A Gods Favor

I Am Here for You

Some nights there were demons, others a loop of mediocrity, others still there where his mothers tears. The worst though were the nights when there was nothing. When he tossed and turned just waiting for the nightmares that never came.

She did not come to him again in the following months. Sometimes he swore he could see the shadow at the edge of his vision but when he spoke to it it did not speak back, did not step forward and take form. So he wrote to her. Everyday he penned his apologies and begged for her forgiveness. The guards of course would not take his letters to her so he left them scattered on the table in the hopes that she might see them when she came to torture him. He did not think she ever did.

-

Yrsa walked through the halls of the palace headed towards the dungeons. In the first weeks of their return her father had been too angry to allow anyone to see Loki, much to her mothers heartbreak though she believed Frigga had been speaking to him through projection. Now though with the Bifrost repaired and her and Thor's campaign to bring peace back to the realms Odin had softened enough to permit her and Thor visitation. So now, home for the first time in months, she was seizing the opportunity.

She nodded to the guards as she passed and when she came to the glowing corner cell that held her brother she could see him sitting along the edge, book in hand. His skin had grown paler than normal from the lack of sun and the dark circles under his eyes made it seem like he hadn't slept in weeks.

Yrsa stopped a few feet from the cell and when Loki flicked his eyes up from his book and then back down without a word, she spoke first. "You look well, all things considered."

Loki rolled his eyes before turning the page, still trying to ignore her.

"A bit weary maybe but I'm sure that's due to your busy schedule." She leaned on the wall beside where he sat.

He let out a snort and slammed his book closed before standing. "If you are here to mock me I am not in the mood."

"I am not here to mock you, I am here to see you, brother." She moved around the cell to try and see his face as he spoke but she didn't need to because tossed the book on the table and turned to her, arms spread.

"Now, after I have festered in this cell for months, you decide to come? How thoughtful."

Yrsa crossed her arms and cocked her head at him. "The timeliness of my visit is entirely on you. We were not permitted to see you at first and today is the first I have been back on Asgard since the Bifrost has been repaired. I came as soon as I could. Do not be angry with me because you are suffering the consequences of your own actions."

His head ticked to the side at her last words as if he might argue but he shook his head slightly. "Yes, yes everything is my fault and I am to suffer for it, I've been told. Your visit has been noted and you can return to your duties. Maybe we can chat again in a year or so if you have the time."

She watched as he sat, defeated, at the small table in his room and ran his hand idly over a stack of parchment. She expected him angry and snapping as was his nature but his fire was gone. "I will be here again soon and I would have been here sooner if I could have."

"Would you?"

"Yes, you dunce. Despite your blood you are my brother and I love you. It pains me to see you here but I will come for you and I will fight for you and hopefully one day if I cannot convince father to pardon you Thor will take the throne and I will bully him into it and the sun will shine on you again." She spoke the truth as ridiculous as it may sound to many considering his crimes but all beings are flawed. They all make mistakes but they are also capable of change. And if Odin did not believe Loki could earn redemption why imprison him over execution?

-

Yrsa went back every night the week she was on Asgard. Loki did not talk much but he did seem to warm to her presence as she talked of old times and days passed. She could even see he hid a smile at several of her jokes.

One her last evening in the palace she approached his cell in time to see her mothers image shimmer and disappear.

"It seems I am not the only one who visits." She said, leaning on the pillar at the end of his cell.

Loki came to the wall of his cell. "No but you are the least unpleasant."

"I think that was almost a compliment, brother. I am sad I have to leave just as I'm finally melting your Jotun heart."

His faint smile dropped. "You're going?"

"At first light," she nodded. "I am headed to Nornheim with Volstagg and Sif. Thor leaves for Ria with Hogun and Fandral."

His eyes stayed on the ground as he asked, "Elora will not be joining you?"

He had not mentioned her in Yrsa's visits this week and Elora had not mentioned him at their last meeting though she knew the elven woman had only been at the palace to spy on Loki's sentencing at the request of her mother. "El has been in Fensalir since shortly after Odin woke, with the exception of the day we returned from Midgard. I do not see that changing anytime soon."

Yrsa did not think it was the right time to tell Loki of what happened, what had driven Elora to the marshlands. No, that information could wait until he was in a better state. But his eyes widened in understanding and he walked over to the table and picked up a large stack of parchment before returning and placing it in the small compartment used to deliver his meals.

"When you do see her next, could you give these to her?"