Winter's Hearts

Chapter 52

Loki's and Thor's mouths both dropped open at your sudden revelation. Whatever they had been expecting to come out of your mouth, the news that they weren't Odin's only children (adopted in Loki's case) wasn't it.

Loki recovered first, recovered enough to speak anyway. "Hela? The Goddess of Death is our-?" he stopped in shock and shook his head. "That cannot be,"

"Father would have told us!" Thor agreed while he and Loki were both spluttering like fish.

"Sit down, boys and let me tell you the real story. The valkyrie all know, though we've been forbidden to share it," you told them gently and took a seat on your favorite couch. The entire team took seats around the common room, curious about the story and yet another secret in the house of Odin.

Loki sat on your couch with you while Thor sat on the chair across from you, both of them turned to you so they could listen to what you had to say. You could see in their eyes that neither of them believed you, at least not yet. They'd been lied to their entire lives. Of course it was going to take time to get the truth through to them. At least Loki would know for sure that you weren't lying. He could smell lies after all.

"What do you know?" Thor asked warily. He knew that you wouldn't lie to him either, though he didn't want to admit that Odin was hiding things from him. He was the favored son, the golden child, after all. He thought he was a shoo-in for the throne. He was going to be devastated by your news on that front as well. You'd been procrastinating on telling him that he would have to fight for the throne. He obviously knew something since he hadn't freaked out when you mentioned trials, but you didn't know to what extent. You'd been a bit busy.

You took a deep breath before you started. This story wasn't going to be easy, but Queen Hela wanted it told. As much as your loyalty was to Asgard, you were also bound to the Queen whose realm you frequented, whose subjects you led to her realm proper. She was the patron goddess of the valkyrie. You owed a lot to her and so you owed it to her to tell her story properly and truthfully. "Before you were born, before either of you were thought of, Odin and Frigga had a daughter, Hela. She would later become the goddess of death and the Queen of Helheim. She was raised to be Odin's heir and wielded Mjolnir before you, Thor," you told the flabbergasted Thor. He'd been led to believe the dwarves had crafted the weapon for him alone. The valkyrie had been forbidden to tell him the truth.

It was a running theme that you were forbidden to spill Odin's secrets.

He wouldn't have this problem if he had fewer secrets.

"She had Mjolnir?" Thor asked, horrified and looking like he wanted to cuddle his precious hammer. Loki nodded that you were speaking the truth. Of course Thor was wary of the goddess of death. They'd been taught to fear her.

You nodded at Thor's question. "She was Odin's right hand and heir. She trained at his side to take over the throne one day, just as you two have done all of your lives. The difference was that this was the era where Odin was conquering the nine realms in his efforts to 'bring peace'," you made the finger quotes.

"Father did bring peace to the realms!" Thor protested vehemently. He'd been taught that version of history.

"Yes," Loki replied dryly. "By invading all of the other realms and fighting them until they agreed to surrender to Asgard's protections," he added, rolling his eyes. "You never did learn to look beyond the history we were taught to what actually happened in those events," he grumbled at his completely unstudious brother. Of course Loki had looked into the real history. "How do you think Asgard got all of our gold? It doesn't grow on trees," he continued to grumble at his brother.

You nodded your agreement. "Exactly. So Odin and Hela conquered the nine realms and grew Asgard's power base. Odin finally had enough, right around the time Frigga became pregnant with Thor and realized that he needed to scale back. Hela wasn't ready to stop when there was so much of the universe to still be conquered, still to be brought under Asgard's rule and protection, especially when Odin couldn't give her a good reason why they were stopping. The future he had seen, Thor's future, demanded that he stop when he did. The remaining realms were in an uproar and she thought their crusade the correct action, as it had been for centuries in Odin's eyes and how he'd taught her growing up. Instead of reasoning with her, he banished her from Asgard, sending her to Helheim to be the queen there," you explained to them.

They both listened to you in shock.

"She was stripped of her title and Mjolnir when she was banished and they haven't been reinstated, so she's not in line to the throne. She wished for you two to know the truth though. She rules Helheim now and has since she was banished. She's also the patron goddess of the valkyrie, since we spend so much time in her realm guiding the dead,"

"She wanted us to know?" Loki asked you.

You nodded. "I took Red Skull to her for punishment and she asked me to tell you her history. She wanted someone to know the truth," you explained. Both of the boys sat and tried to process that information.

Your thoughts were interrupted by the raven appearing in front of Thor. He reached up to undo the scroll from around its leg and you and Loki both watched him read the note with interest, knowing it came from home. No one else would send you a raven to communicate with you.

You knew what it would say though.

Thor confirmed your suspicions a moment later, his face pale at the words he'd read. "Father is demanding we all return home. Immediately,"