A week passes. Anara's ship was so badly damaged in the crash that Odin, Thor, Loki, and a crew of technicians are unable to find much of use, except a case of clothes, a few boxes, and bits of technology they can't identify. At a loss, Odin has the items and boxes, as well as Anara's light saber, locked away in the Armory under the guard of the Destroyer, a huge twenty- foot armored construct. Thor, Loki and occasionally Frigga, visit Anara's room, all hoping she'll waken on their watch, and all leave each time, disappointed.
As the second week comes to a close, Loki can be found in what has come to be called the "Room of the Maiden", pacing, his frustration at the situation evident. In his impatience to know who this maddening woman is, he's tried several times to read her mind, or sense her thoughts, but all he sees is blackness. No thoughts, no feelings, just an occasional jolt of mind-searing pain. If she'd just open her eyes and say something to prove she's just like every other woman out there – fickle and shallow – he could leave this room – hells, leave Asgard and go on with, well, whatever he damn-well pleased, and he'd be happy. Clenching his fists, Loki turns to leave, but stops when he hears footfalls and conversation coming towards the room. Recognizing his father's voice, Loki cloaks himself in an illusion of invisibility and steps back into the corner to eavesdrop. A few moments later, Odin and Master Healer Gustause enter, deep in conversation.
"No, I don't understand it either my lord, I've never had a patient fail to recover after this long, especially under a stasis field. Our scans show her body's fully healed, but her pain levels are still higher than I've ever seen, even in patients who've lost limbs. We've been able to isolate the pain signals to an area around her heart, but even targeted treatments don't seem to be working. I'm afraid if we continue giving her the sedatives we may damage her brain, and then she may never wake up."
"Then cease their use, Gustause. This maiden has been a mystery to us long enough. It's time she wakes up and tells us who she is."
Turning, he casts a glance in Loki's direction and strides from the room. After Gustause too leaves, Loki drops his illusion and returns to Anara's bedside. Reaching through the stasis field, he takes her hand and whispers his secret prayer that he be the one who's there when she wakes.
The calm, quiet sea of blackness recedes in a roaring wave of pain. Anara screams, clutching at her heart. Images stream across her mind's eye. The hyperspace star field, her ship in flames, brilliant green eyes that seem to dissect her soul, blood - her blood on stones below her, faces - some dutiful, some beautiful, more than a few concerned. She can't make sense of it, can't control the pain that seems to radiate from her heart. Another throb of pain and another scream escapes her lips, and then blackness envelops her again.
It is by chance that Loki happens to be at Anara's bedside the first time she screams. Her back arches as her hands clutch her chest over her heart. The sound coming from this mortal is like none he's ever heard – primal, animalistic – terrifying. Alarms begin to sound from the monitoring equipment, and healers rush to the room, but the episode is over, and the Maiden lies again as if in death, only the wrinkles in the sheets betray that she has moved. In the chaos caused by the alarms, Loki slips from the room unseen, and disappears down the corridor; shaken by what just happened. Struggling to sort out his feelings towards this mortal, it will be weeks before he returns to her bedside.
Days sometimes pass between Anara's nightmarish screams, and though she is now never left alone, no one ever sees her wake. The lesser healers and servants speak of the Maiden as if she's cursed - doomed to be forever stuck in a land of nightmares. Most avoid the halls surrounding her room as her screams are too terrifying to bear. Only Thor and Frigga visit her bedside willingly. Both hold her hands and tell stories. Thor regales her with tales of his battles, and occasionally of the women he's loved and lost. He brushes the hair from her forehead and doesn't mind the nail marks she leaves in his hand when one of her fits strikes her. Frigga tells her of Asgard, describing the gardens, the palace, the city and the other realms. She brushes Anara's long black hair, singing lullabies as she braids sections of it, and wonders at the scar that turned the hair at her temple to white. The servants and healers prefer the times when Frigga's there, and do most of their work around the Maiden's Room then. The Maiden doesn't scream when Frigga sings to her.
One evening after dinner, Frigga spies Loki at the far end of the Meade Hall and manages to catch him before he's able to sneak off to wherever he's been hiding these past few weeks.
"I have not seen you in the Maiden's room, Loki. Why do you avoid her?"
"She screams like a maddened Valkyre. It hurts my ears." He grumbles in reply. "Why do you care anyway?"
"Because she needs our help, and I do not believe she is an enemy." Frigga replies softly. Putting her hand on Loki's arm to stop him from leaving, she continues, "We need your skills my son. Nothing we do will wake the Maiden. Not even Odin can get through to her."
Loki turns back to face his mother and a look of surprise crosses his face, quickly replaced again by his mask of indifference.
"You mean to tell me the all-powerful Odin is at a loss? That he actually NEEDS his son?" Loki lets out a small vicious chuckle.
"Now son –" Frigga tries.
"DON'T start Mother. I am busy, but I will stop by the Maiden's chamber soon to see what I can do. In the mean time, why don't you council my dear brother to stop telling her tales of war. I hear she screams the loudest after one of those. "
Loki spins on his heel and walks out of the Meade Hall before Frigga can reply. She looks after him with a look of quiet bewilderment on her face.
"Mother, what was all that about?" Thor asks as he approaches, looking down the hall after Loki.
"Nothing my son, I was just asking Loki if he would try to get through to the Maiden. He has his tricks you know, I thought it might help."
"He'll likely just make her nightmares worse!" Thor laughs, cutting himself off short when he notices the look of reproach on Frigga's face.
"You'd do well to tease him less, you know. He did make an observation that I think you should heed. Refrain from telling the Maiden any more stories of battle. Her nightmares get worse after those."
"Aye, I've noticed that lately too. I will figure out something else to tell her from now on," Thor says, chastened. "Do you really think that Loki can get through to her? Not even Father's been successful."
"I do not know my son, but we have to try."
Offering his arm to his mother, Thor escorts Frigga back to the main hearth where they rejoin friends and family, though thoughts of the Maiden darken their thoughts and dim the conversation.