25

Despite the seriousness of what was happening around her, Maerwen found herself highly enjoying the whole strange game of catch me if you can.

Pressing her back against the wall she peered around it. There were a few guards milling about, which was to be expected. But there were a little more than usual. Of course with Alfheim residents now living in Asgard, they were all sceptical to how they'd behave.

Walking quietly towards the group of guards she looked over their shoulders. They hadn't even noticed her presence which she thought was a good thing.

Turning she pointed down the hall and frowned. Loki in return lifted an arm up from around his back and waved at her. Frowning she ran as silently as she could, the guards heard her this time because of how quickly she shot of from the ground.

"Hey!" One exclaimed and started chasing after her. Maerwen looked over her shoulder and skidded to a halt.

"Yes? Can I help you? I'm sort of busy. You see I'm on an important mission." Maerwen grinned and picked up running again not letting the man in front of her reply.

"Important mission? I am an important mission?"

"I lied!"

"Lying is a bad trait to have."

"That means so much coming from you." Maerwen said while looking at the numerous doors in front of her. There weren't no doors as such, the corridor which she had ran down in her ditch effort to hunt down Loki, had led her to one of the balconies. These balconies had numerous other doors which lead into different parts of the palace. The doors were more like marbled archways. It was from these archways which Loki's voice resonated from. Not just one of the archways had his voice echoing from it, but all four of them.

"Can I ask you something?" Maerwen asked while sitting down on one of the stone benches.

"I have a feeling you shall anyway." Loki answered, Maerwen nodded and took to flicking imaginary dust off of her filigree armour, she had yet to change out of it.

"When we left Alfheim you seemed to," Maerwen paused and twiddled her thumbs thinking over her words. "Appear to know something."

"You are looking to into things. Are you not the person who said looking into certain matters made things messy?"

"No I'm not. I know I'm not."

"You find me and I'll tell you."

"You are so on," Maerwen smiled and stood up, "If you are invisible that is unfair."

"May I question as to why you voice this now?"

"Because it's been bugging me." She said while stretching her arms out in front of her and then looking at the four archways in front of her. Lifting up a hand she pointed at one then the other, she was debating which of the four to venture down first.

Rolling her eyes she shuffled off towards the second archway and as soon as she had disappeared from the balcony she ran down the corridor. It was silent down this corridor which made her slow to a stop and look around.

There were just doors lining the corridor. No part of her wished to open them and see what was beyond them. Turning on her heels she skipped back towards the exit and then darted down the other one to the right.

"How many tries until you found the right path to go down?"

"Is this a question about life or about me trying to find you?"

"I suppose you could see it as both. Are you really sure that ruling Svartalfheim isn't the correct path to go down?"

"I'm not like them though. I don't look like them, nor do I act like them. They wouldn't accept me, I'd most likely end up getting assassinated." Maerwen said while frowning and kicking off of the wall to turn the corner. "As for corridors, I went down one more before this one."

"You put such little faith in them." Loki said from about half way down the corridor. Maerwen rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"Would you put your faith, your life, in the hands of a race you know so little of?"

"No." Loki asked while he stood and watched her walk slowly in his direction. Eventually she stopped a few paces in front of him and looked up at him with slightly tired looking eyes.

"Found you," she said while reaching out, her hand went through his arm and he disappeared. She let out a thoughtful noise and looked around.

"They plan to take over the nine realms. Granted though that it wasn't much of a struggle to take over Alfheim. Finding out about you in the process of the plan was just a bonus." Loki spoke from standing behind her.

"How do you know this?" She questioned quietly.

"I am very good at listening."

"Meaning you weren't visible. Just like moments ago." Maerwen raised an eyebrow and twirled on her heels to look up at him. "I didn't stand a chance in finding you! You cheated." She pouted and frowned up at him. "Have you told anyone of this conversation you listened in to?" Loki shook his head, "But why? They need to know."

"Because I am rather sure that foolish Queen which used to rule over you knows already." Loki paused, "After all you and the elves from Svartalfheim are both distant relatives, you must have contact with them somehow."

"Wait..." Maerwen frowned in thought and looked up at him. "You don't suppose she had something to do with this?"

"Now why do you say this?" He smirked and turned on his heels and walked towards the exit back to the balcony.

"You put the idea in my head."

"No I never."

"You said because we are distant relatives we must be in contact."

"That does not mean Rika is involved."

"But what if she agreed to be involved?" At this Loki stopped at the archway and looked at her seriously. Maerwen took this as a sign to continue. "Alfheim is not a strong realm. Not like here," Maerwen said while waving a hand at the tall buildings beyond the balcony. "As a Queen admittedly she doesn't do many great things. From what I can remember growing up was peaceful, yes. But hostile. What if this has been brewing for a while?"

"Then why send you away?"

"Because I should be the ruler of Svartalfheim. What if Tedyrnir promised her that role?" Maerwen shrugged and walked away from him and sat down on the bench from earlier on. She patted the seat beside her and watched as he walked slowly over and sat down.

"Are you trying to tell me this is one big conspiracy?" Loki asked while looking at her, Maerwen shrugged. "I have to admit your little conspiracy theory seems to make things seem a little more clearer."

"Oh."

"What is it?"

"Presuming she is involved," Maerwen said while looking at him. "...Her people are here. Her guards are here, she has contacts with 'spies' still on Alfheim."

"She has everything needed to spring an attack." Loki frowned and looked down at the floor. "Everything expect Tedyrnir."

"You need to tell your father of this."

"He will not listen to me."

"Of course he will! You are his son." Loki flinched and stood up slowly and walked away. Maerwen jumped up and ran after him. He could walk surprisingly fast and she was jogging to catch up to him. Jumping in front of him, she skilfully intercepted his path. "What was that?"

"What?"

"You acted odd." Maerwen frowned, "In your standards, odder."

"Perhaps you should tell all of this to Thor who in turn can pass it on?" He said quickly diverting the topic away from his moment over the mention of Odin.

"Loki have you thought how stupid that idea is? You do realize that if I did that he'd go and attack the woman."

"Wouldn't that technically solve half the problem?"

"And leave Alfheim without a ruler."

"You think that this is all going to end well don't you?" Loki smiled thinly. "You are so naïve." He looked at her blankly. "You think that everyone is going to come out of this fine? What did they teach you while you were training? Clearly they failed to mention that most things, such as the predicament at hand, do not end well." He paused, "People are going to die. Most of the deaths will be of your own race."