A month later

"Sigyn, this is all too much for you. You daily fear for your life, and even now in the earliest hours of the morning you cannot and will not sleep." Frigga said softly, sitting down beside her daughter-in-law on the edge of the younger woman's bed – the bed that Sigyn had shared with Loki before he'd fell from the Bifrost bridge. "You need to go to your husband."

In the muted light of a single candle, Frigga saw that Sigyn was fighting tears as she whispered, "I cannot. I-"

Seeing that the blonde goddess was going to try and refute her mother-in-law's statement, Frigga interrupted firmly, "Sigyn, Odin banished Loki to Midgard the week after Thor brought him back to Asgard. That was only two months ago, and already there have been numerous attempts on your life. I will not have you die, and neither would Loki if he knew how bad things were for you here. I cannot leave Odin's side to tell him, so you must flee to him yourself – and simply stay with him on Midgard, if you're wise."

"I cannot," Sigyn repeated.

"You must," Frigga demanded, folding Sigyn's fingers over a piece of paper that she pressed into the blonde's palm. "If something goes wrong once you're on Midgard, you may be able to garner assistance from these women. I believe they're the most likely to understand your situation. You should find Loki himself back in Manhattan with Thor."

"I'm afraid to go to him," Sigyn confessed, finally whispering the awful truth as stared at her hands. "Ever since he found out about his Jotun origins, he's been struggling, but this – his battle in Manhattan – seems different, from what Heimdall has told me. This is not the work of the Loki that I know. What if he is now so consumed by his darkness that he will not allow me refuge with him? After all, he did leave his family to begin with those two months ago. He didn't even try to arrange for to see me when Thor brought him back for sentencing, nor did he ask for me to be sent with him to Midgard. What if he truly has become the monster everyone claims he now is?"

Frigga considered this for a moment before she suggested slowly as if the idea had just come to her and she wasn't sure of it, "Then perhaps you ought to go to these women first and ask them for their help in getting through to Loki."

"Who are these women?" Sigyn asked, peering at the crumpled note through the darkness, yet unable to decipher many of the words in such weak light.

Frigga glanced towards the window, noting the first gray of dawn streaking through the Asgardian sky before she said, "There is not enough time for me to explain it all, only know that nearly all of them may be against the idea of helping you at first. Perhaps you oughtn't mention that you are Loki's bride."

"Then what am I to be?" Sigyn asked, growing nervous as she realized that Frigga meant for her to be leaving for Midgard within the next hour.

"Say you are… his and Thor's sister, and you're concerned for their wellbeing now that they're both living in Manhattan." Sigyn nodded obediently and was surprised when Frigga stood, taking Sigyn's blue cloak and draping it about the shoulders of the goddess of fidelity. The queen of the gods picked up a burlap sack and shoved it into Sigyn's hands, saying, "You must leave now before anyone who might wish you harm catches you trying to leave. Do you know any of Loki's hidden passages from Asgard to Midgard?"

"Yes;" Sigyn answered. "He's shown me one that leads to the land of Norway."

"That will be the perfect place for you to begin your journey. Go to Midgard through it – now. It'll be safest for you that way."

"Frigga," Sigyn whispered, feeling like a frightened child as she clutched the paper in one hand and the sack with the other. "I don't want to be alone."

"And you won't be for long," Frigga promised, looking her firmly in the eye, as if to will her strength as she laid her hands on the younger girl's shoulders. "The first address on that paper is that of Thor's mortal, Jane Foster. She is currently studying in Norway. Find her first." She placed a quick kiss on the girl's cheek and then took a step back, ordering, "Now, go."

Trembling, Sigyn threw her arms around her mother-in-law one more time before teleporting herself to just outside the entrance to one of Loki's portals. She stuffed the precious paper into a pocket of her dress and tied the sack into the folds of her cloak before she began walking into the cave. It was one of the portals that Loki had only used once – only the day he'd found it – since he avoided Norway like the plague because of his distaste of their portrayal of the "myths" of the gods. She'd never been inside of it before; Loki had showed it to her telling her only that if she wished some new amusement she might try going through this portal and walking around the area it led to.

But she was not amused now as she realized that the cave was lowering rather drastically the farther along she got in it. This was probably another reason Loki never used it, she thought as she was forced to fall to her knees and begin crawling. He would've had to have been crawling forward on his stomach by now.

The moment wasn't long in coming before Sigyn thought that she might have to do just that – but in that same moment the familiar rush of the Bifrost was upon her and within the next second she was thrust onto a street corner in Tromso, Norway.

Sigyn took a a moment to steady herself and then pulled the slip of paper out of her pocket, reading the first address and then starting on her way towards Jane Foster.