He jolted awake.
"Odin!"
Alive with energy that coursed through his every vein, Odin brushed her away. He donned his armor and he demanded his horse.
His mind did not move. It was still, glutted with all he understood, though he could touch none of it. In time it would crash around him like the letting loose of a great dam and it would be better should he not do any great thing until that time.
But the Norns had not granted him time. By his folly he had not the luxury.
He rode to the end of BiFrost, shattered by the actions of his boys and he just managed to catch Thor as he fell. Bolstered by his sleep, the halt of their fall and their joined weight did not drag his arm from its socket, nor did it draw him after them into the Void.
The scream of BiFrost slipped silverly away into the unknownable depths of the Void below.
Loki's eyes met his, searching. "I could have done it, Father," he called. "I could have done it! For you," he pled, "For all of us."
The world shattered before Odin's eyes. He saw what was, what had been. And he understood.
And he knew he had no ability to save his boy.
He was too near the source to alter what had passed.
Loki begged for understanding, for acceptance, but the poison ran deep. And only Loki had the ability to draw it out. Aiding him in that would kill him.
Should it draw Loki's hate for the remainder of his life, Odin would not be his death.
"…I'm no more than another stolen relic, to be locked up, here, until you have use of me?"
His throat closed and for the first time in longer than he could rightly recall tears were the cause of the blurring of his eye's sight.
"No Loki," he said.
The light winked all out from behind Loki's eyes.
And he let go.
Thor cried out, but there was nothing to be done. Odin let his head hang down.
The weight of what he had allowed crushed his chest. But he would have to believe in his son now. Believe that he had the strength.
When Thor had ceased struggling against him, Odin drew him up onto the remains of the bridge.
Dragging himself to his knees, Thor smashed his fist against the bridge. It fractured under his blow. He made no move for Mjollnir as he hauled himself to his feet, and he made no move toward his father.
Wearily, Thor made his way back to the city.
Odin remained. Looking down over the edge of BiFrost.
As though that might bring him back.