Disclaimer: By no means is anything related to the Marvel Universe or Norse Mythology my own.

Chapter 2: The Deal

Loki slowly opened his eyes as the light flooded his vision. He got up holding his head with the massive migraine hitting him. He felt as if he was torn into two, stretched by that Midgard device called the rack. His vision finally focused and he found he was in a blue, glossy room. He felt the floor and it was smooth and cold, like ice. He looked back to what happened before and then it hit him.

"I'm in their dungeons, " he realized sharply looking over at the transparent ice sheet that held him in. He struggled to stand, then walked to the sheet. He reached his hand out to try to punch a hole through it with seidr, but nothing happened. He tried heat and teleportation but all were futile.

"Your magic won't work here, these cells were enchanted by the late queen herself," a Jötun informed him stepping in front of the cell, "I'm Býleistr, prince and head of army in Jötunheim."

"And what are you to do with me?" Loki asked dull faced.

"I am to make you work. Seidr is a lost art to us and it can be our saving grace. Your task will be to recreate the casket of ancient winters."

Loki gave a sour chuckle, "How do you expect me to recreate the collection of the most powerful, raw Jötun magic that ever existed?"

"You are a powerful wielder of seidr, and with a bit of effort you will master Jötun magic too. Think about how many years have you been just sitting there with nothing else to learn."

Loki thought about it for a moment and then gave a smirk, "When do I start?"

"Now," the Jötun told him waving his hand at the sheet of ice. It slid down into the ground and Loki stepped out, "but know that if you run we will find you."

Loki gave a nod and Býleistr started to lead him out of the dungeons and down the halls. Loki noticed that there were few servants in this part of the castle. He wondered if they were lacking all around the palace. Then he wondered where all the guards were.

"Vermin," Býleistr remarked spitting at the servants' feet then continuing in silence until they passed them, "They are from the Járnviđr. The wolves are barbaric and with that leader of theirs I'm not surprised."

"Who is their leader?"

"Angrbođa, the Hagia of Járnviđr. She helped us in the war until the end, where she just fell back. She called all the wolves she could back but the ones in our army were forced to stay. When we lost we kept them as collateral damage," he gave a hearty laugh, "Sufficient to say she was angry."

"But why enslave her people? She will surely never help you again."

"She has no choice," he looked back at Loki, "We may be asking you to recreate the casket of ancient winters but it is for different reasons than what the casket is intended for. This one will solely boost our powers and maybe teleport us if we're lucky. The real casket is the life force of this realm, without it everything will wither and die, including the ironwood."

"Does the Allfather know this?" Loki asked and the Jötun scoffed.

"Of course he does, he is the Allfather. He knows our weaknesses and strengths, what makes us live and die. Even so, we will beat him, he may know a lot but he doesn't know everything."

Býleistr stopped in front of a greatly decorated door, ushering Loki to open it. Loki turned the icy handle and opened the door. The icy carvings lit up with green flowing through lines along the walls, the room losing its furniture with a flash of green light. Then a blue magic went from his hand blending with the green going down in the carved pattern on the floor. With a shimmer of blue magic rose new icy furniture. Loki removed his hand from the handle and stepped inside in awe.

"The queen made this room for her first born who was taken from her in the war. It was not meant for a spoiled Æsir prince who would assist his enemy for the sake of new magic. It is a shame it is in the power of the likes of you," with that Býleistr stepped out and slammed the door.

With Býleistr gone he was able to observe the room better. The room had minimum furniture in it, however, it still was interesting. The first thing his eyes were drawn to were the bookshelves lining one of the walls. He was surprised to find his favorite tombs lined up on the shelves. He grazed his finger along the spines feeling the carved titles stopping at an old fairytale book from when he was younger.

He opened the book flipping to his favorite story, Prince Lindworm, running his finger across it. His mother would read it to him when he had a bad dream, which he would probably call a nightmare if it wasn't his life at the time. He would always dream of being an outcast, ridiculed for his seidr or his lack of physical ability. When his mother read the story he would hope that someone would strip away his imperfections and turn him into the favored son, but he soon gave up that dream when he grew to know better. When he was no more than 500 (10) he would spend some days hiding from Thor in the library trying to escape being around his friends who thought Loki no greater than a pest. As he grew older the task didn't change but rather the frequency. He would spend days on end in the place contented by the silence but unnerved by the thought that he would have to come out again sometime.

He placed down the book with a sad smile, he would have all the silence he wanted but he wouldn't be able to see Thor in a while. Even worse, he would not see his mother either. It was worth it in a sense, with new knowledge of the Jötun magic they could easily win the war without much bloodshed. Of course, there would be no war if Thor had just walked away, or that guard had not taken his sweet time. He wouldn't be a prisoner of war forced to make the weapon that could kill thousands of innocents, which he could not delay without him getting killed. Loki flopped on the bed which had no mattress, but rather a thousand snow flurries that seemed to not pack together or even melt. He wished he was home, which was a funny concept since he always wanted to escape Asgard, whether by Bifrost or book. Then a knock sounded at his door and he shot up from his laying position.

"Who is it?" Loki asked cautiously.

"Prince Loki, the King wishes you to come to dinner," presumably a servant told him.

He walked over to the door opening it to the person behind it. He was now looking at a Jötun female of about seven feet in ragged clothes standing before him. She had her head downturned in respect, but with her height it was difficult to do so.

"So King Laufey wants me to dine with him?" he asked skeptically and the servant nodded.

"I am to lead you to the dining hall now," she stated and Loki nodded following her down the halls.

It was an unpleasant silence, but what did he expect from a servant. Loki wondered if this servant girl was a wolf as he could practically smell the seidr coming off of her. She was powerful indeed and that got him wondering why the wolves stayed if they were this powerful.

His thoughts were interrupted as they reached two grand doors. The servant opened then to reveal King Laufey and Býleistr at a grand table filled completely with warriors. When Laufey looked up to meet Loki's gaze he stood up knocking his chair over, silencing the hall.

"What is the meaning of this?" The king growled and the servant lifted her head.

"Father, I wanted him here," the servant told the king melting away into the young girl that pulled Loki out of the Bifrost.

"Helblindi, he is a prisoner, not a guest," Laufey told her grabbing his chair from the floor and slamming it upright.

"So you are to let him starve? He has agreed to help us so why treat him any less than us?" she told the king as he sat with a huff.

"Take a seat son of Odin," Laufey told him in his gravelly voice, gesturing the chair next to him.

Helblindi smiled and practically skipped to her seat also next to the king, Loki taking a more formal stride to his.

"Father he cannot sit-" Býleistr began but was interrupted by the king's gesture to stop.

Once both Loki and Helblindi were seated the warriors started to chat once again. Loki sat in silence along with the royal family. He could tell Helblindi wanted to talk but she retained her silence.

"Helblindi-" Laufey began to speak to her but in no more than a low mumble too silent for anyone else to hear.

"But father-" she began before interrupted by the king.

"Not today Helblindi," he told her a bit harsher and she nodded.

With a flash of green light she transformed from the young Jötun girl into a young Jötun boy. Loki sensed no magic or illusion coming off his form which meant that Helblindi was a boy, not that Loki cared but he was curious as to why he preferred the girl form.

"Hey Loki, you're a seidr master right?" Helblindi asked Loki and he was shocked but then nodded, "What did you think of my transforming skill?"

"Quite good although you don't know how to mask your magic yet, any skilled user would be able to sense you were using an illusion," He told him and Helblindi nodded.

"Maybe you can teach me, and I can teach you Jötun magic!" he exclaimed excitedly and Loki gave a smile.

"I would love to," he told him as genuine as he could manage.

"Blin, he is going to be too busy to teach you magic. Besides, seidr is not warrior's pursuit, it is for healers and bored housewives," Býleistr told the boy and Helblindi gave him a glare.

"I just want to be like mother, powerful in body, mind, and seidr. Why would I want to be the brutish general?" he jabbed at his brother.

"What man would stoop to such an inferior position as a woman? You might as well become a wolf while you're at it!"

With that the brothers became quiet. Helblindi looked at him in shock and he looked back with a fierce glare.

Before any of the warriors could notice the tension the food came out. Loki looked at the platters in shock, they were wolf limbs, wolf heads adorning the center.

"We eat good tonight!" King Laufey yelled and the warriors cheered digging into the meal in front of them.

Loki looked at the food unsure, it could very well be some the Jötun wolves from Járnviđr.

Helblindi noticed that Loki was not eating and whispered, "What's wrong?"

"These aren't Jötun shapeshifters right?" he asked him and he shook his head.

"Don't worry Loki, these are ordinary wolves, they aren't even from Járnviđr."

"Not that they could be, we made a deal with Angrbođa before the war that we would not touch any wolves in her precious forest. Of course we still needed to eat so she allowed us to hunt the regular wolves that live outside her perimeters," Býleistr added stabbing into the meat some more.

"And you uphold the agreement even when you are in conflict with each other?"

"Having animosity towards each other is no reason for bloodshed. We are all Jötuns in the end, and we have loyalty to our kind. That comes before petty feuds." King Laufey informed him taking another bite from the wolf leg.

Loki nodded and took his first bite of the food

"How is it Loki?" Helblindi asked him and Loki nodded.

He smiled at Loki pleased with his answer, "Good, I know it isn't as good as the food on Asgard but still, glad you enjoy it."

"And how would you know? You haven't been to the place never mind eat the food that the royals do," Býleistr asked sourly making Helblindi lose his smile.

"Asgard has the access to all the nine realms, they can get all the best ingredients and make the most amazing meal ever, we are restricted to the tundra."

"We don't actually use many ingredients from other realms," Loki corrected, "We are very much closed up in means of trade. Asgard doesn't see the point if better things are produced in our realm."

"So you are stuck in the past?" Helblindi asked a bit surprised, "I thought Asgard would be readily taking new information and goods that the realms present and build on them, but you don't even look."

"We do advance, we improve our weapons, our cultural relations, society-"

"In comparison to what? What do you do, use your own models for reference, you have no civil wars and the last war was the Jötun-mannfall. Even Midgard can have more advanced weapons than you now. You would not even know!"

After that a large bell rang and the warriors stopped talking immediately. They all got up placing empty platter on top of empty platters, scraping their scraps on the one large empty platter that once held the wolf limbs and head. They started to leave the hall and so did Býleistr, who left with nothing more than a respectful bow to Loki.

"If you would excuse me, I have a war meeting to get to. Blindi, if you could lead Loki to the courtyard you can start the lessons," King Laufey said giving a nod to Loki and fluffing the little boy's hair.

As Laufey left the room Helblindi sighed and transformed back into a girl muttering, "I hate when he does that."

There was some silence until she got up and went over to Loki's chair. He looked at her curiously as she held out her hand.

"Come prince Loki, you are coming to learn some Jötun magic today."

Authors Note: First of all I would like to thank everybody that followed this story. It means a lot to me that people find this interesting, so thank you again. Secondly, I got my first comment, which was also fantastic. I would appreciate any comments any of you have, as long as they are reasonable. I also do not mind getting grammar and spelling comments seeing as those are my weak points. Sorry for the late update but hey, I did update on a Sunday... just not the right Sunday. I make no promises for the next update, I have learned my lesson, but I hope that all of you continue to read. If you guys have any questions feel free to ask, I will answer, as long as I have no plans of writing the answer in a future chapter. Also a little fun fact: mannfall means slaughter in Old Norse according to the York College's English to Old Norse dictionary so yeah. Happy Halloween and Dia de los Muertos. Ciao!