The six looked around. Jotunheim appeared as a dead realm. Nothing moved, exhibited any signs of life. Not even the wind howled.
"We should not be here," Hogun muttered.
"Let's move," Thor murmured.
Loki, however, could see the shadows lurking in the darkness. They stood still, observing the Aesir trespassers. He found himself uneager to follow orders. Far to their left, a monumental column of ice slid down the side of a mountain. It made a great racket. Still nothing living stirred. Ice crackled all around them. It grated on their nerves.
"Where are they?" Sif wondered.
"Hiding," Thor answered. "As cowards always do."
Loki could not help but feel that jab was meant for him.
"You have come a long way to die, Asgardians," a voice hissed. It reminded the Aesir of bone shards grating against themselves.
Thor searched for the source of the voice. "I am Thor Odinson!" he voiced.
"We know who you are," the voice smiled.
"How did your people get into Asgard?" the mighty prince bellowed.
Laufey turned his head. In the faint reflection of the ice, his red eyes gleamed in the darkness. "The house of Odin is full of traitors," he chuckled.
This riled Thor. "Do not dishonor my father's name with your lies!"
Laufey stood, snarling. "Your father is a murderer and a thief!" He towered over the Aesir warriors. Loki watched him carefully, feeling himself shrink back. The others did the same – all but the foolhardy Thor. The Jotun King smirked. "And why have you come here? To make peace? You long for battle. You crave it. You are nothing but a boy trying to prove himself a man."
At Laufey's unspoken word, foot soldiers encircled them. The six held their ground, although some were a bit more unwilling than others.
"Well, this 'boy' has grown tired of your mockery," Thor countered.
The foot soldiers hardened their limbs with ice, eager to see who could strike down the hotheaded fool.
"Thor, stop and think," Loki whispered in his brother's ear. "Look around you, we are outnumbered."
"Know your place, brother," Thor snapped.
Laufey watched the princes curiously. "You know not what your actions would unleash. I do. Go now, while I still allow it." A warrior, a third the size of his king, stepped down from the broken throne. With each step, some of the Aesir felt smaller and smaller.
"We will accept your most gracious offer," Loki bowed. He did not care how his brother seethed.
Thor glared at Laufey; the king narrowed his eyes.
"Come on, brother," Loki murmured.
Thor turned on his heel with a hiss. "Run back home, little princess," the warrior jeered.
"Damn," Loki said flatly. Thor grinned. The others shook their heads. The warrior met Mjølnir and was sent flying into the base of Laufey's throne.
"Next?" Thor asked cheerfully. At once, the Aesir warriors were stormed. Frost Giants threw themselves upon the trespassers; it was hard to keep up. Everything happened so quickly. While the others engaged in close combat, Loki found it difficult to pull away from the thick of the battle. He was a mid-range fighter. Long-range if he was lucky. His daggers could only be thrown so far. Even with his deadly accuracy, it was hard to keep the Jotuns at bay.
Laufey stood, overlooking the destruction.
"At least make it a challenge for me!" Thor taunted.
"Are you mad?" Fandral called out.
Thor did not hear him. Laufey summoned more of his beastly warriors. They roared as they jumped into the fray. Thor mocked. He faced off against one giant with a particularly hard head; the beast sent him flying with a headbutt. Thor righted himself. "That's more like it," he nodded, amused. He threw Mjølnir; it smashed through the Frost Giant's head.
A beast roared as it charged for the raven haired prince. Loki looked behind him. All that fighting to break away pushed him close to the edge of the landing. He faced the Jotun as it barreled toward him; smiled as he vanished into a cloud of golden smoke. The Jotun tumbled down. Loki stepped out from behind a boulder, retrieved one of his doppelgängers, and sought higher ground.
"Don't let them touch you!" Volstaag warned.
Loki was too busy to ask why; he stabbed a Jotun in the gut with his knife. The daggers had been lost in the fight. The Jotun grabbed Loki by the arm as it collapsed to the ground. His armor pieces crumbled away. Loki expected to feel icy pain shoot through his arm. Instead, his limb turned blue like a Jotun. Was this Volstaag's fate as well? Loki's opponent looked up in wary confusion. It seemed this was not normal. The raven haired prince wasted no time in finishing it off. He drew his attention back to his arm. It faded back into white Aesir flesh. What was happening to him?
Behind him, Fandral shouted in pain. A Jotun's magic stabbed him through the heart. Loki threw his knife into the beast's neck. He was weaponless.
"Thor!" Sif called. Thor did not turn.
"We must go!" Loki bellowed.
"Then go!" the golden haired prince replied. He threw Mjølnir; it blasted its way through eight Frost Giants.
The Jotun King grinned to see the Aesir beg their crown prince to return home. Laufey awoke an Ice Beast.
"Run!" Volstaag cried.
"Thor!" Loki shouted. Thor refused to follow. As the Ice Beast galloped toward the retreating Aesir warriors, Loki pulled down a pillar with his magic. It slowed the Beast but did not stop it. A wave of Thor's lightning ripped through the ledge. The Ice Beast fell. They could feel it running underneath them; the ledge was hollow.
"Heimdall!" Volstaag roared, "Open the bridge!"
But the bridge did not open. The Ice Beast's clawed hand gripped the ledge as it pulled itself up. It roared an ugly roar. The Aesir warriors uttered their final prayers. The Beast opened its mouth, readied to lunge, stumbled back. Thor came crashing through the back of its throat. It was all the same; he would have smashed through its teeth, too. The Beast fell dead, showing off its hideously gaping hole before it slid off the ledge. Thor turned, grinning. He was met with an entire Jotun army standing ready to take him down. They stormed; a bolt of light stopped them. Odin came down in his battle armor, Slepnir rearing back.
"Father!" Thor shouted happily, "We'll finish them together!"
"Silence!" Odin hissed.
Thor froze; Loki looked up in shock. Despite the near-fatal experience, the raven haired prince was relieved Odin now saw the dangers of crowning Thor.
Laufey came close to the Aesir king. "All-Father," he nodded. His polite greeting did not fit with his condescending smile. "You look weary," he noted.
"Laufey, end this now," Odin said.
"Your boy sought this out," he challenged.
"You are right." Odin paused. "And these are the actions of a boy. Treat them as such. You and I can end this here and now, before there is further bloodshed."
Laufey's grin darkened. "We are beyond diplomacy now, All-Father. He will get what he came for: war and death."
Odin nodded. "So be it."
The Jotun King readied to stab Odin; the All-Father blew him back with a wave of magic, summoned the six trespassers, and retreated to Asgard.
"Why did you bring us back?" Thor growled.
"Do you realize what you have done? What you have started?" Odin snarled.
"I was protecting my home."
"You cannot even protect your friends! How could you hope to protect a kingdom?" He turned to Volstaag. "Get him to the healing room. Now!"
Sif and the Warriors Three practically ran out of the observatory. They did not want to be around the royal family now.
"There won't be a kingdom to protect if you are afraid to act," Thor retorted. "The Jotuns must learn to fear me, just as they once feared you."
Loki took a deep breath and straightened his back. Once again, he wished to blend into the background. The deed was done. Odin now knew how terrible a king Thor would have been. The raven haired prince kept a somber expression. He did not feel somber in the slightest. Despite somehow earning the nickname "God of Lies", he really only wished to seek out the truth. Now Odin had it.
"That is pride and vanity talking, not leadership. You've forgotten everything I taught you about a warrior's patience."
"While you wait and be patient, the nine realms laugh at us. The old ways are done. You'd stand giving speeches while Asgard falls!" Thor accused.
Odin had enough. "YOU ARE A VAIN, GREEDY, CRUEL BOY!"
"AND YOU ARE AN OLD MAN AND A FOOL!"
Silence.
Odin lowered his head.
"Yes," he whispered. "I was a fool to think you were ready."
Loki stepped forth. All possible outcomes now led to an awful course. "Father," he tried. Odin silenced him with an animalistic snarl. Loki stepped back, swallowed down the smile that threatened to break. Thor was in for serious punishment. Perhaps he faced the birdcage as well?
"Thor Odinson, you have betrayed the express command of your king. Through your arrogance and stupidity, you have opened these peaceful realms and innocent lives to the horror and desolation of war!" Odin dropped his spear into the control panel of the Bifrost.
Thor stared in disbelief.
"You are unworthy of these realms!" Odin clawed out the silver disks that graced Thor's armor.
"You are unworthy of your title!" Odin ripped away Thor's cape.
"You are unworthy of the loved ones you have betrayed."
Thor looked as if he was going to be sick. Loki looked between them. Surely Odin did not mean to start up the Bifrost again?
Odin backed away from his son.
"I now take from you your power!"
Mjølnir was summoned into Odin's hand.
"In the name of my father, and his father before!"
Thor's armor fell away.
"I, Odin All-Father, cast you out!"
A bolt of electricity crashed into Thor's chest, sent him away through the Bifrost. Loki stared at his father in shock. Banishment? Loki shook his head slowly. How could Odin cast the star child of the family away for this? Thor was not ready for the throne, but banishment was an unfathomable punishment to his petty crimes of narcissism. Loki turned away and went to the edge of the gate, trying to see where his brother was sent off to. Another flower of hate for the All-Father blossomed in Loki's heart, nestled between all the others.
Odin put the appropriated weapon to his lips. "Whosoever holds this hammer," he whispered, "if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." And with that, Mjølnir was banished as well.
Odin closed the Bifrost. He left without so much as a word to Loki.
'Perhaps it's too early for me to take his place,' Loki thought briefly.
҉
Frigga discovered through Heimdall many hours later the fate of her elder son. She stormed through the palace in search of her husband. Finally she found him on the balcony of his private bathing chambers.
"How could you have done this?" Frigga asked reproachfully.
"Do you understand what he has set in motion?" Odin retorted, turning to face her. "He has taken us to the brink of war!"
"But banishment?" the queen cried out. "You would lose him forever?"
Odin did not reply.
"He is your son!" Frigga's voice could not control her pain.
"What would you have done?" Odin murmured.
"I would not have exiled him to a world of mortals, stripped of his powers, to suffer alone! I would not have had the heart."
"That is why I am King," Odin responded.
Frigga felt the anger swell in her like a dying star. The pain. The betrayal.
"I, too, grieve the loss of our son!" the All-Father assured her angrily. "But there are some things even I cannot undo."
"You can bring him back," Frigga pleaded.
"NO," he shouted. How many times would he have to say it? "His fate is in his own hands now."
Odin left. Frigga waited until he was several rooms away before she let out her frustration. Her screams of agony, of longing, of loss. They echoed out over the balcony, out over the air, out over the tops of every building. It sent shudders down the spines of every commoner below. Even Frigga knew, that, unless by some miracle Thor corrected his ways, she would lose another son forever. "Both children of my blood are dead now," she whispered ruefully.
'There is still hope,' she promised herself. 'There is always hope.'
Frigga dried her eyes and sought out Loki.
The raven haired prince stared after his mother in confusion. What did she mean, both children of her blood? Loki halted his astral wandering, returning his full attention back to his own body. The raven haired prince stood a distance away from Thor's friends. They muttered about Thor's banishment. Loki swallowed hard, stared at his palm. It still remained its normal fleshy white.
"How did the guard even know?" Volstaag asked.
"I told him," Loki announced flatly, turning to the four.
"What?"
Loki lowered his gaze. "I told him to go to Odin after we'd left. He should be flogged for taking so long." It was difficult to act somber over a matter he did not care about; he struggled to keep terrible thoughts from brewing in his mind. Surely, he was jumping to the wrong conclusion. "We should never have reached Jotunheim."
"You told the guard?" Volstaag roared.
"I saved our lives," Loki responded quietly. "And Thor's. I had no idea Father would banish him for what he did." That much was certainly true, at least.
Sif stood quickly. "Loki," she pleaded. This was unlike her, below her. Loki watched her curiously. "You must go to the All-Father and convince him to change his mind."
"And if I do, then what?" Loki asked. He could not do it, anyway. Odin would not listen to his own wife. "I love Thor more dearly than any of you, but you know what he is. He is arrogant. He is reckless. He is dangerous. You saw how he was today."
The four could not deny Loki was right.
"Is that what Asgard needs from its king?" Loki stormed away.
Sif took a few steps to follow him, but stopped herself. She bit the inside of her cheek. "He may speak of the good of Asgard, but he has always been jealous of Thor," she whispered. How many tales had the two brothers poured into her? She could see through their words as well as Frigga.
It ate at his mind much quicker than any other strange words Loki had come across. Was there something else he did not know? Loki felt that if he was not answered, he would go mad immediately. He practically ran to the weapons vault. The place where all trouble started. Here, the dangerous treasures sat on posts. The Casket of Ancient Winters glimmered at the end of the narrow hall. Loki approached it. What was he doing? He needed to know. There were too many strange coincidences now. A strange apprehension gripped him. He had to console it. Had to rid himself of it. This was the only way.
He picked up the Casket.
Loki's mind reeled with questions, with pleas; every gear of his brain jammed as he held the awful weapon. His fingers turned blue. Jotun blue.
"Stop!" Odin bellowed from the vault's staircase.
Ah, that wretched voice. "Am I cursed?" Loki asked.
"No?" Odin answered.
Loki smiled briefly, in spite of himself. In spite of the dread that gripped him. 'Why did your answer sound like a question?'
He set the Casket down. His vision swam. His breath came in short gasps. "What am I?"
"You are my son."
Loki turned. The buds of hate bloomed rapidly. He turned and faced the All-Father. His skin, though unscarred by Jotun traditions, was as cold and blue as any of them. "What more than that?" Loki hissed.
Odin did not reply.
Loki strode toward him. The anger was tangible, floated around him like a thick veil. Everything made sense. This was the second time in two years he had come to meet another horrible truth.
''Only one of you can ascend to the throne, but you were both born to be kings.''
'It was never to be me on Asgard's throne.'
''You'll not take him from me! You, who cast him like a stone!''
'They cast me out.'
''I have never once left you to fend for yourself, to die in the cold!''
'You should have.'
''I want a baby. It does not have to be yours.''
'It was mine. It was blue. I fathered a Jotun and was too stupid to see it.'
''He stole a child. A child left for Death, small and unable to carry on the Jotun name. I wonder how that child, left in the ice to die easily, without pain, was tortured and murdered. The Aesir King likely ruined it for the sake of his own stress relief.''
'Yes. He ruined it. Ruined me.'
"The Casket wasn't the only thing you took from Jotunheim that day, was it?"
Odin could not deny him now. "No," he admitted. "In the aftermath of the battle, I went into the temple and found a baby."
'Left to die in a place of worship.'
"Small for a giant's offspring. Abandoned, suffering, left to die. Laufey's son."
"Laufey's son," Loki repeated. It was not just any baby. It was the heir to the throne that they left for Death. He was the heir of Jotunheim. He swallowed, looked up at Odin.
"Yes," Odin whispered.
"Why?" Loki asked. His fear surged. His panic. He could not contain himself now. Centuries of learning control, learning how to cast aside these feeble emotions, did nothing. "You were knee-deep in Jotun blood, why would you take me?"
"You were an innocent child."
"No. You took me for a purpose. What was it?"
Odin did not reply.
"TELL ME!" Loki screamed.
"I thought we could unite our kingdoms one day. Bring about an alliance, bring about permanent peace." Odin did not withhold the truth. "Through you."
"What?" Loki could not fathom it – his whole existence was nothing more than an alliance.
"But those plans no longer matter."
"So I am no more than another stolen relic, locked up here until you might have use of me?" Venom flooded his words, his eyes, his heart, his limbs, his mind.
"Why do you twist my words?" Odin frowned.
Loki did not twist words. He merely tore away the ones that aided those in the wrong. "You could have told me what I was from the beginning, why didn't you?"
"You are my son." Odin masked himself in stoicism. It did not matter that Loki could see through it. "I wanted only to protect you from the truth." In another time, Loki could have laughed.
"Because I'm the monster parents tell their children about at night?" he stammered out.
"No, no," Odin wheezed. He fell back onto the staircase. The prince was too blinded by his own rage to see Odin reach out to him.
"You know, it all makes sense now! Why you favored Thor all these years! Because no matter how much you claim to love me, you could never have a Frost Giant sitting on the throne of Asgard!"
Odin's hand dropped. Loki came to his senses enough to see that something was incredibly wrong. He crouched beside the King, waved a hand over his face. This was the Odinsleep, was it not? He never did this unless he quarantined himself to his chambers. Slowly, slowly, Loki reached for Odin's hand. It was cold. Or, was it his own hand that was cold?
"Guards!" Loki shouted. "Guards, please, help!"
That night, Frigga passed the title of King to Loki. There were no ceremonies, no flowers, no feasts. The mother and ill-begotten son sat on either side of Odin's bed. Loki struggled to hold a conversation with her, but his vision was blue and spotty around the edges. They talked of Odin's lies, of Thor's return. Loki stood to leave. If Thor came back, how would he face this new knowledge? He would likely destroy Loki, take him somewhere remote and murder him as mercilessly as he had done to all the others. Maybe Thor would take him to Jotunheim and leave him there to be mocked and tortured by the Jotuns. Let them make fun of the runt prince they tossed out.
But as he reached the door, guards barred his way. For a moment, the raven haired prince felt a cold dread grip his bones. They were going to take him away. But they made no move to do so and a balding elder bowed before him with Gungir. Odin's staff. Loki turned to face his mother.
"Thor is banished. The line of succession falls to you, until Odin awakens. Asgard is yours." She nodded to him. Loki took the staff in his clammy palms. He swallowed hard. It was only his because there was no one left to turn to, now. Only the direst of circumstances leaned toward his favor.
In a rush, Loki tumbled over his words. He told Frigga what happened. He told her how Odin collapsed, how they fought, how he touched the Casket, how the Jotun touched his arm. He did not tell her he eavesdropped. He did not have the heart. She held him for as long as he would allow. She assured him he was still her son. Loki was too tired to argue with her. He did not hate Frigga. He only found it useless that she would still call him her son. Loki left her at her husband's side and sought out his brother.
He was terrified by what he saw.
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