CHAPTER THREE

"Someone has trespassed on Olympus." Hermes clasped his hands behind his back and surveyed the room seriously.

"To what end?" Thor said. "What were they after?"

"I don't know," Hermes said grimly. "The intruder broke in to the armory and was heading towards the Artifact Chamber when Ares chased them off. We believe they were trying to steal one of the artifacts. We don't know which."

"Have you any idea who it was?" Odin asked.

Hermes shook his head, looking wide-eyed and on-edge. "None. But whoever it was, they are doubtless very powerful. Not only did they succeed in creating a glamour that made them utterly unrecognizable, but they managed to get past my security enchantments."

Loki's heart dropped for a moment as his mind went immediately to Darcy and her break-in months previous. And then he realized that Darcy had been with him practically the entire week, training with him. Still, he felt compelled to speak. "Is it possible that the perpetrator was nothing more than a common thief with uncannily good luck?" he said lightly. "It has been known to happen."

"My friend, we may both be gods of mischief and trickery in the loose, unofficial sense of the term, but I am also the god of thieves. I know every trick in the book, and cast my enchantments accordingly." Hermes shook his head. "No. No one except Zeus and the original owners of the artifacts in the chamber could have entered that room by any means other than powerful magic. That is why I have been sent here," he said, looking directly at Thor. "Athena believes—and I agree with her—that whoever this thief is, they will try again to steal what they were after. And given the degree of magic required to break through the enchantments, it is clear that protective spells and guards would be insufficient to protect the chamber. In short, we need help."

He swept his cape away from his shoulders to reach into one of the pockets. The entire room watched him curiously as he sank what appeared to be most of his arm into the magical cape to retrieve whatever it was he was searching for. A moment later, he withdrew his arm from the pocket, holding in his hand a single, golden apple.

Thor stared at it, confused, as Hermes set the apple down on the table before him. "An apple of immortality?" He laughed, holding it up to his mouth to take a bite. "Is that all? Why, take some of ours. Idunn has trees full of them."

"No, no, no—" Loki grabbed Thor by the wrist firmly and wrenched the apple from his grasp. Thor stared at him, affronted. Loki pointed to the surface of the fruit. "Look," he said, exasperated. Thor squinted at the apple, and upon closer examination, realized that there were delicate, spidery letters etched into the skin.

"'To the most beautiful,'" Odin recited quietly. "The Apple of Discord." Hermes nodded.

Thor furrowed his brow. "I don't see anything about discord or beauty," he grumbled. "All this says is—"

"Kallistei," Loki finished. "It's an Olympian artifact, brother. Did you expect the inscription to be in runes?" He turned to Hermes, raising an eyebrow. "Why are you giving it to us? If the thief is as powerful as you say, my enchantments would be surely ineffectual."

"That they would," Hermes pointed out. "If the goal were to prevent the thief from getting to the artifact."

"A trap," Jane said.

"Precisely," Hermes said, nodding. "Iris and I will distribute all of the artifacts in the hall to other realms for 'protection.' That way, the next time the thief strikes, we shall know what it is they are after, and hopefully proceed from there."

Loki tapped his lips thoughtfully as he paced around the room. "Well, that certainly changes things," he mused. He crossed his arms and walked back around the room towards the others. "If our aim is not to prevent the theft, but to learn from it, I can set up enchantments that will tell us the thief's identity, regardless of glamours."

"Excellent," Hermes said, brushing his cape off and looking around the room. "You all seem to have the situation well in hand, so I had best go on to my next destination. Explaining this matter to Titania and Oberon may be…time-consuming."

Loki scoffed. "Talking to them is the easy part," he said. "It's getting them to shut up and stop arguing in the first place that's the difficulty. Out of curiosity, which artifact are you asking them to protect?"

"Aphrodite's girdle. Given their incessant quarreling, I thought it would be best if I gave them one of the less powerful artifacts. Can you imagine if I asked them to guard Zeus's lightning bolts? Or—Hera forbid—Eros's arrows? It'd be the Midsummer Incident all over again." Hermes shook his head fervently. "No, I'm entrusting the more powerful artifacts to more responsible gods and realms. I believe Iris is giving Hades' Helm to Ra and then proceeding to Vishnu's palace with Poseidon's Trident."

"Leaving us with the most dangerous of them all," Odin said quietly.

"I suggest you keep it as far from your dwellings and gathering-places as possible," Hermes said. "If you know that it's there, it shouldn't be able to catch you off-guard; I don't expect it will cause too many quarrels…but be wary. This is the apple that launched a thousand ships."

"I thought it was Helen's face that did the launching," Jane pointed out.

Hermes bowed his head slightly. "True. But if not for this apple, Helen would never have been involved in the conflict." He turned to Thor seriously. "Watch it well. Enchant it so that we may know if anyone tries to steal it. And remain always on your guard." And with a flourish and a bow, he vanished.

Odin stood stiffly. "Loki: take the apple down into the hidden chambers where the Jotun relics are kept." Loki suppressed the urge to flinch as his mind wandered back to their last conversation in that part of the palace. "Thor, go with him. For the sake of our Olympian friends, and our own security, we must know who this thief is if they intend to steal the Apple of Discord." They nodded and left.

"All-Father," Jane said softly, "might I be excused?"

"Of course. And Lady Jane," he added as she rose to her feet, "you may tell Lady Darcy what we have discussed in this meeting. But speak to no one else, and instruct her likewise. The theft of magical artifacts is a very sensitive matter, and I think keeping it secret would be safest for all involved."

Jane bowed. "Thank you, sir."

Thor crossed his arms and studied Loki as he wandered in a circle around the dais holding the apple, waving his hands and muttering strange words.

Loki scowled, feeling eyes on the back of his head. "Thor, if I'm not mistaken, you have seen me cast spells before. And yet you watch me as though I were a specimen under a telescope."

Thor shrugged. "I haven't seen you in a long time. I didn't recall you being quite so…sarcastic when I departed for my honeymoon."

"Then your memory must be tarnished, brother. As everyone else in the castle can assure you, I have always been sarcastic. Unbearably so, if you ask Sif."

"That is not what I meant," Thor said awkwardly.

Loki sighed, returning to his spell-casting with renewed vigor. "Then change your words and say what it is you mean. I am in no mood for beating about the bush."

"See?" Thor said. "There you are again. I can't put words to it, but you've been behaving strangely since I returned. Did something terrible happen in my absence?"

"Not particularly," Loki said tersely. Liar.

Strictly speaking, you're not lying, the little voice in his head pointed out. Nothing terrible has happened. You're just a bit foul-tempered because of Darcy. He resisted the urge to sigh heavily…or perhaps it was the urge to punch something. Or, more likely, it was the urge to run upstairs to Darcy's quarters and barrel through the door and—talk to her.

Talk to her, the voice in his head snorted. Good euphemism.

Spell-casting. He needed to finish these spells. He waved his hands with more force than was strictly necessary, muttering and hissing the words in a low growl.

Thor stared at him a moment longer, and shook his head. "You're right. I must be mistaken. Forget I said anything."

Loki thought privately that, for once, Thor was more right than he could have thought possible. For a moment, he considered getting the terrible darkness in his mind off of his chest, telling him the whole truth: the lust for power that had sparked inside of him, the lust for the beautiful mortal girl who somehow managed to get stuck on his mind without doing anything at all, the way he felt bizarrely possessive over her whenever she came near him, as if he wanted to somehow make her indisputably his for all the world to see, be it with a crown or a ring or some other mark.

He brushed the thought away. After all, what was there to tell? It was all in his mind. And he wasn't so soft as to need to talk to other people about the tumult in his heart over his more villainous side.

Darcy and Jane were collapsed on Darcy's bed, laughing hysterically.

"Jane! I did not need to know that!" Darcy said, giggling in spite of herself. She managed to keep a straight face for exactly two seconds before looking at Jane trying to do the same. She snorted in a very unladylike manner, her face splitting into a huge smile.

"Well, you asked!" Jane said, blushing and laughing at the same time.

"I meant, like, in general! I was kidding!"

"I'll try to remember that next time the matter comes up," Jane muttered. Darcy let out an involuntary cackle as she imagined what circumstance could possibly arrive that would make her talk with Jane about this ever again. Jane sat up, smoothing out the creases in her gown and clearing her throat awkwardly. "Alright," she said, grinning, "I blurted out all my juicy gossip. Your turn."

Darcy widened her eyes, her smile fading slightly. "Me? What do you mean?"

"I mean, you and Loki have been together for months now. What's that like?"

Darcy flushed. She stared at her knees, suddenly fascinated by the texture of satin on her nightdress. "Oh," she said. "Uh…interesting." She nodded. "He's been trying to teach me some basic magic that I can do as a mortal. And we talk a lot. You know, stupid stuff: books, things that happened when we were younger, I've been trying to explain movies to him, but he's a bit unclear on the concept; same thing with recorded music…"

"Is it serious?"

Darcy frowned. "Well, yeah. I mean, he's Loki," she said, "serious is kind of his MO when he's not actively-"

"No, I mean, like…"

"Oh." Darcy's face fell slightly. "Uh, I don't…I don't really…" She shrugged helplessly.

Jane's eyes widened. "Oh. So you're not..." Darcy shook her head. "But the way he acts around you, I thought for sure—" She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Maybe he's just more old-fashioned than Thor. He is more polite. But still, the way he looks at you and his body language when you two are nearby…he's so intense about it. It's almost like he's possessive of you or something."

"I've noticed it to," Darcy admitted. "But it kind of feels like he's doing it on purpose. Like he's holding back for some reason. I don't want to push it; he usually knows what he's doing…or…not-doing in this case." She sighed. "And then I get worried that maybe he's just not interested."

Jane rolled her eyes. "Darcy, if he were any more interested, he'd be…" She blushed. "I don't know. He'd be doing something." She stared at Darcy thoughtfully. "Have you talked about it?"

Darcy laughed. "I'm not doing this," she said, rubbing her eyes. She sighed. "Thanks for telling me about the meeting."

Jane tried not to roll her eyes at Darcy's less-than-subtle attempt at ending the conversation. "Not a problem," she said evenly, standing up. "It's late. You probably want to get some sleep."

Darcy nodded, yawning broadly. "Yeah. I'm sure there'll be lots to do tomorrow now that you're back." She waved at Jane as she opened the door. "Night."

"Goodnight."

With a last, somewhat awkward smile, Jane closed the door behind her. Darcy sat up immediately and walked towards her dresser to brush her hair. Jane might be a bit serious and—honestly—nerdy when it came to work, but she did have some pretty good ideas.

Darcy gave herself a last once-over in the mirror to make sure her nightgown wasn't too thin or cleavage-y to walk around the halls in and that her hair wasn't in total disarray. Satisfied, she turned to the door and stepped into the hallway. After glancing around for a moment to find her orientation, she headed off towards the South tower.