Providence Of Divinity || Loki X Reader

Interlude: Chapter 20

~Interlude~

The high wall of the cavern reached toward the surface a massive crack in the earth. Upon it, markings were seemingly carved into the stone; nonsense glyphs, jumbled together. Staring at it too long would be bound to make one's eyes cross.  

Irina did not care as she stood before the passage of stone with the writings etched into it, eyes unblinkingly fixed upon it. Four guards stood away from her, inside the cave that the chasm had unveiled, silent. 

"Speak to me," she whispered, frustrated. She had spent months staring at this slab of stone. She had had the greatest scribes and scholars on the realm do the same, but each had been unable to make any amount of sense of it. And what's more, each had fallen ill after a six weeks of working with the odd, painful text.

 Irina had not. Her eyes did not burn if she gazed upon it too long, and she did not loose her wits. She appeared to be the only one who could withstand being in its presence prolongingly. "King's blood," she muttered to herself, for the thousandth time. "It's the key. Why can't I read it?"

She felt as if she were trying to crack a riddle. Surely there was something she was missing. She had looked at the text every way imaginable, from sideways to upside down, and still all she could see was a jumble of ancient ruins. She had poured over that damned book, day and night, in front of this cursed wall, but nothing had seemed the clear answer. 

If she could just discover how to open the doors, how to claim the power, then she could save her people. 

How could her father not see that? How could he have betrayed her? Of course, he had never seen what she had seen.

The doors. . . The maze that the cavern had unveiled took months to solve. At the end of it, they had found them. Behind those dark barriers, she could feel the energy. The power wanted to be found, to be used. Valgard didn't know. . .

She pushed her mind away from him. He would see. Once she obtained that which she sought, she would welcome him back to her side. Unless, of course, he tried to stop her.

With such an ancient, powerful relic in her hands, she would crush Asgard like a spider under the heel of her boot. She would raise her people to glory, ensure no child went bedless again. Then Jotunheim would take rule over the other eight realms, and they would know what it's like to be spat upon for a billion years. She would win this war. She would not have her plans disrupted. Even if that meant casting away her beloved father.

"He'll see reason," she mumbled softly. She took a deep breath, and focused her eyes back on the clue before her.

All she needed to do was learn how to open those doors. . . 

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Hey, lovelies!! I'm so sorry for the short chapter this week, I haven't gotten to do much writing lately (I've been off the internet almost completely), but this is a planned interlude! I did want to do it as a surprise Wednesday chapter, but that didn't work out, so it'll gave to do till next Saturday. Again, I'm so sorry! I promise next week's chapter will be on time and full length!! Love you, guys, I hope everyone is doing awesome!