Remember when I said I'd be posting more regularly? Well, the house lost air conditioning and I had to stay somewhere else. WITHOUT my computer. :/ Sorry, but thankfully we got AC back pretty quickly, so here's the next chapter. Cool new character, yay! :)

LOKI

"Scheming face," Thor announced, shattering the careful silence that had settled over the somber party gathered around the low table. Maps, records, and sketches were scattered across its wooden face, hanging off the edges and laid haphazardly across the floor.

"What?" I asked, voicing the thoughts of both Kispin and Gaerhialm, who were also staring at Thor peculiarly. Una, somehow, seemed to know what he was talking about.

Thor stood from his chair, which had looked far too small for his massive frame anyways. He was the only one of us who had been sitting, the only one of us who seemed unbothered, somehow, by recent events. "Scheming face," he repeated, his shoulders releasing a startling crack as he stretched. I supposed he had come out of it worse off than all of us-even more so than Kispin, who was sporting a nasty black eye from his spectacular failure to stop Obsidia. It had been an impressive fight between my brother and that she-devil, and a prolonged one. It was a miracle neither of the two hadn't passed out from exhaustion and plummeted off the roof altogether.

And yet here Thor was, seemingly uninjured, and content up until this point to provide no help in the impossible task before us.

"That's your scheming face," he elaborated when we were all unable to grasp his meaning from the two mysterious words. "I've seen it before when we were children. It always preceded a very risky and dangerous plan, which more often than not ended in disaster. Please assure me that's not the case right now."

"We're not children anymore, Thor," I said, in lieu of answering the unspoken question.

What are you planning? The gaze he leveled at me said without wasting breath on words. It seemed he was predisposed to disapprove of whatever plan I was concocting, though perhaps his concern was warranted. My plans had a tendency to end in disaster for everyone...except me.

"I'm well aware of that," he responded, turning fully to face me. "We're playing with lives now, and not just our own. Not just Obsidia's. There are innocent people in this town-"

"All who worship Obsidia cannot be innocent-"

"Oh, do shut up, Kispin!" Gaerhialm exclaimed, eliciting shocked looks from both Thor and I. Una, on the other hand, was putting little effort into hiding her smirk. She had chosen her spot leaned against the wall behind her father well, not that it mattered. Kispin was far too distracted with glaring daggers at his general to notice his daughter's mirth.

"We've all heard it before," Gaerhialm continued, despite the obvious malice his lord was harboring. "Obsidia's a criminal, Obsidia is the scum of Asgard. Her followers are just as bad, guilty of the most heinous crime that is-" He gasped noisily in mock horror. "Disagreeing with Kispin!

"So you're on her side, then?" Kispin demanded, his voice rising. I was surprised he hadn't asked for Gaerhialm's decapitation, not that the lord had the backbone to carry the order out.

"I'm on my own side," Gaerhialm replied, folding his arms across his chest in an easy swagger.

"Now that we know where everyone stands," I said, cutting off whatever biting retort Kispin was surely about to give. "May we please focus on the task at hand?"

Thor leaned over the table in a poor attempt at looking interested, though his focus on the "task at hand" was quickly interrupted by a meek knock on the door.

We all looked up in curiosity, apart from Una, who hurried to the entrance just before her father could stop her. "Wait-" Kispin began to stutter, his face losing its pallor by the second, but Una's slender fingers were already turning the doorknob and they had no intentions of stopping. She flung open the door to reveal the source of the Skalin lord's terror.

A 2,500-year-old woman, about five feet in stature, stood in the doorframe.

"Mother!" Una exclaimed in obvious delight, although the announcement wasn't necessary to make the connection. Though Lady Dagson's skin was perhaps a few shades darker than her daughter's, they shared the same elegant face, bold brows, and thick, raven hair. The only discernable difference was their eyes; while Una's were as blue as a Midgardian sea, her mother's were amber flecked with gold and held infinite wisdom in their liquid depths.

"Dalla," Kispin grumbled as a greeting, considerably less ecstatic about the current development than his daughter. Gaerhialm gazed on in impassive boredom, but Thor was much more captivated by this new character than the greatly important discussion we had been having.

"This must be Lady Dagson!" my brother laughed, walking towards the door with an amiable expression. I hovered behind, interested to see how the positively tiny woman would handle the behemoth that was my brother.

"Thor!' she said-no, said wasn't the right word. Her voice was more like the boom of a cannon. It was beyond me how such a tiny frame could generate such a massive sound. "I have heard much about you!"

And then she hugged him.

Una knew what was happening before Thor and I did, but by then it was too late. Dalla stepped towards Thor with outstretched arms and before I could blink, she had the god of thunder gripped in a vise-like embrace. I was certain I heard Thor's back emit a cracking sound, and he appeared to be losing oxygen by the second. Just as his face was starting to gain an interesting blue pallor, Dalla suddenly released him. I noticed that Una was snorting with laughter at the spectacle, though she quickly donned a straight face when her mother turned a suspicious eye on her. Apparently satisfied that her daughter was behaving appropriately-an incorrect assumption-Dalla turned back to Thor with a positively blinding smile.

"Goodness me!" she laughed heartily, putting her hands on her narrow hips. "So good to have you back! So, what brings you to Skali?"

Back? Oh yes, Thor has been here before. Perhaps I should ask him about this previous visit. An idea for a later time. Now, I was faced with the more pressing problem of avoiding a bone-crushing hug from Dalla. Thor was a hardier warrior than me, to say the least. I didn't think I'd survive the experience if I was subjected to any physical shows of affection from Lady Dagson. Thankfully, she seemed more occupied with Thor.

"Your husband summoned us, actually," he replied, raising a brow. "Surely he told you of his intentions?" Thor turned towards Kispin, whose lips were pressed into an unforgiving line. They turned upwards in a painful attempt at a smile when placed under the scrutiny of both Thor and his displeased wife.

"Ah-well-I didn't think-I didn't think Dalla would be interested in…such things."

Dalla raised an eyebrow and leaned against the doorway with folded arms. "Oh, you didn't, did you? Well, my dearest Dagson," she sniffed, sashaying into the room, "you were quite mistaken. What have we here?" She peered over the table littered with parchment and sketches.

"That," I announced from the corner I had been lurking in, previously unnoticed, "is all the progress we have made on forming a plan to catch Obsidia. As the lady of Skali, I am quite sure you are aware of her presence and the dangers she presents."

"I'm aware that the lot of you bungled a confrontation with her just this morning."

I raised a brow at this informal tone. "Do you know who I am, Lady Kispin?"

"I most certainly do, King Loki," she retorted, her skirts swishing as she turned to face me. She was dressed in a similar fashion to Una, adorned in thick velvet fabric, but unlike her daughter, she wore the dress comfortably, like a second skin. Like a reminder that one could be as intimidating in a ballgown as they were in a full suit of armor.

And so I met the first Asgardian I actually respected in Skali.

"Well, now that you're here," I stated, the barest hint of a smile playing across my face, "do you think you could lend a hand?"

Her eyes widened, nearly imperceptibly. I had surprised her, a feat not easily accomplished judging by her unshakable demeanor. Her gaze quickly sharpened with wicked ferocity, however.

"Well now," she exclaimed, her knuckles emitting a loud crack as she stretched them, "let's see if I can't help you."