Shadows and Lies

Chapter 5

Chapter 5
"So what happened?" Thor asked after a while. Loki was almost finished eating now.
"What happened with what?" Loki asked, not bothering to give Thor his attention.
"You know what I'm asking. What happened on Nidavellir?" Thor asked. Loki seemed annoyed by the question, but Thor needed to know if there was a new danger to be aware of.
"I thought it was obvious, it was a failed attack. I invaded with a small army, the dwarves were ready, we failed. That's it" Loki told him. Thor believed him for a minute, then he remembered that literally everyone was dead. Loki's army was dead, but so were the dwarves, and the dwarves wouldn't have had any reason the flee.
"Wow. You're lying. You're lying to tell me that you were unprepared and lost a battle. There must be something seriously humbling that you don't want me to know about" Thor said back. Loki never admitted to losing or being overcome, he never admitted that anyone was more powerful than him, so this was a weird way to lie.
"I'm not lying. That's what happened" he snapped. Thor was quiet for a minute.
"Alright. If you say so" he then took Loki's food and set it aside before grabbing his wrist to cuff him again.
"Wh- hay! I'm not finished!" Loki yelled. He was hungry and he'd barely gotten through half his food.
"I told you you had ten minutes, that time is up" Thor said calmly, which just made Loki more angry.
"Well I spent half of it talking to you! Let me finish!" Loki demanded.
"I'll give you more time to eat if you answer my questions honestly. But unless you cooperate, you'll have to wait till dinner. You're only getting two meals a day" he told him. Loki clenched his jaw tightly, he wouldn't be forced into telling the truth, he never told the truth if he could avoid it.
"Nothing? Alright" Thor started to walk away. Loki quickly went back and fourth in his head, was it worth it to tell Thor what really happened? It wasn't a huge deal, but he didn't want to be forced into doing anything he didn't want to do.
"Wait!" Thor turned around when Loki yelled.
"You going to talk?" Thor asked. Loki still looked angry, but he nodded.
"Yes" He said shortly, he was mad that Thor had this much leverage.
"Good" Thor un-cuffed him and gave him his food back. "Talk" he ordered. Loki cursed under his breath before telling Thor what happened.
"I hired some people to lead an attack with me, I was going after a weapon. I actually got pretty close to succeeding and would have been able to make it out, except that..." he hesitated, again, muttering curses under his breath "one of the people I recruited was apparently not there to help me, but instead he was there to kill me. He was a suicide killer. when the dwarves closed in on us and we were all pretty close together he set off a bomb he had strapped to himself. So all the dwarves died, most of my recruits died- the ones who didn't were able to escape before you got there- and I barely survived. There's your fantastic story" he said begrudgingly, then continued to eat, stabbing his food with his fork as aggressively as if it were an enemy.
"So... you were stabbed in the back" Thor said "I bet you hated that, you're normally the one doing the back-stabbing" he commented. Loki slammed his fork down and glared at Thor, fuming with rage.
"I've been betrayed lots of times, remember our father? He lied to me all my life, so I'm used to being used. Don't try to make this funny, and don't act like I don't know pain" Loki snapped angrily.
"But still, the traitor got betrayed. Your own team turned on you. Why?" Thor asked.
"Honestly, i assumed it was you. I thought you hired the bomber" Loki told him in annoyance. He wanted the conversation to be over.
"You thought I hired a suicide bomber? Have you even met me? I'd never do that" Thor told him. Loki just rolled his eyes.
"Either way, I guess we can gather that he was just someone who wanted me dead. I have a long list of enemies" Loki said.
"And how did you live?" Thor asked. "You were his one target and you're the only survivor?" He didn't understand how that could've happened.
"I wasn't the only survivor. The other survivors were able to escape before you got there. And I guess I was just lucky" he said. "Though not that lucky really, You're holding me prisoner. Not sure which is worse" he mused, finishing his meal. Thor shook his head, sighing deeply at Loki's constant need to remind Thor of his brewing hatred for him.
"You would've rather died than be kept here? In your home?" Thor asked him.
"Maybe. I don't know what you plan to do with me, why should I be happy to be here, at least If I were dead it would've been over already" loki said. He knew Thor was conflicted and hurting, if he dug deeper into his emotions maybe he could make Thor let his guard down.
"I don't know what I'm going to do with you either to be quite honest" Thor said. He knew it was a bad idea to give Loki any kind of ammunition to use against him, but he didn't plan on letting Loki go, so he didn't care what Loki knew.
"Well that's going to be a problem for you. The people want me to be executed, how are they going to react when they find out you're not only keeping me alive, but actually taking care of me? And bringing me back up to health? The people wont let that slide forever" he told Thor rather passively.
"So what would you do?" Thor asked. He didn't know what he was doing or what he would end up doing with Loki, he was willing to take any suggestions thrown his way.
"What would I do? You're asking me for advice one what to do with me?" Loki asked with a slight laugh, and a tone of mockery.
"Yeah, I guess I am.." Thor mumbled, Loki would obviously just tell him to let him go, so it was stupid to say anything out loud. Loki rolled his eyes at first, but then thought for a minute and looked a bit more serious.
"Okay. Here's what I think you should do: take me out into the city and perform a public beating. Public torture. You need to strip away any of the pride and dignity that I've established, so you'd have to totally and completely humiliate me. Especially now that you've been taking care of me, you have to really prove that you're not weakened by sentiment, so you need to break me completely, make it so that when people here about me they think of something pathetic and weak. Right now they have a certain level of fear of me, they know I hold power and they know I can hurt them, you need to eliminate that. No better way to do that then breaking me in every way possible. So have me tortured in public until I'm begging you and everyone else for mercy. Then once I'm on the verge of death you need to have me executed, but it needs to be slow so that the people feel that justice is served. A quick death won't be enough, even after the torture. So kill me slowly. The weather is getting warmer, so Maybe have me tied to a post outside in the sun until I die from dehydration, but that's just a suggestion, you could also-" Thor cut him off.
"Loki shut up!" Thor snapped, feeling a little bit sick. "Why in the world would you say any of that? Why would you suggest I do that to you? What's wrong with you!?" Thor asked him in disgust. How could someone suggest to have those things done to them? Why would Loki have said any of that? And he said it in total seriousness too, he wasn't being sarcastic, which was scary enough in its own.
"You asked what I would do. That's what I'd do" Loki said simply.
"So you want me to do all that to you?" Thor challenged.
"No. I was honest because I don't have anything to worry about. You won't do any of that to me, you won't hurt me, you probably won't execute me, and if you did you'll probably do it quickly and painlessly" Loki taunted. He knew he could do whatever he wanted and Thor wouldn't torture him, he had nothing to worry about. "If you had any kind of spine you would've killed me on Nidavellir Instead of bringing me here. You won't hurt me, you're weak, you're not-" Thor stood up looking angry and clapped the cuff around Loki's wrist, making it so tight it was painful.
"Don't me so sure I won't punish you. I don't want to kill you but I will make you pay for the things you've done. So don't get too cocky, and don't think you're immune to punishment" he snapped. It was annoying that Loki had Thor pegged as being too weak to hurt him, and it was even more infuriating that Loki was still smirking smugly and seemed to find the whole thing hilarious.
"The healers will be in tonight to give you dinner. If they complain about you at all you're going to be sorry" Thor half yelled as he grabbed Loki's leftover food and stormed out of the room.
Loki was still angry that he was being held prisoner, but he was pleased with himself for being able to make Thor equally angry.