II.

For three days and three nights, Sigyn remained in the cave, biding her time while her injuries healed and her strength recovered. Casting any more spells was out of the question, and she couldn't focus on her reading for long before succumbing to exhaustion. Given that her body was still recovering from the fall told her she'd done something wrong. The wrong words. Not enough blood for the sacrifice. Or maybe it was Loki's Jotun blood and his vast knowledge of magic that had allowed her and Loki to slip between the worlds as easily as walking through a door. Whatever the reason, her patience was starting to erode under her anxiousness. Three days she could have spent searching for Loki were wasted, and the delay left her feeling sour.

She awoke just before dawn on the fourth day feeling something like her old self. Her chest still ached when she breathed and her joints creaked from days of inactivity but her head was clear. And she needed out of the cave, away from its rough, dark walls that seemed to swallow her. Grabbing her things and pushing herself to her feet she stumbled out into the morning light. Her skin prickled from the cold, so she wrapped Loki's cloak tighter around her. Suddenly feeling very exposed, Sigyn climbed upon the nearby rocks until she was on a boulder with a flat surface high enough that it provided her with enough height to keep her from anything—or anyone—that passed, but low enough that she could climb down easily.

Sigyn pulled everything out of her bag and laid them out before her. Where to start, and with what, was overwhelming. Four books, one of which wasn't really a book but a leather bound journal half-filled with spells and information taken from a dozen different books in the archives. The other three had more useful information than could fit into one journal. The bowl. A long dagger that she really wasn't sure would do her any good in a fight but was at least a useful tool. Then there was the dwindling supply of dried meats and fruits she'd brought with her.

Did she continue searching for Loki here, or did she find somewhere safer, somewhere civilized with food and a warm bed, where she could continue the search from there?

The sharp rumbling in her stomach and a glance at what little was left of her food supply made up her mind for her.

From this particular boulder, Sigyn couldn't see any roads, and could only rely on the position of the sun for directions. Which was pointless if she didn't know which way to go in the first place.

"Damn it." She was more lost here than she had been in Asgard and she slammed her fist against the rock, adding new scrapes the faded, half healed ones. Sigyn watched as the lines slowly turned her knuckles bright red. Then she caught sight of the bowl and an idea took shape.

Blood. Neither she nor Loki had ever used blood, only water. The thought of cutting her hand open again for another sacrifice, though, wasn't particularly appealing to her. But she was covered in enough scrapes and cuts that maybe she wouldn't have to make a new one. She cracked open one of her books and flipped through the dry pages until she found something that might be of use to her.

"…blood is an amplifier in divination…best when used with another medium of some kind… locations are difficult to scry and it's best to use something of where the practitioner is located as an aid…"

Sigyn closed the book and dragged a hand through her hair with a sigh. She picked up the bowl and studied it for a moment, thinking back on all the times her and Loki had worked with the thing using only water. How they hadn't even thought to use anything else. Climbing down from the rock with the bowl in hand, she walked back over to the creek and filled the bowl once more. She then grabbed a small bit of dirt and sprinkled it into the water, watching as it darkened the water slightly.

The gash on her cheek was just starting to heal, itching just beneath the fresh scab. It wasn't her first choice, but most of her other cuts had healed to the point where they were too small and too shallow to yield enough blood. She took a deep breath to ready herself, then peeled part of the scab off with a grimace and flicked it aside. Pain blossomed on the side of her face and stung when she tentatively touched her fingers too it. They came away with just enough blood to cover her fingertips, which she dipped into the water and watched as the blood began to disperse.

I need safety and shelter to find Loki. I need to find a starting point.

As she hummed and held this thought in her mind, the bowl spun faster and faster above her hands until suddenly it stopped and lowered itself back into her hands. The blood and dirt slowly started to congeal, coming together in shapes that slowly became more recognizable. Runes. And Sigyn could have wept with joy at the single word they formed. Finally something that could help her. A direction.

South.

For the first time in several nights, the sky was clear enough to see the stars. Jane sat on the roof as she so often did and picked out each constellation she could see. It helped clear her mind when she hit a block. Her notebook was in her lap and open to the rough drawing of Yggdrasil Thor had sketched out, her fingers absently brushing over the one he labeled Asgard. Soon she wasn't identifying constellations but started trying to figure out which out of all the stars was Asgard. If it could even be seen at all.

"Jane?" She turned around to see Darcy come up onto the roof, a small gift bag in hand. "Everything okay? You've been up here almost all night."

"Yeah, I'm just…thinking."

Darcy sat next to her and peered over at the open notebook. "Any luck?" She shook her head. "What about that…weird thing…that happened with your computer the other night?"

"I think it was just some sort of weather anomaly. Whatever it was, it hasn't happened since."

"Maybe you have a virus or something. My computer kept giving me the blue screen of death last time I had one."

"The diagnotics showed everything to be normal." She eyed the bag still in Darcy's hand. "What's that?"

"Oh! This is for you," Darcy said, handing the bag to her. It was a little heavy, red, and practically stuffed full of red tissue paper that she had to dig around in until her fingers hit something solid. Two things actually. When she pulled them out she gasped. In two simple black and silver frames were pictures of Thor. One was Darcy's infamous Facebook picture of Thor at the diner with his mouth full of pancakes. The other was one she had snapped in secret while she and Thor were making breakfast for everyone.

"Darcy, these are great. Thank you." Jane couldn't help but smile at Thor's dopey mouth-full-of-eggs grin, but it was the memories of the second photograph that made her heart flutter. It'd been almost a year, and every day she missed him more.

"You're going to find him, you know," Darcy finally said when the silence stretched too long between them. "If anyone could open a portal to another world for a guy it's you."

Jane laughed and looked up at the stars again. "God, I hope you're right."