Her eyes fluttered closed as she leaned into him, letting her head fall to his shoulder and his arms wrap around her. It was, she thought, almost too easy. She could tell him everything and let him deal with it as he would. That was, perhaps, the sticking point. Loki would take on all her burdens and fight for her, if she let him, but she had never allowed herself to let him take such things from her. A thousand years of marriage had lent her a certain kind of strength where it concerned him.
So, instead, she talked. "Abragoda has created three packs of Siege Wolves to take her revenge against Odin for what Amora blamed on me," she said. "The Vanir attacked Asgard three nights ago and demanded Fenrir. Hogun tells of them calling him their Heir, despite that he can never reclaim his former shape again."
Loki's fingers dug into her back and began kneading the tension away. "How is it, then, that you fear for our son?" he asked, letting his armor shift to something more comfortable. "Asgard's fall hardly concerns us, though Odin dying would be…a trifle annoying before I got to him. They are merely paying in blood now for what should have been paid for eons ago."
It was an old argument, an old grief between them, the extent of what every member of Asgard's guilt against them constituted. She didn't count the merchants or the weavers, the unarmed children that had never raised arms or words against them. She counted the faces she could name, the voices she could recall, and the ones who had turned from her when she begged, a feat never once repeated or twice remembered. Whereas, Loki was simply indifferent to everyone in the realm that had been his childhood, cold and uncaring down to even the last infant so long as he had her.
"What worries me, Loki, is how far the Vanir are willing to go to acquire a White Alpha for their wolves. If they make him desperate enough, Odin will undo the spell that binds my son into that realm and hand him over to the parasitic bitch," she said, rolling her shoulder into his touch.
There was a pause before Loki stated, "Fenrir would be free of Odin's grip." Feeling her muscles tense beneath his fingers, he knew before she spoke that it had been the wrong thing to say.
Sigyn lifted her head from his shoulder and leveled a hard glare at him. "How is that better? A White Alpha is necessary for giving orders. Not for being sane. Abragoda is treacherous enough that she would torture him into submission."
"Point taken," Loki conceded. "But-"
"Already considered it and there would be little chance of success," she said tightly and leaned against him again, seeking the reassurance only his presence gave her. "Odin would ensure that there would be safeguards against our particular kinds of magic at the time of release for his spell and that is even discounting Amora and Skurge." Silence settled between them for a long moment as his arms settled around her shoulders and he simply held her. She tucked her head beneath his chin and listened to the rhythm of his heart, reassured by the sound of it and the cool warmth of his body. "We're stuck, Loki," she said. "I won't let my boy fall into Abragoda's hands, but the only alternative is to leave him alone in a realm where he is the only living, sentient being and that isn't an acceptable option."
Knowledge settled into his mind like a skin being peeled back from a raw wound. A thousand years with her and he was still blind, sometimes, to the extent to which she would reach for those she loved, with or without him. "You've already decided what you are going to do," Loki said and she drew back enough that she could meet his gaze. "And it's not a plan I am going to like, is it?"
"Not in the least, husband, buts it's something we might be able to work with in more ways than one," she answered
"Tell me, then," he said, still wary.
As Sigyn talked, Jarvis took note of what she said, made calculations, and adjusted a few details based on what he knew of her and her history. At one point, he asked a question of Thor and made further adjustments to her plan before he presented her with an alternative. Sigyn, he was pleased to observe, lurched for pen and paper around the nightstand at about two minutes after he had addressed her. Loki, however, didn't like that he had "eaves dropped on a private conversation" and he found he still didn't care for the supervillan's opinion.
"If you do not wish me to hear such conversations, I might suggest then that you not converse near one of my auditory receptors for the room or else ask me to mute the function within the room for a certain length of time," he replied shortly.
Sigyn snorted a laugh as she sorted through the notes she had taken of his suggestions. "I knew of what you could do, Jarvis, and I thank you for your input," she said. "This isn't something I'm going to hide from Tony and the others.
The look that Loki was giving the ceiling could only be called suspicious. "You are able to see everything that occurs within this building, then?"
Jarvis combed through his coding for orders that would prevent him from answering honestly, but found nothing. The privacy parameters were not something that were coded as a Category One secret. They were not, in fact, a secret at all. To the question he answered, "After a certain point in the day, certain aspects of my visual functions cease and my auditory functions within personal rooms activate only to certain phrases or under specific conditions."
"Interesting," Loki replied slowly.
She was sitting with one leg curled under her on the edge of the bed, head still bent over the notes, and she didn't even look up to see the speculative glance her husband was giving the room and, presumably, the theoretical layout of the building to say, "Stop it. You already promised not to cause mischief if they took me in." For a moment, he wondered how long it had taken her to divine her husband's habits and personality through the inflection of his voice alone. She had-by her own testimony-been married to the Liar for a thousand years or more.
"I swore not to attack. Mischief is another matter," Loki said, breaking through the AIs musings.
"Perhaps so under different circumstances, but not when you are currently eyeing a form of sentient intelligence that is able to function and act independently of his creator. I will also point out that he incapacitated you less than an hour ago," she said fairly.
"That was a miscalculation on my part and it would not be so lucky as to catch me like that a second time," Loki said, still casting an eye around the room.
"Jarvis has proven himself an ally. The third night after you left me here? The one that you ensnared thought it would be a good idea to test my defenses. With the state that I was in after the Void sucking me dry and you siphoning my magic, he very well could have killed me if Jarvis had not first woken me and warned me of his approach," Sigyn said and Loki stiffened.
Jarvis observed them with renewed interest. The levels of energy that he had detected within her body that night were recalled and filed with new identifiers. Further calculations were made based on Sigyn's physiology for the enchantress, Amora. Calculations for the Detection Device were altered.
"The Hawk dared to attack you?" Loki asked sharply.
Her pen paused in its scratching against the paper as she glanced up at her husband, eyebrows raised a little. "In your roles reversed, you have done much the same and succeeded, love. Granted, most of the time the wife or husband was equally involved, but don't go picking over a thinly scabbed wound such as the one you inflicted. He has made his peace with me and made no further attempts to avenge himself against us," she said. "Now, come on, love. Turn your mind from mischief and revenge and help me to smooth over some of the rough edges for this plan. A lot of it is still going to depend on Odin's magical fatigue after having released Fenrir's prison. Planning for the exact location isn't going to work so we're going to have to use spells that don't need a permanent anchor and…"
Loki let her draw him into the discussion, even knowing that most of the plan would go up in smoke at the first stage. It was the planning that made her mind churn with the possibilities and the different branches that could revolve around a situation. Nor did he forget the moments in the past where simply planning had soothed her frayed nerves and provided a sense of doing something even while they waited.
With Jane and Darcy curled on the couch and Dr. Selvig sorting through the remaining leftovers, Thor paced the living room and tried not to disturb the other inhabitants that were present with him. Fandral had long since been assisted to guest rooms, but Hogun had remained to observe the humans and his prince and look after Sif when those present had been too concerned about her health to move her. The longer that he remained, the more Hogun came to appreciate that he had done so as he observed Thor.
"Tell me again," Thor said.
Hogun described again the devastation that had been his last sight of Asgard before they were sent away. Movement from the hall caught his eye, but he never looked away from his longtime comrade as memory washed over him. The shining walls breached and more than a few of the houses pulled down and burning, the bodies that were scattered and forgotten. The stench had been awful and the howls of the wolves had been too close, too real. This, and more, he gave to his prince. "Your father will not allow us to follow the hostages. He will not allow us to do more than defend the palace and those that have retreated into the mountains. Heimdall is beginning to fear that your father has gone mad," Hogun finished.
"It's not that simple," Sigyn said from the hallway. "It never is. Not with Odin. I would not be surprised if he'd been planning this since Fenrir's transformation to snare a pack or two of Siege Wolves without setting Asgard into riot." Her gaze switched to Hogun. "Can you tell me the names or family names of some of those taken hostage?"
"Torrunson, Volla, Hrimhari…" Hogun began as he fell back on old memory tricks to recall each and every name of the hostages that had been told to him.
Thor saw the look of recognition that flickered across her face at a few of the names. "They are merchants and weavers, mostly non-warriors. What is it that you know of them?"
Her gaze flicked back to him and he had to steel himself against the coolness of it. "Odin has…agents…among all classes of the Aseir. They are trained to fight in stealth and other arts that are considered…lesser…by those of your rank and strength. Some of those taken are of Odin's agents and I highly doubt that they were taken on accident, not with the number of those names. Likely, they were strategically placed in the hours just before the first attack and the others are collateral."
"But that's…that's…unacceptable," Thor said. "We cannot sacrifice a number of hostages for the sake of a few being able to carry out their missions."
A ghost of a smile touched her lips as she studied him. "You've grown up well, Brother," she said and carded her fingers through her hair. "I'm glad."
He shifted uncomfortably and turned his face away to catch Jane eyeing him appraisingly with a slight smile curving her lips. That was about when Dr. Selvig said, "Well, then I guess that leaves you only one option, right?" At their curious looks, he continued, "You return and infiltrate the enemy's ranks to free the hostages. Am I right?"
It had been the thought lingering in the back of his mind, the suspicion that Heimdall had sent his longtime comrades in arms rather than a number of other warriors. If he could persuade Sigyn to help him, then there would be five of them-a small enough number to slip in, find where the hostages were being kept, and release them before engaging in combat. He met Sigyn's gaze-saw the narrowing of her eyes, the pull of her lips into a frown-and felt his stomach twist. Without them, it would be an impossible task.
Hogun looked between them and saw the answer before Thor spoke. Something had changed.
"May I speak with you, in private?" Thor asked, steeling himself.
She was already shaking her head before he finished. "There is no need for privacy in this matter, Bother. I know what it is that you wish to ask," she said. "And our answer is yes. We'll fight with you as you would do for us. You will not walk Asgard on your own. There is only one thing that I will ask of you." Her gaze switched to the window as she stared out over the sight that had become so achingly familiar. "If the chance presents itself, I intend to take my son back from Odin and collect the debt he has taken in blood and bone. What I ask is that you do not interfere. Can you agree to that?"
"Yes."
A/N: At the time of writing this, Abragoda was a name that I believed to be attached to Norse Mythology or Marvel in some way. Upon closer inspection, I have no idea where it came from and by that time the name had attached itself to the story and character and refused to be dislodged.
Thank you to my reviewers: wbss21, Maia2, Triana2, Ynath Esrith, no-MY name's Anonymous, cutechinchilla27, zazas11, Lalamo, BoredorBoard, and yusukekuramagirl.
Looking back over the reviews, I'm impressed that this story has garnered so many reviews. Thank you, as well, to those that have Followed or Favorited. The sheer number of reviews, follows, and favorites are above and beyond anything I would have thought that this story would attract.