Ensoulment
by Valerie Vancollie
valeriev84 at hotmail dot com
Notes: Here you go, a longer chapter. And, no, I'm not deliberately jumping away from Rhea just to keep the suspense going, there is more to it. This time ;)
Valhöll, 2018 A.D.
The way her youngest had abruptly vanished- as if teleporting away- after his cryptic last words about his birth mother still haunted Frigga. Especially after it had become apparent that he was nowhere to be found in Valhöll. It should not have been possible for Loki to leave the Realm of the honorable dead, yet he seemed to have managed it less than an hour after first arriving. It was unsettling, particularly when combined with all that he had said and implied.
It had taken Frigga days to achieve a relative calm, but even now she remained a little on edge, unable to relax entirely. Not when there was something so mysterious occurring to her son and she could do naught to aid him.
"I thought I would find you here," Óðinn's voice came from behind her and Frigga turned to find him standing in the door to the balcony.
"Óðinn," she greeted, smiling as he moved towards her.
There had been arguments after Loki left, his words unable to cause anything else, but they had settled on a peace since. Though she could not condone his actions against their son, she did understand he had been unable to simply treat their youngest as his son alone. Besides, they were both dead now, so little could be done about it.
"What is wrong?" she demanded a moment later, noticing the Einherjar posted on either side of the door beyond her husband's shoulder.
"Something comes," Óðinn replied, eyes worried. "There is great power on the wind."
"Mayhap you are not as entirely hopeless as he thought."
The familiar voice came from behind her and Frigga spun around to see her baby standing at the balustrade, back to them. His clothing had changed into a style she was unfamiliar with, at least from this angle, and the colors had been altered. His green was still present but rather than being accompanied by black and gold, the rest of the outfit was a very dark brown and plum. He still had high boots and his long leather coat had many tails to allow for ease of movement in battle, but the vambraces on his forearms were different. They were a peculiar color she could not place, though they were partially hidden from view behind his long hair which now fell to his waist.
Instead of turning to face them, Loki remained as he was, one wrist clasped within the other hand at the small of his back and his free hand curled into a fist. It was a relaxed stance, showing no signs of the tension her baby's posture had held by the end of their last meeting. It too had started strangely calm, though, Frigga now remembered. It was almost as if Loki had been rendered strangely emotionless.
It was not a pleasant thought.
"He?" Óðinn asked, frowning.
"Aye," Loki replied, shifting and beginning to pace along the balcony, though he deliberately kept his head turned away from them. "Why did you do it? Take him in?"
Frigga's head whipped around to meet her husband's startled eyes. Why was Loki referring to himself in the third person?
"Do you mean why did I take you in?" Óðinn asked. "You were an infant. You would have died."
"That is not what you said before," Loki replied, stopping and bringing his hands before him to rest on the marble balustrade with a soft clink. "You spoke of political advantages."
"I was king! Of course such possibilities occurred to me, you of all people should be aware of this."
They had spoken of this. Frigga had demanded it after her baby's last visit when it had become very evident much had passed between Óðinn and Loki she had not been aware of. She could have slapped her husband when he had told her some of it.
"You were ever the one to point out the most practical and strategic realities, regardless of the more sentimental concerns they entailed," Óðinn continued. "It does not mean that was all you meant to me. Indeed those plans-"
"No longer mattered?" Loki finished, half-turning but tilting his head so his hair swept forward to mask his face. "Perhaps."
"Loki," Frigga said after a moment of silence. "Please look at us."
For a moment she feared he would refuse her request, his posture now stiff and unrelenting. But then he moved, slowly turning, hands once more behind his back and head down. Her eyes swept over his form out of habit, checking to see if he had any visible injuries and pleased when she found none. His outfit beneath the elaborate and sleeveless coat was clearly armored and made her think of the one he had worn the day he had been crowned regent though the similarities were vague at best. There was more of the unknown metal, but only a little, most of the highlights either green or plum.
The most intriguing detail, though, was the elaborate tree stitched into the left breast of his coat in a silvery-white thread. Being as familiar as Frigga was with Loki's sketches and illustrations of the Yggdrasill she recognized it immediately as one of his. Though similar in many ways to other depictions of the World Tree across the Nine, her youngest's drawings had always been unique in several consistent details, the coloring and shading of it being but two of those, both rendered here by the color of the embroidery.
Then Loki raised his head and Frigga's breath caught in her throat in shock. There, seemingly embedded into his forehead, were three gems; one yellow, one green and one red.
The unexpectedness of it stymied her thinking and she could only stare as she tried to understand what she was seeing. Or to comprehend what had happened to her son.
"Are those Infinity Stones?" Óðinn questioned in shocked disbelief.
"Mind Stone, Time Stone, Reality Stone," Loki said, pointing at each in turn as he moved from right to left across his forehead.
Frigga opened her mouth wordlessly for a moment, glancing between Óðinn and Loki, before she regained her voice. "How did you come to possess Infinity Stones in your forehead?"
It... she was not entirely sure what it was, but completely unexpected and wholly unpredicted were a good place to start. They were supposed to disintegrate mortals with a mere touch and it was said even one of the more long lived races would be hard-pressed to touch but two of them at once, let alone three or have them imbedded in their skin.
"I took them from Thanos," Loki said, voice oddly toneless, gaze blank as he glanced at them.
Then he took a step forwards and suddenly there were Einherjar bursting forth from behind herself and Óðinn, weapons raised protectively.
"Nay!" Frigga cried out even as her husband caught her in his arms, preventing her from interfering. "Óðinn!"
"Something is not right here, I know you sense it too," Óðinn replied.
Loki's held tilted and an amused smile crossed his otherwise blank face before he slowly raised his arms, fists closed. When they were at shoulder height he paused and Frigga's heart tripped in her chest. Óðinn was right, she knew something was not right, but that was her baby, of that she was absolutely certain. There was something different and perhaps even wrong about him, but that it was Loki she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Then Loki opened his fists and Frigga's breath caught in her throat as she caught sight of the blue and purple gems embedded into his palms.
"Space Stone," Loki said, wiggling the fingers of his left hand. "Power Stone," he continued, wiggling the fingers of his right hand.
Checkmate.
It took the guards and her husband a moment longer to realize it, but Frigga knew it right away. They stood no chance against even one Infinity Stone, let alone five of them. The head guard glanced over at Óðinn and her husband motioned them back, an order they followed with great reluctance. It was quite telling as a reaction for they were already in Valhöll, it was not like they could die a second time. Once they were off the balcony, Loki lowered his arms and Óðinn released her.
"How did you take them from Thanos?" Óðinn asked, but softly. "You are dead."
"No, he is dead, the one you took in," Loki replied. "I am not for I cannot die. I am timeless."
Frigga shared a look with her husband, trying to see if he understood this any better than her. Alas it was quite clear he did not.
"If you are not Loki, then who are you?" Frigga asked.
A smirk and then his form wavered, becoming seemingly vaporous before it vanished entirely, leaving behind only the Stones. Blue, purple, orange, red, green and yellow they hung in the air before them where a moment before their son had stood. They glowed and shone in the light of Valhöll's sun and Frigga could only stare at them silently. They seemed so harmless when viewed like this, harmless and beautiful. It was hard to believe how much death and destruction they had caused. Or had been caused to obtain them and by perverting their power.
Her baby had died because he possessed one of them.
Then Loki's form coalesced into being once more and he stood before them with the five Stones embedded into his body, though the wash of pure, raw power unveiled only a few moment earlier still remained.
Wait, five.
"Where is the Soul Stone?" Frigga questioned, eyes running over his form and not seeing it.
"As quick and astute as always, Frigga," Loki replied without actually answering.
His words, though, tore at her. Frigga he had said. Frigga, not mother. All of the relief she had felt the last time at being addressed as thus vanished in an instant and Frigga could not help but fear. What had happened to her baby?
Then, suddenly, there was someone else present, a woman who looked to be no older than Loki though Frigga knew it could not be true. Not with how closely she resembled her youngest. Tall, lightly curled black hair, pale skin and green eyes. This was her; Loki's birth mother. The one he had referred to more than once now since first appearing in Valhöll, the one whom neither Frigga nor Óðinn had ever given much thought to, simply assuming she was Fárbauti, wife of Laufey and Queen of Jötunheimr.
"Hello, Mother," Loki said, turning to look at her.
Frigga felt her heart trip in her chest at hearing that word addressed to someone other than herself. Especially so soon after he had failed to use it with her.
"Loki," the woman replied, narrowing her eyes as she looked at Loki. "I see," she said before suddenly she stood before him.
The teleportation caught Frigga by surprise, she had never known anyone other than her son who could do it. Before she could even think to comment on it, the woman had raised her hands and placed them on either side of Loki's face before her palms began to glow purple.
"Come back to us, Loki," she said.
Loki allowed the action, merely tilting his head curiously, as if the magic did not concern or affect him at all.
"Remember who you are," the woman said as Frigga drew closer.
"I-" Loki began but it was cut off as his eyes widened, emotion finally bleeding back into them.
"There you are," Loki's mother smiled, lowering her hands and taking a step back.
"Darling?" Frigga questioned softly, drawing his attention.
"Mother," Loki replied, finally smiling and stepping close.
She eagerly returned his embrace, closing her eyes in relief at finally being able to truly recognize her son and his form of address. "Do not do that ever again!"
"It was necessary," he replied.
"For what?"
"Everything."
It told Frigga nothing, but before she could question him further, her baby drew back and glanced at the other woman.
"You planned this," Loki said.
"Yes, Little One, I did," she confirmed, smiling.
It sent a stab of unexpected jealousy through Frigga. She was Loki's mother, in all but birth. What right did this woman have to show up now, over a thousands years later, to try and claim her baby? After everything which had transpired, but most importantly, how Loki had been left in a temple. Alone and abandoned!
"Little One," Loki murmured, eyes going distant once more and then his skin was shifting and changing.
Green bled across his skin even as he shrank and morphed, face and chest softening until an alien woman with dark magenta tinged dark brown hair stood before them.
"No, Loki," the other woman said, voice soft but stern. "That is Gamora, Daughter of Thanos, it is not you."
"Not me?" Loki asked, looking confused even as he shifted back. "Then why is she here?"
"Because Thanos sacrificed her to the Soul Stone too."
Sacrificed! Frigga had known the Mad Titan was a monster, but to sacrifice his own child for a gem- even if it was an Infinity Stone- was unthinkable.
Wait. Too.
"You sacrificed Loki for the Stone!" Frigga realized, looking at her in horror and growing rage.
"It was necessary," the woman replied calmly. "And my name is Sága."
"I do not care what your name is, you do not sacrifice your children for anything!"
"Mother," Loki said, reaching out to touch her arm. "It is fine."
"It is not fine!" Frigga protested, focusing her attention back on him and touching his cheek. "You are not a pawn to be bartered at random."
"It was not random, it was planned."
"He is correct," Sága confirmed.
"You had a child just to sacrifice him?" Frigga demanded. "That is even worse!"
"Not with what she is," Loki explained. "There was never going to be more before I existed, that all came later, but still before my birth."
"Yes, Little One, you are remembering," Sága encouraged.
"I remember you, all around me, warmth and safety. Your body, your heart, your power."
Frigga's mouth dropped open as she realized what Loki was saying. He remembered Sága from when he had been within her womb. It should be impossible, but her baby had hardly ever been normal. At first she had thought it merely a mother's warped view of a much beloved child, but once he had commenced his seiðr studies she had realized it was not. Not at the rate he learned, quickly outpacing her and any other tutors she acquired for him, veritably devouring all seiðr knowledge he could come by.
"I remember..." Loki trailed off, head tilting once more and eyes unfocused but not distant. "I remember the Soul Stone, its power and... essence as it joined with me. Then you were gone."
"Yes, it happened during your birth," Sága said. "Me for it."
"Nay, you for Frigga."
As he said it, Loki glanced back at Frigga, eyes half orange and half green. Glowing. It was unnerving but Frigga had never been one to allow herself to be frightened from what she needed to do. She steeled herself and reached out to touch his face gently once more.
"My little baby," she said, smiling as she remembered when Óðinn had first placed him in her arms. "Child of my heart, if not my body."
"You were a good mother to him," Sága commented. "I was only able to relinquish him in the end as I knew he would have you when I did so. That you would truly love him."
The words made Frigga feel conflicted. She wanted to hate this woman who had dared to sacrifice her own child for an Infinity Stone- who had dared to sacrifice Loki for one- but she was starting to understand there was something more transpiring here. Loki was not here by chance or whim, no there was purpose to his visit, an important purpose as he had clearly just come from Thanos, bearing all the Infinity Stones. Almost all of the Man Titan's power, none of which he would relinquish easily, not after what he had needed to do to acquire them in the first place, nor given the power they possessed.
The greatest power in the universe when any two were together and here her baby stood with five visibly embedded into his body. Mind, Time, Reality, Space and Power. Which left just one and she had seen it earlier.
"Loki, where is the Soul Stone?" Frigga asked, dread settling in the pit of her stomach once more.
It was the Stone Sága had sacrificed Loki for and for which Thanos had apparently sacrificed his own daughter for. Or at least one he viewed as his daughter as Gamora was clearly zehoberi and Thanos was not.
Instead of answering, Loki merely looked at her, eyes going distant and blank once more.
"Here," Sága said, reaching out and placing a hand on Loki's chest, the tip of her middle finger resting in the hollow of his throat.
"There?" Frigga asked, not understanding.
"Loki and the Soul Stone became one when I sacrificed him to it. He is the Soul Stone made flesh."
The Soul Stone made flesh.
The words echoed in Frigga's head, their meaning refusing to register as she knew she could not bear it.
"What did you do?" she hissed, voice low and dangerous as she turned to face Sága fully, wishing she could pull her youngest behind her.
"I ensouled the Soul Stone, brought it to life," Sága replied calmly but with a small smile as she looked at Frigga. "Loki and it are now one, he merely has to finish melding with it."
"One? Melding? He is my son!" Frigga exploded. "And you would treat him as nothing but a... a... thing to be used towards your own goals!"
"Thanos had to be stopped and Loki is correct, to one such as I there could never have been more before, when he did not yet exist," Sága explained, countering Frigga's rage with patience. "By the time I had already achieved his creation and added the necessary chaos, it was too late, I had to continue for the sake of half the lives in the universe."
Frigga wished to protest that she did not care about half the lives in the universe, that she only cared for her sons, but she knew it was not true. She was not so callous and she knew Loki might still have died at Thanos' hand even if he had escaped with Thor, for half meant he might have died with the snap. Still, acknowledging that and being able to act as Sága had were two very different things. But... it was twice now Sága's species had been referenced in terms of her ability to care for Loki before he had existed. As if knowing one would love their children had been entirely alien to her.
"Which species you?" Óðinn demanded, coming up beside Frigga, clearly having come to the same realization.
A smile as Sága shared a look with Loki. "We have many names, but you would know my kind as celestials."
"Celestials?" Frigga repeated, eyes wide before she glanced at her husband.
He looked just as shocked as her. As well he should be. The celestials were hardly more than a myth, mighty and powerful people from long ago, lost to the mists of time. Or so they had been led to believe, only sparse remnants of their presence were left scattered across the universe. Yet even those spoke of a durability and power far beyond that of almost any other species since. It...
It made a lot about Loki's skill with seiðr more clear, not to mention his actions after he had learned of his jötunn heritage. To have this in the very fabric of his being along with the jötunn element and the chaos Sága had spoken of earlier. It was no longer surprising her baby had veered towards madness when Óðinn had inadvertently destabilized his sense of self.
"What are you?" Óðinn demanded, glaring at Sága.
Rather than be offended at her husband's rudeness, Sága seemed to find it amusing and for that Frigga felt relieved. She was not sure what Óðinn was thinking, confronting such a powerful being like that. She knew he was aware of the commonly held beliefs regarding their true forms-
Oh. What are you.
Óðinn meant to ask what her true form was as it would not be the pale skinned and dark haired woman standing before them with Loki's green eyes. Nay, if other celestials were worlds or giants who could walk through space itself, then she would be something similar. This was naught but an avatar meant to allow for ease of interaction with them.
The irony that Laufey might be the smaller of Loki's birth parents was not lost on Frigga, but for now it was but a vague and distant realization.
"Mother, All-Father, she is the Yggdrasill."
Tada, the final reveal on Sága, and, yes, some of you were correct in guessing what she is! As in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Sága's brain is at the core of what she is, in this case in the roots of the Yggdrasill. Hence what Loki was looking at and having a bit of a harder time accepting. Can you blame him?
So, what do you think of Loki's new look? Like it? Hate it?
Tomorrow we go back to Rhea!
Old Norse:
seiðr - witchcraft, sorcery / a type of sorcery practiced in Norse society during the Late Scandinavian Iron Age - i.e. magic