Intrigue
Intrigue: To pique someone's interest, especially by being strange, unusual or mysterious.
Her feet stepped briskly away from the dungeon, her heart beat anxiously against her chest from the meeting with the god of mischief. His behaviour was worse than she had been forewarned. She caught her breath before entering the golden hall where the king stood with her associate Mila, An Asgardian warrior. Mila the saint.
"Fury", Mila breathed out with annoyance, failing to cover the anger he felt toward her venture to stir the God Of Mischief. Bite me Mila. Fury's blue eyes darted toward the dark-haired man. Odin himself seemed to have matched Mila's anger as his sights met his eldest son's return. Thor the God of Thunder.
"Loki's treason has been recognised, he remains in chains, where he will remain for the foreseeable future.", Odin spoke quickly toward Mila, who matched Fury's black armour. She imagined the King took her for an idiot. To believe Loki was suffering in his cell would mean so.
"Loki resides where he will be given sympathy and comfort. Only moments ago he convinced a guard to deactivate the safety shield that holds him. Your people feel he is too safe here, too well treated for his crimes. Midgardians want him dead, this is the only compromise.", Fury spoke with authority, crossing her arms to conceal the irritation she felt.
Odin breathed out, meeting her unfaltering stare.
"The Halfbreed speaks for both Asgardians and the people of Midgard", Mila spoke above the silence, trying not to meet the god's anger. He was more of a soft touch. A man of compromise.
"You see only a prisoner. Someone guilty only of the deadly persuasions of the Tesseract. I see my son, a boy who has suffered by my hand.", The silver-haired man replied in a softer tone than before, his eyes flickering to the vacant seat of his queen, Frigga. In her mind, she played the worlds smallest violin for his pity. It was a reflection discovered much too late.
"If all guilty of treason had a father who bore such selflessness your dungeons would be empty. Loki will not be an exception because he is your son. His trial will show whether or not your people share your forgiveness. Until then, it is safer for us to transport him to a prison of an undisclosed location, where he will be treated as a prisoner.", Fury warned the greying man who did not take kindly to her emotionless words. She didn't know the man who she would drag to his foreseeable doom. She knew only of the manipulation forced upon him by the Tesseract, by his desire to become something worthy of his father's love.
"Tell me truthfully, heroine, you say you speak for both races. What is the verdict you foresee?", The king asked wearily, motioning his hand toward the silver-haired girl who spoke so boldly. Mila gave her a glare of warning, fear glistening in his golden eyes. Mila, so loyal to his King. So willing to tiptoe around him.
"Loki will die for his crimes against the realms. If not by his escape than by the hands of his Inmates. Dead or alive, he will come with us.", She replied with caution and little sensitivity toward the matter. She didn't care, not for the God of Mischief, not for Odin's grief. Cold-blooded is what Mila called her. Evolved is how she saw it. Taken advantage of by giving anyone an inch. Taken a mile. Bitter and heartless.
Frigga, the mother of Loki and Thor, approached soundlessly. Her light hair glistening in the golden hall. Her manner was calm but within her, a storm raged at the girl's words. She didn't know the boy who was her son, the attributes he possessed. She didn't see his intellect underneath the monster she had heard of.
"Loki will come willingly, provided he can protect himself on your journey.", Frigga's green eyes glistened with the ghosts of tears.
"What is required?", Mila asked with respect for his queen.
"Daggers, a pair of twins. In his chambers. A leather-bound book of the same location.", Frigga replied with narrowed eyes that stayed on Fury. She could see the half breed warrior was more than what she seemed. An aura of magic hovered above her. The Queen had questioned why a glorified Asgardian was accompanied by a half breed agent in such a task.
Mila bowed his head in agreement, stepping away from the pedestal to retrieve the set items.
"For the modesty of my son I would much rather be accompanied by Furya", Frigga halted the soldier's action. Fury met the woman's demands, following after the blue gown that moved with haste.
A dull silence filled the empty space between Fury and Frigga on their entry through a black framed door that had begun to sprout ivy in Its neglect. The door softly closed behind the two, welcoming them into a spacious room that lay in a cleaner state than was expected. Books lined the walls in a black wooden casing, hundreds of beautifully kept books, all placed back with the utmost care. The monster's bed was a simple four poster with a deep green ottoman at the foot and simple black sheets. A singular chair was placed in the corner, surrounded by shelving and one lamplight. It was difficult to picture the prince residing in such peace. She had expected his room to withhold an element of perversion: An orbiting circle bed or some array of chains. From an outside point of view, the owner of the room seemed entirely normal but Loki was anything but. His illusion extended further than the magical world.
"I'm afraid you have fallen prey to one of Loki's schemes", Frigga halted beside the small fireplace, wiping the dust from its mantle. Fury raised her eyebrow with a query, confronting the Queen's sympathetic expression. Fallen Prey? Fury? It was laughable.
"Or he has fallen for yours. I was uncertain of why you left him with your knife. It was a dangerous mistake to make. I would retrieve it with the utmost haste.", The ageing woman spoke with wit, warning Fury against matching Loki's mischief. She would lose. An item of personal significance would allow her son to latch onto the protector of realms. To haunt her with dark sorcery, and when he gained freedom, to kill her.
"It was not mine", Fury replied, meeting the bookshelf with awe. She saw where Loki had gained his title, she had not seen the queen hiding in the shadows. It was a mistake she was certain to fix for her next meeting.
Frigga narrowed her eyes, studying the mischievous rival who would take her son from his home.
"You are a protector of both Asgard and Midgard. A half-breed to both. Someone who was chosen for their unyielding courage. Yet you are a stranger to this realm. A warrior unknown to me.", The amber-haired woman watched Fury's slender fingers curl around the spine of a crimson covered novel, intrigued by its contents of sorcery. Her red lips murmured a few words of scripture within the book, tilting her head with thought. Transparent was what the Queen's behaviour toward her became. A bitter woman who wouldn't part from Loki without a fight.
"I imagine it was you who collected these tales of black magic, Frigga. Where does one find such novels? There are none within this realm.", Fury asked softly, peeling her eyes toward the uncomfortable woman who she had ignored. She knew one would have to travel to distant lands to find such treasure, to peel it from unwilling hands.
The Queen was silent in her movement that fluttered across the room, gripping the hilt of Loki's polished green dagger.
"The novel you hold is quite an astonishing read", Frigga flinched at the mercenary's autonomous path that led to a book rather precious. Her green eyes glistened with fear while they searched Fury's muscled but slender stature. The woman possessed an alluring beauty in her pale skin that glowed underneath the golden Sun and her pronounced but slender nose that shielded the light from her left side. Her lips pouted just enough that to look natural, they matched her long shapely face that held dark eyebrows and eyelashes despite her almost silver blonde hair. A silver ring pierced the left side of her nostril. She was visually appealing in the sharpness of her face. Questions riddled the Queen's thoughts. Fury was different from anything she'd seen before. If she knew anything it was that Fury wasn't human.
"Is it dark magic you wish to learn?", Frigga tested with her knife gripped firmly in her hand, lurking uncomfortably close. The blonde haired woman knitted her brows in disbelief. Did she take Fury for a fool?
"I am well learned in sorcery, I can see that you are not. Yet you hold but a sliver of magic.". Fury searched the Queen's eyes with a blatant glare. Frigga smiled politely while grasping tighter at the knife she had concealed under her sleeve.
"I have retrieved the novel, it is time", Fury's heart beat with anticipation that urged her feet past Frigga. She hovered over the Queen, motioning toward her blade.
"You think I would give you a weapon, Loki?", She met Frigga's lips, unnerving her with their curl into a snarling grin. The queen's flowing gown was replaced with a black leather tunic, trimmed with a forest green material against golden stripes. Her amber hair turned a midnight Black and her sun-kissed skin lost all warmth. Suddenly Fury no longer exceeded the height of the person In front of her.
"You are perceptive, I will give you that and only that. What was it that shattered my scheme?", Loki smirked graciously, finding a sliver of joy in testing the woman's competence.
"Frigga knows who I am.", Fury hissed, swiping the knife from his grasp. He held many questions but none posed more obvious than that of how had he never met her in his 1000 years. It was his mistake. He assumed she was a woman of Midgard, an agent of SHIELD.
"Is Furya it not your name?", He jabbed. He had noticed his mistake moments after he had said the words under his mother's disguise. Fury had unravelled his ploy then and there. He watched her, following her hand that sheathed his dagger against her belt. Had she learned nothing?
"Not to you", Her reply was quick, without thought. His musk overcame her senses with the strong scent of leather and old parchment. She had to admit his illusion was damn near impossible to tell apart from his corporeal form. His sorcery was strong. She knew it to be near impossible to achieve such an illusion. While he sparked her interest it was a rookie move to be alone with the trickster. He'd bring death or chaos. Or both.
Fury's feet ushered her closer to the door, turning her back on the trickster, her only mistake yet.
"I finally have a name to match the eyes. It seems a waste to have to kill you"
A loud shatter alerted her, turning just in time to avoid the wrath of Loki's sharp blade before his illusion was dissipated by a hulking beast of a man who slammed himself against the wooden floor, fooled by Loki's tricks. He stood quickly and she met his mirroring blue eyes that narrowed toward her, hoping to find some recognition. He didn't know her.
"Thor?", She questioned the flustered muscled man whose golden hair settled at his shoulders. His outfit was a brushed grey colour, accompanied by a red cape.
"And you are?", The man who had crashed through the window to save her questioned with politeness. His mother mentioned only that Loki had latched onto a new captor, that he planned to harm her.
"Fury", She replied with delay, her eyes meeting that shattered glass that sprayed against the luxurious rug underneath, littering it with sharp shards.
"Fury...", Thor halted his speech, unsure of what else to say. He knew she had come to take his brother. His eyes drifted to her similar colour choice in armour.
"I like the red", He pointed to the red stitching of her vest, earning a weak nod from the woman who watched him retrieve the hammer that had launched him through the window. Her blue eyes squinted with furrowed brows. The man was a rainbow in godlike form. His childlike grin told her as much. Delaying her speech.
"Uh huh"
"I would very much like to continue this conversation elsewhere. Would you accompany me?", Thor's eyes darted around his brother's room with caution. He didn't underestimate the power Loki had. The trickster was most logically was watching them now. Peering at them through whatever he used to see Fury, An object, A person even a strand of hair. Luring them to his room was a new trick that he had been reduced to inside his cell. He was weakened but never powerless.
Fury nodded her head in answer. Anything to leave the strong sense of being watched she felt within the room. Little did she know that the god had meant to leave in the same hole he had made through part of the glass door and golden wall. Her eyes widened with warning, seeing his arm reach for her waist.
"No way in hell", She hissed, resisting his grip that lightly swayed her closer.
"Yes way", He smiled with amusement, grasping her at his side with ease and taking off from the black tiled floor. His reply was a whisper over the whooshing wind his hammer created, swirling it like a lasso.