It took a week or so before the first calluses started developing on Sigyn's hands, though they had begun as blisters. The beginnings of weapons training turned out to be as monotonous and painful as she had always imagined, but she had made the decision to learn, and she wasn't about to stop now. Her first main task was to master switching between the two main grips of holding sai, from which almost all other movements of the fighting style would stem.
Sigyn's first instinct had been simply to curl all of her fingers around the handle in a fist, but apparently, this wouldn't give her enough strength or stability when handling the weapons. Her thumb went on the joint between prongs while her index finger extended sideways along the horizontal bar of the side prongs. The second grip had her holding the sai handlefirst, thumb hooked around a prong, index finger extended along the handle, and main prong kept close the forearm.
She had taken to bringing the sai with her wherever she went, spelling them invisible and continually practicing the flipping motion. It made her look oddly twitchy to anyone who might spot her, but Sigyn had never quite managed to train the recluse out of herself, so she didn't meet with many people anyway. Only when the sai started feeling like lead weights and her arms loudly ached in protest would she give herself a break and banish the sai to her dimensional pocket.
Beren had been astonished the first time Sigyn had come to the training ground and magicked the sai into existence from what had apparently been thin air.
"Was…was that magic?" Beren asked softly, staring at the weapons wonderingly.
"It was," Sigyn answered with a nod. She raised an eyebrow at his amazement. "Have you never seen any before?"
"No, never." Beren blushed. Sigyn noted that he seemed to do that a lot. "Magic, well…it's for more educated folk, you see. And more people want to learn to fight then to cast spells, so I've never seen anyone do it."
She considered this. "Then perhaps I will show you more later," she decided aloud. She gave Beren a polite smile. "As payment for your lessons."
He looked shocked and delighted by this. "Do you mean it?" he asked eagerly.
She raised her eyebrow again, but her smile widened. "Most people are not so excited about a magic display. I think many would say that I was cheating you of rightful compensation."
"Oh, no, I'm–" Beren stammered. Sigyn noted that he seemed to do that a lot, too. "I mean, I'm sure it would be amazing. You…are you good at magic?"
"I'm very good." Perhaps not very humble, but it was true.
"If you don't mind me asking, then," he said, averting his eyes must he keep doing that?, "why would you want to learn to fight if you can do magic so well?"
She shrugged. "Magic can only take you so far," she stated offhandedly. "And it draws from your own energy, so using too much can exhaust you. If I become more physically fit, it will improve my capacity to perform magic as well."
"Oh…I see." He produced his own pair of sai tucked into his belt. She raised her own and nodded at him, ready to imitate his motions.
"It looks as if you can switch grips well now, so I'll teach you how they would be used in a battle." Beren flipped his sai, holding them handle-forwards.
"If you want to defend yourself, you'll probably use these forms the most," he told her. He let Sigyn mock attack him with her sai from above, below, and the side, showing how the main prong laying against his forearm would take the attack. "It'll block all sorts of weapons, blunt and bladed, as long as you hold your stance strong."
Sigyn looked down at the sai she held skeptically.
Beren smiled. "I promise it works, my lady. You'll have to get quicker and stronger before you can really handle them effectively, but it's actually pretty amazing to see someone who knows how to use them stop all sorts of large, bulky attacks. Maybe one day, I can get Father to demonstrate all the things you can do with them."
"How did the Weaponsmaster even become so skilled in such a wide variety of weapon disciplines?" Sigyn inquired curiously.
"Father always aspired to be a master craftsman," Beren said, absently cycling through some forms with his sai as he looked up thoughtfully. "He travelled all over the Nine Realms learning from anyone who would teach him. A lot of the forges he learned at made him use what he created to fight against the master smiths, and they wouldn't let him leave until he could defeat them."
"Does your father require you to endure a similar experience?" she asked, eyebrows raised.
He smiled sheepishly. "My lessons are not so brutal, as he is quick to remind me. I can hold my own using lots of weapons, but I have much to learn before I could defeat my father using any of them."
"Aspiring to defeat the Weaponsmaster? That's quite the goal."
Beren laughed. "I can dream, can't I? Is there a goal that you work towards, my lady?"
Sigyn blinked, surprised. She had never thought much about a long term goal, other than acquiring as much knowledge as possible. She looked up and thought.
"I would like to become a greater sorcerer than Prince Loki," she finally said.
"Than the prince?" Beren repeated, sounding impressed. "I suppose we both have a lot of work to go."
"Yes," Sigyn agreed, "I suppose we do." She looked down at the sai still in her hands, and she held them up. "Also, I would like to become proficient in my use of these."
"Well, with any luck, I can help you with that, my lady," Beren said, smiling hopefully at her.
She returned the smile and nodded. She flipped back the sai and prepared to begin her practice in the new stances.
Loki sat at the edge of the city, scowling as he wrote. This dearth of information was quickly turning from fascinating to infuriating. The more information he collected about Yggdrasil, the less anything about it came together. Any Asgardian child knew that the Nine Realms hung off the branches of the Tree like otherworldly fruit, but any sort of information about how the realms were structured on it conflicted with each other. No one seemed to know what precisely grew from the tree, what lived between the realms, where it grew from, or even exactly how big it was at all.
He paused and looked over his notes again carefully, reading what little he could find that remained constant no matter what source it came from:
One: The World Tree had three main roots that extended beneath the bottommost realms.
Two: Those roots were nourished by some sort of wells or lakes at their base.
Three: One of these wells was governed by the three Norns, who dutifully watered Yggdrasil's root regularly. This well was considered to be the holiest of the three wells (though in exactly what way the other wells differed was not clear).
Four: There was something (though it was unsure precisely what) that was chewing at the roots of the Tree. This, Loki noted, had the odd effect of actually keeping Yggdrasil's growth in check. From what he could see, if whatever was chewing at the roots stopped, the Tree would grow further and further to what would eventually be disastrous size, where it would no longer be able to sustain itself and, Loki theorized, the Nine Realms might actually start crashing into each other as the branches of the Tree wilted.
Five: There was some sort of vague hierarchy to the Nine Realms as to how high along the Tree the realm was placed. The topmost realms were typically Asgard, Vanaheim, and Alfheim. Beneath them, the order was conflicted more often, but tended to go something like Midgard, Jotunheim, Svartalheim, Muspelheim, then Niflheim. Helheim was almost always placed at the very bottom.
And that was it. There was little else that agreed between various sources, and it was beginning to fray Loki's nerves. In his search for some kind of concrete understanding, the younger prince went out onto the Bifrost and asked Heimdall what he could see about the World Tree.
"What knowledge do you seek from me, Your Highness?" Heimdall intoned, eyes not even darting away from their vigil to look at the visitor to the Bifrost Observatory.
Loki opened then shut his mouth, reminding himself that Heimdall was always all-seeing. It was something that he was going to need to always keep in mind when planning schemes. At least until he could find some way to cloud himself from that sight, which Loki thought might someday become unimaginably useful.
"You see all that occurs in the whole of the Nine Realms. Is that not so, Gatekeeper?"
"It is so, Your Highness."
"What, then, can you see of the Tree on which they hang? Does that too fall under your watch?"
Heimdall stood silently, not moving or speaking for a long moment. Loki wondered if he should repeat his question.
"Many of its branches and roots lay beyond my sight. Even if they were not, the World Tree is vast. I could not hope to comprehend all that occurs on it without the madness that so much knowledge could bring," he said, somewhat abruptly.
Loki bit his lip, but nodded. "I understand. What can you see of Yggdrasil, then?"
"I see where the realms hang from the branches, though their positions are constantly shifting. I see shadows of the monsters that gnaw eternally at the roots. I see the serpent that encircles the fruit that is Midgard, massive but bound to the seas that surround the realm. I see the noose where the All-Father once hung long ago in sacrifice. I see glimpses of leaves and blooms that grow and fade away as time passes. Beyond that, there is very little that passes through my vision."
"You see nothing else? Nothing that may live along the trunk of the Tree, nothing of the Norns who live at the roots, nothing of the wells that nourish it, where it grows from, what it grows into, nothing?" Loki asked indignantly, his voice steadily growing louder with each query.
"I am sorry, my prince. The mysteries of Yggdrasil will not unravel themselves for you through my sight."
Loki let out a low growl of frustration at the memory. If Heimdall had so little information about Yggdrasil, how could he have any hope of deciphering the mysteries of the World Tree? Could anyone?
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he exhaled, burying his fingers in his hair. He wasn't going to get much farther unless he cleared his mind. He listened.
The edge of Asgard where Loki now sat was mountainous, and the air was clear. The wind blew and nipped at him, but he had never much minded the cold. A small waterfall rushed and gurgled nearby and led into a river, where he could hear fish darting through the currents. Farther off, he could hear the braying of hardy, long-horned goats that lived along the mountainside along with the screech of falcons that flew overhead. When he listened more closely, he could hear the pitter patter of lizards running along the rocks and the faint noise of squirrels chattering at each other from afar.
Squirrels?
Loki blinked his eyes open. Did squirrels live up here on the mountain? He had never been in the habit of paying close attention to the wildlife, but from his numerous wanderings of the land around Asgard, squirrels were usually found in forested areas, weren't they?
He stood up, folding his notes away and tucking them into his clothes. He strained his ears listening and again managed to catch a snatch of squirrel chatter once more, coming from below him. On a whim, Loki decided to follow the noise. After all, he wasn't currently accomplishing much.
He slid down the rock face and landed neatly on a ledge below him before running lightly in the direction of the chatter. Years of Thor dragging him on hunts across the Nine Realms had greatly improved his stealth, and he could glide through all sorts of terrain without the slightest noise. Thor, meanwhile, still tended to barge through landscapes like some rogue animal, but he usually made up for that in strength.
The chattering grew louder. Loki slowed somewhat to keep quiet and better pinpoint the source of the noise. He crept around spiraling rock formations and mossy overgrowths, and to his surprise, it suddenly sounded as if the number of squirrels was increasing drastically the closer he got.
The rocks in this direction were becoming more slippery and treacherous, but Loki jumped, stepped, and climbed forward steadily, the chattering sounding as if it was getting closer and closer. Finally, when it sounded as if what had to be a small crowd of squirrels was just around the corner, Loki rounded the rock face and stopped at what had been the source of the noise.
There was nothing there.
Confused, he whipped his head around, searching. There were no animals around, and the chattering had completely vanished, not even leaving behind an echo bouncing through the wilderness.
Loki frowned. He hadn't imagined all that noise. It had been loud and familiar and he had definitely been following it for the last ten minutes or so. He searched the surrounding area for any sign of the telltale squirrels that he had gone searching for, but found nothing for his troubles.
Eventually, he turned back around and began heading back to the palace. He could explore the phenomenon more at a later time. For now, he would try to return to his investigation of the mysteries of the World Tree.
Squirrels, huh? I wonder what that could be about…
So the original draft of this chapter went into way more detail about training with sai, but I eventually decided that I was basically just indulging myself and that it wasn't actually very interesting to read, so I scrapped it and tried to condense the important things into this new version. I imagine most of you are here more for the characters and less for the weapons training, anyway. I'm glad that I wrote it, though, because I ended up learning a decent amount about sai handling, which may or may not come in handy for writing future scenes.
Anyway, as always, thank you all for reading, following, and favoriting this story! I've noticed that the number of reviews has essentially completely dropped off, and it's made me a bit confused. I hate to be that guy who begs for people to review, but it really honestly helps me develop the story when you guys tell me your reactions to different things I put in, what you like and don't like, etc. I keep worrying that maybe the lack of reviews is due to my writing or plot just getting worse, except I seem to still be getting a steady amount of follows, so I guess I'm still doing something that you guys like? Except without reviews, I can't tell what that might be. So, please give me whatever feedback you can, because I promise, my main reason in writing and publishing this fic is to give you guys a good reading experience, and reviews really do help me do that. The next chapter is going to be a scene I've been excited about writing for a while, and I'll be super glad if you guys are excited to read it too. I've got just a little bit of time before my school year starts, and I hope I can get it out to you all before then, because updates will definitely be much slower once that kicks off. I hope you don't think I'm ungrateful, because I really am delighted that you all still read this stuff. Please remember that whatever happens, even the spike in the view count when I post a new chapter is really flattering to me, and it means so much that you guys might be at all emotionally invested in my story or characters. I hope to see you all with a new chapter soon!