A Gods Favor

King's Sleep

When Loki left the others in a fury his mind was racing. He didn't care about Thor's banishment, his father would likely change his mind in a month, less if Yrsa had anything to say about it. Right now all Loki cared about was the fact that he'd been uninjured when the Jotun had grabbed him and he didn't know how. He had his suspicions, of course, but it's not like he could walk back into Jotunheim and ask questions. But he could test something. He stopped in his tracks and turned, heading for the weapons vault.

Loki stood in front of the Casket of Ancient Winters, hands shaking as he reached for it. He didn't want to know, didn't want his theory to be true but he needed to find out. Needed to understand what had happened. He gently grasped the handles and lifted the artifact. A moment later his hands began to change and he could feel the transformation rush through his blood.

"STOP!" Odin yelled from the stairs but Loki couldn't take his eyes from the Casket.

"Am I cursed?"

"No."

His father's voice was clipped and firm but there was something in it, hidden, deep, and it made Loki's blood boil. "What am I?"

Odin's reply was sad and Loki could almost taste the lie. "You're my son."

Loki's whole body had shifted now, he could feel every inch of it pulsing with cold as he set the Casket down and turned to approach the king of Asgard. "What more than that? The Casket wasn't the only thing you took from Jotunheim that day, was it?"

"No." Odin's voice was soft as Loki came to a stop at the foot of the stairs. "In the aftermath of the battle I went into the temple and found a baby. Small for a giant's offspring. Abandoned, suffering, left to die. Laufey's son."

Loki's voice quavered as he repeated Odin's last words. "Laufey's son."

"Yes."

Loki's mind was reeling, he was a Jotun, a monster, an enemy. "Why? You were knee-deep in Jotun blood, why would you take me?"

"You were an innocent child."

"No," Loki's rage and fury were returning. His whole life he'd been lied to, told he was a prince of Asgard and raised as such. His father, no, Odin had told him he was born to be a king, which had never made sense with Thor being the eldest. It was because he was meant to sit a different throne. "You took me for a purpose. What was it?" Odin was not his father, Frigga not his mother, Asgard not his realm. He had always felt set apart. His whole life had been a lie and he didn't understand why. "TELL ME!"

"I thought we could unite our kingdoms one day." Odin spoke the words confirming everything, confirming that Loki was nothing more than a tool, another weapon in the Allfathers arsenal. "Bring about an alliance, bring permanent peace. Through you."

"What?" The words slowly started to make sense in his mind. Odin took him and raised him so that one day he could be king of Jotunheim and end the threat of the Frost Giants in gratitude for his kind kidnappers.

"Those plans no longer matter."

He could contain his bewilderment no more. "So I am no more than another stolen relic, locked up here until you might have use of me."

"Why do you twist my words?"

Twist? What other way could those words be interpreted? Odin had just stated he'd planned to use Loki as a tool for peace, that his plan all along had been the end of a threat. "You could have told me what I was from the beginning, why didn't you?"

"You're my son." Odin spoke as if it were simple fact. "I wanted only to protect you from the truth."

"Why because I'm the monster parents tell their children about at night?" Odin began to protest but Loki kept on, emotion and words pouring from him like an avalanche. "You know it all makes sense now. Why you showed such obvious pride in Thor and favored Yrsa all these years! Because no matter how much you claim to love me you could never have a Frost Giant sitting on the throne of Asgard!"

The red left his vision as he finished his rant and Odin was lying on the stairs, breathing hard. Loki knelt beside him, placing a hand on the kings before calling for the guards.