Troublesome Prince
Crys is beginning to regret every single decision that she had made throughout her entire life that had brought her up to this point. For some odd reason, she is actually on her way to strike some sort of negotiation with a prince, of all people, never in a thousand years would she have thought this would ever happen. She had debated on this thoroughly within her head for the remainder of the day, whether or not it was a good idea to even meet up with Loki. In the end, she decided to at least hear out what the god of mischief has to say to her. If she disagrees, there is always the option to beat the guy up. Though it may prove a little bit more difficult than usual since he’s royalty, she’ll just have to cross that bridge when she gets to it.
It was nearing midnight now, the time that they had decided for their meeting. Presently, Crys was standing in the center of the palace grounds, her form shrouded in the shadows of the late night. She was staring up the largest balcony in the Asgardian Palace, knowing that this would very well be one of her last chances to turn back and change her mind. Shaking her head at herself, Crys spread her wings. With her previous slip-ups that day, she was reluctant to make any more of them. So, she made sure that her wings were properly veiled using seidr.
It created the illusion that she was a woman floating on nothing but air; If anyone were to see, they would most likely assume that she is a powerful witch of a sort who learnt how to levitate herself. People can believe whatever they choose to believe. As long as it was not the truth, Crys was perfectly fine with it. Thankfully though, she only had to do it for a few seconds since it uses enough of her energy already, hence the reason she walked all the way there. After flying upwards, she landed on her knees atop the glimmer gold flooring of the palace.
“Who goes there?” Crys hears a gruff voice call out, prompting her to curse the gods underneath her breath. That bastard Loki must have ratted me out to the guards. It was a trap, and it was incredibly stupid of her to have not seen this coming from miles away. After all, she was dealing with the trickster god himself. She got up and took the liberty of examining her current situation. Crys was currently surrounded by four guards, and more could come at any moment. “Tell us your business sneaking here at this hour, sorceress.”
Crys had to play her cards carefully, try to walk out of this predicament of hers without a fight. Any scuffle at the palace grounds is sure to catch all the unwanted attention that she has been avoiding for the past few centuries. “Well, you see…” She started, her mind desperately trying to come up with something else to say, “It is quite difficult to say the full extent of why I’m here.” Sadly, talking was not her strongest suit. From the corner of her eye, she sees one of the guards shift his position so he had his weapon at the ready. “I would rather not fight with any of you.” She added blankly, seeing the rest of them draw out their own weapons.
“Leave, now.” One of the other guards spoke, staring her down through the gaps of his helmet. The Ice Fairy briefly turned to glance behind her, where her only route of escaping was. If she were to take that chance though, there was a possibility that her wings would be seen. She doesn’t retreat that often anyways, and Crys prefers to keep it that way. “Or we’ll have no choice.” There’s no way that she’s gonna run.
“My apologies but I’m not too keen on losing, especially to some random palace guards.” Crys smirked as two silver longswords manifested into her grips. All four guards tensed as they prepared themselves to attack, Crys acted too fast for them to strike first. She quickly swung her sword at one of the guards next to her and then proceeded to give another guard behind her a good kick in the stomach. One of the other guards went to strike her with his broadsword, failing miserably. The blade narrowly missed her right shoulder as she spun to dodge it.
“Stop this nonsense at once.” She heard a familiar voice boom, the sound resonating throughout the balcony. This caused the guards to freeze in their tracks, giving Crys some leeway to face their new arrival. She found herself making eye contact with Loki himself, who was standing there in his eminent green and gold armor as his hand held on tightly to a golden spear. The latter detail made the Ice Fairy tilt her head in confusion. Last she checked, that spear only ever belonged to the allfather.
“Our King.” The guards spoke in perfect unison, dropping onto one knee before him. Now, this confused Crys even more. What the hell is happening? This whole time, she thought that she was gonna meet up with a prince, and now it turns out that he somehow made his way to kingship since the last time they had talked; which was merely a few hours ago. This just made her even more disappointed in how far she had fallen already, conversing with kings.
“She’s with me.” Loki declared, his voice taking on a slightly more authoritative tone. “Leave us be.” Crys watched as the guards that seemed to be fully prepared to fight her just a moment ago just cleared the room without any questions whatsoever. After all, they were in no place to doubt the new kings’ judgment. Once it was just the fairy and the giant left alone on the balcony, Loki turned to smirk at her. “It’s nice to cross paths once more, Crys.”
“How are you an entirely different person every single time that I meet you?” She chuckled as she glanced around once again at her surroundings, wanting to be incredibly sure that this wasn’t actually some sort of trap. One can never really tell when it comes to the god of mischief and lies, she’s gotta be more careful.
“I guess it’s just part of my charm.” Loki remarked with a laugh, his emerald eyes glimmering with a sense of something that Crys just can’t seem to put her finger on. She also can’t help but to notice that he shifted his position somewhat to make it so that his stance would be less taxing, which also made him appear significantly less imposing than a minute ago. “I genuinely didn’t think that you would take me up on my offer.”
“Don’t take my arrival the wrong way, Loki.” She said as she pursed her lips tightly together, not wanting him to get the wrong idea. “I haven’t agreed to anything just yet.” She added steadily, taking a few steps forward to close up the gap between them a bit more. “Also…” Crys turned her gaze up again, despising the fact that she needs to slightly crane her neck in order to get a proper good look at him. “Since when were you Asgard’s king?”
“Since just this afternoon.” Loki answered as he averted his gaze from Crys and towards the midnight sky. “I don’t know if you have heard, but my father fell into a deep sleep after… after everything that happened back at the weapons vault.” He added dismally, walking over to the golden railings to lean over it. His gaze only focused on that night’s scenery and nothing else. “My mother fears that he may never wake again.” He let out an audibly shaky sigh. Crys was sure that this was some sort of ploy.
“Alright then Loki, drop the trickery.” She said as she looked at the ruminative expression that he had plastered on his face, causing Loki to slowly turn his head to face her once more. “You are trying to make me think that I somehow broke through the walls of the troublesome prince of Asgard.” She leaned her back against the balcony railings, whilst waving her hands in exaggerated motions. “Due to that, I’m gonna think that I’m so special and then let my guard down.” She added unblinkingly, watching as Loki seemed to have breathed out some sort of laugh. “It’s not gonna work on me, you know.” She couldn’t help but to smirk at herself.
“Well, then.” He tsked. “In my defense, I didn’t really think that it would work on you.”
“Whatever.” Crys sniggered, waiting to get this over with. “Just tell me about your little proposition that you invited me all the way here for.”
“Fine, if you insist.” He said as he stood up straight. A smug smile painted itself on his face as he sauntered over to where Crys situated herself and then proceeded to grab at her wrist. This constituted a glare from the Ice Fairy but the king paid it no heed, he was lucky that she didn’t choose to smack him over the head with a blade just yet. “You’re gonna help me destroy Jotunheim.”
“Sounds enticing.” Crys muttered, a small smirk playing on her lips. This wasn’t exactly what she expected, even from the dastardly god, but it was too promising for her to just downright ignore. “You have my ears, trickster.”
“You did mention that you had a hatred for frost giants.” Loki reminded her, recounting something that she had said from their conversation inside the vault. “I know that you dislike both Asgard and Jotunheim but you’ve got to admit, it’s something.” He releases his grip on her wrist and turns to look over the balcony once more. This time his gaze was less pensive than earlier, determination shining through. “I would love to do it myself, but… I guess some help wouldn’t hurt.”
“Are you sure that you want to destroy Jotunheim?” Crys questions Loki, still doubting how good the offer was sounding for her. “Especially in regards to your newest revelations.” She added, causing his face to grow more tense the more she talked. “If this is some kind of self-hatred thing, you should really talk to someone about it before you jump to destroying a realm.” She was enjoying herself as Loki turned to glare at her. “Do your people even know the truth about who sits on their throne?”
“You’ll do yourself some good if you forget that ordeal entirely.” Loki warned, the threat was clear as day with his dangerous tone. “So… Will you join me?”
“What do you need me for, anyways?” She asked him, crossing her arms across her chest. “If you claim that you can very well pull it off on your own, why don’t you?” She can’t let herself be tempted by the nature of the offer, that’s what he would want her to do. “How can I be so certain that this isn’t some trick from the god of tricks himself?”
“You don’t. Similar to how I can never be really sure if you’re gonna turn around and stab me in the back; You’re no god of lies but you don’t have the best track record either, Crys.” He answered quickly without any hesitation. “You’re just gonna have to trust the untrustworthy, as am I.” Crys was beginning to see his point, there was a mutual distrust between the two of them but if they somehow work things out, the reward will be glorious. “If it helps, I’ll give you the casket when it’s all over.”
“...You’ll what?” Crys asked, her eyes wide. She wasn’t sure if she heard correctly or not.
“Once we have successfully eliminated that dreadful race of frost giants, I’ll give you the Casket of Ancient Winters in return.” He told her, elaborating further on what he said. Crys’ interest in his proposition had just increased hundredfold.
“Rewards aside…” She began, tilting her head to the side as she attempted to find any sign from him that would be able to tell her that it was all a lie. “How would you propose that we destroy the realm? That’s not exactly the easiest thing to do, you know.”
“I’m very well aware.” He told her, placing his hands onto his waist. “I have come upon this particularly easy way to destroy any of the nine realms. Me being myself, however, I’m planning to make things a bit more fun.”
“That’s all good and stuff, but let me ask you once again.” Crys watches as his eyebrows raise, forehead slightly creasing. “What is it that you needed me specifically for?”
“Well, I assume that you know all about how my reputation is.” He says, his tone lighthearted with a small chuckle on his part. “My brother’s friends are surely gonna try their best to foil our plans.” Crys couldn’t help but to feel captivated by the glimmer of mischief in his smile. “Now Crys, you are gonna be the third party that’s gonna give me information on their going-ons.”
“What makes you think that I even have the capability to do something like that?”
“I know for a fact that you were lurking after what was supposed to be my brother’s coronation, along with you listening in to my conversation with my father earlier today.” Loki told her, not even slightly surprising Crys about the fact that he knew about the first one. “Or if you want to try something new, you can also talk to the oafs pretending to be some childhood friend of mine from Nornheim.”
“Let’s see what I end up doing.” Crys said as she could barely contain the shadow of a smile on her face.
“So, will you join me?” Loki raised his eyebrow as he asked her the question, most probably already knowing what she’s gonna answer.
“I don’t see a reason as to why not.”