khaleesi ― 𝐋. 𝐋𝐀𝐔𝐅𝐄𝐘𝐒𝐎𝐍

━━━━ CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

 ˖*°࿐ chapter twenty-three.
xxiii. MONSTER THAT PARENTS TELL THEIR CHILDREN

LOKI AND LAELIA HELD EACH OTHER TIGHTLY IN THEIR ARMS, pressing light kisses to each other's shoulders as reassurance of what's to come. Loki cleared the tears from his wife's violet orbs, feeling pathetic that she had to watch him leave, as he did to her. "You better come back to me, My Sun and Stars," she rustles as she holds him by the lapels of his attire, more tears replacing the ones Loki brushed. "Don't worry, Moon of my Life, I shall, but it is unclear when I will," he retaliates. 

Odin and Frigga watched on, watching the healthy marriage their son and his wife held, the one that can only be made when two people really love each other and not when a marriage is arranged to the other. But they don't know how they got married, so they thought they got married as a normal couple: Loki proposes, she says yes, then the wedding is planned, then the wedding takes place, once and for all. "But please, Laelia, please promise me that you will get your throne, even if it means that one of your children is executed, that it won't stop you." 

"I promise," her breath hitched from thinking about watching her own child be murdered, but she doesn't let it get to her. "I promise I will." 

"Alright," he beams. The oncoming BiFrost comes down and lands next to them, behind Odin and Frigga. "I have to go." Laelia nods and lets go of his clothes, letting him go off into the multicolored light and step into it beside his parents. After a few flashes, it's gone. 

"I'm sorry, Khaleesi."

"Let's go," she interjects, cutting off Allister and walking off to her horse. 

She wasn't going to seem weak any longer.

***

LOKI STANDS IN FRONT OF THE CASKET OF ANCIENT WINTERS, grabbing hold of the blue phosphorescent case by its onyx handles, the sound of stone against stone when he picks it up fills the archive. "Stop!" Odin bellows from behind him; he stood in front of the entrance to the archive. 

Loki continues to hold it. "Am I cursed?"

"No," Odin intoned.

"What am I?" Loki lays the casket back on its pedestal. His back is facing Odin, letting the AllFather see his son's long hair and black attire. He and Thor always kept their hair the same length, though both never talked or acknowledged it. Well, minus that one time when they were eleven and Thor's har was already past his ears and Loki's was still a little shorter. "You're my son," Odin piped, hoping that Loki stopped asking questions. 

Loki turns around, letting the AllFather see his blue skin and red eyes, letting Odin know he knew he was lying. His skin and eyes gradually faded back to their normal tones, "What more than that?" He begins walking, his footfalls heard around the room. "The Casket wasn't the only thing you took from Jotunheim that day, was it?" 

Odin doesn't know what to say; his own son knew he was lying, and it was no use to continue to lie. "No. In the aftermath of the battle, I went into the temple and I found a baby." Odin remembers the day clearly; he remembers the baby's blue skin and red eyes, the way he cried and how he had kicked at him. Small streams of spit had been escaping his mouth. Odin believed the baby was afraid of the opening of the bloodied socket, where Odin's eye had been ripped out. "Small for a giant's offspring, abandoned, suffering, left to die. Laufey's son."