"Run. Now! Just go! Summon an illusion to walk with me, go invisible and leave through Agartha!" I whispered to Loki.
Odin was riding ahead on Sleipnir towards the Asgardian encampment, and Thor and Sif were walking slightly ahead of us.
Loki hesitated.
"Just go! Before it is too late!"
"I can't." He said softly. "I can't leave you, not now. Not anymore."
"I'll come and find you, I promise! Just go!"
I was frantic. I could not lose Loki, now. Not after all we'd been through.
"I don't think I can take on Odin and all his Einherjar by myself for long! Just leave!"
The corner of Loki's mouth crept up in a small smile.
"You absurd creature, I'm not expecting you to fight Odin and the whole of the Asgardian army by yourself for me!
Think for a moment, darling. If I am to be led to stand trial, where are my guards, where are my chains?"
I blinked. Loki had a good point.
"Then what does Odin want?"
"I don't know," Loki shrugged. "Only one way for us to find out, I suppose."
I eyed him curiously. His words and demeanour were calm and seemingly free of concern. But I could see from the look in his eyes and the set of his jaw that he was worried too.
Thor looked behind him, worry clearly written on his big, handsome face.
"Run!" he mouthed. "I'll hold them off!"
Loki shook his head at him and grinned.
"You two are two peas in a pod, you know that? I swear the Norn are laughing at me somewhere for saddling me with the both of you!"
The great hall lived up to its name. It was large, and rather dark inside, lit by a huge firepit in the centre and braziers by the walls.
Wooden tables with armed chairs lined the side of the fire, and at the end of them stood an elaborately carved wooden throne with a horned skull on top.
"Jotunn," Loki whispered as he saw me look at it. "Charming, isn't it?"
I took a deep breath and tried very hard not to say anything I'd come to regret.
Odin took off his helmet and handed it to a servant.
"Leave us," he commanded. The servants and guards filed out of the hall. I looked at Sif, who stayed. If Sif was staying, so was I. I wasn't going to leave Loki's side.
Odin didn't say anything, so it seemed like the right move to make.
"Well, this is a fine mess you have all made," Odin finally said once we were alone.
"One son that refuses to come home, preferring to play the hero here on Midgard instead of living up to his responsibilities…"
Thor blushed.
"... and another who sells his soul to Hel." Odin finished.
"What were you thinking, boy? Did I not warn you? Did your mother not warn you? What would she say if she was here with us today?"
Loki stared at his feet, a blush creeping up over his face. He looked for all the world like Jessie did as a child when I had caught her painting her walls pink with my nail varnish.
"How could you be so reckless! 'Where Loki goes, chaos follows in his footsteps!' It's as true today as it was centuries ago! Now, look at what you have wrought!"
Loki cleared his throat.
"If I am about to stand trial…"
"Stand trial? We have bigger concerns that your past misdeeds, boy!
You got us all into this mess, you had better aid us with getting out of it!" Odin's voice thundered with rage.
"You have meddled with magics you have no understanding of, attempted a creation dark and vile beyond imagination, and far beyond your skills!
This homunculus you refer to as 'Beaumont', you are certain he has your soul?"
Loki nodded.
"I have checked for myself, AllFather," Sif said respectfully. "No soul inhabits the body that stands before you."
"Come here, boy," Odin reached out and placed his hands on both sides of Loki's head. Loki winced at his touch, but Odin wasn't ungentle.
Odin closed his eyes, a white glow forming around his hands. After a short while, the glow dissipated and Odin opened his eyes.
"I detect no soul, but the link is still there. It seems your magic did exactly what you want it to do, boy."
"What?" Loki looked confused. "What link do you speak of, Father?"
"As I said, your magic did what you wanted it to do. You created a receptacle for your soul, a phylactery. "
Odin shook his head impatiently.
"Beaumont does not possess your soul, you foolish boy! He's a soulless husk, a walking, talking storage device! Your soul is linked to you, you still own it, at least up until your death. Then it will be Hel's."
"It is still mine?" Loki blinked and shook his head in disbelief. "I still have a soul?"
"Of course you do! This is what you get when you meddle with magic you do not understand!
Your soul is yours, it's merely stored elsewhere!"
"How? How do I get it back?" Loki asked eagerly.
Odin sighed and shook his head. "The obvious way, boy. You destroy the phylactery. Kill Beaumont, and you have your soul back."
Loki looked at me, his eyes bright. For the first time, he truly believed he was the real Loki, for the first time, he had a glimmer of hope he might be able to get his soul back.
My heart soared, perhaps we'd get through this all in one piece after all!
Odin paced up and down.
"I want you to think boy, of anything you can that might help us find this Beaumont and Halja. We need to find them before they can execute their plan, or barring that, we need to force their hand to a time and place that suits us.
Unless we can control the battlefield, we will be at a disadvantage. I can not say I like our odds as they stand."
Loki nodded silently.
"You claim to be married, although by which laws a marriage without witnesses and officiated by a spirit would be classed as legitimate I do not know. I take it this means you have Laufey's Staff?"
"We do," Loki confirmed.
"Good. it is a powerful artefact. It can drain magic from any source and unleash it to devastating effect. It will come in use in the upcoming battle."
"It is broken," Loki confessed. "The gem is cracked."
"Then find a way to fix it, boy!
With it, you could drain the anima from whatever unholy creatures Hel has created and release it back into Midgard. It would restore the balance far quicker than if we were to wait for the failing Gaia Engines to create enough anima."
Without waiting for a reply, Odin turned to Thor and Sif.
"And you two, enough of playing around here on Midgard. You will lead our army, and prepare it for the battle to come.
Midgard has advanced beyond our wildest dreams. Make certain you take advantage of their warriors and their newfangled technology.
We'll need any advantage we can get."
Thor nodded, not bothering to point out that he was in the middle of doing just that when Odin arrived.
"Leave me now. I need to think."
Without further ado, we were dismissed.
I was the last to leave the room.
"You don't like me very much, do you?" Odin's voice came from behind me.
I stopped. I wasn't sure how to answer that. Not in a polite way anyway.
"I can only imagine the stories Loki has told you about me. He was not without blame himself, you know?"
My jaw set. I knew I should walk away, but I didn't. I answered before I could stop myself.
"He was a child."
"He was difficult, stubborn…"
"He was a child."
"...disobedient, disrespectful…"
"He was a child."
"...spiteful, petty…"
"He was a child."
"...obstinate, willful, ill-tempered…"
"HE. WAS. A. CHILD!"
I must have accidentally channelled some magic in my voice, the tankards and goblets on the tables, the chairs, even the walls themselves shook with the vehemence of my answer.
My hands were shaking, my voice was shaking too. This wasn't my fight, but now I had started, I could not stop. The words tumbled from my lips as I continued without giving Odin so much as a chance to answer.
"He was a child! A defenceless child!
It is never the child's fault!
You were the adult! It was your job to raise him, to nurture him, to help him become the best version of himself!
You were the parent! You were the one who failed him!"
Odin's face was red, the vein on his forehead throbbing, his eye glaring into mine.
"How dare you…" he began. But I yelled right over him.
"I had a father like you! I would lie in bed, shaking under my blankets at night, hearing his footsteps come up the stairs, knowing the covers would not protect me from his fists!
I had done nothing to deserve that!
He was nothing but a bully with a bad temper!"
The tears were streaming down my cheeks, but I didn't care.
How dare he? How dare Odin blame Loki? How dare he blame a child?
I should have walked out of the room at that point. I guessed no one had spoken to the AllFather like that in a long time, perhaps never.
I turned around to leave. The guards had closed the doors when they realised the Odin wanted a word with me.
I took a deep breath and turned around again.
"It took me years to learn that I was worthy of being treated with kindness and respect!
It took me most of my life, to realise that I was worthy of love! It wasn't until Loki came into my life that I learned I was worthy of all of that.
He taught me to see how strong I am, not just in combat, but in spirit.
It took his love to teach me that I am not broken beyond repair. That I have so much to give despite everything I've been through."
Odin was still silent. He was watching me, observing me, his blue eye gazing into mine as if searching for something.
Strangely enough, it reminded me of the way Loki so often did the same.
"I have a daughter, but you know that. Just like you knew who I was when we met just now. You know who I am."
Odin nodded.
"My daughter doesn't know my father. She has no idea what he looks like. He isn't part of our lives, hasn't been in a really long time.
Do you know that I don't even know whether he is still alive?" my voice was softer now, as my anger faded.
"I don't think about him. Never. Unless he comes up in a conversation like this, I don't think about him at all."
Odin's anger seemed to fade as well. His shoulders slumped a little. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but I wasn't done yet.
This wasn't my battle and Loki would probably not thank me for fighting it for him. But I could not stop.
"Loki still thinks about you. He thinks about you all the time. With everything he does, he asks himself if it would meet your approval, whether it would earn your respect.
He's spent his whole life hoping you would see him, hoping you would finally want him.
Loki still loves you.
He still wants you in his life, no matter how much he claims the opposite."
Odin was still silent, his cragged face unreadable to me.
I sighed.
"I've said too much, I've said way too much. It isn't my place to tell you what to do, and Loki most certainly won't thank me either. I'm sorry."
I turned around again and reached for the door handle.
"I can see why he married you now."
I stopped.
"You are just like her."
I turned around.
"I'm sorry?" I wasn't sure what Odin meant.
"You remind me of her. Loki's mother. My wife. Frigga," Odin clarified.
His voice was quiet, and his shoulders slumped.
Suddenly it wasn't a King of gods that stood before me, nor an arrogant and abusive bully.
No, before me stood an old man, carrying the weight of an unimaginable amount of years, sad, lonely, mourning the loss of his wife.
My heart softened. His whole family had fallen apart. His wife had died, he had sent his sons away, and he had no one left.
I wanted to kick myself for seeing it, it was easier to be angry and hate him, but I could not unsee it now that I knew.
You still have a chance." I said softly. " You can still fix this. You can still be a father to him, he can still be your son.
It doesn't have to end the same way it did between my dad and me. You can still make it right.
All you have to do is reach out to him."
Odin looked away, unable to meet my gaze. Perhaps it was too much to hope for, after a thousand years, after everything that had happened between them.
I suddenly felt very tired. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't fix everything.
Without saying another word, I walked out of the great hall.
Loki was hanging against a wall, his arms crossed. He raised an eyebrow as I walked out through the doors.
"Are you quite done?" he asked.
"You heard that?" I blushed.
"I think Surtr heard up in Muspelheim," Loki said dryly. "The walls were shaking. Quite impressive, actually."
A sudden grin broke through on Loki's face.
"Yelling at the AllFather? No one has dared to do that in centuries," he chuckled. "I swear, if one were to lead you into a room with two doors, one saying 'certain death' and the other 'untold riches', you'd bolt through the first without giving the other door a second glance!"
"I never cared much for riches anyway," I muttered, feeling a bit embarrassed at having let my temper flare like that.
"You are shaking," Loki continued a bit quieter as he suddenly noticed. "Are you well? What did he say to you?"
"Not here," I shook my head. I was about to cry again and didn't want the whole Asgardian army to notice.
Loki kept talking lighthearted about inconsequential things, smiling and laughing, more for the benefit of others than mine, until we came home. He boiled the kettle and sat me down.
"What happened?" he asked as he handed me a mug of tea.
"He wanted to know why I didn't like him," I shrugged. "Then he started blaming you for being a difficult child. I might have lost my temper a bit."
"Ah. That explains the 'he was a child'! Said child being me, I presume." Loki said dryly.
"He reminded me of my father. I said everything I ever wanted to say to my own father but never could." I wiped my nose on my sleeve as the tears began to well up in my eyes again.
Loki absentmindedly handed me a handkerchief.
"I'm so sorry," he said softly. "That can not have been easy for you."
"It was rather cathartic, actually," I looked down at the table.
"I may have mentioned that I think you still love him, that you still seek his approval. That he still has a chance to fix things if he wants to."
I looked up at Loki from underneath my eyelashes. His eyes didn't meet mine, he was staring at the table with a frown.
"I wish you hadn't said that," he finally said.
"I know. It wasn't my place. Once I started I couldn't stop talking."
"What did Father say?" Loki spoke quietly while he looked at me from underneath his eyelashes.
"Not much." I felt a blush creep over my cheeks. "That I reminded him of your mother," I admitted.
"Heh," Loki smiled. "She's probably the only one who would have dared to scold him like that, and even then only in private.
She would have approved of you, I'd like to think."
He sighed.
"She would have tried to mend the relationship between Father and I too, I suppose.
But I don't think there is much left worth mending. I'm not certain if there ever was, let alone now."
"I'm sorry, it wasn't my place," I apologised again.
"Perhaps not, and I do wish you hadn't." Loki put an arm around me and pulled me close. "But it came from a place of love, and I appreciate the sentiment."
I leaned against him for a bit. I was still shaken from my confrontation with Odin, and I was grateful I wasn't about to have a fight with Loki as well.
Loki kissed the top of my head.
"The good news is that I still have a soul!
And at least I'm not being hauled back to Asgard in chains, for now. We get to spend a little bit more time together, darling. Let us be grateful for that."