The Villain

pride

"What were you up to?", Phoenix asked, her head tilted in curiosity.

"None of your concern, witch. Or do you prefer Odin's oracle now?", Loki mocked, looking around in his cell, moving over to the sofa and sitting down there.

It was not as big as his old chambers, but still bigger and more comfortable than the other cells. Surely Frigga was involved in choosing this cell for him, he knew the dungeons well enough to notice the extra space and furniture she added for him.

The desk, the drawers full of books and the slightly bigger bed, the night-stand. Still. It was a prison.

"I serve fate, not Odin, princeling.", she said, moving over to him. "I want to find out what happened to you after you fell into that abyss, what you saw there and where you got that sceptre from."

"Ask very nicely and maybe I tell you.", Loki answered, a charming smile on his lips, when he stood up again. "Giving it a bit more thought though...probably not."

Phoenix smiled at that, like a snake, all in his space in a moment.

"No, princeling. You tell me or I read your mind.", she said, putting her hands on his cheeks.

"You are refreshingly convinced of your abilities and talents, Phoenix. I like that in a witch.", Loki chuckled and the mischief in his eyes became evident once Phoenix read his mind, or rather tried to.

She found an empty nothingness instead of the usual chaos that conscious minds were.

That was an easy spell to undo, and her seidr did its work by habit, darkness of hidden thoughts becoming light in only moments.

Little notions, whispers, words of a language she vaguely knew but couldn't pinpoint right now, that lost themselves in that now light void.

Where did they go?

Purple lines flew through the void of Loki's mind, searching for something, anything at all, but when Phoenix finally left that void behind, her seidr a sharp needle more than a vivid strand of controlled power dropping from her fingertips now, she flinched.

Blue sharp ice.

A strong protective spell keeping her seidr away from whatever Loki hid inside his mind.

"By all Norns, what a spell.", Phoenix whispered, taking her hands back and looking at Loki rather surprised.

"Spells weren't your strength when we were younger, but this is...", once again she searched through his mind, not the smallest hole in his spell for her seidr to crawl through and undo it.

"Excellent...I'm proud of you, princeling. You learned a lot, or so it seems. I mean, I always knew you should intensify your studies instead of focusing on that ridiculous battle training so much, but this is almost...", she scrunched up her face, no way for her to get around the spell, and Loki grinned, watching her concentrated expression slowly fading into this of defeat.

"This is art, Loki. Who taught you that?", she asked, genuine curiosity taking over her features.

"We all value our secrets, Phoenix, and while I do not consider myself ordinary in many regards, in that case I do.", he said, and Phoenix playfully nudged his shoulder.

"You're so arrogant.", she said, the teasing smile staining the venom of her accusation.

They both knew Odin expected Loki to train for battles rather than refining his skills in seidr, but weren't in the mood for reminiscing in their past. It wasn't exactly a pleasant time for either of them.

"I'm so delighted you didn't listen to what he said. Odin was so unbelievably stupid to waste your talent like that.", Phoenix said nevertheless and the grin froze on Loki's face for a moment, before mischief sparkled in his eyes, a smirk on his lips.