The palace no longer looked like the heart of Asgard, it had never felt this quiet. The kind of quiet which came only after one terrifying fight, which crushed almost everything the realm ever had.
The golden structure stood beneath a veil of dust and smoke, its golden halls dimmed by the destruction left behind. Cracks spread across the marble floors and shattered pillars leaned dangerously against walls that had once seemed impossible to break. Broken pieces of the Bifrost glittered across the courtyard like fragments of frozen stars, while the distant clang of armor echoed through corridors otherwise swallowed by silence. The faint sound of hurried footsteps and anxious voices echoed through the corridors as guards rushed to assess the damage. What had always seemed untouchable now carried the unmistakable scars of a battle between two brothers, leaving the palace strangely beautiful in its destruction.
Thor dragged Loki through the great doors of Asgard, one hand locked tightly around his arm while the other still held Mjolnir. The anger radiating from him was almost as palpable as the heat of the battle they had just left behind. Loki stumbled over the polished marble, his boots scraping against the floor, but Thor didn't slow down. His brother had spent the last few moments trying to destroy everything Thor had spent his life protecting, and yet when the Bifrost shattered beneath them, Thor had reached for him. He could have let Loki fall. Perhaps a part of him had even wanted to. But when his hand had found Loki's wrist, instinct had been faster than anger. Loki was his younger brother. Whatever else he had become, Thor could not simply watch him die.
Loki finally wrenched his arm free once they were well inside the palace. He straightened himself with what little dignity he had left, though the torn fabric of his armor, the blood running from his lip and the bruise beginning to darken along his cheek made the attempt almost pitiful. His eyes met Thor's for only a moment before he looked away. Neither of them spoke. There was too much between them now, too much that had been said and done to fit into a single conversation.
Thor stared at him, chest still rising heavily from the fight. He was furious. Furious at Loki for betraying him, furious at himself for not seeing it sooner, and perhaps most of all, furious because beneath all of that anger was the painful certainty that he still cared. He had spent the entire battle trying to stop Loki, but some part of him had never stopped trying to save him either. That was what made it worse. Loki had not merely attacked Asgard; he had broken something between the two of them that Thor had never imagined could break.
Around them, the palace guards watched in silence. Their eyes followed Loki as Thor led him through the halls, and Loki noticed every one of them. The whispers had not yet begun, but he could almost hear them anyway. Traitor. Madman. Prince no more. He kept his face carefully blank, refusing to give them the satisfaction of seeing what their looks did to him.
Thor pushed open the doors to an empty chamber and finally released him. "You're staying here."
Loki gave a quiet, bitter laugh. "How reassuring."
Thor ignored the remark. He stood in the doorway for a moment, staring at the brother he had grown up beside, trying desperately to reconcile the Loki he knew with the man standing before him. He still did not know the truth about Jotunheim. He did not know what Odin had hidden from them both. As far as Thor understood, Loki was still his brother, raised beneath the same roof and given the same chance to become a prince of Asgard.
And perhaps that was why Thor could not bring himself to walk away.
His voice softened despite himself. "I don't understand you anymore, Loki."
For the first time, Loki looked at him. There was something wounded in his expression, so fleeting that Thor almost missed it.
Then the familiar mask returned.
"Perhaps," Loki said quietly, "you never did."
Thor's jaw tightened. He wanted to argue. He wanted to demand answers, to shake the truth out of him, to ask how the brother he had loved could possibly have done all of this. Instead, he turned away. He still wasn't ready to hate Loki. But he wasn't sure he could forgive him either.
Later, Loki was brought before the throne between two guards, though neither had needed to hold him. He walked on his own, shoulders stiff and chin raised, carrying what remained of his pride as though it were the only armor he had left. His armor was torn from the fight, dark stains marked his skin, and there was a thin cut across his cheek that had begun to dry. Frigga's heart clenched at the sight of him. For all the destruction he had caused, all the lives he had put at risk, she could still see the boy she had raised beneath the bruises and blood.
Odin looked down at his youngest son in silence. His face revealed little, but his eyes lingered on Loki longer than they should have. There had been a time when he had looked upon him with pride. Now there was disappointment, anger, and something far more difficult to name.
Loki met his father's gaze without flinching.
"Father." The word was quiet.
Odin's expression hardened. "Do you have anything to say for what you have done?"
Loki's jaw tightened. He could have offered an explanation. He could have pleaded, lied, or blamed Thor. Instead, he simply looked away. That silence seemed to answer more than words could.
Thor stood several paces behind him, still fuming from their fight. He had wanted Loki punished. He wanted answers. Yet watching his brother stand there, battered and exhausted, made the anger inside him painfully complicated. Loki had betrayed him, but he was still his younger brother. Thor could not forget that.
Odin finally rose. "You will return to your chambers."
Loki looked up, clearly expecting something else.
"Not the dungeons?" he asked, utterly confused.
"No." The answer came from Frigga this time.
She stepped forward, her expression softening as she looked at him. "You are to remain in your room until we decide what is to be done."
Loki seemed almost surprised. He had expected punishment. Perhaps chains and the cold stone of the dungeons. He had not expected his mother to look at him as though she could still see something worth protecting.
Odin dismissed the guards, and Loki was escorted away without another word. Only when the doors closed behind him did Frigga allow herself to exhale.
"He should not be alone," she said.
Odin remained standing before the throne, his gaze fixed upon the doorway through which Loki had disappeared. "He has chosen this path."
"He has lost his way," Frigga replied. "That is not the same thing."
Odin said nothing.
"He needs someone beside him, Odin. Someone who will not fear him, but will not excuse him either. Someone who can remind him that he is more than what he has done."
"A companion?"
"A reason," she answered.
The words settled heavily between them. Odin considered Thor, but dismissed the thought almost immediately. The brothers needed time before they could stand beside one another without anger poisoning every word. Then another possibility came to him.
Vanaheim. The princess.
She was of an age with Thor and had known both brothers since childhood. Unlike much of the court, she had never looked at Loki as though he were simply the lesser son. Perhaps Frigga was right. Perhaps Loki did need someone beside him.
Odin's expression changed with quiet certainty. "We should speak with Vanaheim."
Frigga studied him. "Marriage?"
Odin gave a slow nod. And upstairs, completely unaware that the course of his life had just been decided for him, Loki closed the door to his chambers.