Over the next several weeks, Aislinn remained in the healing rooms. Although her body was miraculously free of any scars, the Allfather was concerned about the health of her mind. She seemed to adjust slowly at first, unaccustomed to the large number of people who bustled through the palace rooms. However, her mind seemed to be surprisingly free of trauma - for one simple reason. She could not remember anything about her ordeal after the golden bonds were placed on her body in the attack that took her parents.

Loki was often in or near the healing rooms at this time, asking about her condition or what was known about her. Unfortunately, the answers were always vague, and sometimes nonexistent. Her history, her injuries and her miraculous recovery remained mysterious. Eventually the Allfather allowed him to attempt to probe her memories in order to learn more about what happened.

It was the first time that he had been so close to her since she had awakened, and he was nervous. He managed with some difficulty to stretch his face into its usual stoic mask, but found that he could not make himself feel completely calm inside. He gestured for Aislinn to lay down, not bringing himself to speak, afraid his words would shake. Aislinn looked at him with a curious expression, almost hurt. Loki wondered if he seemed cold.

She lay down anyway, and Odin came to sit by her side and held her hand as Loki stood at the end of the table and place his hands on either side of Aislinn's head. He could still feel the silkiness of her hair ghosting over his hands from that first day, and had to stifle the urge to touch her.

She seemed uncomfortable, like a prey animal cornered. "Will this hurt?" She asked the Allfather tentatively, "will he see everything?"

Loki cleared this throat and shifted in place. "No," he said, trying to sound detached. "You won't feel anything. And, I will only see what you allow me to see. You must try to guide me to the hole in your memory. Once you do, I should be able to see whatever it is that your mind is blocking out."

"I am sorry to put you through this," said Odin, giving her hand a gentle squeeze, "But we must know who is responsible. Once we know, justice can be done, and both you and Asgard will be the safer for it, I promise you."

Aislinn smiled at him, but Loki thought that it did not quite reach her eyes.

"Lets begin." Loki said abruptly, suddenly anxious to be doing something and avoiding the awkward silence that overcame him whenever he was close to Aislinn. "When I cast the spell, you will feel like you are falling asleep. You need to try to stay in control and remember everything you can before… before you cannot remember anything else." Loki finished awkwardly. He cursed himself inwardly for sounding like a stumbling fool, but Aislinn did not seem to notice.

"O-Okay." She said, stumblingly. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, and Loki found himself staring at her again. He shook himself, and flexed his hands wide, before settling them on either side of Aislinn's head. He called his magic from the ether, and imagined it flowing gently towards Aislinn.

…

Loki found himself standing in the corner of a humble dwelling, with only one large room. For a brief moment, he was disoriented by the sudden change of scene before he remembered that he was in Aislinn's memory.

Many of the objects within the room were of fine Asgardian make, and stuck out in the shabbier setting. Armor and weaponry was prevalent, as well as some small pieces of art. Aislinn was remembering her childhood home. Loki thought disparagingly of her upbringing, and wondered for an instant how a child who had been raised in a shack had ever come to be cared for by the royal family of Asgard.

At first, he was unaware of any motion, when suddenly there was an almighty bash at the door. Three figures materialized in the room, as Aislinn began to remember the attack on her home. The figure closest to him was Aislinn herself, standing mere inches away from him. He barely recognised her at first. She was clad in leather armor from head to toe, and two long, wicked knives were in her grasp. However, that was not the only difference. In her own memory, she was smaller, slighter, and much less attractive. It dawned on him that she must not see herself as others do.

Shaken from his reverie as another almighty bash resounded at the door, Loki looked at the other figures in the room. They were an older Asgardian man and woman, obviously Aislinn's parents. Her mother was as beautiful as her daughter, only more aged. There were some silver strands in her honey blonde hair, and some wrinkles around her eyes and mouth. She was every bit the ideal Asgardian shieldmaiden; blonde, tall, with obvious strength and grace, she bore a shield imprinted with the arms of a noble house of Asgard, and held a short sword loosely in her hand, ready for anything.

The father figure was another matter altogether. He was tall and imposing, but his resemblance to the average Asgardian male ended there. He was not muscle bound at all, even more slight of build than Loki himself. His hair was an untidy shock of wavy red hair that stood out in every direction, and his deep set eyes were the deep blue he had passed on to his daughter. He carried no weapon of any kind, and instead stood behind his wife, as though afraid. Loki began to think some unkind thoughts about him, when the figure took a deep breath and relaxed his face of the fear that had been marked there.

Loki recognised the concentration of a sorcerer before the blue flames erupted from the man's hands as he readied a combat spell. Another crash against the barred door caused the wood to groan, and sent a shower of splinters and dust into the room. It would fall at the next impact. Loki watched in sudden wonder as Aislinn murmured something below her breath, and her long knives erupted into fire even as her father's hands had.

So, you are a caster after all, Aislinn. Loki thought.

With a last crash, the door gave way and chaos swept into the room in the form of strange soldiers. They were alien to Loki, unlike any inhabitant of the nine realms he had ever seen before; strange things between insects and men. They swarmed through the door, and were cut down by steel or flame or both by the dozens. Strange green blood dripped down Aislinn's knives as she whirled about in combat before his gaze, her expression full of terror.

The beasts seemed to care little for their lives, as they packed into the small home, smashing apart anything they could reach, widening the field of combat. Eventually the three figures were overwhelmed in the press of the interlopers. The older woman's shield was torn from her grasp, and she was pulled down screaming her daughter's name, and Aislinn wailed back from the other side of the room, unable to move towards her mother as she battled five of the monsters alone.

Aislinn let out a sob, and suddenly the whole scene changed again. Loki was now standing atop a lovely green hill. It looked over a valley, where a stream could be seen running like a sparkling ribbon over the countryside. Overhead, the branches of a tree stretched wide and provided shade from the summer sun. A blanket was laid out on the grass at his feet, and stretched out on it were two figures.

The woman he recognised as Aislinn's mother faced him, younger and more beautiful than before. She held in her arms a small child, with long and unruly red hair. They were looking out over the view, and the woman was telling the child a story about Asgard. She described the beautiful golden city, and the wonderful people and wise king. As she spoke, the woman took off her necklace and threw it over her daughter's head. The child squealed in joy and wriggled about to look at the necklace better.

Her mind is protecting itself, Loki thought. She does not want to remember her mother's death. He knelt by the blanket, and turned the child over to face him. The mother seemed unfazed, and simply stared off dreamily at the horizon.

"Aislinn?"

She tried to hide her tiny face from him, but Loki caught her chin and turned her to face him.

"I know this is frightening and painful" he said, "and we can stop if you want," he added hastily, "but we should know what happened to your memories. Try to focus?"

She hid her tiny porcelain face with grubby hands, as though she would succeed in blocking him out. He reached down and grasped her shoulders and shook her gently. Her hands fell from her face, and a single tear rolled down her baby-faced cheek.

Suddenly, Loki found himself looking into her adult face as she continued to cry. She looked bizarrely detached now, as though facing the inevitable. She looks like a prisoner going to the block, Loki thought idley. The room formed around them again suddenly, like an eclipse from the sunlight of her happy memory.

The melee began all over again, but this time the sad march of Aislinn's memory did not stop. Her mother was dragged down by the beasts once again, and her father filled most of the house with great sheets of magical flame. Beasts dropped left and right by the dozens, but when he knelt to check on his wife, he was brutally stabbed from behind by a monster he had not seen. He fell forward over the body of his dying wife, spilling blood at her feet.

Aislinn let out an otherworldly shriek, and began tearing at the monsters that surrounded her with a new fury. She was spattered in their green ichor before they wrested first one, and then another knife from her. She did not stop fighting, in the end it took five of them to restrain her, each to a limb and another with her head in a lock. A larger specimen then came through the door, wearing armor and a robe. It carried in its hand the heavy golden torque Loki had seen around Aislinn's neck while she was hurt, only now in two pieces.

She thrashed and bucked like a wild thing as he approached, brandishing the two halves of gold. He placed one on either side of her neck, and brought them together with a snap.

No sooner than he had done so than Aislinn's memory went completely blank. Loki was floating in a void without any sensory information at all, and Aislinn just seemed to be gone. He was not standing on anything, but he was not falling either. He was suspended in nothingness, and began to panic.

...

He released the spell with a gasp and was once more in the healing rooms. Aislinn looked up at him, somehow both expectant and afraid.

Loki didn't know that he was breathing heavily, gasping for air like he had been running for his life until he tried to speak. He choked out, "Nothing!" and then had to pace back and forth taking deep breaths to calm himself.

Odin looked shocked and confused, asking Aislinn if she could remember anything.

"I can't remember anything new." Aislinn said. "I remember him watching the memories again with me, though."

"There were no memories to find." Loki said at last. "Whatever magic took her captive saw to that. It was just a great… emptiness." He shivered.

"Rest now, child." Odin patted her shoulder and then turned to gesture for Loki to follow him. He did, expecting to be shouted at for his failure.

As soon as they exited the room, Odin turned to his younger son. "I want to thank you, for helping her." He said. "I realize she would have died but for you. And, I realize that you do not have to continue trying to aid her in her struggle to put her life back together. I've been proud of you, these last days."

Loki, having no idea what to say, simply bowed his head, although his eyes constantly scanned his father's face, trying to determine if he was being genuine.

Odin turned and began to walk away, leaning on his scepter. He looked back at Loki over his shoulder and said, "I expect you to take dinner with your family tonight, my son." He turned away and began to walk down the hall again as he said, "It has been too long."