Visitation

by kalimecat

Loki has returned to Asgard and is imprisoned for his crimes. While in prison he has the occasional visitor, will the love of others bring back the fallen prince or is he truly too far gone?

46. The Visitation Confrontation

A/N: HEEEEEELLLOOOO READERS! Once more I apologize for the prolonged update. I'm always thinking of you all and the story, but unfortunately, sometimes life gets in the way. Nevertheless, I want to thank you all so much for your continued support of this story. Because of you, I can proudly say that I have been writing this story for over 5 years and I wouldn't have gotten this far without you! Your continued interest in this story has kept me going! So thank you! thank you! THANK YOU! I want each of you to know that I value and appreciate each and every one of your follows, favorites and reviews! I actually had a lot of fun writing this chapter and I hope you all will have a lot of fun reading it. I consider it part one of the climax of this story! So hopefully you find it exciting too. As always I tried to edit as best as I could, but whatever typos you may catch please excuse. Well happy reads and writes and mostly GOD BLESS! Without further ado...

Chapter 46

The self-proclaimed king dragged his feet into his bedchamber. The familiar room was a welcomed sight. The raven-haired enchanter nearly smiled as his boots stepped wearily across the threshold of his chamber door. He could not picture anything more glorious than seeing his double-king sized bed made to perfection with the deep emerald and black silk sheets and comforters. He pictured himself falling face first into the soft and plush quilts and allowing the mattress, covers and feathered pillows to massage every ache and pain created from the exhausting, grueling endless night.

The night had dragged on at a painstakingly slow pace and yet time flew. In ticking second brought him closer and closer to Convergence. The day that many Asgardians had waited their whole lives to behold. It was supposed to be a festive and hopeful time full of beauty and wonder. Instead, it would become the day that would end their civilization. The trickster smirked it was painfully poetic. Convergence would become Ragnarok. A day when the worlds were destined to align was also the day they were destined to be destroyed. The new king of Asgard threw his head back. He tried to suppress it, but a wild cackle bubbled up from his throat. The laugh was dry and raw and his throat hurt for letting it out, but he couldn't stop laughing. He laughed like a madman he giggled like a boy in a candy store. Perhaps it was because he was so tired that he couldn't even think straight, perhaps it was because he was about to get everything that he ever wanted. Weren't people supposed to be ecstatic out of their minds when that was about to happen? Of course, he still wasn't sure how it had come to this. He could recall every single event that had brought him to this point, but still he wasn't quite sure how they had come to this. 3 years ago he had merely wanted to stop Thor from becoming king of Asgard now he was planning to execute him.

He raked shaky, thin fingers through his wet midnight hair after he finally ran out of breath, stopped his manic guffawing and started coughing. He coughed loudly and bitter. He sounded like he was ready to hack up a lung. He managed to compose himself and stop his terrible, coughing, huffing and puffing. He stood up straight and took three deep breaths. He thought of sleep. It would just be a few hours, but even 4 measly hours would be enough for him to make himself look radiant and fresh for the biggest day of his life. Convergence would not only double as Ragnorok but as his coronation day. Asgard would witness the end of the House of Bor and the human would see the death of one of their precious Avengers and the Nine Realms would watch him rise to ultimate power. He was more than positive that never in the history of the kings of Asgard would there have been such an event. The thought was simply glorious.

The king removed his crown. He sat the gilded helmet on one of many antique coffee tables that littered his large domicile. He walked through bedroom removing bits of clothing as he did so. First, he removed his royal cape and outer vestments. He threw them about messily. Such behavior was uncharacteristic for the king. He normally liked everything neat and tucked and precisely in order. There was a place for everything and everything in its place.

The enchanter started to kick off his boots. He had nearly reached his warm bed when all of a sudden, he caught a whiff. The smell was distinctly dirty. It was the smell of sweat and grime, blood and muck. It was wet and sticky. He curled his sharp nose as he caught a whiff of foul fragrance. He couldn't imagine anything in the room that would leave such an odor. He'd always kept his room immaculate. He made the housekeepers nervous with his standards. He had let go many chambermaids who did not meet his standards. He had hardly even stepped foot into his room, so where could that rancid odor possibly be coming from. Asgard's new king continued to sniff about like a hound. His keen nostrils were able to detect all the little traces and details in the smell. It was indeed a stench, but there was also something sweet to it. In the midst of the dirty odor, there was something almost pleasant about it. It was a light and airy scent, barely there, but it lingered. It was a smell of fresh cut flowers and sugar. He sniffed again. No, maybe it was more like honey.

He closed his eyes and concentrated. There was a presence in the chamber; one more than his own. Using his powers the emerald-eyed enchanter was able to reach out and feel that which was around him. The presence was familiar, but he could scarcely since the familiarity over the rage. There was so much rage oozing from the presence. Whoever it was livid, furious. He mashed his lips together as he was able to hone in on all the nuances of the emotions that seemed to radiate in the room. His energies became fired up by the fury. The king's thin lips pulled back into a signature smirk. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," he muttered to himself. Now he knew it was a woman.

The fury was a lethal kind. It verged on the brink of violence. Ahh someone wanted to fight, that was good, he wanted to fight too, but to best prepare for the fight one needed to know their opponent. He pressed further. He used all his mental faculties to search and feel out in the dark. The only woman he had ever know to possess such an insatiable desire for aggression was Lady Sif. She was a tough adversary. No doubt she had braved the ash clouds and the haze the Aether mist and fire that raged throughout the city to rescue her prince. The trickster nearly snorted, it was all so laughable. Sif braving life and limb to face him, to free Thor, to stop Ragnarok, but the warrior woman would soon find that this would not be a battle easily won.

But Lady Sif did not wear flower scented perfume. Her smell was usually musky and could compete with that of men, but there would be no lingering of floral fragrance. Her perfume was Eu De La War. It was a smell of steel and fire and Earth and pepper and spices like cinnamon and herbs. Certainly, never the most romantic of scents, but it was certainly strong. No, this woman didn't smell like that. Besides, if Lady Sif had come here to kill him then she would have already struck by now. The brunette shield-maiden was a hot-blooded warrior. She was much like Thor, skilled in combat, but also impulsive. Perhaps she was not as reckless as the blonde behemoth, but she was full of passion, she would have struck him by now. This person was biding their time. Perhaps it was out of a carefully calculated strategy, but then he sensed further that beneath the swirling vortex of fury that surrounded this individual there was a bit of hesitation.

That was curious. Who would hesitate to attack him? All of Asgard would have torn him apart and honestly how could he blame them. He was about to destroy everything! And he was proud of that fact. He thought for a moment and considered that it could have been Asgard's queen. Oh, Frigga he would have thought that by now even she would have given up her foolish love for him. But he was beginning to realize that not only was a mother's love the most stubborn and persistent love that there was, but it also must have been the most stupid love that there was. Even after all that he had done. He had caused the death of her husband, he had destroyed her vast and beautiful kingdom, he was about to quite literally smite her only son and yet she still hesitated to strike him. Once again, the dark-haired mage chuckled to himself.

But the Queen of Asgard was miles and miles away in Kytheria. There was no way that she could have possibly been here. He concentrated further and tried to press deeper into the psyche of the lady in the room. There was a kindled ire and hesitation and just a twinge of fear. His nostrils flared as he inhaled deeply. He lapped up the fear like a dog lapping up water after a long day's hunt. It satisfied him. He could work with their fear. They were afraid of him as they should be and fear was easy to be manipulated and exploited. The self-proclaimed king of Asgard started to smile with pleasure as the person's body and image finally to shape and form in his mind.

His sharp jade eyes popped open as he saw a blonde-haired maiden of petite stature with thick curves form in his mind. "Sigyn," he mouthed breathlessly with shock.

Just then she stepped from the shadows. She had placed herself strategically behind a pillar on the far side of the chamber, near his bed. She was certainly a sight. She was covered with dirt from head to toe. Some of the dirt was thick and nearly black in color, there were other splotches of heavily caked clay on her gown that was almost red in color. Her hair that was normally the color of sunlight was so caked with mud that she looked as if she was a brunette. Her lovely dress which was made to be befitting for one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting, it was made of finery and was as exquisitely crafted as a tapestry was ripped to shreds. The hem of the garment had completely unraveled and her cloak was terribly torn and tarnished. Even a good washing would not have saved the gown. Even the sleeves of her cloak had been ripped in two it seemed. It was so covered in mud and grime that it looked as if it belonged to a slave girl. She had cuts and scrapes and bruises all over her face. She appeared to be as banged up as if she had been in a barroom fight all night. Her lips, which were normally pink, pouty, puckered and painted to perfection were now dry, chapped, cracked and busted. She had a nasty, fresh, red cut that ran from her cheek to her jaw. It marred her delicate features. That large glaring mark was accompanied by several other smaller lacerations on her cheeks and chin and forehead and forearms and shoulders. There were large black and blue and purple contusions on her skin, but they were hardly noticeable underneath all the muck that she was washed in. Her teeth were bared they gleamed like a tiger's and her lip quivered with angrily and she let out a low growl, but in the quiet of his tomb-like bedroom it sounded more like a roar. Her eyes were puffy and baggy and bloodshot. The paint that she wore on her face had run and smeared leaving dark splotches on her face. She could have easily been mistaken for a kind of warrior who had painted themselves with war paint before they prepared for battle. Her honey colored eyes were all alight and aglow, but not with their normal youthful exuberance. It was a soft, energetic twinkle before. It was full of girlish delight and excitement and childish innocence. They were merry honey colored eyes, but no longer. Not in this moment, no, they seemed to shine with the flame of hot rage. She was a seething inferno.

"Loki," she ground out. She snarled. Her knuckles cracked and she curled her hand into tight fists. Before King Loki could even react to the sight of her and try to process how she had come about to be in his bedchamber, Lady Sigyn let out a wild war cry. She raised her voice to a shrill tone shook her tongue and made her voice reverberate in the back of her throat. She sounded like a Valkyrie. "FOR ASGARD!" She cried and went lunging toward the usurper of Asgard's throne.

She ran at full speed. She was a blur. She leaped over the furniture and obstacles in her way. Loki had no chance to even the chance to speak before Sigyn raised her dirty hand and slapped him hard across his ivory cheek. His head swung to the left at a sharp angle and his neck nearly snapped from the impact of the hit. His long midnight locks flipped around as well and whipped him in the face. It left a vicious re welt on his smooth face like he had been burned by a hot iron. He let out a groan. It shocked him. His eyes were wide and it left him slightly breathless. Sigyn was also breathing hard. Loki raised his hand to his cheek and felt the hot spot where his tender flesh had been assaulted. He allowed a slick smile to sail across his thin pink lips. He kept his head turned to the side, but his hand flew out and returned a harsh backhand against Sigyn face. She gasped and let out a squeal as she flew back and tripped over the side of one of the long sitting couches.

She was gasped from her back, she looked up and saw Loki stepping quite lively in her direction. The gleam in his evergreen eyes was frightfully sinister. Before long he was looming over her. He wore and wicked smirk that was cold and callous. He touched his face again and raked his long, bony fingers through his ebony tresses and pushed the long strands out of his face. He started to chuckle, no not chuckle, cackle wildly and dementedly. Lady Sigyn fixed her gaze upon the crazed dictator who had the nerve to take on the position of king. The youngest daughter of Admiral Arn set her face like flint and clenched her teeth knit her brows and when Loki took just a step closer to her whereas he was within striking distance. Immediately, she jutted her foot out and swiftly kicked Loki in the gut. Loki moaned and doubled over in pain from the forceful impact of her petite and dirty foot.

This gave Sigyn the ample opportunity to spring up. While Loki gripped his stomach while on his hands and knees Sigyn jumped off of the couch. The pain from her blow was great and it eventually caused him to collapse onto his back still clutching his stomach. Sigyn jumped up quickly and leaped on top of Loki once more. Her knees took to the sides of his hips and pinned him down. He cried "umph" when he felt the hard bone of her knees collide with his thighs, Sigyn's breathing was labored. She possessed as much venom in her eyes as Loki did in his smile. She raised her hand high into the air and she was prepared to bring an open face palm down upon him once more. But as Sigyn's hand swung Loki's clean cool fingers managed to catch it. They wrapped around her right wrist catching it and holding it firm. Lady Sigyn growled and grunted straining to continue in her action of beating the self-proclaimed king, but Loki's hold on her right wrist was firm and hard. "Wretch!" She shouted back at him as she went to raise her left hand to strike him. She curled her left hand into a fist. Loki's reflexes were fast and he caught hold of that wrist too, with mid-strike.

"Temper, temper, Sigyn there is no need for name calling," he said to her arrogantly. The blonde-haired handmaiden to Queen Frigga. Shrieked at King Loki's nonchalant response. She fought and struggled and tried to free herself from his mighty clasp. Loki's arms were strong and he did not let go.

"I have more name, worse than that to call you," she spat back at Loki.

Loki clicked his tongue. He gave a devilish yet charming smirk to the golden-locked maiden. "Now, now, now, Lady Sigyn," his voice was condescending as if he was talking to a child. "That is no way to address you, king," he cautioned her and held up his nose.

Sigyn shook her head. Her eyes welled up with fresh, hot angry tears, "King? King? King! "You dare to call yourself a king after what you have done to Asgard? After what you plan to do to the Nine Realms?" She shouted back at him. "You are no king, Loki," she told him. To this, the new ruler's eyes darkened. He tightened his grip on Lady Sigyn's thin wrist to the point where he sank his too long fingernails into her skin. She hissed and winced as she could feel his nails. "You sure as Helheim aren't mine," she swore to him as she rapidly brought her head down and headbutted Loki. Sigyn had never performed such an act before. She wasn't sure if she should have done it or not, but it was the only move she could think of. It left them both seeing stars. But reflexively Loki let he go. She fell back off of him she lay on her back sprawled on the ground. Her bead throbbed. Loki too, lay on his back and gripped his head and groaned.

They both wallowed for a moment, in misery, holding their heads, until Loki started to move. He staggered to get to his knees. He pushed his way off the floor unsteadily all the while he was still holding his head. Once he made it completely to his feet he started to walk away. Lady Sigyn didn't know where he was going, she didn't exactly have her bearings about her after the brutal headbutt. Her cranium still throbbed and stung from the impact of the blow and truth be told she felt lightheaded and dizzy. she wanted to pass out, but she couldn't let him escape. This was Asgard's last chance. This was the last chance for the Nine Realms. And in the back of her mind she heard a voice whisper that it was Loki's last chance as well. She would not allow it to slip through her fingers. Not without a fight. She pressed herself to her knees, clambered to her feet and swayed as she did so. She was still dizzy and practically unable to stand on her own two feet. Her vision was blurry and everything swirled about her. She reached her hand out as if trying to catch Loki by his coattails, but he was too far away, he was practically on the other side of the bedroom chamber and his exact position wouldn't come into focus. She didn't know what he was doing. His back was to here, but Sigyn was almost certain she heard him sharpening his daggers. Such a thought would have normally made the golden-eyed daughter of Admiral Arn's blood run cold and sent her running in the opposite direction, but instead it set fire to her heart and made her stand her ground without fear. If Loki wanted a fight she'd give it to him. Slowly, she reached her hand toward her back. He elbow was pointed to the ceiling as she reached in her quiver. She pulled one of the enchanted golden arrows from the satchel and placed it snugly and safely inside the bow. She set the arrowhead between her two fingers and her thumb. She bit her lip and squinted her eyes with concentration, but the harder she squinted the more her head ached and she could not cause her eyes to focus enough on the target enough to take aim. Quickly, she pulled the arrow away from bow and stared at it. She would not be able to rely on her own skill to shoot the arrow, but she didn't have to miss her mark. With just a thought she could cause the arrow to fly right between Loki's shoulder blades. "Fly true," she prayed over the magic-infused weapon. Then she once again set it in the arrow and let it fly!

For a split second, Sigyn held her breath as the arrow rotated while slicing through the air. It cut across the silent room at rapid speed. The bedchamber was so quiet that the sound of the arrow cutting through the air could be heard in a shrill whistle. The gold of the arrow gleamed in the dim glow of a few burning candles around the room and it made it look as if a flame was sailing right toward the mage. Loki turned around as he heard the arrow cruising toward him. He turned just in the nick of time. It seemed as though he turned right into the arrow. The golden tip and pointed triangular end of the arrow narrowly missed Loki's pointed nose and grazed his chiseled, thin cheek. It skinned the pale flesh and left a bright red line of blood trickling down the side of Loki's face. It left Sigyn panting. It left her hands shaking and practically sent her back down to her knees.

Loki's shrewd green eyes darted to follow the trajectory of the arrow. He watched as it continued to in its travel until it implanted itself in the wall directly be him. The tricksters ever so slightly turned on his heels to see where the arrow had lodged itself. He studied the arrows. Their style and their formation. He remembered the lovely bejeweled arrows that he'd commissioned to be made for the Lady Sigyn many centuries ago. It had been one of the greatest gifts he'd given to her. When he'd gone to the armory and shown the master forger the design he had in mind the man had practically thought that the stylish weapon was his way of proposing to the young noblewoman. That had hardly been the case, but he could not allow Sigyn to be saddled with anything less than the best. For wherever she went she represented him and he'd not be disgraced publicly by Sigyn's simple-minded ways. He looked at the arrow carefully. It was made of the purest 14 karat gold and beset with all manner of dazzling gems. Brilliant sapphires, perfect emeralds, princess-cut diamonds and heart-shaped rubies. Indeed, he'd outdone himself and he'd given Lady Sigyn far better than she had ever deserved. He recalled his painstaking efforts to find the perfect enchantment to set upon the weapon and make its aim foolproof. He'd found such a way. He'd worked mixing a powerful concoction and dipping each perfect arrow into the brew. The arrows were guaranteed to do the archer's bidding without fail and yet Sigyn had but nicked his cheek. Loki chuckled. Sigyn was no doubt one of the most feeble-minded maidens that he'd ever known, but even she should have been able to execute this correctly. Did he simplicity truly know no bounds? For a moment the king considered the fact that perhaps it was an error on the arrows part. After all, they had been enchanted many many centuries perhaps its charm had worn off. But Loki could still energy and enchantment radiating off of the arrow. Leading him to conclude that there was no faultiness of weakness in the spell and there for the error must lie with the archer.

Loki held his mouth in a smirk, "Was that truly your best shot?" He questioned as he touched his cheek. He felt his chilly blood on his fingers. "You barely touched me," he called to her haughtily from the other side of the bedchamber that was nearly a mile away. "If that was your best shot, may I inform you, Lady Sigyn, you missed," he stated with amusement as his bony hands reached back and dislodged the arrow from its spot sticking out of the wall.

"I didn't miss," Sigyn shot back. Her dry lips were turned down in a scowl and her brow was furrowed furiously. "These arrows don't miss!" She declared to him as she raised another one of the golden arrows in the air and shook it at him viciously. "That was a warning shot!" She declared unto the false king. "The next arrow will fly straight and true right into your heart if need be," she confessed with a growl.

Loki's keen features remained quirked in a most profound and devilish smirk. "I have been warned," he mouthed back and finally plucked the arrow free from the wall. He looked down at it and his pointed nose crinkled. He ran his hand over the edge of the arrow's tip, then he tossed it to the ground.

"Loki, you have to stop!" Sigyn yelled desperately. "You have to stop before you destroy everything!" She shouted.

Loki rolled his bright, gleaming, green eyes. He felt a hot heat flutter across his pale flesh. It washed him in sweat and sent his face a flushing. Loki started to cackle all the more wildly. He gripped at the back of the onyx table which he had been leaning against to keep him upright while he displayed his fit of wicked humor. "Is that honestly why you have come, little Sigyn?" He asked mockingly. Sigyn shrank back just a tad. Her shoulders rounding her head dropping. She worried her lip. Her breasts heaved as she took great gulping breaths. "To stop me? To stop all this?" He gestured wildly. "You believe you can stop Ragnarok?" He asked and grabbed his stomach as his belly busted with another harsh guffaw. "Oh, my, oh my, Lady Sigyn," Loki said as he shook his head and clicked his tongue. "I always knew that you were foolish, but you truly never paid attention to our lessons in school did you?" He tossed his head back and laugh and heat continued to fill his body. "If you would have taken heed and opened your ears and eyes for one second perhaps you would have actually learned that Ragnarok cannot be stopped. It is simply fate, manifest destiny," he explained.

"It doesn't have to end this way, Loki," she shouted. "It doesn't have to come by your hand," she expressed.

"Oh you have come far too late for that," he spoke dismissively. He turned his back on her. He faced the wall and fiddled with a well-sharpened dagger. He ran his finger along the edge of the freshly sharpened blade. He panted as he felt the flames of Helheim engulfing his feet. "It's too late," he shook his head and let his long, messy, raven locks fell into his face. "It's too late to stop it," he confessed.

Lady Sigyn mashed her lips together. Her eyes moistened with newly formed salt water. "I'm not going to let you destroy us, Loki" Sigyn stated boldly, but her voice was hushed and serious. "I have to stop you," she said and she wiped her leaking eyes. "No matter what it takes," she went on. She held her head high and her golden-eyes quickly dried. "I'll do what I have to," she said with a shaky cautioning tone.

Loki smirked to himself as his jade pupils glowered at the sparkling silver dagger in his hands. "Yes, darling, go ahead and try," he chuckled. His chuckle ended abruptly and that Loki spun around on his heels and flung his dagger at Lady Sigyn. The blade flew swiftly and nimbly through the air. It came flying and it caught the long, tattered sleeve of his cloak and pinned her to the wall. Sigyn gasped startled by the attack. "Don't make me hurt you, Lady Sigyn," Loki warned. His crisp and articulate voice was low and gravely with intensity.

Quickly, the blonde-haired lady-in-waiting to Queen Frigga snatched the knife from out of her sleeve and from out the wall freeing her arm. "No, Loki," she spat to the ground. Her lip snarled viciously, "Don't make me hurt you!" She growled. All at once she hurled the silver dagger toward the black marble floor of Loki's bedchamber. With that, she immediately reached into her quiver and pulled out another one of the gorgeous golden arrows that Loki had gifted her with so many centuries ago. She rapidly snapped it into place between the bow and string. She pulled back on the bow and she shot her arrow right at Loki. Now, Loki seemed to see it coming from a mile away he stepped to the side and reached his arm out and caught the arrow in his hand directly. He allowed a telltale grin to grace his thin lips as he felt the cold metal against his palm. But the strength of the arrows aim sent the self-proclaimed king sailing toward to ground and he took hold of it and the arrow lodged itself there. Loki stood back up, but before he could blink his deep emerald eyes Lady Sigyn was already launching the second wave of her attack. She shot another arrow, swift and true in the trickster's direction. But Loki spun around and created a type of air vortex around himself that caused the arrows to simply be defected and re-shot at Lady Sigyn. Sigyn shrieked and she dodged her own arrow. She rolled on the ground to avoid the arrow's pointed head. She rolled into a crouched position on her knees. Still, breathless, the young noblewoman grabbed at another one of the enchanted arrows in her quiver. She shot the arrow once more and aimed it at Loki's knees. The enchanter watched as the weapons were launched at his lower extremities. He pulled out another one of his razor-sharp daggers and chopped the arrow in two just before it had the chance to pierce his kneecap. The arrow's head fell flat at his feet and flopped there. Sigyn had pushed herself to her feet by this point and muttered bitterly under her breath as she saw how Loki's nimble daggers had outmatched the arrows that he enchanted. "No!" She swore. How was this possible? She wondered if Loki had made the enchantment so that they could not work on him. He probably had. She supposed any smart enchanter would have done the same and Loki was truly a mad genius surely, he would have thought to do that. How could she expect to beat him? These magical arrows had been her only hope. They'd been Asgard's only hope. They were the only hope for the entirety of the Nine Realms. No, it could not end like this! She'd come too far.

From his position far across the room, King Loki gave a slow series of claps. "You have made a valiant effort, Lady Sigyn," he stated. "I give you credit for that," the slick black-haired trickster admitted. "But I must confess I grow weary of this futile game you insist we play," he confessed and put his hand over his mouth as he yawned. "I must rest in preparation for my big day," he said as he cast a wink in her direction.

His words caused Sigyn's heart to pound like a drum against her rib cage. Her blood raced through her veins hot and heavy. Adrenaline pumped through her system and despite the fact that she hadn't had a proper night's sleep in days she felt a surge of energy seize her. Her pupils became cat-like and able to see in the dark. All of her body poised itself for a fight. She was no shield-maiden, she wasn't a Valkyrie or palace or city guard, she was not a huntress nor an Amazon. She was simply a woman, an Aesir woman. She was an Aesir woman and as all Aesir people, she was a warrior by blood, by birthright. She was the daughter of an admiral, an admiral who had once been a member of Odin's war council. She was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Frigga, she was meant to do her queen's bidding and will at all times. She was a woman who was a friend and a daughter and a sister and she was soon to be someone's wife, if they'd still have her, she had an obligation to those people. She was a woman who had sworn her allegiance to Asgard long ago. Since she was a girl she had recited the Oath of Asgard. She had pledged herself loyal to kingdom and crown, realm and rule. Now was her chance to prove it. She was a woman with a promise to keep. How could she expect to go into Valhalla knowing that she had dishonored a friend's dying wish? She was a woman of Asgard. She was both a lover and fighter and she would not allow them to go quietly into the night. Her eyes narrowed as the fixed on the tyrant who dared to call himself a king. "Well, I hate to put a damper on your plans, Loki, but this is no game," she announced, "And I'm just getting started!" The golden-locked lady-in-waiting to the queen of Asgard proclaimed. Once again she readied herself as an archer. She raised her eyebrow and set her face like flint and planted her feet and heels so that they were firmly fixed on the ground. And Lady Sigyn's soft, girlish features that were normally mild and smiling were hard as stone. She showed absolutely no fear. She cried and gave a wild war cry it echoed through the room and the palace was so quiet that it filled the whole of the royal dwelling.

Loki chuckled and continued to shake his head. "If you insist," the silver-tongued tyrant stated both bored with the notion and bemused by her gallant efforts. He gave another yawn and stretch, "But let's make it quick," he stated.

"As you wish, you, your highness," Sigyn said with her lips curled in a vicious snarl as she gave a sweeping curtsy. She stood back up extremely quickly and in motions that were so quick and precise that it looked like one fluid movement she released another one of the golden arrows. The arrow rotated and twirled on itself as it darted across the chamber. Loki immediately put up a great defense. He used his magic and caused a force field to form around his person. The shield was a great purple bubble that looked like it was made of light and glass. The shield repelled the arrow perfectly. The arrowhead would hit against the force-field like rain on a window pane. It made pattering sounds. There was a distinct ping that occurred when the golden arrow made contact with the shield. The gilded arrow struck the shield straight on and it bounced right off of the force-field and ricocheting right back in Lady Sigyn's directly. The point of the arrow was now sailing back at her with double the velocity and it was aimed right at her heart. Sigyn screamed as she watched the golden arrow come hurling back at her. Her eyes rapidly darted around the room searching for a safe place from which she could continue to attack. She scurried toward a column and hid there and watched as the arrow missed her. Sigyn wiped her brow and tried to catch her breath

"DRAT!" She spat as she noticed that the arrows were failing her. She panted as she hid behind the pillar. Still, she remained relentless and continued mercilessly launching attack after attack, she shot arrow after arrow. Each shot was harder, stronger and more determined than the last. Loki simply stood there, protected beneath his force-field and her remained unscathed. Sigyn for her part became winded. She had released nearly 7 arrows and no of them had managed to crack Loki's magical shield. They didn't seem to dent or scratch the purple bubble. Sigyn had expended all her energy and strength and Loki was simply standing under the protective umbrella of the force-field with his head tossed back in laughter.

"Come, come, now Little Sigyn, stop this," the new king of Asgard called to her from across the room, almost gently. He spoke like a parent to a child who knew that the child was simply exhausting themselves by having a fit.

Sigyn had her body pressed against the stone column as she hid. Her hands ached from holding the arrows. Loki was toying with her. He simply was playing a game with her. He didn't even find her a worthy enough opponent to really fight. She gritted her teeth the more she thought about it. Just like he had never found her a worthy enough woman to put proper effort into their courtship. He simply went through the motions. He had never found her beautiful enough to cause his silver tongue to render a true compliment to her in all the years they courted. Or just as in the times when they had made love he had never truly found her worthy enough to give his heart to her when she gave him her body. Sigyn frowned. Anger and shame filled her as she realized that she'd been a pawn in Loki's game far too many times. Her free hand clawed at the column which she hid behind. She bit her lip and shut her eyes and a tear slid down her dusty cheek and cleaned it just a little. He was fiddling with her now just like he'd fiddled with her then. She'd not do it again. She'd not be Loki's fool anymore. "Think! Think! Think! Think!" Sigyn told herself as she pounded her forehead with her palm. She squeezed her eyes tighter and tighter and tried to drown out the sound of Loki's clipped and refined voice. Then, it came to her. Loki wanted her to use up all her energy. He wanted her to shoot all her arrows, spend all her strength and collapse on the ground and have nothing left to give in the fight. She knew that without the divine play of the Fates somehow intervening that she was all that stood between Prince Thor and certain death. She knew it and Loki knew it. She had to be careful and precise, now. One false move, one misstep, any mistake could cost the Nine Realm's their freedom.

Sigyn took a deep breath. She opened her eyes and nodded her head as she built up her courage. "Merciful Yggdrasil give me strength," she prayed quietly.

"Oh, dear where has Lady Sigyn gone?" Loki called as he started to lower his shield. The protective purple bubble slowly dissolved into the ground and King Loki started to pace around his bedroom. His booted feet slide silently across the floor. Loki had always been a master of stealth. He was light on his feet and agile as a cat. The blonde handmaiden's heart beat furiously in her chest. "Lady Sigyn, come out, come out where ever you are!" He crooned as he checked behind the corners and crevices in the room. He let out a sinister snicker as he drew closer and closer to the column that Lady Sigyn had strategically positioned herself behind. "Is she over here?" He asked as he checked in one of his closets. "No," the raven-haired enchanter replied to himself. "Hmmm," he pursed his thin lips and touched his long, narrow finger to his pointed chin. "How about here?" He pulled back a gossamer curtain that lined one of the windows. All the while he was inching closer and closer to the great marble pillar that she was standing behind.

After a few more deep breaths, Sigyn steeled herself. She was ready to make a move, but just as she was about to raise her bow and arrow in the air and shoot them at Loki she felt chilly breath on her neck and she felt a frigid finger on her should. She gasped at the trickster's touch and she felt her blood run cold and her whole body froze as the platinum blonde hairs on the nape of her neck stood on end. Immediately, Sigyn let out a frightened little yelp and went darting across the room. She scurried behind a high backed red velvet chair. One of her golden arrows had landed just behind the chair. She crouched behind the large chair. Her teeth were chattering and her knees were exposed by her tattered garment and they knocked together. Loki tossed his black-haired head back. He laughed loudly and cruelly. "Where are you going, Sigyn?" The king of Asgard asked. "Where do you think you can run to?" He questioned as he dark green eyes skirted over the room. He gestured widely toward the expanse of the chamber. His chamber was quite large. It could have easily fit a family of nine or ten very comfortably. There were many places that Sigyn supposed she could have run to, but there was truly nowhere to hide. Loki's magic would have found her out even if his eyes wouldn't have been able to. "It's just me and you, now, dear little Sigyn," he continued as he rubbed his hands together. "I could indeed have you executed for an attempt on your king's life," he stated to her. He folded his arms across his chest. "That's treason, you know," he expressed and smile slithered across his severe lips.

Sigyn tried to control her breathing. One of her arms still remained wrapped around the leg of the regal red armchair while her other hand tried to discretely retrieve one of the golden arrows that was only a few inches too far away from her clasp. "You would know what treason looks like," Sigyn rumbled back through gritted teeth and narrow eyes.

King Loki merely gave a dismissive chuckle toward Lady Sigyn's spirited impudence. It was almost adorable in a sense. "But I have decided to show you some clemency and extend my grace toward you," he stated haughtily as he marched closer toward the chair behind which she was cowering like a mouse. "Come here, dear Sigyn," he commanded and beckoned her forward with his finger. Lady Sigyn did not budge. "My royal decree to you is not a task which I trust you will find too difficult," he stated as she sauntered ever closer. "Come before your king, Sigyn and kneel" he declared to her. He extended his leg toward her and tapped his foot. He smirked.

"Not today!" Sigyn declared. With that, she jumped up quick as a frog from a lilypad and kicked the armchair toward Asgard's self-proclaimed king. The chair slid quickly across the perfectly polished, cold marble floor and was it was simply millimeters from hitting Loki, but the clever magician leaped over it in the nick of time. He sprang into the air nimbly. He somersaulted and landed on his feet. As soon as he landed, Sigyn launched another one of her furious golden arrows back at the man who had bestowed them upon her. Once again Loki quickly put up a glowing, purple force-field to protect himself from the onslaught of incoming shiny, bejeweled arrows. The shield was flat like a panel and like the Plexiglas that had been his gilded cage not so long ago.

The enchanter had waved his hands in front of his rapidly. He was nearly winded as Lady Sigyn began her attack so quickly. He held his hands up in the air and maintain the shield. Sigyn flying arrows were coming faster and stronger and harder than before. Still, they weren't enough to crack Loki's defense. Loki green eyes gleamed. He continued smirk from behind the violet veil that shielded him. "Sigyn, we have already gone through this little exercise before," he pointed to his shield and inclined his head in her direction. She was panting. She was bent over on her knees. Arrows that had once again been flung back her after being repelled by Loki's magical force-field were scattered all around her. She reached to pick up another arrow. She was determined to somehow break through the shield. The arrows were enchanted and Loki's magic was strong. They couldn't fail her. They simply couldn't. She'd seen them work before she knew of their potential. Why wasn't this working? "The very definition of insanity, Sigyn is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result," Loki called mockingly from behind the plum force-field.

Sigyn bit her lip. The false king was right. There was a reason why the arrows weren't working. If there was one thing that she had learned from her time courting Loki it was that magic was full of fine lines and tricks and it required great precision to execute it properly. Sometimes incantations could not be performed because of the misreading of a simple phrase and sometimes curses could not be lifted because of a wrong interpretation of an ancient text. Lady Sigyn thought back. She tried to recall the words that Loki had said to her all those centuries ago when he'd presented her with the fine gift. She had to set her sights, aim and focus on her target. She had to know where she wanted her arrow to shoot to. She had to have a destination and an intent for her weapon. Sigyn continued to breathe heavy. She flexed her fingers and tried to relax her hand as she was still clutching viciously to the arrow in her head. In a split second, she realized that she hadn't been doing exactly that. Of course, she'd been shooting the arrows. She'd been launching them and attacking without her might, but she'd been aimless at best. All she'd wanted to do was break through Loki's shield, but she had no direction for where the arrow should go.

"Give up, Sigyn," Loki continued to shout from behind his force field. "A delicate woman such as yourself wasn't made for the brutality of such combat," he chortled. Lady Sigyn ignored the usurpers heckling. She thought very seriously about what she had observed with each arrow that she had shot at Loki. They all bounced off of the shield, just like before, but before Loki had stood behind the shield and dusted his nails on his surcoat and cackled, but this time he was standing with his arms up as if he was working to hold the shield. That must have meant something. That had to mean something. But what? Instantly, Lady Sigyn mashed her lips together and tried to force herself to think harder and smarter. But she was exhausted. Still, she trained and gritted and then lightning went off in her foggy brain and her eyes sprang open even wider and brighter.

Whenever one of the golden arrowheads hit the magical force-field the shield rippled. It would blur and shimmer, just momentarily, but it still happened. The deep, rich and mystical dark purple glow of the shield would fade slightly and turn almost lavender in color. That gave the golden-eyed handmaiden of Queen Frigga an idea. Lady Sigyn gathered two more lovely arrows from the ground. She stuffed them in her quiver and raced toward Loki at full speed. The dainty damsel let out an animalistic growl as she charged like a raging bildgeschnipe toward the new king of the realm. As she drew closer to Loki, who wore a quizzical expression in regards to Sigyn's aggression, she shot off one arrow after another in rapid succession. Each one causing the shield to shake and have the ripple effect. To this, the king immediately growled back. He gritted and strained and worked hard to maintain the force-field. "Sigyn, enough!" Loki barked the command there was a slight tremor of panic in his throat. "SIGYN, STOP!" He hollered, but Sigyn could not be stopped. She shot one more arrow while still running full speed toward the crazed tyrant who called himself a king. Loki quickly stretched his arms out on either side of him. He completed the shield. He caused it to form from a flat panel to a rounded dome-like shape.

Lady Sigyn Arndottir's eyes narrowed with focus as she continued the rush toward Loki. She thought of every lesson that any of her instructors had ever given her, she thought of every sparring match that she had ever participated in with any friends or classmates. She thought of the day that her parents had presented her with her first little bow and arrow set and told her of her family's heritage. Her mother told her of how grandmother had been a great huntress and a champion in the games. Her father told her how she was from a great league of seafaring Vikings of captains and naval officers. They told her that she was an Aesir and a warrior by birthright. Tears welled in her eyes as she thought of them all. In a few hours, all those people who ever meant anything to her could be extinguished. She could not bear the thought of a world where they did not all exist. She would not live in that world.

Sigyn's feet pounded savagely across the marble floor as she continued to run toward Loki. She leaped on to one of the emerald-colored limestone coffee tables that was positioned in the centered in the middle of the bedchamber. She sprang into the air. Her body curved into a beautiful and elegant position like a dance. In an instant, while still midair, Sigyn reached back and pulled out three arrows from her quiver. She set them snugly in between the bow shaft and the bowstring. She pulled on the bowstring until it was tight and stretched. Sigyn, puckered lips pursed into a deep scowl. She pictured exactly in her mind's eye where she wanted the arrow to fly to. She hadn't done that before. She had been shooting her arrows only to break the shield. But the arrows had to have a target. The target had been the force-field and the arrows had hit that target all though they hadn't penetrated it. Loki's magic was too strong for that simple trick. She needed a new target. Sigyn knew the target that she needed to set her sights on. Thought she had been scared to do it. She never wanted to hurt him, she loved him. But he was something that was so evil and twisted and ruthless now. He had to be stopped. For the sake of the Nine Realms, he had to be stopped. Sigyn sank her teeth deep into her chapped and now pale pink lips. Her larger gold eyes narrowed. She squinted and then closed one eye as she focused her gaze on the left side of Loki's chest. "Sorry Loki," she murmured so softly that the king could not hear her. "FOR ASGARD!" She bellowed and she shot the three arrows. She fired them right into the center of the shield. Each one of them hitting the purple bubble at the exact same time. There was such powerful force behind the shot that upon impact it cracked the shield. The shield burst into a million pieces. The fragments of magic-infused particles splattered all over the room. They flew everywhere like shards of glass. They crashed into the wall and got stuck in the cracks between the golden bricks. There were big pieces that flew all over and some into the mirror and broke it into tiny fragments. Other shards were large as daggers and they flew into the chandelier. They sliced through the thick chain that held the chandelier to the ceiling and that gorgeous diamond and emerald chandelier crashed down to the floor. Each one of the priceless jewels broken all over the floor.

Two of the golden arrows flew toward Loki's shoes. They pinned the hem of the legs of his trousers to the floor, but the other arrow sailed straight toward Loki's chest. The arrow twisted and rotated as it sliced the protective shield that he had placed on it. It cut through and made a landing. Loki cried out as he felt the sharp, cold tip of the arrowhead tear through the thick fabric of his surcoat, outer and inner tunic and pierce his milky flesh. Blood immediately sprung forth from his chest. It spewed forth in a projectile fashion and rained down all around him.

Sigyn came down from her aerial attack. She landed firmly and solidly on her own two feet. She shielded her face from the debris that was still flying all around the bedchamber. She was breathless. Her mouth was ajar and her eyes were wide, her pulse raced. She couldn't believe it had actually worked. She hadn't actually anticipated that she would actually be able to crack the force-field. Her messy, mud-drenched blonde hair had flown in her face, she flipped it back and looked around. As her golden eyes scanned the room they finally landed on Loki. The great trickster stood in the center of the chamber holding the center, oh chest gasping for air. Hot, red liquid pouring through his fingers. It slid down his alabaster hands and wrists and started to soak into his sleeve. He staggered and stumbled around in place for just a minute. He winced. His keen porcelain features were pinched and contorted into an expression that revealed excruciating agony. He started to choke and cough. Finally, the pain of the arrow wound was too great for him. It was cutting into his arteries. He could feel the arrow pressing its way closer and closer to his heart. He couldn't breathe. The raven-haired enchanter went crashing to his knees. He continued to cough and more and more blood seeped from his chest. There was a puddle of blood around him. He fell into it.

Lady Sigyn screamed out. "No!" She cried and covered her face. "Sweet, merciful Yggdrasil what have I done?' She called as she gripped her own chest. Without thought, her feet started flying. She flew to the fallen usurper of Asgard's throne without even a moments thought or hesitation. Her bare feet ran over the chipped pieces of glass and other bits of debris that were scattered across the floor. The sharp fragments scraped her feet, but the young maiden's feet were so caked with mud and grime, they were so swollen and achy that she couldn't even feel as the glass cut into her feet. She hiked up her skirt as she raced to him. She slid on her knees right next to him. Loki was lying on his side the dazzling arrow sticking out of his chest. His creamy skin was turning a ghostly pallor. There was a sheen a sweat on his brow and he was dreadfully still. The blood was all over his chest and running down his tunics onto his pants. Sigyn watched as his skin continued to grow paler and paler, she could see the blue and purple veins in his neck, cheeks and forehead starting to be revealed.

The lady-in-waiting felt tears welling in her bright amber eyes. What had she done? She hadn't wanted...she hadn't actually thought...it had crossed her mind, but she was sure... she was sure that she hadn't truly aimed. She had never wanted to kill anyone. Yet somehow, she could recall all the lessons that she had learned as a child all her life growing up in Asgard. These lessons had taught that a warrior of Asgard would destroy their enemies without a second glance if that was what it took to keep Asgard safe. She had done just that. She should feel proud. It should have made her want to shout from the rooftops to run into the bloody streets and tell everyone the good news and that their enemy was dead and that Ragnarok had been thwarted and they need not fear Convergence any longer. And yet she didn't feel that way. She felt as though on the inside a part of her had died as well. She reached her hand out to touch Loki's shoulder. "Loki," she whispered as she rolled him over on his back and studied him. His eyes were closed and his mouth hung open. "Loki, no! No!" She protested as she took hold of his cheek. He was so cold. He was colder than she had ever felt him before and she'd held him when he'd been in his Frost Giant form. She watched as his skin became ashen and gray.

Her eyes were full of tears. She shouldn't be crying over him like this. After all, he had been a tyrant, a usurper of the throne of Asgard, he was a dictator and an evil overlord. No one sorrowed when such wicked one's perished. She was a fool to feel anything but glee at the demise of such a man...no such a monster, but then again she had always been called a fool and she'd always played the fool for him. "Oh, Loki," she sniffled as she kept one palm pressed again his cheek. Her fingers feverishly ran along the milk collar of his throat, she tried to feel for a pulse but felt none. "Nononononono!" Sigyn muttered in pure panic. "Please, please...I didn't mean to...I...I didn't want to...I'm so sorry," Sigyn pleaded pathetically as she allowed her head to fall upon Loki's still chest. She hadn't. She hadn't meant to kill. She'd never killed anything in her life. She had thought about it. For a split second while her body was airborne, but that was all it had been a quick thought as to where to aim her arrow. She had considered aiming for the heart, but she'd changed her mind. At least she'd thought that she'd changed her mind, but maybe there hadn't been enough time for the golden arrow to change its course. Maybe she'd thought one second too late and the arrow had only flown from her fingertips just before she determined in her mind that she'd only wanted to hit Loki, not kill him.

All of a sudden she felt his chest start to vibrate. It was a fierce rumbling and Sigyn looked a fright as she felt his body shake violently beneath her. "Oh, good heavens what is happening?' The handmaiden of Queen Frigga shrieked. Loki's body continued to convulse upon the floor. Sigyn clung to him and hoped to stop him from shaking so, but her efforts proved to be of little use. He continued to jerk and twist and writhe beneath her body. His whole form was vibrating so forcibly that she could scarcely hold on to him. Soon she found herself bouncing off of him and she was thrown to the floor.

Sigyn gaped. "Loki?" She asked in confusion not knowing what to make of what was going on. She crawled back over to his thin, pale body that was overtaken by powerful seizures. Once more Lady Sigyn reached out a terribly dirty hand and attempted to take Loki by the wrist. She managed to grab hold of his limb that quivered against the ground. Sigyn held to his wrist tight and fast and she thought that she felt a light pulse beating beneath the clammy flesh. Her eyes perked up a smile almost spread across her face. "Loki?' She asked once more. To this, she got no reply. Desperately, she continued to cling to him. His arm was already shaking but she shook it all the more vigorously and tried to rouse him. "LOKI!" She screamed in his ear.

Loki's eyes bright emerald eyes flung open and all at once the arrow that had been so lodged in the left side of chest and positioned all too close to his heart and vital arteries was jettisoned from his chest like a rocket. The arrow whizzed pass Lady Sigyn's nose and left a trail of blood like a trail of smoke. Sigyn fell back and landed on her backside as she watched. She shook herself from her disbelief and crept closer to Loki, he was lying completely still. She held her breath as she leaned over his body. She planned to lower her head once more to his chest to check for a heartbeat, but before she could do so her bloodshot amber eyes fell upon a most remarkable sight. There was a terrible hole in Loki's chest from which the arrow had just been ejected. It was full of dark blood. The blood was so thick and cold that it nearly looked black rather than red and it burbled and gurgled up from within his chest. It oozed out of him and continued to flow all over his cloak and tunic. It seemed to spread out like branches from a river or like the tentacles of an octopus. Such a sight was enough to make the queen's gentle lady-in-waiting woozy. Sigyn brought her hand over her mouth to keep from upchucking. Despite her disgust at the sight of so much blood Lady Sigyn found that she could not break her gaze. As she kept her eyes trained on the wound in Loki's chest she watched as tiny, shiny green flecks and smoke began to swirl around the injury. All of a sudden, she beheld as arrow wound began to close. The skin slowly filled itself in and knit itself back together. The gap was closed and the injury was healed quickly and miraculously right before her eyes. The flesh had been brought back together and it was as if nothing had ever happened. Loki's skin was still porcelain in color and flawless without scar, lump or redness. Sigyn rubbed her eyes in disbelief of what she had seen. She had seen something of that nature before. She had seen wounds healed very quickly by the many great healers that Asgard possessed or she'd seen a severe wound healed with the aid of a healing crystal which almost anyone could use but they were rare and expensive to buy, but never had she seen anyone self heal in such a way.

"Incredible," she mouthed as she slowly pulled her hands from covering her lips. Loki's garments still bore the markings of the arrow's puncture, but his skin looked completely unharmed. Sigyn stretched her fingers toward Loki's chest to examine his flesh and make sure that all that she saw was true indeed. Her fingernail had scarcely skimmed even the smallest surface of his skin when she felt a tight cold grip latch on to her forearm. Lady Sigyn let out a bloodcurdling scream as she felt his frigid fingers on her flesh. "Loki?" She asked as she turned to face him. The face that stared back at her was one with gleaming, glowing green eyes and a sick smile on the lips and blood flowing between his sickeningly straight teeth. Loki didn't say a word. He merely clutched her arm tighter, He bore his terrible teeth and blood flowed down from his severe lips and onto his narrow chin. He glared at her and growled viciously like a rabid wolf. Sigyn cringed but girded herself with strength. She found her voice after a while of merely having her teeth chatter and her tongue stammer. "Loki...please...you...you...you must...listen to...to...me," she started to explain. She tried to pull her arm from his clasp, but his hold on her was far too firm for that so she had to attempt to feel with her left hand in her cloak for the scroll.

Loki's nostril's flared like a bull as his glazed jade eyes darted to following her hands every movement. He'd not be befallen by one of those arrows again. Immediately, the enchanter conjured up a powerful magical blast and used the forces of wind energy to send Sigyn rocketing across the bedchamber. Lady Sigyn screamed as she felt her body fly through the air. She finally came to an abrupt halt when her body crashed against a glass cabinet filled with colorful vials and objects. Sigyn gasped and groaned as her back collided with wood and glass and metal. She fell to the ground face first as glass and gold and stone and magical liquids rained down all around her. She covered her head to protect herself from the dangerous particles and fragments that fell all over. There were newly formed cuts and bruises all over her body. She tried to push herself off of the ground, but found that she couldn't. She lay in a heap practically sobbing as she felt the fresh pain of each of her brand new wounds.

She heard heavy boots stomping toward her. The pace of the footfalls wasn't exactly hurried, but Lady Sigyn found herself scrambling to get to her feet anyway. She pushed herself to her knees and her back hurt her something fierce. She could scarcely move, but Loki was coming. She had to get up. She forced herself to her feet with a scream and Loki was right before her eyes. "NO!" Sigyn cried as she felt his cold hand wrap around her neck while his fingers tangled in her messy golden locks and twisted her neck to a painful angle. Sigyn whimpered pitifully. Loki started to forcefully push back on her. Sigyn struggled. She reflexively wrapped her own hands around his and tried to pry his fingers from her throat. She planted her feet on the ground and tried to stay rooted to where she was, but she didn't budge right away, Loki only pressed harder and started running. Her toes were barely touching the ground. They were getting cut up by the glass until she found that he was pushing her backward on to the carpet. Soon Sigyn felt her body slam against the wall. "AHHHH!" Sigyn screamed as her spine was met with hard, cold stone. She grunted as the back of her skull hit the smooth bricks. It sent a sharp pain tingling throughout her entire head. She saw stars blink before her eyes. She was so tired. She felt so weak that she wanted to collapse and give up the fight, but yet she couldn't. Loki's hand was still pressed tightly against her windpipe making it increasingly and increasingly harder to breathe. Sigyn put her feet against the wall and tried to push up and escape Loki's terrible grip. She scrambled and clawed at Loki's hands desperate to pry them from around her neck. Her long, dirty nails scratched at his porcelain arms like a cat, they left large red welts and lines on his pale skin. Seeing as though it had no effect on the new king of Asgard, but rather it only increased his anger. He continued to savagely growl at her like some sort of beast, his lips still dripped of blood and he looked like an animal after a fresh kill, but still full of bloodlust. His thumb sank deeper and deeper into her throat and he squeezed the very wind out of her lungs. "L-l-l-oooookkkki," she croaked. Her voice barely a whisper as she panted for breath. she reached her hand up and pushed on his face trying to free herself from his clasp. "p-p-pllllleeeeeassse," she squeaked and tears slid down her face.

King Loki laughed darkly, as he chuckled the blood flew from his lips and onto her face. "You tried to kill me, Sigyn," Loki stated to her.

Sigyn was cried hard although she was scarcely able to breathe. Tears poured down her dirty cheeks. She mashed her lips together and shook her head bitterly in reply. "N-n-no," Sigyn stammered.

"No?" Loki asked. He raised his eyebrow in her direction. "No," he tossed his head back but his hold on her neck did not slacken. "No," he shook his head. "You dare try to fib to a liesmith?" he pointed to himself. "Tsk. Tsk. Tsk." He clicked his tongue at her.

"Nononono," Sigyn muttered through her teeth. Tears continued to stream unabashedly down her unwashed face.

Loki merely cocked his signature smile in her direction. His lips were stained with his own blood and his mouth painted as red as if he had on lipstick. "Now, now, Sigyn," he said with a tone that was perfected by his silver tongue to almost sound affectionate. "You must know that you can't lie to me," he inclined his head. "So tell the truth, my dear. You tried to kill me, didn't you? Didn't you?" He pressed. Sigyn was soon blubbered. She shook her head yes and no all at once willing to do anything to get Loki's cold hands off of her. "Yes, yes, yes," Loki mouth patronizingly in her ear as he continued to watch her sob. Her face was as wet as if she had just freshly bathed and her dirty, tan skin was turning a tad bit purple. "Why should I do the same?" He hissed at her.

"I...did.. Try...to...kill," Sigyn wagged her head. "B-b-b-but...stop," she gasped and coughed.

"Too bad, Sigyn" Loki said with a wink, "For I will show no such restraint," he warned her and quick as a flash he pulled out a sharpened dagger and held it next to her wet cheek. He flickered and switched it around and twirled it in front of Sigyn's eyes.

Sigyn could feel panic rising up in her heart and if she didn't do something soon she wouldn't have a chance to for she would be dead. Finally, after much effort, she managed to bring her foot up and get enough momentum and strength to kick Loki in the groin. The king, immediately let go of her neck and doubled over in pain clutching at his crotch. He dropped Sigyn like a sack of potatoes and she came crashing down to the floor in a heap of gasps and sobs and shudders and near screams. Loki writhed for a little while on his knees while Sigyn fought for air. Her neck ached abominably from the pressure Loki had put on her neck. She managed to uncurl herself from the tight ball which she was wound in and then made her way to her knees. She was still choking and coughing uncontrollably. "I didn't want to kill you," Sigyn happened to whisper her hands rubbed over her sore and offended neck. "If I wanted to you'd already be dead," she stated firmly and glared in his direction.

Loki laughed, but continued to rock on his haunches as he allowed his throbbing manhood to recuperate from the bout. "So you still think that you can stop me? Stop this?" He was once more on his feet and stomping toward her. "You can't stop Convergence and you can't stop Ragnarok," he proclaimed as he loomed over her. "And you can't stop me from having my moment of triumph," he stated as he circled around her on long legs like a vulture.

"Maybe not," Sigyn admitted with a slight shudder and a tremble in her voice. "But I'm not going to let Asgard go without a fight. Tis not the Aesir way," she stated and Sigyn also tried to climb onto her feet.

"I guess this Frost Giant wouldn't know," he quipped. "But you can't stop me, Sigyn. So you might as well leave," he spat as he looked down his nose at her.

"Well," Sigyn said looking up from her knees. "I have to try!" She declared and lunged at his knees and tackled him to the ground. With that, the pair began tussling like cats and dogs. They rolled on the ground on top of each other like children. Twisting and writhing, scratching and clawing and biting like animals. They crashed into furniture and knocked things about. Many of the priceless artifacts and ornaments that Loki had collected came crashing down. The tumbled off of their pedestals and high places upon the mantles and came to a tumbling down. They rolled into furniture. They knocked over the furniture and broke a few chairs. Each one fighting for dominance. They pushed and pulled and roughly tugged and pinned each other down yelling and hooping as they did so. Loki grabbed Sigyn's long blonde mane and pulled her head back. In return, Lady Sigyn dug her nails into Loki's shoulder and drew blood. Loki ripped Sigyn's garment. He tore her sleeve and exposed her tanned flesh, her shoulder was visible almost down to her breasts. The blonde-haired maiden gasped in horror at her exposed skin. Then she gritted and growled in anger. Ruthlessly, he landed a hard backhand across Sigyn's face. Her head swung to the right side and the slap was so hard that it made her neck snap. Sigyn groaned miserably from the insulting blow. It hurt like being hit with a cold paddle. Her face was flushed and red with the imprint of his knuckles. This gave Loki just enough time to throw the queen's lady-in-waiting off balance. Loki swiveled his hips and reversed them so that he was on top and straddling her. He pinned her down. He pinned her wrists to his dark tile marble floor. He watched as a small trail of bright red blood trickled down from her nostril. Her eyes were black and blue and she was covered in sweat. Yet she still fought. She fought and struggled. She did everything she could to push against his and to get up. She grunted and strained. She kicked her feet, but nothing she could do could get him to budge. But he wouldn't. So she bit him. She leaned up against him as far as she could and dug her teeth, incisors, and canines deep into his pale flesh. Loki screamed and yanked his shoulder blade away from the clasp of her mouth. Blood spilled down his shoulder as her teeth had sank deep into his flesh.

"Sigyn, enough!" He finally screamed! He reflexively gripped his bleeding right should and let go of Sigyn's arm. This gave Sigyn just enough leverage to slip her body from beneath Loki's. Sigyn was winded and crawled away. She weakly dragged her beaten body across the marble floor while she gasped and panted and cried. Sigyn thought that she had just narrowly escaped Loki, but just then she felt a strong hand reach out and grab her swollen ankle. The pain from the squeeze made her whimper as Loki yanked her back toward himself. Sigyn shrieked as she was once again confronted with Loki's bloody face. The lady-in-waiting to Queen Frigga instinctively gave Loki a swift kick in the jaw. With this Sigyn was able to free her foot from being held captive by the dictator. Loki cackled wildly as he watched Sigyn give her all to try to rise to her feet. She took to her feet quickly. She righted herself and stood in fighting stance with her fists set and ready to rumble. Loki too pushed his way to his feet. He wiped his face free of sweat, pushed his hair out of his eyes and then swiped his thumb right over his slightly plumped bloody lip. "Enough is enough," he grumbled bitterly and he finally sent an elaborate golden pulse rippling from his hands.

The magic shot forth from his hands and went straight for Sigyn. It hit her in the stomach and she howled as the power of his blast sent her body propelling backward and slamming into Loki's large bed. Sigyn's body bounced off of the silky, emerald green and black sheets of the bed. Her back arched as she fell upon the mattress. She moaned and bit her lip to keep from sobbing from the pain. She twisted in the bed bunching the satin sheets with her fingers and she clawed and grasped while rolling to her side. Lady Sigyn was breathless. She was spent and gulping for air. She wheezed and writhed a bit. All the while she watched through nearly blacked eyes as Loki sauntered toward her. His clothes were hanging off of him and his pale chest was heaving as he swaggered toward her once more wiping his face of the blood and sweat that tumbled from his temples. It was just then that Sigyn once more became aware of the fact that she herself was half-naked herself. Her clothes were ripped. The skirt of her gown was torn up to her thighs and her neckline was revealed in a way the was nearly wanton. Sigyn backed up against the bed until her back was pressed against the pillows and headboard of the bed.

"My, my, my, little Sigyn," Loki whispered. His voice was clipped, articulate, smooth as butter and doused in lust. He clicked his silver tongue and winked a green eye at her. The wound from her teeth on his shoulder started to heal before her eyes. "You've been a naughty little girl," He told her as he shook his finger in her direction. He was only a few footsteps from being at the foot of the bed. Loki rubbed his palms together and licked his lips. 'How should your king punish you?" He asked. "Such insurrection against the throne is surely treason," he stated with a shrug as he dusted his shoulder off. "And the punishment for treason is death," he explained simply and cocked his head to the side.

Sigyn was panting. "Stay back," Sigyn warned she reached her hand behind one of the pillows and pulled out a dagger knew that Loki kept hidden under his pillows while he slept. "Stay back!" She roared back at him. "Or...or...or...or...I swear!" She screamed out.

"Well, well, well" The trickster continued to talk as he loomed over Sigyn as he stood at the foot of the bed. "You have surprised me, this night, Sigyn," he admitted with a shrug and a smirk. He dusted his hands that were still slick with his own blood. "I honestly never thought it possible," he confessed as he stepped on to his bed and stood before the quivering woman. "Surely, you never did before," he chuckled to himself. She rose to her feet as well and stood before Loki with his own dagger pointed at his neck. He gripped her by her wrist. Sigyn tried to yank her arm back, but she was exhausted from fighting and her whole body was shaking violently. She wasn't willing to surrender, but she didn't have any strength left to fight. She wasn't a warrior like Lady Sif who had the stamina to endure battle for hours, she wasn't endowed with an enchantment that she could use to tap into reservoirs and gain strength and energy. She was just a simple maiden and she was tired. Loki shook her wrist and then twisted it and the dagger immediately tumbled from her hand falling back on the bed. Sigyn balled up her hand and swung with a wild, wide fist. Loki easily dodged her flimsy attack and grabbed her other arm. He took a firm latch onto her. He pulled her close. Though she twisted and pushed and squirmed and kicked and attempted to stomp on Loki's feet and did her utmost best to try and get away from the crazed overlord, he held fast to her. His grip didn't slacken nor did he even budge an inch nor seem phased beyond amusement at her vicious efforts. He shook the blonde-haired woman fiercely and Sigyn practically collapsed against his chest from fatigue. Loki wrapped his thin, muscular arms around her battered, but shapely frame. He lowered his head and moved his cheek so that his mouth near her face. He whispered licentiously in her ear. "I like this side of you, Lady Sigyn," he purred. Just then, he twisted her arm behind her back and turned her around so that her back was pressed against his body. To this Sigyn let out a muffled moaned. "Perhaps if you would have actually shown this much vim and vigor," his silver-tongue reverberated as he made the "V" sounds. "and spirit," he enunciated, "perhaps I would have actually had some desire for you," he confessed with as much mirth in his voice as if he were telling a joke. Sigyn's face twisted at his words. Her lip curled downward and she fought back tears. She bit her lip to keep from screaming and sobbing. Loki continued to feel her shake. Finally, he dropped her. Her practically shoved her down onto his bed. He looked down at her, sprawled out on his black sheets. It was not an unknown scene. It was actually quite a familiar scene. Her cleavage teased at the sight of her full bosom and her curvy, tanned thighs were revealed and spread apart. Loki continued to smirk as he looked down at her. Lady Sigyn had never been his first choice of bedfellow, but he could never deny that she was physically appealing. He bent down to his knees on top of her. He pinned her down between his legs. He could feel her shaking, hear her breathing coming out in a raspy gasp, see the beads of perspiration running down the side of her face as well as the frightened expression she wore. He brought his hand up to mockingly trace her jawline. Sigyn twisted her face away from his touch. She was growling and snarling like a caged cat as Loki stroke her cheek. He wiped away the blood and dirt that had gathered there. He smiled down wickedly at the golden-locked Aesir woman, "Oh yes, darling, you know I like it rough," he teased as he swiped his forked tongue across his lips.

"Oh yes, my dear," Sigyn whispered back while her fingers scrambled and reached to the side until the touched the hilt of one of Loki's daggers. "So do I!" She ground out as she hurled a wad of spit at Loki's face. Loki immediately turned covered his face. Sigyn's saliva ran from his nose down to his mouth. Loki roughly dragged his hand across his face and wiped the spittle away. He was disgusted and he fumed as he turned back to her. His back was coiled and arched like a cobra and his nails were set like claws that seemed ready to tear poor Sigyn to shreds for her act of disrespect to his person. Her hands fumbled and felt around behind her on the bed until finally, the landed on something of use. She picked up the knife and slashed it against Loki's smooth, hairless cheek.

Loki flinched immediately. He roared in pain and reared back and fell upon his bed as he grabbed his face as blood soaked through his fingers. It ran through his fingers, hot and fast like lava. He screamed in agony. The cut was very near his eye. Sigyn jumped off the bed and ran. She was running blindly. She was weeping and desperate to get away, she wasn't paying attention to where she was going and so she ran right for Loki's balcony window. She realized that this wasn't exactly the best plan. It left her with absolutely nowhere to retreat to and she'd most likely have to take her chances and just jump off of the balcony rather than face Loki again. She had better chances of survival at that rate at least. It would be like hurling herself off of a mountain, but her odds of surviving such a feat as that were better than her odds of slaying a ravenous dragon. Surely, that was all Loki was now. Before Loki had merely been playing a game with her, but the more she fought him the more his anger intensified. The more his anger against her intensified the more passion her put behind every blow. She could feel how he was losing restraint. it was evident in their battle. With each passing second, Loki had started to hit her harder and quicker. At first, Loki had just been playing defense. He was blocking her blows and punches, but by the end of their scrap he was playing offense and he had an intent to hurt her. The way he had loomed over her in the bed. It made her skin crawl. She didn't know what he had intended to do to her. He could have done anything...anything at all. With his powers he could have transformed her into a toad or mouse, he could have strapped her down to the bed...and...and...he could have killed her. He could have killed her. He had killed countless others for less. Why he hadn't outright killed her in those heated moments she wasn't sure, but she was sure that Loki had lost his patience with her and whatever was holding him back from taking a dagger and ramming it through her heart, well the blonde-haired handmaiden to the queen of Asgard was almost certain that she had severed that when she'd taken the blade and cut his cheek.

Sigyn quickly pulled her mind from such thoughts. Her only thought needed to be to get out of Loki's room. Perhaps if she was able to get out of the palace she could rendezvous with the soldiers and warriors of Asgard who were hiding in the ancient shelter built by their ancestors. Maybe she could get to them and tell them all that she knew and then any men or women who were strong and healthy enough could come back to the palace and liberate Prince Thor. Maybe they wouldn't be able to stop Loki and Malekith from unleashing the Aether upon an unsuspecting cosmos during Convergence, but perhaps they could save their prince's life and live to fight another day. Sigyn smiled to herself as the thought lodged itself in her brain. At that moment, she looked up and noticed that put just as she was quickly coming upon the railing that wrapped around the large balcony that a magical force-field made of shiny, neon green light and energy was rising out of the marble floor of the balcony. Her large gold doubloon eyes grew even wider as they beheld a magical force-field made of green come up block the balcony. Sigyn was running so fast that she had no means to stop herself. She ran smack-dab into the force-field, she smacked her head and cheek against the energy wall and it smarted like being hit by a hot, wet cloth. She immediately bounced off of the bright green shield as soon as she hit it. She fell to the ground on her back. She looked around wild-eyed and observed that Loki had completely boxed her in. All four sides were sealed with the force-field. She was trapped.

Lady Sigyn panicked. Her heart pounded as she found herself encased in a jade colored bubble. The walls of the shield seemed to close in on her making the space tighter and tighter. The golden-eyed daughter of Admiral Arn started running in circles. She then started to ram her shoulder against all four sides of the force-field. She rammed and rammed her shoulder into the force-field over and over again. She tried to find an area of weakness, but she couldn't. Each time Sigyn flung her body against the shield, the shield only sent her body propelling right back down to the ground. Sigyn started to get up. She started to try again, but as she felt the throbbing of her arms and shoulder and even her back she realized that there was no way for her body to pierce through the shield. Sigyn's breathing was heavy, she groaned as she rubbed her sore limbs. Her bloodshot amber eyes caught glimpse of one of the bejeweled, golden arrows. Her heart leaped with joy for but a moment. She started to reach for the weapon, knowing that it would be enough to break down the magic-infused barrier, but just as her bloodied knuckles started to reach out she realized that the arrow was on the other side of the shield and out of her grasp.

Just then, a pair of black boots appeared within her visage. She watched as long, slender, porcelain fingers reached down and delicately plucked the arrow from its spot on the ground. Sigyn's eyes followed every move that the man before her was making. His sinister smirk made her blood freeze as he picked up the beautiful arrow and ticked his pointed, scraped chin with the soft plumage of peacock feathers that adorned the weapon. Loki's wild and dangerous emerald eye turned to her. His glance was so cold and wolfish that it made Sigyn freeze right there with her hand outstretched. "Looking for this?" The trickster teased as he waved the arrow at her. Sigyn scowled and drew back her hand and tucked it protectively toward her bosom. She looked down. King Loki touched his cheek. It was still red with the blood from the wound she had inflicted upon him. "I expected some ill-conceived escape attempt to take place tonight," he admitted nonchalantly. "But I must say, I did not expect them from you, Lady Sigyn," he confessed and arched his dark eyebrow. "Lady Sif, the Warriors Three, A band of Einherjar, a group of Valkyrie, an uprising of peasants," he started to scoff. "I would have even expected some feat from that little mortal wench that Thor had taken such a fancy to," he stated. "But you little Sigyn...never you," he continued to chuckle to himself. "Perhaps I underestimated you," he suggested to himself as he scratched under his chin. All the while Sigyn studied his every move. She never allowed her eyes to leave him. "Perhaps after all this time there has really been more to you than what meets the eye," he said as his jade pupils looked her up and down. "Maybe you are more than just naïve, ignorant, simpleminded, albeit lovely damsel," he confessed with a shrug.

Sigyn wrapped her arms around herself. She hugged herself tightly. She wanted to sob at the cruelty of the tyrant's words. Loki was a master of words he had always known just what to say to manipulate people and situations to provoke and flatter and taunt. She'd not give him the satisfaction of thinking that he still had any control over her. "And maybe there is no more to you than meets the eye," Lady Sigyn spat back. "You are just what you appear!" She hollered. "You are a wicked, heartless, scoundrel! You're a liar and a trickster and a coward!" The golden-locked woman continued to rail.

Loki only smiled toward her remarks and gestured with her hands begging for her to say more. "Sticks and stones, my little Sigyn," he announced.

"I am not your little Sigyn!" She declared as she pushed herself to her feet.

Loki sneered at her defiance. "You have shown great valor this night." He nodded to himself and paced about in front of the green shield. "Indeed your feats are worthy to be recorded in the great chronicles of the Valkyrie. Perhaps I can do that for you, tis the least I can do, my dear," he expressed and gave her a wink.

"Don't bother," Sigyn stated through gritted teeth as she found her footing.

Loki spun around on his heels. He turned from her and ran his fingers through his wet and bedraggled ebony hair. "You are still a foolish girl, Sigyn," he said as he shook her head. he gripped at the banister around his balcony. He looked down at the smoldering burning city below. "I told you to go to the Dales," he stated to her. He pounded his fist on the railing. "You could have been safe..." The new king of Asgard started.

"Safe? Safe?" Sigyn asked with laughter in her throat. "Where could I go to be safe from this? Where could I run to escape this?" She questioned ruthlessly as she threw her arms out. "Are the Dales far enough?" She inquired once more. "I know not the mileage from the Imperial City to the Dales, but I do not think that it is far enough for me to escape what you have planned. If I went to Midgard or Nornheim or even Nifelheim, twould not be far enough to run from Ragnarok and you know it!" She shot back.

Loki's lip that was cut up and swelling turned up and he smirked. Sigyn was getting smarter. "Perhaps you are right," he acknowledged. He kept his back to her. "But if you would have come here and pledged your loyalty to me at least you could have found favor in my court," he shrugged.

"I don't want favor in your court!" Sigyn spat back.

"Then you must want death!" He spat and spun around and face her. And the way that his back was arched he looked like a cobra.

"Go ahead and kill me, Loki!" She yelled. "You've killed everyone else." She declared. "You've killed all these innocent people! Good men and women and children of Asgard you and those beasts have slaughtered in the droves. You're willing to kill your own brother!" She screamed. "And you killed Dyson!"

"Who?" The raven-haired dictator asked as he ran his hand over his face.

"DYSON!" Sigyn yelled back through the shield. Loki's face was still perplexed. "Dyson!" She continued to holler. But the enchanter's face was no less puzzled the more she said his name. Sigyn's voice broke. And she started to cry. "He worked in the palace," she whispered back.

"Well, that narrows it down to several hundred who have worked in the palace over the centuries," Loki expressed boredly.

Sigyn narrowed her eyes toward his callousness. Her mouth dropped open and she grabbed at her heart. Were all the palace servants simply just numbers to Loki? "He lived here," she choked out. "Grew up in the palace same as you," she shot back, but the black-haired mage seemed unfazed by her words. There was still not a trace of recognition on her bruised face. "His grandmother was your laundress!" She finally yelled as she grabbed her hair. Loki's eyes flickered for a split second. He could scarcely remember an older lady with a young boy following her around the palace. "She washed your dirty clothes," she said as she held her head up high. "He groomed your horse," the blonde-haired maiden continued. "He worked hard and wanted to be a palace guard," she went on. She looked down. "He became that. He swore an oath to protect all who were in the palace. To protect the weapons vault, the throne, the royal family...you!" She said and thrust an accusatory finger in Loki's direction. "He swore an oath to protect your life over his own, even though truth be told he never really liked you," Sigyn stated staunchly and she held her face firm. She watched as the king's pale features slightly quirked at her reply. "And you killed him," she ground out between her clenched teeth. Her fists were tightened by her side and her eyes were narrowed. "You killed him in cold blood right there in the throne room when he stood against your attempt to take over Asgard," she reminded him.

It came back to Loki then. That young upstart palace guard. Who should have bowed and declared him as his king and given him all due diligence and loyalty? "He threatened the life of his king," Loki replied stiffly.

"He defended Asgard! He defended the life of Prince Thor and tried to protect this realm from your wicked rule!" She shouted in protest. Sigyn was unable to hold back the fresh salt tears that were desperate to leak from her golden eyes.

"I am the rightful king of Asgard!" Loki insisted to her through his teeth as he thumped his chest.

"You are king of nothing!" Sigyn yelled back. "You're a usurper of the throne! You put the all-father into the Oversleep," she pointed her finger at him.

"He's not my father!" Loki retorted.

"You tricked and tortured your own brother," she spat as she shook his head.

Loki shook his head. "He's not my brother!" He barked.

"Lies! Lies! Lies!" Sigyn hurled her words back at him. "Who else but a brother would sacrifice his own powers his very kingdom for you," he protested. "He gave up everything! He gave up Asgard because he believed in you," Lady Sigyn explained as she wagged her head. "Just like Rana!" Sigyn said quietly as she batted her eyes and looked up at the sky. "I thought my family hated and disowned me after the disgrace that I had brought them due to you," she tossed her head in King Loki's direction. "But Rana," she smiled and chuckled. "She delivered me here," she spread her hands out upon the ground as she gestured. "Despite the fact that she knew what my father would do to her if he found out. She did it because she was my sister, just as Thor did what he could because he was your brother," Sigyn's voice grew quiet until it was barely a whisper. "But you, Loki for all your wisdom are too blind to see that," she shot back at him as he inflamed gold eyes stared back at him. "You are a liar and a traitor and a coward!" She yelled through her quivering, bloody lips. "And...and...and..." Sigyn could feel her temperature rising. Her whole body started to quake. She slammed her fist against the emerald force-field. "You're a murderer!" She raged. "You're a killer! KILLER! KILLER! KILLER! KILLER!" She cried like a mad-woman. She repeatedly banged her fist against the force-field. Hitting it with such a fury that the shield shook and seemed as if it would crack and give way, but it didn't. It only left her with aching and weary knuckles that were blistered and scorched by the end of her tirade. Finally, Sigyn was left gasping and panting and trembling. Her legs gave out from under her and she fell to the ground. She slid against the shield and groped desperately as she continued to sob.

Loki sneered as he watched her pitiful display. "You seem to have cared an awful lot about this man," he stated with inquiry in his tone.

Sigyn sniffled. "He was a friend," she confessed.

"Perhaps he was more to you than that," he pressed.

Sigyn shook her head. "He cared for me when I foolishly only had eyes for you," she spat. "He was a young man. He had his whole life ahead of him. You could have let him live," she looked up at Loki.

"If you truly miss him so much and share his same treasonous spirit then perhaps you can join him," the self-proclaimed king threatened.

Sigyn sucked in a sharp breath and once more pushed herself to her feet. "Go ahead," she once again proclaimed to him. She stretched forth her arms and opened up her chest. "I'd rather it," she told him. "I'd rather die than live in a world where you rule and all the people and places and things that I care about are no more. I'd surely sooner die than live to see you awaken Ragnarok!"

"Well that can be arranged, my dear," Loki said as he summoned the same dagger that Sigyn had used to slash his face to his hand. It was still slick with his own blood. The dagger's hilt went smack against Loki's palm as he twirled it and flipped it in the air.

Sigyn stiffened. A shiver went down her spine as she felt the cold breath of death upon the nape of her neck. Loki looked at her without feeling or care. It broke her heart. "But I have, but one request of you, your majesty," Sigyn said with disdain in her voice as her pouty pink lip curled in a snarl and she gave a sweeping bow in the direction of the dictator.

"Do tell dearie," Loki replied as he continued to flip the dagger back and forth in the air and leaned his ear closer toward the glowing, emerald shield as he cupped it with his hand.

His placid, nearly jovial expression angered Lady Sigyn to no end. She wished that her hand could have reached through the force-field and slapped that smug expression right off of his lips. She was huffing when she straightened herself up to stare into his eyes. Eyes that were red and wild and rimmed with darkness. His eyes seemed to have no feelings of regret or remorse about the awful crimes that he had committed against his own kingdom. His eyes danced with a kind of fiendish glee as they all lie in the wake waiting for the destruction that he and Malekith were about unleash on the Nine Realms. Sigyn's body trembled with anger. For the life of herself, she could not figure out why. She could not figure out why Loki would do these terrible things. She knew Loki had suffered but had all his suffering really equated to all this? She had never been good at math, but she knew this didn't make sense. She'd always seen Loki as logical to a fault. It was one of the things that she loved about him. He thought things out and planned. He was wise or at least she thought that he was. Now when she looked at him she didn't see the wise, shrewd prince who she'd always known, but she saw a crazed animal who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. Even if it meant mowing over an entire universe. The thought of Loki's bloodlust sent a shiver running through Lady Sigyn's spine. Normally, such a feeling would have made her run away. But there was nowhere to run, from Loki or from Ragnarok. "I'm listening, Sigyn" the dark-haired enchanter hummed as he pressed his ear closer to the force-field he created. "Speak up, my dear," he taunted, "Cat got your tongue?" he inquired as he faced her with a sinister grin on his face.

Sigyn was panting and nearly breathless. Tears were streaming down the blonde-haired maiden's dirty face. She started to speak. Her lips moved for awhile before she was able to find her voice. When she did find it came out croaky and warbled like an older woman. To this, the self-proclaimed king of Asgard chuckled as he watched her stammer and sputter while trying to find her tongue. Finally, Sigyn cleared her throat and spoke up. "I wish to be free of you!" The youngest daughter of Admiral Arn screamed quirked his features to this. "I wish to be free of you!" She repeated still boldly, but her temper was tamed a bit as she spoke. "By the spirits and the Norns and the branches of Yggdrasil, I wish to be free of you," Lady Sigyn expressed as she gripped a few strands of her tangled and matted platinum blonde hair. She paced about inside of the force-field. "I wish to be free of you, damn it!" she swore as she finally turned back to face the raven-haired king.

Loki's eye widened ever so slightly and his jet-black brow arched just a bit higher as he heard the words feverishly tumble off of Lady Sigyn's lips. In all the years he had known Lady Sigyn he had never heard one swear word come out of her pretty much. Well, perhaps she had occasionally uttered a few expletives while in the bed that would have been considered very improper for a lady of the court to use. Loki held back a chuckle that longed to ripple from his lips at the thought of some of the things she had whispered in his ear while tangled in the sheets of his bed. Most of those words had tumbled out of her lips after her inhibitions had been lowered by a few glasses of wine and a body drunk on sex. "All these years I have loved you," Sigyn stated as she looked up at Loki. Her bloodshot, amber eyes shined with tears. "I have loved you with all my heart," she confessed as she placed her palm upon her chest. "I have loved you like a fool!" She spat. "I was a fool! I was a fool to love you so! I was a fool. I was a fool," she declared. "I loved you despite the fact that you never loved me and openly loved another," she explained. "Even when everybody told me terrible things about you," she paused and hiccuped. Her breath hitched. "When they told me that you were a trickster...I'd say 'no, no, Prince Loki is simply mischievous and playful," she explained and laughed at herself for her ignorance. "When they'd say, 'Prince Loki is a liar,' I'd say, 'no, no, no he is simply silver-tongued and clever with his words. He's persuasive'" she explained mocking herself. "And even when others would tell me that you could be so cruel and twisted, I'd defend your honor and say 'not so!'" She held up her hand as if to bring someone to halt their words. "I'd say that they didn't know you and that I knew that you were kind and good and peaceful," Sigyn continued to shake her head. "And I believed all that, Loki! I believed all that!" Sigyn stressed as she grabbed her hair a ripped at her garments. She dropped to the floor. She sank to her knees and sobbed openly into her palms. She sobbed strong and loud. Her cry echoed throughout Loki's chamber and he nearly covered his ears to block out the sound. Her cry was pitiful, weak and broken.

Loki bit his lip. His breath hitched and his throat started to ache as he tried to breathe. He mashed his lips together as started to turn around to walk away. "I believed that," Lady Sigyn finally spoke up as she tried to control her emotions and stop herself from blubber. "Because...because...because...because...because" she hiccuped and stammered. At last, Sigyn sucked in a sharp breath. She felt as if her heart would burst, but even if it killed her with her last breath she would say what she needed to say. "Because I loved you," Sigyn confessed as she looked into Loki's hard as stone, cold as ice, deep emerald eyes. He did not even bat an eyelash, his features did not even quirk or flinch as he saw Sigyn's bloodied and bruised face wet with tears. He closed his eyes and took a step back. "I loved you, Loki," Sigyn cried out once more. "With all my heart," she decreed. "I gave you everything that I had," she expressed. "I gave you all my heart," she murmured. "My body," she gestured to her dirty form. "I gave you my innocence. I had been with no man before you and for my love you branded me a whore," Sigyn went on. Her shoulders slumped and she placed her hands in her lap. "And yet...yet...somehow...I loved you anyway," she shrugged. "But I am a fool for that!" Sigyn proclaimed as she slammed her fist on the ground. She held her pouty pink lips evermore tighter and firmly. She pushed herself from the ground and ran toward the force-field. She rammed a tight-balled fist into the magical barrier. Her hand bounced off of the green shield and she stumbled backward and nearly lost her footing. "I AM A FOOL!" Sigyn screamed at the top of her lungs. "I must be a fool and a nitwit girl to have loved you all this time," she stated as she slapped her own forehead. Sigyn's lips twisted. "Well, no more!" the golden-locked daughter of Admiral Arn decreed. She held her head high and stomped her foot. "So if I am to die, I demand to die a free woman," she said to Loki as she looked him square in those soulless emerald pools.

Loki chuckled softly in his throat. "You are in no position to make demands, Lady Sigyn," Loki pointed out and flicked his dagger toward her.

"Why bother to hold me under your spell any longer?" Sigyn questioned. "Free me! Free me!" She begged. "If you ever had any honor in you twould be the least that you could do," she said as she felt tears bubbling behind her eyelids and threatening to spill forth once more. "Remove this bewitchment from me," she said as she thrust her arms out in front of her. "Take this spell off of me that has made me love you so," she pleaded with the king of Asgard. "I beg of Loki," she groveled while watered mixed with blood in streaking down her face. "Open my blinded eyes so that I may see you as the villain that you really are!" She sobbed.

The self-proclaimed king of Asgard simply shook his head. "Lady Sigyn," he started in a genteel tone. "You surely give me too much credit and thus indeed you underestimate your own feeblemindedness," he explained. Loki tossed his dark mane back and let out a hearty, laugh in Sigyn's face. The lady-in-waiting's face reddened. She wore a dumbfounded expression. "I never put any spell on you Lady Sigyn," Loki stated as he finally ceased his guffawing. He cocked his head to the side and crossed his scratched up arms over his chest.

"W-what?" Sigyn stammered breathlessly.

The ebony coiffed enchanter continued to wear his smirk. "Tis true I'm afraid," he looked down at his fingertips with boredom. "Whatever feelings you bore toward me were of your own free-will or weak-will, however, you chose to decipher it," he put his hand out. He looked in on the simple, but beautiful handmaiden that he had trapped behind the shield. It wasn't just the emerald colored force-field's green glow reflecting off of her flesh that made her appear queasy.

Sigyn grabbed her head and stomach like she were ill. She staggered backward barely keeping her balance. She placed her hand over her lips and dry heaved. But her belly was so empty that she could produce nothing. "No," she finally groaned as she looked up at him. She felt like such an idiot. It wasn't the only time that she had ever felt that way in Loki's presence, but this time it seemed far worse. She'd poured out her heart and soul to the usurper of Asgard's throne. She told him that she loved him. Even though she knew that she was crazy and stupid to feel such a way about a man who was so ruthless and cruel a man who was so hellbent on destruction. A man who didn't even act like a man. He acted like an animal, a soulless, mindless ravenous animal. And yet in her heart she'd so desperately clung to thoughts that maybe somewhere deep down inside there was still some good in Loki. She had to imagine that there was still some semblance of the sweet prince who she'd once known. But with every passing minute as Loki's villainy had grown more fiendish and devious she had started to see him as others had said he was. He was absolutely awful. But somehow in the back of her mind she couldn't shake her hope that the man she loved was still alive deep down in him somewhere. She felt angry and guilty that she ever had any loving feelings toward that creature who stood before her. He'd always treated her with contempt, he'd always embarrassed and dismissed her, he'd hurt her, he'd shown her his true color. He'd disgraced her and he was planning on destroying the world that she called home. How, how could she feel anything but hate toward one such as that? She convinced herself that Rana and her mother were right, that Loki must have given her some sort of love potion or put some type of trickery upon her to make her pine for him so. Sigyn grabbed her head. She drove her broken, cracked and grimy nails into her scalp as she grabbed heaping fistful of her muddied blonde-curls. "Nooo," Sigyn whimpered all the more. She screamed out. "NOOOO!" She looked up at him in bafflement and disbelief. Both of their eyes shined at one another. She was sure she saw his twinkling with a hint of beguiling mischief that would have likely driven her into a fit. Loki remained firm as the heartbreak that was written so plainly on her face carved its way into his heart. All Sigyn felt was shame and horror at her own stupidity. She knew she wasn't a scholar and she had never been told that she was particularly bright or clever by anyone, but was she really such a fool as to have fallen for Loki without even a bit of enchantment?

"Think about it, Sigyn," Loki offered as he touched his finger to his temple. He took a deep breath. he opened his mouth and started to speak once, but somehow lost his tongue or maybe it was his nerve. He could feel his own heart pounding viciously in his chest cavity. The heat that smothered him rose to his fingertips and he wrung his hands. He felt his intestines tying themselves in terrible knots and all of his body seemed to be at war with him to keep him at bay from saying what he intended to say. But Loki was a liar at best. Lies became him plain and simple. Lies were easy. The truth was nearly impossible to utter, but a half-truth may just do the trick. "If I was going to use some type of enchantment to make a woman fall in love with me, why would I use it on you?" He asked cruelly.

The trickster's words punched Lady Sigyn in the stomach. She grunted as if she actually felt a blow. A single tear trickled down the cheek of her dirty, smudged face. Did she truly mean so little to him? Hadn't she cared for him, hadn't they talked and laughed and shared in his moments when he was trapped in the lowest cell in the palace dungeon. He'd held her in his arms, he'd planted his lips upon her and they'd kissed. And she'd felt it. At least she'd thought that she felt it. She felt passion in the kiss. She held him and felt their hearts beating in time. She'd felt it. She'd felt the ecstasy of being kissed by the many that she loved and she'd known that it was a special kind of kiss not only had it made her heart flutter and toes curl, but it had stirred her soul. And she was sure that he...at least she had hoped that maybe he had felt. Lady Sigyn closed her eyes and twisted her lip bitterly. There was a reason they had called the raven-haired prince Silvertongue. And maybe in he didn't need to talk in order to use his silver tongue for trickery.

"If I was going to use such methods, I would have surely used them on Lady Dagmar," he reported curtly. He clenched his jaw and his cheekbones flared. He looked down quickly. He was no longer able to stare into the wide, amber pools that wore hurt and fear like a guileless child. So there. He'd said it. Dagmar was everything and she was nothing. She was not even worthy of being conned or tricked by the great trickster himself. She wanted to cry and scream and fling herself over the balcony. She wanted to take an arrow and finish him off. None of these things were options and so Sigyn had remained silent and still within the confined barrier. She nodded and tried to keep her eyes from leaking and tried to keep her nose from running.

"Still," the emerald-eyed enchanter started once more. "I suppose you do deserve some honor," he stated and ever so quickly his voice almost became light and jovial, but his chest heaved up and down as he spoke to her. "You took care of me while I was grinding away in the dismal dungeon," he recalled. He clenched his fist and cracked his knuckles as memories of the terrible pain came rushing back to him all at once. He remembered screaming like a banshee as his body suffered from the dreadful withdrawal from magic. He this could recall Sigyn's small hand taking hold of his. He could once again feel her tender ministrations as she dabbed his forehead with a cloth, bandaged his self-inflicted wounds, cradled his head to her breast when he was sobbing like a child. She read to him and kept him company. She had been his entire world outside of the horrible pain. And he'd...Loki shook his head and quickly dislodged the feelings that tried to creep up and take hold. He steeled himself. "I suppose your kindness should be repaid somehow. It is befitting to repay such kindness with such lies," he surmised.

"You've lied to everyone else,"

Loki ignored her words. "It is a king's duty to reward his faithful servants," he expressed. "So I will give you this little gift, my dear little Sigyn," he played with the words and let them slide off of his tongue like butter. "I never put anything on you to make you love me," he repeated once more. "But I did take a memory from you," he stated.

Lady Sigyn gasped. "What? Why?" She questioned in horror as she grabbed her head.

"Well I couldn't have you interfering with my plans now could I, Sigyn?" He asked as he gestured around him. "You'd seen too much and I didn't want to have to hurt you," he shrugged his shoulders and gave a devious little grin to her.

"Give them back!" Lady Sigyn demanded as she stretched out her hand. "GIVE THEM BACK!" She shrieked until she was all red in the face.

Loki's smile only traced it's way deeper onto his face. "I intend to, my dear," he nodded. A glowing lime green rim wrapped around his eyes and Loki extended his hand as if he were to toss the memories to her. Sigyn waited thinking that he would produce an orb or something. But all at once the memory hit her like a brick upside the head. She felt lightheaded at first. The room started to spin. She saw stars, there was a haze and a fog and then it all came back to her. That memory that she couldn't quite recall of her last visit to Loki's cell. She saw that creature. That horrible plum skinned being with yellow teeth that were coated in blood. It was a hunchback draped in royal vestments like some type of royal advisor. She nearly shrieked as she saw if cruel face coming to look at her. She heard it whisper to Loki. She heard their words. Their plots and plans they conversed like partners. Then she watched as it worked some type of mysticism over Loki. Loki had been weak, without the use of his own power, but that other creature shocked him and knocked him out and sent energy and power coursing through his veins and when he came to he was strong with his arts once more.

Sigyn shook her head and looked down. her lips moved feverishly but no words came from her mouth. she was sure that her head would explode for the vision she had been shown. Finally, she looked up at Loki, "I knew?" She inquired and there was a feral rumble in her soprano tone. Loki cocked his head to the side and placed one hand on his hip and then gave a cheeky grin in her direction as he shrugged his shoulders. Sigyn clenched her fist together, they dug into the skin on her hands. She squeezed her eyes shut as tears pushed through her dust golden eyelashes. "I knew," she mumbled once more. "I knew! I knew! I knew!" She ground out bitterly through gritted teeth. She stomped her little foot and looked up at Loki with fury in her eyes.

"Well, I'm afraid it is true," Loki stated. He flagged her off. Even though her expression was mortified and her cheeks were as red as cherry tomatoes. "Oh, don't be so hard on yourself, dearie! If it makes you feel any better, technically you forgot what you knew so that hardly makes you responsible," he excused her.

Sigyn shook her head. She was still horrified by the terrible memory that had just been played in her head. She was mortified by her own ignorance and she was disgusted by the man that stood before her. She blinked her eyes rapidly and batted back tears. Her lips twitched and mouthed words that she hardly understood. Finally, something intelligible managed to grace her lips. "No," she gasped. Loki leaned in closer to the force-field and he cupped his hand around his ear. She saw his nonchalant gesture. She felt fire in her belly. It came bubbling forth like dragon's breath. She opened her mouth and roared, "NOOO! No!" She bellowed and her barefoot kicked the green shield. It bounced right back and it was painful. Sigyn wanted to grab her toes and hop around to relieve herself. Instead, she breathed deeply and stood flat-footed. "You mean to tell me that all the time I knew that you had held a conversation with that...that... that THING!" She shouted. She was so furious that her whole body was shaking. "And..and...and...and I knew what you said...and...and...I could have stopped this and you took that from me?" Sigyn asked breathlessly in disbelief. Loki didn't answer right away. He looked down for a moment and then hid glowing green eyes quickly darted back up. "You took it from me!" She repeated. Still, the enchanter remained tight-lipped. "TELL ME!" Sigyn shrieked.

Her words dug into his soul. In an instant, he was taken back. He saw himself standing in the weapons vault with Odin. He was so shaken and broken and scared then. He had been a man, but he felt like a child. He was a helpless child reaching out his hand to his father for comfort and love and assurance. His identity hung in the balance at that moment. He didn't know who he was. Was he the son of Odin or the son of his father's mortal enemy? His head reeled. He waited with baited breath for Odin to speak. The answer should have been quick and easy, but it wasn't because lies were easy, but the truth was always hard to tell. "You probably couldn't have stopped this anyway, Sigyn," Loki stated in a very soft voice as his eyes quickly darted downward.

"What type of man are you? That you hate us all so that you truly wanted all this? That you would stop at nothing to get it? That you'd go so far as to play tricks on my mind so that you could bring forth Ragnarok?"

"I played with your mind..." Loki started in earnest as he looked back up at her. "Because..." He started the words were coming so fast that his silver tongue barely had time to slice them and dice them and twist them and turn fact into fiction. "Because I wanted to spare your life," Loki announced stoically as he straightened himself up. "Because I didn't want to kill you," he spat, but his voice cracked as he said it.

"Why?" She demanded.

King Loki slammed his hand against the force-field. it frightened Sigyn and made her jumped slightly, but then immediately returned to her rigid and proud stance. "Because!" The enchanter started again. "I...I...ca..." The words died on the black haired trickster's lips. He mashed his bloody, cracked lips together and held his breath and counted to ten as he tried to conjure up words to say. Loki's posture automatically became that of a king. His head was held high, his nose aimed at the air, his shoulders back and he was standing tall. "You were kind to me, Lady Sigyn and I pitied you," he said plain and simple. "I still pity you," offered beneficently. "That is why I haven't struck you down as we speak. Now, I give you one last chance, dear girl. Kneel before me," he pointed to the ground. "Give me your allegiance, my sweet, pretty, little Sigyn and I promise no harm shall come to you in the wake of Ragnarok," he pledged.

"No," the queen's lady-in-waiting wagged her head in defiance.

Loki scowled with disapproval. But that frown was soon turned upside down. He smirked once more. "Very well then," he turned up his shoulders and once more pulled out his dagger. "You need not fear death, dear little Sigyn, you have fought so valiantly that no doubt you have earned your sacred spot in the halls of Valhalla," he told her slowly.

"And you have earned your spot in the deepest recesses of Hel!" Sigyn spat.

"I know," Loki said quietly and he finally stopped flipping his blood slick dagger in the air. He caught it in his hand and held it tight as he closed his eyes.

"You can pull up a chair right next to Hela herself!"

"I know," Loki ground out with a rumble in his tone. His whole body was starting to shake furiously. He felt a fresh new heat rise over him. He was so so hot. Even though his clothes were ripped and tattered from his fight with the blonde-haired woman who stood before him, he felt like he was running a 105-degree fever while being wrapped in wool and dangling over a live and active volcano. Surely, Loki thought that this must have been a taste of what Helheim truly felt like. His flesh felt like it was fileting and he desperately wanted to run away and dive himself into a pillar of ice in Jotunheim. Although, he doubted that anything could have saved him from the wildfire that consumed his flesh and was set on tormenting his soul. "I know!" The dark enchanter declared once more and he flung his knife right through the shining emerald force-field that he had created.

The dagger whizzed right by Sigyn's eyes and broke the shield. It dissolved instantly, but Lady Sigyn didn't have time to focus on the beauty of the dissolving shield such as the way it shimmered and shined and sparkled and glittered as it faded into nothing but magic particles because no sooner had the force-field dissolve than did Sigyn feel an immense unidentified pressure take hold of her limbs. Her limbs felt like they were trapped in some type of vise. They felt weighed down and heavy like she was wearing some type of magnet. It was hard and uncomfortable. Her large, golden eyes darted around nervously as she tried to ascertain what exactly was going on. She looked at her arms and legs and she didn't see anything on them. She tried to wriggle and move but instead she found that she was unable to move at all. She jerked and jiggled and stretched and strained and tried as she might with all due diligence, but still she wasn't able to more. Finally, her eyes shifted toward Loki. There she saw the green-eyed enchanter staring back at her. His jade eyes glowed wickedly and he wore his signature mischievous smirk, but there was more than just a hint of mischief that danced behind his emerald pools and thin lips. There was malice and hate there too and Sigyn could hear her heart starting to thunder in her ears and her blood start to race through her veins like stampeding stallions. He stretched out his hand toward her and summoned her forth with his powers.

Sigyn was helpless. She squealed. As she felt her body being tugged toward Loki against her will. "No! No! No!" Sigyn cried and she tried to keep her feet on the floor. She pressed her feet down on the ground, but Loki's smirk seemed to only deepen as he beheld her efforts to resist his magic. Before long she found her bare toes slowly being lifted off the ground and she found her body slowly floating toward Loki.

She was face to face with him. Her feet still dangled slightly in the air and her limps were still in heavy clamps stuck and unable to move on her own free will. Soon she felt something tight close around her neck. It was constricting her windpipe and making it difficult for her to breath. She gasped and wheezed trying to suck in air. "L-l-loki," she managed to squeak out.

Loki mashed his lips together and his eyes were glazed over and glassy as he looked on her beautiful face. Loki's chin started to quiver, but he tried to hold his face firm and staunch. "I truly wish you would have stayed in the Dales, Sigyn" Loki confessed.

"So do I," She croaked. Tears started to leak from Sigyn's bloodshot amber eyes. "p-p-please," she whimpered. Her body simply hung in the air unable to do anything to keep from having the very life squeezed out of her.

"I wish you wouldn't have come here, Sigyn," Loki explained. Sigyn wanted to say that she also wished she hadn't come. She wanted to tell Loki that she wished she had never laid eyes on him. The wanted to yell at him that she hated him. She would have liked to think that it was only because of the fact that Loki was choking her to death that she couldn't say those words, but she felt as though her tongue was a slave to her heart more than her mind it wouldn't allow her to confess the words that weren't completely true. "You were always so kind to me, little Sigyn," Loki spoke sorrowfully. He raised his hand so that he was no longer using an invisible chokehold on her, but was holding her by the neck with her feet just scarcely skimming the floor. He could feel her dirty, swan-like neck against his cold palm. He could feel her beating pulse in his hands. It was beating rapidly. He could feel her hiccup as she struggled for air. he watched as her face slowly changed colors from a lack of oxygen. The self-proclaimed king of Asgard took a deep swallow. He gulped. "I never wanted to hurt you," he said as he looked into her screaming eyes. "And you should know that I take no pleasure in this act, Sigyn," he started to her and he brought his mouth up to her ear. "I want you to know that," he whispered. His voice was almost seductive in her ear. He hesitated and breathed deeply. His silver tongue ever so slightly grazed her earlobe. "I...I...I" Loki started. His heart was pounding in his chest as he looked at Sigyn's beautiful face.

"Ah-ah-ah!" Sigyn stammered and screamed at the same time as she felt Loki's thumb pressing tighter and tighter around her throat. "Lo-lo-lokiiii," she coughed and salt water spilled from her eyes onto Loki's skin.

Finally, Loki dropped her like a sack of potatoes. Her body felt to the ground and hit the floor with a thud. She hit the ground hard and strained and sighed as she tried to push herself back up off the ground. She winced and her face contorted as each muscle in her body screamed out. Lady Sigyn was struggling to regain her footing. Every time she pushed herself to even her knees one of her limbs would give way in a terrible spasm and it would send her body crashing right back to the floor. She grunted as she collapsed once more. All her energy was completely drained from her. She was hurt, her ankle was sprained and there were lots of cuts and gashes on her arms and limbs. Her face hurt and her lips were busted and her neck ached from where Loki had wrapped his cruel fingers around it. She was sure in all their tussling that she had cracked a rib or two. She wanted to get up. She wanted to stand and face Loki. She wanted to continue to fight him if necessary and at the same time, she also wanted to flee. She wanted to run away wailing down the hall and out into the darkness of night and never look back at him again. But she couldn't. She couldn't flee or stand or fight, she couldn't do anything but lie on the floor sobbing like a child.

Loki decided to help her out. He rushed to her and roughly took hold of her by her forearm and proceeded to try to hoist her off of the ground. She yelped as she felt him yank at her arm. Lady Sigyn was delicate boned and Loki was strong, she had no doubt that he would have easily been able to heave her into standing had her truly wanted to despite the resistance that she offered. Surely, he could have smote her quickly and soundlessly. She was sure she'd seen him do it before. He didn't need to resort to such means as using his bare hand to choke her. She watched during his trial when he'd strangled a man in midair with nothing but his own magic wrapped around the poor guard's windpipe. He could have done the same to her. He almost had. What was holding him back? "Loki! Wait! Wait!" She cried as she held her arm up protectively before her face. "Please," she begged as she attempted to crawl away. She was sobbing tears washing down her face and causing the dirt to washing into her eyes. Her nose was running. She cowered before the madman who loomed over her with his dagger in hand. Her breath hitched and her golden eyes trembled like flowers as they stared up at him in abject horror.

The self-proclaimed king of Asgard let go of her arm with a brutal shove. She fell back down with a shudder. "Go, Sigyn," he instructed and pointed to the door. His voice was raspy and there was a slight tentative trill in it. Sigyn looked up at him. She collected herself. She pulled her knees to her chest. She tried to regulate her breathing, to calm herself down. her hands fiddled with her skirt. She brought it around her protectively and tried to cover her bare feet. She started to reach out her hand. It was shaking fiercely but she scarcely thought perhaps she could just dare to touch the fringes of his cape. Before her fingernails could even skim part of his garment. Loki twirled on his heels and tugged his cape just out of reach. The whirlwind gesture gave the lady-in-waiting quite a start and she gasped and nearly fell backward.

Perhaps Loki noticed how tender his voice had sounded. Perhaps he felt that Lady Sigyn had detected the softness that seemed the cross over his penetrating, glaring emerald eyes for but a split second. Instantly, his expression hardened once more. "GO!" He bellowed. He pointed at the balcony window this time. "Get thee hence from here!" He commanded. His voice was loud like a clap of thunder. "Go and hide with the rest of those miserable, cowering wretches," he muttered to himself. He turned about and rubbed his hands together over and over again. He snapped and snarled and paced around as he fumed. "Say your prayers and your goodbyes." He waved his hand feverishly as if he was trying to fling something that was icky and sticky off of his finger. The new king's eyes darkened. "When light comes you will see Thor die like a dog and you will see the end of this age," he warned her. The raven-haired monarch dropped his weapon and it clanked as it hit the floor. He gave a deep gust sigh and lumbered toward his bed as he dragged his feet. He was tired. He was oh so tired and he had wasted to much time with a foolish wench like Sigyn. The dawn was practically here. His moment of glory was right there. It was right at his fingertips. All he need do was reach out and grab it. It was his! This world was his for the taking and he'd be damned if he let Sigyn keep him from his destiny. Loki feet seemed to move slowly at first, but all at once his pace quickened. He felt like his feet were in flames. He rushed to try to escape her and the fires that she had sent rushing through his heart. He had almost broken into a full-on sprint. He finally felt the heat taking over him once more. It was so hot. So very, very hot that he felt like he could breathe. He didn't make it to his bed which was in another part of the room. He wanted to get there and slam the door and escape her and slip away and sleep until the dawn and until his abominable act had to be committed but somehow the king could not make the long trek from one part of his chamber to another. He reached one of the great stone columns in his room and he practically flung himself on to. Loki clung to the pillar. He felt so faint. He could barely hold himself erect. It was stifling sweltering in his chamber and he felt as if his lung were filling up with thick, hot, black smoke. "Just go," he coughed and Loki felt his knees buckle and get ready to give up. He kept his body pressed firmly around the pillar. "If you ever loved me...as you said you did," he said through clenched teeth, "just go," he whispered.

Sigyn turned around and watched him. "I can't go, Loki" she explained as she shook her head. "I...I...I came all this way to stop you..." She expressed.

"There's nothing you can do to stop me!" he hissed. He finally, turned around to face. "This will happen! One way or another it will come to pass!" He stated dismissively.

"I have to try," Sigyn responded to herself as she slowly reached into the folds of her cape. She took a great gulp and as she felt the cold clasp of the seal against her little fingers.

"Silly woman, you have already tried and you failed. I've been patient with you Sigyn, but my patience will not last forever. Don't test me anymore," he warned.

"I haven't tried everything," Sigyn cautioned him as she pushed herself to her feet. Her bones creaked and her muscles ached and she let out a pained moaned as stood. She winced as she found her footing with her sore ankle. She took a deep breath. "I came all this way..." She inhaled sharply. "I...I...I made a promise and I intend to keep it." The blonde-haired lady-in-waiting to the queen of Asgard stated firmly as she wrapped her hand tighter around the scroll. "I came all this way to give this to you," she said as she started to make her way over to him. She moved slowly. She practically hobbled. Loki rolled his vivid green eyes as he watched her limp toward him. He had no intention of hearing any more of the woman's foolishness. He'd had just about enough of Sigyn. He had a good mind to try and turn her to stone. Instead, he started to walk away once more. Sigyn didn't relent. She kept on coming right behind him. She gripped him by the shoulder. His shoulders were narrow and bony and they were shaking. He turned on her like a cobra. Sigyn blinked her eyes because she could have sworn that as she looked at his face she saw it become serpentine. She just knew that she saw a forked tongue slither through the gates of his perfect porcelain teeth. He was hissing and venomous and poised as if he was ready to strike. He poised the back of his hand at her cheek. Sigyn turned her head sharply bracing herself for a slap. She whimpered and bit her lip. Her chin started to quiver. The golden-locked daughter of Admiral Arn recalled the stings that she'd felt at her father's hand. He was a strong man with a heavy hand. She tried not to scream as she waited for the impact of the dictator's hand to graze her cheek, but when she did not feel his cold hand come against her cheek, she quickly turned her head and presented him with the scroll.

The enchanter's emerald eyes batted rapidly as he beheld the rolled up piece of parchment with a beautiful clasp of silver and sapphires and a seal of the distinguished mark of the Vanir Midwives. His nose curled his lips twisted and twitched. "What is this?"

Lady Sigyn swallowed deeply, "It's for you..." She said breathlessly.

King Loki's hand recoiled. "I want nothing to do with it. Whatever is written on that scroll changes nothing!" he declared.

Sigyn shook her head. "It's from Lady Dagmar," she explained anxiously she continued to hold her hand out and present the scroll toward him.

"Don't utter her name to me!" Loki told her as he pointed a finger at Sigyn's nose. Then he placed his hands over his ears.

"Why?" Sigyn barked. Her tempered flared. "You think you alone who cared for her?" Sigyn demanded.

"As if you cared for her, you were nothing more than a jealous shrew!"

"Not true!" Sigyn snapped. "Yes, there was a time when I was jealous, but it was only because I wanted your love. But she was my friend. She was one of my dearest friends and I cared about her and cherished her and...and...and..." Sigyn started to stutter and she hiccuped. "She died," she mouthed. Saying it hurt. "It should have been me," Sigyn finally said. "I should have gone to get Lady Jane. Lady Dagmar should have escaped with the other noblewomen. It should have been me," she pointed out. "But she went back and she rescued Lady Jane and she died..." Sigyn looked down tears filling her eyes.

"Don't say it again, Sigyn!" Loki warned. He pointed his shaking finger in her face.

Sigyn reached out and pushed Loki's hand away from her nose. "I gave this to her just minutes before she died. She fought to save Asgard...the kingdom you so readily want to destroy. She never got to read it." Sigyn paused and inhaled sharply. "It was her dying request that it be given to you," she expounded and presented the scroll once more.

Loki's face that was already wane and waxen turned a ghostly pallor. He looked positively stricken as he looked into the Aesir woman's eyes. Her eyes were strong and firm and there was a commanding presence there. Sigyn kept her hand extended. She nodded her head and urged the dictator to take the scroll from her hand. This time it was King Loki who gulped. She watched as his Adam's apple bobbed up and down. He shook his head. "I don't want it," he finally managed to huff out.

"Loki, no, no, no," Sigyn demanded shaking her head. "You have to take this," she prompted stepping closer and closer to him. She was still holding the scroll in her hand outstretched. Forever step she took toward him, the king took another step back. "I came all this way... I came all this way... for this very purpose to give you this... it was Dagmar's dying wish... you have to take it," she insisted.

"I want nothing to do with it," he retorted.

"Why?" Sigyn questioned once more as she looked down at the letter. "It's about...it's about..." She started. Then she looked back up at the raven-haired enchanter. "You know." The golden-eyed maiden stated. "You know...you know what it's about don't you?" She asked in an accusatory tone.

"I don't know what it says, but I don't care to either," Loki reported to her. "So, you can take that and go," he snorted and held up his nose. He started to turn around once more and walk away.

Sigyn ran behind him. Her feet pounding as quickly as her heart. "No!" she yelled as she grabbed him by the shoulder. She took a firm clasp on Loki's shoulder. She tugged hard and spun him around. "No!" She shrieked in his face. "You know this is about the baby, your child and you refuse to take it?" Her large innocent eyes shifted back and forth between him and the scroll. "Well you don't have a choice...I'm here...it's here...you have to," Lady Sigyn Arndottir declared.

With that Sigyn felt Loki rough push her off of him. He shoved her and she fell down. Once again she looked up at him with horror. "Never presume to tell me what to do again, Lady Sigyn," the self-proclaimed king declared as he raised a finger into the air. "I have been patient with you...but if you don't leave I will toss you out that window, on your arse," he pointed to one of the stained glass windows on the far right-hand side of the bed-chamber or I will strike you down where you stand," he threatened.

At first, the lady-in-waiting to Queen Frigga could not help but sit upon the floor trembling with her knees knocking together, but soon she found her courage. She stood up quick and fast. She puffed out her buxom chest. She stretched her arms open wide. "Take your best shot, Loki," she dared. She held her chin haughtily.

Loki raised a fist. A dagger soared to his palms without a word or even a gesture. He bared his teeth. He growled. He came to her once more. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her toward him so that they were pelvis to pelvis. His sharp, cold breath came out quickly against her flesh. He could feel the way her heart thumped against her rib cage and his. "Are you trying to force me to kill you, Sigyn?" He asked as he allowed the tip of the dagger's blade to graze her skin. He bit his lip, she smelt awful, but the beneath the dirt and grime and funk he knew how beautiful she really was. "Because I will," He warned her. He took the dagger and bounced the point of it against her cut up lip.

"Do what you must, Loki," Sigyn said through chattering teeth as she tried to push away from him. "What does it matter if I die on the spot here and now or die on the morrow or in a weeks time? When Ragnarok comes 2/3 of Asgard is foretold that they will perish anyway. You may be nothing more than a dirty, little liar Loki, but I am not," Sigyn declared. "I swore that I would make sure that you received this and that is what I intend to do." Finally, furiously, Sigyn shoved the rolled up parchment at him. She thrust it into his chest. "TAKE IT!" She cried desperately. Loki released her waist and he let the scroll fall on the floor. Sigyn dropped to her knees and gather the scroll in her arms and clutched it to her heart. "What kind of man are you!" She screamed out once more. "This scroll contains information about your child! Your child who Dagmar bore to you. The baby of Dagmar..." She shook her head.

"Dagmar is dead!" Loki shouted back and the woman cowering on the floor. "And so is the child," he informed her.

"Maybe not!" Sigyn yelled as she waved the scroll at him. "Maybe not," she whispered. She looked at the scroll. "Your child may still be alive," She looked up at him hopefully. Lady Sigyn even managed to offer a smile. The dark-haired king rolled his eyes as he beheld her child-like expression. "But you are too much of a coward to find out the truth," she spat. With that, Loki took up the scroll. His hand was shaking. His heart beat wildly as he thrust the seal onto the ground and unraveled the scroll and he read it.

Lady Sigyn golden eyes watched the usurper like a hawk. Her mouth dangled open and she panted anxiously as she watched him read it. She scrutinized every move of his face. She tried to find the hidden meaning in every raise of the eyebrows or in the way his chiseled, narrow jaw would tense. She studied the way his nose seemed to flare as his green eyes fell lower and lower on the parchment scroll. Sigyn tried her best to cipher what his expressions might have meant. But truth be told Loki's face was nearly expressionless. He was so clever at concealing his emotions. It wasn't as if she had ever been able to know what Loki was thinking before. She'd thought she'd known him. She'd thought she'd known a handsome prince who was full of honor and virtue, but he was the exact opposite of that. He was honorless and a liar. She'd thought she'd seen a man whose mind was brilliant and light years ahead of the others of her realm. She'd thought she'd known a wonderful, wise wizard, but instead all the time he was a sinister sorcerer. She thought that she'd known a man with a deep feeling soul, she thought she'd known a man who was so capable of love that it would consume him, but she had been wrong she had been wrong all along. He didn't love her, he never had and he didn't love Thor or his father or mother even though they all loved him so much. And she was beginning to think... that he must not have even loved Lady Dagmar. Maybe it was because he was incapable of love. Maybe Frost Giants couldn't love. Maybe Loki didn't. have a heart, just a block of ice where his heart should have been. She felt like an idiot for ever thinking that she saw any light in him whatsoever. He was no prince charming, he was a tyrannical madman.

Loki's eyes roved over the scroll. He took a deep breath as he traced the poles that went between the parchment. The rods were made of the same silver that Lady Dagmar had always sent to him with their correspondences. He looked at the seals on the scroll. There was a clasp that denoted it was from the Vanir Midwives. The silver clasp was carved with a depiction of women bearing water jugs and pouring it out through their bellies. Loki quickly could recall many conversations he'd had with Lady Dagmar, she had wanted to be one of the elite and prestigious midwives at one point. She studies with them for a time, but quite frankly her father had discouraged her from the pursuit. He thought that the practice of midwifery would scar the young woman for life and make her afraid to bear children. Loki's green eyes moved the next seal, it was a mock seal made of wax that bore Lady Dagmar's insignia. Loki traced his hand over the insignia. The flowers and the doves. and the dots placed where normally sapphires would have adorned the silver clasp. His breath came out in rapid huffs as he looked at the clasps. His lips pursed and then they folded in on themselves. He could remember so clearly so many times as a little boy how he would wait eagerly for the courier to come a calling with news from afar. Normally, all of the letters were for the king and queen of Asgard, but his heart would skip a beat when he'd catch a glimpse of that silver insignia with sparkling sapphires that bedazzled it.

Loki closed his eyes once more and then he broke the seals. He thrust the one from the Vanir midwives on the ground and he simply ripped through the one that showed that it was meant for Lady Dagmar to read. The silver seal fell to the floor with a loud clank. But Loki scarcely heard it for all he could hear was the pounding of his heart against his ribcage. His stomach tightened as he thought of the fact that Dagmar did not even know the true fate of her own child. How she had suffered. She had had to conceal her pregnancy for a good part of the time. She'd had to deal with her mourning sickness all by herself and she'd had to use her magic to hide her growing belly so that her father wouldn't be suspicious of anything. She hadn't been able to share with her handmaidens or even any of her closest friends about her delicate condition. It seemed as though she had to deal with the pain of thinking that the father of her child had died, branded either a villain or a traitor or at best simply a madman. Then in her desperation, she'd had to give herself to a man like Olaf. She'd had to live with the pain of thinking that she gave birth to a stillborn child. All those hours of agony only to wake and be told that the baby that she was in labor with for so many hours had never truly seen the light of day. Then she found out that the child was put away and cast aside because of its' looks. Oh, what a horrible thing for a woman to bear on her own. But she had the hope, the hope... the hope that her child was alive, he couldn't imagine what that must have meant to her, but he remembered the cold attitude he'd projected to her when she'd told him the news that their son or daughter may still be alive. He acted as if he didn't care. Perhaps he hadn't. He didn't. He didn't. He swore he didn't. But he felt a strange sort of twang in the hollow of his heart when he thoughts about the fact that.

His eyes dropped down. They narrowed and focused as he took in the scroll. He gave it a quick glance. He noticed the feathery writing. It had a flamboyant style, well-practiced calligraphy, it was no doubt written by an elderly woman who had taken a tremendous amount of time honing the great art of penmanship. The runes were old dialect style, but Loki knew the language well enough to translate with ease. He sucked in a single sharp breath and held it as he read the words on the page. He didn't want to, but he was compelled to. He didn't care what information of secret was revealed on the thick parchment, it would change nothing for him. It would change nothing of what was to come. Convergence was coming and Ragnarok was coming and he was the harbinger of such atrocities. He read the words quickly and they poured into his mind. His jade eyes darting back and forth and up and down as they scanned over the scroll. The firelight of the torches in his bedchamber would catch his eyes and make them glow as he read. He could scarcely hold the parchment steady. The sound of the rustling shaking parchment in his hands was the only sound to be heard. He could feel a flutter in his stomach as he read on. Beads of sweat came tumbling down his forehead and running down along his temples and spine. His palms started to perspire so profusely that they soaked through the edges of the parchment and they started to make the ink on the parchment run. The purple ink ran down the graying parchment page and smeared, words ran into words. The ink bled and Loki breath came out quicker and quicker as he neared the end of the scroll. Most of the scroll had simply been elaborate and detailed praise and thanks and compliments for the exquisite noblewoman that Lady Dagmar had been, but it wasn't until he got near the end of the scroll that the truth was revealed. A fervent heat took over his body. He was on fire. He was sweltering. Drowning in boiling hot lava. He couldn't breathe and his heart was in flames. At one point the self-proclaimed king of Asgard was sure that his heart stopped. He found himself gagging and choking and coughing. Desperate for air. He was dizzy and nauseous. His head started to throb. He felt like he would pass out. He needed sleep. He needed sleep or surely he wouldn't make it to first light to retrieve his moment of glory.

Loki finished reading. His brow raised, but he didn't exactly house surprise on his face. He finally let go of the pent up breath that he'd been holding in so long. He then inhaled sharply through his narrow nostrils. Sigyn sat on her knees like a child. She anxiously bounced up and down as she awaited the news. She nibbled at the fingernail on her pinky. Silently she prayed to the Norns that in their wisdom they had seen fit to intervene. She watched Loki's features quirk. His brows knit together so tightly that they became one brow. Then he tossed his head back with such a mighty thrust that his long, black tendrils made a whack sound as they slapped against his neck. He raised his hands in the air as if conducting a symphony and then from deep within the pit of his Loki let out the wildest, most maniacal cackle that Sigyn had ever heard. Its sound was so horrid frightful that it nearly sent Sigyn fleeing from the room screaming. It took all the courage that she could muster to keep her rooted to the floor where she sat. Loki looked at the unrolled scroll once more with wild emerald eyes. Then he feverishly and frenziedly balled the parchment up. "Sigyn you dimwitted girl," Loki proclaimed as he turned to her. "Your bravery is wasted!" He said as he laughed. He nearly doubled over from his fiendish guffaws. "You came all this way for nothing!" He reported.

"What! No!" Sigyn shrieked in horror. "No, it can't be!" She protested her voice cracked.

"Did you honestly think that this piece of paper would change anything?" He asked as he waved it in her face. "Did you think a scroll could change fate? That a mere letter could undo an ancient prophecy? Nothing can stop Ragnarok!" He shouted. "Nothing can stop me!" He insisted as he thumped his chest. "This is what I want! What I will!" He screamed at her. Tears tumbled from his eyes. "This what I want...I want... I want and no one will take away from me," he muttered.

"What of the child Loki?" Sigyn asked her eyes searching his eyes.

"What do you expect? That someone would spare the nasty issue of a Frost Giant?" He demanded of her.

"Odin did. Frigga did," Lady Sigyn countered.

"The child is dead!" Loki announced and tossed the balled-up piece of parchment to the floor. Lady Sigyn wagged her head while her mouth hung open. King Loki curled his lips his eyes gleamed. He breathed ragged out his nose, a sick smile slithered over his bloodied teeth. "Are you satisfied now?" He asked as he opened his arms. Dumbfounded the blonde-haired lady-in-waiting to Queen Frigga continued to shake her head. Loki continued to grin at her like a Cheshire cat. He wiped his hand under his long, pointed nose and swung the perspiration that had gathered between his nose and lips on to the ground. "Now get out, Sigyn!" He declared to her. "Leave me!" He cried. "Run through the night screaming 'the end is coming! The end is coming,'" he mocked in a high pitched tone. Sigyn cringed as she heard him. "I don't care what you do, but stay here any longer and I will reserve a spot for you next to Prince Thor on the scaffold," he informed her while he pointed a condemning finger at her face. Sigyn's face crumpled and she started to scream, but her voice was stuck in her throat, it was too petrified to even come out. She wrapped her hand around her throat in fear for her long swan-like neck.

Loki snapped his neck and turned and lumbered away. He started to laugh. He just kept laughing an inane, maddening sort of guffaw as he walked away. Sigyn couldn't take it. She covered her ears. She couldn't stand his laugh any longer. There was a time when she had loved his laugh. It was smug and sly and always polished the way a gentleman should laugh and on the few occasions when she had the privilege of seeing him laughing with his brother or with his friends she would see him burst into true hysterics and he would laugh with his whole heart and snort and she would melt and giggle at how adorable it was, but this...this was nothing like that. It was insane and mad and heartless and evil and she could not bear it.

Sigyn sat still shaking. She looked at the ground. It swirled around. The ground was unsteady. There was no safe place to stand, there was no safe place to run and hide from this now. She looked at her feet. Her feet were dirty and bloodied and bruised and swollen. Those feet had carried her from the Dales. Those feet had rushed and raced and brought her this far. They'd climbed, ran, walked, tip-toed and kicked. They'd lost their shoes all in hopes that she could reach Loki and give it to Loki and somehow stop all this, but they were useless feet. She might as well have not had feet to bring her this far because it had all come to naught. She looked at her hands. She noted how they shook. She tried to stop the shaking, but she could not. Her nerves were completely shot. Her hands grimed and filthy, her knuckles were scratched and bloody, her nails with broken. Her hands her hands had done everything they could to hold on to that tiny, precious scroll. She'd taken it from Lady Jane and held on to it for dear life. She'd taken it from the palace to the Dales to her father's house and then back to the palace again. She'd nearly had the scroll ripped from her hands and tossed in the fire, but she'd fought and scrambled to protect that scroll. Her hands had held a dying friend, had picked locks and opened walls, they'd shot arrows, punched, slapped, groped, scratched, slashed. They'd done all they could, but even that had all fallen flat. Every effort she'd made on behalf of Asgard, on behalf of Loki meant nothing. With the last strength that she seemed to possess in her hands and wept loudly into them. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Sigyn mumbled to herself. "I am sorry my queen," she whispered to Frigga. "I failed." She acknowledged. "I'm sorry Prince Thor," she thought of the fact that she left Thor grinding in that dungeon. She thought that she would have able to save him, but she wasn't. "I'm sorry Asgard," she went on. She finally was able to pull her hands away from her face and look up at the sky. She mouthed prayers to Yggdrasil. "I am sorry, Dagmar, my friend," she said as tears tumbled down her feet. "I thought...I thought...I could save us...him...I...I failed," Lady Sigyn confessed. Sigyn wanted to die. She had failed. Everything she had to believe that she could save all of them, that she could save all of Asgard, that she could save the whole of the Nine Realms, that she could save the man that she loved, but she couldn't. She felt like a fool. How could she believe that a dimwitted girl like her could have ever pulled off such a stunt as this? She pressed her palm to her forehead, "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" She repeated as she hit herself over and over again.

Lady Sigyn wanted to simply lie there. She wanted to just let Loki do whatever it was that he wanted to do. Let him kill her for all she cared. She was as good as dead anyway. When Ragnarok came the prophecy said that few would survive. Why would she think that she would be one of the ones who would? Even if she did it would simply be a fate worse than death. She'd have rather died than have witnessed her entire realm being extinguished. But then she realized that such desires were simply cowardice. It was the path of a coward to want to take their own life. She was many things that weren't good, but she wasn't a coward. She was a master bow woman, she was the daughter of an admiral, she was an Aesir and they were warriors. No, she'd not die tonight. She'd go on. She'd rather go to the hiding shelter where all the other Aesir were. She wanted to be with her friends and her people, to cry with them and mourn with them. Perhaps her sister was there among them or Liv or others who she knew. She longed to feel some love on this final night of Asgard. She didn't want to stay in this place full of hate. She pushed her way to her feet. As she did so she grabbed the balled up scroll off of the floor. She didn't know why she did. She told herself that she did it to give it to Lord Audric, Lady Dagmar's father, but truly she thought that that was just an excuse.

She unfolded the scroll. Now that Loki had read it she was finally free to see what was written upon the scroll. It was written in Vanir rune. She had studied Vanir in school. Admittedly it was to impress young Vanir lords who came to call at court, but she had never been very good at speaking it. She was even worse at reading it, but despite her lack of fluency in the language, she could still recognize some words. Her eyes scanned for words that she could recognize. There were several, but there were a few words that truly stood out words such as "THE CHILD LIVES."

"Liar," Sigyn mumbled as she beheld the words written on the page.

"Are you still here?" Loki asked as he rubbed his temples while keeping his back toward her.

"LIAR!" Sigyn turned around and shouted. Her face was red and her whole body quivered. "Your child lives!" Lady Sigyn hollered at the top of her lungs, "LIVES!"

Loki finally turned around and faced her. He wore a sneer. "So you did learn how to conjugate a few verbs in class, after all," he shrugged.

"I learned enough!" Sigyn's shoulders heaved.

"But you don't know everything..." He shook his head. "If only you had paid more attention then maybe you would know that the letter also described the child as a monster," He snarled and threw his hands out.

"No! No! I won't believe one other word that comes off your lying tongue!" She spat. "Your child lives!" She waved the scroll at him once more. "And you don't care! You don't care! You're a heartless wretch!" She cried.

"You thought a letter could change me? Change what I have set in motion," Loki shook his head with fury. "This changes nothing. Ragnarok is coming! A new order and new dawn with me as king and all-father over the Nine Realms," he announced.

"You are no all-father," she protested. "You are not even a father to your own child! How could you? How could you leave your own child to rot in a world of darkness?" She questioned.

"What else have I known?" Loki questioned. "My own father left me for dead," he hissed.

"No, Loki you are wrong. You keep telling yourself that lie, but you are wrong. Your own father rescued you, he loved you, brought you to Asgard and made you a prince..." She explained with a smile.

"To use me as a bargaining chip!" The new king retorted.

"He raised you as his son and gave you everything. He could have given you to another family, he could have made you Thor's whipping boy..."

"I practically was," He muttered bitterly.

"You're a fool," Sigyn finally stated. Loki threw his head back and laughed. "You're even more foolish than me. You've known love. You've known the love of a father who gave you titles and power, you've known the love of a mother who gave you her shoulder to cry on, you've known the love of a brother who gave you his hand if faith and friendship and you've known the love of a woman who gave you a child and one who...who...," she stood proud and tall. "Who gave you her all." She cleared her throat. "You could know the love of this babe. Your own flesh and blood if you'd only..."

"Thanos is coming and if you think I'm bad if you thought that creature that I talked to was scary then wait until you see him," he said with a wicked grin.

"So you admitted he's the one who controls you would-be king...you're his pawn..." Sigyn nodded her head as understanding came. "You're a coward and...and...and..."
"Go on!" Loki prompted. His breath coming out coming out rapidly. "Say it!" He dared.

"I...I...I wish I'd never loved you," she admitted as tears spilled down her face. Loki looked quizzically at her at first. He hadn't expected those to be her final words to him.

"Good..." He said and once more turned from her. "Then I finally taught you something." Lady Sigyn started to walk the other way. At least Loki was letting her live at least she'd have a chance to say goodbye to those that she loved. But as she walked on she noticed a vase. It was one of Loki's rare antiques. Quickly she picked it up. She rushed back behind Loki as he walked away. He heard her coming but before he could reach out and grab her by the throat she hit him on to the head with the vase. It shattered into tiny pieces as it cracked over his skull.

Slowly, on wobbly legs, he turned to her. He grabbed his head. His face clearly looking as if he was in pain. He reached out with a shaky hand. His pale fingers touched the cheek of her dirty face. It fell to groping her thin heaving shoulder. His glowing emerald eyes rolled in the back of his head. "Sigyn," he moaned as he collapsed face first on the floor.

---

His sleep was luscious and heavy and deliciously deep. Loki was scarcely conscious of a dull throb that radiated across his entire cranium. He was semi-aware of the cold, marble floor which his face was pressed firmly against. He didn't exactly know what hit him. The sleep pain was so intense that he could not completely rally himself. Loki's hand twitched, his one jade eye fluttered open for but a moment. It rolled around and he saw a room that seemed to spin and slosh at a dizzying speed. He faintly recognized Sigyn's delicate face staring down at him. A harsh scowl was deeply etched into her perfectly pouty pink lips. Loki attempted to try to push himself off of the ground. His fingertips pressed to the ground and his shoulders hunched upward, but he found that he couldn't budge. He immediately fell back to the ground with a groan. The sleep felt wondrous. It had been several days since he rested and daybreak was only a few hours away. All he had wanted was to sleep anyway. There was nothing that Sigyn could do. Absolutely nothing. She could not return Thor's powers to him, for the blonde oaf had forfeited that. She could not fight a whole army of Dark-Elves herself, even with the arrows that she had been graced with. She couldn't stop the dawn and so she couldn't stop Convergence and if she couldn't stop Convergence then she couldn't stop Ragnarok. With that, Loki allowed himself to give over to the welcomed invitation of sleep.

"Mmmm," Loki moaned after some time as he felt alertness slowly seeping back to his mind. He shook his head slightly and finally was able to lift his head off the ground. His head ached still. He sat up and put his head in his hands. He felt nauseous. He tried to clear his thoughts. "Sigyn," he mumbled again. "Sigyn," he repeated his voice rippling with agitation. He balled up his fist and hit the floor. "When I catch that girl, I swear I'll..." His voice trailed off as he devised what punishment he would act upon the lady-in-waiting. He thought to freeze her at first. She could be a beautiful sculpture in his garden. He scowled. "I will trap that woman in a force-field until Convergence in done," he concluded as he put his fist on the floor and tried to stand. He swayed as he got to his feet. The pounding in his head wasn't easy to ignore. He stilled himself and then looked around. He saw the priceless, antique vase a special gift given to him by traders from Alfheim, that had been smashed to smithereens over his head. "Sigyn he growled once more as he stalked about the bedchamber. He knocked things over as he walked about. "Sigyn," he said again his voice much more cheerful. "Oh, dear, sweet, little Sigyn, come out, come out where ever you are," he called to her. He honed his vision using his powers giving him catlike eyes that enabled him to see in the darkness that permeated his room. He continued walking around. Looking and smelling and groping as he tried to find him. Finally, in the glowing light of the dark red residue and Aether ash that fluttered in the wind outside of his balcony window the king was sure that he could see the figure of a maiden.

A wolfish grin came across his handsome features. "There you are my pretty," he announced to himself as he licked his lips, rubbed his palms together and crept toward her silently. "Sigyn!" He shouted as he pushed the gossamer curtains out of her way. But when he pushed the curtain out of the way, no one was there. Loki looked around baffled by the lack of a body. Then there was an incredible blinding white flash of white.

The light was so blinding that Loki had to shield his eyes. Still, the power of the light made the tyrannical king fall flat on his arse. The brilliance of the light soon faded. Loki was left seeing spots before his eyes. When the spots fizzled away and Loki's vision came back into focus he found himself sitting in an amazingly lush green field with grass that grew tall like wheat. The day was sunny and the sky was blue with pleasantly puffy clouds. The sun was bright and high in the sky. The air was cool like when the season changed from summer to fall. The air smelt fragrant of leaves and fresh rain. Loki ran his fingers over the grass. The grass and the tall stalks were soft and tickled his fingers. He looked around and there was almost nothing. It seemed to be an uncultivated meadow, but then he noticed a few great pillars and columns just rising from the ground. They stood tall and proud, but they were weathered and warn. The old ruins had long stood the test of time. It reminded him of Vanaheim. He was almost certain that it was, but how? Vanaheim was a realm that had become mostly desert after years of feuding and war, but there were still some places where vegetation grew. Dagmar's family had an estate in the countryside that was much like this area. Dagmar loved to stay at her countryside villa and have picnics in the meadows. They'd ride horses through the open fields and explore the ruins when they were children.

He looked around once more and tried to get his bearings. He shielded his eyes from the high sun. For a moment Loki saw nothing, but an empty land and several pillars that seemed to form the shape of some type of house. Then he noted a hooded figure dressed in a beautiful, long, white cape walking in the field. The cape was decadent and it seemed to be trimmed in rich fur. Such an outfit seemed more for a ride in a winter wood than a walk in a meadow. The hands brushed the grass as the person calmly passed through. The figure walked slowly through the field, but the person wasn't necessarily working toward Loki. They seemed to be walking toward the pillars. "Hello!" The dark-haired man shouted from the distance. "Who goes there?" Loki called out to the person a far off. There was no answer at first. He called again and started to approach the person walking around in white. He soon recognized that the person was indeed female. "Sigyn?" Loki asked as he drew closer. The caped woman soon removed the hood that masked her features. When the white cape was pulled down it revealed luscious locks of the darkest, raven-hair that Loki had ever seen. He squinted. It couldn't be! No. He shook his head. Slapped himself for such a thought. Such was impossible. Then the caped woman turned her face toward him. His eyes opened wide as he recognized every enchanting and beautiful feature on that face. "Dagmar!" He gasped. He thought he watched pomegranate lips pucker and blow him a kiss. But she kept walking.

His heart stopped and immediately he went racing toward her. His heart felt as if it would burst from his chest. He could scarcely breathe. His legs were carrying him as fast as lightning itself, but it seemed that no matter how furiously he ran, she just kept drifting away. Even though she was moving so slowly she was still too far out of reach. She became further and further out of his reach. "Dagmar!" He yelled her name begging for her to stop. At last, it seemed as though he was catching up. His hand reached desperately to catch her cape. In his ragged earnestness, he stumbled over his own two feet just as he was about to catch her. But he ended up falling at her feet.

He looked up with his mouth gaping and beheld her feet. Her pretty pale toes were painted and adorned in bejeweled silver sandals. He would have kissed her feet had she commanded him to. But the was in so much awe of the spectacle of her that he could do nothing save stare. His green pupils followed the path and beheld her exquisite gown. It was a gorgeous sapphire color. It was so radiant that it could have put the jewel itself to shame. It was made of the finest silk imaginable. It was Grecian in its style and cut with ornate gold and silver embroideries and designs running along it. She shrugged the cape from her shoulders to reveal herself in all her resplendence. Loki's eyes misted as he observed how the gown framed her figure. He could only imagine how lovely her face must have looked. He wanted to gaze into it, but all at once felt completely unworthy of such an honor. "Dagmar," he mumbled shaking his head as he clutched at the hem of her gown. His hands trembled and shook so violently that he was scared that he would rip her beautiful gown. "How can this be?' He questioned. Then he thrust his face into her stomach as he wrapped his arms tightly around her bodice while still on his knees. Tears soaked through her garment as Loki's face remained pressed against her abdomen. "Dagmardagmardagmar," he muttered helplessly as he squeezed her tightly. He never wanted to let go lest he lose her again and he could not have that. "Dagmar!" he exclaimed. "Is it really you?" He wondered aloud. "Is it really you? Oh tell me that it's really you," he babbled. "Oh Dagmar, my love, my love... I...I...I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry..." He blubbered. "My dear are you alright?" He asked. "I'm sorry," he lamented all the more. He kept burying his face deep into her stomach like a child. He wept not knowing what to say. For minutes he cried, but Dagmar did not respond, she did not even reciprocate the embrace. "My angel, won't you speak to me? Why won't you talk to me?' He whimpered. "I have missed you so," he sighed. "Dagmar, please to me," he begged, "Are you..." His voice cracked. "Are you at peace?"

The Vanir maiden's body relaxed. He felt one of her arms come around and embrace him from the back. He shuddered and melted into the touch. He blubbered all the more. "Hello, Loki," she whispered back and she ran her fingers through his messy black locks. Her voice like the tinkling of bells set his senses on fire it had been so long since he'd heard the melodious tone of her enchanting voice. He kept his head upon he belly and turned his face. "How is this possible?" He asked truly bewildered, but not completely caring about the logistics of this miracle.

"How indeed?" The ebony coiffed enchantress echoed as she continued to run his long nails across his scalp.

A thought entered Loki's mind. A smile graced his face. "Are you alive?"

"Not in the way I was," she explained.

Loki gulped and nodded against her stomach. An eerie feeling lodged itself in the pit of his gut. "Am...I...I dead?" He questioned.

There was a slight grimace upon the royal woman's dark red lips "Not yet," she answered.

"Tell me where we are,"

"In a place where I could reach you."

King Loki opened his eyes, but he still did not bring himself to look at her face. "And where exactly is that, my darling?" He asked patiently.

"Somewhere only we know," she whispered back to him.

"But I don't know this place."

"You will," she said as she continued to twirl her fingers through his thick dark hair.

One thousand questions tumbled through Loki's sharp mind. But there was only one that he found truly important. There was only one which he had to ask. He inhaled through his nose. He breathed in the fresh scent of her. She was decadent pomegranate and ambrosia. His breath came out in ragged huffs "Are...are" his teeth chattered. "Are you at peace?" He forced the words off of his tongue. Her hand froze and stopped playing with his licorice tendrils and just rested atop his head. It was gentle at first. Then all at once it twisted into his dark mane in her fingers and yanked back his head revealing his slender white neck.

"D-d-dagmar," the silver-tongue stuttered. He watched as Dagmar's beautiful pomegranate lips twisted into a cruel snarl. Ruthlessly, she slapped him across the face. Loki's head swiveled to the side and he nearly fell to the ground. He looked up at her with his mouth hanging open. "Dagmar?" He asked blinking dully. Out of reflex, he looked up at her face. The trickster's face crumpled at what he saw. " Dagmar, your eyes," he pointed out. He looked at her face. Her face was still exquisite, but her eyes had changed. Those beautiful, starlit, silver eyes were gone. They were replaced that eyes that were cold as ice, clouded and milky. "What's happened to your eyes?" He asked as he clambered to his feet and reached out his hand to touch her face.

"Do you like what you see, my prince?" She asked. "Or should I say, my king?" She asked with a sneer as she dipped into a curtsy.

"No, Dagmar," he shook his head. He cupped her face. Her skin was ghostly cool. His hand recoiled for a moment at the frigid touch. He knew that his hands were always icy cold, but he missed her warmth. Still, he forced his fingertips to remain connected to her cheek. "I...I...I...I...this is because of me...it's my fault what happened to you...that you are dead...but this...what has happened to you?" He questioned.

"You Loki..." She pointed out with a smile.

Loki looked away. "Yes...yes..yes, I know," Loki nodded. "It's my fault...it's my fault..." He confessed. He pressed his forehead against hers and cradled the back of her head. His tears washed against her face and he hoped that there was some elixir in the salt water that ran from his eyes that could clear her eyes, but when he looked at her face again her eyes were still ghastly to behold. He fell to his knees again grabbed her hand and kissed it. "Forgive me, forgive me please," he begged.

"Forgive you? Forgive you...?" She threw her head back and laughed. It was a terrible harsh mocking laugh and the king could not bear it. She was tempted to slap him again, instead, she snatched her hand from his, placed a foot upon his chest and knocked him to the ground once more. "The price you ask is even too high for a king," she accused. "How could I forgive?" She demanded.

Loki shook his head. Tears pooled in his emerald eyes."I never wanted this! I never wanted to cause you pain..." He explained

"But you did," Lady Dagmar replied.

"I am not worthy...I am not worthy of your forgiveness, but I beg you, please. Please!" He pressed his nose against her palm. "I'd do anything..." He muttered. "You know...I never wanted anything less for us than a life of peace and beauty and love...I would have given you anything," he continued his chin quivering.

"You speak of love, but you have no love. You speak of what you would give, but you have no love within you and you have given nothing, you have taken everything. You have already destroyed everything and everyone I ever loved. You have destroyed yourself!" She pointed at him. "I have watched from Valhalla and I have seen all you have done," she hung her head. "I have seen Asgard burning," she cringed and grabbed her hair. "I have heard the screams," she covered her ears. "I have smelt the blood in the water," she mashed her lips together. "The song of the innocent have come up through annuls of time and we hear them and cry with them. "You have imprisoned your own brother and still you will not stop! You plan to go further! You plan to go further!" she shouted.

"I...I... You must understand...it's too late...I cannot stop...I cannot..." He was on his knees panting as he leaned on his hands.

"DO NOT SPEAK!" Dagmar commanded. Loki clamped his lips shut like a little boy. "Then you have the nerve to ask if I am at peace," he voice fell soft and she shook her head. " You ask if I am at peace? She questioned. "How can I be at peace knowing that you intend to wake Ragnarok? I blinded myself rather than look back and see the wickedness that you have brought on these peaceful realms. But at least you finally got what you wanted Loki, war and death,"
"No!" Loki shouted.

"Yes! Those are your trademarks and legacy." She reported. "That is how the name of Loki shall be chronicled. As a destroyer," she hissed.

"I don't have a choice anymore!" Loki's voice tore from his throat raggedly.

"Lies! Deceit!" Dagmar shouted. "Everyone has a choice."

She pointed to the pillars that set in the field. "These are the pillars of my house," she explained. Her hands walked over and traced lined up and down the columns. All of a sudden the clear sky of the beautiful changed. The wind picked up and it whipped around them. Lady Dagmar raven mane blew about her. Loki's did the same. Their capes and garment blew about so fiercely that it seemed as though the clothes would be ripped right off their backs.

"Dagmar," Loki's clipped voice called over the wind. "Come, there is a storm coming. Let us get to shelter," he bellowed.

She laughed her voice mixing with a rumble of thunder. Her eyes saw nothing but she stretched her arms out wide as she embraced the storm. Clouds gathered and the sky darkened. "This is a storm of your own concoction, Loki she pointed out and there is no shelter from this storm," she expressed. Damgar continued and pointed out the broad columns, mentioning the names of her ancestors. Each revealing a trail of premature and unnecessary deaths. As she touched them lightning slashed through the sky and struck each pillar diminishing it to nothing, but a pile of rubble and pebbles in the grass. "My mother," Dagmar spoke and her hand trailed across the top of the column. Loki watched as the lightning sizzled down from the sky and the pillar exploded. "Myself, " she expressed with a sigh.

"Dagmar, no!" Loki called he pulled himself off of the ground and rushed toward her. He raised her hand and tried to keep her from touching the pillar, but it was too late. Lightning still flashed and flickered in the sky just overhead. soon it came down with a mighty clap of thunder and split the sky. The column was made of sparkling silver pebbles and gorgeous blue stones. They all flew about and some hit Loki in the face.

Dagmar inhaled deeply, "My father," she said as she walked closer to a particularly old and gnarled pillar that was made of strong bronze.

"Dagmar he's not dead yet," Loki called to her. It started to rain and the rain sprayed both of them in the face. "I can still save him, I can protect him," he tried to reason with her.

"He will not survive this," She turned to the trickster king and explained. "He is an old man...with a broken heart, he will not survive," she stated once more.

Finally, the empty-eyed enchantress made her way to the final column. It was a small stubby little column. It could hardly be considered a pillar. It didn't even stand 3 feet off of the ground. Loki held his breath as he watched her approach. "The legacy of my house...the last of my line..." She expounded. "The seed of our love," she turned and looked at him with dull eyes and Loki didn't know if he saw the rainwater on her face or tears.

"Loki where is our baby?" The dark-haired daughter of the Vanir Prime Minister asked her voice soft. "...the last pillar? I never saw the child...now I never will," she stated. Lightning struck all around them but neither jumped.
"I..."

"Don't lie to me trickster!" She warned.

"Don't make me say it..." He entreated her.

"You are just like Laufey..." She shook her head. "You are a heartless monster! An Animal!" She shouted. "You are just like him!" He lip trembled. "Like father like son," she went on. "You would sacrifice your own flesh and blood for power." Loki's face twisted as he heard her words, but he did not argue her point. "Just like he did! she accused. Her pale finger was aimed at his nose.

"Thor's not my blood!" Loki shot back and pushed her hand away from his nose.

"The child is!" Dagmar's voice ripped from her throat. She doubled over for a moment as if she was in pain. "The child is my blood!" She shrieked, her voice came out shrill. "And you would have it spilled all so you can call yourself a king."

Loki bridged the gap between them. He gripped her firmly by her forearms. She was so light and frail feeling. Even as he squeezed her it felt like she was barely there. He felt if he squeezed her too hard she would simply vanish into then air. "Maybe your right! Maybe I am just like him. Maybe we have no choice, but to follow our bloodlines and be what those who sired us were," he ranted. "Maybe you should praise me that I have not sought out the child. That we never knew it," he went on fuming.

Lady Dagmar's hand flew swiftly across his face. It stung like a wet towel on the fresh supple hide of a child. "Hold your silver tongue!" She declared.

Loki's eyes drooped downward for a moment. He looked like a shamefaced little boy after being scolded. "Maybe the child would be just like me," he whispered back to her. "You wouldn't want that now would you?" He looked up at her with a smirk on his face.

"And what are you?"

"I AM A MONSTER!" He proclaimed to her. The wind blew the rain sideways and it slammed him in the face.

She nodded. "My time grows short, Loki" She reported. The wind continued to howl and whistle. It seemed as though it would lift her right off the ground. "I made great haste to meet you, but I cannot stay. And I don't want to," she spat at him.

"No!" Loki grabbed her. "I do love you..." Loki tried to take her by the hand but she pulled it away.

"Maybe you did once. But you can't love anyone now..." She explained. "You have no heart." She reached out and touched his chest. Loki felt something strike his chest. His whole body was seized by a terrible, bitter cold. He felt as though Dagmar's hand phased right through his skin. Her fingers sank deep into his flesh.

"Dagmar," Loki coughed out her name as he felt her hand come around his heart. The feeling was strange and foreign and yet all too familiar for she had always held her heart in his hands. Slowly, she removed her hand from his chest and she pulled forth a heart that was made of stone and ice. Loki gasped as he saw how she held the frozen block in her hands.

"If only you had a heart that could be changed and could be given to someone, even if not me,' Dagmar expressed.

King Loki fell to his knees. He struggled for breath and air as he watched Lady Dagmar continuously toy and fiddle with the heart made of stone and ice. He sucked in breath rapidly and reached out a shaking hand as if trying to take the heart back from her. "D-d-d-a-a-agmar," he choked out as he finally fell upon the floor his hand outstretched toward her.

"This is the heart that you gave to me, Loki," she said as she looked down at the stoned heart that her eyes could not see. "A heart full of pride and jealousy and lust," she chipped away with her fingernails at pieces of the heart. "It has iced over and corroded every good thing that was ever in you," she hissed. She bared her teeth and pointed her head down at him as she watched him gasp and squirm with each squeeze and flips and fleck that she performed on the heart. "You have no heard to give me, Loki," she sneered as she gazed downward. She threw the heart on the grassy ground below. Even on grassy that had been moistened and softened by the fresh rain that was still falling, the ice heart shattered. Loki let out a bloodcurdling cry. It tore from his throat and roared louder than even the thunder that crackled and cackled overhead. Lady Dagmar stooped down. She held Loki's hand although he considered screaming as if he was being tortured. "I have a gift for you, Loki" she whispered in his ear. Her lips were moist and her tone was wet. She ran her hand over his brow as it was creased in pain. Her touch was as torturous as it was rapturous. It did not ease his discomfort and yet it awoke every fiber of his being with wondrous sensations. His heart ached and he didn't know if it was because of the fact that she had practically pulled his heart from his chest cavity and smashed it on the ground or because he knew that she was fading away. Tears stung his eyes and still, he clutched her hand strong enough to break it. "Don't waste it!" She spoke softly while she planted one last pomegranate kiss on his lips. Perhaps their lips clung to each other a little longer than they needed to, he felt himself losing his breath as he became lost in the sensation of their passion. Then there was blackness.

A/N: YOU MADE IT! Woohoo! You made it to the end of the chapter! Please give yourselves a round of applause. I know that chapter was long, but it was actually shorter than a few of our previous chapters and that was because I actually had to divide this chapter into 2 parts because I really wanted to update before the INFINITY WARS! I cannot believe we are this close to the INFINITY WARS! IT's been 10 years in the making and we marvel fans have finally arrived. I can't believe that I am this close to finishing my story after years. I honestly hoped to finish my story before the INFINITY WARS but oh well LOL. Well if you've taken all this time to read you absolutely owe it to yourself to leave a review. So go ahead don't be shy. Until the next time

ENJOY THE INFINITY WARS!