Loki witlessly followed the men carrying his father back to the healing chamber. Thankfully, Sif and the Warriors Three had gone, except for Fandral who was now sleeping. Lady Eir rushed to them immediately.

"What happened?" she asked.

"The King and Prince Loki were in the vault. We heard the prince calling for help and found them like this. No one else was there, and nothing seemed out of place from how it was earlier."

"This is Odinsleep," Lady Eir quickly diagnosed. Whatever that was. "But you found them like this?" she turned with concern to Loki. Loki blinked, realized a guard was still holding his elbow and shrugged away.

"I'm fine," he said automatically. He caught skeptical looks all around him. "Really, I am. I was... surprised."

Eir smiled and handing him a healing stone. It was another calming one. "I can imagine it was a shock, seeing the Odinsleep come on all of a sudden. But I promise you, we were expecting this to happen, just not so soon."

"Er, we were?" This was the first Loki had heard of it. From several of the guards' expressions, he was not the only one.

Eir nodded and gestured for the guards to set Odin on the examination table and for her assistants to start checking him over. "Yes. Your father is old, Loki, and his body is failing him. It is too old to continue to contain the Allforce, but he has continued to do so through shear force of will. Odinsleep comes when he is pushed to the brink and can no longer hold his form together."

"This is normal?" Loki asked, appalled. Loki had never heard of the Allforce causing damage to the Allfather before. He knew the Allforce was exogenous, and it was well-known exogenous sources of magic could overwhelm unsuitable hosts... but there was no power in the galaxy too great for a healthy Asgardian to wield, not even the lost Infinity Stones. He mentally chided himself then. To Eir's point, that meant Odin was not healthy. Loki had known Odin was getting old, obviously, just not that he was getting nigh decrepit, magically.

"Well, not exactly normal. It is unique to the sitting Allfather," Eir explained, confirming Loki's logic. "He has had short sleeps before, lasting no more than a night and day, but he has delayed this one so long, we expect it to be longer and harder. If this continues, eventually, the process could fail. It is one of the reasons that the Allfather chose to pass on his title to Thor." So, Odin was basically slowly dying, and he had suspected Thor was not ready to take over independently. But rather than give up on Thor, he decided to crown him early so Odin would be able to stay on as an advisor. There was some wisdom in there, Loki supposed, but not enough. Thor did not listen to Odin now. That was not going to change by making him king. Not to mention, why the hell had Odin kept his impending coma secret from his sons? That was so breathtakingly stupid Loki might have to think of a new word for it. There was no way Loki would have risked causing Odin additional stress today if he had known this could be the consequence.

"Will he recover?" Loki asked finally.

Eir hesitated, looked at the initial readings her assistants handed her, and slowly nodded. "I think so. From this, I would say he was...unprepared. It will be longer than usual, days to weeks, but these readings are not critical. He will recover."

Loki exhaled slowly. "Thank you. Please, ignore me. Do whatever you need for him now."

Eir bobbed a curtsey and turned towards her patient. "We will move him to his own chamber shortly, my prince. He will sleep more comfortably there." More importantly, it would probably be safer for everyone else, Loki thought. Now that he had some idea of what was happening, the magical nature was clearer. The Allforce was still leaking out of the Allfather, and now it was even warping spacetime around him. The world around the Allfather was quite literally bent. Half the mattress was beside him rather than below. Loki could simultaneously see his father's face and form, his bones and organs beneath, and the room and furniture beyond, yet each layer paradoxically appeared perfectly opaque.

His own troubles temporarily forgotten, Loki just stood back and watched the strange process as the healers wove a containment around Odin. The Allforce was currently directionless, so this was sufficient to keep it roughly in place and restrict the world- and mind-bending effects to Odin's immediate vicinity. When they were done, he followed them to Odin's bedchamber. Frigga met them on the way. It had not even occurred to Loki to notify her, so he was glad someone else had thought to do so. The healers deposited Odin on his bed and tucked the anchor points for their containment field into convenient sconces in the four corners of the room. Funny, Loki had always assumed those were for candles, even though their placement was odd.

Eir spoke to Frigga for a short time. It seemed the queen was well-versed in minding Odin through these sleeps. Even as they talked, the uncanny warping effect of the Allforce slowly seemed to bring the corners of the room closer in to Odin, until the space between the door and the bed almost resembled the Void of the Observatory. Clearly, there was more mystery to this planet and its bumbling kings than Loki had been previously aware of.

The healers left. Frigga came and took his hand and drew him to the bedside. Loki sat in a chair, and Frigga sat across from him. It made Odin a lifeless table between them.

"Why did he not tell me?" Loki asked softly.

Frigga looked up at him in surprise. "About Odinsleep? He never wanted to worry you. Or Thor."

That too. "No... about... my adoption," Loki admitted. He could say as much to Frigga without fear of recrimination. She knew, obviously, and she loved him. Of that he was certain.

Frigga's eyes widened. She glanced at the door, but Loki had already made certain no one was close to listen in. "I asked him to be honest with you from the beginning. There should be no secrets in a family." Loki took her at her word. Asgard's queen had no guile.

"So why did he lie?"

"He kept the truth from you so that you would never feel different." Loki barely refrained from rolling his eyes. That did not work, and never would have. "You are in every way our son, Loki, and we your family. You must know that." Loki said nothing in answer. Just because he was loved did not change the fact that he was different, in so, so many ways. Arguing with Frigga about that would upset her, though. She did not ask him how he had discovered the secret, and she must have misinterpreted his silence. "You can speak to him. He can see and hear us, even now." If that was true, Loki imagined Odinsleep to be highly unpleasant, like being smothered in resin.

"How long will it last?" Loki asked, changing the subject, even though Eir had already told him.

Frigga's answer was different, though. "I don't know. This time is different. We were unprepared." From her voice, she even doubted it would end, Loki realized with a sick feeling.

Loki shook his head. "I cannot get used to seeing him like this. The most powerful being in the Nine Realms lying helpless until his body is restored."

"He's put it off for so long now, I fear..." She could not say it, and Loki would not make her. He took her hand again. She smiled in appreciation of his gesture and wiped her tears. "You're a good son." Was he? Loki was not so sure. "We mustn't lose hope that your father will return to us," Frigga continued. "And your brother."

Loki groaned inwardly. If Thor returned now, it would be a disaster of monumental proportions. He would probably charge straight back to Jotunheim seeking vengeance for Odin's predicament. "What hope is there for Thor?" he asked.

"There's always a purpose to everything your father does. Thor may yet find a way home." Loki raised an eyebrow, wondering what she meant by that. Thor was mortal now, according to Odin. Mortals could not live on Asgard. Although... Odin had said Thor was mortal for now. It was amazing how much easier it was to think without the drumbeat of fear pounding in his ears. He had ignored the al-important preposition before. Odin must have left a way to undo the curse; that was a tricky bit of magic, but hardly more difficult than taking Thor's power in the first place. It was probably tied to Mjolnir, or else why would Odin have sent the hammer with Thor?

It was a profound relief to realize Odin was not so heartless as he had appeared. That meant Loki did not have to worry about Thor after all, only himself, and Odin... and the incipient war with Jotunheim. It also meant Loki had behaved unfairly towards his adoptive father in the vault... but not that unfairly. His anger, fearful uncertainty, and sense of betrayal were all objectively normal reactions to discovering an un-truth this scandalous about himself. That was probably the reason Odin had never told him, ironically.

His thoughts were interrupted by hurried footsteps. Several soldiers as well as several of Odin's ranking council members entered the room. One of them held Gungnir. For a moment, Loki was confused, until he realized the obvious. He slowly stood up. Frigga, wife of the Allfather but illogically ineligible to wield Odin's power on his behalf even in crisis because of her gender, stated it plainly: "Thor is banished. The line of succession falls to you. Until Odin awakens, Asgard is yours. Make your father proud."

Loki hesitated, but he took the spear when the Einherjar man knelt before him. He might not have wanted the throne, but for what he had done, he deserved what was coming to him. He would do his best by the parents he had, who loved him, fallible as they may be. If he was lucky, he could at least avert further escalation with Jotunheim.

Author's note: it was never really clear to me when watching the movies whether Loki recognized the Odinsleep for what it was when it happened, so I took the liberty of interpreting this as Odin/Frigga/Eir had been concealing Odin's frailty, even from his sons. Afterall, Odin has no compunction at all against concealing REALLY IMPORTANT THINGS from his children. It's probably his worst trait in the films. Also, there's a bit more misogyny in the Asgard of this story than there ended up being in the later films, because this story is based exclusively on the first one, where the misogyny is really not subtle. I don't think it was supposed to be deliberate, more just "stereotypical fantasy culture," ignoring the fact that Norse women historically had quite a lot of power and influence. Really, giving Frigga some token lines about how Thor will be a great king because he has her for a mother, etc, and having Sif around (making jokes about "treat me like a lady!" Thwack on the head), does not make up for the fact that Frigga spends the rest of the movie holed up in Odin's bedroom taking care of her man, and the only other pictured let alone named female Asgardians are healers.