The Brightest Star

Chapter 22 - Connected Stories

(Kára's POV):
I listened to Loki's story, understanding why he had become unfavorable in the eyes of the Asgardians, but at the same time understanding his motives. Clearly he had done things that were wrong, like trying to kill his brother and usurp the throne. However as he spoke, all I could hear was a broken man who had simply wanted to appear equal to his overly celebrated brother.

However as he spoke of the bifrost and its destruction, flashes from my past began to interfere with his story. My father had been stationed on Nornheim before the destruction of the bridge and was stranded there after Thor had destroyed it. I had always blamed Thor for my father's death, as everyone knew that only his hammer, Mjolnir, had the strength to do the damage inflicted on the bridge. But now it appeared that the man I was falling in love with had been the main reason behind it.

I barely noticed when Loki began continuing his story, "I encountered the Mad Titan Thanos who took me under his wing and showed me many uses of dark magic. He tortured me and I eventually became a part of the Black Order. It was because of him that I invaded Midgard and tried to become their ruler. Although the drive to take my rightful place as king still lingers within me, I doubt I would have taken action had it not been for him using what is called the mind stone to influence my thoughts. The stone is an incredibly powerful entity, one of the six infinity stones that were created at the dawn of the universe and this particular one gave me the power to take over the minds of others, but at the same time was controlling me. I constantly heard his ideas in my mind as though they were my own thoughts, egging me on to inflict pain and suffering on the people of Midgard."

"So that is what I felt in your mind," I spoke my thoughts aloud, remembering the day that we had been working on reading and transplanting thoughts into each other's minds.

"Pardon?" He questioned, confused as to what I was referring to.

I shook my head, "nothing, I merely felt a footprint of something extremely powerful in your mind during one of our lessons and was rather confused as to what could have possibly have left such an impact. If these infinity stones, as you call them, are incredibly powerful, then it would make sense that the mind stone would leave such strong traces behind."

"I am afraid that that is the end of my story, I attempted to take over Midgard with a Chitauri army and was overpowered by a group called the Avengers. Odin wished to have me imprisoned or possibly even killed for my wrongs, but Frigga convinced him to let me live under constant surveillance for a trial period before determining whether or not is was worth trying to save me."

"Then I suppose the guards believed that your punishment was too slight, although it seems that you have caused more damage to the midgardians than you have to Asgard so I do not quite understand their strong feelings against you."

"I have not been very well liked by anyone growing up, I am honestly not too surprised by this assassination attempt. My only question is why it did not happen any sooner. No one seems to be all that fond of me, including you. Now that I have told you of my crimes it appears that you have grown distant as well," he confessed, his voice trying to remain nonchalant, but I could hear the pain breaking through, especially when he spoke about me.

I tried to give him a smile, "what do you mean? My feelings towards you have not changed."

"Darling, I am the God of Lies, remember? You really must stop trying to lie to me," he smiled sadly, looking painfully defeatist. "Might I inquire as to which part, if not the entirety, of my life has offended you?"

I sighed, knowing that I was gaining nothing in refusing to share my feelings, "it is not something that you did, but rather a side effect of one of your actions. My father was part of Odin's military and was sent as part of small troupe to Nornheim shortly before the ceremony for Thor's coronation. There were feelings of unrest in the realm and Odin feared that the transition of power would be seen as a delicate time for Asgard and with all of the turmoil that followed, Odin ordered them to remain at their stations even after it was established that Thor would not be taking over as King. My father did not want to leave his family, but it was his duty and he had just finished his leave so he could not refuse, despite the potential dangers that lay ahead.

"When Thor destroyed the bifrost, it stranded my father and the rest of his troupe on Nornheim. They were not high priority so Heimdall did not use dark magic to bring them back. My father and the other soldiers were killed by a group of uprisers because of their loyalty to Odin. My family has always believed that he would have survived had he and his troupe not been stranded on Nornheim and we all held a grudge against Prince Thor for destroying the bifrost. None of us ever really discovered why he had demolished our father's way of escape, we were content with placing the blame on Thor. But now I must decide whether it is fair to do that as he simply placed the lives of the frost giants above my father's and the other men."

"And now you have had the realization that I killed your father," Loki spoke for me, pain clearly written across his face. He closed his eyes for a moment before continuing, "Kára, I am terribly sorry for what I have done to your family, I understand that there is no way that I shall ever make it up to you, but I want you to know that I deeply regret my actions. It seems that all I ever do to you is hurt you, I am completely undeserving of you and if you wish to report to Odin that I am still a monster, I would not blame you. In fact, I suppose that locking me away is the only way that we can be sure that I will not hurt the woman that I love again."

"The woman that you-?" I repeated, unable to make sense of what he had said. He had just confessed that he loved me, how was I suppose to react? Clearly he had done terrible things, actions that had managed to negatively impact my own life. Yet when he told me that he loved me I felt as though I were but a young girl whose crush admitted that he liked her in return. I shook my head clear of these thoughts and tried to keep my head, "Loki, it was not you who killed my father, you had no idea how your actions would impact others. Besides, even if you had, why would you care for the lives of a few soldiers? They are meant to be expendable, are they not? It is not your fault, I-I just need a chance to clear my head. I am going to go to the library to collect the books that my clones have gathered for me."