- Chapter 56 -

"So, what you're saying is that Loki isn't really like you Asgardians, no offense intended," Bruce said, thinking out loud. "That he, or she, is more different than just being a, what did you call them? Whatever it is, she's more like a hermaphrodite."

"A Jotunn. That's what Loki was born as," Thor was speaking quietly again. He was only loosely paying attention. Most of his attention was on his own disturbed thoughts. "I've never seen Loki wearing his Jotunn skin," he muttered very quietly.

"What it comes down to is that none of us know Loki's real capabilities. That's the root of it," Director Fury interrupted. A frown was firmly settled on his face. He was grateful King Frey was willing to speak even this much. The younger King was clearly doing it for his sister, and only for her. The Director wondered if maybe the King hadn't promised Loki anything about this one subject. Either way, it was still useful information to have. His stomach was still gurgling sourly. He always hoped that the burning wasn't going to follow the sour gurgling. It always did, but he hoped anyway.

"We know he's not an enemy," Steve said. He or she, or not either. How can someone be neither? You have to be one or the other, don't you? Man or woman. I don't understand. He frowned at his own thoughts. "How could Loki be neither gender?"

"It's a rare ailment, and not studied. The infants who are born as such almost always die. That Loki survived is amazing," Frey said. Loki had amazed him many times. He didn't mind answering the mortals so long as they were questions that his beloved sister might ask later on. These were answers that he could give. "If the child is loved, they leave it wrapped in swaddling clothes in a temple."

"If the child isn't loved?" Steve wasn't sure he wanted the answer. Unfortunately, he spoke as he thought it and there was no taking it back.

"Then their skulls are crushed with rocks, the bodies tossed to the ice wolves," Frey had the same disgust with it now as he did when he learned of it.

"That's barbaric!" Steve recoiled from the thought of something so horrible. "How can they do that to their own children?"

"Jotunheim is a harsh land where only the fittest survive. Children aren't looked at as family until they're older. They're first looked at as tools of survival, to be used when the parents become too old to do many of the things needed to survive. If the tool is defective, why keep it?" While Frey was disgusted by the methods used to be rid of the children, he did have some understanding of the needs that caused them.

"Loki wasn't really abandoned then," Bruce said. He was still fitting the puzzle pieces together.

"Loki had been abandoned when I found him," Odin said. The Lord of Jotunheim had just conceded the battle. The war was over. He removed the Casket of Ancient Winters from the Frozen Lord and sent it back to Asgard. Odin finished taking a grim report from one of his captains on the dungeons beneath the Royal Palace, and what they found there. He issued his orders, and his men went to fulfill them. With that done he just wanted a quiet place to sit for a moment.

The burn of the enchanted ice that covered his eye and part of his face still stung Odin's memories. The numbness it spread through his flesh was uncomfortable. He didn't seek out a healer sooner because he knew that eye was lost, and he still had business to attend too. In spite of that, what he wanted most was a moment to sit before he got to that business. He was so tired after the long battle. The temple was near, and it looked empty. As he entered, that's when he heard the soft cries and followed them to the front of the temple. A tiny Jotunn babe wrapped in a small blanket was laying on the steps leading up to the alter. Odin looked about to see if the mother's body was near. There was no one, living or dead, besides the two of them in the temple.

The babe stopped crying when he knelt down next to it. The blanket fell away as Odin picked him up. He remembered well his shock as the royal markings became clear. This is Laufey's son, he thought sadly, abandoned for being a runt. He was even more shocked when the babe's seidr latched onto his own, using it to cast and anchor a permanent glamour on himself. Suddenly Odin was holding a babe that could've come from Asgard. So much power, he thought. As he looked down at the babe, he knew he'd finally found the last of what he needed.

He thought of his mother then. She was a cousin to Utgard-Loki, the Grand Arbiter of Jotunheim. "I will name you Loki," he whispered as he wrapped the blanket back around the babe and held him close in one arm. Odin pulled his cloak around to shield the babe from view, hoping all the while that he would remain silent on the way home. It wasn't a worry; the babe fell asleep against him almost instantly. Little Loki didn't wake again until he was handed to his new mother. His tiny hands grasped her dress. His refusal to let go was small but obvious. Frigga smiled, not wanting to let go of him.

Quickly Bruce scooted his chair out so that he could look directly at King Odin while he spoke. The sudden motion jarred the Asgardian King from his memories. "Hear me out, sir, please. The infants that are cared about are left in temples, so that their souls can be cared for. That was where you found Loki. The parents do it because they don't have a cure for the illness, the baby is going to die. Right?" When the King nodded, Bruce continued, "We have a thing called hospice. When someone is dying, and we can't do anything about it, they can go to a hospice home. The staff there manages the person's medical needs, mostly dealing with pain relief and quality of life, right up until the end. Everyone from the staff to the patient to the patient's family knows that the person is dying. The goal isn't extending life but caring for them as they die. We use it for everything from heart disease to cancer. That's seems like what the temples are for."

A home for the dying, Odin nodded again, disliking the prospect. What a gruesome thing to have. He wasn't so surprised by it. Mortals were so small and weak that this might have been inevitable.

Taking off his glasses, Bruce cleaned them again. "If the Jotunns are a harsh people living in a harsh land, then leaving the infant where they believe its soul will be cared for wouldn't be abandonment. It'd essentially be hospice, for the soul instead of the body. Does that make sense, sir?" Bruce slipped his glasses back on.

"Are you accusing me of stealing a child?" Odin leveled a look at Bruce that'd shrunk many a Noble Lord from him and was surprised to find the mortal didn't completely shrink away from him.

"I don't think I can make any judgments on the legality of it since Loki's birth parents had given up. They believed Loki was dying, so they put him in the temple to wait for the end. However it happened and whatever happened afterwards, your bringing Loki to Asgard did save his life. I don't think anyone can say otherwise and still be honest, sir," Bruce tried to choose his words carefully. He tried to be respectful as he spoke. Thor's family were very old fashioned. Family, respect, and honor seemed essential for them. He didn't want to make anyone angry. As a scientist, Bruce understood that just trying to assemble the facts was a fast way to make most people angry.

"Male or female, it doesn't matter. Loki fought for us, even when we didn't know it. We still don't know who our real enemy is. I think that's the most important thing to focus on," Steve said. He wasn't comfortable discussing someone's gender. That was a private matter, not a public one.

"I agree. We need to know more about the person Loki was trying to fend off. They control the Chitauri, who we now know number in the millions. An enemy with the technology to traverse space and to engineer that portal is what we should be looking at. Even if we don't get a name, we should still pay attention for pertinent details. This may be the only chance that we have to get the truth from Loki," Natasha added.

"On that note, the next file is from May 8, 2023," McCorrmick said quickly. He glanced up at Queen Frigga. She looked so calm sitting in her chair. There was still an audible grief coming from her. It was stressful to keep going knowing that he was going to make that grief worse.

In the seeing of it is their punishment, Skuld whispered to him from the marks under his skin.

Is it punishment or repayment you're after, ma'am? May I ask what justice I'm helping you to seek? He didn't know and couldn't guess at what repayment she wanted. Nor was he surprised when she didn't answer him.

It's a test. It's a test, the young Satska Soledras reminded himself in his quiet space. It was a reminder with decreasing use to him. There were no words needed to keep in the forefront of his mind the fact that the lives of his entire clan were resting on his shoulders. There were no useful words to make him feel better about intentionally harming people outside of combat then doing nothing about it. This wasn't the justice Aidesh championed. McCorrmick wondered then if this wasn't just a test but was punishment as well. If he was the only member of his clan for be punished for their crimes before Aidesh would take them back then it was a burden that he was willing to bear. With what he hoped was a renewed understanding, the young man took a breath then refocused on the screen. There was still a clue to Agent Barton's guilt to be found.