.-.
Beneath
Chapter One Hundred Ninety-Eight – Revels, Part Two
Thor sputtered into his tankard, nearly choking on his mead. He'd been convinced that Loki was only toying with him, and would somehow swing his argument around toward the plan. Loki had come up with the plan, after all. Loki was toying with him, all right, but his intention evidently was limited to making the plan as difficult as possible, and any salvaging of the situation was going to have to come from Thor himself. Anger toward Loki flared, but there was nothing he could do about it.
"Are you all right?" Loki asked, the epitome of care and concern.
Thor cleared his throat. "Fine. Thank you, Loki," he said with narrowed eyes. He stole a glance at Jane, and found her presence as calming as ever. How she had managed to put up with Loki all that time on Midgard he would never know. When he looked back at Loki, the burst of anger had settled, and he thought it might actually strengthen his ability to carry out this ruse with the necessary conviction.
Ignoring Loki, he turned his attention to Bragi. "I've heard about this as well, and I intend to instruct Vafri not to investigate. We have too many other pressing concerns right now, and no reports of continued earthquakes on any of the other realms."
"Still…if we don't know what caused them, how can we know they won't return at some point in the future? How can we know what to do to prevent them from recurring?" Bragi asked.
"You raise… No. My father and I have discussed it, and we are convinced that the tremors were caused by overuse of the portals. It is more than a theory. After all, when the other realms stopped constantly using those portals, the earthquakes stopped as well. That can't be a coincidence," Thor said confidently. For a second, he even believed it himself, before he remembered that in fact it was entirely a coincidence. "If something changes…if the tremors do recur, then we'll launch a full investigation from every conceivable angle. But for the time being…I have decided it would be a poor use of our overextended resources."
"All right. I certainly understand your position, Your Majesty."
"Good. And…perhaps you can inform Vafri as well?" Thor asked. Loki then turned his way, without actually looking at him, a smirk pulling at the corners of his mouth. Thor tightened his jaw, unable to react. If Bragi could spare him from having to tell this lie again, Thor didn't care what Loki thought of it.
"Of course. And…as long as it's all right to bring up a little unfinished business?"
"Go ahead. Only a little, though. Tonight is not for meetings. Loki strictly warned me not to fall into habit and turn this feast into a meeting. In fact, what are your thoughts, Loki? Should Bragi share his unfinished business, or wait until later, hm?"
"My own business here is finished," he said, stabbing an orange slice together with the chunk of pork underneath it with his fork. He turned to grace Lady Edny with a smile – all part of the game but in this moment at least, not particularly difficult. "Do as you will." He gave Jane a smile, then, one of the few he'd been willing to direct her way at this table. When Jane smiled back, he felt even better, and thought he would be able to make it through this evening without too much difficulty after all.
"It truly is a small matter. You asked about a house outside the city that had burned at some point in probably the last year, but before the start of the war, located on a plot of land that was an empty field in King Bor's time or perhaps his father's. I inquired with Bosi and Oblaudur, and their offices looked into it…suffice it to say that I believe we have identified the house in question. House fires, as you know, are not very common here, and only one met the requirements. It was the home of Radbudar Thosurson, his wife Jathrid Rondvirdottir, and their adult daughter Ulfrun. They…hm. Apologies. This is perhaps not the time to bring this up."
"What happened to them?" Thor asked, afraid he knew the answer from Bragi's sudden grimace.
"I'm sorry to say…they were all found dead. It happened at night. They may never have woken up."
Jane put down her fork. She'd been getting too full to eat anymore, anyway.
"I remember that well," Jolgeir's wife Sibba said. "Four or five months ago. I knew Ulfrun. Why do you bring it up, Lord Bragi?"
"Your Majesty?" Bragi said.
"Brokk, the Dark Elf who instigated the war, was directed by Thanos to that plot of land to recover an artifact buried there long ago, a blue gem, when it was still a field. He used it to manipulate a girl not yet of age, Vigdis, into getting a position right here, where she poured our drinks and reported our conversations back to Brokk. Thankfully…," Thor began, trailing off to look at Loki, whose disinterest he thought might be feigned. Whatever anger lingered toward Loki from a few minutes earlier faded fully. They wouldn't be sitting here feasting, he wouldn't be dealing with Loki turning a serious matter into an excuse for ill-timed mischief, were it not for Loki. His warning about the imminent attack on an Einherjar camp and about Vigdis's betrayal had saved lives and slowed the rate of loss of food supplies and infrastructure, even before Loki had returned with his bargain to end the war in two days. And he'd heard about those three deaths, too, though if he'd heard any of the details he couldn't recall it; he'd been preoccupied with everything that had just happened on Midgard, with having just dragged his brother back in chains, and barely aware of anything else going on around him. "Thankfully Loki learned what was going on and warned us."
"What will happen to Vigdis?" Jane asked. "If you mean an artifact like…" She glanced toward Loki then quickly looked away. "It sounds like she wasn't responsible for her actions."
"It wasn't like what happened to Erik," Thor put in quickly, careful to look only at Jane. "But she's underage, and in a difficult family situation with only an aged grandmother for support…she was vulnerable, and Brokk must have recognized that. He used that artifact to torment her with nightmares that prevented her from sleeping. Once he'd driven her half out of her mind, he told her he was the only one who could cure her, but in exchange she would have to help him. We believe he 'cured' her by somehow temporarily counteracting the effects of the gem, which he'd hidden under her bed. Any time she showed reluctance to continue spying, he threatened her. She was too weakened to withstand him. She made poor decisions…people died because of her. But it's difficult to think on the girl with anything other than pity. My mother spoke with her, as did I, a little. There's no doubt she never would have taken such a course of her own accord."
"She's a traitor. She did indeed make poor decisions – her decisions. Being weak is no excuse for that. But she's also underage. That is a mitigating factor. Asgardian law is applied differently to youths than to adults," Loki said for Jane's benefit.
"I've spoken to her as well," Eir said, "though not as much as I would like, or as much as she needs. She's better served by compassion than pity, I believe, even if the difference is only in connotation. And she should have your compassion."
Loki frowned but didn't reply. He didn't miss the fact that Eir was looking right at him when she said those last words, and supposed she was thinking of the nightmares he had experienced. It wasn't the same though, and it hadn't resulted in anything other than occasionally worsening his already generally poor moods.
"She sought healing, you know, for the sleep disturbances. The healer she saw couldn't help, because he was searching for a cause from within. So she continued to suffer. It's true for fully grown Aesir, too, but more so at her age, the continued sleep disturbances would have impaired her thinking as well as her emotional state. When I spoke with her, she described having hallucinations. Fear and despair and anxiety and bursts of frantic energy. Short-term memory difficulties. Her capacity for reasoning and decision-making were severely impaired, and when she faces a magistrate, I intend to give a statement to that effect. She doesn't need prison; she needs a stable, supportive environment, the care of her grandmother but also others who can listen to her, encourage her, strengthen her…help her recover from everything she's been through."
"The first time I became aware of her was when she spilled mead on me, here at this table. I shouted at her," Thor said glumly.
"I've no doubt she was extremely nervous, but chronic sleep deprivation also causes muscle weakness."
"How does your legal system work?" Jane asked. "A magistrate is the same as a judge? Do you have juries, too? Do you get involved, as king?"
"A magistrate is probably the same thing as a judge. He or she conducts trials, ensures that the laws are respected, and comes to decisions. The king doesn't normally get involved."
"Unless he feels like bypassing the magistrate entirely," Loki said with a pointed look toward Thor. "No juries," he added when he turned back to Jane. "Community councils for some local matters, not quite the same. A council of magistrates for very serious crimes, also not quite the same." He'd seen a couple of legal dramas at the South Pole and had gleaned the basics of what a jury was, while Thor, he was certain, had no idea what the word meant.
"There's room for compassion in the law, Jane. She's expressed her remorse, and she showed courage in meeting with Brokk again despite her fear, to aid in Asgard's defense. I and the others present at those meetings can give statements to that effect. I'm certain that Finnulfur's decision will indeed reflect compassion."
Jane nodded, but felt an unease prickling at her. Loki, meanwhile was standing to stretch for something on another platter, and seemed not to be paying attention anymore.
"No more unpleasant talk, I beg you," Edny said. "Lady Jane, I'm curious what you think of our food and drink. Is it much different from yours? I noticed that you don't care for mead."
Loki laughed, sitting back with half of a yam now added to his plate. "She doesn't care to pass out before the feast ends."
"That's basically true," Jane said with a laugh of her own, talking over Thor's chiding of Loki. Sitting at this table, and with enough Asgardian ale in her to be feeling it a little, she was glad of the change of topic. "Your alcohol somehow hits us more strongly than it does you."
Jane was for some reason – she knew the reason, Asgardian ale! – sharing her tequila story when banging noises erupted from one of the other tables. She strained to see exactly where it was coming from, half-suspecting a fight had broken out, when a man with a long gray beard stood and the banging turned to clapping. Thor paused his clapping to lean over and explain that the man was a renowned poet invited to this feast specifically because he had already composed some verse about the war.
Jane let go of all effort to understand the poem, filtering out everything but the rhythm of it as it washed over her in steady rises and falls, with occasional staccato bursts followed by whoops and shouts and raised glasses, which weren't getting tossed onto the floor, she realized. Maybe different types of feasts had different rules. Eir, sitting next to her, was smiling and occasionally clapping, considerably less animated than most of the others. The doctor's perspective on war was probably different. Laughter suddenly exploded around her – Thor was practically roaring with it, Loki she could see only in profile but she could see his chest pulse with a laugh he was probably trying to suppress, and even Eir had thrown her head back in laughter – and Jane found herself joining in, even though she had no idea what the poet had said that triggered it.
/
/
Two more long poems followed, while the mead continued flowing and the platters were picked almost down to scraps. Afterward, one of the servants, Jane assumed, though she hadn't seen this older man serving at the table, approached Thor and whispered something in his ear. Thor nodded, then stood.
"Let us rise and stretch, make room for sweets and prepare for music and dancing and more compositions from our esteemed poets." He took two steps to the side and held out his hand. "Lady Jane?"
Jane took his hand, and, with a flash of nerves because every eye in the room was surely on her now, stood as well. The moment was brief, though – almost immediately others began to rise as well, and to step away from their tables. "Intermission? A break in the middle," she clarified when Thor looked confused.
"A transition. The tables will be cleared and cleaned, some of them repositioned, and in the meantime, we can stretch our legs and greet those we haven't spoken with yet."
"Oh, okay. That sounds good. There's a lot of people I still want to meet."
"You'll have plenty of time to meet everyone you wish. Tell me who, and I'll make sure of it. But…"
"But?"
He stroked his thumb over the back of Jane's hand, still in his. "I have duties tonight, and for once, they aren't difficult. But I don't want to let this night go by without spending a little of it with you, just the two of us. You've enthralled me, Jane. You've driven me to distraction. I've had to keep reminding myself to not look only at you."
"Thank you," Jane said. She bit her lip for a second, then decided to say what she was thinking. "I feel like a princess."
"I was just thinking earlier that you look like a princess. And ever since I first saw you tonight I've been desperate to kiss you." He smiled then, his free hand rising to slide down Jane's arm. "To be honest, though, I'm worried about it."
"About kissing me? Why?" Jane asked, heart fluttering.
"Your hair is so beautiful – I've never seen you wear it like that. I wouldn't know where to put my hands out of fear of disturbing it."
I can think of a few places. Jane decided to blame the warmth in her cheeks on the ale. "Sooo…is there somewhere we can get away for a few minutes?"
Thor's smile grew. "Join me on the balcony for some fresh air?"
/
/
Loki nodded as Edny told a story about her granddaughter, while also watching Jane and Thor out of the corner of his eye. It was sickening, really. This was the side of Jane he'd been relieved not to have to deal with at the South Pole, the one who swooned over Thor and forgot everything else around her, just as Thor seemed to forget that he was the one who had called for this feast in the first place as he slipped away with Jane and ignored the guests. As stunning as she looked tonight – and she did look stunning, swathed in finery that seemed perfectly selected to accentuate her natural beauty – the more he considered it, the more he thought he might actually prefer her in those hideous shapeless fifteenth-hand Carhartts. In his mind, that was the real Jane, the one whose company he'd come to enjoy and even take comfort, of a sort, in. His Jane.
It was a peculiar form of vanity, he knew, to think like that. Jane had never worn Carhartts, not the Extreme Cold Weather version, anyway, before that day at Christchurch's Clothing Distribution Center. And when she left the South Pole, a few months from now, she'd turn them in and likely never wear them again. Nothing more than a temporary blip in either of their lifespans. And other than being his friend, Jane had never really been his.
Cheers erupted from somewhere off to the side; Loki couldn't see what was going on, but he wasn't particularly interested to find out, either. He was only here because of Jane, and now that she was nowhere in sight his motivation to behave properly was lacking. When he and Edny parted ways, he couldn't muster the desire to join another and instead sought out a servant who provided him with a glass of water. It wasn't long, though, before he was approached, and he allowed himself to be pulled into another conversation, this time about the food, a popular – and safe – topic. He was bored and listened with the minimum of attention.
He'd wound up with his back to the balconies, and only knew Thor and Jane had returned when he recognized Thor's footsteps approaching.
/
/
"Thor," Jane said, grasping at Thor's arm with a little more enthusiasm than she meant to, then consciously letting go of him. "Is that Maeva?" They had just come back inside, Thor saying he needed to talk to Loki about something, when Jane spotted the woman with the distinctive long strawberry blond hair in the direction of the public entrance.
"Maeva Mordidottir, yes. How do you know of her?"
"Loki mentioned her. Actually," she said, leaning in to drop her voice to a whisper, "I saw her at the parade."
Thor glanced around at the others nearby, but he supposed no one would know what parade Jane was talking about, anyway. "Did he also mention that she and he were a pair for a time?"
"Yeah. It was over a long time ago, I guess?"
"Centuries ago. But although he's denied it, sometimes I think…. Now that I think about it, he didn't exactly deny it.
"Deny what?"
"That he might be interested in her again. Perhaps not. Their relationship ended badly." Thor paused to consider it again, but quickly decided it was a pointless exercise. "Loki has long kept his relationships private. Not with Maeva…he was different with her. We all thought they would marry. I teased him about it relentlessly. Which…looking back on it, probably didn't help. She's now our First Master of Magic, part of the Assembly, and I recently named her to the War Council."
Jane nodded, but not much sank in past "we all thought they would marry." Loki had told her that Maeva was an old girlfriend, someone he'd been in love with once, mentioned only because they happened to see her at the parade. One of who-knew-how-many old flames from throughout his very long life. Thor was making it sound like Maeva was the love of Loki's life.
"Would you like to meet her?"
Oh, yes! Jane thought, immediately followed by Oh, no! It was exactly what she'd wanted, out of intense curiosity about a woman Loki had once given his heart to, when the Loki she knew so often kept his heart closed off, often preferring others to think he didn't have one at all, it seemed. But that was when Maeva had been just a former girlfriend instead of someone Loki had come close to tying the knot with.
"Don't be nervous. I know she'd be happy to meet you," Thor said when Jane didn't respond.
"Um…yeah. Okay. So," she continued when they started off toward Maeva, "how many of your former girlfriends are here?"
Thor looked down at Jane in surprise. It had been ages since there was anyone who might be called a girlfriend. Jane was smiling, and didn't look like she was asking out of jealousy, so he surveyed the hall with fresh eyes. "Ah. See the woman over there, with the bright red hair and all the diamonds in it?"
Jane easily spotted the woman Thor was referring to, and her eyes went wide. But she had learned that lesson with Loki, so she stayed mum.
"A long time ago-" Thor broke into laughter when he looked down again and saw Jane's expression. "Not her. Her daughter. Avi isn't here. Her mother was the closest I could come."
"Thank God. She looks more like your grandmother," Jane whispered.
Thor was still laughing when they reached Maeva, who was talking with a small group of others. He drew her aside. "Maeva Mordidottir, I'd like to introduce you to Jane Foster, my guest from Midgard. She's met several of my trusted advisors, and I wanted her to meet you as well. I need to speak with my brother for a moment; would you mind keeping her company in the meantime?"
"Of course not," Maeva said, as Jane fought not to let her surge in apprehension show. She'd known Thor needed to talk to Loki – it was why they'd gone back inside. She hadn't expected she was about to be abandoned with Loki's ex-almost-fiancée.
Thor excused himself, and Jane faced Maeva with a plastic smile that she was pretty sure made her look like an idiot.
"They've just put the desserts out, shall we select something?"
"Sure," Jane said with an eager nod she quickly cut off out of certainty it, too, made her look like an idiot. Maeva was beautiful – regal, really. Statuesque, like a runway model…or maybe a warrior princess version of one. She looked maybe a few years older than the woman she'd seen in the Harvest Festival parade a thousand years ago. Her long wavy hair hung down her back, antique-looking silver clips cinching numerous tiny braids together in graceful curves. Her gown was a seemingly simple piece of brick red fabric draped over her shoulders and flowing to just above her ankles. Darkened silver bracers with matching fabric worked into them covered her forearms. A few freckles dotted her cheeks.
They threaded their way through the knots of other guests toward the far side of the hall, where some of the tables had been pushed up against the walls and now held saucer-sized plates with various desserts. Along the way they fell into innocuous small talk, easy to manage because Maeva asked the same polite questions that most others here had asked her, how did she like Asgard, what had she done, what had she seen. By the time they reached the desserts, Jane's nerves had mostly settled.
"This one's good," Maeva said, pointing to a plain-looking piece of cake. "Honey-soaked. You put your fork in and it oozes. Oh, but look at this!" She picked up a plate with a pastry topped with orange sections. "Valhalla," she said after taking a bite.
"I think my choice is made," Jane said, taking one of the same pastries, although she wasn't sure how she was actually going to be able to eat any of it. "Loki donated the oranges. He asked for them in the treaty negotiations."
"I heard about that. Sounds like him. The future of the realm at stake and he bargains for oranges. Not that I can blame him at the moment."
They shared a laugh; Jane didn't sense any hostility behind Maeva's words.
"I…I'm sorry, I want to ask you something, but it's rather awkward."
Here we go again. Jane gave a bracing smile. "You may as well ask."
"I think this is going to sound strange, unless perhaps someone's already told you about it. Stranger still, though, to talk with you like this if you don't know."
"Okay," Jane said, whatever was left of her smile giving way to a full-on cringe. More warnings about Loki, she was certain, drawn from his and Maeva's past together.
"I've actually already met you. In a manner of speaking. You were unconscious at the time, here on Asgard. Your presence was a real mystery. I was with the queen when you appeared outside her door, and afterward I examined you, or rather the magic you were exuding. I just thought it wasn't fair to you if I knew that and you didn't."
"Thanks. I heard about that. Not about…I mean, I didn't know you were there. I still don't entirely understand what happened. I used magic that the queen had meant for Loki, because he couldn't at the time, and it tried to take me to Asgard but didn't quite manage it all the way. I think it was a copy of me that made it here."
"Dark magic sometimes behaves unpredictably, especially if you change a variable."
"Dark magic," Jane repeated with a shiver. "At least it worked, in the end. It brought Loki help when he was injured."
"I'm sorry about all that, whatever exactly happened on Midgard," Maeva said, her voice dropping to a near-whisper. "I hope you don't judge Asgard by what he did to you and your realm."
"Uh…I…," Jane stammered, uncertain where to even begin.
"You don't have to say anything. Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned it. I just wanted you to know…many of us feel badly about it. Asgard once served as Midgard's protector from the aggression of other realms, and I know Thor himself pledged renewed protection, yet it was one of our own who attacked your realm. And I doubt it was good intentions that led him to you, out of all the citizens of Midgard. So whatever happened…I'm relieved that it seems to have ended peacefully."
"I don't blame Asgard for what happened. And Loki…." Jane grit her teeth in frustration. What could she say? Loki hadn't been sitting around bored one day and suddenly decided to attack Earth. But she couldn't tell Maeva, or anyone else besides the few who already knew, about the events that had led to it. "I know that what happened before won't happen again."
"That's a relief. It's good he's back home, and I hope whatever else was going on with him has been resolved. Loki and Thor are as different as night and day…but equally determined when they set their minds to something. Asgard needs them both. It's just that it's easier to admit to needing Thor."
Jane let those words sink in over a tiny bite of pastry, and by the time she'd swallowed, she'd decided she liked Maeva.
/
/
"Were you serious when you said you intended to leave Asgard?"
"Did you hear me laughing when I said it?"
"Loki…we're all enjoying ourselves tonight. Must you really…" Thor looked away for a moment. "When do you intend to go?"
"Whenever I feel like it."
Thor couldn't decide whether he felt more inclined toward an angry eruption or an exhausted collapse, just a minute or two into speaking with Loki, who'd refused to step outside the hall with him, which in turn limited how much Thor could speak aloud.
"I don't need your permission, Thor. Nor am I required to inform you or anyone else of my plans. What concern is it of yours?"
"What concern? Loki…you're…you're my family. I don't want you to go, not knowing when you'll return, especially when things are as they are."
"If."
"If?"
"If I return."
"If?" He rested his forehand against his palm, angry eruption giving way fully to exhausted collapse. "I can't think about this right now. I have to be seen smiling. And it's not what I wanted to talk to you about, not exactly. I need to know when you're leaving, because your departure doesn't affect only you. There remain matters to be dealt with…matters for which your presence is needed. How much longer will you remain?"
"Tell me what these matters are and I'll tell you whether I think it worth my time in the first place. If this is about my report on the meeting in New York, I've already had it delivered to your office. You can read it at your leisure whether I'm here or not."
"It's not about that…but thank you for what you said about that tonight. It's worth considering."
"I'm so pleased you think so," Loki said dryly.
"I can't talk to you about it here," Thor said, choosing to ignore Loki's sarcasm and the struggle with whether he should or shouldn't have said what he did, which would tie him into hopeless knots. "But I need you for something. It's easier to avoid it than to deal with it, but if you're leaving, then…I'll just have to deal with it. We could do it as early as the day after tomorrow, perhaps. If you intend to leave very soon. At least let the feast settle. Loki? What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Loki answered, forcing his attention elsewhere with considerable effort. He'd just caught sight of something he had never imagined he'd see. Of all the people Jane could have wound up with. It wasn't by accident, he was certain. "Day after tomorrow, you said? Fine." He'd just have to make sure he was gone by then. "Lady Raganvor, so nice to see you again. I trust your daughter is well? I haven't seen her in decades. Have you, Thor?"
A minute later he was slipping away, leaving Thor to deal with Raganvor.
He was at the opposite end of the hall now, with many guests to work his way through, though they parted readily for him. He'd only been able to find Jane in the first place because she was among the shortest people here, if not the shortest besides the children; he'd simply needed to look for someone who was talking with a person entirely hidden from view by the crowd.
"Enjoying yourselves, ladies?" Loki asked when he reached them, not far from the enormous open double doors of the public entrance. Jane had been hunched over with laughter, and quickly straightened up at his sudden appearance.
"Very much so. Thor has a real knack for inviting the most interesting guests to his revels. You both do, I suppose, though your flavor of knack is rather more subversive."
"What she said," Jane said.
"Hm. If you wouldn't mind, Jane, there's something I was hoping to discuss with you."
"Oh, sure. Maeva, it was great to meet you. Maybe we'll see each other around?"
"I expect we will. I'm sure you'll be back again."
Jane had her hand up, waving as they walked away. They stopped near the columns on the other side of the hall, the balconies now not far, and the entrance still nearby as well. Loki took a look at the plate in her left hand. "How many of those have you had, my lady?"
"This? Just the one. I tried the orange one first. So good. But then Maeva said I should try the honey cake, too."
"It's actually called mead cake."
"Really? I think I like mead."
"Apparently. No more, though, not if you want to remain on your feet."
"I do! Jolgeir and Frigga taught me a couple of group dances."
"Did they? What were you laughing so hard about, with Maeva?"
"Nothing, just that time you made Thor's drink smell like raw sewage and he almost threw up, but then you started laughing and he figured out what was going on, so he pinched his nose and drank it anyway. Maeva was just describing the shade of green his face turned."
Maeva had augmented the coloring of course; no face took on that much of a green tint, no matter how ill. But he didn't want this to turn into a tale of "Loki and Maeva escapades," and so decided to keep that detail to himself; from the way Jane relayed the story, it sounded as though Maeva had decided the same. They'd come to an agreement a long time ago: they got along when they needed to, but they didn't reminisce. "I was proud of that. Manipulating scent isn't easy."
"I bet Thor was your favorite person to test things like that on."
"I usually tested them on myself first. After me, though, yes, him."
Jane laughed over another small bite.
"You're amusing like this."
"Like what?"
"Abuzz."
"Abuzz? Because I'm excited about the feast?"
"Because you've drunk perhaps a tankard and a half of ale, and added mead cake atop that."
"Oh, you mean I'm buzzed! I've got a buzz."
"Yes, that is what I said."
"Okay, that's what you said. Kind of. But speaking of that cake, and the ale and the mead and the other cake and all the meat and the bread and…everything, how do you all eat so much?"
"We're not, actually. Relatively speaking. Portions are smaller than normal, platters not piled as high. The cooks and servers did a commendable job of arranging things on the plates to disguise it."
"There's usually more? But…your stomach isn't physically any bigger than mine. Where do you put it all?"
"My stomach has a kind of pouch in it, which compresses food matter down into microscopic particles, thus allowing nearly infinite space for endless feasting."
"Yeah, I'm calling BS and all kinds of crickets on that. Eir told me about your organs. They're almost the same as ours. No magic kangaroo pouches."
Loki put on an expression of exaggerated indignation. "I'm going to have to have words with her. Fine. My body converts food into energy, the same as it does for you, I assume. We just probably do it much more efficiently."
"You're saying your stomach is like that six-hundred-year-old pen?"
Loki opened his mouth, and quickly closed it again. Jane was definitely buzzed; he'd never seen her quite like this before. "Yes, that's precisely what I'm saying. My stomach, a writing utensil, exactly the same."
"Don't think I don't know you're patronizing me because I got drunk off a piece of cake."
Loki couldn't help it; he burst into laughter. Others had to be staring but he couldn't find any reason to care. "While a couple of your s's were a little slurred earlier, you're entirely too coherent to be drunk. I have seen drunk on your realm, and you, Lady Jane, are not drunk."
"Maybe not, but still, cake? We cook cake with alcohol, too, sometimes, but the alcohol cooks out of it."
"That's absurd. What's the point of cooking it with alcohol, then?"
"For the flavor."
"Why would anyone want the flavor of alcohol, but not the alcohol itself?"
"I don't know, why do you always ask me things like that?"
"I do not-"
"I have a question."
"All right," Loki said, ready to indulge just about anything at this point.
"How many more of your ex-girlfriends are here?"
Anything except that. "No more alcohol for you at all."
"Oh, come on, I asked Thor, too."
"And how many did he point out to you?"
"Just one old lady."
Loki laughed again, but he didn't want to know any more about that. Besides, Thor, he saw over Jane's shoulder, wasn't far away. He'd probably gotten caught up in a conversation on his way over to them. "As much as I'm enjoying this, Jane – and believe me, I am – you'd better get serious or you're going to get us both in trouble.
"Fine," Jane said with an exaggerated eye-roll. "Can I at least finish my cake?"
"Are you actually asking me for permission?"
"No."
"I think you have your answer, then. As long as you have room in your magic kangaroo pouch."
"Just enough for one more bite," Jane said, digging back into the cake. Two bites, really, but she could make that work, too. "I feel kind of guilty about all the guards and servants, that they don't get to enjoy the feast, too. The servants are at least doing something, keeping busy. Hopefully snatching things off plates when they're in the kitchen. The guards are just standing there." She cast her gaze over toward the Einherjar standing guard at the broad open doorway, one to each side. "Do they get anything afterward, at least?"
"I don't know. Perhaps. I suppose it depends on their duty schedule. The kitchen servants do usually get the leftovers. They're all doing their jobs, though. Only a few are actually invited to a given feast as guests, and those usually have some sort of high status."
Jane finished off the cake; a servant appeared almost immediately to take the plate and fork. She watched the young man zip through the other guests, having relieved her of the burden even of holding onto an empty plate. "I guess that's how it works on Earth, too. When presidents and kings and queens have fancy dinners. I'm just not usually at them. Or…ever. At them."
Loki chuckled. "Well, I've never been expected to wash my own dishes, much less other people's. We're both gaining new experiences."
"When did you ever wash any dishes? As I recall, I did that chore for you the whole time."
"We did it together the first time."
"If by doing it together you mean we stood near each other, sure. But I was scrubbing the dishes and you were standing there whining and in general acting like a giant snob."
"I washed a few of them. And then…I stood there and whined and acted…a little like a snob. For what it's worth…I'm sorry about that."
"Really?"
Loki let his gaze wander for a few seconds before returning to Jane; he stuck out his thumb and first finger and slowly brought them together until only a narrow gap remained between them. "I can say that I'm sorry that my….reticence to participate in…certain activities…resulted in extra work for you. It was unfair of me."
"Partial apology accepted," Jane said, surprised he was willing to go even that far. "Hey, you wanted me to be serious, so…speaking of unfair…"
"Oh, no, must we?"
"Why were you being so harsh about that servant Vigdis?"
"You mean that traitor Vigdis?"
"Were you listening to the same conversation I was? She was manipulated into it."
"And you think that absolves her of her crimes? Being weak is no excuse for reporting your realm's secrets to the enemy that seeks its destruction. Even her youth shouldn't be that much of a factor, though it will be. She can't be that far from twenty, clearly old enough to know right from wrong."
"But…you don't think any of this sounds…familiar? I mean…the lack of sleep and going after someone who's vulnerable?"
"I..." His instincts said no, but he hesitated. The answer was still no. "You're conflating unrelated things, for one. My sleep was interrupted only at the Pole." Not entirely true, but Jane didn't need to know about that. "Vigdis made her own decisions, and so did I. However, despite what I'm sure many here still believe, I never aided the enemy against Asgard. Vigdis did, and a price must be paid for that."
"Wow," Jane said, for once not in amazement at Asgard's many wonders, but at Loki's avowed heartlessness toward a teenager who'd been abused and taken advantage of. "I'm glad you're not the judge, jury, and executioner. And I hope your courts really do find room for compassion." She shook her head for a moment, setting her earrings in motion. "The only thing I know about the justice system here, though...'compassion' isn't the first word that comes to mind. Eighteen ye-"
"Jane," Loki cut in, a little more loudly than he'd intended. He lowered his volume, but his tome was still stern. "We do not talk about that."
Jane's eyes flew open wide and she clapped a hand over her mouth. "Sorry! Sorry," she said again, moving her hand to her chest. "I, um, you know I don't usually drink much. It makes me chatty. Not necessarily in a good way."
For over a thousand years no one had spoken of that time. No one needed it raised again now, least of all him. Telling her about it on Midgard, or even far in Asgard's past set apart from its residents of the time, was one thing. Raising it here was quite another. He pushed a smile to his face to reassure Jane that he wasn't angry. "Nothing loosens tightly-sealed lips like a few tankards of mead," Loki said, steadily calming from the sudden spike of near-panic. He glanced around to see if anyone had heard her; no one wore a look of shock, or seemed to be paying them any undue attention at all. "Or in your case..." He turned his head again; something had caught his eye, registering only after the fact. A head, a flash of hair, disappearing behind a door.
"A mug and a half of beer and a piece of cake?" Jane supplied with a weak smile. If her cheeks hadn't already reddened from the alcohol they surely had now, from embarrassment and guilt. Loki had looked genuinely distressed, and she'd just been thoughtlessly running her mouth. He was apparently more upset than he'd admitted, because now he was walking away from her. "Hey, Loki?" she said, following him toward the huge double doors. "Don't leave, okay? I'm really sorry. It won't happen again. I promise." Looking away as Loki continued toward the doors, she caught Thor's eye, not too far away, and saw him extricate himself from his conversation and head her way.
"Who was that?" Loki asked the closest of the two Einherjar at the doors.
The guard took a quick look around. "I'm sorry, my prince, I don't know who you're-"
"Never mind. Tell him to return at once."
"Who-"
"The man who just left. The man with the reddish-brown hair."
/
Gonna just leave this right there...and duck out behind that door.