Silver and Scales
Chapter Thirty-One: Troubled Minds
Vyperia left the Observatory to enter the castle, still shivering from Jotunheim's endless strain of cold and ice. An hour longer or perhaps less than that would have frozen her solid if Loki hadn't pulled her out of the snowy Realm in time. She was numb, not from the chill winds that had nipped at her neck and hands (even through the abundant warmth that the leather provided), but how readily she had come to speak so strongly toward the Jotun King. Vyperia had always felt some little compassion for the Frost Giants; though she assumed that they believed that she was a monster created in Asgard—that they wouldn't openly accept the sadness and empathy that she held for them.
Laufey believed that Loki offered full redemption for Jotunheim; yet she knew that her husband's true intentions were quite the opposite. He would have all of the Jotuns believe that there was a simple respect between their two Realms only to smoke it out with a petty bargain. Vyperia's stomach churned at Heimdall's words, for it was visible to her that the Gatekeeper of Asgard could see right through Loki's noble intentions. She anticipated the actions of Heimdall with anxiety, wondering if he would commit mutiny among the citizens of her Realm.
Heimdall and the Warriors Three and Lady Sif could see that Loki was not to be trusted. Vyperia's fingers wrung tightly in her grasp. The throne was slowly slipping from Loki, although he was certain that it couldn't be done.
Not just from him, Vyperia thought with uneasiness, from me too.
After being queen for only a short time, Vyperia did not see it possible to hand it over to Frigga once Odin awakened. Her situation was conditional upon Odin's life and perhaps even Thor's. She spoke true in Jotunheim. She had no intention of handing the crown back to its original owner.
It must be done in order to keep everything as it is, as it should be, Vyperia thought dutifully. The Warriors Three will surely find a way…
Vyperia had told Loki that she would join him after speaking to Heimdall, but now she broke that little promise and wandered into the gardens for some peace and quiet to think. The psychic link could work between she and Loki; and she wondered, with this new power, would she be able to hear the other minds of those who surrounded her?
It's like burrowing a tunnel, Vyperia's mind raced as she entered the quiet gardens. Find them, track them…
She sat crisscrossed under the flowing vines and branches of the friendly Willow tree. She closed her eyes and twiddled her thumbs, thinking and concentrating.
Voices echoed from far off distances, ever changing and blended together in a confused mixture of laughter, crying, singing, and boisterous arguments. The latter was Asgard on the brink of war, teetering between optimism and hopeless regret. Vyperia's eyes tightened as several men and women whooped and cheered—the sound changed to a wife and child screaming at one another in the quarrel of love and self-preservation.
Then the voices in her head slowly mellowed, and she recognized the words of an irritated Fandral…
"Our dearest friend banished, Loki on the throne, Asgard on the brink of war, yet you manage to consume four wild boar, six pheasant, a side of beef, and two casks of ale. Shame on you! Don't you care?"
"Do not mistake my appetite for apathy!" Volstagg's voice roared.
"Stop it."
Sif was among them.
"Both of you! We all know what we have to do; we're just too damned afraid to do it."
"We must go," Hogun's grim voice spoke decisively, "We must find Thor."
"It's treason, Hogun," Fandral warned him. "If Loki doesn't punish us, his precious queen will."
"To hell with treason, Fandral, it's suicide!" Volstagg blurted out incredulously.
A long pause left them with nothing to say.
"Perhaps we could persuade Vyperia to let us find Thor," Sif contemplated aloud with the calmest of tones. "She's the voice of reason out of all of us."
"She was," Hogun emphasized gravely, "until her, too, was put above us."
"Vyperia is a goddess like me; she must seek out to carry out her duties."
"That's wishful thinking, my dear lady," Fandral rebutted. "But even her morals are blinded and scattered; she obeys Loki, and Loki alone. You saw how she was in front of him—you've seen how she has acted in the past. He has her under her spell."
"His magic is not performed upon her," Sif retorted gently.
"I'm not talking about magic," Fandral returned meaningfully. "You want us to come to her in the afternoon and request her to send us to Midgard to search for Thor? His return would mean taking away her place as Queen. She would certainly, too, be exiled for treason."
"Why treason?" asked Volstagg curiously. "She's merely performed the duties that Loki has asked her to do. Scales has always been reluctant to break the rules."
"No more reluctant than Thor," Fandral remarked. "Vyperia's duties as the Guardianship Goddess were dropped when she went with us into Jotunheim. Those Frost Giants that died by her hand were supposed to be protected, and they weren't. She's failed. When Odin wakes, he will exile her for dropping her duties as a goddess."
"I think that we could persuade her, still," Sif muttered. "She's our dear friend; and she loved Thor just as much as we do. Vyperia has been our friend for years, my companions; should she leave us behind for a king who would probably set her aside when all is done?"
"You don't see how Loki looks at her then," Fandral told Sif. "You see friends and mere lovers; they are something stronger than that. They share a bond, a bond so strong that we—mere friends—cannot break. She would run to Loki the moment we mentioned going to search for Thor."
Sif emitted a small sigh of exasperation,
"Thor would do the same thing for us."
That indicated a longer pause.
"What are we planning to do, my dearest friends?" Volstagg's voice stated sharply.
Vyperia withdrew from the conversation. When she opened her eyes, she felt the worst of the migraines that she had ever experienced. The silence in the garden made her ears ring. She woozily rose to her feet, feeling as if she had ran all the way from the healing room to where she swayed on the spot in five seconds flat.
Yet she remembered what the Warriors Three had said, and she buckled down on what strength she could muster and headed toward the castle.
Upon entering, the castle guard, one of the Einherjar staff, straightened upon seeing her and saluted his queen as she approached him. Vyperia looked at the dark eyes of the man and smiled at him shortly.
"Guard, where is Loki?"
"His Highness surveys his kingdom up yonder the palace grounds, My Lady," answered the palace guard courteously.
"He waits for me?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Excellent." Vyperia patted his armored shoulder. "At ease, Captain."
"Yes, Ma'am," he returned; he relaxed slightly.
Vyperia strode pass him.
The location in question was a balcony that extended from the throne room. Vyperia strode through the castle's corridors, passing several hand servants and linen maidens as she did so; they bowed to her as she approached them and stayed knelt to the floor until she was out of hind sight.
The guards who patrolled the hallways stood erect against the wall, allowing her to pass before they resumed the evening watch. Their greeting to her was a chorus of exemplary addresses: "Your Highness", "Your Majesty", "My Queen", and "My Lady".
Vyperia smirked as the last guard bowed his head to her as she turned a corner.
Oh, no. She couldn't give this back.
Vyperia approached the open doors of the balcony. Before her, she recognized Loki—his back turned to her—as he stood inches away from the banister. Loki stood with Gungnir in his hand, gazing out in the distance to admire what was finally his. Vyperia stepped toward him.
"My liege appears to be pleased with thee," volunteered Vyperia with a wide, cocky smile on her face.
Upon hearing her voice, Loki's head turned slightly in the direction of its source.
"You stayed behind," he told her. "Why?"
"Heimdall isn't pleased with how I treat my place as Queen," admitted Vyperia as she stepped up beside him. "It matters not."
"Doesn't it?" said Loki darkly.
She looked at him, a bit perplexed by his tone.
"What exactly did you say to him?" asked Loki, looking at her.
"He questions the oath that I took with the All-Father as a goddess. He questions my loyalties and my duties. He questions me. I said nothing about Laufey," relayed Vyperia sincerely. "Your business with the Jotuns is your own. I merely support your efforts."
"Mm." Loki's answer was vague, merely affirming what she said. "Is that a reassurance to me or you?"
"I admit that I grow wary as this situation begins to progress, Darling." Vyperia confessed. "Our world hangs in the balance of resistance."
"Resistance? Thor is not part of the problem."
"I'm afraid that you will find that you're wrong…" Vyperia inserted politely.
Loki's gaze concentrated as she said this line.
"What do you know, pet?"
"I know that there are traitors in your midst," Vyperia said wearily.
"Who?"
"Who do you think, Loki?"
He absorbed her words with little patience.
Just as he was about to speak, one of the Einherjar guards quickly approached the two of them from behind, out of breath. Vyperia and Loki turned simultaneously to meet the wheezing soldier.
"Your…Your Majesties," the guard panted. "The Warriors Three and the Lady Sif have gone missing."
Loki sighed with obvious irritation; he glanced at Vyperia who gave him a knowing look. Loki reacted. He strode pass the guard, who was doubled forward. Vyperia patted his back as she passed him.
"Good work, lad."
"Thank you, My Lady," he wheezed.
Vyperia raced after Loki, whose walk had enveloped into a purposeful strut.
"If it isn't one thing," said Loki, agitated, "it's another."
"No one ever said that this was going to be easy, Darling."
"I never did; but the matter is under my control. I'll be damned if my throne is taken from me because an Asgardian rogue decides to have a little courage from years of doing as he was told."
Vyperia and Loki approached Heimdall on the Rainbow Bridge. Heimdall had abandoned his place at his controls; instead he stood in front of the Observatory with his sword grasped tightly in his hands. Heimdall looked upon the two rulers of Asgard in dislike; he had abandoned the strongest of efforts to remain clandestine, and now his grown detest for them was out in the open.
"Tell me, Loki, how did you get the Jotuns into Asgard?"
"Do you think that the Bifrost is the only way in and out of the Realm?" Loki challenged him. "There are secret paths between worlds to which even you with all your gifts are blind. But I have need of them no longer, now that I am King."
Heimdall looked upon Loki with disgruntled distaste.
"And I say," Loki said decisively, "for your act of treason, you are relieved of your duties as Gatekeeper; and you are no longer a citizen of Asgard."
"Then," Heimdall said slowly, his fingers tight around the handle of his weapon, "I need no longer obey you."
Heimdall raised his massive sword, and strode forward to attack Loki and Vyperia. Vyperia flinched as the sword came forth—Loki pushed her aside—and he reached out with both hands, took hold of a glowing artifact within his arms and held it out in front of him. Vyperia fell to the floor of the bridge and looked up to see Loki holding the Tesseract in his arms, conjured from mid-air.
The Casket of Ancient Winters opened and a burst of frost, ice, and snow burst from the canister. Heimdall's swipe of his Greatsword came toward Loki—the fury of the Casket unleashed as the winds of Jotunheim screamed and flew straight toward Heimdall. Ice readily clung to his golden armor, freezing him. The blade slowly stopped in front of Loki's blue face; his red eyes glared back at Heimdall's still yellow pair. Loki took one step back.
Vyperia gazed up at Loki, who stood in his Jotun form, dark blue with beautiful markings upon his body. He lowered his gaze to meet her eyes. She was awe-struck; an open smile was upon her pretty face. Fascinated worship was there. Loki took the Casket and waved his hands around it.
Where howling winters had screamed from his blue hands now was nothing; and his skin color paled, returning his Jotun appearance to the one that belonged to the king of Asgard. Loki bent forward and grabbed Vyperia's hand; he helped her to her feet.
She merely stared at her, breathless.
When she could say nothing, Loki took Gungnir in his hand and entered the Observatory. Vyperia followed him, numb and shell-shocked. Loki wordlessly inserted Gungnir into the Observatory's control panel and opened the Bifrost. The same spasm of color opened and light poured into the star-lit room. Vyperia watched a large, towering robot break the smooth patterns of light. The Destroyer appeared before Loki; a fiery glow rose from within its helmet where the presence of a head should have been. It turned its absent skull toward its king.
"Find my brother. Find his friends. Ensure that he does not return. Kill them if you must."
The Destroyer bowed and turned on its heel. It re-entered the portal and disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. Loki gripped Gungnir in his hands and pulled it out from the mechanism. He turned to look at Vyperia.
She could say nothing to him. He smiled.
"Come, pet," he told her as he took her hand. "We'll be late for supper."
She nodded silently, spell-bound, and he led her out of the Observatory.