Above All Shadows [Loki Timetravel fic - Completed]

Deleted Scenes 1/3

A/N: I realised last week that I never got around to posting the deleted scenes to this fic on Wattpad. I figure I should fix that. 

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Scene 1 - Loki and the Warriors Three after Sif's funeral
Original placement: beginning of Chapter 11- Blue Skin

Sif's funeral ceremony turned out to be an unpleasant affair, even for a funeral. Her sisters had certainly made the appropriate arrangements: a long boat laden in the finery of their house, hundreds of lanterns, an orchestra and a choir. Loki had caught a glimpse of the refreshments that awaited the attendees after the choir finished singing the lamentations — it was the best Asgard had to offer.

Everything had been tasteful and picked out with great care, but the gathered were restless and distracted. Loki felt their eyes bore into him from every direction. Worse yet, a messenger had arrived for him in the middle of Tyr's eulogy with a report on the progress of the advance parties presently using portals to covertly infiltrate Jotunheim.

The minute Sif's boat slipped out of view, Loki turned to Sif's two sisters.

'Please forgive me,' he said. 'I must return to the palace. Once again, my condolences on your loss.'

They muttered quiet thank yous and curtsied. Loki motioned for his guards to clear a path for him through the crowd. There was no sense in trying to engage Tyr before he left. Loki had now tried twice to offer his condolences, but whenever he drew close to Tyr, the man's face turned to such a vicious scowl Loki wondered if he were about to receive Tyr's fist in the face. Apparently, whether Loki was negotiating with Jotunheim or invading it, Tyr was determined to remain hostile.

Loki and his retinue made it to the back of the crowd when he spotted three figures huddled beneath the birch trees that grew along the boulevard. Hogun, Fandral and Volstagg. He was surprised at himself that he hadn't noticed their absence earlier.

'What are you three doing back here?' he asked.

Volstagg emerged from the shadow of the trees, Fandral closely behind him, and offered Loki a shallow bow. 'Lord Tyr didn't want us visiting Sif while she was in the healers' care. We didn't think he would be overjoyed to see us at the funeral either.'

'Probably a wise decision. Grief manifests in different ways, Sif's father seems to have settled on anger.'

'He gave you an earful too?' Fandral asked.

Loki shifted his grip on Gungnir in lieu of a reply. Fandral and Volstagg had chosen to treat this interaction as an informal conversation, which suited Loki just fine. Royal protocol was tiresome. But the question Fandral had put to him overstepped the bounds. A ruler could hardly blurt out complains about one of his chief advisers to every dandy he happened to stumble across. All the more so, when he had ten guards trailing him. Palace guards were the biggest rumourmongers in Asgard.

'Lord Tyr will have opportunity aplenty to burn off his anger on the frost giants tomorrow,' Volstagg said.

Loki guessed he had caught onto Fandral's impropriety. Being the eldest of the Warriors Three, he had more experience with the subtleties of palace life than the rest of Thor's friends.

'Quite true,' Fandral laughed, still seemingly oblivious. 'I hope to give more than a few what they deserve as well. We all do, I think.'

Volstagg glanced over to the distant spot where Sif's boat had slipped beyond their sight, then drew his gaze back to Loki and Fandral. 'It was a good attempt on trying to arrange ransom, Loki, but frost giants just don't go for that.'