Sorry everyone. I got really stuck with this chapter and then life happened but it's done now. I haven't abandoned this story or anything. Thanks for making it this far.
Three men wearing the golden armour of the Einherjar came from the Bifrost bridge into Heimdall's observatory.
"My Lord Heimdall," one of them began, bowing his head. "We have orders from our king to use the Bifrost. Will you grant us access?"
Heimdall did not look at any of them, he continued to stare off at something that none of them could see when he answered them. "I am already aware. You may pass."
The man who had bowed looked up sharply. "You were?"
"I see everything," was the flat response.
"Then we thank you."
Heimdall pushed the sword into the mechanism and activated the Bifrost. They saw one last glimpse of the throne room before they were warped away by the vacuum of light. When it dissipated, they were on Midgard, surrounded by desert.
"The settlement is that way," said one of them, pointing to the left where the silhouette of a town peeked from above the horizon in the distance.
"And Thor in it."
The first guard held a hand on his sword's sheath.
"We do not wish to alarm the town's inhabitants. We must retain the element of surprise."
"Surely it won't be necessary? They are mortals. No one here poses any threat to us. Even Thor could not fight us in the state he is in."
"We should not cause unnecessary disruption."
"Then where do you propose we go?"
"We do not take the main paths. It is early in the morning here anyway. Not many of them will be here."
"Then let us go."
From Hlidskjalf, Loki had his gaze locked on the healing chambers, on the unassuming looking girl who had been speaking such treason earlier that day. She didn't seem to do anything out of the ordinary at all, though he had hardly been looking for a long enough time. He could hardly expect her to do anything incriminating in the short time as he watched her, but it was frustrating none the less.
He had been using Hlidskjalf's sight for barely five minutes and his eyes already felt as though they would burn to embers. His head throbbed so intensely that the entire world around him seemed to shake.
Of all the things he had looked forward to about being regent, sitting on his father's throne and being able to see whatever he pleased across all of the nine realms was the most exciting. He was rather disappointed now.
His father must be used to it, he supposed. He never seemed to suffer any pain. Perhaps it went away with practice. He himself had improved slightly, at first not being able to look around for more than half a minute. He didn't know whether that spoke of his ability to use it or his pain tolerance.
Having rested his eyes a moment, he cast his gaze out again, this time to his own chambers where his parents were.
Could he truly call them his parents?
He banished that thought as fast as it came.
He looked away from his rooms and across the citadel over to his Father's chambers. Though it was now abandoned, two guards still stood by the entrance and his mother's illusion maintained the facade that the king still lay there. He knew that his mother didn't understand why he was being so cautious. Even he had to admit, but only to himself, that he was being overly paranoid about all this. Going to such extra lengths to conceal their actions from the guards was perhaps overkill, but he was grateful to his mother that she went along with it anyway. He wasn't sure who else in the castle he could trust now.
Of course, nothing substantial had pointed to the king being in danger, but he was paranoid. He knew that, essentially, a coup was planned to take place. Eir certainly didn't see it that way, but she had admitted that she wasn't the only one involved. He trusted her not to have malicious intentions but who knew what was going on that she didn't know about. The servant girl's conversation was proof of that.
The first thing one generally did when planning a coup was to dispose of the king. Loki couldn't leave him vulnerable where anyone knew where he was.
The guards themselves had not noticed that anything was amiss. Which, of course, they wouldn't. They had no reason to. He was still in the throne room.
He was about to look away again but something caught his eye. Clipped to one of their belts, an innocuous-looking pouch was partially hidden under one of his layers of leathers.
Was it the same as that which had contained Eisjenvenom, as the guard in the infirmary had been poisoned with?
Then, one of the guards broke his stoic position and leaned over to his companion, whispering something. The other replied something in turn and glanced over his shoulder into the royal chambers.
The conversation continued. Loki looked much closer, trying to find any inkling of what they were saying to each other. He could not yet hear what he saw through Hlidskjalf, though he knew his father could.
Their mouths seemed to blur and the world spun around him. He closed his eyes and tried to look again but was met with the same result. His eyes burned and his head throbbed.
He choked back a grunt of frustration. He had to know what was going on. If the guards were involved in this too then the situation would be much worse than he had thought. It would prove him right, and that was a bad sign. If only he could just eavesdrop on their talk, like this stupid device was supposed to allow him to do, then he would know for sure.
He changed his approach. Rather than trying to lip-read, he focused on hearing instead. He focused on being there, standing beside them corporeally, imagined turning his ear and leaning. He was ecstatic as he sensed a muffled murmur that he knew didn't come from the throne room. Then the pain hit, like a knife stabbing through his skull. He immediately pulled himself out and sat on the throne panting and clutching his head.
Infernal device! This was pointless. He would have to do this his own way.
He stood up from the throne, still clutching his head, and ran out of the throne room, completely forgetting to act dignified and regal. Once he was around the corner at the point with the strongest connection, he slipped through Yggdrasil over to the other side of the citadel, cloaking himself last minute.
"…not much point now," said one of them.
"We must wait then," said the other.
Loki waited for the two to speak again but, before they could, one of them froze and looked straight at him. Loki tensed. He instantly checked his cloaking but it was still in place.
The guard then nudged his friend. "Do you feel that?". Then he looked right at Loki again and his face went white.
Without even a thought in his panic, Loki pulled himself straight back to the throne room. He had been seen, he was sure of it, but he didn't know how. He was cloaked! The strain of his unprepared leap through the paths left him aching and his seidr strained.
This whole situation was infuriating. He could find nothing incriminating of them and yet he knew that something was wrong. Could they be traitors too? Could this be a plot he'd uncovered? He had to find this out. He couldn't just wait for them to reveal themselves, he had to make it happen.
If they wished to kill his father, they would not be able to do so while they believed his mother to be in the room; not using the poison he suspected would be their weapon. She would see them, and they would not be able to kill her without being much more violent. If they wanted to pin the blame on natural causes – which Eisjenvenom was perfect for…
All the pieces seemed to fit together in a horrible puzzle. He knew that this possibility was unlikely, but he had to test it just in case. It was precaution, not paranoia.
He did not need to think about it long. Grimacing as he pulled on his strained seidr, he projected himself into his mother's chambers to enact the first stage of his test.
His mother seemed surprised by his sudden appearance. "Loki," she said. "What brings you here this time?"
Loki decided to jump straight to the point. "You are sustaining an illusion of yourself in Father's chamber," he stated.
"Yes?" she said, confused.
"I need you to make the guards believe that you are leaving the room for a fairly long period of time."
"Why?" She pressed.
He was frustrated. He didn't know how to explain what he was doing to her, and now that he was faced with it, he doubted that Frigga would see the urgency in the situation. He didn't bother. "I need to test something," he said simply.
Frigga stared at him for a while, then decided to just accept his explanation, likely knowing that he wouldn't offer a better one. "Alright. What should I tell them?"
"Tell them that I sent for you. That is not even a lie." It would normally take at least a half-hour to get to the throne room from the royal chambers. The guards would have no better opportunity if they were to kill the king.
"That sounds reasonable." She said after some time. "Did you need anything else?"
"I do not." He replied and was gone.
Back on the throne, Loki looked over to his father's chambers again, where his mother's illusion left the chamber and spoke to the guards before leaving. Through the spinning, Loki watched them as closely as he could.
He was getting more used to Hlidskjalf now, though his magic had been through the wringer and everything felt difficult. He kept his gaze glued to what was going on and fully ignored the pain it caused him. He did not need to focus on them too closely. Just knowing where they went was good enough.
After Frigga's illusion had gone out of sight, the two guards looked at each other and nodded. One of them unclipped his leather pouch from his belt.
This was it. Loki was even surer now, but he still waited and watched them with bated breath.
The guards entered Odin's chamber. One of them walked up to the bed while the other stood at the entrance, looking confused and concerned. He then called out something to the other one who seemed to notice that Odin wasn't in his bed where he was supposed to be.
That was enough. He was right!
Perhaps it would not be enough evidence to convince anyone else of their guilt. It could be circumstantial – merely a coincidence, perhaps. They could have just decided at that moment to check on the king: a show of loyalty and initiative. Loki barely entertained the possibility in his mind. Everything had lined up too cleanly for him.
Of course, it wasn't a good thing that he was right about this. After the initial thrill of his suspicions being proved correct passed, a dawning feeling of dread settled. There truly were people trying to kill the king. The thought was horrifying. The thought of anything happening to his father…
And if there were people out to kill his father – and his brother, what was their plan overall? What were they trying to achieve? Every possibility he could think of was sinister.
Loki stopped watching them, his vision snapping back to the throne room. He didn't know what to do from here. What could he do? He knew so little about what was going on. He decided to start with the obvious.
He got the attention of the guards by the throne by standing up.
"I need you to bring here the guards stationed outside my father's chambers," he commanded. "With force if necessary. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, my lord." They bowed to him and walked away.
Loki sat back on the throne and waited.
An hour later, the two guards were brought before him. Both of them tried to remain unfazed and unconcerned that they had been asked specifically to come to the throne room after attempting to poison the king. They weren't very successful. One kept his gaze focused entirely on Loki, his eyes wide and face pale. The other appeared far too nonchalant.
"Hand me the pouch clipped to your belts," he ordered.
The first guard's face turned white and the other tilted his head to the side, unconcerned to the extent of appearing defiant, though Loki doubted that was his intention.
"Why of course," said the second guard, unclipping his from own from his belt and passing it to the guard who escorted him there, "Though I must ask why."
The guard walked up to the throne and handed both pouches to Loki. He studied them for a second, then looked back up.
"Arrest them."
The guards standing unnoticed around the room realised that they were being called upon and moved towards the throne to restrain the two guards. The two guards knew that they had been caught, though they still made a weak attempt to seem surprised by the arrest.
"What?" said one of the other guards.
"My king?" one of them pleaded.
"On what grounds?" asked another.
Loki stood up.
"Treason," he replied shortly.
"What evidence is there for this?"
Loki slammed Gungnir on the floor.
"I am the king. I need not explain my orders to you. You must do as I say."
The other guards bowed their heads to him and backed down, but they shot an exasperated look at each other.
"Escort them to the dungeon," Loki commanded.
The guards nodded and took the two guards out of the throne room, who made no attempt to resist them but looked around with fake confused looks on their faces at the other guards who shrugged their shoulders and looked worried. They did not use any force to take them away and there was no malice, only sympathy.
Once they had gone, Loki sat back down and examined the pouches again. He then stood up again and left the throne room himself.
Down on Midgard, Thor was as happy as he could be given the situation. The mortals had proven themselves to be much better company than he had expected when he was banished. He had worried that he was to be flung into a realm of primitives. He thought it would be a safe yet primitive realm whose inhabitants died in the blink of an eye and whose intelligence showed exactly that. Much better than being banished to a hostile realm such as Nidavellir or, Norns forbid, Jotunheim. But a backwards realm with nothing but the most basic of advancements.
But the realm was vastly different from what it had been when he had visited as a child before his father had forbidden travel here. They had organised themselves into an organisation that stopped even him from getting back his own hammer, which had been a big shock. Who had their eyes on him even now, though they thought he was oblivious. They understood far more than he had ever expected. They had come up with many amazing foods such as coffee and pop tarts. If he ever made it back to Asgard, he would have to bring some back with him.
Of course, there was the beautiful mortal woman by the name of Jane whose incredible intellect had shocked him. When she had asked him about the nine realms, at times, he found himself unable to answer her questions. She had reminded him so much of his brother. He found himself wishing that Loki was here, who would no doubt know the answers to her questions without handwaving a metaphor he had heard.
The thought of Loki made his heart clench.
His friends had come down to join him and he was unbelievably grateful for their company, but they had brought with them the news that his brother had betrayed him. He had lied when he said that their father was dead and had stolen the throne for himself. They had told him that he had always been jealous and had been the one to betray them to the Jotnar in the first place. He couldn't believe it.
He knew that he had never been the best judge of character, but Loki was his brother. His loyal little brother. He couldn't just accept that he'd been lied to all this time. He had never understood him, but surely he was not a traitor.
But his friends wouldn't lie, and it made sense. He wanted desperately to be able to return to Asgard to talk to Loki. Shake some sense into him.
And his friends wanted him to do exactly that. They had come to try and convince him to come back to Asgard with them despite his banishment and overthrow his brother to regain his rightful place on the throne.
Before his banishment, his anger would have overtaken him and he would have easily rushed straight back to Asgard, consequences be damned, to reclaim what had been taken from him. Now though, he found himself hesitating, and not as overtaken by righteous anger as he would have been before.
He was banished, so the throne wasn't his to reclaim, even if it really was Loki who tricked him into it. He had begun to realise why he had been banished in the first place, what his father had wanted him to learn.
It didn't make him decide not to act, but it gave him pause.
The eight of them had all been crammed into the mortals' small building at first. He decided that to clear all of their heads, he should show them the mortal beverage of coffee. Erik had decided to stay where he was but Jane and Darcy had decided to join them.
They were barely out of the door when Sif's arm shot out in front of his face and everyone halted. In her hand, hovering inches from his neck was an arrow.
They looked at each other in shock.
"What just happened?" exclaimed Darcy.
"There!" Cried Volstagg, spotting the archer who'd shot the arrow peeking over the ridge of one of the rooves. He was perched so that he was partially hidden by it. Fandral immediately drew his bow and shot another arrow at him. He dodged it quickly letting it bounce off his golden helmet with a clang that must have left him disorientated. He slunk down and tried to escape behind the building. Sif chased after him.
Without warning, an explosion rang out from behind them and, through the dust that had been thrown into the air, a dagger came straight for Thor's chest. This time it was blocked by Hogun's sword. He parried it round and back onto the attacker who they could see now that the dust was clearing and nearly forced it up to his neck until he managed to scramble out of the way and ducked under the sword, thrusting back again his much more versatile weapon to Hogun's stomach who dodged with a spin and regained his stance.
Before Hogun had time to think, another swordsman had hit him from behind, then barrelled his way over to Thor. He was stopped by Volstagg, his huge frame and weapon blocking his path
As Fandral dropped his bow and pulled his sword from its sheath, Thor, angered, pulled out his spare and held it aloft himself. He was immediately shocked by the weight of it, cursing his mortal body, but was not phased. He had to fight with honour and glory, regardless of his limitations. He was a prince of Asgard!
The mortals had run back inside the house of coffee. Thor was glad for it. He worried that his presence here had put them all in danger, and he was furious at the men attacking. They seemed to only be looking to harm him though, ignoring the much more vulnerable mortals. He was glad for that.
A few yards away, the first attacker – the archer – was forced to retreat back to the main group as Sif outmaneuvered him with her spear.
From there, the fight didn't last long. The attackers were severely outnumbered and outmatched now that they had lost the element of surprise. Very quickly, their bodies lay dead on the desert floor.
All of them sheathed their weapons.
"These men were Einherjar," said Sif, looking over at their traditional golden armor.
"That makes no sense!" said Volstagg. "Why would anyone from Asgard's own army attack us here on Midgard?"
"And they were clearly outmatched," said Fandral. "It was the five of us here against the three of them. They surely could not have expected to win this fight."
Sif furrowed her brow. "Perhaps they did not know that we were here. Perhaps they thought they would only be fighting Thor – who is currently mortal and…" she paused, looking at Thor who looked indignant at what she was about to say. "Well, not helpless. I'm sure you would have fought them valiantly. But they would have fought a single weakened opponent like cowards."
As they spoke, they were approached from behind by the agent Coulson and some of his fellow agents – those that had been tracking him since he had been let go from the prison of fabric surrounding Mjolnir.
"Donald," he said to Thor as the others parted ways for him. There was an almost amused glint in his eye. "I don't think you've been completely honest with me."
Thor almost laughed. "Nay, you are right. And I apologise for my dishonesty, my friend."
Sif ignored the mortal newcomer. "This was Loki! It must have been. He is in control of the Einherjar. He tried to have you killed!"
"Loki?" asked Coulson.
"My younger brother."
"But why?" asked Fandral.
"He already told you that your father is dead," she said to Thor. "And he brought in the Jotnar on the day of your coronation. He wants your place on the throne. I'm sure of it!"
"And he doesn't know we're here," said Volstagg. "He forbade us from joining you here!"
"But what can we do?" spoke up Hogun.
"I will speak with him," said Thor, his glare hard with new determination. He raised Fandral's sword in the air. "We go back to Asgard. Heimdall!"
The sky around them roared. A huge beam of destructive light crashed into the ground and engulfed the five Asgardians. The two SHIELD agents accompanying Coulson jumped out of their skins.
Once the light disappeared, all of the Asgardians were gone.
"Well, that's that then," said Coulson.
"Holy hell!"
Loki arrived in the healing chambers a while later. No one noticed him at first. A few people looked up at him, then widened their eyed and bowed their heads to him. Some of them acknowledged him but forgot to use the etiquette required for the king. He was very often in the healing rooms so it made sense that they wouldn't immediately remember that they needed to, but he thought that they should have made that connection after he forced them to trek across the whole palace and back.
He couldn't see Eir in the first room, but he could see Sara who, while still keeping an eye on him, was no longer sat next to her patient in fear that something would go wrong with his condition. Loki made his way over to her.
"Loki, hello." She greeted. "Do you need some…" she trailed off and her eyes widened. "My king! I meant to say. I apologise." She bowed awkwardly. "What brings you here?"
Loki pulled out the two pouches. "I suspect that these may be poisoned."
Sara's eyes widened. "You'll never believe what a coincidence this is! A man was poisoned just today who carried the poison himself in one of these pouches. Of course, it was probably an accident. He's the man lying unconscious over there."
Loki tried to appear surprised.
"Loki?" came Eir's surprised voice from behind him. "My king."
Loki turned around to face her, as did Sara.
"I did not expect to see you here…" she continued hesitantly. Unsure if he was still upset with her after their last conversation. "Is everything alright?"
"In a manner of speaking," he replied.
"What do you mean? What's happened?"
Loki gestured over to Sara who was scanning the pouches with one of the devices.
Sara looked up at them worriedly after a few seconds, holding them back for Loki to take. "You're right. They have been poisoned. Eisjenvenom. Just like the one we found this guard with."
"Thank you. That was what I needed to know. I'll leave now."
"Loki, your Majesty, you can't just leave with no explanation of this…"
But Loki was already gone.
Thanks for reading!
Hopefully, it won't be another 5 months before I update again :) I already have a lot of the next chapter written so it shouldn't take too long.
For this chapter, as well as getting hugely stuck, I've had mocks come up. They're over now though. Is it ironic that the only subject I failed was English? IDK. Now they're over I've just got the real thing to do. I really hate school sometimes.
