The Trickster and the Mortal- LOKANE

Nine

Jane kneeled, confused and anxious. "What do I do?" she asked. He was just lying there. 

"Press your hand to his arm, where the cracks start." Elise instructed. The cracks were crawling around Loki's jaw now. He twitched occasionally, in such obvious pain. Jane pulled the leather sleeve up, and saw the place she had held. The area was covered in gray deadness. This was probably why he didn't want her to touch him, and she remembered with a jolt, why she had gripped his arm so tightly in the first place. Her worriedness melted into anger, and she pulled away. She didn't want to heal him. She didn't want to heal the monster. She adjusted her leg, preparing to stand, but Loki's cold grasp on her arm held her back. 

"I will be indebted to you." he said. No, pleaded. It was absolutely terrifying, even more terrifying than when he was angry. 

"It would be a rare and extremely useful opportunity to have the God of Mischief indebted to you," he said softly, still gripping Jane's arm with his cold hand. He swallowed, and Jane could see he was trying very hard to keep the agony out of his voice. Sure, he carelessly hurt Thor many times, including tricking him into thinking he was dead.. But Jane could not stand by and watch him suffer. The cracks almost reached his eyes now. Jane pressed her palm to the heart of the cracks, and searched for the magic in her. But it didn't heal him. It couldn't heal him. Jane scrunched her eyebrows together, and tried again. But her magic wasn't meant for healing, it was meant for destroying... 

Jane pressed her palm down on Loki's arm, searching... He would be dead soon.. And then there it was. The healing magic. The cracks subsided instantly, and melted back into the heart of the poison, which disappeared, sealing the pale skin shut over the black. Jane could laugh. It worked. She healed him! But when Loki gingerly rose again, he didn't even smile. "Do you know what you have done?" he asked quietly. 

"I healed you." Jane said. "I think you're being really rude about it, I could have ignored you-" 

"I am.. grateful," Loki stiffly interrupted. "But in doing so, you've joined, bonded my magic and yours. Do you know what this means?" 

Jane shook her head. So she should have just let him die, shouldn't she? Sigh. 

"The magic will be five times as strong as before, but neither of us can use healing magic, nor any other powerful sort of magic without the other. The only thing I can do is low magic tricks like disappearing things and teleporting, perhaps. You will be able to conjure a few spells, but I suppose it doesn't make such a difference, because you were nothing in the first place-" 

"Would you shut up?" Jane said calmly, raising her eyebrows. "Is there a way to severe the magic?"

"Yes," Elise said from behind. Oh. Jane had suddenly become aware that she was there.

"Two ways, actually. Although neither is probably much appealing to either of you." 

Elise glanced at her feet briefly. "Either one of you dies," Loki smiled and looked at Jane, while Jane nervously fidgeted with her hair. 

"Or you go to Midgard, and, likely with a lot of luck, convince Odin to separate the magic for you." 

Jane gaped. "Odin is alive? I thought he was dead, why would he leave the throne to- to you?" Jane asked.

 "How kind of you to notice," Loki said. He looked back up to Elise. "The illusion will disappear once I leave the realm. Create some excuse as to why. I will return shortly." 

He turned to Jane. "Come, Jane." He beckoned briskly. Jane guessed that if he was to proud to say thank you, then calling her by her name was his way of communicating so. She almost smiled like a fool again before she caught herself. She followed him the best she could, since it was difficult to match his quick pace. "We will prepare to go to as fast as possible, by tomorrow evening."

"By tomorrow evening? But how will we even go?" 

"Well, since you've bonded our magic-"

"To save you," Jane mumbled under her breath.

"- we will have to use your magic as well."

"What? How do we do that?" 

Loki said nothing, and the trip back to the palace was silent. 

When Loki opened the door for both of them, Jane weighed her luck and took a risk to ask another question. "Do you know who poisoned you?" 

Loki sighed. "Enough with the questions. I am tired, and I'd really love to just sleep now."

Jane lowered her head a little as they began to walk. There he went, making her feel like a child again. Loki glanced at her for a moment, evidently noticing. "If you'd really like to know, you gave me the cracks, and the poison just made it worse. As for whoever poisoned me, I do not know, but I do know that a great deal of people would love to see me die." He smiled grimly. Loki turned, opening the door into his room, and disappeared with a small click of the door. 

Jane could not keep herself from pitying him again when she walked into her own room, about a hallway from Loki. How would it have felt to be brother of the best- always seen as second- and now seen as the dragon of the story? She looked back at Loki's door, remembering the master carvings that she had glanced before hearing the door click. It had never occurred to her that Loki might be more than a trickster. That he could be even a hint of normal. The carvings looked like they took a lot of work, and skill, and.. practice. Imagining him with a knife was now different completely. A month ago, she would have imagined a bloodthirsty expression and perhaps a few dead bodies around. But now, as she changed in to her nightgown and laid, snuggled in the silk sheets, she imagined him sitting peacefully, in the forest, where she had healed him. Carving. Peaceful. Stunning. Stunning? Embarrassed by the sudden word that had come to mind, she moved her shoulders a bit, holding the sheets tightly. 

------

"Morning, sunshine." Elise said sarcastically, crouching by her, too close for Jane's comfort. 

"GAhH!" Jane yelped, leaping out of her blankets. 

"That's what I expect when I wake people up." Elise said satisfactorily. "I love doing that to guests," she added as she stood and looked in the direction of a blue bag sitting on her wardrobe.

 "It's not green?" Jane asked.

Elise laughed. "Only because we have to tell you and the prince's bags apart," she answered. "Your breakfast is in the hall this time." 

Jane had not been in the hall before. She had a pretty good guess which door it was, but it was always locked. It was open wide when she passed the paintings and passages she had become familiar with during the last two weeks. She wouldn't even call it imprisonment, since she was allowed to roam the palace and go outside. The fine cedar table was surprisingly laden with cheeses, bread, and meat for breakfast. 

"That's not for you, I'm afraid." Loki gestured to the small box of corn flakes on the table right next to the one she had seen first. Loki sat on the opposite side on the other table as Jane gratefully poured the milk that had just appeared into her bowl of cereal. "You're really going to eat all that?" Jane was going to ask. But by the time she opened her mouth, Loki had consumed half of the food on the table, and sat smacking his lips. Jane wondered how his face was so chiseled if he ate this sort of breakfast every day. 

"It's rude to stare, you know." Loki said as he began on the other half. Jane jolted upright, yanked out of her daze. "Sorry." She yawned. "Come on." Loki called from the door. The table he had sat at held nothing but empty plates. She hadn't even finished her corn flakes. Reluctantly, she held the bowl of corn flakes after slinging the blue bag over her shoulder. When Jane came, Loki prodded the bag and it became a light shade of clover green. Jane shook her head and followed him out the door. 

 Author:Okay so basically in Norse Mythology Loki was challenged by a  huge sky giant, I can't remember the name, but he is put to a eating contest against Logi. Loki devours all the meat and leaves the bones clean, but Logi consumes everything, including the table. Both are extremely quick at eating.