The Memory Casket is an alternate to my main story Beneath, taking place after The Avengers. It can be read entirely independently of my other stories; more below on how it fits with them.

The please-nobody-sue-me part: I have no claims to anything in the Marvel universe. I make no profit off this. I am grateful to all those who gave us Thor and The Avengers which provide such an amazing canvas on which we can paint our own imaginations.

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The Memory Casket

Chapter 1: Prologue - On This Page

Loki sat at the desk of the cottage he'd purchased in a quiet village on Alfheim for his last month. He'd planned on a month, at least, but after two days changed his mind and decided he could only tolerate a week. A week to be certain. A week to reflect. A week to prepare.

He withdrew five sheets of plain white paper from the shallow center drawer. He dipped the pen in the tiny enchanted pot at the back of the weathered wooden desk to prime the ink.

The first was easy. He'd thought of the words long ago, while pacing in an Asgardian prison. Repeated them like a mantra as his eyes shot daggers at Odin during his sentencing. Seared them into his brain as he waited through the first two years of his six hundred fifty year sentence – one hundred fifty to ensure no Midgardian who'd been alive when he led an attack on their realm would still be alive when he was released, and an additional five hundred because he refused to assist in repairing the damage done on Midgard and Jotunheim. Early in the third year he'd finally managed to escape.

He folded the paper twice, and in his smooth methodical handwriting wrote "For Odin" on the outside.

He took a second sheet of paper. This one was also easy. The words had come to him along with his plan, in the second year of his imprisonment. The precise wording he'd refined over time, so that now they nearly wrote themselves, Loki's hands a mere instrument to channel his control over another man's fate.

He folded it twice, wrote "For Thor," pictured Thor's face, and passed a hand over the paper to enchant it to reveal its words only to its intended recipient.

He took a third sheet of paper. This one was much more difficult. This one he'd avoided thinking about. This one…the decision to write it had been difficult. It took him nearly three hours and he was exhausted by the time he was done. He folded the paper twice, wrote "For Frigga," and enchanted it both to be read only by her and to never yellow or fade.

Having gone through his original five sheets of paper and two more, Loki pulled a fresh sheet of paper from the desk drawer and set it in front of him. He wrote just a few words and set the paper aside.

He pulled one last sheet of paper from the drawer. On this page he wrote, in large, clear lettering, "Do not look back." He folded it and wrote on it in the same pattern as the first three. He looked at this paper and frowned, for it was not quite right. After a moment he ran his thumb over the name, pulling up the ink and returning it to the pot. In the newly white space he wrote the word "you." The letters lacked their usual precision; he'd been unable to keep his hand completely steady.

That done, Loki arranged his few belongings and moved out to the porch. Much simpler than anything he'd had on Asgard, he nevertheless was quite fond of it, its weather-beaten pale wooden planks, piled stone columns, solid stone rail ringing the area. It was a beautiful night, a cool breeze washing him in fresh air scented vaguely with pines from the nearby wood, a three-quarter blue-tinged white moon casting a gentle light over the grounds. He looked down at his attire – soft brown leather boots that reached no higher than his ankles, leather pants so old there were small cracks in the knees and random scratches elsewhere, a thin forest green tunic with bands of heavier and darker green material at each edge. He thought about going back in to find his leather vest, but he wanted to spend what little time he had left out here, and it wasn't really that cold.

He leaned over the sun-bleached stone rail, looked out over the extensive lawn and garden, and waited for the suns to rise.

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This story idea grabbed me and wouldn't let me go (8/8/13). It'll be relatively short (compared to Beneath!), and the plot constrained. I can't promise how quickly I'll update it (Beneath remains the priority, this only squeezes in on the edges...like lunch break), only that I'll finish it. It's going up (versus the other ones I've mentioned, for those of you who are reading Beneath) because of its smaller scale and pretty simple plot. (I said "simple"...not "straightforward"!)

This is "my" same Loki, Thor, Frigga, Odin, etc. So all my other pre-Thor stories are "canon" for this story as well, but not Beneath. Odin chose a different punishment in this story. It's obviously not working out terribly well. This story was partly inspired by a particular passage from Beneath, as well as, very vaguely, the images - that crush my heart into microscopic bits - of Loki being imprisoned like "another stolen relic" in the Thor 2 trailer.

The image I'm using for the story is from Wikipedia. It will be explained later.

Your comments/questions are most welcome, and if the PM option is there I'll always respond.