eswareinmal | (no subject)

Characters: The King and his Worried Subjects. Oh yeah, and some heroes.
Open? Yep!
Where: The King's lazy throne room. You know, the one that looks like a rich person's den.
When: GHB6
What: Someone made a bonfire of the White Forest so the King is holding audiences to try and calm the crowd.

The cluster of townspeople in the audience chamber is at an all time high. There's never been a forest fire like this before... at least not one that anyone can remember, even if Old Man Signchanger did try and point out that one time way back when he was young (because every one knows that that man was never young!

Heroes who want to speak with the King, however, are assured an audience. If anything, they'll be all but pushed up the line. This may be the most worried anyone has seen the normally bubble headed townsfolk...

The Thorns are too far off for the average person to worry about, but this? This was in their own back yard. The pending destruction of the world as they know it is nothing compared to a giant forest fire you can see!

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"Quite so!" came the reply with another grin. "So it would seem that you have something that you can do about the situation, hmmm?"

Loki regards the both of them, archly, and then turns to Sif. "I all but held your hands," he tells her, quiet, low. "All but led you to Sansa with a true trail of breadcrumbs. How was I to know she would destroy an ice wall with such vehemence that it would prove near-fatal?"

A shake of his head. "That heroes were at risk is a mark of their incompetence," he declares, "not my evil."

"You couldn't know," she hisses, lowly. "For people are not lifeless game pieces, to be moved about as you best see fitting."

She takes a step in front of him, to the king.

"His defense alone shows that he does not understand his crimes, does not regret them. And yet they stand, unanswered for."

"And what are you planning to do about it?"

His eyes fix on Sif.

"She will act from heart, not from mind," says Loki, with a sneer, "and do yet more damage to a kingdom that cannot afford it." A flick of his eyes to the King -- "On second thought," he drawls, "go ahead. They may not afford it, but they do certainly deserve it."

---and yet more damage?

"What damage has been cause that you are not at the heart of," she yells, guttural, at Loki.

She breathes. Tries for composure, but it fails her. When she looks to the king, it is with rage.

"Are you so taken in by logic so ill?"

"My dear, you misunderstand!" the King smiled, seemingly oblivious to her rage. "I am deferring to your insight on this matter!"

Loki's eyes widen. A moment of shock, before anger has a chance to take hold.

"She will determine my fate?" he asks. "A dullard delegating to dullards." Ah, there is the fury. "Neither of you could know what it was I meant to do. A higher authority, alone, can do that."

--oh. Well.

That actually manages to stop Sif in her tracks. She looks from the King, to Loki.

The dungeons. Surely, he deserves to be in them. But he has escaped once already, and -- someday, she will return to Asgard. There, Thor and the Allfather have the right to punish Loki as they see fit. Sif holds no such authority.

"He would be less trouble dead," she says, coldly. "But if you will hear me, your highness, I have a different idea in mind."

"Yes, yes, do go on, my dear," the King prompted, grinning with interest.

"Regardless of what his intent may have been," she starts. "Loki's actions have injured many."

There is something of Thor, in the way she carries herself right now. Borrowed, most certainly. Perhaps because she knows Loki will recognize what she is doing. Perhaps a matter of practicality. For whatever titles this place may have given Sif, she is not a ruler.

"But none more so than the Princess Cho. Her life was very nearly forfeit. It seems reasonable to me, then, that Prince Loki's life be forfeit it her in return."

She smiles, at the crowd. Temper gone in favor of charm. A joke.

"Let him be her servant. For such a period of time as the Princess sees fit. Is that not a reasonable punishment for unreasonable actions?"

His jaw drops, and a flush of fury creeps over his skin.

“You cannot be serious.”

"A splendidly well thought out idea, my dear Prince!" The King grinned. "If the Princess who has been so wronged sees this as an appropriate punishment, indeed, it should be carried out!"

She nods, and smiles at the audience. What a fine jest this is.

"I shall send word to her myself. Shall we hold the prince, while we await her verdict?"

"No," he spits. Never. Never will he allow such a thing to be done to him -- "You will not, and I will await no such verdict. There are powers in this world that will not tolerate it." He will call upon her. He will make it worth her while to stop this farce.

"No need to hold him, my dear. I'm sure he will be easily called to the Princess's side when she is presented with his fate," the King returned, grinning in spite of the ire of the person being talked about. "It is the way of things, after all!"

"The way of things," Sif echos. "Indeed."

Here, for a moment, the mask slips. She is not as calculatedly adept at this as Loki, nor as jovial as Thor.

She bows, before starting out of the throne room. She trusts that her anger has well been redirected.