Samael61
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Chapter 1 - History Lesson
🕑 Added 2025-12-27 06:58:05 +0000 UTCAsgard
973 A.D.
Loki held back a frown.
When his father said he would give both Loki and his brother, Thor, a personal lesson, he had hoped it would be about seidr.
But it was just about Asgard’s history.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t entirely useless. He just learned that the myths of Asgard had taken root on Earth when the Aesir were driving the invading Jotnar out.
Books were a constant companion while suffering from leukemia as a human, though of course none mentioned anything about the Frost Giants invading Earth.
He wondered about Earth and how the other children in the hospital were doing.
“When I’m king, I’ll hunt the monsters down and slay them all,” Thor said, swinging his arms wildly, as if he were a great warrior with an equally mighty weapon in his hands.
“They are not monsters, Thor; they just had a stupid king, that’s all.” Even half listening to the history lesson, Loki learned more than Thor.
Also, he did not share any features with Odin or Frigga and was pretty sure he too was a Jotun. The myths were clear on that, though on how they had gotten mixed to the point of depicting him as Odin’s sworn brother when he was his son.
Even if adopted.
“Your brother is correct,” Odin nodded. At least one child was listening to his words, “It was Laufey who started the war for glory and more land. Tradition dictated the Jotnar follow him. It did not matter if the war was foolish or just.”
Undeterred, Thor pumped his fist up, shouting, “Then I’ll just slay Laufey.”
Loki rolled his eyes, “The lesson here, brother, is that there is peace, and Father wants the future king to keep it that way. Not to go and start a war.”
He would not take the throne, as it seemed too tedious a task, so Thor naturally would be the king.
Not that the Allfather would give Asgard to him, being adopted and all.
It would be even more tedious if Thor started a war because he saw the Jotuns as monsters in need of slaying.
“Oh,” his brother said, finally realizing the core of the lesson their father was trying to impart. Odin, in his attempt to make Thor realize the meaning behind his words, had just confused his oldest son.
“You should be more direct with Thor, Father; not everyone learns the same way,” he said.
Odin raised his brow, amused.
—
Thankfully, once the lesson was over, he was allowed to leave. His first stop was to find his mother, Frigga, and badger her for more lessons on seidr.
Blonde like Thor, dressed in a golden gown, her smile was radiant like the sun.
As a sickly mortal once, he was in love with tales of magic. Now, as a god, though that was debatable, he had seidr under his command. He was a novice but willing to learn more.
All thanks to her.
“Mother,” he called out. Frigga’s guests had just left the tea party, and the servants were taking the cups away.
Running her hand over her son’s slicked-back hair, Frigga had him sit on the chair across from her, “Loki, how did the lesson with your father go?”
“Informative,” he said, considering his next words, “even if Thor was more insistent on slaying the Jotnar than keeping the peace.”
Frigga’s smile wavered for a second.
“Where is your brother?” she asked. The brothers were inseparable most of the time, with Thor always dragging Loki to somewhere.
Loki rolled his shoulders, “Training.”
As soon as the lesson was over, Thor rushed to find his instructors to swing his training hammer on a wooden post. He did see the appeal, as if a hero training to slay the evil dragon, but it could not compare to seidr.
“Did you not consider following him?”
“No,” he shook his head, “I want to learn more seidr.” Loki had his mandatory arms training, but he did not spend any more time on it than he had to.
“My boy,” she pinched his cheek, “you cannot run before crawling.”
“I know it is best to be patient while practicing seidr,” as he had been warned many times, “but I am a fast learner.”
“Indeed?” Frigga raised an eyebrow, challenging her son. “Show me your conjuration then.”
“I am,” he said, and the Loki before her faded away in green.
Frigga turned around, seeing her younger son leaning on a tree, his nose buried in a book.
“How did you?” A child of Loki’s age, no matter how strong, should not have been able to deceive her so easily.
“Told you I am a fast learner. Now, can I learn more?” It was a matter of fine control and creating another Loki rather than just a mere illusion.
With no excuses left, Frigga agreed, “Very well, but after lunch.”
—
Loki raised his hand, surrounding the flying juice with seidr, before pushing it back into Thor’s glass.
In his excitement to tell the grand tale of his training session, his brother had accidentally knocked the glass over. The juice inside, a rich red color, flew straight at him.
His brother was prone to breaking everything around, and Loki had quickly figured out creative ways to prevent the accidents from falling on him.
“Thank you, brother,” Thor said.
At least he had enough manners to be grateful.
“Just be careful next time,” he replied. Not that Thor would listen.
—
“You have seen it too. What do you think?” Frigga asked. After lunch, she had given Loki his latest task and found her husband in his workroom.
“You are correct, my love,” Odin said, grasping his wife’s hand, “His affinity for seidr is incredible.”
Their adopted child was talented in seidr beyond most and put in the hard work necessary to nurture it. Odin knew Loki would go even further if he was not paced.
“Are you still intent on your plan? When Thor claims he’ll slay the Jotnar once he is king?” she asked.
The Jotnar were fierce enemies, and even the mighty legions of Asgard had suffered great losses. It was unavoidable for a deep sense of hatred to take place in the hearts of the Aesir, and the Jotuns were vilified as barbaric monsters.
Her husband’s plan to ensure lasting peace between Asgard and Jotunheim by using Loki, a child born a Jotun yet raised as a prince of Asgard, would not work. Whether he was abandoned as they thought, or something else, the Jotnar would not accept one of their own raised among the Aesir.
“He is a boy,” he excused, though it was a weak argument. “They are nothing more than flights of fancy.”
Frigga knew otherwise: “They are whims, unless he is dissuaded. If not, it will be his way of life when he is grown.”
“I believe Loki has done that,” he smiled. Perhaps being more direct with Thor in important matters would work for the better.
She leaned her head on Odin’s shoulder, “You haven’t answered my first question.”
Closing his one good eye, he took a deep breath and exhaled, “I am less sure about letting him go each day.”
“Good.”
—
“Brother, come,” Thor said, pulling Loki by the arm. His brother was strong for his age, and if Loki wasn’t properly seated, he knew Thor would drag him behind.
He, however, wasn’t going anywhere, “Where and why?”
“To an adventure,” his brother declared. Loki fought the urge to snort. Of course his brother wanted to go on a mock adventure.
“We have lessons, Thor,” he reminded, “and you will be punished should you run from them again.” His brother had made it a habit to
“You never want to play with me,” Thor crossed his arms, pouting.
“When you want to play something good, Thor, I will join you,” he replied. Going around with toy weapons, slaying imaginary monsters, and finding equally fake treasure was not his idea of fun.
“Like what?”
There was one game he always wanted to play, and why not do it now? “How about a game of ball?”
“Sounds boring,” Thor grumbled. How could a game of ball be better than swords?
“This is a different kind,” because Loki was sure Asgard did not have football.
—
In their lives so far, Loki had come to learn one thing.
Thor learned by doing. Teaching him history through the books was like convincing Sleipner to let someone other than Odin ride him.
Impossible.
He had suggested his father create enactments and have Thor be a part of it, but it fell on deaf ears. Sometimes, he wondered if the Allfather’s ears were damaged too.
Loki, before he was Loki, wanted to play football, just like the kids outside. Most days, however, even getting out of the bed was a chore.
“How do we play this ball game of yours?” Thor asked. It was rare for his brother to play with him, and he wanted to learn the game quickly.
“First, we need more people to make teams,” he explained, thinking on how to make football more appealing to Thor. “Think of this like a battle, only with a ball rather than weapons.”
Thor dropped the ball in his hands, pushing it back and forth with his feet. “I prefer weapons.”
“Oh, I see,” Loki said, raising his shoulders and arms. “I suppose it is difficult for you.”
Thor’s face contorted to something ugly, “What?! Take that back,” he demanded, getting into Loki’s face.
“How about you prove me wrong?” He challenged.
“Fine,” his brother agreed, “Let us find more companions for the teams then.”
Finding companions to play football was easy. Every child wanted to be friends with the princes. Separated into two teams with Loki and Thor on each side, the day was mostly spent on how to play without breaking the rules.
Still, it was fun.
He only knew how to play from what he watched on television and wasn’t any better than Thor with his natural affinity for sports. A guard had acted as a referee, and when their mother came to collect them for the lessons, she was delighted to see them all play.
The football matches would be a constant in their childhood, as it gave Thor a way to burn the energy he could not with training, and Loki actually enjoyed the sport.
Teams would differ each time, and more adults showed up to watch.
When he just wanted to play a game he longed for, Loki could not imagine the changes it would bring to Asgard.
—
Fed, washed, and tucked by his parents into his princely bed, Loki closed his eyes.
Only long enough to ensure there would be no last-minute checks by Frigga. Every night, before he actually went to sleep, Loki wondered.
What was seidr?
It was an energy they all were born with to various degrees, at least by what his mother said. Thor, for example, had his seidr rooted in thunder and storms, while Loki’s powers were more varied.
Allfather, on the other hand, was like an ocean without an end or an insurmountable mountain. Yet, his seidr was different, something more.
He had not asked why, preferring to discover the answer.
But how could his brother’s seidr be so narrow when the very existence of their father kept the peace across the Nine Realms? When Loki’s seidr was on a whole different branch of the same tree? Was it because he was a Jotun?
It made no sense to him, so he attempted to understand it each night.
What was seidr?
Easier than taking a breath, the energy flowed through his hands and coagulated into a green orb. It was pure seidr, and he focused, trying to pry its secrets.
What was this energy exactly? What were its building blocks? Something he did not know? Matter existed because countless atoms came together, so why did this green energy in his hands exist? Why did it vary from person to person?
The answer did not come to him tonight, as it had not since he started learning how to weave seidr a year ago.
He would not give up. Magic was too wild to be so constrained, and he had thousands of years to discover the answer.
—
Between teaching Thor and the others how to play football and trying to discover the secrets of the power in his veins, his lessons in seidr continued with his mother, or with the talented sorcerers in the court when she wasn’t available.
If he could have learned seidr forever, he would, but there were more subjects he had to learn as an eight-year-old than there should have been.
The downside of being a prince.
Mathematics, star charting, the workings of the universe, the history of Asgard and the Nine Realms, and more.
When he asked his teacher why they had to learn so much so early, the answer was unexpected. Once the books and the theories were finished, they would be expected to visit their allies across the Nine Realms, to enforce peace where necessary in Allfather’s name, and so they could spend the rest of their lives outside the lecture halls.
In a way, it made sense too. Aesir lived for eight thousand years or so, and a couple centuries in the lecture halls was better than two millennia.
He guessed a longer life span did not mean they naturally had the patience to match it.
—
“Father, who rules Niflheim?” Loki asked, and the table quieted down.
His mother and father shared a look, while Thor continued eating, unbothered by the question.
Odin lowered his spoon, and his gaze wavered. “What makes you ask that?”
“Every realm has its own people and rulers. Even Svártalfheim had the Svartálfar long ago with Malekith, but there is no mention of anyone ruling Niflheim.” In truth, he knew that no one lived there, but he asked the question for a different answer.
An answer to a question he could not afford to ask directly.
The tension in his parents bled away, and Odin answered with a smile, “Niflheim is the primordial realm of mist, ice, and cold, but none live there.”
If Niflheim was empty, they should not have reacted like that.
“How come?” he asked. Ymir was born from the ice of Niflheim and the heat of Muspelheim, but his descendants had settled in Jotunheim, and there was only one entity living—kind of—in that realm.
“That is a mystery people have long stopped seeking an answer for,” was Odin’s answer.
Loki nodded, “I see. Thank you, Father.”
In the myths, Hela was his daughter with Angrboda, yet the life he lived was vastly different. Could she be in Helheim, the deepest part of Niflheim? Then whose child was she?
Or was she just a primordial force?
There were so many things he knew that were wrong, and unfortunately, the library did not provide the answers.
In the future, once he is strong enough, Loki will discover these answers by himself. For now, he had to finish his breakfast.
---
Notes: And the winner is !
I know I said the first chapter would be out by January 1st, but as this choice was clearly ahead and the voting slowed down, I decided to write it. The second chapter is halfway done, and I'll release it soon too.
Enjoy and let me know what you think.
Comments
DJC (MagicLover2128)
I noticed that you misspelled Seidr and called it Cider in one of the sentences. I feel like autocorrect is the culprit.
Rachel N
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
orcun demir
We'll see in the future :)
Orchamus
I actually be pretty curious as to how they'd get along, Hela and this Loki that is. As long as Hela isn't being a crazy murderhobo.
