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morgynleri_ficAlso on: AO3, tumblr
Word Count: 5257
Category: Gen
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Choose Not to Warn
Fandom: Avengers (2012), Thor (Movies)
AU: Archer, Battle-Mage, Trickster, and Warrior
Series: Loki and Sif
Characters: Loki (MCU), Sif (MCU), Thor (MCU), Odin (MCU), Frigga (MCU), Helblindi
Relationships: Loki (MCU) & Sif (MCU)
Odin waits, his helm and Gungnir left aside, for here he is not in his role as king and All-Father, but merely as the father of a wayward son. He too owes a debt, though it is balanced by the debt which Loki owes to him, and may be regarded as filled.
Sif waits in the room where once private banquets for the royal family and their close confidents were held. Where once Thor had spoken of going to Jotunheim and repaying the frost giants for their invasion of Asgard, however small it had been. Where Thor had held the funeral feast for Loki, and where she had hoped he was wrong.
Where Thor is to return with Loki and the Tesseract when he captures his brother.
Frigga keeps her company in her vigil, silent as Sif, for no words need to be spoken for the other to know why they sit the long watch. The Warriors Three come and go, sometime with mead or food to share - that she refuses, and Frigga politely declines. Sometimes a thrall will come with the same, and the response is the same. Again, neither needs to know the other's spoken reasons to know why they pass the vigil sober and hungry.
Only water to drink, and patient waiting in silence. Each with a debt acknowledged, that while some might pay it in gold or in blood, neither would feel it fulfilled by what so easily could be provided. So they wait.
When Odin joins them, Sif knows soon it will be time to offer what she might to pay her debt of disloyalty and doubt. Her treason - a treason that none know of save a handful, and none need know of if Loki might accept her offer in recompense, for it was against him she had turned when he held the throne in right.
That Loki is in chains when he and Thor appear in a blue flare of light from the Tesseract does not matter. His own actions that are outside of the bounds of both honor and law are not known to Asgard at large, and will not be, for those who have witnessed them are bound not to speak of them should Loki settle his debt to those who he has wronged.
Silence reigns as Thor brings both Tesseract and his brother from the balcony on which he has arrived to where Odin waits, his helm and Gungnir left aside, for here he is not in his role as king and All-Father, but merely as the father of a wayward son. He too owes a debt, though it is balanced by the debt which Loki owes to him, and may be regarded as filled.
Metal clatters to the ground at a touch from Odin, gag and chains alike unclasping from where they have bound Loki for his return. It is a mark, perhaps, of the weight and complex nature of the bonds between those present that he does not show any sign that he will flee and give himself over to cowerdice and outlawry.
"There are debts to be repaid." The quiet words from Odin break the silence, and Sif can see Loki close his eyes against the words. "Both your own and those of others to you."
She does not think Loki truly expects that, for he opens his eyes again, though his expression does not show the confusion she expects he feels. He is a master of masks and misdirection, and will not give them any more than he wishes them to see.
"And will Asgard accept any repayment save my blood upon the ground, and life sacrificed to those whose lifes were taken by the treachery I committed?" Loki's voice, though low, holds a sharp edge that would draw blood if it were a physical blade.
"If those to who you owe your debts accept what recompense you provide, no other has standing to demand more, as is written in our laws." Odin looks as though he wishes the words had been that blade Sif had compared them to in her mind. A physical wound heals faster than ones given to the heart and to the soul, which words cut deep.
"Only should the courts not hear witnesses to those crimes I have committed before such debts can be settled." Loki knows as well as Odin those laws, for Sif knows he has skirted the edges of them - and gone beyond the bounds of honor and custom - often enough. "For all that I have been seen as your son, few enough have any love for me that they would keep such a secret."
He looks to Sif, a hint of speculation flashing through his eyes as he is silent a moment in contemplation of his next words. "Indeed, you have one present I would think might be willing to speak of what she knows to others."
Sif must chose her own words with as much care, that she does not wound Loki with them while trying to convey all she feels and thinks on what has passed. On the actions she has undertaken, and those she has seen in Loki. "I would not speak of them to those who do not already know. They are not matters to be known to all when there are yet accounts to be settled, for it is already a delicate thing."
Words are not her tools, but she does not flinch at the awkwardness of them. She can only speak honestly and as carefully as she might, and if she still wounds, than she will count it added to her debt and seek to offer redress for that however she can.
Loki's eyes narrow, studying her with a mix of calculation and curiosity. He did not expect her to say that, she thinks, but he's nothing if not able to adapt to whatever he's given to work with. He's always been that way, ever since she met him when they were children.
"To tell others of what I have done would be to admit your own treason." Loki smiles briefly, bright and bitter and self-depricating, as if he should have thought of that before. "You have more care for your own honor than to do such a thing."
That reason is indeed one of the several she has for not talking about what had led up to the destruction of the Bifrost - an event for which Thor has taken responsibility, and been levied fines to pay for the rebuilding of. His own silent apology once made to a brother thought dead, now offered unspoken to a brother living.
But that is not the only reason, and she does not want Loki to think that. "That, in part, but not all the reason. I have a care for more than my own honor - and not just that of the Warriors Three, or of Thor." The last she adds before he can speak to remind her of them. She is quiet for a long moment before she speaks again, holding his gaze and letting him see the shame she has tried to hide from others, and the honesty of her words, however poorly they might be chosen in her effort not to wound. "A care for the honor of the king I betrayed, no matter how well-intentioned I had thought myself at the time."
Loki thinks he should have perhaps given Sif more credit for silence than he had, though he doesn't know if her reasons are quite as altruistic as she would like him to think. That she believes them herself is clear, but she'd been quite certain, too, when she'd commited the treason that had brought back Thor before Loki had entirely carried out his intended plan.
He watches Sif for a long moment before turning his attention to the others in the room. The three who'd called themselves his family for centuries, for all of his memory, until the most recent ones. When he'd found the lie, discovered his heritage wasn't of the Aesir, but of the Jotnar. He wonders if Odin and Frigga have told Thor what he is, or if his would-be brother is as clueless as he has ever been.
"And how much wergild shall I pay, that they be satisfied?" If there's a note of bitterness underlying his words, there's no reason any of them should be surprised. He is a master of lies, and still he's been fooled and betrayed by the lies of others. Of those who he had thought to trust at least a little.
Odin meets his gaze easily, though his expression is as difficult for Loki to read as it has ever been. Calculation, careful thought, those are easily enough seen, because Odin wants him to see that. Of anything else, Loki can see no sign, and he's never been quite sure if it's because it is absent, or because it is well-hidden.
"They were einherjar, worth twice the wergild of a commoner." Odin's voice is firm, his word the end of the discussion as it ever is. "When it is paid, they shall have no standing to ask for more than you have given them."
They will not, but they are not the only ones he has wronged in his actions since his discovery of the lie, and he doubts either the Jotnar, or the people of Midgard, will be satisfied with mere gold. If, of course, Odin deigns to acknowledge their claims upon Loki, and their cries of injury and demands for justice. The All-Father has never been one to allow others to sway his decisions without a great deal of effort - Loki knows just too well how much effort it takes to divert Odin from his decisions.
However, he cannot help but ask after the first, at least. "What of the Jotnar?" he asks with care, watching Odin warily.
"They have yet to send any word that they wish redress for any damage done to their world or their people." Though they might have made complaint, that Heimdall or Odin would have heard, but Odin need not acknowledge such when no one else holds that information. Loki will have to find out on his own what the Jotnar will wish in redress for the damages he had caused.
Which might be a task to which he could set Sif, if she seeks to amend her own debt to him - something he cannot imagine her not doing when she has admitted to wronging him. It amuses him, but he keeps the smile from his face, waiting patiently to find out if there is anything else that his would-be family wishes of him, or if he might begin to seek to pay the wergild so he might at least attempt to return to some semblence of his life before.
"You will not leave Asgard until the Bifrost is rebuilt." Odin's words make him wonder what the All-Father has discerned of his thoughts, and Loki raises an eyebrow at him. "I would have you help your brother oversee its repair."
Loki barely bites back the retort that Thor is not his brother, and instead stiffly nods his head in acknowledgement of the order. He would prefer to seethe, to strike back, but it is not yet time for that. He must bide his time, and prepare his plans first. Odin All-Father will pay a price for his lies and his treachery eventually, but not today.
"Is there anything further which you wish of me, All-Father?" He takes care to keep his voice even and pleasent, though the desire for conflict wars with a bone-deep exhaustion that even his anger and his sense of betrayal can't keep at bay for long.
"There is nothing else." Frigga speaks before Odin can, and Loki turns his head to catch the looks that pass between them. "All else can wait until you have rested, and settled the wergild with the families of those who you must." Those whose deaths he had caused by his actions.
Loki bows, to both Odin and to Frigga, before heading for the door. He hesitates before it, uncertainty flowing through him a moment. He pushes it aside, and pushes through the door. The hallways between the banquet hall and the rooms he'd once called his own - which still hold everything that is his when he enters - are strangely empty, and he wonders at that. If Odin had intended it, or if others have cleared the halls so no one need encounter the disgraced prince upon his return.
Sif waits a long moment after Loki leaves to follow, ignoring that she hasn't asked if she might leave, and ignoring the looks passing between the others in the room. Whatever the royal family needs to discuss without Loki present is not for her to hear, and she still has yet to find what Loki would have of her for her debt of honor to him.
The corridors nearest the hall, and among the royal quarters, are entirely empty of people - the former no doubt from her and Frigga's vigil and the work of the Warriors Three, the latter likely because of the royal family, only Odin had been present of late in the complex of rooms and corridors they inhabited. A few thralls briefly showed their faces in between the two places, though they quickly vanished again once they caught sight of her.
Stopping at the door of Loki's rooms, Sif regards them for a moment before turning away, and settling into an easy stance next to them. Let any who came by draw their own conclusions, but now that she stands here, she finds she cannot bring herself to disturb him until he emerges from his rooms of his own voilition. Until then, she will keep watch, and not allow others to disturb him, either, no matter what reasons they might have for the attempt.
The day has passed into night and once more into day before the door opens, and Loki emerges, though he blinks at seeing her. "Guarding me from others, or my jailor?" His voice is light, though there's a bitterness behind the words, and a cynical expression on his face. Sif isn't certain he'll believe her, no matter what she says.
"Waiting for you to have rested." Sif meets his gaze readily, keeping her easy and ready stance. "I have still a debt to repay."
Loki raises an eyebrow, studying her for a long moment. Weighing her sincerity once more, and perhaps contemplating what he might ask of her. Sif tells herself that whatever it is he asks, she will not tell him no, or at least not immediately.
"Join me for breakfast, and I will tell you what you may do to settle that debt." There's a devious light in his eyes that makes Sif wonder if she will regret her unspoken promise to do as he asks for redress.
She accompanies him, as he makes his way through the palace to the kitchens, collecting food enough for the both of them, the carrying of which he delegates to her as they return to his rooms. It is little surprise he does not wish to dine with others, but she wonders that he did not summon a thrall to fetch them food.
They are nearly halfway through the meal before Loki speaks, though he has been watching her since he had made his offer. It is disconcerting, and she wonders what he has been planning, or at least thinking, all this time.
"I would know what the Jotnar demand of me for the harm I inflicted on them." Loki takes another bite of his meal, still watching her. "You may be my envoy to them, and ask if they would have anything of me, or of Asgard. Without speaking to Odin of this, nor to Heimdall."
Sif is glad she has nothing of food or drink in her mouth, or she would have choked on it. "How can I do such a thing? There is no way I know of to go from Asgard to Jotunheim without either the assistance of the All-Father, or the rebuilding of the Bifrost!"
Loki chuckles, a dark sound that sends chills down Sif's spine. She doesn't know what has amused him, but it does not bode well for her, she thinks.
"I will show you where the path lies, and teach you what you need to know to walk it." But he will not show her how to walk it, because he cannot leave Asgard, by command of the All-Father, as she had heard him make the order himself. Dread pulls at Sif's heart, and she takes a deep breath, trying to push the feeling away. This is what is asked of her, and this task she will do, though her memories of the only time she has been to Jotunheim are more of battle than of anything else.
"And if they do not believe that I come as envoy, and attempt to kill me for the affront?" She watches him carefully, trying to decide if it matters to him. Though if her death will satisfy her debt, she will at least die with honor.
"Then I shall have my answer." Loki shrugs, his expression not revealing anything she is looking for. No answers for her, save the words he choses to speak. "And I am not inclined to offer them my life in return."
"Should there be any offer I make them on your behalf, if they do not have any particular wishes on how you should redress your actions before?" It is, too, a piece of information she needs, even if she cannot tell what Loki's motives are behind it.
Loki turns his attention back to his meal for a moment, silence reigning while he eats more. "There is nothing that I can offer until I have more information, and more freedom of movement."
It is all the answer Sif will get, and she grimaces a moment. She will have to return in one piece, though if whatever path Loki is speaking of ends closer to the structure the Jotnar were in the last time, she might have a better chance of leaving in one piece. It will have to be enough.
Do not take your eyes from the path beneath your feet, the twist and loop of Yggdrasil's branches and roots. Nightmares wait in the dark to drag you through the void - you do not wish that.
This is what you look for, to find the path to Jotunheim, to find the twist of space that will flower into a door from the branches of Yggdrasil to the physical world. This is what you look for to find the path home.
A side-step, a twist, a shift of mind. This is how you open those doors. This is how you close them behind you. When you can open and close this one, then I will pronounce you ready to take the journey.
A month passes before Loki is satisfied Sif knows well enough how to walk the branches of Yggdrasil to at least arrive in Jotunheim in one piece. He's not as certain of her ability to return in the same state, but if she slips onto the paths before the Jotnar kill her, she will do well enough. He smiles to himself when she comes to his door a last time in the dark of the night, a last seeking of any instruction he might give her - a matter which he has given some thought, even if his ability to deliver on any promise he might make is hampered by the dictates of Odin.
"If they will listen to you, tell them I will bring the Casket of Ancient Winters to Jotunheim to help rebuild what I have destroyed." Loki will offer no more than that, though he has little expectation that even that offer will be accepted. That they will wish the Casket returned, he has no doubt, but that they might accept him along with it is unlikely. Not impossible, but he would be a fool to think they'd want his presence after the damage he had done.
Sif watches him for a long moment before she nods. "I will tell them, if they will listen. And I will return with an answer." There is determination in her voice and expression, though he can see no sign she carries her usual weapons. Perhaps in a mistaken thought she might show she comes with no intention of bringing war with her.
Loki is not inclined to correct her mistake, if mistake it is. She will pay her debt to him either in her service or her death, although he feels some faint tug of regret at the thought she might die in this endeavor. A journey which, while not explicitedly forbidden by Odin, is unlikely to gain more than his ire. Loki will face that consequence when he must, though, and not before.
"Come straight to me when you do." Loki does not let any of the variety of concerns and thoughts that have run through his mind show, giving Sif only a mischievous smile that is perhaps less sharp than it has been in some time. "I would not have Odin discover what you find before I do."
He reaches out to clasp her shoulder, weaving a familiar spell as he does, to hide her from Heimdall's gaze, and from Odin's. It will keep those secrets he wants found out from the All-Father and Asgard's gatekeeper alike until he can make use of them.
Sif gives him a puzzled look before she nods, and turns to leave, drawing up the hood of her cloak. It's the same one she wore the last time she'd been to Jotunheim. This time, though, she is alone, and the Bifrost is broken. Loki watches her for a moment before he turns back to his room, closing the door silently behind him. Now he must wait.
The empty halls are almost eerie as Sif makes her way down toward the weapons' vault, the place where Loki had shown her the weak point in the fabric of Asgard, where she could step onto paths that twist between the worlds, Yggdrasil's branches that bind all the realms. The Bifrost is a far safer way to travel, but it is still damaged, not yet repaired enough to permit travel across it to other realms, not even Midgard.
Sif pauses in front of where the path is supposed to begin, drawing a deep breath, repeating to herself the lessons Loki had drilled into her head, merciless as any arms-instructor. The air shimmers with the effects of the spell, and Sif steps into the shimmer, a turn of her hips and almost sideways movement that takes her into a world of shadows. A path shimmers underfoot, grey and rough, and darkness surrounds her, soft as any blanket.
She isn't certain why Loki says the darkness is full of nightmares, but she doesn't look, keeping her focus on the path beneath her feet. There are subtle signs in the texture of the shimmer that Loki has said are the signposts of the realms. It soon doesn't matter if there are nightmares in the comforting dark, because it takes all her focus to read those subtle changes of texture and gleam, and not become lost among the branches of Yggdrasil.
There's another subtle change when she is at the weak point that she twists through and steps out into the dark and cold of Jotunheim. The sharp spires and broken blocks of icy architecture where once she supposes stood palaces and temples and homes. Wind howls, and snow stings against her face as she turns in a slow circle, looking for any sign of Jotnar. Her clandestine mission is for naught if she cannot find any.
All she sees is the ice, and some familiar landmarks that she recalls from the previous visit to this place. She is still a bit of distance from where they'd encountered the Jotnar before, and taking a deep breath of the bitterly cold air, she begins to walk in that direction.
"What brings a daughter of Asgard to Jotunheim, weaponless and by secret paths?"
After the lack of any sign of Jotnar, the words startle Sif, and she turns toward the voice. A pair of eyes glow like red coals where a stray hint of light hits them, a Jotun mostly hidden in the shadows of the ice. Watching her without moving, though Sif doubts she can trust him not to attack if she gives him the chance.
"What do you know of secret paths?" It's not a good beginning to her mission, but Sif refuses to flinch, standing with her shoulders back and chin up. Daring the Jotun to attack her for the sharply-spoken words.
There's the sense of a shrug. "Distant kin of mine followed a son of the Aesir through such a path, and never returned." A shift in the shadow makes Sif tense, but the Jotun didn't emerge, just settled once more, though the crimson eyes narrow a moment. "Why do you come here, warrior-daughter of Asgard?"
A Jotun who may have seen her on the previous trip, then, and recognizes her. Sif isn't certain if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
"I bring a message from Loki Odinson, that he would know what recompense is asked of his actions that have brought sorrow to Jotunheim, and to offer that he might bring the Casket of Ancient Winters to repair what damages were done."
There's a grinding sound that it takes her a moment to realize is laughter. It sounds more like the shift of sea-ice in a fjord. "What need has Loki Laufeyson of recompense to the dead? They have no need of it, and the damage is done all by Aesir born and blooded."
Sif frowns, the words making little sense to her. "Speak plainly. What mean you by that?"
The glow of eyes is hidden a moment, and she has the sense that the Jotun is trying to stifle some amusement. "He offers what only a king may, and if he might direct the power of the Casket, he is Laufeyson, not Odinson. If he would bring the Casket, he claims the power of the throne, and of Laufey who is dead. Let him prove he has that power, and he has no need to offer any recompense for the dead, as would an Aesir for Aesir dead."
Her frown deepens, and Sif watches the Jotun - or the shadow where the Jotun is, at least - for a long moment before she speaks again. "Who are you, that you can speak of this with authority?"
"No authority but the truth." Another sense of a shrug, ice shifting and cracking on a swift-running stream. "I am called Helblindi Laufeyson."
A chill as cold as the wind here spreads through Sif, and she narrows her eyes as she stares at the Jotun in the shadows. A son of Laufey, who claimed Loki is, too, such a one. That Loki is of the Jotnar, not of the Aesir, if he were to wield the power of the Casket, as he's offered. She doesn't know if she should believe the Jotun, or if this is a lie that Loki has held onto all his life. Save how could he have done such a thing, when even a shapeshifter of such skill as Loki could not have hidden his true form as a small child?
"You claim Loki as a brother, then?" she asks, not certain where the question comes from, nor why it feels important. If this is something that Loki will welcome, or will reject as violently as she had rejected the life of a lady or Valkerie.
"I have two brothers, only one of which I have known." Helblindi pauses, and there is a shifting-ice sound of movement, the Jotun emerging from the shadows, barely twice the height of Thor. "The younger still is under my protection. The older has been missing since the temple was destroyed by Odin One-Eye. Your Loki has claimed to be able to use the Casket, and only my older brother, of all of us, might hold that power."
Sif holds her ground, though she dearly wishes she could retreat to the gateway onto the path. Wishes she had her sword or her glave. Any weapon that she might use to defend herself if Helblindi attacked her.
"So if your Loki has the power he claims, yes, I would claim him as brother, and as king, if he might bring the others under his sway, as well." There's a smile on Helblindi's face that Sif isn't certain she can read. "Tell your master all that, daughter of Asgard, and if he has the will to yet come, then bring him here to do as he would offer."
Glaring at the Jotun for a long moment, Sif nods stiffly. She doesn't give voice to the denial of being Loki's thrall, to send wherever he will without thought for her own wishes. "I will so tell Loki." Her word had already been given to carry out this task, and she would see it done before she let her own anger loose. The warriors on the practice grounds perhaps do not deserve her ire that would be directed at the Jotnar, but she had no other recourse with the Bifrost damaged.
Helblindi chuckles, and nods back toward where she had come through. "I shall watch, that no one stops you nor follows you, daughter of Asgard."
"My name is Sif." She doesn't know why she tells the Jotun that, but perhaps it is only injured pride, or anger at his earlier insult.
Another chuckle, and Helblindi shrugs. "Until you return, Sif, with this would-be Laufeyson." He settles against the ice in which shadow he had hidden before, and Sif can feel him watching her as she makes the twisting step back onto the paths of Yggdrasil. The dark is not as comforting on the return to Asgard, and Sif moves as swiftly as she might until she finds the ripple of the door from the shadows of Yggdrasil to the firm reality of Asgard.
Leaning against the wall, Sif closes her eyes, taking a deep breath to steady her racing heartbeat, and the rising tide of anger that has no target. She wants to be angry at Loki for his lies - more on top of those he's already told - but she can't help but wonder if those lies aren't entirely his own. She wants to be angry at the Jotnar for the damage they'd done that drew Thor to Jotunheim and left her to incur the debt she's trying to pay, but she could easier be angry at the Destroyer for attacking. They did only what they were led to do.
She could be angry at Thor for being foolish, save he was being only himself. Angry at herself for not thinking past the first, obvious reasons behind what had happened. Angry at the Warriors Three, or the wind, or even Odin All-Father, but none of it will do her any favors.
Another deep breath, and she shoves away from the wall, moving quietly down halls that are still as eerily empty as they were before. As if no one has noticed she's gone, as if it's been only minutes instead of what she thinks should have been hours. She moves with purpose, but not too quickly. No need to draw unneeded attention to herself until she returns to Loki's rooms, and can tell him what Helblindi told her, and rid herself of some - if not all - of her debt.
Word Count: 5257
Category: Gen
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Choose Not to Warn
Fandom: Avengers (2012), Thor (Movies)
AU: Archer, Battle-Mage, Trickster, and Warrior
Series: Loki and Sif
Characters: Loki (MCU), Sif (MCU), Thor (MCU), Odin (MCU), Frigga (MCU), Helblindi
Relationships: Loki (MCU) & Sif (MCU)
Odin waits, his helm and Gungnir left aside, for here he is not in his role as king and All-Father, but merely as the father of a wayward son. He too owes a debt, though it is balanced by the debt which Loki owes to him, and may be regarded as filled.
Sif waits in the room where once private banquets for the royal family and their close confidents were held. Where once Thor had spoken of going to Jotunheim and repaying the frost giants for their invasion of Asgard, however small it had been. Where Thor had held the funeral feast for Loki, and where she had hoped he was wrong.
Where Thor is to return with Loki and the Tesseract when he captures his brother.
Frigga keeps her company in her vigil, silent as Sif, for no words need to be spoken for the other to know why they sit the long watch. The Warriors Three come and go, sometime with mead or food to share - that she refuses, and Frigga politely declines. Sometimes a thrall will come with the same, and the response is the same. Again, neither needs to know the other's spoken reasons to know why they pass the vigil sober and hungry.
Only water to drink, and patient waiting in silence. Each with a debt acknowledged, that while some might pay it in gold or in blood, neither would feel it fulfilled by what so easily could be provided. So they wait.
When Odin joins them, Sif knows soon it will be time to offer what she might to pay her debt of disloyalty and doubt. Her treason - a treason that none know of save a handful, and none need know of if Loki might accept her offer in recompense, for it was against him she had turned when he held the throne in right.
That Loki is in chains when he and Thor appear in a blue flare of light from the Tesseract does not matter. His own actions that are outside of the bounds of both honor and law are not known to Asgard at large, and will not be, for those who have witnessed them are bound not to speak of them should Loki settle his debt to those who he has wronged.
Silence reigns as Thor brings both Tesseract and his brother from the balcony on which he has arrived to where Odin waits, his helm and Gungnir left aside, for here he is not in his role as king and All-Father, but merely as the father of a wayward son. He too owes a debt, though it is balanced by the debt which Loki owes to him, and may be regarded as filled.
Metal clatters to the ground at a touch from Odin, gag and chains alike unclasping from where they have bound Loki for his return. It is a mark, perhaps, of the weight and complex nature of the bonds between those present that he does not show any sign that he will flee and give himself over to cowerdice and outlawry.
"There are debts to be repaid." The quiet words from Odin break the silence, and Sif can see Loki close his eyes against the words. "Both your own and those of others to you."
She does not think Loki truly expects that, for he opens his eyes again, though his expression does not show the confusion she expects he feels. He is a master of masks and misdirection, and will not give them any more than he wishes them to see.
"And will Asgard accept any repayment save my blood upon the ground, and life sacrificed to those whose lifes were taken by the treachery I committed?" Loki's voice, though low, holds a sharp edge that would draw blood if it were a physical blade.
"If those to who you owe your debts accept what recompense you provide, no other has standing to demand more, as is written in our laws." Odin looks as though he wishes the words had been that blade Sif had compared them to in her mind. A physical wound heals faster than ones given to the heart and to the soul, which words cut deep.
"Only should the courts not hear witnesses to those crimes I have committed before such debts can be settled." Loki knows as well as Odin those laws, for Sif knows he has skirted the edges of them - and gone beyond the bounds of honor and custom - often enough. "For all that I have been seen as your son, few enough have any love for me that they would keep such a secret."
He looks to Sif, a hint of speculation flashing through his eyes as he is silent a moment in contemplation of his next words. "Indeed, you have one present I would think might be willing to speak of what she knows to others."
Sif must chose her own words with as much care, that she does not wound Loki with them while trying to convey all she feels and thinks on what has passed. On the actions she has undertaken, and those she has seen in Loki. "I would not speak of them to those who do not already know. They are not matters to be known to all when there are yet accounts to be settled, for it is already a delicate thing."
Words are not her tools, but she does not flinch at the awkwardness of them. She can only speak honestly and as carefully as she might, and if she still wounds, than she will count it added to her debt and seek to offer redress for that however she can.
Loki's eyes narrow, studying her with a mix of calculation and curiosity. He did not expect her to say that, she thinks, but he's nothing if not able to adapt to whatever he's given to work with. He's always been that way, ever since she met him when they were children.
"To tell others of what I have done would be to admit your own treason." Loki smiles briefly, bright and bitter and self-depricating, as if he should have thought of that before. "You have more care for your own honor than to do such a thing."
That reason is indeed one of the several she has for not talking about what had led up to the destruction of the Bifrost - an event for which Thor has taken responsibility, and been levied fines to pay for the rebuilding of. His own silent apology once made to a brother thought dead, now offered unspoken to a brother living.
But that is not the only reason, and she does not want Loki to think that. "That, in part, but not all the reason. I have a care for more than my own honor - and not just that of the Warriors Three, or of Thor." The last she adds before he can speak to remind her of them. She is quiet for a long moment before she speaks again, holding his gaze and letting him see the shame she has tried to hide from others, and the honesty of her words, however poorly they might be chosen in her effort not to wound. "A care for the honor of the king I betrayed, no matter how well-intentioned I had thought myself at the time."
Loki thinks he should have perhaps given Sif more credit for silence than he had, though he doesn't know if her reasons are quite as altruistic as she would like him to think. That she believes them herself is clear, but she'd been quite certain, too, when she'd commited the treason that had brought back Thor before Loki had entirely carried out his intended plan.
He watches Sif for a long moment before turning his attention to the others in the room. The three who'd called themselves his family for centuries, for all of his memory, until the most recent ones. When he'd found the lie, discovered his heritage wasn't of the Aesir, but of the Jotnar. He wonders if Odin and Frigga have told Thor what he is, or if his would-be brother is as clueless as he has ever been.
"And how much wergild shall I pay, that they be satisfied?" If there's a note of bitterness underlying his words, there's no reason any of them should be surprised. He is a master of lies, and still he's been fooled and betrayed by the lies of others. Of those who he had thought to trust at least a little.
Odin meets his gaze easily, though his expression is as difficult for Loki to read as it has ever been. Calculation, careful thought, those are easily enough seen, because Odin wants him to see that. Of anything else, Loki can see no sign, and he's never been quite sure if it's because it is absent, or because it is well-hidden.
"They were einherjar, worth twice the wergild of a commoner." Odin's voice is firm, his word the end of the discussion as it ever is. "When it is paid, they shall have no standing to ask for more than you have given them."
They will not, but they are not the only ones he has wronged in his actions since his discovery of the lie, and he doubts either the Jotnar, or the people of Midgard, will be satisfied with mere gold. If, of course, Odin deigns to acknowledge their claims upon Loki, and their cries of injury and demands for justice. The All-Father has never been one to allow others to sway his decisions without a great deal of effort - Loki knows just too well how much effort it takes to divert Odin from his decisions.
However, he cannot help but ask after the first, at least. "What of the Jotnar?" he asks with care, watching Odin warily.
"They have yet to send any word that they wish redress for any damage done to their world or their people." Though they might have made complaint, that Heimdall or Odin would have heard, but Odin need not acknowledge such when no one else holds that information. Loki will have to find out on his own what the Jotnar will wish in redress for the damages he had caused.
Which might be a task to which he could set Sif, if she seeks to amend her own debt to him - something he cannot imagine her not doing when she has admitted to wronging him. It amuses him, but he keeps the smile from his face, waiting patiently to find out if there is anything else that his would-be family wishes of him, or if he might begin to seek to pay the wergild so he might at least attempt to return to some semblence of his life before.
"You will not leave Asgard until the Bifrost is rebuilt." Odin's words make him wonder what the All-Father has discerned of his thoughts, and Loki raises an eyebrow at him. "I would have you help your brother oversee its repair."
Loki barely bites back the retort that Thor is not his brother, and instead stiffly nods his head in acknowledgement of the order. He would prefer to seethe, to strike back, but it is not yet time for that. He must bide his time, and prepare his plans first. Odin All-Father will pay a price for his lies and his treachery eventually, but not today.
"Is there anything further which you wish of me, All-Father?" He takes care to keep his voice even and pleasent, though the desire for conflict wars with a bone-deep exhaustion that even his anger and his sense of betrayal can't keep at bay for long.
"There is nothing else." Frigga speaks before Odin can, and Loki turns his head to catch the looks that pass between them. "All else can wait until you have rested, and settled the wergild with the families of those who you must." Those whose deaths he had caused by his actions.
Loki bows, to both Odin and to Frigga, before heading for the door. He hesitates before it, uncertainty flowing through him a moment. He pushes it aside, and pushes through the door. The hallways between the banquet hall and the rooms he'd once called his own - which still hold everything that is his when he enters - are strangely empty, and he wonders at that. If Odin had intended it, or if others have cleared the halls so no one need encounter the disgraced prince upon his return.
Sif waits a long moment after Loki leaves to follow, ignoring that she hasn't asked if she might leave, and ignoring the looks passing between the others in the room. Whatever the royal family needs to discuss without Loki present is not for her to hear, and she still has yet to find what Loki would have of her for her debt of honor to him.
The corridors nearest the hall, and among the royal quarters, are entirely empty of people - the former no doubt from her and Frigga's vigil and the work of the Warriors Three, the latter likely because of the royal family, only Odin had been present of late in the complex of rooms and corridors they inhabited. A few thralls briefly showed their faces in between the two places, though they quickly vanished again once they caught sight of her.
Stopping at the door of Loki's rooms, Sif regards them for a moment before turning away, and settling into an easy stance next to them. Let any who came by draw their own conclusions, but now that she stands here, she finds she cannot bring herself to disturb him until he emerges from his rooms of his own voilition. Until then, she will keep watch, and not allow others to disturb him, either, no matter what reasons they might have for the attempt.
The day has passed into night and once more into day before the door opens, and Loki emerges, though he blinks at seeing her. "Guarding me from others, or my jailor?" His voice is light, though there's a bitterness behind the words, and a cynical expression on his face. Sif isn't certain he'll believe her, no matter what she says.
"Waiting for you to have rested." Sif meets his gaze readily, keeping her easy and ready stance. "I have still a debt to repay."
Loki raises an eyebrow, studying her for a long moment. Weighing her sincerity once more, and perhaps contemplating what he might ask of her. Sif tells herself that whatever it is he asks, she will not tell him no, or at least not immediately.
"Join me for breakfast, and I will tell you what you may do to settle that debt." There's a devious light in his eyes that makes Sif wonder if she will regret her unspoken promise to do as he asks for redress.
She accompanies him, as he makes his way through the palace to the kitchens, collecting food enough for the both of them, the carrying of which he delegates to her as they return to his rooms. It is little surprise he does not wish to dine with others, but she wonders that he did not summon a thrall to fetch them food.
They are nearly halfway through the meal before Loki speaks, though he has been watching her since he had made his offer. It is disconcerting, and she wonders what he has been planning, or at least thinking, all this time.
"I would know what the Jotnar demand of me for the harm I inflicted on them." Loki takes another bite of his meal, still watching her. "You may be my envoy to them, and ask if they would have anything of me, or of Asgard. Without speaking to Odin of this, nor to Heimdall."
Sif is glad she has nothing of food or drink in her mouth, or she would have choked on it. "How can I do such a thing? There is no way I know of to go from Asgard to Jotunheim without either the assistance of the All-Father, or the rebuilding of the Bifrost!"
Loki chuckles, a dark sound that sends chills down Sif's spine. She doesn't know what has amused him, but it does not bode well for her, she thinks.
"I will show you where the path lies, and teach you what you need to know to walk it." But he will not show her how to walk it, because he cannot leave Asgard, by command of the All-Father, as she had heard him make the order himself. Dread pulls at Sif's heart, and she takes a deep breath, trying to push the feeling away. This is what is asked of her, and this task she will do, though her memories of the only time she has been to Jotunheim are more of battle than of anything else.
"And if they do not believe that I come as envoy, and attempt to kill me for the affront?" She watches him carefully, trying to decide if it matters to him. Though if her death will satisfy her debt, she will at least die with honor.
"Then I shall have my answer." Loki shrugs, his expression not revealing anything she is looking for. No answers for her, save the words he choses to speak. "And I am not inclined to offer them my life in return."
"Should there be any offer I make them on your behalf, if they do not have any particular wishes on how you should redress your actions before?" It is, too, a piece of information she needs, even if she cannot tell what Loki's motives are behind it.
Loki turns his attention back to his meal for a moment, silence reigning while he eats more. "There is nothing that I can offer until I have more information, and more freedom of movement."
It is all the answer Sif will get, and she grimaces a moment. She will have to return in one piece, though if whatever path Loki is speaking of ends closer to the structure the Jotnar were in the last time, she might have a better chance of leaving in one piece. It will have to be enough.
Do not take your eyes from the path beneath your feet, the twist and loop of Yggdrasil's branches and roots. Nightmares wait in the dark to drag you through the void - you do not wish that.
This is what you look for, to find the path to Jotunheim, to find the twist of space that will flower into a door from the branches of Yggdrasil to the physical world. This is what you look for to find the path home.
A side-step, a twist, a shift of mind. This is how you open those doors. This is how you close them behind you. When you can open and close this one, then I will pronounce you ready to take the journey.
A month passes before Loki is satisfied Sif knows well enough how to walk the branches of Yggdrasil to at least arrive in Jotunheim in one piece. He's not as certain of her ability to return in the same state, but if she slips onto the paths before the Jotnar kill her, she will do well enough. He smiles to himself when she comes to his door a last time in the dark of the night, a last seeking of any instruction he might give her - a matter which he has given some thought, even if his ability to deliver on any promise he might make is hampered by the dictates of Odin.
"If they will listen to you, tell them I will bring the Casket of Ancient Winters to Jotunheim to help rebuild what I have destroyed." Loki will offer no more than that, though he has little expectation that even that offer will be accepted. That they will wish the Casket returned, he has no doubt, but that they might accept him along with it is unlikely. Not impossible, but he would be a fool to think they'd want his presence after the damage he had done.
Sif watches him for a long moment before she nods. "I will tell them, if they will listen. And I will return with an answer." There is determination in her voice and expression, though he can see no sign she carries her usual weapons. Perhaps in a mistaken thought she might show she comes with no intention of bringing war with her.
Loki is not inclined to correct her mistake, if mistake it is. She will pay her debt to him either in her service or her death, although he feels some faint tug of regret at the thought she might die in this endeavor. A journey which, while not explicitedly forbidden by Odin, is unlikely to gain more than his ire. Loki will face that consequence when he must, though, and not before.
"Come straight to me when you do." Loki does not let any of the variety of concerns and thoughts that have run through his mind show, giving Sif only a mischievous smile that is perhaps less sharp than it has been in some time. "I would not have Odin discover what you find before I do."
He reaches out to clasp her shoulder, weaving a familiar spell as he does, to hide her from Heimdall's gaze, and from Odin's. It will keep those secrets he wants found out from the All-Father and Asgard's gatekeeper alike until he can make use of them.
Sif gives him a puzzled look before she nods, and turns to leave, drawing up the hood of her cloak. It's the same one she wore the last time she'd been to Jotunheim. This time, though, she is alone, and the Bifrost is broken. Loki watches her for a moment before he turns back to his room, closing the door silently behind him. Now he must wait.
The empty halls are almost eerie as Sif makes her way down toward the weapons' vault, the place where Loki had shown her the weak point in the fabric of Asgard, where she could step onto paths that twist between the worlds, Yggdrasil's branches that bind all the realms. The Bifrost is a far safer way to travel, but it is still damaged, not yet repaired enough to permit travel across it to other realms, not even Midgard.
Sif pauses in front of where the path is supposed to begin, drawing a deep breath, repeating to herself the lessons Loki had drilled into her head, merciless as any arms-instructor. The air shimmers with the effects of the spell, and Sif steps into the shimmer, a turn of her hips and almost sideways movement that takes her into a world of shadows. A path shimmers underfoot, grey and rough, and darkness surrounds her, soft as any blanket.
She isn't certain why Loki says the darkness is full of nightmares, but she doesn't look, keeping her focus on the path beneath her feet. There are subtle signs in the texture of the shimmer that Loki has said are the signposts of the realms. It soon doesn't matter if there are nightmares in the comforting dark, because it takes all her focus to read those subtle changes of texture and gleam, and not become lost among the branches of Yggdrasil.
There's another subtle change when she is at the weak point that she twists through and steps out into the dark and cold of Jotunheim. The sharp spires and broken blocks of icy architecture where once she supposes stood palaces and temples and homes. Wind howls, and snow stings against her face as she turns in a slow circle, looking for any sign of Jotnar. Her clandestine mission is for naught if she cannot find any.
All she sees is the ice, and some familiar landmarks that she recalls from the previous visit to this place. She is still a bit of distance from where they'd encountered the Jotnar before, and taking a deep breath of the bitterly cold air, she begins to walk in that direction.
"What brings a daughter of Asgard to Jotunheim, weaponless and by secret paths?"
After the lack of any sign of Jotnar, the words startle Sif, and she turns toward the voice. A pair of eyes glow like red coals where a stray hint of light hits them, a Jotun mostly hidden in the shadows of the ice. Watching her without moving, though Sif doubts she can trust him not to attack if she gives him the chance.
"What do you know of secret paths?" It's not a good beginning to her mission, but Sif refuses to flinch, standing with her shoulders back and chin up. Daring the Jotun to attack her for the sharply-spoken words.
There's the sense of a shrug. "Distant kin of mine followed a son of the Aesir through such a path, and never returned." A shift in the shadow makes Sif tense, but the Jotun didn't emerge, just settled once more, though the crimson eyes narrow a moment. "Why do you come here, warrior-daughter of Asgard?"
A Jotun who may have seen her on the previous trip, then, and recognizes her. Sif isn't certain if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
"I bring a message from Loki Odinson, that he would know what recompense is asked of his actions that have brought sorrow to Jotunheim, and to offer that he might bring the Casket of Ancient Winters to repair what damages were done."
There's a grinding sound that it takes her a moment to realize is laughter. It sounds more like the shift of sea-ice in a fjord. "What need has Loki Laufeyson of recompense to the dead? They have no need of it, and the damage is done all by Aesir born and blooded."
Sif frowns, the words making little sense to her. "Speak plainly. What mean you by that?"
The glow of eyes is hidden a moment, and she has the sense that the Jotun is trying to stifle some amusement. "He offers what only a king may, and if he might direct the power of the Casket, he is Laufeyson, not Odinson. If he would bring the Casket, he claims the power of the throne, and of Laufey who is dead. Let him prove he has that power, and he has no need to offer any recompense for the dead, as would an Aesir for Aesir dead."
Her frown deepens, and Sif watches the Jotun - or the shadow where the Jotun is, at least - for a long moment before she speaks again. "Who are you, that you can speak of this with authority?"
"No authority but the truth." Another sense of a shrug, ice shifting and cracking on a swift-running stream. "I am called Helblindi Laufeyson."
A chill as cold as the wind here spreads through Sif, and she narrows her eyes as she stares at the Jotun in the shadows. A son of Laufey, who claimed Loki is, too, such a one. That Loki is of the Jotnar, not of the Aesir, if he were to wield the power of the Casket, as he's offered. She doesn't know if she should believe the Jotun, or if this is a lie that Loki has held onto all his life. Save how could he have done such a thing, when even a shapeshifter of such skill as Loki could not have hidden his true form as a small child?
"You claim Loki as a brother, then?" she asks, not certain where the question comes from, nor why it feels important. If this is something that Loki will welcome, or will reject as violently as she had rejected the life of a lady or Valkerie.
"I have two brothers, only one of which I have known." Helblindi pauses, and there is a shifting-ice sound of movement, the Jotun emerging from the shadows, barely twice the height of Thor. "The younger still is under my protection. The older has been missing since the temple was destroyed by Odin One-Eye. Your Loki has claimed to be able to use the Casket, and only my older brother, of all of us, might hold that power."
Sif holds her ground, though she dearly wishes she could retreat to the gateway onto the path. Wishes she had her sword or her glave. Any weapon that she might use to defend herself if Helblindi attacked her.
"So if your Loki has the power he claims, yes, I would claim him as brother, and as king, if he might bring the others under his sway, as well." There's a smile on Helblindi's face that Sif isn't certain she can read. "Tell your master all that, daughter of Asgard, and if he has the will to yet come, then bring him here to do as he would offer."
Glaring at the Jotun for a long moment, Sif nods stiffly. She doesn't give voice to the denial of being Loki's thrall, to send wherever he will without thought for her own wishes. "I will so tell Loki." Her word had already been given to carry out this task, and she would see it done before she let her own anger loose. The warriors on the practice grounds perhaps do not deserve her ire that would be directed at the Jotnar, but she had no other recourse with the Bifrost damaged.
Helblindi chuckles, and nods back toward where she had come through. "I shall watch, that no one stops you nor follows you, daughter of Asgard."
"My name is Sif." She doesn't know why she tells the Jotun that, but perhaps it is only injured pride, or anger at his earlier insult.
Another chuckle, and Helblindi shrugs. "Until you return, Sif, with this would-be Laufeyson." He settles against the ice in which shadow he had hidden before, and Sif can feel him watching her as she makes the twisting step back onto the paths of Yggdrasil. The dark is not as comforting on the return to Asgard, and Sif moves as swiftly as she might until she finds the ripple of the door from the shadows of Yggdrasil to the firm reality of Asgard.
Leaning against the wall, Sif closes her eyes, taking a deep breath to steady her racing heartbeat, and the rising tide of anger that has no target. She wants to be angry at Loki for his lies - more on top of those he's already told - but she can't help but wonder if those lies aren't entirely his own. She wants to be angry at the Jotnar for the damage they'd done that drew Thor to Jotunheim and left her to incur the debt she's trying to pay, but she could easier be angry at the Destroyer for attacking. They did only what they were led to do.
She could be angry at Thor for being foolish, save he was being only himself. Angry at herself for not thinking past the first, obvious reasons behind what had happened. Angry at the Warriors Three, or the wind, or even Odin All-Father, but none of it will do her any favors.
Another deep breath, and she shoves away from the wall, moving quietly down halls that are still as eerily empty as they were before. As if no one has noticed she's gone, as if it's been only minutes instead of what she thinks should have been hours. She moves with purpose, but not too quickly. No need to draw unneeded attention to herself until she returns to Loki's rooms, and can tell him what Helblindi told her, and rid herself of some - if not all - of her debt.