Thor was surprised at the funeral for his brother. He had not expected Odin to send Loki to Valhalla with the same dignity as any other warrior because of the anger between them, but it was everything (possibly more than) he deserved. It was not as grand as Frigga's, obviously, and not as many people turned out, but it was dignified.
Odin had selected the young guard, Bjorn, to light the pyre boat as it sailed off and once it was lit and lanterns released the guard quickly turned to Linn and hugged the crying girl. Thor pitied his small pink friend, knowing she'd lost both her real father and her fatherly friend all within a few months. Such loss was not easy on a young one.
When Thor looked to Maisy he saw that she had not released her lantern into the sky yet and he felt a twist of guilt in his gut. She would not be widowed and alone if he'd done a better job protecting his brother. It didn't matter that he'd had no idea where Loki was in the midst of the battle, Thor still felt as though he should have done something.
"The lanterns will help guide him to the great feasting hall of Valhalla," Thor said, gently putting a hand on Maisy's shoulder, "And it helps us to say goodbye."
Maisy nodded, biting her lip, and sent her light out over the water.
As Linn packed their bags to go back to Midgard after the funeral, Maisy searched her and Loki's room to see if she could find his wedding band. She'd seen him wear it on earth, but she wanted to check everywhere just in case. She wondered if she could get Fandral to cast the tracking spell he'd used before so that they could find Loki's ring by following hers.
There was a knock on the door and Maisy went to answer it.
"Hi Bjorn," she smiled weakly, "Thank you for what you did today. I'm sure he would have been happy it was you."
"Thank you for saying so, Your Highness," he ducked his head bashfully, "It was an honor."
"Are you here to see Linn?" Maisy gestured into the room, "You know, you could come back with us if you want. We could use the help moving things."
Without Loki's pay as an Avenger, Maisy could not continue to pay rent on their apartment. They were moving into one of Tony's properties for the time being, even though it wounded Maisy's pride.
"Perhaps I will see if I can at least help you move," Bjorn nodded, "But I did not come to speak with Linn right now. Odin wishes to see you and I am meant to escort you."
"I really don't want to see him right now," Maisy sighed, "Can't you tell him that I need a day to myself?"
Bjorn's eyes widened in horror.
"I, uh, I suppose I could do that, erm…"
"I'll write him a note and then you don't have to say anything," Maisy smiled softly and wrote out a polite but firm note to Odin. She handed it off to Bjorn and then laid down on the bed.
"You look a might tired," Linn commented, "I fink ya need a bit of a nap, eh?"
"That sounds nice," Maisy rubbed her eyes tiredly, "I don't want to sleep though."
Her nightmares had gotten ten times worse since Loki had died. She hadn't had many waking nightmares, but the ones in her sleep had caused her to wake Linn with her screaming more than once. She kept dreaming that she was the cause of his death, that it was all her fault. Or that Egil killed him because of her. Or she'd be marrying Egil again… or worse.
While she was in these sleep terrors she could never wake herself or wake up naturally. If nothing woke her then she would be trapped in them for hours and hours. Once Linn had thought to let her sleep instead of waking her, thinking the dream might go away on its own, but Maisy had kept sleeping and kept screaming all through the night and into the morning until Linn had given in and shaken her awake.
Thinking of the baby, Maisy had gone to a doctor to make sure the nightmares weren't affecting her pregnancy in any way. She was relieved to find out that the baby was fine. In fact, the doctor said everything looked stronger and healthier than would ever be expected after the shock Maisy had gone through. That was probably due to the fact that the baby wasn't entirely human, but Maisy didn't mention that.
"You should really get some sleep, dough," Linn coaxed, "I'll be right here and I'll wake ya up if you start rolling around and stuff."
"I don't know…"
"You is wearing yourself out, Maisy. Go to sleep or I'll get Mjolnir and drop it on ya so you can't move till you do!"
"Alright, alright," Maisy laughed and did as she was told. The nightmares started almost as soon as she closed her eyes.
Blood was everywhere. It was on her hands and in her hair. She could taste its iron flavor in her mouth and the smell filled her nose. The source of the blood was impossible to find, but there was so much now that it was up to her waist and she had to wade through it to get where she was going.
Where was she going?
She couldn't remember, but she knew that if she didn't get there soon then something awful would happen.
"Maisy…" A voice sang, "Oh Maisy… where are you, love?"
"Here I am!" She muttered, "Who's there?"
"Maisy, sweet, sweet Maisy…"
"Who are you? Where are you?"
There was no reply, so Maisy ran forward, trying to find anything other than the dark pool of blood she was practically swimming in now. Then she bumped into something.
A body doing the dead man's float in the water.
"Hello?" Maisy hesitantly touched the body and it rolled over, "No!"
It was Loki, of course, and he'd been dead for a long time it looked like.
"Loki, no, no, no, no!"
"Maisy, Maisy, Maisy…" the voice was still singing, "Do you like my present?"
"Where are you?! What have you done?!"
"I'm right here, love," the voice stopped singing and sounded closer than before. Maisy turned around and found Egil grinning at her with his arms open wide, "Hello."
"Did you kill him?"
"Obviously."
"How could you?!"
"For you, for you, I did it all for you," his voice lilted into a song again and he waded nearer to her, "And you'll love me for it, I swear you will."
"No! No, I'll never love you!" Maisy tried to back away from him, but he jumped and tackled her, knocking them both back into the blood. The liquid surged into her lungs as she screamed until…
"Norns, wake her up, something is clearly wrong with her!"
Maisy jolted awake and coughed as though she'd truly been drowning. She screamed when she found that she really was laying in blood, but a hand quickly covered her mouth.
"Shut up, girl!"
She looked at the owner of the hand and would have called out if she'd been able. It was Tyr and he was grinning at her in a way that she'd thought only cartoon villains could.
"There, now that you're quiet we can finish this whole nasty business, hmm?"
Maisy looked around for Linn and when she spotted her friend she punched Tyr in the face and quickly climbed off of the bed. Linn was being held with a knife to her throat by one man while another laughed and dragged another knife along the girl's side. Maisy didn't think before grabbing the dagger that had been in Loki's goodbye box and throwing it at the one holding a knife to Linn's throat. Her aim was true (for once in her life) and it hit the man in the chest, causing him to fall down with a shriek.
"Get away from her!" Maisy roared.
"Yeah! Get away from me!" Linn kicked the other man in the face and picked up the knife that the first one had dropped, slitting his throat, "Or I'll dice ya up!"
"Incompetent fools," Tyr grumbled and soon had his arm wrapped around Maisy's middle, "I should have come alone and killed the girl already."
"Let me go! Let me go! Bjorn! Someone! Help!"
"Shut up!" He clamped his sweaty hand over her mouth. Wrenching her back over to the bed and tossing her onto it he drew a sword from the sheath on his back and pointed it at her, "Don't scream or move or you'll be joining your husband."
"Where did this blood come from?" Maisy whispered, disgusted at the red liquid spread all across her bed sheets.
"It's pigs blood," Tyr said, "My helper planted devices under the sheets that would explode with it once someone applied enough pressure."
"Why?"
"If bloody sheets were found in His Highness' room and your cut up body found at the same time it would be difficult for him to explain. Of course, that plan is off now that he's gone and let some Midgardian kill him."
"You were going to frame him for my murder?"
"Sends him to prison and gets rid of you. A win-win," Tyr smiled, "Now I only get to kill you, but that is no matter."
"Get away," Linn said with a trembling voice, "Go!"
"Perhaps I'll frame this maid of yours and make it look like she killed you and then herself. Send your whole household down in disgrace."
"Whatever you do, sir, can you make it quick?" The goon that Maisy had hit groaned, "I need to get to a healer."
"Silence!"
"Sorry, sir."
"Now, Maisy Sichore, you will meet your end," Tyr drew his sword back in preparation for the strike, "My son will finally be avenged!"
He moved to stab her, but she rolled out of the way and he hit the bed instead. Then the door to the room flew open and a bright blast of light hit Tyr in the chest and knocked him against the balcony doors. When Maisy looked to see who it was she couldn't help feeling disappointed that it was Odin and not Loki miraculously back from the dead.
"Old friend, I'd say it's time I put a stop to your evil," Odin said and blasted Tyr again with his spear's magic.
"Odin!" Tyr yelped and opened the balcony doors, scrambling away from the king, "This is not what is seems!"
"I do not care to hear your pathetic excuses," Odin advanced, "I have lost my son and I will not lose his wife on the day of his funeral."
"I thought you disliked the Midgardian too!"
"I do, but she is my kin and a member of the royal family."
Maisy could hardly believe her ears.
"She is a worm from Midgard!"
"To kill her is treason, Tyr. And the punishment for treason is death."
"Odin, wait! What would Frigga say to see you kill your oldest friend? What would our fathers say?" Tyr was on his knees pleading, with nowhere left to run.
"If Frigga saw the things you'd done she would probably be infuriated that I did not let her kill you herself."
"But-"
"My verdict is final. The death penalty is all that is left for you, Lord Tyr."
"No, you can't!"
Odin didn't bother to say anything else. He approached Tyr and stabbed him through the throat with his spear, nearly slicing his head off entirely. And that was the end of him.
"Woo! Go Odin!" Linn cheered, tossing the knife aside and giving the monarch a hug. Odin patted her on the head idly while turning to Maisy.
"Are you alright, child?" He eyed the blood on the bed, but saw that Maisy bore no wounds.
"Y-Yes, thank you," she got up and curtsied because it seemed like the right thing to do.
"Why did you refuse my summons?"
"I, uh, sent a letter with Bjorn to explain myself."
"I did not read it," he said, "But that is no matter. I shall tell you now what I would have told you in the Great Hall."
"What's that, sir?"
"You will not return to Midgard."
A note from the author: Don't ever say I don't give you anything. Here's Tyr's head on a plate for y'all lol. You are a blood thirsty lot so I thought it was about time to get rid of the guy. I just realized he and Drin died in pretty similar ways - with a sharp thing through the throat. Ouch. And now his fingers are gonna be cut off for Blaze to wear as a necklace. What a messed up family I've created.
Anywho... back to the bunker for me. Don't worry, more cheerful stuff is coming soon! I promise!
Thank you so much to everyone for reading/following/favoriting!
Special thanks to my reviewers:
Ninja Squirrel: *Blaze hears the explosion from the bazooka* "I think I'll just be on my way back to Muspelheim..." *she runs from the readers, remembering what you guys did to Egil* "Aaaaaahhhh! Surtur protect me!"
MetallicarBaby: I think Odin might be having a bit of fun... ;) I'm sorry to hear that the Joker movie wasn't very good. That's too bad. To cheer yourself up you should look up Brandon Tack's Joker cosplay on Tik Tok. I don't know how you feel about Tik Tok (I don't even know how I feel about Tik Tok lol), but brandontack has an AMAZING Joker cosplay and the audio clips he chooses to go with it are brilliant. He did some other cosplays more recently, but he just picked up doing the Joker again. But seriously, he's really good if you scroll through his stuff. Okay. I'm done fangirling now, sorry lol.
Lwolf: I don't know... Surtur seems to think that Loki on the throne will lead to Ragnarok so it isn't entirely unlikely... but hmmm... I just don't know. Of course, Blaze could just be holding something over Odin's head... maybe she got information from Loki about how to make Odin do what she wanted... you never know! And I'll never tell! At least, not right now.
Dragoncat: So many mysteries! Mwahahaha!
You guys are the best! I'll post again as soon as I am able, which might be tomorrow and if not tomorrow then maybe Monday. And if not Monday then perhaps Tuesday. And if not Tuesday then definitely next Friday. Sometime soon. Thanks for being patient!
Love y'all!