Safe and Sound

Loki sat still and silent, slowly breathing as to remain calm. He had been moved from the cell he once previously inhabited for a few days to a solitary cell larger than most he had seen but still only containing one room in a torus shape, and no windows, even on the door. He now was far from the palace of Asgard, even from civilization itself.

His punishment was to be carried out in three major acts. The first was isolation, however he had multiple guards stationed at his cell, as well as a “servant”. On a whim Loki demanded that Eyfrida come with him. Having someone more miserable than him around was a relief to say in the least. If anything he did the girl a favor, she wouldn't have to deal with the common and filthy, but with him. And he had no intentions nor the energy for being too cruel.

That was before he learned the second part of his sentencing. He was to have all power stripped from him. It was a shock but Loki still found himself expecting it. What worried him was what else could they possibly strip him of? Loki was isolated and powerless, weak. There wasn't much else he could loose.

That's where Loki had been now, sitting silently in his cell, a type of anxiety flooding him from what some would call withdrawals. He had not bothered to find out what the third punishment was, and since his powers had been stripped he was cursing himself every minute of the day for not trying to find out what would happen to him. And now, even with his quick thinking mind and silver tongue he couldn't weasel any bit of information out of anyone, not even his “mother”. The only thing he did know for certain was that the last part of the sentence would be carried out today, at high noon.

“Eyfrida,” Loki spoke with a dry voice, wiping his sweaty palms on the material of his trousers.

“Yes, sir?” she answered from her station by the cell door.

“Talk to me.”

“About what?” She had been here with him for quite a few days, about the length of a week on Midgard. She had lost her stutter when speaking to him but still seemed unable to relax.

“Anything,” he said, lifting his gaze from the stone floor and over to where she stood. She was thin and solemn. Her long strawberry blonde hair was unkempt and pulled back haphazardly from her face in a couple days old fishtail braid. The one thing he always noticed about her however, besides that she would never look directly at him, was that she always seemed dirty. “Do you ever bathe?” he wondered aloud.

“I...” she began, her eyes lifting towards him but only landed on his hands, “I don't have time, sir. One could say I wasn't allowed the regular luxury.”

Loki lifted his hands, pointing to a large basin of water at a point in between them. It was meant for Loki, he had many of the natural luxuries a prince like he used to be would have. So a constant supply of fresh, clean water was not alien to him. For Eyfrida, however, it was.

“I couldn't-”

“I'm not offering, I'm telling,” Loki said, taking a breath and standing up, keeping his eyes on her. She still kept her eyes away but understood and made her way to the basin. Loki moved as well, around the bend of the room so she was out of sight and sat down on the bed provided to him. It was stone as well, this whole cell was carved out of the side of a cliff along with much of the furniture, but the bed had many throws, pillows, and down blankets on top to try and mask that fact. “Talk to me still,” he said after sitting in silence for a moment too long and his anxiety began to peak.

“There isn't much to say about myself.”

“Where are you from?” Loki asked, trying not to let his voice shake.

“The Plain of Ida,” she answered shortly.

“You're not from the City then?”

“No. But I've lived in the jail most my life working for whatever I can call mine.”

“How old are you?”

“Not quite mature, sir. I-...”

“What?” Loki asked, now wringing his hands while he spoke with her.

“It's not my place to say.”

“Tell me, I can't do anything to you,” Loki said, though it was an easy lie to tell. He could do a lot of harm to her, even without any of his powers, she was small and frail. He didn't want to however, not even if this anxiety wasn't consuming him.

“I'm sure you can tell, that I'm not matured yet.”

“Yes, it's obvious you're still a child.”

“I'm finished, sir,” she spoke and Loki, for a moment, was confused about what she meant.

“Did you wash your hair?” he asked after a moment.

“No.”

“Wash it. Tell me more about where you're from.”

“I was born on a farm. I guess it was dying, the crops weren't growing anymore and the soil was rotting.”

“Why were you sent to the prison in the Palace of Asgard?”

“It's the only place that will take young children. I wasn't blessed enough to work anywhere else in the city, or knowledgeable enough to be a servant in the palace.”

“Did you have schooling?” Loki asked her.

“No.”

“Can you read? You must, you speak well.”

“I cannot sir...” she replied, sounding embarrassed of her lack of skill, “I learned how to properly speak from the guards.”

“Do you look like your mother?” Loki asked, the question feeling random but he still needed any conversation.

“No, sir,” she replied, some emotion finally in her voice. “Not from what I remember. She was much too pretty.”

Loki took a deep breath in and laid back on the bed, his hands still fidgeting on top of his stomach, listening to her talk. He closed his eyes for just a second and suddenly he saw her, Lacy, clear as day. Her back was to him, covered in tiny cuts and scrapes that were slowly healing from when she had fallen in glass. She was wearing, to Loki, an oddly fashioned backless dark green dress, that he had materialized for her based off of her own knowledge of Midgardian style. None the less she still looked absolutely stunning, more beautiful than anything he had ever imagined.

Still, she looked sad, worried actually. He could see her face in the reflection of a dirty mirror she was standing in front of, proceeding to pin up her hair in another odd Midgardian fashion.“Please don’t be so down,” Loki’s voice echoed, like it was underwater and the scene suddenly dissolved, causing him to open his eyes again.

“-but my father had these freckles that remind me of my favorite constellation, I'm not sure what it's called,” he heard Eyfrida say and he realized she had been talking this whole time.

“I'd show you if I ever see the stars again,” Loki cut her off, sounding solemn.

She was silent for a moment, her happy memories of her parents fizzling out and dying with Loki's mood. “Maybe I can show you on star charts. If you ever have time.” Loki heard her but couldn't reply through the silent sobs wracking his whole body. He missed Lacy so much. So much. He'd trade his whole life away just to hold her for one more hour.

“I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have- that wasn't my place to say anything,” Eyfrida spoke, mistaking his silence for disapproval.

“No,” Loki spoke, trying to mask his tears. “Keep talking,” he ended up saying shortly, because he couldn't stop crying over his loss of Lacy.

“Alright...” she replied, and began again, talking about everything she could think of. Like she said before, there wasn't much to tell and she had to be careful not to repeat herself. Eventually, and too soon for Loki, who was barely even listening to her anymore, Eyfrida ran out of things to say.
“Sir...?” she asked after a while of silence, with no word yet from Loki.

That he heard, in the middle of wondering how he had let this become of himself, and he sat upon his bed, rubbing his face dry of stray tears he had lost as he fell into slight anger. Before he could think f anything to say back t the girl there was a loud banging on his cell door, before the locked began to clank and the door scraped across the stone floor.

Eyfrida gasped as the sudden noise, obviously surprised, but Loki sat on his bed still, unfazed and staring blankly across from himself to the plain stone wall. He fought the sudden onset of anxiety he began to feel yet again at the sound of Thor's voice, accompanied with the clanking of a few guards that entered his cell.

“Loki,” Thor spoke again, walking around the center of the cell and finding him sitting still on the edge of the stone bed. Slowly, Loki turned his head to look over to Thor, but his eyes fell onto a pair of restraints that were held loosely in Thor's hands.

“Please tell me that's all you've come for,” he spoke lowly, keeping his eyes on the handcuffs. Thor was silent, he was even still, staring at Loki, until finally Loki brought his eyes up to Thor's and smiled in a sarcastic manner.

“Stand up, brother,” Thor spoke simply, only Loki remained seated, quirking a eyebrow at Thor, and eve considered looking around the cell as if wondering who Thor was addressing as his brother. “Get up,” Thor spoke, scolding Loki though he looked nearly too tired and upset to do so.

Loki, this time, obeyed and stood. He mockingly bowed to Thor slightly before his hands were forced away from him, being shackled and restrained. The cuffs weren't too tight but Loki couldn't slip out of them if he tried, and the chain linking them was abnormally long, nearly two feet. It was easily long enough to strangle anyone.

Loki glanced up from them, with an eyebrow raised, beginning to question Thor's stupidity before he suddenly felt the restraint gone from his wrists. Loki looked back down immediately and saw that they had completely vanished. “What is this?” he quickly asked, feeling either one of his wrists.

“They won't hinder you while you're in your cell, though they will always remain on,” Thor spoke, grabbing Loki's shoulders and pushing him in front, and around the corner. “Grab his cloak, girl.”

“Eyfrida,” Loki corrected Thor, who paid no attention to his words and continued to push him out of the cell, keeping a firm grip on his shoulders. Eyfrida, who still looked shocked, followed Thor's command none the less and quickly grabbed Loki's cloak, following them and the guards out of Loki's cell.