Interlude Fandral
Hogun and Fandral were on Nidaverill. The All-Father personally sent them to oversee the shipments.
Fandral thought about this situation when he was watching the working dwarves. The forge was working. The dwarves made ships quickly and efficiently. Anything to intervene in Midgard. Because of Loki. Loki who had been presumed dead for the past year. An empty boat was dispatched with a few of Loki's belongings. It must be admitted, however, that only the royal family was touched by this fact. Nobody else regretted him. The Queen cried and Thor held her. The All-Father had a very serious expression at the funeral. For several weeks he was pensive and watched the destroyed bridge. Shortly after the funeral, there was a feast in honor of Thor's return.
However, Loki survived and returned as the conqueror.
Loki as conqueror.
There was no more absurd statement.
Fandral had known Loki for a thousand years.
Loki has always been an intriguer. He had a strange mind, he was hid still in the library, and he was jealous of Thor.
He wasn't like the other Asgardians.
He tasted no food, no carnal or battle pleasures.
Yet Fandral would never have believed that for the sake of power, he would have betrayed Thor and destroyed his coronation.
The course of these events was still beyond Fandral's understanding.
Loki has always liked mischief.
However, he would never be traitor.
But.
He was a traitor.
He preferred power to Thor.
The coronation was interrupted, Thor banished and Loki enthroned.
And then he sent the Destroyer after them.
And now the conquest of Midgard.
What happened to Loki? The same one who constantly complained about their battles, preferred to sit in the palace library and always despised their entertainment?
Somewhere inside Fandral knew that he, Volstagg, Hogun, and Sif had never respected Loki's position. After all, he was their Prince. Fandral has never been as hard on Loki as the others. He was rather neutral. He did not interfere. Sif genuinely hated Loki. Hogun was very distrustful of Loki's magic due to some trauma to Vanaheim. Some disagreement with some clan of witches. The Hogun, of course, couldn't say it outright that he didn't trust Queen Frigga for that either. The All-Father would have cut his head off for something like that. Their king loved his wife very much and was always careful to no one to say a single bad word about her. Volstagg liked to laught of Loki. It gave him some wild pleasure. But of course Sif hated Loki the most. However, she had to respect his position. Fandral remembered how she still disrespected Loki as King of Asgard and Fandral had to literally stop her from attacking the King of Asgard in front of the guards.
Fandral suspected that the cause of the hatred was some strange delusion of Sif that it was Loki that made Thor refuse to marry her.
Fandral himself rather thought Thor simply preferred battle frenzy to women. Until he heard about the miraculous creature of Midgard that won Thor's heart. Earlier, when he saw her, he hadn't even suspected that Thor had fallen in love with her. Fandral himself found her quite pretty, but there were far more beautiful women at the court of Asgard. However, it is possible that Thor felt that her deadly admiration for him, God of Thunder, made up for her shortcomings.
But now Fandral stood watching the ships.
Asgard never needed ships to intervene. They always had Bifrost.
However, Thor destroyed the bridge to defeat Loki's madness.
Fandral himself and the rest of Asgard wouldn't have bothered if Loki had actually destroyed Jotunheim. However, Thor forbade it, and they were loyal to their future king. Fandral suspected that Thor found the destruction of Jotunheim dishonorable as it wasn't a battle, but another Loki trick. You shouldn't kill enemies this way. It had to be done in person.
"Heimdall reported that a new pair of shackles and a new gag must also be forged for Loki," said Hogun.
"He got away of it?" Fandral asked.
Hogun nodded.
"Then why should we order more shackles and a gag? You know Loki. He'll never take the same thing twice. Now we can't even put him on," said Fandral.
"Somehow we have to get the prisoner to Asgard," said Hogun.
"As if Loki allowed himself to do this. If Loki once escaped despite the shackles and gag, he will do it again. No point wasting uru on useless shackles and gag," Fandral said.
"So how are we gonna catch him?" Hogun asked.
"There are only two options. Either AllFather himself will force Loki back or he will have to be killed," said Fandral.
"The Queen" Hogun said.
"The Queen knows battles are dangerous. Even for her son," Fandral said.
"You were never strict with him. Me, Volstagg and Sif did. So why are you insisting on this now?" Hogun asked.
"I admit I was fairly neutral towards Loki, but if he has betrayed Thor once, he will do it again. He can't stay alive if we can't imprison him," Fandral replied.
"How will Thor react to that? After all, Loki is his brother," Hogun replied.
"My grandfather once told me that the All-father used to be more ruthless and it was the presence of Queen Frigga that changed him. So All-father will understand that Loki is too dangerous to be alive and Thor too will understand this fact" Fandral said.
"I remember your grandfather. Forseti, the God of Truth. He died when Thor and Loki were children. I don't know if Loki remembers it, but Forseti has always liked him," Hogun said.
"Yes, that's true. Grandfather had strange tastes. He was a valued counselor to the court. And he always preferred Loki to Thor. He was old man and he was strange he was in being a God of Truth that he liked Loki. Maybe he felt a kinship with Loki, who was to become the God of Lies? " Fandral replied.
"I don't know, your grandfather was really weird. I remember his eyes. They were even worse than the ones Heimdall has. They seemed to shine like all the stars and kept changing colors. He was always looking at you and he knew everything about you," Hogun said.
"Yes, Grandpa was weird. To this day, I don't know why he preferred Loki to Thor," Fandral said.