Beneath
Chapter Fifty-Six – Loyalties
Loki sat down at his desk; it was just as well to stare aimlessly at its bare shelves as at the covered window, he supposed, and it got him off of his continuously aching foot. He had to figure out where he stood. What his options were – because they seemed to have narrowed considerably. He needed to understand what insanity was going on out in the rest of the realms.
Brokk…it all went back to Brokk…Brokk who had a spy in the palace. Brokk was a master of magic, perhaps not as strong as Loki, but in matters of manipulation and deceit he was Loki's equal or better. But could he have truly masterminded this entire plot, whatever exactly it was? Could he have convinced six friendly realms plus Jotunheim all to declare war on Asgard?
His instinct was to answer no. He had clearly failed to give Brokk enough credit though, underestimating him at every turn beginning with their first interaction a few days ago. So…yes. With enough time for analyzing and planning, he could have done it, he thought. I could have done it myself, he realized, as he began to imagine how it might have played out, how he would have done it.
"Our trust in Asgard over all these centuries has been misplaced. We have ceded far too much power and control to them. Their gatekeeper can observe all that we say and do, so we cannot act freely, but always with the knowledge that Asgard may be watching. They control most travel between the realms with their bifrost, and they've used it as a weapon against one of the Nine. Only Jotunheim, and we would be better off without that blight upon the cosmos anyway, but who's to say that when they rebuild it they won't turn it on one of us next? Asgard's weapons vault contains items of frightening power; if they used the bifrost against one of the Nine, what is to stop them from using one of the others against us? And now they have the tesseract again. Rulers of these free realms, with that relic they could destroy all of us. Odin will swear that they would never do such a thing, but we know this to be a lie; they have already done just such a thing to Jotunheim. And who is Odin All-Father to us? He has said he protects us as well, but when was the last time any of us tested that? He is not our father; he is not one of us. He will protect his own, as he should, but we must protect ourselves. We must protect ourselves from him. From all of Asgard. We must show him that we are not his vassals."
The three warriors in the Healing Room had spoken of three things "they" – the other realms, presumably – wanted.
"The Jotuns, vile though they may be, were dealt a cruel blow by Asgard's fallen prince. They deserve the chance to punish the one who dealt them this blow. We will demand Odin produce him and send him to Jotunheim; it will be the easiest of our demands for him to meet, for this prince has already been rejected." Loki paused, swallowed. "By everyone."
"And what gives Odin the right to lock away the one treasure the Jotuns have ever laid claim to? They are so nearly destroyed now" – one can only hope, Loki couldn't help adding – "that even with this relic they are no threat to anyone. So we will demand that Odin return their Ice Casket."
"How many times over does Asgard need to be able to destroy us? The tesseract by itself should never be entrusted to one man's hands, and Asgard's fallen prince has already sought to use it to bring war to another of the Nine. We can secure it just as well as Odin." A lie, of course. "So we will demand the tesseract and control it jointly." Loki wondered what exactly Brokk had proposed there. In Brokk's place, he thought he would either propose joint control, or perhaps appeal specifically to the vanity of Gullveig of Vanaheim. Loki had long held him in disregard, a king clothing himself in those simple robes to project the false image that he was one of his people, a simple man ruling an agrarian society of people who mostly desired simple lives. "O wise, great king of the Vanir, your people fought Asgard to a truce in which there was no victor, but Asgard has always acted as though your noble citizens were defeated. It is time for you to take the position among the realms that you deserve. To show that you are not subservient to Odin, that you are every bit his equal, and his better in matters of justice and fairness. There is no better realm to host something as powerful as the tesseract, and no better king to pledge himself to its safekeeping."
And that was just off the top of his head. With additional time to plan, to think it all through… "And if Asgard does not acquiesce, we declare war, and we take what we demand. We show Odin we do not answer to him." Oh, yes. They would be clamoring to bring down Yggdrasil's crown and rip it to pieces.
It had worked, and Brokk had been showered with money and gifts.
And then there was Thanos. Because of course, it did not all go back to Brokk, not only to Brokk. It went beyond Brokk. Who found who first? Loki wondered. Brokk had not known what he was, therefore it could not have been Brokk's idea to demand that Asgard send him as a prisoner to Jotunheim – he could not have known there would be no fate in all the realms more abhorrent to him than this. Thanos, through his lackey, knew every spot of vulnerability into which to press a thumb.
It was all so obvious to him now, and he wondered if it was to Asgard, as well. They had not known about Brokk, he strongly suspected, and therefore they likely did not know about Thanos, either. They did not know how badly Thanos wanted the tesseract, how badly he wanted an easy path into the Nine and the rest of the cosmos. The gifts to Jotunheim – himself and the Ice Casket – provided the rest of the Nine with a comfortable veneer of virtue, for in these demands they could cast themselves as defending the defenseless, long Odin's self-proclaimed role with regard to Midgard. Brokk, it was clear, knew that the only reason Loki was part of this was that Thanos wanted him to suffer. And where would he suffer most? In the hands of the Frost Giants. "His agony will come from other hands."
Loki thought back to his confrontation with Brokk while he was trapped in the circle of candles. "We're taking you to Asgard, and when things get bad enough, they'll deliver you to Jotunheim themselves." But Svartalfheim was allied with Jotunheim, and Loki now knew that Brokk had one of the talismans for Svartalf portal creation. He could have delivered him directly to Jotunheim himself. He wanted Asgard to do it.
And then everything became clear. "He has given you a plan," The Other had told Brokk when Brokk offered to let them torture him for all eternity. Part of the plan was about the tesseract. The other realms would pry the tesseract from Asgardian fingers, and Brokk, promised "raw power," would wrest control of it away from its new owners, and then through whatever deal he'd struck with Thanos, Thanos would use Brokk to get the tesseract himself, just as he'd intended to use Loki. The other part of the plan was about unfinished business, a promise unfulfilled: Loki himself. It wasn't enough that Thanos would inflict creative tortures upon him, those tortures had to come from the Frost Giants, who with one touch would rip away every mask Loki had ever worn and force him to face the sickening truth.
And it wasn't enough that just anyone would hand him over to those tortures – it had to be Asgard. It had to be Thor. It had to be Odin. It had to be Frigga. It had to be everyone he'd once loved, and whom he'd once thought loved him.
The wall appeared in his mind again – that wall that made it so difficult to picture such a thing happening. And then it started to crumble. They thought him guilty of conspiring against them. How difficult would it be for them to cast a traitor out into the hands of the Frost Giants? Not a king, not a prince, not a son, not a brother, not even a monster, but simply a traitor. Treason during wartime...Thor would feel no compulsion to keep his oath under such circumstances. And who would believe him if he tried to tell the truth and explain himself? They would turn him over and not look back, glad to be rid of the stain upon their family and upon all of Asgard.
He remembered the nightmare he'd had, the first time Thanos's lackey had spoken to him through dreams here on Midgard, how in the end, Frigga had been there on the bridge alongside Odin and Thor, all three rejecting him, how even inside the dream he'd known that part wasn't real. Perhaps it was more real than he'd thought…
Loki stood up and shoved his chair under the desk, then pulled it back out again and sat down. He'd been about to start pacing, but he could cross the length of this room in five long strides. He needed to be more disciplined, more like he used to be. The thought made him laugh at the irony.
On seven realms he was wanted. On Asgard he was a traitor. On Midgard…no one knew he was here. No one except Jane. And Jane had decided she wanted to get along, and would not tell anyone else. He doubted that would last beyond station opening at the end of October. That didn't matter, of course; the idea of remaining here for another five or six months was unbearable.
He had to leave, but he could not travel freely. He would require disguises. Disguises would require magic. Not all disguises require magic, he thought, remembering the incident Jane had spoken of. Loki had offered to try using magic to better disguise Thor – to make his face more feminine, to make him a little slimmer, to give him breasts – but Thor had refused…to put it mildly. Still, as he lacked an accomplished tailor and refused to wear a bridal veil across the realms, this disguise would require magic. Magic he would be punished for every time he used it with ill intent. And I am full of ill intent, he thought with one of those looks Jane insisted he not use on her anymore.
It occurred to him he had not tested how much of his control of magic his recent jaunt across Asgard and Svartalfheim had cost him; certainly on that first day he'd paid and paid until his right leg could barely support his weight. He wore boat shoes, brown silk pants, a buttoned long-sleeved shirt with thin blue and green stripes. He looked down at his feet, decided on a simple illusion of tall brown boots, brown leather pants, green tunic, no embellishments of any kind. It should have required next to no effort. But try as he might, silk would not give way to leather until just above his right knee, and half-way up his left calf. He gave up, let the illusion fade away. It was disturbing, but he didn't know how to interpret it. If his ability to transform his own body worked as some form of measurement, then his magic was at about 75%. But it didn't work like that, he didn't think. Magic was little more than manipulation of energy in its most basic forms; it did not exist in percentages.
He thought back to what little Odin had told him, before he'd been sent here. The poison from the firegrub – Odin's firegrub created especially for him – had bonded with his own energy, and was removing his ability to control that energy…ultimately to control magic. He thought back to the more practical consequences he'd observed. How maintaining a duplicate, something he'd perfected long ago, had required so much concentration, and how the duplicate had failed as soon as his focus shifted elsewhere. How invisibility was still easily done, but Brokk had stunned him by being able to tug it away. He was going to have to be very careful from here on out. He could fight without magic. He could manipulate without magic. But he could do both much more effectively with magic. And perhaps now he could control magic with only about 75% efficiency.
Loki groaned in frustration and ran a finger down the line he could still perceive – even if none of these mortals could – in the desk he'd broken earlier with his fist and then repaired. He felt trapped. As trapped as Odin had always intended for him to be here. He had to change the game. It was always what he'd done, what he'd learned how to do successfully with Birna, when he was still a youth. Thor had forgotten he existed in his enthrallment with her, so Loki had whispered clever lies and the two had parted ways all on their own. He had done the same with Jane, and done it with aplomb, even if it hadn't lasted as long as he would have liked. And he had done it countless times in between. Thor loses his precious hammer in his distraction over a large pair of breasts? Give Thor his own breasts, dress him up in a wedding gown, and pull off one of the most brazen deceptions in the history of the cosmos to get the hammer back. Thor, the man who lost his precious – and incredibly powerful – hammer over a large pair of breasts is to be made king of Asgard, the most powerful man in all the Nine? Bring a pair of Frost Giants into Asgard to attack right in the middle of his coronation, stand back, and allow him to be himself, only a nudge here or there required.
He laughed darkly at the comparison that came to mind. He'd certainly grown bolder over time.
Bold. Yes, that was what was needed. Something bold. Scurrying through abandoned tunnels beneath Midgard's surface…slinking about pretending to be a mortal at Midgard's southern extremity...he chafed against it. He needed more. He didn't want anonymity; he'd had enough of that. He should be known in such a way that his name inspired fear and respect. He pictured Brokk and his smug looks, Thor and his overconfidence, Odin and his condescension…every single one of those so-called Avengers who thought they could defeat him. Even the one called "the Hulk," had he simply not been caught by surprise, he could have rendered him as helpless as a baby.
He remembered lying in the rubble of Tony Stark's floor wheezing, his body far more battered than the mortals realized, unable to put up any further fight. He looked down at his right shoulder, rotated it experimentally, hissed in a breath at the pain. He had done all he could do for it through magic. The rest would take time, perhaps even some of the primitive healing techniques used here on Midgard. If he wanted to do something bold, he would need his physical strength to be back at its peak.
He was also going to need his magic. He was going to need those wretched curses removed. He had to take them into account in everything he did, especially the one on his foot. They were his shackles, preventing him from simply doing as he wished. He shook his head in contempt; he'd lived with these shackles for over two months, while Jane had moaned and complained about two hours.
It was true, though, he thought with a flicker of guilt, she'd been dressed for weather a full hundred degrees colder than where she'd been. She would have been very uncomfortable. But she wouldn't have died. He wouldn't have left her there that long. If she hadn't stopped struggling, though, when they were waiting for Pathfinder…
He imagined for a moment what would have happened had she died. He told himself it would make his life easier. He'd meant what he said – he didn't need her anymore. He had Pathfinder; he could leave here whenever he wanted. What else could Jane give him that he needed? He thought back to their conversation over a forgotten breakfast. At times maddening, at times entertaining…without it he would have spent his whole day like this, brooding in silent thought. So she was a convenient distraction, providing some occasional intelligent discussion, a rare spot of levity amidst the current burden of his existence. Rare as it was, meaningless as it was, he would be worse off without it. She was right, he grudgingly admitted to himself, she was all he had. "Everyone needs someone to talk to." It was simpler when the person you were talking to had cloudy blue eyes and was enslaved to your will.
He dragged his attention back to the problem at hand. He would need to settle on a new target, probably on Alfheim, perhaps Martif. But he would do things correctly this time. He would prepare. He would make plans and backup plans. He would think through all contingencies, analyze all possible reactions and outcomes. The risk would be great, no matter who he went to. No one in all the realms held any loyalty to him anymore. No one in Asgard would be willing to help him, and even in the other realms, there was likely a reward for his capture. He would have to offer a better reward, or else mete out sufficient torment. The carrot or the stick, they call it here. Loki thought the stick might hold more appeal at this point, for him at least.
He could reach most of the realms on his own; that was not a problem. He merely had to first reach Asgard to do so; that was also not a problem. He merely needed to decide. Where. Who.
He opened the top desk drawer, pulled out his watch, and strapped it over his wrist, hiding the scar there. It was still morning. He could go to the Computer Room, scan and approve Jane's e-mails, and bring a stack of paper back with him. His planning would be very thorough this time.
The printers in the Computer Room, though, were out of paper, and he didn't know where a replacement supply could be found. Once Jane's e-mail was taken care of, including a relieved message from Erik Selvig – a follow-up to the VOIP call she'd received from him, whose transcript he also read – he went down the corridor to the Science Lab, where there were not only printers with paper but random scattered notepads. A notepad, he thought, would be better than loose paper.
He strode in toward the storage shelves where he was certain he'd seen notepads before, and was surprised to see Jane working there – somehow he'd assumed she would have gone out to the DSL. Jane was facing more or less in his direction, but staring hard at something on her computer screen and chewing on a pencil; she hadn't noticed him. He kept his movements quiet, hoping he could get in and out without her ever knowing he'd been there.
"Hey, Lucas!"
Loki froze for a split second. So much for his hopes. It wasn't Jane who'd called his other name, though, it was – he turned – yes, it was Austin, rapidly approaching from his desk, a little further away. "Good morning," Loki said, spotting and grabbing a notepad with lined yellow paper. He glanced over at Jane, who had certainly noticed him now.
"Haven't seen you in a while, buddy," Austin said, slapping and lightly squeezing his arm for a moment. "Listen, I've started setting up a regular darts tournament. We had seven guys last time. We'd really like you to join us. Friday night? About 7:30. Some guys, some beers, some darts. You in?"
"I don't-"
"That sounds like a great idea," Jane blurted out, interrupting Loki's refusal. "Lucas, you were telling me how much fun you had the night of the sunset, when you guys played darts. You've been so tense lately, you should join in. It'd be good for you."
I've been tense lately? Loki pasted a smile onto his face. "Yes, it would. Unfortunately, I've injured my shoulder, and I'm afraid I wouldn't be any good." And that, dearest Jane, is again the truth.
"You been to the doc? Ronny did something to his shoulder a few weeks ago, doc's had him on PT. He said he's getting some strength back."
"I haven't…perhaps I should," Loki said. He had been considering giving Midgardian healing a try.
"Yeah, definitely. Well, listen, if you can't get back in with us this Friday, we're trying to keep it going every week, so maybe next week? Whenever you're able. You were pretty good. We'd like to have you."
"I'll do my best," Loki said with a nod and a friendly smile. He would not have time for darts. Austin went back to his desk, and Loki gripped his notepad and strode toward the door. Just before he got there, he heard a chair pushing back and rapid footsteps. He let his eyes fall closed for a moment, then continued on and went out into the corridor, where he waited for her to follow. He remembered once, back at McMurdo, thinking of those footfalls as the sound of victory. He wasn't sure what to think of them as now, but the word "victory" did not come to mind.
"Are you really going to go to Club Med?" Jane asked when she got there.
"Yes, I think I will, in the absence of real treatment."
Jane frowned. "I better go with you."
"Is it normal on Midgard that one must be accompanied to seek healing?"
"You have a stab wound, Loki. Lucas. How exactly are you going to explain getting it? People don't go around stabbing each other at the South Pole."
"I'll explain that the injury is an old one. And I suspect that in your terms it does look like it's old. My healing is still faster than yours."
"All right, if you say so. But…how will you know what to say?" she asked. Jane was afraid she could be staring at an impending disaster. If Dr. Ellison realized something was off, and Loki felt backed into a corner…
"Do you think I don't know how to talk to your healer?"
"Yes, I think you don't know how to talk to our doctor."
"I know you call your healers, such as they are, 'doctors,' but now that you know who I am, I see no need to adjust my vocabulary in your presence. I can assure you I will refer to this person as a 'doctor' when I'm with her or anyone else."
"Okay, but just so you know, everybody else here refers to her as the 'doc.'"
Loki looked up at the pipes running along the ceiling for a moment. "So I noticed. And you call your healing rooms 'Club Med.' Is there anything else you would like to ensure that I know?"
"Actually we don't," Jane said with a sigh. "We call our…healing rooms…hospitals, or clinics. I don't know exactly what a healing room is. Just the one here is called Club Med. Like…a joke, I guess. I don't know. Otherwise, I guess you'd say it's a clinic."
"A healing room is a place where sick and injured people are healed of their sickness and injury," Loki said with a broad smirk. Mostly to hide the fact that he really had thought that Club Med simply meant 'healing room.'
"I would have never guessed. Thanks for enlightening me," Jane responded sharply, then grimaced. She wasn't supposed to be biting at any of his constant baiting. "Why didn't you get that treated while you were on" – she glanced around, the only other person in the corridor was down at the other end by the galley – "Asgard?"
"I tried. But they were busy, and I was-" I was unwelcome, if they'd known who I really was. "I was in a hurry, and this wound was not easily treated."
"Because of the magic."
"Precisely."
"Okay. Well…if you're sure you'll be all right on your own…"
"I will."
Jane nodded and reached out for the doorknob, hoping for the best.
"Jane…"
She paused and turned back. "Yes?"
"I do have one question. About your strange mortal concepts."
She took a deep breath. "Mm-hm?"
"What is 'PT'?"
Jane nodded and smiled. "Physical therapy. It's when-"
"That is sufficient. I understand," he said, turning and heading toward Club Med…the clinic…before Jane could say anything else.
Jane watched him go and wondered how much pride it had cost him to ask. Then she wondered if he'd ever let his guard down around her like that before, let his "you ignorant mortals" arrogance slip a little. She thought back to their return from Asgard. "I just need to think, Jane. Just let me be." That was a person talking to a person. That was Loki genuinely bothered about something. What happened while he was on Asgard?
/
/
The day had passed peacefully on Asgard – peacefully in that there was no fighting.
Prisons were hastily constructed for holding the masses of prisoners taken in the second wave of attackers the day before, primitive cells which remained overcrowded no matter how many more were built, it seemed.
Those citizens who had lost homes in the Fire Giants' attack were given quarters in the city, while those living in other isolated farming communities and villages were urged to also relocate. Tyr led discussions – which frequently included shouting and broken furniture – with Hergils, Maeva, Volstagg, Bragi, and others on Asgard's war strategy, while Odin listened and weighed their words. Opinion remained split on whether Asgard should take the war to her enemies or wait, defend, and hope for positive results from those Bragi had sent out to the other realms.
Sif and Fandral spent much of the day working with Hogun, whose leg bones were finally sufficiently reformed and muscles strengthened to stand on his own. They sparred in one of the many empty training grounds, Hogun looking grimmer than ever as he swung his mace in pent-up frustration and grew steadier on his feet.
Jolgeir and Huskol, the former and current Chief Palace Einherjar, spent the day analyzing everything known about Loki's presence on Asgard and Svartalfheim, separately interviewing each person who'd interacted with him again, asking additional questions, and speaking with each person who'd attended the previous night's dinner and meeting. The process was particularly awkward when Huskol had to interview Jolgeir, for the men had been given opposing tasks: Huskol was to present a case against Loki, and Jolgeir was to present a case for him. Clerks of Law would have normally been given such tasks, but the information was deemed too sensitive to be handled by anyone other than those already made aware of the issue.
After dinner – a raucous affair in the Feasting Hall – Huskol and Jolgeir proceeded to the top floor of the palace's private wing, to Odin and Frigga's inner sanctum. In uncomfortable silence they sat beside each other at a long table decorated with inlaid exotic hardwoods, rising again in respect when Odin, Frigga, and Thor – who'd visited Jolgeir early in the morning then split his time between Tyr's meetings and visiting the warriors' encampments – walked in. The king and queen sat down opposite the two Einherjar, while Thor took a chair at the end of the table, his father to his left and Jolgeir to his right.
"Your vision improves already, Jolgeir," Thor said as the two men sat. He could tell the difference in the eye contact Jolgeir made, and in his obvious reaction to motion.
"It does. I had two additional treatments today, and I can now clearly make out shapes, in reasonable detail when there is sufficient light."
"That is encouraging news," Frigga said with a warm smile. Jolgeir had saved both of her sons' lives when they were young, and she hoped that as much of his former life as possible could be returned to him.
"Indeed," Odin said with a nod, but he was tired after a long day of presiding over bickering and making difficult decisions and did not wish to delay this matter, much as he'd dreaded having to deal with it. "Huskol, Jolgeir, have you had adequate time to consider the facts?"
The Einherjar glanced at each other. "Yes and no, Your Majesties. The facts are so fragmentary that we could analyze them for the next millennium, but I believe we have done all we can," Jolgeir said.
"I am in agreement," Huskol added with a nod.
"That is all we can ask. Huskol, proceed with the case against Loki."
Huskol hesitated, looking down at his hands on the table for a moment, before meeting the All-Father's steel gaze. "I am sorry, I cannot."
Odin narrowed his eye but held his tongue; Thor watched in confusion, waiting for an explanation after dragging himself to this meeting and preparing himself to hear Loki maligned yet again…perhaps with good reason; Frigga alone spoke up.
"You believe him innocent?" she asked, swallowing hard and putting great effort into maintaining her neutral expression.
"I would not say that, my queen. I believe Prince Loki to be at the heart of this matter…but not in the way I initially did."
"Explain yourself," Odin asked warily. Frigga had told him that Huskol opposed Loki and Jolgeir favored him; their roles had been assigned accordingly. If Huskol had examined the evidence and found he could not make the case he himself believed to be true…then perhaps things did not look as bad for Loki as Frigga had feared.
"My task was to show that Prince Loki is behind the alliance against us. The evidence we have heard does not support this. Nearly a year passed after he left Asgard before he appeared on Midgard, attempting to subjugate that realm. Yet mere days passed between his banishment and the journey of the Svartalf delegation to Jotunheim, which we now believe to have marked the beginning of the alliance. He would have had to find his way off Midgard immediately upon arrival and worked swiftly to come up with this entire plot and convince Svartalfheim to join him. And I can find no logic that would support him being the instigator of this plot, when the other realms demand he be sent to Jotunheim for punishment as one of their conditions for peace. If Loki is living on Svartalfheim among his allies and our enemies, this is essentially an impossible demand for us and an illogical one for them, while the other demands simply require us to remove items that are in our safekeeping and hand them over. The only possibility I could imagine was that as part of some elaborate plan, Loki was to allow himself to be captured by us, thus allowing him to somehow work from the inside against us. Yet Loki clearly had no intention of allowing himself to be captured; in fact he attacked any who attempted to do so."
In other words he defended himself, Frigga thought, glancing around briefly at the others, hoping they saw this as well.
"Loki did try to steal the tesseract; the evidence is quite solid on this point. But I now believe he acted alone. This attempt falls outside the pattern of the alliance's tactics. Tyr suggested that everything else may be a distraction for Loki to steal the tesseract. But if this were the case, Loki should have tried to steal it right after the explosion in the throne room, when our warriors' discipline collapsed and chaos reigned. Why a couple of days ago? Yes, we faced two serious attacks simultaneously, but our response was orderly, even more so because of Loki's own warning about the Felingard Forest. It strikes me as a crime of opportunity. Loki was here, saw a chance to try to take something we know from past actions that he desires, and he leapt at it."
"He was unable to resist the temptation," Thor offered. Like a man with an addiction.
"We are not to offer comment until the presentations are over. Keep silent unless you have a question," Odin said, reminding Thor, who nodded, of what he should already have known.
"However," Huskol continued, "if he was not the instigator, if he is now acting on his own, this does not mean that Prince Loki may not still be involved somehow with the other realms, or perhaps with some individuals within their alliance, or – and this is the case I will make today – that he was allied with them, recruited to their cause or joining them of his own initiative, but has since had a falling out with them. Thieves lack honor and will turn on each other in the darkness of night."
"Thieves," Odin thought with distaste, wondering why, of all the things Loki was, of all the things Loki had done, hearing him called a thief was so repugnant, so shameful.
"With that interpretation in mind, I present a new piece of evidence. I asked two of my men to search the servant Vigdis's chambers for anything unusual or out of place. They found this" – he withdrew from his pocket a thick black box that hummed with the vibration of magic – "adhered to the underside of her bed frame." He opened the box and placed it in the center of the table; Thor had to stand and lean forward to see it from his position. A blue gem, perhaps the size of a baby's palm, glowed against the black fabric it rested on. "We are not sure what it is, or what it does, so I would urge you not to leave the box open long. Maeva fashioned the box to contain the energy the gem is apparently emitting."
"We have seen enough," Thor said, stretching across the table and snapping the lid shut. "I- Father, may I?"
"Yes, speak, if you have knowledge of this."
"I…I do not have specific knowledge of it. But it reminds me of the gem, or crystal, whatever it was, that powered the scepter Loki had when he arrived on Midgard. He used that scepter as a weapon that emitted energy blasts, and also used it to enslave minds. I don't know what else it may have been capable of. I did not know the Midgardian terms used to describe it, but I understood that it bore some similarity to the tesseract itself."
Odin nodded thoughtfully, for this discovery had implications he hoped one of the two presenters would note. "Jolgeir, you will work with Heimdall to determine a secure location to house this. I do not want it in the palace, and I do not want it in the same location as the Ice Casket or the tesseract. You…are…"
"Yes, All-Father," Jolgeir said. "I am able."
"Continue, Huskol."
"I believe, and Maeva agrees, that this may be the source of the nightmares Vigdis reported, which the Dark Elf Brokk supposedly cured. The Einherjar posted in her room within the Healing Room reported observing no nightmares as she slept there."
"Nightmares?" Thor asked, then listened as Huskol repeated what Vigdis had said. He'd only caught part of that story, what filtered in through his own thoughts, and now he wondered what kind of king he would be when he couldn't even pay attention during an assembly directly related to Asgard's security. He glanced at his father and recalled that Odin had avoided it entirely, and decided that perhaps there were allowances for such things. There were advisors and chief Einherjar and war strategists for a reason; he could not do it all, not even Odin All-Father could, he realized now, though not long ago he would have thought the idea a preposterous insult to his father.
"The fact that you can connect this stone to Loki only bolsters my case," Huskol said, and Thor glowered. "If Loki was allied with the Dark Elves early on, but then double-crossed them, then it is logical that they would demand his punishment, but at the hands of another, so as not to reveal their initial alliance. We – and they, perhaps through Vigdis's treason – know what he did to Jotunheim; there is no doubt the Frost Giants would deliver harsh justice indeed."
They will never have the chance, Thor thought, glancing in challenge at his father, who stared stonily ahead.
"I will now outline the evidence you have heard, in support of my case. Loki clearly has insider knowledge of the plot against us, and appears to be playing both sides. It is not a new strategy among those of ill-repute. He knew about Vigdis, and he knew about the attack at the Felingard Forest, and he worked with Brokk against us concerning Vigdis; this allows him to later claim he was on whichever side proves most advantageous for him."
Frigga listened and tried not to let her reaction to everything Huskol said spill in to her personal feelings toward him – he was after all only doing precisely what he was told to do; Thor listened and began to feel sick to his stomach, for he alone of those at the table had seen the evil Loki had wrought on Midgard and found it not too difficult a leap to accept Huskol's version of events; Odin listened and weighed everything Huskol said while waiting patiently for Jolgeir to present an alternative view.
"I must admit," Jolgeir began when his time came, "I welcome Huskol's cogent presentation, for I expected a much larger gap between his and mine. Prince Loki clearly has some involvement in this plot; the key piece of evidence for this is his knowledge of Vigdis's role and his foreknowledge of Muspelheim's attack at the forest. However, 'involved' does not necessarily indicate any proof of guilt. I also became 'involved,' when Loki revealed this information to me. Your Majesties, I will make the case that Loki is not acting against us and is not loyal to the other realms, but has simply become entangled in something greater than he.
"Prince Loki seems to have gone to the Healing Room for a legitimate injury. We can identify no other intent in his visit. We can speculate all day on other motives, but the only facts are that he had an injury that required a healer, that he allowed and even encouraged a trainee healer to attempt to treat him, that he encountered me most likely by accident, that he gave me information that was useful to Asgard. If he were acting against us, why give us that information? Why come here for healing? The wound was not a critical one, why not go to one of the other realms for treatment? Perhaps he hoped for information – he said as much to me in our second meeting – but surely there are lower-profile and less important individuals our enemies could have sent for such a task. Do we send Prince Thor in disguise to Vanaheim to spread discontent with the war? No, we send unknown common people who can speak without attracting undue attention, and we keep Thor here to fight our enemies, assist in our planning, and encourage our warriors."
Thor felt uncomfortable as everyone's eyes turned to him, for he had not expected to be brought into these presentations, but he realized that Jolgeir was absolutely right. The idea of him being sent to another realm to gain information, even to a location he knew well, instead of remaining in Asgard was absurd. He remembered the guilt and discomfort he'd felt each time he'd gone to Midgard since tensions began rising, especially the last time, once war was already underway. No, Loki would not be assigned or willingly undertake such a menial and potentially useless task when he could be of much greater use elsewhere.
"After further consulting with Eir, that stab wound, as described to her, was highly unlikely to have come from Midgard, and she has seen nothing like it on Asgard, either. Therefore, he must have gotten it on Svartalfheim, or perhaps one of the other realms. If Prince Loki is allied against us, why was he stabbed in such an unusual, and one might say personal, way, on one of the realms in that alliance? His reaction in a Svartalf tavern suggests that he himself killed the mentioned Svartalf warrior. I find it likely that he was stabbed on Svartalfheim, and somehow escaped back to Asgard, where he sought treatment, and perhaps information. And if he were in fact in opposition to rather than in alliance with those seven realms, would he not also seek information upon his return here? When you were banished, Prince Thor, did you not also long for word of how Asgard fared, knowing what had happened on Jotunheim?"
Thor opened his mouth to answer, for yes, of course he had longed for word – word which Loki had brought and warped and crushed him with – but he quickly closed it again, understanding an answer was not actually needed. The answer was obvious. To all of them.
"When I thought back upon the prince's second visit, the one Huskol took great pains to highlight, I realized that it was when I told him I would help him get out of whatever he was involved in that everything changed. That he changed. He felt accused, and I believe he had not expected it. And while I thank Huskol for his concern, for I know it is meant with friendship, I cannot make of it what he does. I was alone with him, and he had made himself invisible. And I…perhaps you've noticed that I haven't any arms. I'm confident I'll adapt in time, but…lying there in that bed…I was rather defenseless. I don't know what Loki wanted in the end, and he didn't even seem to hear me for a while, I suspect he simply lost control. But I do know that he didn't want to kill me. If he did, I would be dead."
Thor heard his mother draw in a shaky breath, looked at his father and saw a muscle trembling around his jawline. He caught himself nodding amidst a swelling tide of emotion and swallowed hard; he was not supposed to show encouragement or discouragement to either side. But this was not a property dispute, this was his brother. And Thor felt as though Jolgeir had just given his brother back to him.
"We have no evidence that he has been anywhere other than Midgard until recently, no sightings of him until he used the hidden gateway to Svartalfheim. If he has been traveling freely among the realms, why suddenly use that passageway, for the first time? We have red cloth from Midgard appearing on the bifrost just yesterday. If he had left Midgard months ago, why would he still wear clothing from there? I believe he left Midgard only recently, perhaps not long before his journey to Svartalfheim. I believe he then found out that he's wanted, leading to a scuffle in which he was stabbed and he killed a Svartalf warrior. And I would point out that although he fought a number of Asgardians, he killed none.
"While on Svartalfheim, I believe he learned that we had a traitor named Vigdis in our midst and that an attack on the Felingard Forest was imminent. If his goal were to somehow manipulate us or control us or distract us by providing us with information, why did not do this again on his second visit? I submit that he had no further information simply because he had not been back to Svartalfheim.
"Brokk is obviously a key player in this plot. I met with Vigdis and am convinced she speaks the truth about him. But, as to the claim that Loki is in league with Brokk, for that we have only our enemy's word, passed to a naïve young servant who believed everything she was told. I believe this is, quite simply, a lie, told either to win Vigdis's trust or out of spite, to implicate Loki if Vigdis should be discovered.
"The discovery of a stone in Vigdis's chambers, similar to one Prince Loki arrived with on Midgard – this is curious. It makes me think there is more at play than we have yet seen. It further convinces me of my position, that he is not working against us but has merely become entangled in something, most likely unwillingly."
When Jolgeir finished there were no questions – Thor wasn't sure he could have put an intelligent sentence together at the moment – and the Einherjar were dismissed. Thor noted that Jolgeir rose without assistance and kept his head down, carefully watching what was in front of him. Before they reached the door Thor pushed his chair back and followed them, catching them just outside in the corridor.
"Thank you, both of you. You must have worked very hard to accomplish so much in one day."
"I was glad to assist, my prince. I only wish we had more information…there is so much uncertainty," Huskol said.
"I as well," Jolgeir said. "And though the task was a solemn one, I was grateful not to be sitting useless in a bed all day. Please allow me to be of service in any way I can. I'm unused to being so idle. I hope we have helped."
"You have, of course you have. Both of you painted clear pictures, as clear as is possible, Huskol's not as bad as I'd feared, and Jolgeir…Loki…doesn't make things easy. I was beginning to lose my faith in him. Thank you." He put a hand on Jolgeir's shoulder and squeezed hard.
Jolgeir shook his head. "Neither of you ever made things easy. I would expect nothing less."
When Thor turned back to the library his father was right behind him, his mother further away, staring into an empty fireplace. "That was encouraging, wasn't it? Jolgeir was very convincing. Everything he said made sense. Loki told me he didn't like Midgardian clothing. He wouldn't be wearing it for months. And he would go to Svartalfheim. If he didn't want to be here…that is where he would go." A few times, at least, Loki did that…
"Be wary, Son. Huskol's case also made sense. We heard Jolgeir's last so it leaves the strongest impression, and Jolgeir's case feeds your hopes. But the fact remains, Loki is at the heart of this entire plot, for everything now happening can be traced back to his actions against Jotunheim. He did put a knife to Jolgeir's throat, and did draw blood. He did try to steal the tesseract for his own purposes. He is volatile and full of rage. Jolgeir said he lost control. If Loki cannot control himself, then we cannot predict what he will or won't do, and we cannot sit back and think that he is no cause for concern."
"He is cause for concern," Frigga said, crossing the room and ignoring Thor to confront Odin. "I am concerned for him. You should never have sent him away."
"What would you have had me do? Which of the other options did you prefer? Sleep for eternity? Death? The very same thing the other realms now demand, relinquishing him to be the Frost Giants' prisoner? Which one, Frigga?!"
"None! None of them!" Frigga shouted back through the tears that had welled in her eyes as Odin spoke. "You are the king, Odin! You don't have to do what anyone else says. No one suggested you send him to Midgard. It was your idea, and Thor's. You could have simply kept him here. Given us time. He needs someone to talk to. We could have talked to him. I could have talked to him. I could have-"
"You tried, Frigg. Did he listen? What did he say to you? Nothing. He wasn't going to listen. He's angry. He's angry at us and leaving him locked away to simply grow angrier wasn't going to change anything."
"And this is so much better? Now that we have no idea where he is, what kind of danger he's in? And we have no way to protect him?"
"He isn't a child," Odin said as Thor went to his mother, unsettled by her reddened tear-streaked face, intending to put an arm around her, to try to comfort her somehow. "If he does not wish protection we cannot force it-"
He stopped, startled, when Frigga wrenched herself away from Thor's arms and stormed out of the room. It was unlike her, really, his soft-spoken strong wife. But everyone had a limit, and Frigga had been pushed closer and closer toward hers ever since Loki discovered the truth of his parentage.
Thor stared after her, wondering if he should follow, then turned to his father, who was lost in his own thoughts.
"Loki will tear this family apart," Odin whispered, his eyes unfocused.
/
I missed releasing a chapter on the anniversary of the first words of this story, but as "ladyblakeney99" just pointed out to me, today's the one-year anniversary of Beneath's debut on this website. I still am truly amazed and honored that so many of you have stuck with this for soooo long. I would love for this story to be completed by the time Thor 2 comes out and plunges me into AU-land. But it doesn't work like that, it will be finished when I reach the end.
Thanks to all of you for reading, reviewing, etc., you help keep me going on those days when I'd rather not write, or when I'd rather write something else (those days aren't frequent, but they do happen). Extra thanks to "names are hard guys" this go-round for fabulous analysis of the evidence against Loki; Jolgeir's "Why did Loki come here for healing?" bit was actually prompted by her, as I think, "Wait, why didn't I think of that?"
Teasers for Ch. 57, possibly titled "Weight": Odin, Frigga, and Thor further discuss Loki, and put a few things together; Loki isn't impressed with Midgardian medicine; Loki continues to flaunt Midgardian norms in appropriate clothing...as well as test Jane's ability to stick to her plan.
Excerpt (and...I really feel bad for Thor here):
"Where would he go next?" Frigga asked after a moment passed in silence. "If he attempted this and failed."
Thor shook his head slowly, trying to imagine where his brother might go, to whom he might turn, and could think of nothing. He didn't understand Loki anymore, couldn't anticipate his actions. "He could be anywhere in the Nine Realms."