A/N: It's getting crazy, guys! Bear with us through this, because we're about to tie a lot of things together and careen off toward the climax of our adventure... I said toward, okay?! I know we're long-winded. Thanks for sticking with us so far :)
Nancy hummed softly, her quill scratching lightly against an ancient parchment. She paused momentarily to examine a word in one of the tomes scattered around her, then continued her work. Recollecting the horror she faced the last time she studied in the library, Nancy now constrained her supplies to one table near the golden doors.
Weeks ago, after that awful night in the washroom, Loki removed the cuff bracelet from Nancy's wrist. She was more than happy to have it gone. And now, back within the royals' wing of the palace, she knew she was safe enough to roam the halls. The library wasn't too far from Loki's room. If she called for him, he would come.
A guard burst through the door, panting heavily. Twin creases in his brows showed just how concerned he seemed. "I've been sent to fetch you, miss."
At the sound of the doors bursting open, Nancy froze. But the voice she heard wasn't the one she'd expected. It was a guard. How did he get in? The doors were supposed to have been locked.
Cautiously, Nancy probed the situation, her back to the intruder. She would see how sincere he was. She dipped her quill in a jar of ink and continued writing. "You could've knocked," she retorted, aloof and unconcerned, "Give me a moment. I'm mid-translation."
He glanced around the library, eyes shifting nervously. He moved from one foot to the other and folded his hands in front of him. "It's urgent."
His armor rustled and clanked as he shifted, an obvious sign of nervousness. "Did the king send for me? He usually comes to get me himself." Nancy turned a page and ran her finger down the middle of a column of text. "Is someone dying?"
"I'm not allowed to divulge that information." His eyes shifted again, taking in the entire library, King Loki's place. "Please, miss. I could lose my post."
Now that was a red flag if she'd ever seen one. No guard could lose his post if sent on assignment. Nancy finally turned and narrowed her eyes, looking the guard over. His worried, definitely nervous, expression. "The only one who would ever send for me would be Loki. And if he sent for me, why would you lose your post?"
"What if I don't bring you quick-like? He's moody, mind you." He bit at his lip and looked away.
Liar. Nancy stood straighter and folded her hands behind her back. "Then that's on me, not you." She eyed him once more, reading the tell-tale signs of disloyalty. "Leave. Now."
"I can't. Not 'til I deliver you like I was told." He straightened, his nervous energy draining away to be replaced with rapt determination.
Slowly, stealthily, Nancy reached behind her for one of her quills. A wooden handled pen found its way into her hand. She gripped it tightly. "Go tell the king I refused to comply. Let him deal with me himself."
The guard ran a hand down over his face and sighed in frustration. He took a step forward. "Miss. Please. I'm trying to make this easier on both of us." His voice came out a bit squeaky.
"Then tell me who sent you." Nancy stood straighter "What is the urgent matter?"
"I've been instructed not to say." He bit out, louder than he probably intended. "Only been told you don't particularly like to be touched, so try to avoid manhandling you."
That was definitely a threat. Nancy swallowed and glared at him, taking the moment to slip the pen up her sleeve. On the one hand, this could be another of Loki's surprises. But knowing him, he liked to surprise her himself. And he knew how she felt about guards, especially since her attack. On the other hand, this could be a trap. A band of guards seeking revenge for Galt's death.
Taking a deep breath, Nancy sliced her left index finger with the sharp point of the pen. She couldn't fight Asgardian guards, especially not a gang of them. But she could leave a trail. Loki would come for her soon – she set her hand down on the notes she'd been taking, letting her blood saturate the page – and she would make sure he found her.
Slipping her hand into her sleeve and the pen farther up her arm, Nancy nodded to the guard. "Take me to him."
The guard nodded once, his shoulders slumped in relief. He turned slightly and motioned to her. "Just this way." he started down the hallway.
As she walked, Nancy squeezed her finger, letting her blood drip behind her, onto the floor. Hopefully Loki would come soon enough to find it, before a maid cleaned it away.
The guard stopped and turned halfway, as though to say something. His eyes landed on the floor, and he stepped forward to see more clearly. "Are you bleeding, miss? That won't do. Let us have a look-see?"
"It's fine. Just a paper cut." Nancy put on a winning smile. "Nothing to worry about. We have an urgent matter to tend to."
"Yes. Very good." He sighed and stepped back, even though the blood seemed to concern him. "He's in the gardens. You might want to go first."
Loki would never take her to the gardens. He hated them and had strictly forbidden her from them. This was a trap. She turned to the guard, hatred burning behind her cool demeanor. "Why? I'm following you. Lead me to him."
He sighed again, his gaze lingering on the blood on the floor. "Suppose we'll walk together then." He gingerly opened the door and motioned her in.
All in one motion, Nancy slipped in and turned to face him, ever alert.
The guard followed her swiftly. The door slammed shut behind them, echoing in the vast garden. He motioned her ahead of him again. "Down this path."
"After you." Nancy bit at him. "I insist."
The guard started down the path, turning and twisting his way through a few lesser-used paths toward the labyrinth.
He wanted her alone, somewhere it would be difficult to find her. Nancy continued squeezing her finger, her left hand now streaked in blood. Surely Loki would follow her trail. He would find her. Hopefully before it was too late.
In a space near the maze, trees and bushes created a blind spot to the rest of the garden. The light faded a bit in the alcove of leaves, and the path remained quiet and still. The guard hung his head and pressed a hand to his forehead, his voice no more than a quavering whimper when he spoke. "I'm so sorry, miss."
"You should be!" Nancy barked, letting the pen drop into her hand. She glanced around, anticipating the attack. He wasn't working alone. She knew that for a fact. Let them come. She was ready.
The guard turned to her and stepped toward her, his gaze not wavering, but rather misting over.
Let him cry his sorry tears. Disloyalty of the highest accord. A guard no different than a HYDRA sleeper agent. "Did your king ever tell you how we met? I was a warrior on Earth." Nancy assumed a fighting stance and gripped the pen tighter. "I swore to protect the innocent. I thought you swore the same."
"That was before my family was starving." He moved closer, a single tear belying his stoic, angry facade. "Before I had nothing left to live for!"
"What of your mighty Asgardian honor?" Nancy spat, backing away. "I thought you would all fall on your swords before attacking one of the king's treasured."
He reached a hand to snatch her arm, clear confusion on his face. "I would have... I swear, but..."
Nancy dodged his grip and scrambled backward. "You're no better than that pig of a guard. You're all pigs. Spineless pigs. Your honor is in the mud!"
He dropped his hand, all pretense of fight leaving him as he watched the path at his feet. "Is it over now? Can they be free?"
A bevy of armed men descended on Nancy. One took her weapon while others grabbed arms and legs, immobilizing and subduing.
Nancy cried out as she was grabbed from all sides. Wounds that were still healing were pushed and pulled on. She struggled, but found it was no use against the brute force of her Asgardian attackers.
She snarled at the guard who betrayed her. "Loki will have your head for this! And I hope Odin's ravens feast on your body while it rots!"
The guard stared at her, tears flowing freely now. Guards never cried, but this one did. He wept, over the past and over the future, as he looked to the nearby ruffians. "Can they be free now?"
The ruffian nearest him sneered, a half-angry, half-gleeful look that would send shivers down the straightest spine. "You kept your end." With a quick flick of his wrist, he sent a dagger straight through the troubled guard's heart. "We'll keep ours."
Wide eyes signified the guard's shock, seconds before he hit his knees, then his face planted against the gravel path. Red spilled in a burgeoning pool of death around his lifeless form.
"Let me go!" Nancy screamed as she thrashed, the sudden death of the sorrowful guard spurring her fear, "Loki! Loki!" She shrieked at the top of her lungs, hoping someone in the palace would hear.
"Bring her. And shut her up." The man in charge, newly promoted it seemed, shouted the order as a demand, not a request. His men subdued her again, each working to keep her still as they dragged her through a dark path toward the back wall. Someone, along the way, produced a strip of rag that could be used as a gag.
Even with the bitter rag in her mouth, Nancy continued to scream. Hopefully the clues would be enough. Loki would come for her. He'd promised to always come for her.
The men didn't heed her cries, instead dragging her out through a back gate and forcing her into a blacked-out carriage. With a single cry to the driver, it rumbled away through the streets of Asgard.
Nancy panted softly as she tried to concentrate on where they were taking her. How many turns this way or that. What the faces of the men looked like or any identifying marks they had. Not that she could see all too well in the darkness of the carriage.
She sat motionless, waiting for something to happen.
After many turns and quite a few quick stops, as though to let someone pass, the carriage stopped with a jerking motion and the door flew open. The place they dragged her to seemed large, like a banquet hall with curtains separating the rooms. Random men peered out to see the prize, though most just sneered or laughed. They knew Loki's woman when they saw her, and they knew the plan.
A man stood from a table at the far end of the room. His features were strong, stoic and unwavering. With confidence only a leader possessed, he strutted toward them, his eyes locked on the girl in their arms. "This is the reason he's dead, then?"
Nancy sneered through her gag. She knew who this was. Scum of the galaxy. If they released her, she would jump him. Pull his head clean off with her bare hands. She grumbled something, her words muffled by the gag.
A malicious chuckle tore from his throat in a sound of hatred and maniacal pleasure. "Oh, please, let her speak. I'd love to hear what she has to say."
"You look like him, you little bastard." Nancy spat, still glaring. "I'm glad he's dead. He deserved it."
The man chuckled again. She had noticed, he found, that he looked like his father. The same man she had ended with a bat of her eyelashes. "I still don't see how this animal is better than he was." With a single motion, he started toward a curtain in the back of the room. "Bring her this way."
Nancy struggled, but was dragged along anyway. "Once Loki frees me, I will personally throw you into your very own ring of Hel."
"Ooh. Threats. Did you threaten him, too?" Two fingers were sufficient to move aside the large curtain. An ominous space filled his vision, a glorious masterpiece of the vengeful mind. Two large cages sat anchored in the center of the empty room, both made of the finest metals and unbreakable. One sat empty, and to that one he motioned. "Put her in there."
His own steps took him toward the second cage, where a small blonde woman sat still against the bars. One of the prizes he so efficiently sent men to collect. One more reason for the trickster king to leave his gilded fortress and fight like a man.
"I didn't need to threaten your swine of a father." Nancy struggled as she was shoved into her cage. She immediately turned and gripped at the bars. "Loki is a threat all by himself. I hope you know what you've gotten yourself into. I've seen him rain fire down from the edge of the universe. And that was on the innocent. I can only imagine what he'd do to you."
The new woman was a spitfire, as he had once heard someone call a Midgardian. A woman who spoke her mind and pushed her boundaries. Yet, this blonde before him... This Maija... was the complete opposite. And she was the one who drew him. He squatted next to her and offered a smirk. The little blonde woman cowered back against the bars, a satisfactory whimper pealing from her lips.
"Now that we're all here, it's time to play." He placed two fingers around a tuft of beautiful blonde hair and brought it to his nostrils, inhaling the scent of this timid woman before him. Her tears drew his own hand to her cheek, his knuckles pressed against the wetness of a woman in distress. "Tonight," he pressed his cheek to hers and let his lips linger by her ear. "Tonight, you are mine."
Nancy watched the scene closely, reading all the signs. Her tears. The way she cowered away from him. The fact she calmly let him near. How many times had Nancy done the same when Loki approached her? The poor woman had been tortured. For a while, it seemed.
"Why have her when you could have me?" Nancy stood straighter, lifting her chin. This girl had been through enough. But she herself had survived. She was strong and could fight… for them both.
He stood, chuckling again when Loki's other woman thought she could negotiate her way out of this. How naive and childish. "Why take what Galt – my father – has already taken?" He shrugged, his eyes never leaving the beautiful woman at his feet. Not until he turned to leave her cage and slam the door behind him.
"Because there's more left to take." Nancy sneered, her words seething through her teeth, "No matter what you do to me, you will never break me. I know. Men have tried."
"You think you are here to be broken?" He laughed loudly, amused by her vain imaginations. His feet moved easily across the floor, stopping before her cage to look over the... interesting garb the false king provided her. "You are bait."
In a crazed frenzy, Nancy grabbed for the man, ready to rip him apart. "You will never win! You hear me? Never!"
Oh, how wild this one was. No wonder the trickster had thought to tame her. It seemed even he could not hold back the temper of a mortal. He laughed again and blew the small blonde a kiss before he stepped back through the curtain. Their time would come.
Nancy slammed her hands against the bars and slumped down to the floor with a huff. After a moment or two to regain her composure, she glanced to the woman beside her. She frowned deeply, feeling her pain. "How long has he been hurting you?"
Hurt eyes found Nancy's and held to them like a lifeline. "H-he only hit me once. B-b-but he... he keeps threatening."
Nancy moved to the bars separating them. "Has he done anything else to hurt you?"
"Not..." Another whimper escaped the small blonde woman's throat, followed by a near hysterical sob. "...not yet. But I hardly have use anymore. He'll not stop himself."
"What's your name?" Nancy asked as gently as she could. "I'm Nancy."
A sniff brought the sobs back under control, as if she had done this a thousand times before and had learned the tricks to see her through. Her big blue eyes disappeared against the shoulder of her red dress, then appeared again when the tears had gone. "M-Maija. Maija Vorsdottir."
Maija. This was the woman. Loki's lover. The woman he had wooed and won. Nancy swallowed thickly to regain her composure. "That's a beautiful name. For a beautiful girl. Do you have any family?" This wasn't the time for regrets and dredging up the past. Nancy had a job to do and told herself to focus.
"My f-father. And my elder brother." Maija stared at her in wonder, taking in the red in her hair and the distinctly non-Asgardian attitude she displayed. "You are not from here."
"No. I'm from Earth." She did her best to smile, really trying to give Maija an ounce of comfort. "I promise you, you'll see your father and brother again. What are their names?"
She didn't know if she could trust this woman, but Maija had no one else and was disintegrating fast. "Vor is my father. My brother is Skaldi." Realization hit her square between the eyes, and she had to lower her gaze to fight her hurt. "You are the girl, aren't you?"
How did everyone know about her? Was it that obvious? "What? Loki's pet human? Yeah, I am. But you're the one he likes. The one he went out of his way for. He has feelings for you, I'm sure of it."
"You... know me?" How could she know her? She had never seen this woman before in her life, and surely Loki wouldn't talk about one of his women to another.
"Yeah. Sort of." Nancy blushed and looked down at her hands, studying the drying blood on her fingertips. "Loki locked me in the washroom while you both..." She trailed off and shrugged. "It takes a lot for him to like someone. And he liked you."
Red heat flushed her face and neck. Maija pressed her palms to her eyes and took a steadying breath. Loki may have been kind to her, but would he have done this if she had stayed by his side? "I... I didn't know." A quiet pause revealed her thoughtfulness. "He really did like me?"
"Yeah." Nancy frowned, her sadness filling her voice, "He did." She forced a smile, forcing herself to remain positive. "He'll come for us."
"No." Maija blinked the tears away. Now, she had to be strong. There was no one for her. No one to hold her or love her or wipe away the sorrow. "He will come for you. Not me."
"He will come for both of us. And even if he doesn't, I will find some way out of this. I promise."
"How can you?" The anguished cries wrenched from her chest without any warning. "We are in cages!" It wouldn't do to sob, but Maija did. She lost all sense of decorum and dropped her head into her hands, the tears and the cries shook her shoulders and echoed against the metal surrounding her.
"Shh. Maija, I'll figure a way out of this. I don't know how, but I will." She had to keep her spirits up, to keep her positive and strong. "What's the first thing you'll do once you get home? Hug your father? Tell your brother you love him? Sleep in your bed?"
"I will never, never, accuse Skaldi of trying too hard to protect me again." Maija glanced skyward as if to seal her pledge, then wiped at her eyes as the tears continued to fall.
"Then you must stay strong and brave, so you can tell him. I don't know how long we'll be here, but we must fight through this."
Maija lowered her voice and pointed to the curtains. She hoped this other woman got the idea, that Kjell—the man who threatened—stood just beyond and she should take heed. "You heard what he said. Tonight, he'll force himself on me. Valhalla and all the stars, if I could stop time..."
"I know you're scared, Maija, but don't fight him. It'll only make it that much worse. I know. I tried to fight off his father. I nearly died. Instead, do as he says. When he brings you back here, that's when you fight. You hate him with every fiber of your being. Hate will keep you alive."
"I've never hated anyone, I don't think." Another timid glance to the curtain told of her anxiety, her soul-deep sadness. "And you do not understand. He will... he will not remove me from the cage."
Nancy closed her eyes tightly and swore under her breath. How awful. He was going to force himself on this poor girl… and force Nancy to watch.
"Then I'll stand right here next to you," Nancy opened her eyes again and stared at Maija with a look of determination. "I'll stand here hating him for you."
An unpleasant expression flitted across Maija's face, merely an expression of her agony in this trying situation. She didn't want to think about it, but she had no hope left. "Thank you. Perhaps... perhaps if you goad him enough, he will take me where you do not have to watch."
"No. I won't let him take you away." Tears began to form in Nancy's eyes. She remembered the hurt and agony she'd felt. How she wished she'd had someone to save her. "You shouldn't have to face it alone."
"You would endure that... for me?" Why would a woman who knew of her torrid affair with a man she loved help the woman who stole Loki from her? It had been the briefest of times, and Loki had not spoken to her since, but surely it had hurt her.
Nancy's chest heaved as her tears streamed freely. "Yes. Why wouldn't I?"
"I was with him, while you..." Maija, innocent as she always had been, couldn't help the blush that colored her skin, "listened. You harbor no resentment?"
"It wasn't your fault. Loki and I discussed that, and I forgave him for it. I just hope you can forgive him. He didn't do it to hurt you, just me."
"It did hurt. Not one letter. Not a single..." Maija shook her head. She had always known King Loki was a mischief maker. Her father had wanted a match, once upon a time, but all hope of that had left. "I mustn't dwell on it. I must summon courage... for..."
"Shh. He did like you. I just... I got in the way. I'm sorry. He deserves better than me. I'm just a mortal. You're an Asgardian, and a beautiful one."
"A stupid one. If I hadn't been stupid enough to accept his invitation to tea, I wouldn't be here!"
Nancy choked back a sob and sniffed. The woman was right, of course, but she couldn't tell her that. So Nancy simply sat there with her, feeling the weight of all her mistakes. Had she given herself to Loki sooner, he wouldn't have taken Maija. She herself would be here alone, saving this innocent girl from Kjell's wrath.
But she was here now. Here to protect Maija from what lay ahead. She had taken the oath to be the last line of defense. The shield. And she would shield this girl from the horrors she herself had experienced. The tortures and pain. No matter the cost, Nancy would find a way out.