Eirlys was very good at hiding her feelings. She had been raised among people who valued composure, diplomacy, and the ability to sit through an uncomfortable conversation without allowing a single emotion to betray her. So when Thor announced that he intended to return to Midgard and bring Jane to Asgard, she merely smiled. It was a perfectly pleasant smile. That was all, but inside, however, she was furious. Not because Jane was coming. Eirlys had never met the woman so she had no reason to dislike her. What irritated her was the way Thor had presented the idea. He had called it help for Eirlys, as though she desperately needed another woman brought from Midgard to teach her how to prepare for her own wedding.
She could have laughed. She knew how to dress herself or how ceremonies worked. She did not need someone to hold her hand while choosing flowers. And certainly not Jane. Yet Eirlys only nodded when Frigga approved of Thor's idea. She had even offered a gracious smile. I would be glad to meet her.Glad? My bloody feet!
No one would have guessed that she wanted to throw something at Thor. She kept her expression serene until the meeting ended, then quietly excused herself before anyone could notice how tightly she had been holding her fingers together.
Loki noticed anyway. He had spent the entire meeting watching her more than he had watched the people discussing their marriage, and now he found himself trying to decipher the expression she had worn when Thor mentioned Jane. It had been a smile. He was certain of that. But what kind? Not happiness. Not quite amusement either. There had been something sharper beneath it, something that vanished almost immediately whenever he tried to catch it.
Loki replayed the moment in his mind. Eirlys had looked at Thor, smiled, and said she would be glad to meet Jane. Perfectly polite, calm, and impossible to understand. His eyes narrowed. Perhaps she was genuinely pleased or was she offended? Maybe she was jealous. That possibility made something unpleasant twist inside him. He immediately dismissed it.
Surely not. Then again, Eirlys had become increasingly difficult to predict, and Loki disliked not knowing what was happening inside another person's mind. Especially hers. He watched her leave.
"What are you thinking?" he murmured to himself.
He received no answer. By the time Loki reached the corridor, Thor had already gone. The Bifrost had carried him away from Asgard, leaving behind only the fading brilliance of the bridge and the knowledge that he intended to return with Jane. Thor had left with remarkable confidence. He believed he was doing something thoughtful, Jane would help Eirlys, and most importantly, he believed bringing Jane to Asgard would make everything simpler. He had no idea how wrong that assumption might prove to be. On Midgard, he would soon be standing before Jane with an invitation to Asgard and a promise he intended to keep.
Back in the palace, Eirlys stood alone near one of the tall windows, staring toward the distant horizon. She told herself she was being unreasonable. The thought of seeing the two of them together inside these walls made her stomach tighten. Jane had done nothing. It all lies on Thor; But he had done nothing either. Then who am I so mad at?
Behind her, Loki watched silently. He found himself wishing he could read her mind. Because whatever Eirlys was feeling, she was hiding it beautifully. And Loki was beginning to suspect that he very much wanted to know why.
Thor found Jane exactly where he expected her to be, surrounded by the familiar clutter of her work, papers spread across a table and several books stacked beside her. The moment he appeared, however, her attention snapped entirely toward him. "You're back!"
"I promised I would return."
Jane smiled, but the moment Thor told her where he intended to take her, her expression changed completely. Both of them hummed at the same time. "Asgard."
For a woman who had spent years studying astrophysics and looking toward the stars through instruments, telescopes, equations, and theories, the prospect of actually visiting another realm was almost impossible to comprehend. Jane immediately began asking questions faster than Thor could answer them. Was Asgard another planet or another dimension? How did the Bifrost work? Could she observe the stars from there? Were the constellations different? Was the sky physically different?
Thor laughed at her enthusiasm. "You will have plenty of time to look."
"That is not the same as answering my questions."
"I know."
"And you're still taking me?"
"Of course."
Jane barely needed convincing. The journey itself left her speechless, but Thor gave her little time to recover before they began travelling toward the palace. She stared at everything with wide-eyed fascination, trying to take in the impossible architecture, the distant mountains, the strange light, and the enormous city surrounding them. Thor watched her with amusement. Then, somewhere along the way, he began telling her what had happened since his return. He told her about Loki's actions, the deception, the attack on Asgard, and the terrible choices his brother had made. He explained how Loki had manipulated events and how everything had eventually led to his downfall.
Jane's excitement gradually faded. "So he really did all of that?"
Thor nodded and Jane's expression hardened. She had learned that Loki was complicated, but hearing the whole thing made her sympathetic toward him in an entirely different way. She asked questions about Loki's relationship with Odin, about the revelation concerning his true parentage, and about what had driven him to make such destructive choices.
Thor answered honestly. "He believed he had been lied to all his life."
Jane frowned. "That doesn't excuse what he did."
"No."
"But I can understand why he was hurt."
Thor looked away, he understood that too. For reasons he could not explain, though, he did not tell her everything. He did not mention Eirlys, the marriage arrangement, the way their families had gathered to discuss the ceremony, the conversations between Eirlys and Loki, or the strange tension that had developed between himself and his oldest friend. He certainly did not mention the way Eirlys had looked when he announced that he was bringing Jane to Asgard. He felt somewhat guilty.
Thor simply said, "My brother is getting married."
Jane blinked because from what he had just known, it sounded strange. "Loki?"
Thor nodded. "To an old friend of ours."
That was all. He offered no name or explanation. Nothing that might make Jane wonder about Eirlys, even a bit. Thor himself did not understand why he was keeping those details from her. Perhaps there was no reason. Or he simply did not want to complicate Jane's first visit to Asgard. That was what he told himself.
Jane, meanwhile, looked genuinely delighted. "I'm going to meet your whole family?"
"Yes."
"What's your sister-in-law like?" Jane was curious because after knowing that Loki was manipulate and sadistic, she had to know the woman he was getting married to.
Thor hesitated, gulping at that term Jane used to refer Eirlys. His mind supplied a dozen answers. Beautiful, kind, intelligent, familiar, dangerously perceptive, and mostly his oldest friend. There will be a shortage of adjectives if he ever sat down to explain Eirlys. Instead, he gave Jane a small smile. "You'll see."
And with that, he continued walking beside her toward the palace, carrying far more unspoken thoughts than he realized.