The moment Loki took his place on the stairs that led up to the throne, Frigga rested her hand on his forearm and softly said something to him. Loki couldn't parse out a single word. He supposed she was trying to be discreet, but there was no need for that. The crowd assembled in the hall was restless and all their excited chattering blended together into a discordant din.

Still, her expression told him enough.

He leaned towards her until his lips were half an inch from her ear. 'I'm fine, truly. Do forgive me for earlier, I was not myself.'

She smiled indulgently and Loki was certain she didn't believe him. To his relief, however, his mother didn't press the matter. She adjusted a fold in his cape, then drew back.

Loki heard the roaring long before he saw Thor. Cheering from the tens of thousands assembled in Asgard's Great Hall sent the walls and pillars vibrating. And Thor wasn't shy about lingering to entertain the crowd. Several minutes passed until the raucous cheers spread to the front half of the hall and the crowd finally parted, revealing Thor strutting out with his hammer aloft.

As Thor continued his unhurried progress to the dais where the throne of Asgard awaited him, Loki felt like his vision had split in two. He saw Thor decked out in the best armour in the Nine Realms, flipping Mjolnir about as if it were a toy to the delights of the assembled thousands all in their best silks and satins. He saw too a Thor bereft of his hammer, his cloak, his helmet, even his eye. This Thor too moved slowly through the crowd, but it was a wariness, not a desire to show-off that set his pace. And around him, the much smaller crowd, barely a smile to be found between them, stood quietly in what clothes they had left.

We live so long. How can so much change in only a few years?

At last Thor came to the foot of the dais. He sank to one knee and slipped off his helmet. Loki chuckled. His brother's hair hung at that awkward length about an inch below his ears. What had he been thinking? Of course, the same question could have been asked about the wink he sent their mother and the conspiratorial grin he offered his friends, who stood in a line on the opposite side of the dais to Loki and Frigga. If they seemed amused by Thor's behaviour, Odin clearly wasn't.

Nevertheless, he rose from his seat and brought down his spear. The assembled throng fell silent.

'Thor Odinson,' he said, 'my kin, my firstborn son, so long entrusted with the mighty hammer Mjolnir, forged in the heart of a dying star. Its power has no equal as a weapon to destroy or as a tool to build. It is a fitting weapon for a king.'

Loki swallowed the solidifying lump in his throat. This was the moment it had all begun. Certainly, he had discovered a way to pass unseen between Asgard and Jotunheim months before. The agreement with the frost giants to have them come and disrupt the coronation had been in the works for weeks. But this was the moment he had actually opened the portal to let them through.

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This time around his task was simple. He needed only to do nothing.

Yet he still found himself tuning out his father's words and focusing only on Odin's face, lest it reveal some hint that he detected an intrusion. But there was nothing, not even once Odin finished his preamble and began the ceremonial oaths themselves.

'Do you swear to guard the Nine Realms?' he asked.

'I swear,' Thor responded without hesitation.

'Do you swear to preserve the peace?'

'I swear.'

'Do you swear to cast aside all selfish ambition and to pledge yourself only to the good of the realm?'

Odin's voice had risen at this last question and Thor's reply was similarly emphatic. Grinning, he raised up Mjolnir as if saluting a hard-won victory. Odin, on the other hand, seemed to grow more sombre.

'Then on this day,' he said after a deep breath, 'I, Odin Borson, proclaim you king of Asgard!'

The roar from the crowd was quite unlike anything Loki had heard in his life, but to his disbelief, the sound swelled further when Thor rose to his feet and turned to face the gathered Asgardians. Loki too couldn't contain a cheer, although his cause for jubilation differed to the rest of the witnesses to the coronation. The first time around Odin hadn't been able to finish his speech; Thor's ascension to king today was proof Loki could change history.

After a minute or two, Thor brought Mjolnir down to hang at his side and turned to face his father once more. Odin beckoned him up. And slowly, the silly grin on his face vanishing without a trace, Thor moved up the stairs past all his friends, past Loki, past their mother and to the top of the dais where Odin alone stood.

Lord Agnar, who had once offered Gungnir to Loki, had sunk to his knees as he did so. But not Odin. Once Thor was right before his father, Odin remained upright and merely extended his hands, Gungnir resting in his upturned palms. From where he stood, Loki could see their mouths moving, but they spoke too quietly for their voices to carry. Whatever was said, Thor concluded the conversation with a fervent shake of his head and took Gungnir into his left hand.

The entire scene was surreal. As Odin drew back to allow Thor to climb the few remaining steps up to the throne, Loki half-wondered if he were simply dreaming this. But Thor took his seat in the Allfather's throne and set down Mjolnir by his feet, while still clenching Gungnir's gilded shaft, and there was no sign of Loki waking.

This is your doing, don't pretend otherwise.

And now you have your own part to play in this pageantry.

Loki sucked in a breath. As brother to the new king, it was his duty to acknowledge Thor's new position. The stairs made positioning rather awkward, but he managed to make his bow look graceful nevertheless. Beside him, his mother sank into a curtsy and there was a deafening rustle of clothing and scraping of boots as the rest of Asgard bowed to their new king.

When Loki straightened back up, the sense that he had abandoned reality only intensified. Thor sat rigid on the throne, his back not quite touching the backrest. Huginn had perched himself on the very top of the throne, while Muninn had taken the right armrest and let out a loud caw. Odin himself took up a place beside the throne; a reflection of his new role as Thor's guide and chief adviser.

Loki wasn't sure if Odin had made some cue or if Thor himself decided it was time for him to speak, but he nudged Muninn off the armrest, then turned his attention back to his audience.

'Father,' he said, 'mother, people of Asgard, ambassadors from realms near and far, I thank you for the warm manner with which I am greeted today. My father has said many wise words already and I don't hope to match them, so I won't bore you with my prattle. Rather, let us celebrate and make sure the efforts of the cooks do not go to waste.'