Disclaimer: Entertainment purposes only. I don't own the rights.
Author's Notes: This is a continuation of the many stories in the "Learned to See" series. I doubt the original authors meant for it to go so long, but people keep writing chapters! I love it so much, I spent quite a while tracking down all of the stories by different authors! I hope they will like what I have done, in their tradition though without their knowledge. I also organized the stories written so far into a C2 community, where I will humbly upload this, my own addition. I hope someone else will continue this, if no one objects. Send me some sort of message, and I will add your story to the collection.
"Learned to See" by Icka M. Chif
"Snakes and Ladders" by Ysabet
"Slaying Shadows" by LokiGirl
"Miko" by Earth Star
"Too Far" by Wish Wielder
"In Love and In Trouble" by Hachi-sama
"Adjusting" by tantei-kitty
"Anger of a Miko" by Lunarose8
Thank you all for your wonderful stories and inspiration!
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"Loki, ragunaroku-tte nani?" What is Ragnarok?
So innocently the words spilled from Mayura's lips, a question in her tear-streaked crimson eyes. Dread and self-loathing spread through him, and Loki's arms tightened around his priestess, as if he could bodily protect her from the knowledge of his dark past. You fool, he berated himself.
"Come, it's not safe outside," Loki pulled Mayura to her feet, and a chill wind blew through the courtyard, causing the girl to shiver despite the late summer season.
Yamino was already clawing at the latch before they could approach the door. "Loki-sama! What just happened? I felt…" he dropped the broom-vacuum combination he had been armed with when he saw Mayura's battered form. "Mayura-san!"
Loki transferred the girl to his son. "Yamino-kun, take care of her. Please." The trickster god did not turn around as he headed in the direction of his study.
The two were silent as Yamino cleaned and bandaged Mayura's wounds. She seemed to be in some sort of shock, an introverted and pensive look not at all like her. He did not want to cause her pain by asking for her explanation.
Yamino laid her gently on the guest bed with her shoes still on and an untouched cup of tea cooling on the nightstand.
--
Loki sat in the dimness of his study, head lowered into one hand. He had been an idiot, an utter fool. Had he really expected his little game of god-and-priestess to go on without consequences? He should never have shown her such favor. He should release her right away from her bonds to him, and cause her to forget.
But Loki was a coward. He could not let her go, could not bear the thought of never seeing her bright smile. But here he was hiding, because neither could he bear to see those eyes fill with the inevitable confusion, and then hurt betrayal, when he revealed the truth of his nature to her.
Loki: heartless playboy, vile trickster, coward. The bringer of the apocalypse. He had railed against the role assigned to him by prophesy while embracing every empty corruption he could think of. The gods of Asgard expected no less of him. And when they exiled him to Midgard, trapping him in the body of a child, it was no less than he deserved.
But Mayura had placed her implicit trust in Loki, and in doing so she had planted an idea in him that blossomed into a hope: maybe he was as she saw him. I am not EVIL! He had declared, and she had made it so. Without her faith, how could he go on?
Her answer came in her tiny prayer, Loki, please don't hate me.
He smiled bitterly to himself. He could not stay away.
--
Mayura's shoulder throbbed painfully, but her tears seemed to have subsided, leaving her eyes raw. She did not know what had come over her. She had never known such rage was inside her. She had killed with barely a thought, using Loki's precious gifts to her for destruction.
And then she had brought up something that was obviously painful to him. She didn't know who or what Ragnarok referred to, but she should have known that Heimdall would say whatever he could just to hurt Loki. Why was she always so stupid? For the first time she wondered how many times she had yammered on about fushigi mysteries while this war was going on above her head.
She should go home to Papa; Loki wouldn't want a useless priestess like her. But maybe he could forgive her, a little.
Please, don't hate me.
--
Loki banged open the door of the guest room without knocking. He stood there, silhouetted by light from the hallway behind him, his face in shadow.
Mayura sat up on the bed. She could not tell if he was angry. "Loki?"
"I could never hate you, Mayura," her heart tightened at the intensity of his vow. "I said forever, and I meant it."
Her lips parted as she took in his significance. She smiled through her tears, and his heart skipped a beat.
"Don't smile, you don't know everything about me. In my past, I was a wicked god. I did horrible things. They say I am going to be the cause of the destruction of the worlds… they say…" Mayura had approached him, quite close, and he stopped speaking when she laid her finger across his lips.
She peered up at him, and her voice was very small, and pinched from crying. "Ya…Yamino-san told me you used to be a different person. When I first learned to See." Her face scrunched up in her innocent way as she tried to recall. "But he also said that everything changes. Maybe… maybe Loki changed too." She smiled.
He felt slightly dizzy, staring down into the bright depths of her eyes. He laced one hand through her shimmering hair… just who worships who here?
She gasped suddenly, her mouth forming into a surprised "o", and he realized she was looking beyond him, to the window.
She dashed from him, and pressing her nose to the glass exclaimed, "Loki! It's snowing in the MIDDLE OF SUMMER… fushigi mystery!"
fin.
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In the next episode (written by YOU?!): What does Odin want with Mayura and what does Mayura have to do with Ragnarok? Does the snow signify the long winter before? Is the end of the worlds at hand?!