Loki had been awake for all of twenty minutes. Already, all the wanted to do what to drag his blanket up over his head and sleep the rest of the week away.

It wasn’t that Lunda, the healer examining him, was mean. She smiled warmly at him and spoke in a cheerful tone. Whenever Eir turned her attention to Loki, even when she cooed at him like as if were a squealing newborn, she still seemed brisk — like Loki was a distraction from her real duties. Lunda sounded like she had nothing save Loki to occupy herself with. Ordinarily, that would have been nice; most of the adults in the palace had more important tasks to do than to pay attention to children.

But Loki was feeling absolutely wretched this morning. Everything ached. Certainly, it wasn’t the same searing pain of the previous day, but it was enough that Loki struggled to concentrate and Lunda’s very thorough investigation of his legs only made it worse. He wished he could simply tell her to go away.

‘Did my father say if he would visit?’ Loki asked instead. As much as he wanted to know the answer, he was equally interested in a way to disrupt Lunda’s work.

He seemed to succeed; Lunda’s hand grazed Loki’s hip as she drew back her hands. ‘He came by this morning, while you were still asleep. He couldn’t stay long, but he said he would visit again in the evening.’

‘I’ll have to be awake for that then.’

‘First and foremost, you need to rest,’ Lunda replied. ‘Right now, if that means sleeping through most of the day, so be it. You really gave us all a fright, Loki. You father has been very concerned.’

Loki knew that much; he wasn’t an imbecile. His father wasn’t in the habit of sitting by his sons' beds in the middle of the night. But that didn’t mean Loki wouldn’t have to answer for his behaviour. Loki’s memory of the previous was fogged with grogginess, but he remembered enough. I have no cause to be pleased with either of you. Thor probably received his punishment already, Loki was next.

He chewed on his thumbnail. He wasn’t at all sure what awaited. There was the whole matter of the bilgesnipe hunt, but he hoped the fact he had tried to lure the beast away from his brother and paid for his trouble would earn him a measure of clemency. But afterwards? He had tried to control himself, truly tried, but he had still ended up bawling like a baby in his father’s arms. Just the thought of it left Loki cringing.

‘Loki, don’t bite your nails,’ Lunda said softly.

‘Sorry,’ he muttered, pulling his hand away from his mouth. The effort seemed futile though. Gossip was a valuable commodity among most of the palace staff and the healers were probably no better than the cleaners or the cook’s apprentices. Everyone in Asgard likely knew by now that their prince was a cry-baby, what did it matter if Loki was a nail-biter too.

‘Why don’t I bring you some breakfast? You must be getting hungry by now.’

He wasn’t. If anything, there was a pit of anxiety where his stomach should have been and even a bite of a piece of bread seemed like too much effort. He had a feeling, however, that the healers wouldn’t listen to him if he said he didn’t want food, so he just nodded. Still smiling pleasantly, Lunda tucked the blanket around Loki’s legs.

Eir appeared in the doorway. Her grey hair was pulled into a tight braid this morning, a hairstyle which Loki realised, Lunda was attempting to imitate with her own much-shorter, copper-hued hair. Or perhaps it was just a style healers found practical. Loki remembered Asta once remarking that she preferred to have her hair tied back while she worked.

‘How’s our progress this morning?’ Eir asked, looking at Lunda rather than Loki.

‘I’m about to fetch him breakfast,’ Lunda replied. ‘He seems to be a running a low-grade fever still. Not that the scanner will tell you as much. I’m not sure what’s wrong with it, but if that temperature was accurate, he should be showing all signs of hypothermia.’

‘There must be a fault with the sensor. I’ll have a look at it when I have a chance.’

With the attention away from him, Loki rolled over to his side and pulled the blanket as tightly around himself as he could manage. Its warmth was heavenly, he wanted to drown in it. He closed his eyes and permitted himself to drift back to sleep, but the healers’ voices kept him anchored to a base level of consciousness.

‘It might be a wider issue,’ Lunda said. ‘The temperature reading on the Med Cradle was showing the same ludicrous result yesterday.’

Eir groaned. ‘Wonderful. I’ll have to look into it. But never mind that now, go find the prince some food.’ There was a pause, then a cool hand ran slowly across Loki’s forehead and he heard Eir again. ‘What are we to do with you, child?’

When Loki reopened his eyes, Eir was peering down at him, her expression thoughtful.

‘I think that’s for my father to decide,’ he said, frowning.

‘Yes, I’m afraid so.’

Eir shook her head, then launched into a list of questions for Loki to answer, the majority of which he had already answered for Lunda. He tried not to mumble through his answers — princes didn’t mumble, but he didn’t have the energy to summon more than one or two words at a time, which didn’t impress Eir either. It was a relief when Lunda walked back into the room, carrying a tray.

But then she set it down in front of Loki and the steam rising off the porridge — oats sweetened with honey — wafted into the air. Loki’s stomach recoiled. ‘I don’t, um…’

‘You don’t like porridge?’ Lunda suggested.

Loki didn’t have any strong thoughts about porridge in either direction. It wasn’t what he would have chosen, but he had never minded eating it either. Yet bile was rising in his throat.

‘No, porridge is fine,’ he said in as nonchalant a manner as he could manage. ‘I’m just not sure I’m all that hungry.’

‘Eat what you can manage then,’ Eir replied.

‘And in summation, the situation out there is every bit as dire out there as we feared,’ Agnar concluded.

Unfortunately for Odin, when his chancellor made his point, it didn’t necessarily mean he had nothing more to say. Agnar went on, explaining in substantial detail the devastation the earthquake and the subsequent landslides caused to the villages of Adra Taeral.

Odin was certainly far from unsympathetic. Thousands had lost their homes and livelihoods. The count of the dead was still being made, but it would be in the hundreds. But the situation presented a headache for Odin on a personal level. The people of Asgard expected their king to pay attention to an event of this magnitude. Odin himself should have been out there in the villages, supervising the relief efforts and putting together plans for the reconstruction. Except the elves — the haughty elves, who perpetually searched for something to be offended by — couldn’t be shuffled off to the side, so Odin had made the decision to send Frigga to Adra Taeral on his behalf instead.

There was no recalling her now, not without sparking outrage. It would look like the royal family chose to abandon the people in the outer regions at their darkest hour. Yet Odin had the nagging thought that Thor and Loki, especially Loki, needed more attention than Odin was able to offer him right now. Odin was, after all, getting this brief from Agnar at eleven o’clock at night and while Odin was on his way to the Medical Wing.

‘Whatever resources they need out there, have it arranged,’ Odin said when he found a gap in Agnar’s words. ‘No delays, no bureaucratic nonsense. I want my wife back before the year’s end.’

‘Of course,’ Agnar replied. He switched the topic then back to the elven negotiations and that was no more pleasant a subject. The afternoon sessions had achieved nothing save leaving all parties irate. Agnar paused only when they reached a winding corridor that connected to the Medical Wing. ‘It’s rather late in the evening. I think we can settle on the strategy ahead tomorrow morning. Or do you wish to continue with this tonight?’

‘I would like to see a new proposal ready first thing tomorrow.’

Agnar nodded curtly. He knew his king well; he had probably been anticipating this very answer and had already been preparing himself to be up through the night while he and his staff scrambled to come up with an alternative approach to the proposed reductions on import duties. ‘Do pass on to Loki my good wishes for a speedy recovery.’

Odin assured his chancellor that he would and continued towards the Medical Wing while Agnar marched off in the opposite direction. Three of Eir’s personnel were still hard at work. There was a middle-aged woman in a guard’s uniform getting her hand treated, which occupied a healer and a trainee. Another healer seemed to be busy cross-checking inventory levels in the cupboards against the list in her hand. Eir herself was about too, she emerged from her office just as Odin was about to walk past it.

‘If I may, sire,’ she said, ‘a word before you see him.’

Odin swivelled sharply. ‘What’s the matter? Has something gone awry?’

‘Yes and no,’ Eir replied in a low tone. She guided him further down the hall, as far away from her staff as she could take him without leaving the Medical Wing altogether. ‘One of my healers noticed an anomaly in Loki’s temperature readings. The sensors here rightly pick it up as far too low for an Asgardian.’

‘What? How could you let this happen?’ Odin hissed.

‘Is it my fault your spells are not foolproof?’

Odin swallowed a number of foul words in reply and forced himself to something resembling a civil tone. ‘Has this person extrapolated anything from this information?’

‘She thought it was a problem with the sensor. I didn’t disabuse her of that notion, but she has pointed it out that she has already noticed the same “problem” on a second sensor in here.’ Eir tapped the tips of her fingers together. ‘She’s an intelligent woman, and an observant one.’

The implication unnerved Odin in much the same way Loki’s physical injuries the previous day had. It was certainly true: no illusion or concealment spell, no matter how tightly woven, hid all. If it betrayed Loki’s real bodily temperature, which was naturally far lower than common among the Asgardians, there might well be other revealing clues. The woman might get curious, rumours might spread throughout the palace. It was possible she might bring it up with Loki and the boy might start drawing conclusions of his own.

‘Can you keep her away from him?’ Odin asked.

‘It would look rather odd. Might not be too effective either. She has already raised it with a number of other staff and they too possess a modicum of intelligence.’

‘Then he can’t stay here any longer.’

Eir sighed. ‘I think he still needs to be watched closely for the next couple of days. He’s still running a fever and certainly not mobile. Norns, he was fast asleep when his brother came to visit him. And we’ve barely managed to get two bites of food into him today.’

‘You managed to treat him without condemning him to this place before, even back when he had that horrid chest infection. Figure it out. Besides, one of my wives attendants has stayed back in the palace and she keeps an eye over the boys. Surely between you all, I can expect my child to be adequately looked after.’

‘As you wish then, your majesty,’ Eir responded tersely. ‘I’ll have him moved to a bed in his own suite tomorrow morning.’

‘Good.’ Odin massaged his temple. ‘And be better prepared in the future. The blood replenisher, now the temperature sensor… He’s likely to need treatment here again at some point and we need to remain circumspect.’

‘I’ll do everything I can. As I always have.’

Odin could tell from Eir’s sour tone that she had thoughts of her own in regards to Loki and his circumstances, but Odin was in no mood to dwell on this any further. ‘I trust that you will, Eir. Now, excuse me, I’d like to see my son sometime before midnight.’

To his surprise and mild dismay, Loki was still awake. He sat propped up against at least three pillows and had a book open in his hand, but rather that reading, he was staring out the window. As Odin approached his bed, he offered his father an uncertain smile.

‘How are the negotiations going?’ he asked.

‘You should be asleep at this hour,’ Odin said.

‘I slept through the afternoon and half the evening today. One of the healers said you’d planned to come by tonight, I thought I’d try to stay awake a while in case you did.’ Loki closed the book and set it aside. It was a different one to the book Odin had brought over for him the previous evening. ‘Have there been any news from mother?’

Odin pulled up the chair by Loki’s bed closer and took a seat. ‘The negotiations are proceeding as they always do — slower than the turn of a galaxy. As to your mother, she’s very busy with the disaster relief. I hoped she might be able to return a little earlier than planned, but that doesn’t seem a likely prospect now. But never mind all that. How are you?’

‘I’m ok.’

Odin waited for Loki to elaborate; he was an articulate child when he wanted to be. This moment, however, wasn’t one of those times.

Looking at him closely, Odin understood why Eir wanted Loki to stay under her watchful eye for now. While the drip was gone, the pale, unhealthy tint to his skin remained and there was a sheen of sweat around his brows. A blanket was stretched over Loki’s legs so Odin couldn’t see the progress there. But Loki liked to curl up, almost like a cat, while he read and now he sat with his legs rod straight out in front of him.

‘Are your legs aching?’ Odin asked.

Loki hesitated momentarily, before responding. ‘It’s fine; the healers are looking after me. Did anyone find Nieven?’

‘Nie… your horse? Not that I’ve heard. I’ll send a message to the stable-master and get the matter cleared up.’ Odin ran his hand over Loki’s unruly mop of black hair and smoothed out a few locks, but the chaos needed thorough work with a brush. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be riding again soon enough.’

‘I am? You said you were angry with both Thor and me. And you should be, with me particularly.’

‘Why you particularly?’ Loki tensed and instead of offering a reply, sucked in his lips between his teeth. Odin contemplated cutting off the discussion there and then. Loki didn’t really want to have this conversation and Odin didn’t either. It was late, Loki looked little better than death warmed over and shouldn’t even be awake at this hour. But knowing Loki, Odin suspected the boy wouldn’t manage much restful sleep if Odin forced this discussion off to another day. ‘Loki, was it your idea to go on this bilgesnipe hunt?’

‘What does it matter whose idea it was? It wasn’t as if one of us dragged the other against his will,’ Loki replied. ‘It’s just Thor managed to stay on his horse and I didn’t.’

Odin smiled. ‘Thor told me the beast was after him until you distracted it.’

‘I think I just made everything worse as a result,’ Loki replied. He inhaled deeply, then seemed to build himself up to something. ‘Father,’ he said in a stiff, entirely unchildlike manner, ‘I know an apology isn’t enough, but I am sorry about yesterday. And I’ll try to do better from now on.’