That night, the storm broke. It was oppressively hot and raining. Sweating furiously in his three-piece suit, Loki Laufeyson ran down a side street, panting from the exertion. A door opened, sending a beam of light into the darkness and he leapt in, rolling to a stop at the woman's feet. Her shoes were elegant, and her feet...he knew those feet. His eyes grew wide when he looked into her face.
"You!" She let the door slam shut. The police ran past noisily.
"Hello, darling. Am I late for dinner?" He chuckled uneasily, standing up slowly. His long legs nearly tangled themselves in his walking stick.
"Merely a few centuries, husband." Her ash-blonde hair was pulled back severely in a knot at the nape of her neck. "Pick yourself up like a man. It's good to know you made it back to Earth. I was wondering if you'd ever come looking for your missing wife."
"Sigyn, Sig, darling," he said, following her in to the good-sized kitchen . He caught her hands. They were still strong after all the years. He kissed her hands and held them to his face, breathing in her scent, memories rushing back to him. "They told me you had been killed when we left. I had no idea—"
He looked up in to her face and decided it would be best to be silent.
"They told you I was dead? And you never came back? It has been nearly a thousand of their years! Do you have any idea how long that is?"
"Time does not register the same for the Æsir."
Her face turned scarlet and she caught up a newspaper, beating him soundly over the head with it. He threw up his hands in defense, yet the blows continued to rain down until he threw himself at her feet and wrapped his arms about her waist. "Sig, please. I missed you so."
"After all I did for you, and everything you have done to me, this is how I am to be appeased?" She pushed him away, gently, though, and opened the back door. "Get out, or I will inform the authorities. I assume there is a rather large bounty on your head, as usual."
He leaned in close, giving her his most manipulative smile. "You would be honor bound to stir up the blood feud."
"What is honor when one's spouse possesses none?" She hissed before thrusting him into the darkness.
He landed in a mud puddle and watched as she slammed the door shut. He heard a car stop nearby and poked his head over the fence just in time to see a tall, handsome young man with long, dark hair leave the car and let himself into the house with his own key.
Loki burst into the house, his anger overwhelming him.
They were in the living room and Loki caught the young man by the shoulders and thrust him against the wall, his forearm crushing the man's windpipe. He whipped out a knife and held it behind the man's ear. "You will not see her again, nor speak. Do you understand? I have come to reclaim my wife and will tolerate no—"
Then he realized the eyes looking back were his own.
Sigyn sank onto the couch, her arms about her slim form. "Have you lost your wits so much as to forget your own son?"
Loki's eyebrows rose significantly. "Narvi?"
She covered her face with her hands and sighed in frustration. "Do you think the loyalty I gave you would not extend to our children?"
Loki's grip relaxed and the young man threw him across the room. He groaned before chuckling. "The Midgardians have a habit of throwing me about, too." He pulled himself up and sat opposite Sigyn. "My apologies, my son. I believed your mother to have taken a lover."
"He cannot speak."
The grin froze on Loki's face. "What?"
Sigyn spoke quietly to Narvi in Old Norse before turning to her husband. "The witch—the woman who you left us for—took his ability to speak once those Æsir left and it was clear that they would not return. He has not spoken in over one thousand years. This is your fault, husband."
"Truly, you cannot speak?"
"The witch you—coupled with, she took his voice."
"I will regain it for you, my son."
Narvi smiled sadly and shook his head at his father's promise.
Loki turned back to his wife. "What have you done in all this time?"
She shrugged elegantly. "We survived as best as a woman with no husband and fatherless children can in these miserable worlds. We survived throughout the changing of the times. It has been easier these last few decades. But I always live in fear of when times will change yet again. And times are always changing."
Loki looked about the room quickly, a panic settling over his features. "Where is Vali? By Odin, Sigyn! Where is he? Where is our son?"
She caught his hands and held tightly. "Calm yourself. Vali is well. He has worked in Denmark and Norway for many years now. He does not fare as well away from the Old Country."
"You are all working? What did you do before now? When times were more like..."
"There were nights when it was so very cold and our bellies were empty and a few minutes in a man's arms would have solved such problems. And there nights when I longed for a man's arms, when no payment would have been needed. But I knew I could not. Not even for our children. I knew I could never repay you in kind, no matter my desperation."
Narvi placed a protective hand on his mother's shoulder, his pale eyes hooded as he observed his father.
Sigyn touched his hand. "When the boys became old enough to take jobs, and pose a threat to anyone who would wish to hurt them, it became easier. Not much, but enough."
Loki studied her, his face twisting with emotion. Every suppressed memory arose again. In his mind, she still appeared as the bride he remembered exchanging vows with. Yet there was a weariness in and about her eyes which told him of their struggles. "Please, believe me, I did not know what happened. Please." He cupped his hand about her cheek, wiping away the tears with his thumb.
Narvi disappeared into the back of the house, leaving his parents alone. Sigyn caught Loki by the wrists. "When you disappeared and I heard of the monsters the witch bore you—and what they are to bring about—husband, how could you? I defended our sons at such a high cost. Your other children would have murdered them. But I stopped them." She stood. "You have no right here. I have heard of your mischiefs; even the cosmos could not contain what your evil nature, this new nature, has done."
He pulled her close and buried his face in her shoulder, breathing deeply. "What has this planet done to you? You are not the Sigyn I remember, the one I loved."
"Is it love that caused you abandon us so?"
He ground his teeth. "I was forced out of favor by the Æsir! Do not speak to me as if I had a choice."
"There is always a choice, husband."
She turned and the room shifted into a memory of the Hall, their home built so long ago. She was dressed in flowing robes, her hair flowed past her waist, and the sky spoke of snow to come. "You were not the only one with the power of illusions. I merely utilize mine differently."
He joined her at the window, overlooking the green hills of summertime. The wind whipped at his own robes. It was no particular place, merely a fading memory, but the memory still retained strong traces of peace, a peace which he had missed. He placed one hand on her shoulder and another about her waist and pulled her tightly. "But I am now returned. Must you bear this anger still?"
She placed her hands over his. "My examples as 'the good wife' were immortalized by the Snorri, son of Sturlu, in his Prose Edda. Was I so blindly in love to be seen as such a weak figure?"
Loki kissed her neck, running his nose along her cheek and up to her temple, feeling the desire for her return. It had been too long since he had last been with an immortal. He pulled his mind from his last conquest, a member of an old Boston family, and focused on seducing his wife. Sigyn's love was a marvel, one which had danced through his consciousness more times than he had wished. Until now. Now he was thankful for the memories. Even though she had appeared as a minor Æsir to the mortals, she was so much more to those truly acquainted with the workings of Asgard.
His nimble fingers began to work through her hair. He slipped the shoulder of her gown off, massaging the white skin. His lips twitched to see the familiar twin freckles on her shoulder blades. "You have grown stronger in your time amongst the mortals."
"One must be in order to survive. A lone woman with children makes an easy target."
Loki reached into her consciousness, hoping to touch the memories buried deep within. The pain overwhelmed him, causing him to cringe: starvation more often than not, running from slavers and rapists, the importance of deceiving the ever-changing religious authorities, the constant guard lest the source of her eternal youth be discovered…
It was the loneliness which overbore him, though. He had thought himself alone. The illusion of the Hall disappeared, showing them back in the small but richly furnished home. Once again, he was in his mud-spattered suit and she in professional wear. He growled at the sight of her clothing. The robes had been much more conducive to love-making than the modern fashion. Instead, he lowered his head onto her shoulder. "I had no idea."
"I still fear the coming of winter." Her hands trembled. "It took all that I had in order to survive the first winter. We eventually made our way south enough where the winters were not as hard, but my power was weak. They did not know us in the southern lands, nor did they want to. Then came the revolutions and the planet cried out as it was pushed beyond its bearing until it stands as it does now."
He gathered her in his arms, pulling her onto his lap. "I will take you back to Odin and Frigg immediately. They will be proud to see Narvi and Vali and will welcome you back—"
"What leads you to assume I wish to return?"
His head jerked up. "What?"
"Why do you sound so shocked? I have been here; I have made a life for myself and my sons, and things are the best they have ever been. Would the Æsir even remember who I am? I was so content to reside in your shadow in those days."
Loki evaded the question by looking about the room. "How have you supported yourself? I understand Thor's woman lives not half so well."
She raised her eyebrows at the last sentence, but said, "I teach Norse culture and legends at the universities. Sometimes, I teach Old Norse for various linguistics seminars. And Narvi has many friends and is well loved at his job. He is a carpenter, as skilled as the legends once proclaimed. Vali takes after you. He prefers to work at the ski resorts, flirting his way through the endless supply of willing, young females."
"Sons of mine, working for mortals?"
"You should not have abandoned us."
"Must it come back to this?"
"A millennium is a very long time." She stood. "It grows late. I care not if you leave or stay. Good night."
Loki watched as she left. Her form was still strong, and he had felt the lush curves of her body through the fine fabric of his suit. Even if reason declared her unhappy, her body, and his, was more than glad at his return.