Thanks to Suheyla and Lemomina for their reviews!

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Tap! Tap! Tap!

Nanna opened her eyes blearily, wincing in the early-morning sunlight, groaning when every muscle in her ached from being sat upright all night. "I'm never drinking again."

Her hoarse voice made her sister and Sif stir. They looked equally uncomfortable in their chairs. Six empty wine bottles cluttered the table. The sight made Nanna feel worse, and she glanced away, towards the window. Blinking several times, she eventually came to the conclusion that she was hallucinating.

"There cannot be a magpie on the windowsill, with herbs in its beak." She muttered.

"Wha...?" Sigyn yawned.

Sif's eyes opened a tiny bit. "What did you say?"

"Nothing, I think I'm still drunk and seeing things."

Tap! Tap! Tap! The magpie rapped its beak on the window again, as if it wanted to be let in.

"Somebody make it stop," Sif groaned.

"Make the table stop spinning and I will," Sigyn replied, and then pushed herself to her feet and stumbled to the window. "Shoo."

Tap.

"Shoo!"

Tap.

Sigyn rapped her knuckles against the glass. The magpie kept tapping. Sif lurched to her feet, thinking she'd open the window a tiny bit, then hopefully swat the bird away. The second she opened the window, however, the magpie slipped one wing inside, and pushed it open further!

Hopping into the dining room, it pressed its beak to one of the wine bottles, squawked, then dropped the herbs in Nanna's lap, before ruffling its feathers and looking around at them like it expected applause.

Nanna blinked. "I think that's the magpie Balder bought for Loki*, but what it's doing here?"

The bird let out another indignant squawk. All three of the women groaned and pressed their hands over their ears.

"I wish it wouldn't do that," Sigyn groaned.

"If it does it again, I'll snap its neck," Sif grumbled.

The magpie seemed to take that as a challenge, and flew at her face, shrieking loudly. Sif threw her hands up to protect herself, only to lose balance and go crashing onto the floor. She groaned. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Use the sink," Sigyn replied.

Nanna, meanwhile, had recognised some of the herbs the bird had given her and was chewing on the leaves. She let out a sigh as her headache started to dissipate, and quickly shared with her sister and Sif. They managed to choke down some of the leaves, and let out similar sighs of relief as their hangovers began to recede.

"Now that I can think... Nanna, did you say that bird was Loki's?" Sif eyed it suspiciously.

"Yes, but I thought it flew away the day Balder gave it to him, and as far as I know, it hasn't been seen since."

"I am not an it!" The magpie shouted.

You could have heard a pin drop in the room.

"I am a he," the magpie continued. "But despite all logic and it being a horrible name and all, I will still be going by Ikol, at least for the moment."

"It talks," Sif said.

"Still want to break my neck?"

"Er...no." Sif felt somewhat absurd.

Nanna cleared her throat nervously. "So, er... Ikol, I don't suppose you're going to tell us your real name?"

"Why would I do that?" The bird fluffed his feathers. "Now, Lady Sif, you had best eat more of those herbs. King Njord is on his way for a few words with his granddaughter, and it is best if you are sober enough to avoid causing an incident. It's just the sort of thing he would be looking for! Disgusting, wicked old man."

Nanna frowned. Despite his truly horrible relationship with her mother, Njord had only ever been nice to her. She didn't catch how Sigyn's face went pale. "That's my grandfather you're talking about!"

"Ah, you're the youngest, aren't you? Still naive enough to think the best of everyone. Njord is not the person you see him as, child."

"Did he say which granddaughter he wants to talk to?" Sif asked, interrupting Nanna's protest. She wasn't letting that pervert anywhere near Sigyn!

"Given that he is coming to this one's house," Ikol pointed a wing in Sigyn's direction, "I think that would be fairly obvious."

Sigyn's face went even whiter. Sif moved closer to her protectively, scowling.

Nanna looked from them to Ikol, confused. "Have I missed something here?"

"Aye, girl!" Ikol took to wing and fluttered around all their heads. "Best clean up, don't want to entertain a king with a messy house!" And with that, he flew out the window.

Sif and Nanna sat in confused silence.

"Are we dreaming this?" Nanna ventured. "It seems too bizarre to be real..."

Sif frowned. "I don't think shared dreams are possible..."

Sigyn, still very pale, was cleaning up as fast as she could, trying not to think about Njord's pending arrival. She wished she had time to run and fetch her uncle. That way, she'd feel safer... But Frey would probably kill Njord so that wouldn't be an option even if there was time.

"Nanna, I want you to go home now," she said. There was no way she was going to allow her little sister to witness whatever was going to happen!

"What?"

"Go home, Nanna. Tell Mor that I'm coming for lunch."

Nanna's brows furrowed. She looked about ready to argue, but Sif, thankfully, understood.

"Go on, Nanna. Maybe you can invite Balder for lunch as well?" The raven-haired warrior suggested.

Nanna nodded slowly, though her eyes were still suspicious. Once she'd left, Sigyn breathed a sigh of relief.

Sif turned to her. "Why didn't we go with her? He can't complain just because no-one's home, and you shouldn't have to-"

The imperious knock on the door cut her off.

Sigyn flinched, but squared her shoulders. "Don't say anything, please," she muttered to Sif as she went to open the door.

Sif opened her mouth to protest, but swallowed it down. Njord would be punished, but justice was not dealt by vengeance. She went to stand with Sigyn. The blonde woman shook back her hair and took a deep breath, her face slipping into a mask of indifference that was so similar to her mother it was unnerving.

"What do you want?" Sigyn demanded roughly after she opened the door to reveal Njord standing on her step.

Njord scowled. "I see your manners are as charming as your mother's. Invite me in!"

"No decent woman would invite a lone man into her house without the appropriate chaperones," Sigyn replied sweetly.

"I am your grandfather!"

"Are you? When have you acted like one?"

Njord's face turned red with anger. "I'm half inclined to not bother telling you the good news, with your attitude!"

"What news?" Sigyn blinked.

Njord folded his arms. "A widowed woman has no business living alone. Look at what your mother became! I have taken steps to ensure you do not end up the same way."

"What steps?" Sif moved forward protectively. She really, really wanted to rip off Njord's head. Sigyn had to put a hand on her elbow to stop her advancing any further.

Njord glanced at her only briefly. "Lord Baeleif is looking for a wife, and I have arranged a betrothal for you with him."

Sigyn's jaw dropped. "Are you mad?"

"That is no way to speak to me, after all the effort I have put into your welfare!"

"Baeleif is practically older than you are!"

Njord frowned. "He is a noble, wealthy man-"

"A perverted, disgusting boar!" Sigyn shouted. "Just like you!"

"How dare you!" Njord bellowed. "I have never disrespected a woman in my life!"

Sif surged forward, eyes blazing. Sigyn slammed the door before her friend could shout out her secret for all the street to hear. Njord pounded on the door. Sif and Sigyn stared at each other, both faces flushed with anger. Sigyn closed her eyes, and muttered an incantation. The next second, there was the smell of smoke and Njord yelped.

Sif raised an eyebrow. "What did you do?"

"Raised the temperature of the door to painful levels. It'll be worse if he knocks again."

Just then, Njord knocked again. A louder yelp sounded, and he started beating at the wall, his cries getting louder and louder.

"Not too bright, is he?" Sif muttered.

Sigyn couldn't repress a giggle.

"Open this door this instant!" Njord shouted. "Insolent, ungrateful, selfish- You are just like your mother! Are you hoping to become a whore like her? You had better learn your place, granddaughter, or you'll end up raped by every man in the nine realms. Or perhaps you would enjoy that!"

Sif saw red. Njord would die.

"Sif, no!" Sigyn grabbed Sif's wrists to prevent her from drawing her weapon.

"Out of my way."

"No! Sif, stop! Think!"

Sif totally ignored Sigyn, pulling free of her grip, and moving towards the door, seething, when-

"King Njord?" Thor's voice was perfectly audible. "What exactly is going on here?"

"Prince Thor!" Njord sounded flustered for a minute, trying to find the right words. "I apologise for raising my voice. I was simply trying to resolve a... dispute with my granddaughter."

"I do not see how insulting her would resolve any disputes, Njord."

"With all respect, this is none of your concern."

"When you insult my friend and niece, it is my concern," Thor responded with a growl.

Sigyn put her head in her hands. "I hate this," she whispered. "I just want him to go away!"

Sif put a comforting arm around her, and then gently pushed her to the side and yanked open the door. Njord turned slightly, and his expression became worried. Stuck between an angry prince and an angry warrior, what recourse did he have? He pulled himself upright.

"My granddaughter has been lonely and isolated since the death of her late husband. I was merely expressing the desire to see her happily wed again."

"No, he was saying that Sigyn has to marry the man of his choosing," Sif spat.

Sigyn pushed past her. She didn't want to cause a scene, she didn't want this mess to boil over, which she was sure was going to happen at any moment. "Sif, Thor, please. This is getting out of hand."

"No, I wouldn't say that-" Sif started.

"Sif! Please." Sigyn took a deep shaky breath. "Please."

Sif huffed out a deep breath, but stayed quiet.

Sigyn forced herself to face Njord. "Grandfather, I think it best if you leave now."

"I think not. There is something else I need to discuss with you. About your mother."

Sigyn frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I think it best I do not say this in public. Invite me in, and I will speak to you alone."

Sigyn's heart rate tripled. Her mind screamed warnings. Yet, curiosity began gnawing...

"It is very important, for your mother's sake," Njord continued.

Sigyn glanced at Sif, who shook her head. But if her mother was in trouble... But that wasn't to say she was just going to let him into her house, not without some sort of protection! "Sif, I will see you in fifteen minutes at the gardens."

Sif opened her mouth to protest, but Sigyn already opened her door to allow Njord in.

"Sigyn!" Sif said.

"Don't worry about me," Sigyn muttered, though she was fighting to hide her shaking. "I'm not young anymore, I know how to deal with him. Besides, it's daytime and he's sober."

Sif's mind screamed at her not to leave, but she held back her worries and thought rationally. Njord wouldn't do anything in the daytime! And like Sigyn said, he was sober, and she was very skilled at magic... Reluctantly, Sif nodded. "If you're not in the gardens in fifteen minutes, I'm going to hunt him down and drive a knife through his heart," she informed her friend.

"I'll be there. Don't worry about me."

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Sigyn went back into her house, shutting the door and willing herself to remain calm. She allowed the memories of that night flood into her mind, and then she took them all and locked them in a little corner and refused to let them out. She marched into the kitchen, where Njord had taken an apple and was slicing it.

"Did I say that you could eat my food?" Sigyn snapped at him.

"You are my granddaughter, your food is my food."

Sigyn rolled her eyes. "Whatever... you said you needed to tell me something about Mother. Get on with it."

Njord walked towards her, slicing the apple. "Yes. Your mother. I am concerned-"

He was closer than she realised; suddenly the apple fell to the floor, he shoved her against the wall and the knife pressed against her throat. Sigyn's jaw fell open, ready to scream but she stopped herself as the blade pressed harder.

"I have heard that you are spreading lies about me, granddaughter. Tsk tsk. Telling everybody that that night at Var's wedding was somehow my fault. I have kept my silence for your modesty. After all, what sort of whore seduces her own grandfather while he is drunk?" Njord was dangerously close to her.

Sigyn was too frightened to make a sound.

"You will marry Baeleif, girl, and you will stop telling these lies of rape. If you do not-" the knife pressed harder. "-I will claim my right as your grandfather and bring you to Vanaheim. And once there I will send you to the outpost left in Alfheim's mountains. Those men but rarely see a woman... They'd be most pleased to have you in their midst. You want to cry rape? You can cry it there. But nobody will hear you!"

Sigyn's heart pounded in her ears. "I-I didn't t-tell..."

"Then why, pray tell, does your 'warrior' friend seem to be livid with me?"

Sigyn scrambled to think of an answer. Her eyes burned.

"Don't think that those false tears will spare you from my wrath, granddaughter. It is a disgusting woman who would make a man drunk to sleep with him, and even worse when that man is her blood kin."

"Make you drunk?!" Sigyn's shock overcame her fear. "I had nothing to do with how much you drank, I hardly spoke to you that night!"

"Who will believe that?"

The blood drained from Sigyn's face as she realised he was right- no-one would take her word over his. He was the king of Vanaheim. She was the daughter of the Whore of Vanaheim. Even if they had been two people from the street, the word of women was rarely believed over that of men. Njord, still holding the knife, but no longer at her throat, stepped even closer, pressing her against the wall.

"But since you so kindly made sure we were alone..." His hand cupped her face as he leered at her. "Why not enjoy ourselves?"

Sigyn began shaking her head, mute with fear.

"Don't play coy. You seduced me once, so you only have yourself to blame if I return the favour." Njord glanced at the clock on the wall. "I believe we will have just enough time before your friend comes looking."

"Skadi had you castrated." Sigyn cringed back, wondering if she could twist the knife from Njord's hand. "How can you-"

"I'll show you."

"I'm pregnant," she blurted, a desperate lie coming to her mind. She knew how much Njord hated Jotünns, how he had divorced his first wife after she was captured by them in the war because he would not touch a woman who may have been touched by one... Would it work here? "I'm pregnant by Loki Laufeyson."

He shook his head, amused. "Nice try, little one. I know for a fact the traitor has not been in Asgard for a year, so unless you are trying to say your pregnancy has somehow passed well beyond term..."

Sigyn tried to edge past him. He slammed her back against the wall, pressing his body to hers. "Now stop being difficult. This will go much easier if you just co-operate."

"Grandfather, please."

"Might as well call me 'lover'."

Sigyn tried to push him away, and he put the knife to her throat again.

"Say it or I'll slice your throat."

She held her breath, trying to put some distance between her throat and the knife. "Lover." Her voice was flat as tears trailed down her face.

Njord smiled predatorily and leaned to brush his lips on hers...

"What in blazes is going on in here?!" An angry male voice demanded.

Njord cursed as he hid the knife quickly into the folds of his robes. Sigyn gasped in relief. The dwarf Brokk stood in the doorway, a small box in his hand. His marble skin was darkening, the sign of a dwarf's rage.

"None of your concern, dwarf," Njord snarled. "Leave."

"Father," Sigyn blurted, the word sounding alien and desperate. "Please."

"Do not interfere in the affairs of others, dwarf, or perhaps I will tell Odin about what you were really doing in the Jotunheim war." Njord looked down his nose at Brokk.

The dwarf glared for a moment. "Fine, go ahead. I'll just tell him that I walked in on what looked like you trying to force your attentions on your own granddaughter."

A staring contest ensued. Njord broke first and stormed out, glowering. Sigyn almost collapsed with relief.

"Thank you."

Brokk shifted uneasily. "No need for that, Lady. You shouldn't be alone with a disgusting old man like that though. Anyway, it's pure chance I happened by. Just thought as all your half sisters have received gifts from us over the years, about time you got one. I know you're not actually kin to my brother and I, but..." He shrugged, setting the box down, before bowing to Sigyn and leaving.

Sigyn stood there gaping. What did he mean, I'm not kin to him, he's my father!... Isn't he? She followed the dwarf out into the street. The sunlight surprised her and made her blink; she had almost expected it to be pitch-black. Brokk was quickly walking away.

"Wait!" Sigyn called.

The dwarf did not stop, but he did slow.

"What do you mean?"

"My lady?"

"What do you mean I am not your kin?"

Brokk blinked at her, surprised. He stopped walking and stared at her for a long time before speaking. "Did your mother never tell you?"

"She told me that you sired me, as you and your brother did for my sisters. She said that the two of you had no desire to be fathers and so kept your distance... She lied?"

Brokk looked at her sympathetically. "It is true that my brother and I had no desire to be charged with offspring. But you are not the product of either of us joining with Freyja."

Sigyn didn't know what to think. "Why would she lie?"

"I do not know. But did you never wonder why you did not receive a gift from us for your wedding?"

"But I did!" Sigyn exclaimed, her voice rising. "I got a necklace - it was a hummingbird with emerald wings and a ruby throat."

Her eyes filled with tears as Brokk shook his head.

"No, child," he said gently. "That was a gift I gave your mother. She must have given it to you to prolong her... facade."

"But I kept it," Sigyn whispered. "Even though my sisters urged me not to. Sometimes I wear it when I know they won't see."

"The only one to keep a gift, and it wasn't even yours," Brokk said bitterly.

It was too much. The previous day's excursion to Jotunheim, seeing Loki with another woman, Njord's threat and this new revelation... Sigyn collapsed onto the street, pressing her hands to her face. She rocked back and forth, shaking hard. Brokk pulled her to her feet again.

"I will take you to your mother's home," he muttered, glancing around at the curious eyes upon them. "You!" he pointed to a young messenger boy. "Go find Lord Frey and bring him to his sister's house at once." The boy ran off; Brokk returned his gaze to Sigyn.

"Who is my father, if you are not?"

"Freyja never told me."

"Sif," Sigyn suddenly remembered, pulling herself up straighter. "Sif is waiting in the gardens."

"I'm sure she will-"

"No, she'll go looking for him if I don't come. She'll get into trouble if she..." Sigyn trailed off.

"Would you prefer to go there, then?"

Sigyn nodded.

Brokk walked silently with her to the palace. Just outside the gardens, he placed a hand on her elbow. "My lady, please understand that I can say nothing of what I witnessed. I am a dwarf, my word would mean nothing and my place in Asgard is tenable at best. I need to stay here, I cannot return to Nidavellir."

"And your relationship with my mother, and her relationship with her father, would make you even less reliable. I understand."

Brokk nodded once and left. He did wish he could do more, but there was only one thing he could do. Striding out quickly, he headed for Freyja's house. She needed to know what he had witnessed. Legally, perhaps nothing could happen. But gossip attacking a reputation was just as effective in some cases.

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When Sigyn found Sif, she was hurling stones at Ikol, the magpie that had brought them the herbs that morning.

"Sigyn!" Sif exclaimed, dropping a stone from her hand. "What did Njord want?"

Sigyn swallowed.

"He... he just continued trying to insist on my marriage to Baeleif. Brokk the dwarf interrupted, and he made himself scarce." Lying was better than having her best friend be punished for causing a political incident, Sigyn assured herself.

Sif folded her arms. "Is that why you're white as a sheet?"

"I... Brokk told me something disturbing, that's all."

"What did he say?"

"Modir always told me that all my sisters and I, save Hnossa, were sired by Brokk and his brother, but according to Brokk, I am neither of theirs. So... I don't know what to think now." She hung her head.

Sif blinked rapidly, unsure what to say.

Ikol cackled. "So many secrets in such a close family!"

Sif hurled the rock at him again, and he went flapping away, laughing hysterically.

"Are you going to be alright alone or do you want me to spend the night at your house again?" Sif asked.

Sigyn thought of Njord's threat; what was to stop him from trying again? She shuddered, on the verge of spilling everything to Sif. "I think I'll be staying with Mother or Uncle Frey for a few days."

Sif's brow furrowed. "Are you sure nothing else happened with Njord?"

Sigyn shook her head. She was not going to talk about it! If she told Sif, then her friend would inevitably do something that would end with her being arrested, if not executed. Njord wasn't worth that! "I'm fine. It's just that, given what Brokk said, I need to speak to Mother. I want to know why she would need to lie about my father."

Sif didn't look convinced, but she let it slide - for now. Her brow furrowed as Sigyn turned the subject to trivial matters. As much as she hated to admit it, this wasn't something she could solve on her own. She needed help. Wrinkling her nose, she kicked at the ground. Not just any help. Help from a trickster. She was going to have to go back to Jotunheim and talk to Loki.

So after leaving Sigyn at Freyja's, she went directly to Heimdall. She had thought of inviting Thor, but that would mean telling him Sigyn's secret... Heimdall knew what she wanted, and in minutes, she was travelling through the Bifrost.

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*For more on Ikol the magpie, chech out Marvel-Tolkien Fangirl's Quoth the Magpie.