AN: It's official; I'm writing another sequel. It will be a longer sequel, more on par with "Mendacity" than this one in terms of length, and leaving the more mystery-angsty tone of this story behind in favor of the first tale's more fantasy epic plotline. Jane and Thor will come into play a little more than they have in this story and we may very well reunite with Erik. I can also say that it will be, in large part, a story about Loki and Darcy's relationship, but I'm not saying what that relationship will be for fear of giving away the end of the current story. What will it be about? Astute readers will know that I tend to weave in threads, hints of what is to come in passing comments, in seemingly irrelevant plot elements and pick them up later. I will reveal the title of the next story when I finish this one. Thank you for reading, and your reviews are always appreciated!
Soundtrack for last segment of this chapter: "Old Souls" "One Simple Idea" "Radical Notion" (Yeah, I'm on a bit of an Inception bent with the music. I think it might have something to do with the fact that a certain villainous character that will come up in this chapter was almost exactly like Mal when I envisioned her in my head.)
CHAPTER EIGHT
Loki didn't react when Thor's shadow crossed the threshold into his room. He simply stared straight ahead, his mind utterly blank as he let the magic flow through his veins: fixing, moving, cleaning his room, trying in vain to erase the intangible traces of her presence from the space.
"Loki," Thor began awkwardly.
"If it's conversation you're interested in, I think you'd best find somebody else to speak with."
Thor hesitated; he had been expecting this, but he still hadn't thought of a way to work around his brothers' unwillingness to talk. "I merely came here to inform you that the others are gathering in the library to discuss the…the matter of the apple." He swallowed. "The All-Father wishes for you to know that you are welcome to join us."
"Give him my gratitude for his generosity," Loki said flatly, "but I don't think that would be wise."
Thor rubbed the back of his neck agitatedly. "Loki, we need you. You're the voice of reason."
"Actually, I'm not." He turned to look at his brother. Thor was startled by the steely, detached look in his eyes. "That title belongs to Jane," Loki said bitterly. "I'm just the god of trickery. And a very poor one at that, to be fooled by a pair of big, blue eyes." He returned his gaze to the wall in front of him with renewed vigor, as though he were trying to burn a hole in the stone with his eyes. "If you'll excuse me, I have something I need to take care of."
Thor stood there a moment longer, struggling for the right words to say to get Loki to speak. But he never was a wordsmith like his brother had been—or like Jane was, for that matter.
"What we must first determine," Odin began, "is the identity of our thief."
"Lady Darcy."
"We don't know that for sure." Everyone in the room turned to look at Jane. She stared straight back, her brows furrowed in an expression somewhere between annoyed and concerned.
Hermes grimaced and surveyed Jane with a slightly condescending look. "I'm afraid you are mistaken, princess," he said stiffly. "Thanks to Prince Loki's protective enchantments, I can say with absolute certainty that Lady Darcy stole the Apple of Discord."
"You mean she took it," Jane corrected sharply. "You don't know why she took it, or if she was even alone. Maybe there's something else going on. Maybe Darcy was forced to take the Apple by somebody else."
"And what would be the point of that?" Hermes asked, his voice laced heavily with skepticism. "Our thief has already demonstrated their skill at magic. Why would such a powerful sorcerer bother using another to steal the apple when they could just destroy the protective enchantments?"
"Psychological impact." Jane shrugged. "Maybe the thief knew about Loki and Darcy's relationship and wanted to destroy Asgard from within by creating distrust."
"Lady Jane," Hermes said impatiently, "gods and goddesses are not celebrities. We do not have our love lives published in newspapers for the entire world to see. Until I came to Asgard in person, I did not even know that Lady Darcy existed, much less that she was romantically involved with Loki. There is no way that anyone outside of Asgard could possibly know that information without spies or insiders providing them intelligence. What you're suggesting would require a level of intricate conspiracy that defies all probability."
"Anyone outside of Asgard."
A murmur shot through the room. Even Thor was now looking at Jane with a slightly wary eye.
"Jane," he said quietly, "do you realize what it is you're saying?"
She glared at him defiantly. "Do you all realize what you're saying?" she retorted. Thor looked down at the ground sheepishly. "Darcy isn't a thief," Jane said, "and she isn't a conspirator. What motive could she possibly have for stealing the Apple of Discord? Or the Girdle? Why would she do such a thing?"
"Oh, I can think of a few things." Hermes crossed his arms and looked at Jane seriously. "The first is easy: she was angry at Loki. What better revenge than to break his heart into a million pieces, by revealing her true nature? And as to the second…" He gave Jane a significant look. "Well, I don't know them as well as you do, but could it not be the case that Darcy, craving affection or perhaps doubting Loki's physical attraction to her, thought she needed a little extra help? Did she ever express such doubts?"
Jane opened her mouth, and then caught herself. She paled.
Hermes smirked. "I thought so."
Jane's eyes blazed. "Alright, so she has a motive," she snapped, "and I'll pretend to buy your nonsense story about her being a fairy for the sake of argument. But where I come from, people are assumed innocent until proven guilty."
"You are going in circles," Hermes said exasperatedly. "We have proven her guilty. Loki's doppelganger—"
"You've proven that she took the Apple, but you still haven't proven that she was the one who planned the theft, or that she wanted to steal it. There are other possibilities that we have to consider. What if someone else was responsible? What if they used her to create turmoil inside Asgard, or because they didn't want their identity to be revealed?"
"Alright!" Hermes sighed, and closed his eyes wearily. "Alright," he said again, "I have not proven beyond a doubt that Darcy was the one responsible for the theft. But we will never have proof unless we begin to investigate the possibilities presented to us." He turned to the room at large. "In light of the circumstantial evidence against Lady Darcy, I believe the search for the Girdle and the Apple should begin with her."
"I concur," Odin said gravely. Jane began to protest, but he held a hand up to silence her. "Princess Jane, I understand your concerns. We are not passing judgment upon Lady Darcy. We are merely pursuing her with the intent to discern what truly happened. If she is innocent, then no harm shall come of our search. Lord Hermes, may I suggest that you—since I am told Loki is uninterested in assisting with this matter—employ some means of divination to find out where Lady Darcy is?"
"Of course," Hermes said. "If you have a spare room, I can begin scrying within the hour. It won't be perfect, but I should be able to get a vague notion of her location."
"Thank you," Odin said. "That would be most helpful." Hermes nodded and left the room.
"Sir, with your permission, I would like to see him scrying. I'm a little worried—"
"You fear that he will distort the facts, willfully or not, in such a way that will paint your friend in an unfairly negative light?" Jane nodded fervently. "Go with him. See what he sees." Jane bowed and made to leave the room. "Jane," Odin called after her. She stopped to listen. "Please try to sympathize with him," he said mildly. "Hermes has his reasons for being jaded, particularly with matters of the heart. He has witnessed too many betrayals, too much heartbreak between lovers in his line of duty as companion to the dead to be optimistic."
"I will try, All-Father," she replied, and she turned to leave, almost bumping into someone coming through the door in the process: a young woman with sprite-like features and a strange crop of short, opalescent hair that shifted colors in the light. "Excuse me," Jane said, glancing curiously at the woman's hair as she slid past her.
The rainbow-haired woman gave a slight, twitchy smile in response before scurrying into the room. "Sir," she said quickly.
Odin's eye widened in surprise. "Lady Iris," he said, "what brings you to Asgard?"
"Nothing good, I'm afraid. Is Hermes here? I have a message I must convey to him; it's urgent."
"He left moments ago," Odin replied. "He is busy at the moment." Iris visibly deflated. "What is the matter you come to tell him of? Is it anything that we might be able to assist you in?"
"It might. Do you happen to know if Hermes journeyed to Hades' realm earlier, a few hours ago?"
"I can't imagine he did. Lord Hermes has been in our company for near a day now on important business, and I don't believe he has left us in that time."
"Damn it," Iris hissed. Her pointed face flushed. "Pardon my language," she stammered. "But this is not good. This is very, very bad." She began gnawing upon her thumbnail nervously. "There is a soul missing from Hades' realm," she explained agitatedly. "We hoped that it was merely a mistake, that Hermes might have moved the person to one of the other realms of death temporarily, or borrowed him for some reason. But if he hasn't been to Hades in almost a day…"
"Another thief?" Thor suggested.
"Or the same one," Odin murmured, "putting into action a complex plan with multiple steps." He stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Of whose soul are we speaking?" he asked.
"It's Jason."
Thor's eyes widened. Odin froze, uncharacteristically at a loss for words.
"Jason?" Thor repeated. "The hero? But he died centuries ago. Who would want to resurrect him now?"
"Someone for whom centuries are irrelevant because their magic allows them to live forever. Someone whose years are measured in relation to Jason. I'm afraid there's only one person powerful enough to break into Hades who would want to bring Jason back to life."
A cry of horror pierced the hallway and rang through the room. Jane hurried into the room with her eyes full of tears, closely followed by a figure in black who appeared from thin air in the doorway.
"Jane," Thor said, hastening forward to embrace her. She tried to speak, but her voice broke. He turned to the doorway, where Loki was smoothing out his clothing from the teleportation. "What's the matter?"
"Where is she?" Loki demanded, ignoring Thor's question. "I felt someone scrying downstairs and I latched on to the vision. She's being held somewhere. She's being tortured. Where is she?"
"We think Medea stole Jason's soul—"
Loki didn't stay to listen to the rest of Iris's explanation, instead turning on his heel to hurry from the room.
"Where are you going?" Thor called after him.
"Asia Minor." As he stepped through the doorway, he flickered and vanished into the air. Thor stared after him, bewildered, his reverie only broken when Hermes walked through the door.
"I was wrong," he said without preamble. "It appears, in this case, that the simplest explanation is not the correct one. We need to figure out what Medea's plan is, and quickly, before she hurts anyone else." He leaned on the table wearily. "I think we can be pretty certain, now, that Medea kidnapped Darcy and is holding her captive, and that she is behind the theft of the Girdle and the Apple, as well as the kidnap of Jason's soul. We need to know what her plan for these objects is. The best place to start would obviously be analyzing what she has already done and working from there. First question," he said, eyeing everyone in the room, "what's her motive?"
"Winning Jason back," Iris said promptly.
"Using the Apple—" said Jane in a shaky voice.
"Using the Girdle—" said Hermes at the same time. They stared at each other. Hermes grimaced. "The Girdle employs a very powerful attraction enchantment to compel anyone in proximity to the girdle-wearer to obey their will, usually in the form of being sexually attracted to the wearer. If Medea wore it, she could make Jason love her once more. Then again," he admitted, "we are speaking of Medea, and she tends to be more insidious, more subtle than that. Why the Apple?" he asked.
"The version of the story I heard in school said that Jason married another woman because he was offered power," she said quickly. "Medea could use the Apple to create chaos on earth and step in as a ruler in the wake of the chaos—that's usually how dictators come to power, not by conquering, by offering—"
"Stability in a time of chaos," Hermes finished. "So she brings Jason back once she's queen of the world, he marries her because she can offer him power, and they live happily ever after?"
"That's brilliant," Iris said.
"That doesn't make any sense," Thor said indignantly. "Why would you go to all that trouble when she could just wear the Girdle and make him love her?"
"Aphrodite's Girdle does not create love," Odin explained. "It creates, at most, infatuation or lust. No love spell—the Girdle, love-in-idleness, a potion—can truly recreate love; only obsession."
Hermes nodded. "Medea is a highly intelligent woman. She knows that Jason loves power, and she wants Jason to love her. QED, if she makes herself powerful, she can make Jason love her more than any spell or potion ever could. The only person who can create true love is Cupid, when he shoots his arrows, but they're useless on their own; they only have magical power when he is the one using them. And since he met Psyche…" Hermes shrugged. "Well, he would rather die than abuse the power that he has. He knows first-hand what it can do."
"Hold on," Iris interrupted. "Why does she need the Girdle, then? If she can win Jason's love with power, why steal the Girdle?"
"Maybe Oberon really did take it like Titania suggested," Jane said.
"No," Hermes said. "Oberon is one of the fey. He cannot tell an outright lie. He can mislead, obfuscate, bewilder, omit, and otherwise attempt to veil the truth, but he cannot say something that he knows to be untrue." He shook his head. "I know what tricks he uses to indirectly lie; I follow the same conditions for honesty that he does by personal choice, and I use his tricks myself just as he uses mine. But if he said outright that he did not take the Girdle, and that he had nothing to do with it being taken, then he didn't." He crossed his arms. "Perhaps Medea stole it as a ruse. Or maybe she used it to compel Darcy to steal the Apple."
"But if Medea is so powerful, why bother with Darcy?" Thor asked. "Why couldn't she just walk in, destroy the enchantments, and take the Apple herself?"
Jane's eyes widened. "Hold on," she said, turning to Hermes. "I thought you said that nobody outside of Asgard would know that Darcy and Loki were romantically involved, or that she even existed. How did Medea know about her?"
Hermes opened his mouth to respond, and then stopped. He turned pale. "I can only think of one explanation," he said finally. "Someone in Asgard is working with Medea. An informant."
Everyone at the room stared at each other; it was almost possible to see the gears turning in each person's mind.
"I shall gather the people," Odin said. "We must find out who this informant is."
"I'll warn SHIELD," Jane said hurriedly. "If Medea's going to create chaos on earth, we need to get people to safety. There are going to be wars starting down there."
"I'll tell the leaders of the other realms that have had human worshippers. They can help protect them."
"You take half," Iris said. "I'll tell the rest."
"Where does that leave me?" Thor asked.
Everyone hesitated for a moment; this was not a time for brute strength or combat. This was a time for precise defensive and tactical maneuvering. There was no physical enemy. The enemy was chaos.
Jane's eyes lit up. "Come with me," she said. "I think there are some people on earth who would really like to meet you."
The blur of color and sound shattered abruptly. Loki barely had time to get into a defensive falling position before the portal sent him tumbling to the ground. He landed on his feet, but he was thrown to his knees by the force of the fall. He skidded several feet along the sandy ground before coming to a stop. He spat and made a disgruntled face; some of the sand had made it between his teeth.
He stood up cautiously, looking all around as he rose. He was on a beach, with the sea shining bright blue for miles in one direction and dark green hills thick with shrubs and trees to the other.
The Mediterranean.
Medea must have placed spells around her home to keep people like Loki from materializing on the grounds. He would have to go the rest of the way on foot.
His heart skipped a beat as a horrible thought crossed his mind. What if he was too late? What if he got to Medea's palace, and Darcy was already dead or broken beyond recognition from the torment? If the former, then he would die with her. If the latter…
He waved a hand at a large, flat piece of driftwood. It rose from the ground and zoomed towards him, hovering a few inches above the ground. He stepped on top of it and immediately began flying through the air at a dizzying speed that reduced the world around him to nothing more than a vague impression of plants and rocky hills.
He had to get there in time.