SHADOW OF DEATH
Chapter 40: Hope
"I will try to find some means to communicate with you, once I am in Asgard," Loki hurriedly explained to Shuri. "Keep in contact with the Wakandan emissaries around this realm..."
"Which were your father's idea, by the way."
"Of course, they were," he said, with an exaggerated eye roll. "Tell me, was my guest room decorated by my mother and my meals prepared by my uncle or was it only my father who meddled in my affairs?"
At Shuri's arched eyebrow, his visage lost some of its irritation. "I may utilize clandestine methods in my own dealings, but I may not be so quick to admire the trait when it is I who am the recipient."
Loki's attempt at continuing his instructions was interrupted by a knock on the door. Four Jabari men with clubs entered with a man in a rough, weather-worn robe trailing behind them. A white beard fell in wild disarray down his chest and his one fiercely blue eye remain fixed only on Loki.
"All-Father!" Loki exclaimed.
"Speak of the devil…," Jane whispered to herself before Shuri shot her a silencing glare.
It was the last person Loki expected to meet on Midgard. He had never seen Odin All-Father in such simple attire, absent all the finery typical of Asgard's ruler. He had never seen the All-Father appear so weary, either. By the slump of his shoulders and the slow shuffle of his steps, he looked as if he carried five hundred more years on his regal shoulders than the last time they had met, that ill-fated day on the Bifrost.
"I would have words with you, Loki," the All-Father said in his terse manner in a tone that allowed no space for argument. He did not bother to greet any of the other inhabitants of the room nor bother to even notice they existed at all. Loki knew better than to point out the breach in etiquette. Instead, he nodded and led Odin into the room he currently shared with the Soldier and Skadmire. He silently shut the door behind them but he did not move away from it, preferring to remain as close to the room's one escape route as possible.
A fire burned within the stone hearth in the center of the round, clay brick room. Three mattresses lay on the carpeted floor, still unmade and a tumble of woolen blankets. The room's inhabitants remained in the adjoining common room, their meal cold and barely touched. He could hear their quiet whispers through the closed door, but he did not bother to make out the words. His attention stayed fixed on his unforeseen guest. Odin pulled back one of the thick, red curtains to see the snowy highlands beyond. Then he let the curtain fall back in place and only golden flames lit the warm room. The light flickered off the folds and crevices in Odin's ancient face but they did not illuminate the undiscernible emotion in his one eye.
While Loki had known Odin's powers to be formidable, how much dark magic had it required for the All-Father to transport himself to Midgard? To Loki, who so prided himself on the uniqueness of his gift to traverse through the folds and crevices of space, like a squirrel through the branches of a tree, it was disconcerting to know that he was not the only one. The All-Father, apparently, had even more secrets for Loki to delve into. The most pressing, though, was to determine what purpose drove the All-Father to expend such a fathomless amount of energy to seek out Loki multiple times on Midgard.
"Why have you come?" Loki finally asked. He fought to conceal his face in the shadows, hoping that the darkness would shield whatever emotions he could not hide.
Odin exhaled slowly and backed himself against the brick wall. With a great sigh, he lowered himself onto one of the unmade mattresses and sat with his feet outstretched in front of him and his back against the wall. He watched Loki, but he did not speak. Even in his seated position below him, Loki still felt overwhelmed by the looming presence of Odin in the room with him.
"Be frank, All-Father," Loki continued. "Have you come to seek recompense for the death of your heir? If it is vengeance you seek for all I have done to Thor...," Loki began but he failed to finish. He would speak to Odin All-Father of the death of his heir, but he could not speak to the once-father of Thor and Loki and remain stoic. As his memories flooded with pictures of a much younger one-eyed man and the two young boys who called that man "father," Loki could not continue.
"Did you know about Thor's nightmares?" Odin began.
Loki nodded. Of course, he remembered Thor's nightmares. It was many a night which found Thor hiding beneath Loki's blankets, weeping for whatever terror had plagued his slumber that night and it was a very young Loki who told him not to fear, that they were only dreams. As they aged and grew, Thor no longer spoke as openly about his dreams, but they still caused him to start from sleep or occasionally cry out during the night, even as adulthood fell upon them both and Mjolnir slept besides the Aesir prince.
"Yes. He had such terrible nightmares, ever since he was a small boy. Of course, you would remember. They grew worse after the, well, after his banishment on Midgard. He could barely sleep for months after that day on the Bifrost," Odin continued.
Loki pursed his lips and refused to meet Odin's intent, searching gaze. He could feel the familiar weight of that one-eye upon him. It made his skin crawl and he felt like he ought to hide under a blanket to escape it, but he remained resolutely rooted in place, his eyes fixed upon flames.
"Those two years before he returned to Midgard, his dreams were more potent than ever before. They were terrible things, those dreams. They were full of death and destruction and all the worst of nightmares. They were so vivid, more than once he lost himself in them, convinced they were real visions. We tried to help him, your mother and I, but what could we do? When Thor dreamt his lost brother still lived, kept captive on a barren rock, far out of his reach, tortured and captive and near-mad with all he had to endure, how could we comfort him? When he dreamt of Asgard burning and falling into ruin at the hands of a myriad of enemies, who could truly console him? Then there were the dreams of his death. Again and again, he saw his own end come upon him and he was powerless to stop it. Your mother placed every spell of protection she could concoct upon him, but still the dreams would come. Nothing could change what the Fates ordained. No action of warrior or king, magician or seer, could spare him the end he was destined for. In the same way, none can change the fate that is now upon Asgard. It is that fate which brings me here now."
"What fate is it that you speak of?" Loki asked.
Odin's one eye drilled into him and he forced himself not to flinch or waver in response.
"Ragnarök, the end and beginning of all things. I have come to request temporary asylum from this realm for the inhabitants of Asgard, in preparation for what is to come," he answered.
Loki scoffed. "Come now, what jest is this?"
"I assure you; it is no jest. A Svartalf carrier vessel heads to Midgard as we speak, filled to the brim with the old and the young, the weak and the all the Aesir in need of refuge."
"Svartalf...but you taught us the Dark Elves were destroyed during the reign of Bor Burison."
"It is time you learn, my son, that I have been wrong about a great many things," he replied solemnly.
Loki swallowed heavily and paused. Both the manner of the All-Father and his sudden appearance left the prince as frayed as a sawed rope after a storm at sea and he felt ill-prepared to face them.
"What has happened?" he managed to ask over the lump in his throat.
"Four months past, Asgard's ancient nemesis, Malekith, awoke and came searching for the Aether."
"Which you also said was destroyed..."
"The Aether proved only to be hidden and foolishly forgotten, not permanently vanquished, much as the Dark Elves were. They were all buried in the shrouds of the past and our forefathers only postponed their unfinished business to our days."
"Did he...?" Loki began but Odin's shaking head interrupted him.
"He tried. As the Convergence neared, the pathways between realms became more... permeable. An Aesir farmer stumbled through one such thinned space between realms when he sought a missing goat in the mountains. We can only assume the Aether was awakening and pursuing a new host from its hiding place for the farmer found himself face-to-face with the ancient relic. The Aether entered his body and the farmer woke back in the same location he had first disappeared from hours earlier.
"The farmer came to the Healing Rooms and it was then the presence of the Aether was discovered. Heimdall's sight could not discover the existence of any remaining Dark Elves, but that was of little comfort as he also failed to detect the Aether. You, yourself, have long proven the holes in Heimdall's sight with your ability to hide and so I dared not depend on Heimdall's blindness to equate to a lack of danger. Therefore, I followed the unorthodox precedent you exemplified on Midgard and immediately destroyed the Stone."
"And the farmer...," Loki surmised.
"An unfortunate but necessary loss."
"I see."
"Within a day of the destruction of the Aether, Malekith proved... less dead... than we believed. His ships came upon us and caught us unawares. His displeasure over the destruction of his long-sought weapon was channeled into a fiery vengeance upon Asgard. Many lives were lost and much of the palace lies in shambles. With the destruction of his weapon and his aims to turn all to darkness thwarted, Malekith's attack was naught but a final suicide mission. He poured all the last Svartalf blood onto Asgardian soil in a final effort to inflict as much damage as possible on Asgard. When the last Svartalf soldier fell, the losses to Asgard were deep and many."
"If Malekith is vanquished, why do you seek asylum on Midgard?"
"The danger Malekith posed to Asgard, and indeed all the Nine Realms, pales in comparison with the danger that will soon come – the danger woven out of my own folly into the very foundation of the realm."
"Ah, yes. I assume you refer to Hela Odindottir, the firstborn you conveniently forgot to tell us about... so strikingly similar to other omissions about your so-called progeny. Tell me, All-Father, how many other little surprises do you keep buried in Asgard's vaults and in the footsteps you left on your journeys across the Nine?"
"It seems the House of Odin suffers from the same abysmal failings as the House of Bor," Odin replied and his posture deflated even more than Loki thought possible from the once strong and proud monarch. Odin clenched and unclenched his fists and sank deeper against the brick wall behind him. His voice was heavy with regret when he spoke again.
"The tendency to only delay facing our current challenges and bury uncomfortable truths with more pacifying ignorance proves the undoing of both the patrilineages of the kings of Asgard and the reigns of her kings. My son, I have failed at a great many things in my life and rule and reign. Raising my daughter proved my worst. I hoped I had learned my lessons, that you and Thor would be the beginning of something new. But it proved only the same mistakes all over again."
"You have a great affinity for rewriting the very existence of your kin, All-Father," Loki said bitterly. "As if your word is enough to remake our very beings or erase our very births."
"In my fear and quests for power, I have planted the seeds of our own destruction. The serpent's venom threatens to fall heavily on our realm at any moment now. The Crown of Yggdrasil, the Mightiest of Realms, King of the Nine, the Eternal City – what will remain after it passes through the flames? When the gold is melted away, the magic siphoned, the foundations swallowed by fire, what will be my legacy?" Odin said, more to himself than to Loki. A weight of a millennia of cares settled on the old king's face. He closed his eye and leaned his head back against the wall. "Heimdall told me you had learned part of the truth. Hear all now, my son. I will withhold nothing in hopes that you can use the truth to forge a new path for your own House and for Asgard."
Odin opened his eye again and waited until Loki nodded. He warily abandoned his sentry by the door and instead moved to sit on the mattress nearest the window. He settled himself with his legs cross before him and he waited for Odin to begin his tale. Odin inhaled deeply once, ran his hands through his beard, and leaned forward just enough so the fire's flames illuminated his face. Then his voice took on the timbre of a storyteller.
"My first wife was named Jord, daughter of Hirg, and sister to Laufey, Jotunheim's greatest general. My father hoped this would provide means to a peace alliance with Jotunheim. Skuldr, father of Thrym, ruled Jotunheim then and while he sired a great many sons, the royal line lacked daughters. Thus, Skuldr and Bor decided I would wed Jord. However, they were a powerful family and it was a strategic alliance.
"A gentler, more beautiful woman, I have never met in all my long years. I stayed with her on Jotunheim for the allotted time before we returned to Asgard for my coronation. Asgard was still young then. We were not yet the Ruler of the Nine, but we were one realm among many. Under my father's reign, we had exerted our influence over Svartalfheim and Alfheim. Now, my marriage formed an alliance with Jotunheim and my eyes sought to add the rest of Yggdrasil to Asgard's strength during my days. I feared lest I lose all my father had gained almost as much as I feared not surpassing his greatness. I am ashamed to remember the blood I shed in my impetuous, short-sighted youth, and yet I cannot claim I have grown wiser in my twilight years.
"A few centuries into our marriage, Jord gave birth to Hela. Hela grew to be a fierce warrior, an asset to Asgard, and I confess I groomed her fighting skills to the expense of any other gift and I regret that now. I saw only what she could become and not who she should become. Together, we brought all the Nine Realms under the control of Asgard. The power, the strength, the glory - we were drunk with it. Once one realm fell, we sought to gain another… and another… it was never enough.
"During our conquests, I began to amass the Infinity Stones to aid our conquests. I sought them far and wide until the Space Stone and Time Stone were within my grasp then gave them to Hela to wield. I directed Hela where to use them and in what manner. I made her feel like a tool, made her think she only had worth as long as she had power. And she believed me. Thus, her desire for power proved insatiable. Her desire to wield the Stones grew so that she could not be parted from them unless by force and then her mind stayed fixed upon them. They poisoned her entirely."
"Did they poison her or did they allow her own poison to magnify?" Loki asked, pondering a question he had longed wished to know the answer to.
"I know not. The Stones, well, I do not believe there is any alive who may fully comprehend their complexity or potential. It is beyond that of even all the greatest of minds and mages who have ever drawn breath in Yggdrasil."
"Then why hide the Stones on Midgard?"
"Patience, my son. I will come to it," Odin chided with a reproving glance. "Yes, we surely would have continued as we were until the end of our days. Until one day, I took a time of reprieve and reflection near Mimir's Well – you remember it?"
"Indeed. It is a beautiful place."
"It was there, as I stared at the beauty of the woods and mountains and my own reflection in the peaceful waters that I had a revelation. It was that day that I realized that I had not been a good king. As if in a vision, I saw the flames and swords and blood of my conquests stain the beauty of the land around me and destroy it all and left naught but ash and bones. For so long, I had sought war instead of protecting peace. I saw Asgard's future as never-ending warfare and death and knew I needed to change or it would corrupt and collapse entirely. I could not build my rule on the sword or the sword would destroy it.
"Thus, I decided to become a different kind of king. It was neither easily-received nor popular with my subjects. I had to replace my entire council before I could hope to begin and I had three assassination attempts in the process of changing our path. Hela did not approve of my change of heart. She sought to continue as we were. She never wanted our expansion, our empire, to stop growing. As long as more realms lay in the universe, she sought to lay her hand upon them and make them hers. She was not alone in her sentiments.
"Hela decided she needed to intervene and change the path of Asgard. She formed an elaborate scheme to assassinate me during my Sleep. Her plot was uncovered and stopped before she could act, but her mother and I were distraught. She bore no remorse nor contrition and it would only be a matter of time before she made another attempt. In consequence, the council determined she would be exiled to Jotunheim for a time. Thrym, son of Skuldr, now sat on the throne of Jotunheim and had already hinted at forging another political alliance through marriage. She had already passed her first Harvest without a marriage and the council called on me to remedy that oversight. It was determined that Hela would be sent as bride to Thrym and no longer concern herself with the military affairs of Asgard.
"As you can imagine, Hela was none too pleased with the arrangement and fought most viciously against it. Her mother had a tongue of honey that could break bone and she was the only being in the universe able to tame my first born. She calmed Hela and a subdued bride met Thrym that day at the Bifrost site.
"We hoped this alliance would be for the benefit of all, but it proved otherwise. Hela, still burning with her anger, determined to use her new role as Queen of Jotunheim for her own purposes. It was not long after her marriage before she walked the width and breadth of that peaceful land and whispered tales of war into the ears of all the people. Day and night, she told her husband he deserved more, and ought to be king of all the realms, not just Jotunheim. Day and night, she sowed discontent and lust for conquest into the previously peaceful people.
"While she grew the Jotun army, she also worked to incite a war between Vanaheim and Asgard. At the time, we knew not of her influence in the shadows pulling the strings in that conflict. She reaped her revenge in full when our long-held alliance crumbled and we fell head-long into her brilliantly maneuvered pit. Many lives were lost and both our armies were weakened and our attentions were diverted from Jotunheim. The war lasted for 250 years until both sides, realizing we were evenly matched, declared a truce for the Harvest Seasons and the continuation of our peoples.
"Hela, knowing well the importance of the Harvest, and counting on the weakness of our army, took this time to attack. Heimdall warned me she planned to invade Asgard and steal the Infinity Gems. There is no end to the evil she could have accomplished with their acquisition. So, I sent Brunhilde, my most trust Valkyrie, to Midgard to hide them until we had need of them again. Brunhilde hid one gem in a vault in a small village of northernmost climes of Midgard and the other in the jungles underneath palaces of the people of the tropics and spoke not a word of their location to any but myself. Then, Asgard watched, wary and tired, for how Hela would attack during our time of greatest vulnerability.
"It was during this time that my own wife grew heavy with child. As you well know, the Jotnar are not bound by the Harvest Seasons, but Jord suffered a number of miscarriages after the birth of Hela and remained barren for many long years. She longed for another child and grew disheartened and saddened when none bore fruit. There were many whispered tales of why her womb remained closed, all of which only made her grief harder to bear. Whatever the reasons, the Norns did not allow her womb to bear fruit until the moment war descended upon Asgard again.
"Thrym came to Asgard under a banner of peace and said he wished to discuss the role Hela played in orchestrating the war with Vanaheim, as well as means to hand her over to us for Asgardian justice. He told all of her plots and we were foolish enough to trust his stated aims as genuine. He gained our trust. Then, during the cover of night, he sought to steal the Infinity Stones.
"Through Hela's meticulous planning and inside information, he covertly gained entry to the weapon's vault. Jord, unaware of Thrym's presence, sought some bobble from the treasure vault directly adjoining the hall of the weapon's vault. Thrym caught her there and took her captive. He plied her for the location of the Infinity Gems. Jord, rightly fearing for our unborn child, revealed their presence on Midgard, though she did not know the specifics of where they had been hid. Thrym released her and fled back to Jotunheim through one of the secret passages, but not before leaving Jord mortally wounded.
"The healers were forced to deliver the babe too soon to save his young life and his mother died not a full day after his birth. I grieved deeply and feared I would lose my son and my wife on the same day. It was determined by my advisors that, for the good of Asgard, we would keep the birth of the young prince hidden while the healer's sought to preserve his young life. We feared lest Hela make another intrusion and seek the fragile life of my heir in order to force her own claims to the throne.
"Jord was grieved by all and sent in honor to the Halls of her Ancestors. In light of the unstable political situation, our tenuous truce with Vanaheim, and my struggling babe, my advisors recommended I take a new queen from Vanaheim and so secure our alliance. I heeded their advice. The king of Vanaheim sent a woman he called both wise and true, respected and admired by all. He said she would serve admirably as both queen and mother and our alliance would officially end the war with Vanaheim. I acquiesced and brought Frigga home to wife.
"I am forever indebted to the King of Vanaheim for his shrewd choice in a queen. Frigga proved both capable and kind, wise and large-hearted, beautiful and powerful. She required all her strength for the task she took upon herself. She took to Thor as though he were her own blood and sat in the healing rooms with him during all hours, day and night, during the two years he stayed there. At times, she supplied her own magic to heal and grow his fragile body. All the while, she took on the heavy crown of the All-Mother of a struggling Asgard and the broken heart of a widowed king upon her strong shoulders and helped carry us all through one of our darkest times.
"Hela, upon discovering that her own husband caused the death of her mother, fell into a fury and killed him. She declared herself sole queen of Jotunheim. Then, she sent the entire army to Midgard to seek for the Infinity Gems and to take Midgard as her first conquest as queen. She nearly succeeded for Laufey nearly captured the Tesseract from the small village Brunhilde left it in for safe-keeping.
"Well, here is where you know the tale. I summoned Asgard's finest in defense of Midgard. Frigga ruled in my stead. Our armies faced Laufey in a series of bitter battles across the frozen plains of Midgard. When they finally retreated to their own home, we followed, seeking their queen. We fought into the heart of the great city of Utgaard. It was a bitter battle. We thought we would not be victorious until one battalion managed to take Laufey prisoner and captured the Casket of Ancient Winters.
"With her general and her power source gone, Hela descended upon us with all her fury. It took our entire calvary of Valkyries on their steeds to subdue and capture her and we faced bitter losses. I managed to remove her powers, but not before she removed my eye. I banished her to Helheim to face her sentence with the rest of the criminals of the Nine - powerless to attack Asgard, or any of the realms, until my death frees her of my hold on her.
"Well, you know of the rest. After the war was won, I came across a small, struggling babe crying in their temple. All the Jotnar would tell me was that it was a son of their general and they would say no more. I saw no sign of a mother or other caretaker and none of the Jotnar around would approach the babe. I looked at you and you reminded me so much of my own son. Small, frail, struggling to live, a blood relation to my own lost wife. And I knew I could not leave you.
"I brought you home to Frigga. She was overjoyed to have a second babe for her to dote upon. You were still too small and fragile, though your innate magic was stronger than I had ever seen. After extensive discussions with my advisors, it was determined that the best course of action for all involved would be the rewriting of history. Asgard felt great anger towards Jotunheim for violating our sacred Harvest Season with their attack. Many warriors were lost, the births of many children were prevented, and Asgard was greatly weakened. The Aesir were angry at the Jotnar and held them all responsible and they took out their anger on any Asgardians of Jotun descent. Most went into hiding.
"It was determined that, for the safety and well-being of both of you, you would be declared the children of Frigga. We told all Asgard that during the war, Frigga used her extensive fertility magic to grow babes at a heightened rate to ensure Asgard had heirs and could protect those heirs. We could not announce your births properly for fear of enemy attack on our precious babes. Thus, we introduced you both at the same time, though Thor's birth occurred two years before yours. You were so close in age, many in Asgard considered you as twins and you were thought to be a great marvel to have developed so soon.
"We also then rewrote the history of Asgard. We wished to move past the nefarious deeds of my daughter so we could begin anew. Our aim was a new Asgard, a new way of life based on peace rather than warfare. We did not wish for a repeat of past misdeeds or for Hela's insidious lies to be seep through the ears of our impressionable young warriors. Thus, we cast Frigga as my only wife and magically suppressed memories of Jord. While I regretted so treating the memory of my beloved wife, it was the only way. Then we erased Hela from all our annals and chronicles and artwork. I placed a powerful spell upon all Asgard that prevents her name from being uttered by the lips of an Aesir and keeps her memory suppressed for as long as I live.
"Unfortunately, my magic is not so strong as can be extended to the other realms. The King of Vanaheim, when supplied with our request, readily agreed to accede to our demands. The other realms, when offered a substantial boon, also readily agreed and banned her from their records. We failed to request the same of Midgard.
"Laufey, when declared king in the place of Hela, refused to accept. He said he would not so dishonor the memory of his sister and niece. Thus, I was forced to forbid all travel between Jotunheim and Asgard, much to the heartache of many a Jotnar citizen on Asgard. We wove new tales about Laufey as the longtime king of Jotunheim, about his role instigating the war with Midgard, and we removed Hela's involvement from it all. Laufey agreed to our terms of peace. Hela's actions overextended the resources of the Jotnar badly and, without the Ice Casket, they were destitute. We could not risk returning the Casket for they could use it to return Hela to them and all would begin again, but they struggled to rebuild without its power."
"I…he…how come…You never told me!" Loki sputtered. "In the vault, you never said..."
"You never gave me the opportunity! If you had simply paused your ranting and your incessant desire to be overdramatic, I would have told you everything. With all that occurred in such a short period of time, I hardly had a chance to sit you down for a lengthy history and genealogy lesson."
"So, Laufey…"
"Did not deserve to die at your hand. You offered him the Casket of Ancient Winters. He would have slit the throat of his own mother to return that to his people. His people who, when not instigated by foolish and warmongering descendants of Odin, are peaceful and mind to themselves. You dangled a piece of meat before a starving dog and then punished him for leaping upon it.
"My son, I tell you all this because my time draws near. My strength is failing. Hela will come. She draws her strength from Asgard and from the deaths of living creatures. She will seek revenge. Her great anger has kindled into rage and she would take it out on every living being across the universe. Once I am gone, she will not hesitate to take out her wrath upon all the realms. You must be ready. The Fates have ordained it. The blood I spilled in founding Asgard will come back upon us and the destruction will be great indeed."
"Surely your death is not so imminent," Loki began but Odin silenced him with a firm glare. Loki drew his knees into his chest and rested his chin on his knees. He watched as Odin's chest rose and fell with his breaths and he knew not to doubt the All-Father's words or argue otherwise.
"How is Asgard to be saved?" Loki asked instead. "Why is it that they seek refuge on Midgard rather than staying in the fortress on Asgard?"
"Hela is not to be underestimated. She will strike Asgard first. She will be accompanied by her army of disreputable criminals from Helheim and all of the minions of her devoted Titan. You must await her on Asgard and face her on the plains of Idavollr. All of Asgard's forces remain, waiting for you to command, and those who cannot fight are travelling under the leadership of Frigga, awaiting the results of the battle in safety here on Midgard, if we will be welcomed."
"I will speak to some of the leaders of Midgard and see if they will grant your request," Loki said. "But what of the Power Stone? Thanos wields an Infinity Gem."
"You must arm yourself with the remaining Stone," Odin said.
"The Soul Stone? Where is it to be found?" Loki asked. "I have failed to discover any who know its location."
"Travel first to Asgard and speak with Heimdall. There are those who know its location and Heimdall will guide you aright in its pursuit."
"Will the Soul Stone be enough?"
Odin pulled himself onto his knees so he was at eye-level with Loki and his gaze did not once waver. "Loki, remember, any warrior can bring about a death and release a soul, but who has the power to create a life?"
Loki nodded and then grew somber. "What of Asgard?"
"You must remember, Asgard is not a place, it's a people. Your strength comes not from halls of shining gold and armies with spears, but from the fealty and respect of those you serve as king. Their lives are your life. Their good, yours. In my place, you must be king, and I am afraid that I am as cowardly as my father Bor before me. I have only delayed my problems and have left them to my descendants to face in my stead. For that, and so many things, my son, I am sorry."
"You will still crown me as king… after everything that has occurred?"
Odin reached forward to brush a lock of hair out of Loki's face. He let his hand fall to Loki's shoulder.
"I love you, my son. I beg your forgiveness for all the things I have done that make you doubt it. All is working out of the designs of the Fates. It was no coincidence that I came upon you in Jotunheim or that you are on Midgard, as you are. As you begin anew, as Asgard is reborn, remember your power comes not from defeating foes but defending the weak. Quest not for power. Do not give way to fear. Start a new legacy, a new foundation, a new kingdom. One that will last and is built on a surer foundation than its predecessor."
"You speak as though you have already seen the outcome."
"Nay, though I cannot help but cling to hope."
"That is not particularly reassuring."
Odin chuckled. "No. I suppose it is not. However, as your brother was so eager to remind me, I am an old man and a fool. Hope is, perhaps, the greatest folly of all."
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Author's Note: My Odin is very OOC. He is partially myths-based, partially MCU-based, and partially whatever I thought would be interesting for this story. I don't particularly like "all evil" or "all good" characterizations of him, so he's a little bit of both-with the capacity for change.