._.

Beneath

Chapter One Hundred Ninety-One – View

Jane stepped carefully onto the rock, smoothed out mostly flat by the frequent flow of water over it. Flat, but still slippery, water intermittently cresting it as the brook burbled around other rocks and rose and fell in miniature waves. When her footing felt secure, she focused on the next rock, and the next step.

Thor had gone first, testing the steadiness of the rocks, and pointing out a couple of wobbly ones to be careful of. He had planned for them to cross to the trail on the other side at a bridge about half a mile back, but it had apparently been destroyed in the fighting. Other signs of the war in this area were few and far between, just a few spots where grass had not regrown in the upheaval of earth, a few damaged, splintered trees.

Jane didn't mind the loss of the bridge. Thor had offered to fly them across, but Jane preferred to do her hiking the natural way, with no magical intervention. Before long, they'd come to this spot, where the brook was wider and shallower, and strewn with flat-topped stones.

When she got to the other side, Thor was waiting there with his hand out to help her back up onto land. She wiggled her toes in her boots: perfectly dry. These Asgardian leather boots were no joke. Water-proof and just as perfectly well fitted as everything else. This morning she'd chosen a white blouse of soft cotton fabric, fitted bodice and breezy flowing mid-length sleeves, tucked into a pair of sturdy but soft brown pants of some kind of velvety corduroy-like material, which were in turn tucked into the tall boots. Her only other choice in pants had been black leather, and Jane had decided she just wasn't ready to wear quite that much leather. Topping it all off was a sweeping burgundy shawl brightened with shimmering silver threads; this piece Jane decided she loved so much that she hoped she could take it with her, because she could wear it just as well on Earth as she could on Asgard.

Thor was dressed much as usual, though his arms were bare, and his hair was pulled back into a low loose ponytail.

When they turned away from the river and Jane saw where the path was now taking them, she drew her lips in to avoid yet another "wow." A rough staircase had been cut into a natural stone wall running along this side of the river, and the narrow cut up through the stone was slick-looking light gray streaked with white that sparkled in the sunlight. Patches of moss covered the stone in places, a green so vivid it didn't look like it came from nature. They climbed for the equivalent of around three flights of stairs, but the stairs were tall and uneven, and when they reached the top, Jane had to pause to catch her breath.

"A long time ago, much more water flowed through here," Thor explained. "It cut this channel through the hills. In my grandfather's day there were no bridges and you had to find a way to ford the river. They would fell trees, toss ropes, lash together rafts…whatever worked to get them across."

"You sound like you wish you'd been with them."

"I can't deny it," Thor said with a chuckle. "I've done similar things on other rivers, though."

"Have you been white-water rafting? Rafting through rapids?"

"Many times. And you?"

"Once. Loved it."

"Then we shall have to do it again. Perhaps a group adventure. My friends, and Loki, if he's willing."

Jane was skeptical about Loki's willingness to join Thor on any adventure, as well as Thor's friends, if he meant the ones that had shown up in Puente Antiguo, the ones who Loki considered to have betrayed him. But it was a nice thought, and there was no need to spoil it by voicing her doubts. Taking a drink from the clear waterskin Thor had given her when they arrived at the starting point for the hike, she noticed Thor taking a deep breath followed by a long deep exhale.

"Or perhaps just the two of us," he amended, since that was unlikely to work, and for more reasons than one.

"Sure," Jane said with a nod, feeling bad for him. She knew he'd seen the problem with that idea when his expression turned troubled. But suddenly his face lit up.

"Or Erik and Darcy could join us! Now that would be an adventure! If Erik is able?" he probed, uncertain of Erik's age equivalent on Asgard, and whether it might be too physically demanding for him.

Jane's reactions shifted just as quickly as Thor's had. "I think he would do it, and I know Darcy would. But…there's something I'll have to deal with first. Loki being at the South Pole was a secret. Still is, really. Erik doesn't know he was there. He doesn't know we're friends. I wish so bad I didn't have to tell him. But I don't think I can keep lying to him, either, not once I'm looking him in the eye."

"I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. If you talk to him about Loki, I'll gladly be with you, and also talk with him, if you think it would help. Do you think he'll be angry?"

Jane shrugged and looked around at the foothills and the mountains beyond. "I have no idea how he'll react. But 'that's great, Jane, let's all get together and go bowling' probably won't be it."

"He's protective of you. That last night in Puente Antiguo, he made me promise to leave town. I think he thought I wasn't good enough for you. He didn't know who I was."

"If you'd told him, he would've just been convinced you were crazier than he already thought you were," Jane said with a wry smile.

"It's a good thing I chose not to speak of it, then."

"Why didn't you?"

"I had no way to prove it. And I didn't know our names were familiar from your mythology. And…"

"What?"

"Sometimes…people treat you differently, when you're a prince. Tell you only what you want to hear. Scheme to get in your good graces."

"I'm sure that happens to anybody who's rich or powerful, and you're both."

"That drive out into the desert to get Mjolnir? I enjoyed it."

"Because I didn't know who you were?"

"Because I could just be me. Or…because I knew you only saw me."

"And not a title, or a future throne, or a giant bank account. I understand what you mean. But you know I saw something better in you than all that."

"What's that?"

"The answers to my questions about Einstein-Rosen bridges."

Thor laughed; Jane's expression made clear she was teasing. It probably wasn't far from the truth, though. He knew why Jane had returned for him at that Midgardian Healing Room, and it wasn't because she'd found his surly behavior charming. That didn't bother him. Everything had to start somewhere, and they'd both grown to mean more to each other than their initial narrow focuses. "I wish I'd been able to answer more of them for you."

"You answered enough. And Loki's answered some. And I'm hoping I get the chance to talk to Heimdall tomorrow. He said he'll be at the feast."

"I hope you get all the answers you desire."

"You've been practicing your sweet-talking skills, haven't you?"

"You deserve only the sweetest, sweet Jane," Thor said, drawing Jane closer to him and smoothing a strand of hair from her forehead to press his lips there.

Jane held back a giggle – mostly – and leaned her head against Thor's chest.

"We still have time to make it to the viewpoint I told you about, if you want to keep going," he said after a quiet moment. "What do you think?"

Jane lifted her head and took another look around her. "This isn't the viewpoint?" She could see over the ledge to the far side of the creek, and on this side of it rocky hills with more of the most vivid green she had ever seen – moss and bushy trees with feather-fine leaves – continued stretching gently upward. "Let's keep going then!"

They set off again, Jane feeling recovered from the steep climb, along a worn stone path that was remarkably smooth, if slippery in a few places where moss grew. Her boots had great traction, though, and she never lost her footing – unlike in those bunny boots back at the Pole. The thought made her laugh, and she wound up telling Thor about the weird thick white pressure-valved boots that had become just a normal part of her wardrobe. He'd seen them, of course, but hadn't thought anything of them, assuming bulky short white boots to simply be Midgardian preference, which sent Jane back into laughter.

"Hey," she said, excitedly pulling on Thor's arm. "Look at that bird over there." She pointed to a boulder a couple hundred feet away, and the giant bird perched atop it, scanning its surroundings. It would probably come up to her waist, she thought. And it had dark, iridescent blue wings. "Is that a bluewing?"

"It is," Thor said with a nod. "You have them, too?"

"Nnnnot exactly. Not that big. And the scavenger birds I've seen, I think they're all black."

"How do you know of them, then?"

"Oh, well…actually, last night, after I went back to my room, Loki kind of…just showed up. And he asked if I wanted to…you know, do something else, or if I was too tired…and you know, with the time difference I really wasn't tired. Anyway, we walked over to a tavern, and there was a poet. And he mentioned bluewings a lot. Other things, too, but I remembered bluewings because it sounds like a pretty bird. A song bird. Blue jays, bluebirds…those are birds you like to see in your yard. On Earth. I don't think I'd want to see one of those in my yard," Jane said, glancing up at Thor nervously before studiously looking out at the bluewing again. She hadn't thought until now about how it might sound to Thor. Until she'd almost said "He asked if I wanted to go out." Because it wasn't that kind of "go out" – they'd been inside, and they'd gone outside. Just like they'd done the whole time at the South Pole. But the way it had almost come out, it sounded like while Thor had to go back to work, she'd gone out on a date with his brother. She should have told him about it earlier. It hadn't even occurred to her to mention it. She was used to keeping her time spent with Loki – time not spent doing the work SHIELD was paying for her to do – a secret. As awkward as talking openly about it might be, particularly when Loki was doing his best to keep Thor at arm's length except when he had no choice, treating it like a secret couldn't continue.

"I wish you'd told me you weren't tired. We could have stayed out longer."

"You had your meetings."

"There are some benefits to being king, Jane. If I'm late for my meetings, everyone else simply waits," he said with a laugh.

"That would be rude. I wouldn't want to do that to you or them. But really, it's okay. I mean, I wanted to be able to catch up with Loki, too."

"He didn't keep you out too late?"

"No. It was fine. And it was fun."

"In that case, I'm glad," Thor said. It still seemed strange to him, this friendship that had developed between Jane and Loki, but he was glad of it. Loki needed friends – everyone did – and he had precious few left now, if one went by who Loki deigned to call friend. And Jane, surely, was a good influence on him. "What was the poem?"

"It was an Ancestors' Star poem. I don't think there was a title…I didn't notice one, anyway."

"They often don't have them. You weren't bored, though? The language is veiled in kennings, often kennings within kennings, and the tales are mostly of battles, from long ago or from the poet's imagination."

"I found that out after the fact. Now that I think about it, I bet Loki did that on purpose. I assumed it was a love story, and I thought bluewings were cute little songbirds."

"And Loki enjoyed disabusing you of that notion, didn't he?" Thor said with a chuckle. He didn't truly need to ask; he knew.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he did."

"This story makes this day even happier, Jane. That is the Loki I know. Mischief, and the chance to demonstrate that he knows more than you do. I'm encouraged to hear it."

Jane nodded, relaxing into a happy grin. Thor didn't seem bothered by her night out with Loki at all. And she remembered him showing up in Tromso, telling her, briefly, about the Loki he remembered. She'd found it hard to take him seriously. Now she knew. Now she understood. The grin faded when she remembered sanctimoniously telling Thor that on Earth, people like Loki were sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty. She didn't know what sentence would have been appropriate for what he'd done, now that she had a better idea of all the circumstances surrounding it, and she was grateful that it wasn't something she needed to decide, or even think about.

"I do think he's doing a lot better than when I first met him."

"I'm encouraged by that, as well. Loki has…faced some challenges that I wasn't aware of. Some that I should have been aware of. Some that I was the cause of. He doesn't want to accept me as his brother anymore. But sometimes I see glimpses of who he was and I think…I still think there's hope."

"There's nothing wrong with hope," Jane said. It was a platitude, but she didn't know what else to say. Thor's and Loki's relationship was between them, and it was probably best left that way. Except that she hadn't quite stayed out of it when they were at the Pole. "Did you, um…did you happen to ask him about Baldur? Because I'm thinking now…maybe you shouldn't. I mean…maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it."

"I already asked. We had some time on Svartalfheim. He didn't want to talk about it. He said he wasn't innocent, and that was all he would say." The trail they were on ended in rocky rubble, and they came to a stop.

Jane nodded in resignation. She wasn't surprised, and didn't know what she'd thought would actually come of it. An open, honest, heart-to-heart talk that would clear the air on a devastating tragedy that had been over and done with a thousand years ago?

"I'm sorry. I did try."

"I know. It's okay. It's Loki's choice if he wants to talk about it."

"He did tell me something else."

"Yeah? What's that?" Jane asked, as Thor's somber face started to transform into the sunny smile that sat so naturally on him.

"On Midgard it's believed that he gave birth to a horse."

"Sleipnir, right," Jane said with a surprised burst of laughter. "Okay, it's not that widely known, and it's part of Norse mythology, people don't think those stories are true. Though I guess maybe more do now than before, now that your names are known here. There, I mean. But he just told you that? Of his own free will?"

"He did indeed. He even managed to smile about it."

"Then there's definitely nothing wrong with hope. Ummm…what happened to the trail?"

"It continues here."

"That's not a trail, Thor. That's a landslide."

"Not a landslide. Just a bit of a climb. Can you manage it? We can always take a shortcut if you prefer," Thor said, giving Mjolnir a tap of his palm.

Jane looked up again. It really did look like there'd been a landslide, with big round boulders that didn't look terribly conducive to secure footing. "I think I can do it," she said after a moment's consideration. "Maybe go behind me?"

Thor agreed, and Jane started climbing. This was real climbing – searching for handholds and feeling for footholds on a slope that was almost vertical, not what she usually did on a hike. But this was also hiking Asgardian-style, Thor-style – okay, he'd told her he liked climbing mountains, so it was probably hiking-light for him – and she wasn't going to take the easy way out if she didn't have to.

She made it to the top proud of herself, since Thor hadn't needed to help her at all except to direct her toward a foothold once when she had trouble finding one. "I bet you've been doing that since you were a little kid," she said once Thor was back on his feet at the top.

"I have. But I still love it. It's been a while, actually."

"How long is a while to you?" she asked as they set off again.

"In this case…forty or fifty years?"

"So just recently, then, huh?" Before I was born!

Thor pointed to a mountain in the distance, and told Jane about a challenging climb he'd made a handful of times in the past, including during a particularly memorable adventure with Loki. He left that out of the story, though.

By the time they came to another set of stairs carved into rock, they had fallen silent, and Jane was trying to hide how tired her legs were, how heavy her breathing was. These stairs, at least, weren't as tall, and there weren't so many of them.

"You go first," Thor prompted.

First dawdling with the canteen for a minute, Jane started up again. At the top of the stairs, legs burning, the surrounding stone narrowed, even coming together above her head – Thor might have to duck to make it through, she thought. When she came up over the last step and emerged through the opening in the rock, she came to a sudden stop. Thor's hands fell lightly on her shoulders a moment later.

They stood on a bed of rock, mostly level, but sloping downward not far in front of them, gently at first, then steeply, the ground dropping away and disappearing from view. Where the ground vanished, an enormous rocky valley opened up far below, with sparse vegetation that stood out against red-tinged stone, and beyond that the mountains began, in clear majestic view. She could now see more than just the top of the one Thor had been telling her about. Just three steps back she'd had no idea that all this lay behind the stone arch.

"This is…breathtaking," Jane said, when she was capable of putting words together. "If this isn't the viewpoint, I don't think my heart can handle the actual viewpoint."

"Your heart is safe. This is it. I'd hoped you would like it."

"I love it. And I'm glad we didn't just fly here. Working for this, stepping through that arch…this was the right way to do it."

They stood there a while longer, enjoying the view, before Thor suggested they recline on the stone. He'd carried a rolled-up blanket affixed to the back of his belt, and unfurled it on the ground for them to sit on.

"If I start to roll over the edge, you'll catch me, right?" Jane asked, only half-kidding. The slope of the rock wasn't much where they sat, but this low to the ground the drop-off created an optical illusion of a steep slope and a long deadly fall to the valley below. She regretted not bringing her camera, but she thought maybe a camera couldn't do justice to this view anyway.

"Always. But you won't fall. It's only dangerous if you're drunk."

Jane twisted to the side to look at Thor for a few seconds instead of the view. "Speaking from experience?" she asked with raised brow.

"Of course. But I never fell."

"Who fell?" The slight emphasis he'd put on "I" made her certain someone had fallen, and her first thought was that it was Loki, and that was why he didn't drink.

"Fandral. He was trying to impress a lady, reenacting a battle for her. And he tripped and lost his balance. He was fine, though. He didn't fall all the way."

Jane tried not to think about that part too much. She didn't think she'd ever get used to things like people falling over what was basically a smooth-edged cliff and being "fine," even if they didn't fall all the way. "I guess he made an impression, though."

"He did. I remember that night fondly. Once we got him back up, we laughed so hard we could barely breathe. Even Fandral." The memories were from centuries ago, and clouded by mead, but he remembered the shock of seeing Fandral fall, the effort to get him back up, and collapsing to the ground in probably about the same spot he now sat with Jane, laughing so hard he could barely breathe. They had all been there – he, Loki, the Warriors Three, Sif, eight or nine others. Loki, he remembered, had disappeared not long after Fandral's recovery, along with one of the young ladies they'd invited along with them, and Fandral not long after that with the one he'd been trying to impress, which had earned him much teasing later.

They sat there a little while longer. Thor's thoughts were clearly drifting, and the jovial attitude he'd sported moments earlier had faded. "The fond memory isn't so fond anymore?" Jane prodded.

"It's not that," Thor said, attention pulled back to Jane, where it never should have left. "It was just a long time ago."

"Is something wrong, though? Everything on track with the treaty?" She hadn't thought much about it before, caught up in the experience of the hike, but Thor had been uncharacteristically quiet for most of the morning.

"No, everything is right on schedule."

"I can hear the 'but' in your voice, you know. If you can't talk about it I understand, but I'm pretty sure something's bothering you, and… There's something your mother said to me. Something about how kings don't have many people they can talk to. You can talk to me. If you want to. You don't have to put on a smile and pretend."

Thor shook his head, a rueful smile spreading. He thought he'd been doing well in keeping his burdens to himself. He didn't want anything to mar Jane's visit. But…he had been suffering alone with this, and her offer seemed sincere, and maybe confiding in her would help.

"A problem has arisen," he began. Jane nodded patiently, and he felt encouraged to continue. "It's about Loki."

Jane couldn't quite hold back her grimace, and wondered if she wanted to hear about this after all.

"Not about Loki, exactly. About my friends, the ones you met on Midgard. The Warriors Three – Volstagg, Fandral, and Hogun – and Sif. When I was banished, and Father fell into the Sleep, Loki was made king, because we were in a renewed state of war with Jotunheim. They were suspicious of Loki, and they went to the throne room expecting to find my father, to implore him to bring me home. And instead of my father on the throne, they found Loki. They implored Loki to bring me home, but he refused to permit it. And then they suspected him of treachery.

"So they disobeyed his order, and went to Midgard for me. It wasn't even truly Loki's order, though, it was my father's. Loki merely refused to overturn the original order. It was to Loki's benefit, that is true. And he's told me, since he returned here, that he was happy that I was banished. Actually, he used the word 'ecstatic.' But legally, that's irrelevant. My friends blatantly disobeyed a clear order from their king.

"I understand that they thought Loki had usurped the throne, but he hadn't. Our mother approved the throne passing to him, because in those circumstances Asgard needed a king. Hergils gave him Gungnir in the presence of an honor guard. Nor did he scheme to create those circumstances. He never intended for me to be banished; I believe him in this, because he has no reason to lie about it at this point. He was the legitimate king of Asgard, and they violated his order and my father's. It's a serious offense. They suspected that something was amiss, but suspicion was all they had, nothing to base it on. Loki sees them and Heimdall as the same in their actions that day, but they weren't. Heimdall knew more than they did. He knew Loki had gone to Jotunheim and hidden himself. And he knows Loki is Jotun; he has from the beginning. Heimdall is empowered to act independently if he believes it necessary, and he believed Loki was betraying Asgard, and he had reason to be suspicious. My friends had no such evidence, no knowledge of Loki's secret visits to Jotunheim."

Thor fell silent, but nothing in his tone signaled that he was done, so Jane waited, and he soon continued.

"And yet…if they hadn't defied him and brought me back to Asgard…Jotunheim wouldn't exist anymore. Loki would have killed his Jotun brothers. His Jotun mother. A people's entire existence. My father says that it would have damaged the rest of Yggdrasil's realms as well, for one of them to be destroyed. Who knows what would have followed? But no one knew that Loki planned to destroy Jotunheim. So does that make it all right, what my friends did? That in the end, good came of defying a lawful king's lawful order?

"And I can't help thinking…they were Loki's friends, too. Why would they turn on him like that, and so quickly? They're good people. I know they worried for me, but…. They could have asked. They could have sought out Hergils, or Jolgeir, any of the palace guards could have told them that Loki sat justly on the throne. Why didn't they just ask?"

Jane knew he was asking himself, or the universe at large, and not her, but she couldn't help responding with her own question that came to mind. "Are you sure they were his friends?"

"Yes," Thor answered, eyes coming back into focus on Jane. "Loki almost always joined us. We did things together all the time."

"Did Loki ever do things with just them? When you weren't there?"

"Of course," Thor answered, before thinking about it. "Not often, perhaps," he amended once he actually did. "And alone, not with just Sif, I think. Sometimes a point of tension arose between them. Hogun, too…perhaps not. But I know he sometimes did things on his own with Fandral and Volstagg, sometimes."

"It sounds like they're more your friends than his."

Thor thought about that long and hard, hard because those thoughts inevitably led back to times he preferred not to think about. And admitting it to himself was unpleasant. "You're right. Loki wasn't around when I became close to them. He was…it was after Baldur's death. Fandral and Hogun were about the same age as us; we played with Fandral when we were small, and Hogun…well, I suppose even then he was more my friend than Loki's. Fandral was just one of a number of childhood playmates, and Hogun moved away for a while. Volstagg we knew also, but he was older, at a time when that difference mattered. But Loki had always been my best friend, my only constant friend, and when I was left alone…somehow the Warriors Three and I wound up in league together, and then a few years later the four of us met Sif."

Jane's gaze wandered for a moment in puzzlement. Something Thor had said didn't add up. "A few years later…the four of us…" Something Thor had said literally didn't add up. "Which four of you met Sif, years later?" Jane asked, body tensing in apprehension. He misspoke. He just misspoke, she reassured herself as Thor looked at her with confusion.

"The Warriors Three and I."

Then I misunderstood. It's the only logical conclusion. "But you said you met Sif a few years later. Where was Loki all that time?"

"You know where he was. You told me Loki spoke to you about it. This was all during the period of his punishment."

"But you said…you said…" Years later. "Thor, how long was he under that snake?"

"The judgement was for eighteen years, but-"

"Eighteen years?" Jane repeated, scrambling to her feet in shocked disbelief. "But that's not…that's not even possible!" She clutched at the memories of what Loki had told her about that barbaric sentence, which wasn't much. Days bleeding into each other, losing his vision when venom got in his eyes and his voice when it got in his mouth. Days, he'd mentioned days. She'd assumed a period of time measured in days. A week. Two or three. She hadn't really thought about time at all. The nature of his sentence was horrific enough without dwelling on the length of it. But something measured in years would never have occurred to her. Then she remembered something else Loki had said about it, when they were here on Asgard. That he deserved it.

A new wave of horror crashed through her. Loki had said days bled into nights and he lost the ability to keep track of time. Which would suggest… "How did they feed him?" she asked, startled to be looking up at Thor; she hadn't noticed him standing.

"They didn't feed him," Thor answered quietly.

"But…water? How can…"

"He wasn't given water, either, though he had the rain. No Aesir is known to have died of hunger."

"So he just…didn't eat? For years? And he was fine?" She'd heard Loki remark that he was hungry, so she knew he felt hunger. And Thor ate like food was going out of style.

"No, he wasn't...fine. He was thin. Frail and weak," he said, keeping his words as simple and general and few as he could. Not just to avoid upsetting Jane more than she already was, but for his own sake, as well. The images coming to his mind now were bad enough. Loki, lying in bed and straining just to reposition his head. Sprawled on the floor in a puddle of his own urine. Vomiting up Eir's version of food, again. All of it, all of it, was best forgotten.

"Where I'm from, even prisoners in solitary confinement get an hour outside to exercise. And they have beds, and food and water. Toilets. Showers. I just…I can't even comprehend it, Thor. And no visitors, either? He said no one came."

Thor took a moment to think back on that. He'd been well aware of that restriction when it came to himself, but never much considered the broader rule. "Emotions were raw. People were angry. No one was allowed to go near him. It was for his protection."

Jane huffed out an indignant breath. Well thank God he was protected while he was tied down with venom dripping on him every single day for eighteen years. But she clenched her jaw and didn't say it. It had happened a millennium ago. Loki would talk to her about it a little, but not to Thor, and almost certainly not to anyone else, either. Her outrage on his behalf wasn't helping him. "I'm sorry," she managed to get out, even though she wasn't feeling very sorry. "I didn't mean to lose it like that. It's just…that would be considered torture on Earth. In multiple ways. A slow and excruciating death sentence."

"I'm sorry, Jane. I thought you already knew all about it."

"Loki told me it happened. He didn't tell me a lot of details. And what he told me was bad enough."

"It isn't something I would ever want to see again. I hope you can take some comfort in knowing that it's not allowed on Asgard anymore, either."

"I don't know if 'comfort' is the right word…but yeah, I'm glad that at least it's not happening to anyone else," Jane said.

They stood there in silence for a while, both gazing out over the valley, until Jane glanced Thor's way and saw how drawn his face was. And then, finally, she did feel a little sorry. Thor, as far as she knew, hadn't had anything at all to do with Loki's sentence. And she'd gotten all indignant as if it was his fault, when he was trying to tell her about a concern he was wrestling with.

Jane crept closer to him and wrapped an arm around his; Thor looked down at her with surprise. "Sit back down with me, okay?"

One burden lifted, and Thor sank gratefully back to the blanket on the sloped stone. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"I know. It's okay. It's not your fault. You were telling me about how you got to know the Warriors Three and Sif. It was while Loki was…"

"Yes."

"Okay. So…you became this close-knit group of five friends…and suddenly Loki's back?"

"Yes, I suppose. But it's not like it sounds. Of course it was awkward at first, for all of us. But they accepted him. They liked him. At times there was tension between Loki and me. They were better friends to him than I was sometimes in those early days."

Jane nodded, though she couldn't help thinking that Loki, who Thor just said had been his best friend, was released after eighteen years of torture only to find he'd been replaced. Maybe he hadn't seen it that way. But she thought maybe if it was somehow her, she would have. "Fast forward to a couple of years ago, and they turn on Loki. I think your basic question boils down to 'does the end justify the means.'"

"Yes," Thor agreed. "They violated their king's direct order. They didn't recognize him as their legitimate king, and although I don't think they believed they were violating the order of their king, they took no action to confirm or deny that belief. They went only to Heimdall, who permitted them to leave based on the knowledge of Loki's journey to Jotunheim in which he hid himself from view. But their actions ultimately prevented the catastrophe of the destruction of Jotunheim." He paused as he considered the consequences of their decision in a new way. "They prevented my brother from being guilty of the annihilation of an entire realm. His life would have been forfeit." He took a slow deep breath before letting go of that disturbing thought. "But the end and the means…it's not quite the right question, is it? The end was an accident."

A minute or two passed in which Jane kept expecting Thor to elaborate, but he didn't. His expression, though, looked more contemplative, and a little less anxious, than it had before.

"I know these are things you have to think through for yourself in the end, but I wish there was some way I could help."

"You have helped. Thank you for listening. For asking questions, too. You do help me look at things from a different perspective."

She smiled back at him. "And there's one good thing from the last few days, besides the end of the war, of course. From the things you've said today, it's clear that Loki's been talking to you."

Thor snorted a quick laugh, but then his brow lifted and he nodded slowly. "He has. It hasn't exactly been easy – Loki doesn't make talking easy unless he wants it to be easy – but he has been talking, some. We have been talking. And it hasn't even ended in an argument every time." He started to laugh again. "Though it did once end with apple sauce on my face."

"You had a food fight?" Jane asked with a wince. She wasn't sure if she should worry or laugh, even if Thor had certainly made his own decision on that.

"Not a food fight. Just a door that he took away, and a servant waiting outside with a tray."

Silence fell on them again, but this time, Jane saw, Thor wore a smile. She scooted closer and leaned against his shoulder; he wrapped his arm around her back and she snuggled in.

"What's that?" Jane asked after a few minutes. She sat up straighter and Thor's arm fell away. "There's something moving down there."

"Ah, yes. It's a bilgesnipe. Phil Coulson said he thought you didn't have them on Midgard. Is it true? Huge, scaly, big antlers?"

"I'm going to go ahead and say yes, it's true," Jane said, managing to keep her smile fond instead of sad. "Bilgesnipe, huh?"

"A young one, from the looks of it. Up from its late morning nap. The mother must be nearby, about to get her own nap interrupted. You see how little vegetation is down there? They've done that. Probably several of them in the area. The last time I was here, there were many more trees and shrubs. They uproot everything, then they move on."

"I really wish I'd brought my camera. I know Asgardians don't go around taking pictures of everything, so I decided not to, but up here I could have taken as many pictures as I…what?" Jane asked as Thor abruptly grasped her arm and tugged, encouraging her – almost pulling her – to her feet. But then she heard it, too. Footsteps, coming up the stairs to their isolated location.

"Stay behind me, Jane," Thor said, then remembered what was behind Jane and grasped her wrist.

She nodded her enthusiastic agreement. Everyone seemed to be acting like the war was over, and Thor had said everything was fine with the treaty, but of all those other realms that had been attacking Asgard, not one had signed that treaty yet.

A moment later the first glimpse of metal armor appeared in the arched gap in the rock, and a second after that the figure wearing it stepped through: an Einherjar. Jane felt wobbly from the sudden burst of fear and its equally sudden departure, but Thor she noticed, still stood stiffly, on edge.

The Einherjar before them knelt and put his fist to his chest.

"Yes?" Thor said tersely.

The man hastily rose to his feet. "I bring a message from the palace, Your Majesty. If we might speak privately…?"

Thor glanced back at Jane, who was moving back to his side. "There's no need," he said. "You may speak your message." Thor didn't know this particular guard, and if he was permitted to carry the message, then Jane could certainly hear it.

"The All-Father requests your immediate return to the palace. The Frost Giants have demanded to attend the signing of the treaty."

/


To clarify the note on the last chapter I haven't gotten around to clarifying: "today" in the story may end in 20 chapters. Not the story itself, that is not likely. But...it's not that far off! (Really! No...I mean it. For real this time.)

Also, two people left registered reviews but their accounts settings don't accept replies. If that's you, just letting you know in case that was unintentional. (If I haven't replied to your registered comment, then it's you!) Of course if it was intentional, no worries!

Going back to try to respond to some of the "guest" comments, since this chapter's "regular" length. (Ch. 189) "Star": Haaaaa Loki would *definitely* have some questions about those Ragnarok goings-on! "Christina": Thanks! Always happy to hear it holds up to rereading. "ladymouse2": Ha, yeah, you know probably some of that is that I pour *everything* into this. I don't want to retread this ground, so for the most part, if it needs dealing with, I want to deal with it in here. Not necessarily resolve it, but address it in some way. Odin *does* give Loki credit for what he accomplished, but he's also exasperated with Loki. I think Odin...wants to see results. Loki changing his behavior, like Thor did. But Loki and Thor aren't the same, and their circumstances aren't the same. He did let it go in the end at least! I think I could write a novel on the history of Loki and Odin and it would be messy and complex and contradictory. I wouldn't say Odin sees only the bad in Loki. But there *is* something in him that is...primed to see the bad in Loki in a different light than he sees the bad in Thor, and that has probably always been true. I'll stop there before I write that novel! There's so much room for interpretation about Odin, too, so of course I'm only speaking for my own interpretation. Baldur's death has been brought back to the surface for Loki, and now for Thor, too, somewhat, but Jane's been the only one who wants to deal with that. I agree with what you said about Jane being able to remain friends with both, at least where things stand at this point. Re Idunn's Apples, I have been, shall we say, non-definitive on that point. I have my thoughts on it, but as far as the story goes, at least at the moment, nothing has been said to clearly say than Jane could or could not be given an Aesir lifespan, via the apples or some other method. Jane isn't at all at the point (yet?) where she's thinking about the kind of commitment you'd be making for a human to want to live for 5,000 years when no one else (on Earth) will. Guest: Glad you had something to occupy you at the airport, ha!

(Ch. 190) "Star": Thanks! I like juxtaposing the cultures they come from, and it's fun now doing that with Loki and Jane because Loki can now bridge the gap fairly well. Re "Twilight," I meant to put a note on that chapter, no offense meant to Twilight fans! My understanding is it became popular to dump on it and shame people who liked it, and it wasn't my intent to jump on that bandwagon. I haven't read/watched it either so I can't comment, but, you know, its original demographic was teen girls, even pre-teen girls, so, I figure *Loki* probably wouldn't like it, and so Jane figured the same. "fourdevils": Thank you! "Lwolf": Thanks! But Loki really was just teasing about side effects. Though...who knows?! "CatsCoffee": Thanks! I do very much hope to publish a book one day. And thanks so much re Loki, wow! (Also your English is excellent!) "Amelia" (prologue): You are a fast reader! Thank you so much, that's a huge compliment. Haaa, that's so funny, I don't even consider Loki and Jane an "OTP". :-) But I think if you put two interesting characters together, give them some ways they can relate to each other, some interesting conflict, the right circumstances, you can write an interesting relationship. (Isolation is helpful!) Re Loki and Jane, LOL, thanks! Re "beautiful," I *think* Loki has only just now used the word out loud. (Could be wrong!) Request noted, but, yes, it'll only happen if it makes sense with the characterization. Loki and Jane are...note 100% on the same page. "Glitter Queen": Thanks! Yeah, those final experiences at the Pole really affected Loki, and brought him to a new level of openness with her. But yeah, I think he'd mostly like to forget about that encounter with Farbauti. Hee hee, glad you enjoyed the "side effects" prank. He knows just how to set it up to make her believe it. If only he'd known that the "glittering skin" thing was unique to the Twilight version of vampires, he could have kept it going longer! "Mab": Oh, I know what you mean now! Yes. BTW I don't think Loki sees himself as unattractive. I think it's like with so many other things, his fighting ability and strength and such, he's *good*, it's just that he grew up with Thor as the measuring stick and always falls short. (Attractiveness, of course, unlike physical strength, is subjective and influenced by culture.) When Jane remarks on how comfortable Loki seems, she's not trying to make an analytic judgement or thinking long-term or big-picture, she's just noting what she's seen, and even with the "who's preparing the food and drink" thing Loki stayed calm and didn't seem upset by it afterward. But she *is* an optimist, and she wants him to be happy, so there's probably some wishful thinking there too. Ultimately I would say Jane just doesn't realize how very central she's become to Loki - he's a different person with her. You're probably right, that other than the time after Baldur's death Loki's never been less comfortable on Asgard. And you make an important point that others now know Loki's secret, I'm not sure anyone else has mentioned that. 20 chapters for "today," not the story. :-) "Christina": Thanks! "C": Thanks! I was aiming for a warm and cozy tone. :-) The bit you mention that includes "I don't know what to say to that" I consider the heart of the chapter, the most important thing in it. So I'm glad it caused a reaction. :-) OH! So, if some method of Jane gaining 5K years exists...I'll say I don't think Jane would leap at it. I think outliving everyone you've known and loved in your life (until now) by 4,900 years is nothing to take lightly. And I think what would also gnaw at Jane is - are you really still yourself? More changes than the rate at which you age, but exactly how much? Are you still human? Still *you*? What defines what "you" is? So I think she would really wrestle with it, but without writing the actual circumstances she's in when she must make such a decision, I couldn't give an opinion on the final answer. (Though I know it in a hypothetical 25-30 years later "possible continuation" I'd like to write someday, in which Jane is struggling with disease and given the option of an Aesir version of a cure which would involve rewriting her...DNA or something [I haven't done the research yet, gimme a break, ha], a fundamental change to her biology...I know what she chooses there. She chooses no, because she doesn't want to survive by not being "her" anymore, to survive as someone else. But that's in part because that's something I wanted to explore in a story - acceptance of death.)

Previews for Ch. 192: There are...some things to discuss in Asgard's palace.

Excerpt (Thor speaking in the first line):

"They could see it as a sign of respect. To join the representatives of the other realms. Equal standing, in a sense?"

"Equal standing in what? They aren't a party to the treaty," Loki pointed out.

"Equal standing among the realms."

"This isn't about the realms. It's a treat-signing. It's about the treaty."

"And Jotunheim was instrumental in us having a treaty."