Althia built a wall around herself. He was required to care for her, it was very Loki to entertain himself with such 'mischief' while doing his duty. She went out and wandered around, without realizing it was where she was headed she found herself in a faering at the dome or the bifrost. She walked in quietly and the Heimdall turned. "Greetings Althia Sacmich. To what do I owe the honor?" She walked up to stairs and sat down she wasn't thinking about propriety she just wanted to speak to someone who wouldn't invade her thoughts. "I needed away from… people. Stangers and strange customs and ways of acting." Heimdall came and stood over her slightly to the side. She leaned against the armor on his leg. "Do you find Asgard unwelcoming?" he asked her his voice was low and gentle. "I am not.. I remember things from my past." She looked up at him. "No one told me about certain Asgardian customs. It cause confusion and now a pain of the heart." She shook her head. "I am not the woman who first laid eyes on you. I am was the Jibana Meye. A leader, healer. We are all women and live many of man's lifetimes. All have out lived their husbands and brothers." She stared off into the stars as she spoke. "We were blessed and burdened by our gods to serve. Much that a common man has is denied us." She told him of the night her children and life ended. Silent tears trickled from her eyes as she stared into the stars. Heimdall watched her shake and her fists clench and relax. She was a bottle of rage waiting for a fools touch. "I was not a warrior of my people. My hands held healing and they feared the wrath of the gods. It was declared they never be stained with blood." She shuddered "Had I the training I do now…" she dropped her head as she described a panicked flight in the darkness. A cliff over the ocean and seeing the rocks come for her. She told him of the welcome in her heart that night and faces she knew were sisters aunts others who must be shielded. She sought death with every fiber of her being. His large hand reached out and squeezed her shoulder. "You were brave beyond all common men. There is no shame in dying that others may live." He comforted her in a way she couldn't explain. She told him about the cells and the nighttime visits in a hushed voice as she rested her head on his great knee. She took solace in the sound of his gauntlet creasing around his great sword. For a while she sat there silent as his hand stroked her hair and back. For a warrior, built as he was, his touch was light and undemanding. "Bruce the man I love on earth, he doesn't know. Loki does he plays and flirts with me. I doubt he understands his effect. I thought it was all so wonderful and confusing. That they wished to protect me from HIM. They made me strong and safe and brave when all my mind was terror and pain. Now I find that my disgraces…" she choked on the last and he stroked her hair gently. "Justice has a long arm." He lifted her hand and turned her palm up. There were callouses from her training "Sometimes that hand is small and tends more to compassion than revenge." She tilted her head up looking onto the golden eyes who saw the universe. "Would you like to know what your lover does this day?" he asked her. She looked at him lost and hollow. "Little is hidden from my sight I am the gate keeper of Asgard by fate from the day I was born." He held his hand out to her and she stood with his help. He drew her up on the platform with him and the dome turned. "He is working he speaks your name." He told her after a few minutes; she leaned her head against his chest and all the tension went out of her. "Thank you Heimdall. My heart breaks under this burden." He patted her back. "I am here should you need peace. No matter where you are if you call my name to the sky I will hear you." She stared up at him debating the last truth she held. "Heimdall, you see so much." She bit her lip. "I know. I know what he feels. I am bound to him forever and he does not know." She left then leaving off his name. She didn't trust it not to return to his ears.

She once again locked away the hope that struggled to grow in her as she returned to the palace and her rooms. She received word from Lord Hogun that he would be glad to spar with her and would meet her. He was even kind enough to draw a small map. She left directly from her room and had a guard escort her to the area her sword strapped to her side felt the touch of her hand the whole way.

Hogun was waiting for her with a rack of weapons behind him. He directed her through the rules of the sparing ring. She listened and repeated them back to him; he nodded without a word. When the fight began she stalked him carefully. After a short defensive tactic she moved in to attack. He was very different than Loki; less movement that wasted his energy. He avoided her attacks without moving clear across the field. She avoided his and began to adjust. He scored on her side during a rolling leap and the fight was called. They moved aside so the next pair could use the space. She drank water and thought about the differences she had perceived. "Lord Hogun you have a skill for economy of motion. You do not waste space, or time clearing your enemies range completely why?" she asked He grinned at her approvingly "Opportunity once lost will cost more." Loki had said the same thing to her. "Well I know this, now." She replied. He touched her arm and she looked at him. "You have built a wall, why?" he asked. She sighed "I'm sure you have heard about the Allfather's gift to me?" She emphasized the word gift with bitterness. He nodded "You are unwilling? Do not worry consent is required not forced." She growled an answer in her head no way for her to explain. She stood and wandered over to one of the dummies spaced around the grounds. She attacked it, each cut, every swing, held two centuries of anger and humiliation. She screamed at the dummy as she cut it into small chunks. Hogan grabbed her arm and she almost attacked him. "We run, come." He said and turned away. She followed her thoughts chaotic as he led her to a round field with a track along the outer edge. He began jogging slowly along the circle and she paced him. He didn't speak he just ran. After two laps he increased his speed and she followed matching his speed but not his stride. Two more laps and she increased her speed and he followed her. She ran from Bruce's eyes when he found out, from Loki's teasing and kisses, from the smiling man and his horrid minions. She ran till her skin was soaked with sweat and she focused on putting one foot in front of the other. She ran till the posts around the track blurred into blue and red stripes. Her pace didn't falter she made the posts her goals one at a time. Her vision blurred so she used the posts to keep her on track. Red above with blue underneath for another 5 minutes she ran. Then she thought about something that tripped her. She slowed down and did two laps and the third she slowed to a walk. Hogun was sitting against a post so she stopped there. He handed her a large mug of water and she gratefully chugged it. "Why did you stumble?" he asked as she tilted her drink down. "When you were trying to stop Loki" she had to swallow "and I from killing each other. I tried to reach Loki but there was a red and blue fog between us, I go lost in it. The potion or spell that was used on him was red and blue. Loki's magic is green and gold to me." She leaned back and focused on her breathing. "Thank you lord Hogun." She said "Would you please send word to whoever is supposed to know?" She tilted her head and found he had been looking at her hard. "Why would you not tell Loki?" he asked. "Loki is bound to protect me until one or both of us is dead. He would not be interested in me otherwise." She sighed "This morning I woke with Loki in my bed. We were not together as rumors are probably saying. Seeing as such is not normal for the prince there is only one explanation. My past disgraces still haunt me." With that she rose and bowed to him before she left. It was a fight to keep her head up and her legs moving. She hadn't ever run like that but in a way it felt good.

Althia spent every minute of her afternoons in the training grounds after that. She fought her way through the horrors. She battered a dozen of Odin's best guards before they refused to spar with her. Finally she was only tested by Sif, Fandral, and Hogun. She left the moment Loki came to the training grounds. For weeks she continued the pattern.

Sometimes she visited Heimdall and talked to him; he listened without judgement for which she was grateful. He encouraged her training and to speak of her past. She would disappear and bring him food or drink and talk. She didn't ask about Bruce. No one thought to look for her there. It became her sanctuary a place fee of eyes that judged and ears that in turn whispered.

She stopped wearing the silver bracelets, she let go of the hope that Bruce would want her once he found out. If it was enough to turn off the attentions of a lecher like Loki; someone like Bruce would definitely find it repulsive. Three weeks she repeated the same pattern mornings in the halls of lore researching Axi-Tun and Vanir histories focusing on any presence on Midgard. She had a small lunch sometimes with Heimdall and spent her afternoons in the training grounds. Dinner in her room sometimes meant dealing with company Most of the week she secreted away to the garden and found some quiet hiding spot. Jane was the first to seek her. She waited till the woman got tired and left then bolted the door and drank till she passed out. The second visitor she had was Hogun. He came and stared at her and she stared back. "What has Loki done?" he asked finally. She laughed "He has done everything to see to my safety and well-being. He has in no way violated the agreement he made before he was freed from Jutonhelm." He looked at her "Then why do you run?" he asked. She started yelling then berating him for failing to realize that she had watched her world burned and spent two hundred years being a lab rat to be chopped at burned and abused a toy of mad men. She fell in a chair and opened a bottle of spirits she found suitable to her mood. She ignored him till he left; the next day he knock the fire out of her in the sparring ring. He didn't draw blood but he beat her till the others interfered. She yielded and left the sparring area without a word. The only sign she'd was aware of the extreme beating was the broken staff she dropped at the entrance. Rayeth could not get her to speak and after three weeks sent word to the All Father. He in turn sent for Loki.

Loki waited in the shadows as she drank and ate her evening meal that day. It had been strange her avoidance bothered him more than he wanted to consider. He thought he had simply angered her and with the changes in her personality she might require time to forgive him. There was one thing he was certain of, she hadn't changed entirely. She was avoiding him, not attacking him as she had Hogun and Fandral she would forgive him. He watched as Rayeth quietly took the tray away and left the two bottles of spirits. She reach up and opened a drawer in the table, pulled out the two silver bracelets Bruce had given her and toyed with them as she drank. Loki was surprised, he hadn't realized she had stopped wearing them. Fondling them as she downed the bottle in large gulps she let the fire burn away the need to excuse her tears. Her face showed shame, regret and loss as the tears rolling down her cheeks. She went to the chest of her things digging around between swallows. She fiddled drunkenly with her iPod before he heard a song. She danced in the closed room while she drank the first bottle; she was angry. Slamming herself against things intentionally. Her power restoring her and she cried in frustration doubling her efforts.

She emptied the bottle and threw it in the fire. She wandered into the wardrobe and came out with the dress she'd danced with him in. She held it to herself as she drank from the second bottle. Suddenly she put the bottle down carefully and went back in the wardrobe. She came out wearing the golden gown her hair hanging loose. She pulled the little bracelets out and put them on. She picked a song and grabbed the bottle swaying in front of the mirror. "I think you've had enough my dear." He said stepping out of the shadow of his invisibility. She looked at him and put the bottle down her eyes slightly unfocused. "Will you both haunt me now? I release you Loki." She stumbled against the mirror and jerked away from her reflection. "You need not waste your time with me while I remain in Asgard." He watched her move. Jerking away from anything she bumped into. Her pain etch her face in sorrow he couldn't touch or interrupt.

She swayed and stood still leaving the bottle on the table. She moved into the waltz they had done. As she turned towards him her eyes closed; he stepped into her arms and moved with her. "I'm sorry Loki. I know you're not here but if I am to do this night again I thought I'd say..." she clenched her fist in the fabric of his shirt. "I love you and Bruce with a heart so evenly divided I… My disgrace has cost me one half a heart so newly filled with joy. I am undone." He danced silently with her as she poured her heart out to him. He found that though she was very intelligent she always chose the worst possible reasoning for any behavior directed at her. He lifted her and put her to bed. "You are a foolish woman." He said and kissed her forehead. He crawled into the bed and lay with her curled against his chest shaking. He watched her sleep off the could feel the effects seep into his body. He let the effect relax his turbulent mind and he chuckled. She didn't stir as he turned her and pulled her back against him inhaling the fragrance that was unique to her. He watched and waited; when the nightmares didn't manifest he slept.

When she woke the next morning he was gone. She didn't understand the smell of him on her bed. She went to her chair and sat down. Something was still in the chair and she finally got annoyed at the constant irritant and dug around between the cushions. It was a letter from Loki; he must have placed it there the night he slept beside her. Inside was a single tiny dried bloom. She stared at it for a minute her mind clicking through all the flowers she had seen and when she realized what it was she took a bath and dressed herself quickly. Setting the gown she'd slept in aside with care. She was braiding her hair when Rayeth came in with her breakfast. She ate in a hurry and thanked Rayeth for her patience. She rushed out of the room the letter and bloom still on the table Rayeth shocked stared after her. It was the first thing she'd said in weeks. Without thinking about it Rayeth read the single line.

A gentleman prefers a lady be aware when she is being kissed.

Loki

The single line made her smile and see the prince in a different light. She cleaned the room and put the letter in the drawer with the two simple bracelets. 'Perhaps there was a side to the errant prince that none had considered in a very long time.' She thought as she hummed quietly.