Loki awoke after many hours of deeply restful sleep. The effects of his overindulgence two nights prior that he had struggled with the day before had completely abated. He put his hand over the hand he felt gently resting on his chest, his vision, his mind emerging from slumber registering it as that of Sigyn. He often awoke to find her hand in the same position or her arm draped over him. From the first night after both had recovered their memories of each other and first shared a bed for the first time in centuries, his physical presence, his heartbeat was a comfort to her, even more so recently.
Turning his head to peer at the sleeping woman by his side, he reached out towards her before his mind fully awakened and realization overtook him that she who shared his bed that morning was not who she appeared to be. What at first seemed to be comfortably routine was not. He withdrew his hand and gently moved Mariel's from him as he slid out of the bed.
Loki had just exited the bedroom into the large sitting room of the royal chambers when the door opened, two angelic guards entering. Loki dispelled the illusion, revealing Thor and Xenia. He could instantly surmise by the deeply troubled expressions on both of their faces that something was very wrong.
"What is it?" Loki asked.
"I have failed you." Xenia said.
Sigyn sat on the cot, ear buds in her ears, eating the strawberries she'd brought with her. In her hand she held the stone she had found on the island. She stared once more at the symbol etched into it. She had begun to carry it with her wherever she went. She noticed movement at the entrance, the hide being drawn back, and then the blue, hulking body of Skrymir entered the cave. Turning off the music, she removed the earbuds and stowed them on the cot beside her.
"I announced my arrival..." Skrymir said apologetically.
"Would you like one?" Sigyn held out a strawberry. Skrymir crossed the floor of the cave to stand a few feet before the cot and tentatively reached out, taking the red berry. It looked tiny between his large, long fingers. "It's a strawberry. I suppose you've never seen one before. They grow on Midgard."
"What is its purpose?" Skrymir asked, examining the berry.
"You eat it." Sigyn said, looking amused at Skrymir's confusion over a simple strawberry. Looking unsure, he put it into his mouth.
"It is an interesting flavor. We have nothing comparable here."
"I didn't figure you did." Sigyn replied. She recalled the stone in her hand and what Sif had told her upon finding it. She held it out towards Skrymir. "Do you know what this is?"
Skrymir looked to the stone in her hand.
"Do you eat it as well?" he asked. Sigyn laughed.
"No. It's a stone. Have you seen anything like it here?" Skrymir took it from her, examining it. It again looked far smaller in his possession.
"No. I have seen nothing of its like before."
"So Jotuns don't carry these? They don't use them to tell their futures?"
"Not that I am aware. Perhaps long ago, long before my time. The symbol is of an ancient language once shared between many people of the realms. Did you find it here?" Skrymir asked.
"No. On Midgard." Sigyn told him. Skrymir handed the stone back to Sigyn.
"If it was found on Midgard, why would you think it of Jotun origin?" Skrymir asked, looking somewhat confused.
"Jotuns had somewhat recently been there...the ones who attacked us. They had crossed the ground where it was found. A friend of mine thought it may have belonged to one of them."
"I know of no Jotun that possesses such a thing."
"I didn't think you would."
"The symbol upon it, it signifies life. It also signifies protection of one's life from enemies, defense of the life of one which one loves." Skrymir explained. Sigyn looked to the symbol once more, then stowed it away again in her pocket.
"Well, if it was being carried by one of the Jotuns as some sort of protective charm, it didn't work. They're all dead." Sigyn said, then looked to Skrymir, immediately regretting her statement. "I'm sorry. They could have been your relatives, friends."
"One has no need to apologize for defending their life from an attacking enemy in battle. I have no family still living. I would not say that I have friends. When Abbadon appeared, offered an alliance with Loriel and the angels, I was the lone voice willing to speak out against it. I refused to fight. I was thought by the others to be cowardly and weak. Though I was eventually proven right, their opinion of me has not changed."
"Sometimes it takes more courage not to fight. What happened to your family?"
"My mother died long ago. My father and brother were killed by the Bifrost."
"Oh. I'm sorry." Sigyn said, looking down.
"The attack was not entirely unprovoked. Asgard had been invaded twice."
"Yes, but had Loki not opened the way for them..."
"Had Laufey been interested in upholding the peace he would have declined his offer. He did not consider what was best for his people, only his own wishes, his own glory. The hatred of one so cruelly left to die as a helpless infant by his own father is understandable. He did us a great favor in ridding us of Laufey."
"You are a strange Jotun...I mean in a good way. If it's any consolation, Loki has come to regret many of the mistakes in his past."
"Hardened hearts are often softened, the storms that rage within often quelled by the love of another." Skrymir said.
"What of your heart? Is there someone?" Sigyn asked.
"There was. He was slain during Loriel's invasion. Were we to have been discovered, it would have been death for both of us by Jotun hands. I often wish that we had been. We would have at least died together."
"Loki has forbidden executions or persecution for such things on Jotunheim. There's no longer reason to live in fear."
"They are but words. He holds the throne but it is not he who sits upon it. There is much which Drolfey does not share with our King." Skrymir informed Sigyn. She looked with concern to Skrymir.
"Share it with me."
"I did not see until it was too late. This dark creature blocks my vision, I know not how. Even the empousae could not do so. I cannot see it or what it does. I only see its victims once it is too late." Xenia said, mournful and frustrated. Loki put a hand on her shoulder.
"There were things even Heimdall could not see. I myself was able to fool him more than once."
"I have told her the same." Thor said.
"You said that he saved Sigyn from this same creature. How, if he could not see it?" Xenia asked.
"He could not see it, but he could see her. He was sworn to protect the throne and those closest to it. Had he not been keeping watch over us that day...it was one of the few times I was glad of it." Loki replied. "Have you told anyone else?"
"No. We did not enter. Xenia's sight was enough. We have left them as they lay. for the time being. This could prove to be the opportunity we have been waiting for." Thor told him.
Mariel appeared in the doorway to the bedchamber dressed in Sigyn's long silk robe. Thor looked from Mariel, who still appeared as Sigyn, to Loki with an expression that betrayed his thoughts on the matter. He had been aware of Mariel's role as a decoy, but not to what extent the obfuscation went. He was also well aware of Mariel's other vocation besides serving as the highest ranking of Sigyn's attendants.
"We couldn't risk her absence being discovered. Sigyn is well aware of the arrangement and agreed to it. I would not betray her trust." Loki explained to Thor. Mariel approached the three looking concerned.
"If only myself and father had held such a place in your heart." Thor said.
"As Stark said, I have turned over a new tree...or something of the sort. I don't recall the exact expression."
"Stark?" Thor asked questioningly. Before Loki could explain, Mariel reached Loki's side.
"Left who as they lay?" Mariel asked.
"Zaphiel and Raguel's wife and son. they were slain in Raguel's living quarters. We can only assume Raguel as well and that she is now making use of his body." Thor told Mariel.
"He meets with the Queen or yourself each day, more often now." said Mariel.
"The serpent prepares to strike." Xenia said.
"We have the advantage. We know where the serpent hides." said Loki.
Mariel stood by the window, peering out over the crystalline buildings much as Loki had previously done. She stared at her new reflection in the glass. As she did so she heard the doors behind her open, a sentry entering, Raguel walking behind him. She turned from the window and faced the sentry.
"Thank you. Leave us." She told the sentry. The sentry bowed his head and turned, walking around Raguel who stood with his hands clasped behind his back.
"You summoned me?" Raguel asked.
"Yes, I did." Mariel told him. She noticed him taking quick glances around the room. "We are quite alone. Loki nor his brother are here. They are at this moment preparing a trap in which to snare you. Yes, I know who you are. Would you like to know who I am?" Mariel's facade as Sigyn fell away. "She is not here but I know where she is. Give me what I want and I will give you what you want." Mariel told Loriel.
"What is it you want?"
"Love." Mariel said simply. Loriel in Raguel's body, with his voice laughed.
"Love? Do you not get enough of that?"
"I did not betray you for her. I did it for him." Mariel said. Loriel laughed once again.
"A single encounter and you fall in love? I thought you and your kind above such base sentiment."
"He is unlike any other I have ever known."
"He most definitely is. If only you knew. Without my assistance he would never have been born." Loriel responded.
"You have the power...give me his love, all that I am forced to witness him give to her day after day. Allow us to leave this place and live out our lives together far from here. Is that such a high price to pay for the throne? He has the orb. He knows its purpose. I can take you to her now. When we return he will believe you to be me. It will not be difficult to do what I ask. Time is short." Mariel said. Loriel using Raguel's eyes looked into Mariel's.
"It's true. You do love him. How disgusting." Loriel said.
"Do you agree?" Mariel held out her hand, within it lay a transport cylinder.
"Agreed." Loriel said. Mariel walked to Loriel and held out her hand. Loriel in Raguel's body reached out and took it. Mariel activated the cylinder, both disappearing in a pinkish violet light.
Mariel and Loriel reappeared in the glow of the cylinder's light a few yards from the entrance to the cave where Sigyn had taken refuge on Jotunheim. Loriel looked around for any sign of danger, for a trap about to be sprung and saw nothing to arouse her suspicions, nothing but the cold, frozen wasteland of Jotunheim stretching out before and behind her.
"In there. She is alone." Mariel told Loriel. Loriel grabbed Mariel's arm and pulled her with her to the cave. Mariel moved the hide covering the entrance aside and entered, Loriel following behind. Sigyn lay on the cot once again, earbuds in her ears, her eyes closed, the book she had been reading open but lying on her chest. Loriel examined the cave for any other presence. As she approached the cot where Sigyn lay, Sigyn opened her eyes, turning her head. She looked in astonishment as Raguel approached her, Mariel standing near the entrance.
"Raguel? Has something happened to Loki?" Sigyn asked worriedly.
"No, he is safe. Loriel has been apprehended. He sent us to bring you home." Loriel said. A broad, happy smile erupted on Sigyn's face as she began to sit up. Loriel reached for the dagger at the waist of Raguel's body.
Suddenly Loriel found herself, physically himself, being flung by an unseen force against the wall of the cave, then lifted again and flung against the opposite wall. The illusion of empty space faded, Skrymir standing there, holding Raguel's bloodied body. As Sigyn sat up, she tossed the book aside, revealing the blue orb held in her hand, the light within it pulsing. The speed of its pulse increased, sending a strobe effect throughout the cave. Loriel's face drained of color, she shrieked in terror at the sight of the orb and struggled in Skrymir's grasp. Raguel's body began to go limp as a an inky black smoke like substance emanated from his mouth, his nose, his eyes. As Loki and Thor appeared out of seeming thin air near the wall of the cave, both could not help but think how similar the effect was to the aether as it had been drawn from Jane Foster by the dark elf Malekith. The black smoke, the essence of Loriel, reached the orb and appeared to be absorbed into it until it could be seen no more. The orb returned to it's original state. Skrymir dropped the limp, lifeless body of Raguel to the floor of the cave.
Sigyn sat speechless, staring at the pulsing orb that rested in the palm of her hand. The cause of centuries of pain, fear, loneliness, her separation from Loki, all the years they had lost, all that her existence had wrought directly and indirectly on both their lives was now imprisoned within it. Her mind attempted to grasp the finality of it.
"It's over." She finally managed to say. Loki had made his way to stand before her. She looked up to him, tears now streaming from her eyes. Loki took the orb from her and handed it off to Thor, then taking both of Sigyn's hands raised her to her feet. She fell into his arms, as he wrapped his tightly about her as she sobbed with joy, with relief.
"Yes, my love, it's all over now. She will never part us again." Loki gently moved Sigyn back from him to look into her deep blue eyes, holding her head between his hands before kissing her, both once again wrapping their arms around each other as Thor and Mariel moved towards the entrance of the cave. "Are you ready to go home?" Loki asked.
"Yes...no, wait. Skrymir..." Skrymir, who had been making his way towards the cave's entrance as well, turned. "Tell your King all you have told me."