It's been a rough few weeks, I was ill last week so I didn't get a lot of writing done, and then this week I've been having some high emotions and it's been a bit stressful. But a good thing is, I saw Spider-Man: No Way Home yesterday and it was so amazing! Everything about it was perfect, I was so happy coming out of that screen. Plus I'm seeing Hamilton live at the West End on Saturday so that's another thing to look forward to, so I'm just using that to keep me going.
I hope you all enjoy this chapter!
Hydrangeas Say Our Family Will Flourish
Chapter Fifty-One: So Much For Elegance
Loki returned to Castle Utgard's infirmary in a haste, storming with enough force to make anybody think a full-sized Jotun was stampeding in, while Byleistr followed in tow, not quite having to run due to his long legs, but almost speedwalking in order to keep up with the former.
Thor looked up, startled as Loki entered, and his eyes drove over Byleistr in vague suspicion at the sight of his brother in an oddly overwrought state, clutching a piece of parchment paper in his hand.
"What's wrong?" Thor stood, immediately on the defence.
Amelia lifted her head from where it had been placed firmly in her big fluffy pillow, blinking tiredly with a somewhat glassy look in her eyes, "Something's wrong?" There was a nervous note in her slurred words.
Loki stopped, performing a visible reset on his demeanour; the tension melted out of him and he appeared much calmer than he had been coming into the room. "Everything's fine," he told Amelia as he moved to her side, "are you feeling alright?" His brow furrowed at the glazed look in her eye.
"It's the painkillers," Heige, the healer, spoke up from across the room, "she'll be drowsy and slow for a while, but the good news is I was able to put her arm in a sling without much problem. The ice pack will help with the swelling." Loki peered down at Amelia's arm, spotting the fabric-wrapped ice slab it was resting on.
Loki drew his fingers over Amelia's head affectionately, thumb rubbing back and forth over her forehead, "You should go to sleep, love. Everything is fine now, you have nothing to worry about." Amelia blinked tiredly and turned her head, looking over at the bed to her left, and subtly nodded. Her eyes slipped shut and Loki guessed it probably wouldn't be long before she drifted off.
He waited a few moments, and then turned towards Thor, eyes briefly rolling over Aster and Kari who were well and truly out like a light, and held out the letter from Reinn so that Thor could take it and read it for himself.
Loki kept a steely gaze on his brother as Thor took the paper and let his eyes zip over it curiously; his facial expression went from neutral to shocked, and then rage befell his face when he reached the bottom of the page.
"Reinn…" Thor spoke out loud, as if processing what he had read, "all of this has been Reinn's doing… this whole time?"
"Indeed," Loki hissed, "It seems like that wretched fool was so consumed with jealousy and spite after he was kicked out of the palace that he decided to try and kill my wife and have my children kidnapped."
Thor continued to stare down at the letter with rising skittishness; he peered up at Byleistr, quickly hiding the nervous expression on his face that Loki most definitely picked up on, and cleared his throat, "I know you wished to discuss the possibilities of negotiating an alliance between our kingdoms, and I am eager to discuss it too, but perhaps it would be wise to delay it until we have arrested Reinn. This is a matter of urgency."
Byleistr lifted an eyebrow and inclined his head, "Of course. We can negotiate an alliance after you have put Reinn behind bars."
"Oh, I'm going to do more than put him behind bars," Loki murmured lowly. He couldn't help but catch the odd sense of anxiousness coming from his brother, "Thor, why are you so jumpy?"
Thor paced a few steps back and forth by the kids' bedside, "What if Reinn is causing trouble in Asgard right now? I shouldn't have left Inga alone…"
Loki's brow furrowed as he sat down on the edge of Amelia's bed, "She's hardly alone, is she? She has all of Asgard's forces in the palace, I'm sure they're capable enough to keep an ex-advisor at bay."
"I just- we need to return now, okay?" Thor paused to scratch his beard, letting out an apprehensive hum, and Loki frowned.
"Is there something you're not telling me, Thor? You're incredibly fidgety."
Thor looked back to his brother, eyebrows raised and mouth parted in a way that suggested he was about to deny anything was wrong, but the way he paused and seemed to ponder something in his mind implied with clarity that something was definitely bothering him. Loki wanted desperately to return to Asgard and annihilate Reinn as much as Thor probably did, but with Amelia and the kids in the state they were in, it seemed better to give them a short while to recuperate before travelling via the Bifrost, but Thor's actions were a bit suspicious.
And then, Thor came clean.
"Inga's pregnant."
Loki blinked a few times fast, his brain rushing to process the hasty yet casual announcement, and his mouth fell open but refused to let out any words. Behind him, Loki sensed movement as Amelia seemed to snap out of her doze and sit up wobbly, keeping her balance by clutching at one of Loki's shoulders.
"Wh… who's pregnant?" Amelia mumbled, a certain lucidity flashing back to her through the drug-induced haze; she blinked her tired eyes slowly, her eyes not quite focusing on Thor several metres away.
Thor scratched his beard, giving Amelia and Loki a sheepish smile, and nodded his head at his brother, who still had yet to respond to the news.
"Congratulations," Byleistr chimed in almost awkwardly in a bit to break the persisting silence, to which Thor inclined his head in gratitude.
"Inga's pregnant?" Amelia murmured, her mind finally catching up, "Oh- I… does that mean I'm going to be an auntie?" She giggled slightly and nudged Loki with her uninjured hand using just a little more force than necessary, "And you're gonna be an uncle!"
The movement seemed to jog Loki back to life from his momentary system failure, and he shook his head in shock, "You're… going to be a father," were the words that came out of his mouth, sounding almost inquisitive like he couldn't quite believe it, "I… well, this is unexpected."
Thor let out a bashful chuckle, "Yes. She's eight weeks along. We were going to tell you together, I swear. She's going to be upset I broke the news without her present," he smiled, glancing down at Aster and Kari, "it wasn't planned, but being parents is something we've both been… yearning for."
Loki swallowed and smiled as it fully sunk in that his brother was going to have a child, "Congratulations, brother." Becoming a father himself had been quite a bit of a shock at the time, but the knowledge that his brother would soon be experiencing parenthood as he had was just wholly shocking. There weren't many things in life that could tie up his silvertongue but it seemed that a pregnancy announcement from his brother was one of the few things that could. He was happy that Thor would get to experience the joys and terrors of having a child, "I hope you're ready for what's coming to you," Loki added amusedly, "they can be as much a headache as they are a blessing."
Thor smirked, "I'm quite aware of that. Don't worry, I have seven and a half-ish months to prepare myself."
"And we can babysit when you need help!" Amelia interjected gleefully, prompting Loki to turn on her with a furrowed brow.
"Excuse me? I didn't agree to that."
"I'm agreeing on your behalf," Amelia responded bluntly before affectionately headbutting Loki's shoulder, losing the motivation to keep her head lifted with her dwindling energy, "Loki, can we go home soon?"
Loki peered back at Thor, "Alright. Let's get back to Asgard and… take care of some business." Amelia hummed in response, ignorant to the knowledge of who had been behind their torment for way too long.
Amelia woke to the feeling of fingers trailing through her hair, a very pleasant sensation that brought a content little smile to her lips before she blinked her eyes open, spotting the blurry face of her husband hovering above her.
"Hi," Amelia whispered.
"Hi," Loki responded softly, "How do you feel?"
Amelia slowly became aware of the vague ache in her arm, but it wasn't so bad that she would consider it particularly painful, it was more of a background discomfort. The second thing she picked up on was the familiar smell of their bed in Asgard's palace enveloping her in a wonderfully soothing way. They were back home on Earth, Amelia should have gleaned that from the fact that Loki's skin had returned to its usual pale peachy colour rather than the beautiful royal blue it had been before.
She still felt partly discombobulated from the medicine she had drank in Jotunheim, and the words Loki had spoken escaped her, effectively leaving her looking confused and lost. What was the question he had asked her? She couldn't recall, but there was something more important on her mind in the very next moment.
"Where's the kids?" Amelia shifted suddenly, pushing herself up slightly on her good elbow, but Loki took her by the shoulders and gently laid her back down.
"They're fine. They're right here beside you," Loki assured her, his eyes flicking past Amelia to the other side of the bed. Amelia followed his gaze and spotted her kids, looking dwarfed by the massive cushions and covers of the bed. Their skin had also phased back to its usual colour, and she could see now how exhausted their little faces looked.
They were fast asleep still, just like when she'd last seen them in the infirmary, and when they woke up they would probably be very hungry. The poor things hadn't eaten anything in Jotunheim, no wonder they were sleeping like the dead.
"They're gonna be hungry," Amelia murmured, looking at her children with a yearning look. She was so glad they were safe, so glad they'd all escaped the realm with minimal injuries; she peered down the end of the bed where Thor was sitting and Inga was fussing over his injured leg, and smiled.
"Inga… congratulations…" She peered at the woman's belly, noting how she wasn't yet showing at all, but it would only be a matter of time; Amelia's pregnancy felt like it had flown by.
Inga gazed up at Amelia and tilted her head with a bemused expression, "Congratulations?"
"Yeah… on the pregnancy," Amelia gave a knowing wink, and Inga immediately flung her stare towards Thor, who looked sheepish and a tad guilty.
"Sorry, my love. I know you wanted to be there when we told them but… it just came out," Thor explained, rubbing the back of his head, to which Inga sighed and shook her head, a warm smile making its way onto her face as she looked back at Amelia.
"Thank you, Amelia. I'm beyond excited, and so is Thor. It's going to be so wonderful," she spoke softly, subconsciously touching her stomach, "I can't wait to be a mother," she looked up at the king with metaphorical stars in her eyes and Thor grinned in return. The atmosphere was suddenly sweet and full of contentment, and Amelia smiled up at Loki.
"Are we all safe now?" Amelia asked gently, hoping that everything had been resolved, and that the children didn't have to fear living in Asgard ever again. Loki's steady gaze flickered slightly, a darkness befalling his face, which struck a chord of apprehension in Amelia.
"You needn't worry, Amelia. You will all be safe very soon, trust me."
There was a certainty in Loki's voice that Amelia hadn't heard in quite a while; Loki had been just as anxious about living in Asgard ever since the attack on Amelia had occurred, but now there was a renewed sense of confidence and conviction in him that Amelia found ultimately reassuring.
He brushed his thumb against her cheek in a sweet, pacifying gesture, "After you fell asleep in Jotunheim, we travelled back here using the portal gateway between our realms, so as to avoid making an obvious entrance with the Bifrost. We wished to be more subtle, and Byleistr was more than willing to show us the way Helblindi's minions had taken to arrive here. You slept the whole way. Inga looked at your arm, she has a painkiller for you if you need it," Loki explained hastily, "and I'm going to leave in a minute, there's something I need to take care of. I shouldn't be gone longer than a few hours. I'll be back before the evening comes at the most."
Amelia frowned, taking a hold of his wrist in her good hand, "You're leaving? Why?"
"I won't be going far. Thor and Inga will be staying here while I'm gone - I've enchanted the entrances of our quarters with magical seals so nobody who doesn't have authorisation will be able to enter. Food will be brought up to you soon so that you and the children can eat, you don't need to worry about me," Loki gave his wife an assuring smile, "and when I'm back, you won't need to worry about the childrens' safety here either."
Amelia blinked, glancing between Loki and Thor, "Was it not Helblindi that was behind the attack then?" After the kidnapping, Amelia had assumed she'd come face to face with the evil mastermind, she had no reason to believe otherwise, but the knowledge that there was somebody else controlling everything was concerning.
"In essence, no. But we'll talk about that later. Rest for now." Loki leaned down and gave Amelia a kiss, giving her a persisting earnest look before standing. He gave Thor a wordless nod, who returned it with a very solemn and serious look, and left the room.
Loki searched the home that was in the palace records as belonging to Reinn and found it, predictably, empty. It was off the market road, very close to where he had first had the run in with Sten Ulfson when the man had, presumably under the control of Reinn, attempted to kidnap his daughter. It angered him to think that Reinn was so close by this whole time, watching merrily from the sidelines as his dastardly plan unfolded.
A low-profile perusal around the market area afforded him a chance to speak quietly with some of the trusted shopkeepers; he inquired as to whether they had seen the ex-advisor at all within the last few years, and received apologetic and unsure responses from most of the people he questioned, apart from one. A brief talk with one of the kingdom's resident witches who ran a store for oddities, potion ingredients and arcane items, revealed that she had indeed seen Reinn on occasion over the years.
"He comes in every few months, buys some ingredients, and then skulks away like the grumpy old loner he is," the witch, Cordelia, told him, "I don't trust him, but I don't have proof he's up to no good and he's a paying customer, so…" she trailed off, giving a shrug and a sigh.
"You don't happen to remember which way he'd come from or go, do you?" Loki asked, hoping to get even a smidgen of information that could benefit him.
Cordelia straightened up and lifted a hand, pointing directly out the entrance of the store, across the way, "Always comes sneaking out that alley over there, and leaves the same way, dressed in a hooded cloak, hiding his face like he's committing a crime."
Loki bit his tongue to avoid murmuring a snarky response and simply nodded his head, "Was he buying anything suspicious?"
Cordelia shook her head, "Just focus crystals and small amounts of psychedelic herbs."
Loki hummed. It was entirely possible Reinn had picked up some sort of addictive habit smoking hallucinogenic herbs, it wasn't beyond the realms of possibility that falling from the chief advisor to a literal nobody could cause the pathetic man to turn to drugs, but Loki wasn't about to start making assumptions now, he'd let the evidence do the talking when he finally found that rat of a man.
"Thank you for the information," Loki said, and left the store in the direction Cordelia had pointed him.
The alley was narrow and the walls on either side were high, serving as a good level of camouflage from the bustling market for somebody who wanted to slip around unnoticed. Following the alley round, Loki found nothing of particular note, and exited the narrow passage into a familiar area he swore he had been to before.
He'd chased Sten this way. This was precisely the place where he had lost the man some years ago; it was coincidentally around the back end of Reinn's recorded place of residence, but was utterly insignificant to Loki's eyes. It was just a small clearing with cobblestone flooring, farming tools strung up on a rack against one of the walls, and the dry well in the centre.
Agitation ate away at him; he felt like he was in the exact same spot he had been in years ago, helpless to locate the person who had frightened his daughter. Now there was a lot more riding on the line; if he didn't find and deal with Reinn now, it could lead to more chances and opportunities for the man to harm his family.
Loki crossed the cobbled path, intent on heading back into Reinn's home to give the place another substantial perusal - he had to have missed something that was a little less obvious. Perhaps his desperation to find a hidden trapdoor or hidden room had squandered his attempt to find anything at all; another check would put his mind at ease.
As he moved, however, a sudden thought occurred that had him coming to a stop.
Loki looked over his shoulder at the centrepiece of the clearing, the dried up well. There was something hugely suspicious about the fact that this well was boarded up and out of use; and apparently it had been for at least two or three years, since it was exactly the same the last time he'd passed it.
But it would've been built only around seven or eight years ago. Certainly less than ten; the Asgardians had settled into their new home and began building in 2017, which was a little less than eight years ago, which suggested this well had dried up shockingly fast. Loki may have been a pampered prince, but he knew well enough that water wells could last up to fifty years before drying out, so either the placement of this well had been extremely unfortunate, or there was more to it.
His fingers grazed the wooden planks that formed a sort of lid for the well, and he tentatively lifted it up, growing tense when it rose up with little to no effort. It wasn't even nailed down. Loki knew almost immediately that he had to have discovered Sten's initial escape route the first time he'd found himself here.
Loki grinded his teeth in anger, fully removing the boarding from the well, and was greeted with a dark and damp depth into a secret passage below, with a very convenient rope ladder protruding from the inner wall. He wasted no time and climbed over the rim of the well, making his way down into the dank smelling darkness.
It was a good thing Loki could see well in the dark, because by the time he reached the bottom, the light from above was dim, only vaguely illuminating the shapes around him; the passage continued on in one direction and there wasn't much else besides that, so he began following it down, being mindful to try and muffle the wet sounds of his footsteps against the muddy pathway.
How long had this hidden pathway been sitting below Asgard's market? And precisely how deep did it go?
Loki received an answer when he noticed a slight warm glow coming from up ahead, flickering like fire; he approached with the utmost care and caution to remain undetected from anybody who may or may not have been present. Once he encroached on the wide room, he felt his anger rise.
It was a whole room set up like a living space with a bed, recliner, a corner of shelving units with unusual items resting on the shelves along with a few books and tomes, but the most concerning area of the room was in the middle on the floor. There was some sort of sigil painted on the floor, it was surrounded with unlit candles, and there was what appeared to be a spell tome and a bowl of crystals present beside it.
Loki heard the sound of somebody humming a tune, and his eyes narrowed dangerously; there was surely only one person it could be. He stepped a little further into the room, peering round the corner of a coat stand where a dark cloak was hanging, and in that same moment, he saw Reinn turn around and face his general direction, carrying a bowl of food in his hands.
Reinn locked eyes with him, and his body reacted like a bolt of lightning had torn through him; the old man dived towards the centre of the room, dropping the bowl to the floor where soup splashed out everywhere, and Loki followed his movement with a decidedly unworried and unrushed demeanour.
Reinn grabbed one of the crystals and in a split second, reached out with invisible tendrils of magic towards Loki; the Asgardian prince felt something weakly tickle against the back of his mind and expelled a wrathful grunt, taking the three long strides towards the ex-advisor before backhanding him across the face, sending Reinn tumbling to the ground with a pitiful cry.
"Trying to enchant my mind like you did Sten Ulfson?" Loki snapped, disbelief saturating his tone, "That spell may work on the simple-minded, but you would have to be truly foolish to believe your measly magical skills could even attempt to stand up to me."
Reinn growled, making a vain attempt to shuffle away, but Loki stepped forward and brutally stomped on the old man's face, breaking his nose with a satisfying crack and knocking him out all in one go.
Silence fell then, and Loki could hear his own heart pounding in his ears, highlighting just how much he wanted to tear apart the piece of shit lying before him; he stood still until his rage began to subside, because he sadly needed to bring the prick back to the palace for a real interrogation before he could do anything fun.
In the meantime, he looked down at the sigil at his feet. He had a clear view of it now, and identified it as a magical sigil used for concentration, which was also what the crystals were used for; the two elements together offered a sliver of arcane focus to somebody who had very low magical skill, allowing the individual to cast higher level magic on a lower level scale.
For example, a mind control spell on somebody with low intellect.
His surmise about Sten Ulfson had been correct, he was an innocent man who had been forced to commit a terrible crime.
Loki picked up the tome lying by his feet and turned it over, examining the cover; it was the dark magic spell book that had gone missing from the library years ago, and was exactly what the ex-advisor would have needed to pull off his little stunt. He moved across the room to the book shelf, peering at some of the titles on display; there were books on minor charms and combative spells, all sorts of things that could've aided Reinn in his terrible plans.
He inserted the spell books into his pocket dimension, conjured a line of rope, and got to work in tying the old man up so he could harshly drag him all the way back to the palace.
It was a weight off of Loki's shoulders to finally have Reinn behind bars for his crimes, but he was unsettled with the fact that he didn't know the exact extent of the bastard's treasonous misdeeds; he knew about the assassination attempt on his wife and kids, and the ensuing plot to have his children shipped to Jotunheim, but what more had happened behind the scenes that had not yet come to light?
Loki was not convinced they knew everything just yet, so when he brought Reinn in and had him thrown into a cell, he informed Thor of his proposal to draw the truth out of the old man, and Thor - who was wholly concerned with ensuring his family remained safe, and who was a great believer in seeing justice unfold - gave Loki his blessing to allow him to do whatever it took to get Reinn talking.
Loki did not plan on holding back.
Reinn was still unconscious when Loki tied him up in a chair with all the nonexistent care he deserved, and then Loki waited patiently by a table, looking over the items he had procured from the old man's luxurious underground apartment, until he got awfully tired of waiting and decided to speed things up.
Approaching Reinn, Loki reeled back and struck the old man around the side of the face, waking him from his slumber with a pained cry, and commanded, "Wake up." His tone displayed just how enraged Loki was to look into the eyes of the man who almost murdered his wife and had his children taken away, and as Reinn appeared to slowly get a grasp of comprehension for the situation he'd found himself in, Loki felt great delight at the flicker of fear in the ex-advisor's eyes.
Reinn adjusted his jaw, wincing from pain, and peered around, noting the way he was tied up and his current location in a cell below New Asgard's palace.
"An accused man is deserving of a trial," Reinn stated, throat somewhat hoarse.
Loki crossed his arms, not breaking the cold eye contact he was holding with the old man, "Perhaps if there was any doubt that the accused was an innocent, or even partially innocent man, that might be the case. But you lost that privilege when you attempted to murder my wife and children."
"I did no such thing. It's public knowledge that the assassin killed himself-"
"You should know better than to play games with me," Loki warned in a threatening tone, summoning his dagger to hand in a show of intimidation, which silenced Reinn immediately. "I am no fool, Reinn. One look at your secret underground cubby hole confirmed my suspicions that mind control magic was used on Sten. You should have chosen your hiding place better, and you probably shouldn't have attempted to control the mind of a master sorcerer either. Punching above your weight there, just a bit."
Reinn's pupils dilated in fear and his eyes darted around, looking for an escape, of which there was none.
"You're obligated to treat any prisoner with benevolence until proven guilty," Reinn argued.
"Are you deaf, old man? You have been proven guilty."
"I haven't confessed to anything!"
"Yet." Loki stared down his nose at the man, finding his audacity to be utterly astonishing.
"I'm thirsty," Reinn said, his scratchy throat proving his words, and he eyed the pitcher and glass of water on the table across the room, "give me something to drink."
Loki leaned against the table, spinning the dagger around his dexterous fingers in a bid to remind the prisoner who was in charge here and what he was capable of. He looked to the water and then gave in, lifting the glass and mercifully holding it to Reinn's lips while the old man drank half of it.
Placing the glass back on the table, Loki faced Reinn, "Ready to confess now?"
Reinn laughed, finding some level of amusement in this whole situation, "Of course not!"
Loki hummed, "You will be soon."
The look on Reinn's face changed, his eyes widened slightly and his gaze flickered between Loki and the half-empty glass of water on the table, "Wait. What are you saying? Did you drug me with something?"
Loki raised an eyebrow, "It's not my fault if I fancy my glasses of water with a little truth serum, is it? It's not my fault your throat was dry, and it's not my fault I so selflessly decided to let you have my drink… is it?"
Reinn blanched.
"You look terribly worried for someone who claims to have nothing to be guilty about," Loki observed.
"You're lying," Reinn claimed, "Asgard doesn't have the resources to produce truth serum."
"No, Asgard does not," with that, Loki pulled a small vial out of his pocket and held it up for Reinn to see, "but Jotunheim does, and the new king was more than willing to share their stores with us, as you will soon discover."
Reinn's face scrunched up in disbelief, like he couldn't believe they'd do any sort of business with the Jotuns. Loki wouldn't have believed it himself before that day, but it was interesting how certain things change.
"You have minutes until the only words coming out your mouth will be nothing but the truth, so if you still want to lie, you should probably do it while you still have the chance," Loki taunted, satisfied that he wouldn't even have to try in order to get the confession he was waiting for.
"This is- a heinous way to interrogate a prisoner-"
"I don't give a flying fuck, as my wife would put it," Loki declared, "once I have what I need, I'm going to appropriately dispose of you and then return to my family, content that they are safe within this kingdom."
Reinn appeared to be moments away from foaming at the mouth, "They'll never be safe-" he twitched, seeming to momentarily choke on his words, indicating that the serum was beginning to work its magic, "-there's… there's many people in this… kingdom who want your family… gone."
Loki gripped the hilt of his blade tightly in his hand and waited a few minutes before asking the old man, "Are there really others who want my family gone?"
Reinn bit his tongue, trying so very hard to keep himself from answering the question, but being the weak-minded fool he is, he lost grip on his own self-control and the influence of the serum took over, giving the old man just a hint of what it must have felt like to be Sten Ulfson, "No, I am the only one that I know of."
Loki relaxed a little, content that there wasn't some massive network of Asgardians forming a revolt against the royals. "Good, it seems the serum has taken hold. I'm going to ask you all the questions I have and you'll be unable to lie to me, Reinn. Understand?"
"Yes."
Loki inwardly smirked, knowing Reinn probably despised him with every fibre of his being in that moment, but there was nothing the old man could do to fight back.
"How long have you harboured some sort of disdain towards myself and/or my family?" Loki inquired.
Reinn didn't hesitate before answering, "Ever since Odin dragged you back from that icy rock called Jotunheim. I tried to advise that keeping you in Asgard was a terrible idea, but he refused to listen. Those fools, Odin and Frigga, decided to raise you as their own, potentially poisoning the future bloodline of Asgard with Jotun blood."
Loki's eyes narrowed, "So it took you over a thousand years to do something about it, and your response was to harm my family?"
"One Jotun second-in-line to the throne, I reluctantly accepted. Odin made me swear an oath to keep my thoughts to myself and keep your identity a secret; but I did so with the assumption that you would eventually wed an Asgardian, and I had hope the Jotun DNA would gradually whittle down over a few thousand years to the point where it was practically nonexistent, but then you had to fall in love with a human." He said the last word with so much revulsion that Loki was sure he would've been splashed with droplets of saliva had he been standing a little closer.
"Go on," Loki instructed icily.
"I targeted the children first and foremost. I planned to have them killed while they were still just toddlers, but that plan did not succeed."
Loki restrained himself from grabbing the man and strangling the life out of him; simply hearing him talk about his failed plans to kill the children when they were tiny made him want to tear Reinn to pieces. He didn't know if he could come up with a punishment terrible enough to inflict upon the old man for what he had done.
"Go on." Loki knew whatever he heard next was only going to make him more angry, "How did you plan to kill them? Tell me."
Reinn actually smiled. It seemed he'd given up on attempting to fight the truth serum and was just rolling with it now, finding a perverse joy in explaining to Loki just how he intended to murder his children, "Did you know, Prince Loki, that the flesh of a yew berry is not actually the part that is poisonous? In fact, the seed within is what harbours a dose of lethality."
Loki stared at Reinn for a puzzling moment before it clicked. The trip to the lake edge when the kids were less than two years old, when Kari had fallen badly ill after eating what Inga presumed to be yew berries that had fallen from the trees. It had been Reinn all along.
Grabbing the scruff of Reinn's collar, Loki rigidly demanded to know just how it had happened, "How did you poison him? Tell me."
Reinn's malicious smirk only grew, "There's quite a ditsy cook-maid that worked in the kitchens back then, I used the mind control spell from that dark magic book to take control of her mind without her even realising, after that I had her prepare the kids' meals for that little picnic. She ground the yew berry seeds into a fine powder and sprinkled it into their jam sandwiches, not even knowing she was poisoning their food. You're lucky your little brat of a daughter is such a picky eater, or they both would've fallen badly ill… too bad Inga is good at her job."
Loki's eyes glazed over as he thought of all the torturous ways he could slowly kill Reinn, but nothing felt satisfying enough.
"The book," Loki finally murmured, pulling out the library book on dark magic that had been stolen from the restricted section, "You acquired this how, exactly?"
"Sten Ulfson was so naive, I didn't even have to control his mind at first. You really shouldn't have had somebody so trusting in charge of such significant books and tomes, all I had to do was manipulate him with false compassion and he took the book from the library without recording the check-out and brought it straight to me."
"Makes sense," Loki scathingly stated, "and just how many people ended up under your control all this time?"
Reinn shrugged slightly, "A fair few. Sten, the cook-maid, a few servants and chambermaids to keep tabs on your family, oh, and one of the other advisors."
Loki grinded his teeth, "That's how you kept tabs on us when our locations were supposed to be top secret." He was pissed at himself for sharing such information even with the other advisors, he should have been more careful and told only his brother, "That's how you knew I would be gone that night, when you had Sten attempt to assassinate my children."
"Hmm. I didn't account for your wife waking up at the exact moment to foil my plan; what an unfortunate coincidence, so I had to improvise. Ordered him to kill her first, he would've taken the children out if the guards hadn't forced their way in so soon, I had no choice but to have Sten kill himself, because I knew otherwise you'd get the truth out of him."
Loki steeled himself. It had been such a traumatic event for everybody involved, he thanked his mother and the fates every day that Amelia had come out of it alive. She was so strong, and her strength had allowed her to recover and move past it, being haunted only by the occasional panic attack and the sight of her scar in the mirror. Her resilience was exceptional, and was probably what had helped Loki himself to stay grounded following the incident.
"Again, Inga was too good at her job…"
"It wasn't just Inga, actually," Loki hissed, "Aster is surprisingly gifted with healing abilities that happened to come to light at just the right moment. Her will helped to ensure your plan failed."
"Stupid little brat." Loki ignored the jab at his daughter for now, knowing Reinn would soon regret speaking so brazenly about Asgard's young princess.
"Sten is not a fighter, tell me how he murdered four guards before attempting to harm my children."
Reinn rolled his eyes, as if he was getting bored now, "The combative spell book, it has a spell to grant expert combat abilities on anybody for a very short period of time, just long enough for him to kill the four guards, but apparently the spell had expired by the time he got to your wife or he might actually have slit her throat properly."
Loki picked up the book from the table that Reinn was referring to and flipped through it, locating the spell Reinn was referring to - Gift of the Assassin, a spell usually used to bolster one's own abilities to get themselves out of a sticky situation in a pinch.
"And I'm assuming you used a muffler charm to silence any noise made during the killing of the guards, which would explain why they were all killed with the element of surprise," Loki already knew this was the case thanks to his mother, he spoke his thoughts out loud more for the benefit of confirmation than anything else.
"Correct."
"And that time in the market prior to the assassination attempt, Sten was under your control then as well?"
"Obviously," Reinn drawled.
Loki eyed the prisoner with intense hatred, "What exactly did you expect the outcome of your little deal with Helblindi to be when you had him kidnap my children? Clearly you wouldn't have cared whether myself, Amelia or the children died in the skirmish, but did you wish any harm on your king?"
"It is as you say, I did not expect you, your wife or your children to survive, and if Thor was to avenge you by murdering all those Jotuns in return, that would've been a bonus. I was not worried that he would end up dead or injured given the extent of his power."
"Well, Thor was injured. And Helblindi was killed. That's about it, so it looks like your plan once again failed. How does it feel to be unsuccessful so frequently?"
"It's agitating," Reinn responded flatly.
"Yes, I imagine it is," Loki growled, "but don't worry, you won't get the chance to fail again, because you'll be dead and banished to Hel for eternity."
Reinn harrumphed, "I won't be going to Hel. I was only trying to do this kingdom a favour, the gods will not be blind to my attempts at good deeds."
Loki's lip curled in disgust. Reinn truly believed he was doing good for his kingdom and that he would end up in Valhalla. What an utterly revolting creature he was.
"You're in for a shock, Reinn. Be sure to tell Thanos I said hello." With that, he brandished his knife and began the slow process of skinning Reinn alive; the fool's screams reverberated throughout the dungeon, serving as a warning to anybody else who was present there that scheming to harm any of the royals was a fast ticket to an agonising death and an even more agonising eternity in Hel.
Loki carried out the torture with a blank expression, storing all his contentment and satisfaction away for later as he cut pieces of Reinn away, his fingers becoming soaked with red. When Reinn begged Loki to stop, it only spurred him on further, he let out several years of pent up rage and fear in the one solid hour it took to drain Reinn's life away.
When Loki was done, shortly after Reinn's pulse stopped, he stood there for several minutes staring down at the dead man who had caused him and his family so much endless pain and misery, and grew relieved in the knowledge that his children no longer had to fear living in Asgard. Catharsis washed over him along with the assaulting smell of iron from the puddle of blood on the floor, which had also stained his clothes.
He needed a shower.
Loki bathed in one of the royal bath chambers, being sure to scrub all the blood and filth from his body. He relaxed in the hot water, feeling almost weightless from the knowledge that he had brought Reinn's tyranny to an end and that he didn't have to worry about any Reinn supporters taking a stand to carry out his wicked schemes. It was over.
Peace was on the horizon.
A content smile came over Loki's face, and he reclined in the warmth of the water for another few minutes before getting out and drying himself with a little handy magic. He dressed in his Asgardian linens and headed back to his and Amelia's quarters; when he arrived, Inga and Thor were just leaving, at ease after having been informed by a servant that Reinn had been fully dealt with.
He stood outside the door as they left and Thor inclined his head, wordlessly communicating an array of emotions such as relief, exhaustion, and a fresh serenity in knowing Reinn would not be causing anymore havoc.
"I assume you're heading back to your chambers?" Loki inquired, tilting an eyebrow at the couple.
"Yes, a certain someone shouldn't really be walking on that leg," Inga responded, eyeing the bandages on Thor's lower leg, "a couple day's rest should give it time to heal up." Her concern was unnecessary given Thor's ability of endurance, allowing him to function properly even when parts of him were practically hanging off, but similarly with the way Amelia always fussed over Loki whenever he was injured, Inga had a natural maternal instinct that probably suggested she would make a great mother.
"Congratulations, by the way," Loki spoke, eyes flitting down towards Inga's abdomen, "can it be assumed a wedding is in planning?"
"Thank you, Loki," Inga smiled, peering over at Thor, "we're working on that, but yes, soon enough."
Thor's arm curled around Inga in response, pulling her closer, their gazes holding in a very earnest way; they were both clearly very excited to wed and become parents, Loki didn't blame them.
"Well. I suppose you better start thinking of baby names then," Loki advised, "I can be difficult."
"Oh, we already have a name in mind!" Thor suddenly perked up, a big smile on his face, and Loki's eyes widened in surprise. A name already? It took Loki till the very day of the kids' birth to agree with Amelia on the names of their children. How could Thor already have decided on something, while Inga was only several weeks into her pregnancy?
"What is it?" Loki questioned, curiosity winning over astonishment.
"We're gonna name the little tyke after you!" Thor proposed with a terribly enthusiastic tone.
Loki blinked, his face turning up in disdain, "What?" It seemed to truly be an awful idea.
"Just kidding," Thor chuckled, his amusement growing with every breath of laughter that came out of his mouth, "you should have seen your face, Loki."
Loki pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "Well it's a good thing you're not so stupid as to name your child after me while I'm still alive, it would be extremely and needlessly confusing to have two Loki's running around."
"That it would," Thor snickered. Inga rolled her eyes at his side.
"Come on, Thor. Let's get you rested up," Inga softly spoke, guiding the amused king away from Loki's chambers. Loki could see Thor was ever so slightly limping; it must have been a painful wound to be so flagrant, and yet Thor did not seek any assistance from the healer in Jotunheim. Perhaps Thor did not want to show any sort of weakness in front of Jotunheim's new king, or maybe he only trusted the touch of the woman he loved.
Loki shook his head and entered his quarters, realising as he passed through the protection sigils that he probably didn't need to uphold them any longer; but still… it was better to be safe than sorry. He chose to keep them up for now. It would probably be better for Amelia too, to give her some peace of mind.
Speaking of which, Amelia sat upright in bed, looking a lot more coherent than she had been when he left her. It was getting later in the day and the twins had long since awoken from a long slumber and reverted to their pale skin, and now they were picking at a mix of fresh fruits, bread, cheese and meat that a cookmaid had thankfully brought up to them. Loki also spied the forgotten crumbs of a few sweet muffins that Aster and Kari must have already devoured the moment they set eyes on them.
"Daddy!" The kids exclaimed when they saw him, immediately jumping up off the bed with some newfound vigour towards him. Loki dropped to his knees to gather them both into his arms, holding them a little tighter than he usually would. He embraced them like that for a while as they pressed and inquired into where he had been, at which point Loki made eye contact with his wife, who also looked like she wanted to know what had happened, but Loki held his tongue. He didn't want to spoil this moment by talking about Reinn and relaying the way he had killed the old man in graphic detail, not to the kids and not to Amelia, so he settled for a much simpler explanation.
"I just went to ensure that from now on, you will always be safe here. And this time, I really, really, mean that," he looked at his wife and children with an imploring look, silently begging them to forgive him for ever allowing them to be taken in the first place. He rubbed Kari's back soothingly and brushed his fingers through Aster's hair.
Aster smiled, "Okay, daddy." She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, warming his heart in the process, and he cuddled her even tighter.
"I don't wanna go camping again," Kari murmured into Loki's shoulder.
Loki caught sight of Amelia's sad smile and returned it, "Don't worry, Kari. We don't have to go camping again if you don't want to." It had been a fun trip while it lasted, and then Helblindi's goon's had ruined it. He hoped they could camp again in the future when Kari was less afraid of anything happening again, because up until that point, Loki had been enjoying the nostalgia of it all.
Loki lifted the kids up in his arms and placed them back on the bed, crawling onto it himself. The twins returned to picking and nibbling from the food tray while Loki settled into the bed alongside Amelia, who let her head rest against his shoulder. Mindful of Amelia's arm, Loki wrapped an arm around her and held her close, summoning a book with his free hand.
"How about some reading?" Loki asked aloud to his kids, who made noises of approval as they stuffed cheese into their mouths. The kids burrowed below the covers on Loki's other side and Loki once again opened up his copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone so that he could continue where they left off.
"Chapter four, The Keeper of the Keys…"
Oh man, I'm excited for the last few chapters of this story, so I'll give you guys a little hint as to what is coming... the next chapter will have a bit of a time skip and will focus on Amelia and Loki's sixth wedding anniversary - it's gonna be a very spicy chapter you guys. You have that to look forward to, but it's likely not gonna be coming until New Year's has passed! I do have the week after Christmas off so that'll be the week I put my heart into that chapter xD
So I wish you all a wonderful Christmas to those who celebrate it, and have a very happy new year!