Shadows and Lies

Chspter 26

Chapter 26:
The sun rose on day two and Loki quickly learned that the guard's taunt from the day before was very much true; the second day was no less cruel than the first.
Very little changed except that Loki somehow continued to get weaker and weaker as the day progressed. He couldn't hold himself up at all by the middle of the day, and by late afternoon his wrists were bleeding because of the shackles digging into his skin.
The only upside was that people seemed to have forgotten that his leg was broken, and because the guards had hung him up shirtless, most of the aggression was focused on his upper half and his leg was spared being broken again.
The help he'd received from the woman the night before didn't help him get through the day, in fact her efforts were negated very quickly as new wounds were opened, his face was bashed up just as badly, and his eye swelled closed again.
He was once again denied water, even though the guards were different. Loki couldn't imagine Thor had ordered them to keep water from him, but none of them seemed to feel any desire to extend that kindness, even when he blacked out due to pain and dehydration.
By nightfall he was an even bigger mess than the first day, and got even less sleep because of it. And This time no one came to help him.
By the time the third day came Loki had lost all ability to respond. He hanged limp and looked lifeless, and even when the first person of the day came around to punch him in the chest, he didn't respond.
Throughout the majority of the third day he was essentially just a punching bag; limp, silent, and non-responsive to the torture being inflicted on him.
"Come on, wake up" the guards noticed that he'd been non-responsive for a while, so they decided to make sure he wasn't dead, and wake him up if he wasn't; it wasn't very satisfying to beat a man who was unconscious and couldn't react.
Loki's eyes rolled open but he didn't focus on anything; to him everything other than the excruciating pain he was in was just a blur. He couldn't focus on the guard right in fort of him, holding his head up to talk to him.
"It's the last day, people are upset, you have to stay awake so they can feel satisfied with your sentence. If you keep passing out Thor might extend this a few days, you wouldn't want that, right?" Loki had stopped fully paying attention about half way through and had dropped his head again. The guard slapped him a bit to get his attention without actually hurting him.
"Right?" The guard repeated. Loki mumbled 'right' But was still struggling to keep awake or focused. The guard sighed and just looked at Loki for a minute. He was mostly covered in dried blood by now, and the guard had been watching everything that had been going on for the past few days and decided that Loki's punishment was sufficient, or would be when it was over. It wouldn't hurt to extend a bit of mercy.
"Alright, I can give you a small drink, but only if you really fight to stay awake" the guard told him. Loki didn't care what he had to do, he'd stay awake through anything at this point if it meant getting some water down his dry, raw throat.
He couldn't really speak because he'd lost all his voice, But he mumbled something that sort of sounded like 'okay' so the guard went to get him a drink.
He came back a little while later and Loki was very surprised to see that he'd actually brought water. The guard held the water to Loki's lips and let him have exactly one sip.
"I'll bring you some every hour if you can stay awake" Loki thought about what that meant for him; he could barely keep his eyes open right now while talking to the guard, but this was also the last day he'd be out here and he was so dehydrated he felt deadly sick and would do just about anything to get another drink.
He nodded weekly and mumbled an agreement, and the guard left.
For the rest of the day Loki put all of his effort into just keeping his eyes open. He didn't try to stand while people beat him, or responded when they taunted him, he just tried to keep his eyes open so that when the guard checked on him he could see that he hadn't passed out, and he could get another sip of precious water.
But The remainder of the last day was no kinder than the other two, even if he was getting a sip of water every hour. He watched the sun move across the sky while burning underneath it, just waiting for it to set behind the mountains so the day would end and this could all be over.
Late afternoon was rolling in, Loki was fading but only had to hold on for a couple more hours.
The people knew their window of opportunity was closing so there was no break in pain toward the end of the day, until finally the sun started to go down. Thor would be there soon to bring Loki back and it would finally be over.
"Don't fall asleep yet" loki heard a gruff voice snap at him. He opened his eye as much as he could and could just barely make out a man in front of him, an iron rod with a white hot tip on his hand.
The guy walked behind Loki and shoved his head forward so he could burn his neck.
"This is meant to hurt so you better stay awake to feel it" Loki tensed and waited for the searing pain of the branding iron on his neck. He waited for moment and the suspense of it was becoming troubling.
"Come one.... just-" his voice gave out before he could say 'do it'.
"What's this?" The man asked, and instead of Loki feeling burning metal on his neck, he felt a hand on his shoulder where there was the asgardian brand of a traitor burned into his skin.
"A brand" it was difficult for Loki to talk coherently, but the guy now seemed more interested in Loki's existing brand than adding a new one, and Loki very much wanted to encourage that, so he forced his voice to work.
"I know that, who gave it to you? There's no way the king did this to you".
"Not Thor.... Odin" Loki rasped, searching his exhausted brain for words that would make sense to keep this man distracted.
"That's a lie. Odin was your father, no man would do this to his own son" he stopped sounding interested and now sounded irritated that Loki lied.
"I was never Odin's son.... not really.... why would I lie about this?" Loki questioned. The man paused, there was no reason for Loki to lie about who branded him, he just didn't like the idea that their past leader -a leader that everyone still respects- would have done something like that to his own son. They hadn't actually branded criminals in centuries, but Odin brought it back for his son. Loki had talked about Odin not treating him that well in his speech at the memorial, but the man had no idea it had gone that far.
Loki heard the iron rod clatter against the pavement, a sound that was sweet to his ears right now.
"I guess if you already have one brand you don't need another" The man said, sounding slightly annoyed that he wasn't going to burn a mark into Loki.
The guy moved back around in front of Loki, and Loki thought for a moment that was going to leave, to be kind and walk away. He was sadly mistaken.
"You're still a scum-bag though, and I have a few minutes before the king gets here to drag you back home" he punched Loki in the face. And then again, and again, and continued to do that for several minutes.
Loki's vision went spotty and he didn't care to try and stay awake any longer. Thor would be here soon, he didn't need to depend on water from the guard anymore. he was done, he just gave up and hanged there limp and unconscious while the guy kept beating him.
The man pulled his fist back to take another swing at Loki, but someone grabbed his arm to stop him.
"The king is here, the day is over" one of the guards told him, the same one who'd given him water all day. The man turned around and saw that Thor was in fact arriving, and that his time to make Loki hurt was over. He shook off his hand that was now smeared with Loki's blood and walked off.
The people started to disperse as Thor and a group approached in a flying boat.
Thor got out and immediately went to Loki to take him down.
"Loki..." he turned to the guards "unchain him. Now" he ordered, and the guards obeyed, disappointed though they were.
As soon as the guard let loose the shackles holding Loki up, he collapsed onto Thor, who was ready to catch him.
The sudden change woke Loki up and he groaned in pain.
"Hey, it's okay. I'm taking you home now" Thor assured him, trying to take him back to the boat without hurting him, which was hard since he was covered in wounds, and the spots that weren't were horribly burned by the sun.
Loki mumbled incoherently as Thor brought him back to the boat and laid him down inside, but he couldn't make any real words.
"Don't try to talk Loki, just try to save your strength and let us take care of you. It's all over now" Thor told him as the boat lifted into the air and they went back to the palace.