Who: Loki, Thor & Rhysand When: Backdated to yesterday Where: All over the place What: A merry exploration team Rating: PG-13
Loki had not needed to open his eyes to know that this was not his home. He could feel the changes around him. The world, no, the universe had shifted. It was a hollow, empty place around him. Slowly, he got to his feet. A twitch of his hand and he was clad in his armour.
Tables and chairs surrounded him. Simple. Of human make. Nothing of any worth or use. The restaurant was of negligible size. It could two dozen people, not more. However, their arrangement was a state of disarray. Chairs were lay scattered about and tables were unfavourably put together.
A glass door lead to the outside. But no sunlight poured through it or its neighbouring glass panel. Overall, there were no windows. Nothing that might reveal his location. His boots clacked on the ceramic floor as he approached the counter of the restaurant. He glanced over the counter for any sign of documentation. It was no documentation he found, instead the blond mop of his brother’s hair filled his sight. Mjolnir rested next to him. He wished he could take the damn thing. But he could not. There was no point trying. It might only wake up his brother and then he had to endure his arrogant drivel. His own explorations would be burdened with foolishness. No. Thor shall rest on his comfortable bedding. He would wake him when he had need of brute force.
But if Thor was here, Loki himself had not been the only one that had been taken. His mind stretched out to find his daughter but his feelers returned empty. Fear crawled over his heart, ready to dig right into it and build itself a comfortable nest. Loki snarled at the unwelcome feeling and marched towards the door. He was about to leave when he saw another body hidden in a corner. His eyes narrowed in recognition. Was it not his daughter’s useless little elf? A few steps closer and he could confirm his suspicions. As much as he wanted to leave this man behind as well - after optionally slitting his throat; it was a tempting opportunity, surely no one would blame him -, it provided him with a possibility. The man had formed some sort of psychic bond with Katherine. He knelt down next to the wastrel and gave his cheek a smack with the blunt side of his dagger.
---
It was not an incredibly pleasant feeling to be rattled awake by the chilling steel of a blade to your flesh, but nonetheless the High Lord was now up. Rhysand’s eyes flashed open as his hand shot to restrain the wrist attached to the dagger, pausing only after his gaze clearing from the brightness of the room to see the god above him. Delightful. He felt unsure whether to smile or sneer and found some comfortable, sly look somewhere in between. That quickly melted away, however, as the room beyond Loki’s figure came into clarity and Rhysand propped himself up on one arm.
“Where are we, now?” he asked with an agitated, incredulous tone. One hand pushed back his stray dark hair, face turning as he took in the new sights. While he had not ventured through the city well he could say with honesty and fairness that this was definitely not the island. Everything felt wrong and the air felt uncomfortable within his lungs. Thin yet not unbreathable. He got to his feet with the click of slender black boots, the hand that had been in his hair now giving a passing motion to wipe away dust out of habit as most did when getting up off of the floor.
“Where’s Katherine?” he then asked only a second after the first when it became unbearably, painfully obvious she was not there with them. His stomach hurt, twisted and punched as his heart ached.
~~~
Loki did not care to answer the elf’s first question. Not that he could but the lesser lord did not need to know that. He stood up alongside the elf and took a step back. It soured his mood that he had to glance up at those ridiculous violet eyes. In all earnest, he did not know where his daughter had her taste or rather lack of taste from. There had been moments where he had been certain the elf had jinxed her. But he had been unable to detect the traces of magic on her.
While Rhysand’s first question had been discarded, the second hijacked his attention with the vehemence. He swallowed. “You do not know where she is…” he muttered and lost interest in the elf. Thoughts began to race and tumble as he took a step back. A plan of action was created, rearranged and ratified as his eyes flickered about. Long fingers wandered to the phone on his belt. He flicked it open, opened the contacts and scrolled down. He had heard the mortals talk about it, had even seen Katherine do it once or twice when she had gotten scared. Her name was still there. Relief. Then stubbornness. If he needed to tear this place apart, he would tear this place apart.
---
Both hands swept down the front of his tunic, black bespeckled with silver like the stars of Velaris. “I asked if you knew,” Rhysand responded cooly as he took a few steps away and continued to cast a look around the room. “I didn’t say I couldn’t find her.” Which was, for the most part, very true. Though it was not like their link was some kind of homing beacon he was certain he would be able to track her down with less difficulty than looking for a needle in a haystack.
And like that he was heading for the most obvious doorway to look for his mate, only stopping once the gateway was opened to look back at Loki. “I know she’ll be glad to see you,” he said good naturedly. “Why don’t we go together?” he offered before his brows furrowed, head tilt as if to look around Loki, and smirk.
“Should we wake him?”
~~~
Loki snorted at the flattery. “Your words are a balm to my fears. What would I do without them?” he asked with a dry tone. Of course, she would be glad to see him. He gave her everything she wished for and more. But what had the álfr given her? Nightmares. It was her affection to him that puzzled him. Was it her humanity or was it her youth that had led her astray from the path of good judgement?
His eyes shifted to the thunder god and he pondered his options. He doubted his brother’s use in the search for his daughter; he would not recognise the shade of a dragon if it passed right above him. But he shared Loki’s wariness of the elf. A second pair of hands to keep the little fairy from committing any folly would be favourable.
Loki cleared his throat and nudged Thor’s shoulder with his boot. Maybe a bit harder than it was needed to rouse the other god.
---
Rhysand laughed with a shake of his head, mentally scolding himself for having even tried and yet determined to do so for Katherine’s sake. He had seen the way Feyre was torn over her family, the way they fought and dredged and hissed...he couldn’t have that, now. While he and Loki may not have gotten along he could at least play civil; he was very good at that facade among many others. So he simply started out the glass doors to better see where they were, looking up and down a large attached space that seemed to lead off with hallways on either end.
While awaiting for his “in-laws” he checked behind him on the walls for any sort of sign, map, or postage. Clearly they were in a restaurant but where? He couldn’t even see an obvious sign of exit in case of an emergency! With an annoyed shake of his head he reached down the bond he shared with Katherine in hopes of finding her, even resting like her uncle and, he realized, so many others. That was how you arrived to the island, wasn’t it? And that was how you seemed to arrive here.
”Katherine?” he called softly down their tether. ”Are you there, my love? If you can hear me, I am with your father and uncle. We are coming to find you.”
~~~
By comparison to the two incredibly regal men with him Thor awoke with a much more comedic startle. The nudge felt familiar from all of those knockouts in a fight or perhaps from the ale after a battle and he sat almost straight up with a grunt. Without a beat his hand had found Mjolnir in its grasp ready to swing or soar or strike. It loosed only when his vision cleared but scant seconds later and he smiled, blond hair of his beard a slice where his teeth shown.
How long had he been affected that his scruff had become a beard? Thor could not remember the last time he had shaved that mug of his and yet for what purpose did he have to do so? Sif was gone. The island was a wreck. He had been helpless to do anything for his family and friends despite their taking of the Spire. Admittedly, the god had fallen into a minor state of disarray and it felt good to smile at his sibling.
“Brother!” Thor said in that boisterous, loud voice that seemed to echo like his title’s sake. “What are you doing here? Was I not informed of a meeting?” he asked before realizing their surroundings. He slowly got to his feet, his weight feeling far too heavy.
“This is not our house.”
---
Loki watched his brother silently and stoically put on his comedic display. “Brother, I did not know you had such honed observational skills. You must have trained hard.” He paused shortly as his attention shifted to the alfr. “We are searching for Katherine.” Thor could follow them or not but Loki himself was not in the mood to linger. Instead, he strode through the door and into the bright light of a broad hallway. A fountain was placed in its middle though it seemed to have forgotten its purpose as no water was seen running. Corridors lead away to either side. Yellow horizontal stripes decorated the walls in a simplistic fashion.
“3.B.24” he muttered to himself as he read the foreign signs on the wall. If this was a marker for their position, the complex they had found themselves in was not a small one.
---
“Ah, you know my work; I believe you were there,” Thor teased as he roused himself and pushed back his long hair. Maybe once they settled in he’d give himself a trim, start fresh, and try to move on from his own loses. Others had suffered a far greater blow yet he dealt with it like a child. Scanning the room, he followed after Loki and gathered with the two men in the lounging space.
“Seems we could have a long search before us,” he commented soberly while starting for one of the doorways to get a look in another direction.
---
“Sadly, I have to agree,” Loki retorted. For once, there were no quips and no taunts. He turned to Rhysand and eyed him sternly. “Can you find her?” He abhorred the feeling of dependence. His child was his to protect, having to rely on a man like him was not to his taste. It were men like him he should protect her from. But he would use him if he had to. Until he knew Katherine safe.
---
At the opposite end of the room Rhysand stood at his own entryway to a hall, hands resting on his hips as he looked over a small directory. It looked like gibberish. Now, he felt he was surely one of the most cunning and intelligent of High Lords, so to say a list of what appeared to be random assignment of numbers and letters irked him was agitating enough. He supposed they were likely floors or units to the building, but the list seemed to go on and on forever as the stars and space did around them.
At Loki’s prompt he made a quick decision on how to respond. With a half-twist back toward the pair he gave a nod. “Yes, I can.” It was a simple statement and it was not a lie, he was in fact answering Loki’s question honestly and accurately.
He could certainly find her.
When she woke up.
“She’s fine. Sleeping, so I assume. I’m waiting for her to respond, although in the meantime I believe we should go this way.”
~~~
Thor did not need further prompting to find his niece and walked by Loki with a slight smile, though it was equally wary. “Well, brother? Let's go. She’ll be glad to see us when she wakes!” And his heavy footfalls echoed across the near empty space as he caught up to the elf.
~~~
Loki reluctantly followed the lead. “You better know what you are doing. I do not want to waste time on the hunch of a dilettante.” They stepped through a doorway to enter one of the corridors.
He scanned the corridor until his eyes landed on a console on the side. The computer was easy enough to access. Foreign sings of swirls and lines were transformed to Asgardian runes. Events, news… no. A map.. he needed a map a map… he flicked through the pages until he had found it. Simple schematics appeared on the scream. White lines described the outsides of a massive structure. Five huge wheels were attached to each other by a tube. The biggest wheel was found in the middle and the size gradually decreased to the sides. In one of the top spines of the center wheel a red dot glowed. A legend hovered on the righthand side of the schematics. It allowed you to view significant structures and select to have routes displayed to them. You could search for gastronomy as much as other centers for leisure and consumerism. He browsed through the options to find a search engine for people. But there was none.
---
Rhysand quietly rolled his eyes while his back was still turned to the trickster god, reminding himself to keep his quips in check. It wasn’t worth it to start in on an argument or a fight with either of the men behind him, no matter how much he butt heads with Loki and had a general discomfort around Thor. Neither liked him and they made it incredibly clear. What a shame they could not be bigger men for Katherine.
He would be, though. Rhysand had promised himself to make the best face for Katherine. She deserved it, after all. And his love was so much greater than his discomfort or pride--though sometimes that pride liked to think otherwise.
”Katherine...Please wake. We are...some place that is not the island. Don’t leave me with these two. You know how they get!” he sent down the bond with a teasing tone and a glimpse back at the pair as they were in that moment.
~~~
Thor came up alongside Loki to look at the design, drawing a finger over it as he marked their path. “This way seems to take us to the main passages,” he commented mostly to himself before looking up from the screen and down the hall. Rhysand was just walking on, checking doors that he passed, and Thor’s brows turned soft as he watched him.
“He will find her,” he said to his brother after resuming speculation over the diagram. “He strives for great things with her, and he makes her happy.” The strongest of the three gave a shrug. “There are only so many paths to take, we might as well take one together.”
~~~
Loki narrowed his eyes at the fruitless defense. “There seems to be a leak in your memory, brother. Did the elf take it from you or did you hit your head too many times with that hammer of yours? You might have forgotten her fear and despair that night, I, however, have not.” He did not care if the elf heard his words. He knew very well what he had done and yet he had the effrontery to claim he loved her. Romantic love was something only fools heeded and paid tribute to. He hoped his daughter would realise that eventually. It was a notion she would overcome when she escaped her youth.
He pulled himself out of the gloom of dark memories and wrath, bringing his mind back to the task at hand. “That way then.” He nodded towards the direction Thor had indicated.
---
Rhysand closed his eyes against the hurt in his chest at the memory. He knew what he did. Every day was a day away from it but a memory of what he had done, no less, lingered. He wished he could take it back. He wished he could have stopped himself from feeling that unrelenting, wild urge.
Damn that wolf. This was his fault; it was his court’s foolish ritual!
None of that, however, would make it go away. Loki and Thor, Katherine, anyone and everyone had the right to be upset. However, what had happened did not lessen his love. So he soldiered on down the hall in silence as the men behind him talked.
~~~
Thor nodded and sighed at Loki. “I remember every second,” he said with his own bite of venom. “But that one is an easier path to my niece than wandering on all of these levels!” The man practically bellowed as he waved a hand back at the map they’d been gawking at. He pushed a hand through his hair with frustration and stomped off, the metal and ceramic of the floor clanging with each hard step he made.
“Katherine!” he called after a few moments of quiet, this time his voice echoing down the halls. “Stark! Banner! Rogers!” Hands cupped to his mouth he shout and shout the names of his friends, only for his heart to sink when no answer came.
---
Good. He should remember. As long as the other god remembered, he would be an ally in this fight. Loki trailed behind the other two. The names of Thor’s friends brought a huffed growl to his lips. Especially Banners. He really was the only one of the three he considered a worthy enemy. He reached out to his daughter. There was a faint trace. He narrowed his eyes as he tried to pin it down. Webs of magic and imprints of mind hovered in the air. He followed their steps and they led him right to Rhysand. A low rumble of a growl escaped his lips. Right on time, they arrived at an intersection.
“Which path leads to my child?” he asked Rhysand provocatively. If the man had such a strong bond with his daughter, he should prove it. As much as he wanted to find Katherine, he’d rather see the elf fail.
---
The fae sighed for what felt like the hundredth time in the last hour or so they had been checking rooms and looking for their girl. It wasn’t the question itself that got under his skin, no, it was the tone. It was the way that Loki challenged him that twisted and pinched just a little too far after all of this. So, as he turned and led them down a hall, it wasn’t until he was about fifteen feet down did he speak up, having only motioned ahead as they went right from the intersecting paths.
“It doesn’t work like a tracker or a beacon. The tether is a deep connection that I simply cannot explain; but what I can explain is how it feels to be apart.” Rhysand said in a low voice, thoughtful as he carefully chose his words. He effectively had told the pair he didn’t know where Katherine was in a guise of explanation about their mating bond.
“What it is...is a madness. It is an all-consuming need to find that person no matter the costs, no matter the errant choices you might make along the way. It’s like something scratching from the inside, talons shredding at your chest from within. It’s a panic attack simmering under the surface that you hold back only because you have to stay focused. I can’t follow it like an arrow, I only give into it and go where my feet take me back to her.”
While Rhysand was doubtful Loki orThor would appreciate the statement or the feeling of crushing, aching, bone-grinding desire to find her he couldn’t not explain it. Whatever the case he was going to find Katherine, with or without them.
~~~
Rhysand’s doubt were indeed justified. Loki did not appreciate it. And what do you do to her when you find her? But he stayed silent for once. He needed that man. What he despised even more was the possibility that she might feel the same? “Did you do this to her? Is she… cursed as much as you are?”
---
Those cyan-violet eyes looked at a closed door his hand pressed to as he considered the question. Honestly, he had never asked Katherine how she felt when they were apart. He assumed it had been the same for both parties, no one had ever led him to believe otherwise. And so Rhysand did not like the answer he had to give Loki, which he would have preferred to lie about, but that sort of thing would get them nowhere.
“I don’t know,” he said plainly as he looked back at Loki, then Thor. “It’s likely. The bond is felt both ways. I can feel her pain, physical or emotional, and she mine. No doubt she feels the need to get back to me, as well. I wouldn’t, however, call it a curse.”
And he stepped through the doorway to look inside.
~~~ “You did not even ask her…” His tongue held a sharp edge. His hands were crossed behind his back and he eyed him like a snake, ready to strike at any moment. He quickly deemed that moment to be now. “You are truly a fine partner. I will sleep easily now that I know my daughter in such caring hands.”
He tried again to reach out. All they did was to follow a scoundrel who did not even know where he was going. But nothing was returned to him.
---
Another room empty, void of anyone let alone Katherine. Rhysand shook his head and moved out quickly with barely a glance at those on his tail as his steps moved with more haste than before. He didn’t say a word, just kept moving, or else he might lose his mouth completely. How dare Loki make any accusation he did not care or that Katherine was not safe! As if he cared so deeply. He never knew she existed until recently. He had never cared for her until she was useful to him.
Trash.
”My love. Please wake. Wake up. Your father will be the end of me,” he cooed down the bond, again both playful and yet not unreal in his words. ”Wake up….wake up…”
~~~
Thor followed at the back with a wary gaze, unsure what to say or do that would lighten this heavy mood. He did not like Rhysand very much after what had happened but at the same time...Katherine was happy and, as an adult, she could make her own choices. If this was her path then he would look out for her as an uncle should. Making biting remarks would not endear the fae to them, either, though he was conflicted at knowing his niece might feel such deep longing and anguish.
He felt such darkness without Sif and while it was certainly not the same it was no less unpleasant.
“Brother,” Thor said tentatively. “I don’t think now is the time.”
~~~
A voice roused her mind. It was like a gentle tug. Katherine stretched and snuggled deeper into the cushions below. She was unwilling to let go of her slumber. The picture of a recent training session surfaced but she discarded it just as quickly. Surely, it could not be that early. But that voice… it hadn’t been part of a dream.
“Hmm… my love?” she hummed back softly.
---
Rhysand gave a loud heaved breath of relief and slumped against the wall of the hallway when Katherine finally responded, his forearms bracing him as his head hung and his shifted on his feet. And he smiled wide, eyes closing as he sent her imagery of that smile and the way he wanted to embrace her.
”I’m so glad to hear from you; relieved,” he told her down that tendril connecting their souls. ”I don’t know if you’ll be glad to know we are no longer on the island or not--at least, not from what I can tell. I’m trying to get back to you, we’ve been separated. I’m with Loki and Thor. We haven’t found any other members of the island yet, but the registry shows they are here somewhere. Where that is...I haven’t a clue. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”
He passed along flashes of the hallway, of the signs they had passed, of the apartments and rooms he’d checked in on. It was definitely not the island and yet nothing had a window to see out. For all he knew they were in a big box just waiting to find their way back into the snowy drifts that used to be paradise sands.
”Are you okay? I...miss you. Are you hurt?”
~~~
Katherine blinked awake. Pictures, words, they all swirled into one big cocktail in her head. It was too much for her to understand completely. Her mind was still trying to kickstart itself. “Hush,” she said softly. “Not so quickly. I just woke up. But…” She finally opened her eyes for good. Black sky and bright stars greeted her. There were trees framed her vision. She send the picture to Rhysand. “I’m okay. I am not quite sure where I am.”
---
The High Lord chuckled and apologized to her as he continued to lean there against the wall, head down, heart slowly being released from the vice grip on it. ”I’m sorry,” he said softly and pulled back on everything being released, having felt so urgent to talk to her and find her. It was just a quiet link, listening.
”I haven’t seen anything like that in the last hour or so we’ve been walking...We came from a restaurant. Hang on. Your father found a map earlier. At least I know what to look for on it.”
Rhysand raised his head and looked up and down the hall, not seeing Loki or Thor as he searched for one of those screens on the wall. He winnowed twenty-five feet away to the end of the hall and poked at the panel without success before winnowing back to the brothers and looking them over. “I need you to access the map,” he said to Loki plainly. “Katherine is outside; or a park? There was an open sky and greenery.”
~~~ A jibe was on his lips as quickly as his ears picked up Rhysand’s words. But he thought better of it. A quick teleport was all he needed to appear beside the elf. Thor was left behind. “So you have found her? Is she safe?” his words were oddly quiet as he scanned for the nearest terminal. It was easily found. He quickly navigated through the menu until he reached the map and its searchbar. Parks it turned out were situated in the outer parts of the wheels.
---
We… father… oh! It was the first time that Katherine realised in which company (and potential torment) Rhysand was. “Are they okay?” He could feel Rhysand clear enough not to worry about him. “Do you know where Lucy is?” Worry crept into her voice.
A glance around revealed more detail. It consisted mostly of her animals. Her brood was slowly rousing and stirring. A wolf head nudged her leg. A giant wing stretched out above her. A screech of a thunderbird that was soon to be answered by a raptor.
---
”They’re fine,” Rhysand said blandly as he stood beside Loki and watched him bring up the map, glancing back at Thor who crowded into look as well. ”I’ve come to the conclusion that you and I share a similar father-type; one I hope not to become...We haven’t found Lucy. I had hoped she be with you.” He swallowed, feeling awful for having forgotten the urgency to also find his own daughter. That need in his gut had overwhelmed him so thoroughly he had left Lucy behind, but they had not passed her by in their search.
”We will be to you soon. I see the way.”
~~~
She scrambled to her feet. Maybe she was here. “Lucy?” she shouted over the sea of waking bodies. Next to her one of the raptors got to his feet and let out something between a screech and a bark. ”I am sorry he is giving you a hard time, my darling. But you judge him too harshly. If you ever do become like him, I know her safe and cared for.”
Katherine’s gaze wandered over the animals and she counted them in her head. They were all here as far as she could tell. It was then the wyvern stretched its giant wings that she saw the other body. Bare feet made their way over grass and stone. One of the monstrous panther-like fae were curled up next to the woman. Its tentacles were loosely curled up by its side.
“Good morning, Feyre,” she smiled down at the body of her friend as the humanoid fae started to move. “Well, I have at least found Feyre,” she informed Rhysand.
~~~
“This way,” Loki nodded down the corridor. “Then left.” That would lead to the shafts. Elevators would get them to the upstairs parks. He held a mental projection of the route inside his mind.
He did not wait for any reactions and instead marched on. Loki could feel her now. It was a clear presence in the webs around him. He was so used to it by now that its absence made the world feel hallow.
~~~
”I won’t argue with you, but I will care for both you and Lucy in my own way. I’ve always wanted to be a father...” He said with a frown as he followed Loki through the hall, Thor at their side. Rhysand didn’t want to quarrel with Katherine or upset her. They were apart and discussing their parental views and stylings was a conversation for another time, though he would not admit to being somewhat hurt that she implied Lucy was not cared for otherwise. He said nothing, but the twinge of guilt traveled down the bond just the same. Maybe he was a bad father.
~~~
A chuckle was returned. “Hush, love. Don’t be so dramatic,” she answered in an amused voice. “Just do not suggest that it would be bad for Lucy if you were like my father. He is searching for me, is he not?”
~~~
”I am searching for you as well,” he said in a quiet tone. His eyes stared ahead feeling somewhat bland, not sure why he had to argue with her and fight after only moments of finding one another again. Maybe Loki was right.
~~~
”And I appreciate that, my darling… no need to pout, dear…” She said, the amusement never quite leaving her voice. ”But it was not my point.” A short pause followed. She did not want to argue. Especially not when she deemed it moot but she had always had a hard time backing away from an argument or discussion. ”Is my family behaving now?”
~~~
”If you consider dead silence behaviour, yes,” Rhysand said with a bit of a playful inflection. ”Thor seems...unwell. There is a darkness in him I have noticed only a few times before, when he stares at a picture of a woman I’ve never met. I see that look on his face, now. Sad. He stares at the back of Loki’s head like it has answers.”
~~~
For her father, dead silence was usually the everything one could wish for. But Thor… ”I worry about him. A lot sometimes.” A sigh was send down the line of the bond. ”But I do not know how to cheer him up. I do not think I can. Hopefully, this… adventure will provide a healing distraction.”
~~~
Rhysand nodded externally in agreement as they marched on, his cyan eyes looking between the pair. ”They have a deep history of conflict, don’t they?” he asked of his mate. ”I never wanted to pry but they did not seem to be in a healthy state back on the island...what will this do, I wonder?”
~~~
”Oh, you noticed? And here I thought they hid it so well…” Another sigh was added as the amusement slowly ebbed away. ”Yes, they do. I don’t know if they will ever heal. Them as individuals and their bond as brothers. I don’t even know how long we will be here. Why are we here? I don’t know.”
~~~
”We’re here because we fucked with something we probably shouldn’t have,” Rhysand said with a chuckle. ”But I have no regrets about it. If this is our new life, so be it. I will be with you and Lucy. You will still have your father and uncle. We will have Feyre and Abigail and all of our friends.”
He hoped.
~~~
”The ones that are left…” She murmured. “But we will see what this place brings and if you want, I can tell you about my family’s history at some point. But for now let’s focus on finding out what is going on.”
~~~
Loki had reached the elevator. It only took moments for the lift to arrive. He stepped in and actually, for once, waited for the others. Well, only because they were right behind him. If he would have hurried, he could have left without them he was sure. He could cross off his accidental good deed for the year.
He scanned the panel and its labels. Park. He pressed the button besides it. “Hmm… reminds me of that time where we took the Kleisdiel from Malekith.” The ship had been the second strongest ship of the fleet, vital to the dark elf’s war efforts. They had taken control and set it on course to crash with the enemy fleet. He wondered if Malekith had ever found out what happened. “We even have an elf with us.” They had used a member of the crew to guide them, pretending to be elves themselves with illusions hiding their identities.
~~~
”Even if there is one; treasure them,” Rhysand said kindly. ”We did a great thing for the residents of this place. They’re extended family. We’ll make it work. Always.” He said nothing else on the subject of her father or uncle as they trekked. At the elevator Rhysand looked around and wait patiently, hands on his hips, sure that flying would be easier.
And yet he would probably never fly again in this place. Not freely through an open sky. That was an incredibly depressing thought, a sadness passing down the line to Katherine that he didn’t talk about or consciously mean to share. Pulled back to reality when Loki spoke, Rhys raised a brow.
“I’d like to clarify that I am High Fae, not elf. We are incredibly different.” Or else next time he’d call Loki a human and see how he liked to be misplaced.
~~~
Thor stepped into the lift with those heavy steps and grinned as Loki jogged his memory. “You’re right, brother!” he said loudly, snapping out of whatever sorrowful reverie he’d been in. “Remember how you followed me through the halls? Ah, but your magic always came into play so well when my back was turned. We are a good team.”
~~~
”Ah,” Loki said. Apathy dictated his tone and mimic. “Your garb and appearance are misleading. Let me help you with that so that no one else might draw the wrong conclusion.” A flick of his hand and an illusion settled over the elf. A fairytale version of wings now sprouted from his back while an Asgardian dancing gown. “Isn’t that better? Who could mistake you now?”
The shift in the feeling of gravity indicated that they moved upwards. He turned to Thor then. Good team… He was tempted to snort at the notion. What he remembered was cleaning up after his brother, correcting his errors and guiding him to better judgement. “I do. That look on the guard’s face when he realised that we did not belong to his crew… it was precious.”
~~~
Rhysand looked down at the illusion and waved it away with a hand, casting his own magic against Loki’s. Up his back he could feel his own Illyrian wings rippling, scratching at the surface of his glamour to rip out and gruesomely tear apart the visage the ‘god’ had created. His blood boiled. He was a hair trigger away from leaping at the man through this small space and trying to shred him apart with blackness and night’s twisting nether when ding. They arrived.
First off of the elevator, the High Fae didn’t say a word. He remembered the picture left behind and they didn’t have far now to get to Katherine. Just a short ways left...All he had to do was hang in there a little longer.
~~~
The son of Odin watched after Rhysand with a frown, that jovial look at the good memories he shared with Loki waning. He felt conflicted between wanting to laugh with his brother and scold him, to feel sympathetic for the man who was clearly trying his best not to respond.
It was a better effort than he’d certainly ever been able to make. Thor often lost his cool.
“The look on his face was certainly one I would have taken as reward alone,” he said, deep timbre vibrating in his chest as they exited the lift.
~~~
If Loki noticed the other man’s struggle for control, he did show it. They had ended up in a small hallway. A white room with dim light. A map of the park was displayed on a screen on the wall to their left. But the god did not need a map. He could feel her presence clearly now.
The doors to the outside opened with their approach. Loki stepped outside. The air surrounding them lacked the freshness of a cold night. The whole park was dimly illuminated. Lanterns light up patches of the paths. “It’s not far,” Loki said quietly as he followed the path to the right.
~~~
“Keep calm, love. Don’t let him get under your skin,” Katherine whispered to him as she noticed his anger and upset. There was a likely source for that.
~~~
”I am making my best effort,” he replied coolly as he continued off, smoothing back his hair and trying to find his composure. It was back within seconds. He was a High Lord, of course, and so he would simply act like it. They wanted to see him be a monster? They wanted to see him crack? Rhysand wouldn’t give them that satisfaction. He trudged on and let his footfalls be soft and slick as if he had been here every day of his life. These halls were no different than the horrific place of the Night Court; a realized hell for all of the residents within.
”We’re close.”
~~~
Katherine would have offered to have a stern word with her father but it would be in vain. He had not tried to take his life yet and that was as much as her pleading would achieve. At least, it had achieved that.
“You will soon be released from the torture and be back by my side,” she mumbled, trying to sooth him and make up for her father’s poor behaviour.
~~~
It was one of the beasts he spotted first. Loki was not quite sure why his daughter had felt the need to keep her creatures. It should not matter to her if they perished. They were mere beasts. But there was a softness in her that he himself did not possess. Women had always been of a more caring nature.
At least, the beasts she had picked had a ferocious streak. The black cat’s glowing green eyes flashed at him. Teeth snarled and tentacles hovered above them. Loki merely chuckled at it as he went past.
~~~
Seeing the pile and Katherine in the middle, Rhysand broke into a sprint that lasted all of four paces before he winnowed through the park to appear at his mate’s side. He fell to his knees amongst the creature pile, smiling bright with relief and reaching for her. “My love,” he crooned in a whisper to her ear as he tried to pull her in for a warm embrace.