Visitation

by kalimecat

Loki has returned to Asgard and is imprisoned for his crimes. While in prison he has the occasional visitor, will the love of others bring back the fallen prince or is he truly too far gone?

4. Monster

Hello Readers! I'm sorry it took me so long to update but life get's pretty busy at times and pushes out the moments devoted to writing. Once again I thank you for your encouragement and opinions expressed through your reviews, favorites, and follows. I welcome them to the fullest. This is a longer chapter but hopefully it is filled with enough to hold your interest all the way through, but I felt it was only fair to make it longer since it took me so long to post. Enjoy!

Jaquelinlittle- To answer your question at the Academy they would study a variety of subjects such as Literature, Astronomy, Rhetoric, History/Law, Art (Pottery, sculpting, architecture), Music and of course weaponry and combat would be a large part of the curriculum as well. Sif would be required to take these subject matters. To some extent all students may have been exposed to some basic magic as in how to do some basic healing, but I would consider magic, alchemy, linguistics and barding (becoming and actual minstrel or bard) specialized classes for only the most outstanding young scholars. In regards to you question about was Thor supposed to be able to attend the Cotillion the answer would be yes. The cotillion is about presenting young women as eligible for courtship, being a prince and teenage boy Thor would most certainly want to know who are the eligible bachelorettes of the realm.

To all readers happy reads and God Bless!

Light flooded into the dreary dungeon like 1000 candles being lit all at once. The radiance was at a distance, but it no less penetrated the heavy shade of black that engulfed the dismal cell. The chained wretch confined to such utter darkness, squinted as the bright glow drew closer. Jade eyes watered, the sudden exposure to such illumination, after being in perpetual obscurity was a great shock to the senses. He floundered an shook violently like a bat that got caught in the sunrise, the light blinded him and left him startled and disoriented. Then out of the rays he heard his name being shouted and bellowed furiously. He smiled devilishly beneath his raven locks. The lead feet thumped and stamped belligerently toward Loki's lowly prisoner. "LOKI!" The voice shouted from a distance. The prisoner smiled wickedly as he heard the distress and anger in the bellow. "Loki!" The voice yelled once more. The voice's owner clumsily and rapidly turned the dial to make Loki's magic shield wall dissipate.

Finally, the glow had form as Mjolnir's wielder entered. The light that surrounded Asgard's beloved prince slowly started to cool, but h is presence was no less immense or grand. He was so regal and dignified looking. He was a stark contrast from the hideous dungeon he had entered. Crystal blue eyes looked around. He had not visited the prisoner in quite sometime. Such contact had been forbidden, but he came out of necessity now and not a real to visit. He tried to remain firm, but as he viewed the horrid living arrangements he couldn't help but curl his lip in disgust. Thick black mold covered walls. The air in the room had no filter and it was wet and humid and bog like in atmosphere. It was sweltering and hard to breathe even for lungs such as his. He had to take a deep breath when he came into the holding place. He regretted it as his nostrils inhaled foul and pungent odors and his mouth tasted the rotten oxygen. The floor was nothing but mud and thatch. This quarter was even more base than the one Loki had been confined to before the sentencing. At least then Loki had the slate that jutted out from the stone wall to sleep on. Now there was merely a pile of sand and straw squeezed into the corner of on the farthest side of the cell, a makeshift mat of a bed. Not that the disheveled man before him probably ever laid down. His arms were tethered to chains that dropped down from the ceiling and the prisoner had no choice but to dangle from his confines like a piece of meat hanging in a butcher shop window. His arms were stretched back about his head and painfully so for Loki's frail arms trembled pitifully from being held in the uncomfortable position far too long. His knees bent and scarcely didn't drag the ground. The knees of the trousers no longer existed and Loki's pale knobby knees skimmed across the rough mud and gravel ground causing them to be bloody and scabby. Even in the prime of his boyhood Loki had never had such unsightly knees. His prison clothes were thin ragged pieces of mesh material. They hung off of his lean body like old dish rags hanging on the dripping faucet of a rusted sink. The only thing that hung any looser and lower on the one time prince was his head. The head connected the long and matted midnight mop nodded lifelessly as his chin pressed against his heaving, white, scarred and bony chest. It was pathetic. And had it not been for the fact that even in this piteous state Loki had caused harm the visitor would have tried to free the prisoner. He would have felt moved with compassion to at least allow this wretch to liberty of his limbs and bind up the festering wounds on his arms and exposed chest. He couldn't help but feel some bit of sorrow though for this poor man who had once lived in the lap of luxury and now was forced to live without even the freedom allowed an animal. "Loki," the tone was still commanding and dominant but a quiver broke through the cadence.

"Is my sentence up already?" Loki asked mockingly as he breathed in the putrid hot air like sniffing a bouquet of daisies. "My, my, my," he chuckled a dry and bitter laugh that then came out as a harsh cough. His whole thin body shook as he choked. Despite the pain of his dry throat when his fit ended he wore a sickening smile. He stretched as best he could being that his arms were pulled like tight ropes above his head. "Well you know what they say," the emerald eyes prisoner began. "time flies when you're having fun," He smirked, he kept his head bowed unwilling to look the one he spoke to in the eye.

" Do not test me Loki?" the blonde prince scolded his sibling. He raised his thick finger and pointed it in Loki's direction. "What you have done is outrageous!" The blonde son of Odin railed. "You will change her back!" Thor ordered slamming his fist along the slimy stone wall.

"Change who back?' Loki questioned his voice the purr of a cat relishing toying with a mouse.

"Do not make sport of this," Thor protested. "For no one takes this matter as mere jest. You have dishonored a warrior of Asgard," Thor explained.

"I swear I haven't the froggiest idea, what you are talking about," he smirked to himself.

"You haven't the froggi… GRRR!" Thor roared enraged at Loki's jokes and mockery. In a blaze he gripped Loki by his thin throat jerked him forward. His paper-thin shoes scraped along the mud floor leaving a trail. Loki laughed an unbridled and manic cackle as he felt his brother's solid fingers circle round his neck. "Think you this a game?" the blonde prince demanded. He shook Loki a bit and the chains rattled and Loki's bound form flopped and jerk like a puppet on stings. "Think you that I am amused?" he yelled furiously in his brother's face. "CHANGE HER BACK LOKI!" Thor screamed.

For nearly two weeks now Sif had been forced into a toad's body. She's been nearly stepped on several times. She'd been thrown into the ponds that made up the palace grounds and she'd been kidnapped by a group of stable boys who attempted to use her for mean-spirited jokes on the stodgy palace cooks. She was placed into a boiling kettle and nearly made into a delicacy. During a royal dinner in which they were honoring a few elfin warriors who had come to study battle techniques amongst the Aesir her true identity had been discovered. Frog legs were and Alfheim treat. But when one Elfin maiden discovered her legs were connected to an entire frog that let out a croak before jumping off the platter and on to her head the dinning hall went into an uproar. The women of both the Elfish court and the noble women of Asgard broke forth in shouts of horror protesting for the men amongst them to slay the slippery creature as if it were a fire-breathing dragon rather than a warty little amphibian. Sif hopped all about the hall. Pandemonium broke forth as women squealed trying to get away from the big eyed green-skinned thing and mead soaked warriors chased after it as if they were performing a great heroic feat. Lady Sif leaped around from head to floor from plate to chair onto a chandelier. Thor couldn't help but let out a hearty guffaw as he and the Warriors Three joined in the chase. It was quite a humorous event. It reminded him greatly of one of Loki's impish acts of mischief in his younger years. All of a sudden Sif lunges her frog form from off the chandelier and she came sailing toward Thor's wide open laughing mouth. The great warrior immediately caught her in his large hands. She croaked in protest and pumped her frog legs behind her trying to squirm from the Might Thor's iron clasp. Cheers were going up proclaiming how Thor had vanquished another foe. For a minute the blue-eyed young man gobbled up the unnecessary applause but then he heard the croak "Rib-bit, Rib-bit, Rib-bit…Ib-if, ib-if, ib-if...it's Sif! It's Sif! It's Sif!" For days Asgard's master mages had been hard at trying to transform the female warrior back to her beautiful self, but it was no use. The spell persisted. Sif was sick from the potions and tonics. Her Father screamed for Loki's head. "NOW LOKI!" Thor railed his hand encircled tightly around Loki's neck.

"Sif should be grateful to me I am merely giving her a chance to live out that girlish fantasy she has had for so long," the raven-haired prisoner chuckled and choked all at once.

"Enough of this Loki!" Thor roared. "Enough!" he declared. He managed to release his brother's throat. "Sif has grown very ill," He stressed with urgency.

"I suppose a frog's diet would require some getting used to," The pale green-eyed young man shrugged.

"She is sick because of the magic that is being worked upon her trying to alter her form. You must change he back Loki. She could die. I know that deep inside you wouldn't want to be responsible for the death of a friend," Thor muttered his tone was now just bewildered as a child.

Loki tossed his head back and laughed thin and breathy but none the less it was cold. His mud-caked, dirt matted black lock flopped back with his head. "Friend?" He shook his head pityingly and clicked his tongue like a chiding schoolmaster. "My friendship with the Lady Sif," Loki began his voice crisp and sharp like a knife as he pulled his head back and stretched himself forward so that his pointed features nearly touched Thor's softer face, "Was much like my brotherhood with you," He whispered harshly near Thor's ear. "A charade," he spat.

The blonde prince's sky blue eyes flickered with hurt as he heard the cruel statement annunciated with precision in his ear. It was a dagger meant to sever the bond he still shared with Loki. The bond that deep down inside he knew Loki must still remember. A millennia of brotherhood could not merely be dismissed so easily could it? The wordsmith's forged dagger was sharp, not sharp enough to cut the cord, but sharp enough to prick the skin and draw blood. "Stop it Loki! Brother, I am trying to help you," Thor entreated. The once prince quirked his eyebrow at his adopted brother's words. Do you think that the council is going to allow you to rant and carry on this way? They think that Father's punishment was too mild. And Father agrees," Thor spoke in a hushed tone as if he hated to even say it. "Do you want to lose all your magic permanently?" Thor asked roughly. ""Because that is what they are thinking of doing to you, Loki. They plan on extracting it from you in its entirety." Thor went on. Magic Extraction was rare, painful and in most cases a lethal procedure. "Father tried to spare you. He tried to show you some mercy Loki and not remove all your power at once during the sentencing, but you will leave him no choice when even after you are left to suffer and atone you still intend to misbehave and work mischief. I told father that you could be reasoned with," Thor explained earnestly. "I told him that you were not so far gone that you couldn't be bargained with."

"You spoke falsely." Loki shrugged best his could while his arms were strapped to tight chains. "Tell Odin that we are beyond reason now" Loki stated simply a blank look in his green eyes.

"Brother?" Thor asked his water-colored eyes scrutinizing the frail, torn looking waif before him. He took no pleasure in seeing his brother chained and bound. He got no joy from seeing the filth he was forced to live as. "Are you still sane?" it was a strange question, but the look in Loki's eyes was so untamed and stormy, so different from the calm and collected rational boy he was once that it needed to be asked.

"Sane or mad it matters not…" The bound man tried to offer some form of a shrug but the iron shackles that held him high were heavy and his limbs were weak and sore from days on end being unable to change his position. "Diplomacy has never been your strong suit," Loki admitted and looked back at the hulking son of Odin who stood before him. "You could not talk a dog into chasing its tail let alone bargain with me," he laughed giddily his limbs shaking. He became breathless and the electricity charged shackles sizzled and cracked. The current moved down his spine and Thor watched Loki's body twisted and twitched involuntarily. After the shock treatment was down Loki panted and his eyelids drooped as he head lurched forward to hang against his chest.

"Loki," Thor said taking a tentative step closer. "Loki," the strapping young Viking prince called. His voice was tender as Loki felt the rough callous of Thor's mallet wielding finger tips glide to cup his face. "Loki," he whispered while scraping his thumb along his filthy jaw line. "Loki, just change Sif back and we'll cut down the manacles," He offered he smiled with a sincere type of compassion.

Loki rolled his heavy green up his breathing was heavy and labored. His emerald eyes housed so much anguish. For so Long he's be confined, held in place and left in the impoverished dungeon in the darkness only to be electrocuted every so often to remind him of the horror that he had committed. It had been so many endless days now of that torture. It would be nice to be able to move his arms, scratch the itches on his legs shoo the varmints that crawled into the cell to eat the food he could not stomach. His weak looking green pools changed into hate filled jade orbs that glared back at the blonde as he roughly broke contact with even the faintest touch of Thor's flesh. "Think you I am so weak that you could quell my temper with such a meager offer?" Loki snarled.

"Then what do you want?" Thor yelled. "Father will give you one concession if you cooperate," Thor tried with earnest to explain. He breathed in and out soothing his ruffled nerves. "better food? " Thor offered.

Loki's mouth immediately started to salivate. He had eaten so little since his return to Asgard. The guards didn't come to his cell every day, he doubted they came more than once a week. Odin had mandated that Loki's contact be absolutely that which was essential and food was not essential everyday. Only Ingvar and a handful of the sturdiest of the palace guards were permitted to approach the disgraced prince and give him a mug of polluted water or a bucket of slop that wasn't even fit for a pig to grub upon. The water he was given was dirty and it made him ill to drink it and the food was not even up to code to what the rest of the prisoners were served. Even the sinister criminals taken to the prison camps ate better than he did. They were at least give a bitter cabbage broth and a few days stale bread. At least their measly rations were served to them once a day. What he received had been scraped from the bottom, barrel buck from some feeding troth for the animals of the palace plantation and he couldn't track when it would be offered.

He had wondered had his the king actually commission that he consume this disgusting slop. He loathed him the more for it if he had. When the guards had come and slid the magical rod through his shield and offered him the horrid slop he'd turned up his nose refusing to even smell the awful stuff. "he'll eat it," Ingvar told one of the guards who reported how the ex-prince hadn't eaten since he'd been sentenced. "he'll it," the warden assured the keeper. 'And he'll learn to be grateful for it too," he ground out his dark eyes glaring at the chained prince as he took the untouched pail of sludge from the young guard. But after a month or so with his powers weakened he was unable to fight off the nagging pains of hunger eating away at his stomach. After so many weeks of stubbornly snubbing that which was presented to him, his gut turned against him. It's protest become undeniable as it grew a consciousness of its own. And one day at the point of feeling like he would surely starve to death, He was so famished by that point that when the gross boar's chowder was presented to him he'd plunged his head in face first like an animal and gobbled what he was given senselessly driven to fill the gnawing pit in his belly. He hated himself for it. Its taste was nauseating and even as Loki's body urged him to consume for survival sake her gagged with every bite. What was worse was how he could hear Ingvar's laughter. It was base and deep and filled with pleasure. As he slipped the a rusty pail connected to a stick through the magic barrier that Loki couldn't phase through. "Thought you'd see it my way after a while," the burly chocolate skinned warden jeered watching the fallen prince consume the horrible contents of the pail. "Heard there's a ball tonight," he insisted on speaking as Loki tried to feed himself, "Mmm, bet they've got prime rib and lamb mutton, you remember what that taste like Prince Loki," the proud warden mocked. "I heard my queen wanted to send you some table scraps," he went on and Loki did his best to ignore being that he felt sick from what he had just eaten. "Mothers are so kind aren't they?" Ingvar said as he picked up a tray that had been placed at his feet. The contents were simply half bitten potatoes, burnt rolls and fish heads. It wasn't exactly a feast, but it was real food. Loki's green eyes flickered up and took in the sight. He lifted his slop covered face from the rusted pail and looked at the platter desperately. He watched as Ingvar tossed the food to the ground. Loki growled as the warden smashed the vittles into the mud floor with his boot. "But I'd not see you consume a crumb from her fair hand," he spat. "So feast upon the dirt you worthless worm." The overly decorated guard taunted before he yanked the gruel filled pail away.

"An actual cot" The blonde's deep voice continued breaking into Loki's psyche. He gestured his head toward the piled of straw that Loki was supposed to sleep on. Not that he had. The guards came sporadically and when they did they never loosened the binds and actually allowed him to lie on the floor. How he missed his bed. The king sized mattress and the dark cool linens always crisp and pressed. The pillows stuffed with swan feathers and the soft silk quilts that lined his spread. The rich colors that were his own. He wanted so desperately to put his head down on the gentle, sweet-smelling fabrics allow the plush mattress to sooth the contours of his aching body. He needed merely to rest his arms. To let them fall down and lie limp or move freely, not have them chained. He was so weary of dangling in the holding place like one of he and Thor's broken marionettes for their puppet theater when they were boys. They set it up in their playroom and they had great times then.

"A bath," Thor attempted. Loki's eyes flickered as if some semblance of right mindedness still remained in him. A bath! He was so disgusting in appearance, infested with mud and dirt, sweat and other body fluids coated his skin. How he longed to plunge himself into a hot tub that smelt of musk and lemon and wild spices. How he ached to take water and run it through his matted, muddy hair and cleanse, clean every fiber of his sullied and foul-smelling body. To lather up with fresh soaps and sit for hours. To get Tipis leaves and grind them up let them foam in the bath to cool his sore muscles. Even if he couldn't have all that even if the water was harsh and freezing cold at least it would save him from the unbearable heat. He bit his lip to stifle himself from begging Thor for that much dignity. "I won't deny you what you ask for, brother," Thor said reaching his hand out once more to swipe against Loki's grimy face. "What do you want?" Thor prompted a kind and watery smile playing under his full golden beard and mustache.

"I…" Loki started his voice hushed and his eyes looked down for a moment. "Want…" Loki stuttered out.

"I won't deny it, Loki as long as it's within reason, I promise," the handsome, kempt blonde prince pledged. His clumsy large mitts making their best effort to gently smooth back Loki's nasty midnight hair.

The former prince of the realm felt his trembling chin being gently nudged up so that his glass emerald eyed gazed back into tranquil blue orbs that housed hope and tenderness. The unkempt criminal slammed is pale eyelids over his shiny green eyes breaking away from the affection glance of his elder sibling. He sank his teeth into his quivering ashy lips to keep from sobbing like a helpless child. He bit down so hard that his chaffed mouth started to bleed. He hardly felt the pain, pain was a familiar mistress by now, he was growing bored with her, but the taste of his own blood was somehow always jarring it always brought back a fresh new sense of vengeance. He dabbed at the metallic taste of the hot crimson liquid deftly with his tongue before he cackled icily. He cackled loudly after awhile and Thor pulled away the cruel guffawing that sounded like nails against granite in his royal ears. Loki's emerald orbs flashed up the glare they gave shot through the massively muscular blonde who knelt next to him. "Only to see you suffer," He gave a sickening straight smile his teeth gleaming under his crusted lips. "Only to watch everything you have been stripped from you. Only to gaze upon you writhing in defeat," Loki explained in a silvery tone.

"Do you want to be robbed of every ounce of your magic?" Thor asked with a bellow he was so sickened by his brother's words. "Is that what you want?"

"Odin has already tried to remove my magic and we see that he couldn't…not for long at least," Loki replied.

"You're a fool," Thor muttered angrily.

"Come again, dear brother?" Loki taunted

"YOU'RE A FOOL!" He shouted in the frail looking prisoner's face. His boisterous tone made the cell rattle. "Do you honestly think Father couldn't take your powers fully if he wanted to? Do you? He was trying to give you a chance, a chance so that one day if you didn't die in this cell you could go back to your life," Thor explained.

"Ahh my life…" Loki nodded a small smirk on his face. "My life," he repeated smacking his crusted lips together, "My life as his shiny relic?" he questioned. "My life as your shadow?"

"Stop it!" Thor scolded.

"I will never go back to that life," Loki spat. "I have tasted power." He nodded to himself and looked into Thor's huge eyes. "It was a dish so long kept from me, but I find it is a meat to my liking," He smiled wickedly. "It's quite addictive," Loki licked his lips.

"You will change her back!" Thor yelled. "This is not a game and it is not a joke and you have no say in the matter!" Thor boisterously explained to his sibling. "You change her back or lose your magic Loki," Thor warned.

"And if I'm robbed of my power and you simpletons can't figure the elementary way to break the curse on your own how do you suppose Sif will ever turn Aesir again?" The trickster posed.

"You speak in riddles?"

"I speak plain truth, but you are a fool. If Sif remain a frog for all time it will be by your hand not mine for you are unable to decipher that which is spelled out before you and you are blind as always to blaring truth,"

"As I have been blind to what is in you?" Thor questioned threateningly he raised Mjolnir and set it as if he would hurl it at Loki. The bony prison grinned like a Cheshire cat as he watched his once protective old brother rally with fury against him. He loved the power he had even when they thought he was powerless. He had all the power he really needed… the power to provoke.

"Ahh are your eyes finely opening? Finely seeing me for what I am…isn't it glorious? Doesn't it fill you with dread?" Loki dared his wild green eyes darting rapidly across the room with excitement. "Call me what I am, Thor. Everyone else has," Loki stated finally. He glaringly and defiantly brought his green orbs to stare down Thor's sapphire blue irises. He wanted to see horror and fear and hate. He craved to bring forth those vile emotions from with inside Asgard's golden prince. Instead he saw sentiment. Disgusting and sweet, pleading and broken. The strapping, pride of Asgard turned on his heels. He shuddered as he left, but there was no point talking anymore.

---

The healers labored over how to transform Lady Sif, but none could seem to find a way to change the woman back. The clue Loki had given had only proven to be meddling unhelpful. It was Loki's old friend and one time apprentice Dagmar Audricdottir, a well-respected healer among the Vanir and well learned mage , who solved the riddle and told Prince Thor to kiss the frog to break the spell. Sif was raving mad once the terrible curse had been lifted from her. She was ready to ram a spear through Loki's stomach and had she been able to stand she most likely would have. But she was weak from being imprisoned in a slimy toads body for nearly a month and being magic drunk from the countless brews she'd been forced to scarf down. The king assured her that Loki's antics would no more torment the people of Asgard. That settled Sif long enough for the healers to at least coax her into bed. "She will be ill for a few days, but Sif has such a fighters spirit she will bounce back in little to no time," Dagmar chuckled as they walked through gilded corridors to stop at her bedchamber.

"If it wasn't for you Sif may have been doomed to live out the rest of her days as a frog," the crown prince stated with a small smile tugging on his lips as he and Dagmar quietly exited the recuperating shield maiden's healing quarters. He took in Dagmar it had been some time since they'd seen her presence at the palace. After Prince Loki's funeral she hadn't come to call even though her father was still a frequent figure at the king's dinning table. Her work as a healer kept her busy, she traveled to help the less fortunate among her own people. She had studied under Eir at Asgard's University of Fine Medicine and she was well versed in herbal remedies, anatomy and of course mystic cures. Her work as a healer was a secondary reason for her absence. The primary reason was her recent betrothal to a wealthy Vanir statesman, Olaf Dirkson. Olaf Dirkson was new to the court, but he had come as an emissary from Vanahiem and he had been captivated by Dagmar's exotic beauty. She was a rare prize. Her alabaster skin glowed beneath her midnight tresses. Her eyes were large and the color of a cloud's silver lining. He had asked her father about a courtship and the Vanir noble readily agreed to allow the handsome representative of his land to pursue his daughter. In a few months time Dagmar accepted his proposal to marriage.

"You would have figured it out in due time," Dagamar bowed her head gently as she and Thor linked arms. Her slim forearm contrast greatly with Prince Thor's. His was a rugged muscular bronzed tree trunk. Hers was a porcelain vine of a weeping willow. "Once you told me the riddle I knew what was required. It was a childhood story Loki and I used to like...Beauty and the Beast," she shrugged.

"But wasn't it the prince rescued by the commoner?"

"Role-reversal, but the concept is the same" Dagmar stated simply.

The handsome prince clad in his sterling armor stopped outside Dagmar's bedchamber. "it is good to see you again Dagmar," he explained to her eagerly. "We have missed you," he insisted.

"Likewise it is good to visit again," Dagmar replied happily she stretched out her pale arms and wrapped them securely around her old friend's shoulders. "Olaf was not pleased with my coming," she confessed once they disconnected from the embrace.

Thor's thick golden eyes brows quirked at her admittance as he watched her posture fold into something small and her shoulder slumped heavily. "he is not yet your husband," Thor began.

"Yes I know," She added quickly her silver eyes flashing up at him. "A legal betrothal amongst the Vanir though states that a man betrothed to a woman due to be wed in a years time may enact the rights of a husband," she expressed and shrugged. The Vanir customs were different from those of Asgards. Their codes for women were stricter."He is a bit old-fashioned at times," she joked a flash a beautiful smile quickly on her pomegranate lips. "And I think a bit jealous," she added cupping her hands around her lips and snickering. "But I was summoned by the king and that is not a call to be ignored. This was an important matter... to help a friend. I would not have seen Sif suffer a moment longer," Lord Audric's daughter nodded her confirmation.

Thor gave smile back to her, "I heard you pushed back the wedding date..." he started.

"yes, It was premature, we do not know each other well and there is no need to rush," Dagmar explained easily.

"that is what I thought in the beginning, but when you seemed so certain of it ...I...I figured you truly loved him," the burly blonde shrugged.

"We must grow into our love's old friend," Dagmar explained in a wise tone as she started to turn the latch opening the door to her room. She opened the door and invited the prince in. Thor took a seat on the couch in the sitting salon.

"I know it is not my place Dagmar..." the hulking blonde began as his hands rubbed on his thighs and he looked up at her, "But I am glad you are waiting," he stated firmly. "You are like a sister to me and I wouldn't want to see you settled with someone who would treat you as less than a princess," Thor assures her. "I guess...I suppose...You know Loki always cared so deeply for you," Thor stated a half-hearted smile on his face as he gave a sigh.

"Yes, yes, I know," Dagmar whispered back her silver eyes glistened as she tried to blink back newly formed tears.

"Thor...I...I need to know... How bad is Loki?" she asked with great concerned she take a seat across from the crown prince. Her delicate fingers frantically fumbled to clasp the hammer-holders mighty hand.

Thor exhaled deeply his massively broad shoulders sagging as he did so. " Loki...he...he is different now, Dagmar. he is very different " Thor started to explained to her. "After this recent occurrence with Sif... the council and Father think more drastic measures need to be taken in Loki's punishment," Thor began to expound as he pulled his hand way from her delicate fingers to allow him to run his hand over his golden beard pensively.

"Such as?" Dagmar inquired her eyebrow raised in a fervent curiosity.

Thor gulped, he had tried hard to convince Odin of varying alternatives, but Odin said that Loki's antics made people feel unsafe made them feel as though Loki wasn't well contained like he could do great damage if he wanted to. " Magic Extraction," the golden prince silver eyed Vanir maiden gasped putting her hand to her heart. Thor saw her alarm, "Father tied to spare Loki, he tried to just limit Loki's magic, but Loki's powers are strong and they are coming back more quickly than expected..."

"Does his majesty know the full extent of damage that magic extraction can cause?" Dagmar asked in earnest.

"Yes," Thor nodded his tongue felt thick and heavy.

"He realizes that Loki could become very ill...he could end up paralyzed. The extraction could kill him!" she exclaimed.

"Father is aware Dagmar and he want to take precautions to prevent such things from happening..." Thor assured her. "That is where your help is needed, my friend," the muscular king to be expressed as he reached out and caught the Vanir noblewoman's hand.

"I don't understand," Dagmar said, her cloud colored eyes searching Thor's face.

"Father wants you to aid Eir and a team of other skilled mages and healers of the realm in the process," Odin's oldest son expressed.

"Me?" Dagmar pointed to herself in disbelief. "Whatever..."

"You were Loki's apprentice Dagmar...you have intimate knowledge of his" Dagmar's eyes went wide as she watched Thor's mouth for the word "Magic," She sighed as the word escaped his lips, "It'll be easier for you to slip through his shields and barriers than a sage who never worked with Loki before..." Thor explained.

"Surely Eir is skilled enough to..."
"Eir suggested this method," Thor confirmed.

"If this is as the allfather thinks best I shall consider the task," Dagmar nodded hesitantly. She felt her stomach twist in knots as if she was committing some great betrayal. It was Loki who had taught her so much of what she knew. He and her and been such close friends. She more than anyone knew how much magic meant to Loki. How could she simply agree wholeheartedly to take it from him. Perhaps this was not necessary, perhaps Loki was not the tyrannical beast everyone made him out to be. "I wish to see him," she stated gently. She reached out another hand and touched the future king of Asgard on the shoulder. She lowered her jeweled glass onto the lambs wool soft white carpet and then nudged the large young monarchs chin up to look her in the eyes. She nodded as she

batted her silver pupils at him and a small wishful smile made a trail over her full pomegranate mouth.

Thor pulled back vigorously shaking his head. "No," he muttered more to himself than to her. "No! No!" he shook his head vigorously turning away from her sincere gaze.

"i only wish to..."

"He's unwell!" Thor insisted harshly

"I am a healer perhaps I can..."

" I don't even know if Loki is completely sane anymore." Thor rambled.

"Thor," Dagmar urged as his bronzed shoulders escaped the tender grasp of her porcelain fingers.

"No!" Thor erupted. "No one is to see Loki, Dagmar. No one." He qualified. "His punishment is solitude for 500 years," Thor told her.

The raven locked damsel touched her hand to her chest and shook her head pityingly. "500 years! 500 years. Thor that is a life time. You say that Loki is hardly sane well he will be completely mad by then." she stressed.

"I feel the same way, but with the recent development. Loki transfoming Sif as he did, the things that loki says...even when he is offered kindness, he treats those who come to him with contempt. He's dangerous!" Thor told her bluntly.

"Loki was my best friend," Dagmar began. "I cannot believe that he has changed so much in so brief a time span," she shuck her head refusing the thoughts. "Surely, there is some part of him that is still salvageable,' she stated but it was more of a hopeful inquiry than a declarative.

"Somewhere," the mighty hammer holder confirmed. "Somewhere, but it's buried down deep, there are moments when it flickers but it changes in the blink of an eye and he becomes this wicked vengeful creature again." Thor said his deep see blue eyes started into the warm glow of the fire place.

"Buried," Dagmar echoed the phrase, "Buried..." she repeated when her reverie ended. "I mourned him so" Dagmar stated. The hammer holding prince sighed. They all mourned Loki, everyone in their own way he supposed. Loki's funeral had been a blur for him. It all felt like it was slow motion and surreal, most of his memories from that terrible a night were simply of his own pain, but he could scarcely remember Dagmar. She walked up to the empty burning pyre trembling as sobs choked out of her throat. "Oh Loki," he heard her whisper as she pulled out a white lily from inside the folds of her dark dress. Thor watched through misty eyes as she held up the stainless flower and kissed its snowy petals staining them with her pomegranate lip print. "My sweet friend," she mumbled. "Be at peace now," she uttered as she cast the flower over into the flame she tossed it and sank to her knees crying in front of the pyre. Frandal and Hogun went to help her up, but her father pushed passed the warriors and rushed to his daughters side. He picked her up and huddled her in his arms. He practically carried her down the aisle and away to make room for the royal family to pay their respects to their fallen son. Later on in the night when the rights had all be said and the casket no longer blazed. Thor came back to the pyre where the plaque was. He thought he'd be alone, but he wasn't. Dagmar was there. "Oh Loki," The young noblewoman mumbled as she placed her hand on the now cool stone that served as the cremation pyre. "What have I done?" she questioned shaking her head. "I'm so sorry...I don't care what you Loki...I shouldn't have cared then I just...Know that I love...for always," she pressed her pomegranate lips on the black and green marble.

"I just want to see that he is alive, I just want to tell him…" She stopped mid way and bit the inside of her cheek stifling herself. Her entrancing silver eyes looked back up at Thor they were big as a doe's, the were pleading. "Please…" she whispered. "Please, Thor," she begged bending her body over until she was falling over the chair and on her knees. She rubbed beautiful face against the future king calloused knuckles. "Please," she begged "I won't hold conference with him long," she assured the Prince Thor.

"No one is allowed to see him Dagmar," Thor whispered back. "I don't want you to get hurt…" the blonde went on. "he wouldn't want you to see him like this Dagmar," Thor replied sympathetically. He took hold of her small shaking shoulders. "He wouldn't want you to remember him like this," Thor soothed as he noticed the liquid leak from her lovely twinkling silver eyes. "And I cannot allow it," Thor told her concisely, he helped her stand and looked down not wanting to look into her tearful starlit pupils a moment longer or else he would grant permission to her.

Lady Dagmar wiped under her eye, catching the water that leaked out. She nodded vigorously. Convincing herself that Prince Thor's words were truly for the best. "I understand," she replied softly before glancing back at her longtime friend. "I do not wish to think of Loki as the true monster that everyone makes him out to be now," she confirmed.

---

Sometime after his visit with his one time brother, although the prisoner wasn't completely sure how much time (a day? A week? Sometime less than one full moon cycle?) a familiar and loathed presence came to call upon him in his cell. The heavy boots trudged toward the confinement chamber for Odin's disowned progeny. They slapped and splattered as they waded through the nasty floors. They got closer only to stand right outside the glowing green force field that kept Loki in place. A strong metal beam that was made a sterling bronze poked a whole and penetrated the shield. "Drink it!" A gruff voice commanded as a corroded and diseased looking mug was waved in front of Loki's pointed nose. The green-eyed inmate looked up weak eyed at the proffered drink. His eyes then darter over the pole and to the face of the snarling warden. "Drink it scum!" Ingvar spat. "I do not hold my hands to attend your highness," he sneered. For a while Loki merely glared at him. Then Ingvar shook the cup with irritation. Loki sighed heavily, before managing to tilt his feeble body forward, he pursed his lips to touch the edge of the rusty tin mug that hovered a little too far back and a little too low for him to reach. The sullied water jerked and splashed in his face. "So sorry," the chief guard mocked as he pulled back on the pole and slipped it out of the cell. Loki grunted as the dirty water stung when it went it his eyes. "Catch it on your tongue as it rolls off your nose," Ingvar advised cruelly with a chuckle as he attached the pail full of sickening slop to the opposite end of the rod. He started to push the gross contents through into Loki's cell. "Dinner is served," the cocoa skinned man stated with a smile, "Maggot!" he shot as he shoved it toward Loki. Loki dipped his head toward the slimy chowder. He opened his mouth bracing himself to take a disgusting bite. Then his jade eyes darted up and he started Ingvar right in the face a taletell smirk on his dirty chapped lips. The pail and pole pushed back out against the guards control. "What the…" the great warden sputtered in confusion feeling the force. He looked up and saw the pail coming toward him. The contents jutted out and the pail was thrust forward and pressed against his face. Ingvar bucked and fought trying to pull the bucket from his head. He strained and ran trying to escape the suffocation as he the thick sludge being forced down his throat and nasal passages. He threw himself upon the ground even going so far as to use his boots to try to push the pail away. Finally he stopped struggling. His limbs fell limp.

"Feast upon the mud, you worthless worm," Loki mocked as the bucket fell from Ingvar's face.

Two days later Ingvar's presence became missed around the jail cells. The other guards went looking for the warden only to find him dead a few feet away from Loki's cage. But when they looked inside the cell cage no Loki was present. The chains dangled empty. Then they saw him standing behind them impish grin on his face. The guards immediately sprang in to action. The leaped on the murderous trickster with their clubs and swords, but even when a dozen burly and strong soldiers dog piled him he vanished. More images of Loki started to appear throughout the dungeon. The soldiers darted around chasing after the forms only to have them vanish as they were about the accost the once prince of Asgard. Soon the 12 watches were surrounded by more than 24 Loki's all multiplying and laughing manically. They felt as if thousands of tiny spiders had been unleashed. The sensation of tiny, prickly, hairy legs scurrying across their flesh was intolerable. They felt the fangs and bites of legions of arachnids sink into their skin through their tunics and armor. It lasted so long. The men could escape. The door was bolted shut. They tried to force it back open but it wouldn't budge. Frantically the screamed begging for mercy from the excrutiating torture. All the while their cries were met only with an unceasing, mad cackling. The guards grew so desperate that they pulled out their swords and began cutting. Cutting thinking they could cut away the army of spiders. The slicing seemed to bring some relief from the insufferable bites a sharper than the daggers they possessed. As a day started to pass the guards grew panicked. The torment had not ended. The bites never stopped and the feeling the unnerving feeling was enough to leave theses proud defenders of Asgard howling and weeping. They begged and cried screamed for help, but Loki's dungeon was so much so buried in the bowels of the castles that such screams would never be heard. They started to tear their clothes rubbing and wildly scratching to get the spiders off of them. They started to run into walls. They were jumping , screaming, clawing at themselves and one another trying to escape the terror of being a meal for the critters. One guard got so frantic and desperate that he grabbed a torch off the wall and flung it into a nearby haystack. His only thought was to kill the insatiable insects that pesters and tormented his flesh so.

"You fool!" shouted another guard as he ran to try to tackle the panicking soldier. He jumped on the raving man's back but it was too late the torch had already flung from his hand and was now a blaze on the straw cot. The rest of the soldiers watched in horror momentarily forgetting the pain and burn of the itching feeling that encompassed their skin. "You'll kill us all!" he shouted in the face of the flame thrower. He then slapped the crazed man across the face knocking him to the floor as the flames started to consume the cell.

The other soldiers ran. Ran for their lives toward the exit as the flame leaped up and slowly started to burn throughout the dungeon. They furiously banged on the iron door. Their bloodied fist pounded without stop. They called out at the top of their lungs. "HELP! HELP! FIRE!" The flames danced on their heels scorching their bare bodies and the cries of agony were unbearable. They pushed harder in their panic and finally the thick, heavy iron laden door budged.

The 12 battered and mad soldiers tumbled out from the confines. They screamed and ran through the prison like madmen. A handful of other guards who were simply doing the routine rounds of the day watched and streaked by screaming, scratching and waving their hands wildly as they ran without sense to escape. The regular sentries looked bewildered at the sight of seeing their comrades in such a state. "What in the name of Asgard to you suppose has gotten in to them?' a older prison keeper asked scratching his head watching and the flung themselves around shouting about a plague of spiders had descended upon Asgard.

"Must be drunk," Another guard dismissed the unseemly behavior easily enough as he returned to his own bottle.

"There everywhere! There everywhere!" one of the escapees came out yelling he gripped up the normal patrol by his collar and blubbered like a baby in his face. 'Get them off me get them off!" the muscular warrior pleaded like a frantic little girl.

"What do you mean Burlhome?" asked the veteran amongst the prison guards. He had seen how a few days doing night rounds in the dungeons had often scared a few rookies, but never to this level.

"Millions! Millions! Millions! Billions! Trillions!" the poor guard babbled endlessly. "Fire! Fire!" he screamed out before pushing away from the veteran and fleeing for dear life.

"He was stark raving mad?" one of the regulars explained as he scratched his head.

"Not that mad," a thin almond eyed soldier explained to those in his division. "L-l-look" He pointed out his almond eyes wide in horror as a swirling inferno rushed toward them moving fast and swift flying up the hall.

The patrol who had been casually guzzling from his bottle spat out the brown liquid. "FIRE!" He bellowed before he and the rest of the watchmen dashed from the raging fire. They ran without stop up the 9 flights of steps finally when they got to the top of the staircase one of them had the presence of mind to sound the alarm. "FIRE!" he shouted.

The prison had to be evacuated. The criminals were carted out of their cells to save their skin. 800 convicts were rushed from their holds and emptied onto the palace lawns while soldiers darted back and forth trying to douse the blazing flames. The fire raged for hours it took until nearly nightfall of all the sparks and embers to die. The dungeon was burned to a crisp. The servants quarters and one-third of the southern hall were severely damaged. It was the first time the Imperial palace hadn't experienced a fire in nearly 2000 years. Not since Odin's days as a lad had he seen his home fall under such disarray. When the king and crown prince went to assess the devastation they were pleasantly surprised. Though monuments had been charcoaled and halls were covered in soot and ash, while curtains and tapestries had been scorched and singed, but no lives had been lost. All the guards and staff and guest had an escaped. All the prisoners were accounted for. All except one.

When Thor came into the dungeon, it was covered with ash and the smell of smoke engulfed the place making the air almost a breathable. He walked to Loki's cell only to find his brother cackling to himself manically. "Loki," Thor approached the glowing shield to look at his brother. "The whole palace could have been destroyed!" Thor explained in a blaze of rage as he pressed his face against the glowing force field. It was crimson. His blood boiled. What was Loki now?

The dirty midnight locked arsonist craned his neck and corrected his wild gleeful guffawing, his face fell calm and placid. "Pity it wasn't," he whispered.

"ENOUGH!" the blonde hollered he roughly turned the combination lock and the force field melted away instantly. Without Thor's mighty fist swung Loki. The clean strike sent the frail looking prisoner sailing into the wall. The hit was so forceful that it broke the chains from the wall. Loki slid down into the dirt. His arms dead weights at his side. He looked around in a daze at first before the hulking golden behemoth came into view gripping his by the shoulders and hauling him to his feet. Loki's legs were weak and useless and he was unable to support himself it had been so long since those muscles had been worked they were atrophied and rusty. He fell into Thor's chest and Thor harshly pushed him from him. "This is your home!" he hollered as he held his brother in place. Loki's mouth bled profusely. "Your little fire spread not only through the dungeons but went out into the courtyard and into the riding stables. Dagmar was there," Thor informed. Even Loki couldn't hide the curiosity in his eyes. What was Dagmar doing there? She was tending to one of your old steeds I believe when all of a sudden the who stable bursty into flames. She was trapped!" Thor announced loudly. "You could have killed her," Thor explained and he violently shook Loki with every word. "DAGMAR!" the great blonde shouted. Loki's eyes flickered. The sinister emerald glance melted away for just a second. He blinked several times rapidly. Thor saw the water form inside his vivid green orbs. Dagmar was in Asgard? What time of year was it that she had returned? How close had the fire gotten to her? Was she severely injured?" His mind was a hodge-podge of worried inquiries. It wasn't as if he had known. It wasn't as if he sent the fire raging into the stable purposefully. Loki snarled what was this guilt he felt? It was awful it reeked of old attachments and bonds and feelings that should be long forgotten sentiment that was worthless as stubble and should have been burnt up in the very flames. 'You could have killed her!" Thor bellowed. "I told you that the council was going to strip you of your powers and still you persisted in this madness! Why? Why, Loki?" Thor demanded brimming with horrified and bitter tears. "You killed a royal official and you could have destroyed the entire palace," Thor went on his sapphire eyes wide as he stared at his brother. He was becoming a man he hardly recognized."This is where we grew up! Where we played as children, where we lived. Where are ancestors still sleep," Thor ranted frantically. "This is a Asgard's stronghold, this is the 'beacon to the realms," he panted with fury, "And you would have destroyed it all? For what?" Thor demanded. "FOR WHAT!" he yelled frantically.

"So you will know to fear me," He breathed sinisterly.

Thor's bright blue eyes dropped. The blonde prince shook his head. His lips moved in quirks and twist of confusion before his tongue found a way to formulate words. "I don't know who you are anymore, Loki" Thor began his voice was not hard or dominant it was actually very timid sounding. "I fear losing you losing you to this dark bitter creature that so desperately wants to take the place of my brother. I fear that you will let this beast control you and I fear that one day you will go so far that you won't even know yourself. I fear that the most," the blonde stated with a shudder. "Father has decided to remove your magic Loki and I...I am sorry about that...I am...but you...you have brought such on yourself," he announced and he released Loki's shoulder. The thin younger man crumpled into the dirt without Thor's support.

---

She knew she shouldn't be going to see him. Olaf would not approve. He'd be furious no doubt. But she'd deal with his ire if need be. She had tried to appease him, but there was no need for such a façade anymore. Still, She had no right or authorization to go to the dungeons let alone to go and visit someone who had been confined to solitude by the expressed command of the king of Asgard. She had been specifically told by Prince Thor that visitation to the cell was forbidden. Truth be told she was actually terrified to see him. She knew not what he would do to her when she entered his lair. Would he treat her as he treated Thor with contempt and hatred? Would he do her as he had done Sif… Transform her into some creature? Would he drive her mad as he'd done the poor prison guards? Would he simply slaughter her as he had done the warden? After the barn fire she didn't know what to expect. Despite her reservations she could agree to work with Eir and the other sages of Odin's court to perform the extraction without seeing Loki for herself. She needed to know what he was once and for all.

Her feet slowly tiptoed down the old and abandoned stairwell that led to the isolated dungeon. She had put the guards to sleep, but the incantation she'd used was mild and she was afraid that they'd wake from their slumber if she made too much noise. As she crept closer to the thick iron door that held Loki in the lowest recesses of the prison she heard harsh breathing like that of a dragon in its lair as she drew closer to the iron door that held the once prince of Asgard. The fine ebony hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end. She felt her pulse quickening as the questions and thought ran through her mind. It was enough to make her want to sprint back up the staircase. To fly back up nearly 20 flights of winding steps and never look back at this eerie dungeon again. She held the banister. She turned around and raised her silver slipper covered foot to go back up the step. Her free hand hiked up her flowing sapphire shaded nightgown Breathlessly she started to dart away from the dank and dreary prison. Even though torches lined the walls down the stairwell it was still an abyss. She had only begun to run back up a few of the steps when she heard a shaky, scared, desperate voice call out, "Dagmar! Don't run…it's me…it's…Loki"

The young enchantress froze in her tracks, the back of her ivory hand flung to cover her gaping mouth. She choked back a sob. She closed her eyes tight with shock and clenched her fist firmly around the rough wood railing. The dungeon was not a place of beauty that was polished and buffered as the rest of the palace, the railing was full of splinters and Dagmar pressed her hand into one jagged piece of wood. She gasped for the puncture stung, but it was mild in comparison to the way Loki's frail sounding voice tore through her heart. She bit down on her pretty pinks lips and lowered her lovely embroidered shoe to the grimy step. She ran away before. She ran away out of fear. She ran away when her friend needed her and it had cost her the life of her friend. She'd run away because she'd seen a monster. She'd seen a hideous creature when she should have seen a wounded child…a tortured prince…a man…a man who loved her…a man she loved…her friend. She'd see Loki for what he really was this night and she'd not run, she swore to herself and him as she turned around and started to go down to the dungeon.

The last time she had seen him was a few nights before the Bifrost accident. She'd gone to him about Thor returning to Asgard, on the request of Sif and the Warriors. Apparently they had thought that she would have greater influence on his than they, but the conversation had not gone well. She had tried to convince Loki to bring Thor back, but he had taken great offense at her words. It ended terribly. They shouted at each other. The fight had gotten her too worked up and she retired to bed early that evening, but had been unable to sleep. She hadn't wanted to argue. Nor had she intended to make him sound incompetent. She'd just been trying to help. Perhaps her efforts had been ill times. Loki was under so much stress. She knew he needed support, he needed a listening ear rather than a person trying to instruct him on how to do the task which he'd been given. She pushed herself from bed that night and thought she'd go to Loki and just apologize. It wasn't her place to question his decisions or the Warriors' places to challenge him.

She made her way through the corridors made of gold and marble. As she walked she noticed a slender figure immerge from Loki's bedchamber. It was no other than the new king himself. She started to call to him, but then she noticed his teetering stance. He walked with his arms outstretched in front of him feeling along the side of the wall. He rocked and seemed off balance as he sluggishly tottered down the hallway.

"Sleepwalking?" Dagmar surmised as she watched him stagger toward the west wing of the palace. She followed behind him silently as she could. She thought to tell the guards, but then she thought better of it. Loki would be terribly embarrassed if he'd found out he'd been walking in his sleep let a lone to think that the guards would have to carry him back to his chamber. No she'd do it discreetly, she'd let him wander to his desired point and then shed carefully turn him around and usher him back to bed and he'd be none the wiser in the morning.

The ebony haired young Vanir enchantress quietly followed Loki. She was close behind, but her footsteps fell silently lest she startle him out of the night terror, which was a terrible thing to do. Loki turned and entered the Weapons Vault. The night guards were making their rounds and had no doubt already secured the prized chamber of relics so no one opposed the half-sleep king as he entered. The silver-eyed noblewoman stopped right outside the great gilded door pensive for a moment. The Weapon's Vault only opened to those who had been granted said permission by the Odin. Dagmar doubted she could enter. She felt a little uneasy about going into the secured room. Once she had gone in with Thor and Loki when they were children. They had played some make-believe game where they were wrestling and tussling about of the ground as youngsters do. She bumped into a pedestal that the tesseract talisman had been placed upon. She caught a glimpse of the enticing blue gemstone. She felt like a moth with flame and her hands eagerly reached up to touch the shiny object. Her fingertips barely skimmed the edge of its casing. "Mar-Mar don't" Loki shouted. In the blink of an eye a great metal giant emerged from behind a gate. It's eyes a blaze with fire as it turned to look at her. She stood trembling in fear as the heat swelled in the large hollows that the mechanical creature had for eyes. Thor and Loki rushed over the guard her. The destroyer would not attack the two princes unless otherwise commanded by one who held Gungnir, but even as the robot drew back into it's cell Dagmar's eyes had welled up with tears and she fled the vault.

She had not stepped foot inside the chamber since, but thinking that Loki could injure himself in the vault sleepwalking prompted her pass her anxiety. She pressed her hand against the heavy vault door and phased through the metal. She was nervous after her experience perhaps the Destroyer would remember her or know that she was an unauthorized intruder and seek to attack her again. She looked around pensively expecting to here the clanking feet, but she didn't. She walked in a little further. The weapons vault was a museum, an endless trove of powerful tools. She walked pass the place where the tesseract talisman had once sat, she immediately clenched her hands to her side resisting even the urge to think about walking near the empty pedestal. The tesseract had long since been lost to Asgard. She hurried pass it and continued looking for where Loki had roamed to in his sleep. She soon found him head was walking toward the Cube of 1000 Winters. She gasped. "Loki don't!" she cried out. Then she clapped her hand over her mouth. Partially in fear of waking the destroyer and also fearing waking Loki with such a start out of his night walking. "Loki," she crept up on him whispering, "Loki,' she said as she tiptoed behind his back and watched his pale fingers hover over the casket. They glowed in the blue light. "Loki, don't" she warned. "Go back to bed," she spoke softly as she got closer. "I know you are under a lot of pressure, you need to rest," she explained soothingly as she drew closer to him. Loki nodded as his hands slightly lowered. "Come," she reached out her hand slowly and gingerly wrapped it around his shoulder. He was shivering so and the room all of a sudden became very cold. He sighed and groaned rocking on his heels unsteadily as he felt her warm touch over his freezing form. "Come away," she insisted gently. She looked down noting his fingers wrapped around the icy handlebars. "Loki put it down!" couldn't help but shout with panic not knowing what the weapon was capable of.

Loki spun around the harsh sound of her voice. His eyes were half-lidded and his mouth was slack-jawed, still a sleep. But beneath his half-lidded the Vanir maid didn't spy his normally rich emerald pupils, but rather glowing red eyes. His normally flawless pale skin was azure and lumpy carved with strange markings. Dagmar let out a bloodcurdling scream.

The now king's bright vermillion eyes flung open and the high-pitched shriek jarred him from his sleep. His heart pounded from the start and he looked around wildly until he cast a glance upon the petrified screamer. He stepped down coming toward her.

"FROST GIANT!" Dagmar cried as she pointed with horror at the blue figure descending upon her. She instantly bolted heading for the door. "Guards! Guards! GUARDS!" she yelled desperate to escape. She was nearly to the door almost out of the monster's reach when she felt freezing fingers grab around her pale wrist and yank her back. "Let me go!" she begged. "Guards!" she shouted once again. She flung her hand out and filled it with a magic charged dagger and hit it against the assaulter's face and she had to admit she was aiming for the terrible red-eye that gleamed at her. Her attack didn't do much except make the beast head swivel long enough for her to try to run again.

"Dagmar...don't run...it's me..." the frost giants voice called chasing after her. "It's Loki," the voice uttered.

The terrified noble could hardly make out the Jotun's grunts as she ran breathlessly down the stretch trying to get way once again she felt the icy hands fumble to clasp her. This time it caught her by the shoulder and pull her back. She shut her eyes as she felt locked in its cold grasps. She had heard that staring into the eyes of a frost giant could cause a person to turn to ice. "Lemmego! Lemmego! Lemmego!" she sobbed as she bucked and kicked and slammed her fist forcefully into the icy creatures chest. "HELP! HEL" She started to yell but soon she felt the monster's rough, coarse hands wrap around her soft pomegranate lips and cover them. She was desperate and crying tears streaming down her face thinking that his Jotun would slay her then and there.

"Dagmar," The Jotun's voice called. How did this creature know her name. " Dagmar it's me..." the voice slowly started to sound less like some screeching beast and she heard the articulate and precise way it spoke. "it's...it's...I'm...Loki," he confessed softly removing his hands from around her mouth.

Dagmar's squinted shut eyes slowly managed to open, "Loki?" she uttered, seeing the jagged blue skin fade away and the once prince's now king's flesh turn back to normal hue. Her eyes blinked rapidly as she looked into his downcast wide tear filled jade eyes.

"Yes," he managed to utter bobbing his head... "Dagmar...I" he started a lump forming in his throat. "Look it's just me...Loki," he offered in earnest somewhat releasing the strong clasps that he had around her waist and binging his hand away from her face. He looked down then hesitantly almost fearfully looked back up..."just Loki right?" he posed and smiled.

"Loki...I...you...casket...you...sleepingwalking.. .casket...you... frost giant," she articulated best she could as her pulse quickened and she started hyperventilation. "You...Frost giant?" she asked as her lovely gray eyes rolled up into the back of her head and her body went limp like a rag doll in his arms.

Dagmar came to lying on a small sleeping couch with gold upholstery. she said as she looked around taking in the rest of the room noting the décor was green and gold and black hues. Not her room. Loki's chambers. "Loki?" she asked groggily sitting up from the sofa and touching her delicate fingers to her temple. "How'd I get in your room?" she asked as she stretched.

"You fainted, Dagmar," his voice almost emotionless as he continued to stare blankly at himself in front of the long full length mirror that was trimmed with gold snakes for edges.

"I did?" she asked. "I...why?" She questioned somewhat dizzily.

" I know not," his silver tongue offered the lie less easily than ever before. "I found you in the corridor collapsed...Perhaps you were flustered and tired after our spat this afternoon," he offered.

"I suppose' Dagmar shrugged "Why did you not take me back to my own chambers?"

"I was concerned for you and my room was closer," Loki responded effortlessly.

"Thank you, my friend," Dagmar began smiling more to herself. "I think I'm quite alright now," she began with a stretch as she reached her bare pale arms back to massage a kink in her neck,"I had the strangest dream," she began as she shook her black locked head to clear it. "It was so strange, more of a nightmare really..." Dagmar paused and breathed feeling her tension release. "I was following you and I went into the weapons vault and all of a sudden I was being attacked by this Frost Giant," she elaborated.

"That doe sound rather nightmarish," the green-eyed king stated as he came from out of another room carrying a cool, tall glass of water. His slender, pale hands at her eye level while the other came and gingerly held her shoulder. She looked up at him and smiled warmly before taking the drink proffered to her. "Good?" he asked with a very slight smile barely tugging the corner of his lips.

The Vanir noblewoman sighed as the water hit her parched tongue. "Mmm yes," she said nodding and taking another sip, "Thank you.

"Was that the end of your dream?" Loki asked raising his snake-like eyebrow as he watched her finish the beverage.

"No," she chuckled. "It became even more peculiar," she went on."

"Oh," Loki paused as he took the finished glass from her and placed it on his onyx dresser before taking a seat and sitting down there. He turned his back to her and stared at himself in the mirror. He looked at himself for a few minutes as if lost in his own reflection like he was seeing it for the first time. He drummed his fingers impatiently into the shiny black stone that made up the night stand. "What happened next then?" he inquired emotionlessly.

Dagmar was still chuckling in the normal silvery sweet tone that was always her brook like laughter. "Well then it caught me,"

"You were scared?" Loki said his tone without feeling.

"Yes... I thought my heart would burst from fright," Dagmar explained and pressed her hand over her heart. Her night dress was low-cut and her cleavage was exposed.

"I can only imagine," Loki clutched the edge of the dresser.

"But then... then I found that it was only you," She pointed out with a sigh of relief.

"Me?"

"Yes, you were the Frost Giant... it was so odd... it must be all this talk of Jotun attacks and Frost Giant treachery, Sif and Frandal and Volstagg speaking about things in Jotunheim... the break in during the coronation...it's got me all jumpy...even subconsciously," she explained and rose to her feet.

"There are no Frost Giants here, Dagmar. You are safe," he told her as her in a whisper.

"Yes...I know it was silly," she shrugged chuckling..."I mean the thought of you being a Frost Giant... It is quite preposterous," she let her laughter roll out freely in the sweet silvery tone. Normally it was music to Loki's ears. Now it made him cringe. He quickly stood up and took a few small steps to bridge the gap between them. Dagmar's beautiful mouth was still formed in a smile as she laughed about the notion. Loki's face however was painted and contorted. His bony hands reached up to grab her shoulders and he dropped his head before he spoke.

"Dagmar?" he asked his green eyes were wide and wild as her search her sweet silver pupils for truth. "Wh-wh-what if it wasn't so preposterous?" he stammered out.

"What if what wasn't so preposterous?" Dagmar asked in confusion.

"The Frost Giant...Me...The dream," he sputtered shaking his hands trying to get his point across.

"Loki what are you talking about?" she asked her face quirked with genuine worry for her friend whose breathing became labored and his cold palms with damp with nervous perspiration.

"When Thor, the warriors and I went to Jotunheim something happened..." Loki started to explain his tone hushed a secretive. His green eyes looked into her silver ones as he tried to stay calm

"You were hurt?" the gray eyed young woman asked. Her lips pursed and brows furrowed wondering why Loki would wait so long to tell some one of the injury.

He wagged his head against the question..."Not exactly," the green-eyed now King of Asgard replied. "A Frost Giant grabbed my arm..." he began.

"Where?" the young healer asked in earnest. She shifted her hands to pull up the sleeve of the right arm. She examined his pale flesh. "Which arm was the burn on. Loki you shouldn't have left it untreated... a Frost Giant's skin burns, but the burn can inject poison into an Aesir's skin if it is not healed properly"

"It didn't burn me," He muttered and looked down and her porcelain hand as it skimmed across his forearm. "My arm...my hand... my skin... it became...blue"

"What?" the dark-haired young maiden puzzled she rolled up his other green sleeve, but Loki's flesh seemed clear. "How would that be possible?"

"Because I'm not Odin's son." he stated calmly his hands sliding off her beautiful porcelain shoulders. "Because I'm not even of Aesir blood?" He stated his eyes wide a turned from her clenching his fist to his side. "Because I'm just another spoil from the war."

"What war? Loki you're rambling," she pointed out and stepped toward his back slowly reaching out her hand to touch his trembling shoulder.

"No I'm not," he murmured so low she could barely hear"NO I'M NOT!" Loki shouted turning on her and growling. She drew her hand back quickly as if she's touch a hot kettle.

"Ok, Ok," Dagmar spoke softly nodding as she cautiously tried to step closer to her old friend.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," the ruler of Asgard apologized as his slim fingers reached back out to hold her once more. His cool hands barely touched her warm and tender. "I...Odin found me... he found me at the end of the war in an Ice temple, left on an altar and he took me... I...I don't even know why...he wanted to use me as some bargaining chip or peace treaty...I don't know...I don't" Loki shook his head and grabbed.

"Who told you these things?" Dagmar asked in confusion as she pulled Loki's icy hands away from clutching his head.

Loki looked up and her his emerald eyes now a turbulent sea of rage. "The man I called my father," he explained.

"So...You're saying... you're..."

cheeks. "I'm...just...I...I...I I'm the nightmare, Dagmar...I'm this horrible creature...I'm...the monster parents tell their children about at night!"

"Shh," she cooed. Reaching her finger to his trembling lips. "No you're not, w you're just overwrought. You put too much pressure on yourself. When was the last time you slept? You need to rest,' she assured him. "You're confused and ...and...and" she tried to soothe and find every excuse to cancel out this alarming confession. "You're Thor's brother...You're Odin's son," she assured him he voice lulling him into a relaxed state.

"I'M LAUFEY'S SON!" he exploded. Then all the rage and anger seeped from his visage. His whole face crumpled as a painful choking sob escaped from somewhere deep inside. Loki fell on his hands and knees tears freely flowing now that he was in a hunched over position. It didn't take long before a puddle formed beneath his face. "I'm a monster," he sniffled. "I'm a monster...I...I...I'm a monster," he hiccupped through his weeping gasps. Dagmar stood horrified and perplexed for a few minutes. Before long Loki felt gentle, graceful hands nudge up his quivering chin. He wagged his head as if trying not to look at her. He didn't want to see the repulsion that would leak through her gorgeous starlit eyes now that she knew all that he really was. Still the hand raised his head forcing him to look at her. His eyes running like waterfalls and his nose dripping as well. "I'm a monster...D-d-dag-Dagmar" he stuttered between his raspy breaths.

"Shh," she cooed finally dropping to her knees and gathering him in her arms like he was a boy. She pulled his head so that it rested on her chest. His cool face gathered to the side of her warm bodice, he turned his face toward her body and pressed in further and blubbered the harder as he cheek made contact with her soft upper body. He felt like a helpless child suffering from fretful dreams in the middle of the night seeking solace in the arms of someone who loved him. He burrowed his flushing, tear dampened face against her bosom feeling like a frightened lad. He mumbled and gasped and clung to her silk drapes as he felt her delicate porcelain hands make soothing circles on his quivering spine. He must have seemed so sniveling and pitiful, so desperate and juvenile. He didn't like the feeling of such open vulnerability, still her felt powerless to do anything else, but lie there in her arms crying like a baby. "It's alright, Loki," she whispered tenderly as she watched his hard weeping give was to pitiful whimpering. He'd exhausted himself with his blubbering he felt he could fall asleep then and there. He body was so warm and soft,yet she was so terribly strong that he felt he could cast his heavy troubles on her and should could bear them and support him just for a little while. He felt safe. "It's ok," she spoke softly in his ear. "Shh, no more of this," she comforted him. She pressed her pomegranate lips against his jet black crown. Loki nodded as sniffed trying to collect himself into having some semblance of dignity once again and acting like a prince and not an infant. "Enough of this," she told him gently stroking her hand through his ebony mane and then placing a kiss on his wrinkled brow.

"D-d-dagmar," he stated her name finally managing to raise his water-filled emerald eyes to look at her her. He sniffled and rubbed under his running nose. "I...I..." he started as he hands clumsily tried the swipe away the water on his cheeks

"It's ok, you don't need to explain anything thing," she informed him and slowly slid him off of her on so that the two of them could rise to their feet. Loki did so clumsily still feeling clingy and unwilling to break physical contact. "You should get some sleep," she admonished him. Her lips pecking against his pointed nose. . He bobbed his head obediently as he watched her lovely hands smooth out his disheveled garments. His shaking hands raised to catch her own, he pulled her close to him

"Loki," she gasped feeling his slim fingers wrap around her waste.

"I...I...I love you," he whispered softly as his pointy nose grazed her button nose. He looked up emerald eyes still shimmering as he timidly caused his mouth to meet with hers.

"Loki!" she gasped pulling back. "What are you..."

"Please?" He asked his green eyes large and hopeful like a stray cat the mews at the door on a cold winters night hoping to be let in.

"Loki," She shuck her head taking a step away only to have him step closer to her and catch her wrist. "Loki, I...I think you're confused and stressed and...I...I don't want you do do anything you're going to regret," she expressed her breath hitching since Loki was only a breath away from her face.

"I"m not going to regret this," the new king stated letting his hand ride down over her backside. " I want this...I want us," he explained as he inhaled her sweet scent she smelt like sugar and spring rain. "I need to be close to you," he explained best he could as his hands moved up and down her arms and slowly pushed down the strap to her sleepwear. "I feel so a lone in this Dagmar," he expressed making his nose touch hers. "I need a friend," She didn't refuse and Loki dove back in tenderly kissing her succulent pomegranate mouth once more. His fumbling, frantic fingers feverishly flutter over her night her night gown as back her toward the bed.

He pressed her against the dark silk sheets and hiked up her pretty blue nightgown and ran his trembling fingers over her alabaster thighs."You're not alone," she moaned as she felt his tongue slide down from the dent of her ivory neck to the valley between her two twin peaks. He pressed her back against the satin forest grin spread that lined his opulent bed. "I'm here," she breathed as he wedged himself between her legs. He hadn't imagined that their first time together would be like this. He hadn't thought that the moment he made love to this gorgeous woman he was see himself as a hideous creature unworthy to even be in her presence or in Asgard let alone touch and caress her body. He hadn't thought when they finally came together he'd be this sobbing, needy wreck. But he was he was a weak and desperate man at the moment. He felt so unloveable. He hated himself for his true parentage. Could anyone love him for what he was? He had to know.

"Are you afraid?" he asked his voice husky from lust as he fingers ran down his spine and abdomen.

"No," Dagmar uttered feeling his passionate kiss on her neck.

"Of me...of what I am...what I really am?" He asked breathlessly.

"You're not a Frost Giant," she told him grabbed his face and brought it down to kiss her.

He gave into her sensuous pomegranate kiss for a while, then peeled his lips from her plump panting mouth. Her lip paint staining his thin mouth. "Then what am I?" He demanded feeling her rise beneath him. Her back arched up in a sensuous languid movement like an ocean swell. Loki moaned as he felt her break against him. He wet tongue toying with his ear. " Mmm... Tell me what I am Dagmar?" he questioned. "Tell me what I am," he begged. He brought her frisky hands out of running through his dark mane and pinned them behind her head. She growled before looking into his tormented green eyes "Am I a monster?"

"No," she whispered back.

"Say who I am?" he growled biting her juicy lip. "Tell me," he panted next to her ear. "P-p-please,"

"Loki!" She gasped as he released her wrist allowing her long nails to scratch at his back. He his and growled as he dove into her with more passion.

"I love you," he gushed unbridled His breath hitched and his pulse fluttered like a hummingbirds rapidly beating wings as he looked deep into her endless silver eyes. "I love you,' he repeated, as his lips moved over the uncharted territory of her alabaster body. "What do you want" he asked between breaths. "D-do you want to be queen?" he questioned between slow kisses on her mouth.

"Yes," she panted...

" of Asgard? Vanaheim? Midgard?" he posed .

"I want to be..." paused enjoying the pleasure for a moment and losing her train of thought... "of your heart," She whispered.

" Oh Dagmar," Loki sighed , " I love you... now...tomorrow...yesterday...next moon...next year...ever...always...til sun falls..til moon burns..til ragnorok...all time...eternity," Loki swooned as tears spilled from his jade pupils, "Dagmar, my heart's yours. He took he hand and kissed her milky wrist. "Be benevolent to me, my queen," he implored her sweet as he kissed he ivory throat. "I love you" he swore until the act was done and he was so spent physically and emotionally and intoxicated from their love-making that he passed out.

The rays of sun peered through the dark tinted curtains and tickled her head spun and body floated. Her heart stomach was filled with butterflies. She pushed her wild, messy black ringlets from her face trying to get her bearings. Her nostrils were flooded with the smell of dying embers and incense. She smiled and stretched as her eyes blinked taking in the room. Not her chamber. She looked around the chamber was tidy except for the articles of clothing thrown without care about the floor. Her neglige was draped recklessly off the back of a chair. Her undergarments scattered sloppily over a couch. Loki's armor and and tunics and pant, tossed without caution about the ground.

She felt Loki's pointed, cool nose nuzzle against her bare back. His lips moving on her creamy flesh making her laugh as he muttered lazily in his sleep. He clenched his arm protectively around her stomach wanting to feel her inviting warmth in contrast to his chill. She turned toward him ready to mutter back words of devotion to him when she noted a hideous, scaly looking blue arm lazily draped around her naked porcelain abdomen. "Luvyou," he slurred in his sleep feeling the bed move a bit. "stay," he muttered in the haze as he tightened his old on her. She gasped and covered her mouth to keep from waking the entire palace. She snatched her bare body from beneath the monstrous arm that wrapped around her. Loki's blue fingertips dangled off the bed.

Minutes later Loki's hand moved restlessly around the green silk sheets in search a soft warm sweet-smelling body. His finger groped only to find nothing to hold. He stretched and awoke empty-handed. "Dagmar?" he asked rubbing blue frozen hands over his burning red caught glimpse of his own skin recoiled and cringed and he changed it back to an Asgardian tone. He'd never woken up like this before period let a lone after being intimate, but he didn't think he'd ever given himself so fully to a woman in bed before, besides with Odin in the Odinsleep his spells would weaken. He pulled the discarded trousers from hours before onto his body. "Dagmar?" he called perkily thinking she was in the study salon that was a part of his chamber. He smiled shyly to himself it would be so nice to wake up every morning and find her in the study salon on in the powder room or in an adjacent suite cooing over a child's cradle, but better yet to wake up to by his side. He pulled out a small chest from beneath his bed and took an item from it. "I have something...I want to," he spoke as he walked back to the bedroom finding that she was not in the sitting pallor. His green eyes scanned across his dresser and noted a scroll made of his own parchment.

My dearest Loki,

I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry about last night. That shouldn't have happened. Our passion was in err. You were vulnerable and so distraught I wanted to comfort you, but it all happened so fast without time to think or process the true gravity of what you had said. All this...all this revelation at once is more than I can fully comprehend now. I won't tell. I won't tell, I swear. Please understand that this is too much for me. I am sorry.

Dagmar

Loki rolled back up the scroll and gritted his teeth allowing his mother's gold and sapphire ring to clank against the Onyx dresser.

The prisoner detected a presence entering his lonely confine. The figure reeked of the that dreadful emotion he detested...sentiment. He growled. Thor? No. This person was female. Sif? He scoffed at that notion Sif would not come to him with sentiment, not this time, She would come to him with a vendetta ready to slay him for his disrespect. Somehow her contempt would be so much more welcome than the dreadful feelings of fondness and warmth that drew nearer to his cell. Ah yes this presence was very familiar, very tender and loving, so gentle and mild and beautiful...Mother...Frigga? Loki guessed. No...

Just as the name entered his mind the voice called, "Hello old friend," an elegant silvery voice whispered from beneath a hood that obscured her lovely features.

"Dagmar!" the once prince couldn't help but gasp. The cloaked maiden standing before him on the outside of the shield flipped back the hood and revealed herself. She was a vision of an angel the midst of squalor. Her presence radiating light. Not Like Thor's light. Thor's light was burning blaring, a sun that one sought to find shade from. Her light was starlight gentle and too far away to touch yet one longed to hold it. Stars sparkled in her misty silver eyes as she looked at him disheveled and filthy. He was Covered in mud from head to toe. He caked and matter. His thin shoes worn down to the point that his feet stuck out. His tattered apparel barely seemed to count as raiment. His hair was growing long and unkempt. His nails like grew longer. to. He was shackled although he was no longer tethered to the ceiling. His face was filled with dirt as well as blood. His thin lips cracks and chaffed. He was almost gaunt in appearance. His always clean-shaven faced patched as a faint beard seemed to be starting to grow.

"It's good to see you Loki," she told him honestly.

He scoffed she was a sight for sore eyes and he was a sight to be hidden. "Why did you come?" He snarled.

"I came to see you...came to see what has become of you... who you are."

"Haven't you heard about the terrible things I"ve done?" He asked his chains rattled as he dare step closer to the shield.

The lovely Vanir damsel gulped and nodded slowly, "I have." she stated daring to look up into Loki's wild green eyes. "I have heard about the abominable acts that you have committed. I have heard of the chaos you've spread. I have been told of the lives you have taken. I have felt the heat from the fires you caused. "

The green-eyed prisoner winced at the last of her words then smirked. "What do you think about it?"

"It tortures me!" Dagmar expressed thumping her open palm against her chest. It hurts me to think that the little boy who used to write me as a child would be capable of doing such awful things. I kept his letters. I reread them after the Bifrost accident no words written on those old scrolls seem to depict the animal that you are now. I couldn't imagine that my brilliant tutor had become this lunatic which makes all the realms cringe," Dagmar declared turning her head from Loki's cold gaze only to wipe the tear forming in her eye."The Loki I knew," She began although by now she was failing miserably at keeping her eyes from flooding over. "He...he... was a kind and gentle boy." she confirmed to herself. "I one time fell out of the twisted willow by the palace lake and he came and bound up my wounds. He used to take in stray cats who roamed the streets of the Imperial City," she laughed as she remembered a feline frenzy surrounding him. He was funny." she nodded and her laughter was harder now."One time I was ill and he put on this magic show for me...He was always a little impish and smart mouthed, he was troublesome with his pranks, but he was never cold and cruel, never unfeeling and evil. He was a wise and studious young man. He was his father's prized diplomat, he was his brother's advisor and he was Asgard's most powerful mage and learned scholar. He was my tutor and friend." she explained thoroughly and then looked into Loki's large but distant green eyes.

"I remember him..." Loki uttered stopping in his pacing and turning around to stare into Dagmar's shimmering eyes. "He was weak and pathetic," he spat.

"No!" Dagmar threw out her hand in protest.

"He was a shadow that no one ever noticed." He growled and looked her straight in the eyes his gaze so icy it sent a tremble right through her.

"That's not true. He was loved and respected," she shouted.

"Did you love him?" Loki asked an inquiring smug smile tugged on his cracked lipes

"Yes," Dagmar replied nodding firmly and stepping closer to the force field that surrounded Loki, "I wept...I wept for you. Thinking that it was my fault! That I was the reason for your untimely death...that had I...i just been therefore you...had I told you I cared not what race of people sired you...Had I just told you that I loved you that maybe you'd be alive. I blamed myself sore. I became so sic over your death Loki. Think of the pain that my rejection had caused. I'm sorry for the part I played in pushing you to this place.

"Liar!" He yelled back then tossed his head back and laughed in a crazed cackle. "Think you my memory so short..I remember a simpering child begging you to love him and you never did," Loki spat turning on her like a coiling snake.

"I did Love..."

"I remember that sniveling, gushing, lovesick boy pouring his heart out to you until he would have been putty in your hands all you ever did was throw it on the ground."he shot back and slammed him hand against the shield and it reverberated.

"Oh Loki, I'm so sorry," she blubbered as her pomegranate lips quivered. "I'm sorry for every time I hurt you Loki. I never wanted to cause you pain. I loved you...I just... I just was afraid," Dagmar said reaching out and touching the shield as tears spilled down her cheeks. She vigorously wiped them away, "But I'm not afraid...I'm not afraid anymore," she replied and stifled herself from sobbing anymore. She touched her porcelain fingers against the shield and phased through it and she was inside the cell with Loki.

The dirty once prince clicked his tongue. "You are a foolish girl Dagmar," he explained as he walked closer to her. "You know not when to stay and when to run," he shook his head and laughed bitterly. "You know not when to be afraid," he muttered and slowly the hot, stiflingly, humid cell started to drop in temperature. Before long the confine was freezing and ice and frost formed on the shield and on Loki's dangling fetters. They jangled as he took methodical steps toward her. The young enchantress shivered. "Are you afraid?" Loki asked his voice low and gravelly. He looked up at her his eyes gleaming red and his skin jagged and hard blue as an ice. She gasped and bit her lip holding in her first reaction which was to scream and runaway. "Are you afraid?" he repeated. Lord Audric's daughter shook her head, but the frost giant could taste her intimidation. His icy hand reached out and wrapped tight around her neck. His long nails black like tar piercing against her flesh. "Answer me, Dagmar, my love?" He hissed cruelly.

"L-l-loki...please," she stuttered out as his Jotun skin seared her flawless flesh.

"ARE LOUD AFRAID?" He demanded squeezing tighter on her throat and burning her flesh til she screamed out his free hand clawed into her upper arm and punctured her creamy skin crimson liquid spilling from the wound.

"Let me go," she sobbed.

"Tell me are you afraid." he stated firmly still not releasing her.

"Yes! yes! YES!" she finally screeched as she felt the sting of ice shoot through her entire body.

The red-eyed creature uncoiled his hand from around her neck. Hey ivory throat blue and black from the frostbite burn. His hand slowly almost gently trailed down her unmarred arm as he pulled her roughly toward himself while she trembled with in his clasp. "Call me what I am Dagmar," he whispered lustily his blue mouth pressed against her ear. She pulled away but her held her fast and firm. "Call me by my name," he stated as he breathed in her sweet intoxicating perfume.

Tears pooled in her wide and trembling silver eyes and flowed out like waterfalls. "You're a monster," she barely managed to say.

The Jotun slowly transformed from a horrible creature into an Aesir form of a gaunt and haggard twisted figure. Dirty and wretched looking. Loki released his grip on her neck then gripped her roughly by the arms and shook her a little before pushing toward the floor. Her elegant gown now covered in the disgusting grime. Her porcelain flesh was now coated with mud and even the side of her lovely face was thick with the dirt. "Get out," he growled in a still voice as he loomed over her threateningly. Lady Dagmar remained on the floor sobbing as she rubbed her hand against her frost burnt neck trying to heal the new injuries. She tried to gather herself to get off the floor best she could in midst of her gasping spasms, but soon her once friend grew impatient with her slow progress, He gripped her roughly by the arm he had damaged hoisting her to her feet that she was hardly able to stand upon. "I said 'Get out!" he repeated to her as he watched her quake in his clutches. "Leave you mewling quim!" he shouted in her face.

Instantly her muddied, bloodied porcelain hand slapped the prisoner across the face. The dirty raven locked man's head swung to the side from the impact of her open palm. "I WAS PREGNANT!" she screamed her voice shrill with distress. "I...I...I was pregnant with your child!" she hollered. "I found it out some months after your funeral. That was why I agreed to marry Olaf...I didn't want your son... Our son...daughter...baby to be born a bastard! I was scared of course scared that the child may look like a Jotun but I cared not for I bore the seed of the man I loved and I determined that be my baby white or blue I would love them with all the heart I had. And when they became old enough I would tell them who their real father was. How he was so powerful and good and wise...how I adored him, but as the case would be I lost the baby. I wept feeling as though I had lost all traces of you in my life. I...suppose Jotun and Vanir don't often interbreed." she said. "But I am glad now that the child did not come to see the light of day...I wouldn't want them to learn...what you really are," Dagmar stated and with that she fled from the chamber.

"Dagmar!" she heard Loki's gentle refined voice call her name as she ran she felt his cool finger tips skim across her hand trying to take hold but she escaped sobbing as she ran. Loki pressed his face against the shield as he saw the last glimpses of her shiny black mane disappear. "Dagmar, wait!" he yelled out desperate even though he could no longer see her. He stood face pressed against the shield for a long while. What had he done? "I am a monster," he confessed as he sank to his knees and cried alone in the prison.