Einherjar

1

The office was cold. Blader wished he had his jacket with him, anything to drape over his shoulders and hug close around himself. Every time he was forced to sit in the principal's office, it felt like the cold of Niflheim had been breathed into it, just for him.

Hunching his shoulders and crossing his arms over his chest, Blader sighed dejectedly. No matter what punishment the principal imposed on him, no matter how painful it was when his mother begged him to do better, he always seemed to end up back in this hell of an office. It was all so...inevitable.

Blader hated that word. He hated it with every fiber of his being – but there was nothing he could do about it.

He wasn't even a bad kid. He didn't purposefully do things to get himself in detention or suspended. They just seemed to happen around him and he just got caught up in the aftermath.

But that wasn't any sort of excuse.

"Blader Thrym," the secretary called, looking up from her screen. "Principal Sigrif will see you now."

Reluctantly, Blader stood and marched towards the principal's door. Just before he would have walked into it, the secretary palmed the access button and the door flickered, becoming transparent and insubstantial just long enough for him to walk through before growing solid and opaque again. Once on the other side, he stopped.

Principal Sigrif sat behind his massive desk, looking up at Blader with hard eyes. Only two screens floated before the principal today. One he could tell was his file; he'd seen it up before the principal enough times to know what it looked like by heart, even when viewing it from behind. The other screen, however, wasn't one Blader recognized.

"Thrym," Sigrif said, his deep voice lacking the underlying threat it always carried on talking to Blader. "Have a seat."

Blader resisted the urge to drag his feet as he approached the desk. Perching on the edge of one of the dark, wooden chairs, he rested his hands on his thighs and looked up at the principal. He could see his picture on his floating file, his brown eyes staring out from his angular face. The clean shaven skin in the image was a contrast to the stubble crossing his cheeks now. Blader ran his hand through his dark hair, tousling it further, as he waited for the principal to speak.

"Today was...." Sigrif paused, shaking his head as he held the teenager's gaze. "Loki unacceptable, Thrym."

Loki. Of course. To Sigrif, everything I do is loki.

Ever since the Rebirth, the High King had turned the name "Loki" into an adjective, describing something bad. The High King hadn't been terribly fond of the original being holding that name, and for good reason.

"I know," Blader replied.

Sigrif tapped his keyboard and another screen opened before him. Touching it with his finger, he spun it slowly towards Blader.

It was the footage from one of the school's many cameras.

Blader braced himself as the video began to play.

[----]

2 hours ago

The hallway was bustling with students traveling from one class to another, but Blader knew how best to navigate through the crowds. People gave him the right of way when they noticed it was him walking past them. They tried to keep their motions subtle, but Blader saw the way they tilted their shoulders to make it easier for him to pass, the way they edged just enough away where he wouldn't have to brush against them. They didn't want to be associated with him in any way, even if that association was only bumping into him in the hallway.