Shadows and Lies

Chalter 20

Chapter 20
Loki woke up late, feeling oddly refreshed and well rested. He groaned and sat up, holding his ribs that were now sore from being punched the day before. He yawned and looked around the room, he couldn't tell what time it was because the windows were all closed off, and the guards had taken his clocks, probably just to be mean.
"Hey! What time is it?!" He shouted to the guards outside the room. He was normally woken up by the guards and he was wondering why he'd been able to sleep until he woke up naturally.
He rolled his eyes a bit and pulled himself up out of bed. He breathed in deeply and walked toward the door to see what was going on and why the guards weren't responding to him. He was a few feet from the door and he was stopped from taking another step by the chain on his ankle.
"Seriously?" He grumbled to himself, realizing that they'd given him enough length to walk around the room, but just under what it would take to actually reach the door. He huffed and limp-stomped back Into the room and went to his old desk, looking for something to make a loud noise with.
His search was interrupted when he heard the door opening though.
"What are you doing?" He heard Thor ask. Loki turned around.
"Looking for something to throw at the door" he didn't realize how that sentence sounded out of context, and the look on Thor's face told him he needed to explain himself further. "The guards aren't answering me even though I'm screaming, so I was going to make some noise and they'd think I was trying to escape and they'd come in" Loki said. Thor's face was blank for a minute and then he rolled his eyes a bit.
"Loki there's no guards. They aren't answering you because they aren't there." Loki stood up straighter and gave him a suspicious look.
"There's no guards? At all? It's just me in here?" Loki didn't quite believe him, he didn't really think their little conversation the night before would've made such an impact on Thor.
"Yeah. I told them to leave" Thor did enjoy Loki's shock a little bit.
"Why would you do that?" Loki still didn't really believe him.
"Because it seemed unnecessary. But I don't really have time to chat with you about it. Sit down and give me your foot" Thor pointed to the chair by the desk Loki had been rummaging through.
"Excuse me?" Thor put a hand on Loki's shoulder and pushed him down into the chair.
"The council wants you and they've waited long enough. Put your foot on the desk so I can unlock you" It made more sense to Loki why Thor would  want his foot.
"Right" he pulled his leg up and put his foot on the table, dragging the chain up with it.
"How late is it?" Loki asked.
"Around two o'clock" Thor said as he unlocked the shackle around Loki's ankle and Loki put his foot back on the floor.
"Why did you let me sleep so late?" Loki was trying to figure out what was happening and if he might still be asleep and dreaming.
"Because you were tired" Thor said as he walked to Loki's closet and grabbed some clothes.
"Go shower. And make it fast" he threw the clothes at Loki.
"What are you doing? This is weird" loki said as he stood up, eyeing Thor suspiciously. Suddenly he was allowed to sleep as late as he wanted, the guards were gone, and Thor was telling him to go shower, alone and unguarded or chained:
"I'm telling you to go clean up. Why are you acting like I'm speaking a different language?" Thor was getting annoyed and just wanted Loki to hurry up. He had things to do.
"Because this entire time I've had to fight tooth and nail to get an ounce of freedom, and now suddenly you're telling me there's no guards outside the room, and you're letting me be alone and unchained" Thor put a hand on Loki's shoulder.
"Yeah, because you've earned it. Now please go get yourself cleaned up and dressed, we are late for a meeting." Loki stopped arguing and asking questions and went to go bathe and get dressed.
He tried to be quick, and even though he was still in quite a bit of pain he finished rather quickly and got himself dressed and went back into the room.
"Okay, so what's this meeting about and why do I have to be there?" Thor grabbed Loki's wrists and snapped a pair of cuffs around them.
"It's about you. And you have to be there because it's about you" Thor said. Loki tugged on the chain of the handcuffs as Thor put a hand around his arm and led him out of the room.
"Are these really necessary? What happened to trusting me?" Loki said.
"I trust you. The council doesn't. And you are yet to pay any kind of price for your actions so I'm not letting you roam free" loki didn't say anything else, they just left the room and went to meet with the rest of the council.
They got to the council room to see the entire council waiting rather impatiently.
"Good, you're here. We have some good news" Fandral said when Thor and Loki came into the room.
"You have good news?" Loki found it hard to believe that they'd have good news.
"Yes, great news, sit down" Loki could see the tension of everyone in the room while he was standing and relatively unguarded.
He sat down and Thor handcuffed him to his chair before taking his own seat.
"You can all relax, I'm not going anywhere" Loki taunted "so what's this great news?" He asked.
"After yesterday and your little performance at the party, the people are demanding for you to be publicly beaten" Fandral told him. Loki was confused and looked to Thor, hoping to find a similar reaction, but Thor seemed pleased and almost excited about it.
"Thats fantastic" Thor said with a wide smile, seeming much too please to hear this 'good news'.
"You need to re-evaluate your definitions of 'good news' and 'fantastic'. None of this seems good to me. How is this good news?" Loki interjected. He didn't see the good in finding out he was doomed to a public beating.
"It is when you compare it to the alternative. Until yesterday they were screaming for your immediate execution. And a slow one at that. But apparently you were able to charm them enough to ease off a bit. Your sad speech about feeling unloved yet respecting Odin's  leadership skills seemed to humanize you a bit" one of the councilwomen explained to him. "Oh and speaking of your speech" she threw a small pouch at Loki that hit him in the chest and fell to his lap "your money from the bet" the councilwoman told him since Loki's hands were bound.
"I didn't think you'd all actually pay up" Loki muttered.
"Well we don't like you, but we're not savages, we'll respect our wagers" Fandral retorted.
"Right... so how long have I got before this wonderful beating?" Loki asked. Fandral annoyingly turned to Thor rather than answering Loki directly.
"Soon. They might not be calling for his head on a stick, but they still hate him and want to see him suffer for his crimes" Thor nodded.
"And what after that? Do you think they'll let him re-enter Into society or are they still demanding he be locked up?" Thor tried to keep on top of everything, but he had a lot on his plate so he had a few of the council members gathering public opinion that they then reported back to him.
"It's undecided right now. But I think just getting them away from execution is a big victory. They're willing to let him live and honestly I didn't think we'd make it that far" one of the councilman told him.
"It's not a victory. I'll still be executed" Loki said. The rest of the council looked to him for further explanation, so Loki went on.
"The people still want me dead, they just want to seem more merciful. This beating will 'accidentally' go too far and become an execution" there was an uncomfortable silence for a minute, everyone knew that Loki was right and there was a high possibility that it would go wrong and Loki would end up being killed. But no one wanted to actually say that.
"We'll make sure that doesn't happen" Thor assured him, but the happiness that was in his eyes a few moments ago had faded and Loki knew he was very worried that it wouldn't be avoidable.
"If you say so" Loki said back quietly. The meeting went on for a little while longer but Loki had pretty much checked out. He knew what was coming, he knew he wasn't going to be able to live and he was realizing how upsetting that was. A few months ago he didn't care if he lived or died, but now he was starting to feel like he had a chance of getting a life back and he didn't want to lose that.
After the meeting was over Thor brought Loki back to his room and chained him up again.
"I'm not going to let you get killed, Loki" Thor said when he was about to leave. He'd been watching Loki during the meeting and he could tell that Loki's mind was elsewhere. He knew Loki was afraid of dying. "I've put way to much work I to you, I'm not going to let you get killed." Loki gave him a doubtful look.
"I don't think you'll have much control over that. But thanks for trying" Loki said back. Thor could only keep him safe for so long, eventually the people would get what they actually want.