It was a few years, and an abrupt growth of Sif, before she realised that the other children were avoiding her daughter. It infuriated her to realise why, but then Sif figured it out too, and spun stories about a spell gone wrong, and it was getting fixed soon.
Her little face, so hopeful – Elizabeth had no choice.
Sif went blonde.
The child loved it, and fifteen years passed from the moment she said Mama for the first time before Odin came to visit, his sons in tow. By that time, her memory of having black hair had faded, and most of the Aesir who knew her just assumed that her story about having enchanted hair was real as Elizabeth's reputation as the Völva of Sakkavbar started to precede her. Odin was the only one to recognise the truth as they sat in her parlour, watching the three children play with Legos that she'd conjured.
"Why?"
"The other children teased her – she didn't like it. She begged. I couldn't say no."
"The things we do for our children," Odin murmured, before sipping his mead. "I find your home interesting. I have never seen such styles before."
"It's inspired from Midguardian architecture, from days yet to come. I remember seeing it in all these books…" Elizabeth muttered, not really wanting to get into it. But Odin caught her words.
"Days yet to come? You know of the future?"
Elizabeth glanced at him, only half-lying as she covered for herself. "I am the Völva of Sakkavbar. Surely you didn't believe I only gained that title because of mastery over my magic? I do admit, my foresight is limited, but truthfully, most of it is common sense and supernatural intuition. I rarely have visions – once a decade, at most, sometimes none – and dreamcatchers are not a commodity in Asgard."
"Dreamcatchers?"
Elizabeth shook her head, reminding herself that Dreamcatchers were distinctly Native American, not Norse in the slightest. "It is not something we should discuss, not perhaps even within the boundaries of my own home-" she cut herself off suddenly, looking around the room. "Where's Loki?"
Odin looked around sharply. "Loki?" He rumbled, putting his mead down and going over to Thor and Sif. "Thor, where is your brother?"
The blonde boy looked up, frowning, before looking around, "Loki? Loki! Come out and play!" There was no reaction, making Thor start to sniffle. "Loki! Come out and play!" There was a crack of thunder on the last word, causing Elizabeth to hiss.
"Odin, control your son – while there is little magic involved in keeping away lightning strikes, there is the static that I have to deal with afterwards on my person."
"Do not tell me what to do," he barked, "my son is missing in your home-"
But Elizabeth was ignoring him, Morgan having fluttering onto her shoulder, showing her images. "Calm yourself, Odin. I know exactly where he is," she muttered, sending him a poisonous look. "Stay here and look after the son you haven't lost yet – he's about to cry."
Elizabeth left the room post-haste after that, apparating to beach outside, walking slowly across the sand towards one of the only places that, out of a window from the house, you couldn't see behind. Coming up to its precipice, she gazed down on the small toddler who gripped Fang's fur as he played with the salmon in the cove waters, giggling every so often.
"Loki," she called out softly, startling him. He stopped giggling, turning slightly.
"Lady Sigga?" He frowned, mispronouncing Odin's name for her. Smiling slightly, Elizabeth came down to the cove bank, joining him on the cold sand.
"Elizabeth," she whispered to him, "That's my name. Don't tell your father."
His brow furrowed further in a damningly familiar way. Elizabeth supposed she'd seen Odin, or perhaps Thor or Tyr throw it at her in the past.
"Lady Livarbith," he said, lisp preventing him from doing it properly. "Livarbeth. Livarbith." He stamped his foot, causing ripples on the water, making the salmon disappear. He gasped, immediately making a sad face. "Don't go." His hand gripped Fang's fur tighter, and for a moment Elizabeth felt like warning him – he was still an animal, and deaf at that – but Fang didn't even move.
"Do you like the salmon?" Elizabeth asked him. He nodded, face still sad. For a split second, she was reminded of Laufey, for some inane reason, but that was the start of a path she really didn't want to go down. Just…the eyes, matching her own, and the forehead was all Laufey's- no! He is not Loptr! Loptr is dead! There was a pang from her heart, before she swallowed, forcing away the possibility from her mind. This is Loki, Loki Odinson, Prince of Asgard.
"Fenris likes the salmon too." Loki suddenly spoke, out of the blue. Elizabeth's brow furrowed, before seeing how he nuzzled Fang lightly. He couldn't mean Fang, could he?
"Does he? I didn't know that."
Loki started to nod exuberantly. "Uh huh. He th'ays they're nice and not chewy and they's don't get stuck in 'is teeth," he said, blowing around the words due to his lisp. Elizabeth blinked, struck dumb for a second as he looked to Fang, her eyes widening as he started to speak some untranslatable language, actually speaking to the deaf dog - how?! Magic maybe, enabling the dog to hear?! - quiet snuffles and grunts being his reply. Oh my god, he can speak to animals like I can speak-
"Loki," she interrupted, summoning a small garden snake to her hands and holding it gently, "Do you know what this snake is saying?" She asked him, trying to keep it out of her line of sight, knowing she'd switch to Parsletongue if so. Loki looked at the snake.
"~Hello~" he spoke, and Elizabeth could feel her magic shifting to accommodate. "~Can you speak?~"
The snake slithered forward out of her hands slightly, "~Yesss, ssspeaker.~"
Loki looked up at her, nodding. Elizabeth smiled softly at his expectant expression, before speaking back to him as she banished the sniffing snake.
"~I haven't met one like me in a long time.~"
Loki's nose wrinkled, "~One like you?~" Elizabeth noticed how his lisp disappeared as he spoke in Parsletongue, humming slightly.
"~Right now, we're speaking in the language of snakes, called Parsletongue. Because we speak this, we're called Parslemouths. I haven't met another Parslemouth since Sif's father.~"
Loki's eyes widened, "~We're speaking in snake language right now?~" His expression was one of amazement, a far cry from her first discovery that she could. Distinctly, Elizabeth could remember Ron and Hermione saying that only Dark Wizards could speak Parsletongue. Thank god she ditched them after that.
But Elizabeth made an effort to switch back to Allspeak, "Not anymore, for me. Concentrate on speaking the Allspeak when you want to talk, and it should come out. It's vice versa for Parsletongue."
Loki's face grew sad again, but he seemed to make an effort as he switched back and forth between languages over the next minute, until he finally got back to Allspeak.
"Now I think your father is worrying about you, and your brother," Elizabeth spoke softly, causing Loki's face to become one of guilt.
"Sorry, Lady Livarbeth."
Elizabeth winced. "Uh, Loki? Why don't, instead of Lady Elizabeth, you, uh, call me…" she ran over possible names, before remembering what he could actually pronounce. "Lady Vár."
Loki immediately beamed at her, "Really?"
"Yes, really," she replied softly, before reaching over and picking him up, causing him to let go of Fang – or Fenris, as Loki seemed to like calling him. "Now let's go and see your family – they're probably worried sick."
They returned to the house, but Odin wasn't very worried at all, it seemed, as he listened to Thor explain to he and Sif about what he knew about Asgard and his father's battles. Sif was enthralled by the stories, and soon so was Loki – but when the Royal Family left, Sif was immediately pouncing on her, asking if she could be a warrior too. Elizabeth knew the prejudice against women warriors on Asgard, but supported her.
She'd do anything for her little girl.
