So Cold
The nightmares followed him out into the burnished orange light of the twin stars racing across Saraab's sky. Dread wrapped its cold, putrid hands around his throat, slithering its way down his spine to anchor Loki's feet to the purple grass. Clenching his hands into fists by his side, Loki watched Thor and Banner walk out into the open field and take in their surroundings. Thor was merely taking stock of what was around them but Banner wore a look of open curiosity and awe. Had Loki been in any state to do so, he might have made a comment about the tourist-like behavior.
The two idiots had been ready to rush off to collect the remaining infinity stones to keep them out of Thanos's hands, but Loki had managed to talk them out of it. Firstly because, as the new king of Asgard, Thor needed to check on the Dwarves of Nidavellir. Thanos’s gauntlet was of a distinctly dwarven make and the only way the Mad Titan could have gotten one made was by forcing the dwarves. Thor had a responsibility to everyone under Asgard's protection and even though they had no way of reversing the damaged wrought by Thanos, having Thor there to personally explain why Asgard had failed to come to Nidavellir's aid might still sooth some of their resentment.
And secondly, because Loki was not eager for a rematch with the Mad Titan any time soon. He had no wish to watch Thor or himself slaughtered and if that made Loki a coward, then so be it.
There will be no barren moon where you can hide. The Other's voice hissed inside his head and Loki grit his teeth. No. The Other was dead! Loki had seen that report being delivered to Thanos from the Hlidskjalf. Not to mention, a handful of days ago, Loki had survived a direct encounter with the Mad Titan. No. He had not just survived, he had come out victorious. Loki had brandished the Tesseract right before Thanos's face. Loki had reclaimed his brother and his people from the Mad Titan and Thanos had failed to cull the Asgardians. Thanos had failed. Because of Loki. Cementing that fact in his mind, Loki quashed the sliver of fear that was spreading it's tendrils through his soul.
So long as I have the Tesseract, I have nothing to fear.
Loki forced his foot forward, unsticking his limbs until he had joined his brother and Banner out in the open field.
I have nothing to fear. Loki reminded himself as he waved his hand through the air and pulled out the Tesseract from where he'd stored it. The air came alive with the Tesseract’s power, its siren song a constant melody somewhere in the back of his mind rose to the fore and it was all Loki could do to not give in to the lure of it. The Tesseract wanted to be used. It sang and it begged. It threatened and cajoled. It wanted to be used. It needed to be used. It wanted and it needed and it—
“Is something the matter, Loki?” Thor’s voice cut through the haze of power and Loki’s focus snapped to his brother.
“I’m sorry?”
“You’ve been standing there with the Tesseract for nearly five minutes now,” Thor gestured at the blue cube clutched between Loki’s fingers, “so I was wondering if something was wrong?”
Reality came crashing on Loki.
Wrong? Oh nothing much Thor. Just the fact that Thanos had the Power Stone in his possession and if not for Loki's quick thinking, none of them would have made it off the Statesman alive. His use of the casket of ancient winters in tandem with the Tesseract had taken Thanos by surprise once but the same trick wouldn't work twice. And Thor wanted to confront the Mad Titan and his Black order with just Loki and his idiot friend as back up.
Loki wouldn't be able to stall Thor forever. Maybe he could convince the idiot to escort the surviving dwarves in Nidavellir to someplace safer but what then? His excuses to keep the oaf from painting a target on his back by going after the infinity stones would run out sooner or later. And what if in the next confrontation, they failed? What if Loki failed? The phantom hand closed in around Loki’s throat and he could feel it choking the life out of him and oh Norns… Loki was scared. He was terrified. He did not want to do this. He did not want to risk his life again. He wanted to send the two idiots someplace safe and then run and keep on running for the rest of his days. Surely, if Thanos wanted to kill Loki, he would have to find him first. And with the Tesseract in his grasp, Loki could evade the Titan forever if he so wished it.
I’m scared. Loki swallowed the words of weakness. No I'm terrified. I don’t want to do this. Voicing them out loud, openly admitting to his cowardice was… I don’t want to lose you too. Loki shook his head and offered Thor a smile. “Everything is fine, Thor. Just recovering, you know.”
Liar! Snarled Sif inside his head and Loki barely managed to suppress a flinch at the way Thor’s expression crumpled to that of a kicked wolf cub. Shoving away the wave of guilt that drowned out his terror, Loki focused on his seidr and created a portal to Nidavellir.
Thor gave him a long, inscrutable look though whatever comments he had, he kept to himself, choosing to join Banner instead near the spot where the portal hovered above the purple grass. Loki watched the swirling black cloud swallow them both.
He will find you. And he will make you long for something as sweet as death. The Other’s putrid breathe brushed the shell of his ear and Loki froze. Panic gripped at his chest, cold and burning and Loki couldn’t breathe. A loud crash came from the other side of the portal.
Hela's voice replaced the Other's in Loki’s head. I should thank you for getting rid of the bumbling oaf for me.
Eyes going wide, Loki gasped, “No.”
What had Loki done? What had he just done?! He sent Thor into a trap! He sent the last of his family to his death!
Murderer! Hissed a myriad of voice that echoed around the empty plains as Loki stood there, unmoving and utterly useless.
Nonono… I-I… I didn’t mean to—
The Hulk’s roar jolted Loki out of his panic.
Summoning his knives, Loki shot through the portal. It was only the subconscious instinct of cloaking himself while at Thor's side for centuries that Loki concealed his presence before he appeared on the other side. Weapons at the ready Loki froze at the sight that greeted him. Whatever it was he had expected to face, watching an unkempt dwarf attack both Thor and Hulk while screaming obscenities had not been it.
Thor's answering yells were drowned out by the dwarf’s voice and the loud clang of bodies hitting abandoned metalworking stations. Ducking out of the way, Loki took stock of his surroundings, his heart stuttering at what he found carefully tucked away in an alcove. Rows upon rows of dwarf-sized bodies covered in hand-woven quilts and surrounded by Uru pots and mounds of herbs. Whoever the dwarf fighting against his brother was, they had been in the middle of performing the funerary rights of their fallen shield brothers. A quick scanning spell revealed no other living beings besides the four of them in their immediate vicinity.
Has he been by himself all this time? Loki shuddered as his mind conjured up a mirror image of Thor, alone and wandering through the corpse laden ghost ship Statesmen, gathering the fallen Asgardians with no one to help or talk to him. Loki winced when the dwarf struck Thor and sent him flying through the air, throwing the Hulk right after. The two crashed into the far wall one after the other. While his brother groaned and struggled to his feet, the beast shook itself and jumped back at their attacker with a roar. Thor followed soon after, lightning crackling around his body as he shot at the dwarf.
I need to stop them before they kill each other. Loki conjured an illusion between the dwarf and Thor as a distraction while using the chaos energy generated by the fight to power multiple precautionary spells. Projecting his voice through the illusion, Loki cried, "Wait!"
For a heartbeat, the warring parties froze and Loki was shocked to realize that the unkempt dwarf attacking his brother was none other than King Eitri. The dwarf squinted down at Loki before smashing his fists through the illusion and Thor who happened to be right behind it. The Hulk was next, receiving a fist to the face and a vindictive part of Loki crowed in delight. Finally, the beast had met its match.
Thor clambered back to his feet, swaying just a little as he rushed to intervene. The Hulk was getting its ass handed to it.
"Eitri!" Thor yelled as he caught dwarf’s fist. "Eitri, wait! It's me, Thor! And that's the Hulk. He’s a friend."
The dwarf king growled and swung his other fist. Thor grunted when the blow connected with his side but refused to relent. Loki frowned. There was something strange going on. Not once, during the fight so far had Eitri tried to bring out a weapon. In addition to being a master smith, Eitri was also a skilled weapons master so then why—light glinted off of Eitri's fists.
Oh Norns, his hands… a shudder raced down Loki’s spine as finally got a good look at Eitri’s mangled hands. Uru was smelted around all the way till the dwarf’s forearms. The ends stuck out in misshapen lumps that must have once been the dwarf king’s hands. No wonder, Eitri wasn’t using a weapon. He couldn’t…
“Thor?” Eitri gasped, slowly coming out of the berserker’s rage. His next words were cut short when the Hulk barreled into him and sent the dwarf crashing into a crucible.
“Hulk still the strongest!” the beast roared, slamming both fists on his chests in a show of strength and Loki decided that was a good time to show himself.
“No one is doubting that,” Loki said, as he sent an illusion to stand next to the beast while he himself, still cloaked, came up behind Thor. “Though I would suggest you keep your temper in check.”
Loki was suddenly very glad for having sent an illusion to the Hulk when the beast slammed his fist through Loki’s head. “Puny god!”
What is it with everyone trying to smash their fists through me? Loki wondered as he let the illusion fall apart. With the beast in such a volatile mood, it would be best to keep Thor between the two of them though Loki needn't have worried. The Hulk had already begun to shrink back into Banner.
“Eitri, I’m so sorry.” Thor hurried to where the dwarf king was struggling to sit up. “Are you alright?”
“Where were you?” Eitri gasped, tears shining bright in his eyes as he turned an accusing gaze on the three of them. “You were supposed to protect us. Where was Asgard when we needed it the most? Where were you?” Eitri demanded, his voice rising with every word.
“Eitri… I’m so sorry.”
“You apologies are useless to me, Prince Thor.” Eitri made a valiant effort to wipe his eyes though with is hands in such bad shape, it was of little use. “My people are dead. Slaughtered by the Mad Titan. We tried to defend the forge. Our warriors held off the Outriders' assault for three days. But when the Black Order joined in, we were quickly overrun. I had hoped… I had hoped that if I did as he asked of me, he would spare my people but he… he killed every last one. He said I had earned my life but not my hands. Do you see what did to me?” Eitri held up his mauled hands, voice growing soft as he repeated his question. “Where were you?”
“We would have come to your aid, King Eitri, had we known,” Loki said. He didn’t miss the flash of surprise on Eitri’s face when Loki stepped into the muted light.
“I see you are alive and well, Prince Loki,” Eitri said as he closed his eyes, bowing his head though Loki knew it wasn’t out of respect. “Asgard should have received our distress calls. We did everything to keep Thanos out for the sake of our alliance. The All-Father was the one who banned Thanos from the Nine Realms and yet, it was my people who sacrificed their lives to keep in an attempt to keep it that way. So I ask you again, where were you?”
“Fending off Hela and her legion of the undead to keep her from beginning her quest to reclaim the Nine Realms,” Loki replied.
“Asgard was destroyed in the process." Thor added.
Something akin to shock and then understanding flashed across Eitri's face but when he spoke, it was more a statement than a question. “So Odin is dead.”
“You knew about our sister?” Thor’s tone was full of accusation.
Eitri’s eyes snapped open as he shot Thor an infuriated scowl. “Of course I knew the crown princess. Everyone who is old enough to remember Odin’s warmongering days remembers the Goddess of Death, Hela Odinsdottir. Did she really destroy Asgard?"
"No, that was us. Well, it was Surtur if you really want to get technical," Loki said, enjoying how Eitri was suddenly at a loss for words. "We had to bring about Ragnarok to stop her."
"Wha— But... You set Ragnarok in motion? Really?" Was what Eitri settled for in the end.
Loki shrugged but before he could come up with a clever quip, Thor redirected the conversation. “Eitri, Thanos had a gauntlet, is that what he came here for? Did you make that for him?”
“He threatened to slaughter all who lived on the rings, if we didn’t do as he’d asked. What were we to do when Asgard failed us?” Eitri’s tone was defensive now. Next to Loki, Banner shifted uneasily. When Thor remained silent, Eitri’s voice grew louder. “Do you know what I’ve been doing since Thanos left?”
Loki found his gaze drawn to where the corpses of the dwarves were lined up. The Outrider corpses were nowhere in sight and Loki wondered what Eitri might have done with those.
"I have been collecting our fallen, trying to perform their final rights with these." Eitri held up his mangled hands.
"Eitri, I know it is too late now, but can we be of any assistance?” Thor asked.
"I appreciate the offer but these rights are to be performed by dwarves, alone."
Loki cast another look around the darkened workshop, studying the destruction and the long dried streaks and splotches of blood. In a corner near the hidden alcove, bent and broken weapons had been carefully lined up on a table with a pile of intact weapons and tools on the floor next to it. He knew Eitri would match each weapon to its wielder and then bend or break it in a way that it could not be used again. Unless something was left in a will to the wielder’s descendants, in which case, their tools would be the ones that were broken. The collection of weapons and tools was by the swirling purple and golden shields that were a signature of dwarven technomagic. Loki frowned upon realizing that all of the corpses had been of the same build and height. Where are the women and children?
"Eitri, are the non-combatants hiding in the Vaults?" Loki asked, uncaring of the surprise and anger on Eitri's face. "Ottarr and I used to sneak down there to study the enchantments."
Eitri's expression softened at the mention of the shape shifting dwarven mage. Eitri’s godson had been a good friend to Loki in their childhood though the two had drifted apart as they grew up. Last he had heard, Ottarr had been apprenticing under one of the mages of Alfheim. It was a selfish thing to wish for but Loki hoped he was still there.
Eitri’s gaze strayed towards the center of the ring, where Loki knew the Vaults were situated. Though their general purpose was to store exceptional weapon or rare and very expensive raw materials, in case of a siege, the Vaults were designed to serve a secondary purpose as secure bunkers for the non-combatants to stay in. They were stocked with provisions to allow the inhabitants to survive for as long as a Nidavellirian year. The reluctance was clear as day on Eitri’s face when the dwarf looked away. Loki barely refrained from pinching the bridge of his nose.
"You know you can't perform the funerary rights of your fallen by yourself. Not with your hands in that state.” Loki knew it was cruel of him to toss Eitri’s loss in his face like that but they couldn’t wait for Eitri to come to terms with his losses. Loki hated to be the one to do it, but it was a necessary evil. Even with the cycle of guilt and self-condemnation Eitri was spiraling down for Loki recognized the look borne by the dwarf king. Loki had caught it in his reflection often enough after Frigga’s death to be intimately familiar with what someone wishing to die with the fallen appeared like.
Yet, here you are. Dragging him deeper down that spiral, Liesmith. Go on, tell him that he needs to face the survivors and explain why he failed in protecting their warriors. Tell him he needs to explain why he survived while his men died. Go on, and destroy him.
“Eitri, you cannot restart the forge without their help,” Loki said in the end, setting his jaw at the look of pure loathing that the dwarf king shot him. If he had to be the villain to get the dwarf to move, then so be it. It wasn't the first time Loki had cast in that role. Even without the Space Stone, Thanos would already be moving towards his next target. Someone needed to warn the Midgardians about their approaching doom. Not to mention, someone needed to go and retrieve the Aether from the Collector. The Celestial was a powerful adversary and he guarded his treasures like a dragon hoarded its gold, jealously and ferociously but with Thanos in possession of the Power Stone, he wouldn’t stand a chance. Already, they had wasted so much time because of Loki needing to recover.
"You know I'm right.” Loki crossed his arms and Eitri's glare lost its heat. With a defeated sigh, the dwarf king closed his eyes.
“When it became obvious that the Mad Titan would breech our defenses, I had the non-combatants evacuated to one of the Vaults. They were hidden from all who meant them harm but after Thanos mangled my hands... I-I... what am I to tell the survivors? I am not fit to be King."
"Your people will not blame you for being unable to fight off the Mad Titan. Tales of his madness are known far and wide.” Thor laid a comforting hand on Eitri’s arm as Banner came up on his other side.
Leaving the comforting to those more suited to the role, Loki slunk off. Someone would come find him when they had need of him. Ignoring the soft murmur or voices behind him, Loki wandered through the cavernous workshop. Located on the innermost ring of the Dyson Sphere, this was where the Master Smiths worked their craft. This ring was easily the most defensible and thus also held the Vaults at its heart. The next ring was dedicated to the Dwarven Academy of Metal-smithing. And the two rings after, were where he knew the dwarves held their livestock, grew local produce and housed the majority of Nidavellir's population. The final and outermost ring held the assembly line for things that the dwarves commercially produced and exported to the realms holding their trading pacts.
Wandering through the forge, Loki came to one of the external viewing bays. Like everywhere else in the forge, this area too held blackened bloodstains and extensive damage. Running a hand along the frozen metal, Loki walked up to the flickering energy shields. Letting the cold of space seep into his bones, Loki stared out at the rings spread out above him. With the forge shut down, the mechanism holding them aligned must have failed or perhaps it was a result of Thanos's assault that the rings were out of alignment. Regardless, without the central core to provide power, the inter-ring transporter tubes had iced over. Normally, backup power would have been enough to keep that from happening but Eitri must have redirected the energy to the Vault that held what remained of his people.
Pushing against the gaping maws of terror that always gripped him when Loki was confronted with the vastness and emptiness of space, he stared into the void. The breath misting before his eyes served as a reminder that his feet were firmly planted on solid ground. He wasn’t falling endlessly through the space between the worlds, losing himself piece by piece. Instead, Loki forced himself to recall Nidavellir’s location inside the Yggdrasil and used that knowledge to place the stellar systems holding different realms along the world tree into the empty space above him. He started by pinpointing Svartalfheim, slightly off-centre in the sixth quadrant, orbiting a dying red star.
I will tell father you died with honor, Thor promised in his head. The echo of a phantom blade piercing his flesh made itself known in the form of a dull throb in his chest.
Loki clenched his fists, nails digging deep into his palms as he hissed, "I didn't do it for him." No, never again. Not for Odin. Not after what he’d—
Swallowing thickly, Loki forced his gaze to wander past the misaligned rings to where he knew Asgard and its twin suns were located. Now, only the shattered ruins of his home would remain, orbiting the dual star system until gravity from their suns would pull on the fragments and swallow them for fuel. Or perhaps, the void would consume his home as it once consumed him. His breath caught in his throat as he hung off the edge of the shattered Bifrost, Gungnir clasp tight in his fingers.
I could have done it! For you! For all of us!
Odin stared down at him as Thor hung between them. No, Loki. You did it for you.
"Loki!" Thor's voice echoed around him, wrenching Loki away from the vision before Loki could let go to let the void swallow him. "Loki, where are yo— oh, there you are. I've been calling your name for ages. What are you doing out here?"
"Not getting up to mischief if that's what you're worried about." Loki snapped, turning back to face Thor. The smile slid off his brother's face at the venom in his tone but Loki couldn't bring himself to care. "What do you want, Thor?"
"We uh... Eitri said that only four dwarves working in tandem can undo the enchantments. And since we're three dwarves short, Bruce suggested that you might be able to create a portal into the Vault to let out the survivors. Eitri has agreed to lead us there," Thor said. When Loki remained silent, Thor added. "I came to fetch you."
You did it for you.
Loki marched past Thor without a word, though halfway down the room he realized that Thor had yet to join him. Looking back, he saw Thor standing by the viewing bay, brow furrowed as he watched Loki walk away. He barely managed to tamp down on his irritation. "What is it?"
"Is everything okay, brother?"
"Of course. Why wouldn't it be?" Loki rolled his eyes and started walking again. "Are you coming?"
Three steps later, the quiet shuffle of Thor's feet joined his. They walked the rest of the way in silence. Eitri stood beside Banner when they reached the workshop.
"Can you really create a portal into the Vaults?" Asked the dwarf king as soon as he caught sight of Loki. The muted hope in Eitri's eyes did something painful to Loki's insides. When was the last time someone had looked at him with hope for something only he could deliver?
"Do you have protections any against Infinity Stones?" Loki drawled, ignoring Thor's shocked cry of "Loki!" as he studied the myriad of emotions playing across Eitri's face. If Thor had been so worried about letting people know that Loki possessed the Space Stone, he shouldn't have promised Loki's portal making services to the dwarf king.
"Odin refused to let us study the Space Stone," Eitri said in the end.
"Then we have our answer."
"This way." Eitri turned and marched through a concealed side entrance. Banner had to practically run to keep up with the dwarf king though Loki and Thor only needed a brisk pace. They followed Eitri through a maze of corridors to reach the rail cart tracks that the dwarves used to travel on the rings. Sensing their presence, the cart’s bottom lit up with a soft purple glow, rising four feet off the ground. It hovered in place, near silent except for giving off a gentle hum.
The four of them climbed aboard and settled into the dwarf sized seats. Glowing, purple strands of energy strapped around their waists and shoulders to hold them in place as Eitri rattled a set of co-ordinates and the cart shot off, zigzagging through a complex network of tunnels that wound through the rings. Their ride came to an end as swiftly as the ride had begun, and the cart powered down, the belts holding them in place dissipating into florescent smoke. Eitri had already dismounted and was hurrying to the exit of the cavernous room before Loki managed to catch up, trusting Thor and Banner to not fall behind. The dwarf king led them into the bowels of the ring and the walls came alive with the signature purple and yellow glow, pulsing in sync to their footsteps.
Loki’s skin prickled with the ambient magic in the air. He let it sink in, where the energy mingled with his magical core, slowly replenishing the reserves he had depleted nearly a week ago. The resultant rush of power was invigorating and it wasn’t until that moment that Loki realized just how utterly exhausted he had been. He basked in the energy caressing him, grateful that the dwarves relied so heavily on technomagic instead of just one or the other. It was because of how the two branches of science melded together that there was such an abundance of ambient magic. The only other places where he could have received such a gift would have been areas inlaid with heavy and ancient enchantments that were either heavily guarded or highly trapped and very, very hard to get to.
Eitri continued leading them down. Their path declined for long enough that they ought to have come out the other side of the ring and yet... Frowning, Loki concentrated on the threads of enchantment woven into their surroundings, layered beneath the ambient magic. He had never paid attention to those with Ottarr around, usually immersed in their debates about one subject or another, but now, without the dwarven mage around to distract him, Loki noticed things he had always missed on his previous visits.
The spells were subtle, almost subliminal in nature the way they were designed to confuse and turn around anyone not of dwarven origin. The spellwork was so closely interwoven with the core functional spells that it would be impossible to unravel one without destroying the rest. An apt way to ensure that no outsiders could find their way to the vaults unless there was a dwarf to show them the path.
To keep his mind occupied, Loki started mentally cataloguing all the spells he could identify and comparing the way they were being used by the dwarves to how he had seen them utilized in Asgard. That was the only reason he noticed they had arrived at their destination when Eitri stopped in front of a stretch of wall that was physically no different than the rest of the tunnels. The protective magic around the wall strengthened tenfold at Loki's tentative probe, like a viper rearing to strike and Loki quickly backtracked but not before a nasty deathcurse wrapped in psychic barbs shot back through the connection.
With a pained cry, Loki collapsed to his knees, clawing at his skull as the thorns struck to his mental shields, barbs attacked his shields, trying to drill through them to reach his brain. He groaned, struggling to redirect his seidr to strengthen the shields as a wave of confusion and nausea assaulted his senses. The ground swayed beneath his body, violently wrenching Loki from side to side as the psychic barbs skittered across his shields, spreading like spiders trying to pry open the hairline cracks in his defenses, a souvenir of Loki's time aboard the Sanctuary II.
Deep in his magical core, the sound of a glacier cracking echoed within his bones, ice breaking apart and spreading and rising as it rushed to meet the poisonous spiders sinking in their stingers into his shields.
Loki opened his eyes, to find himself standing before the chalice that held the Eternal Flame, Surtur's crown held aloft in his hand a foot above it. As though sensing the crown's presence, the flame rose higher, wrenching the metal from Loki's fingers, eager to awaken the Fire Giant and bring about Ragnarok. The flames licked at Loki's flesh, leaving behind charred stubs upon his wrists. Startled, Loki stumbled back, staring at his mangled hands before the pain registered and he screamed.
The ice in his bones exploded, clawing out of the stubs to form talons befitting a draugr. His arms moved by their own accord as the claws reached up and tore into his skull. They made contact with the poisonous spiders and froze them solid. Every crack in Loki's now frozen psychic shields erupted in an icicle that shattered the deathcurse. The ice followed the curse's path back to the wall that had spawned the spell and struck. Instead of ice magic freezing it solid or shattering it, or damaging it in any way however, the wall began to swallow the power like quicksand.
The wall sapped at the cold in Loki's bones, drawing it out of his blood and breath but where the wall took, only more formed to take its place, moving outwards, spreading and spreading until he turned into the ice and frost and the frigid winters of Jotunheim. He was its majestic frozen tundras, the mighty snowcapped peaks, the magnificent icy trenches. He was Ymir's legacy, he was Jotunheim, he was... Dying.
He could hear shouting in the distance.
Stop... Please...
Someone was screaming and screaming and screaming. There was blood in his lungs, his nose, his throat. The screams turned to choked whimpers as the casket of ancient winters slipped from nerveless fingers and the ice stopped spreading. Loki curled into himself as awareness returned in bits and snatches.
First came the sound of his ragged breathing, the sound of the blood pounding in his ears, the after burn of using frost magic in his veins. Then came the sound of Thor yelling his name, burning hands on his shoulders, his brother's worried face swimming before his eyes. Last came the realization that the wall's defenses had activated upon sensing Loki's presence and he'd barely managed to prevent the resultant deathcurse from killing him. The spell however, upon failing to kill him had sent Loki into a trance where he'd relived Surtur's awakening and in his panic, he'd summoned the casket of ancient winters.
Loki held up his shaking hands to the purple light, nausea bubbling up his throat at the sight of the markings on the frost giant hands. No wonder Thor's hands felt so warm. Swallowing back the bile, Loki reached into the part of him that allowed him to shapeshift and pulled forth his Aesir skin. Then, with a wave of his hand, Loki dismissed the casket that lay abandoned by his knees. Only then did he turn his attention to Thor who was still shaking him like a complete loon and all but screaming his name.
"Do you wish to rattle the brain out of my skull, Thor?" Loki snapped as he shrugged off Thor's hands and got to his feet. Catching sight of Banner and Eitri hovering nearby, shame curdled in Loki's chest. They must think him to be a weakling. No wonder Thor wanted them to go their separate ways.
"Loki, are you alright?" Thor's question was voiced tentatively, almost though the oaf was afraid of making Loki relapse.
See? He must think you're made of glass.
"I'm fine, you idiot. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Maybe because you just had a flashback out of nowhere?" Banner piped up and Loki hated the man more than he ever had before. Banner gestured to the ground where Loki had just fallen. As if to rub it in Loki's face, Banner's next words were just that, "You collapsed and started screaming loud enough to raise the dead."
"I'm quite sure Hela and her army is still floating amongst the rubble of Asgard." Loki snapped and turned his focus onto Eitri instead. The dwarf king was watching Loki with a contemplative look on his face. Loki scowled and crossed his arms, a sliver of fear worming into his heart. "What?"
"Are you capable of summoning a portal in your current state?"
A part of him was relieved that Eitri hadn't voiced an accusation about Loki trying to tamper with the vaults defenses. The last time a high ranking dwarf had accused him off something Loki had had his lips forcibly sewn shut for a week and a geas placed upon him from mentioning or talking about what had happened to anyone not already there when the deed had happened. Eitri having discovered what took place, had decided to look the other way when Brokk went missing from the forge though a politely worded letter had found its way to Loki, requesting that he refrain from visiting Nidavellir for a few centuries. This was the first Loki had set foot on the forge since that incident.
Loki offered the dwarf king a bland smile and summoned the Tesseract, refusing to acknowledge the way his hands shook upon gripping the glowing blue cube. Tapping into the ambient magic without dipping back into the layered spellwork, Loki summoned a portal into the vault. Eitri dipped his head once towards Loki before stepping into the swirling darkness.
The silence between Loki, Thor and Banner was near suffocating in the ten minutes it took for Eitri to return, a young dwarven child clinging to the king, her face buried in the dwarf king's neck. It was hard to tell the child’s age without seeing her but Loki hazarded her to be around the Midgardian equivalent of eight years at most. Behind him, women, children and a few elderly dwarves followed.
Once the last of them, a measly hundred dwarves in all, had stepped through, Loki let the portal collapse and turned to study the gathering. Roughly half of the survivors were children, a quarter were women and near about the same were the elderly. A few bore wet eyes though most stood next to their king in stoic support, what appeared to be an elderly medic fussing over the mangled stub of Eitri's hands. With Uru smelted around the king's flesh nearly all the way to the elbows, Loki doubted there was any way for the hands or the forearms to be saved, but given the quality of dwarven craftsmanship, they probably would be able to outfit their king with suitable prosthetics.
"Loki, would you mind summoning another portal to the workshop? We would like to be done with the funerary rights of our fallen as soon as possible."
Gritting his teeth against the annoying ringing in his ears, Loki nodded and did as asked. Perhaps they sensed the state of its summoner or they were eager to be done with the funerary rights, but the dwarves were quick to move through the portal. Not wishing to find their way back through the labyrinth of tunnels, Loki motioned for Thor and Banner to follow, the latter of whom obeyed without a word though Thor came to a halt by Loki's side.
"Brother, are you certain you're—”
"I'm fine, Thor! Quit fussing like a mother-hen. Now, are you coming?" With that Loki marched through. For a heartbeat, Loki contemplated letting the portal collapse before Thor made it through, letting the oaf find his own way back just so Loki wouldn't have to deal with his incessant hovering but before he could reach a decision, his brother had arrived. And by the stubborn set to his jaw, Loki knew there would be talks about feelings. Dismissing the Tesseract, Loki grit his teeth and marched out of the workshop, content to not allow Thor to have his way.