Above All Shadows [Loki Timetravel fic - Completed]

11. Blue Skin

Loki pulled off his jacket and let the heavy garment sink to the floor. His leather vest soon also lay crumpled on the ground, leaving him in a silk shirt. The thin material rippled over his skin as a gust of cool air swept through the room. Loki reached for the window; there was an unpleasant chill to the wind this evening.

The lanterns down on the foreshore gave him pause. He hadn't expected anyone would still be out there.

He had come down for the funeral ceremony of course. The ruler of Asgard could hardly forgo attendance and Loki thought that Thor would appreciate him being present since Thor himself could not be there. But, for all the effort Sif's older sisters had expended in organising it, there had been an odd atmosphere to the event. Tyr barely met anyone's eye, the rest of the Einherjar's leadership surreptitiously attempted to coordinate troop movements throughout the ceremony, and half the gathered crowd seemed more interested in gawking at Loki than in paying respects to the dead. He had fled back to the palace minutes after Sif's funeral boat passed out of sight.

Someone knocked on the door.

Loki shut the window and called out, 'Come in!'

An aide-de-camp from Tyr's staff stepped into the room. With his hair slicked back and each tassel of his uniform in its proper place, he looked like the Einherjar was due out on parade tonight. His bow matched the immaculate state of his dress. His face, however, betrayed the depth of the man's nervousness.

'Something on your mind, captain?' Loki asked.

'Only the challenge that faces us tomorrow, your highness,' the man responded and made an effort to steel his expression. He thrust out a letter towards Loki. 'I have an update on the progress of the advance parties for you.'

'Thank you.'

The man's hand snapped back as Loki took the letter from him and he hurried out. Loki watched the door slowly swing shut behind him, wondering if he ought to have ordered Sif's funeral to be delayed. It was Asgardian custom to farewell the dead at the first sunset after their passing, but Sif's funeral boat aflame would have done nothing for the soldiers' morale. However much her personality had grated on Loki, she had been respected as a warrior. Her father too. And she had died by the hand of the very enemy the soldiers would be fighting come the morning.

Loki had thought Tyr would use his eulogy to rouse the Einherjar. For once his bluster and antipathy towards the frost giants would have been of some benefit. As it turned out, Tyr had been in the wrong frame of mind. His speech had been apologetic in tone, full of stumbles and at times impossible to follow.

Loki himself wasn't helping matters, he understood that. He lacked both Odin's experience and Thor's natural bravado. Worse yet, it was public knowledge he had been against the war with Jotunheim until the very last moment. Hardly an inspiring leader to rally around. He could only hope his council followed his orders and kept quiet about what had been said during the meeting with Laufey. There were rumours he couldn't afford to have flying about the palace right now.

'I'll have to find some words to say tomorrow,' he muttered under his breath. 'Something that'll get the drums of war going, otherwise Thor'll be Laufey's guest for a long time.'

Sighing, Loki broke the seal on the letter and trudged to his bedroom. He took off the two scabbards that held his knives, setting them on the bedside table, then collapsed onto the bed. When the unfolded the stiff paper, he found an equally stiff report inside describing the evening's efforts with the portals.

Asgardian sorcerers had spent days tracking down the narrowing gaps between the worlds and identifying where Asgard's vulnerabilities lay. But these portals functioned in both directions. By the time the main Asgardian force entered Jotunheim tomorrow, there would be dozens of advance parties already creeping towards Laufey's capital.