Chapter 9
Loki's working at the buckles and fastenings of his ceremonial armor, the servant sent to prepare him for Thor's Coronation having stepped away for a moment to put away his nightwear, when Loki feels Amora's familiar presence arrive in his room. Smirking in the mirror, knowing he's meeting Amora's invisible gaze, Loki calls out "You may leave to go prepare yourself for the celebrations, Halstein."
There's an audible squeak of shock, and then said servant comes running over before practically falling all over himself to stop in the doorway. "Are you sure, Your Highness?! I mean- pardon me, it's just- that is to say-" Far as he's aware, Prince Thor, soon to be King Thor, is still attempting to get sober and being bathed and clothed.
Loki nods, cutting him off, and says "I'm sure. Go, enjoy yourself during the festivities."
The servant nods his head hastily, and practically runs out the door - he didn't think the Prince knew his name, much less would release him early to go and prepare himself for the coronation and feast!
As soon as the door shuts, it locks itself and several Wards spring up before Amora reveals herself to be directly behind him via wrapping her arms around him. She leans into him, most likely standing on her tiptoes if he had to guess, and whispers right behind his ear "Well, well, Trickster, don't you look fancy today?"
Loki spins around, trapping her in his arms and taking her mouth in a quick kiss - even invisible, he knows exactly where she is at all times thanks to them being Soulmates. Not to mention the detail that he can sense her magic even realms away. After a minute spent enjoying the warmth in his arms, Loki teasingly asks "Going to reveal your dress, Enchantress? Or do you want to surprise me?"
Amora chuckles, then says "Close your eyes, Loki." Loki obliges, and waits a moment until she says he can open them again - what he sees takes his breath away. Amora's in a deep-blue and sparkling silver one-arm dress that hugs her body, a small trail piled up at her feet and her hair done up in an intricate braid that shows off her slender neck, held in place with a silver hair comb with sapphires he made for her, delicate jawline, and high cheekbones. The snakes she always wears on her arms are silvery to go with her dress, Seleana sitting on her collarbone and around her neck and glamoured to look decorative.
Loki stares at her, speechless for a moment, wondering how in all the Nine Realms he got so lucky as to have this enchanting woman for a Soulmate. Amora blushes after a minute spent under Loki's adoring gaze, and says "It's nothing much, Loki, just some old dress I dug out of the Wardrobe and dusted off-"
Loki cuts her off by putting one hand at the small of her back, the other going under her chin to turn her gaze towards him, and he quietly - reverently - says "You look enchanting. All of Asgard should be blinded by your beauty, you know that?"
Amora sputters, trying and failing to find a comeback even after all these centuries - one lasting effect her relatives had on her, she's always been weak to his compliments after going so long being told she was worthless in every possible way. Seventeen years might not seem like a lot to a people who live thousands of them, but when it's the first of them, when it's the time one's perception of themselves and the world around them forms…it can make all the difference in the world. It's probably why he'll never get tired of complimenting her, knowing she'll never just expect it or take it for granted.
Tonight, Loki decides, is going to be a good night, regardless of the detail that Thor's ego will undoubtedly shoot through the palace roof as soon as he's named King of Asgard - while he may like balls, political parties, and celebratory feasts as much as Amora does, which is not in the slightest, he's going to thoroughly enjoy showing off the extraordinary beauty that is his Soulmate tonight.
It may be Thor's night, and Loki isn't going to ruin it for him, but that doesn't mean everyone will be staring at him as he gets black-out drunk yet again during the ensuing party.
Jormangundr, who's currently wrapped around Loki invisibly, seems to agree if the hissed conversation between himself and Seleana is anything to go by.
Loki raises an eyebrow at the sight of Hela, her own hair contained within a spiky-looking headdress, speaking with their mother - from the look on Amora's face, she didn't know Hela would be dropping by either. "Mother, Sister."
Frigga nods to him, and Hela says "Brother. Amora. Good to see you two." After a moment spent observing Amora's arm hooked through Loki's elbow, Hela quirks a half-grin for a moment and asks "Hades isn't going to be an uncle to anyone else any time soon, is he?"
The real, unasked question hangs in the air, and Amora shakes her head and says "Not as of yet, no."
Nobody but them knows Hades is Hela's Soulmate, or that Loki and Amora are Soulmates either - or that the two of them have been sleeping together since before they even returned to Asgard that first time, they've been extremely careful in that regard - not even Thor or Odin, for obvious reasons to the small group. Odin raised and trained Hela for war, molded her into a weapon of mass destruction…and then punished her when she wanted war and he got bored of it even though war is what she'd been born and raised for. So, he cast her out, banished her to the underworld and attempted to make it permanent by tying it to his life force - he hadn't known of the Hallows, however. Hela put her own magic into it, and it lets her leave the Underworld whenever she pleases ever since Amora was chosen.
And, if she wants to see just what Odin will do, when by all accounts Thor's ten times as arrogant as she ever was and only a fraction as powerful, has no justification for being as warmongering as he is when he's never gone to war…well, that's her business.
As much as Thor grates on her nerves, as much as he makes her want to scream and tear hair out…she doesn't want to see him broken like Odin almost broke her - it's only because of Kali, Osiris, and Hades that she isn't broken anymore.
Hades is her Soulmate, Kali her best friend, and Osiris is practically their on-call therapist as well as their soul-doctor. And it took them nobody-knows-how-long to piece her back together after she arrived.
Loki glances around at the packed Great Hall, what must be most of Asgard's people is crammed into the space for Thor's coronation. Sif and the Warriors Three are on the right side of the steps to the throne, Frigga, Hela, himself, and Amora on the left. And, from the way Sif seethes at that, she knows what it means perfectly well - Amora may be here as the Queen's former student, officially, but if anyone bothered to put two and two together they'd know she's considered family by Frigga. They haven't been that subtle about the broader details of their relationship, after all - if anyone ever bothered to pay attention, they'd figure out either the two of them are making a scandal to spread across the entirety of the Nine Realms...or they're Soulmates. Of course, nobody's ever bothered to actually do as much, content to whisper about them when they think the two Magic-Wielders are out of earshot.
He knows the instant Thor walks into sight, because a deafening cheer starts up from the people as he strides forward waving his hammer around and showing off for the crowd. When the blonde finally gets to the foot of the steps and kneels down, Odin bangs Gungir once for silence.
Once the hall is completely quiet, Odin starts on a speech. Calling Thor his heir, much to Loki, Hela, and Amora's non-amusement - that should rightfully be Hela's title, after all - and his firstborn son - would he have left that off if Amora had never been chosen by the Hallows and freed Hela? - and goes on about Mjolnir and how mighty it is. He has Thor swear to guard the Nine Realms, preserve the peace, and cast aside all selfish ambitions and pledge himself only to the good of the realm - again, Loki, Amora, and Hela share a glance because there is no way Thor will actually be able to keep that particular promise.
Odin's literally one word from naming Thor King of Asgard when he suddenly stops, looks out over the hall, and mutters "Frost giants!"
He bangs his spear on the floor once more, and Amora leans over to Loki and hisses "I can already see the temper tantrum brewing. Want to head to earth for a few years?" Teddy's already attending Ilvermorny, America's version of Hogwarts only about a thousand times safer - as thoroughly vetted by Amora and Loki before they even considered sending him there - but they can still be there in the summer months. And Hermione's become not only a renowned name in the Potions Field - much to all their cackling at the look on Draco Malfoy's face when he realized just who it is he was having a civil conversation about over the different applications of a Potion she invented - while Luna's become almost scary in how she seems to know what's troubling them from all the way on another Realm. They're almost positive she's a Seer, now. And the looks the Twins had when Loki visited their shop, much less the prostrating and hero-worship, were simply hilarious.
Loki nods, hissing "That would be preferable to dealing with Thor's latest and undoubtedly most destructive fit of temper, Amora. Perhaps we could visit Luna, see if the Nargles tell her anything. And meet this Rolf she spoke of last time."
Sure enough, Thor wants to march to war on Jotunheim upon finding just how far the Frost Giants had gotten - they had the Casket, they killed the guards, and Thor's fuming over his big day being ruined. Especially when Odin declares he's not King of Asgard yet - he hadn't said the word, therefore Thor hasn't officially been crowned yet.
Hela facepalms, muttering about 'the same old mistakes' and takes the dead guards' souls to the underworld via a portal Amora opens up for her.
Thor almost literally storms out, not noticing the lightning arcing between his strands of hair or the ozone forming around him as he goes to the feasting hall. When he sees the servants clearing the feast, he stalks over, pushes two of them to the floor, and overturns the entire table, food and all, in his fury.
Loki and Amora watch from the doorway, invisible to everyone else, as Sif and the Warriors Three come in…and Sif chastises Thor over the upside-down table, asking "Redecorating, are we?"
Loki glares at Sif, nobody DARES talk to a Prince of Asgard like that so flippantly! Amora will yell at Thor, yes, but only when he's pulling some bone-headed stunt such as holding his head still while his lips are sewn shut! She doesn't casually comment on either of their behaviors…where anyone but Loki can hear it, anyway. In Parseltongue, perhaps, but that doesn't count seeing as only they can understand it. Also, she's his Soulmate which gives her much more leeway than Sif has, and she knows where the line is for her and not to cross it! She's certainly never been so casual about anything of this severity!
Volstagg, meanwhile, is mourning all the food Thor just threw to the ground without a care in the world - and Amora is justifiably seething at it. Loki can understand why she would be doing so, considering the number of times her relatives made her go hungry after preparing them a full meal for dinner - so, for Thor to just cast a literal feast to the ground without a care in the world as to the preparation it took, or the people it could feed, it makes her blood boil. On top of that, he threw those two servants to the ground like they were nothing - again, Amora's got a thing about that.
As they silently watch, Thor quickly convinces the group of warriors to go with him to Jotunheim - finally, Loki reveals himself to give his reasons why he's not going to Jotunheim with them. Aside from the detail that his skin turns blue in extreme cold, he's no particular desire to go to Jotunheim - he's made his peace with his blue skin, red eyes, and runic markings, largely due to Amora, Hela, Hades, and Frigga's aid, but he's no desire to reveal his heritage to Thor and company and the Frost Giants, and be found lacking by everyone but his Mother and Soulmate - they don't even know who his biological parents are, just that Odin took him from a temple when he took the Casket. His birth parents could be dead, or they could damn well hate him, and he's no real desire for either of those things to be proven true.
Thor and his friends can call it cowardice all they like, but Loki firmly believes he's got no business trespassing on Jotunheim…much less haring off on a madcap quest for vengeance disguised as getting answers.
Thor sees him at once, and says "Loki! Come, we're-"
Loki holds up a hand, saying "You're going to Jotunheim, yes, I gathered as much."
Thor frowns, saying "You are coming with, of course?"
Loki internally sighs at how he's expected to simply nod along and head to this suicide idea with them, and says "No, I'm going to find the breach inside the Weapons Vault and seal it."
Sif rolls her eyes, and says "Have the Witch do it, if she's so capable with magic as you and Queen Frigga say she is."
Loki can hear the underlying implication in Sif's words, that Amora's not all they say she is, but ignores them in favor of the opportunity she just presented him. "She can't," Sif gives a smug grin, opening her mouth to say something, but Loki continues "not by herself, at least. She's not a member of the royal family, and therefore not given free access to the Weapons Vault unsupervised. However, her aid would greatly speed things up. Besides, Thor, if the both of us disappear, Odin will know something's amiss. If just you vanish, he'll assume you've gone to brood. I'm sure you can more than handle getting a few answers from Jotunheim without causing any trouble."
All true, bar the last part. But Loki wants no part in this particular madness - he's got nothing to do with it, he's not getting involved now. Even if he did, it's not as though it would do any good - Thor won't listen to him anyway, any attempts at getting them out of Jotunheim alive would be dismissed at best and mocked and derided at worst.
Here's the dress Amora wears to the Coronation. Just imagine the snakes on the arms and Seleana at her neck, because I can't draw. And this is the hair comb.
