Welcome, new followers! I hope you're enjoying Loki's tale. He very much wanted it to get out, though he will be as surprised by this section as you.

Before we begin, I wanted to thank my wonderful husband for his help with this chapter and the next. Poetry, especially the rhyming kind, isn't my strong suit, but apparently my husband was an Oracle himself in a past life… :-)

P.S. The spacing kept coming out a little weird, so I lumped all of Mimir's words together and italicized them. Hopefully, it will clarify things.

Cheers!

Cecelia

Cecelia Jinn opened her eyes and found herself surrounded by an infinite darkness. She scrambled to her feet, relieved to find that her strength had finally returned, and whatever exhaustion she'd been forced to experience through Loki's magic was now gone. She looked around to get her bearings. She was standing on some kind of precipice, the stones beneath her feet so black that she couldn't see them though she could feel their solid stability.

And she was alive. After everything she'd suffered, she had that basic truth to hold onto. Now if she could just figure out what the hell she was doing here. Wherever "here" was.

"Look up, Cee Jinn."

She had no idea where the voice came from, but it vibrated through her mind, penetrating through her uncertainty and apprehension. She glanced above her and sucked in a shaky breath.

Layers upon layers of stars, galaxies of them, shone from their dizzying heights. Each overlaying band and swirl of glimmering brightness was alight with vibrant colors, some of which she'd never seen before and couldn't possibly describe to anyone should she make it back to Earth. She'd never seen anything so beautiful, so all consuming, in her life. It made her feel complete, a perfect part of something far bigger than herself, and yet utterly insignificant.

"Come closer, Cee Jinn. Come to me."

"Why are you calling me that?" She stared above her, feeling ridiculous for speaking to a cluster of stars in the sky, but she had no idea where else the voice could be coming from. "My name is Cecelia."

"That is your human name, The name that is your past…But I deal in the future, Of things that come to pass."

She blinked away the images of the galaxies above, and looked over her shoulder. A stone sphere appeared in front of her. It seemed to rest in the center of whatever invisible platform she was standing on. She took a step toward it, her eyes taking in the silver glitter of each perfect etch of stone masonry from the foundation to its very top. It wasn't until she reached the edge of the circular stones that she realized she was standing at the lip of a well.

Isn't this where Loki had said he'd see her again? At a well?

"Where am I?" she asked.

"My name is Mimir, And my powers are here. Stolen by a jealous king, Who always keeps me near."

A face appeared in the perfect stillness of the black waters, a beautiful and masculine face that looked oh-so human. Mimir's eyes opened, and Cecelia gazed into his depths. She found nothing but wisdom. And maybe a hint of unbridled curiosity.

"Am I the first human you've ever met?" If this watering hole, or whatever he might really be, was making the attempt to communicate, she might as well continue the conversation. Even if she did feel a little ridiculous.

"Humanity, with its frailty, A vapor in the mist. You are the first, though not the last, To wonder at my gifts."

She shivered, even though she didn't feel the least bit cold. "Why am I here?"

"Didn't the god of tricks and lies explain why you're before my sight?"

She shook her head. "No, and why do you speak like that anyway?"

The voice chuckled. "I am an Oracle, my dear. Would you like to know your future here?"

"Not really." She glanced around her with a soft grunt, rubbing her upper arms. "My guess is that Loki's going to kill me after I've outlived my usefulness. Isn't that right?"

She certainly wouldn't put it past the psycho Asgardian prince. She loosened her grip on the edge of the well, her eyes darting around her for a weapon she might use to defend herself whenever Loki made his way here, but then the waters began to ripple from the center of the face. Each wave moved with an unnatural slowness until it found its home at the outer edge of the stones. When the last ripple faded, Mimir began to speak:

"Daughter of a captured goddess, Wandering through time. Born to die, and born again, As all half-breeds of your kind

"But you asked a question, and I'll tell you what I know: Your future lies in Asgard's halls wearing a maiden's cloak

"Loki's tricks may gain him a crown, But its tips dull in this life. When the god of tricks is tricked himself into making you his wife!"

Cecelia gasped. Her fingers released their hold on the edge of the well, and she stepped back in shock.

The waters went still.

It took her a minute to regroup, but she managed to choke out a question. "What did you say?"

"Was I not clear? Did you not hear?"

Her breath was coming in short bursts, and tears of disbelief formed at the corners of her vision.

Mimir continued another archaic line in his singsong fashion, but she could no longer hear him. Her ears rang with the voices of the thousand stars above her, each pulsing with promise, but now she felt no connection to them at all. Her life, filled with all the dreams and goals she'd nourished in the secret places of her heart for over two decades, had shriveled into hollow husks.

"I'm going to… marry Loki." Just saying the words brought bitter bile to her throat. It couldn't be true. She wouldn't ever consent. She was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. She had a life to lead on Earth, dammit. A life that didn't involve Loki: a career to maintain, relationships to explore, and one day even children to have if she was lucky enough. None of it was tied to the god of mischief.

"No." She said the word with such force she wondered that the declaration didn't come alive and ripple through the waters of Mimir's Well.

"Yes."

His answer was resolute. Solid. And in Mimir's utterance of that one syllable, it was as if something… shifted in the air around her, traveling from the depths and reverberating into the universe itself like a binding oath. She glanced up at the brilliant worlds above her, and a tear fell from her cheek as the stars shone down in a glittering dance of mockery.