"What brother? I don't know what you're talking about. Who are you?" Thor asked, his voice low but steady.
Hela smiled. It wasn't a happy smile, but the cruel smile of a cat playing with a mouse.
"You don't know who I am? Odin never told you?"
She took a step forward. The golden flagstone beneath her feet cracked in a spiderweb pattern under her weight.
"I'm Hela, your sister, Odin's first child, and the rightful heir to Asgard."
Thor narrowed his eyes. His mind raced, trying to process information he had never heard before.
His father had another daughter? A sister? Hidden away? Imprisoned? Why?
"Impossible." Loki's voice came from the side, sharp and urgent.
"Father never mentioned having a daughter."
"There are many things Odin never mentioned." Hela cut Loki off, her green eyes shifting from Thor to him.
"For instance, you're descended from Frost Giants. He found you on a battlefield. You were never a true Asgardian.
"Did Odin tell you any of that?
"No.
"Because he's a liar, a usurper, a false king propped up by gold and lies."
Loki went pale the moment she mentioned the Frost Giants. A dagger slipped between his fingers, and he caught it again.
"Enough." Thor's voice rumbled like distant thunder.
He raised Mjolnir, blue arcs of electricity dancing across its head.
"I don't care who you are or whether what you've said is true. I am the king of Asgard now. My father gave me the throne. You have no claim to it!"
"No claim?" Hela's laughter grew louder, hollow as a curse echoing through an empty hall.
"That throne was mine to begin with. I helped Odin conquer the Nine Realms.
"I led Asgard's armies to victory over every enemy. I've shed more blood than you've ever seen