Sacrifice

Odin sat in the aviary, the pre-dawn light a deep rose-gray, the birds silent as they watched over him. His eyes were closed, his mind at rest as Huginn and Muninn sought knowledge to offer him. He trusted they would bring him that, but in truth it wasn’t only knowledge he sought this morning - it was foreknowledge.

He should have seen how things would go with Loki. He should have anticipated it. And now he had lost so many of his children. So many good people - gone. He knew Asgard would go on without them, but their loss would be felt deeply for a very long time. Perhaps forever.

But there was more to it, too. Since the moment Thor sent Loki away, he’d been filled with a sense of foreboding. A suspicion that he and those that had followed him were not gone, but only...moved. He could still feel them. Was still aware of them. But where had they gone?