to you. It goes back to Mother since Odin is now king."
"And what happens to me, Thor? What happens to me? I know my punishment." Vyperia shrugged, but she looked like she was wallowing in despair, and not just from Loki.
It was helpless knowing. Knowing what was going to happen, and not knowing was to happen were two different types of helplessness. She knew her punishment would be inevitable.
"If I am to die," said Vyperia softly, "then what is there left for me?"
"I could talk to Father," said Thor softly. "I could ask him to spare your life."
"For what purpose? For yours?" Vyperia made a small whimper. "I lost the only person that I truly cared about, Thor. What would be punishment would be to live like nothing happened, to act like the world is all right again. To live without him, and is this not how it feels like?"
Thor saw her eyes cast down.
She turned to look at the abyss once more.
"I won't die by Odin's hand. I'll die by my own."
Thor's eyes widened in horror as Vyperia took a running start to the edge of the Rainbow Bridge.
"No, Vyperia, no!"
Vyperia raced across the Bridge. Colors pounced off from where her footsteps landed as her agile limbs carried her to the edge of what would be the end of her pain. Thor dropped Mjolnir onto the Bridge and ran after her.
"Here I come!" Vyperia cried out. A small smile happened upon her face.
She came to a foot away from the precipice.
Thor's boots pounded away as he desperately reached out to grab Vyperia's hand, leg, shoulder—anything to stop her from this instant regret.
She was five inches…four…three…two—
Thor landed hard on Vyperia as he slammed her to the Bridge with the most ferocity that he could muster. The only part of her that managed to pass the edge of the Bridge was Vyperia's arm, and it waved helplessly over the side as Vyperia struggled beneath Thor's body. Her fingers splayed against the underside of the Bridge as if she desired to break the prism beneath her, but alas she was not granted that small mercy.
Her words cut into Thor as he heard her shriek in despair—
"I want to die! Let me die! Let me go!"
Her words were bold and strong with fury; but as she called out to no one, her helplessness and desperation broke her strength. Her cries became fragile, loose, lost, and hopeless. The Goddess in Thor's arms broke as she sobbed against him, abandoned. Her pleas to be put out of her misery lessened. Thor heard a small stream of a low-uttered "Please" emit from her sad mouth.
From the seat of Asgard's throne, Odin looked ahead with a sturdy gaze. He wasn't alone. While his eyes remained stone, he coddled a crying Frigga in his arms as she wept for her lost son.
In the day to come after Loki's mournful death, Thor approached Odin as one would approach a vengeful king. Thor wasn't appropriated in his silver metal and red cape; he approached the All-Father in a brown shoulder-over and a tunic. Odin gazed at him. This morning, Frigga was nowhere to be found. Odin sat in his throne as if he had returned from a long and laborious crusade, seated with Gungnir in his hand with the air of a man who had gone through years of torment. In that ruling, it was accurate. Yet in his eyes, there was no sadness. They weren't puffy like Thor or Frigga's eyes had been this morning. It wasn't vanity. It was cold, hard authority of a King who had to remain apathetic to all things justified and political.
There were two guards on the right hand side of the throne room, readied to enter the war criminal known as Vyperia Sallerius. Odin looked upon the up-coming warrior with interest. He wasn't at all surprised to see Thor, God of Thunder, approaching the All-Father after learning about Loki's rule of Asgard. Nor did Thor seem so shocked to notice Odin's lack of grief. They looked at one another after knowing at Thor had been banished to Midgard, and now he had returned truly worthy of the title and powers that Thor possessed. It wasn't awkward. It was an understanding between them.
However, this only made it serenely obvious for Thor's purpose to come an hour before Vyperia's sentence; a sentence that, no doubt, Thor already knew would be death. Considering the friendship between Thor and Vyperia, which had been strained in the past but kept civil for Loki's favor, Odin wondered about Thor's intention for his unexpected arrival.
"Thor Odinson, it shouldn't escape the mind of even a prince that he should not come in unannounced without an appointment to the High King of Asgard. My son, what has led you to neglect that as the heir to the throne? Is it the concern of the war criminal?"
Odin saw the slightest pinch in Thor's face when he referred to Vyperia as a criminal, rather than what she really was—his daughter-in-law. Thor frowned slightly; he couldn't deny that Odin's apathy affected him even after less than a day had passed.
"I haven't come for the concern of a criminal, Father. It's for my sister-in-law," answered Thor. "All of us have lost someone dear to us, even if we must stay apathetic for the light of her crimes. I know, Father, what you must think of her. She is sentenced to death as a Goddess who went against her oath; but, in honesty, she was merely carrying out Loki's orders as he provided them. She would have been guilty of treason if she hadn't carried out Loki's orders since he was the King while you were Asleep and I was gone."
"What are you asking of me, my son? What you want, I cannot give to you. It is an implication that royalty negates the law, and I am not about to teach the young warriors that as long as they wear a crown or a tiara that their actions are excused."
"I'm not asking you to drop Vyperia's charges, Sir," answered Thor politely.
"What you want to ask is treason…" Odin returned calmly.
"Or sympathy…for a family member who has lost a loved one, as you and I have," Thor corrected sincerely. "The kingdom mourns Loki's death. As do I. As so does mother. So do you. He was my brother, and I loved him. Although he was vengeful, and he tried to have me killed, I do not think that he would want Vyperia to pay for his actions."
"Do you think Loki, God of Lies and Deceit, truly cared for Vyperia, Thor? Or was it one of his rues to trick all of us into his plan to have me de-throned."
Odin gazed down at his son from the chair, staring at him with observation. He studied Thor's keen face. Thor had grown and matured since his weeks in Midgard with the mortals. He had learned things that were abstract and misunderstood, and now it seemed that the darkness cleared. Thor could think like a King; but he was passionate about his loved ones, and he would risk his life to save those he loved. Thor would risk all that he had to save his brother, and Odin knew this. Now, he wondered if Thor was doing the very same to save the part of Loki that was still sane and true, the beautiful and matched cleverness of Vyperia Sallerius.
It was a beautiful thing, perhaps the most familial thing that Odin would see Thor do; but by the law of Asgard, it was treason and biased hypocrisy. So when Odin asked Thor if Loki loved Vyperia, truly, madly, sincerely, he wondered what Thor would say
Thor clasped his hands together in formality, yet his voice was of informal request. He could know that Odin was not above parental sympathetic gestures; surely, he could feel some ounce of sadness for Loki's absence. Yet Odin's gaze didn't waiver. Surely Odin would feel a little sadness for having to discipline Vyperia. During Loki and Thor's excursions in the past, it had always been Vyperia who was the voice of reason and logic; always the one to run for help in case the situation turned grave.
"I believe that the part of Loki that isn't crushed or vengeful belongs to Vyperia," answered Thor honestly. "They were inseparable in childhood. They were inseparable before my coronation before the Jotuns entered Asgard. Just last night, I had to stop Vyperia from leaping off the edge of the Bridge."
"And how is she now?" asked Odin curiously.
"How else would a widow react to watching her husband fall to an abyss, Father?" remarked Thor, slightly calloused. What a ridiculous question to ask. "Would you be heart-broken if you watched Mother die?"
Odin didn't answer.
Thor bit his tongue.
"I'm sorry, Father." Thor muttered. He pressed on to fully answer the All-Father's questions. "Vyperia is grief-stricken, angry, heart-broken, and shell-shocked. Anger that I have never seen irks the ugliest aspects of her face. Father, she is mad with rage."
"Thor, my son, I would help Vyperia out of the depth of a heart that sees her as a daughter; that is what she is to me. But she must be punished for her crimes. She might be able to see the light before she leaves this life, but I doubt that I can carry out her anger when I know that Loki's actions were wrong. They were abhorrent, invented from bottled rage and jealousy.
"We grieve the loss of Loki Laufeyson," continued Odin. "But justice is in order, and we cannot take kindly to treason."
"He was my brother," said Thor intently. "Loki Odinson. I'm not defending his actions. Loki's schemes were immoral and wrong; but he knew rule as I never will. He was acting out of a lie that he was fed his entire life, that he was born to be a king. Vyperia told me that when I had to watch her be chained to the dungeon wall. Father…"
"You do not understand, and she never did," said Odin calmly. He looked upon Thor with an even gaze, but Thor could tell that Odin was slowly becoming annoyed. "When I told Vyperia about Loki's true parentage, it was because she already knew. It is, as you know, her basic instinct to understand all parental links to all races; so I could not hide it from me. She came asking about it, and—"
"And you made her swear never to tell Loki that he was adopted." Thor muttered. "I know that. She told me why."
Thor's face fell from patience. He looked irritated, but his voice remained calm.
"Father, why didn't you tell Loki the truth? You didn't do it as a courtesy to him. It was an act of war, to settle a debt between you and Laufey; but Laufey abandoned him anyway because he was a deformed Frost Giant. What would you tell Loki, then, if when you offered him back to Laufey and Laufey rejected him because of his true nature? What would you have said?"
"Thor…"
"Loki would have discovered it for himself, Father. He did. In Jotunheim, when I brought my friends there. During a fight, he found out about it. Why, after a thousand years, didn't you tell him? Did you think that he would never have discovered the truth?"
"It was selfish of me to believe that it would have never hurt Loki," Odin said calmly. "I know this, as your mother has reminded me from time and time again to tell him about it. It was an honest man's mistake. I am merely a man, and that is the truth."
"You made mistakes. I made a few." Thor said gently. "Vyperia is a woman. She is a goddess; and we are gods. She has made mistakes too."
"Thor," Odin breathed. "You plead for the life of Vyperia, a goddess who purposefully broke her oath and allowed the Destroyer to attempt to murder you when you were still in mortal form. You allowed her to let Loki send it out to Midgard where it attacked fifty innocent lives. It was intentional that you would die."
"Vyperia told me that I was never meant to return to Asgard, I know." Thor said.
"And you accepted that with open arms, have you?" Odin remarked unkindly.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I forgive her, Father." Thor said. "I forgive her just as I forgave Loki. I didn't want him to fall. I tried to save him."
"Do you think that, if you had died, that Vyperia would be mourning your death while seated on the throne? Do you, Thor?"
Odin waited for Thor's answer, but his adamant son didn't respond as quickly as he had been expecting. Thor was not the cruel, selfish boy as he had been when he had left. Thor thought with his mind, yet the brutality would never be erased.
"Perhaps you should have been punished by Vyperia," Thor answered.
"Say that again." Odin instructed.
"I didn't know that Loki was a Frost Giant until after yesterday," Thor continued. "I knew that he was adopted, but I didn't know on what grounds. Father, Vyperia said that he had always hated the truth about how you kept away his true parentage. Why didn't you tell him the truth?"
"I told Loki this, and he shunned away."
"He didn't shun away; he was heart-broken."
"First, you must have a heart." Odin remarked.
Thor winced.
Odin pressed on, "Thor, you didn't need to know the truth about Loki's true parentage because it would have made you biased. I needed him to feel safe around us all, to fit in."
"And Vyperia was the only one who truly understood—she, and Mother," added Thor boldly. "Don't have her killed. She was acting in as a wife and a queen, not a goddess. If that was her priority, she would have killed me a long time ago for going into Jotunheim. I went to Jotunheim and killed a lot of Frost Giants. She should have killed you, too, when you battled Laufey's men. She should have killed my grandfather—your father—when he wiped out those Dark Elves. But she spared us all in light of the good that came out of it!"
Odin absorbed Thor's penetrating words.
"So you think that all of this is good, my son? All of what Loki has done to Asgard, to Jotunheim, to Midgard?"
"Vyperia's allowance of Loki's inadmissible scheme brought me back," said Thor. "If I hadn't gone to Jotunheim in the first place, I would still be that arrogant boy whom you were about to appoint as King. I'm smarter now, Father. I know better."
Odin pondered his son's words, but still, he wasn't convinced.
"In Jotunheim, Thor, Vyperia joined your band of warriors. She allowed you to murder Laufey's men."
"Loki persuaded her to come with us; she at first refused." Thor argued.
"But she did come with you, didn't she?" Odin said confidently. "She was easily swayed."
"Yes, but by a God whose main territory is mischief and cunning!" Thor argued irritably. "Vyperia gave Loki kindness and friendship."
"Why didn't he get that from you?" Odin remarked.
"He did," Thor said. "But he was jealous of me…I can see why now. You treated him differently. She didn't. She possibly treated him better than how you treated him. And perhaps, I treated him badly as well."
"Why are you telling me this?" asked Odin softly.
"Vyperia may have broken her oath to guard the Jotuns this one time; but she was acting in that oath the moment that you brought a Frost Giant's deformed offspring out of Jotunheim."
Odin considered his words. There was a long silence. Thor's arguments so far were sane and reasonable. Clearly, he had been given some very good thought to this; then again, Vyperia might have listed everything that she wanted to say to Odin, but her death conceded everything in time. Thor hadn't sounded this coherent since…Well…
"Thor, you've learned something from being on Midgard, didn't you?" Odin questioned gently. "You certainly have."
"Yes."
"What did you learn?"
"Compassion. Patience. Loyalty. Tolerance." Thor answered as if he were to list them on his hand. Then he added, "Love."
Odin nodded, though he made no intention to respond to the last beautiful lesson. He had no intention of acknowledging that Thor had fallen in love with a mortal woman. It was not an Asgardian standard to fall in love with a different race. Though, clearly, Loki had never abided by that rule ever since he reached puberty.
"Perhaps Vyperia could learn a bit of loyalty," muttered Odin.
"She already has." Thor remarked. "Father, I'm not begging for you to release Vyperia. I'm asking for you to spare her life. Do not let her punishment skide, but some mercy should be allowed for her. Vyperia is family, at least."
Odin stroked his beard. Then a solid, cynical, and spiteful tone chipped away the handsome, warm aura between Odin and Thor—
"Don't do me any favors."
Thor turned to see Vyperia standing in the middle of the throne room. Two guards flanked her. She was shackled by her hands, but nothing else. Vyperia jerked her shoulders out of the guards' grasps,
"Get off me…"
Once upon a time, the beautiful princess had been draped in blue and white and recently green and gold. Her hair used to be clean, slick, and draped down her slender bosom. Her eyes used to behold something charming and amusing, always that familiar twinkle of curiosity that was both a burden and blessing in her muse. A smile used to carve her face almost permanently, witty and sweet. She used to look like a caring mother.
Now, Vyperia was the nightmare of a child who feared to be adopted by the wicked stepmother. Her dark, brunette hair was curly and unkempt; it was matted to her tear-stained cheeks. Her eyes were puffy; deep blue eyes glared across the room from above gray, swollen patches beneath her lids. She wore a dark blue tunic, and she was barefoot.
She looked the way she felt: distraught, burdened, miscarried, untidy, and very unstable.
Vyperia looked dangerous.
While the guards no longer held onto her shoulders with a vice grip, they steadied her with long chains that led from her manacles to the end of the reigns in their strong fingers. Vyperia approached Thor freely, bearing up at him with dislike.
"I told you to not meddle." Vyperia snapped. "You never listen."
"I wanted to make it easier for you," answered Thor honestly.
"You never talked anything out before. What good does it do you now?" Vyperia hissed. "Wouldn't you rather walk up to your father and punch your argument into him? I would."
"VYPERIA!"
Odin's call to her turned Vyperia's head, but she didn't look too perturbed by his presence. Vyperia looked away from Thor to meet Odin's gaze. She smiled at him with cynical suppression; it didn't meet her eyes.
"Vyperia," said Odin, "you are guilty of—"
"Look. At. You," breathed Vyperia calmly.
Odin stopped speaking when he heard her voice. He listened to her, despite her interruption.
"Look at you," she repeated. "Back on the throne, seated where once a true King sat before you."
"My father was a very good king, as I have aspired to be—"
"I'm not talking about your father," snapped Vyperia. "I'm talking about Loki. He deserves that throne. Not you." She glanced at Thor and added, "Nor you."
"Don't make this worse," said Thor quietly.
"How could it possibly be worse?" remarked Vyperia savagely. "No, I say that if it comes to death, let me do it myself. I'll at least have a final say."
"Vyperia Sallerius," Odin remanded, "You are guilty of—"
"I've done nothing wrong," Vyperia remarked casually. "So I am not guilty of anything."
"DO NOT INTERRUPT YOUR KING!" Odin bellowed angrily.
"BUT YOU ARE NOT MY KING!" Vyperia roared out into the silence.
Odin stared at her, though he didn't look shocked. Thor stepped aside to allow Vyperia to step forward. Thor had anticipated that Vyperia would go down swinging; when angered, it wasn't like her to take such a raw beating without throwing in a few punches of her own. Vyperia intended to be heard one way or another; it was often the reason why, if ever, Loki and she argued. Vyperia's fury, though, left her unafraid of anything that Odin would do. Her rage protected her, as Loki's protected him.
For her courage and furious stability, Thor had to admire Vyperia.
"If your intention," said Vyperia, "is to have me waste away in the dungeons then by my request, kill me. I will not die by your hand. I should die at mine. Send me to Jotunheim where I will be slaughtered by a king who could match the parentage of mine. For you, Odin All-Father, do not have that privilege."
Odin made a small look of being impressed, but it was mockery.
"Anger rages within you."
"Anger is all I have, Odin All-Father." Vyperia said. "Now."
"You will not escape death, Vyperia."
"I have no intention of doing so."
"Then what would you take as punishment if not death?"
"It is not in your nature to bargain with me."
"But it is in yours to like bargains." Odin replied. "Out of respect and the arguments that Thor has given me, I have decided that you will decide your own punishment. You know that you have done wrong; and you intend to pay for your mistakes. If your only allowance is to not die by my hand, I will grant it to you."
"Send me to Midgard where you once banished a King to learn his lesson," answered Vyperia coldly. "Doesn't that serve your purpose? You always have a purpose, don't you, All-Father? The war, the truce, Loki, Thor, and now me? I'm that example, aren't I, that no crime goes unpunished? You want to see a schemer; don't look at Loki. Why don't you turn that powered perception and great truth on yourself and see what you are."
Odin didn't take her bait; she wanted to antagonize him. However, a king knows when he is being pulled out for self-assassination. Odin waited for a minute. Then he asked,
"And what will you do, Vyperia, if I cast you out? You will never come back as a goddess."
"Since Loki is…dead…I have no intention of doing so," Vyperia answered. She hesitated. "However, if he comes back to find me—when he and I are together again—we will make certain that our lives will start when yours has ended."
"Is this a threat?" asked Odin patiently. "I will take it very seriously if it is so."
"It's a threat," remarked Vyperia. "I intend to keep it as well."
Odin smirked uncharacteristically.
"All right, Vyperia. I will grant you this small measure. You will be sent out to Midgard, living in the body and form of a defenseless mortal. You will live and breathe as a mortal does, live in life as a mortality-deficient being. No one will know you. Because you have disgraced the title that you were given, yet you have watched over the people of Asgard, I shall grant you anonymity. All Realms will believe that Vyperia Sallerius is dead, but you shall live on with peace of mind."
This was going to be the end of the deal; however, Thor saw a dark aspect appear on Odin's face. Thor didn't like that look. Vyperia didn't either, for her confident expression weakened as Odin leaned in to speak directly to her.
"You enjoy bargains, don't you, Vyperia?"
"I do," said Vyperia softly.
"Then here is one. If Loki should return to find you, if he should grant his presence to a being much more inferior to him as he believes; you may burst from your mortal form and become Vyperia Sallerius. You will never know your true alias until he finds you."
Odin shrugged.
"What are the odds that he would choose a mortal woman when it took him decades to believe that a fellow Asgardian was his better half?"
On that note, Vyperia's sufficient gaze smoldered to self-doubt.
But before she could refuse this punishment, Odin aimed his staff Gungnir at Vyperia's body and then blasted a very loud and aluminous light into her skull. Her very shape disintegrated.
The only thing that remained of her being was the shackles that had been around her wrists.