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Beneath

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Five – Brothers

"Why are you so eager for us to take your polluted Casket?" Helblindi asked, his tone different than Thor had heard before. Idle curiosity had no place in this small chamber of ice; Helblindi was growing suspicious. And Loki was…Thor didn't know what Loki was doing. "Not as foreign as you think?" But Loki had fallen silent, so Thor, still wearing a makeshift blindfold, assumed that Loki was not going to do something as foolish as announce to this group that he was like them a Frost Giant, and, by the way, like them born a son of Laufey.

Since Loki wasn't answering – and he hadn't heard any sort of struggle – he assumed also that Loki had chosen not to answer, and perhaps meant for him to, instead. "The Nine Realms are embroiled in war the likes of which they have never known. We are eager for a return to peace." Thor winced as soon as the words were out; a return to the pre-war circumstances was surely not what the Jotuns wanted, nor even what Asgard was offering. For the Jotuns, what was being offered would be far better than that. Before he could think of an appropriate way to clarify, though, he heard a gasp, and realized in the clarity and volume of that gasp how very silent the chamber had become. Something was going on, and with a spike of apprehension he reached up for his blindfold and yanked it off, throwing the worn and dirty rag to the ground.

He immediately sought out Loki, turning and finding himself looking at the back of Loki's head. The back of Loki's bald, blue head. His heart sank as he next quickly surveyed the giants' reactions and stances; their brawl was only minutes ago and they looked ready to jump right back into it – to jump right on Loki – if they could only first figure out what sort of game he was playing. Whatever plans he and Loki had had before, even whatever plans Loki had had and not deigned to tell him, this he knew was far, far afield. Loki was improvising, and in a spectacularly unexpected and dangerous way.

Loki, meanwhile, stood in silence, waiting for their reaction to help guide his. His stomach clenched in something approaching nausea, his thickened fingernails dug into his palms, he narrowed his eyes against the increased brightness of the chamber and the scattered oddly glowing washed-out hues in the ice, he began to sweat underneath the layers of clothing, and his skin tingled from the humiliation. And the thrill. The acknowledgement that there was a thrill, small and perverse though it may be. There was surely no greater chaos than this. The only unfortunate part was that it was no illusion, even if the fact that it wasn't only contributed to the thrill.

"What is the meaning of this? Are you attempting to mock us? You are a shame upon your realm," Byleister said.

Loki tightened his jaw and did not respond. Byleister knew nothing about him except liar-destroyer-scourge, but set eyes upon him in Frost Giant form and called him a shame. I am the one with all the knowledge here, Loki reminded himself. I am the one with the power. "This is no mockery," he said, though it was, it really was. Fate's eternal mockery of him.

"You think that because you can make yourself look like one of us, that somehow makes the magic you placed on the Casket ours? You have missed a detail, Lie-Bringer. You need many more inches, and many more muscles as well."

Byleister snorted. "Father was right. You Aesir are so soft-skinned. Like babies. You remain children through your old age."

"I'm told I was born small for a giant. Do you know my birth date?"

"Why?" Helblindi asked. "Is it today? Do you wish us to celebrate it? No more foolish games. Reihal, blindfold them again and this time bind them, too. They're stalling for some reason." His gaze suddenly shifted to Byleister before settling on Loki again and advancing on him. "Are the Aesir massing for attack?" He looked to Thor then. "They're tracking your location? You're leading them here?"

It wasn't quite fear, this new expression of Helblindi's, Loki thought, but it was a pensiveness, an unrest, perhaps the closest these giants ever got to fear. He supposed Helblindi didn't fancy being buried in a cave-in orchestrated by Asgard, but if they would apply a bare amount of logic they should know that he and Thor probably wouldn't enjoy it any more than the Frost Giants, and in fact considerably less.

"We're well-hidden here," Byleister said, though he, too, looked unsettled. "But we can't risk it."

"Prepare for evacuation," Helblindi announced to the room at large. "Reihal, I told you-"

"Did you not hear what he said?" Reihal interrupted, having made no move to take the blindfold from Loki's clenched fist. "His birthdate. Asgard's second prince was born at the end of the Aesir War."

"So?" Byleister said, going over to Thor and picking up the blindfold he'd dropped on the floor.

Helblindi, though, stayed where he was. Loki watched as Helblindi's gaze fell heavily on him, raking slowly over every bit of his exposed skin, which was mostly his head. Loki had not felt this nearly unbearable degree of self-consciousness since first waking up and realizing he was in this form after the reciprocal stab wound at the South Pole. Helblindi knew. "Are your people massing for attack?"

"No," Loki said immediately, firmly.

Thor, having seen how Helblindi had inspected Loki, returned to Loki's side. "Asgard has not attacked in this war. We are only defending ourselves. And of all those we might choose to attack…only you and Byleister have not attacked us. You're the last two we would assail."

"Then there will be no evacuation. The rest of you, go, report that the truce will hold a little longer and speak not one word of what has been discussed here. Byleister, you stay."

"I don't answer to you anymore."

"Shut up and listen to me for once in your life. And Taulist, find a healer."

Byleister shook his head but gestured for his two guards to go, following the injured Taulist out directly through the ice – another illusion. Reihal was the last to go; Loki turned just enough to see the giant's lingering look before he, too, stepped through the ice.

"Father always said you were a fool," Byleister said as soon as they were alone. "You play along with their game as though you were one of theirs. Is that it? Do you harbor a secret love for the Aesir?"

"I don't know what you think with, but it obviously isn't your brain. You never listen to anyone's words but your own, and yours are not nearly as clever as you think. Look at him."

Both Helblindi and Byleister turned from each other to face Loki, who had during the exchange changed back to his far more familiar form. He smiled at them, a neutral, formal smile that Loki nevertheless knew how to make look condescending.

"He's a sorcerer," Byleister said. "So what? We have sorcerers, too."

"Byleister! Think!" Helblindi urged, flicking a finger sharply against his head. "He was born at the end of the Aesir War. Abnormal size at birth. And did you see his face?"

"Shall I assist?" Loki asked, for Byleister looked as though he'd have to be hit in the head with it before he got it. He'd wanted the leap to be made without his further prompting; he was satisfied that one of them had done so, two if he counted Reihal, who apparently had more intelligence than the rest of that group combined. "I was born Laufeyson. My size was unacceptable and I was cast out, and became Odinson instead. I am Loki of Asgard. But I was born Loki of Jotunheim. So no, the magic on the Casket of Ancient Winters," he said, using their name for it, "is actually not foreign at all." Never mind that it was actually Maeva's pure-blooded Aesir magic, with just a bit of Loki's touch worked into it. They didn't need to know that. And he doubted that either of them were thinking much about the Casket at the moment; before Loki was halfway finished it was clear that Byleister had finally managed to connect the dots carefully laid out into screaming words.

"You're…" Byleister looked to Helblindi. "He's…"

"So. You not only killed our father, you killed your own father. Your own people."

Loki tried to keep the scorn from his face at that phrase, "your own father, your own people," but his revulsion was too great to fully succeed. "I don't consider Laufey my father. But yes, I killed him, as he stood over Odin when he was asleep, poised to strike a death blow. Should I have stood by and allowed it? Allowed your father to murder mine in such a fashion?"

"You treasonous, lying dung-heap," Byleister growled. "Do you think he didn't tell me? You lured him there in the first place! You planned it all! Death is far too kind a judgement for you. Even an eternal flame would be too gentle!"

"Loki," Thor said, watching the renewed escalation of Byleister's anger with concern. This revelation wasn't helping matters. Loki wasn't helping matters. And he wasn't listening; his attention was fixed on Byleister, and if Loki had some sort of devious but ingenious plan, he was hiding it very very well.

"You'll forgive me if I find it difficult to muster regret. He abandoned me as an infant to die a slow death. Laufey's at least was quick. And no one forced him to sneak into Asgard. I gave him a choice. An opportunity to choose to be wise or foolish. Unfortunately for him, he chose to sneak into Asgard and slay a sleeping man like a coward."

"Damn," Thor muttered, bracing himself for the attack he knew was coming from the uncontrolled rage on Byleister's face, the deep breath as he drew his body up to strike. It didn't take long. Byleister swung a fist down at Loki, opening it at the last moment as a dagger formed there, and a knife that Loki had to Thor's knowledge not even touched before now was in his hand and driving upward. They clashed in a tangle of striking limbs, but the odds were now even, Laufeysons against Odinsons. Helblindi grabbed onto Byleister to try to pull him back, but he wasn't committed to his peacekeeping; when an opening appeared he struck Loki in the face. Loki staggered backward a step and Thor stepped in swinging hard for Byleister's throat. Helblindi pulled him back and Thor missed, hitting his chest instead, but the blow winded the giant and threw off his next strike.

Loki ducked around Thor as he swung at Byleister, too focused on the fight to be annoyed at Thor's involvement. His knife had sunk into flesh, an arm, he thought, but that wouldn't do much damage. He knew where to strike. But by the time he was in position Byleister had recovered from Thor's fist and twisted away from Loki's perfectly aimed knife. Byleister threw his shoulder into Loki's, seizing his wrist and trying to force his arm into a position that would snap the bones. Loki let his muscles go slack, dropping the knife, and Byleister overcompensated, falling into Loki, who spun around and retrieved a second knife from his sleeve, this time managing to sink it into Byleister's chest as the giant tried to grab for him again and raked a hand down his back. Byleister's other hand wrapped around his head and pulled hard, straining Loki's neck, but when he struck out again with his knife, Byleister was being dragged away.

Loki set his jaw and drew back his arm to throw the knife, but a hand clamped down around his wrist; Loki swung around and struck out with his left fist, slamming it into Thor's jaw. He hadn't realized it was Thor who had grasped his wrist, but his surprise didn't slow him down. He tried to swing again, but this time Thor turned his shoulder into the blow and Loki's fist uselessly struck armor.

"Stop it, Loki. It's over," Thor said, all his attention on Loki and his knives now that he didn't have to worry about the Frost Giants.

"It's not over. Let go of me," Loki said through barely parted lips, seething. He would have gladly hit Thor again but he had more important targets. He twisted away from Thor as much as he was able with Thor's grip unyielding around his wrist, and saw one of them was just standing there, impassive, not at all looking as though he'd just been thirsting for blood. Cheekbones, shoulders, collarbone…this one was neither Byleister nor Helblindi. Thor's hold finally loosened and Loki jerked away, better able to see now. The two who had disappeared behind the interior doors had come out again; one was restraining Byleister and speaking in a hushed rumble, and the other was making himself a physical barrier separating Loki and Thor from Helblindi and Byleister. Loki's fist squeezed around the handle of his knife, eyeing the two giants behind their protector.

"Are you all right?" Thor asked quietly, putting a hand to Loki's shoulder and trying to nudge him back.

"No," Loki bit out angrily, reluctantly sheathing the knife back into the strips of leather around his left arm. "I dislike not finishing what I started," he said, loudly enough for the others to hear.

"I'll kill you, you vomitous little-"

The rest of the words – Byleister's, Loki assumed – were muffled. Loki had heard enough. He started forward but Thor got in front of him and put both hands on his shoulders. "What are you doing?"

"What are you doing? Loki, control yourself. This will achieve nothing but getting us all killed."

"Get your hands off me now," Loki growled, eyes finally falling on Thor's familiar blue ones.

"Not until you calm down."

"You never even touched Mjolnir, did you?" He leaned forward, stretching his neck out over the hands still braced against his chest to speak in Thor's ear. "You're the one who's turned into a coward."

Thor's fingers dug into the leather lapels of Loki's surcoat to prevent himself from reacting. "This isn't like you, Brother," he whispered. The Jotuns were not far away, but were engaged in muted conversation of their own which Thor couldn't make out; he hoped the same was true of his words to Loki. "You used to be the voice of reason when I was playing the fool."

"The voice of reason found out he was a Frost Giant. My perspective has changed." He was still angry, still wanted to fight, to kill, but his breathing was returning to normal and his field of vision was widening. He was calming. He had lost control. Utterly and completely.

Thor watched Loki and waited. And a new fear rose up. Loki had hidden his plans, deliberately misleading him along the way. Maybe there was even more he had kept from him. He let go of Loki – he was no longer tensed to charge forward like a mad bull – and leaned in close, dropping his voice even further. "Is this your plan? Is this what you wanted? To kill them like you killed Laufey?"

Loki exhaled sharply. "No." He took a few steps backwards, averting his eyes from Thor's, casting a look at the four Frost Giants now all clustered together and occasionally stealing a look back at their visitors. No, it wasn't his plan. Killing those last two vestiges of Laufey would be immensely satisfying, but it would leave Asgard with nothing more than the hope that they could humiliate Gullveig sufficiently to provoke his people to overthrow him, and the further hope that that would be sufficient to collapse the alliance. He had just done something stupid. He should have manipulated, placated, said what needed to be said. He was good at that. But it wasn't what he wanted. Deep down, he wanted to maim and kill.

He looked back at Thor, who had turned now to be able to keep an eye on everyone in the chamber. Thor, who lusted after battle so much that when a real one broke out, often started by him, he entered a berserker rage and everything but the battle, including common sense and reason, disappeared from his mind. He wondered now if that was what he'd just experienced. Loathing and contempt and the desire to draw blood, lots of it, had made him forget entirely why he was here, what his goal was. It had eclipsed all rational thought. He blinked heavily, trying to clear his head of the remnants of the fog. He did have a goal. Convince the Frost Giants to accept the Ice Casket, yes with an added restriction but no "filthy Aesir magic" involved. No, merely magic applied by the man who killed your father, that's all. Surely you see no problem with that. Loki's eyes fluttered closed for a moment. I called him a coward. I called their dead father a coward. He had to find a way to salvage this. He had no idea what that way might be, but he wouldn't give up until he found it.

"I lost control," he muttered to Thor. "It won't happen again."

Thor nodded. He wasn't sure to what extent he could trust Loki in this, or even how much Loki could trust himself in this, but he had little choice. "The guards from behind the doors didn't attack us, and they haven't thrown us out, so there's still hope." He looked around for the rag of a blindfold he'd thrown to the floor, spotted it to Loki's left, then retrieved it and handed it to Loki. "You're bleeding," he said, pointing to the side of Loki's head.

Loki took the cloth with a wrinkled nose – it was dirty, including with dried Frost Giant blood – and dabbed it lightly at the side of his head. It came away red. Blood dripped languidly down the side of his neck, he realized. He hadn't even felt it. He felt the sting and light throb of it now, along with another stinging sensation in his back, when he lifted his arm to press the cloth to his head.

"It's not bad," Thor said, better able to see the wound once Loki wiped some of the blood away. "Not too long, not too deep."

"My back?" he asked, turning enough to let Thor see without displaying it to the Frost Giants. He didn't particularly want to display it to Thor, either, but if he were badly injured – if it could affect his ability to fight – he needed to know sooner rather than later.

Thor's eyebrows went up. "You're going to need a new coat," he said, carefully pulling apart the layers over Loki's back. A thin red line ran from just below his neck down nearly to his tailbone, just nicking the waist of his pants. The skin was split, but just barely, the blood merely a thin trickle. Loki's clothing had borne the brunt of the blade. "Little more than a scratch. But your clothes are all ripped."

Loki knew when it had happened; that frozen dagger had been meant for something other than a shallow race down his back, but Loki had thrown Byleister off balance and wound up with an entire set of ruined – and surely ridiculous-looking – clothing. He shrugged out of the surcoat whose leather had probably done most of the work in protecting him, positioned the long tear over one hand, and with the other directed the material to seal up. It was hardly his best work – a line was clearly visible even at a casual glance – but at least he wouldn't be walking around with his clothes visibly gaping open. He slipped it back on, giving Thor a quick appraising look as he did so. Thor had obviously fought with a cooler head; the only sign of the close-quarter clash he bore was a few dents in the armor on his left arm.

After another minute the four Frost Giants separated from each other, the two guards returning to their positions behind the doors – this time Loki caught the brief shimmer of some kind of barrier sealing the doorways after they went through – and Helblindi stepping forward while Byleister remained where he was. "You were born a runt."

"So I've been told," Loki said with a thin smile.

"You probably wouldn't have survived here. Especially not then. It was a time of privation. Children in such circumstances are consecrated to their maker and left in His hands. But if you wish to blame, know that you blame the wrong person. Father was away fighting the Aesir. Our mother abandoned you to the elements. Our father didn't even know of your birth until after the war was over; he never laid eyes upon you. He was a bitter man. I've been told by those who knew him before that it was too much loss for him to bear; he never really recovered."

"He should have thanked his maker to be rid of you," Byleister put in from where he stood, still on the far side of the chamber.

I don't see why. It didn't exactly work out well for him, Loki thought. But he had a better grip on his reactions now and kept the comment to himself. He didn't reveal his origins to trade insults with Byleister, or to hear old Laufey family history and lore from Helblindi.

"You should have died there," Byleister continued, apparently quite capable of continuing the insults even without Loki doing his part to make it interactive, "but your great Odin 'All-Father' interfered yet again, and instead of letting our queen's decision stand, he subverted it."

"Yes, well…I do have an annoying habit of not dying, despite seemingly insurmountable odds, whether I or anyone else particularly wishes me to surmount them or not."

"I could take care of that," Byleister muttered, earning him a glare from Helblindi.

"No one needs to die here today," Thor asserted, glancing uneasily at Loki, who seemed to have just intimated – though it was often hard to tell with Loki – that he had wanted to die. He tried to force the sudden image of Loki letting go of Gungnir from his mind. "We didn't come here for that. Too many have died already, throughout the realms. We come here with a sincere offer that is of benefit to us all. Loki merely wished to make the point that the magic he used on the Casket is…is still of Jotun origin," he said, stumbling over the awkward phrase. That, he thought, or Loki simply lost his mind just now, along with his self-control.

"Because that one was born here?" Byleister asked, coming forward again, anger hardly tempered. "You're no Jotun," he said to Loki. "You think you're someone special? Because you were raised in the House of Odin but your first breaths were upon this floe? Because you arose from a carnal act between our parents? You are nothing here. No one mourned your loss. You were a mistake. A stain on my father's name. You weren't worthy of being called Laufeyson. You weren't worthy of any Jotun on the face of this realm. You weren't worthy even of being consecrated to your maker. You-"

Loki flinched when Helblindi physically slammed a palm into Byleister's face, where he quickly grew a patch of ice over Byleister's mouth. The sting from the words thrown at him like dung from a wild animal was minimal; Byleister's insults were little different from things he'd already told himself. That he was not good enough even for the Frost Giants. He had once raged at such thoughts, but now he thought maybe he had become immune to them. Or perhaps Byleister's opinions simply were less interesting than dirt to him. "I don't care if they're cannibals or kick puppies or refuse to help old ladies cross the street," Jane had told him. "They have nothing to do with you." Loki's face relaxed into a slight smile. Let Byleister make a fool of himself with his talk of carnal acts and being worthy of Laufey. Loki would be better.

Byleister, in the meantime, was working on removing the ice from his mouth, apparently not as easy as it would seem for Frost Giants – the ice had even gone inside his mouth.

"I apologize for my brother. This is a surprise, to put it gently, and not a pleasant one. Byleister, you aren't helping."

Byleister spat out the last bits of ice. "I will respond to this later, when we are alone. As for him," he said, gesturing to Loki, "what I am supposed to be helping? Him? Asgard? May I slip forever beneath warm waters first!"

"Ideally, you're supposed to be helping Jotunheim. But you forget about that just as quickly as-"

"Don't you say his name. You aren't worthy of it, either."

"You're right about at least one thing," Loki cut in, hoping to ward off what appeared to be another fistfight in the making. "I am nothing here. But you have realized by now, I presume, that I, unworthy of even Jotun ice though I may be, am the rightful king of Jotunheim…haven't you?"

Thor's head whipped around to face Loki in astonishment. Loki's plan at this point seemed to be, if it's possible to say it, then say it, no matter how provocative or shocking. He had thought that the tension between the four of them couldn't possibly get any worse, but Loki seemed to be skimming his thoughts and then intentionally setting out to prove him wrong. He wondered if Loki even realized that he had just challenged two warring brothers to the very thing they were warring over. He didn't think Loki was serious, not after the scathing look he'd given him when Thor asked him about it on Midgard, but the Frost Giants didn't know that, and with Loki these days, who really knew anyway?

Helblindi said nothing, and if there was an expression on his face, Loki didn't know how to interpret it. Byleister's face, as usual, needed no interpretation.

"You are the rightful king of nothing. You can be the rightful king of the prison cell I'll throw you in for the rest of your wretched shrunken existence. You can be the rightful king of the pole I'll tie you to and have you beaten until that soft skin is flayed from your back. You can-"

Helblindi went for the hand-over-mouth move again but this time Byleister was ready for it and ducked out of the way.

"I'll throw you down a crevasse so deep you'll never be able to climb out, and then I'll let you die there in the ice, slowly, just like you were meant to. That will be your prison cell."

"And I'll rip your tongue out if you don't shut up now," Helblindi said.

Helblindi, Loki now thought, mostly through process of elimination of all other possible reactions, looked nervous. He hadn't thought much about their relationship before, these Frost Giant brothers, other than the obvious, that it couldn't be particularly good. But now, almost against his will – he didn't want to know anything about their relationship – he thought he understood something of the dynamic between them. Helblindi was the elder of the two. It wasn't clear what Byleister's claim to the throne was based on – if it was even based on anything besides a childish greed – but Helblindi's was based on the fact that he was the oldest brother, and he'd just found out that this was less of a "fact" than he'd thought. Byleister didn't care who was oldest; Helblindi very much did.

"Let me assure you that I have no interest in Jotunheim's throne, even less so in taking it by force. Even if I wanted to rule this realm, I know little about Jotunheim, and you cannot rule a people you don't know," Loki said, affecting a sage tone. It was true of course; he had realized it at some point on Midgard, looking back on his ill-conceived plan to conquer that realm. But it was a trivial detail. You also couldn't rule a people you despised with every particle of your being. Destroy them, yes. Rule them, no.

"Then why did you choose to mention it?" Helblindi asked quietly, evenly.

To try to make you stop talking nonsense and listen. "To expand on my offer." It probably wouldn't mean anything to Byleister, but he thought it would to Helblindi. And now they would make progress. They had to. It was staggering that they hadn't yet, despite his considerable efforts. "I will win a war for you," he had boasted. For that reason and so many others, he couldn't leave this land of fractured ice without sealing the deal. "You will announce your entirely symbolic withdrawal from the alliance against Asgard, and I will return the Ice Casket to you, and also sign an official letter renouncing all claim to Jotunheim's throne. A secret letter, of course; no one else even knows the truth of my birth, and I would prefer to keep it that way. Dirnolek will be isolated, and surely the two of you can find a way to resolve your issues, perhaps even dividing power between you."

"Not possible," Helblindi said, words overlapping Byleister's "I will not share what I deserve with him."

"You'll have to find a way, in order to make use of the Casket."

"You assume too much, False One," Helblindi said. "No one has agreed to your offer."

"And no one will," Byleister added.

Helblindi began to speak again but was interrupted when one of the Frost Giants behind the doorways entered the chamber and said he needed to speak with Helblindi and Byleister.

Loki watched, hoping to overhear something useful, but all three went back behind the doorway, which was apparently blocking sound.

"If you stretch the definition enough," Thor said quietly, "you could almost say that Helblindi is reasonable."

"You would have to stretch it so much it would break. Still, he's the less intolerable of the two. I say we make him king."

Thor didn't react. He'd had so many shocks today he didn't think anything could surprise him anymore, and he'd given up trying to figure out when Loki was serious and when he wasn't, at least for the moment.

"I may have made a bad decision."

"What?" Thor asked. That statement bordered on surprising him. Not the fact that Loki may have made a bad decision, but that he was freely admitting it.

"Those two. They'll kill each other before they figure out some plan for who will use the Ice Casket, and how. I knew I was more likely to get an agreement by dividing the brothers. It's personal with them, their dispute. It's not just about power."

"It's never just about power," Thor responded with a meaningful glance at Loki.

Loki looked away. "It's too late to change course now, I think. Although perhaps if-" He couldn't finish the thought aloud – he was wondering if perhaps Helblindi could be swayed, absent Byleister's interference, to accept the deal and ally with Dirnolek against his brother – because the two princes returned then. Neither looked happy, but then, he'd never seen a Frost Giant looking happy, so he supposed he wasn't certain what that looked like.

Helblindi stared down at Thor and Loki for a moment, then went over to the wall, bent down, held out both hands, and seemingly pulled ice from both the wall and himself to form what looked like a low shelf. "Thor Odinson. You will sit here, and remain here until we release you."

"I don't get a seat?" Loki asked smoothly amid a small spike of fear at the sudden change.

"Not here, no," Helblindi answered, while Byleister leaned against the opposite wall, stony expression falling somewhere in his usual range from angry to more angry.

"Where, then?" he asked, pointedly ignoring Thor and the signs – obvious to him after centuries of experience – that he was tensing for another fight.

"Through there," Helblindi said, pointing at the doorway he'd just come through.

Loki eyed the doorway, nothing visible behind it except another stretch of white ice wall; even the guard who'd been there before was no longer in sight. "I don't think so," he said, readying himself for another fight. "Not without explanation."

Helblindi dipped his head, not quite a nod. "Then I will explain. My mother wants to see you."

/

/

Contrary to what Loki probably thought, Heimdall did not watch Loki everywhere he went. The gift granted him upon taking up his role as Asgard's Gatekeeper was bound in the deepest honor and the highest trust. He scanned through the branches of Yggdrasil for signs of danger, and he closely watched Asgard's enemies when Asgard was at war. But a man's, or woman's, private conversations and activities remained private.

Loki, however, was on Jotunheim. When last Loki was on Jotunheim, he'd schemed to lure Frost Giants into Asgard. When Loki was next-to-last on Jotunheim, he'd schemed to lure Frost Giants into Asgard. Seeing the pattern did not require Heimdall's special sight. And even if Loki had never intended for any of those Frost Giants to successfully attack, his actions had been reckless and dangerous and selfish and had put Asgard and her king in grave danger. And Heimdall, no matter how great his commitment to honor and to the trust placed in him, was a man. And Loki had used a Jotun weapon to freeze him and leave him for dead.

"You'll forgive me if I find it difficult to muster regret. He abandoned me as an infant to die a slow death."

Heimdall watched now, with a corner of his vision, while he monitored Asgard for new sites of attack; there was a pattern, after all.

An ice dagger carved down Loki's back; Heimdall could not see how deeply. Loki looked crazed, not like the clever, skillful fighter Heimdall knew him to be.

"You're the one who's turned into a coward."

Heimdall's eyebrows drew up almost imperceptibly. But Thor did not react to the severe insult.

"The voice of reason found out he was a Frost Giant. My perspective has changed."

Heimdall thought back. The first time Loki let Frost Giants into Asgard, which Heimdall hadn't seen, was before he learned the truth. Two Einherjar had died. Loki had to have known that was a risk. But he had also known with certainty that the Destroyer would ensure the attackers did not escape with either their prize or their lives. It was later, when Loki journeyed to Jotunheim officially, as Asgard's king, but hid himself from his only source of protection in case of trouble once he arrived, that Heimdall suspected Loki of treason. Loki was behaving erratically, and not like a king of Asgard. As suspicion gave way to certainty, Heimdall had raised his sword against Loki, against the king he no longer considered his king. Loki had pulled the Ice Casket out of thin air and any lingering doubt was exterminated.

He had been wrong, though – Loki was not committing treason. He was behaving foolishly and imprudently. Heimdall had not been wrong that Loki had become a danger to Asgard. Loki could not possibly have known with complete certainty that he could stop Laufey at just the right moment, that he would not be too late. He had put the king's life, the queen's life, and all of Asgard at risk. It was entirely unlike Loki. He had lost touch with reason. He had found out he was a Frost Giant. His perspective had changed. The thought gave Heimdall pause.

The Odinsons and Laufeysons no longer struck with weapons or fists, but Byleister in particular was spewing forth strings of insults, words designed to wound in places where weapons could not reach.

Loki's opinion of his own cleverness was sometimes exaggerated. But at other times his cleverness was truly impressive. In less than two years Loki had now tried to set himself up as king of no less than three realms. He didn't truly want Jotunheim, Heimdall was certain, but from afar he recognized it as a deliberate tactic to take an unproductive line of discussion doomed to failure and shift it so suddenly in a new direction that the old one was lost sight of. He hoped it would work, but the Frost Giants hadn't budged at all thus far and it was clear to him that Loki was growing desperate. He continued to watch, out of that one narrow corner of his vision, both because he could not fully trust Loki and because Thor was now his king. Despite his distrust, he knew that if he were asked, he would swear that Loki had tried his best.

"My mother wants to see you."

Heimdall blinked, startled, as one corner of his vision suddenly went black.

/

Well, I did warn a few of you that there would be an even bigger cliffhanger in this chapter. I'm curious how many of you saw this coming, or wondered if it might be a possibility. We knew Laufey's dead; we never knew anything about the status of Loki's birth mother. I wonder also how many of you wish Jane was there for all this. In the early days when I more or less knew how I wanted this section to go but it was a long time out and the details were definitely not in place, I wasn't sure what Jane might or might not be there for. And while it might be fun to have her there to observe it all, logically there's no way either Loki or Thor would find it even remotely acceptable to bring her into this dangerous scenario. Also, it would be technically-speaking difficult to write, because of the POV style I used in this story. It's hard enough to work in reactions for both Loki and Thor. Adding Jane would be a writing nightmare. :-)

Responses to guest reviewers: "Laura" - You got some answers to your wonderings in this chapter, indeed the brothers knew he existed, but he "died" a baby, years before they were born, so their long lost brother isn't exactly at the forefront of their minds. Reihal is older and the lost Laufeyson is something he remembers happening. The Frost Giants weren't feeling any connection to Loki, and they're really not fans of either Odinson - their anger at Loki is fresher and does run much deeper. Loki's ice was perfect because he was using the Casket, not really because of Loki himself; the other Frost Giants haven't given any particular indication of their abilities with magic, so hard to say there. But yeah, for the Laufeysons, the Casket is something from legend and lore, they have no idea how to use it - though it's possible they could attempt it and find it instinctive, particularly if they have some skill with magic. And gold star, you wondered if his birth mother was alive... :-); Guest (Feb. 24) - (1) Check. (2) Check. (3) If that's Loki saying that, I'm going to call that a Check. (4) Wrong person pointing it out, but let's call that a Check in spirit. and (5) Buzzzzzzzz no. Though that was your "least likely" and I'm pretty sure it was sarcasm anyway. :-) Big gold star. So here's the update...and the next cliffhanger.

Previews for Ch. 166 "Family": Note the chapter title. (I love it when I don't have to agonize over coming up with a title.) Also, for those of you who miss Jane...she still exists. But time differences and such, right? One of the little things that irks me in sci-fi stuff, it usually ignores time differences - our traveling space heroes never arrive on the new world to find everyone's fast asleep for the night! Jane has been getting some much needed sleep back at the Pole.

Excerpt:

They came to a halt – Helblindi blocked most of Loki's view so he didn't know why – and at the sound of clanking chains they started forward again. They proceeded through another doorless doorway, this one with at least four strips of ice-crusted metal chain hanging at the side. Helblindi stepped to the left and Loki stood next to him carefully keeping his face blank, while Byleister now took up position on Loki's right. They weren't alone. Another Frost Giant was in the small chamber, facing away from them and seemingly staring at a random patch of ice on the wall, figure obscured by a long cloak of deep purple.