Your Hand To Hold

Chapter Sixteen: Return to Asgard

May 5th, 2012 

         We landed just before the vast golden gates of the city, greeted by Heimdall, Odin, and half of the Einherjar. Immediately, Loki's restraints were doubled before he was dragged off to a holding cell to await his trial. His green eyes were enveloped in unspoken terror as he looked at me, my lips pursing as I glanced helplessly at Thor. He could only look on in grim silence as well as his brother was taken away, his arm wrapping around me, softly rubbing mine in a display of subtle comfort.

   "Her as well," Odin ordered, two guards stepping forward to take hold of me.

    I did not move. Having known this was a possibility, one I would accept with grace and dignity, I refused to give the All-Father the satisfaction of watching me fight against him publicly. Yet it seemed Thor and Heimdall had other plans, as both stepped before me, blocking the knights' paths and forcing them to now look helplessly back at their king. 

   The All-Father glared coldly at them both, ordering them to move; yet the only movement either made was to tighten their hands upon the hilts of their weapons. "You will not move me, Father," Thor declared calmly. "Eibhlin has done nothing to warrant such poor treatment, and had it not been for her, we would not have managed to return at all. You have her to thank for the safe return of the Tesseract."

   "To thank? To thank," he snarled; "By the Gods, have you no sense of what she has done? Of how she managed to get to Midgard without my assistance or say, or where such armor came from; armor that glimmers with Dark Energy... This girl is as dangerous as she is seductive, and I will not allow her to seduce another of my sons away from me!"

   "You are an old goat who should be put to pasture if you think the glimmer you see is Dark Energy!" His voice carried out over the gardens as several members of staff, and at least a dozen nobles turned our way; Mjolnir lifted to chest height and held an arm's length away from him as he stared down his Father. "Father, I think the world of you; I have sung your praises to all who will listen and always will, but if you do this, if you attempt to condemn her after all that she has done because you are so jaded toward her, then you have lost me of your own volition. Do not put me in such a position. Leave her in my care if you must, but do not restrain her; she deserves none of your wrath."

   Odin continued to glare, a frustrated exhale finally emitting from his wide nostrils. "Fine. She is to remain in your care until I can enact a curfew for the safety of our people. At which point, you are to report with her to the main throne room where I will hear her and any else who wishes to speak for her," he said darkly, his eye shifting between both Thor and Heimdall. I bowed my head, the tension too much for me in that moment; he knew... I knew he knew... Yet how much did he know?

   As Heimdall closed the gates, locking them tightly, Thor handed the Tesseract still in the container Stark and Dr. Selvig had created to one of our best scholars. He ordered him to be very careful with it and to keep it locked away at all times when not in use to restore the Bifróst. The scholar bowed in understanding, stating that he would come and speak with Heimdall the next morning before toddling off, escorted by two of the Einherjar. Heaving a sigh then, Thor sat on the edge of one of the reflecting pools, his head falling into his hands. Cautiously, I moved to sit beside him in silence as Heimdall joined us, taking a seat on Thor's other side.

   "This shall prove to be interesting."

   "I had not guessed," Thor chuckled darkly, rising to lean back; his hands bracing him on the lip of the fountain's edge. "I will not be able to explain how you got to Midgard, I do not understand it myself, to be honest; though the armor and the weaponry, that I believe I understand."

   "Perhaps it is better if no one speaks for me," I said hesitantly, quickly attempting to explain as they both looked at me as if I had lost my mind completely. "Much of this was Mother's idea, and I do not believe the All-Father would take well to that. He is already upset with me, believing me to be just another danger to Asgard, and to you; if your verbal altercation offers any insight into his mind at this moment, then he would not hesitate to banish us all and remain on the throne until he falls into an Odinsleep he never recovers from."