Chapter 25 : THE ALL-FATHER'S JUDGMENT
The summons came with breakfast.
Loki had barely finished his first bite of bread when a guard appeared at his chamber door, formal armor gleaming, expression carefully neutral. "The All-Father requests your presence in his private study, my prince. At your earliest convenience."
Earliest convenience. Royal speak for 'now.'
He set down the food and reached for his formal robes. The guard waited with the patience of someone accustomed to waiting for royalty, betraying nothing of what this summons might mean.
Private study. Not the throne room. This is personal, not political.
The walk through the palace corridors gave him time to prepare. Odin had been watching him since waking from the Odinsleep—those ancient eyes tracking his movements, cataloging his words, searching for evidence of the son he remembered or the stranger who'd replaced him.
He knows something changed. He just doesn't know what.
Odin's private study occupied a tower room far from the palace's public spaces. The door was unguarded—a statement of power rather than carelessness. Anyone who could threaten the All-Father in his own chambers wouldn't be stopped by guards anyway.
Loki knocked.
"Enter."
The room beyond was smaller than expected—intimate, almost cozy. A fire blazed in a hearth large enough to roast a boar, filling the space with warmth that seemed foreign to Asgard's eternal golden light. Tapestries covered the walls, depicting battles and treaties and moments from millennia of history.
Odin sat in a chair by the fire, Gungnir across his lap. He looked old in a way he never did in public—shoulders slightly stooped, face lined with exhaustion that regenerative sleep couldn't fully erase.
"Close the door. Sit."
Loki obeyed, settling into the chair across from his father. The heat from the fire pressed against his skin—uncomfortable for someone whose body was designed for cold, but he didn't complain.
"We must speak plainly, Loki." Odin's voice carried none of its usual command. This was a conversation, not a pronouncement. "No more secrets between us."
An interesting opening from a man who kept my heritage hidden for a thousand years.
"I'm listening."
"Your regency." Odin shifted in his chair, and something clicked in his spine—the sound of ancient joints protesting movement. "I reviewed the records while you slept. Council sessions. Decisions. Policies enacted and policies deferred."
"And your assessment?"
"Competent." The word came out reluctantly, as if it cost him something. "You governed well. Better than I expected. Better than Thor would have managed, had our situations been reversed."
Better than Thor. That's practically a declaration of love from Odin.
"I did what the realm required."
"Did you." Odin's single eye fixed on him with uncomfortable intensity. "The Thor question, specifically. Multiple advisors pushed for 'alternative arrangements' to the succession. You shut them down. You defended your brother's claim to the throne he'd lost through his own recklessness."
"He's the crown prince. His exile was temporary."
"The Loki I raised would have seen opportunity in Thor's absence. Would have positioned himself for permanent advancement. Would have—" Odin stopped, jaw tightening. "What did you expect?" he asked, echoing Loki thought. "What did I expect from you?"
"Something closer to what I was."
The words hung in the air, heavy with centuries of disappointment and the ghost of a son who no longer existed.
"Yes." Odin's voice dropped lower. "Something closer to what you were. The jealous prince. The schemer in shadows. The son who craved what his brother had and resented that he could never claim it."
"That son is gone."
"So I'm beginning to understand." Odin leaned forward, the firelight casting strange shadows across his face. "Which raises the question: who has replaced him?"
Careful. Very careful.
"I had a... revelation. The night before Thor's coronation." Loki chose his words with precision. "A vision of what I might become if I continued down the path I was walking. It was not a future I wanted. So I chose differently."
"Visions don't change men so completely."
"This one did."
Odin studied him for a long moment. The fire crackled. Heat pressed against Loki skin like a physical weight. Somewhere in the palace, servants moved and guards patrolled and the machinery of empire continued its eternal grinding.
"I believe you," Odin said finally. "Not because I understand what happened—I don't. But because your actions since that morning have been consistent with genuine change. Whatever occurred, it was real."
He's accepting the mystery. Taking me at face value.
"Thank you, Father."
"Don't thank me yet." Odin straightened, and something of the king reasserted itself beneath the tired old man. "I have a proposition."
"I'm listening."
"You demonstrated governance capacity during my Sleep. Competence that I admit I never expected from you. The realm is vast, the threats are many, and Thor—for all his virtues—is not suited to the subtler aspects of rule." Odin paused. "I would make you my official advisor."
Loki heart skipped. "Advisor?"
"A position with real authority. Access to knowledge and resources beyond a standard prince. Participation in councils of war and diplomacy. The opportunity to shape Asgard's future through means other than combat." Odin's eye glittered in the firelight. "You have shown you can govern. Let us see if that capacity can be cultivated further."
This is more than I hoped for. More than I dared plan.
"What would this entail?"
"Education, first. You would learn the political landscape of the Nine Realms in detail—alliances, tensions, opportunities. You would study our military capabilities and limitations. You would gain access to knowledge I've shared with no one but Frigga and my closest advisors." Odin shifted Gungnir in his lap. "And you would be expected to contribute. Ideas. Strategies. Solutions to problems that brute force cannot address."
He's offering me everything I need. Knowledge of the realms, access to power, legitimacy that doesn't require stealing the throne.
"This is... unexpected."
"Is it?" Something almost like a smile crossed Odin's face. "You saved my realm during my absence. You protected your brother's claim when you could have destroyed it. You faced accusations you didn't deserve and defended yourself with evidence rather than violence." The almost-smile faded. "That is not the son I remember. That is the son I wish I had raised."
The words hit harder than any blow.
He's acknowledging his failures. In his own way, obliquely, through the lens of expectations—but he's acknowledging them.
"Father—"
"I was not fair to you." Odin's voice dropped almost to a whisper. "I saw Thor's brightness and measured you against it. I saw your differences and called them deficiencies. I created the shadow that consumed you—the jealousy, the resentment, the desperate need for approval that I withheld without realizing."
Loki throat tightened. These weren't words the original Loki had ever heard. These weren't admissions Odin had ever made in the timeline he remembered.
This is what happens when you don't become the villain. When you prove yourself through action instead of demanding recognition through destruction.
"I accept your proposal," he said, pushing past the emotion that threatened to choke him. "I will be your advisor. I will learn what you teach. And I will serve Asgard to the best of my capability."
"Then we begin tomorrow." Odin rose, and the movement cost him—Loki could see the tremor in his hands, the effort required to stand. "There is much you must learn about ruling. And about our enemies."
Enemies. Finally.
"What enemies?"
"The universe is larger than the Nine Realms, Loki. More dangerous than the histories admit. There are powers out there that make Asgard look small—beings of cosmic significance who pursue goals we can barely comprehend." Odin moved toward the door, Gungnir tapping against the floor with each step. "You've begun reading the restricted archives. Continue. But know that the written records are only fragments. The full truth is worse."
Thanos. Hela. The Infinity Stones. All of it, worse than the records suggest.
"I'll be ready."
"See that you are." Odin paused at the door, turning back to study his son one final time. "You called me 'Father' without irony just now. The old Loki never managed that."
"The old Loki is gone."
"Yes." Something complicated moved behind that ancient eye. "Perhaps that is for the best."
He walked out, leaving Loki alone with the fire and the weight of everything that had just changed.
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