It was still dark when she found herself standing on one of the palace's balconies. Quietly she walked through the window into the dark room and towards the sleeping figure in the bed. Before she could say anything, a hand with a knife shot up from the bed, aiming for her throat. But it went right through her body, the illusion only weavering slightly. She inwardly thanked herself for remembering this trick from Loki's memories.
The man jumped out of the bed, looking at the illusion in confusion.
"Loki?!" He asked quietly.
"Hello Thor." Ivy said gently, letting the illusion slip and now stepping into the open room herself.
"Who are you? What do you want?" He asked immediately, reaching for his hammer.
"Please, I mean no harm to you. I came here seeking help." She answered calmly, trying to put up her best facade. "My name is Ivy. I'm Loki's... friend."
"My brother has no friends." Thor answered, staring at Ivy from a few feet away, taking in every detail about her. ""Why do you wear his shirt?"
"Look, we really don't have time for this right now. Loki is dying and I need your help"
"What? Where is he?" He frowned, concerned but still watchful. "And why should I believe you in the first place?"
"He's safe. Away from here..." She answered, searching for Thor's eyes in the dark. "And you will have to trust me for a second and come here."
Ivy held out her hand to him, palm facing upwards. She was prepared for this. She had known she needed proof.
"What are you doing?" Thor asked a little warily as Ivy stepped towards him. He rose his weapon, ready to defend himself, but before he could hit her, Ivy had placed her hand on his chest.
Then, Thor saw images of his own childhood. Memories of him and Loki, causing trouble around the palace. Images of their mother, their father and their friends. Little moments of his past he had long forgotten about. He smiled at the sighed, but then it was gone again.
"How did you do that?" He asked quietly, letting his arms drop to his side. Somehow he was very certain of the fact now that she wasn't a threat to him.
"Loki showed me. And now I show you, because you know your brother well and you know that he would not share these memories with me if he didn't trust me."
Thor nodded. She had a point there; Loki didn't open up to anyone. Ever. The girl in front of him must truly be special to his brother. But that also meant that she spoke the truth, Loki was dying. For real this time.
"How can I help?" He finally asked, and Ivy went on to explain her plan.
"We're looking for a book Loki has read."
Thor let out a groan and rolled his eyes. "He has probably read every single book in the whole palace. Twice."
"We're looking for a very specific book, from Midgard." Ivy ignored his pessimism. "It should be in his room, but it would take me ages to find."
"Yeah he has hundreds of books in there."
"And that's why I need your help. We need to find that damn book as fast as possible or there won't be no helping him anymore."
"You can help him with a book from Midgard...? Why didn't you just ask him what's in the book?" Thor questioned, earning an eye-roll from Ivy. Geez, she got now why Loki was constantly annoyed with Thor. He wasn't really the smartest hen in the pen.
"We must go now." She simply stated, grabbing Thor's wrist and bringing them into Loki's room.
"Wow, how'd you do that?" He asked in bewilderment.
"It's called magic, Thor, honestly, don't you pay any attention?" She huffed, starting to dig through the books immediately.
"I have an idea. Wait here!" Thor said excitedly and hurried out of the room. If he was getting the guards, Ivy would totally stab him. Wow. Totally get it now... She smiled sadly to herself.
Loki owned all kinds of books, but nothing about plants would surface. A few minutes later, Ivy heard voices outside Loki's bedroom.
"Is she the girl who killed the guards in the forest?" A man asked.
"And who almost killed another dozen in the city?" Another added.
"And she stole my clothes." The woman's voice Ivy recognized.
"You do realize I can hear you, right?" Ivy said loudly, though not taking her eyes off the books. "You can just as well talk about me once you're in here, searching."
The door opened and Thor entered, behind him following three men and the lady Loki had called Sif.
"Ivy, these are my friends." Thor introduced awkwardly. "Guys, this is Ivy. She's Loki's friend!"
Ivy turned around for a second, faking a smile. "Great. Now, search!"
Thor rolled his eyes but started picking up books to identify their content, mentioning for his friends to do the same.
"Geez, she is just as good-humored as Loki himself." One of the men said under his breath. Ivy could also feel the other three staring holes into her back. Only Thor seemed rather at ease with her around.
"You can talk to me, you know.." She finally said, having enough of the silent judging.
"Why did you kill the guards in the forest?" One man asked immediately. He was huge and had red hair and a beard.
"Because I felt like it. " She answered sarcastically and rolled her eyes to herself, but then decided for honesty. "They were chasing me. I had done no harm, I was merely walking through the woods when they attacked me, probably out of boredom or the desire for my body, who knows. One stabbed me in the shoulder and I felt the need to defend myself."
Silence followed for a while. Then the same man spoke up again. "But why would they just attack you if you hadn't done anything?"
"I can hardly ask them now, can I? They are your guards, not mine." She answered coldly.
"She really is so much like Loki, it's disgusting..." Sif sighed.
"Well thank you!" Ivy responded in an exaggeratedly high pitched voice.
"That was no compliment." Grumbled Sif, throwing a book into a corner of the room.
"Why do you help me then if you despise Loki so much?" Ivy asked out of honest interest for once, while she quickly flipped through a huge book with a blank cover.
"We are helping Thor, not Loki. Because he is our prince and our friend." Another man with blonde hair answered. The other three made noises of agreement.
"And I help you because you care about my brother as much as I do." Thor finally said. "And to be honest with you, I never quite understood why Loki was arrested with you in the first place. I mean, you killed our people... But he didn't help you with that, did he?"
Ivy sighed, growing more nervous by the second as still no one had found the book she was looking for. "No, he had nothing to do with that. He only healed me when I was dying from poison."
"There have been quite many incidents of poisoning in the city and also the palace actually..." The man with the beard answered. "I just overheard a few guards talk about it today. They think it's just coincidence and they don't know what kind of poison is used anyway."
"What? Why has no one told me?!" Thor's voice thundered through the room.
"They think they can get it under control before anyone important gets hurt." Beard guy said quietly, obviously feeling ashamed for not sharing this piece of information sooner.
"Is that what happened to Loki?" Thor asked, concern filling his voice now. Ivy didn't answer, but simply nodded. Not that those idiots would consider him an important person anyway. But to Ivy, Loki was important. Maybe to Thor as well. There was no time discussing this.
"Hey I found something! It has pictures of plants in it, but I can't read what the cover says..." Blonde guy finally said and Ivy brought herself across the room to stand directly in front of him in an instant, harshly grabbing the book from his hands, making him take a step backwards.
"Wow, she's hot and knows how to handle herself..." Blonde guy remarked, rising his eyebrows, but Ivy was too busy finding the right page to care about him.
"At least she's not stabbing anyone." Beard guy sighed.
"Not yet anyway..." Blonde guy smirked. "Maybe I'll stab her with something entirely different tonight..."
Without as much as looking up from the book, Ivy threw a heavy punch at his face, causing his nose to bleed like mad. Sif snorted at him from a few feet away.
"Here, I found the plant!" Ivy yelled in excitement. "Atropa belladonna..."
"What? Is that what poisoned Loki, seriously?" Blonde guy asked through his hand with which he was still holding his bleeding nose.
"Here it says that one has to get carbo medicinalis and dissolve it in water, then get the person to drink it." She summarized. "Brilliant! Though I seriously could've thought of that myself, dammit..."
"Carbo what?" Thor asked with a deep frown, looking at Ivy for an explanation.
"That's activated charcoal. It binds the toxins and prevents them from killing a person." Ivy responded quickly and in easy words for them to understand, turning to Thor as well. "Do you have something like that here?"
"We can go to the healers, they will know." He said and hurried out of the room, Ivy following closely behind, shoving the book into her bag quickly.
"Should we come along?" Beard guy asked after a while of silence.
"Yes!" Blonde guy said. "I need to get my nose checked!"
Sif only rolled her eyes at him and they went to follow the other two.
"We need carbo... medi... midi..." Thor tried once he and Ivy came storming into the healer's rooms.
"Carbo medicinalis." Ivy quickly said, turning to the surprised woman in front of them.
"Well, what..." She tried but Ivy cut her off by stepping right in front her, giving her a death glare. "There's no time for this, do you have it or not?"
The poor healer looked to Thor for help, but he didn't make any move to stop this mad raven woman from threatening her with her glares.
"We... There must be some with the remedies from other realms." She said and quickly scurried towards a cupboard in the far back of the room.
Meanwhile Ivy grabbed a cup and shoved it into her bag before she followed the healer.
"How much do you need?" The healer asked quietly.
"Everything you have." Ivy answered quickly and took the palm-sized bundle from the healer, then turning to Thor once more who stood helplessly in the middle of the room.
"Tell your father about the incidents in the city. And tell him I'm going to deal with it, as his guards are obviously unable to do so." Without waiting for an answer, Ivy disappeared just in the same moment when Sif and the others entered the room.
"You just let her go?" Sif asked incredulously.
"She will save Loki. Of course I let her go!"
"If she hurts people again, you will know whose fault it is."
A.N.: I'm not medically trained and therefore only rely on internet research. Pls don't complain about these kinda things because I'm doing my best to write this for amusement and not medial research.