Final steps

[st_ratagem]

Loki had spent the last hour or two before sunset preparing, and the first hour afterward. He’d taken ruthless advantage of the fact that the Inn staff was desperate to give people towels and had carefully interwoven the. On the floor such that there was no chance of getting at the actual carpet below without effort. He’d selected a dagger from his collection - a very old one that he hadn’t actively used since childhood, one of a pair given to him by his mother - and sharpened it to an almost perfect edge. He’d opened up the balcony door to let the early-winter night chill in. He’d even out together a little aid kit (disinfectant, pads, bandages, needle and thread) for afterward.

In many ways, the hardest part was settling on the towels with the in-etched staff resting in front of him and forcing Odin’s enchantment away, knowing that he wouldn’t be allowing himself to go back to normal possibly for hours. And that, as soon as Thor arrived with a bowl and his hands, it would all have a witness.

Comments

[st_ratagem]

“Good. I wasn’t going to rub your feet.” His hands had been worse off, anyway. After a moment, Loki moved to retrieve his knife from the towels and start cleaning it off. You didn’t leave weapons uncleaned, after all.

[st_ormbreaker]

It's the bloodied knife that reminds Thor.

"Is your hand all right?"

[st_ratagem]

“Yes, I think so.” Loki squeezed his hand into a fist again: very little sting or burn. They hadn’t been completely superficial cuts, given the amount of blood he’d needed, but they were already healing nicely. Thor had been thorough in his care. Probably he’d need to address the blood loss sooner rather than later and eat or drink something, but not yet. “Admittedly I’m judging by the fact that there’s virtually no pain when I poke at it, but it wasn’t hurt badly enough to worry about nerve damage.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"You could try healing it yourself," Thor suggests. Loki's already had one win tonight; why not another?

[st_ratagem]

“Negating or lessening a sacrifice isn’t a good idea, brother.” He might have tried, within it that little fact. ”It’s possible that the bloodletting was enough, but it’s... if I cut a corner and run into a wall later, I won’t know whether or not it’s because of the shortcut.” Magic’s rules were finicky at odd times.

[st_ormbreaker]

"It's too bad mother isn't here," he says. "She would kiss it and make it better. Literally."

[st_ratagem]

"Mother would understand about magical rules," Loki countered. "Who do you think taught them to me in the first place?"

[st_ormbreaker]

"I don't recall you being the rule-abiding type," Thor points out. "You don't find it limiting?"

[st_ratagem]

“Know the rules to break them well.” It sounded like a quote because it was; part of the reason Loki and Frigga had been so close was that she’d understood mischief. “But magic is different. The rules aren’t a matter of choice. The can be bent sometimes but never broken without consequence.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"What happens if you don't follow the rules, then?" Thor wonders aloud.

[st_ratagem]

“Sometimes it’s as simple as the spell not working. Other times it’s complicated.” Sorcery had always fascinated Loki, whe he was a child he pushed learn as much as he could as fast as he could, and even centuries later it was a subject that never bored him. “Magic is significantly about belief and will, not necessarily in equal parts.” He gestured gesturing, trying to explain with his hands. “Spells are structure, an aid to belief: put something in, get something out. Breaking the rules breaks the structure, taking more out of you as the spellcaster or twisting around you to create the unexpected.” Like when he’d tried to heal Thor and accidentally rotted him briefly. “At worst, trying to beat reality like that can be lethal.”

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor hums at that explanation.

"You know, I'm learning magic." A beat. "Sort-of." He hadn't really done much of anything but listen to Corbie explain the way things worked; he hadn't yet done any magic of his own.

[st_ratagem]

“Oh? What sort?” And how did one ‘sort of’ learn magic? If it was just sleight of hand, that would be disappointing.

[st_ormbreaker]

"It's just this dream magic thing," Thor says ineloquently with a wave of a hand. "Nothing big."

Or flashy. That might have been why -- as far as he knew -- Corbie was the only one who knew he was studying it.

[st_ratagem]

“Not a bad idea for you,” Loki said thoughtfully. “Especially if you’re having trouble with them, still.” He had been, he’d said, as far back as before he’d blown Loki’s Odin-cover. “How’s it going?”

[st_ormbreaker]

"It has mostly been theory thus far," he says. "Studying. I haven't actually tried performing it myself." Thor could be a man of ego who refused to acknowledge limitations, but there was some small part of him that doubted his ability to perform when it came to magic. He might have lightning and brute strength, but his brother was the spellcaster.

[st_ratagem]

“You’ll be fine.” Magic had a strong belief component, and Thor was hesitant enough that maintaining the belief that he could, that it was possible, might be difficult in the face of failure. “I would say make sure you’re understand the theory thoroughly before trying, but there’s no real fun in that.”

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor was the sort who pulled an item out of the package and immediately tossed away the instructions. Thor wasn't one to fret over the details; he preferred to learn as he did.

He really was trying to make an effort to learn properly now, though. If only because he could imagine how, precisely, things could be messed up worse if they went wrong.

Things had already been pretty bad before Corbie came around with her wards.

"For once," he says, directing a newly-warmed finger at Loki, "I'm trying to follow the book."

[st_ratagem]

“I wasn’t arguing.” Was he? No. And yet the finger-point seemed to be a challenge. “Start by learning and following the rules. That’s the only way to learn which parts you don’t need.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"I didn't think you were," Thor clarifies with a grin. "I'll let you know how it goes. I need something to do between all my other hobbies."

Which included annoying both Loki and Tony.