Beneath
Chapter One Hundred Seventeen - Reaction
Jane threaded her way through the crowd still gathered in Commo and handed the Iridium phone back to Rodrigo.
"Did you get him to unclench?" Rodrigo asked over a yawn. Jane knew it was way past his bedtime.
"Yeah," Jane answered with a laugh, then rubbed her forehead. "I think so. Hey, have you seen Lucas come in here?"
"No, but honestly I might not have noticed."
Jane nodded and started to make her way back out through the small crowd, but was stopped by Nora.
"Jane, are you feeling okay?"
"Yeah, just tired. And a headache."
"Anything else? You look kind of…off."
Jane looked down at herself. Her clothes were a little rumpled – she'd dressed quickly and not put much care into it – and she hadn't looked at her hair but she imagined it must be pretty comically messed up by now. Jane dressed casually and simply more often than not, especially at the Pole, but was usually more put together than she must look at the moment. She was about to blow it off as just a long day when she remembered she had hit her head, and she did have a bump from it. "The stupidest thing people do is lie to their doctor. Don't ever lie to your doctor, Jane." Don may have been kind of a jerk in the end, but he really was good with patients. "Well," Jane began, stalling for a second to come up with something to say other than that a Light Elf woman had thrown juice glasses onto her head ninety years ago, "I did trip earlier today and hit my head. I've got a knot here," she said, lightly touching the area.
"Any nausea?" Nora asked, touching the bump herself and making Jane wince.
"No. Well…earlier, but that was…temporary." She couldn't come up with an excuse for it, but she was fairly confident the brief bout of nausea was from Pathfinder and Yggdrasil, and not from her head injury. "I'm pretty sure it was unrelated."
"Loss of consciousness?" Nora asked, now looking concerned.
"Yes?" Jane said with a grimace.
"Jane, and you didn't come see me? Come on, let's go down to Club Med. I need to examine you."
"Um, okay, but I really need to talk to Lucas about something first."
"Does he- We can talk about that in a minute. I'd really like to examine you now. You have symptoms of concussion, and I have a lot more questions I need to ask you."
"Just give me a few minutes, Nora. I'll be right there. It was hours ago when I hit my head."
"Brain injury symptoms don't always appear right away."
"Just a few minutes. It's really important. And then I'll come straight to Club Med, I promise," Jane said, eyes drilling into Nora's and trying to convey every bit of earnestness she could. But she wasn't asking permission, although the South Pole's doctor did have the ability to pretty much order her to Club Med right then and there. She had to talk to Loki. She gave Nora a smile and hurried out of Commo.
At the other end of the corridor was Loki, emerging from the galley. She broke into an easy jog; he seemed to notice her but he paid her no attention and turned left into their berthing wing before she could catch up to him. He was nearly to her door when she did. "Hey," she said, reaching for his arm. He pulled it away as though her touch carried a disease. "We need to talk. We have to talk," she said quietly.
"I already know about it," Loki said without turning. He had no doubt about what Jane was speaking of. They were in front of his chambers now. "Half the station is gathered in the galley."
"I just got off the phone with Tony," Jane said. That got his attention. He turned, hand slipping from the doorknob.
"And what did Tony say?" Loki asked slowly, darkly.
"He said there are pictures of you on the internet but he's degrading the quality. He doesn't think anyone will recognize you," she whispered, though she suspected no one was in the berthing wing, if there was another big group in the galley.
Pictures. He hadn't even thought of that. Of course Gullveig would provide images. He would have plenty of high-quality official ones to choose from. So his ability to slink about the South Pole incognito would again be protected by Tony Stark. He would be protected by Tony Stark. It was utterly galling. Much more so than before, when all the man had to do was keep his flapping lips sealed. "So good of him to act on my behalf," he said silkily.
"He'd probably want me to tell you he's actually doing it on Thor's behalf, but I think the most important point here is that there's no need to panic. Nobody's going to find you here," she said, leaning in toward Loki and whispering the last even more quietly.
"Mmm." Even better. Protected by the Iron Man and Thor. Perhaps next the green beast will rip apart my enemies, or the Hawk will willingly lodge his arrows in their heads. "Do I appear to be panicking to you, Jane?"
"Well, no, but…this day hasn't exactly gone as planned. You have to be upset."
"Do I look upset?"
"I don't know… You look like you don't want me to know. You look like you're completely fine and nothing's happened, and I know that's not true. So I don't trust what you look like. Can't we just talk about all this for a little while at least?"
"I thought you said we would talk tomorrow. I thought you were tired. And whatever else I am or I am not, I am tired as well," Loki said, letting his eyes look a little less alert, his mouth fall a little more slack. He was surprised, really, at how easy it was to go back to lying to her. Perhaps because he'd never really stopped. Perhaps because he wasn't entirely lying.
"That was before Gullveig showed up. But okay. I just didn't want you to worry. You're safe here."
A dozen responses came to mind, none of them likely to send Jane on her way and away from him, so in the end he simply nodded deferentially and bade her good night. When he closed the door behind him she was still standing there, and he waited for several minutes on the assumption she would follow. She did not.
/
/
"How long were you unconscious?"
"I don't know, actually. But it couldn't have been long. Maybe thirty seconds? A minute?" Jane realized now she should have asked Loki, but it never occurred to her.
"No vomiting?" Nora asked, shining her light into Jane's other eye.
"No." Almost. Unrelated. I think.
"Any stumbling? Lack of coordination, sluggish or clumsy movements?"
"Amazingly, no, not even when I was walking on the ice."
"Ringing in the ears? Dizziness?"
"A little bit of dizziness right after it happened. Not since then."
"Fogginess? Difficulty thinking?"
"Ummm…" That was a hard one. Wouldn't anyone have difficulty thinking after a day like today? "Maybe a little. When the headache gets worse."
Nora finished her physical exam and asked a few more questions, which Jane answered as best she could without getting into where she'd been and what she'd been doing today. "Okay. Everything looks good at the moment, but it does sound like you've got a mild concussion. I'm going to give you a couple of Tylenol for the headache, and I want you to sleep in here tonight, so I can check on you regularly and make sure it's nothing worse. I want you to rest. No physical exertion. And I know there's some stressful things going on right now…I don't think I've ever been more glad to be at the South Pole, frankly…but I don't want you worrying about that. No mental exertion either. Just rest. Got it? Then we'll see where things stand tomorrow.
Jane grimaced but nodded. Now she wasn't even going to get to sleep in her own bed tonight. "Can I at least take a shower first?" She'd told Nora she'd spilled some juice when she fell, to explain the stickiness.
"No, I want you resting, and I don't want to risk you having a dizzy spell and slipping and falling. You'll survive a night with sticky hair."
She fixed a dirty look on the doctor, then sighed and nodded. She liked Nora. And it wasn't Nora's fault she'd been knocked out by a juice glass, she thought, turning an internal dirty look on Niskit.
/
/
Jane had let him go easily. Far more easily than he'd expected. That was a good thing. He had more important things to do than try to placate her, or play along with her naïve little conviction that everything would be fine. That he was "safe" here. Fine, perhaps with Tony Stark's protective services he would be "safe" from the Polies, who would continue to believe he was no more than an occasionally acerbic Canadian graduate student. But Stark himself had figured out the truth because he'd had a reason to look. Now the entire planet of seven billion people had a reason to look. Did Jane think Stark was her world's only intelligent creative thinker with resources and information at his disposal? The clock was ticking.
Loki would not sit here waiting, patiently, obediently, like some Midgardian lapdog. He was done bending. He was done breaking. He was done bowing. He was definitely done behaving, for Odin or for anyone else. He was not beholden to anyone else, including these Polies. "I wouldn't be opposed to some suffering." He was not Lucas, he thought as the walls seemed to close in on him. He was Loki. He was known for mischief. And he was going to get out of here and have a little fun.
/
/
"He spoke so dismissively of Gullveig. He said Gullveig wouldn't be king much longer, and his son Bleinur would make a poor ruler. I don't think he meant to reveal his feelings on this. It was after I mentioned Gilla being under house arrest."
"I remember he used to have a soft spot for her," Frigga said, sitting on a step at the foot of the throne, along with Bragi, Jolgeir, and Maeva. Thor himself, at her coaxing when only he could see her face, was sitting on the throne for the first time. It was nearing dawn, and everyone was tired.
"It seems he still does," Bragi added.
"Do you not agree, then? That he wishes to wrest leadership from Vanaheim?"
"I think he wants to wrest leadership from Asgard," Bragi said.
"Nadrith was always competitive," Frigga said, recalling the years when Nadrith had trained with her sons. "But I never thought he was particularly envious." Not like Loki, she added only to herself. "He enjoyed his time on Asgard, though I know he missed his home, too. And once he succeeded his father, he instituted training programs on Alfheim similar to those here. Odin looked favorably upon that, and believed that through him our two realms would grow even closer."
"Can we use this information somehow, then?" Maeva asked, speaking up for the first time, for she had barely known Nadrith. "You've been trying to give Nadrith the idea that he should back out of his alliance with Gullveig. But that isn't working, if I've understood correctly, because it only plays into Nadrith's hand if Gullveig shows himself to be a poor leader, putting victory ahead of honor. Because Nadrith is setting himself up to step into Gullveig's role. What if we switch tactics and try to convince Gullveig to break his alliance with Nadrith, and with Alfheim? What if we can somehow make them fight each other instead of us?"
"And the Dark Elves," Thor said with a nod. "They may be responding positively to Nadrith now, but if they knew he wished Alfheim to lead the Nine Realms? The other realms know…or, knew, that we would always defend them in case of unprovoked attack. I can't imagine Svartalfheim accepting Alfheim in that role."
"Nor I," said Bragi. "Let me think on it, Your Majesty. It isn't as simple as dealing with Nadrith."
"I wouldn't call that simple," Thor said, mindful of how little headway he'd made with his fellow king.
"I only meant in the sense that we have a captive audience with Nadrith. On Vanaheim we're trying to undermine Gullveig among the Vanir. Changing tactics to try to undermine Nadrith to Gullveig himself…that's no easy task. We'll need a different approach, I think. And on Svartalfheim recall that we have no more Asgardian citizens working in secret."
Thor nodded, thinking of Jormik. He thought of her frequently, and mentioned her courage and sacrifice when he spoke to his warriors. "There's something about the Dark Elves…and Loki…something we're missing."
"Loki?" Frigga asked.
"Yes. Jolgeir, you presented a convincing case on Loki's behalf. We all concluded that Loki didn't instigate this war. But…"
"You've changed your mind?" Frigga asked, trying to keep her voice neutral. Thor was king, and she would respect that even if she disagreed, as she had done with Odin. In private, also as with Odin, would be another matter.
"No. But this started with the Dark Elves, and we don't know why. They had that gem, the one that's similar to the one in the scepter Loki had on Midgard. But Loki couldn't have gotten that scepter from Svartalfheim."
"You think there's someone else, then?" Jolgeir asked. "Someone that connects Loki to the Dark Elves?"
"Yes," Thor said quickly. "Yes," he repeated. That was exactly what he thought, what he'd been trying to put together yesterday morning. It seemed clear now, and obvious, hearing someone else say it. "We never knew much about where Loki was after he fell from the bifrost, only the glimpse Heimdall had before Loki went to Midgard."
"The Chitauri they were called, yes?" Bragi said. "Could these Chitauri have allied with the Dark Elves? And to what end?"
"To get the Tesseract. If they were allied with Loki, then…when Loki lost the Tesseract, they did as well. Perhaps they still want it," Jolgeir suggested.
"Gullveig said the other realms would jointly guard the Tesseract on Vanaheim. Magic-users and warriors. The Dark Elves would have their own among the guards," Bragi said.
"I'd wager they would send Brokk," Jolgeir said with a look of distaste. "What if Brokk means to steal it?"
Frigga listened with one ear as Bragi and Jolgeir speculated along this new line. Loki was the key to all of this, she was certain of it, just as certain as she remained that he had not instigated the war. Nothing was known of the Chitauri, the race Loki had allied himself with while he was presumed dead. No one had ever heard of or seen them before. And Loki had refused to speak of them, or of the time after his fall, or really of anything at all. "We assumed Loki and the Chitauri were allies," she said, interrupting Bragi. "What if we were wrong? The other realms demand Loki…but why? Jotunheim has only once sent its warriors here in this war. They aren't invested in it; they have their own matters to deal with. Yet they get the Ice Casket and Loki. Surely they would be appeased with only the Ice Casket. What if it's really the Dark Elves who want Loki? Or the Chitauri?"
Thor tried to think it through, but the moment of crystal clarity had passed. He was too tired for so many "what ifs." A few things, though, he knew. "Loki was allied with the Chitauri. He opened the portal that let them reach Midgard. He fought alongside them. Not with them, precisely, I suppose, but… And the Chitauri themselves…they were not such a clever foe. Strong, and in numbers that at times seemed overwhelming, but not clever. I wouldn't expect them to be capable of masterminding the alliance against us."
Frigga considered that. Thor had not mentioned before that the Chitauri were not particularly clever. "If that is so, then how did they come to ally with Loki?"
Thor looked at his mother in confusion, but Jolgeir and Maeva were both nodding. It was Jolgeir who spoke. "Loki does not suffer fools. He would not ally himself with someone who was simpleminded. He never has."
Now Thor nodded, too. Maeva, Loki's onetime love, was certainly clever. Loki had not called any on Asgard a true friend in a very long time. Those he did for some reason call friend, like Brokk and that Niskit woman…Brokk he would be happy to use for target practice with Mjolnir, and Niskit, she was two colors short of a rainbow, utterly scandalous, and had the compassion of a rock. But he could not deny that they were both very clever.
"We can't know what is not knowable," Bragi said tiredly. "If there was someone else, the only one who can tell us is Loki."
"The Dark Elves may know," Thor said.
"They may," Bragi agreed. "Their leaders, or Brokk. But if so, they aren't talking about it, not so that Heimdall can hear, and again, we have no one in a position to otherwise gain information from them."
"We're going to have to do something," Thor said, pounding a fist against the solid gold wing of the throne. "You heard the reports. We lost another tower. Our builders can't keep up, no matter how hard they work, no matter how much we try to shift resources. Our healers can't keep up. We're even having difficulty maintaining a supply of simple healing stones now. It won't be much longer before the wall becomes irrelevant."
No one spoke. Thor averted his eyes from them, regretting what he'd said. Part of his role was to encourage. It was inappropriate for him to take such a pessimistic tone. It made him feel like a traitor to his own realm. He swallowed hard and lifted his head. "Continue discussing this in Assembly and in the War Council. We need fresh ideas," he said to Bragi's weary nod. "Jolgeir, you will go to Midgard and meet with Tony Stark, as we discussed."
"Yes, Your Majesty," Jolgeir said, rising smoothly now despite his missing arms. At Thor's nod he left.
"Maeva, Bragi," Thor said, nodding at them in turn. Both stood and gave the salute Jolgeir was unable to, and followed Jolgeir out.
Frigga stood then, too, and looked down at Thor.
"Mother…," he began only when the others were gone. "You said you may have a way…?"
She looked into her older son's bright blue eyes for a long time. He wasn't sure. Neither was she. And that, she decided, would have to be her answer. "You have difficult decisions to make, my son. And so do I. I'm still not yet ready to make that one."
Thor nodded in acquiescence, though part of him wanted to argue. Loki might be in more danger than before. And Loki might have information that could help them. If his mother thought it was not time to try to search for him again, then so be it. She, too, was very clever.
A moment passed, neither of them moving, and Thor wondered if his mother was waiting for him to dismiss her, too. How strange, he thought, and then remembered that he was sitting on Asgard's throne, Mjolnir by his feet to his right, Gungnir within easy reach to his left. He was growing more comfortable as king, and everything that came with being king. But his own mother, who'd carried him in her arms and wiped his runny nose, standing there presumably waiting for his dismissal…it reminded him that he was not yet quite accustomed to being king of Asgard, and he didn't know if he could ever truly feel that way in her presence.
He stood from the throne and took two steps down to be at his mother's height. "When this is all over," he began, the words uncomfortable on his tongue now that he was beginning to face uncertainty about what "over" would mean, "I would like to have a long conversation with you."
"About?" Frigga asked curiously. It had once been Loki's habit to come to her for counsel, but it had never really been Thor's.
"Many things. What it was like ruling Asgard in Father's absence, though I really wish I'd asked you about that long ago. I used to think it was easy. Even when everyone assured me it wasn't, I didn't believe them. I thought they were just saying that because it wouldn't do to let anyone think it was easy."
"I'll be glad to tell you all about it, though I think you already mostly know what you need to know. You've learned it the hard way, just as I did. But I did not have to deal with a war on Asgardian soil."
"And I do not have to care for an infant on my own."
Frigga laughed gently, then smoothed a hand over Thor's cheek and leaned in to kiss it. "I won't deny that was difficult, but I wasn't exactly on my own. I just didn't want you to confuse the servants with your mother."
Thor smiled. There were plenty of family stories from this time, many of them terribly embarrassing for him and joyfully told over the family dinner table when he and Loki were younger. "And I have so many questions about Loki. I know you said there was nothing really different about him, even when he was a baby, but…everyone on Asgard grows up believing there is something different about them." He didn't worry about being overheard here; this hall was well-shielded, and the days were gone when there were enough Einherjar to stand idly around on largely ceremonial watch or enough servants to be undertaking what were now considered unimportant tasks.
"We tried to shelter you and Loki from that as much as possible, but the fact is that there was, and is, much hatred of the Jotuns on Asgard. Many Asgardian lives were lost fighting them. We thought at the time that we were doing what we could, but I know now we should have done much more."
"And what of before the war? Did you know much of them then? Loki and I never learned much about them in our lessons, except about the war."
"No. Our two realms have never associated with each other very much. They were always on the fringes of the Nine, and there were the other, smaller attacks, mostly on Vanaheim."
"We always thought of them as savages."
Frigga winced and looked away for a moment. "Yes, we did tend to see them that way. We knew little else. Most of our encounters resulted from their aggression, and that got worse under Laufey."
"And yet…they have families as we do."
"Of course they do. Though how much they are like ours, that I cannot say. We do not abandon our babies to the elements on Asgard. But we know that Laufey has two sons who are fighting…and that much is familiar," she said with a sad smile.
Thor thought on that a moment, and the fact that those warring sons of Laufey were Loki's blood brothers. "Mother…I know the question is far too simple, but…are they savages? Do they care only for destruction and chaos, and not for any other living being?"
Frigga sighed. Not for the first time she wished she did know more about the Frost Giants. But this was a new desire, and that made her heart burn with shame. When Loki was growing up, she'd been quite happy with the pretense that he was truly Aesir, a tiny fear in the back of her mind that never fully went away that the Jotun king and queen would realize their child had lived and decide they wanted him back. And once he was grown, it didn't seem particularly important anymore. "I know little more than you, Thor. But I know they're not all savages. Not because I know anything of the Jotuns, but because I raised one of them. Loki has had his moments, as have you, but he's no savage."
"I know that," Thor said. He held out his hand and drew Mjolnir the short distance to it. "I must go, Mother…but when there is peace again…we must learn more of Jotunheim."
"Yes, I think we must," she agreed, proud of Thor, who in this thing had surpassed her and Odin. He would be a good king, if his kingdom survived.
/
/
Deciding on a course of action wasn't difficult. Neither was accepting what it would cost him, not really. What was a little more loss of magic? He'd lose it all eventually, anyway. Odin had seen to that. He simply had to make sure he didn't lose all control of it before he figured out some other way around the curses. There had to be one. There was always a way. And Pathfinder opened up so many possibilities. He only had to find one that worked.
He wanted to leave now. It was the middle of the arbitrary night here, but at his destination it would be whatever time he told Pathfinder to take him to. Jane would be busy with everyone else listening to Gullveig expound upon his crimes, and sleeping when she grew bored with that. She wouldn't be expecting him to slip back out into the dark. Instead, he pulled on the black tunic he'd bought on Alfheim and made his way to the Weight Room. No more sweat pants and sweat shirts. He needed the internet, and it wouldn't be available for another hour or so. He was tired and sore, hungry and thirsty, but he knew from firsthand experience that he could carry on for a long time despite those facts. He ignored the weights and went to the treadmill; he wanted to run. The strain in his muscles as he ran and ran felt good. He was strong. He would succeed. He would not let anything or anyone stand in his way. When strain became more accurately pain, this too felt good. Familiar. Comforting. He had endured pain in many of its forms, and he was still here, still running, still doing as he wished.
When the clock on the wall said that the satellite window would open in 30 minutes, Loki got off the treadmill and headed to the bathroom. He heated the water a bit, pleased to find it wasn't actually that difficult, nor was he punished, and showered for the next ten minutes. He wondered what had possessed him to start obeying the station's two-minute rule. The cost of melting ice here was not his problem.
In his clingy nightclothes he made his way to the Computer Room and found all the information he needed, passing no one in the corridors either going or coming. He figured that like Jane, they were all either in bed or huddled around one of those broadcasting devices learning more about the "warlord Loki."
Back in the closet that was his chambers, he changed into the seersucker suit he'd bought in Sydney, and wore it just as he had the first time, slacks and vest and jacket with vertical gray stripes over white, a white buttoned shirt, a deep green tie that reminded him that he was Loki, and not Lucas. He looked good in it, yet its light colors and relatively casual look – along with the hair he'd styled in loose curls with a convenient Midgardian product – would make him appear sufficiently different from when he'd been seen in Stuttgart. Not to mention, the material would be comfortable and cool in the late Chicago spring.
/
/
Loki did what he could to minimize the damage. He'd not attempted invisibility; he'd barely even considered it. He wasn't going to proclaim who he was, but he wasn't going to hide, either. He'd done enough of that on this realm, and such cowardice was beneath him. Instead he'd studied satellite imagery on the ever-helpful internet, found a small area right next to a large highway that appeared to hold nothing but a few trees, and determined the precise latitude and longitude of his desired location between a cluster of trees and the highway. He'd only masked the flash of his arrival, and received the expected sharp jolt of pain. Two unkempt men Loki assumed were probably criminals of some sort saw his arrival and gaped; Loki smiled at them through the pain and set off. A man jogging and a couple pushing a baby in a stroller were nearby, but failed to notice him until he moved. He nodded to the couple, who gave him friendly smiles without stopping. For a place known as "the Windy City," the air was remarkably still.
He easily recognized the apartment building that was his destination; Google's "street view" had proven useful there. He had an excellent memory, and an envelope sitting on a desk for months, with an address written on it that had been irrelevant to him until today, had told him where to go. He slowed as he approached the building, and watched a man in a brown uniform – perhaps working for the post office, Loki thought from the large box he carried – climb the few steps to the building's front door. The thought of the post office made him think of a carriage ride with Jane, and the thought of a carriage ride with Jane made him think of an isolated cottage… No. He clenched his fists and longed for something to physically – violently – shove out of his way along with such thoughts.
He regained his focus in time to see the post office worker detour from the door and instead go to the short wall on the side, to the left of the door. Perhaps thirty seconds passed, and then the man went to the door, opened it, and went inside. It was a fortuitous observation, Loki realized, when he crossed the street a moment later and found the apartment numbers next to small buttons on that wall, instead of heading straight for the door. He was certain he would have figured it out in seconds anyway, but it was best to look as though he knew exactly what he was doing here.
He'd arrived earlier in the afternoon, when he thought there would be fewer people out – he'd used the extra time to wander the streets, taking in his surroundings with a cold dispassion, thinking over what he would say. Now people were ending their workdays and returning home. He hoped he'd waited long enough; it was one variable he couldn't plan for or find out from the internet. He pressed the button for number 512. Vehicles plied the streets, and pedestrians were out on the sidewalks. He would prefer not to be overheard.
"Yes?" a female voice said, grating on his ears from a little speaker set behind plastic mesh next to the numbered buttons.
"Mrs. Jessica Higgins?"
"Yes?" the voice said again, so little different from the first time that it sounded like a recording, though Loki supposed that any difference was simply obscured by the poor sound system.
"I can't say much from here, but I need to discuss with you something of great importance. It's about your husband."
Silence. Then, "Selby?"
"Yes. Dr. Selby Higgins."
"Did something happen? Is he all right?"
"I'm afraid I need to speak with you in person, Mrs. Higgins."
He could hear her breathing now. "Yeah, uh, okay. Okay, I'm buzzing you in."
/
So, it's always something! This week much of the week my neighborhood has been without internet, hence not too many updates from me, and no PM responses. Going out of town this weekend, not sure what kind of internet access I'll have. Sigh. On someone else's internet right now. BTW, yes, this is a shorter than average chapter. But nearly all of them are "longer than average" (ha) so this one just balances it out a bit. ;-)
"Two colors short of a rainbow" = Asgardian equivalent of "two fries short of a Happy Meal" - not sure if this expression is used outside of the US. A Happy Meal is a kids' meal (which includes french fries) from the fast food restaurant McDonalds, and the phrase basically means crazy, but you probably got that anyway even if you didn't know the original expression.
Beneath blast from the past: In Ch. 31 "Precipice" Frigga first told Thor she might have a way to track down Loki (AKA, via the necklace).
"Lyn" and previous Guest, be glad you can't buy a hardcover of this! It would break the shelf! But GUYS, wowwww, I did some planning out this afternoon of what will be in I guess Ch. 119, or, knowing me, 120. And it hit me that THIS IS IT. Wow. We are really beginning to crash over the waterfall here. The end approaches! (I don't blame you if you roll your eyes at that, I've been saying it in one form or other since like Ch. 50!) Guest (Feb 8), please don't worry, I totally took it as a compliment! But don't let any reviews annoy you, I appreciate each and ever single one of them, whether super short or super long or everything in between. Everyone's busy and it's easier to stay "in the shadows" and just read, so when anyone takes the time to review it means a lot to me.
Previews from Ch. 118: Ah, sigh, Loki...Loki flexes his metaphorical muscles; Thor has a visitor.
Excerpt (chosen in haste b/c the laptop's about to die...):
He blinked and saw the elevator doors closing. He stuck his hands into the small gap and forced them to open again. Of course it was all lost. There was nothing so special about that. Everyone grew up. Thor had supposedly finally done some growing up on Midgard. Loki had done the last of his on an unknown distant realm.
