I'm back! I made it back from camp pretty much in one piece and relatively healthy and also awake enough to update tonight ;)

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Be Prepared


It took another day until the king called for me.

I finally ate the food they brought me - a bit of sweet butter cake and a few fruits. It was not a lot, but it was better than nothing; and I felt that I would need my strength once I faced Odin. He would be forced to bear with me if he did not want to lose his last chance at a family legacy, but he would not be glad of it.

My head was still hurting, but it had been reduced to a dull sting where the spear had hit me - when I got up, the world did not spin out of focus anymore.
For the first time since they had brought me here, I could feel the prickling of magic in my fingertips. Until that moment, it had almost seemed like it was gone, never to be heard of again, but that morning the power's presence was unmistakeable.

Odin sent five Einherjar to bring me to him. They all looked uncomfortable, like they expected me to strike at any second. Perhaps it was due to this fear that they did not bother chaining me. I would not have let the, yet I was glad to be spared the fight.

The throne room was empty save for two more guards and the king, sitting leisurely on his high seat. The throne had been restored to its full glory after Malekith's attack and the rubble of broken columns had been taken away and stored at the sides. The place reminded me of the old ruins of Rome.

As they marched me towards the king, I attempted to hold my head as high as I could. I would not let him see any weakness, not after what he had done to me.

Yet the closer we got, the stranger he seemed. Odin straightened when I approached, his good eye obviously taking me in from head to toe. His eyebrows pulled together slightly as if he was displeased. What had he expected after me being knocked out and locked in prison?

"My daughter," he said and I raised an eyebrow.

"We are far beyond such niceties," I said. "A father would have brought their wounded child to a healer instead of letting her rot in the dungeons for the next days."

He twitched a little. This was not much like the Odin I knew - he would not flinch at such accusations in the past. He had proved again and again that he did not care for my well-being; why start now?

"A misunderstanding occurred, I think," he said gravely. "Your brother took all of the blame for the acts committed."

"And the other took a sword before he could do the same," I shot back. "Let us not pretend that this is about family."

It almost seemed that he was about to smile, but did not. I could not remember when I had last seen Odin smile. Maybe the blow to my head had been even harder than assumed and I was starting to see things.

"Yes," Odin said. "Let's not. This is about Asgard and the crown."

I nodded at him. Odin's fingers tightened around the armrest of the throne, a barely there movement that still caught my eye. Could it be that the great Allfather was nervous? The idea filled me with a strange satisfaction.

"I heard the news from Thor," I said. "How very gracious of you to let him go. Though it puts the two of us in a difficult spot."

"Indeed," he said. "But that is a matter that we should discuss in private." The end of Gugnir landed sharply on the marble floor, the clang echoing through the vast hall. "Leave us," the king ordered.

The soldiers were not happy to follow this order. I could tell by the grudging glances they sent me and the low muttering that took over when they filed out at the back of the hall. They would not be far, for sure, ready to be called in at a moment's notice.
Hopefully we would not have use for them. I held quite some contempt against Odin, but I could not spend the rest of his live fighting with him if I was to rule after him.

I turned back to face the king and found him watching me closely. The skin at the back of my neck started prickling. Something was not right about him - the way he spoke, the way he moved - but I could not put my finger on what it was.

"Come on," the king said and it seemed that his voice had changed. It was not usually so smooth. "Surely you can figure it out, love."

I felt it first. He allowed the connection again and the hollowness disappeared, filling me with power and emotion that already seemed foreign even after so short a time.
For once, however, it was not hard to differentiate. The satisfaction that flooded me was not mine, nor the triumph or the giddiness. None of it was it was mine, it was all his. The only thing that I consciously felt - was anger.

A green glow enveloped the king and flooded along his body like a waterfall. Loki was grinning broadly and his green eyes were sparkling.
My fists clenched so tightly that the nails dug into the smooth flesh of my palms. I was shaking with the heat of my rage and he was so very calm.

Loki leant forward, studying me from head to toe. "I thought you'd be happier."

"Happier?" I echoed. "You thought I'd be happy?"

"Well," he said. "I am here and well and-"

"I thought you died!" I yelled and was granted the small satisfaction of seeing him flinch. "You made me believe you were dead!"

His head tilted to the side. His happiness was dissipating steadily - at least he still seemed to care slightly, though that was hardly enough to appease me.
This time, he had gone too far. He knew how I had suffered the first time, all the time that we had been separated - he knew how I had fought to get him back, had defended him at every turn. How had he spent this time? Apparently by finding a way to sever our connection at his will and making plans to destroy me completely.

"You locked me in the dungeons," I continued. "Right across your cell - do you delight in torturing me?"

"You know I don't."

"Do I?" I demanded. "None of your actions suggest that you care about my well-being."

Loki seemed taken aback. Could it be true that he had not anticipated my anger? He, who knew me better than anyone else in the Nine Realms?

Another thought suddenly crept into my mind - if Loki was here and sitting on the throne, where was Odin?
Loki seemed to notice my nervous glance around and an ugly sneer spread on his face. A familiar bitterness filled him and I straightened my shoulders.

"What did you do to him?" I asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Yes," I shot back with more venom than I had anticipated. "I would indeed like to know if you killed our father."

His lip curled. "Our father," he repeated. "All those claims of hatred and suddenly he is our father."

I huffed. He did have a point, but he used it only to manipulate me and I would not let him. "I thought you capable of a lot, but I did not think that I would have to add patricide to the list."

He swallowed hard, but finally shrugged. "I killed one of my fathers, why not both?"

Indeed, there was no reason not to, not in his eyes or mine; Odin had never been a great father and Laufey had never been there at all. Perhaps, subconsciously, I had thought Odin safe because he was not a Frost Giant, the impact of my youth suggesting to me who was monster and who was man.

Apparently, I had never been a good judge of that - for when I looked upon Loki now, I was not sure anymore, either. What kind of man did such a thing to their family? What kind of man let his brother believe him dead and locked his lover in the dungeons? Were not these the action of a monster?

"I brought you back here," Loki said with a dangerous edge in his tone. "I wanted you safe until Odin and Thor were dealt with-"

I blinked in confusion until it clicked - the Einherjar, who had acted so strangely from start to finish, had been Loki all along. He probably had also killed the poor soldier that truly came looking for us.

"You wanted me out of the way," I said, my voice shaking. "Because you knew I would not let this stand."

"Eirlys-"

"And now you want to make peace," I said, my tone rising in volume with every word I spoke. "So I won't take the throne that is rightfully mine. So I won't challenge you."

His features had hardened and tension was radiating from him. There was a certain rage inside him; and, if I was not mistaken, a hint of fear. I wondered how far he would go if he thought I was taking his throne.

Which I was. He was clearly a lunatic. Odin, ever so intent on his legacy, did not deserve anything better, but Mother did. I would not allow her memory to be tarnished by the mad son that had succeeded her and the daughter that had abandoned her people.
I did not yet know how, but I would take the throne and toss him from it if I had to, expose his disguise if that was what it took. For it would certainly not be enough for Loki to simply rule in peace - nobody knew where his lust for grandeur ended.

"I am warning you," Loki said. "Don't do something you'll regret."

"Like what?" I challenged. "Like not bowing to you?"

"You don't want to fight me," he said. "I can cut you off and take my power away from you, but you cannot do the same."

I squared my shoulders, trying to make myself as tall as I could. "Then I'll find a way," I promised. "And when I have, I will kill you myself, so I can finally be sure."

His rage was like no other. It radiated through my veins and licked painfully at me like fire. Yet he was still sitting calmly, not even a finger twitching as he regarded me from the height of the throne.
It could well be that some of this anger was originating within me; my whole body was shaking with the sight of him, so confident, so triumphant when he had already destroyed all our family.

"If that is the case," Loki said in his silky voice, which suggested that I was treading on the most dangerous ground. "I think it is better I return you where you came from - to the dungeons."

My mind started spinning. If they brought me back, locked me in, I would be doomed - there was no escaping from the dungeons, not even with magic. At least there was no way that I knew off. I would be trapped without any chance of stopping him or contacting someone who could.

The clank of his spear against the marble floor called the guards back inside. It did not even take as long as it took to blink and Loki's disguise was perfect again. His demeanour changed with his appearance - when he had acted strangely before, it had clearly been done on purpose.

"Take her back to the dungeons," the king ordered. "Where she will await her trial."

"On what charges?" I asked as the first guard wrapped his hand around my upper arm.

"On the charges of being a traitor," Loki boomed. "And a witch."

If he had been close enough, I might have spat at him. That, I thought to myself and hoped that my emotions would make him understand, was a mistake. This was the difference between a quiet coup-d'état behind the scene and waging a full on war. No one, least of all him, was allowed to call me a witch.

If he wanted to me be that, though, he could have his witch.

He should not have allowed our connection again, for while the Einherjar still believed to have me in a death grip, fresh wind was already whipping around me as I approached Heimdall's observatory.
Back in the day, my wish to have the illusions solid had been merely a quest for power - I had wanted more, always more - but now I was proven right. This was what I needed magic for.

It was hard to uphold, but my illusion had taken a fast form in the palace while I had already teleported out of their reach.
I had to hurry, though. The simple guards might be fooled, but Loki would not be; he would have felt the pull of magic and would have seen through the disguise of my clone.

"Heimdall!" I called, but found that he already had the sword poised over the control panels when I entered.

"I saw," he said simply.

It was hard to believe that Loki could have been so foolish. That for once, he had not cared to shield us from the Gatekeeper's gaze, but I was thankful for it.

"Good," I said. "Can I trust you to not betray me?"

Heimdall pulled himself to his full height, towering high above me, until suddenly his gaze dropped and he bowed deep. "You are my queen," he said gravely. "My duty is only to you."

"And I promise I will not disappoint you," I said, though I could not be sure yet. "But for now I have to leave."

"I would send you to Vanaheim," Heimdall offered. "Where Hogun is among his people and can offer you shelter."

I had but a second to think it over - the Bifrost was already booming, itching to send me away. The only other option would have been to go to Midgard, from where Thor would surely hurry back to defeat his wayward brother.

He did deserve some peace, though, for once - he deserved to think, at least for a little while, that all was well. A not-so-small part of me also wanted to make it so things were well, by myself and without having to share the glory with my big brother.

"I will take your advise," I said. "And thank you."

The observatory was already spinning around me. I turned once more, while the forces of time and space were pulling at me and regarded my home - the glistening gold of the towers, the heights of snow-topped mountains and the rushing of crystal-clear water. How I longed to stay, but in safety and peace, as it had been so many years ago.

My heart ached for the Asgard of that time and I swore to myself that when we would see each other next, it would be a glorious return.


So, this is it. This story is done and I already miss it terribly.
However, as you can probably detect from this chapter, I do want to write a sequel. It's just that it'll have to wait a bit, at least until spoilers for Thor 3 are a little more reliable, because I sure would like to incorporate that in the next story.

Until then, feel free to check out my other stories; I'm also going to upload a new Harry Potter one in the next few days, so if you're into that, I'd be happy to see/read you there ;)

To finish up, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed and fav'd and alerted and read over the course of this story. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.

Have yourself a lovely day :)!