Echoes of the Frost

Ch. 1: "He didn't sound sick."

Odin arrived and went to his seat; well-trained servers streamed out of the kitchen bearing trays; musicians began to play; the feast began. It wasn't a formal occasion – feasts were held frequently here in the palace, each with its own mix of guests. Nothing about the evening was out of the ordinary, except…

Frigga excused herself from the conversation at her end of the High Table and made her way to the opposite end, sharing warm smiles and words of greeting with those she passed. She reached twelve-year-old Thor's side – he looked bored, unsurprisingly – and crouched down to put her head at the level of his. She put a hand on his shoulder to get his attention, and leaned in close to whisper, "Where's Loki?"

"He was in bed already. He said he was tired and he didn't want to come down for dinner."

Frigga wrinkled her brow. It wasn't even 8:00 yet. "Is he sick?"

"He didn't sound sick," Thor said with a shrug. "But I didn't really see him. He was buried under the covers."

"All right. I'll go check on him," she said, straightening her legs, then putting a hand down firmly on top of the chair Thor immediately started pushing back.

"I'll go, too," he said, starting to wriggle out of the chair anyway.

"No, you'll stay here, have your dinner, be polite to our guests, and do whatever your father asks of you."

"But-"

"No, Thor."

He sighed and wriggled his way back fully onto his seat, and Frigga stepped around him to Odin's side. "Forgive me, Ranlin, might I steal a second of the All-Father's time?"

"It is not a theft, my queen, it is already yours," the prominent metals trader said, then deliberately turned to his left, where his own wife sat.

She bent over and spoke softly to Odin as she had to Thor. "I'm going to check on Loki. Thor said he's already gone to bed. I'm sure he's fine, but don't worry if I don't return. I just wanted you to know where I was going."

Odin nodded. "Take him something to eat. If he gets any thinner a stiff breeze will knock him over."

Frigga breathed a quiet laugh through her nose and nodded. Loki had recently had another rapid growth spurt and his body hadn't quite adjusted to the extra length yet. "I'll take him a plate." She wrapped her hand over his under the table and he gave it a squeeze.

"Ranlin, you were telling me your plans for expansion into the old…"

Their conversation faded into the background as Frigga stepped away to speak to the nearest servant, and by the time she reached the door that led down a corridor to the palace's private wing, that same servant was rushing back up to her with a tray laden with multiple covered dishes that surely held more food than both her boys could eat together. "I'll take it," Frigga said, and continued on her way.

Thor hadn't specified whose chambers Loki was in – with Thor twelve and Loki eleven, the boys both had their own chambers now, but they frequently still wound up together, most often in Thor's. If Loki had gone to bed so early, though, odds were he was in his own, so she went first past Thor's door to Loki's. Balancing the tray carefully on her arm, she knocked lightly. She waited a moment, then went in, through the front room and into the bedchamber. The lights were out, but enough natural light made it through the window that she could plainly see Loki's outline. His bed was on the right against the wall lengthwise – an odd location, but it replicated the position it had been in when he and Thor still formally shared chambers, and gave him plenty of room for the extra bed he kept on the other side of the room for playing or reading or big brothers who decided to sleep over.

Loki was on his side, face to the wall, a typical position for him. From the sounds of his breathing, he was already asleep.

Frigga set the tray on his dresser and went over to sit on the edge of his bed. "Loki?" she whispered, then reached for his shoulder to give it a gentle rub through the covers. The instant she touched him, he flinched, then shifted and settled again. Frigga looked down at him with concern, her hand hovering over him. She tried again, saying his name, rubbing his shoulder, and this time he drew in a hissed breath as he pulled away, opening his eyes and twisting to look at her.

Frigga gasped at what she saw. His bottom lip was puffy, his cheek was reddened and bore the hint of a bruise. And there had to be something wrong with his shoulder. "Loki, what happened to you?"

"Nothing. I'm just tired," he said, shifting back onto his side.

"Being tired doesn't make one's lip swell," she said, pulling at the covers he had latched onto. His knuckles turned white with the effort, but she easily pulled them down to his waist.

"Mother, stop!" Loki said when she started pulling the loose-fitting tunic down off his shoulder. He reached for the hem and she grabbed his hand in hers to keep it out of the way.

"Loki…," she breathed, staring down at the large bruise in mottled red and purple on her son's beautiful smooth skin. "What happened? Did someone hurt you?" For a split second it crossed her mind that he could have gotten into a fight with Thor, but if Thor had accidentally hurt Loki like this the guilt on his face would have been as obvious as a blast from the Gjallarhorn.

"No. It's nothing. I…I just fell, that's all. It's just bruises. I'll be fine," Loki said, his face earnest – too earnest, and tinged with desperation. It was obvious he was lying.

"It's not just bruises, it's-" She noticed then that his forehead, mostly hidden beneath mussed black hair, was red. She pushed the hair aside and again Loki flinched away from her. In almost exactly the center of his forehead was a swollen red spot, and when she brushed a thumb gently over it, making Loki squeeze his eyes shut, she found it was hard. "Oh, Loki, what were you thinking? Get out of bed, we're going to see Eir," Frigga said, standing and waiting for Loki to get up.

Loki, however, made no move to follow. "I don't need to see Eir, Mother. I'm fine. I'm not a child anymore."

She stepped back over beside the bed and looked down at Loki. "No, you aren't a child anymore, not formally, but you're still my child, and I still know what's best for you. Loki, bruises can hide injuries that are worse than you realize. And this bump on your head, and you going to bed so early? They're cause for concern. You will not decide if you're fine, and I will not decide if you're fine. Eir will decide if you're fine, because that is her role. Now get out of bed and come with me, or if you don't wish to go to the Healing Room, I'll send for Eir to come here. Those are the only two options at the moment. Do you understand?"

Loki blinked a few times, staring up at her with widened eyes. She'd spoken more strictly to him than she normally did, but she was worried. Loki had certainly been injured before, but she'd never known him to hide an injury. "Which is it?" she prompted, her tone softening.

He looked away. "I don't want to go there," he said softly a moment later.

"All right," Frigga answered with a nod. She went back out to the corridor and told Thidrek, the Einherjar on duty there, to send for Eir. Asgard's First Healer was probably enjoying dinner with her family, but she was on call twenty-four hours a day for Asgard's ruling family – in practice, she was only called upon outside her normal working hours for Loki, because of his unique circumstances, to which Eir alone of Asgard's healers was privy.

When she returned, Loki was huddled back on his side again, face pressed into the pillow. She decided not to push him about what had happened now; they would deal with his health first. She leaned over and brushed her lips lightly to the top of his head, then sat down beside him at the head of the bed to wait for Eir.

/

/

Eir arrived with a simple blue healers' apron on over the bright yellow gown she'd been wearing, a bag of supplies in her hand, and a second bag of supplies around her neck and under one arm. "Your Majesty, Prince Loki, what seems to be the problem?"

Frigga looked up at Eir gratefully. Loki hadn't spoken a word while they waited, though neither had she. "Bruises and some other injuries. His right shoulder. He hasn't told me what happened." She stood up and went to the foot of Loki's bed while Eir moved up to where Frigga had been at the head; Frigga flashed her a worried look while her back was to Loki.

"All right. Let's do a simple visual exam first. I see you've taken quite a knock to the head, Loki. That must hurt," she said, brushing his hair out of the way to get a better look at the swelling there.

Loki kept his eyes averted and didn't respond.

"Let's get your tunic off so I can take a good look at your shoulder."

Loki squeezed his eyes shut, gripped his tunic as he had before, and turned his head further away, pressing it against the pillow.

"Shall I help you, Loki?"

"Eir," Loki began, not moving from his position, "I don't need any exam. It's just some bruises. They'll heal on their own."

"When you have been a healer for over three thousand years, then perhaps I'll let you make such decisions for yourself. Even then, please note, I said 'perhaps.' Now come on, sit up, if your shoulder's hurting I can help you get your tunic off."

Frigga watched, growing oddly uncomfortable as Loki still made no move to do as Eir said. He was normally a largely obedient child, including to Eir, of whom he was very fond, and this was unlike him. He looked upset, or worried, perhaps.

"Loki, is there a reason you don't want to remove your tunic?"

Loki still hesitated, but then gave a frustrated huff of breath and pushed himself up from his left side. When the tunic came off he was bent forward, but when he laid back down again Frigga's mouth fell open. The early stages of several bruises were visible on his narrow torso. One of them was in the distinct shape of a foot.

"Your Majesty," Eir said, turning to Frigga with an expression so smooth Frigga would think she hadn't even noticed the marks if she didn't know better. Her controlled reaction reminded Frigga to control hers as well, and she swiftly closed her mouth and smoothed over her appalled expression. "Would you mind waiting outside while I examine Loki?"

Frigga glanced quickly between Eir and her son, who was staring determinedly over at the wall beside him, and who she could swear was actually trembling. "All right," she said, something beginning to truly gnaw at her. Perhaps Eir thought Loki would for some reason be more willing to tell her what happened than he was his own mother. "All right," she said again, nodding, and went out through the antechamber and into the corridor, where Thidrek stood watch down past Thor's chambers.

She let her eyes drift closed, and the image of a shoeprint on her son's chest filled her vision. A shoeprint. Whoever had put a boot to her baby's chest would not have need of boots again once she got hold of him. She saw Loki again, avoiding her eyes, clutching his tunic, unwilling to let her or Eir look at him…looking so ashamed... Ashamed, Frigga thought, the word floating around in her mind ominously. Ashamed of his injuries? Ashamed…of his body? Eir wanted to examine him alone…she's never asked me to leave her alone with him before…

Frigga's hand scrambled for the doorframe to grab onto as the floor seemed to open up into a great yawning pit that would swallow her whole. Her other hand went to her mouth. No. No, she thought again, and again and again. No one would dare do that to my child. No one would dare. She would tear him limb to limb with her bare hands. She would consult Finnulfur and determine the harshest, cruelest, most painful punishment Asgard had to offer, and she would make sure this fiend endured it over and over for the rest of his life. A child. A child. He's just a little boy!

She gripped the doorframe harder and tried to calm herself. Rage so pure and bright that it made her want to torture and kill was of zero benefit to Loki. She didn't know what had actually happened; she didn't know if he'd actually been violated in that way. If he had – moving beyond that thought was not easy, but Frigga made herself do it anyway – if he had, then it was simply another injury, and turning it into something so much more would only make it harder for him to deal with. In one way or another, he'd been hurt badly, and traumatized, and she would give him all her love and all her strength and she would reassure him as long as he needed it and as often as he needed it that he had nothing to be ashamed of and that it wasn't in the slightest his fault, and she would see him through it. He was alive, that was all that mattered. He was alive, and he was hers, and he would be all right. Eir would examine him, determine what had happened, and he would recover.

Her head suddenly swung around. "Thidrek, I wish to speak with you."

Thidrek immediately left his post and came forward, stopping and bowing in front of her.

"You were with Loki today?"

"I was, Your Majesty. Since he left for his lessons this morning."

"And how exactly did you miss him being beaten?" she asked, her tone harsh and angry yet tightly controlled.

Thidrek blinked, started to speak, then tried again. "Beaten, Your Majesty?"

"He's covered in bruises. And not the sort he might have gotten while training."

He shook his head. "I'm sorry, my queen, I never-" His expression changed in an instant. "The equipment rooms. He stayed behind on the field after his training for some extra practice, and then he went into the equipment rooms. We don't follow the boys in there; we watch the entrance. When he came out, he looked disheveled and he had a bit of a limp, but…I'm sorry. I assumed it was simply a result of his training."

"Well it wasn't," Frigga snapped back. She stared hard at Thidrek, who was relatively new to her sons' guard, and he dropped his gaze to the floor. Angry that while her son was being beaten and who knew what else, this man whose job it was to protect him had been standing nearby, doing nothing, letting it happen, she was still staring him down when Eir emerged from Loki's chambers.

She turned from Thidrek to Eir. "Is he all right, Eir?"

"He's going to be fine."

"And…was he…?"

"No. I'm confident there was no sexual assault. There was no physical sign of it in the scan, and when I went head to toe with him asking if anything hurt, he gave no reactions of concern in that regard. I couldn't get him to tell me much, only that he was in a fight with three boys."

"Three? But why? Why would these boys attack him?"

"I don't know, Your Majesty. This is all he would say. If you'll come back in, I'll go over his injuries with you, and then I'll leave so you can speak with him. I know I don't need to tell you that he's extremely distraught about something. Something more than this fight."

Frigga nodded, then looked back at Thidrek, still standing there beside them. Beyond him, she saw now, stood Jolgeir as well, against the wall right at the edge of the landing. She realized it must be time for the changing of their shifts. "Back to your posts. I'll discuss this with Hergils later," she said sharply. Hergils was the Chief Palace Einherjar, and ultimately in charge of the boys' guard and all of the Einherjar who served in the palace. They would have to revisit how their protection was handled; nothing like this could ever happen again.

Back inside Loki's bedchamber, everything looked as it did when Frigga first arrived. Loki had turned onto his left side again, facing the wall, and the covers were pulled back up to his chin.

"All right, Loki, I know you've already heard all this, but I'm going to go through it again for your mother now," Eir began, and proceeded to run through his injuries. Nothing was broken, but the bruises were so numerous that she only addressed the larger or more serious ones. The bump on his forehead looked worse than it was; Eir had reduced the swelling but otherwise left it to heal on its own. The bruise on his right shoulder was so bad that it had caused swelling in tissues all the way to the bone, and this one Eir had spent more time on, and applied a partial nerveblock to minimize the pain. His most serious injury, though, was to his left kidney, where he'd received a blow bad enough to injure the organ and cause some minor internal bleeding. Eir had brought with her the device that would heal it, but she still wanted to see Loki in the morning to confirm all was well and to remove the nerveblocks she'd applied to both the right shoulder and the left side.

When Eir finished, Frigga couldn't speak. "Kidney damage" and "internal bleeding" still echoed through her mind. Her boy had gone to bed with kidney damage and internal bleeding and hadn't told anyone he had even a single bruise. It terrified her to imagine what condition he would have woken up in in the morning. Or whether he would have woken up at all.

"Do you have any questions, Your Majesty?" Eir prompted.

Frigga was grateful to be pulled from her fears. Eir had already told her, before they'd gone back into Loki's chambers, that he was going to be fine. There was no more kidney damage, and no more internal bleeding. "No. Wait, yes, one. Did you explain to Loki what could have happened had he not received treatment?"

"I did. But…I'm not certain he fully appreciates the gravity of the situation."

Frigga nodded, glancing down at Loki, who hadn't looked up once since she'd come back in. Eir felt he needed to hear it again. Frigga would let him hear it again. And again, and again, until she was certain the message had sunk in. Asgard grew strong boys and girls who became strong men and women. But there was a line, not always recognized by the young – or sometimes even the old – between strong and foolish.

"I've left a tonic on his dresser. It will promote continued healing and give him a little additional pain relief, but you may not want to give it to him just yet. It will make him very sleepy."

"I understand," Frigga said, and Eir gathered her things and left.

Frigga then sat down at Loki's waist so she could easily look him in the eye…at least once she got him to face her. "Loki, turn over and look at me." If anything, he squeezed his eyes – or the one she could see – more tightly shut. "Now, Loki, I mean it."

He rolled over onto his back and his eyes opened, but they still weren't meeting hers. She looked at the bump on his forehead, now only a slightly reddened area, and the lower lip that Eir had also tended to. "Loki Odinson, I can't believe-" Loki had twisted right back onto his side almost as soon as she'd begun to speak. "What has gotten into you?" she asked in exasperation. The lecture on dealing with injuries, she decided, could wait. "Loki, turn over. This isn't going to go away. I'm not going to go away. Not until we've talked about what happened." She waited; he didn't move. "I can go a very long time without sleep if I need to, you know. I'll stay here as long as it takes. You are going to talk to me about this, my precious one. Or if not me, then I can go get your father, and you can talk to him if you prefer."

She hadn't meant it as some sort of threat, only that perhaps whatever had happened was something he would rather speak about with his father than his mother, but Loki seemed to react as though it were a threat, immediately twisting back around and his eyes going straight to hers. "No," he simply said.

"All right, then, I'm listening," she said, keeping her voice as gentle and calm as she could. She would insist he talk to her, but she didn't want him to feel threatened by her, either. "Eir told me that three boys started a fight with you." She deliberately didn't ask any questions. It wasn't an interrogation, and she wanted him to feel free to tell her about it in his own way. Besides, the biggest question on her mind at the moment was "What are their names?", but she knew this was not the first thing that needed to be addressed.

Loki was shaking his head, not the response she expected.

"Is that not correct?"

Loki shook his head again. "I started it," he said, looking off to the side again, a stubborn set to his jaw that was more reminiscent of Thor.

Notes

I know, I know, another story? But this one's actually already complete. Just the usual editing needed for each chapter before release. It's a story in two parts, really, five chapters, with the third kind of a bridge between the other two halves. It's been almost finished for quite a while, and I took a few hours over the last couple of days to finally finish it off. I first recorded this as a story idea on June 23, 2013, and if you're wondering, this story is "canon" for Beneath and The Memory Casket, and my other stories that fall in that same "universe." This family of stories was given life after Avengers, and is meant to be canon-compliant with Thor and Avengers, but not with movies post-Avengers.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little intro. Please consider sharing your thoughts in that box down below.

[For those of you who follow one or more of my other stories and might have wondered where I've been the last few days, yup, another five days without internet. Sigh.]