Evolution

Chapter 2

The woman in purple heard Loki's questions but knew she was not to answer them. She paused as she turned the corner, finally out of sight of his cell. It was cruel not to comfort him, not to tell him that it was true and she would prove it to him. She was under orders, though, sworn not to speak more than she had to.

After making sure no one was watching, she slipped into a hidden passage in the wall and continued her journey through the palace unseen. She threw her hood back and sighed as she wound her way through walls, up narrow stairways, and past hidden chambers in the ceilings and floors. She shook out her tightly curled hair, letting it fly around her, free from the hood. This was her world, the world she lived in when she did not escape Asgard for Midgard, fleeing her confinement to a world she could more fully be a part of.

Of course, Midgard had not always been easy to navigate, but her first visit came during Midgard's 1920s and she had thoroughly enjoyed herself. She'd spent a short time in speakeasies and on the arms of gangsters before returning home to Asgard, where no one had seemed to have missed her.

She finally reached the chamber she wanted and entered quietly, waiting to be addressed before giving her report, "Has he been told?"

She bowed, "Yes he has."

Frigga stepped from the shadows, her face crossed with worry, "How did he take it? Did it go better than it might have since it came from the Witch?"

"No, Mother, it would have been better if you had just told him yourself. He put up a good illusion, but he was deeply hurt when I walked away without answering him."

Frigga sighed, "Brynja, you know I can't do that."

Brynja would have shouted if she did not think those on the other side of the walls might hear her, "Why not? If he thinks this is a lie, I'll lose the chance to deliver any other messages to him. And do you know how much effort I had to put into keeping him alive before he was imprisoned?"

Frigga slumped in a chair, "So how do we fix this?"

"Do what you should have done in the first place- reveal yourself to Asgard. It's been over fifteen years since your death. Father sits alone on the throne while Thor spends as much of his time as he can with his lover in Midgard. I'm sick of just watching the world pass me by- you're not going to simply join me in seclusion in the walls now that you're back."

Frigga thought on what Brynja had said, "You kept him alive?"

She nodded, "Loki did some incredibly stupid things in the years after your death. Things here and abroad. I've been using Witchery to make sure he survives, though I'm fairly sure Father would rather I have just let him die. Thank goodness Father doesn't know everything I do or I'd probably be in a cell, too."

Frigga rose gracefully, "I don't suppose my dressing chamber is easily accessed from the walls?"

Brynja nodded, "Follow me. Father hasn't touched it since your death."

Frigga's return shocked the realm, most of all Loki, who received another visit from Brynja, still hooded, to herald the Queen's visit. Frigga knelt by her adopted son's cage and wept. Brynja stood silently by, acting the handmaiden, waiting for Frigga to return to the throne room where Odin anxiously awaited her return so he could very publicly escort her to a feast in her honour. A feast Brynja knew she would not be permitted to attend.

Instead of returning to the walls as the feast started, Brynja stole a flask of wine from the kitchen and made her way back down to the cells with a stool she had filched from the library. She kept her face covered, just as she had been told she always must while travelling through the palace halls.

When she arrived in front of Loki's cell, she set down the stool and sat down, leaning against the barrier as it solidified with her touch, and took a long swig from the flask, "You aren't the only guest not invited to this feast."

Loki stared at her, trying to figure out why she seemed vaguely familiar with him, "Do I know you?"

She nodded and removed her hood, "What the hell, who are you going to tell, my father?"

He tried to place her, but could not, "I'm sorry, perhaps you know me, but-"

Brynja interrupted him, "I've been under that damn hood since I grew curves. 'Special cautionary measure for important girls' or some shit. I doubt you'd remember me." She tossed back the flask and took a long drink.

"You talk like a Midgardian."

"Spent a lot of time there. Got sick of living in the walls."

Loki was still quite confused, "You are from my childhood?"

"Yours and Thor's."

"Do you have a name?" Loki asked.

"Brynja."

Loki's eyes grew wide as a distant memory of an older playmate surfaced, "I thought you were dead."

She smiled, "Seems to be a theme around here lately. No, not dead, but hidden away."

Loki laughed, something he had only done for his books for many years, "We played together as children, didn't we? I remember being very small and climbing a tree on a hill with quite a lot of help, but not long later you disappeared. What happened?"

Brynja shrugged, "It's a long story.

Loki countered, "This will be a long feast."

She took a deep breath, "Father has some funny ideas about daughters. He figures we're just for marrying off, not for putting on thrones or raising like warriors. I went into seclusion, living in the tunnels in the walls, the house within the house. He didn't want anyone getting any ideas of courtship, me included, until he found me a suitable match, and Thor's friends were starting to notice me. I've been raised to be a woman in the walls, like so many other hidden sisters, daughters, and wives of Asgard. I ran away to Midgard for freedom. Father wasn't happy, but Mother understood. You can't keep a good Witch down."

Realising Loki was smart enough to put the pieces together and she had just revealed one of Asgard's biggest secrets, she swore, "Damn! If you ever tell anyone, I'll tan your hide. Nobody knows who the Witch is, got it?"

Loki considered saying yes and meaning no, but he realised that if anyone could have brought back Frigga, it was the Witch, and if Brynja was really the legendary Witch, she could probably kill him even from outside the cell and he'd never get any warning that his death was coming, "Of course. Nobody, not even me.". He thought for a moment before asking his next question, "Why are you here? No one visits the Traitor."

Brynja smiled and whispered, "I'm a wall woman, Loki- it's not like I have an active social life. I've been watching you think and read for years. You've been an unknowing companion for over a decade. I thought it time we finally meet, maybe celebrate Frigga's return together."

Loki raised a water goblet on his side of the cell and she matched it with her flask, "Let's drink to hope, then Brynja. Hope that our futures aren't yet dead."

She clinked her flask against his cell barrier and he did the same, "Aye, to hope."

After they drank, he jumped to another question, "So...know any good stories? I know this one about a prince with a murdered father who trusts the wrong voices."

Brynja nodded, "Ooooh, and I know this one about a guy who lives in an opera house basement!"

Loki beamed, "Can I tell mine first?"

She shrugged, "Sure! Like you said, this is going to be one long feast."