"You will be sent to Midgard, if you give your word of honour not to escape, for the remainder of the war."
The young Aesir warrior, expression already mutinous, sprang up at this and stood just behind the bars, vibrating with anger. "And how should we give our word of honour to one who knows not the meaning of the word, traitor!"
"Peace, Ragnar" the older warrior said in a gravelly voice.
"No, I will not-!"
"Peace, I said!"
The two Aesir stared at each other, until finally the younger turned away in disgust.
Behind them were another Aesir, unconscious from blood loss but likely to survive, and two Alfar, one with a crushed leg and arm whose prospects for survival were poor, one with only minor scrapes.
These five were the only survivors the rebels had been able to find at the Bifrost site on Jotunheim. They had already been tended by healers and given food and drink. Now, Loki stood before them, offering them parole, and half-expecting them to turn him down.
The older warrior looked back at him, gaze measuring. Loki had given no explanation of what had happened to destroy their garrison, and didn't intend to. Loki returned the warrior's stare evenly.
"And, that is the only restriction? That we not escape?"
Loki nodded. "We do not mean to torture you, but we cannot have you return to fight again. Do you accept?" Please accept, he thought silently. There had been enough death already, he had no wish to kill his own people.
"We will consider it, prince."
It was as good an answer as he could hope for, Loki supposed. He nodded and left the prisoners to their discussion.
Loki made his way out of the building and once outside, paused to take in a deep breath of frozen air.
"There you are," Thrym rumbled. "They're missing you at the celebration."
Loki just shook his head and reached out for his husband. His head barely reached Thrym's upper chest, but he'd gotten used to that. Thrym returned the embrace silently. It was more weakness, and more strength, than Loki had ever experienced in Asgard.
How far I've come, Loki mused, thinking not of distance, but of his heart, and if only Thor could have come with me. "I almost can't believe we all made it back."
The Svartalfar queen had taken a few blows from Heimdall, but she had some access to healing magic, and she'd recovered quickly. The Vanir had taken some rather severe damage to his arm and part of his torso, but their medic assured him that Barricade had recovered from worse.
There had been, unavoidably, severe casualties taken in Svartalfheim, but even there it hadn't reached their worse-case scenario figures. Still, it had not been a small price to pay, and Loki vowed to honour their sacrifice, and the victory it had brought them.
Thrym 'hmm'd in agreement.
The wind howled low and mournful around them, and Loki let his eyes close. Finally he said into the silence. "I don't want to kill my brother, Thrym."
"I know."
They stood a moment longer in silence, and Loki heaved a sigh. "I sometimes think I could have prevented all this, you know," he finally said, barely loud enough for Thrym to hear.
"All this?"
Loki had a momentary debate with himself. He'd never told anyone this before, after all. Part of him was afraid it might sound, well, silly.
"Before Thor's coronation, I had this hare-brained idea. I'd open a small path from Jotunheim to Asgard, let a few Jotuns in, and time it to interrupt the ceremony. Looking back.. it would have gotten several people killed, certainly including the Jotuns. But… would that have been a small price to pay? If I'd needled Thor into trying to break Father's edict afterwards, gotten Thor in trouble for trying to go to Jotunheim…" Loki trailed off.
Thrym rumbled contemplatively. "The Norns weave in mysterious ways, sometimes."
Loki snorted derisively. "Now you're just trying to sound deep. Most probably, my juvenile flailing about with politics would have won a few days' grace, if that. More likely it wouldn't have changed anything"
"Perhaps. But I think things turned out pretty well, regardless," Thrym said, hugging Loki tighter for a second.
Loki smiled a secret, soft smile into his husband's chest. " Mm, if you say so. Now, I believe you mentioned a celebration?" Loki continued lightly, drawing back from the embrace.
And side by side, the two princes went to join their companions.
