Sorcha's Secret World, Part 2: Mystery and Mischief

by Sorcha Laufeyson

In an alternate universe, where there are no Avengers and secret organisations hide the existence of the supernatural from the rest of humanity, magic on Midgard is waning. Sorcha, a powerful sorceress and Templar agent, and Loki, god of Mischief, are now married. Can their happiness last? This is the second part of a series, read the first part first or nothing will make sense!

12. Chapter 12, Loki Serpent-Tongue

Loki disabled the security system and we opened the doors. Before we could set foot outside, however, Loki pulled me back into the hallway.
I dropped into a crouch, the air around my hands cooling down to a chilling fog as I fully expected a rocket to come flying in over my head.
Loki tried to bite back his laughter, then burst out in giggles.
"You thought it was a rocket," he finally managed to get out.
"Yes!" I was rather unamused. "Why did you do that?"
I looked behind me and saw a clump of snow stuck to the wall.
"Snowball," Loki sniggered, "it would have hit you right in the face!
The least you could do is thank me!"
I could see he was a bit giddy, welcoming some comic relief after the stress from the conversation we just had.
"Sorry!" came Thor's voice from outside.
I peeked out cautiously. Thor and Sif were sitting with their backs against Sif's snowmobile on a blanket that I presumed belonged to Sif.
Thor stood up and wiped the snow off his trousers, Sif did the same.
"Can we come in now?" Thor rumbled. "I'm getting frostbite in my unmentionables!"
"That depends, as long as Sif leaves her weapons outside and promises not to hurt Loki," I replied.
"And why would I promise that?"
"Because he might be a scrawny-assed, weasely-faced little shit of a brother, but he is my scrawny-assed, weasely-faced little shit of a brother," Thor answered his wife in my stead.
"Are you certain about that?" Sif asked him softly.
"I know he's adopted," Thor sounded confused. I realised that whatever those two had been talking about, it wasn't Beaumont.
"Look, he's different now Sif! He's like he used to be before everything went wrong, better than that even.
He's almost nice now!"
"Oh, please, don't lavish me with praise, brother, you are making me blush!" Loki mumbled dourly, so quiet only I could hear. I felt the corner of my mouth twitch into a smile.
"That's isn't what I meant," Sif shook her head, "but it seems the only way I'm going to get to the bottom of all this is to stay my hand for now."
Sif's rocket launcher was already lying in the snow next to the half-molten shotgun. She unbuckled her sword and dropped it next to them, removed a dagger from a sheath in her boot, a small handgun that was hidden behind her back underneath her leather jacket, and a variety of other weapons that had been hidden upon her person too.
Eventually, she held up her hands. "That's it, that's all I'm carrying."
"I can frisk her to make sure that's really everything!" Thor offered eagerly.
Loki rolled his eyes. "How about you leave the frisking to the privacy of your own quarters? I thought you wanted in from the cold?"
Not saying another word he turned his back and stalked into the hold without so much as a glance backwards. I could see from the set of his shoulders and the way he clenched his jaw that he was already bracing himself for the conversation that was to follow.

Thor walked past me, noticing my tear-stained face for the first time.
"Is everything okay? He asked, his concern for me clearly written on his handsome face.
"Not really," I answered quietly. "Loki just dropped a bombshell, and I'm going to need some time to make sense of it all.
We will be okay, I think. I hope."
"You didn't know?" Sif sounded surprised. "You really didn't know, did you?"
I mutely shook my head. I had never seen it coming, but obviously, Sif had known for a while now.
Had Odin known? Had Thor?
I looked at Thor, but he looked even more confused than I felt.
"Known what?" Thor asked.
"I'm not certain yet," Sif admitted. "I want to hear Loki's side first, see if I can make sense of it and if I can catch him out on a lie.
I don't trust him. I never trusted him, but I trust him even less now."
I took Thor by his arm.
"Please, don't think too little of him," I practically begged, "Loki has changed, and he's been so happy with the way things are between the two of you now. Thor, whatever happened in the past, he loves you."
Thor's eyes narrowed, but he nodded.
"I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I've lived with the two of you long enough to see that he is trying to change. But I've been down this path before, Sorcha, and it always ends in ruin and heartbreak."
It was Sif's turn to take Thor's arm, gently caressing his bicep, a look of love and empathy in her eyes.
"You don't have to face it alone this time," she reassured him, echoing the words I had spoken to Loki so many times.

Loki had gone ahead into the kitchen. Wordlessly he handed Sif and Thor a mug of hot chocolate. I looked at him in surprise.
"It seems to be your go-to every time there is turmoil in our lives, I merely thought to take a page out of your book."
Loki's eyes met mine as he handed me my mug, his eyes searching for a sign that we were going to be alright, that I was still on his side.
I touched his hand briefly as I took my mug and smiled at him. For a moment the tension left his body as he smiled back, the connection between us feeling almost the same as it had before.
Sif sniffed her mug with suspicion.
"It isn't poison if that's what you are wondering," Loki snapped irritably at her.
"I wouldn't put it past you," Sif snapped back. She took a sip and grimaced. "You haven't got anything stronger?"
"No," Loki replied curtly.
"They don't have anything stronger in the house," Thor explained to his wife as she shot him a questioning glance.
Sif looked at me.
"Not because of Sorcha, because of me.
I'm better off without it," Loki eyed Sif defiantly as if to challenge her to comment any further.
Sif just shrugged.
"I don't care about your living habits. I just want to know what in Yggdrasil's name is happening.
Who are you?"

It took Loki quite a while to go through the whole story again. He was as honest with Thor as he had been with me, no part was left out or glossed over.
I couldn't begin to imagine what it was like to have to relive that part of his past, let alone twice in one day. I wrapped my hand around his underneath the table, wishing I could do more.
When talking about those he called 'his masters' Loki couldn't look Thor in the eye.
He stared at his mug instead, dipping his finger in the chocolate milk that was untouched and slowly going cold, then drawing circles with it as he traced over the edge of the mug.
Thor was quiet, his eyes soft with empathy.
"Why didn't you tell us, Loki? We would have helped…"
"Would you? Would you have believed me?" Loki asked bitterly.
"You were all so convinced you had me sussed out; Loki Serpent-Tongue, the jealously scheming younger brother, the villain of the play!
Surely you must have noticed I was different, surely you must have seen I wasn't myself at all?
You ask me why I didn't tell you, brother, but I could ask you why you didn't ever question what had happened to me while I was gone?"
Thor shook his head. "I didn't know there was anything to ask!"
"Exactly my point."
"And surely mother would have listened to you!"
"Mother?" Loki sighed and winced at the memory.
"All those years she lied to me, made me believe I was something I was not. How could I possibly trust her after that?
Besides, Mother could barely look me in the eyes. She was horrified by what I had become, ashamed of the monster she thought she had domesticated only for it to show its true nature!"
Loki held up his hand before Thor could object.
"At least that was how it felt to me back then," he amended.
"You make it sound like your family was to blame. Like Thor was to blame. He wasn't the one who stabbed his brother in the back!" Sif said angrily.
"That is not my intention," Loki ran his hand through his hair.
"There is no use going over that again anyway," Thor interrupted. "Loki and I have made our peace about all of that.
I'd rather have you explain to me the parts I'm not aware of."
Loki continued his story. He did not hide his desperation, nor his self-loathing. And I couldn't help but cry again at how lonely and hurt he had been.
Finally, he told Thor and Sif about how Halja had approached him, how they had created Beaumont and how that plan had gone horribly wrong, leaving Loki alive but without his soul.

"A pact with Hel? Loki, how could you do that? Father warned you against her, Mother warned you! Mother taught you better than that!"
"I saw no other way."
Thor shook his head. "And you call me a foolish oaf."
"It's a riveting story, and one that surely paints you as the tragic victim, carefully glossing over the atrocities you must have committed to weave such dark spells," Sif scoffed.
" I have told the truth and I have hidden nothing! See for yourself if you do not believe me!"
Loki stood up, his eyes boring hotly into Sif's. "Isn't shepherding souls what you do as a Valkyrie? Surely you can tell whether I have one or not?"
"Can you?" Thor asked his wife.
Sif nodded and stood up as well. She closed her eyes for a few seconds. When she opened them again they glowed with holy white light.
She looked at Thor and nodded, looked at me and winced (which worried me more than a bit I have to say), then studied Loki for a long time.
"I sense nothing," she finally admitted as her eyes turned back to their normal colour. "That part of his story is true. He could still be lying about the rest."
Loki shook his head in mute denial.
Sif eyed me for a moment.
"Your soul is different from anything I've ever seen. It shines brighter than any soul I've ever encountered, but not with the whiteness of purity.
Yours is touched by something else, it glows warm and golden. Like honey."
"That must be because of my Bee," I guessed.
"It is different, but it isn't tainted, yet. Beware yours doesn't get corrupted by the company you've chosen to keep."
I glared at Sif.
"Sif, if there is something you know that we don't, please tell us. But don't come into our home and accuse my husband of lying when he's just told us about some of the darkest days in his life. While you are our guest, you will treat him with respect."
I had enough of Sif and her accusations. It was obvious to me there was bad blood between her and Loki, going back centuries, but this was our home.
"I don't, not yet, anyway. That doesn't mean I believe Loki.
How do we know he's not working with Beaumont? I've seen them together before and he admits to having been under his spell!"
"Because I could have fulfilled my mission a long time ago." Loki's voice was matter-of-fact, but under the table, his grip on my hand tightened.
"There aren't many places Sorcha wouldn't follow me, she followed me into Niflheim and back after all. I could have led her to Beaumont at any time, and I could have broken her spirit if I wanted to. I know her weaknesses and self-doubts well enough for that.
And I learned how to kill her a long time ago, all that was needed was Laufey's Staff. A threat that, if I may add, has been neutralised since.
Yet, I did neither.
I am no longer Beaumont's puppet and I would never harm my family."
Loki's words sent a chill down my spine. If Loki hadn't fallen in love with me, what would have happened to me? What would have happened to Jessie?
"And again, all we have is your word for that Loki, and your words are as plentiful as grains of sand in the desert, and of just as little value!" Sif spat.
"I do not have to justify myself to you Sif! Who made you judge, jury and executioner?" Loki yelled back.

"I am still confused," Thor suddenly interrupted. "If you would have died, Beaumont would have been you?"
"Essentially, yes, that was the plan," Loki answered his brother a bit calmer.
"But you didn't die? And he has your soul? So which one of you is my brother?"
"That's the question, isn't it? What am I, and what is he?" Loki sighed.
"You are the one I grew up with?"
"Yes, but he has the same memories."
Thor nodded slowly.
"So he is you and you are him?"
"I have Beaumont's memories from the time I slept and he has mine from before that, but we are separate now, we both have our own lives."
"But you have changed. Even if you have no soul, there is still good in you."
Loki shrugged and looked at Thor from under his eyelashes, not quite meeting his eyes.
"Can't you call him and invite him over, and we'll talk to him? All of us?
Maybe if there's still good in you, there's good in him as well."
"Oh, Thor…" Sif and Loki replied at the same, while my heart melted at his words.
"Was that a stupid question?" Thor asked.
"No, a really, really sweet one," Sif replied with a smile.
"Why don't you answer that?" Loki asked me unexpectedly.
"Me?" I was surprised.
"You are the only one who has talked to both of us, what is your opinion?"
I thought back. It all seemed so long ago, and so much had happened since.
"He is different from you," I finally answered.
"I've always struggled with rhyming the person I met on the island with the one I fell in love with. You seemed so different, even the first time I talked to you when Richard introduced me to my 'new partner'.
I always assumed it was your defeat and time in captivity that had changed you, I didn't know what else to think.
But what I saw in his eyes, and what I see in yours, it's different.
You never had that insanity he has, nor that cold and heartless mentality. You pretend you do, but you don't.
I just thought I didn't know you well enough back then to see through it. But now, looking back, what I mainly remember thinking was that he was more than a little unhinged."
Loki nodded.
"That has been my experience too. Whether his creation was flawed, or another century of loneliness finally caused him to crack I don't know, but cracked he has.
He has gone quite mad.
I don't think there is much to save and there is most certainly nothing good left within him."
"Then we capture him, and make him give you your soul back! You just call him and we lay a trap!" Thor was desperate to help his brother.
"I can't. I truly can't. I have no way of contacting him, he contacts me.
And, foolishly enough, I have ignored his last two summons because I was afraid he would notice the change in my demeanour after getting married.
Besides that, I thought we'd be safe here in the hold, he doesn't know about it.
He hasn't contacted me since."
"Again, very convenient for you," Sif scoffed.
Loki tiredly rubbed his temples in circles, a sign he had a headache.
"I don't know what else to tell you Sif. I've been more honest with you both than I have been with either of you in a millennium.
I don't know where Beaumont is or what he is planning.
But, presuming that is why you are here, I can assure you I am no longer a threat to Asgard.
Whatever destiny has in store for me, whatever glorious purpose awaits me, I know it lies not in Asgard, there is nothing for me there anymore.
Nor will it be Ragnarok, wherein everything ends in fire and blood and tears.
I've had my taste of that, and it was far too bitter for my liking.
For now, I just want to leave my past behind me and find some happiness here, on Midgard, with my family."
Sif studied Loki for a moment, her head tilted in surprise. Was she finally starting to believe him?

"Roughly two years ago the witches of Vanir sent the AllFather a warning, a vision of the future they had wherein Hel with the help of her daughter Halja and Loki would cause a calamity that would not just affect Midgard but all the realms.
As the leader of the Valkyrie, everything Hel does falls under my purview, not to mention I have a personal interest in seeing Halja and Loki brought to justice. When the AllFather ordered me to hunt down those two, I gladly obeyed.
I spent almost a year tracking down Loki and Halja, always a step behind, unused to how everything on Midgard had changed since my last visit. I adapted and finally caught up with them in a place called Lichtenstein, where I spotted Halja, Loki, and to my great surprise, a second Loki. I figured it must have been one of your tricks."
"The auction! You were there?" Loki interrupted her. Sif nodded.
"I was about to make my move when armed soldiers descended on the place.
The AllFather had ordered me to be discreet, so as not to alert humanity to my presence. I waited, and followed the one you now call 'Beaumont' as he fled."
"Wait, Beaumont was there when I rescued you? I never saw him," I asked Loki in surprise.
"He visited me to gloat but left shortly before you arrived. He must have fled the moment the Templars descended on the property." Loki shrugged.
Sif nodded in agreement. "He hightailed it out of there before the Templars even exited their vehicles.
I chased him all the way to South America, where he visited a high-security compound.
He had changed his looks at that point, was of medium height, ruddy-faced, greasy haired with a scraggly beard but I recognised his arrogant swagger from a mile away."
Loki and I exchanged glances, that's what Beaumont had looked like when I first met him.
"I camped outside, figuring he'd had to leave sometime. He had a habit of regularly going for walks on the grounds, but while I had my eye on him, I couldn't get a clear shot.
You can imagine my surprise when I was contacted via raven by a furious AllFather, wondering what I was doing there when you had just dropped your disguise in London."
"The engagement," I smiled at the memory.
"I managed to convince the king I had my eyes firmly on Loki and informed him that I had spotted a second Loki in Lichtenstein before. Your father was as confused as I was on how that could be, and told me he would send another to keep an eye on the second Loki, while I stuck with mine."
"Father knew?" Thor asked. "He never told me!"
"And he didn't tell me it was you who he sent," Sif looked apologetic. "But your stay here on Midgard hasn't gone unnoticed in certain circles. I eventually heard rumours you were here and put two and two together.
I didn't know exactly where you were and was ordered not to contact you directly. So I secretly left you a message at Frigga's Well, in the hope you'd visit there during your stay. "
Thor smiled at her.
"I've been chasing Beaumont ever since, sometimes losing him, but always tracking him down eventually. He stays on the move and is heavily guarded at all times. He's surely scared of something."
"That would be you," Loki smiled at me.
"He is in regular contact with Halja, and I've seen them together multiple times, never long enough to get close to either of them. Until I lost track of him, a few weeks ago. I haven't been able to find him since."
"Couldn't Heimdall help?" Thor asked.
Loki shook his head. "If I can stay hidden from Heimdall, so can Beaumont."
Sif agreed with Loki, reluctantly.
"Finally, I suggested that perhaps the second Loki might be able to tell us where the first one had disappeared off to. The AllFather reluctantly divulged your location in the end, and I travelled here as quick as I could.
I did not expect to find Thor willingly living here, nor the Worthy of Mjolnir," she nodded at me.
Secrets upon secrets. Everyone lying to each other or hiding things. My in-laws certainly were something else!
"Did Father say what threat Beaumont and Hel pose to the realms?" Loki asked Sif.
She shook her head. "If he knows, he hasn't told me. But you know what those prophesies are like. They are vague and often don't make sense until after the fact."
We sat in silence for a moment. I had no idea what to say, I was still trying to make sense of it all.

"Whatever Beaumont is planning, Loki isn't part of it," Thor finally said. He spoke slowly, he was trying to make sense of it all as much as I was.
"He's been with us most of the time, and when he isn't he is with Cedric. He wouldn't have had time to be part of anything substantial.
If you are unwilling to believe what Loki told you, at least believe that."
I nodded in agreement.
Sif tiredly rubbed her eyes.
"Then I am at a loss as to where Beaumont and Halja are. I have some informants out there looking out for me, and I can revisit some of his favourite haunts I suppose."
She looked at Loki. "There really isn't any more you can tell me that would help? If you've truly turned a new leaf, surely you wouldn't want him and Halja to succeed either."
Loki shook his head. "He doesn't trust me, and never confided his plans to me. If he contacts me again, I will contact you with one caveat: you do not kill him. I wish to have my soul returned to me."
"And why would I do that?"
"Because Thor is banished until he returns with me. I promise, if you do, I will return to Asgard with you willingly, to face whatever judgement awaits me. That way you and Thor can both go home together."
"Loki!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"I can't keep running from my past," he cut me off before I could object. "I can't be the person you deserve, Jessie deserves, if I keep running and drawing danger towards us."
I eyed him for a moment. His eyes met mine, and I slowly nodded.
"Why don't you stay here for a few days, Sif?" I heard my voice say before I could stop myself. "Surely you'd like to spend some time with Thor, and if that doesn't tempt you perhaps the thought of a hot bath and a homecooked meal might."
Loki shook his head at me in disbelief but I ignored him. The beaming smile on Thor's face was payment enough for me.

Sif and Thor quickly made their excuses after that and practically ran out of the kitchen to Thor's quarters.
Loki poured the mugs out into the sink.
"I need to let the Templars know, about Beaumont, I mean."
Loki turned around. "That would not be wise, it would break any trust that is still left between them and us."
"They have access to CCTV, facial recognition software, stuff like that. They might be able to help find him."
"His face is already in their system, both mine and the one he wears nowadays. He is clever enough to avoid the organisations, else you would have heard about there being two of me a long time ago."
"I don't like any of this," I admitted.
Loki took my hands into his, his hands engulfing mine.
" I don't like it much either."
"You aren't really going back with Sif and Thor to Asgard." It wasn't a question.
"Of course not, don't be absurd!" Loki scoffed. "But that promise will keep Sif off my back for now."
I shook my head at him, unable to hide a smile. "You are incorrigible!"
"You only just learned that now?" He teased.
"Trust me, darling. Sif just needs some time to see I have truly changed. I knew you'd invite her to stay, that should help to convince her.
After a few days, Sif will leave, insisting on going alone. Thor will mope for a while then follow her.
Sif isn't the best person to send on a mission like that, Thor is even worse. But they'll keep Beaumont on his toes enough that he will keep moving around, hopefully keeping him out of whatever trouble he and Halja are planning.
When he contacts me again, we'll set a trap.
If Sif and Thor do manage to catch up with him, Thor will insist on bringing Beaumont here alive, because the big oaf loves me and won't let any harm befall me.
Either way, once we have him we will find a way to take back my soul.
We'll persuade Sif to take a soulless Beaumont to Asgard which will give Father his scapegoat and should appease him, and it will give Sif and Thor a way back home.
And us? We will be able to live our lives here on Midgard, our 'happily ever after'."
"You've thought it all out, haven't you? Do you always manipulate your family like that?" I tried not to smile.
"I try not to, at least not with you and Jessie. Besides, you are too stubborn, even I can't make you do anything you don't truly want to do.
It's just that people make it so easy, and it's in my nature! I don't know how else to be!"
Loki tried to look apologetic and failed spectacularly.
A lopsided smile crept over his face as I burst out in laughter.
"You are not mad at me?"
"A little, but I'll get over it."
I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled his head down so I could kiss him. I felt his arms around me as he pulled me closer.
"Do you still believe you are a Disney Princess?" he asked softly. "Because surely, this is the darkest of fairytales.
And you, my darling, fell in love with the villain, leading you into darkness, and no knight in shining armour will come to save you now."