Chapter 4
As the night wore on, Thor thought he could see a touch of color coming into Loki's face and was heartened that he was beginning to come out of it. By the light of dawn, however, there was too much color. Remembering his mother's suspicion, he pressed a hand to his brother's forehead. Burning hot.
"GUARDS! Fetch the healer. Tell him Loki has a high fever. Hurry!" A movement out the corner of his eye caught his attention. Had Loki moved? It wasn't a good movement though. The initial twitching that had caught Thor's attention gave way within seconds to a violent convulsion. "No!" He didn't know what to do, but this was bad. He knew that much. This was really bad. Where was the healer? He needed the healer. He didn't know what to do. He'd fly to fetch the healer here himself, but he couldn't leave his little brother's side. What could he do?
There was a jug of water by the bed. Thor remembered vaguely being sick with a fever once as a child and someone wiping his face with a wet cloth. Maybe there was a handkerchief in the nightstand.
The healer entered the room, his arms full of bottles, as Thor finished wiping the sweat from Loki's face. "Good idea your highness. That will help some."
Thor looked up, stress clear in his face. "He had a seizure. Just after the guard left to fetch you."
The healer ran his diagnostic spells. Thor fidgeted, holding in his desire to snap at the man to hurry up. Finally he straightened up. "He is suffering sepsis. A complication of the internal organ damage." He pulled a bottle from the pile on the table. "This will help. Two tablespoons every hour, and continue with the cold cloths to ease his fever. I will make more of the tonic today and bring it up."
"Will it stop him having another seizure?" Thor demanded to know.
The healer was already checking that Loki's broken bones had not become un-set, but shook his head. "I do not know. It will help, but it is entirely possible that that is a result of his head injury and the infection is serving to make it worse but is not the cause." He looked up at Thor's stricken face. "I will not give you false reassurances, your highness. I am doing my best, but he hovers at Hela's door and only time will tell what happens."
Frigga found him there, hours later, coaxing a dose of the tonic down his brother's throat drop by drop with a surprising gentleness for his size.
"The healer has been by?" She asked as he finished.
He looked up at her. "Yes. He took a turn for the worse and I summoned the healer around dawn. He is very ill, but the healer believes the tonic will help."
Frigga took her earlier seat and began gently wiping Loki's fevered forehead with the wet cloth. "It is your turn now to eat and rest. How much of the tonic does he get? Is there anything more that I should know?"