Composure Amongst Sharks
Frigga died. Her funeral was lovely, the wake had countless attendees, and now the day had arrived for the reading of her will. According to Odin, they both did their wills separately to the extent of using separate firms. The reading was done in their home, in the grandiose living room that hadn’t emptied in days, and at a desk that was pulled from Odin's study. While dozens of family and friends waited, the husband and birth child of the deceased had stifled conversation. The two sat in the front, Loki was not with them.
They always had a strained relationship, the passing of Frigga did not ease that, and a fight at the wake was the final nail in the coffin that put Loki in the back of the room. So amongst hopeful lifelong staff, spotty acquaintances, and legal teams, he could only watch the scalps of his brother and father.
The only conversation Loki could hear was the greediful hopes and disgusting attacks that those around him whispered. To hear the legacy of his mother reduced to a possible cache to win, it caused his already fragile stomach to churn. It all died down as soon as a man sat down behind Odin's desk. His clothes looked drab, well worn, and exactly like something a homely servant of death would wear. This man must have been the executor of Frigga’s will.
“Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. My name is Mobius, Frigga trusted me to be the executor of her will, which just means I make sure her final wishes are seen through, part of which includes a reading of the will. This event’s purely optional, with no impact on any beneficiaries, she only wanted to hold this event to speed up the process and to help prevent any disputes. Think of this as the finale,” as he opened the binder, air was sucked from the room by the tentative audience. Unfortunately, the first page was just legal niceties, verifying Frigga was of sound mind and of free will when composing her will, that Mobius was the official executor, and so on.
Odin received most of what they shared, the furniture, the cars and planes, the horses; not only that but the majority of her savings, an envelope, and an ornate chest that seemed to have been quite full. From what Loki saw, he looked satisfied- like he received exactly what he expected and nothing more. Thor received her wedding ring (along with a few other pieces of jewelry), an envelope, a chest similar to Odins, property upstate, a third of her stocks and shares, a large amount of books, two paintings, heirlooms they agreed upon earlier, and three quilts she had made throughout her lifetime. Thor- for his condition- seemed very grateful, thanking Mobius and holding one of the quilts on his lap for the remainder of the reading. Seeing how Thor clutched the quilt made him look like a homesick child again.
Loki exhaled, even though it was a mournful time, composure was still needed. This was the most fearful part of his mothers passing (on a legal scale that is); his mother clearly loved him, but Odin only allowed so much. Only so much showing off of their child, only so much PDA, only so much giving. He worried that his mother wouldn’t leave him much because of that, or if she gave Loki more than Odin saw appropriate he would pry everything away from him. Getting just enough to remember his mother by yet not enough to show up on Odin's radar was everything to Loki at this moment.
“To my youngest child, Loki, I give you a third of my stocks and shares, my engagement ring, the following list of books from my personal library,” Mobius waved a thick stack of papers that paralleled Thors, “my horse, Sleipnir, which despite your fathers use was purchased and cared for under my name, and the stable he is kept in,” Loki could see the posture of his father change, but ignored it, “and the entire property, and contains of what it stores, of my eastern summer home-”
“Don’t you mean by the coast? Or up north?” Odin spoke.
“No sir, those two locations were shared by the two of you. Frigga owned this home outright.” Mobius, for the first time, looked up from the binder and objects around him, and to the eye of Odin.
“That is ridiculous, I’ve never heard of such a place, you must have gotten the location wrong.”
“I have the address right here if you wanna check, but she did inform me that you may or may not have known about it,” Mobius turned the binder around to face Odin, who got up and stepped over.
“She must have not,” Odin sat back down in his chair, and whispered over to Thor, who uttered something back.
Mobius waited a moment before returning to his reading, “the entire property, and contains of what it stores, of my eastern summer home, on conditions that you will be informed about by Mr. Mobius. I wish that you not only accept this agreement, but that you fulfill it as well.”
Mobius continued the reading with very little hiccups, the remaining third of her investments went off to friends who were struggling and her favorite employees. No one left empty handed, some people getting a single dollar so they had no grounds to dispute the will, others receiving entire lots of land despite meeting Frigga a handful of times, and the remainder of her savings and items went to charities or auction houses on the grounds the money would be donated. The legal teams all seemed to leave quickly, getting under the table seals of approval that they were no longer needed; only those who had items to pick up stayed till the end.
Thor was the first to come up to Loki, oddly no one else even wished him condolences for the entire reading, but Loki hopefully assumed it was because he looked a tad off putting (his version of all black was less traditional than others, and his height did not help). Thor still had the quilt from before, and scooped Loki into his arms. Even in death Thor gave good hugs.
“It seems Mother treated you well,”
“Conditionally of course,” Loki didn’t mean to sound rude, but he had a point.
“I’m sure there’s a reason for it, she loved you greatly and I don’t think she would ever do something like this without a good reason.”
Loki nodded and looked at the quilt, which upon closer inspection was the bedspread of Thor's childhood bed. “She gave you quite a few books,”
Thor nodded, “I looked over the list. Most are academic journals and textbooks.”
“She knew you well,” Loki managed a smile, Thor was always sociable and strong so many assumed him less intelligent than his brother. In reality, Thor studied just as much as Loki but chose fields that he didn't use often. People like Thor weren't often asked about astronomy or obscure foreign languages. Frigga was one of the few people who not only recognized this, but supported it. Attending lectures together, listening to him talk for hours, and visiting museums and planetariums even when he was a child. Most thought Frigga was forcing him along, trying to make him a savant, but it was always Thor who insisted on going.
Before the two could talk any further, Loki noticed Odin begin to storm over. Loki’s face dropped and Thor turned around to see what could bring about such a shift. But right as Odin cleared the last cluster of guests, Loki felt a hand touch his upper arm.
“Loki Laufeyson? Can I talk to you for a minute?” It was Mobius.
“Yes, that would be lovely.”
Mobius whisked Loki away before Odin was within speaking distance, and they landed in an empty kitchen.
“I was wondering if I could talk to you about your portion of the will? I’m emailing the whole document out after this, but I think it would serve you best if we had a meeting to talk about it.”
“Why would we need a meeting?”
“Well, she included an adequacy of consideration- just something you need to do on your end so the contracts are fair and everything.”
“I know what adequacy of consideration is. But why am I the only person here who has to do all this?”
“I said the same thing to her, but Frigga insisted. She really wanted your arrangement to be valid and not voidable in case someone tried to dispute the will to screw you over, and so to make this whole thing ironclad we included an adequacy of consideration and everything else a valid contract has.”
“But this is a will, not a contract.”
“Her words, not mine. Listen, I have to get back out there and help hand everything out and I know you wanna tail it out of here. So does Tuesday at 10 work for you?”
“I- I mean sure but,”
“Great, here’s my card, has the address of my office on it, have a nice day Loki and I’m sorry for your loss.” Mobius shoved a business card into Loki's hand and quickly exited. The card was a light beige with the standard information and the business logo in a rusty orange, weirdly enough it was quite fitting for the man. Loki digested the whirlwind interaction, and slipped out the employee entrance of the house. By around 7 that night, Loki received a PDF of the will, and unfortunately Mobius was right. It would definitely need a meeting.