The Captive Titan [ManxMan]

Chapter Six: Living Gods Tell Many Tales

~Chapter Six: Living Gods Tell Many Tales~

I stumble and fall to my knees just outside the boundaries of Frigg's gardens when I teleport back to Asgard, my earlier episode gone but the effects still lingering. I allow myself a brief moment of silently kneeling on the stone path before a warning burst of magic energy to my left has me stumbling back to my feet just in time for Loki to appear in its wake, less than a meter away. He looks harried, and I grimace a little when he instantly focuses every ounce of his attention on me.

"Ainmire!" He all but shouts, and there is no doubt in my mind that he is angry, as his shape is wavering slightly from the force of his emotions blurring the line between his many forms. Shapeshifting is very much a conscious act, from what he has told me, but some emotions can make it hard to remember what shape he is supposed to maintain, and it would seem that he is experiencing those very emotions now.

Not in the mood for a lecture, and perhaps also a little annoyed with him myself, I muse, "So, I heard you have been looking through my possessions."

"You-" he starts, but if he had something more to say, it is lost when he reaches out to grab my arm and teleports us somewhere else, not even attempting to make the location shift any less abrasive.

It takes a moment for the blur of gold to resolve into a less-blurry throne room, where the old king god, Odin, sits on his throne with the less visibly-aged Queen Frigg hovering by his arm rather than sitting on her own throne to his left. Odin's one eye - the other hidden behind a scarred eyelid, his sight in it freely given up for wisdom, as he claims, though I distinctly remember hearing the story of a spear trick gone wrong in his youth that might have something to do with it - widens in surprise, as do Frigg's, at our sudden arrival. And for a hopeful moment, I wonder if Loki has not appraised them of the situation.

If I am smart about this, I can-

Before I can finish that thought, Odin's single eye narrows tellingly, and Frigg sends me the look of sheer disappointment, dashing that hope in an instant.

Of course he told them.

"It is already bad enough that I have been harboring you from your own pantheon, Ainmire," Odin starts, and after a quiet, resigned sigh, I nod because I know that it is a risk for him to keep me here without informing the Dagda, as he honestly should have done the moment Ullr brought my statue here. I may not have asked him to allow me to stay, but he has been doing it for me, nevertheless. "But if something were to happen to you while under my protection, the Dagda would be at my door, demanding my head the moment he found out."

"I did not visit Hades with the intent of stirring trouble between our pantheons, nor did I go there believing Hades would harm me," I reply in the brief pause that follows his statement, wanting to point this out before Odin can get any further. "Hades has been, while not an ally, a friendly neutral party in our history together, but I did not go blindly in thinking that would remain so. I told Sleipnir of my whereabouts, and he was set to tell you within the hour if I did not return."

And he still is; I will need to visit him shortly to make it clear I have safely returned.

While not by much, this does seem to ease some of the tension in the room, and Odin and Frigg share a glance that conveys much to each other, but nothing to me. Loki relaxes a bit more visibly, though, as his form stops wavering out of the corner of my eye, and when I glance at him, his shape seems far more solid. His expression is still set in a scowl, but his teeth are no longer clenched, and his eyes have softened a little.

It might not be much, but it will have to be enough.

"You still led us to believe that you were going to be staying with Perun for the evening, and when Thor went to confirm this, he said you had returned here after leaving his realm," Odin says, and something tells me that I might be facing some unpleasant times the next time I visit Perun as well, if they told him why they were asking, or if Veles told him afterwards. "We fortunately knew where you were because Loki had found your letter, but what if we had called upon you in Perun's realm, only to find you not there?"