A piece of him was left there below the heart of the darkness of salt and water.
It made no sense.
But then, he didn't want sense any longer.
He was so tired. So very tired of being so angry, so bitter, so lost in his mind and anger. And he stood on the terrace outside of the great dining hall, and he was breathing.
Breathing, because that was all that he had now.
He was back from his death, from his punishment, from his forgiveness, and he was now quite broken.
What would be a tenable opiate to his malady of a shattered soul?
He walked a bit through the garden…it was morning…and he had not slept since his release three days previous. So much he had let go of in recent months, he felt discontinuous..vapid… ether…air…was he even solid? A man? A Frost Giant? (he seethed)
Loki Laufeyson picked a small orange blossom from an obliging shrub. He twirled it between his fingers, and relished the solidity of the thing.
Hold on to this thing…it's real.
Real…
"Loki?"
He turned.
Jane Foster.
Thor's woman.
She began to approach him…"How are you feeling?"
His eyes squinted at her. "Why do you care, Jane Foster of Midgard?"
"Well…because you were only recently released from your cell, and because Thor said that you were different…changed…"
"Did he now?" and contempt dripped from his tongue.
"Yeah. He did," and she stopped in front of him and folded her arms defiantly.
Loki's face fell. He loathed his ire, and required a soft spring of something to subdue it. He turned from the mortal. "Well, Thor overstates my…metamorphosis."
"Maybe, but…" she cleared her throat. "Maybe I understand a bit more than you think I do."
His back remained stubbornly toward her. "Understand? What can you understand?"
"I understand that life doesn't always go to plan. I understand that people change. I understand that the universe, while predictable about some things, is simultaneously entropic, and It is never too late to be what you might have been."
"What might I have been?" and at this, he turned toward her.
"Well," and she smiled. "I heard once that you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Maybe the opposite holds true…maybe you can either die a villain, or live long enough to become a hero."
Loki laughed. "You think that I am a hero? You are naive."
"No…not yet, " and she began to walk away. "But I also believe in the beauty of possibility, and from this day forward, I'll have my eye on you, Loki."
Jane left him there in the garden…
…and he thought about how he had entered the place that morning utterly alone, but would leave it now having found a kin…