Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Elsa looked up from the small fountain at the sound of someone clearing a throat in a quiet request for attention. She'd heard no one approach, and only Anna should have been able to pass the guards to enter the side garden.

But it wasn't Anna standing in front of the rose trellis and the small beds of kitchen herbs, but a stranger. He was very tall. His hair was black and long enough to curl against his collar, and worn unfashionably loose and pushed back from his high forehead. His clothes were fine, including a dark green tail coat with gold buttons, dove grey waistcoat, black breeches and knee boots, all tailored to slim effect. His eyes were light, possibly green, and gazed on her with a direct openness that she saw from few people except her sister, especially since the coronation and revelation of her powers.

With a start, he seemed to realize he was staring at her and gave a bow that was graceful and flourished his long coat-tails, and yet was also little more than a nod of the head. "Forgive me. I knew you would be here, I sought you out, and yet to see you feels sudden and strange."

His voice was smooth, with hardly any foreign accent, and he seemed polite. She frowned at him. "So you sneak into the garden to meet me? Instead of attending a proper audience."

"I have little patience for propriety, Elsa," he said, with a flashing grin. Despite the admission and highly improper use of her given name, she couldn't help smiling back.

"Oh?" She lifted her brows. "And by what name should I call you, stranger?"

He opened his mouth to answer, and then hesitated, as if reconsidering, before saying simply, "Loki."

"Like the pagan god?" she asked. It was curious and rare to name a child for one of the old gods, especially the most ill-omened one.

His lips curled upward, in definite amusement. "Very like, and yet not like at all."

"Hm, you bandy words like a courtier, Loki," she said. "Are you at court somewhere?"

His lips tightened and his gaze flickered away, before he found another smile. "Not at present, no."

"You wish to join mine?"

He laughed. "Oh, as delightful as that might be, no. I'm a restless spirit, Elsa, and I do not suffer confinement well."

"Then… what is it you sought me for?" she asked.

"To see you," he answered but in contradiction to his words, he lowered his gaze to the small fountain. "I only recently heard of your coronation and specifically the unseasonable weather that followed," he murmured. "I was some distance away and I wanted to meet you."

"Oh?" She frowned at him, but had no chance to ask further as he held out a hand to the fountain. The water in the basin froze instantly, the spray and falling droplets joining together into a delicate tree of ice.

Elsa looked and knew she hadn't done it, which meant…. "You! You have powers like I do! I've never met anyone else who could do it."

His gaze stayed fixed on the ice and his smile seemed tinged with sadness. "No, you wouldn't. On this world there is only you and I."

"But there was another," she told him eagerly. "Have you not heard the story of the Ice Demon? He was no true demon though; I believe he was a sorcerer who lived high in the ice and came down to the villages, and he had powers like us, too. My parents collected the stories when I was little, and--" When she noticed his smile she petered to a stop, understanding. "Oh. It was you?"

It was disappointing; in the stories, the Ice Demon had eyes of gleaming silver, claws like a bear, and a cape of wolf fur. Apparently the stories had been greatly exaggerated. This tall youthful man standing before her seemed as normal as she was; he was no demon.

He inclined his head in acknowledgment. "Yes. Me."

Except one thing had to be true about the stories… "But that must have been a hundred years ago!"

He waved his fingers in a negligent gesture and the fountain returned to playing its sweet watery tune, the ice melting and vanishing as if it had never frozen at all. "Not quite so long, I should think, though Midgardian time is somewhat difficult to track."

"But you look scarcely older than I am."

Suddenly he vanished. She felt a presence at her shoulder and a voice in her ear and she twitched, startled. "I have other powers than ice, young one."

She turned to find her eyes at his white cravat and the pale skin of his throat, until long fingers tilted her chin upward and she looked into his face. She had the passing thought that she should be worried or afraid, but she wasn't, even though he'd admitted to being the Ice Demon. His touch was gentle, and his eyes looked on her with curiosity.

She'd thought his eyes were green, but they must have reflected the color of his coat, because at this close distance they were more grey-blue, like the sea on a cloudy day. He murmured, "You favor your mother, so much. And yet this, so pale…" His other hand trailed across her hair and he chuckled. "Where did this come from?"

"My magic, they say," she murmured.

"Mixed blood seems more likely," he answered, lips twisting in a wry smile. He let her go and stepped away, the smile fading to a more troubled expression. "I wish I had known of you, Elsa. I would have come to you to help you learn your abilities, but I was far away in warmer climes."

She frowned. "It… turned out all right. I learned how to manage."

He lifted a brow. "Without spring or summer? Only winter? That was managing. I see."

At his dry tone, her cheeks felt suddenly hot and she glanced down, embarrassed. He finished, "Nonetheless I would have spared you that particular education."

"Why?" she asked, feeling a little breathless, as though she stood on the edge of a precipice. "Just because we share an ability?"

He shook his head once, in the negative. Those keen eyes sat on her for what felt like forever, and she could feel the weight of the judgment, then he inhaled a deep breath and let it out with the air of a man who'd made a decision. "You share my ability, Elsa," he corrected. "Because … you are my daughter."

She gasped. "How is that--?" She was no child, she knew how it was possible. "But no, that can't be! My mother never would have --"

Loki lifted a finger, halting her outraged protests. "I can be extremely charming. And I have many talents. I was feeling my loneliness, she reminded me of someone, and the king was away. She remembered it only as a very pleasant dream. Though I suspect she found her husband a trifle… disappointing afterward." He smirked and Elsa wanted to slap him -- he was talking about bedding her mother -- but she also smiled.

"I never expected that night to bear fruit," he admitted. "I did not think it could. I wandered away, and it was not until I heard of the Snow Queen and her winterland, that I knew I had sprouted an unexpected branch of my family tree."

Elsa sat down on the rim of the fountain, her knees feeling too weak to carry her, while she thought about what he'd said. Or really, she wasn't thinking at all, while she stared blankly at the rose bushes on the other side of the small courtyard. There were only a few late blooms remaining, hanging on despite the fading summer.

He darted a glance at her and tucked his hands behind his back, standing there like a shadow against the sunlight. "I have a little experience with discovering difficult truths myself," he said finally. "So I understand if you are angry with me."

Looking up at him, she said in confusion, "Angry? I - I'm surprised, but I'm not angry. Well, I suppose you cuckolded my father, which was rather shoddy and I should be angry about that, but I'm not. Not really. This is all very sudden. I don't know what to think about it."

She held out her hand, a small ice sculpture of her parents forming on her palm. It was how she remembered them, from the last time she had seen them. Her mother had been so excited to go to the wedding in Corona of her dear friend's daughter, but the ship had never arrived.

"This was a mistake," he said abruptly. "A poor jest on my part, and I apologize. I should not have come back. This was a foolish idea. I should take my leave. Forgive me for intruding on your peace." He turned to go, hasty words spilling from him. Elsa had the sudden intuition that if he left, she'd never see him again.

"No, wait!" she blurted and a thin sheet of ice sprang up in front of him blocking his path. He reared back and eyed it with some caution, before touching it with his finger.

"Very strong," he murmured. "Without spell, it heeds your will. Impressive."

She smiled. "I get it from you," she said, ignoring the excuses he'd tried to offer. Because she could feel the bond between them and she knew it was true.

He banished her ice sheet and faced her. His expression was schooled to polite patience, but there was wariness in his stance, how he held himself so perfectly still, as though he expected rejection. The Ice Demon had once terrorized the villages of Arendelle and lower Norway, and for the first time she wondered if that had been vengeance and retaliation for being named evil and chased out into the cold by fearful villagers. Had he suffered what she had feared? Few places would view his magic as anything but demonic, and that meant there were few places he could go and be welcome as himself.

Elsa decided Arendelle would be one of them. "Would you stay? Only as long as you're comfortable," she added hastily, "but I'd like to get to know you. My parents are gone -- I mean my mother and my--"

"Your father," Loki said. "He raised you, Elsa. That counts more than blood. Or should." He cast his eyes up to the sky, looking sad briefly.

"Your father's gone, too?" she asked. "You may not have heard if you were away, but both my parents were lost at sea three years before I attained my majority."

"Mine… were lost to secrets and angry words I could never take back," he murmured.

"I'm sorry." She stood up and touched his hand. His gaze whipped down as if to check those were really her fingers wrapping around his. His surprise that she would want to touch him was comical, yet sad. It reminded her of her own fear to touch. She tightened her grip and smiled at him, when their eyes met. "Please stay. As long as you like."

"How can I possibly refuse such a gracious invitation?" he responded and lifted her hand to brush a kiss on the back.

She ended up saying he was a traveling scholar from distant Latveria, and told only Anna that Loki had a power like hers. She thought about telling Anna the whole truth, but it felt like something she wanted to hold to herself for a little while. It was hard to believe Loki could be her father, since they appeared so close in age, and Anna might be frightened to find out that he was over a hundred years old. Not that much of anything frightened Anna, Elsa had to admit, but still, it was a lot to understand.

But Loki fit in the palace smoothly and Elsa wondered if her assumption that he'd been born poor and chased from his village by his powers was correct. Of course he was a century old, had traveled widely, and was a sorcerer, so it should be no wonder he had manners and arrogance to spare. Yet, it nagged at her curiously, where he truly had come from.

He refused to answer that question; in fact, he avoided an actual answer so adroitly she only realized she'd been misdirected later. He also strangely refused to go to church. He smiled at her when she invited him to attend with her, as it was one of her duties. "Ah, no, I think that would be … awkward. I find it all rather absurd."

"You're not a Christian?" she asked in shock, and he laughed.

"With a name like mine, should you be surprised?" he returned easily. He waved to the paper before him, which she leaned over his shoulder to look at. It was written in German in a messy hand, but that did not explain why she could barely understand one word in six as she scanned what he'd written. "I'm writing a letter to a student at Ingolstadt University, to encourage his studies in electro-chemical processes."

"You're an infidel, sorcerer, and a scientist?" she asked with a laugh. "I think we shall keep that between us." She planted a kiss on the top of his head and he snapped his head up to frown at her curiously.

"What was that for?"

She shrugged, grinning. "No reason. Enjoy your letter and I will see you this afternoon."

Anna decided they needed to go outside the palace and visit the market. A ship had arrived and she wanted to look through the wares, and with Kristoff away, she was determined to bring both her sister and their guest out into the sunlight.

Loki followed, waving them ahead indulgently when they wanted to race across the bridge. When Elsa reached the end, she turned to find him standing in the middle, looking up at the northern mountains, perhaps thinking of his time as the Ice Demon. But as she considered fetching him, he turned away to continue across the bridge to join them in the square.

Beneath the cheerfully bright awnings of the market stalls, Elsa and Anna examined the newly arrived fabrics, while he waited for them by leafing through the books. "Anything interesting?" Elsa asked, coming up to his side.

He picked up a small black volume and waved it around, even as he looked through another.

Elsa plucked it from his hand and smiled at the merchant. "I'll take it."

"Your Majesty." He bowed and tried to give it to her, but she insisted on paying and slipped the book into Loki's coat pocket.

"There. But you are forbidden to read it until we're home. There is more to see and the sun to enjoy."

"The sun isn't really my specialty," he grumbled but put the other book down.

She laughed. "Mine either. But we must suffer to make Anna happy."

"I heard that!" Anna's voice came through the canvas and then her head peeked around the corner. "There's cheese and olives from Spain! Let's go."

Elsa tucked her arm through Loki's and followed her sister's bright hair. She smiled and greeted everyone as they strolled, pausing to create a ice patch on request for the children to slide around on. Loki watched her and at first he seemed anxious for her, as if the people might turn against her, but after he understood that no one was afraid, he relaxed. A smile curled his lips, and once, he surreptitiously gestured with his fingers, adding to her patch of ice beneath a vegetable seller's feet. The seller went tumbling and dropped the box he was carrying, so potatoes and turnips rolled everywhere. Loki looked innocent when she turned to narrow her eyes at him.

"Oh dear, ice is so slippery," he said with false regret, and then snickered.

"Sorry!" she called to the seller, who waved it off and gathered his vegetables before the people sliding around could mash his wares. She yanked Loki down with a grip on the green collar of his black velvet coat and whispered, "You are a hundred years old. Aren't you supposed to be wise by now?"

He laughed, unrepentant. "If we don't have fun with our magic, what's the point of having it?"

There was some wisdom in that, though pranks seemed a bit childish. But on the other hand, pranks were better than the more extreme things he'd done with his powers as the Ice Demon, so perhaps she should be grateful. She shook her head at him, and he pretended to be ashamed of himself in a way that made her smile.

Anna came back to them, since they were lagging behind. "Elsa, Loki, look who I found!"

Elsa heard Olaf's voice before she saw him, on Loki's other side. "Oh! Hello! Aren't you very tall?"

Loki's step halted and he looked down at Olaf. Then, in a quiet, wary voice, he asked, "Elsa. Is there a … snow creature speaking to me?"

Olaf answered brightly. "I'm Olaf."

Loki's tone was bland, but the look on his face was one that suggested he feared he was going mad. "Olaf. Of course you are."

Olaf smiled. "You look like you need a hug." He darted forward as if to hug Loki around the waist. Loki stepped into a defensive stance with the fluidity of a trained swordsman, pushing Elsa behind him with a strength that made her gasp, and his free hand somehow held a long-bladed dagger. Olaf's eyes went huge and frightened, as Anna shrieked and threw herself in front of him, her arms spread wide.

"No! It's okay! He's a friend! Don't hurt him!"

Loki hesitated and glanced at Elsa, and she reassured him, "He's friendly."

Olaf nodded frantically. "I'm friendly, really, I promise. Did you have a bad experience with snowmen before? I'm just asking, because your reaction seems a little fierce. And a little extreme, maybe? I'm sure you have your reasons, but maybe we can hug it out?" Olaf held out his little stick arms and waved his hands, head cocked a bit to one side adorably.

"No hugs." Loki glowered at him, but he lowered his hand, dagger suddenly not there anymore. "Where did you come from?"

Anna was the one who explained, patting Olaf's head after a big sigh of relief. "Elsa made him, of course."

"You made him?"

"Is that so shocking?" Elsa asked. "It's our magic."

Loki seemed troubled, frowning at Olaf. "It's possible, and I've seen such things before, but never using something as temporary as snow. Though I see you also gave him his personal weather. Clever." She smiled and lifted her chin, proud at the compliment. Loki went on, "I was cautioned against such spells, both because they're difficult and require a lot of power, but they also tend not to … end well."

"What do you mean?" Olaf asked, now sounding worried. "Why wouldn't they end well?"

"You seem unlikely to start slaughtering humans in their beds, but it has happened," Loki said, so drily that Elsa wasn't sure if he was joking or not.

"Making him wasn't very difficult," Elsa said. "I didn't even realize what I'd done until later. Maybe because he's snow it worked more easily?"

He hesitated as if he wanted to disagree, but instead, dropped the subject and nodded with a cheerful smile. "I'm sure that's it." With a small bow, he extended his arm again for her. "Cheese and olives, Anna said. I could use an early supper."

But when he thought she wasn't looking, his forehead creased and he pressed his lips together at the sight of Olaf twirling on the ice pond to the delight of the children.

tbc...

Chapter Text

Late that evening, she and Loki retired to her study, for sherry and quiet tasks. Anna had excused herself to sleep, having run at least twice as far that day. Elsa had left the main door open as a sop to propriety, though anyone seeking to pry would have been quite disappointed at the quiet in the room. She was writing a letter at her desk by the window, while he read his new book. She sealed the letter and put it aside, rising to her feet. She was about to ask him how his book was, but held her tongue seeing that he wasn't reading.

He was in a dark mood this evening, as he gazed at the fire, his long legs stretched out before him on the footstool and his book abandoned on the side table. She perched on the edge of the footstool and he crossed his legs at the ankles to give her more room to sit. "What troubles you?" she asked softly.

He looked to her, smile coming to his lips but not touching his eyes. "Nothing, fair snow queen."

"Yet you are clearly in melancholy disposition," she countered. "Please, you have helped me so much with control, learning new things… if I can help you…"

"You do help me," he reassured her. "It has been a long time since I have felt… welcome."

"Tell me," she requested softly.

His fingers toyed with his cup. "I was born in a far distant realm, of another race. To them I was born too small, too frail, a runt of the litter to be thrown away. My blood father left me to die."

She made a soft sound of dismay, setting her hand around his and squeezing tight. "How terrible. I'm sorry."

He withdrew his hand and continued to watch the fire. "My parents - adoptive parents - found me, took me in, raised me as their own. They pretended I was theirs, and yet, I was always aware I was different. I look nothing like them, so there were always rumors, that I was a bastard or I was cursed. I was also nothing like my elder brother. He was a great warrior, beloved by everyone, and I - well, I was not. I thought there must be something wrong with me. My mother taught me magic to give me something of my own, where my brother would not overshadow me, and yet magic was, if not forbidden, not as valued as fighting. Then…" he hesitated and inhaled a deeper breath, "when they bestowed upon my brother a gift and announced he would be the future king, at the same time, they told me… I was not theirs. That it was all a lie. I grew furious at them, for lying to me, for telling me I was some monster they'd pitied. I saw I would never belong. My magic exploded in the great hall, with terrible, unforgivable result," he added more softly. "I fled. I traveled from place to place, using all my skill to hide, ending here."

"And became the Ice Demon," she murmured, now understanding better how this man before her had also once terrorized the villages below his mountain abode.

He let out a soft sigh, lowering his head so his black hair fell over his face. "I cared for nothing, lost in my rage."

"And solitude," she added. "None of us is at our best alone." He shook his head once in silent agreement.

"Have you ever gone back?" she asked, and was not surprised by the negative.

"No. They… have no need of me. Or me of them."

She frowned. "You speak as if they still live…"

"I expect so. They are long-lived as well."

That was curious. She'd assumed his sorcery kept him youthful. "Am I?" she asked.

His head lifted to look at her face, his own expression now sorrowful. His hand touched her face, and his fingers ghosted down her cheek like he touched something infinitely fragile. "No. I am sorry, but half-bloods are always purely mortal, Elsa."

It was nothing she was sorry about, since she hadn't expected anything else. "How old are you truly?" she asked, figuring something a little more than a century, when the stories of the Ice Demon had started.

"I was born during the Winter War, more than eight hundred years ago," he answered simply.

Her lips parted as she stared at him, unable to believe it. The Winter War was a myth, of gods and giants who had caused a deep winter to spread across the land. Her own unseasonable winter had stirred that story back into the halls and she'd heard a new song about it. Yet she'd never believed it had actually happened, or that anyone could possibly be that old. She managed to close her mouth. "And how - how long will you live?" she asked, and he shrugged.

"A long time." He swallowed the rest of his sherry and set the glass on the small table beside him.

"What are you?" she asked, shaking her head in confusion. "How can any human live so long?" As soon as the question came out, the flaw in it manifested: human. He wasn't human, couldn't be human. There had been a reason beside viciousness and magic they'd named him a demon. He'd said he'd been born of another race... that brought to mind stories of elves, demons, and angels... He was almost a thousand years old, from a different time, when there had been different gods. She raised her head, amazed again by the truth she now suspected. "Loki. You're the real Loki. You told me the truth."

Bemused, he didn't deny it. "You guessed before, surely?" She shook her head, because she had wondered it a few times, but it had always seemed ridiculous to think the old stories held any truth at all. "The Eddas are based on something true and real prophecy, but turned into Human stories with many fanciful additions. Not fact."

"So you're not a trickster?" she challenged. She'd seen his eyes light up at his prank in the market. He'd all but told her then, but she hadn't put it together.

"Well… " he trailed off and made a face, as if considering a giant lie, before admitting with a laugh, "that part they got right. I bore easily. At least here on Midgard I am ever so slowly nudging humanity toward scientific progress so the future might be a bit more interesting." He touched his new book, which was something about optics, and flashed a bright grin. "Keeps me out of trouble. Mostly."

She thought about that revelation and the stories she knew. Most of the tales had been buried and neglected by her Christian faith, but she knew a little. "So when you talk of your home you mean Asgard. It exists."

The smile faded away and he turned his eyes back toward the fire. "Yes, it's real," he answered. "As this world orbits your star, so Asgard is another world. There are magical ways to move between."

She had the feeling he was greatly simplifying for her benefit, but that wasn't important. "And you can't go back?"

Elsa saw a woman's face in the flames. She had proud and beautiful features, her hair braided into a crown, and kind eyes. There was something wistful and sad about the image, as though Loki crafted it not just from sight, but from emotion. The image vanished as Loki answered softly, "I said and did terrible things, Elsa. They… don't want me back."

"Are you sure?" she asked. "I thought the same, that they would hate me because of my powers and how I had frightened them, but it turned out to not be true…."

"Ah, Snow Queen, you belong here," he told her. "You were no foundling picked up in a snowdrift, and there were no lies to break trust. Your sister and your people love you, but I -- I ruined all I had, and there's no going back."

Elsa's eyes filled with tears and she flung her arms around his neck. "You belong here, too," she told him fiercely. "With me."

He seemed caught by surprise. First he was very still beneath her embrace, then his arms slowly came up to encircle her back, and one hand smoothed her hair. He tilted his head against hers, and they rested with her head on his shoulder.

The following day, Elsa carried in the heavy book and let it down carefully on the desk in front of him. "This is very old."

Loki eyed the thick bundle of parchment, bound in worn leather and wood with tarnished metal hinges, and then lifted a brow at her. "Very old?" he repeated drily.

"Not as old as some," she retorted, "but old. My father told me it was about the Winter War, and when I was young, I wanted to find out if there was anything about people with my powers in it. But… no one can read it. It's written in runes, but the language is strange. Can you read it?"

Intrigued, he opened the cover to expose the frontispiece of art. A drawing of blue-skinned people with red eyes stared out of the paper and Loki's hand hesitated. "Frost Giants."

He turned to the next page to see the writing, and then a smile grew on his face. "Oh yes, I can read it. It's in Asgardian."

She pulled the stool over to wait impatiently while he scanned the pages. "Well?" she prompted.

"It was written after the Winter War. After the giants and the gods had gone home, the Realm was safe and long winter finally ended…" he murmured, voice falling into a storytelling cadence. "Spring had come at last, and the waters flowed swift and sure. In the melt, two children found a brightly glowing jewel…."

His voice faded away and he read silently, turning the next page, with his eyes growing wide in shock. "Oh… can it be?" he breathed, and flipped pages urgently.

"What?" she asked. "Loki, what is it?"

"It must be. They call it the Eye of Jormungandr, but it must be.… The tesseract, it's here," he whispered. "It was lost in the war, and then found again at war's end…"

"What's the tesseract?" she asked, repeating the strange word.

"A dark energy artifact of ancient days," he answered absently, still reading.

"Which means?" she insisted.

He glanced up, making a frustrated grimace as he thought of how to put it in words she could understand. "It's…. Imagine the power of the sun, a star, compressed into a crystal." He held out his hand and the image of a cube, glowing with blue power, appeared above his palm. "Like this, but… stronger."

She reached out to touch it, but her fingers passed through, as if the picture was smoke and it vanished. She prodded at the space it had been curiously but felt nothing.

He frowned at her hand and then at her face, with dawning comprehension. "That's why your powers are so strong in this place. You draw on the tesseract."

"How could I? I didn't even know it was here," she objected.

"No, neither did I. But now I know. And you likely began to use it in childhood, knowing no better." He closed his hand into a fist. "It must be here somewhere. Those children gave it to the king, who swore to protect it until the gods returned for it."

"Meaning you?" she asked.

He hesitated, and she saw the hunger for it in his face, a terrible aching need to possess it, which made her understand its power far more than any words he'd said. He stood up and crossed to the fireplace, where the kindling sparked and burst into flames though all he did was flick his fingers at it. It seemed unfair that he could make fire, too. "If I could take it to Asgard, perhaps, but here? No. If I use it… Every time anyone uses it, it sends out a … flash. A signal of sorts."

"So?"

"So…" He drew in a breath and turned to explain. "Midgard - this world - is a dark house in the middle of a vast plain of snow at night. But if it lights a fire too brightly, it shines a beacon for all the wolves in the forest beyond to come to the fire. Midgard is not ready to fight those wolves, Elsa."

"But you're here to defend us."

He smiled at her, affectionately pleased with her faith in him. "I'm still only one person, and though there is little that can kill me, 'little' is not the same as nothing. There are armies out there, filled with creatures like nothing you can even dream. We need to find the tesseract, and I can show you how to distinguish its threads so you don't pull on them again."

"Do you think I already signaled them?" she asked in a halting voice, now worried by the possible consequences.

But he did her the favor of considering her question, not brushing it off with empty reassurances. "No, I think not. Most of your use will have been small and local, and only the winterland was a bright burst. Some might have sensed it, but without more they won't be able to locate the source. Fortunately space is quite large and empty. But the more often it shines, the brighter it will become."

She nodded. "I understand."

"And after you learn how to distinguish it, we'll hide it again. It's here in the palace, I believe." He returned to the book, and still standing, flipped the pages. "The author of the book was wary of the new faith and feared the old ways would be forgotten. A wariness justified when High King Olaf ordered all the temples burned and their faithful put to the sword." Loki glowered at the page and folded his arms. "That seems exceptionally ungrateful, when Odin Allfather had saved this place from the Frost Giants not long before. Such short memories mortals have."

She put a hand on his shoulder. "That was why Arendelle became independent - we resisted the new faith longer and believed in the old ways. Even in trickster gods who did bizarre and unholy things." It was difficult to look disapproving, when she had to tilt her head back to look up at him, but she tried.

He knew exactly what she was talking about and laughed, protesting, "All slanderous lies, written by my enemies!"

She squinted at him suspiciously, but his face was total innocence. She decided to believe him, as the alternative was something she didn't want to know. "We should bring Anna into the search. She explored the castle far more than I did, when we were growing up. If anyone's seen it, she has."

He nodded agreement. "I'll read the rest of the book."

Elsa left him to it, and went to find Anna. Her sister was curled up in the window seat of the west hall, sketching the harbor with a charcoal stick that had left black smudges on her cheek and across her chin. "Anna, Loki and I could use your help."

"Sure." Anna bounced to her feet then excitedly gripped Elsa's hand. "Do you have news? Something you want to share with me first?"

"Well… yes," Elsa started, confused, especially when Anna let out a little shriek before clapping a hand over her own mouth.

"Oh, that's so exciting!" she said in a barely lower tones. "So, next summer?"

"Anna, what are you talking about?" Elsa asked.

"You -- you're going to tell me you two are engaged. Aren't you?" Anna asked, now confused herself by Elsa's lack of excitement.

"No! No, not that!"

Anna's shoulders fell in disappointment, but she recovered in a flash. "But why not?" Anna demanded. "You two are always in each other's company these days, he has your kind of magic, and he's great looking, if kind of ridiculously tall. So you're not engaged? You know you have to propose right? You outrank him, he can't ask you, so you need to ask him."

Elsa wondered whether a pagan god outranked a queen, though she was quite sure he thought he would, but either way it didn't matter. She chuckled. "No, silly, I'm not asking him to marry me. I can't." She glanced up and down the long hallway to check for anyone around, then added in a softer voice, "He's my father."

"He's your -- what? What? Elsa, that's not possible. Mother would never! And he couldn't father you when he was a child himself, for heaven's sake."

Elsa grimaced, lifted a hand to quiet Anna, and kept the explanation simple. "He's a sorcerer, Anna. He's a lot older than he looks. Mother never knew he wasn't Father. Loki had no idea that I was his, either, until the snow made it obvious."

Anna flopped back into the seat, big eyes even wider than usual at this news. "Oh. Wow. Your father. Is he mine, too?"

"No. That's why you don't have my power."

"Oh." Anna glanced out the window, brow knitting. "So we're half-sisters."

Elsa seized her hands, so glad she could do this without gloves. "Sisters. Always sisters." She embraced Anna tightly, relieved when Anna hugged her back.

"Good, I'm glad. He seems nice, except I hope you put a snowball down his breeches for doing… that… with our mother," Anna said with a frown, and Elsa chuckled. "I guess it would be pretty awkward to marry your own father. Good thing you told me. I had already started to plan the wedding," she confessed with a sheepish grin, and Elsa laughed.

But she grew more somber as she considered what Anna had said. "Is that what people believe? That he's a suitor?"

"Well, what else should they believe?" Anna asked with a shrug. "I mean, 'scholar' is just another word for poor nobility or rich merchant's son, right? And since he's sometimes arrogant enough to be the Tsar of Russia in disguise, I don't think anybody believes he's just a merchant. Plus it's way more romantic to imagine he's a prince of some lost kingdom, penniless but clever, here to woo you with his devastating charm and handsome face, and--" She stopped abruptly and wrinkled her nose with a sideways grimace. "Father. Right. I need to remember that."

"Yes, apparently he did all the queenly wooing with devastating charm twenty years ago," Elsa said drily. "Come on, we need your help to find something."

Arms linked together, they started back toward the queen's study.

tbc...

Chapter Text

Inside the study, Loki was examining the book but glanced up when the door opened. "Anna, good evening."

"You seduced my mother."

"Ah." He very carefully closed the front cover of the book before turning. "I did. Yes." Elsa watched as Anna closed the distance between them, and there she was, a tiny girl with red hair facing a near giant, and she slapped him across the face as hard as she could.

Elsa, who had seen him snatch an arrow right out of the air mid-flight, knew he could have stopped her, but he let Anna strike him. The blow barely rocked him and the mark on his skin faded immediately. He grinned at her, with apparent delight.

Anna put both hands on her hips. "You're not even sorry!"

"Well, no, because Elsa was born and I will not be sorry about that. And, not to be crude, but I'm not sure you would have been born without my showing your mother how much better her husband could be treating her," he smirked. "I don't go where I'm not wanted, princess."

"But under pretense! She thought you were my father!"

He shrugged. "No, not at first. She was alone, so was I. She felt guilty afterward, so I altered her memory into a very pleasant dream instead."

"But --"

His casual mien dropped away for sharp edges and his eyes glinted like ice as he suddenly loomed over her without moving at all. "Do not press me," he warned in a dangerous, low voice. "Your childish morality does not concern me. I do as I please."

Elsa held her breath and felt her magic swirl in response to his sudden dark threat. For the first time she truly believed he was a god. Or a demon. He wasn't God, but that didn't mean a lot when facing an elemental force like this.

Anna swallowed hard and nodded, leaning back from him nervously. He stepped away from her before Elsa had to intervene and suddenly everyone could breathe again. He tapped the book. "Elsa gave me this to translate and I discovered there's a magical object lost in this palace and it's been fueling her powers since she was born. We need to find it, if we can."

"I thought you might have seen it in your explorations when we were little," Elsa said.

Loki explained, "It looks like a crystal cube, as big as one's hand. It may glow with a pale blue light. It is likely hidden. Have you seen it?"

Anna made her thinking face, scrunching it up in various painful-looking combinations, and then shook her head. "No, I don't think I've seen anything like that."

"We'll have to look then," Elsa said, disappointed. "I doubt it's in a public area, so we should look first in private chambers, the library, the towers, or the cellars."

"Cellar!" Anna announced abruptly. "I remember seeing a strange blue light. Hm, I had forgotten that. I thought it was your magic, Elsa, but maybe it wasn't. Hopefully it's still there."

Elsa and Loki followed Anna downstairs. Neither of them had been down there before, but Anna greeted all the staff cheerfully, as they curtsied or bowed to the queen. Elsa was aware of the curious stares that followed her and the smiles as they saw she was with Loki, and now she realized that was because everyone thought she was in love with him.

She glanced aside at him, as he had to duck a low-hanging lantern. If she announced he wasn't a suitor, people would wonder why he stayed in the palace, and his presence was a good deterrent to new suitors. Still, it was strange to think that people believed she might marry him when he was her father.

He caught her eye and raised a curious brow at her. She just shook her head, smiling. "Later."

"In here," Anna stopped in front of a small wooden door, banded in iron. She tugged on the handle and it didn't budge.

"Allow me," Loki said and moved in front of her. He tugged on the door as well. "Locked. Easy enough." He set his hand on the keyhole briefly and opened the door.

"Elsa, can you do that, too?" Anna asked.

"With training," Loki answered for her. Beyond the threshold it was pitch-dark except the faint light from the lantern in the corridor behind them that glinted dully on shelves full of things put into storage. "I feel it," he murmured, "It's close. But covered, I think, or we would see the glow. Let's see if I can get it to resonate for us."

He held out a hand, and a sphere of green-gold light formed above his palm. Anna gasped, having not seen such a visible display of his magic. By its light, Elsa saw the banquet dishes neatly stacked on the shelves, chairs piled on top of one another, and small wooden chests. She opened the closest chest to find it full of folded bunting and it smelled strongly of cedar.

Loki moved forward slowly, as the sphere rose up to the ceiling to illuminate the furniture and fixtures. Then, just when Elsa thought they might have to look through the whole pile and open everything, something on the middle shelf far to the back started to glow ice-blue.

"There!" she and Anna both exclaimed and pointed in unison, and he laughed.

"Yes, obviously." He tried to reach the small chest, stretching over the pile of chairs and extra leaves of the main dining table stored on their ends, but couldn't reach it. He was about to start moving things out of the way, when Anna pushed past him.

"I can get it." With the fleetness of a mountain goat, she clambered up on the stack of chairs.

"Anna!" Elsa exclaimed.

"Either of you can catch me if I fall, right?" she asked fearlessly, moving from chair stack to the top of a tall wardrobe, sneezing as a cloud of dust rose up. Anna crouched at the end and pulled the end of the chest. "It's not heavy at all," she announced in surprise and with it in both hands she edged back to the other end of the wardrobe and looked down at them. "Ready?" she asked, and tossed it.

Loki snagged it out of the air and opened the top. A bright bluish-glow like a strange lantern spread outward, lighting his face as he looked into its depths. Elsa scooted closer and looked down into it, and her lips parted in amazement.

She'd pictured something like a block of a ice, but this wasn't that at all. It had smooth surfaces and sharp edges that had been cut by people, not nature. However, looking into it was like looking up at the night sky, since she could look into it forever. That glow wasn't a light like a candleflame, but it was power deep inside it. It washed over her skin like a chill, and she reached a hand toward it, wanting to touch it. Wanting to feel it. Wanting it…

Loki snapped the cover shut, and she jumped back, blinking as if stirred from a dream. The power… "Oh dear God protect us," she whispered in fervent prayer and crossed herself reflexively. "It's very dangerous."

Loki sniffed in disdain, as if her God had no business protecting her, but he held back his scornful words to say simply, "We should take it back to the study."

They were at the door, when a plaintive voice stopped her. "Uh, Elsa? Loki? A little help?"

Elsa turned back to find Anna still on top of the wardrobe. Elsa made an ice slide, and Anna rode it all the way down, popping back up to her feet in the hall with a grin. "You're the best."

Elsa dispersed the ice, and found Loki was watching them with a fond smile, as if he was remembering some youthful playfulness of his own. The smile disappeared abruptly and he turned away to stalk down the corridor, coat-tails fluttering behind him.

Anna's eyes found hers in a 'what's his problem?' face with eye-rolling at his back, but as they followed him back to the study, Elsa understood the pain manifesting itself as annoyance.

A century of being an exile. She had nearly lost herself in just a season of solitude, how terrible would decades be? Wandering the world with no family, no home?

In the study, she shut the door behind them as Loki set the chest on the writing desk, and went to pour himself a strong drink as if he needed it to deal with the cube. She signaled him to pour her one, too.

"I was wondering, about when you were the Ice Demon--" she started.

"Wait, what?" Anna looked at her and then Loki in shock. "You? How is that possible?"

"Sorcery," he answered shortly.

"When Elsa said you were older than you looked, I had no idea -- wow, the Ice Demon. I'm glad you're not so mean anymore. Did you really steal that child to keep for yourself?"

He turned incredulous eyes at her. "To keep it? Whatever would I do with one? Certainly not." He drained his drink in one swallow, and poured another.

"Did you freeze the church?" Anna asked.

His look was puzzled, not sure to what she referred, and after a moment of sorting through his memories, he answered, "I sealed the door shut with ice. So, yes?"

Elsa chuckled. The story would have it that the Ice Demon had put a dome of ice over the church, trapping the entire village inside. All he'd done was lock the door.

"Did they unfreeze it through their prayers?" Anna asked.

Loki gave a snort. "No. A candle sufficed."

"Did you eat the priest's bones?"

He rolled his eyes. "No! That is absurd. They never found his body because I threw it in a ravine. His terrible Latin annoyed me," he said with baiting glee, and seemed disappointed when neither of them reacted with outrage.

Elsa had already figured out that the stories had to have some truth to them, so she wasn't surprised to find out that at least one of the deaths were real.

Anna hesitated, but plowed on to query him on the more fanciful rumors. "Did you change into a dragon?"

His fingers gripped the bottle as if he was tempted to drain it or throw it at her head. "If I say yes, will you stop badgering me with inane questions for fear I will turn into a dragon and burn you to ash?"

She looked up at him, head sideways, and smiled sheepishly. "Probably not?"

He groaned. "It was an illusion of a dragon. True shapeshifting is very difficult and usually not worth the effort, when I can accomplish the same thing with illusion." He turned to Elsa. "Please tell me you have a better question?"

"I was wondering why you stopped. The story claims Prince Gunnar of Norway killed the Ice Demon, but that can't be true."

She thought of the words of the story, written down in the small book for her:

'Prince Gunnar sat alone before the fire, armed only with his courage and his sword, and he knew this monster must be defeated at any cost. Tomorrow he would find the demon's abode and slay him, or die trying. The sound of ice crackling underfoot announced an arrival from the surrounding forest, someone drawn by the smoke. The stranger wore furs and worn cloth bound around his body with ropes, and he had only a hunting knife for a weapon. "Greetings traveler. Might I share your fire tonight? It is cold for spring."

"Of course, friend," Gunnar said, for he would never refuse anyone shelter or fire in the wild. The stranger sat down on the other side of the fire and removed his fur mittens to hold his hands to the heat. But Gunnar saw those hands were elegant and white, not the hands of a hunter. His eyes sparked with silver malice and he looked upon the prince like a hawk looks upon a mouse. But the prince was no mouse, and he knew to reveal he had seen through the demon's deception was to court instant death....

"As if he could kill me." Loki scoffed. "I had watched him take his vow in the town square. I intended to kill him with his own sword and leave his corpse on the church steps as a lesson against such presumption," he said with an unnerving relish. "He knew who I was, since no mortal would be fool enough to wander my woods. His only hope was to take me by surprise. Not that he had a chance, but I let him play." His chin lifted and he gazed out over the bay, his expression distant as though he could see the memories against the sky. She could almost see it herself: Loki crouching beside the fire, a feral creature in his furs, toying with the prey who thought he was the hunter. That seemed more like the Loki of the old tales, dangerous and cruel, than this one in the velvet coat and civilized mask.

He continued, "He asked a question as an attempt at distraction, and we fell into conversation. I was surprised he was intelligent, and he was surprised I was not the monster he had expected. We talked all that night, putting aside that one of us was supposed to die."

"And he persuaded you to stop?" Elsa guessed.

Loki considered that. "In a sense. That was the first time I'd conversed with anyone since I came to the mountain. He reminded me that though I had lost everything, there were places in the world where humans valued the things I had valued once and where they might welcome my knowledge. So, when dawn came, I let him live. I walked away, and the Ice Demon was no more. I was amused to find out later that Gunnar had taken back a wolf pelt and claimed it was me."

A silence fell after his words, and after a moment, he turned to frown at them. "What?"

"You lost everything?" Anna asked softly. "That's so sad. I'm glad you found us."

She curled a hand around his forearm and leaned into his shoulder. His frown turned perplexed and he looked at Elsa as if hoping she could explain. When that seemed not to get the response he expected, he patted Anna's hand once. "I am not your blood, Anna," he reminded her, as if she might have forgotten.

"You're my sister's father. I don't know what that makes you exactly, but I know it makes you family."

"I have done terrible things," he said. "Not all the Ice Demon stories are false. I killed that priest, I let an entire company of soldiers fall to their deaths in a chasm when I might have saved them…." Elsa had the impression he was testing them, as if to find the point at which their affection would snap.

Anna didn't let go of his arm. "Because you were lonely. And you're not anymore, because you have us. So you won't do terrible things again."

"Your logic is unassailable," he responded drily, and she poked him in the ribs with her other hand.

"Say it: family. You have one now, and we're not going anywhere."

Loki's gaze sought Elsa's above Anna's head, as if to implore her to intervene, but Elsa smiled. "She'll pester you until you give in."

"I can see I have no other option." He heaved a deep sigh of mock-reluctance. "Family."

"Yes!" Anna's hands went around his waist to hug him tight. "This is even better than getting you as my brother-in-law!" she declared with loud enthusiasm.

His eyes flared as he took her meaning and flew back to Elsa with near panic. She had to laugh.

The tesseract was very beautiful, but like snow and ice, its beauty also contained a great danger. Elsa didn't like to have it outside its box, and she especially didn't like touching it. Because she liked it too much, and she knew that feeling was dangerous.

Loki felt the same, she knew, when he gave the box to Anna to keep for them when they weren't using it.

But touching it gave her a strong impression of its power, that feeling of a cold wind rushing through her. It wasn't the same feeling as when she used her own power for small things, which had once been a fear lodged in her chest but was now a more peaceful happiness. So she learned to untangle the two threads, reach for her own first, and for the tesseract only with deliberation.

Elsa and Loki had moved their practice to the main courtyard. Anna sat on an empty cart, dangling her feet off the end with the chest closed beside her. Olaf was keeping her company as they watched Elsa and Loki. Loki had wanted to keep practicing in private, but Elsa had convinced him it was in all their interests to show that she was not the only one with powers or the only one who could control them. When she glanced at the crowd gathered in the windows of the palace or at the open doors to watch, no one seemed frightened - or very surprised - to find out he had powers, too.

They were now playing a game: they were growing a tree made of ice and traded turns adding branches to it. It was to help with control, to use their own powers and not touch the tesseract's, even though it sat nearby. The tree now stood twice Loki's height, a beautiful but fanciful structure of graceful limbs and a profusion of transparent leaves. In the sunlight it gleamed and cast tiny rainbows all over the stones of the court.

His last branch proved too heavy, and the tree cracked. Loki exclaimed a foreign oath and flung out a hand, shattering the tree into a pile of ice shards.

"Ha!" she crowed. "I win!"

He pouted, glaring at the glittering pile as if it had personally offended him.

"It was a very pretty branch," she consoled him, and for a moment, he looked as if he might stick his tongue out at her, but recovered his dignity.

"Well done," he said. "Neither of us touched the dark energy. I think we're ready to put it away."

That seemed like something to celebrate. Plus it was a beautiful day.

Elsa formed a snowball in her hand and threw it at him. He was quick, catching it, and he flung it back at her. She barely deflected it in time, hurling another in his direction.

"Anna, Olaf, help me!" she called and made a pile of snowballs on the cart next to Anna. With a gleeful laugh, Anna started launching them one by one at Loki.

"Three on one! Still not fair odds - for you!" He retaliated, snowballs bowling Olaf over and smacking Anna in the chest with perfect accuracy. Elsa sent a barrage at him which hit some sort of invisible wall before him and built a real wall of snow that protected him until she pulled it away.

Soon snowballs were flying in every direction. She and Anna pinned him between them, but their snowballs passed right through him and hit each other. His form disappeared in a flash, and Anna yelped, "Hey! Where'd he go?"

Snow hit the back of Elsa's neck with a shock. There'd been no one there. Half expecting that Kristoff was back or some child had joined in the game, she whirled around to find Loki, chortling smugly at the success of his illusion.

"You cheater!" Elsa's giant snowball fell out of the sky, meant to fall on his head, but he was already gone, now standing ten paces away, fastidiously brushing fat snowflakes from the sleeves of his black velvet coat.

Which was when Anna's last snowball smacked him in the back. "Got him!"

His face tightened and his eyes lit with a flash of rage, as if he was tempted to retaliate. His hands clenched at this sides, forcibly reminding himself he was playing, not fighting. The moment of danger passed, for a return to light-heartedness, and he held out his hands in surrender. "No, no, anything but the dread snowballs!"

Elsa blasted several at him which he didn't try to avoid, laughing as a dozen hit him in quick succession and he collapsed theatrically to the ground. "Oh, I am slain!"

Elsa pounced on him, trying to tickle him. He proved unticklish, but very strong, holding her in one arm and Anna in the other when she came to help. Then, when both of Loki's arms were full, Olaf leaped on top of the pile. "Hugs for everyone!"

"What did I say about hugs?" Loki demanded, but he wasn't angry and didn't try to force Olaf away.

Olaf lifted his head to look down into Loki's face. "They're not so bad, are they?" Olaf asked, knowingly.

"Better than getting stabbed in the gut, I suppose," Loki muttered, and Elsa elbowed him.

"Don't be such a grump."

Anna giggled into Loki's shoulder. "That was so much fun."

"It was." He smoothed Anna's hair, a troubled frown clouding his brow. "Thank you both," he murmured.

"For fun?" Anna asked. "We can have fun anytime."

His gaze met Elsa's, and she knew that wasn't what he was thanking them for. She squeezed his fingers in reassurance. There were still shards of the Ice Demon's frozen heart within him, but love was tempering the sharp edges. In time, they would melt, but not yet, so soon.

He let them go and stood, removing the snow from his coat with a gesture, and offering each a hand to help them up. Elsa cleaned up the larger piles of snow and her sister's dress, leaving the rest to finish melting in the sun, while Loki picked up the tesseract container.

The odd foursome headed inside to have tea.

Far away...

The flames in the small brazier died away to a pile of grey ash and Frigga, Queen of Asgard, brushed away the tears that were rolling down her cheeks and smiled.

He was alive. She had always known as much, but recently his name had floated on the wind, a distant whisper barely heard to tell her that he was using it once more. And now she could see him, as the protections he'd wrapped around himself faded. At last he was ready.

She beckoned one of her ladies close. "Have Thor come to me. Tell him I know where his brother is."

"You found Prince Loki, my queen? That is happy news indeed!"

Frigga sent her away, knowing the news would be all over the palace by sundown. Loki had been found. After so long lost in self-exile, the prince was coming home.

tbc...

Chapter Text

In the great hall during her official audience time, Elsa greeted Bishop Bjorn Nordhaug with a smile, beckoning him closer to the throne. "Excellency? Lovely to see you."

He bowed, and she noticed he carried a book in his hands. "Your Majesty." He looked around when he straightened, nervously. "The scholar Loki isn't here?"

"No, he's with Anna," she answered. They had left this morning to explore the hills nearby, searching for caves which might make a good place to hide the tesseract. "They were supposed to be back by now. Did you want to speak to him?" She wondered if he might want to try to persuade Loki to come to church, since surely his absence from all services had been noted.

The bishop's relieved little smile made her frown. "No, no, Your Grace. I wanted to speak to you, about him. How much do you truly know of him?"

She made herself smile, though her stomach tightened. "I know Loki's not truly a scholar of Latveria. He told me his identity. And yes, he has a magic ability like mine. It has made him sadly wary of the Church. I do not think he will attend." She doubted the bishop would want him there, in any case; Loki could never resist mocking the service.

"Has he told you the truth, Your Grace? I doubt that he has." The bishop lifted the book and opened it up to a page he had marked with a strip of leather. "This is from our church records, a sort of diary we keep. I watched him help you build that tree and saw what he did during the snowball fight, and I knew I had seen his face before." He held out the opened book to her and she took it onto her lap.

There, on one of the pages, was a drawing in black ink, of a face framed by black hair. The style was crude, but the face was still recognizable as Loki's.

"This was drawn by one of the altar boys of our church in 1702," Bishop Nordhaug said. "It's a drawing of the Ice Demon, Your Grace. It is the same man."

Elsa looked again at the drawing. The text surrounding it were lurid tales of the Ice Demon. She closed the book and looked at him. "I know. He told me."

"He is a demon, Your Grace!"

She quelled the defensive urge to snap at him and replied calmly, "Am I a demon, Excellency?"

He looked appalled at the question. "No, of course not, Your Grace."

"Neither is he. He was never a demon. What he was, was a man with a strange, dangerous ability, who was afraid and alone and more than a little mad. He deserves our understanding, not our fear."

"But -- but that was so long ago. It isn't human that he's still alive! And not aged!"

"Perhaps he's something a little different," she agreed with a small shrug. "A different breed of man. But a wolf and a dog are not so different, are they?"

He still seemed troubled, frowning at the book. "No, Your Majesty, they are not. Yet…."

She waited for him to work his way to say it, though she was sure where he would end up.

"The Ice Demon never gave a name," the bishop said, "and now he returns with a name out of the Eddas and the gods before our Lord. I am a faithful follower of Christ, but the old ways linger on, in our language, in our ceremonies… and I must wonder…"

She said nothing, unwilling to confirm his guess, but then he looked up, his blue eyes sharp, and needed no verbal confirmation. "There is something you should see in the church. Both of you. He will, I think, appreciate it."

She agreed, curious, and he took his leave. As soon as the bishop was gone, Loki emerged from the side door with swift strides to join her. "A wolf?" he asked, revealing he'd been listening the whole time. His voice was dry and skeptical, on the edge of offense.

"Welcome back," she greeted him dryly. "A wolf-- fearsome, wild, and yet not so different."

He considered briefly, arms folded, then nodded, mollified. "I suppose it could have been worse. But you may as well have said god, as poorly as you lie. You should have denied his guess as something absurd. Now he knows."

She shrugged and rose to her feet, stretching out the stiffness from sitting in her uncomfortable wooden chair. "It's the truth. What can he do? Write to the bishop in Oslo? He wants no more of Norway's interference than I do. Even if he did, what would he say? There's a mythical god in Arendelle? No one will believe him."

"I'm standing right here. Hardly mythical." He sniffed. Elsa was not about to argue with him what a 'real god' was. She'd learned that lesson already, and he was devastating when he turned his wit on her faith. "Maybe he wants to show me an altar to start worshiping me again," Loki suggested with a smirk. "I'll accept gold and… plums as offerings."

"Plums?" she repeated with an incredulous chuckle.

He gave a shrug. "I like plums."

She rolled her eyes heavenward, but she was amused. "I do wonder what he wants to show us. Where did you leave Anna?"

"On the western slope in the forest--" he started, but she smacked him in the chest with a snowball, not believing he'd left her sister alone in the mountains.

"Liar."

He laughed and offered his arm. "She was hungry and stopped at the kitchen, I said I would collect you so we could eat together. Olaf is keeping her company."

She tucked a hand around his arm, touching the soft velvet of his coat. "Now that I know of your fondness, we should have plums. They're long out of season, but we can request preserves--"

He grinned at her and held out his free hand, fingers curled inward. "There are always plums, if one knows a god, Elsa." He opened his fingers and she smiled with delight to see a ripe, purple plum in his palm. He offered it to her, and she took it and bit into it. She expected it to dissolve or to turn into a bug in some joke, but it tasted like a plum, sweet and full of summer's warmth.

At the church the bow the bishop offered to Loki was only a little less than the one he gave Elsa, and his eyes kept darting upward at Loki's face, so that he tripped on the step going up to the front doors. Loki caught him by the collar, lifted him up one-handed, and set him on his feet. "Watch your step."

Nordhaug glanced at him and stammered, "Thank you, my lord."

Loki gave him a smile that was all teeth. "I don't kill all the priests, you know. Just the ones who try to exorcise me. In terrible Latin."

"Loki!" Elsa snapped.

"I'm trying to reassure him, Elsa."

"No, you're not, you're trying to scare him. Stop it."

"You are the Ice Demon," the bishop whispered.

Loki's smile widened. "So much more than that, priest. And you know it. So show me what I'm doing here and stop wasting my time."

Nordhaug gave a jerky nod and headed for one side of the sacristy, beneath the higher choir stall where the wall held a painting of St Olaf bringing the faith. Or at least Elsa had had always thought it was the wall, not just a screen, but then with a shove, the bishop revealed they were separate. With only one hand and no visible effort, Loki pushed it out of the way.

Revealed beneath was wood paneling that held another image altogether. There was a large tree carved into the dark wood, with motifs and runes and twisted ropes all around, in deep relief and great artistry.

"Yggdrasil," Loki murmured, taking a step toward it. His hand touched the center, Midgard, and then traced the branch that rose to the crown of the tree and the symbol there. Asgard.

"It was carved at least two centuries ago," Nordhaug explained. "When the people held Christ as one of the many gods in their hearts."

"It's beautiful," Elsa said.

Loki's fingers traced the carved scales of the serpent that twisted its way around the tree and circled down to where the head bit its tail in between great fangs. "And Jormungandr. The stories claim Jormungandr's my child." He glanced at Elsa. "I have no idea where that one came from, except your stories seem to foist all the animals on me."

The bishop caught his breath. "So you are him."

"To an extent. I don't intend on destroying the universe any time soon though, so you can relax." His fingers touched the old, dark wood, gently stroking the serpent's head as if it was real, and then he frowned. "Curious."

He pressed the serpent's eye and Elsa heard a faint click as if a latch released.

"Oh yes," Loki murmured, "what a good snake child you are, give me your secret…." A panel opened and he tugged at it, revealing a small drawer.

Elsa leaned in curiously, wondering what treasure was within, but it was empty. "Oh. That's disappointing."

He looked down at her and his smile was positively wicked. "Its dimensions are rather perfect, for hiding something we want hidden."

He was right. She turned to the bishop. "I have a task for you. A very important one."

Elsa entered her small library to find the report was true - Loki was behaving strangely. Two days after their tesseract had been safely hidden away he was leafing through each book and then tossing it to the floor. "What are you doing?" she asked. There was an impressive pile at his feet already.

"Attempting to locate something that is not absolute drivel," he told her and gestured to the pile on the floor. "These are rubbish -- completely incompetent astronomy, childish mathematics, and philosophy written by drunken goats."

She eyed the empty shelf - apparently he had found nothing worth his time - and then at his glowering countenance. "You're bored."

"Exceedingly," he agreed through his teeth. Only belatedly he realized that reflected poorly on her company. "Not of you," he corrected himself. "I'm never bored of you. But I think I shall take a trip, perhaps to France to visit Messier and nudge him along. You can not investigate the mysteries of the universe, until you know there is a universe to investigate. Midgard needs better astronomy."

She laughed and shook her head. "I think you should write your own book."

He flipped through her only book written in Greek - a copy of the Iliad. "No one would understand it. You would not write a book for rabbits, no matter how complicated their warrens are."

She grabbed the book from him before he could let it fall on the floor, and scowled at him. "Did you just call me a rabbit?"

"You're only half rabbit," he teased.

She shook her head at him, set the book carefully back on the shelf, and tugged at his sleeve. "Come out at once. You've been in here so long you missed luncheon. Anna wants to play piquet, but I need to study some agreements, so you can play with her."

His eyes lit up and he grinned, and she held up a finger in warning. "No cheating."

His expression was so innocent - as if he would never, ever consider such a thing - she had to laugh. He cheated at cards all the time, but only sometimes to win. Once he'd changed all the cards to one suit, and once she had shuffled and discovered the cards had put themselves into order. Playing against someone with magic and a mischievous sense of humor made for interesting card games.

Nearly at the study, his step paused and his head came up as if he heard something. She stilled at his side, ready to use her powers if necessary. "What is it?" she hissed, when she heard nothing.

"Power," he answered, and ran back down the corridor to fling open the shutters at the end. Leaning nearly all the way out the window, he peered up at the sky and out toward the mountains.

"What? What's happening?" She moved up close next to him, clutching his collar to keep from tumbling out the window as she stretched on her toes to see what he was looking at.

In the afternoon light, she could see the sudden storm gathered on the eastern ridge and peaks, dark as winter, swirling dangerously. Then, so quickly she could only wonder at it, the storm dispersed again, clouds turning to wisps and clearing away.

Loki's face shone, as he looked upon it, recognizing what it was with a brilliant hope in his eyes. But all too quickly his expression closed up into a mask. He withdrew from the window and turned from her. "It appears my plan to go to France is too late," he said, with forced lightness.

"Why? What is it?"

"That storm was the Bifrost opening," he told her and turned away. "Someone from Asgard has come at last."

"But isn't that--" she started, in confusion, but he was already halfway down the hall, walking with a quick stride, "… what you want?" she finished to an empty hall.

She decided she might as well go to the audience hall and wait. If the Asgard visitors were coming to the palace, either to get help or because they already knew Loki was housed within, she should be there to greet them. The guards passed word that a stranger in odd clothes was crossing the bridge and she ordered no one impede him. She seated herself on her throne, smoothed her braid, checked her crown, and waited.

The door opened, to permit two guards and her chamberlain to enter. Pol stood straight as he introduced, "Her Royal Majesty Queen Elsa of Arendelle. Your Majesty, may I present…" his voice choked and he had to try again to get it out loud enough for her to hear, "Thor Odinson."

Thor. She nearly came out of her chair and had to clutch the arms. Loki's brother, the Thunder God, was here.

Thor was large and golden fair, with bright blue eyes and a warm smile as he trod across the empty hall toward her, accompanied by her two guards who looked like children next to him. He was wearing some sort of strange armor that looked like fine chain mail but moved like fabric, with blue and silver accents and a flowing cape of scarlet.

When he was about halfway, there was a soft voice from the back of the hall. "So it is you."

Thor's eyes flared in recognition and he whirled to look in the direction he'd just come. Loki stood in the doorway, framed by the light behind him, a spectre in black.

"Loki, you live!" Thor boomed in a voice that echoed from the rafters.

In a voice as soft as Thor's was loud, and as pained as Thor's was joyful, Loki said, "You shouldn't have come."

Then he vanished from sight.

Chapter Text

The moment Loki disappeared, Thor chased after him, bellowing his name.

But Elsa suspected where Loki would go and she gathered up her skirt in one hand and hurried to the side garden.

She was right; she saw immediately. Loki was there, standing beside the fountain with his expression ravaged by confusion and emotions too tangled to name. His hands bunched into fists as he stared into the spray.

Elsa was about to step out to go to him, but both of them heard the gate slam open. Thor had found his way there already. She waited where she was, hidden by the leaves of the flower trellis, and peered through the gap to watch.

At first Loki didn't react. She didn't believe he was unaware of Thor's approach - Thor was far too large and heavy to sneak across the stone pathway successfully - but Loki ignored it as long as he could. He closed his eyes and his expression came under control.

Thor's voice was cheerful and teasing. "So this is where you've been hiding yourself."

"I haven't been hiding," Loki snapped, defensively.

"Then how could Heimdall not find you? He could see only the eddies from your passing, not you, and then nothing at all," Thor said and clenched his fists. "I feared you were dead."

"Clearly not."

"Mother said she knew you were alive, that she hoped you would come home when you were ready. But even she couldn't locate you until recently, and she said I was to bring you home, that you had time enough."

"Time enough to do what? Forget it was all a lie? Forget I was a monster and I would never belong there?" Loki retorted, voice ragged with pain and bitterness. "Well, I figured that out right away."

"No!" Thor blurted in shock. "Loki, that's not true." When Loki turned away, Thor followed him, persisting against the cold shoulder. "You're not a monster, how could you even think that?"

"Oh, maybe it was Odin telling me if I left, not to come back. Maybe it was because I knew no one would ever forgive what I'd done." He made a slicing gesture with his left hand, as if to cut himself off from his other family. In profile his face looked set, cheeks thin and jawline tight.

"No, Loki, that's not--" Thor said, and for a moment, couldn't find the words, only look at Loki imploringly. "You're so wrong. Please listen, brother."

"You're not my brother!" Loki snarled and walked toward the door into the castle, close to Elsa. He didn't notice her, too wrapped up in his own upset. "Go back to Asgard, and leave me be."

Thor went after him. "No, we want you to come home. Your family--"

Loki spun around. "I have a family. Here."

"These mortals?" Thor asked, and laughed a little in disbelief. "And what will you do when they inevitably die, brother?"

"Shut up." Without warning, Loki punched him, a darting attack with the heel of his palm right into Thor's face. It knocked Thor back a step, more in surprise than pain. Loki spat at him, "At least they're not waiting for me to be evil, like all of you."

As Loki walked past Elsa, Thor called after him, "That was a century ago! Loki, please!" Loki didn't break stride or stop again, and the door swung open and slammed shut behind him on its own. Thor gazed after him, expression falling in sorrow. "I miss you," he whispered. Shoulders slumping, he turned to look toward the sea, with a heavy breath that did not understand why he had failed.

He did care, truly, she saw that, but if he thought that approach was going to work, he didn't understand his brother at all. Elsa stepped out from behind the concealing flowers and leaves. "My lord, I would speak with you?" she greeted.

He turned and frowned at her curiously before nodding. "Queen Elsa, was it?" His smile and bright eyes would have melted ice, but she was tougher than that.

She moved closer, aware of how much bigger he was. Loki was tall, but Thor was tall and wide and unsettlingly bright. Heroic, for certain, and she understood how he could appeal to others, but he also seemed untarnished, as if he'd slipped through life without facing any troubles. Loki had called Thor the elder, but at the moment she would have said Thor was the one with the brashness of youth. "I am. Also, he was too upset to mention, but you should know: I'm your niece."

"Niece." He looked blank as if the word had no meaning to him, then he blinked and his eyes grew big with astonishment. A grin spread on his face of such pure delight that she had to smile back, and he seized her hands in his giant ones. "Niece? You are his daughter? Is this so?"

"It is." It took only a deliberate glance aside and intent to freeze the fountain into a spray of ice. He watched in wonder.

"Then... you are family. No wonder he was so wroth with me."

"Yes. Reminding him he will outlive me was unkind." His smile faltered, as if he'd never been told he was unkind before. She pulled at his hands until he let her go. His grip was very strong. "He has true attachments here you will be better served not to belittle."

"I-- " he hesitated, bright blue eyes troubled as he considered her words, and he said carefully, "I intended no offense, Queen Elsa."

"I'm not the one offended." She folded her hands together before her and addressed him calmly. "You should understand, my lord, that this is the first place he has found a home since he lost Asgard and he came here only recently. In between, for many years, he wandered these lands, adrift in the belief that he had nothing." A concerned frown grew on his face, a sympathy for what he was beginning to understand. "My sister and I - we know him for who he is now, not the man he used to be; we admitted him into our hearts without reservation. Yet here you come, after a hundred years of abandonment, seeking to tear that apart."

"We did not abandon him," he protested. "He could have come home anytime."

"Did he know that?" She raised her eyebrows at him. "When the parting was hostile? When he's uncertain if he is forgiven? If he is even loved?" She spread her hands before her, recalling those three years after her parents' death as years of fear, when she had feared so much to touch anyone, and she had feared their fear and rejection. "He won't explain it to me, even though it's my blood too, but I know your parents hid away all trace of it. That's nothing but tragedy, to believe one's own blood and heart are tainted. To believe his closest kin loathe who he truly is."

Thor shook his head. "No! No one--"

"Then why does he have to hide it?" she pointed out. "If they did not loathe it, why was it tucked away and lied about, unless the truth is shameful?" His lips parted, as if to argue, but then closed again, and he nodded once, slowly. She looked at the ice fountain and let the ice spread across the basin and the floor, to rise in pillars all around and come together at the top in a high dome that sparkled in the sun, as she spoke. "I know about hiding. In my childhood, I suppressed and repressed who I was and what I could do, terrified that my power would hurt people-- terrified they would be afraid and hate me. I… nearly killed my sister because of my fear. It nearly killed everyone in Arendelle. It's a terrible thing to fear and hate oneself, especially when one has magic, because magic responds to our will."

He listened to her with attention, and when she finished, he let the silence fall, his expression somber as he admired her ice pavilion. He understood her point, she thought, and it gave her hope that he would find better words to talk with Loki.

"You have given me a great deal to think about," Thor murmured. "And I thank you for sharing your understanding. When he left us…" he shook his head and looked sad. "He was so angry, so upset, he would not listen to anyone. Then he was gone." He sighed, hair hanging in his face. "For these years it has been as if half of myself has been missing."

"Then perhaps that is the part you should begin with, when you speak to him next. Don't be fooled by his words, he was filled with melancholy at the thought of losing Asgard forever. But he also believes he has no place there."

"Then I must convince him he does," Thor promised, giving a determined nod.

"Then, I would invite you to dine with us, this evening. Perhaps over a simple family meal, my sister and I might mediate some accord between you."

"I did not ever imagine I would need such mediation, not with my brother, but I accept all your help with gratitude, my niece," he said, smiling broadly.

She couldn't help smiling back.

A part of Elsa felt she should be hosting the gods in the main hall, with a huge number of guests and everyone in finery; instead, she kept it a small, intimate meal served in the sitting room.

Elsa watched in amusement as Thor still treated it as if they were at a huge feast, drinking great quantities of ale, and he broke one of the chairs, resulting in profuse apologies.

Anna sighed over their guest. "Did you see those shoulders, Elsa?" she whispered.

"Kristoff," Elsa reminded her.

"I didn't suddenly go blind," Anna retorted and returned to her past-time of coaxing Thor to tell ridiculous stories of his adventures while she rested her chin on her hand and pretended she was listening, while she traced his body in its close-fitting flexible armor suit with her eyes. She was obvious about it, but he sweetly pretended not to notice. Or maybe it happened so often he was oblivious.

Thor obliged Anna with stories of Asgard when he and Loki had been young, but she could see part of his attention stayed on the doors, waiting for Loki to join them. Which he didn't.

"I should go fetch him," Elsa declared after the supper was served and his place remained stubbornly empty.

"Please, no," Thor requested. "Always he resists when others try to force him to do something. I doubt that has changed about him."

"You've been apart for a hundred years," Anna said, straightening. "If it was my brother, I wouldn't let him out of my sight."

"Anna, it's complicated," Elsa reproved, when Thor looked sad.

"Not really. When you ran away, I went after you," Anna retorted. Suddenly every trace of her interest in Thor was gone, replaced by the fierce defender Elsa was also familiar with. "Who went after him?"

"No one, young Anna," he answered sadly. "He vanished."

"Ah. No wonder he's angry. You didn't try very hard."

Thor lifted his chin and made his chair creak as he shifted defensively and replied, "We tried, but he hid--"

Anna was not having any of that. "A century ago, a wizard using ice powers was running around here for more than two years, in the exact same place the Winter War happened centuries before that. And none of you supposed gods noticed? Great Odin Allfather the Wise wasn't suspicious?" she demanded and got to her feet, now pinning him with a glare and repeated, "You didn't try very hard."

Then she swept out, face tight with anger.

"I … apologize," Elsa said in the following silence. "She's grown very fond of him, too."

He held up a hand, brow knitting. "Do not apologize for her affection; I am glad to know he's made such companions. What did she mean about a strange wizard with ice powers? I've never heard of such a thing. Is she speaking of Loki?"

"Yes. Though my people called him the Ice Demon…"

Thor excused himself to look for his brother, and Elsa retired to her study to write letters.

She didn't expect to find Loki right outside her narrow window, which was open to catch the breeze. When she stood up from the desk, she could see him pacing the walkway outside in the light from the lanterns that hung on the parapets. Anna wasn't with him, but Elsa felt sure she had found him first and coaxed him out of wherever he had hidden, with her special blend of affection and stubbornness.

Once he seemed in the mood for company, she intended to go to him, but for now she kept watch and hoped the sounds of her writing and rustling papers through the open window were soothing to him.

Thor's booming voice came as a surprise. It was less enthusiastic than he had tried before. "Loki? Please, might we speak again? Elsa told me what this place means to you. I did not know, and I would ask your forgiveness for speaking so cavalierly."

"Yes, of course," Loki answered immediately. He stopped pacing and stopped to rest his hands on the balustrade, to look out to sea. "I reacted too impetuously." He let out a sigh. "As always."

"No less than I do," Thor said, approaching slowly from the left to join him. "You should know -- I only learned what Mother and Father had told you after you left. They kept it from me, as well. So when I said-- what I said -- I spoke from ignorance and confusion."

"So, like usual then?" Loki taunted, but without bite, more as a habit.

Thor ignored it altogether. "I fear my words came to your ears with entirely different meanings than I intended. I know Father's did. He did not say you could never come back, Loki. You were the one who said you were never returning-- he said to beware oaths that would seek to fulfill themselves, even after you regretted giving them. And he was right, was he not? Your stubbornness has kept you away, long after you changed your mind."

"Not stubbornness alone," Loki answered. A silence fell between them that worried Elsa, and she stood up, hands tense on the surface of her desk. Loki asked softly, "How many people did I kill? When I left?"

"Kill?" Thor repeated blankly. "No one." He regarded Loki with dawning comprehension. "Is that what this is about? Loki, some columns were damaged and the drapes burned. And they were so ugly I think Mother was disappointed she hadn't thought to light them on fire herself long ago."

But Loki didn't respond to the jest, clenching his hands. "Don't lie to me. I saw guards fall in the shockwave of the spell. I saw -- I saw Sif--"

Thor gripped his shoulder. "I swear it's the truth. Sif is well. Angry at you for being gone so long, but well. And no one was killed, I promise. You did nothing that requires forgiveness."

Loki's hands curled and straightened, turning the truth over in his mind, unsure what to do with it. "I said cruel things."

"And some true things," Thor admitted. "None of us understood how powerful you had become until that moment. You were right; we saw only the child, helpless to those who had greater physical strength. And they had kept the truth from you. You were angry and upset with good cause. No one blames you or hates you."

He hesitated and when Loki said nothing, Thor added, more softly, "Perhaps you think your blood should matter more to me than being my brother? Let me prove it does not."

Loki turned to face him, knitting his brow in confusion. "How?"

"Show me."

Elsa didn't know what he was supposed to show Thor, but Loki did. He went pale and his lips parted then pressed tightly together, as if he might be sick. "No."

"Please," Thor requested. "Let me show you it's not the terrible thing you believe it to be."

Loki's gaze fixed on the distant horizon, as he leaned against the rail, tilting his upper body over it as if he wanted to fling himself over and fly away. "You… don't know what you ask."

"Not as you do," Thor acknowledged. "But I think you have taken this simple truth and wrapped it in layers of horror and fear in your solitude, and it has lodged in your heart. If I could cut it free, and prove it is not such a big thing…" With his grip on Loki's shoulder, he turned Loki forcibly back to him, and put his other hand on Loki's other shoulder to hold him there. "Show me, and I will show you that you are still my brother, no matter where you were born."

Loki's eyes stayed cast down, and for a moment he was silent. "No." He jerked free of Thor's grasp, stepping away. "You don't want to see." His laugh was sharp. "Remember when we swore we would go kill them when we were grown?"

"We were children, we knew no better-"

"They are our enemies! Asgard's enemies. They are brutal and stupid and monstrous and disgusting, and if I could burn that blood out of myself, I would!" Shaking, he shouted the words, and then whirled, done with the conversation.

"It gave you Elsa."

Loki stopped and slowly turned back. "What did you say?" he asked in a low dangerous voice, eyes narrowed to bright slivers.

"You heard me. It gave you Elsa. She is not brutal or stupid, or monstrous or disgusting," Thor quoted the words carefully back to him. "And neither are you. No more or less than any Aesir. The same."

The words seemed to rattle inside Loki, until he was shaking, though he didn't otherwise move until he jerked forward. It seemed he might try to hit Thor, but he moved right past, back to the railing.

"If you want to stay, then I shall respect your wish, Loki. But don't stay because you think you cannot come home. Because you can," Thor told him earnestly. "We miss you. You've been gone so long."

Loki looked out to the sky, perhaps all the way to Asgard. Finally he spoke, voice quiet as he asked, "To what end?"

"What do you mean?" Thor moved nearer, frowning at him curiously. "To be with us. For you and I to have great adventures together, as we did before."

"And then?" Loki asked.

"Return home. Tell stories of our adventures so all envy us. There is a dragon on Vanaheim, they say," he said, teeth of a flashing grin bright in the dimness. "A great ancient beast, black as obsidian, with fangs bigger than my head. We could find it."

Loki said in a voice dripping with scorn, "So I can watch you kill it? How thrilling."

"Unless my brother, a sorcerer of great skill already, would rather learn magic from it. That would be a worthy quest as well."

Loki hesitated. "That is a worthy quest? Surely all the acclaim is in the slaying of it."

Thor's hand settled on his shoulder. "I would trade a hundred dragons for you to come home. But," he continued with a grin, "I will take the Warriors Three and Sif and go slay it, if you stay on Midgard."

"Are you holding a dragon hostage?" Loki asked, amusement flickering on his lips.

"One great blow with Mjolnir--" Thor threatened playfully.

Loki rolled his eyes. "As if a dragon as old as that will be so stupid. It will bite your head off before you even know it's there, moron."

With great satisfaction, Thor said, "That is why I need you with me."

Loki grimaced, knowing Thor had netted him, and struck back with sour humor, "I would tell you to go alone, but since I'll never sit on the throne, there seems no point in sending you to get killed."

Thor's humor evaporated, and he could find only a weak denial. "You… don't know that."

"Don't I? Heimdall knows the truth; he must. Do you believe he would hold his silence and let me rule, even if you and the Allfather were dead? No, he would not. So I am no prince. A foster, or a hostage against Laufey. But not a true son."

"How can you say that?" Thor demanded. "You are their son as much as I am! Does the throne mean so much to you, that you would stay a homeless wanderer on Midgard, instead of coming home?"

Incensed, Loki turned on him, "It means," he hissed, "that Asgard would rather have an incompetent stranger be their king than someone with a monster's blood. So don't you dare tell me the truth matters not, because it does. It always will."

"It shouldn't."

Loki stared at him and let out a short, incredulous laugh. "You are under some strange geas."

Thor protested, "I mean it. You're not the only one to reconsider these past years. Asgard hasn't warred with Jotunheim our entire lives… maybe it's time they stop being our enemies. We can do this, change it, you and I. Maybe that is the purpose of all this."

Loki snapped, "You are a fool. That will never happen."

"Never is a long time for us. You're the cleverest person I know, Loki. Or maybe Mother is," he added with a teasing glance, "but I learned a long time ago not to wager against something she said must be done." His hand gripped Loki's shoulder again. "I don't know if it will succeed, but I do know nothing will change in Asgard if you stay here."

Loki's head drooped as if he was suddenly weary of the arguing and he sighed. "I … do not know…"

"Then come home," Thor urged. "I miss my other half."

"Your smarter half," Loki muttered.

Thor laughed but then added more softly, "Know that, no matter what you choose, always I love you best, Brother. That will never change."

His hand lifted from Loki's shoulder to cup his cheek and then up to ruffle his hair, his affection plain, before Thor headed away along the parapet.

Behind him, Loki let out a sigh as soon as Thor was out of sight, and eventually stirred himself, to walk in the opposite direction.

Elsa thought of going to Loki, but in the end, decided to give him some time for himself. This was a decision only he could make.

She wanted him to stay. But she remembered his frustration at her library, and his boredom. He'd warned her from the moment they'd met that he would not stay. Better then for him to go back to his other family, she thought, than wander Earth alone. Better to have adventures with real dragons, instead of doling out crumbs of his knowledge to an ungrateful humanity while hiding his true nature.

But he needed to sort it out for himself. She left him alone and returned to her correspondence.

tbc... 

Chapter Text

Elsa didn't seek out Loki until early the next morning. His room was empty and felt untouched, and she knew he'd not come inside at all. She found him on the height of the western tower. The wind was sharp and cold, portending the winter to come, but neither of them felt it.

Loki stood at the balustrade, looking out to the water as if some answer lay there in the glimmering of the morning sun on the water, if only he could decipher it.

She joined him, laying a hand over his tight fist resting on the top. After a moment, his hand relaxed beneath her touch, letting his fingers grip hers. "Could you see Asgard in the stars last night?"

He shook his head. "No. It hangs on a higher branch of the world tree, beyond the mortal Realm. Invisible to all eyes here."

"You miss it."

He didn't respond at first, as if he didn't want to admit that he'd missed it. "When I left, I never wanted to see it again. But a sorrow grew within that I was apart forever. Only now, looking at this place, I realize the reason I kept circling back here is because it reminds me of Asgard: the mountains, the town, the water… I miss the archives, the towers, the river… My heart aches to see my mother again," he murmured. She smiled and leaned into him, hoping to offer some comfort. After a moment, he sighed and added, "Thor means well, but nothing truly changes there. Yet I have changed. I didn't belong in Asgard before, and I fear I will belong even less now."

She thought of what to say that might help. "I read once, in one of those books that you threw to the floor, that when they say the old god Loki ruled mischief and lies, what they meant was chaos," she murmured. "And that Ragnarök would not be destruction and death like the Christian Apocalypse, but was necessary to bring change and renewal. Perhaps it truly means that as you have changed, so too will your people."

"Or maybe Ragnarök was fulfilled when I tried to destroy the great hall," he replied thoughtfully, but with humor. "Prophecies often grow in the telling."

His flippancy was irksome, and he was misunderstanding her point. "That was not what I--"

"I know," he interrupted. "I know what you meant. But it is … daunting, and unlikely. I am a raven among eagles, and that will not change."

She wormed her way under his arm, so he held her against his side. "Then, if they are so intolerable, you could visit them briefly and come back here?" she suggested.

"I want to," he murmured. "More than anything. I want to stay here and guard you, to see your children, to watch you be a great queen."

He said it as something he wanted but would not have, which meant he had decided to leave. When he fell silent, unwilling to explain why, she prompted, "But?"

"But. I cannot bear to watch you die, Elsa," he whispered. He turned toward her, other arm clasping her to his chest, while he rested his cheek on the top of her head. "Mortal lives are so brief, even the longest is a candle to mine. The thought of your loss already fills my heart with such dread and grief, I know to watch would destroy me." Before she could reassure him, he added, breath stirring her hair, "We're not supposed to involve ourselves with mortals, and now I understand why. Immortal hearts - or at least mine - are not strong enough to accept that those we love can be taken so soon."

Then he paused and swallowed hard, as if realizing what he'd said. She smiled into his chest and tightened her hands on his back. "I love you, too. Promise you'll think of me?"

"Every day."

She sniffled, and tried to think of something less unbearably sad. "I swear there'll always be a place kept open for you, for when you visit. Even when I'm long gone, it'll be a tradition that the Snow Queen's father, the immortal Ice Demon, will have a place set for him at formal banquets. And then someday, you can stroll right in and take your seat. Imagine everyone's face! It'll be fun."

He chuckled. "More than a little of me in you, I see." He framed her face in both hands, turning it upwards so he could memorize it, then leaned down and kissed her forehead. "You are precious to me, Elsa. I may not return, but I will never forget you."

"I won't forget you either." She smiled at him, blinking back her tears. "Father."

She bit her lip and inelegantly sniffled, before wrapping her arms around him again, to squeeze as tightly as she could and pretend she wasn't going to let go.

The next day, full of cheer, Thor led the group to the Bifrost site on a ridge that overlooked Arendelle harbor and the palace. His red cape was like a flag leading the way, as he strode through the late autumn meadow, Mjolnir swinging from the strap around his wrist. Anna was a green magpie next to him, chattering away, and occasionally having to trot to keep up with his longer strides. He listened to her with a tolerant smile and occasional grin, even when she interrupted his attempt to tell his story with her questions.

Moving more slowly, Loki paced next to Elsa, looking dour as if he was still not certain he wanted to do this.

"You need him, you know," she murmured, and pressed on in spite of the skeptical glance he sent her way. "And he needs you. He's summer, you're winter, but you go together. Like me and Anna - I know she's always there for me." She slipped her hand into his and tugged, getting him to stop and look at her. "Let him be there for you. Don't hold everything in so tightly."

He gave her a half-smile, wry and amused. "Yes, Elsa. You and my mother would get along terrifyingly well."

"I wish I could meet her." Elsa remembered the face in the fire and was glad she had seen Queen Frigga, at least.

"She will be quite unhappy about that as well, I promise. I would bring you to meet her, but the Allfather forbids mortals to the realm eternal." His gaze flickered out over the mountains and skyward, before returning back to her face with an abrupt decision. "You should come anyway; he will have to understand. I will bring you with me and show you the wonders in Asgard."

For a moment, it was tempting. To visit Asgard. It was a real place with real people – it sounded like being able to visit inside a fairy tale. Yet, the very fact that it contained real people, and therefore real consequences gave her qualm. Odin Allfather might not be God, but he was powerful, and Loki was already worried about what he might do.

She pressed Loki's hand, halting his words. "No. I want you to go back there and find peace with them. And this is my place, my home. I won't leave Anna."

He smiled with gathering enthusiasm, "We could bring her, too. I can make both of you immortal, you can rule Arendelle forever, and I need not ever lose either of you..."

She shook her head once, gently, and his eagerness evaporated like steam, leaving behind sorrow. "I do not wish immortality, Loki. I am Christian, I want the truth of Heaven, not the false promise of it in Asgard."

"And if there is none?" he asked, for once not sneering at her faith, but genuinely worried. "What then?"

She made herself smile up at him. "Then I hope Valhalla will welcome me, and some far distant day you will meet me there."

The words seem to catch him hard. He blinked, throat fluttering, and he had to look away, pressing his lips together. "They will," he said finally, barely above a whisper. "If I have to set all the Realms on fire, the gates will open for you, I promise."

She threaded her fingers through his. "Do not begin Ragnarök because of me. That is a legacy I don't want."

His eyes glimmered suspiciously but his smile was more genuine, as he teased, "A little war at least? You deserve something."

"Would you two hurry up!" Anna shouted from the top of the ridge where she and Thor were waiting.

Elsa looked at him. "Should I make an ice slide to dump them both in Arendelle?"

He chortled with delight. "Yes!"

"You're not supposed to encourage me!"

He laid his free hand on his chest. "If you're looking for parental discipline, the god of mischief is probably not your best choice," he advised with mock solemnity, and she laughed, because she'd actually forgotten.

But their delay was mostly shared reluctance to reach their destination, which came upon them anyway as they joined their siblings. There was a circular marking in the dirt, as if a huge wax seal from the heavens had slammed into the meadow. It was twenty paces across, filled with a blackened pattern that was a familiar from old stele and books.

"Stay out of the circle," Loki advised. "This is where we must leave you both."

Anna hugged him, forcing him to let go of Elsa's hand to catch her. "I hope you come back. But I'm glad you came to us. You're really not as scary as you think you are, by the way. You have a good heart and I hope you have other kids, not weird horses, but real kids because you're a great dad. I'm gonna miss you so much."

He hugged her back. "Be well, Anna. I will miss you, too. Thank you for being so generous in your affections."

She sniffled and wiped her nose on her sleeve, as Elsa winced at her manners.

It was Elsa's turn and she slipped into place against his chest and her head tucked against his neck as he held her close.

"Will you be able to see me?" she asked. "From there?"

"Yes."

"Good. I'll be glad to have you watch over me. But the one thing I don't want--" she leaned back to look into his face, "-- is for you to do anything stupid when I die. Don't lose yourself in grief, or-- or anything like that. I want you to remember me, but then you have to let me go. Promise?"

He took a moment to answer, then said in a low voice, "I promise."

She stood on her toes to kiss his cheek. "Then that makes me happy." Taking his hand, she made an ice sculpture - not knowing what it would be until it sat in his palm - as her gift to him. It was made of perfectly transparent ice of a large snowflake in an intricate branching design, and she smiled to see the center held a small version of the Yggdrasil woodcarving. "Farewell, my Ice Demon."

"Farewell, fair Snow Queen," he whispered. He didn't move, eyes refusing to turn from her face, even to look at her gift, though his hand held it delicately and it did not melt in his palm.

Thor swung an arm over his shoulders and he gave a nod to Elsa. "Queen Elsa, you have my thanks for caring for my brother."

"Of course. Now I ask you in turn to care for my father."

"You have my word."

"I can take care of myself," Loki muttered. Nobody paid him any heed.

Thor addressed Elsa and Anna. "You may watch if you like, but step back." Thor coaxed Loki to the middle of the printed markings, while the sisters took several steps away, standing close.

As soon as they reached the center, Loki's clothes shimmered and shifted into a layered, black leather surcoat edged in green, with gold vambraces, and gold pieces at his throat and shoulders. It was like no Earth clothing she'd ever seen, and though it was little like Thor's in design, somehow they seemed a matched set. An emerald green cape billowed in the wind behind him, and he stood tall and proud, a prince again.

Thor noticed the change and smiled his approval before tilting his head back and calling, "Heimdall! Open the Bifrost. Bring us home!"

Loki's eyes met Elsa's and he lifted a hand in farewell. She raised hers, making sure that his last view of her would be of her smile.

So quickly it seemed impossible, clouds gathered overhead, blocking the sun with an ominous storm. A huge bolt of lightning, blinding but shimmering with the colors of a rainbow, slammed into the ground before her, grabbed its two sons, and then was gone.

The ground glowed with red heat, like a coal, and briefly smoked. The sisters watched as it cooled and didn't speak, letting the small silences of birds and wind fill the air as the storm dispersed. Then Anna murmured, "Elsa? Did that really happen?"

"All of it."

"Huh. Wow. I didn't expect the Rainbow Bridge to be real."

"Not like that," Elsa agreed.

"Elsa? Do you think he'll come back?" she asked in a smaller voice.

Elsa tipped her head back to look up at the sky. Asgard might not be visible, but it was out there somewhere. She hoped Loki would come back, but realistically, she thought he would stay away. The fairy tales said that years on Earth might pass as minutes in immortal lands – she might be long dead before the greeting ceremonies there were finished. "No. I don't think we'll ever see him again. But he promised to watch over us."

"I wouldn't want to be the person who threatens Arendelle in the future, with the Ice Demon on guard for the next thousand years." Anna glanced at Elsa and smiled. "I think you just ensured Arendelle's independence, forever."

Elsa thought about that and had to agree. It was a happy thought to know he would continue to watch over her people, even after she was gone.

She hooked her arm with Anna's. "Come on, let's go home."

to the epilogue! 

Chapter Text

Epilogue... 



As the Bifrost energy faded, Loki shuddered. The buzzing along his skin felt strange after so long without, but he shook it off and lifted his head.

They'd landed in the Observatory, as expected. Heimdall was there, gleaming in his golden armor. Loki remembered the last time they'd seen each other, when Heimdall had tried to stop him from leaving and Loki had attacked him in a rage, needing to escape Asgard.

Heimdall's expression was as dour as ever, neither welcoming nor seeming angered, so Loki forced a grin, trying to force down the anxious dismay that Heimdall was here at all. "I see nothing has changed in my absence. You look well, Heimdall."

Heimdall nodded once. "The king and queen await you in the audience chamber."

Not the great hall, that was a relief. Still he felt uneasy, wondering what the king would do. Surely, despite Thor's words, Odin would still be angry at what had happened. Or angry at Loki for not submitting himself for judgment earlier.

I have already sentenced myself to exile for a century. I have left my only child. What more could he do to me?

That was a foolish protest, as Odin could do a lot. He could announce that Loki forfeited all claim to Asgard. He could strip Loki's power and send him to Jotunheim, sending the useless beast back where it belonged. He could imprison Loki for his attack on the king and the others who had stood in the hall.

His gaze found Heimdall's sword, used to activate the Bifrost, and considered having Heimdall send him back to Midgard. I should not have come back here.

Thor seemed to sense some turmoil, resting his hand on Loki's shoulder. "It will be well."

Loki shook him off with a short laugh. This was Asgard; he had to remember that. Any weakness and they would be on him like a pack of wild dogs. "Of course it will. I expected they might receive me in private; not the audience chamber. But I suppose I should have known there would be some formality."

"You have been gone a long time, brother," Thor reminded him. "Even for us, it was a notable loss."

Loki sniffed skeptically. Maybe his family missed him, but who else would have noticed?

Heimdall added, "Welcome home." Loki's gaze snapped to him, surprised at the additional greeting and that it sounded as if Heimdall meant it.

Loki figured that deserved acknowledgment, and he said, "I did not intend to endanger your life. I only meant to push you out of my way, not throw you from the Bifrost."

"I know." Heimdall's golden gaze focused beyond them and a faint smile curled his lips. "You should hurry into the city. The queen grows anxious."

Loki's smile was more genuine, hearing that. She at least had missed him, as he missed her. He had been wrong to hide himself from contact, and wrong to presume her love must have been a lie. His anger and hurt had discolored everything, but Elsa and Anna had shown him the truth.

He inhaled a long breath to settle his heart and headed for the bridge.

The audience chamber was a smaller space than the great hall, not meant for immense gatherings but still large enough to hold public audience, if the king wished, but mostly it was used for more intimate speech.

Loki expected the room to be mostly empty, holding only Odin and Frigga, and perhaps some of the warriors he had been acquainted with.

He did not expect the great horn to sound when the doors opened and his feet paused altogether when he saw the crowd there, turned toward the doors where he was frozen on the threshold. There was applause, and he reflexively turned, intending to step aside for Thor, since surely this was for him. But Thor didn't move forward.

Thor was shaking his head and grinning at him when Loki glanced at him in confusion. "Take your due, brother."

"But I--"

Thor put a hand on his back and pushed him lightly. "Go."

So Loki went, wishing he'd had more warning so he could have shifted with his helm. He kept his back straight as he headed down the aisle. Odin sat in full regalia in his throne at the end and he gripped Gungnir in one hand. Frigga stood to his right and watched Loki with a smile openly on her face, hands clasped before her.

Distantly, Loki heard applause and even some voices raised in shouts, and it all felt … odd. It was strange to hear any approbation for himself in any case, but the last time he had been at a gathering like this, he had nearly killed them all, his wrath kindled by their pretense that nothing had changed, even though they had just told him he was a creature, and not their son.

Toward the front, long black hair caught his eye, and he turned his head to see Sif. She looked back at him, at first serious, but then a smile glimmered through, as he stared at her.

She was alive. Unharmed. Somehow she was even more beautiful than he remembered.

"Welcome home, Smudge," she murmured, letting him know with the old nickname that all was forgiven.

His voice would barely emerge from his throat, "It is good to see you, Lady War."

He turned from her to keep walking toward the king and queen. He was still a few steps away, when Frigga couldn't wait anymore and she hurried down the two steps of the dais to him. "Loki! You have come home, at long last."

She flung her arms around him, and ordinarily he would never let himself be humiliated in this way in front of so many, but for this moment, he held her tight in return. "Mother," he whispered into her hair, eyes suddenly burning. "I am so, so sorry…."

"Shush," she whispered and her hand touched the side of his face. She was smiling though her eyes were wet. "You're here. Let me look upon you, my son." Her gaze seemed to drink him in hungrily, as she framed his face, and looked into his eyes. "Do you believe that?" she asked, pitching her voice very soft. "You are my son, I raised you, I loved you, always."

He nodded a little and his breath came with difficulty. "I know. I understand now." He glanced to Odin looming behind her and then back to her face. "I -- I was angry, and I chose my words and my deeds poorly."

"We chose our words poorly, too. Not all the fault is yours. I am glad you're home. I have missed you so."

She found his hand closed tightly when she tried to grip his hands in her own. "What is this?" she asked. He held out his hand and opened his fingers to show the contents. "Loki, this is beautiful. Did you make this?"

He shook his head once, his gaze fixed to the large snowflake. "I-- It was a parting gift," he answered. "From Elsa. My - my-" He couldn't quite bring himself to speak, his once gifted tongue utterly failing him as it hit him that he would probably never see her again.

Thor moved nearer, hand closing on Loki's shoulder, to tell their mother softly, "His daughter."

Her eyes flew to meet Loki's in sudden understanding. "A mortal?"

Loki nodded once, a frosty serpent coiling around his heart of loss. Such little time they'd had together, but how brightly it shone in his memory.

"Oh, little one," she whispered and hugged him again, kissing his cheek. "You are blessed."

His fingers tightened on the snowflake, and he nodded.

"Come, your father grows impatient." She took his free hand and drew him to the dais. Odin looked down on him with a grimmer face than Frigga had done, but Loki didn't think it was his wishful thinking that there was a pleased glint in his eye as he nodded once to Loki.

The king lifted his head and announced, "Let it be known, that Loki Odinson has full pardon and he is restored to his position as a prince of the Realm."

Odinson. Odin still claimed him as his own, even after Loki had viciously rejected him. He would not mistake the import of the word. Loki feared his surprise was far too naked on his face, as a great surge of feeling in his chest threatened to escape. He had to clench his jaw and shut his eyes, controlling each breath, one at a time. This was too much in too short a time and surely this much raw emotion would burn him alive.

Odin continued, sparing Loki the need to make any response, "Tonight we shall feast in celebration of his long-overdue return!"

A cheer arose at that, and Loki turned around to face the audience. Thor led the applause, eyes bright and face exuberant that Loki was home.

Loki smiled, knowing it was expected he would be pleased. He tucked away the feeling that he was in the wrong place with people he barely knew anymore.

At the feast, he told a few stories of his time on Midgard, selecting the battle ones that would appeal to his audience. He said nothing of seeking out mortals to push their thinking forward, and nothing of the Ice Demon. He'd tell Frigga the whole of it later, but he kept most of the truth to himself. But it became obvious he was not telling the story they were most interested in hearing.

Volstagg slapped his shoulder and put a new flagon before him. "So tell us of the mother. She must have been something. Was she especially beautiful? For you to make such a mistake with a mortal…"

"It wasn't a mistake," Loki snapped, and Volstagg froze before letting out a laugh.

"Ah, lad, I meant only that we do not woo mortals, so you must have been drawn by something special…"

"Oh yes, do tell us," Fandral demanded, leaning across the table toward Loki. "You have never been one to dally lightly, and now we hear of mortal blossoms… So who was she? Was she very beautiful?"

Loki did not like this prying into his private matters, not when the loss was still so raw. Time for a distraction so he could make his escape. "I am not the only one who comported with mortals. Am I, Fandral?"

Fandral was shocked to have it turned back on him, and guilty. He glanced down at his cup and back at Loki, with an unconvincing smile of confusion. "I don't know what you are talking about. I've never…"

This was too easy. Especially when Fandral couldn't lie worth spit. If Loki hadn't already been sure, the look on Fandral's face was a complete admission of the truth. Loki grinned. "Oh Fandral, I saw him. He's quite the image of you, and his voice is exactly the same; it's uncanny." Their friends stared at Fandral. With great satisfaction, Loki added, "Young Eugene had a rough start in his life - he had no father, and I guess his mother perished as well, because he grew up in an orphanage and became an outlaw."

Fandral looked a bit like a landed fish. "I- I have a son?"

Loki watched him, enjoying how overcome Fandral was. He would not be teasing Loki about Elsa any time soon.

"Don't worry, my friend." He stood up from the table. "Your lad wed the lost princess of Corona. It's quite a romantic tale; you'll like it."

"I have a son?" Fandral repeated. "A mortal boy?"

"When did you sneak off to Midgard without us, you bastard?" Volstagg roared.

Fandral stammered some incoherent protest, and Loki grinned, glad he'd held onto the secret for the right moment.

He decided to go before they remembered he could be teased about this, too, and slipped out of the feast hall.

In his rooms - which had been kept as he had left them - he glanced at the preserved ice sculpture now sitting in its pride of place on the central shelf of his sitting room.

Feeling weary, he let himself fall into the padded chair that faced the shelves. He was home, yet he didn't feel at home. Teasing Fandral had helped - it felt familiar - yet when he looked around this room, he wished it was Elsa's study with the fireplace and the single narrow window above her desk instead.

He sighed. It was terrible to miss it, but far more terrible to know in time he would stop missing it.

A soft knock on his door interrupted his dark musings, and Frigga entered, gliding across the floor soundlessly. She held back his attempt to rise for her, lifting her hand.

She smiled at Loki as she took a seat on the chair across from him and folded her hands in her lap as if she intended to be patient. He knew better from the eager slant of her posture toward him and that smile that would not be suppressed from her lips. "I want you to show me my grand-daughter. And you will tell me everything about her. And where you were and what you did while you were gone."

"I - " He opened his mouth and found no words. How could he tell her of a century of hiding and wandering, doing terrible things in rage before realizing how little of it mattered? Or how loneliness and despair had surrounded him in a cloud he could never escape, until a pale-haired girl who was wiser and more generous than he deserved, had pushed it away? There was so much to say, and yet words were so inadequate.

Frigga reached over to take his hand. Her fingers were warm on his and strong as they gripped his, offering reassurance. "Start with Elsa. Take as long as you need."

He gathered the unspoken 'as long as you start right now', and had to smile. "It's a long tale, Mother."

She let go of his hand and leaned back in her chair, giving the impression she would be happy to sit there until the end of days. "I have nothing more pressing than this, Loki. Leave nothing out. I want to know all of it."

He glanced up at the snowflake and held out a hand, casting the illusion before him, rising up from the floor. She was as he remembered her best: her blue eyes shining, lips smiling at some jest, braid hanging in front of her shoulder. "This is Elsa."

"Ah." Frigga nodded in approval, smiling. "I saw her briefly. You were laughing with her. She's beautiful, and I see such spirit in her. Truly, Loki, I am sorry you had such brief time there."

"She was mortal. It would always have been brief." He said the words flatly and banished the illusion, wishing he could banish the pain so easily. He inhaled a deep breath. "But that is the end of the story. It begins when I was too upset to control the path from Vanaheim, and it twisted. I arrived instead on Midgard, in a tiny kingdom named Arendelle…"

He told his story while Frigga listened, and life in Asgard continued.

The ice sculpture on his shelf remained perfect, always reminding him of the better part of himself he'd found there.

the end.