I Will Follow You Into The Dark~ On Hold

Chapter 9

The trip back to Asgard was exhausting. Loki had no idea if Odin would listen to him or Thor, who seemed to be apprehensive about the trip himself which did nothing to reassure Loki. An anxious Thor was never a good thing. The only thing his brother had been able to say to him was that their parents were going to be glad that Loki was alive, something that the God struggled to believe. The moment they arrived on Asgard, Loki looked at Heimdall, a shiver of fear raced down his spine, but to the man's surprise, Heimdall bowed, his golden eyes watery with tears.

"Please forgive me, my Prince for I could not see you while you suffered in Thanos' hands."

Loki looked at the gatekeeper and smiled softly. "How did you know?"

Heimdall coughed and straightened up, his usually grave voice soft with either guilt or sorrow perhaps. "I do not know. Somehow the power Thanos had over you disappeared and that was what finally allowed me to see you."

The two princes nodded and left the gatekeeper to his job and rode back to the palace where Loki half expected to be jumped by Einherjar and dragged off in chains, but they had made it the palace without any issues. Disembarking his horse, Loki followed Thor who led the way to throne room. The duo walked in silence, their eyes continuously watching those around them for any signs of trouble. Their feet echoed through the halls that were lined by Einherjar soldiers, until they finally reached the doors that immediately opened, sensing their presence.

Frigga, the Allmother stood at the bottom steps her hands wringing in one another as she laid her eyes on her son for the first time in a year after mourning his death. "Loki." Her voice, even though whispered, echoed through the hall.

Loki turned to her, tears in his eyes as he took her in. He ran up to her and hugged her, crying as he smelt her perfume. The Einherjar stood there giving the two their much-needed moment. He turned around and saw Thor smiling at them, but Odin, he didn't look pleased at all.

"Enough! I will speak to the prisoner alone." Odin called out; and the smile that graced Loki's lips fell into a pained expression. "Why is he not in chains?"

Thor stepped forward, his eyes drilling into the remaining one of his father's. "Because he is innocent!"

Odin laughed, shaking his head. "Do not speak out of turn Son, you do not wish to join him in his punishment, do you?" Loki turned to look at his brother who still stood there, his face twisted into a grimace. "Leave Thor, while you can."

Frigga stepped up to them, her eyes drawn onto Thor's cape. Her eyes widened as she grabbed the hem of it and pulled a locket from it. Thor and Loki both turned to see what their mother had found. All four of them ignored the surprise gasps from the Einherjar as they huddled around the locket which instantaneously launched open, the clasp breaking under the force. Green and silver mist escaped the necklace and surrounded the room, settling against the walls.

Holographic people formed before them, a much younger Thor and Loki who played together, their practice swords clashing as they wrestled. Laughter echoed through the room, statically as you would expect with a recording. They would have only been roughly two hundred years old, appearing like eighteen- or twenty-year-old men. There was a younger Odin and Frigga who watched over their sons with love and joy, but that love, and joy disappeared as the figure of a Einherjar joined the group. The adults' voices were low, but hearable.

"My Majesties, I apologise for the interruption, but we have found a body." The Einherjar knelt with his arm thumped against his chest. "The body is Freyr, but there was no child. We fear that the child may have died after Freyr was mauled."

Present-time Frigga gasped in shock, tears blurring her sight as the hologram showed the younger Loki screamed at sorrow of finding out that his betrothed, the woman he was excited to finally meet, had been officially determined dead. It was the first out of the many heartbreaks that the God was to suffer.