Important Author's Note: Howdy! Some of you may be faithful readers of mine for years and know I have a terrible penchant for not finishing stories. Part of the reasoning behind this is that I always attempted to upload chapters chronologically (as one might expect on fan based on its layout) and I don't write chronologically by chapter. I write like this-whatever interests me gets the best writing, I re-read it, think about what connects the parts I like, and keep fleshing out. So I'm test-driving a new upload model for ...I'm uploading the framework and will keep re-uploading what I have as I have it. So it's a LONG "one-shot" (meaning one "chapter") but it clearly has a WHOLE BIG plot with many layers. This is a Sigyn/Loki story that would take place in an alternate Phase 2 and Phase 3 Marvel universe. Cheers.

It wasn't often that Thor popped into the middle of New York with what might have been a hostage. They had merely appeared out of the stormy sky, the woman's arm clutched by Thor as though she might try to escape but something about her was still, as though she knew she had nowhere to run. When Stark eyed her wearily Thor had merely said, "This is Sigyn."

Tony nodded, "I'm—"

"I know who you are, Tony Stark." She nodded back at him and rubbed her back, Tony's eyes fell to her shape then and he noticed what seemed so still about her: she was obviously pregnant.

"Woah, don't pretend like that's mine, I haven't been to Asgard recently." Tony held up his hands defensively, "And I'm not sure hiding her here when Jane lives on this planet is the best idea for you either, though having an inter-planetary affair would bring you to a new level of player."

Thor snorted, "It is not my child."

"Is she in danger?"

"I am a prisoner." She hissed unhappily and Thor looked at her, hurt, "You are also, potentially, a traitor. You knew he was alive, you knew he was on the throne, and you said nothing."

Sigyn held her stomach possessively, "What would you have me do, Thor? After burying him again you would have me hand him over for execution? Tell him he was to be a father and watch him beheaded for his crimes?"

"Would you have him go free?" Thor was yelling now, this seemed like a family quarrel, Thor was comfortable with her and yet deeply wounded by her at the same time.

"You know I have never believed in that- but you would kill him. I will always fight for him to remain in prison…at least then he is alive."

"And as long as he is alive, he is capable of both escape and deception. I am appalled you were complicit in his schemes when for so many years you have been innocent."

"Woah woah woah…..is my Loki-odometer going into the red? Is the King Creep not dead? I thought he was dead?"

Thor was silent, tight-lipped, and Sigyn's pale cheeks were flushed red with annoyance, neither would answer Stark.

"There a story here, Maury?" Tony quipped, knowing neither of the Asgardian's would catch the reference but enjoying his little joke nonetheless. Thor looked uncomfortable.

"It is a long and complicated story…." He began hesitantly, And private. His brother was so private that exposing the story of how he came to be with Sigyn would be telling more than a love story. It would show the vulnerable underbelly of Loki. Thor didn't believe it was honorable to expose a man's family to harm just to manipulate him, that doing so was an underhanded way to win…. And Tony Stark had always struck him as a man who did underhanded things.

"I got time and a genius level IQ, hit me with it Conan." Stark flopped onto a sofa and plopped his filthy feet onto the expensive fabric. This was not a man who treated anything delicately.

Sigyn eyed him with the same level of distrust as her brother in law and cocked her head to Thor as if to say Not him.

"We will wait for the rest. I am most concerned that Jane and Doctor Banner come."

"They aren't those kind of doctors." Stark snarked.

"It may be that they will have to adapt."

Sigyn sat apart from Thor, still in her Asgardian clothes, refusing to look at him and staring out of the window. Thor eyed her worriedly and then trained his gaze on Tony Stark. Stark was analyzing Sigyn as though she were the villain and she had refused to say anything with the man in the room. The door to the penthouse opened and Jane Foster entered. Thor rose to his feet and crossed the room to her in a moment, his whole face lighting up despite the gravity of the situation. That gave Sigyn a moment of pause and even a smile- she had always liked the Foster woman.

Jane's eyes left Thor and widened with surprise as she saw Sigyn.

"Sigyn!"

"Jane Foster." Sigyn rose from her seat as Jane crossed the room and embraced her, "You look well."

"So do you….something different though."

"It's that charming pregnancy glow." Stark quipped, "Or the menacing promise of propagating a mini-tyrant, I've heard it both ways."

Jane's eyes widened, "You're…..you're?"

Sigyn scowled at Tony Stark, "You're annoying me."

"But…." Jane was still staring at Sigyn, open mouthed, "How? He was in a prison cell."

"So was I." Sigyn smiled mischievously, "We can't always behave as we are bid to, Jane Foster."

At that last sentence Sigyn nodded meaningfully at Thor. Jane blushed and looked back to Thor, "Why are you both here?"

Thor looked grim, "It is a long story…. Perhaps we wait until everyone is gathered."

His hesitation chilled her blood—Jane did not know Thor to be a man of incredible patience. She turned back to Sigyn, "How are you coping with his….you know, his passing? Are you alright?"

Sigyn's face brightened for a moment, "Loki isn't dead."

"Dammit! How many lives does this cat get?" Stark swore kicked over an ottoman. The sound of the furniture smacking on the ground made a figure in the doorway cower, "Woah, I don't do so hot in chair-throwing environments."

Sigyn's eyes trained on him, "Ah, I was wondering if I would get to meet him…. Doctor Banner, I presume."

Banner looked her up and down, a young woman wearing green Asgardian robes and looking agitated at being there. Agitation was never a great emotional springboard for Banner, but he knew Asgardians were not hopping to Earth for spring break, "Hi. Who are you?"

Sigyn looked to Thor to answer but it was Tony Stark who got up to speak, "She's-"

Stark's voice cut out but his mouth kept moving, he looked over at Sigyn who was smiling at him, "The question is not yours to answer Mr. Stark."

"Sigyn, release him." Thor sighed, "We need not fight with one another."

"I am not one of you, something Mr. Stark seems keen on reminding me." She bristled and waved her hand, making Tony Stark cough and stutter, "How did you do that?"

Sigyn just smiled at him, "That would be telling."

"No bullshit, tell me how you did that."

Thor cleared his throat aggressively and both Sigyn and Stark silenced, "Doctor Banner, this is my sister by way of marriage, Sigyn, Princess of Asgard."

Banner nodded docilely, "Are you going to tell me that you have more than one brother?"

"I am Loki's wife, Doctor Banner. There is no need to hide it, the fact is known." Sigyn bowed her head slightly, "I have heard incredible things about you and your powers, I hope I do not cause you any undue stress."

Banner felt his heartbeat increase, his muscles tense, "Where's Loki?"

"That's a long story, apparently. They're saving it." Stark interrupted.

"There is a dark force rising in the universe, a force that seeks to end all worlds." Thor began the story while the crowd of heroes listened in. Sigyn and Jane sat on either side of him, Jane with one hand comfortingly on his thigh and Sigyn curled into a ball as though she were trying to disappear.

"This force has gathered stones of great power, great potential, and it is joining them together to create a weapon so powerful that none could stand against it. This weapon is a gauntlet, and the force is gathering behind a creature called Thanos…

"Loki has been brought into their ranks with the sorceress Angrboda, they are attempting to magically locate and manipulate the stones. Loki's intention is to trade the stones for possession of Asgard when the other worlds collapse."

"Shocker. World domination. Such a trite plot line for that guy." Natasha struck Stark for his remark, hoping to convince him to stop.

"Loki survived the ordeal in London and Asgard, though he had appeared dead to me and his body had been brought back to the palace for burial. He promptly usurped my father and was ruling Asgard under the guise of Odin. He ruled for a time, undiscovered, but Angrboda revealed his presence to me and when I came to confront him he fled the planet with the sorceress. We know that they plan to attack Earth for some of the technology that SHIELD is in possession of, and my hope is to prevent a massive attack."

"That would be our hope too." Rogers nodded, "What's your plan?"

"I am his plan." Sigyn added quietly and Rogers cocked his head at her oddly, "What can you do?"

"It's who I am that is important, and what I have, not what I can do." Sigyn responded vaguely, "My brother means to use me as a bargaining tool. He thinks I can persuade Loki to give up his quest-hoping, of course, that harm won't come me or my child."

"Child?!" Rogers barked, shocked, "What child?"

Sigyn placed a hand on her rounded belly, and everyone who had not previously realized that she was pregnant grew uncomfortable with the situation, "Thor does not think Loki would permit an attack on this building if he thought his wife and son were in danger. He thinks we will be safe. I have tried to tell him that I should be returned to Asgard until I am delivered, but he will not hear me."

"That's the plan? Put a pregnant woman in front of the building and hope that Loki reacts in time?" Natasha rolled her eyes, "What's plan B?"

Thor bristled, "I do not wish to harm Sigyn or my nephew, I am not holding her in front of us as so she might take the brunt of the blast… But she can contact Loki when none other can, she is the one thing he would change for, and I need to hope that she can call him off of this attack."

Barton looked at Sigyn and her belly darkly, his loathing of Loki apparent, "And what happens if we just piss him off and he comes at us twice as hard?"

Tony snapped his fingers and pointed to Barton, "See? This is the Jurassic Park two plot without any dinosaurs. You are going to take the baby T-rex and endanger it, and its daddy is going to tear you to pieces. I vote for send the woman back home immediately."

"I'm with Stark," Natasha nodded, "This isn't going to work."

Barton sneered, "Get her out."

Steve finally stood and waved his hands about, "Stop voting, we don't have all the information yet."

He turned his gaze on Sigyn again, "What aren't you telling me?"

Sigyn looked over at Jane for a moment, "Aesir women carry and delivery differently than Midgardian women. The pregnancy is nearly twice as long. I am not Aesir, but rather Vanir and dwarf- there is no telling how I will carry a child having never had one before. And the gravity on Earth is much different, time here goes quicker. Thor has jumped me into a different space and it may accelerate my pregnancy."

"That's bad?" Rogers ran a worried hand through his hair, "It doesn't sound good."

"Loki isn't Aesir." Sigyn sighed and rubbed her stomach again, "He's Jotun, a race of Giants from-"

"What? Really?" Stark interrupted, "I don't get 'giant' when I see him."

Sigyn scowled, "He was abandoned as an infant for his size, but he is Jotun nonetheless. This child could grow to be a giant, and if it does I will not be able to deliver it alone."

"And how likely is this?" Jane Foster was the one to ask, "Do you think that could happen?"

"It is already happening. I conceived only a few months ago but my child is much larger than it should be. This child will outgrow my body and I will be stuck here, unable to get Asgardian aid when the problems begin." She scowled at Thor, "My child's life and mine are in danger on this planet, if I am left here too long I will be in dire danger during my delivery which could happen much sooner than expected."

"Oh….that's…..really awful and unlikely to help anyone." Banner sighed, letting go of any hopes of a stress-free environment.

"How do you…know all this stuff?" Steve Rogers asked, looking like a worried father in the delivery room himself.

"Sigyn is one of the strongest sorcerers on our planet, perhaps the strongest….her greatest gifts come in the form of healing. She was a princess on Vanaheim before we conquered it—the royal family have particularly strong skills with magic. She was my mother's second favorite pupil." Thor smiled proudly, "Loki was always her favorite."

"No points for guessing that." Barton snorted.

"So what do we do?" Steve Rogers posed, "Keep her here or send her away?"

Sigyn stood, "I think you will permit me little say in this decision, so I will retire. Jane? Perhaps you will come with me?"

Jane looked at Thor who nodded, "We will call for you when our discussion is over."

Sigyn was pacing by one of the floor length windows in the Stark building, Jane was sitting, watching her, "What else is bothering you?"

Pausing, Sigyn slicked her robes over her belly and Jane realized that Sigyn was larger than she initially thought—it was enough to make Jane uneasy that there was an alien pregnancy occurring on Earth but when she thought about Sigyn, who had kept her company on Asgard with Frigga, Sigyn the sweet who was lovelorn over a man Jane thought undeserving of her, it was heartbreaking to imagine this pregnancy going wrong. It seemed to Jane that all Sigyn's joys were turned inside out.

"I will not be sent back to Asgard." Sigyn sighed, "Their conversation is useless."

"Why do you say that?"

"Did Thor tell you the story of the Vanir?" Jane shook her head, "I thought not. We can see something of the future, not usually the full picture but we can see elements of it enough. And I see enough of Thor's heart to know I will not be leaving here."

"Why?"

Sigyn smiled sadly at Jane Foster, "Who rules the throne of Asgard?"

"Odin." Jane was surprised by the new line of questioning and didn't like the abrupt switch.

"After Odin?"

"With Frigga dead….it must be Thor."

"And Thor has rejected the throne, refused to accept his place…so if tomorrow there were no Odin, no Thor…who would be the king of Asgard?"

Jane shook her head, "Loki?"

"Loki is a criminal, by our law he cannot inherit unless Odin pardons him."

Jane's eyes widened, "Your baby…."

"Precisely, Jane Foster. My child would be the next in line. Thor has his doubts that Loki would make a fit father, and he has his doubts that I would raise the child in a way that would…negate Loki's blood in it. So, I think that Thor wants his heir raised by a person of his choosing…I think he would have the next prince of Asgard raised by the woman he would have raise his own children."

For a moment she was stunned and then Jane sputtered, "What? You can't be serious."

"The suspicions of the Vanir are rarely wrong. I think Thor would give you my child to raise here on Midgard, where the influences of its father cannot reach it."

Jane Foster looked angry and shocked, "I won't do that- I couldn't!"

"Nor would I let you, Jane Foster." Sigyn agreed, "Like you as I may, the only way my brother will be taking my son from me is if I am dead. Nonetheless, I know this is a fool's hope he holds in his heart, and I know he will not let me return to Asgard."

Jane sat fuming, piecing over precisely what she intended to tell Thor the next moment that she got him to herself.

"Freyja is an old friend, and I expect you two to be charming and delightful to her daughters." Frigga instructed to Thor and Loki, who were flanking her on either side as they strode down the long halls of the palace, "She has five daughters and means to show them to the best men of our courts, hoping to marry them to good and honest souls—you will both do your best to protect these girls as though they are your own sisters and be good hosts. I will not command you to marry one, but if you grow interested please to do not be shy."

"What is the pedigree of the girls?" Loki asked, "Freyja is a wandering soul, is she not?"

Frigga smirked at the polite description—five husbands, five daughters—and now a sixth husband and soon to be delivered of a son- Freyja might be described more cruelly than a wandering soul but she had long since been ordained by Odin the Goddess of Love and she could not help herself in stopping along the way to spread that love about.

Frigga went on describing the girls and Loki was instantly bored by it, wished he had not brought up the subject, until something caught his ear, "… her father, Iwaldi, the dwarf.."

"Half a dwarf?" Thor sneered, "What does she look like, I wonder?"

"With Vanir blood? Royal blood? Either amazingly beautiful or horribly hideous." Loki suggested and both boys earned glares from their mother.

"You will both be polite to the girls- Odin help you if I hear such talk in their presence, neither of you are so old that I cannot beat you like small children when you deserve it."

"Apologies, mother," Loki purred, "We would never let you down or embarrass you in front of your guests. Forgive us our little jest."

Frigga reached over and petted Loki's cheek- all was forgiven. By this time they had reached the entranceway and the five daughters of Freyja were all lined up to greet them. Four were dull—blondes of various color, tall and thin and classically beautiful. The last in line had copper hair and she was a head shorter than her sisters, built more strongly. She had eyes so green, so clear, that they pierced what they caught in their gaze. Loki held her gaze for a moment and she did not blink, he leaned over to his mother and whispered, "Which one is that?"

When Frigga looked over a strange cast distorted her eyes for a moment and she shook her head, troubles weighed her brow, but she pressed her fingers lightly to her lips and tried to focus back on her son, "Sigyn, that is Sigyn."

"Sigyn." Loki practiced the name, he liked how it felt on his tongue.

Thor, missing the moment, said, "Is that the half dwarf?"

Frigga clucked, "Indeed, she is."

Loki sucked in his breath, "Amazingly beautiful, then."

Frigga stroked his arm, "Now, my boys, mind your manners."

Loki kept his chin up and his face still, an emotionless mask, while they were being introduced to Freyja's daughters to see how they would react to him. Thor was first in line, naturally, and he watched the faces of the tall, blonde daughters light up for Thor and then fall, just a little, when Loki was presented. The four of them looked nearly identical—they had Vanir blood and Aesir blood, and looked every inch the princesses of lore. Tall, muscular, and incredibly beautiful. Next to them was the one with red hair, tinged in some placed with blonde like a stain she couldn't remove. The half Dwarf.

Sigyn barely made eye contact with Thor, after her sisters had all giggled and smiled and blushed, Sigyn's quiet curtsey was almost insulting in its normalcy. She looked up at Thor, briefly, nodded to him to show she understood who he was, and looked away again. One of her sisters nudged her sharply and Sigyn flinched, muttering, "It is a pleasure to meet the mighty Thor, tales of your deeds travel far."

It sounded trained, something she was supposed to say. Loki wondered what she had been trained to say about him. Thor smiled smugly at her and gave his usual reply, something about knowing how wonderful he was, Loki rarely paid attention to that.

"And this is Loki, my second son." Frigga presented Loki with a flourish of her hand, then looked between Loki and Sigyn and said, with no small amount of pride, "This is one of Asgard's most promising sorcerers—I train him myself, he is very talented."

Loki's chin inched up higher with his mother's praise. Sigyn's head shot up when she heard the word sorcerer and she looked at Loki with great interest, then over at Frigga. Her eyes came back to Loki's and she met them, he stared back at her with a glint in his eye until she blushed, smiled, and gave a genuine bow, "I am Sigyn, Iwaldidottir, fifth-born. I have come very far to see magic trained in Asgard—it is a great honor to meet one of its students."

Though Loki had said little to the other girls he smiled at Sigyn, "Does magic interest you?"

Sigyn smiled at him sincerely, making eye contact with him again, "Very much."

Freyja patted Sigyn on the shoulder and interjected, "Yes, my Sigyn is very magical. We cannot quite offer her what she needs in terms of training—there are so few with her talents on Nidavellir."

Frigga looked pleased with herself, and placed one proud hand on Loki's shoulder, mirroring Freyja's gesture, "Perhaps we can be of some service to you with that, my old friend."

After that, the girls were dismissed to their side of the table, Loki and Thor were dismissed to theirs, and their mothers talked in the middle with Odin while the food was brought. Loki was annoyed at the separation but also intrigued. As the meal went on he looked over at the girls, the four older ones were falling over one another to get Thor's attention but Sigyn kept looking over at Loki. Sometimes he caught her looking and when he did she would not turn her eyes away immediately, she would look, intently, as if asking silent questions.

He found himself extremely intrigued by how his mother's visit was going thus far… and he hoped he would get another opportunity to talk to Sigyn.

Loki walked into Frigga's quarters with his nose still stuck in his book, hardly paying attention to what was going on around him. It was their ritual: Odin and Thor were in the training fields, and Loki and Frigga were in her study. Occasionally the boys were made to switch courses but neither enjoyed it very much. Thor was not an ideal pupil—he was distracted and easily bored by all the details. Loki was not physically strong like Thor—when Odin pushed him to fight with swords and axes and maces he inevitably lost his grace, he was better at fighting with his tricks but Odin insisted that it was not enough to learn tricks.

"One day, in battle, you will be too distracted or weak or close for tricks. You need this too."

At least Odin didn't dismiss the tricks as useless like Thor and half the army. Odin had once said something to Frigga about how tricks were no substitute for good coordination and a sharp blade. She promptly produced a doppelgänger that snuck up behind him and held a knife to his throat. He had never said another word of her magics being useless to Loki in a battle…though he would be lying if he thought they were sufficient. Everyone applauded Thor, awed at Thor…Loki was not as tall nor as strong. Odin, truthfully, was always aware of that difference.

When Loki walked into his mother's room he was quickly aware that something was different. The magic of the room was somehow shifted, there was a buzzing in the air like energy after a spell and he instantly looked up to see what his mother had planned.

Instead of seeing Frigga waiting for him, he saw her studying Sigyn.

"Loki!" Frigga smiled warmly, "Come in, we have a visitor. Sigyn has just been showing me what she has learned so far…she is very much hoping to take some lessons from us."

The glow around Sigyn faded when she became aware of him and she looked up shyly. Frigga noticed and cooed, "Do not be nervous, my dear. Loki will be your schoolmate—share with him what you can do."

Loki nodded, a slight smile on his face, and went to go sit beside his mother, "I have not had a schoolmate before—please, continue."

Sigyn looked over at him as if she wanted to speak but did not know what to say, she opened her mouth only to find it lacking and shut it again. She shook her head and looked back at her hands, trying to remember what she had intended to show Frigga.

"Your projection, Sigyn." Frigga reminded her, "You were trying to describe it to me. You say it's like a copy, but you could not say of what."

"It varies. My mother did not know what it was." Sigyn once more looked over at Loki, "Will you show me what you can do?"

"Most assuredly." Loki promised, "You mustn't be intimidated—I have always wanted someone to study with who actually cared for the lessons."

Slowly Sigyn nodded as if she trusted what he was saying, she had never performed magic before peers without being mocked—her sisters shared none of her talent and had no patience or appreciation for the bursts of magic they had to endure. Taking a deep breath she stretched her hands in front of her and all around her the glowing green of magic intensified—before her began forming a copy of a person, a vague representation that Loki immediately perked at when he saw, "What is that mother?"

Frigga was smiling ear to ear, "An approximation—it's what we get when we use a Soul Forge."

Frigga walked over to it and waved a hand through layers of the figure, exposing the insides and the organs, "Very impressive. Most people need a machine to produce this….what can you do with it?"

Sigyn walked over to the figure and waved her hand over its abdomen and said, "That will calm a hurt stomach."

She waved a hand over its head, "This will cure a headache."

Looking over at Frigga's beaming face and at Loki's curious one Sigyn held back, "I try things- this figure is me so there is nothing wrong, but sometimes I do things to others without meaning to."

Loki, even young, knew a lie when he heard one but he didn't sense any malice in what she was saying, so he overlooked it. Frigga was too pleased with her new student to care what the girl was avoiding and instantly said, "Of course you do things without meaning to—all new students do. That is no matter—but this, this is raw ability. You are a born healer if this is what your magic does without meaning to."

They spent another hour having Sigyn try small changes, try to project Frigga's approximation and then even Loki's. Sigyn had just finished projecting Loki's approximation when Frigga applauded her, "Very good—very impressive. I think that sufficient for today's introduction."

Loki nodded but did not contribute. Sigyn took a seat on the other side of Frigga, looking relieved that she had found an audience receptive to her skills, but she looked over at Loki, hopeful he remembered his promise to demonstrate his own skills. She didn't need to vocalize her question, it seemed that Loki had a talent for reading her desires on her face and while she was looking at him she felt a tap on one shoulder. When she looked over she saw Loki. Confused she turned her head back—there were two Loki's. In front of her someone cleared their throat and she looked over to see a third Loki.

Smiling, Sigyn clapped, "Dopplegangers! I have only heard of them!"

"It is no easy skill." Frigga beamed. From beside her Loki stood and his copies stood on either side of him, making their exactness all the more impressive.

Loki caught up to Sigyn in the gardens after breakfast, leaning in to whisper, "Do you have something of mine?"

Sigyn smiled and just tapped the silver bracelet on her wrist, and it transformed back into the ghostly white snake of the morning. The snake flicked its tongue at her and studied her with its pale, ruby colored eyes then slithered from her wrist onto Loki's outstretched hand, disappearing happily up his sleeve.

"Thank you," he smirked at her, "for both protecting him and for keeping my little secret."

"She knows it was you, but she cannot prove it." Sigyn laughed gently, "Someone as brash as Sif, I was not sure that she was capable of fear."

"She is terrified of him," the glint in Loki's eyes was devilish, "of all snakes really but she hates him the most. She told me once as a child that she had nightmares of a giant, white snake eating her whole- ever since I dedicated myself to the cause of finding such a thing."

"He's hardly a giant." Sigyn traced her fingers around the part of her wrist the snake had occupied, "Though he was heavier than I expected."

"He's just an infant." At the snap of Loki's fingers a projection flashed in front of them, a snake that was easily a quarter mile long all coiled up on itself, hissing, but it was butter yellow with black eyes, "His mother was an impressive creature—and I had to watch her nests for years until she finally hatched a ghost."

Sigyn nodded in approval, "You've dedicated a lot of effort to these pranks on Sif…may I ask why?"

Loki waved his hand and the image of the snake disappeared, in its place was only the echo of a child laughing, but the laughter wasn't comforting. It was the cruel laughter of a child who has discovered how to hurt another, with words, with rejection, with hard lessons taught no other way. Sigyn wasn't sure that Loki had intended for her to hear it, but she knew precisely what it was and didn't need two guesses to figure out why Loki wanted to hurt Sif…Sif had clearly hurt him first.

"Sif and the others are my brother's creatures…like him they go back and forth between treating me as a friend, as a foe…as a particularly life-like target to practice on. Thor…" Loki guarded his tongue, aware jointly that Sigyn was practically a stranger to him having come to court only a few weeks ago, but more aware that there was something about her that made her feel like an old friend…like an actual friend. He wondered, fleetingly, if he could trust her before his gut told him that of course he could, "Thor isn't always smart enough to see that he hurts me. Neither is Fandral or Volstagg. But Hogun, Sif…they know precisely what they are doing, and Sif always felt that she had twice as much to prove. If the others felt they had to laugh at me, Sif felt she had to invent the jest. I decided long ago that they would never be able to out-jest me and I have kept that promise to myself."

"But scars can't heal." Sigyn nodded, "I know something of what you speak. I have no older brothers, but I do have four sisters and they have not always enjoyed having me. We are not…alike. They have ways of showing me that difference that are as sharp and bitter as thorns on roses."

"So what did you do?" Loki gently flicked his wrist and the snake was suddenly charmed about Sigyn's neck like a living necklace, it stared at her like a dog awaiting a command, "Did you turn to tricks and nuisances to exact your petty revenges?"

"Oh no," Sigyn blew on the snake's nose and he disappeared, Loki felt the reassuring weight of the animal in his pocket and nodded at Sigyn, impressed, as she continued, "I'm afraid when I was younger I had less…harmless ways of expressing myself. I am the most magical of them all, and I didn't fully understand my powers, so that also led to a fair amount of unpleasant ends."

"For example?" Loki prompted but Sigyn just blushed and shyly whispered, "Do you really want to know?"

"I will trade you anything for the answer."

Sigyn bit her lip slightly, "But I don't want anything from you that you haven't already given me."

"Consider it a promise to be kept until you do desire something." Loki winked and Sigyn nodded, "A deal, then."

She closed her eyes and tugged on the ends of her copper hair sharply as if she were pulling out a knot, sucked in her breath, and quickly blew it out as though she were extinguishing an invisible candle.

When she opened her eyes Loki held out his empty hands, disappointed and said, "…And?"

"Oh you will see it soon enough." Sigyn laughed to herself and distantly a blood-curling scream ripped the air.

They were walking through the gardens, the little snake slithering between the two of them, when they reached the paddocks. The screaming that had echoed a quarter hour ago subsided and they had almost forgotten about it. Loki eyed Sigyn for a moment and then gave a sharp whistle. In front of them, looming in an almost terrifying way, was a giant horse with eight legs instead of four.

"This is Sleipnir."

"Another pet of yours?"

"In a manner of speaking." He smiled mischievously, "Pets of mine."

"Pets?"

"It's a long story…." Suddenly there was a sweeping metallic sound and a hammer crashed through the paddock fence inches from Loki's face, without skipping a beat he nodded at Sigyn's shocked expression and quipped, "Which will clearly wait for another time."

"LOKI!" Raged Thor as the hammer return to him, "You will pay for your trickery."

Loki held up his hands innocently, "I do not know what you could be referring to in the least, brother."

For once, it was true—but who would believe it? Sigyn watched the complete disregard for Loki's innocence. The prince was assumed guilty whenever tricks were being played.

"Lady Sif! You will pay for humiliating her!"

Loki's eyes darted to Sigyn who frowned, nodding, and stepped forward, "My Lord I—"

"My Lady," Loki interrupted her, "please feel no need to calm him. My brother rarely takes my little jests well."

"They are rarely humorous." Thor growled, "Now return Sif's hair to her head!"

Loki looked at Sigyn who shook her head, "Please, let me—"

"It is quite alright, Sigyn." Loki put an arm around her back and rubbed her gently to show he did not mind being scolded on her behalf. Then he smiled at Thor, "So, all of her hair is gone?"

"You know well that it is!"

"Well, what would you have me do?"

"You will replace it!"

Loki shrugged, "I will need some time to devise a way to do such a thing, magic is not merely a flick of the wrist and a wish, brother. It needs some planning."

Thor closed the gap between them and grabbed Loki by the shirt, lifting him half off the ground, "You have until morning to fix her, or I will scalp you that you might share in her pain."

Loki simply smirked at his brother, "Morning, then."

Thor clomped away to comfort his friend and at Loki's feet the little snake hissed angrily and Sleipnir stomped his feet. When Thor was sufficiently far away Loki turned to Sigyn with a gleeful expression, "Did you really take all of her hair?"

Sigyn nodded, blushing slightly, "You should have let me explain to him that I did it."

Loki waved a hand dismissively, "He would never have believed you so it matters little. Though you sat and performed the trick in front of him, he would swear I was somehow responsible. If I am to be believed guilty, I should at least like to have the ability to gloat."

His eyes trailed toward the palace, twinkling darkly, "Oh I should like to see what that vain creature has been reduced to, weeping in a corner of her room like a schoolgirl, unable to fix it with all her strength and bravado."

"At least let me fix it for you." Sigyn offered, "I've done it before."

Loki quirked an eyebrow at her, "You will have to tell me which of your sisters wears a full head of fake hair another time. How do you propose to fix it?"

Sigyn lifted a hand and hummed softly, flicking her wrist from side to side and from the light of the sun small, fine threads began to wind around her fingers. Loki marveled at it, "How do you do that?"

"Old Dwarven magic—different than the Vanir magic but has its uses."

Loki reached out and touched the threads—soft as silk with a warmth to them, they were radiantly beautiful and he imagined, for a moment, that all of Sigyn's sisters wore this as their hair. How marvelous it must be.

Sigyn watched his face go from awe to mischievous and he caught her eye, "Can you make threads from anything?"

"Most things that live." Sigyn nodded, "Why?"

"Would you care to help me in one of my tricks?"

The next morning Loki was brought before Odin, Thor, Frigga and a cloak clad Sif. Trailing behind him was Sigyn who was ushered next to Frigga in a place of honor suiting the Queen's young apprentice. Loki looked over at Sigyn and winked, he was practically brimming with mirth knowing what was to come. He bowed before the assembly and Odin stamped his staff, "Loki, prince of Asgard, have you come to make right your cruel mockery of this innocent girl?"

Loki huffed a bit when Sif was described as 'innocent' but inclined his head, "I have, father."

With a swirl of his hand a glowing mane of golden hair floated in front of him, "The lady need merely put this on her head and it will radiate as brightly as she does."

Sif stepped forward and grabbed the hair, looking around as if she expected more ceremony and placed the mane on her head. For a moment she felt it mold onto her head, become her hair, and she ran her fingers through it, happily looking at the color.

Then, before her eyes, the golden strands became to change and grew darker and darker until they were pitch. Sif screamed, "More trickery? My lords!"

Odin and Thor both stood in anger but Loki merely straightened his back, "Trickery? My lords! I said merely that the hair would reflect the wearer- if the lady dislikes the color perhaps she should look to herself."

No magic was found that could turn Sif's hair golden again, and Loki was banished from his studies for a month for giving her the raven-black locks. Sigyn had not laughed at Sif's misfortune but neither had she taken part in the sport of bashing Loki that so many of the court seemed to partake in. Instead, she would go to the gardens with her books—the gardens that were underneath Loki's window. Because Loki was forbidden to come to class she would fold their lessons into birds and let the paper creatures fly up to him, where he would promptly send a response. He never forgot that moment of kindness—of humanity. Where all others left him to his loneliness and isolation Sigyn found a way to dance just on the edge of treason in order to keep him company.

If he had a word for the feeling she was inspiring in him, he might have called it love. But it was too new, too unexpected to be named…and it was taking root too solidly to be moved.

Frigga watched them from a distance, biting her lip, wondering if she should push any harder than she already had. She knew that she shouldn't encourage them, it nagged in the back of her mind that she shouldn't, but when she saw them together it was hard to listen to reason. They couldn't see it—how nicely they complimented one another, what they brought out in each other, but she did. She savored it, like a fine wine, and she was not used to giving up the things that gave her pleasure.

Just a little push…She thought, A tiny push. No harm can come of it.

But in the back of her mind her far-seeing eyes twitched and she saw a bracelet breaking. She didn't think much of it at the time, she ignored it as she had learned to do with anything she didn't wish to see.

Loki marveled at the vastness of the market and found himself tugging at his simple clothes, worrying that he might be seen as a prince, worried he would not blend in. Sigyn smiled at him from her plain hood and leaned in to whisper, "Are you so certain you do not look the part?"

"I am their prince…what if they recognize me?" He muttered quietly and Sigyn tucked a stray hair of his behind his ear. It was a simple gesture, but it tugged at him deeply. Nobody spare Frigga tended to him the way Sigyn did—and she did so never expecting anything in return.

"How many of these common people have seen your stately face my liege?" She teased and he gave her a dry look, "Probably none."

"Then your secret is safe with me- we look like a young, noble couple shopping together. Would you prefer to be my brother or my husband?"

"Well I hardly fit the role of your brother." He returned with a slight guttural note to his voice—it had struck him when she said the word husband, "I shall have to be your doting husband."

"Then you should dote." She smirked, Loki offered her his arm and she accepted it gladly, her smile spreading from ear to ear. Sigyn was a natural at finding the ingredients his mother had sent them for—she had clearly done this before—but Loki had almost no idea what he was looking at. Reading in a book how to identify fresh Bilgesnipe liver was one thing, but actually staring at a dozen of them and having to choose was a different matter. Sigyn was a perfect instructor to him in this—she showed him how to judge color, weight, smell and size—how to judge texture, softness, bruising and price. He was a quick student, and by the close of the evening he was haggling with some of the toughest clerks in the market. When their packages were secure and given to servants to deliver to his mother, Loki and Sigyn continue strolling along all the aisles looking absently at things, commenting on different prices and specials, her arm still firmly entwined with his and they were in utter, simple bliss. This was a kind of calm Loki had never known, he wondered if this was what people talked about when they talked about everyday pleasures.

As they walked, men noticed her… never did they recognize Loki was their prince. Never did they recognize that Sigyn was a lady, but men would turn to watch her walk, watch her neckline as she bent down to investigate the wares of the different merchants, watch her smile as they tried to offer her some discount for a pretty lady. Loki was agitated by it, more so than he would have suspected. As Sigyn approached one apothecary to look at ground raven beaks his assistant perked up. The young man was blonde, tall, and every inch an Aesir—with the keen eye of intellect that Loki had come to disassociate with Aesir soldiers. The assistant rushed in front of the stand and bowed low. Sigyn looked around and pretended to be surprised, "Who is here? Why are you bowing?"

"Oh—you mean you are not the glorious All Mother? The most beautiful woman in all Nine Realms? Apologies, my lady, but I thought surely my eyes would recognize such radiance."

Sigyn nodded politely, "Your compliments exceed complementariness, sir."

"Oh a quick tongue as well—such blessings," The assistant put a hand over his heart and feigned a swoon, "But if my lady is interested in such powders and elixirs, there are many more rare ones to be had in the Night Market."

Still playing coy, Sigyn asked, "The Night Market?"

"Oh yes, Night Market—where only those who know where it will be and who will be there might come and see the rarest potions in all Asgard. My lady would like the Night Market, and I could be your guardian—keep you safe from rapscallions who prey on weaker minded women."

Sigyn leaned into Loki's arm more, brought one arm around his front and squeezed his chest in a possessive embrace; without thought he grabbed her free hand and kissed it demonstratively, then leaned into her forehead and kissed her hairline, staring daggers at the boy.

"Oh I do not think my husband would approve of such a market-would you my love?" She asked, and as she called him husband and love his stomach flipped and fluttered.

"I think the only nighttime festivities you get to do will be done with me—rare market or not." He answered plainly and when the boy looked sufficiently defeated, he led Sigyn away. Their errand was progressing wonderfully—Loki charmed an old crone into selling them twice what she wanted to, Sigyn traded a new mother a recipe to cure warts for dehydrated rabbit ears, and at one stand a father who made mortars and pestles was corralling his four sons as he tried to do business. Sigyn bent over and cradled the smallest one—had probably only been walking a year or so—and one of the older ones, a boy with two teeth missing in the front of his mouth, tugged at Loki's pants for attention. He took a knee so he could speak with the boy, who whispered urgently, "Is she a princess?"

"No," Loki shook his head, smiling, "Why?"

The boy shrugged, "She seems like one."

"There are no princesses in Asgard." Loki reminded him, "Just the two princes."

"That doesn't seem fair." The little boy said and wiped his nose on the back of his hand, "Is she your sister?"

"No, not my sister."

"Then you should marry her." The little boy smiled, "She's pretty and she smells good. Plus, she made the baby stop crying, and he's a whiner."

The child's honesty struck Loki, and Sigyn's perfectness was highlighted by his blunt assessment of her. Loki could not decide if he was playing along with the boy or not when he replied, "I might just have to take your advice."

The little boy nodded sagely, "If you don't, someone else will."

Loki solemnly nodded back and then returned to bantering with the boys' father until the last of their assigned ingredients and tools were successfully purchased.

The moon was bright when they were walking home, still arm in arm. Even people who should have recognized them merely walked by them, and they were enjoying the anonymity. Loki looked over at Sigyn, her hood was hanging on her shoulders and her copper hair was falling in soft waves down her back. He remembered the first time he saw her, and thinking that she looked beautiful then-she looked twice as beautiful now, alone with him in the moonlight, with no adornments at all. He had not expected Sigyn to be what she was- talented at magic, quick to quip, slow to anger, gentle at heart and tender. She had quickly fallen in line with him, becoming an unlooked for ally and giving him someone to speak to- he was more frank with her than with anyone else, spare his mother.

As they walked back to the palace he became aware that he would have to part with her and the thought stabbed him- not for the first time did he feel the intense desire to touch her, to kiss her, to make her his in some way. It had been enough, for the last number of weeks, that they were seen by others as alike- that Thor, Sif and the Imbeciles Three had invited her along; that Frigga sat Sigyn next to him at dinner; that he was the first one she found to talk to in the morning and usually the last one she saw before retiring at night. The friendship, so immediately blossoming from new to seasoned, so quickly transforming into a deeply trusting intimacy, had sustained him. He had not wanted to jeopardize it- but now, tonight, he knew it would never be enough. Being allowed, for just this night, to take her arm and hold her hand, press a kiss to her forehead, call her his, had awakened a fierce longing in him. All the nights spent walking and talking, all the days spent bent over the same books, trying the same spells, riding their horses through the same paths, laughing at the same jokes…. Loki wanted to know if she wanted him the way he wanted her. He thought she might, he thought he saw the twin longing in her eyes when he caught them for long enough—the flirtation had been building and he was sure she felt that too.

Lost in his thoughts as he was, he didn't even see that they were outside of her room. Her mother's was just down the hall, and they were due to leave Asgard and rejoin Sigyn's sisters in Nidavellir shortly. He couldn't bear to think what it would be like when she left- he knew that he had to do whatever was necessary to get her to stay.

"Tonight was…perfect." She said softly, shaking him from his thoughts, "I am going to miss this when we go back to my father's house."

"So stay." He suggested, smiling at her, "And we can do this every night."

When Sigyn looked up at him her eyes were full of hope and also twinged with a little sadness that he did not understand, "I wish that I could…I will miss you the most."

"Sigyn, I…" He tried to put his words in their proper order, but his tongue felt heavy and denied him its usual grace, "I don't want to leave you."

She smiled and shook her head, "You get to see me tomorrow, you only have to leave me for the night."

"That is getting harder for me to do." He sighed and she whispered, "Goodnight."

She rose up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek but before she could he turned his head and caught her lips with his. He kissed her firmly, putting one hand gently behind her head so show her that it was no accident but kept his grip loose—if she wanted to pull away from him she would have no fight. Instead her knees buckled slightly and she fell into him, he pushed her flat against her doorway to support her. Her arms reached out to his waist and she gripped him tightly, as though she was afraid to let go.

He felt her lips, soft and willing, pull back from him ever so slightly. Gently, he broke the kiss and looked into her eyes—glistening with excitement…and a ghost of sadness that he couldn't fathom being there. Her lips wisped by his as she spoke, almost kissing him again, "Goodnight, Loki."

He smirked and stepped away from her so she could open her door, kissing her hand before she disappeared inside of it, "Goodnight my dear."

She was smiling back at him when she closed the door- and he would not have noticed, in that moment, if the world turned to ash around him.

Loki smiled at Sigyn's closed door, her look of fleeting sadness already forgotten, because he suddenly knew a truth so shocking that it refused to wait until morning to be acknowledged. His lips still tingled from the lingering stolen kiss and something had knotted up inside of him and stubbornly sat there, refusing to move. It was trite, but absolutely true- Loki knew from that moment that this woman was his, that those were the last lips he would ever taste. His mother had encouraged her sons to be vocal if they found themselves interested in one of Freyja's daughters, and he intended to be very vocal. He turned away from Sigyn's door and made for his mother's without delay.

He could not see that behind her door, Sigyn held her hand over her lips and slid down the door until she was a puddle on the floor. Her heart was racing and tears jumped to her eyes because when he had stolen that kiss from her it had happened- the Vanir cannot see their own futures, but there are things they know with utter certainty when they happen. This was one of those times—when Loki kissed her the world fell into place. There was one word that came at that moment—a terrifying word for a woman betrothed to another man- but the word was clear as day and solid as steel—Love. Love. This was the man she had been wondering about, the man that she feared meeting. Staring at her betrothal bracelet, it occurred to her that Loki did not know she was engaged- oh, how could she tell him? Maybe someone else would….hopefully they would. She had asked her mother to announce it so such confusion wouldn't happen but it seemed that Freyja had her reasons. She wondered why her mother had even brought her to the palace with her sisters- but now she thought she understood. Maybe her mother had seen Loki in Sigyn's future, maybe she was bringing them together despite the betrothal that Iwaldi had arranged….maybe. Maybe there was hope. But as long as the golden bracelet was on her wrist, it might as well have been a prisoner's cuff-and as long as it was there, she would not get stolen moments like this again.

Frigga's door was closed but he knocked persistently until it was opened by Frigga herself, "Loki! What are you doing here?"

"Why can't a son just want to visit his beloved mother?" He kissed her on the cheek and brushed passed her without being invited. He was relieved to see that he hadn't interrupted her and his father—his penchant for making trouble had caused that more than once in his youth and each time left him more traumatized than the last. There was just a large armchair by the fire—it seemed he had interrupted her reading which really didn't bother him at all.

Frigga eyed him suspiciously, "You can always visit but I have a suspicion that this visit comes with a request."

"The suspicions of the Vanir are never wrong," Loki smiled and her and tucked his hair behind his ear, "You said when Freyja's daughter's arrived that if one of us should become enamored with one of them, that we shouldn't be shy about telling you. So in accordance with your will, I won't be shy—Sigyn, mother. How soon can we arrange a betrothal?"

Frigga fell into a chair, shocked, "Betrothal? …. With Sigyn?"

Loki gently gripped her arms and pulled Frigga back to her feet, then began childishly dancing with her as if there was music playing as they had done when he was still small, "Yes, Sigyn mother—Iwaldi's daughter. This can't be too much of a surprise- you arrange for her to stay longer than her sisters to study with us, you pair us off to practice together, tell me to watch over her, send us on errands- if you didn't mean to make me fall in love with her, I'm afraid that was the consequence anyway. She would be perfect for me, mother, you have to see that about her. I have no objections to a fast betrothal- or a fast marriage. What does her mother say? Her father?"

He finished his dance with his mother by twirling her in a circle and dipping her with a flourish, he kissed her cheek sweetly and added, "If they are still awake, I have no objections to asking them tonight."

He righted Frigga and she lifted both her hands to his face, it was the first time he noticed how sad she looked and she sighed, "Oh my sweet boy… I'm so sorry."

Loki bristled, "What's wrong?"

Frigga smoothed his hair lovingly and petted his cheek, "I should have told you… I didn't think it would happen so soon… you know that I would never have hurt you intentionally."

Loki put his hands over his mother's and gently pulled them off of him, suddenly worried, "I don't understand you, mother."

"I foresaw that she would be important to you but I thought..." She shook her head sadly, "Sigyn is engaged."

His heart stopped, and he felt ice creep into his stomach. Steeling his jaw he demanded, "When?"

"Her father arranged it only a few months ago, Freyja told me only a few days after they arrived."

"Who?" The word cut through the air.

"Theoric."

Loki knew the name and searched his memory for it, "One of Father's Hawks? That great ape?"

Frigga shook her head, "I should have told you sooner…."

"But you didn't tell me, and neither did she." He felt humiliated, the greatest fool in the world, "I hope it has been sufficiently entertaining for you both."

He turned to leave but his mother reached out and stopped him, "Don't blame her, Loki."

"Why not?" He fumed, "Why not mention something so important?"

"She does not wish to be betrothed, at least her mother believes that and so do I. Sigyn did not choose this husband."

He wanted to be angry at Frigga and Sigyn, but he felt his anger for both melting away like snow- Frigga was the only person he could forgive for any slight and he knew it would be the same with Sigyn. Still, the ice in his stomach crept up through the rest of him—she was betrothed, he would have to get used to the idea and try to make himself change his heart.

Frigga's heart was breaking and she gently stroked Loki's arm, "I saw that you would love her the minute you laid your eyes on her."

"Why didn't you tell me then?" He snapped at her, "Why let me love someone I cannot have?"

"I saw …I saw her loving you too, but I saw sadness in the future. I just wanted you two to have some pleasurable time together before this sourness came." Frigga continued petting him as if he were her smallest son again, and he needed her comfort after his nightmares, "Forgive me, I did not think it would all happen so fast."

"So this is to be my lot then?" Loki walked away from his mother and sat on the ottoman of her armchair, staring into her fire.

Frigga resumed her seat in the armchair, "I do not know your fate, my little love. But I will do everything I can to see that your ending is happier."

For that moment, just a moment, Loki let himself sink into his mother again as he had done when he was a child. Frigga kissed his forehead and stroked his hair, and let him sit there with her in silence while he listened to his heart scream at his head and wrestled with how he was going to face Sigyn in the morning.

Since he had stolen the kiss from her, Loki had been cooler and more distant—she had not been alone with him since that night, Frigga had always been a step behind them. Sigyn knew without needing to be told that he had discovered her betrothal because he looked her over as if to see the stain of another man's promise on her. He was as courteous to her as ever but some of the wit and banter had evaporated off his silver tongue.

Frigga was called away to talk to Odin and both of her students were asked to finish their reading before they left the room. Both finished quickly but lingered in the room, feigning interest in the pages—it was the first time they had been alone since he had kissed her and the room was dense with the fog of her betrothal.

"I'm sorry that I did not tell you." She finally whispered, "It was nice to forget it for a time."

Loki cleared his throat, "So you do not look forward to your wedded bliss?"

"I can barely reconcile that a betrothal happened… it was not under normal circumstances that I came to be betrothed." He quirked an eyebrow at her and she blushed, "It is embarrassing."

"How so?"

"Odin's Hawks came to my father's house on their way home from a scouting mission. My father offered them food and drink…and some of them vastly preferred the drink. My sisters and I were upstairs, sleeping, and so the men had never seen us, and we never saw them. Theoric and my father began to talk and drink together, and my father revealed that he had never been beaten in wrestling. So Theoric, feeling invincible and thinking a dwarf would not be able to beat a man of Theoric's size, challenged my father to a match. Theoric said that if he beat my father, he would get his pick of one of my father's daughters, and my father said that if Theoric lost, Theoric would marry my father's pick. My father keeps his word, so even though they were drinking and I had never laid eyes on the man, he announced my betrothal in the morning."

Loki snorted in disbelief, "So that's it? Theoric won his drunken battle and had his pick of the litter."

Sigyn blushed, "You think that?"

Loki was confused, he cocked his head at her and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. She reached out and placed her hand on top of his, "Loki…Theoric lost. My father gave him the runt of the litter, the one least likely to get married."

The prince was shocked, "No….No, that can't be."

She nodded sadly, "That was how he announced it, You shall have Sigyn, so that I may stop worrying about her fate."

Loki stood in a rush of anger, "That is ludicrous and cruel, why would you have trouble marrying? You're powerful, beautiful, graceful and intelligent—what does your father see wrong in that?"

Sigyn looked at him with longing eyes, "The child of a fallen Vanir princess and a dwarf lord? The youngest of five daughters—and the young mutt of the otherwise ravishingly desirable daughters of the Goddess of Love? I look not like my beautiful half Aesir sisters nor do I look like my dwarf siblings, by neither standard I am beautiful."

"Then I know not the standards." Loki chuckled, "Perhaps your new husband will be flexible in his definition of beauty as well."

Her eyes slammed shut, "Don't tease me about him."

He saw the tears forming on the corners of her eyes, "Sigyn, you are the most loyal soul alive—he will be more fortunate than he deserves."

Instead of quelling her tears as he thought he might, he caused them, and he crossed the short distance between them and put a hand on her back, rubbing it slightly, but she pulled away from him, "Please…don't call me loyal. How can I be? I will be married to a man I do not love…what happens when my love crooks his finger at me? I will have to choose between my loyalty or my love, and how could my loyalty win?"

"Your love?" He echoed, hurt that she had pulled away from him, "So you love someone."

She cried harder and hid her face in her hands, "Oh, but I do…wonderfully and painfully."

Loki was boiling in suppressed rage and his words whipped her when he spoke, "Who? Who is it?"

"I'm sorry." She whispered and ran from the room to hide her shame and embarrassment, as she barreled through the door she ran right into Frigga who wrapped her arms around the girl instantly and cried, "Sigyn! What's wrong?"

"Nothing, my lady…nothing." As she struggled against Frigga's arms so she could leave, the queen looked over at Loki who was seething, but also staring at Sigyn with such a desperate longing and sadness that Frigga knew precisely what had happened. Frigga looked at Sigyn and the girl was positively radiating melancholy. She let Sigyn go and the girl ran as fast as her legs could carry her far away from Loki—not stopping until her door slammed behind her.

"Loki…" Frigga chastised but he cut her off, "I didn't do anything mother."

"I've heard that from you before." She cocked her eyebrow at him, "What happened?"

"I'm a fool- the girl is in love with someone." Loki flexed his fist and his books flew from the table and hit the walls. His mother burst out laughing, "Is that all?"

"I'm glad my pain amuses you, mother."

Frigga smiled knowingly, "And did she tell you the name of him who she loved?"

Loki looked at his mother darkly, "No, and I would rather not know. I would do something regrettable."

Rolling her eyes, Frigga sat down in the seat previously occupied by Sigyn, "You can be so incredibly wise…and so stupid at the same time."

Loki sat down roughly and brooded until Frigga said, "She wouldn't tell you who because it's you."

Loki gaped at his mother, "How….did she say something to you?"

"No, but the suspicions of the Vanir are never wrong."

As quickly as hope had kindled in his stomach it was dashed again, "Is that all? A suspicion?"

Frigga laughed, "A very good suspicion….now, tell me what the chapter said and how you would apply it."

The awkwardness between them subsided, and what remained was a silent tension. He wondered if it was true, if Sigyn's secret love was him, but he tried not to let himself cling to that hope. Sigyn tried to engage him in the way she used to, but there was a haze over her—she had no desire to be his friend if it would only serve as a painful reminder that she could never be more. Still, she could not bring herself to keep away from Loki either—it was too tempting to keep him nearby so she might look at him, dream of him, forget the impossibilities before them.

It was at one of the dinners after he had made her run crying to her room that she knew it was time to bury their awkwardness once and for all. Beside her was Sif, and Loki sat across from them, Thor was next to him. It was unbearable seeing Thor and Sif—Sif was so clearly trying to capture Thor's attention, and he was so unbelievably oblivious. Loki was rolling his eyes and Sigyn was trying to catch his glance but he was still attempting to avoid her.

Sigyn was tapping her knife on the table as Sif batted her eyelashes at Thor. Tap, tap, tap, tap….hiss. Sigyn clapped her hand over the knife-sized snake on the table, trying to hide it, realizing that her preoccupation with the youngest prince of Asgard was making her magic act erratically again as if she were some untrained youth.

Beneath her palm the little creature wriggled, it was silvery and smooth, knocking about her skin and tenderly nuzzling into her. Sigyn smiled at the little thing's affection and lifted her hand off the table, flicking her finger at Sif so that the tiny snake knew where to go.

A few moments later Sif shrieked, stood up and held her own knife out like a weapon, stabbing at the table with a wild expression. Loki instantly looked down at the fast, silver snake and waved his hand, transforming it into a knife again. Sigyn looked over at him and he was smiling at her, and gave her one curt nod to show that he saw what she did.

After dinner he walked her to her room in a silence that was once more comfortable…and when they got to her door he kissed her hand, lingering just a second longer than was entirely appropriate.

When he went to see Sleipnir one morning she was already there, plying the horse with apples and cooing to him about what a handsome creature he was.

"You'll make him fat and vain if you continue." Loki teased and Sigyn turned to him with a smile, "Only if I have years to do it, I'm hoping only to buy enough favor to ride him."

Loki reached past her to stroke the horse's nose, "He will let you, he is a marvelous judge of character."

"You still haven't told me his tale."

A smile spread across Loki's face as though a particularly good memory was returning to him, "Ah yes, the day you took Sif's hair. How could I forget?"

Loki tapped the horse's nose and a saddle materialized on the animal's back, Loki swiftly jumped into it and reached down his hand for Sigyn. She looked at it as one looks at temptation—with longing but the knowledge that it wasn't a good idea. He smiled at her roguishly and teased, "I won't tell you if you won't ride with me."

Sigyn cocked an eyebrow at him, "Are we going to be scolded? Isn't this your father's horse?"

"He was mine first, I still have freedom with him." Loki flexed his hand, still outstretched for hers, "Will you come with me?"

Sigyn smiled and shook her head softly, "Of course, despite the trouble it may buy me."

Loki helped lift her onto the massive saddle on the giant horse's back and clicked his tongue, sending the beast off at a sturdy canter. It was such a small and marvelous pleasure, sitting together on this massive horse, caught in his motion, feeling like the world wasn't around them at all.

Dangerous temptation, Loki thought, forgetting the world could have consequences.

She could hear the screaming from across the garden and knew precisely whose voice it belonged to. Oddly, the screaming didn't alarm her as much as the quick hush that followed it, as though the scream had been choked in its cradle. Running quickly, silently, she kept scanning everything around her for clues.

The fallen book, crumpled now, was her only hint. Around it were dense bushes, obscuring the rest of the landscape. Ideal for hiding something…or someone. Throwing herself on her knees Sigyn crawled under them to look around, suddenly very afraid that something awful was happening.

The suspicions of the Vanir aren't often wrong.

From under the foliage she could barely make out the forms of Balder, Thor and Sif hovering over Loki- Balder and Thor were restraining him and Sif was plucking at his mouth somehow. Sigyn strained her eyes and suddenly made it out. Sif was sewing his mouth shut as he helpless squirmed against the bigger men. Sigyn didn't realize she had reacted, but a massive jolt of magic sprung from her and sent the warriors and their raven-haired lady flying away from Loki. Sigyn closed her eyes and teleported the short distance to Loki, wrapped her arms around him, and teleported them both far away. When Thor and his friends looked around, they would have sworn Loki vanished on his own and would never have figured out how he managed to overcome them.

Loki remembered struggling against Thor and Balder while Sif was sewing him shut, then a surge and suddenly he was sleeping. When he next woke he looked about, realized he was far from Thor and his friends, that he was probably back inside the palace, and began tearing at his mouth.

"No! No! Wait! Stop!" The voice was soothing, familiar, but he couldn't listen to it now, he needed to tear the stitches out of his lips…

"NO! STOP! THE THREAD WON'T-"

He felt his skin shred around the stitches but the material wouldn't give to his touch.

"—tear." She finished meekly and gently reached out and took each of his hands in hers as he tried not to scream at the pain. He wouldn't look her in the eye right now, ashamed as he was of how she was seeing him, but he knew it was Sigyn there comforting him.

She put both of his hands in one of hers and held them against her chest, he could feel her heart racing. Lifting her free hand to his face she stroked his cheek and waited for his breathing to even out.

"These stitches are laced with magic, tearing them will not work. I can remove them, but it will take some time and magic of my own making. I am going to put you to sleep for this—it will help us both. You will feel better when you wake."

He let himself lean into her hand, and he nodded to show he understood her. The next moment, he felt, he was waking again. Though with how his body felt he knew he must have been sleeping several hours.

His first thought was that he was sleeping, and in a bed, but that this was not his room. He propped himself up on his elbows and looked about for information. He might have guessed it was Sigyn's room without much evidence but when he turned his head to the right he found her sleeping on the bed next to him. Underneath of her eyes was a slight purple blush, the fatigue from difficult magic leaving its mark on her beauty, and she was slightly pale. Reaching a hand up to his face he felt for the stitches.

"They are gone." She proudly whispered, waking up and stretching out as he had, she propped herself on her elbows as well but looked like she could have afforded herself a few more hours of rest.

"That … was not easy magic." Was all Loki could think to say, he kept feeling about his lips for remnants or scars.

"For a flawless removal? No, it was not easy magic, but it was worth it." She smiled and handed him a small mirror, "There will not be any scars, nor marks. No proof of the incident."

Loki marveled at his reflection—it looked precisely as it had this morning.

Putting down the mirror he looked about the room again, taking in the little touches Sigyn had added in her time here. There were books, flowers, small wood carvings-bits of personality that livened an otherwise dull room.

"How long have I slept?" He wondered.

"Oh, the rest of the afternoon, the evening, and part of the night. The night is young yet, it is perhaps three hours short of midnight." She stifled a yawn, "You needed it."

"Oh, that long? What tales they will spin of us, sleeping in your bed all this while."

"Nobody knows you are here, apart from your mother. She brought food and told everyone that you were sulking about your own rooms." Sigyn smiled at Loki's shock, "She thought you might enjoy being lost to prying eyes for a time. I have never seen her look so enraged as she did when she saw your face. I should wonder that your brother lives to see sunrise."

"Oh he will." Loki sighed, "He always does. That is of little consequence, though…..Thank you, Sigyn. You have done me a great service, I know this was no small task."

"You are most welcome." Tiredly she reached out a finger and traced his bottom lip. If he had only seen the whole time she had been healing him how she had stared at him, refusing to let anything mar such a beloved face. Suddenly she was nervous that her work was not as good as it looked, "I know that they look perfectly normal, but how do they feel?"

For a moment, a moment's moment, Loki considered answering her plainly. For the wisp of a moment he thought that he would drag himself out of her bed and put the proper distance between them. It would be the right thing to do—to maintain the proper lines. She was not his, she was someone else's, and he should respect that—especially given her kindness.

But the God of Mischief rarely does the right thing.

"You tell me." He teased and leaned over to kiss her. Reaching out he cupped her cheek and held her there, intently, deeply, he refused to stop kissing her until she bid him stop. He might never get another chance and he didn't intend to waste it. When he felt her hand move against his chest he thought she might be trying to push him away but instead it snuck up to his neck to keep him right where he was. Sigyn returned his passion twice over—an unexpected but most welcome relief. She was soft and sweet against him, but firm. Her kisses were as hungry as his—hungrier. His mother's taunt had been the truth then…it was him that Sigyn loved. Suddenly the parts of him that had been growing colder and quieter since he realized that she was betrothed burst into fire and song. He did not think anything would convince him to stop drinking her in.

It was only when he felt the cold gold of her betrothal bracelet against his neck that he broke their kiss.

"Take it off." He whispered against her lips.

She smirked at his words, "Take off what?"

Loki held up her hand delicately and looked at the bejeweled golden cuff, "This horrid, ugly thing he gave you."

"How did you know that he gave me this?" She would not stop looking into his eyes, she was glowing as she did, "I never said."

"Because it does not suit you at all- as he does not."

Sigyn slipped the cuff off of her wrist and threw it across the room. Without a moment's hesitation Loki sent a whip of magic at it that broke it in two. Loki smiled triumphantly, "It is not the betrothal gift I would have given you. You need nothing dripping in jewels to compete with your own beauty; you need nothing showy or tasteless. You need something simple, but strong."

As he talked he waved his hand around and the green light of his magic began to swirl around in his palm, slowly taking shape, bending to his will.

"Something a bit more…" The green ball of light burst for a moment and as the smoke dissipated there hovered a simple golden necklace with the two golden bull's horns wrapping the edge of an emerald. The emerald glittered brilliantly, it was not terribly big nor terribly small. The bull's horns that framed it were direct, but only if you knew what they were. Simple, magnificent, "Yes, this would be my betrothal gift to you."

Sigyn's heart was in her throat racing so hard she could scarcely breathe, "Put it on me."

Loki caught her gaze dangerously and he let the necklace fall into his hand, "Oh Sigyn, you don't want me to put this on you….if I put this necklace on you, I will enchant it so that it can never be removed. If I put this on you, it will be binding, and you will be mine…and I fight to keep what is mine. I swear it, Sigyn—if this touches your neck, it will never leave it."

Her eyes filled with tears, "Is that a promise?"

Loki stroked her cheek, "Don't tempt me to break the rules…I am too easily convinced to do so."

"Would you really have me? Keep me?"

"Forever." He swore, the god of lies, for once, not lying, "You are the one thing in all the realms that I would never hurt, never lie to….I love you."

She smiled, "Then put the necklace on me, and bind it there…for I love you, and yours is the fate I would be bound to."

Trembling slightly, Loki fastened the necklace on her and traced the lock with his fingers, dissolving it and reinforcing it so that nothing would ever break it. He pressed a kiss over it when he was finished; Sigyn turned and caught him with another kiss. Powerful, demanding…and requesting.

Don't tempt me… He thought fleetingly, but Sigyn's long fingers were already tugging at his clothes, gently but purposely, and he knew that he would never be able to say no to her.

So was it that they spent their first night, of many, together. Never had the prince been so nervous before a woman, like a novice, and never so worried over the woman's own pleasure and comfort- for this woman was different than past women. This woman would be his wife—that was the promise of the necklace, the promise of the spell, the silent promise in his mother's slippery words, and he had all the intentions of an eager husband. It was his privilege, his pleasure, to be her instructor in this and as with all things, she was an apt pupil who managed to teach him something before the sunlight broke into the room and woke them.

She was sleeping on his shoulder, soundly, smiling, and he was not sure that he could leave her rooms- but the mischief of the night is always ruined by the day. Her betrothal gift from Theoric, and her betrothal, might have been broken on her bedroom floor but only she and Loki knew that. Certainly for all of their promises and all of their actions, they were not married…they were not even technically betrothed. He had replaced another suitor's gift with his own, uninvited and unrecognized by her father….and unbeknownst to his father. This would surely be an obstacle, the daylight simply had yet to reveal how large of an obstacle.

And obstacles being things of great annoyance, Loki knew that he should leave her rooms unseen, knew they should hide the bed sheets that showed her innocence until they needed to prove that she had never been touched by Theoric. He knew that he should wake her and they should dress before the servants began fussing about in the morning….but something made him stop and savor the moment. Here and now, this was a beautiful moment, a beautiful morning, that came from a glorious night- and he did not want to spoil it.

We must savor some things, for we do not know when they will come again. His mother had told him, and for some reason he thought of that now. When would he get to see Sigyn like this again? If all went well, Odin would marry them by week's end. But Loki found that things rarely went well for him, and he was suddenly very worried that he would not get to hold Sigyn, or kiss her, for a very long time.

Breakfast the next morning was a thing of great suspicion for Frigga. Thor and Odin might not have noticed that Sigyn had different jewelry on, but Frigga did. The golden bracelet was missing and was, instead, replaced by a golden necklace.

A golden necklace with a green jewel.

Something about it seemed mischievous to Frigga, secretive, even naughty- there was a lie in that gem, and Frigga wasn't sure that she wanted to know what made her sweet, honest Sigyn so enigmatic.

It seemed to the Queen that her students were hiding something- every time she sought them out with her eyes, they seemed just out of view. She made it her mission to catch them at whatever prank they were up to, whatever secret they were trying to keep she wanted to know it, and Frigga trailed behind them like a shadow. Still, it was almost the end of the day before she caught them at all. It was the soft giggle coming from the flickering darkness beside the massive fireplace in the library. She wouldn't have looked in those shadows if not for the noise, so Frigga carefully concealed herself behind the door and peered into the room through the crack between the wall and the hinge.

She saw them, and instantly wished she hadn't.

Loki was trailing barely-there kisses along Sigyn's jawline, making her bite her lip to restrain her giggling. Then Sigyn grabbed his face and pulled it toward her, and their kiss broke Frigga's heart. She felt horrible watching them, because she knew that this was love- there was a softness but a fierceness to their kiss, to the way Sigyn wrapped her arms around Loki's neck, to the way he pulled her against him- and Frigga felt the dread of having to separate them.

But Frigga didn't have to interrupt them—they pulled apart and Sigyn guiltily shook her head, "If someone sees us…"

"I'll make myself look like Theoric and nobody will whisper about you." Loki kissed her cheek again, "Don't leave me."

She smiled at him and nuzzled her forehead into the crook of his neck, "Never."

Loki wrapped his arms around her and Frigga smiled, her eyes filling with tears- this was the side of Loki that nobody else ever saw but her, and now she was sharing it. This was her son when he was caring, selfless and kind—this was the side people told her didn't exist. And he wouldn't get to keep Sigyn…in such a short time she would be gone and this side of him would evaporate again, resign itself to mythology and his broody, self-contained fog would return.

A small sigh escaped the queen causing both Loki and Sigyn to turn their heads toward the door, but neither saw Frigga there. They broke apart and said goodnight, and were much more careful in the coming days—Frigga wasn't able to spy on them again.

"Loki!" Frigga snipped and the prince shook his head to focus on his mother, mumbling apologies. She had a concerned expression on her face, "Where is your mind?"

Loki just shook his head and refocused on the plate of food in front of him but remembered he was not interested in it. He decided to excuse himself rather than continue to worry his mother and so he got up, kissed her head, and apologized for leaving.

As soon as he was gone Frigga looked over at her husband and Thor, who was happily shoving food into his mouth. Thor pointed his knife at Loki's retreating back, "Can I have his plate?"

"No." Frigga slapped at his hand as he reached for it and Odin saw the worry etched all over her face.

"What do you think is wrong?" Odin asked as conversationally as possible.

"He's been this way since she left." Frigga sighed, "He might not be himself for a while."

Odin shrugged, "They were close, weren't they? It was good to see him getting involved with something besides a book."

"Will she invite him to her wedding?" Thor asked through his mouthful of food.

Frigga looked choked, "Oh…I hope not. I don't trust him at her wedding to another man."

"Surely you don't think he'd misbehave?" Odin asked, "How serious could he be about her?"

"Deadly." Frigga nodded solemnly, "I wouldn't tempt him."

Odin laughed off her fears, "Loki has always been one for mischief but he would never do something so reckless, so serious. He is merely healing from that first sweet wound of a young love. He will soon be well again."

Frigga looked far off for a moment, "I do hope you're right."

But she remembered the green necklace….and she was uneasy. Very uneasy.

There were things that even Loki, closer to her than Thor, would never admit to her-and she knew that something was being kept from her about Sigyn. She looked skyward, summoned the Norns, and prayed that her secretive boy hadn't done something that couldn't be undone…that Loki and Sigyn were not playing with fire that they couldn't hope to control.

Somehow she knew, even at that moment, that her prayers were in vain.

The message from Frigga had been urgent, and he dropped what he was doing to attend to her in the throne room. A thousand unpleasant thoughts wove their way into his head, but none prepared him for what he found.

When Loki entered the throne room he was instantly aware that something had gone horribly wrong. Sigyn was on her knees in torn clothing, prostrating before his father with her own hovering menacingly over her. There was the distinct smell of rage in the room.

"Who gave you that jewel?" Odin quietly demanded, he did not wish to yell but the room echoed as though someone had been. Loki assumed Iwaldi had been, and he didn't need two guesses to gather what was happening.

"I did." Loki claimed, he began to walk straight toward Sigyn and her face lit up, "Loki."

Odin's silence soured instantly and he slammed his staff on the ground, slamming his son with lightning to stop him in his path, "You did this? You gave this girl the gem she's wearing?"

"I did." He repeated firmly, staring from Sigyn's face to Frigga's and trying to determine which was more pained that his claim had garnered lightning instead of love from Odin.

"Then there are two disobedient and dishonorable children here."

Frigga looked pained, her two special children, her two favorites, were beyond her help at this moment. Damaging the ego of powerful men was not easily undone. She hoped for an opening, for a small chance, where she could affect some change on what was undoubtedly going to be severe punishments but she did not know if she would get it.

Loki knew better than to speak to Odin when the fumes were so built up in him and so he bowed his head, waiting for a better moment. Sigyn, however, had not Loki's experience with Odin's tempers, and brought up her chin to meet Odin's eye, "Disobedient, I will readily grant to my lords. I have disobeyed my father and you, in disobeying him, but I am not dishonorable."

"You think your lack of fidelity is honorable?"

"I do not think I lack fidelity." Her eyes gleamed, "My father promised my faith to Theoric, I never did. I was handed to a strange man that I did not know and told to be faithful, but the Vanir see further than dwarves and I might have told you if you asked that my heart never knew loyalty to Theoric. When my heart found its keeper, its loyalty has been absolute. So I say to you, regardless of how you will punish me, that I am faithful. Disobedient, but faithful."

Odin's face purpled and inside of the throne room was filling with the electric snapping of lightning before it struck. Frigga reached out her hand for his but he held his up to block her, "Such a compliment to women, who are so often accused of having such weak and inconstant hearts, to see such fierce loyalty."

The purple faded to blue, "Disobedience is unacceptable, and what loyalty has been proven? A bauble on her neck? How does this prove anything to us? She has broken her father's sworn promise, lied to him, accepted gifts without his permission…"

"Blame me, father." Loki took a knee, eliciting surprised noises from the few onlookers, "I gave her gifts, wooed her, convinced her to break her word….punish me."

Odin eyed Loki, "Oh you will be punished for your part, but I think you claim more responsibility than you are owed."

"If he seduced my daughter and broke my chosen betrothal for her, he owes me his head." Iwaldi growled, his grip on Sigyn's shoulder tightening until she flinched visibly and bit back at her father, "I am not some pawn of men—I broke my betrothal."

Iwaldi tightened his grip and a red blossomed under his nails and Odin saw how Sigyn bit her lip to keep from crying out. Loki's eyes were trained on the blood, his fists clenched until his knuckles turned white.

Frigga now clapped her hand over Odin's arm and darkly laughed, "A head! Is that the price now for a bride? And the youngest daughter? A marriage not even advantageous—she was engaged to a soldier, not a king. She was marrying beneath her rank—now she would marry above. A head! For a Dwarf-lord, Iwaldi seems not to see that he has been offered a diamond instead of a pebble."

Odin petted Frigga's hand and looked at Iwaldi, "Mind how you speak of my son, sir. Whatever he has done, he is a crowned prince of this realm and my son. There will be no talk of heads, and," he eyed Frigga darkly, "there will also be no talk of any new betrothal until these two have been punished for this indiscretion."

"This is my daughter All Father and her disobedience is unacceptable." Iwaldi threw Sigyn onto the floor, and stepped on her back to keep her on the ground. Loki was twitching on his knees and could not help himself, "Let her up!"

"She is mine, if I wish to throw her down or build her up that is my right." Iwaldi thrust Sigyn against the floor again as if to demonstrate his power, feeling powerless because his wayward daughter had managed to make a fool out of him and he could do nothing to persuade her that it was wrong, he could get no apologies from her or coax remorse into her words.

"Enough!" Odin struck his spear against the floor and silence fell, "Iwaldi, your anger is just and there will be a fitting punishment, for both guilty parties. Let her up so she can look into my eye while she is sentenced."

Sentenced. The word hit Loki in the gut, "Father, please—"

Gungnir's weight hitting the ground cut the words from Loki's mouth.

Sigyn was allowed up and she rose her head to stare at Odin's feet, not daring to meet his glaring eye, as he turned to Iwaldi one last time, "I tell you plainly, Iwaldi, that if you care for what her punishment will be, say so clearly now or it will be left in my hands alone—this is your child, have some caution with what happens next."

Iwaldi softened for a moment and ran his fingers through his daughter's hair—she flinched at the gesture, not sure if a blow would follow, "Will you reject this seducer?"

"There is no seducer here- if you ask, instead, if I would reject Loki, I tell you plainly that I will not, regardless of what that loyalty brings me."

"Tears." Iwaldi sneered and turned his head away, dropping his hand away from her, "It will bring you nothing but tears—I want nothing from this girl, All Father, sentence her at your will."

In from the doors burst a flurry of excitement that made the whole court turn, it was Freyja and her four other daughters, running at a furious pace, Freyja screaming, "All Father! All Father let me speak! Please!"

Iwaldi roared, "I forbade you come!"

Freyja glared at him, fuming, "And who are you to forbid a mother to her child? I consent not to be dictated by men what I shall do with my children."

Her sisters swarmed Sigyn, putting their bodies between her and Iwaldi.

"What say you, All Father?"

Odin stood from his throne and held his head high, "I say that for her betrayal of her father, Sigyn Iwaldidottir shall lose her family name—she is now just Sigyn, no man's daughter, and being no man's daughter, she is no woman's—she cannot take her mother's name, nor share in her mother's titles. No titles will be her's, she shall be stripped of the society that she has dishonored. Let nothing be given to her but she earns it first—let her know sacrifice, let her know the pain of loss and let her think more carefully on her decisions, when her decisions must put food in her stomach and shelter over her head. She is no longer noble, so she must learn to work to earn her place. That is the sentence I proclaim- no more, no less."

Freyja's head hung low, her daughters—all but Sigyn—crying around her. Freyja looked over at Frigga, heatedly, angrily, as though her friend should have done more to help her, and then gathered up her storm of blond girls and left the room. None of them looked at Sigyn as they left, her stubbornness had beaten down their prostrations and so they had sacrificed their pride in vain. For such vain creatures, that was no small sacrifice and they would remember Sigyn with a blend of anger and intense grief- they would, none of them, see her again.

Iwaldi waited for them to go and he bowed to the All Father, then left without acknowledging the girl who had been his daughter. Alone now, in her ripped clothes, Sigyn let her face sink into her hands. The shock was still apparent, she did not know whether to cry or howl…and before she could think much on it, Loki took her hands in his and barked at his father, "No matter that you bring her low—I do not love her for her titles. I will raise her up again—she shall be a princess before this day is done."

Odin sneered at him, "Do you think that?"

Loki kissed Sigyn's hands and then reached over to touch her bleeding skin, healing it with a whispered word and looking into her eyes, "Do not worry, they mean nothing. You are the prize."

The clash of the spear made Sigyn wince and Odin pointed it at Loki, "I proclaim that no son of mine will marry so beneath himself—Odin's sons will not belittle themselves to mix with women of lesser station, and so relinquish all thoughts that you would make her your bride."

"Father—" Loki tried to argue but the lightning cackled and silenced him, Odin hissing, "I forbid it—there will be no debate from you and your silver tongue. I am not yet done teaching you obedience, as you are nowhere near done learning it- you will be exiled from Asgard until you have traveled to each realm where fair travel might be had. You must spend at least one month among its people, and you must learn something of great value to them while you are there- only after those conditions are met can you leave, and Heimdall will be watching to see how you progress. You may not come back here until you have done with this quest, or I will strip you of your magic for a thousand years."

Loki paled, his punishment becoming a real thing in front of him and he looked frantically over at his mother, "What says the queen?"

Odin gave Frigga a furious look that threatened oceans of lightning if she contradicted Loki's sentence. Instead she looked over at Sigyn, who had begun crying when Odin said the word "exiled", and whispered a command to a servant. The All Mother stood next to her husband and nodded at Loki slowly, to show him that she was helping if he would let her, "The All Father is just and wise."

Odin bowed his head toward her in deference and she continued, "Sigyn, child, stand and face me."

Sigyn did as she was bid, but despite her great love and closeness with Frigga she dared not raise her eyes above the level of the floor. She tried to stem her crying with as much dignity as she could muster, "Yes, All Mother?"

Frigga squeezed a hairpin so hard that it sliced her palm open and she exposed the bleeding hand to Sigyn, calmly asking, "Can you heal me?"

Sigyn ran immediately to Frigga, knelt before her as a servant—tearing Frigga's heart from her chest—and Sigyn ran her fingers over the wound and instantly sealed it, "Of course, All Mother. Anything my lady requests."

Frigga waved to a door to her side and in hobbled injured soldiers: one had a heavily bandaged head that was seeping, one was burned on one half of their body, one had a weeping poisonous bite on his leg and one was missing an arm.

"Can you help them, Sigyn?"

Sigyn nodded obediently, not thinking that this might be Frigga's way of helping her, "Of course, All Mother."

Sigyn lifted her hands and a soft green light began to emanate from them. Loki watched, as he had watched her when they sparred and practiced with one another, as the light wrapped around the first soldier's head. It folded against his head and he wanted to pull away but Sigyn's magic wouldn't let him simply twitch away from it. Loki had always been struck by how sure she was, nothing about the magic was tentative or unsure, she was perfection. The light glowed around the soldier's head, beamed brightly for a moment, and then disappeared—and with it, his bleeding wound. He unwrapped the bandages from his head and touched what had been a giant gash, bleeding profusely, "Amazing."

The audience in the hall quieted instantly…and Loki knew precisely what his mother was doing. Loki would be brought back to court once he was shamed sufficiently by Odin, the trick was finding a way to keep Sigyn in court that even the great Odin could not naysay.

When he entered the throne room after his long exile, she was literally vibrating with joy. Frigga had to reach over and put a calming hand on her arm, "Calm yourself, dear, or you will faint."

Sigyn nodded absently but her eyes never left Loki, and from the moment he walked in he sought hers. He looked her over from a distance and he cocked his head, asking the silent question of whether or not she was well. She just smiled at him and nodded slightly, then nodded her head toward him to ask the same question. All he did was wink at her and turn his attention to his father.

The procession, the demands of pomp and circumstance, the feasting of a prince arriving home again….it was endlessly formal and exhausting. Sigyn felt the sting of her new station this day—always an arm's length from Loki, never able to cross the line. His eyes kept flitting over to her, checking on her, seeing where she was and how she was treated. He was restraining himself, she knew, because as Frigga's preeminent assistant and lady-in-waiting Sigyn was permitted to sit at the table with the rest of them, but she was not permitted to speak unless spoken to. Loki would have spoken to her all night, but Odin had his good eye trained on them both and he missed nothing. If he was testing them, they were passing—the time he had forced them to be apart had not done a thing to quell their passion, in fact it seemed to intensify it.

After dinner, Odin tapped his scepter against the ground and politely dismissed all servants, with a particular eye on Sigyn, so that his family might have proper time alone with their son and brother to welcome him home. Sigyn rose from her seat without fuss and bowed down to Odin, as all the other servants did, and left the room without a backward glance. Loki watched her leave and she touched her necklace intentionally, drawing circles around its bull-horn frame—he hoped she was reading his mind. He would have to wait and see.

Loki looked over at his mother and rolled his eyes as if to say He's doing this intentionally.

Frigga smiled at him and leaned over, stealing a moment while Thor and Odin laughed raucously at some bawdy joke, "Patience, dear—she isn't going anywhere."

When he looked over at his mother, Loki seemed unsure of himself, like a child for a moment, "Are you sure?"

"Aren't you?" Frigga winked and a smile spread over Loki's face again, "You're right, mother."

"About what?" Thor interrupted.

"I guessed that Loki was tired from his journey—we have been keeping him up selfishly but the poor dear is half asleep on his feet." Frigga tutted and fussed, motherly, making Odin smile as if his boys were small again.

Odin, seeming genuinely happy, clapped Loki lovingly on the shoulder and said, "You have done so well, my son. Sleep well and deeply."

Loki made a good show of being tired and slinking off to his room, but as soon as the door was shut behind him he shrugged off the charade.

"I thought they might keep you all night."

The voice came from behind him, and without turning he smiled from ear to ear, knowing she had read his mind, knowing that his long exile was about to become worthwhile. He turned slowly, savoring it, and joked, "They might have, but I am much tired from my long journey."

"Are you?" She purred, taking a step toward him, smiling, almost vibrating.

Loki strode toward her, eliminating the distance in a heartbeat, and letting his lips tease hers as he said, "Very much so…You'll have to put me to bed immediately."

Sigyn laughed lightly as he pulled her into a long kiss, tempered jointly with gentleness and lust. His head was an explosion- during the last year he had vacillated between romantic longings of her eyes and her voice and desperate memories of her body clinging to his and he wasn't sure which instinct to follow.

"I love you," She whispered into his ear, stroking his hair, "I've missed you."

"And I you, my love….and I you." Loki picked her up and she wound herself against him, like a snake, like a second skin, and they collapsed onto his bed. The curtains fell around them and closed them away from the world. It was hours before they spoke again—words weren't needed. It was how they looked, how they touched, that communicated the endless depths that nobody believed belonged to them. The way she ran her fingers over small, newly acquired scars; the way he looked her over for any evidence she had run into trouble of her own—the way they just drank in the sight of one another.

Finally they lay tangled in one another, finding their breath, and laughing at the fact that their long exile was over.

Her hair was longer, he belatedly noticed. He knew his was too. He tugged playfully at the longer ends and looked her over carefully- there were no other signs of change. Still, most changes take place and leave no sign of themselves behind, he knew that she had to have had experiences while he was away—he just hoped they were pleasant.

"So, what have you learned?" She ran her fingers lightly over his chest, teasing them down his stomach and then back up to his neck.

"A good many things, many of them boring, some very useful." He leaned his head back against the pillows, wrapped an arm around her to pull her closer, "And what have you learned?"

"A good many things, many of them insightful, some of them tedious." Sigyn grinned mischievously, "It is rather a different education when you're a servant in a house and not a lady."

"I can't imagine it is to your liking." He scowled momentarily but she brushed her fingers over his lips and the scowl disappeared.

"Actually, your mother has been wonderful to me and has made it lovely. There were times I forgot that I was no longer her pupil." Sigyn's eyes suddenly looked far away and Loki knew that there had been times when her position had probably been brought to stark reality. He knew how cruel some of the people of this court could be, and he knew he had left Sigyn exposed, a raw nerve without its casing.

"No other interesting developments?" He gently pried, curling one long strand of her hair absently around his finger.

"I met new people…"

"Anyone I know?" He kissed her collarbone.

Sigyn giggled as his lips tickled her and then she cupped his cheek and made him look at her, she was admiring him for a moment—her glorious man, hers, and then said, "The Enchantress."

Loki's face tensed and darkened, "She decided to visit here did she?"

"She did…you don't have to look so worried. I had four sisters growing up; one scorned lover isn't enough to hurt me."

Still, Sigyn's words hid a small shadow—Amara hadn't made it easy on her. She knew that Loki sensed that but she didn't wish to rile his rage—his rage could be a dangerous thing.

He was still recently returned and he had not yet had the opportunity to see many of his friends. He had been sent away so quickly that many of them had not had the opportunity to speak with him personally about the affair with Sigyn, and he had not wanted to ask her what they had said to her while he was gone. All she had offered was that Thor had defended her, as Frigga had, they had both embraced Sigyn though she was nothing more than a servant now. There were those like Amara who had not cared that Sigyn had powerful defenders, and he knew that Sigyn wasn't telling him the whole story. Loki did not press her—they would have endless years to share all stories and he wanted to have some time to just appreciate being home.

Still, today he would see Sif, Volstagg, Fandral and Hogun as Thor had commanded him on a hunt. He had wished to refuse but Sigyn shook her head when he suggested that and told him to go spend time with his brother, "I've not been the only one who missed you."

When he walked down alone Thor cocked his head to the side, "Where is she?"

Loki looked at him, puzzled, and Thor continued, "Sigyn, I might have thought you would bring her."

Loki cocked an eyebrow, "Isn't that strictly against father's policy?"

"Father isn't coming." Thor smiled and nodded at Loki, "We will wait if you wish to gather her—mother, certainly, can spare her for a day."

Loki looked at his brother, puzzled, and Thor smiled, "Did I not promise you I would look after her as my own dear sister while you were gone? I have kept my promise. I will protect you both from our father's eyes if I can and offer you what time and privacy I may. I promise—there is no ill intent in the offer."

So seldom did good favor pass between the brothers that Loki did not know if accepting it was necessarily a good idea—but he trusted it. He could not explain why but some part of him felt that Thor would leave teasing Loki to Loki alone, that Sigyn was something different entirely.

Odin sometimes took it to heart that he should crack down on Loki and Sigyn—that they should not be permitted to display themselves.

He was walking with his brother, listening to Thor's revels and conquests, considering how he might use them to embarrass Thor at the next formal function when there was a sizzling and cracking in the air, like magic.

A figure appeared in front of them, cowering, crying, popping into existence from the clear night sky.

"Sigyn!" Loki yelled—his heart instantly in his throat, he ran over to her and as soon as someone touched her she shrieked, but then looked up and saw who it was. Her face was frightened, slightly bruised by her chin, and she threw her arms around his neck and let herself sob.

Thor was beside his brother in a second and the distinct thumping sound of Mjolnir sinking into its master's grasp, "What has happened? Is she hurt?"

As much as Loki was loathe to admit it, Thor had been the valiant brother to Sigyn when Loki was absent—and he was protective of her for both Frigga and Loki's sakes. Loki put Sigyn at an arm's length for a moment to study her, as he did her arms flexed protectively around her chest and he saw that the top of her gown was torn as if someone had tried to rip it off of her. The bruises on her chin had siblings on her neck, as though she had been grabbed, and her heart was racing so hard he could hear it.

"Are you hurt?" Loki repeated the question, unable to see anything else but fearing something invisible.

Sigyn shook her head but her whole body was shaking and her knees were weakening. She was falling to the ground and so Loki guided her down and followed her, wrapping his arms around her again and staring up at Thor, "Get Eir."

"No." Sigyn whispered, "Don't bother her…I'm fine, really. Just frightened."

"I would say you're closer to petrified, dear." Loki stroked her hair as she cried into his shoulder, "What happened?"

Instead of talking Sigyn flicked her wrist and buried her head in Loki's neck so she did not have to see it again—in front of Thor and Loki played out a memory, a glamour storytellers often employed, absently Loki realized that he didn't know Sigyn could perform such a glamour.

The scene was simple enough—Sigyn was walking through the halls with a book in hand, and knocked gently on a door. When it opened it revealed a Bright Elf, not the ambassador but one of the kinsmen he had brought to keep himself entertained—Sigyn was welcomed into the room, but behind her, unbeknownst to her, the elf locked the door.

"My lady sends her regards and hopes this is what you were looking for," Sigyn raised the book for emphasis, "if it isn't, she offers to tour you through the library personally in the morning. She hopes that this is what you were asking for with such urgency."

"The All Mother sends precisely what I was hoping for." The elf nodded but did not reach for the book, "You do not remember me?"

Sigyn cocked her head to the side, "Should I?"

He waved his hand dismissively, "Of course, your mother's trip to Alfheim was not so long ago."

Sigyn blinked and shook her head, "I am sorry, my lord. I do not know you."

The Bright Elf crossed close to her, "That is of little consequence… I knew your mother quite well."

It was something about how he said it, how his eyes raked over her, that made Sigyn uncomfortable. She placed the book on a table and said, firmly, "I do not have a mother anymore, sir. My place is as the All Mother's loyal servant, I no longer have a family to call mine."

She tried to walk back toward the door but the elf stepped in her path. She took a step to the right to try and walk around him but he blocked her there as well and she felt all the hairs on the back of her neck raise.

"Yes…the story reached us in Alfheim too. You were disowned for becoming the bedthing of the small prince, but given who your mother is that was no surprise to us who knew her well. A pity your father was so distraught—had he not already learned your nature from his time with Freyja?"

Sigyn took a step back from him, "That is not exactly what happened…"

"Of course it is." The elf shrugged, "Or something like it."

"Nothing like it." Sigyn insisted and took another step backward, when the elf took a step forward she lunged forth, pushed him to the side and ran toward the door, which had been locked and sealed shut with magic she did not know.

The elf grabbed her hair and pulled her back enough that he could wrap his hand around her neck and shove her fiercely against the locked door.

"Is that meant to be a rejection?" His hand squeezed her throat before traveling up to her chin, "What appeal does that boy prince have to you? Or maybe he bores you? Your mother travels from bed to bed… how like your mother are you?"

Sigyn tried to reply but his grip on her was too tight, he reached up his free hand toward her breasts and grabbed the edges of her dress, pulling at it. Just as it tore Sigyn exploded in light, disappearing from in front of him and landing on the path in front of Loki.

While Loki and Thor were watching what happened, Sigyn looked behind them and flicked her wrist. A doppleganger appeared and as the brothers grew more and more angry, Sigyn's copy went directly for Frigga's room. If she could find the All Mother, there might be hope to stop Loki and Thor doing something regrettable to the elf, no matter how justified their actions might have been it would not be right to start a war.

Loki was fuming, seeing red, and she could hear the magic snapping around him but she held onto him so tightly that he couldn't race toward the guest quarters and maul the man who harmed Sigyn. She nestled close to his ear and whispered, "Please…I want to go inside, take me somewhere safe."

It took him a moment, but he swallowed his rage.

Then, silently, he swept her into his arms and hurried toward his room, Thor shadowing them with his hammer, ready to jump in and protect his family. Loki's magic burst the doors to his room open and then as quickly slammed them shut, a fire jumped to life in the fireplace and the bed rolled its covers down. A basin filled with steaming water and he was able to lay Sigyn into his bed and immediately go to his wardrobe where he was able to pick from a small selection of women's clothes.

Thor was tempted to joke with Loki about the small treasure trove of women's clothes, but guessed, correctly, that Loki was in no mood- these were things he kept here for Sigyn. Loki wrapped her in a warm robe before he touched her torn dress and it disappeared, never to be seen again. He started pressing the warm cloth to the back of her neck to soothe her and sat next to her on the bed, constantly looking her over, finally seeing her breathing even out and noticing that she had stopped trembling.

"Do you feel better? Safer?" He asked, studying her and studying her, unable to stop looking for answers to put himself at ease as much as her.

"Yes, better." She nodded, patting the space of bed next to her, "Can we go to sleep?"

"Oh I won't be sleeping," Loki smoothed her brow with his thumb, "as long as that monster is in this Hall."

"Loki, don't.."

"Don't try to stop me, Sigyn. I'm quite resolved." His face was stern, the rage that had simmered was rising again and Sigyn looked over at the doorway hoping that Frigga would arrive in time to stop the boys from doing something that would ignite a war. As luck would have it, Frigga pushed open the doors at just that moment. Her magic was also clicking and snapping in anger and her sons instantly gave way to her, allowing her to look over Sigyn without a further word.

"How long have you been here?"

"Mere moments, mother." Loki supplied, Thor was pacing angrily, "The outrage! The disrespect! How dare any of our people be mishandled so!"

Loki locked eyes with his brother, held up a hand glowing with magic and gripping a dagger, and said, "It would seem they are in need of a lesson in manners. Thor?"

"I would gladly be their teacher." Thor began whirling the hammer in vast circles but Frigga snapped her fingers and both boys doubled over as if they had the air knocked from their lungs, "Stop that, both of you!"

"Mother?" Thor coughed.

"The poor girl is frightened and you sit here and further scare her by talk of starting a war?"

"Who mentioned a war? I'm only interested in one casualty." Loki glowered.

"You know precisely what will happen if you both barge in there and assault the man without a further word. Nothing good."

Loki's eyes opened in shock, "You aren't suggesting we overlook this mad behavior? Surely you can't expect us to do that."

Frigga's magic slapped his cheek as if he were a rude child and Loki's eyes looked downcast as she replied, "Dare you suggest seeing her thus doesn't wound me? She sent a doppleganger to me, she showed me what she showed you-how do you think I am here so fast? How dare you think this doesn't cut me to my core—but we cannot simply barge into his rooms and drag him into the yard, beat him bloody, and expect that nothing further will come of it."

"We can try." Thor tried but for it Frigga slapped him too.

"You are not children anymore to have tempers that flare and tantrums because of them—you will both calm yourselves and show some restraint that befits grown princes of this house."

Loki stared at his mother defiantly but she held his gaze. As always the message behind it was Trust me. Against his better judgment he sank into a chair at the foot of the bed…but not before flinging his dagger across the room where it landed precisely in the middle of Alfheim in the great painting of Yggrisil on his wall.

"She stays with me, here, where I can know she is safe. That is my condition." Loki met his mother's eyes with a dark and dismal will, "My only condition, the only reason I will concede."

Frigga bowed her head, "Your father will not like it."

"My only condition, mother."

Frigga relented, "Very well."

"It has been brought to me that Sigyn is currently being lodged in your rooms." Odin said, deciding not to mince words with Loki about this topic again, "I want you to send her back to hers."

"No." Loki shook his head firmly, "She stays where she is until the Bright Elves return home, and that is the best I can offer you. There will be no negotiating with me on this matter."

Odin sighed, Frigga had already warned him against having this fight and he was beginning to wonder why he ignored her.

"Loki-"

"No!" The prince snapped, "You are lucky mother restrained us, or Thor and I would have charged their rooms already and demanded justice."

"So you would kill an ambassador's kin for revenge?"

"Who said kill? I prefer maim." Loki sneered, "He manhandled her like a common prostitute."

"She is returned to you, in one piece, her fears are calmed. You can return her to her lodgings and she will be safe there, with your mother."

"No, she was rooming with my mother when she was attacked. She stays with me until this is past us." The prince's eyes were lit with the fire that always worried Odin, the fire that looked like it could rend a world in two, "She is safe with me, and that is what we both need to keep our heads."

"You are being dramatic and overbearing—she will be safe in this palace, I promise you."

Loki's voice grew quiet, the tone as dark as a black hole and it sucked all the worst emotions to the surface whenever he used it. Truth be told, his father preferred it when he yelled, this voice was so much sharper with its steely near whisper, "And what would you do if it were my mother who appeared in front of you out of the open sky, having been bruised and mishandled, crying and afraid, with her dress torn? If it were Mother who reached out her arms to you and told you she was frightened, told you men in this palace had tried to dishonor and harm her….what would you have done?"

They both knew the answer- Loki and Thor both had Odin's impertinence, but long years had dampened it down in him and Odin now felt he had control of it. Still, he knew he would not have surrendered until he had the heads of the men responsible.

"She is not your wife, Loki."

"Because of your judgment, and for no other reason. If you lifted your sentence this moment, I would marry her in the hour. I don't know what other evidence to that fact you require-has the last century demonstrated nothing?"

Odin slammed Gungir to the ground and cried, "You stubborn boy! Why can you never do as you're told!"

Loki bowed his head, genuinely admonished, and repeated, "Regardless of what you think of Sigyn and I, in this I hold firm—if you want her out of my rooms before the Bright Elves leave, you will need to send guards to remove her, and I will not submit to them willingly. Be warned."

Loki left without permission and Odin sank tiredly onto his throne, Frigga appeared from behind it and when he sensed her Odin gave a dry laugh, "You might have revealed yourself to him and tried to impart some sense."

"I agree with him." Frigga shrugged, "Sigyn was so frightened, you didn't see her. And as frightened as she was, she still managed to send a message to me so that I could come and calm down Thor and Loki before they made war with Alfheim over the incident. You know my feelings for the girl—seeing her treated so made my blood boil. And if she feels safe with Loki, I say let her stay."

"You said let them marry."

"I still say that." She smirked at her husband and kissed his head, "What would you have done if it were me?"

Odin grumbled indiscernibly and kissed her hand, holding it in his lovingly, "Is it so wrong to want them to be better than me? To behave better? Act better?"

"They did….they didn't start a war. All Loki wants now that Sigyn and I have both calmed him is to know that she is safe and that he is in control of that safety. He feels guilty, my love. He feels that he should have somehow known she was in danger—should have protected her, saved her. He does feel guilty that he hasn't avenged her—at least give him the piece of mind that he is asking for. It isn't much."

Odin thought on her words, so similar to Loki's and yet so much easier to understand, so much easier to abide by. He finally sighed, "Fine—as you wish. Until the delegates leave."

"They should make amends." Frigga glowered suddenly, showing her true feelings, "The actions of their kin was outrageous, dishonorable, and cruel. If they protect him from our justice, they are no better. They should be confronted on the problem, and they should make amends."

"She is a servant, Frigga." Odin reminded her, "We cannot demand it."

"She is a servant wearing a prince's necklace and sleeping in a queen's chambers—and a servant born from a princess. She is not just a servant, and even if she was she is ours and they have no right to treat her any way they see fit." Frigga growled and Odin could tell that he would not win this battle with her, especially not if both Thor and Loki agreed.

Some days, the All Father did not feel all powerful, some days he felt outnumbered. Wearily he waved his hand again, "I will think on it."

Frigga smiled widely….That means 'yes'.

Loki stood beside his father tensely, Thor next to him and equally wound up as the Bright Elves' ambassador approached, with Sigyn's attacker behind him. Loki's fists flexed and unflexed, but he kept his face passive. He wanted to show his father that he could tame his rage, from beside Odin Frigga nodded at her boys, ecstatic that they were standing proud and quiet, holding in their emotions.

The ambassador bowed low before the All Father and then took his fair turn with the All Mother and each prince. A faint smirk traced Loki's lips, the game was starting—why else bow to each family member in turn unless you had come to grovel?

Let the groveling begin…

The Elf thinks he is quite clever

, Loki grinned, playing on Father's honorable notions of trial by combat. He thinks, as so many do, that only the mighty Thor could be a worthy opponent.

It was quite the show, the bravado, the dramatic pleas for forgiveness, the manic glint of the eye that said all the words were empty and all the gestures hollow. Loki was not the only one who was bored with the façade—Frigga's patience was faltering as well. Thor and Odin were watching the Elf more carefully—they wanted to see if this was a genuine gesture or not. Odin, at least, was only hoping that this was a sincere gesture of an honorable man. Thor hadn't yet sensed the lies.

Loki shook his head gently, if Thor couldn't see through this Elf, what sort of king would he make when truly clever people tried to fool him?

"Great All-Father," The Elf pled, "I think it only fair that I offer up myself for trial by combat."

"Such combat is a worthy solution," Odin nodded curtly, "and I shall further be a courteous host and let you choose your opponent and your means."

Thor smugly stuck out his chin, and Loki saw the Elf size him up- he might mean to take on the Golden Prince.

That just won't do…Loki smirked and thought of the perfect way to show off his own cleverness, and to get his revenge.

"My gracious king, and good father," Loki's voice rang like music, "you are too giving to the man. You offer this man a choice of who to battle and in so doing you have presented him a hard choice. Thor is the better warrior—and a brave man would choose him. Then there I stand—not my brother's equal in size or strength- and a cowardly man might choose me. This man's crime indicates he is a coward—you are all but commanding him to battle me."

The Elf's ears pricked, he was listening, and his expression darkened at the prince's very public rebuke, "The All Father gives me a great advantage- courteous when I am bidding for my name."

"Honor is important, the more reason for such a one to fight the less impressive prince—cowards hate to lose, and brave men never live past their losses. In a fight like this you would win your honor and gain scorn by defeating a prince of the realm—a brave man would see this as a twice brutal cost." Loki used a slight glamour to make himself look even smaller and frailer than Thor.

Odin and Frigga eyed Loki, both absolutely convinced that he was baiting the man to pick him. Thor laughed and gloated, "Brave or cowardly, he will fall before me. Who would choose to battle Loki when Thor awaits their command?"

The Golden Prince suddenly seemed dark and his voice took on the growl of thunder, "Choose me, and fall before the Mighty Thor."

"Choose me, and prove yourself the coward we believe you to be." Loki smiled, his glamour making him seem so slight that a tense breeze might bowl him over.

The Elf had a maniacal grin when he said, "First I will choose the means of battle-I will battle with nothing more than what I have on my person this very moment, and my competitor will be likewise handicapped."

He seemed, at a glance, unarmed, but Loki knew there were knives hidden in sleeves and pockets that he would not surrender—not even to stand before a king.

Thor tightened his grip on Mjolnir, Odin nodded his consent to the condition of the battle, and Loki merely grinned back at the Elf who proudly announced, "And I will fight Loki- for my honor, and for his foul tongue that I might hang it over my mantle when I return home."

Loki clapped his hands and the glamor fell away, the Elf took a step back as he realized that Loki looked heartier than he had initially suspected, the prince laughed darkly, "When do we start?"

Odin announced the battle to take place in an hour's time and the two warriors bowed to one another, then to the All Father, in agreement. Sigyn was waiting for Loki outside the chambers, looking livid, having witnessed the entire exchange. When they were alone Sigyn slapped Loki's shoulder sharply and hissed, "You manipulated him into choosing you."

"Are you so sad about that?"

"He does not intend to fight you fairly. He intends to sneak in weapons." She was glaring at him, and her expression got darker every time he laughed in response to one of her predictions.

"I thought as much—a man who molests women doesn't care for fair fights."

"He intends to kill you-he will not stop attacking you if you submit."

"Again, an obvious angle. Are the far-seeing eyes of the Vanir feeling cloudy today? These prophecies are hardly the stuff of legend."

"You're going to kill him."

"Yes, and with relish." Loki leaned over and kissed her forehead, "And the marvelous part is that no war can come of it, and when it is done, he will not be the only one caught having underestimated Loki."

Sigyn grabbed Loki's face between her hands and shook it gently, "Why? Why must you do this? I don't require death as payment for wrongs done to me."

Loki put his hands over hers, gently guided them off his cheeks, "But I do."

He grabbed her chin, possessively, "I require such payment from those that hurt you—no more, and no less. I told you once- I fight to keep what's mine. And let them all see his fate and know that they will share it if they touch you—let all our palace onlookers see what becomes of those that harm you, let them not forget for one moment who you are promised to."

There was an evil tone to him in that moment, one she had seen hints of in the past but had never seen take him over. He talked of killing callously, even more callously than Thor who at least still saw war as a game. Loki had tricked a man into battling him so that he could unleash a barrage of magic on him and not only kill him-Loki would humiliate him first.

Part of her was beaming—justice belonged in their world, in every world, and she would not say that the man who assaulted her deserved nothing for his crimes. If he were to leave the palace unharmed, she would consider it poor dealings, but she did not like this coming bloodbath any more than a punishment free escape. Still, she knew she would watch, she knew she would flinch when Loki took wounds and she knew that after he won, she would tend to him. She would always tend to him, always choose him, always follow after him even when his path became twisted—and even when she disagreed with him.

Too many people arrived to see the battle—too many people assumed that Loki would be defeated, humiliated. Sigyn was allowed to stand next to Frigga and was tense, stiff as a rod. The queen would have made a move to quiet her but both were too fixated on the arena to notice the other.

Now that the battle was over, the victories tallied, and the Bright Elves sent back to Alfheim with a greater fear of Odin's house Loki knew that sooner or later his father would remember that Sigyn was in Loki's rooms and order her out.

He knew, somehow, that this morning was the last morning she would be here with him, he sensed deep in his bones that today was the day. They were wound together, a tangle of arms and legs that kept shifting and changing as if one mind commanded them. He pressed his lips against her forehead and deeply inhaled the scent of her hair—he tried to freeze this moment in his mind. This was how life was supposed to have been, how every day was supposed to start.

"I would be a better man if all my days had such beautiful beginnings." He whispered, hoping that Odin might see that potential and finally lift his ban.

The noise was growing from a whisper to a full roar in the Great Hall, it was enough that Sigyn grew restless in bed despite being nestled with Loki on a mild, spring morning.

"What are they talking about?" She whispered, annoyed.

Loki opened his eyes—he rarely slept but often laid down to rest his eyes if she were staying with him, "Today is the day you can declare your partnerships for the hunt."

"What hunt?"

"The hunt in honor of Bor's passing—we host it once every five centuries and live off the killings until the next hunt." Loki smoothed her hair down her naked back, "They will be insufferable until the victors are crowned and the feasting over."

Sigyn rolled onto her stomach so she could look at him better, "You don't seem to be an avid participant."

"Father made Thor and I enroll together once, it was the last time I ever participated."

"What do the victors receive?"

"They are kings for the night." Loki smirked, "Commanding the feast from a hunting throne."

"And Odin permits that?" Sigyn ran her lips lightly across Loki's jawline, ran just the tips of her fingers over his chest until the sensation made him roll her onto her back and pin her down.

"Thor wins almost every hunt, so father is perfectly at peace with it." Loki kissed her long and slowly—this was a rare morning of peace, nobody would be bothering them, they had this time to savor one another without rushing or hiding. He didn't want talk of Odin or Thor or their damnable hunt—the scene of one of his greatest failures in his father's eyes. This bed would only house successes now—he would only allow triumphs in his room, and Sigyn was among his greatest triumphs.

He took such pleasure in how she bent to his ministrations, moved in sync with him, anticipated his wants and blew through his expectations. When they were done and he was laying, smiling ear to ear, she rolled herself tightly in the sheets and walked over to the window. The noise from the Hall had traveled outside. Loki stalked behind her, pressing himself against her, wrapped his arms around her and tried to see what she was seeing.

Sigyn knew that Loki was loath to accept a failure—and she sensed that whatever this hunt was, he had been embarrassed by it in the past. She wanted to erase his pain from the past—every pain if she could.

"What are the rules for the hunt?"

"Why?"

"I have an idea…if you wish to unseat your brother as the victor, I could help you."

Unseating Thor…. Loki would be lying if he said the thought didn't intrigue him, "I'm listening."

The flourish with which she delivered the creature, concealed by an expert glamour, was seductive. Loki could not take his eyes off of her, though the rest of the court was awing their prizes—none more than Thor who was bowing to Sigyn with a childish temper of defeat.

"You look….delectable."

"I'm naked." She teased from the tub as he locked the door behind him.

"As I said, delectable." He walked over to the tub and kissed her forehead, staring longingly at what he could decipher just beneath the surface of the water, he moved the kiss to her lips, "My victorious huntress."

She savored the contact, held onto him for long moments, and gently pushed him aside, "We shall never make it down to our great victory if you stall me so."

"Ah, that is precisely why I am here." He waved his hand and a bundle appeared on a small table beside the tub. It was wrapped in a long green ribbon. She eyed it with playful suspicion—Loki had been known to wrap terrible things in beautiful packages before but she sensed this would not be one of those times.

She unwrapped it carefully, drying her hands thoroughly before pulling at the ribbons, and inch by inch revealed the wonderful creation underneath…. It was a crown. Not just any crown, but the gold was deep and wound in wonderful patterns—in the front it appeared like two horns sweeping to the sides of her head but as the horns swept back they broke into dozens of thin lines, intricately braided together. It matched his ostentatious helmet—another symbol of a union that went unrecognized.

"Tonight you get to be a queen—you should have a crown."

Her fingers swept over the beautiful lines and she looked up at him, smiling. He leaned down and kissed her, "I think I'm looking forward to that crown the most."

Loki was restless, pacing the library, and it was making Frigga nervous. She could guess what he had come to talk to her about and it was not going to be a pleasant conversation.

"You know I can't persuade your father in this matter." She offered him his answer before he had even voiced his question.

"Mother… it has been a thousand years…how long does he intend to test us? Have we not passed?" Loki sat in a chair, his legs haphazardly in front of him, "This is an important anniversary and yet we cannot even acknowledge it as an anniversary because we have never been allowed to marry."

"And yet you have managed to carry on quite well for a thousand years—who says that cannot be celebrated just as well?"

Loki groaned, "Oh it's becoming ridiculous. This whole façade of her servitude just so I can never call her my wife…"

"Oh the punishment works both ways, lets not forget." Frigga rolled her eyes playfully, "Sigyn is also being kept from certain pleasures and comforts."

"Yes, which is why I, once more, ask you to appeal to Odin's senses and have this pitiful punishment revoked."

Frigga stood and crossed over to her son, kissing his hairline, "I'm sorry Loki, you know that all my pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Odin will change his mind when he changes it."

Loki stormed out of the room and was walking toward the stables to see Sleipnir when Thor crossed his path.

"What makes my brother look so gloomy?" Thor playfully punched at Loki's shoulder, "A lover's quarrel perhaps?"

"No quarrel with the lover, just a quarrel about her." Loki sighed, "Father will not be lifting his ban on our union in the foreseeable future."

"That? Again?" Thor guffawed, "After all this time why even bother appealing it?"

"I don't expect you to understand, you hardly keep a woman through the night."

"I have no need to keep one when I can readily replace them." Thor grinned but the joke had no effect on the jokester prince.

Wondering if Thor would make a mockery of Loki's pain, he nonetheless attempted to confide in his brother, "It has been a thousand years, Thor."

"Has it?" Thor chewed on that, "It can't be—a thousand? Are you sure?"

"A thousand years, Thor."

Thor looked perplexed, "So, do you celebrate it? What would you do?"

"I want to celebrate, but it would turn a celebration into a mockery. You can't celebrate a marriage that you never had."

"That does seem problematic." Thor shook his head, "A thousand years? Has it really been so long?"

"It has."

He did not want to face her yet, not knowing what he would say to her. A thousand years was a marked anniversary—cherished, special. Usually celebrated with great pomp. But for Loki and Sigyn there would be no public acknowledgement—no celebration, no congratulations nor blessings. He felt ashamed that he had not convinced Odin to overturn Sigyn's punishment for so long—a thousand years of punishment, of forced separation, of her living as a servant instead of a princess. A thousand years…and unlikely to change.

Just as he was going to walk into Sigyn's room Frigga appeared at his side and he looked at her as a man looks at food when starved, "Have you convinced him?"

It was a desperate hope.

"No." Frigga shook her head but held out her hand to touch his shoulder, comforting, "But I do have an idea."

Loki's ears twitched, "I'm listening."

Midgard was the perfect escape, an idea he was surprised he had not come up with. Of course Odin had forbidden his sons lowering themselves to be with women of inferior class but if Loki and Frigga were going on a trip together and Frigga just happened to bring Sigyn along, who was Odin to say anything remiss was happening? It was all the trickery Frigga had it in her heart to play against her husband—and he was no fool, he knew what she was doing and let her have it. It was a battle between them for a thousand years as well as a battle between Odin and his son- and when Odin and Frigga battled they were experts on knowing when to concede a battle and when to refuse. Odin, knowing what his punishment had taken away from them, relented this time. He was not so soft as to undo his own ordainment but he did let Frigga steal Loki and Sigyn away to Midgard for a retreat, some privacy, the closest thing the two of them would have to a celebration of their first millennia.

When they returned from their excursion Loki had renewed optimism and an inspired outlook- he immediately undertook a project that it would take the best builders in the realm the better part of a year to construct.

She helped him put on his helmet, dress him in his finest, and he was staring at her the whole time—she was also dressed in her best.

"Remind me why we're doing this again?" He joked.

"It is an important day."

He hooked one of her dress' straps in his finger as she waltzed by him and pulled her close, slowly exposing her shoulder, "Not so important that we couldn't skip it…"

He leaned down to kiss her but she put a hand on his chest to stop him and ducked out of the way of his horns, "You would be missed my love…and I'm not dressing you in this ridiculous helmet twice."

"You love the helmet." Loki leaned in and kissed her sweetly.

She held him close for a moment and let the kiss linger, then bowed away saying, "We don't have time."

Loki rubbed her shoulders and returned her dress to its proper position, looking at her lovingly, "I suppose you must be down before us."

"You suppose right." She smiled, "Try to be happy for him… I know this isn't an easy day for you but after the feasting is over, you and I will disappear into the Realms together for some time and nobody will even notice we are gone. There are certain benefits to all the focus being on Thor."

She winked mischievously and he smirked at her, "Yes, there are benefits…. Sigyn?"

"Hmm?"

"Promise me, if something happens today…promise that you will go to my mother and stay with her until everything is settled."

Sigyn cocked her eyebrow at him accusatorily, "What is going to happen today?"

"Probably nothing," He winked at her, "But if it does, stay with my mother."

"What have you done?" She asked, half playful, half worried.

"Nothing at all." His smile was too smooth and she knew it was the one thing he would lie to her about, he would lie so she could never be accused of being part of his schemes.

He offered her his arm, "I'll escort you first and return for my mother."

"My lord," She teased, "People will say we're in love."

He kissed her hairline, "Good."

When the cry went out of "Frost Giants" her eyes swept toward Loki as if to say Nothing? But he disappeared with Thor and Odin before she could even engage him in the chastisement. As promised, she stayed loyally by Frigga and the Queen was soon cushioned by a swarm of guards while Odin and his sons determined that the Destroyer had done its job. Sigyn was waiting for her opportunity to help Loki in his definition of nothing but a sudden warning went out that caused Sigyn and Frigga to run to the window. There were six horses taking off a dead gallop toward the Observatory and Sigyn instantly groaned, "What are they up to now?"

Frigga met her eyes, "Something rash and dangerous."

The two women sat there, staring as the Bifrost opened, and settled in to wait until their foolhardy loved ones returned.

There were injuries, the calls came, and Sigyn ran toward the calls and tried to figure out who was hurt.

Not Loki, not Loki, not Loki…though he probably deserves it. She prayed silently, and when she opened the door to one of the royal family's private lounges she saw Fandral and Volstagg nursing wounds. Loki was nowhere to be seen. She was looking for him, almost frantic, and it was Hogun who bowed his head to her—ever deferent to a fallen princess of his native Realm—and said, "He is not harmed."

Nodding, accepting, Sigyn turned her attention to Volstagg and Fandral.

"What happened?" She asked, kneeling before Fandral who was bleeding.

"We went to Jotunheim." He gasped as she moved away the rag he had been pressing against his wound.

"Fools. All of you, fools."

"It was half Loki's idea." Fandral offered, trying to pacify the person about to attend to the sorest part of him.

"More fool him." She snapped as she removed Fandral's armor, he hissed and bit his lip, still managing to say, "All I ever had to do to get you to take my clothes off was get hurt? I would have done it ages ago."

Sigyn rolled her eyes, in no mood for Fandral's jokes, and looked over at Volstagg, "What ails you?"

Volstagg held up her left arm and she could see the frost-burn, it had frozen off his armor and half of his skin. She could re-warm it, save some, but it would not be easy-or painless. She looked at Sif and asked, "My lady, are you hurt?"

"No." Sif had minor scratches but she would hardly allow them to be attended to.

"Might I ask for you to summon some of the minor healers? They will be able to start helping Volstagg while I heal Fandral."

Sif nodded, her resentment for being ordered by Sigyn outweighed by her concern for her friends. Sigyn turned her attention to Fandral and whispered to him, "This may hurt."

Then she began to glow, and focused on stitching back together all the muscles and tendons that had been gnashed apart by the ice shard. When she next focused on the world, it was clearly some time later and the healers Sif had called were putting a salve on Volstagg. Fandral looked down at Sigyn with a line of sweat on his brow, he was panting heavily and a leather glove was firmly planted between his teeth. He spit out the glove and smirked, "Hardly hurt at all."

"I'm sorry," She managed a small smile and let herself sit on the floor, taking a slight rest, "The skin will heal itself, we have crystals and salves to keep you from minor damage like that, but knitting the muscles is not easy…and if not done well it will scar horribly on the inside, you would never fight the same again."

"I don't mind the pain," Fandral eased himself back to lay on the couch, "I probably deserved it. Thank you, Sigyn."

Sigyn collected herself and went over to Volstagg—his muscles were still frozen, but the salves had given them a little flexibility back. Volstagg was much harder to fix, but it was his fortune that for most of the time she was meddling with his muscles he could not feel them because of the frostbite. When she was done tending to Volstagg she was tired, she needed to rest but she couldn't let herself until she laid her eyes on Loki. If anything, she had a manic glint in her eye and surveyed the room again, hoping he had come in while she was concentrating on Volstagg and she had missed his arrival.

No luck.

"Where are they?" She asked, ever forgetful around the Warriors Three and Lady Sif that she was a servant, and by rights should not have engaged them in any conversation unless engaged.

"They aren't harmed," Sif answered, but looked worried as well, "but I wonder that they are not back yet. Odin, perhaps, is still scolding them."

Sigyn grunted a laugh, "They ask for more than scolding….Jotunheim? Jotunheim! One of the most dangerous realms you could have gone to…and for what?"

"For Asgard." Fandral smiled.

"For trouble." Sigyn frowned, "Why Jotunheim? Why now? The Jotuns have been quiet for centuries."

"Not anymore." Sif hissed, "They tried to steal the…"

"Oh that isn't what I meant," Sigyn sighed, unwilling to admit that this was some scheme of Loki's that she knew not the end to, but furious that this trick was so dangerous.

The door opened up and a servant bowed, "Sigyn? The Queen requests you…Odin has…he has fallen."

"Fallen?" Sigyn perked up, "Is he hurt?"

"He has fallen into Odin Sleep." The servant said, "But something is not right. You must come quickly."

The Warriors Three, Lady Sif and Sigyn all exchanged worried looks—something beyond their petty squabbling was happening, something that could change the course of Asgard forever. In Sigyn's mind the image of an empty throne suddenly burned, blazed through her like the sun, and she shivered at the possibilities.

"Of course, I will come straight away." Sigyn hurried out the door without further acknowledging the warriors she left behind.

The agonies of the day were still weighing on him, working themselves around in his brain, hatching new atrocities with each passing moment. Odin was sleeping so deeply that Loki almost forgot that this sleep was dark and dreadful—and the lines deepening on his mother's face made him think it might be permanent.

His mother…. Could he? Should he? Was it his right?

Odin….he had felt oddly comfortable relinquishing the title of father, but mother wasn't leaving so easily. He looked across Odin's sleeping form at Frigga, her anxiety clear on her face—for her husband and her sons.

"Why wouldn't you tell me?" The question cut like a knife, stabbing her in the front where she could watch it twist and bleed.

Her words washed over him and he ignored most of them—true or half true or openly false, his wounds were too fresh and nothing made them hurt less. Frigga let the silence grow between her and her youngest; she turned her attention back to Odin while Loki stewed.

"How could you let me, mother?"

"Let you what, dear?"

He slammed his hand down on the side of Odin's bed and Frigga looked up to see his face contorted in rage and pain, "Knowing what I am, how could you let me love her?"

Frigga looked confused, "What does that have to do with her?"

"A thousand years!" He emphasized, "A thousand years we have spent together…who will have her now having bedded a jotun that long? She is ruined…ruined."

Frigga's eyebrows twitched to the top of her head, "Do you intend to break with Sigyn? After a thousand years has something so grave happened between you?"

"How can I keep her?" Loki stared off, absently, "She is the one thing in this realm I love more than myself…I want her safe, loved, looked after."

He laughed morbidly, "I see why he wouldn't let me marry her now…a Jotun bride for a Jotun King, undoubtedly was the plan."

"That was never the plan." Frigga hissed, "Your father's pride alone is what fueled his anger."

"He isn't my father." Loki snapped, "I suppose I've wounded the pride of both my fathers. One tried to kill me and one tried to control me. I might have even disappointed him to death."

"I won't listen to you if you intend to be so morose." Frigga chastised, tears glistening her eyes, "It might do you well to go to Sigyn now and remind yourself why she is so vital to you. She calms you when naught else can."

"I can't tell her…I can't watch her as she flinches and turns away from me."

The tapping on the door was so quiet, they might have missed it, but Frigga, being so concerned, was hyper-vigilant. Frigga flicked her wrist and the door opened, revealing none other than Sigyn.

"You summoned me, my lady?" Sigyn bowed but her eyes flicked to both Loki and Odin- she was torn about which concerned her more. The All Father's condition would thrust the throne on someone, and if Thor's banishment was real there was only one logical heir…

And he wouldn't even look at her.

Loki stared at his father, consumed with something that Sigyn didn't know about. They said that it had been Loki there with him when he fell, Loki who cried for help, Loki who carried him into the chamber and had to tell Frigga what happened…. But there was something more. Something had happened on Jotunheim… something more was eating at him than the Odin Sleep…something more than Thor's banishment, which the servants had only just told her about. But she had no idea what was wrong with Loki, and no idea if he was willing to share it with her now. Normally, Loki, Frigga and Sigyn were the unstoppable three, but in this room, in this moment, Sigyn knew it would never be like that again—something was wrong, broken, and it couldn't be fixed. Looking at Frigga there was a solid word in Sigyn's mind-tears. The Queen's future held tears.

"Sigyn, I'd like your opinion on the All Father-I've already looked myself but I am afraid that my hopes and fears may cloud my assessment. And Loki should also be looked over." Frigga broke the silence.

"I'm fine." He snapped and walked away from Odin the minute Sigyn began walking closer. In fact, he walked clear to the other end of the room from her.

Sigyn walked to Odin's great bed and put her hands over his chest, muttering words and letting his magic speak to hers, settling on a diagnosis with a magical being could be so much easier than a normal person. She frowned deeply—she didn't like what his body was saying.

Frigga put a hand on her shoulder, familiarly, and asked, "What is it?"

"He has exhausted himself, beyond what he could manage. The Odin Sleep claimed him before he could willing submit to it, he will find it harder to wake from as a consequence." Sigyn shook her head, the only thing in Odin's future was rest, "I'm sorry, my lady, but I don't see his condition changing in the near future."

"I feared as much…"

"Don't fear, my lady. It would take more than that to kill the All Father." Sigyn knelt and offered Frigga an embrace, hugging the queen's knees like a child, making the All Mother smirk sadly, "That is my suspicion, and the suspicions of the Vanir are rarely wrong."

"You are kind to say that." Frigga gestured to Loki, "He's being stubborn, but he should be looked after. He's been fighting and has gone through a terrible shock."

"I'm fine. I require nothing." Loki emphasized, refusing to look at Sigyn. Still, she heard venom in his voice.

Sigyn walked over to him but he held out a hand to stop her, never looking at her directly, "Leave us, I need nothing from you."

"Loki?" She asked, the pain from the dismissal obvious but at that moment a servant entered carrying Odin's great staff. Frigga sighed and asked Sigyn, nicely, to retire and wait for them.

It was the silence that was unnerving for Sigyn. It was not that Loki was normally loquacious but there was something buzzing about his silence, something alive and communicative that this silence lacked.

Something had happened. Something was wrong.

She reached out a hand to touch his shoulder and he moved out of the way, intentionally, and walked across his room to the window that was furthest away from the bed. He still had Odin's staff in his hands.

"So they have made you king?" She asked and he laughed darkly, "They have no choice."

"Loki please…something is wrong and you need to talk to me about it or it will consume you. You fought in Jotunheim, you lost Thor to exile, you watched Odin fall into the Sleep and now you are thrust on a throne without warning… you must talk to me, dear, or you will go mad."

She could see him tense and he turned to face her for the first time since he had left her that morning, there was something different in his eyes, something colder, something distant, "We do need to talk. But not here, not now. Come to the throne room tomorrow, we will have a private audience. Until then leave me."

She was shocked and knew that her face showed it, "Loki?"

"Go, Sigyn." He waved toward the door, "I don't want to see you right now."

"But you want to see me in a throne room? Are we so formal now with one another?" She huffed at him, "I have shared your bed for a millennia and now you can't speak to me alone?"

"That's right." He nodded, "So leave, and I will deal with you tomorrow."

She was biting her lip, unhappy to be dismissed out of hand like this, "I suppose we will not be leaving in the morning for our trip to the Realms…"

"No." He snipped, and with a flick of the staff the doors to his room opened and he turned his back to her again, "You can find your way out."

"You owe me a better explanation, Odinsson. You are treating me like a criminal and I do not deserve it." She turned curtly on her heel and stormed out of the room like a queen and not a servant, he admired that she was not intimidated by him and he hated seeing that he hurt her. When she left he closed the doors, walked over to a mirror and watched it carefully—he changed, inch by inch, into the blue monster that had so scared him as a child he used to hide under his sheets. Jotun. It was true. Jotun.

He smashed the mirror.

Tomorrow, he promised himself, I will send her away tomorrow. Send her far away, where she might have a chance at a normal life again. A life with no monsters in it.

He swore that he would distance himself from her…though he did not know how he would survive it.

He sat on the throne in full regalia—she had to admit that he looked the part, looked impressive, but that cloud that had been over him was staining an otherwise noble image. It felt like a stubborn stain—the kind that refused to leave. That worried her, more than she liked to admit.

She bowed to him—the reigning king—and looked at his guards poignantly, "I thought we were to have a private audience."

"In time." Loki nodded at her from the throne, "But there is something to discuss first that bears having witnesses."

Sigyn's heart skipped a beat—with Odin in his sleep and Thor banished, would Loki finally have the power to arrange for their marriage? The thing they had hoped for and wanted for a thousand years was close at hand…was this that time?

No. Her bones knew it was not true but her heart hoped for it anyway.

"Sigyn, you had your name stripped from you long ago for a crime you bore the worse punishment for committing." Loki began, "So it is only right and fitting that I end your punishment—I, king of Asgard, restore you to your station. You are no longer bound to the All Mother's service, nor any man's service. You are a lady once more—and free."

Sigyn stared at him in shock—would he truly do this?

"Thank you." She whispered, smiling, thinking that something far richer would follow.

Loki nodded to accept her thanks, "Of course, my lady."

He tapped his staff against the ground and her simple clothes changed—rich garb, sumptuous fabrics, clung to her in a bright shade of green. He had intended to make them yellow but it seemed his magic betrayed him in this- he wanted to badly to see her in his colors and he would let himself see it one last time.

"Guards—leave us."

He had been dreading this moment—and he wanted no witnesses in case he failed to persuade her. Insubordination to him on a personal level was one thing, but he would needs discipline her if she disobeyed him as a king in front of his subjects and he did not relish the thought of sentencing Sigyn to any sort of petty punishment.

He stayed seated on the throne, haughtily looking down on her, reminding himself that this was for the best.

"And, my lady, as you are free I must ask you—leave Asgard."

Sigyn looked floored, "What?"

"I ask that you leave Asgard—there is no place for you here, nothing left for you. Return to your own people—or find new ones elsewhere in the Realms, I promise you safe passage to any land with fair travel."

Sigyn continued to look at him, aghast, and finally swallowed deeply, "Does my lord command me or simply request?"

Loki bowed his head, "A request."

"And I am free?"

"Yes."

"Then I am free to stay." Sigyn responded, "If I am not bound to Frigga's service I might stay in it of my own free will. If I am not wanted by you that is another matter—though I warn you I will not leave Asgard lest you end my life for I would not willingly abide by anything that separated me from you, even by your command."

Loki rose in an angry hiss, "Dare you disobey me when I have granted you your freedom?"

"A gift I looked not for—take it away again if it please you, I have survived a thousand years without it."

"By my good graces which are no longer yours." He heard it in his tone—he was reduced to arguing with her like an old married couple. He hated that he had not the resolve to push her away more harshly and stormed over to her to grab the necklace he had given her a thousand years ago. Whispering a word that should have broken his spell over it he pulled at the necklace to tear it off of her but the chain held. He looked in Sigyn's eyes and saw tears dancing behind them, "Do you think your magic alone sealed that jewel to me? Do you think your grace alone keeps me whole—that I have no part this? I sealed that necklace as well as you—and if you mean to take it back you shall have to take my head for nothing short of that will part that gem from me."

She jutted out her chin, "Are you going to execute me?"

Loki was taken aback, "No."

"Am I still free?"

He glowered, "Yes."

She nodded and turned on her heel, walking out on him without another word.

Sigyn marched straight to Frigga with her tears in her eyes, half inspired by rage and half by heartache.

Something was wrong, something was very wrong. Surely Frigga of all people would tell her what had happened…if not Frigga, who?

Sigyn paced nervously inside of the Queen's chambers, her heart racing, constantly afraid, knowing in the deepest part of her heart that something bad was happening.

Frigga was pacing too, the same dread weighing down her heart—the suspicions of the Vanir all too certain to them both, and there was no good answer to this night's questions.

The door creaked, and when Thor crossed the threshold a dark bell tolled in Sigyn's heart.

"Thor!" Frigga launched herself at her son.

"Mother…" Thor let Frigga hug him but his eyes were on Sigyn, large and sad and full of bad news. Gone.

"Where is Loki?" Sigyn whispered, already knowing she did not want to know the answer.

Thor swallowed deeply, "Sigyn…" Gone.

"Where is he?" She demanded, strongly this time, raising her head higher. She needed to hear him say what she already knew.

"Sigyn…"

"WHERE IS HE?" She screamed, desperation evident, tears welling in her eyes.

My father said that Loki would only serve to bring me tears…

"Loki….fell." Thor choked on the words, "He fell into space…he's gone."

So did Sigyn fall—to her knees. Frigga began crying but it was Sigyn who screamed—screamed so loud that even Odin, standing still on the platform where Loki fell, heard her misery and bowed his head. The All Father had a tear rolling down his cheek as the girl sobbed and screamed and sobbed and screamed- and he felt guilty, he felt like a thief and a dictator. He could hear it- not just in Sigyn's torment but he had heard it from Loki while he was still in OdinSleep. Loki had been more honest when he was just speaking to his mother and hadn't given a thought to whether Odin could hear him or not. They had never spoken earnestly—Odin and Loki. And now, the All Father feared, they never would.

He had denied them, Sigyn and Loki, to tamper down Loki's pride and heal Odin's—and it hadn't succeeded. Loki had only become increasingly more certain of his own right to her and his own assurance that Odin's rules didn't always apply to him—and Odin just felt more wounded with each fresh rebellion.

The hours whiled away and something had to be said, something had to be done….and they had to bury him, whether or not he was a traitor.

Odin gave the orders, Frigga gave the orders, but both were too grief stricken to do anything directly related to it themselves. As the hour drew near Odin crept through the halls, seeing ghosts of his son everywhere, leading him to the one place he had been avoiding these last few days.

Loki's room had a breeze, where the windows had been opened and the quiet weather perfumed the air. Odin was seldom in this room, he hadn't really frequented it since Loki had been a boy, and he didn't know what to expect. The room was like the man—well-put-together in a way that was hiding something underneath. Off by the window was a gentle crying that was broken by a soft sigh, "Have you come to bid me leave?"

Odin had not even realized Sigyn had been quietly situated by the window. She was holding in her arms, cradled in her lap, an old tunic of Loki's tangled in one of the bed sheets. She was pale and wan as though she had not been sleeping and Odin shook his head gently at her, not wanting to frighten her, "No…I came to say goodbye."

Sigyn nodded grimly, all notion of speaking to him as a servant abandoned, "People have been coming and going and coming and going—they are collecting things of his for the boat. I did not want them to burn certain things…so I have been keeping watch."

Odin noticed then that in her lap, besides the bed sheets and tunic, was a crumbled dress of hers—the one from the bygone Hunting Victory—and the crown of emeralds and golden horns he had had made for her. There was also a flower, a small carved horse with eight legs, and a huge parcel of letters that were yellowed with age. Odin crossed over to her and took the crown from her lap. She looked at him, panic in her eyes, and snapped, "Be careful—he was very proud of that. He wanted it safe."

"Yes, it should be safe and sound..." Odin placed it on Sigyn's head and her lip quivered. She sounded small, like a child, when she said, "Do I….do I get to keep it?"

"I have been remiss with you, my dear," Odin kissed her brow, "You do not deserve any more pain than you already have. Keep what you will, no one will stop you. And tonight, you will wear this crown he made you and stand beside us."

Her eyes widened, "Do you….I can….."

"It is your right to bid him farewell too."

She flew out of her chair and wrapped her arms around his neck, "Thank you."

Odin hadn't been embraced in so long…he almost forgot how to return the simple gesture. He patted Sigyn's back and as she pulled away she looked around the room, worried again, "What will happen to the rest of it? Will it be locked away?"

Odin followed her eyes and guessed at what she was really seeing- how many days and nights of theirs had been spent in this room? Regardless of how ferociously Odin forbid it he knew that Loki and Sigyn had disobeyed him, how many hours, how many kisses and whispers and promises were written on these walls in ink only visible to Sigyn now? What else would he be taking from her if he took this?

"This will be your room now, if you like."

Sigyn looked at him in open-mouthed shock, "This is a dream, surely….will you really let me keep it?"

"It is poor payment for what I have taken from you." Odin kissed her forehead, leaving her there without another word.

They might have spit on her if Odin and Frigga had not been so close by, she could see it in their eyes- many of the people that hated Loki the most were currently lined up along the roads to offer their condolences to their king and queen, regardless of how they felt about their fallen prince. She wore her emerald necklace and her crown, along with it a deep, rich green dress that trailed behind her—one of Frigga's old dresses, with a golden plate over the chest. Sigyn looked every inch the princess that she would never get to be now—but it didn't stop some people from looking at her like she was a traitor.

Frigga reached out and held Sigyn's hand. Beside her the All Father kept his eyes forward, ignoring the crowds—too much was going on, and he could only take in so much being so newly awakened. Next to him was Thor, who was the quietest that Sigyn had ever seen him. She wondered what had happened in his exile, in his return and Loki's final, horrible fall- she had been too distraught to ask him before.

But they would burn Loki now, and there would be nothing left to do but begin to live again. Frigga and Odin had offered her solace, perhaps now she should go to the man she considered her brother and offer him a shoulder to weep on. There were so few, in all of Asgard, that could claim to love Loki—they all needed to band together now.

Hours later the crowd was gone, they had dissipated so quickly it was clear that they were only half heartedly grieving. But it was the family, the core, who sat together now in quiet, in dreadful silence, wondering what to say. Sigyn sat among them now, restored to her rank, permitted an equal place, but not feeling victorious for the gain. Odin had not rescinded this command of Loki's…she thought it unlikely he would now.

Thor got up from the table and left, clearly distraught. Frigga nodded at Sigyn and the never-princess got up to follow the man who would have been her brother. For a large, imposing man Thor looked remarkably small and vulnerable from his place on the balcony; pale, sick looking, staring at the stars with such sadness as might darken all the world.

"It suits you." He said to her by manner of greeting, "That crown."

Sigyn smiled softly and touched his shoulder, "What troubles you?"

"No more than troubles you—a broken heart." He let his shoulders sag against the admission, "I was not prepared for how deeply such a wound cuts… it makes me appreciate your struggles more."

"My struggles were their own, and yours undoubtedly will be their own." Sigyn leaned against the balcony next to him, "Do you hate me for what he did?"

"You had no part in it." Thor shook his head, "Do you hate me for defeating him?"

"No," Sigyn sighed, "He gave you no choice."

Their silence lingered for a moment, comfortable but cold.

"Who was she?" Sigyn asked quietly.

Thor looked at her, curious, almost suspicious, "How did you…"

"The suspicions of the Vanir are rarely wrong." Sigyn shrugged, "Is she alive?"

"Yes," Thor immediately offered, "yes she is just…"

"On Midgard. And the Bifrost is broken."

Thor smiled at her, "Why ask me for a story you seemed to have guessed?"

"I only guessed a little." Sigyn stared out into the sky, "Tell me about her-it will help."

"How do you know that?"

Sigyn just looked at him, a weighty stare, and let loose an almost imperceptible sigh, "No matter the pain he brings, he is the only thing that brings solace. It may be much the same for you—being parted will hurt but speaking of her, remembering…that will help."

Thor absorbed this advice, nodding a little, "Do you think me terribly selfish, little sister?"

"Sometimes." She smiled, "Do you think me terribly foolish?"

"Frequently." He chuckled, "And yet still one of the wisest people I know."

"Such contradictions occur more often than they don't." Sigyn reached out and patted Thor's large, gnarled forearm, "Tell me about the woman who taught the Mighty Thor selflessness."

It was his turn to sigh quietly, "Her name is Jane."

So the two would-be siblings traded stories, tactfully avoiding the ghost that huddled between them, and when Thor's story finished late in the night they both felt lighter. Thor was escorting her back to her room, both in companionable silence, when he had to catch himself—he had been walking to her old rooms, with his mother, instead of her newly appointed chamber. When he got to Loki's door his face fell again, he looked at it misty-eyed and asked her, "How can you bear it, sleeping in there?"

She looked back at him and asked, "How could you bear to shatter that Bridge? We do what we can for those we love—even when it hurts terribly."

Thor looked past her into the room—she had not touched a speck of it though parts had been raided for Loki's impromptu funeral. It was draped in the luxurious green velvets and silks, trimmed with gold, and positively littered with books and maps. It held no resemblance to Thor's room at all—which was open, airy, and functionally barren. When they had shared a room as children there had been a comical divide—it was always easy to tell whose side was whose. Thor had always thought Loki's huge collection of books and his dramatic, flourishing taste in decorations cold and imposing—to Thor it seemed that Sigyn had resigned herself to living in a tomb, not a room.

And he realized, horribly, that this was the closest thing to a marriage the two might ever have.

He hugged her, fiercely, promising, "You shall always be my sister."

"Thank you." She returned the affection, "And you shall always be welcome Thor—even if you just wish to sit alone and look longingly at faraway stars."

Rarely had Thor regretted something as much as he regretted, in that moment, every single time he had not fought harder for Sigyn and Loki's right to marriage. It seemed to him that Sigyn was bound to break into pieces over and over and never be properly healed; that she was burdened to always be the healer.

The knock came heavily to her door, and it was so late that almost ignored it. The room that had been Loki's was little different now that Sigyn's things had been brought to it- she liked living with the memories, her pain was still too fresh. It had been months since it happened, and she had just begun to sleep through the night again. This late night visitor would be most unwelcome for disturbing her newly acquired sleep.

"Who is it?" She hissed as she reached for the door handle.

"Thor. Please open the door, Sigyn, it is urgent."

The door opened as if on his command and Sigyn waved him into the room though she was little pleased to see him so late. Thor looked around the room and then at the woman he would call his sister—she still wore Loki's necklace, and when the time was right she would wear her emerald and gold crown. Loki's presence was still thick in this room—she had held as much of it within the walls as she could—and Thor was instantly uneasy giving her the news he had come to deliver.

"Sigyn, there is news…pressing news."

"Thor, it is late. The preamble is not appreciated—what is it that has happened? Is someone ill?"

Thor took in a breath, "Loki has been found."

Sigyn's pulse instantly rose until it was so loud that it half deafened her, "What?"

"Loki is alive…he has been found, on Midgard."

Loki…..alive.

Sigyn screamed in joy and wrapped her arms around Thor, "Truly? You are not lying? You do not jest? Is he hurt? How will he be brought home given the Bifrost? Has anyone spoken to him?"

Thor was silent, chewing on his words suddenly and Sigyn cocked her head and playfully slapped his cheek, "Loki lives—will you not show some shred of joy?"

"Sigyn…he is trying to take over Midgard, he has recruited the aid of some foul species and is leading their army against the Midgardians to conquer the Realm."

Sigyn shook her head, ignoring that in light of what she considered the more pressing concern, "How will we bring him home? There is no Bifrost."

"Did you hear nothing of what I just said?"

Sigyn shoved Thor with all her might, angry at him for not understanding her-of course he hardly was hurt by her force, but when she screamed at him he was wounded by her venom, "Of course I hear you, but I am asking the more pertinent question! I care nothing for why is he in that Realm, I care for how he will be brought home. Home, Thor! How often did we both wish for this and now it is come true! Nothing else matters. All can be settled once he is here. We must speak with him! When can I see him?"

Thor reached out and firmly held her shoulders for this next piece of news, which he knew would hurt her terribly, "There is not enough strength in the All Father to send two if he needs muster Dark Matter to send someone to Midgard….so he will send me, and only me."

Sigyn stared blankly at him, "He will listen to me better—send me."

"You will not be able to bring him to heel, I will go."

She wanted to argue the point but couldn't-she would likely follow Loki when she found him, too overjoyed to care what they were doing as long as it was done together.

"You will bring him back to me, brother…or you should not bother coming home."

Thor was taken aback by her venom but knew she was serious—he had tempted her, he had offered her food when she was starving, and if he failed to deliver he knew she would have her revenge somehow and he would know the side of Sigyn that was cruel, cunning and cold.

She stood, crownless, in the Great Hall looking into Odin's one good eye and shaking her head so fiercely, he thought that she was Loki for a moment.

"I do not accept that- I will not be confined to my room when he returns."

"You will not be in this hall when he does—he returns to us a criminal, you will not fawn over him like a lover."

"I take offense, my lord. I will not fawn, I am a lady and can behave as such." Sigyn raised her chin in defiance, "You have no right to blind me from my first sight of him, not after I've buried him. You would let any commoner of Asgard look on him, you would look on him, Frigga would look on him…but I must be hidden away and kept from his sight?"

"Sigyn, you will not be in this hall when he returns and that is my final word on it." Odin let his head fall into his hand, "You will not speak to him, you will not give him the hope that in returning to us we are welcoming him with open arms."

"I will not say a word, on my honor." Sigyn nodded, relenting slightly, "And I will not be in this hall if that is your wish, but I will not be kept from seeing him. Unless you take my eyes to take my vision I will see him today."

Odin growled, "I see why he picked you! You are as stubborn as he is!"

Sigyn ignored him, "I suggest, All Father, you take both my eyes. If you leave one in my head I will still see him today."

"I should bind your magic and exile you to Midgard the moment he comes here—just to remind you both who holds the throne of Asgard and that you owe your king obedience. I am not your father that you can talk back to me as you do—I am your king!"

"And so have I addressed my king before—if my king wishes to exile me or blind me, let him. But if he does not, know that I will see Loki today, in silence. If it be your will I will not even have a moment with him, but I have earned," Sigyn held out her arms to Odin in pleading, "I have earned the right to see him walk past me, alive and well. My tears have bought me that."

Odin had a sharp memory of her tears, and of all the promises he had made to her in her grief. He couldn't deny that she had bought this moment dearly.

"You will be on the Rainbow Bridge, cloaked, and you will not be permitted to speak to him or to stop him. You will not speak to Thor, or prevent them from coming to me in any way. You will not follow them to this Hall nor will you interrupt my proceedings with them. You will get your glance, and be retired to your room until called upon. Nothing more than your glance."

Sigyn smiled and fell to her feet, hand over her heart, "The All Father is gracious and kind."

So she stood by Heimdall on the broken Bridge and the great Guardian looked on her with sympathy. He had been a witness to their sad story, and he pitied her.

"He doesn't deserve you." He said, his deep and sage voice making the words sound wiser than they should.

"I don't deserve him."

"You don't deserve what pain he brings you. He is not worthy of such a love."

Sigyn bristled, "I love him—nothing else creates more worth for being loved than love itself, nothing qualifies one more than being loved."

"You only serve to make my point." Heimdall sighed, and after a moment said, "He did."

Sigyn looked at Heimdall, surprised, and opened her mouth to speak but the great Guardian continued, "You often wonder if he thought of you, he did... it did not stop him from doing what he did. You will need to silence yourself now, they are coming."

Sigyn nodded and pulled her hood up enough to conceal her face from any onlookers. Her brave words to Odin were one thing, and oddly something he admired in her, but she would never act against his wishes in this matter.

There was a blinding light and then in a flash, there was the outline of two bodies with a box between them.

Her pulse doubled as they came into stark contrast, and it was her Loki, returned, without a doubt.

The light had blinded him temporarily and the muzzle made it hard to breathe, but in a moment he got his bearings and inhaled a deep breath of Asgardian air. Heimdall's back was to him and he doubted that there was any love lost between them, Loki would have made some cutting remark to him about his chilly disposition but the muzzle rather prevented that. Thor was gruff, he was not sure what bringing back Loki to Asgard was going to do. Loki remembered their conversation from earlier that morning, just before the Avengers had sent them off.

A sharp metallic sound chirped in the cell and woke Loki, Thor was standing in the door and he pointed to an object at Loki's feet, "Put that on, without preamble."

Loki picked it up, "A muzzle?"

"People will be shocked enough to see you, they don't need to hear you as well." Thor gestured with Mjolnir, "Put it on."

"This is ridiculous, I am still a prince even if I am a traitor. I won't be treated like a dog." Loki dropped the object back on the floor and closed his eyes as if to resume his nap.

"It is because you are a prince that you will wear it—you should, somewhere, still have a heart that tells you your resurrection will hurt those that love you. It will be enough for them to bear as it is."

Loki snorted, "You think the sound of my voice will break Odin's heart?"

"No," Thor bowed his head slightly, "I think it will break mother's heart. And Sigyn's."

Loki made an effort not to react, only Thor would have noticed the line of tension that shot through him at that moment when he heard her name. Thor thought the name would be bittersweet for Loki, he thought he could persuade Loki to obey him by invoking her.

"She waits for you…she didn't leave your room when they came to collect things for the pyre. Father found her in there, hoarding some of the possessions you shared with her, waiting to be dismissed from service or from Asgard itself. You must have treated her quite poorly before you left—she was half mad with grief and confusion. She wears the necklace still—displays it with pride though it once more garners her nothing but scorn and derision." Thor walked into his brother's cell and put a hand on Loki's shoulder, "She still loves you, but your resurrection is heart-wrenching for her. Do not make it harder on her."

Thor's words were a poultice for the festering wound in Loki's soul, the one that had been growing worse since he let go of the scepter and disappeared into space. It did make a difference to him that Sigyn was in Asgard, waiting, and he didn't want to hurt her… but he couldn't let Thor see the change in him, he couldn't show his brother this soft underbelly, and so he cackled darkly, "My dear brother-does it goad you? Does it wrench you? You, the golden prince, the shining hero, having done all that was asked of you, having saved a realm and defeated the villain- you, you must leave your lady love behind again. This time you did not even get to see her—but she will hear of this little adventure of yours, I'm sure. How will she take your neglect to visit her? It doesn't matter-Odin did forbid his sons to marry beneath themselves—your little human can never be your queen, and she will not survive very long. How does it feel, brother, to have your heart taken from you…..and to know that you return me to mine? How does it feel to know I've had a millennia with my love, and you would be lucky to know forty years with yours? How does it feel to know that though you throw me in a dungeon, I will still be closer to Sigyn than you will be to your Jane? How does it feel knowing that sometimes your heroic acts will win you nothing…that they, rather, will make you lose?"

It was then that Thor grabbed him by the neck and forced the muzzle on him. Loki didn't struggle much—he had gotten his licks in and he would play the cooperative prisoner now—what choice did he have?

Asgard. Now he was back in Asgard and in the same moment he knew he was now in the same realm as Sigyn. Sigyn whom he had wronged when last he saw her, and Sigyn whom he still had not decided whether to selflessly give up or selfishly keep.

A figure was standing by Heimdall, stock still, cloaked in green.

Who else would wear green in Asgard now besides her? He thought but muzzled as he was, he could not cry out to her, chained as he was he could not go to her, and torn as he was about what to do with her, he did not even want to look at her.

Still, as Thor walked him passed her, Loki stole a glance. Her necklace was still shining on her breast, and her mouth was set, grimly, and she was silent too. Their eyes flashed together briefly and then the moment was over, he had walked too far past her and couldn't keep looking at her any longer. When he turned his head back to look straight ahead, Sigyn sucked in a long, deep breath and let herself take a knee. She breathed deeply for some moments, trying to calm her raging insides and make some sense out of her feelings.

Sense was impossible right now.

Sigyn stood before Frigga, paralyzed with the overwhelming dread mingled with her joy.

"So…he is settled in the prison?" She asked the queen.

"After a fashion." Frigga grimly nodded, "I wouldn't have him share a cell with anyone and I have tried to make him as comfortable as I can…but I do not think he appreciates it at the moment."

"How does he look?"

"Haunted…sore, like his pride has been dashed. But he's back." Frigga reached over and tried to rub Sigyn's back but the girl turned away from her quickly, fearing to touch a woman who had just run her fingers through Loki's hair again.

He was here. He was back, so close…she could walk to see him again.

"Can I see him yet, my lady?"

Frigga chewed her lip in a most unladylike fashion, "Give him a few days to settle, dear one. Let him feel more in control before you rattle him all up again."

"Me rattle him up?" Sigyn laughed darkly, "What about him rattling me up?"

Frigga petted Sigyn's hair and sat the girl down next to her, Frigga looked weighed down and sat heavily in the chair as though it could relieve all the weigh on her shoulders.

"Sigyn, he comes here in defeat. You have to let his pride recover before you stand in front of him and remind him of something precious that he lost. Seeing him too soon will only lengthen how long it will take you to repair the damage that has been done."

"I've already forgiven him." Sigyn swore, leaning into Frigga's soft touch, letting her braid Sigyn's hair as though Sigyn was a little girl again.

"He hasn't forgiven himself." Frigga reminded her and sighed, "And he has no idea that I told you about his parentage."

"Would he still be so concerned about that?"

"For him, that wound is fresh. It led to all of this, didn't it? You have to be careful… I would wait for him to tell you before revealing that you know."

"But why?" Sigyn sounded petulant, like a naughty child, confused and frustrated and dying for an answer she wanted to hear.

"Control dear…you have to let people feel that they are in control."

Weeks went by, and it was raining in the Golden City. Sigyn was staring out of her window in the room that was a constant reminder of what was downstairs. At the foot of her bed, neatly folded, was a pile of clothes, a blanket and a few books. They were staring at her and she was trying to avoid their gaze- they were practically begging to be given back to their master.

Sigyn had been obeying Frigga but was bursting now—she didn't know if she could wait any longer for the Queen's blessing to go and see Loki.

The rain kept coming down, and every drop rang in Sigyn's ears, and the room that used to sound musical when it rained now drowned her with its noise. She finally could not take it anymore and threw on her cloak, grabbed the pile, and headed for the door. Frigga was outside of it, waiting.

"Where are you going?"

"I can't take it anymore." Sigyn insisted, trying to push past Frigga, "Let me go."

"Sigyn—"

"No!" The girl snapped, "No more Sigyn please. I cannot wait any more—I cannot do it. If you want to keep me in this room, you will have to lock me in."

Frigga looked defeated—her meetings with Loki never ended well, she didn't have him nearly as calmed as she thought she might, and now she was losing Sigyn too.

"Fine." Frigga shook her head, "You're both too stubborn for your own good—maybe you'll bring some sense to one another, I can no longer help either one."

Sigyn smiled and kissed Frigga's cheek before turning at a run toward the dungeons.

The prison was cold, but bright—the walls of the cells glowed so that even though it was nearly dusk it seemed bright as morning. She wondered how they let the prisons sleep—could they dim the lights? Or was the light part of their punishment?

As soon as she was past the guards the murmuring of the block stopped and all eyes were on her…the only woman. She was not Frigga and thus she was not beyond hearing their catcalls and jibes and lewd invitations but she could endure it.

He was there.

From the moment she walked in she sought out his cell and once she found it, he was all she could see. At first his back was turned to her, he was reading on the floor, but as soon as the door closed behind her she saw him tense. He turned his head slightly to see who was there but then turned his attention back to his book, his jaw so tense she thought it might have been made of stone. He would not look at her, would not acknowledge her as she walked toward him, but that mattered little to her. The closer she got to him, the more noise the other prisoners made and his knuckles were turning white.

More than not wishing to see her, he could not—would not—hear her so insulted and disrespected by these base criminals he was forced to be sheltered with. More than not wanting to face her—he could not bear to see her lower herself to see him. She deserved her time in the sun, not the glaring light of these magic walls.

She seemed to step through the magical walls but he knew it was a clever trick—she disappeared and reappeared so quickly that it would trick an untrained eye. As soon as she was in the walls he casually touched them, creating a barrier for the noise. The cell was open for eyes, but it did not have to be open for ears—not for their conversation.

He would not look at her and she did not require him to formally greet her—despite how they had last departed, despite him rising up from the dead. She merely walked over to his makeshift bed and the small trunks with things Frigga had acquired for him and started putting everything she had brought him in its proper place. He didn't need to speak to her if he didn't want to—she was satisfied to be here, satisfied to be near him again.

"Lady," A guard said and knocked on the wall. Loki lifted his charm for a moment and the guard knocked again, "Lady, you shouldn't be in there in person, it isn't safe."

Sigyn forced a smile and nodded, "I will be fine, thank you."

"But—"

"No buts. Use your time some better way, I will not be moved from here until I leave. Thank you."

The guard looked chastised and shrugged, leaving her to her fate with the unpredictable and dangerous man. Loki immediately silenced the cell again and Sigyn noticed, even if he thought he was being sly. She smiled to herself—he couldn't be so displeased to see her if he was keeping their conversation private but he was putting up a cold act, and she didn't want to frustrate him by revealing that it was a useless attempt.

"My lady," His silver tongue danced over the words, "you were not looked for."

"Neither had you been for some time." She replied, still putting away things and tidying his space for him. If not for her rich golden dress, he might have mistook her for a common servant.

"You are not expected to stay."

"You are." She teased gently and looked over at him, "If you wish me to leave, say so and I will go."

"Then I wish you to leave."

She sighed, Frigga was right. Loki was not ready to see her, but she had needed to see him. On her way back out of the cage she stopped and brushed a kiss along his head. He didn't move, didn't acknowledge her, but she smiled anyway, "I am glad to see you again….my Loki, risen from the grave."

He said nothing and she nodded, "I will return."

"You don't have to."

"I know." Sigyn replied as she disappeared and when she reappeared on the other side of the cell she turned and said, "But try and stop me."

When she was out of sight and the door was closed behind her Loki growled and threw the book he had been pretending clear across his cell. He was on his feet in a moment, pacing angrily back and forth and back and forth until he finally grabbed the blanket she had brought made as if to rip it in half. He stopped though and inhaled deeply from it- her scent was now the dominant one on the wool, not his, and besides that it smelled like salt…like tears.

He chuckled at it darkly—her father had once predicted that Loki would only bring her tears, and it seemed he was right. No matter how much Loki tried to protect her, to do well by her, it was never going to stem the tears he brought her. His fists clenched against the fabric and it disintegrated in a puff of smoke—reduced to ash without having been on fire. He kicked the pile of ashes across his pristine white floor in random directions, but when he was done he saw that he had made an "S" without realizing it. Upon that realization, he let out a terrible yell and everything in his cell flipped itself over, destroying all of Sigyn's quaint attempts at organizing it for him.

What could he say to her? That if he had a whole Realm to give her it would never be enough to change his blood and make him a worthy creature for her? Could he beg her forgiveness?

No, because the God of Mischief never begs, never admits defeat.

She came back, as she promised. And as he resolved, he never gave her hope. Though it wrenched at him to be so close to her and not touch her, not talk to her.

Sigyn eyed the room, "You've changed things here, this is not the same as before."

Loki laid on his bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling, refusing to look at her, feigning some relaxing pose as though his insides were not in a knot.

"I don't like it this way." Sigyn frowned, flicking her wrist and changing the position of the small foot rest and the chair, the stack of books, one of the drawers. She left the bed alone because he was on it, but she didn't care for its new position against the far wall of the cell.

For a few minutes she moved things around until it looked vaguely as their room upstairs looked—Loki noticed immediately what she had done and knew that the bed not matching the plan in her head was driving her slightly mad. Sigyn sighed happily at the change and sat in one of the chairs, pulling out of her sleeve a book that was far too big to fit in there. She opened it and simply began reading. Loki kept staring at the ceiling, wondering if she intended to go on like this until he broke… more fool her, he would outlast her.

When Sigyn was done reading her book some hours later she merely got up, walked over to Loki and kissed his head, then left without another word. She refused to be beaten by his little game and knew, rather, that she would eventually wear him down.

So they toyed with one another—each pretending that the other's silence did not wound them, each pretending that their closeness was not a torment, each convinced they would be victorious. He made such an effort to not look her in the eye, to avoid looking at her altogether, that he hadn't noticed the change in her pallor—she was getting pale, with purple blossoms under her eyes and a thinned wane to her cheek. Sleep, that had eluded her when she thought him dead was once again truant and she did not know what to do. Days she would spend in that cell with him, reading books and pretending that the war of wills was not wearing her down but she was getting tired.

So tired.

For lack of anything better to do at night, Loki had taken to sleeping though he had rarely slept through the night at any other point in his life. He had so often found sleep a waste of time—it was hours, and quiet hours with few distractions, where one could work without the bother of others. But now that he had ample hours to waste he didn't mind dedicating them to long hours of deep unconsciousness. He rarely dreamed—when he did they were often muddled and confused, things of great torment. Puzzles he could not solve. Recently they were getting more and more realistic—a quality he was not particularly fond of and hoped would go away.

One of the nightmares was Jotunheim—crystalline, surreal. A diamond world of ice and danger, one fall away from an icy prison or a snowy tomb. He had always been frightened of Jotunheim, though he was jointly cognizant that he was never susceptible to the cold and might have guessed long ago that it was not merely a thick hide and stubborn disposition that shielded him. It was a nightmare that came over and over and over, haunting him like the reflection that he refused to look at. He so frequently checked his own hands these days to make sure he had not lapsed into blue without thinking about it—he had not revealed his identity though he was sure it was beginning to become clear.

He had not revealed it to Sigyn, and he doubted she knew if she kept coming to see him.

They were wrapped in one of the blankets from his cell, occupying the ground with a thin pillow that had a book underneath it between their heads and the floor. They were facing one another, Sigyn was sleeping softly in his arms as she used to when they were young and carefree and not in a prison.

He checked on the glamour they projected, making sure that everyone around them was still seeing Loki sitting in his cell and Sigyn reading beside him—the last thing he wanted was for the illusion to slip and the rowdy, bawdy inmates of the prison to see Sigyn laying naked in his cell. He leaned forward and kissed her head, thinking of the long way they had come since he first saw her across the room as his mother reminded him to mind his manners with her friend's daughters.

Sigyn opened her eyes and muttered, "What are you thinking of?"

"You." He said truthfully, "Us. We are very far from where we started."

"Still breaking rules and refusing to apologize for it though." Sleepily she nuzzled back into him and he happily allowed her, too many nights were spent staring at this ceiling feeling utterly alone, he had no desire to go back to that if she was willing to be here with him.

"But it makes for such a story," He laughed mischievously, "Once upon a time there was a princess and a prince…"

"But I'm not a princess."

"You have royal blood," Loki swept a stray hair from her face, "Your family was just overthrown from their seats and reduced to nobles and then you were disowned by them."

She rolled her eyes at Loki's attempt at a joke, she was the furthest thing from a princess even if he desperately wanted her to be one, "And you, are you a prince anymore?"

Loki pondered the question, "Of Asgard? I suppose not. I'm an adopted traitor rotting away in a prison cell—I don't think they've kept me in the line of succession."

The thought made Loki stop for a moment and suddenly he got very quiet. She wondered if she upset him and he was thinking about Jotunheim, but when his eyes came back into focus on her, they were warm.

"So the story changes, there once was a princess and a prince, but then she wasn't a princess…."

"Or even a lady!" Sigyn interrupted playfully.

"….or even a lady anymore. This meant that the prince could not marry her and he was horribly sad."

"Even though he got to bed her anyway." Sigyn rolled her eyes at his feigned seriousness.

"The prince never stopped wanting to marry her though," Loki rolled Sigyn onto her back so he could look at her better as he continued the next part of the story, "until one day he was no longer a prince. Then they realized that they could get married at last."

Sigyn eyed him suspiciously, "Are you being serious?"

Loki smiled at her, "Would you prefer I ask more directly?"

She was still looking at him oddly, as though she didn't know what was happening. Loki rolled onto his elbow, took her chin in his hand so that he could make her keep her eyes on his, and continued, "For over a thousand years you are the only person I have loved, and I will love you more with every new millennia. Odin's commands kept us apart, but now we aren't beholden to them anymore—I am not his son to be forbidden to marry beneath myself and you, my love, are not a servant anymore. I am asking you, at long last, to marry me knowing that we finally can marry—though I admit that a prison cell was not the location I had in mind."

"What was?"

"I always thought it would be on Midgard." He shrugged, a little worried that she had asked a question rather than answered one.

"Midgard was always good to us." She smiled at him, "It's a shame they will have forbidden you to return to it."

"Oh in a thousand years, who on Midgard will still remember that silly little ban?" He traced the curve of her face and said, "Sigyn, you haven't answered me."

She quirked an eyebrow, "Of course I will."

She had been told to tend to the wounded—Frigga's command had been terse but certain, unwavering, Sigyn, go help them. It gave no thought to the fact that Sigyn was no longer her servant but Sigyn, servant or not, would do anything Frigga asked.

She rarely regretted obedience as much as she did that day.

Death. The word had haunted her since the Dark Elves had surfaced, had made her uncertain, unsteady. She was stealing her own joys where and when she could, but the shadow of Malekith persisted.

She had never guessed the death would be Frigga's but the moment the queen died a terrible knot formed in Sigyn's stomach, a feeling that would not leave, and intense queasiness that intensified until the first word broke from the first soldier's mouth—The queen is dead.

The wave of nausea hit her, hard, and she barely recovered. Her heart broke into a thousand pieces and she only had time to think of one person.

Loki….have they told Loki?

When she got to the prison it was in shambles. The guards were gone, most of the cells were broken, but Loki's held in pristine condition. Unworthy even of being broken out by Dark Elves, she snorted to herself, how horrible must he seem to all other creatures?

To the untrained eye Loki's cell was immaculate and he was sitting, perfectly straight, his back to the door she had walked through. But she could see the faint edges of the glamor, the wavering of the spell, that might escape every other eye.

She did not care who saw or heard them—what punishments could possibly be doled out this day when the worst had already happened?

"Loki?" She called out, "Please show yourself to me."

The glamor held, the voice that spoke was strangely disembodied from it, "Were you with her?"

The tears that she had not realized she was holding in flooded her then-so he had been told.

"Who told you?"

The glamor held. "A guard. Were you with her?"

"No…no. She ordered me away to heal the soldiers. I heard from a guard too."

The glamor rippled, angrily, "Do you know how she died?"

"Malekith." Sigyn hissed the name, "They said Malekith did it."

Suddenly the glamor broke and she saw the chaos of Loki's cell- the utterly destroyed furniture, the torn and burned books, the cuts and bruises all over his body, the ripped clothing, and his face-that face she loved so well, streaked with tears and positively black with hate, "No. I did it."

The entire cell shook and half of the items in it rose from the ground just to be thrown against it again, breaking more and more.

"I did it. The Cursed stared me in the face and I laughed and pointed to the stairs that led right to Odin. I did it—I told them where to go. But they didn't kill him."

He looked mad—past all reason and all comfort. Sigyn was likely the only creature, living or dead, who would have dared enter his cell with him in that state. But she ran to him, ran to him and threw her arms around him and he wanted to pry her off but he couldn't.

"You didn't harm her….you didn't kill her. Malekith did. That Aether did—all the greed and hate and power in the world aligned against her and she fought bravely, but she fell." Sigyn sobbed into his neck, "Please…I can't lose you too. This was not your fault."

He let himself hold her, both of them sobbing, the occasional sound of furniture smashing the only sound besides their tears that echoed through the empty prison.

Suddenly Loki gripped her, shook her, and desperately asked, "The letter…did she get the letter?"

And Sigyn managed to smile, "Yes…she got the letter. And she was so pleased."

Loki let himself fall limply against the wall, whispering, "I….I loved her…I loved her so much… I did not….I would never harm her on purpose."

Sigyn merely held him….she stayed with him in that empty prison while all of Asgard emptied to mourn Frigga, to burn her body and lay her to rest. All of Asgard except her forgotten son, left in the dungeons to mourn his mother from a distance with the only person left living who believed him when he said that he had loved Frigga dearly. Slowly, ever so slowly, the black cloud of rage subsided in him and he looked up at her face, studying it in silence. He rubbed a thumb over her tears, "You loved her too."

"She's been more a mother to me than my own—of course I loved her." Sigyn stroked his hair and tilted her head, from a distance the mourning cries of baleful trumpets were echoing through the ruins of the palace. Loki's ears twitched as well.

"Her funeral." He hissed and snorted, "You should go—they might permit you a seat. Even if Odin and Thor would leave me here, not even to be told of the funeral, not to be given some leave to see it…you should go."

Sigyn concentrated on the trumpets, ignoring Loki, and tried—for the first time really tried looking into a present that was different from her own—and held out her hand. The projection was unsteady at first but rapidly grew in clarity until, in front of them, was a fine picture of the sad proceedings upstairs.

In silence they watched, Loki sitting against the wall, back straight, with Sigyn curled along his side. In silence they watched at the spectacle they had been left out of, the forgotten favorites of a fallen queen. At last the lights rose, touching the stars and shining—bringing Frigga into the sky to be a constellation of her own, one Loki would study for the rest of his life.

The hole she had left was gaping—he felt it might never be properly filled. He pressed a kiss to Sigyn's head and she waved her hands, stopping the vision.

Neither could speak to say what was pressing on them—that they had loved Frigga and her loss was paralyzing; that they saw, in losing her, what real loss felt like. That it made them think of losing one another, that it made them sick at the thought of losing anything else. That death was oppressive, and haunting, and they wanted to escape it. Escape death, and find some way to say that they loved one another more powerfully than anything else—a love so strong death itself might bow to them.

They couldn't tell you who started it, but they fell against one another—lips and hands and heavy silence. They molded a moment from that silence, crafted an icon to love and loss and the absolute state of being alive. They existed in that moment for an eternity, it felt like. Timeless, spaceless, weightless—and yet utterly existing. Being. When she finally dressed to leave him it felt like an echo of her remained—it was a new sensation for him. That part of her simply stayed behind, like dust on a hard to reach shelf. Something about this moment, this time, was different—like it had been touched, copied, to be saved in some epic log of precious moments on this earth. He wondered why—but had little time for pondering. When Sigyn left the projection of a clean, orderly room was still intact, leaving Loki a secret vantage to watch the rest of the prison.

And, eventually, to watch his brother come down the stairs.

Better late than never… Loki thought bitterly, all the dark bile rising back in his blood.

"Someone's coming." Thor's voice tensed and it made Sigyn suspicious—what was he doing on the stairwell down to the dungeons?

When she rounded the corner, there the brothers stood—Loki and Thor looking determined, grim.

"Where are you taking him?" Sigyn was instantly panicked that Loki was out of his cell and when she looked past his shoulder she could see the cell had been destroyed. Thor's hammer dangled in his hand and every hair on the back of Sigyn's neck raised.

"We have no time to explain the whole story, love," Loki walked over to her and grabbed her hands, "But I'm going with him."

"Where?"

"To Svartelheim." Loki grinned like death personified, "I get to murder the thing that killed my mother."

Sigyn looked over at Thor and he nodded, "We must be quick before we are caught…it will be both our heads to disobey my father."

"Then go," Sigyn nodded and looked back at Loki, "and when you find that monster—make him suffer. Then come back to me."

Loki nodded and kissed her with a fierceness she didn't expect, she commanded him, "Don't make me a widow before I get to enjoy being your wife."

"Widow? Wife?" Thor perked and Loki smiled devilishly, "You haven't met my wife? We've been married for almost two days."

Behind them the guards seemed to be stirring and Sigyn stole one last kiss from Loki and bid the brothers, "Go! Go quickly—I'll help distract them."

Loki watched her as she left and shook his head at Thor, "Why didn't I marry her sooner?"

"Father forbid it."

"Oh that's right." Loki kept smiling at Thor, enjoying how uncomfortable he was in breaking rules and inviting Odin's open wrath.

Sigyn was in her room, two guards posted by her door by Odin's command. He had been protective of her since Frigga died, knowing that Sigyn was once again vulnerable. She was no longer a child that needed him because she was weak—Frigga had warned Odin not long ago that Sigyn's powers were actually quite great. It had been Frigga, weeks before her death, who made Odin promise to protect Sigyn in any attack-if enemies of Asgard got their hands on a powerful healer and Seer who knew the royal family the way Sigyn did, it was no telling what they might do to her. Odin never questioned Frigga when she made him swear to her—she never required it unless something was truly important.

Though Sigyn, of course, knew nothing of this. She sat in her rooms, anxious because she would rather be helping, still grieving Frigga, and now worried for Loki and Thor. She thought about Jane Foster, but only briefly—the girl was a great example of her race, brave and strong and able to square her shoulders and jut her chin at Malekith but Sigyn knew that nothing would happen to Jane. It was a feeling, deep and strong. It was the rest of the world she worried for—she could feel it in her stomach, a pit of dread. Something bad was going to happen. And with Dark Elves and the Aether wandering the cosmos, something bad could be quite catastrophic.

There was a knock on her door—Odin AllFather walked in.

He looked tired to her and she wondered if he would let her evaluate him—the last thing they needed was him falling into OdinSleep again. Despite his fatigue, his heartache, there was a steeliness in his spine that kept him upright. For all their various disagreements over the years, Sigyn was always impressed with how much of a king he was.

"I have no time for extended conversations with you, so I will be brief." He said, "Were you part of Thor's betrayal? I have already apprehended Heimdeill, Sif, Fandral and Volstagg."

Sigyn shook her head, "I did not know there was a plan, nor that there were so many conspirators. I went to visit Loki and saw that Thor had broken him out of prison—I distracted the guards so they could get as much time to run as possible."

Odin coughed a laugh and shook his head, "You never do lie to me, do you?"

"About Loki? No." Sigyn shrugged, "He never tells me when he is planning something he thinks will get him in trouble—that's his way of protecting me. And if I become involved I will usually tell you or…"

Frigga's name hung between them.

"I will always protect him- but I do not always agree with him." Sigyn continued with a lump in her throat.

Odin opened his large hand and a pair of cuffs appeared—bound with enchantments that would burn against Sigyn's skin to keep her magic at bay. Sigyn held out her wrists, making no effort to plead differently.

"You would accept whatever punishment I gave you, wouldn't you?"

"If I've done something wrong…yes."

"And you would not interfere with any punishment of Loki's?"

"I never have. If he does something punishable…it is only fair that he be punished."

Odin considered her at length with his one good eye, "What if I exiled him to Hel?"

"I would follow him."

"What if I exiled him from the Nine Realms and let him fight for his life from the thieves and scoundrels he failed in Midgard?"

"I would follow him."

Odin narrowed his eyes, "And if I killed him?"

Sigyn turned her head, "I would stay with him until the end… and burn him after. I have done so much before."

Odin reached out a hand and swept back her hair, "You would have made a fine princess."

"I never cared about being a princess." She whispered.

"That is why you would make a fine one."

The cuffs disappeared in Odin's hands, "Frigga always admired your loyalty, she would not have me punish it now. But when Loki returns, punishment will await him."

"That is fair."

Odin nodded, pleased with his decision and with her reaction, "I leave to await news, I will have someone inform you when we have any."

She nodded before looking him in his good eye, "AllFather?"

He looked at her expectantly to show he was listening.

"Before Frigga…died I had given her a letter from Loki. Did she give it to you?"

Odin looked at her critically, "No."

Sighing, Sigyn turned to face the window, "Then it is gone."

"What did the letter say?"

Sigyn smiled, "That since he was no longer a prince, and I was no longer a servant, the ban against us was no longer valid…. We married in the cells. Simple vows, no witnesses. He wanted Frigga to be the first to know, and she read the letter in front of me, embraced me, but then was called away. I do not know where it is."

"And you want me to….acknowledge this marriage?"

"Yes." Sigyn nodded, "If you plan on executing him when he returns, what harm could it do?"

Odin scowled, "There are more pressing matters than this hopeless love affair. I will make a judgment on such small matters when Asgard is no longer at risk."

"I understand."

Odin left in a huff, too tired to be more angry at Sigyn and too wretched at Thor's betrayal to consider how he would punish the boys. Loki he had long since threatened to kill- and yet when it came time to decide on actually swinging in the ax he could never bring himself to do it. He always saw that baby, cast out in the snow, nuzzling against his hands and changing from blue to a peach to look like Odin. He had thought when the baby was small that Loki might grow to adore him- and perhaps, in his own way, he did. But even when he was small Loki was the gem of Frigga's eye and she was all he could see- without Frigga here he did not know that he could ever kill Loki. It would be killing the last part of Frigga that was still there—in every trick, in every smirk and quip.

And Thor-could he kill Thor?

He hardly noticed when the soldier walked up to him and said that there was news from Svartleheim.

"There was a body."

"Thor?" He could not help but ask his name first—the dynasty would end if Thor died.

"No, my Lord."

"Loki." It was not a question—he knew it already. That Loki would not long outlive Frigga—but would throw himself at her killers vengefully until one sent him home.

"Bring him to me." The wave of the hand was dismissive, he hardly looked at the soldier.

The body was brought in—laid out, some mix between rock and ice showing that Loki was no more—Odin wondered fleetingly if he would melt as the Jotun dead sometimes did on warmer planets.

"Bring ice for the body—lest it spoil."

Several soldiers left to take orders to ice makers and snow carvers, but one remained. Was it the same one as before? Odin couldn't tell—he wasn't interested in the man one way or the other.

Odin went over and knelt down beside the body. The soldier watched with great interest, but the All Father did not care. He laid down his staff and put his hand over Loki's cold, lifeless chest.

"Look for her…she will show you the way home."

Odin sighed—he could not weep, but he felt a phantom knot in his throat. He had grieved for Loki once, and some part of him felt that because he had already grieved Loki's body should be less gruesome to look at. Odin wanted to pretend that he would not grieve again, but he felt the knot tighten and he knew he would.

This was still that little baby to him—somewhere, deep inside of all the other thorns and all the malice.

Odin wearily stood back up, "You there—send word to Lady Sigyn to come to me. And cover the body."

The soldier was still staring at Odin, not moving. The All Father said louder, "Now!"

The pain was sharp-instant, the dagger jabbed between his ribs and hitting his heart. Before his eyes the soldier disappeared and he heard Loki's familiar voice in his ear, laughing, mocking, "Look for her, she will show you the way home."

To avoid the pain- the possible death—Odin faded into the magic, the power. His body disappeared and his staff glowed brighter and brighter—blindingly before a massive rumble of thunder shook the very walls of the palace.

When the soldiers returned with ice Odin was seated on his throne, slouched back.

"Very good—put the body on there. Then find a blanket—cover him up."

One soldier left for the blanket while the rest picked up the body and put it on the ice. One of them bowed his head to Odin, "We are sorry for you, my Lord."

Odin nodded deeply at him, "Is there any word of Thor?"

"None know as long as Heimdeill is in prison."

"Bring me Heimdeill… and release Thor's companions. Asgard has need of its soldiers."

"Yes, my Lord."

Odin smiled at the obedience and several of the men turned to leave. Then Odin's face fell and he cleared his throat, "And one of you bring me Lady Sigyn. Do not tell her what has happened."

The soldiers left with dire looks on their face-most people had come to respect Sigyn over the years, they did not understand her love for Loki and they did not understand why she loved him though he was vile and criminal. But they did, often, respect her. Nobody wanted to be the one to see her reaction to the body keeping cool on the ice.

The pit in her stomach was growing larger and darker with each step toward the hall that she took. Odin had promised to give her news…she had not looked for it so quickly. The guards were trained to keep a face devoid of emotion but she thought she saw the barest hint of pity in them.

She would have to seek Odin. It was only right, only fair. Disappearing into the dark of some dreary night would be in bad form—he had been kind to her of late. She and Odin had enjoyed a tense peace in the last few years but a peace nonetheless- Loki's return to Asgard, his imprisonment, had strained it but his death seemed to have restored it again. Frigga gone—Loki gone—it might be that Odin took as much pity on her as she took on him, he could almost be described as doting. Caring.

She could not deny that she relished it—how hard had she worked to be treated as a daughter of this house?

Her greatest regret was that it was Loki's death, not his life, that precipitated it.

So it was that after a quiet dinner Thor excused himself—he had recently been concerned about Jane, torn about leaving her or returning to Midgard for her promptly. Sigyn knew he had gone to the other realm at least twice since Loki died, potentially more.

I should speak with him….She knew someone had to, someone he might listen to. What could he hope to make with Jane that would not be utterly destroyed by her life? A life so short by Asgardian standards it was almost not worth considering…..almost.

Odin looked after Thor as well and smiled at Sigyn, "It appears I've traded one love-struck son for another."

Sigyn tried to smile but it was thin, "So it seems…"

She simply did not know how to begin, how to ask his permission.

Odin filled the silence, "Should I worry for him, Sigyn? Do you think this love a pointless one?"

"No love is pointless." Sigyn sighed, her eyes miles away, "Though many are unadvised."

"Unadvised, yes….that's the word." Odin felt her silence, knew she wished to break it, and let loose a breath, "I am old enough to know when someone is trying to speak and unable to find the words….speak freely to me, Sigyn. Do not worry about offending me."

"I want your permission to leave." She blurted, a rushed command to a king, "To Breidablik."

Odin looked hurt, "I do not command you to stay here, you may come and go as you like."

"I did not wish to abandon you—I am not the only one in Asgard who mourns. I also did not know if you would will it to me-Breidablik."

Odin was silent for a long moment, "It was a gift from him, was it not?"

"An extravagant gift."

"But a gift…keep it." Odin waved a hand dismissively, "Much of what was Loki's he would have given to you or Frigga, there is no other use for that castle than it should fall to you to do with as you may. Burn it or brand it or turn it into a reclusion from the rest of the world—it is yours."

Sigyn let loose a breath she was unaware she had been holding, "Your kindness overwhelms me, All Father."

"Some balms come too late and do nothing." He shrugged, "Is that all that you wish to speak of?"

"No," Sigyn looked around the room, noticing guards and workers, "But I would request a private audience."

Odin considered her face, reading it, then carefully nodded, "You shall come have an audience with me tonight if you so desire. Come to my rooms, none will disturb us."

There was something wrong about the way Odin spoke his last line, as though he was an actor breaking character. Something about it that did not suit with how Odin had always spoken with her in the past but Sigyn did not pause long to consider it. She bowed out of the room, going to seek Thor until she might meet with the All Father.

Loki. Loki.

Sigyn sucked in her breath, her tears instantly rose and choked her, "No….This is some dream…or nightmare. He's dead."

"Sigyn," He rushed toward her and wrapped his arms around her, "I'm not dead."

She tried to pull away from him but the arms around her were real, when she looked up into the face it was the one she remembered, the same long hair, the same eyes and….she swallowed her hope, no…no he couldn't have done this to her again. There was a body—they had burned it.

Loki's brow furrowed and he shook her slightly to show how solid he was, "Sigyn? It's me…"

The tears welled over her eyes and slid down her cheeks, "No, I burned him…I burned him again."

Loki wiped them away and held her face, "No…I'm here."

"You're Odin."

Loki smiled and shimmered, turning into Odin, then Frigga, then Thor and then returning again to his face, "I am anyone I want to be…but I was born Loki, and I live as Loki, and Loki is here."

Sigyn reached up her hands and put them on his cheeks to steady the face she was seeing, "Show me the truth."

Loki smiled at her and under her fingers his skin turned blue and the Jotun marks raised on his flesh, his eyes turned red, and he gently took her hand and kissed it, "Your husband returns to you, my love."

Her body shook with shock—but she was still frightened to accept this as truth. Loki's skin returned, so did his eyes, and he leaned in and kissed her, unable to explain himself to her any other way. That proof was indisputable—not even Sigyn's twice hardened heart could refute that this was her Loki, back from the dead again, warm and alive and in her arms. She cried out against his lips but grabbed his neck and held him tighter, refused to let him go. Sigyn sobbed into the kiss, tearing at his clothes, hell-bent on removing the last barriers, affirming that every last inch of him was unharmed and returned to her. He did not stop her, in fact she felt him smile and deftly wrap his fingers around the strings and ties that were hiding her from him-he had missed her too, and was desperate to reclaim the wife he had scarcely married before he widowed.

She kept herself propped on her arm, staring at him as though he might disappear again. He looked glorious in the moonlight- his pale skin glowed and she liked how long his hair had become, silken darkness against the alabaster. His eyes were closed but he was not sleeping, he was savoring the aftershocks of loving her again.

Sigyn ran her fingers down his cheek and over his chest and sighed, "I really can't do it again."

Loki's eyes shot open, worried, frightened that she meant she couldn't stay with him now, the greatness of his crimes apparent, and he sputtered, "Can't do what?"

"Burn you again." She let loose a breath she had forgot she was holding and collapsed into him, resting her head on the crook of his shoulder and melting her body into his.

Loki calmed, relieved, because he did not know what he would do if Sigyn really did just get out of his bed, get dressed and leave forever—and he did not want to know, "Well, love, I don't plan on dying again anytime soon."

"None do." She gripped him tightly and he wrapped his arms around her to remind her that he was really there—this was not a dream, "I love you…even when it hurts unbearably."

"And I you." He smiled against her forehead and let himself savor it—his mother had always taught him to savor truly wonderful moments, "What news did you want to bring to Odin before I so rudely resurrected myself?"

He felt the warm vibrations of her laughter building inside of her and she coyly said, "I'll tell you if you close your eyes."

"That rarely worked in my favor when I was a child."

Sigyn playfully slapped his arm and he closed his eyes as commanded. If others could have seen him now, in this moment with her, maybe they might have thought a little better of him—he joked with her as he waited for her to reveal the news so important that she demanded the All-Father come to her in the dead of the night.

"It's not some sort of animal, is it?" He cringed.

"No." She laughed lightly as she rolled onto her knees in the bed. Loki kept his ears tuned to her movements.

"Is it another person in bed with us?"

"I've told you no to that before."

"One can keep requesting though." He smirked as he felt her pull the blankets down past his hips, "Are you sure it's not something that involves my naked body?"

"It might."

He felt her straddle his hips and rest her weight on him comfortably and his interest was instantly peeked, "Oh I think I shall like this surprise."

"I hope you will."

She took his hands in hers and guided them onto her body, he felt warm, soft flesh under his fingers and he was tempted to just open his eyes, take her again, and let her share her news later in the night.

"Alright, open your eyes."

When he did all he saw was Sigyn, straddling him naked as the day she was born, and his hands were both laying against her stomach. For a moment he wondered why she would choose for him to touch her stomach, and he was looking over her, memorized by her beauty, completely unaware of what she was telling him. Then it struck him, hard as lightning, and he gaped at his hands- when his shock registered she laughed and placed both of her hands over his, her smile beaming from ear to ear.

"When?" He asked, awe in the syllable, moving his hands gently against her flesh as though he might be able to see the truth with the tips of his fingers.

"Two weeks? I like to think it was the night that Frigga…" She trailed off sadly for a moment but recovered her joy, "She would've liked to have had a hand in it, I like to think she did."

Loki's face burst into a smile, "She would….can you tell so soon?"

"Some things the Vanir know, as surely as they know their own names. I have not been to the healing houses, but I do not need them to confirm it." She put both her hands on his face, "You will be a father in the coming years."

He wrapped his arms around her suddenly and kissed her and twisted their bodies so she was laying beneath him on the bed again. He kissed her fiercely, the whole time she was so happy she was laughing and when he eventually stopping kissing her he laid his head on her stomach so he could listen to the little life bouncing about inside of her.

"So you just….knew?" He asked.

"My mother always knew—it strikes you like lightning, one time she dropped the entire basket of apples she was carrying and turned to all of us and said, I will be having a baby this year…a boy." Sigyn was brushing Loki's hair back with her fingers, euphoric at the sensation of touching him when she had been so convinced of his death, "Though, normally she did not sense it until a month or so passed—I sensed it quite early. Still, it is there."

"When did you know?"

"Oh, yesterday. I agonized over what to do…I knew I would need to go to Odin because I would need the protection of this house. This child will be a prince, he needs to be kept safe and secured… but I did not know how Odin would react. He reacted so well to the news of our marriage…. Knowing now that it was you all along I feel rather defeated, I was hoping Odin really was embracing me as a daughter."

Loki's head snapped up when she said the word prince as though new meaning was brought to her condition, "Will it be a boy?"

"I feel certain of it- and the suspicions of the Vanir are rarely wrong."

He smiled, "You always say rarely wrong. My mother always said never wrong."

"Oh, never is too strong a word. We don't know things with absolute certainty and some of what we see is only a partial image, a single piece of a larger puzzle, I would be terrified to think we are never wrong when our information can be so small." She ran her thumb over the line of his forehead, he was staring at her with utter adoration, "Still, when I see our child it is cloaked in blues and greens…and I just do not get the sense of it being a girl."

The word blue struck Loki harder than the word prince. The joy fell off of his face and he sat bolt upright in bed, worry written all over him. Sigyn noticed the change and reached out a hand to touch his shoulder, it startled him to suddenly remember they were alone together in bed because he had been swimming in a tidal wave of dreadful thoughts.

"When your mother sensed her pregnancies… was it always about time? Always a month? Or did something else cause it?"

Sigyn cocked her head, "She said she sensed me quite late- two months. Dwarf babies grow lazily, and I was not big enough to sense for some time."

"So it is not time…it is size. Our son is large enough for you to sense him…" Loki's hand flew to his mouth and he paled, "Sigyn, you will go to the healing houses tomorrow, I will be there with you. Speak to Eir, and Eir alone."

"What is it, my love?" She tried to pull his hand away from his mouth and make him look at her but when he did his eyes were panicked but he forced his tone to be smooth, "Nothing, dear… I just want you getting the best care as soon as possible."

She quirked an eyebrow at him to communicate that she didn't buy that reasoning but let the discussion drop. Instead she joked, "Do you think the All Father will acknowledge him?"

"Oh I think Asgard will be dripping in joy, festooned with decorations, and drinking until the whole populace is hung over when the announcement will come—the fallen hero prince's wife is expecting." He smiled at her, both of them hearing the sincerity and the sarcasm, knowing that a child of Loki's would be politely applauded but not celebrated—he was not Thor, he was never their chosen prince, but he sighed and lovingly swore, "Everything in my power will be done to ensure the future of this child."

Sigyn realized, sitting with Eir as Odin's one eye inspected everything, that Loki had compelled her to live with his lie when he revealed himself to her last night. That she could not reveal him to the people went without saying, but she was now uncomfortable lying to someone like Eir who she had so long trusted and respected.

"All Father," Eir bowed her head, "To what do we owe the honor of your visit?"

The All Father bowed his head back—whether or not Odin would have bowed, Loki would have—Eir was a great favorite of his mother's and subsequently his, "We have an important secret to share with you, but the time has not yet come for this to be public knowledge so your discretion is, and always has been, appreciated."

"Of course." Eir eyed Sigyn expectantly, "May I guess that there shall be a new addition to the house?"

Sigyn looked shocked, "I had not thought it that obvious."

Eir laughed and clapped her hands joyfully, "Oh, I have been waiting for such news since the moment Loki begged the All Father on his knees to keep you- the All Mother and I often lamented that we had not gotten such news sooner."

Sigyn blushed and Odin smirked, Loki could not brandish scorn at the sentiment even for the sake of acting like his father, and Eir led Sigyn to the examining table that had so fascinated Jane Foster mere weeks ago, "I understand the need for discretion, the timing is less than ideal and the situation delicate. Shall we see how far along we are?"

"Two weeks." Sigyn offered.

Eir looked surprised, "You can tell so soon? …. And do I want to know how that happened while the prince was in prison?"
"The way it normally happens- forgive me All Father." Sigyn quipped and apologized in the same breath, not apologizing to Odin for such cheek would have surely warranted a response by him and, in character, Loki's borrowed face sighed tiredly.

Eir laughed at Sigyn and within a moment the intricate network of glowing dots revealed what was nestled inside. The All Father sucked in a breath sharply and Eir smiled at him knowingly, "Does this bring back memories for you, All Father?"

He did not respond but reached out a hand toward the small, but distinctly shaped, infant- it had what looked like a head, both arms and legs, and when it flexed its hand he could even see fingers forming under the thin web of skin. Loki knew little about babies, but he knew this was too big to be a normal two week old baby. Eir frowned, noticing the same thing.

"Are you quite certain of your timing?" Eir asked delicately, "This baby looks more than a month old."

"Positive." Sigyn replied and then looked at her son, so small that he wouldn't reveal that he was a son for some time yet, and smiled, "Is there a problem?"

"Jotun." Was the one word that passed Odin's lips at barely more than a whisper, his eye sought out Eir's and he quickly asked, "Will it be dangerous?"

Sigyn understood in a moment what Loki's fears had been last night- the child was not growing at the pace of Aesir or Vanir or dwarf….it was growing at the pace of a Jotun. And Jotun babies turned into giants…giants too large for a Vanir to birth. She looked at Eir's face and was suddenly panicked herself, "How big will it get?"

Eir looked uneasy- it had been her, all those years ago, to help Odin and Frigga monitor their small Jotun baby, so small for his kind that Frigga often fretted that he would die, and even though she had never breathed a word of Loki's parentage to anyone she now saw that this might make public what had otherwise never been revealed. She reached out, still silent, and brought forth the image of the baby, twisting it and turning it, inspecting it, writing down small numbers in the air next to the image, running through calculations, and then she spun the image and right before their eyes the baby began growing exponentially—she was showing them a growth chart.

"Within six months by our time, you will be ready to give birth… at least, you will need that much time for the baby's lungs to develop, any sooner and it could die." Eir was stony faced as she stilled the image of the infant, an infant so huge that it didn't look like it could wedge itself inside of Sigyn, "By my guess, and it is only a guess, the child will be near to twenty pounds."

"Twenty pounds!" Sigyn shrieked and Odin bowed his head, "Can it be born?"

"Yes…if we operate." Eir nodded, "I do not want you to try to deliver this baby by yourself- it will try to pass through you and rip open any number of things on the way out. Your pelvis and hips will break, your organs will stretch and tear, and it still might get stuck and suffocate in the birth canal, your heart could give out in the struggle…. But this can be monitored and you can be safely delivered here under my supervision. Other than its size there are no other concerns—you are in the peak of health and so is the baby, provided we watch you there should be no reason that you cannot be delivered of a healthy half-giant baby."

"When Loki was a baby," Odin croaked, his voice dry, "he learned to look Aesir just from me holding him… could this child learn to hide its size?"

"Loki is the only Jotun baby I've ever seen…" Eir bit her lip cautiously, "I would like to tell you that with Loki as its father, this baby might well be capable of the same kind of adaptation but I cannot promise you anything All Father. I am sorry."

Sigyn's face was set, stern but hopeful and later that night, when they were alone, Loki left the face of Odin behind and fell on his knees in front of her, burrowing his face into her stomach and kissing it, "I'm so sorry….I had hoped…."

"Apologize for nothing." Sigyn dropped to her knees in front of him and held his face so his eyes met hers, "I will be cared for here, and everything will be fine."

"Is that a suspicion of the Vanir?"

"It is a suspicion of a mother." Sigyn smiled at him and kissed him so sweetly that he had no choice but to abandon his gloom, "Do not apologize to me, my love- nothing is wrong, nothing requires an apology. We are going to be a family."

He nodded, still holding on to some of the guilt that was festering inside of him, but he let some of it go and kissed her, holding her against him tightly so that he would not ever let her go. From that moment on, his obsession with her care was evident and Sigyn's condition was kept secret to prevent the masses from finding out she was expecting a Jotun child. He was with her daily, checking constantly, and to his genuine relief and satisfaction she and the child were perfectly healthy- large, but utterly healthy. At some point, when Sigyn's belly started swelling and he could feel his son moving about inside of her, Loki actually calmed down enough to genuinely enjoy the experience without worrying at all. It was two months since they discovered she was pregnant, and her clothing was concealing the child but would not do so for much longer. For Loki's sake, that he might be near her, her seclusion to Breidablik had been postponed but both of them knew that she would need to leave and go there soon. He did not like to think how long it would be in-between visits out there, how he might practically sustain a projection of Odin convincingly enough to leave for very long. Something would have to work, something would have to give, but he didn't like to think what because he feared that it might be Sigyn, as it was always Sigyn who bowed and scraped and bent to his will.

He did not know that this night would be his last with Sigyn for many months, but they spent it wonderfully. After a meal they laid on the furs by the fire, he rubbed at the sore spot on her back while she massaged their son and sang lullabies into her belly. In-between the songs, he would talk with her about everything and nothing, and they traded ideas on naming their son. Sigyn pressed his hand against her belly when she felt their son move and Loki was quietly awestruck by how active he managed to be. He could feel the fingers, the head, the curve of the buttock and flat part of the foot whenever they pressed too keenly against Sigyn's flesh. Sometimes Loki pushed back against the tiny kicks just to see what would happen, and his son always kicked doubly hard in response.

A father…. It was beginning to strike him what he would become soon enough. He wondered how he would be at it, having no fit model to look to for advice, hoping that it was something akin to mothering for at least in that he had two brilliant models in Frigga and Sigyn.

He would not have long to think on it though. In the morning he would be running again, and he would not see Sigyn again until their son's birth. As Loki's hand fed warmth into her, Sigyn moved to put her hand over his-but when her flesh touched his she felt shocked and a word loomed in her mind—quickly but concretely—and she sharply drew in a breath of surprise. Loki looked over at her and she shook her head at him, telling him quickly that it was just heartburn or discomfort.

Truth be told it was discomfort….it would cause one discomfort when the word Ragnarok suddenly asserted itself with one's husband.

The day was as many days—Sigyn rose, ate her breakfast, and walked about her rooms beginning to pack for her move to Breidablik whilst trying not to reveal she was pregnant. Of course she had made things, small clothes and even a small horse doll, but had them concealed with minor glamours.

"They think that I can call you at will." She whispered conspiratorially, "They expect me to summon you when they ask, but I did not tell them that you can summon me at will. I mistrust the Stark man, I don't want for him to have any of our secrets."

"He has the most important one already." Loki fumed, his eyes studying her hard, measuring with a glance how rounded her belly had become since he had last seen her- she had nearly doubled in size. It looked cumbersome and painful to carry such a burden, asking her if it was would get him nowhere as she never admitted such things to him if they were greater than a passing triviality. He wished he could reach out and touch the swell, feel the movements under it, but the doppelgänger was being projected over too great a distance and it would not hold up to being touched.

"Are you…well?" She asked, not knowing how to phrase the question—so many questions were in her mind.

"I am of little importance—how are you?"

"Growing." She said, not wanting to worry him but needing to show him the frightening truth becoming more and more apparent, "I will be kept here for the birth."

"You can't be."

"I will be- Heimdeill is under strict orders to keep the BiFrost closed to anyone who is not a prince of Asgard. I can cry for him all I wish, he will not let me pass."

Loki swore malevolently, "Is Thor trying to kill you? He is always so sure that his solutions are the best, but if one hair on your head is…"

"Yes, yes, but what will we do?" Sigyn didn't need to hear the list of endless threats again. Loki's face was a sheet of ice but she knew, inside, he was worried—well and truly worried.

His silence was what scared her—he had no plan.

"Something, dear." He suddenly sneered, angry he had been cornered, "With any hope you can continue to carry him until Thor's ridiculous stunt is over and you can be cared for again."

She quirked her eyebrow at him, expressing that she didn't think this was going to happen. It would help nobody to harp on it when their hands were tied.

"What about Vali?" She asked and Loki's façade broke, "What?"

"For his name."

He was realms away from her, on a separate planet, he had been hunted out of his home again, he was with an untrustworthy sorceress, associating with vile creatures, his wife and unborn child were in grave danger….and she had managed to make him smile.

"Vali?" Loki mulled it over, "How does he like it?"

She lifted the shirt that she was wearing and he could see the outline of the baby's hand. He ignored how large the hand was—too large for a baby's—and instead nodded, "Our victory… ironic, given the circumstances."

"Circumstances change." Sigyn smoothed the shirt back over her belly and pressed one hand to her lower back, rubbing it as if it was hurting her.

"No, settings change….our circumstances have always been -"

"Ours." She cut him off, unwilling to hear his dramatic fixation on the negative, "This is our life, no matter what the circumstances are, and if you forget that you will waste our time together wishing it were different. You have to learn to love what you have."

Loki rolled his eyes at her, "I'll love it when you and Vali aren't being held captive on a realm that would sooner skin me alive than aid me."

"So you like the name?"

His doppelgänger tried to reach out and touch her face but stopped just short, remembering it would sever their tenuous connection, "I do… I am doing everything in my power to come to you."

"We do miss you." Sigyn was tired, more and more tired all the time and she looked up at Loki's shadowy double, "If I…need you…"

"Call me…I will hear you." It wasn't necessarily true. He would have to be projecting himself near her to hear her, he would have to have an ear in her realm somehow….

Ah… my mother's old trick…

The doppleganger leaned closer to Sigyn and blew gently on her ear. There was a flicker, the doppleganger was using too much of its own energy and it popped in and out of existence for a moment, but Sigyn felt her ear get heavy. When she reached up she felt that there was a cuff wound around her right ear.

"My mother used to give me presents when she suspected that I had done something wrong or was hiding something from her—I always assumed I had just tricked her but she was tricking me. There was usually something like this somewhere in whatever she gave me and it fed everything I would say right back to her. Eventually I learned to not accept anything—or to give it to Thor." He smiled fondly at the memory and reached out to touch Sigyn's face, knowing it would shatter the link that was already falling apart.

Sigyn watched his image disappear, part of her sinking- he was not around good people, and keeping a spying device on her would drain some of his energy everyday, spread him thin. Such things were used by jealous wives and concerned parents, but they often backfired—you could hear everything going on in your ear, but also everything going on around you wherever you were. Keeping track of both drove people mad, deafened them…not to mention the toll it took on one's strength to keep the connection open.

"I love you." She said quietly, knowing he could hear her, and tucked herself into the bed that Stark had given her—her own magic breaking the shield that kept Stark's spying robot away from hearing her- and she laid down her head on her pillow, exhausted, "Goodnight little Vali…please be good to your mother in the coming weeks."

Vali nudged against the words as if to argue them, but Sigyn couldn't banter with him now. She was asleep in moments.

"Sir," Jarvis alerted Tony, "The interference coming from the lady's room is gone now."

"And? What's happening?" Tony perked his head up from his work bench, leaving off his latest project to look directly at the projection of Sigyn's room—utterly boring, nothing besides a pregnant woman sleeping on a bed.

"She's sleeping, sir."

"That's it? Nothing else? How long were you locked out of the room?" Tony flipped the room around from angle to angle, looking for the piece of the puzzle he was missing—she was weak, vulnerable…how did she generate enough energy to block Jarvis? And why would she?

"Three minutes, forty two seconds, sir."

"Jarvis…does that sound like enough time for a phone call?"

"Your calls average less than one minute, sir."

"What about when I'm calling long distance?...Jarvis, keep an eye on her. She moves funny, I want to know." Tony was still studying the image when Banner came into the room, "Man, are we all under surveillance?"

"Only the suspected terrorists and the hot ones—you're safe Sasquatch."

Banner looked at Sigyn's sleeping before swatting his hand through it and breaking it up, Tony objected, "Hey! That is not yours!"

"And she's not yours, give her a break."

"You aren't made the least bit uncomfortable by her?"

Banner shrugged, "She's the one being manipulated, I feel bad for her. I know what it's like to be the one everyone is watching, waiting for something bad to happen, when you really just want to be left alone."

"You're not psychotic enough for her, she has a thing for genocidal titans."

"I'm not exactly on the prowl," Banner sighed and Stark projected an image of Betty Ross in the room, "They still keep tabs on her, you know."

"I know." Banner wouldn't look at the projection.

"You aren't curious? Even a little?"

"We aren't all anxious to drag the ones we love into the middle of our chaotic lives, Stark." Banner swatted at the image without looking at it, then turned to Tony with accusatory eyes, "We don't all paint targets on their backs, we don't all make them join us so we don't feel so alone. We understand that feeling alone is part of the deal… even Loki understands that better than you. All he wanted was for her to be kept safe and away from it—you put Pepper's name on a building and made it the official meeting grounds of the Avengers."

"Are you saying that I am worse than that creep?"

"Pretty clearly… leave Sigyn alone, she deserves some privacy." Banner stalked away and if Tony had had one iota less of his self control, he would have thrown a hammer at Banner's head and let the rumble begin—but he really wasn't looking forward to the clean up process or inevitable bodily harm.

Jane kept watching Sigyn, as she had been watching her all morning. She was quiet and her mouth was set in a straight line. She had been keeping herself apart from everyone else and even though she had been given plenty of Earth-friendly clothes she was keeping her long green cloak tied around her neck like a safety blanket. She looked tense and by the afternoon Jane saw a fine line of sweat breaking out on her forehead.

Finally, Jane couldn't take it anymore and walked over to Sigyn, offering her a cup of tea, "It's lemon, a little honey too…my mom made it for me when I wasn't feeling myself."

"And why do you think I'm not feeling myself?" Sigyn asked, forcing a smile and accepting the cup. She was drank it appreciatively and actually seemed rather soothed by it.

"Just a feeling I have…you seem off." Jane settled next to Sigyn on the couch she was currently taking residence on. Sigyn had been flitting from chair to couch to standing to laying down for hours, never seeming comfortable.

Sigyn suddenly gripped the tea cup sharply and it shattered in her hand, even though Jane screamed Sigyn didn't notice. Her eyes were shut and she seemed to be biting her lip. A moment later she opened her eyes and took stock of the broken cup and Jane's worried expression.

"Oh no…" Jane said and Sigyn held a finger up to her lips, indicating silence. She nodded over at Barton and Banner, who were now watching them with interest, and Sigyn said, "I'm sorry, Jane, I don't always know my strength around these things."

Jane still looked panicked but took the broken cup and quietly said, "No problem."

Jane cleaned up the area and was able to look sufficiently calm that the men's interest ceased, but she immediately went over to Sigyn and hushedly hissed, "Are you really in labor right now?"

"Just the early stages… this could continue for days."

"Or it could not! We need to tell someone."

"Everyone who needs to know does." Sigyn said firmly and Jane gave her a distrusting look, "Have you told Thor?"

"No. He's not required nor does he need the knowledge—when the labor progresses I suppose he can know but there is no need to draw attention to this now."

"You're having a baby!" Jane hissed, shocked at Sigyn's reaction, "Why are you hiding it?"

"Because there is nothing anyone can do to help me…and I don't want the attention. The longer my child is inside of me, the longer he is safe…I don't want him getting into the wrong hands."

"Isn't there sort of a big issue looming with this? He's too big for you to…"

"Yes, well, we don't have a choice in that, do we Jane? Thor will not release me to Asgard while Loki is still with Angrboda and Thanos, I must do what I can and try to keep Vali alive."

"Vali?"

Sigyn smoothed over her stomach, "His name is Vali."

Something clicked in Jane when she heard that this small thing, this child, had a name. It made what had been an alien life-form parasitically eating her friend to something to be cherished, something to be saved. Jane grabbed Sigyn's hand, "You're going to get through this if I have to have Thor carry you back to Asgard, placenta and all."

Sigyn smiled at the notion, "I appreciate that."

Just then a loud, blaring siren began echoing through the building. Jane screamed, "JARVIS! WHAT IS THAT?"

The calm, computer voice responded, "The invasion has begun."

"Really?!" Jane snapped, "Today? Right now?"

Vali was sitting on the floor, playing with the wooden horse his father had made for him and giving it all the life a toddler could give. He was smashing its feet against the ground, grunting and whinnying for it, then voicing its rider as well. Loki would be amused if he wasn't staring at the door that he had been asked to leave.

The door opened and Thor's heavy footsteps echoed.

"Vali, come here." Loki called and his son instantly got up and climbed onto Loki's lap. Curling an arm around the boy, Loki looked up at his brother, "Do the vultures always descend so quickly?"

"How is she?"

"Eir dismissed me after the first was born…apparently I was making her nervous."

"Sigyn?"

"No, Eir." Loki smirked, "I was hovering."

"You deliver one baby and suddenly think you can do better than someone who delivered us." Thor smiled back and slapped Loki's back, "So what do we have?"

"Hela came first." The pride was evident, "Quickly, perfectly…Eir said she was anxious to be born. Narvi is slower…she said he seems shy."

"Where in Yggrilsil did he get shyness from?" Thor tried to make eye contact with Vali and play with him but Loki would jealously turn the boy away from his uncle. He would not risk his own son preferring Thor to him and, blessedly, Vali seemed perfectly content to be enamored of his parents. Thor didn't impress him and he was more often than not afraid of the big, boisterous man. He was curious of Odin, but Odin was rarely allowed to see Loki's son.

The golden wall around the outside of the castle was shining in the bright sunlight—it glinted in the window and reminded Loki that despite appearances, this was not a completely happy occasion. His children were being born in a prison cell—a golden one, a large one, a comfortable one—but a prison cell nonetheless. He felt guilty and angry at the same time, hoping that he wouldn't ever have to explain to his children why there was a force field around their house that their father could not pass through.

The door was opened and Sigyn stared at Thor, not a servant, and she didn't look particularly happy to see him.

"You leave that hammer outside of my house." She greeted him tersely and he wondered why she was on edge.

"Is something wrong?" He asked, not wanting to put the hammer down because he knew what business he came on.

"You are bringing trouble to my home." She glared, "And I'll have you leave that hammer out here."

Thor didn't see her changing her mind and put the hammer down outside of her front door. Entering the hall and looking around, "Where are the children?"

"Outside with their father, I told him to go enjoy the weather with them." She sharply snipped, "You are bringing an offer to him that you shouldn't bring. You know he can't refuse, and you know what temptation does to him- my children live here, this is my family, why must you come here with your bargains and trades?"

Thor shook his head—he should've known that you can't keep secrets from a Vanir.

Banner and Jane Foster were looking at Sigyn with awkward expressions, unsure of how to approach her after she had just been so negative with Tony. Something was different about her this time—she was more in control.

"And how are you two?" Sigyn finally turned and asked them with a voice so pleasant, you would never have guessed she was yelling a moment ago.

Loki eyed her curiously, he might have liked Jane Foster but he did not consider her nor the Hulk his friends. Sigyn, on the other hand, was treating them like old friends, warm and inviting.

"We're ok," Banner nodded, eyeing Loki suspiciously as though being near him might send Banner into an episode, "We were kind of hoping…if it wasn't too much trouble…and if you don't want to, it's totally understandable…."

"We want to know how Vali is." Jane interrupted, "The last time we saw you he was being born and you were, for all intents and purposes, dying. It's a real shock to the system to see you back and healthy…we just want to see how he is."

Sigyn looked at Loki who shrugged, uninvolved with these two who he vividly remembered were the only two defending Sigyn in the chaos of her confinement to Midgard, and Sigyn waved a hand. In front of them the spectre of Vali appeared and Sigyn smiled warmly at the image of her son.

"Woah, he is …big. Do they get that big that fast?" Banner asked, eyeing the projection.

"Vali is a bit big for his age, that's hardly surprising." Sigyn nodded at the projection and it wandered about the room, looking at things, occasionally touching them with a spectral finger, "He's very happy, healthy. He adjusted marvelously well."

"Adjusted to what?" Jane asked and as she did the two other spectral figures emerged from behind Sigyn's and Loki's legs.

There were two more children: one a rambunctious black-haired girl with sparkling green eyes, she chased after Vali even though she was smaller than him. They ran and laughed and looked every inch siblings—and very much cut from Loki's cloth. Clinging to Sigyn's legs was a red haired boy with curls that were so big they covered half his face. He looked down at his own feet and was too shy to play with the other two. He was smaller than both of them by a significant amount and the projection of him reached up and asked Sigyn to be held—much like the real Narvi did. Hela would run and play and couldn't wait to be on her own, but Narvi wanted to be held and cradled like a baby, he was afraid of the world.

"Adjusted to being a big brother." Sigyn smiled at Jane and Banner, "A little over a year after we came back the twins were born- Hela and Narvi. Hela is, as you can see, very spirited. Narvi is still very shy."

Jane Foster looked up from the projections and studied Loki for a moment—he was absorbed in looking at the children, particularly Hela whose projection had tripped over his feet and was in a pile laughing hysterically over the whole thing. He knelt down and picked the projection up, put it on its feet and tenderly held its face for a moment before he shook his head and all three projections disappeared. He looked sad, distant, as though seeing the image of his children was too much, as though it pained him to see their faces and not be near them.

For a moment, if even a short one, Jane stopped seeing Loki as the master manipulator and ultimately selfish villain.

Holding Narvi in her arms made Sigyn look more monstrously powerful, and her eyes were glowing green with a devious cut of energy.

"Who will guard my children if I help you, Thor? Who will protect them with their mother and father standing on the front lines of a battle?"

The silence was cutting, but the answer was more so. Sif took a step forward, "I will."

Sigyn clicked her tongue, "You care nothing for them, nothing for me and you positively loathe their father—why would I leave my children with you?"

"If Thor commands it of me I would guard them with my last breath! You have my word!" Sif's pride was affronted by the suggestion that her own personal feelings might interfere with her duty.

"Your word to me is useless." Sigyn snapped and Thor had never seen her so biting, so harsh, as she was now, pacing around this room with her scared, fragile son in her arms. Narvi was burrowing into her neck and was gnawing on his thumb. Of all the children for Sigyn to hold in all the world it had to be Narvi in this moment—Narvi, who Thor would always see as a baby, mostly mute and shy of his own shadow.

Sigyn glared at Thor, then at Sif, and said the cruelest thing she had ever said to anyone, "You swear to him—swear to Thor that you will guard these children like they are his own blood. Swear to him you would treat his own no better."

"I swear it." Sif jutted out her chin but Sigyn persisted and Thor saw, for the first time, how evil Sigyn might have become if she had been inclined towards it.

"Say it Sif. Say the words."

And the mighty Sif, the Lady Warrior of Asgard, who had conquered realms and beaten villains without so much as a wince had a tear running down her cheek as she looked Thor in the eye, took one knee, and swore, "I solemnly vow that I will guard these children as though they were your own, treat them as dearly as if they were yours, and die defending them rather than let one hair on their heads be harmed—as much and more would I give Thor, so I swear it now. Thor's family are dearer to me than mine own—and I will guard these children all the more dearly. You have my sworn word."

In that moment Thor saw that it was he, not Sigyn, who broke Sif. Sigyn knew, as countless others did, of Sif's great and abiding love for Thor but it was only in that vow that Thor heard what Sif had truly said—These should be our children, but they are not. This is a twisted world where those I hate get what I desired and him I love does not love me—so use me, I will be your sword and your shield, and if you protect those children with me I will grasp it as my chance to show you…I might have been a good mother once too.

Thor reached out a hand to grasp her shoulder, "Thank you."

But he knew the words were small and hollow. His hands dropped to his waist. Loki was watching the whole exchange silently, Sigyn's ire signifying for them both, while Hela nuzzled her cheek into his hand for affection. Loki understood Sif's words at once and for the first time in his life he pitied her-with all her strength and brutality and bravery she could not win Thor, he was not a campaign. She could not win the title of wife or mother—they had to be offered. And nobody was offering. Normally he liked to see Sif cut down to size but it offered no pleasure now- no, Sigyn's pain and Sif's pain clashed and made a dreadful symphony, one that stopped all pleasure in its tracks.

They had made a promise to one another, nearly silent. It was one word, exchanged with a knowing nod of the head, just one word as Sigyn's glaring eyes met his and she tightened the leather gauntlets on her wrists, "If."

He understood her perfectly—for all her promises Sigyn would not stay here if she thought the children were in danger. If she heard them scream, if she sensed their pain, she would leave this battle in a moment.

"Of course." He nodded back, he would defend her long enough to help her escape, but he would stay and deal with Thor and the others. Someone would have to else they would follow her and drag her back.

She was desperately on edge, all her visions of late where chaotic and jagged, nothing was fitting together to make a story. It was worrying her, making her uneasy—and he knew she desperately wanted to go back to the children, block up their castle and wait out the impeding storm. But, without her, this battle would go poorly. Without her and Loki there would be no real strength on the Avengers' side for magic, they would get pummeled by Thanos' mages.

She was staring at the magical seal around their cell again, so intently that he was instantly worried. She must have sensed he was awake because she whispered, half to him, half to herself, "I didn't see it."

"See what?"

"Their future."

Loki shifted in his binds, feeling their terrible moisture and pliancy, "You couldn't have, love."

"I didn't see theirs…but I saw yours. I didn't realize…"

Sigyn was still staring at the cell manically, and Loki was becoming concerned. Somehow, this wasn't like before, this wasn't like other mornings or evenings….this was something different. Something terrifying.

When Sigyn turned to look at him she had silent tears streaming down her face, "I didn't realize, when I saw it, that it meant what it meant."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Sigyn….what didn't mean what?"

She got up and crawled over to him, nestling herself into him despite the horrible bleeding and smell of their son's intestines all around him. Sigyn squeezed him tightly, as though he was about to leave, and she turned to kiss him. The kiss was so sad, filled with such terrible longing, that Loki's eyes filled with tears when she broke it….she kissed him as if she were finally saying goodbye.

"When I was pregnant with Vali," She whispered against his lips, "and Thor brought me to Midgard, I told him that when you found out you were going to be a father one word popped into your future, it lingered there. I told Thor that if anything happened to your son that future would come true- thinking it a threat, but nothing more. Now I see, I see that it would come one way or the other. I'm so sorry that I didn't understand it sooner."

"What word? What word did you see?"

"Ragnarok."

Loki's pulse suddenly raced, "No…..that's not possible."

"It is." She nodded sadly, "You cannot escape some things."

Loki pulled his hands against his binds, but the magic holding them in place was strong and if he used all his skill to break them, he might not be able to stand up. She placed a hand on his chest and shushed him, "No, my love. Save your strength. You're going to need it."

He looked in her eyes and there was nothing there but oceans of sadness and a grim resolve. He didn't know what she was planning, but for one of the few times in his life he was well and truly frightened, "You're scaring me Sigyn-what are you thinking?"

She blinked back tears and stood up—she seemed a statue from his vantage point, strong and still, "I love you….I have loved you since the first instant I saw you. I knew in that moment that I would follow you to the world's end, and I have. You gave me the most exquisite pleasures of my life."

Whatever she was doing, he couldn't stop her while he was bound to the wall. He struggled against his restraints again, despite her attempts to calm him, and he felt choked by his own tears, "What are you doing?"

She turned her back to him, "Find Vali and Hela- they don't belong to that monster."

"Sigyn-"

"—No, don't tempt me." She whispered, "This is what needs to be done."

"Don't do anything rash-Sigyn! Sigyn!"

She ignored him, and walked toward the wall of their cell, hands at her sides. Slowly, as if she was conducting an orchestra, she lifted her hands and with every inch she raised them a green light grew until it spread from her palms to her shoulders. She was summoning magic from deep inside of herself. Loki was pulling against his restraints but they did not give—Narvi's intestines burst and bled on him as he struggled, wrenching at his heart, but he had to try and get to Sigyn before she did something irreversible. He kept pleading with her, "Stop! Sigyn, stop! Please! You can't break those walls."

"That's not true… I can't break the walls and live."

"NO!"

She was beaming with the light of the magic, it was beginning to surround her, and she stepped forward to touch it against Angrboda's spells.

The clash was electric, palpable—it sounded like a bomb inside of a tornado and the light was splintering everywhere. Loki's screams were lost against the wretched din—and underneath it the sounds of Sigyn struggling, grunting against the force of what she was battling. Loki kept struggling, kept trying to escape so he could stop her, or help her, but he was too exhausted from their imprisonment and torture—he didn't know how Sigyn had dug deeply enough for this magic.

He watched her battle the cell and for the first time in centuries, he saw what she was really made out of-Sigyn was so strong, he was sure planets could be cut from the same cloth. She had forsaken her family for him and accepted a life of servitude, been mocked by a court relentlessly for choosing him, snuck through windows and doors at night to steal moments with him like some mistress in the dark, loved him though he was a monster, married him in a prison cell, stayed true to him when he tried to send her away from him, buried him twice, carried a giant's fetus and survived the birth, she had given birth to twins and suckled them from inside of the gilded cage that he had so resented (and now, he would give anything for that cage again), she had watched their firstborn transfigured and lay helpless to stop his pain—and watched as that transfigured child was made to slaughter his brother, then forced to see her daughter's face burn in her brother's blood… she had done all that, and still found the strength to tell her love goodbye, kiss him, and try to give him his freedom.

Suddenly, he knew the cell was bound to break—the power of her love, her loyalty, would bend all other things to its will.

Sigyn suddenly screamed—a shriek of absolute pain and fell to her knees. She threw her head back and he could see her eyes were pure light and beginning to steam—like her insides were on fire.

"STOP! SIGYN PLEASE STOP!"

Instead of stopping, Sigyn pushed her arms toward the prison cell's walls and a fresh wave of magic flew from her, making the walls warp and twist. Without preamble the walls shattered around her and Sigyn turned her glowing body and shot a bolt of power at Loki. It attached itself to the intestines, his son's intestines, that had magically bound him and he felt the ropes lurch in protest. She struck him with another powerful bolt and he saw blood curdling at the corners of her eyes and mouth—but still the enchanted fetters held. Howling in pain, smoke coming off of her skin and her lips foaming blood, she sent a last wave of magic to Loki's chains….and this time they broke.

In an instant he was on his feet and moving over to her, but when she saw him free the glowing magic around her instantly stopped and she slumped onto the floor. He rolled her onto her side and pulled her into his lap, her skin was boiling hot and blood was oozing from her mouth, nose, and eyes. She was shaking as though she was in pain, and he thought she must be in an incredible amount of pain. People described using that much power as being burned alive but inside out, and from what he had seen they had described it correctly. Sigyn was dying and he was powerless to help her—what had been done was too great, too horrible to fix.

Tears flowed freely down his face, and he tried to wipe the blood away from her eyes, "What have you done?"

She tried to smile, but could not manage it, when she spoke it was soft and labored, "Your…..turn."

"For what?" He asked, fixating on cleaning her face of all the blood but when he wiped it away more would replace it.

"To…burn…me."

He laughed hollowly, bitterly, because he knew that she was right and he pressed a kiss to her temple even though her skin burned him, "How did you ever manage to burn me twice?"

"Want Narvi….with me."

"He will be." Loki nodded, "I swear it. You'll be with him again."

"Find…them?"

"I'll find them, love…and I'll bring them home."

Sigyn coughed up ashes and blood, grimacing the whole time, tears sprang to her eyes and carried more blood down her face, "Please ….please take….it."

Loki was confused at what she was trying to give him but at that moment a shimmering green light climbed out of her mouth-her magic, the last small piece left inside of her, the only piece keeping her alive. As it passed her lips she went limp in his arms, her final breath following the small ball of magic. Loki stared at the magic—wanting it and not wanting, wanting to command it to go back into her but wanting part of her inside him now. He didn't get a choice in the matter, the green light caressed his face and sunk into him whether or not he wanted to receive it. All that was left in the broken prison cell was Sigyn's body in his arms.

The God of Mischief looked down at his broken wife and let out a howling scream that shook the very foundations of the earth. It echoed, they say, for days.

When his throat was raw and his breath ragged, kissed her forehead and muttered that he would be back for her. Loki was bloody, barefoot, and mad- and he was going to go claim his transformed children from the sorceress who had just taken everything from him. Then he was going to kill her, even if that meant destroying the entire planet around her as well.

Ragnarok, Sigyn had said it was his destiny to bring about Ragnarok.

Well then, he mused, let the flames begin.

Thor was on the throne of Asgard, unwillingly, when the guards ran in saying that someone was coming who refused to wait.

Behind them walked in a short person with half their face so burned that it didn't resemble skin anymore—it was painful even to look at. Thor was so focused on it that he didn't recognize the unburnt half until a little voice said, "Hello uncle."

Thor focused on the face again and swallowed his heart, "Hela?"

The grotesque face grinned, "Somewhat."

Thor tried to run to her but she backed away from him, so instead he took a knee and spoke to her as if she were a child, "Hela, where are your brothers? Do you remember where you were? How did you get here? Did you see your mother and father? Are you hurt?"

"We were taken hostage by Angrboda so she could flush out my father, being the bait is never a good thing for the bait." Hela looked around the room and Thor once more saw how wretchedly burned her face was but she wasn't screaming or fussing over it at all.

Thor looked over Hela's shoulders at the guards, "Get the healers in here for her, straightaway."

"There's no need, I can't feel it." Hela blinked calmly at him, "But that was very considerate."

Something about Hela was all wrong, it was making Thor uneasy, but he tried speaking slowly to her again, "What happened to your brothers? To your parents?"

Hela smiled and raised her charred hand up, it was burned as badly as her face, and snapped two blackened fingers. A basket with a blanket draped over the top fell next to Thor with a sickening squishing sound. Hela said nothing but stared at Thor expectantly, so he looked under the blanket and quickly covered it again, screaming out in a rage, "Who is this? Who did this?"

"That's Narvi." Hela nodded, looking under the blanket as if to check that she had brought the right one, "He was torn apart and eaten, then she used his intestines as chains for father. It was quite horrible."

"Who is she?"

"Angrboda."

Thor didn't know what had happened to Hela but he had just seen the half eaten face and rotting intestines of his sweet, shy little nephew in a basket and his whole demeanor fell into absolute rage, "What tore him apart and ate him?"

Hela's half-charred skull smiled again, raising her fingers to snap them, and Thor felt sick at the sight.

Snap.

There was a fury of howling, gnashing, snapping and a thick line of drool almost instantly covering the floor under a positively giant wolf. It was grey-black with glowing green eyes and looked insane with hunger and rage. It was held by a golden collar attached to a golden chain that was tied off on a golden post Hela had magically attached to the floor. Thor swung his hammer in rapid circles, ready to strike, asking, "Is this what killed your brother?"

"It's not a what, it's a who." Hela's childlike voice changed and suddenly deepened as though she was a grown woman. It startled Thor that it came out of a child's mouth, "That is Vali. He is quite mad, the transformation made him lose his mind. He was let loose on Narvi and it just did not end well for the little one. Shame. Both very powerful creatures, but Narvi didn't get a chance to be transformed."

Thor's jaw fell open and he looked at the enraged beast again—the snapping, gnawing rabid wolf with nothing intelligible behind its glowing eyes-and he sputtered, "That's…Vali?"

"Oh yes." She smiled and opened her arms wide as if presenting something special, "And I am Hela, mostly. When Vali ate Narvi I was watching and crying and I was so angry that I made Narvi's blood boil. Angrboda didn't like that, and she shoved my face in it until I could smell all my skin burning and then she stopped holding me down and I ran and ran and ran."

Thor listened and the deep woman's voice got deeper, and it frightened even him.

"And I was dying and I was scared…so Death asked me if we could share my body and I said yes. Now it doesn't hurt anymore. And I'm me, mostly. And I'm Death." Hela smiled again like a child proud of its recitation and Thor was slack-jawed, simply saying, "I don't believe you."

The half-burnt eye and the normal, shining green one both looked angry. Before his eyes Hela grew- first to an older child, then a teenager, then a young woman and finally to a woman—a woman with flowing black hair, a half-charred face, a voluptuous (if half burned) body and nearly nothing covering it in terms of clothing. Instead of standing on the ground she floated in the air, her voice was deeper than any man's and it echoed, "Do you believe me now, Odinsson?"

He had to, what choice did he have?

"Where are Loki and Sigyn? Are they dead?"

Death snapped her fingers and a body fell onto the floor in front of Thor- Sigyn's lifeless body, bloodied and limp, "Only Sigyn is dead, Loki lives."

Loki lives.

Thor surveyed the room-one child dead, one transformed, and one who made a pact with Death itself to stay half-alive. Sigyn, the love of Loki's life, dead.

Loki may live…but what sort of life does he have? What is he going to do?

Thor looked at Death, bowing respectfully, "Can you help me find him?"

A cloud of smoke billowed and from it emerged Hela, looking whole and unburnt and perfectly herself but the deep, resonant voice of Death still spoke, "He's going to find the people that killed my mother. Then he will kill them."

"How?"

"Ragnarok." The word rang evilly in the Hall and Thor should his head as if Death was lying to him, so she repeated, "Ragnarok! I do not lie Odinsson, and Death knows when the end is near. It was Loki's fate to bring Ragnarok…none can stop it from coming."

When his eyes opened he was still screaming, but as he looked around there was no more fire…in fact there was no more heat. He was laying flat on his back, in a park, in the middle of a sunny day, surrounded by humans who were all looking at him like he was mad.

"Are you alright?" One asked.

Loki tried to strike the person with magic but there was no reaction—nothing. He tried again, flicking his wrist at the person but they just stared at him as though he was an idiot.

"Are. You. Ok?" They said slower.

"Yes, I'm fine."

"Must've been a helluva nap." The person said, "With one wicked nightmare."

"Yes, that's it. Very bad nightmare."

Loki got out of there as fast as he could and just kept walking until he could figure out what was going on.