Chapter 20
"It's a little unusual to assess someone without interviewing them first, but being as you can't remember the years in which you showed clear symptoms I have to mostly go off the accounts of others." The mind healer had pages of notes with him, presumably from talking to others about him. Loki didn't feel entirely comfortable with that thought, but he wasn't going to argue. He wouldn't admit to being scared, but he was. He hated this hole in his memory. He hated the vague mentions of what he'd missed, the uncertainty of not knowing what he'd done except that it had been bad. He needed to understand, because he needed to not feel helpless and lost.
"But you're going to help me get my memory back, right?" He couldn't keep the pleading tone out of his voice.
The mind healer appeared a little surprised at his willingness. "I'm certainly going to try. According to the notes from the healer who treated you on your return, you had considerable cerebral hemorrhage, which is…"
"I know what that is. I do read, you know. So you think it's just residual trauma and my memory may still return with time?"
"I…Yes. I think it is likely that you will regain at least some of your memory depending on the extent of damage. I believe the best course of action is to see what I can do to speed your recovery and to help you cope with the memories that you regain and anything else that troubles you."
Loki nodded. "Where do we start?" Putting it in more scientific terms that way made him feel better. He could understand that better than the vague words his family had used. Especially Thor. He loved his brother, but he didn't know much about anything and translating got tiring. Loki was quite sure that he had not been genuinely mad. Given the talk of mistakes made at his expense, he would put his money on traumatized, depressed, emotionally scarred, but not mad. He remembered the party with the hallucinogenic mushrooms, trying them himself, watching others who'd taken them, helping cover up the evidence when Father had caught wind of something going on. Those were as close to true madness as a sane person could get, and he was certain that it would have been quickly discovered had he been anything comparable to that.
"We'll start by checking how your head is healing." A blue glow gathered around the mind healer's hands. "Hold still while I do the scan."