Thor Odinson (mygodhasahammer) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2014-07-13 22:41:00 |
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Thor's footsteps echoed down the long, guard-lined hallways, though he was hardly the only man in them, but he was the only presence worth noting, armored and appointed for his birthright if not his position. In previous months, the weight of the crown being off his broad shoulders had allowed the Asgardian a freedom to breathe previously unimagined. If anything, the past month had almost been one of the most peaceful and idyllic since his youth, whether it should have been or not. But in his Father's castle, the burden of duty returned quickly and straightened him like a rod. Asgard was still scarred from January's attacks, as were its Asgardians. But it was rebuilding. It was a testament to Asgard's strength how much progress had been made restoring the stone and metal archways of the jewel of the Golden City. But it was a monument to war the parts that had or could not be repaired. Had Asgard been Thor's he might have left the statuary of the Shieldmaidens as it had fallen, chipped and scarred, with horses missing limbs. But it was not and it was better for it. He stopped before a golden door which showed little damage to its facade and removed his helmet, looking to the guard at the gate. "I am here to see the All-Father." Thor spoke directly and regally, though he felt neither. In truth he had felt the nerves growing since he had received the raven-borne missive. It had said nothing more than that his father wished to see him. Huginn and Muninn had been watching them for weeks, but he could guess. Thor had only expected Midgardians to be tolerated for so long, and had been surprised that the wave of frost not a fortnight before had not prompted this likely conversation sooner. The guard bowed more deeply than most guests merited and allowed the prodigal son entrance to the throne room. Thor walked wordlessly inside, the Throne room still bore deep scars from January, and though neither man would ever say as much, Thor thought that the All-Father seemed to as well. He walked halfway into the room and dropped to a deferential knee, his helmet tucked at his side. "You wished to see me, Father?" A weary man with the burden of great battles and greater losses carried like a painful muscle spasm between his shoulders. He sat low in his throne, a hand clasped around his sceptre, used these days as much for help walking as it had once been used to strike a commanding, imposing presence. But as tired, as worn down as his sharp edges might have been by the ocean of time between past and present, he still raised his chin in when Thor walked into the Throne room; he still claimed the respect fitting a king of his wisdom and power. And it was everything he could do not to crack a smile and let the façade fall away like water from a cracked vase. The man who occupied the throne had not been Odin in months now. Instead, his adopted and disowned son Loki claimed the seat, playing the most involved trick imaginable. He was far, far more pleased with himself for keeping the lie going for as long as he'd managed than he was for finally assuming the throne. Of course there was always a danger when faced with Thor. Not that his brother would spot the deception or see through the elaborate scheme, but that seeing the look on Thor's face when he realised that once again Loki had fooled him would be worth whatever fury followed. Though, honestly, Thor had no reason not to suspect that this would be exactly what happened. He'd essentially told him the entirety of his plan the moment they'd committed treason together. It was hardly this fault that Thor didn't trust or understand the full extent of his rage. "I did, my son, I did." Loki leaned forward, the way and interested and invested father might. Surely, there was no harm in a littler artistic interpretation of Odin, was there? Perhaps Thor might think he'd started to lose his faculties just a touch. He wondered really, how far Thor would let something like that slide because he didn't want the responsibilities of the throne. "I wanted you to know how happy I was to see you here, it's been so pleasant to see you enjoying your home as you once did, a time which now seems all too long ago." Thor took his father and his king's words as leave to stand and rose to his full height. Much had changed in a time that was short by even Midgardian standards. He could see the change in his father. The All-Father was older, perhaps smaller and in shadows without the light cast by the Lady Frigga. Thor had lost as much, but seemed stronger for it as if he fully occupied the room he had refused. "Asgard has seen better days and it will again." He spoke only of Asgard but an oath in his blue eyes spoke of her first house. "And we shall as well." The question hanging in the air asking after the king who was above such care was left hanging. As fond as Thor was, they were knight and lord, but they were also peers. Thor spoke as a man unto another. "But my work with the Midgardians is yet unfinished." "No, that much is certain." He rose from his seat, stepping down to stand next to Thor. He placed a hand on the other man's shoulder, and held him back at an arms length, appreciative as much as the gesture was clearly appraising. He gave Thor a pat and let his hand drop away, turning to walk towards the window at the far side of the room and gesturing for Thor to follow. The pit of Loki's stomach turned at how easily, how equally Thor addressed Odin. This, he knew, could be them without the veils of lies. They could rule Asgard together which would allow Thor access to all his charming Midgardians. The Avengers, Jane Foster. The world that Odin denied him, and would deny him again. "I have called you here to ask after the current state of Midgard. For I feel that as long as the Tesseract shares your fondness for the realm, it brings with it a number of risks Asgard cannot afford to take." His delivery was gentle, but stern. "We cannot all be as intertwined with Midgardians as you have chosen to be, Thor." There was a familiarity to the gesture and Thor followed easily. He had been raised as much as one could be to follow in his father's footsteps, and many of those lessons had come in moments just like this, looking around the All-Father's shoulder. It was easier said side to side than face to face as frequently the king's affection extended to his people first. Thor gave a bittersweet smile. He could look over his father's shoulders these days. "I like to think that it is they who have chosen me." Thor could have pointed out that Odin was the one who sent him to Midgard. But the circumstances of that lesson--Thor now could see much deserved--were more negative than he wished this moment, or in truth, his relationship with his only surviving family, to be. Thor watched the stars drift by, distant and faint in the sky of the Asgardian summer and instead gave his report. "Midgard is war much as we have been, though amongst themselves. From my grasp of it, the fighting is returning to the outskirts, but their Shield-guardians have fallen. I think the Tesseract is safest here." The Tesseract’s power was tempting, and truth be told, Loki wasn’t entirely convinced even yet that he couldn’t manage to control it given the right amount of time and study. He had been reckless before, but he could manage to do much better if he tried to. But there was no way that his interest in the Tesseract wouldn’t give him away, and so this was a temptation he was forced to resist. But this was news. He’d gathered there there were some difficulties that had lead to the tesseract being returned to Asgard, but he didn’t know the extent. Learning that SHIELD had fallen in on itself was delightful. “And what of your companions, those that call themselves ‘Midgard’s Mightiest Warriors’?” Loki tucked his chin into his chest and issued Thor a sideways glance, keeping his expression as neutral as possible to temper whatever reaction he might have to what Thor said next. "Earth's Mightiest Heroes." Thor corrected, thinking nothing of the question, though the All-Father seldom asked of his Midgardian allies. If anything, it was a good sign that he did ask. Perhaps the All-Father was accepting Thor's decision, perhaps he wished to know his son. Either way, Thor appreciated the questioning. Though he knew it was not entirely social. "They fare well still, but are engaged in their own battles at present." Thor had thought indeed of housing the Tesseract in the hall Tony Stark had set aside for the Tesseract, but it was Asgard's--it was Thor's responsibility, and as many of his newest allies had shown themselves readily influenced regarding the Tesseract. He had no quarrel remaining with the Lady of Widows or her hawk-eyed consort, but for a long lived race like Asgard's, some matter of months was not enough to erase misunderstanding. He wasn't sure who on Midgard he would quite entrust with the Tesseract. Loki wasn’t exactly disappointed. While news that Midgard was completely unprotected would have been welcomed, learning that SHIELD and the Avengers had destroyed each other would have seemed a bit, well, anticlimactic. Perhaps he might have underestimated them when he’s made his first grab for power on earth, but were he to encounter them again he would be far more prepared, and so would his army. He listened to what Thor had to say, focusing on the middle distance. He didn’t speak for a moment, meditating on what the other man had said, before finally he shifted his weight and turned his attention back to his brother. “Thor, you declined the opportunity to rule; declined the opportunity to stay in Asgard because you wished to help others. To protect those in the realm of Midgard from what dangers lurk in the shadows and darkness that they do not understand. Yet now, you speak of their battles and their wars from a distance. You are here in their hour of need. So where is it that your loyalty stands? Is it only with the safety of the Tesseract?” The All-Father was a king of great wisdom despite little but paternalistic love for a realm such as Midgard. He was not wrong that Thor had left in its time of need, and he had thought as much as well, particularly learning more about the conflict with SHIELD. But Fury had seen the threat and sacrificed himself in communicating it and an infinity stone carried more danger than even a Midgardian World War. "I think at this juncture, the Tesseract is that danger. I would leave before let it fall into the hands that would misuse it again." But to leave Midgard to chaos in order to protect it from a greater ill was the sort of call the All-Father would make which had always felt so callous to Thor. They were the decisions that Thor had forsworn the throne to avoid having to make. He lowered his gaze to the ledge of the vast window. "But you are right. I do them little solid service here." "Seldom is it, Thor, that children learn responsibility by having it taken from them. Much as they must be disciplined to learn discipline, they must be trusted to learn trust. If you wish to help them and guide them, you must trust them." Let the Tesseract fall into the wrong hands. It did HYDRA little good the last time they had it, in the long run, and if it were to make the wars and conflicts on earth more brutal; if people died or of countries were wiped out, it would keep Thor busy and away from Asgard so he could rule in peace, without his brother's influence. Loki supposed that he could just order Thor to take the Tesseract back to earth. He was Odin afterall; he would be obeyed. But it was his instinct to manipulate. To have Thor decide for himself that this was the right thing to do. It would yield better results, it would turn Thor's return to earth into something positive, instead of just another conflict between father and son. Discipline, Responsibility, those were the sort of conversations Thor had learnt at Odin's side. But trust had never been imparted easily by the King of Asgard. If anything, Thor had learnt trust on the battlefield with his companions: Sif, Fandral, Volstagg, Hogun, and even Loki. Although Loki had missed a few lessons in trustworthiness over the centuries. Something had changed in the All-Father in the months since Thor had last seen him. But he couldn't quite place it. He crossed his hands in front of his chest and placed a finger over his short beard. On a more cerebral man, it might have looked like he was thinking. But on Thor it was a much more troubled countenance. "It is not entirely fair to compare the Midgardians to children..." He finally countered. “And it’s not entirely fair to treat them as such either, and yet.” Loki shrugged, leaving heavily on his staff and looking at his brother with a slight twinkle of amusement. “You’ve taken from them a toy you’re afraid they’ll break and allowed them to bicker and fight in your absence. You should return to them, take the Tesseract with you and prove that you do believe they are capable allies. If I am wrong, if they immediately try to misuse its power, setting the very existence of those who have passed through it at risk, then perhaps it’s time to consider something else entirely, Thor. Perhaps it’s time the Tesseract went elsewhere.” It wasn’t a threat, he felt good about not outright saying that the Tesseract would not be staying in Asgard, but he certainly hoped his brother took what he was hinting towards. He knew that subtly, in Thor’s language, meant breaking something with his hammer in two swings instead of one. But, Loki was trying to give Thor choices, or at the very least, the illusion of choices. He did so like illusions. |