Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are based or taken from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and owned by Marvel. However, the author likes to think that any person or place based from Norse Mythology is part of the history of Scandinavian countries and thus an influence to their culture. As such, as UNESCO has declared culture and history as property of everyone in the world, the author likes to believe we all own Loki.
TL;DR: Everything is owned by Marvel.
Also, this work is based of off Matthew Reiley's 'Seven Deadly Wonders.' The only idea taken from the novel is the use of the Seven Wonders as the hiding place of a mystical object and the rough estimation of where these Wonders may be. All texts that are real will be cited accordingly in the author's notes and texts that are merely made up will be cited as well.
Chapter Two
"Sophia?"
The figure in question looked up from her book, her eyes falling upon a male brunette who was standing in front of her unsurely. She gave him a small smile. "Yes Tyler?"
"I was just wandering if you were going to the party later. I just, I know you were invited and all and since you've never actually gone to one…"
"You want to show me around and help me ease in?" Sophia asked, head tilted as she tried for a kind smile on her face. "To answer your earlier inquiry, I shall not be going." She gestured towards a small pile of books near her. "Finals are coming up and I can already tell that Trotsky is going to be a bitch."
That and she had a son who needed all the supervision in the world since his 'Loki tendencies' had started overriding what little he got from her.
"Oh. Of course." Tyler stepped away then gestured at the entrance to the library with his thumb. "Well then, I have class so.."
"See you next week Tyler." She replied. As soon as he was out of her sight, her smile fell and she turned back to her book. "Can't get a man on my own he says. Well, if Loki can see me now. Third guy this week to try and ask me out." She muttered under her breath as she turned the page after taking note of something.
And three pages later, she stopped with a heavy sigh, distracted from taking in anything else Niccolo Machiavelli had to say about the role of morals when a leaders faced an issue, which is to say there would be no place at all. She knew that this was one human Loki would approve of.
Loki.
She groaned as her husband entered her mind yet again.
She was okay with him not seeing her for almost two decades. In fact, she expected since this separation was not one he wanted, she had wished it for herself, thinking that him coming to see her and Narvi would make things easier for someone to find her and she had told him herself. But to think the idiot had actually gone and tried to become King of Midgard.
Stupid, idiotic husband of hers needed to 'get his shit together' as humans aptly put it.
She had half a mind to kill him with her bare hands when she heard about it.
She had almost gone to the All-Father and All-Mother to talk them out of his punishment when she heard he was coming back to Asgard for trial. And then she remembered that he, out of spite, had turned her hair into snakes when they were pupils together, knowing that she was scared of the vile creatures. Needless to say, that got her back into the spirit of killing him again.
She shook the thought away as she attempted to continue her studies.
Here on Midgard, she was not Crown Princess Sigyn of Vanaheim, Princess of Asgard (but only through marriage). She was Sophia West, a student studying in an institution called Georgetown.
Thought on how to kill Loki a hundred times over would not do when she had a final in Social and Political Thought one day away.
Although she did file away the idea of chaining him into a chair and playing a horrid Midgardian song called 'What Does the Fox Say' on loudspeaker until he wished he were dead.
"Narvi?" Sigyn called out as she closed the door of the townhouse she owned. She dropped her keys in the bowl next to the door just as a black haired boy poked his head from the kitchen.
"Hi mama!"
"Did you do anything productive today?" She asked as she hung her jacket in the closet before turning to follow him inside the kitchen where Aina, the only handmaiden she had taken to Midgard at Loki's behest, was cooking their dinner.
"I visited daddy." Narvi replied as he went back to his seat on the kitchen counter, watching Aina cook.
Sigyn hummed in response, trying to avoid the wavering look Aina gave her. Her handmaiden never did approve of hiding Narvi. "How's he doing? And did you wear grandma's necklace like I told you to?"
"I did. And daddy…" Narvi paused and Sigyn watched him, easily hearing the cogs of his head working. A little bit more practice, she swore, and he would have that silver tongue of his father. "Why is father in a cell?"
Okay, maybe a lot more practice.
Sigyn sighed at this, easily remembering why she had held him off from visiting Loki for so long. "Well, you see… Loki, that is… Your father did some bad things so his father," Sigyn winced; knowing Loki would not like her using that term to describe Odin. Not that she liked it either given everything. "The All-Father had him put there to think about his actions."
"But why? What did daddy do?"
Before Sigyn could answer, the doorbell rang and she stood up. "I'll get it Aina." She said, thankful for any distraction that would give her time to think about her answer. And she was still thinking about her answer when she opened the door.
"Sister!"
"Any matches?"
"None yet sir."
In the last day, Director Fury had been updated on the situation and had concurred that they could deal with the possibility of having to work with Loki, that their first priority was to get his wife on board before anything. Naturally, several people were apprehensive, given their history with Loki. Many questioned the attitude and tendencies of someone who would be married with Loki.
"No offense Thor, but what kind of woman marries someone like Loki?" Clint had asked when the particular meeting had been hashed out on the helicarrier.
Thor seemingly took offense as he gave a frown. "My brother was different and he was still the God of Mischief we loved when he married the Crown Princess Sigyn then."
"Any chances she would be like him at all? So good then, so bad now?" Natasha had brought up to which Thor had answered that it would be impossible given Sigyn's opposite nature to Loki.
"The most important question yet to be asked is what she saw in Rock of Ages anyway."
"It was an arranged marriage."
At that, the issue had died out.
Soon after, Thor had described Sigyn to an agent who also doubled as their sketch artist, describing every detail of Sigyn's face he could remember until an accurate, or close to accurate, drawing had been approved by Thor. "Yes! That looks very much like my brother's mate."
And since then, every camera in the world had been accessed and the agents had been scanning every foot of the world looking for the Vanir Princess, quite like how they found Loki when he was in Germany. Once that process had started, it only took S.H.I.E.L.D. three hours to locate her and additional eight hours to get to her.
"And we're here." Steve said as he looked up from the sheet of paper he held and at the address in front of him. "This was where she was last seen entering."
"Who'll do the honors then?" Tony asked as he absent-mindedly rubbed the bracelet that would enable him to put his Iron Man suit on with little to no fuss.
"I shall. She will like seeing me after a while I think. She has always been kind to me." Thor said as he stepped up and walked the few steps to the door. Then he looked back and gestured to the doorbell. "I just press this device, correct?" At Natasha's nod, he did just that and it was barely a minute later when the door opened.
To those who did not know her personally, she looked the opposite of Loki. While Loki had been all green and black in clothes, she was wearing a pastel blue dress that barely passed her knees, having apparently adapted human clothes. While he had black hair, she herself was more Asgardian or Vanir looking with blonde hair, hair almost close to ashen white. They watched her violet-blue eyes widen as Thor gave her a hug and watched as she reluctantly relaxed and gave him a small pat on the shoulders.
"Damn. Reindeer Games got lucky."
That earned Tony a glare from Steve.
Steve stepped up as soon as Thor let her down (which he literally did seeing as she only really reached his shoulder). "Hello ma'am. I'm Steve Rogers and-"
"What are you doing here Thor?" Before Thor could answer, she held up a hand. "No. Let's go inside. My home is cast with a spell to keep Heimdall from listening in on me." She opened the door wider and let them in and told them to go to the first door on the left which led to the dining room, the only place where all seven could be seated.
"What is this about?" She asked as she took a seat as well. "If this is about Loki, then I cannot help you Thor. You know how stubborn and thick-headed my husband is."
"But aren't you supposed to take his side, being the goddess of fidelity and all?" Clint asked as an eyebrow rose in question.
Sigyn gave him a look and said, in a highly sarcastic voice she must have picked up from Loki himself, "I am goddess of fidelity, yes, and I will always be loyal to my marriage. But what I am not is goddess of putting up with Loki's stupidity, which got him imprisoned in the first place."
"If it counts for anything, I like her." Tony said, raising his hand.
Sigyn looked past Thor and looked dryly at his companions, giving them her attention for the first time. "Who are they Thor?"
"My friends, the Avengers."
"Ah. The saviors of Manhattan." Sigyn said with a sigh. "And why have you seen it to look for me?"
"There is a prophecy that the world, this world, will be in danger, and it mentions a scholar, a queen in all but name who also happens to be healer. Thor says it's you." Natasha explained. "The other roles are said to be us."
"Given that my husband tried to become king of this world, why would I try to help save it?" Sigyn asked, leaning back as she gave them a sparing glance. "We're married and I doubt anyone in Asgard remembers a time when we were not. What makes you think I would do the exact opposite of what he tried to do?"
"Because we know it's an arranged marriage. And really Constance, you have glowing recommendations from Point Break over here and all those people who wrote Norse mythology in the first place." Tony said.
"I'm sorry, but Constance?" Bruce asked, bewildered at his lab partner's choice of nickname.
"Good. I thought I was the only one who didn't get it."
"You guys know. Constance from those Pendergast novels." Tony waited a beat and saw they still didn't get it. "And I thought I was the uncultured one."
Sigyn sighed as she saw Narvi enter before any of the others could.
"Mama? I didn't know we had visitors," came Narvi's soft tones as he stood at the doorway.
Sigyn sighed once more, deciding to just get it over with, thinking of this particular moment as that time she had foolishly decided to try human healing techniques and made a mistake in putting alcohol over a wound. She opened her arms and he took it as a sign to climb into them. She looked down at the boy. "Remember I told you that you had an uncle?" Narvi nodded and she continued, pointing to Thor. "Why don't you go greet your Uncle Thor?"
"Hello…uncle?" Narvi started in an unsure voice as the others stared at the kid that looked no older than six years old.
"Well damned it all we have ourselves a mini-Reindeer Games. This is so fucked up."
"Stark! There's a kid!" Steve elbowed him and apologized to Sigyn.
"No worries. My son is truly sixteen years of age in Asgard." Sigyn waved it off as she watched Narvi look up at Thor.
"I did not know I was again an uncle." Thor said then he turned to Sigyn. "We were not informed of this." He started in an accusing tone, using the royal 'we.'
"And for good reason, Prince of Asgard. Why do you think Loki and I kept it from you and your family?"
"For whatever reason, it was and is unjust to keep the boy from his birthright!"
Sigyn glared at her brother-in-law for a moment before asking Narvi to go back to the kitchen to Aina to tell her of their guests. Before Narvi could complain that his mother was treating him like a child, he saw the look in her eyes and nodded before going to the kitchen, not wanting to hear whatever had set his mother off.
Sigyn straightened up. "And what is this birthright you mention? Is it his birthright as a Prince of Asgard and all the prejudices we have experienced? Is it his birthright as Prince of Vanaheim, a kingdom the All-Father has never fully trusted? Or is it as the heir to Jotunheim after Loki? Narvi is a half-Jotun, half-Vanir in direct line to the throne of Asgard. If we are talking about his birth rights, then it would have to be those three." She started, voice not lifting from the soft octave she had earlier.
"Sigyn, please do not take that tone to me."
"Why not Thor, because you are Crown Prince of Asgard? Well I am Crown Princess of Vanaheim, Princess of Asgard by marriage and since my husband should be King of Jotunheim, I should also be Queen. Not to mention I am Princess to two other realms due to my father and uncle. And yet I am not respected, as I should be, by the Aesir court, because I married the lesser prince and we are both sorcerers. Not to mention I care for his eight-legged horse of a child." Sigyn paused then sat back.
"You know I do not think the same way as the rest of the court. And my friends are different from them."
"Ah yes. Loki told me about your banishment." Sigyn waved it away.
"You and brother speak?"
"Only through letters. Did you really think we were as estranged as we always are this time around? I only left for our son's safety. Did you really think Odin would like an heir of Vanaheim so near to three thrones, especially the Asgardian throne? Especially after the Aesir-Vanir War?" Sigyn glanced at the others who had opted to watch them instead. "Sorry. Am I nothing like what you expected out of Loki's wife?"
"I think it's safe to say we can see how you've put up with being Loki's wife." Clint muttered under his breath as Thor tried to think of a reply of her previous question.
"Oh do not strain yourself brother." Sigyn said as her anger left her and she leaned over to pat his arm. "Let us please not talk about the slights your father has done to me and my family and we shall get along."
"Get along?" Tony asked, still trying to keep himself from making any side comments.
"We will have to get along to save my sanctuary for the last sixteen years, right?" Sigyn said, smiling softly. "Just because I do not have any love for the All-Father does not mean I will let Midgard crumble when I have come to love it. May I see this prophecy?"
Wordlessly they gave her a copy and watched as she read it thoroughly, lips forming a frown when she reached a particular line Thor knew she would not like.
"Are you telling me my husband will have to help save the very realm he tried to make kneel before him?"
Before anyone could even reply, Sigyn had burst into a laughing fit. Apparently the very thought was funny for the goddess.
"More importantly," Tony started as he took the laughter as a sign he could make the usual snide remarks without the nervous feeling that the goddess could blast him to smithereens. "Are you telling me Reindeer Games has a child that is an eight legged horse?"
"I'm telling you that he gave birth to the horse."
"And Sleipnir is now my father's personal horse. A truly prestigious place for my nephew."
Somewhere in the Asgard stables, a certain eight-legged horse sneezed at the same time as Loki.
AN: No Loki (except brief mentions of him) but he'll appear again sooner or later.
Thanks to those who added me to their fave list (moshea) and followed the story (don't call me green and johncorn). I would love to hear from you guys and any others about what can be improved and any requests. Constructive Criticism is always welcome (especially since it's been a while since I wrote a full-blown story).
Please review :)