Chapter Nine: Interlude: The King Awakens (Odin's POV)
Waking from the Odinsleep always left the Asgardian king feeling slightly disoriented. It was a small annual price to pay for an extended life and easily recoverable. Normally, at this point, he would feel restored and rejuvenated. Normally, he need only to sleep for 24 hours. This Odinsleep was anything but normal. He had foolishly put it off for years, which meant this time it caught him off guard and he slept for a little over two days. Really, he should have slept longer, but there was so much to do. Whispers from across the nine realms and beyond were drawing events together. Something big was coming. He needed to prepare his kingdoms. He did not feel rested at all.
"Are you returned to me, my love?" Frigga's sweet voice permeated his thoughts and Odin smiled despite his many worries. He felt a warm tickle of magic as the strengthening Odinforce hovering around his form was pulled back within him.
Cracking his eye open, Odin stared piercingly at his lovely wife. He knew well the infuriatingly knowing smile that played at her lips. Something she had secretly foreseen had come to pass. So many events had occurred during his sleep, Odin was hard pressed to guess which it was that amused her so.
"Out with it, woman," he groused. "What has you so pleased?"
Frigga leaned forward and kissed his forehead, pulling back with a smirk. "Midgard remembers you," she said, nodding pointedly toward him. Odin glanced down and was unsurprised to see the divine light glowing brightly within him.
"A single mortal is hardly indicative of Midgard remembering me," he replied, grumpily. Frigga gave him a Look. "But the life of even one is worth protecting fiercely," he smoothly finished.
The Look was slow to melt from her face, but Frigga's curiosity won out. "And how is she? The mortal? She was injured, was she not?"
"Is there anything in the nine realms you don't know, wife?"
"The answer to my question," she shot back.
Odin chuckled as he propped himself up on an elbow. "Darcy Lewis of Midgard is well. She suffered a broken leg, as you apparently already know, but it has been healed."
"You really shouldn't be exerting yourself like that while in The Sleep," his wife scolded.
"Perhaps not," he agreed. "But she is important. Her knowledge of what is to come rivals your own, dear wife, and suffers not the limitation of keeping silent." Frigga narrowed her eyes dangerously and Odin continued, digging himself out of a hole he had suddenly found himself in. "Though she is limited by a known future set in stone. The advantage of her foreknowledge decays with every change made while yours is not bound thus." Odin, once again, found himself on the receiving end of The Look even as Frigga expressed her compassion for the mortal.
"Foresight, as you well know, husband, is a terrible burden to bear. I would not wish it upon a mortal who has not the advantage of centuries to acclimate." She squared her shoulders and demanded of her king, "I wish to meet her."
Odin sighed, dropping his head back on a pillow. "Soon, my dear. I have a feeling we will need to spirit her away to Asgard for her safety before long. Her knowledge is dangerous."
"Thor has sworn an oath of protection?" Frigga asked.
"Aye."
"Send Loki."
"Are you mad?!" Odin shot up and stared at his wife incredulously.
"Perhaps," she quipped lightly. At his glare, Frigga rolled her eyes. "He tries desperately to please you, Odin. You know this. He did well as your regent."
"He tried to kill my finest warriors," Odin grumbled half-heartedly.
"Who questioned his authority then blatantly committed treason under his rule. Tell me, Allfather, would you blithely allow the same disrespect?" He scowled. "You would not," she concluded firmly. "Besides, he set aside his righteous fury and used their strengths to protect Midgard from the threat of a Jötnar invasion. He did well and you know it." She raised an arched brow imperiously.
"He was born to be a king," Odin admitted. "Just…" he trailed off and winced.
"Mm. Just not the king of Asgard?"
"…no."
"You will recall I counseled honesty with our son from the beginning." Odin drew in a breath, prepared to argue but was cut off by his impudent wife before he could even get a word out. "And now you must handle with grace a long overdue conversation with your son…with no more dramatic evasion tactics."
Odin felt his face grow hot in anger. "I beg your pardon?" he spat.
Frigga folded her hands, placing them primly in her lap and raised her chin defiantly. "The moment you were confronted by our son, who discovered his heritage in the most awful way, you very conveniently fainted – "
"I did NOT faint!"
" – thus cleverly escaping laying bare the burden of truth you have, for so long, buried deep. And what, pray tell, do you call losing consciousness and falling to the ground, if not fainting?"
Air whistled through his nostrils as Odin seethed. "And of what value is the truth to the God of Lies?" he ground out through clenched teeth, aware that he was fighting a losing battle with his infuriating wife but prepared to go down with the kingdom.
"The highest value, as you well know. And really, husband, Loki may have a silver tongue, but he did not learn it at my knee." This time The Look was accompanied by The Eyebrow. She was far too calm while antagonizing her husband and king thusly, which meant she was in the right and she knew it. And she knew that he knew it. Irksome wench.
"It is well within my rights as king to banish you for your impudence, woman."
"Tell me, my king, did you not trade your eye for wisdom?" The Eyebrow again. Odin growled and Frigga smiled, knowing she had won. "Send Loki to Midgard," she repeated.
"It would be foolish to place him so close to…" Odin trailed off.
Frigga smiled knowingly. "So close to…an infinity stone?" She laughed at Odin's shocked expression. "Oh, please. I've known about that for ages!"
"Well, if you're so clever, do you know where the others are?" he sniped.
"No, but I believe Darcy Lewis of Midgard might. Send Loki. He will help Thor protect her."
"He will try to take the stone for himself."
"Undoubtedly. But would it not be safer in his hands?"
"He would wreak havoc throughout Yggdrasil and beyond!" Odin argued.
"Mischief, certainly. He is rather an imp. But he loves Asgard and wishes to impress you. The stone will be much safer with him than in the gauntlet, which, by the way, is not in your Vault."
"I am aware the gauntlet in the Vault is counterfeit," Odin grumbled.
Frigga sighed the sigh of the long-suffering wife and took Odin's hands in her own. "Talk to Loki," she appealed gently. "Apologize to him. That is the least that he deserves having grown up believing his blood-kin to be enemies and monsters."
Odin grimaced. She certainly had a point there. Everywhere, really, and wasn't that maddening? He blew out a sigh. "Your counsel is wise," he admitted. Frigga smiled sweetly. He raised her hands to his lips and kissed the backs of both. "What would I do without you?"
"Make all manner of terrible mistakes, I'm sure," she teased. "Fear not, dear husband, I would be sure to haunt you with my counsel, be it from Valhalla or Helheim."
Odin snorted. Then he recalled a pointed comment the mortal woman had made. "I fear I have another confession to make…to both my sons," he said.
Frigga gave him a flat look. "What now?" she demanded.
Odin clenched his jaw. "Hela."
"Oh dear."
Odin hummed in agreement.
"Perhaps it is best to save that conversation for when you can speak to them together," she said.
"It may well be too late. The mortal informed me of her intention to tell Thor." Odin sighed in frustration.
"Hmm. The trouble with secrets is that they always come out in the end," Frigga said. "Tell Loki this secret before you send him to Midgard. Give him the satisfaction of hearing it from your mouth since he did not receive that courtesy about his own heritage." Odin's lip curled in a petulant grimace. "You will show him you have learned from your mistake and that you value him." She paused, considering him before delicately asking, "You do value him?"
Gobsmacked, Odin replied, "Of course I value Loki! He is my son and I love him dearly! Have I failed him so thoroughly that it is even a question?"
At Frigga's pinched look, Odin's heart plummeted. He leaned forward and buried his face in his hands, hiding the single tear that leaked from his eye. Frigga placed a small, warm hand on his back in comfort. She spoke gently. "Loki has lived his entire life under the shadows cast by you and Thor, dear husband. Always feeling like an afterthought. Discovering not only that he is Jotun, but that he is the son of Laufey, left abandoned to die…" she trailed off. "He is a brilliant and suspicious man. He questions his place in our family. I fear he is convinced he will be banished to Jotunheim to rule a cold and broken planet."
"That had been the original idea," Odin admitted. "But I realized when he was but a boy that I could never follow through with it."
"If he thinks it to be your intention, he will fight it until his last breath. He will unleash a maelstrom of chaos the likes of which we have never seen." Frigga cautioned. "Go. Speak to him. Assure him of your love and of his place in our family." She stood and tugged at his hands.
Odin allowed his wife to pull him to his feet. He gathered her into his arms and held her close, whispering words of love in her ear. Finally, he straightened and waved a hand in front of himself, summoning his golden armor onto his body. He lifted his chin and strode purposefully from the room to seek out his youngest son, quelling his ego and hardening within himself his determination for Loki to know how very much he is valued and loved.
And then promptly send him to Midgard.
What a mess.
A/N: Once again, thank you to reviewers!
Next up: Darcy meets someone she never actually met in the last timeline.
