Valediction [Fólkvangr End, Book 3][Loki Fanfiction]

Chapter Four - Coffee Lips

“Where was this so-called god when you had to literally fight to stay alive, hmm?” Tony inquires. I sigh and think about my summoning stone. But I don’t mention it. I think maybe it’s best for now that I keep my personal calling card for an Egyptian god on the down-low. I want to trust Tony Stark but who knows where things stand right now. 

“You want another drink, kid?” Tony ask as I stand up and head over towards the kitchenette. I shake my head and reach for the coffee pot again, half of which I’ve already downed. “If you keep drinking that shit you’re going to be up all night.”

“Okay, thanks, dad.” He groans at this but I pour myself another cup anyway. And then I assess the pot and pour another cup. The chair scrapes the floor loudly as Tony gets up and tries to intercept me from double-fisting two cups of coffee.

“Uh uh uh!” I sneak under his grasp and back away from him. “I’m taking this to Frey, I promise.”

“Likely story.”

“Would I lie to you?” I taunt as I back out of the door. I dash away, carefully attempting not to spill a single drop. And, quite honestly, failing. They’ve moved Frey and I into two separate rooms with a single bed and a fairly compact closet. More prison-like than a cell, to be honest. I stop at his door and knock and he opens it, looking sleepy, his hair a mess. I smile at him, slipping past him into the room and placing the cups upon the floor beside his bed. I plop down onto his bed and sprawl myself out on the sheets. 

“How are you?” I ask quietly as I stare up at the ceiling. Frey slides down to the ground and sits on the floor in the corner, away from me. I frown to myself, but say nothing. 

“Fine,” he says after a moment of hesitation. “I see you’re not planning on sleeping again.”

I turn my head to the side to look at him. “What are you trying to say?”

“Nothing, Valkyrie, except that you seem to keep drinking that stuff every night and every night I can hear you pacing instead of sleeping. What are you so afraid of?”

I hesitate. I close my eyes and then open them again quickly. “I don’t like what I see.”

“When?”

“When I close my eyes,” I clarify. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes and they have a way of coming of back to me at night.”

“That I understand,” Frey nods, looking uncomfortable when I meet his gaze. Slowly I reach my hand out to the side towards him and wait until he takes it. I pull him to the bed and I sit up and he is seated beside me. We both just sort of stare towards the door in silence. 

“It’s strange, I don’t know what life is supposed to be like without an impending war and the constant threat of imminent destruction.”

“Neither do I.”

“What good am I if I can’t even attempt to live a normal life? I mean, what if we’re stuck here on Earth for good? We’ll have to…live a human life! I mean, okay, yes, I did that for twenty-two years, sure, but how do you get back into it when you’ve become a part of something so different, and something so much larger than yourself?” I ask quasi-rhetorically. “That’s silly, I sound vainglorious.”

“It is a valid concern. We have an uncertain place in this world. I especially do not belong and I fear I cannot make myself of much use,” Frey sighs. I lean over and rest my head on his shoulder. “If it makes you feel any more at ease, I believe many of these so-called agents seem to fear you.”

“Oddly enough, it does make me feel a little better,” I laugh. I look down at my hands suddenly, recall that they are empty and then I lunge forward, grabbing my coffee from the floor. “Power can be nice, sometimes. I think Agent May is intensely suspicious of me though, and that never ends well.”

Frey tilts his head slightly, looking curious. I shrug and take sip of my coffee, which has settled to being lukewarm. “I have a bit of a storied—however brief—past with SHIELD. They aren’t my biggest fans, but the feeling is mutual. Some of them aren’t so bad, I suppose, but I’d like to keep my nose out of their affairs as much as possible. They tend to get me in trouble.”

“Understood,” Frey nods in affirmation. 

“Oh! I didn’t get to tell you yet, and I was just catching Tony up—”

“Stark is a strange man, is he not?” Frey inquires, reaching for his own cup of coffee. Dammit.

I laugh and nod. “Sure, yeah, Stark has a few quirks, but for the most part he’s a good guy. I mean, I really am not sure how well I actually know him? But he seems to like me, and he took to me quickly, and he trusted me and looked out for me when he really had to reason to. I guess I kind of owe him. He’ll grow on you, just like the best pests always do…”

“Continue with your tale, if you please?” Frey asks over the mug full of coffee he holds. I can’t help but smile a little at the notion of Frey addicted to caffeine. 

“Right!” I shift slightly on the bed so I’m facing him now, “Okay, so I was in the desert, blah blah, you know all that part, but I happened to come in contact with an Egyptian—oh wait, okay. So the Egyptians are the people who inhabit the country of Egypt, which is where I sort of crash-landed. And the Ancient Egyptians are widely studied in current culture and have been for several centuries.

Anyway, the Ancient Egyptians had a set of gods that they believed in, just like the Nordic people believed Odin to be the All-Father and all of that stuff. So! The Ancient Egyptian gods, as it turns out, are real! Just like the Nordic ones! And…oh man, I wonder what this means. Does that mean the Hindu gods are real too? And the Greek and Roman gods? Well what about…okay, I’ll calm down about this soon, I promise. The prospects have just become so vast.”

“Maybe now you have something to focus on?” Frey offers. I stare at him a moment. A grin spreads across my lips. How…fascinating. “Oh gods, what is that look? I do not like it. You look ready for mischief.”

“Me? Mischief? Never,” I laugh and finish my cup of coffee. “I’m offended.”

After a brief pause, Frey puts his hand on my shoulder. “Come on, let’s get you to bed.”

I don’t put up much of a fight and allow him to walk me the whole three feet between our tiny closet rooms. He slides my door open for me and I go in, throwing myself down onto my bed to take my boots off. Frey lingers in the doorway, looking like he has something to say. But instead he just bids me a goodnight, closes the door and goes on his way. I lay back on my bed, not bothering to change out of my clothes into something more comfortable because I’m pretty sure I’m not going to sleep anytime soon. I slip my hand into my pocket and feel the smooth stone there, given to me by Ra. I close my eyes and think about Loki and Thor and dear Jane…but instead, I find myself drifting to sleep. 

I am suddenly unable to breathe, and I jolt upright, water splashing all around me. I reach my hands up out of the water I find myself in and wipe my eyes quickly, trying to adjust to the dim lighting. I realize I cannot touch the bottom of wherever I am and so I start swimming towards what appears to be an edge. In the distance I can see the flickering light of torches bouncing off of what could very well be stone walls. I finally grasp at the edge with my fingers and feel wet, slippery stone beneath my touch. I hoist myself out of the water and am met with the sight of someone’s knees. I trail my eyes upwards and a man stands before me. He is not Ra, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he were another god. 

I am Amun, a voice whispers inside my head. Oh, well…that clears that up.

Take this, let it protect you in the trials to come, Amun intones as he lifts his hand towards me. In his fingers is an ankh, the Egyptian symbol that looks like a cross with a loop on the top. The symbol for eternal life. He looks impatient and a little annoyed as he holds it out towards me. I finally get up the courage to take it and my fingers brush Amun’s as I relieve him of the ankh. 

“Oh,” he says out loud, surprising me. He looks down at me and sighs, rolling his eyes. “Ra sends his regards.”

I sit upright in bed suddenly. I take a deep breath, glad that it was all just a dream. But I look down and I am soaked. Absolutely sopping wet. And beside me on the bed is a small ankh.

I groan and get up to change out of my wet clothes. “Thanks a lot, Ra.”