Beneath

Chapter Eighteen – Isolation

"Five full days."

"Yes. Longer than on Jotunheim," Bragi agreed.

"You have to speak to King Gullveig," Volstagg said.

The assembly hall erupted.

Thor stood, watching them, some seated at the long table, others, like himself, unable to remain seated any longer.

He turned to his mother, seated peacefully in the chair nearest his. "Has there been no sign? No change?" he asked quietly, so that she alone heard over the din. He asked every day, usually more than once.

She shook her head just enough for him to see her answer, the same one she patiently gave every time he asked, even as the days stretched on and her patience frayed.

Thor pinched the bridge of his nose as the shouting grew louder. Heimdall had informed him that the delegation from Svartalfheim had finally left Vanaheim, but from there had gone to Alfheim. No one yet knew what it meant, but Heimdall's continued inability to hear anything that was said made it difficult to believe anything but the worst. Thor had called a meeting of all of his father's closest advisors – he could still not think of them as his advisors although that was effectively what they were – along with the Warriors Three, Sif, and his mother.

"Thor!" a deep and resonant voice shouted from the far end of the table. It was Tyr, his father's most capable warrior in the time of the Jotun War and quite possibly Asgard's most experienced military strategist other than Odin himself. Thor had called him back the day before from what was essentially his retirement.

Once the room fell silent he continued. "You cannot risk waiting any longer. Svartalfheim is planning something they wish to conceal. And while it may yet turn out to be something benign, we cannot ignore that they went first to Jotunheim. If it is not benign, then we are being surrounded while we stand here and argue."

All eyes turned from Tyr to Thor, who clenched his jaw. Tyr had voiced his opinion bluntly, more so than anyone else here had, as though he were a child in need of his elder's guidance. Yet even as anger flared in him at those words, and the implication that he was endangering Asgard in his attempts to act with unfamiliar prudence, he recalled that it was not that long ago when his own father had accused him of being no more than a boy. He could not complain about receiving guidance. He did need it.

And Tyr was right. Surrounded. He had never thought of it quite like that before. And judging from the continued silence, no one else had either. "I agree, Tyr. We must approach Vanaheim. But what if their scheme is to draw me away while the All-Father still sleeps?"

"Then we will do what we must to act in your stead. You will need to appoint someone to speak for you. For the All-Father."

Thor nodded, accepting without further thought that he would indeed go to Vanaheim even though his father had not yet woken. Now if only Loki- But no. Loki wasn't here. And even if he were, he certainly couldn't be left in any position of authority. By the time Thor returned, Loki would have figured out how to use the tesseract to destroy what was left of Jotunheim, bringing to gruesome life the games they'd played as children and even into adulthood in which they re-enacted the Jotun War in countless variations, few of them ending with a truce. Thor's head swam every time he tried to understand what had happened to his brother, but he knew that years upon years of carrying out mock wars on the creatures whose blood he shared, the creatures they'd called monsters, hadn't been good for him. If only they'd known…

Thor dragged himself out of the past. Loki was out of the picture for the time being and that was that. It was probably for the best. He looked around him, and his eyes fell on the two he had turned to most since Asgard was left in his hands. Volstagg, a veteran warrior and close friend, older than Thor and somewhat tempered but still prone to brash action. Bragi, with a historian's knowledge of the nine realms and a gift with words and reason but prone to thinking and talking at the expense of action when needed. He called on them both to work together to deal with any problems that may come up in his absence.

Then he turned to his mother. "Should you be unable to agree on a course of action, you will present your arguments to my mother, and she will decide. Her word as queen of Asgard will be final."

She looked up in surprise, opened her mouth to speak but closed it again with a nod. By Asgardian custom and her own inclination, Frigga had rarely taken on any role of authority in ruling the realm, but Thor knew her to be strong and wise and perfectly capable of doing so if needed. He also knew she preferred to stay by Odin's side as he slept rather than sit on his throne, either literally or figuratively. He was grateful that she accepted his compromise.

"Tyr, whatever time you can give to aid this council-"

"You have it all, my lord. For Asgard," he said, pressing his fist to his chest and bowing.

"Thank you," Thor said, relieved both for the millennia of experience Tyr could provide, and the reassurance that this man to whom he was a mere boy did not intend to challenge his authority after all. Thor had enough to deal with.

/


/

Sif and the Warriors Three insisted on joining him, but in the end Thor approached the gleaming white marble palace on Vanaheim alone. This was not Jotunheim, and it was not Laufey. Gullveig was an acquaintance, if not precisely a friend, of Odin. Thor had known him since his tenth birthday celebration, which Gullveig had attended and where he'd offered a toast to the young prince's long life and eventual rule.

Thor had in turn traveled to Vanaheim hundreds of times over the years, many of them following this same grand tree-lined avenue to the palace. He could not recall a retinue of Vanir guards falling into step in a loose cordon around him on any of those prior visits.

"I come to seek an audience with King Gullveig," Thor sternly told the guard standing in front of the palace gate. It wasn't until the words were out that he remembered he should moderate his tone.

The guard merely bowed his head, and when he straightened the gate shimmered and vanished.

Thor nodded and walked past him; the front door opened before him, unguarded, while the men in blue and gold, each with a sword sheathed on his back, filed in behind him. He ignored them and thought of his father instead as he walked a familiar path through the palace. Odin conveyed his strength through his mere presence and bearing; he did not sound stern or show anger until a line had been crossed. No lines had been crossed here. No lines will be crossed here, Thor thought in an order to himself, the journey to Jotunheim still fresh in his memory.

He repeated his intention to meet with the king to the sole guard outside the door to the throne room; this guard likewise bowed his head and the door behind him disappeared. Gullveig knew he was coming.

This throne room was smaller, less opulent than Asgard's. The hall was still long, but much narrower, and lined by enchanted trees that mimicked the approach to the palace. As he walked steadily through the hall and the guards again formed that loose cordon around him, he felt Gullveig's stare even before he could truly recognize the man's form on the throne.

Thor dropped to one knee but kept his head up, his eyes on Gullveig's.

"Thor Odinson. Where is the one who gave you your name?"

"It is good to see you again, Your Majesty," Thor said, rising. Stalling. He hadn't expected so formal a reception. And he hadn't thought through the answer to that question, whether he should admit to the vulnerability of his father and thus of Asgard. He decided on a half-truth. "He remains on Asgard. He rules."

"He does not rule," Gullveig responded immediately, impassive in his flowing white robes. "He sleeps."

Thor's jaw tightened. Caught. In an instant he regretted every complaint he'd ever made when his father had tried to get him to observe and learn those things about being king other than fighting wars. The boring parts, he used to call it. "He sleeps," he agreed, recovering his composure. "And yet he rules. He will awaken."

"And you act in his stead."

"I do."

"Then speak."

Thor hesitated, glancing around him. "Forgive me, Your Majesty. I'm not sure how to speak. This" – he swept his arms around him at the guards standing at attention – "is not the greeting I expected from one I have known all my life." He was careful to keep a smile on his face, and hoped it appeared friendly and not threatening.

"You seek my audience and you bring a weapon. What did you expect?"

There was a moment of confusion before Thor glanced down at Mjolnir. He couldn't specifically remember, but he was certain he had come to Vanaheim with Mjolnir before and he knew he had never been questioned about it. He had wielded the hammer for so long that unless he was actively using it he saw it less as a weapon and more as almost an extension of himself. "I meant no offense. I shall return to Asgard and leave it there before coming back to again seek your audience."

Thor began to drop to his knee again, but Gullveig put out a hand. "Or you can simply leave it outside this hall."

He hesitated, but only briefly, before nodding and crossing the length of the throne room in long strides; the blue- and gold-clad guards did not follow him this time, he noted. The door vanished for him as he approached. He eyed the guard who stood on the other side of it, then set the hammer down with a thud by the wall just outside the door. As soon as he was again inside the throne room the door reappeared between him and Mjolnir. He promptly returned to his position before the unexpectedly austere king.

Gullveig waved his hand and the guards turned their backs to the central hall, then walked through walls that shimmered around them. Thor watched out of the corner of his eye; he hadn't known those walls were enchanted the same as the doors.

"Now. What brings you here unannounced, Thor?"

He relaxed just a bit at the use of his first name, even though his hand now felt uncomfortably empty. "I believe you must have guessed already, Your Majesty. Heimdall has seen that a senior delegation of dark elves has gone to first Jotunheim, then to your court, and now to Alfheim. But they've hidden their speech from him by some unknown means," Thor said, biting down on the sides of his tongue to hold back the question – the demand – that was so close to following.

"Have we no right to privacy? Should Heimdall follow me to all my meetings? To my dinner table? Even to my own chambers?"

"Of course not," Thor shot back. He took a deep breath and lowered his volume. "You know he only watches what he must to protect our realm. And yours," he added pointedly.

"Does either of our realms currently need protecting?" Gullveig asked, leaning forward as his pitch rose at the end.

Thor sucked in a breath, flexed his empty right hand. He would not – he could not – rise to this bait. "These are unusual events. We are concerned."

"As well you should be," the king said, his taunting expression turning hard. He leaned back into his cushioned gold-inlaid wooden throne.

Thor watched him in silence for a moment, swallowing heavily. He found himself longing for Loki to be at his side; somehow he always seemed to know what to say. Loki had actually liked "the boring parts," and complained when he'd been left out of them. "We are allies, Gullveig. Why…" But there was no polite way to ask why Vanaheim's king was suddenly behaving more like an enemy.

Gullveig stood, and Thor hoped he hadn't insulted him with his use of familiar address. "Vanaheim is allied with Asgard. With an Asgard that brought peace to the Nine Realms and kept it, ruled by a man who embraced peace with as much vigor as he once embraced war, who valued justice and who honored his truces."

Thor broke out into a sweat, feeling further backed into a corner with every word. And then it got worse.

"I have begun to doubt whether that Asgard still exists. I know what you have done."

He worked his jaw as the corner closed in on him.

"You went to Jotunheim acting like a child. You flaunted a truce in place for a millennium. But this…this is not the worst of it; they were smarting for battle as much as you were. But then you sought to wipe their realm from existence."

Silence would no longer do; Gullveig was waiting for a response. But Thor's thoughts were running in a circle and no words formed. He could not accuse his brother. But while he and Loki had often taken the heat for each other growing up, if he accepted blame for this himself his reign would be tainted before it began. His brain wasn't producing any other alternatives.

"It wasn't you, was it?" the king finally asked, his tone indicating he already knew the answer. "Did Odin order this barbarism?"

"No," Thor snapped, eyes flashing.

"Did Loki do this?" He took two steps down, standing now only a few inches higher than Thor and fixing an unrelenting, unblinking stare on him.

Thor grit his teeth so hard his jaw hurt. They had agreed – and he had sworn! – that Loki's name would not be pulled into this. They'd thought him dead, and since at that time no one outside the family other than Heimdall knew what really happened, they'd agreed that his memory would not be stained by attempted genocide.

But although no sound escaped Thor's mouth, his face spoke volumes, and he was well aware of it; his brother had always been better at concealing the truth. And try as he might to wish away what was staring him in the face, it was clear that Gullveig already knew anyway. When someone already knew the truth and you still wished to convince them of a lie…ironically enough Thor knew of none other than Loki himself who could reliably succeed.

"I thought you said we were allies," the king reminded him.

"This has nothing to do with Vanaheim," Thor said, relieved to be let off the hook – even if in the most illusory and fleeting way.

"He tried to decimate an entire realm. Would have, if you hadn't stopped him. This has to do with all of us, all of the Nine Realms and beyond. It was him, wasn't it?"

He glared up at Gullveig. "Some things should remain within families."

The old king was unyielding. "Would that it had indeed remained within your family, but it did not. Now stop playing games and admit the truth like an adult. We cannot continue until you do."

After a few more moments of trying to convince himself there was a way out of this and failing, Thor gave in. He broke eye contact and nodded. And just like that he'd broken a promise to his brother. The corner closed in on him and he drew in shallow breaths. His eyes drifted shut.

Gullveig descended the last two steps to the floor. He placed a hand on Thor's left arm. "I'm sorry," he said.

Thor looked at the man again, and found himself looking back at a different face. Gone were the hard lines and angles of a foreign king, back was the man who'd carried him on his shoulders at his tenth birthday. Thor let out a ragged sigh.

"I know this isn't easy for you. I know you and he were close."

Close. The word was almost offensive, ringing out like an empty goblet clattering against a table. Thor had servants he was close to. He had only one brother. "I've answered all of your questions," he finally recovered enough to say. "You still haven't answered mine."

"You haven't asked any."

At that the screeching of a raven sounded behind them and they looked up to see Hugin and Munin flying into the hall. Thor took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. The ravens did not leave Odin's side so long as he slept; his father had finally woken. The birds perched in the trees of the hall leading to the throne.

"Why did the Dark Elves come here?" Thor asked, as he'd wanted to all along. And if it sounded confrontational, so be it.

"You already know the answer, but I'll indulge you. They informed us of what Loki had done to Jotunheim. And they wanted to discuss justice."

"Justice?" Thor repeated guardedly.

Gullveig nodded, removed his hand from Thor's arm. "Loki must face justice."

His face darkened with rising anger. "He is facing justice. The All-Father is punishing him."

"I hear otherwise. I understand he's free to do as he pleases on Midgard," Gullveig said, his face gone cold and hard again.

"He is restrained," Thor growled.

"Be reasonable, Thor!" Gullveig suddenly shouted. When he spoke again he had reined himself in. "The other realms are uniting around this. Loki has committed a crime of unimaginable proportions against Jotunheim. He must be held accountable before the Jotuns."

Stop-stop-stop-stop Thor willed, but the words continued.

"He must be delivered to Jotunheim."

/


/

Loki watched as Jane sat back in her chair, deflating as though she were a balloon. Her dread was so plainly etched on her face it was almost comical. He felt hidden laughter reaching for his eyes trying to peek though and reminded himself that Lucas would not find this funny at all. He mirrored a milder form of Jane's dread, and added in discomfort and guilt.

"Well?" she asked with resignation and a twinge of annoyance.

He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his legs and putting his head at her level. "I told you that SHIELD asked me to come here and assist you in your work."

She nodded.

"And that I wasn't here to report on you to them."

Again she nodded, but this time she drew in a breath and set her jaw.

A misdirect within a lie within a lie, he thought with a thrill of both excitement and pride. "I never said they didn't ask."

She paused, then sat forward, looking determined and more than a little angry. "Okay, cut the…whatever this is. Are you telling me SHIELD wanted you to come down here and spy on me but you said no?"

"Correct on both counts." There was a long moment of silence then, but Loki waited it out, watching her watch him.

"Why are you just telling me this now? It's not like the subject hasn't come up before."

"I didn't think it mattered before. After all, I turned them down. And then when I realized how nervous you were about them, I decided it was best not to worry you."

"Did they…did they try to pressure you?"

"I believe the word you're looking for is 'threaten,'" he said, leaning back in his chair. "They tried. I was already signing the papers when one of them added a condition. They wanted detailed reports on everything you worked on and everyone you talked to and everything you said about them or events in New Mexico and New York. When I refused they took the papers and threatened to rip them up."

She shook her head. "And still you said no? Why? You didn't know me. It just would've meant some extra paperwork for you."

"I'm not fond of paperwork," he said, smiling.

"Seriously, Lucas. This isn't the slightest bit funny. Not to me."

"All right. Seriously. I've dealt with bullies before and I don't like them. I don't respond well to threats. I don't like playing games. And I don't like paperwork." Mostly true, Loki thought, enjoying this particular game greatly. "Besides," he continued, "as I told you, I'm really not here for anyone other than myself."

"Soooo…what you're saying is you're too selfish to spy on me?"

He thought for a moment, for appearances' sake, then nodded. "That's one way of looking at it, I suppose. Regardless, when they realized I wouldn't budge, they relented and sponsored me anyway. They didn't really have time to try to recruit someone else. And I assumed that was the end of that."

"But it wasn't," she said, lifting her head slowly, looking as though she'd just put all the pieces together. "They've contacted you. That's why you're bringing this up now."

"No. They haven't contacted me at all. I believe they were sufficiently convinced by my refusal. But" – oh, and here it is, Jane Foster, are you ready? – "just because I said no, doesn't mean others didn't say yes."

There was a precise moment when she understood what he was saying – it registered on her face as clearly as a verbal response, with a slightly opened jaw and a slight relaxation around the eyes. Then her mouth snapped closed again and he knew she'd leapt to exactly where he'd led her.

"Who?" she simply asked, though he knew she had more questions. This one was the most urgent.

"I can't know for certain…"

"Tell me who. Right now."

"A few days ago…well, Selby was asking me a lot of questions about you."

She sucked in a breath and stood up, pacing a small path through the lab, her eyes darting toward Selby's desk and away again.

"What kind of questions?" she finally asked.

Loki gave a small shrug. "What you intended to do with your work after leaving here. Whether you were working on anything you weren't telling SHIELD about. That kind of thing."

She looked at him sharply when he mentioned SHIELD. "Did he tell you a story about his friend getting drunk at his bachelor party and telling him all about that?"

Loki had no idea what she was talking about, but…why not? He nodded sadly. Compassionately. His mother would appreciate that.

"And did he tell you about- No. He wouldn't have."

He watched her and waited. She was over the initial shock now; she was thinking. Her expression had grown opaque. And yet he recognized it nonetheless. He had ripped away from her something she had trusted. A tiny and insignificant something: one friend. Perhaps more, if he'd been as successful as he'd hoped, but still so very, very little. The tiniest taste of what had been ripped from him. It felt good to be the one to do the ripping. Better than good. Exhilarating.

It took a while, but finally she nodded, perhaps to a question in her own mind. "I think I'm going to…I'll go back to the station for a while. I just…I guess I need some time to think about this. We can make up the hours tomorrow. Oh, or maybe not," she said with a grimace. "Tomorrow is housemouse day. We'll make it up during the week, and maybe on Sunday. Is that okay?"

"Of course," he said as gently as he knew how.

She was deeply distracted and barely looked at him. He listened to her footsteps recede and let himself genuinely relax, a self-satisfied smile spreading across his face.

The smile faded in the same manner it had appeared as elation was replaced with emptiness. For an instant, in the chair Jane had vacated he saw Thor, his bright, trusting eyes brimming with unshed tears as he'd told him with formal regret that his father was dead and his mother never wanted to see him again. How gullible! Frigga, who still loved even the defeated Frost Giant son, the false second son who like a parasite had taken the life of her third son and ultimately tried to take the life of her first. Even if Thor hadn't known all those things at the time, he still could hardly believe how readily he'd accepted that she would reject her beloved firstborn. He'd spun his tale so utterly convincingly Thor had actually apologized to him.

If he could do that to Thor, his own brother – the man who'd grown up as his brother, he corrected himself – who knew what a commensurate liar he was, it was a trifle to succeed against unsuspecting mortal Jane Foster. Hardly worth the rush of pride and power he'd been basking in. She was a poor substitute for a real challenge, but she was all he had here, the only one who had something he needed.

He would see to it that he was all she had, too.

The more he was able to focus her on what he needed, the closer he was to Svartalfheim. Through Svartalfheim he would gain his freedom. Once free, in the end, he would gain whatever he decided he wanted.

/


/

"Thank you for your time, Your Majesty," Thor said stiffly. "I must return to Asgard. I will convey your message to my father." He went to a knee, perhaps the most painful knee he'd ever taken.

Gullveig in turn bowed his head to Thor in a greater show of respect than he had displayed earlier.

Thor strode toward the door, trying to keep his gait steady and calm. He could not discuss this further. With his father awake, he no longer spoke for Asgard. His pace slowed. But he still spoke for himself. He stopped. And he would never be able to hold his tongue the way Loki could. "I don't know what justice is best for Loki," he said, turning back toward the king, who'd begun to ascend the stairs to his throne again. "But I do know this. I will never see him handed over to the Frost Giants." He picked up a brisk pace and continued toward the door, relieved that Gullveig did not respond. He wasn't sure he could have maintained the tenuous control he had over himself.

He was further relieved to find Mjolnir exactly where he left it, to heft it in his hand and find its weight, its grip, the energy surrounding it unchanged…and he was disturbed that he'd imagined he might find anything else in the land of his allies.

I would lift Mjolnir, he'd promised Loki, moved by the rare glimpse of vulnerability and desperation he'd seen in his brother. Imprisonment, tortures, unending sleep, even death, Loki would have accepted. Don't let them send me to Jotunheim, he'd pleaded.

Hammer firmly in his grip, Thor made his way out of the palace and down the tree-lined avenue toward the portal. A pair of ravens shrieked as they flew past, and a dozen royal guards appeared alongside him as though they just happened to be headed in the same direction. Thor ignored them, one thought alone on his mind.

He had broken one promise to Loki today. He would not break another.

/


/

Jane trudged over the snow toward the station. Someone was driving some kind of forklift-like vehicle into a shed in the distance, at the opposite end of the station, but no one else was around and no other sounds were heard. Red flags slowly marked her progress as she passed to their right.

She felt numb, and not just from the cold. She'd done so many flip-flops with SHIELD already, as they'd swung on a giant pendulum from Good Guy land to Bad Guy land in her mind more times than she could count, and not that long ago she'd never even heard of them. But everything they'd ever done to earn them Good Guy points was looking more and more dubious now.

Yes, they'd returned all her equipment and electronic records. But Thor had basically insisted on that, and who could've seen what he'd done in the moments just before that and tell him "no"? Yes, they'd funded her research, but it was a cheap investment – they got sole rights to every single thing she did with their funds. Yes, they'd brought the Avengers together to unite against Thor's brother Loki and his extraterrestrial army, but Tony Stark wasn't one for obfuscating his opinions and she knew he didn't really trust the organization even though he was apparently a part of it. Other than a brief exchange with Bruce Banner when he'd been working with Tony on something or other, she'd never met the other Avengers – how many of them, like Tony, were only grudgingly a part of that network? Yes, Peter Larson in Tromso had seemed like a normal human being and had the decency to look like he felt genuine guilt when he picked her up and carried her away from the door at the base – especially after she'd kicked him hard in the shin – but he'd still sat out in a van somewhere taking pictures of her as she talked with Thor.

And now this. Yes, they send her to the South Pole to take advantage of the clearest, driest skies on the planet. But then they send down to join her people who were supposed to report on whether she's sticking to the plan. First Lucas. She hoped he was telling the truth, that he really had refused their demands. She shook her head slightly, deeply lost in thought. He had to be telling the truth. Something flashed in his eyes when he mentioned SHIELD; she could tell he had no love for them. Maybe that's why he'd reacted so angrily when she'd accused him flat-out of working for them. As if acting like a jerk toward him wasn't enough to provoke that. But more importantly, if he had agreed to report on her he wouldn't have told her his suspicions about Selby.

So then there was Selby. Selby, who said he'd met her at a retirement party, but she didn't remember meeting him. Selby, who oh-so-conveniently knew about SHIELD and the tesseract and Asgard. Selby, who kept wanting to talk about the things she'd told him she couldn't talk about. And now Selby, who'd started peppering Lucas with questions when she hadn't given in to the temptation to talk about it. The quickly-formed bond she'd felt with him before, built around Caltech and the knowledge of "things further away," now sickened her. Even if he had really gone to Caltech – and that was easily checked – their supposed friendship had been based on a lie.

He had been acting a little strange around her the last few days. Maybe that was when he started asking Lucas questions about her. And if Lucas had refused to do SHIELD's bidding at the risk of having his winter at the South Pole rescinded, she had no doubt he'd refused to answer Selby's questions, even though looking back she realized he hadn't explicitly said that.

Jane reached the DZ stairs and made her way directly to her room, not far at all. She forced a friendly greeting to the one person she met on the way, a man whose name she couldn't recall, and slipped quietly into the corridor of the berthing wing and into her own room. She closed her door behind her and for the first time since the day of her arrival wished there was a lock.

What good would a lock do, though? she asked herself as she shrugged out of Big Red and collapsed into her desk chair. I don't even have any secrets. She glanced at her watch; the satellite window had passed.

I do have secrets, she amended. Just not from them. And suddenly she wanted to tell SHIELD where to stick their secrecy agreements and to start spilling more secrets than any drunken guest at Selby's bachelor party could even dream of. She could tell Lucas, at least. He'd listen. She started to laugh, and it built and built into near hysterics. "There's this place called Asgard…" "Let's build a wormhole and go there!" she imagined the conversation going. But she would have to start that story with "This is going to sound crazy," and Lucas wouldn't approve.

When the laughter faded she felt her throat tightening up and swallowed hard. She would not cry over this, she refused. So she had one less friend here than she thought she'd have. So what? Lucas had the right idea. She wasn't here for SHIELD, she was here for herself.


/

This was a fun chapter for me to write, it's fun to put Thor through a bit of a wringer. How far will he go to honor his promise to Loki? How far will he need to go?

Here are some teasers from "Chapter 19: Rebellion" (in one place I had some of the best fun writing this yet, and in one place it was rather tough! hope it all works out well and you enjoy it!) - Thor has a tense conversation with Odin; Jane gets suspicious of Lucas; Loki really misses living as a prince; Loki feels he's getting closer to his goal. (Oh yes, and ninepen laughs out loud while writing. I'm so hoping you get some good laughs too. If not...at least I did!)

And the excerpt (this is Thor and Odin talking):

"Thor."

Just a name. But a clear command nonetheless. Thor ignored it. "I promised him I would not let him be sent to Jotunheim."

"You should not have made a promise which is beyond your power to keep."