A/N: Chapter Three has arrived. I forgot to mention earlier, Frigga is Vanir in this story.
Loki was dimly aware of water gurgling past him as slumber transitioned to wakefulness. Running water... Where was he? Cracking one eye open, Loki took in his surroundings. It was fuzzy, but he surmised he was in some sort of cave. He wasn't bound, nor did he sense any wards. Though the planet itself was practically buzzing with seidr. Feeling around with his own seidr, he reached for the planet's magical core. It was similar, as well as older than Asgard's, meaning it was likely Vanaheim. Deciding that he was in no immediate danger, opened his eyes all the way, sitting up to get a better view.
His first assumption had been correct; he was indeed in a cave. Kalkstein, with silver veins glinting in the sunlight. Bits of green, red and purple Fjærende Mose lined the walls and ceiling. The floor was some sort of soft sand and he himself was on a bambus mat with a wool quilt tossed aside. In the walls were about two dozen nooks, each with a bambus mat and wool quilt folded neatly inside. Another half dozen were laid out on the floor, three on each side.
Gathering his feet under him, Loki stood and started walking towards the mouth of the cave. The sun had just cleared the snowy tops of the mountains, the rays shining down into the small valley. Furutær and Osper dotted the mountains, all the way down to the small clearing below the cave. Above and around the cave itself were more trees.
The sand stopped at the mouth of the cave, hardening into a sandstein cliff. The drop was only about 15, 20 feet down. Then it loosened into sandy dirt. Several different types of bregner and gress grew in clumps, thriving in the sunlight provided by the lack of trees. Near the far edge of the clearing was a stream. The same stream that was the source of the gurgling he had heard earlier. To the far left, kneeling by said stream, was his mother.
Knowing he wasn't in any danger at the moment, yet not quite ready to face her after their last conversation, he sat down, letting his legs hang over the edge. It was almost peaceful, listening to the birds, watching the trees dance in the slight breeze. Yet his curiosity got the better of him and he knew his demons wouldn't stay quiet much longer. Why were they here? Either of them? His mother had responsibilities to Asgard and he should be in prison. So why and how were they here?
Knowing that he would have to ask his mother these questions, he pushed off the edge, ducking into a roll once he neared the ground. The sun was starting to drop behind the treetops, bringing the temperature down with it. Though the change wasn't to much yet, it felt glorious. He hated the heat. Now he knew why. The thought was still bitter, but it had lost the anger and bite. Now it was just resignation.
Now that he'd had time to think rationally, he could see why Odin hadn't told him. Not that he was making excuses for the old fool. He had the right to know who his parents were. He deserved to know. What did Odin think was going to happen? Did he truly think that Loki would've never found out?
How did he think Loki was going to react when he found out he was not only the son of a race of monsters, but the son of the king of said monsters? Why did he raise him and Thor on stories about the monstrous and fearsome Frost Giants, knowing Loki was one?
Odin would have had to have told him at some point or another. If he had truly rescued him to 'bring about a permanent peace', then he would have uncovered Loki's true origins and put him on the throne when Laufey died. Loki himself would be forced onto a throne he never wanted, over a people he never wanted. He would likely be hated by the Jötnar because he had been raised on Asgard, he most certainly would be hated by Asgardians for being Jötunn.
It didn't make sense. Why wouldn't he tell him when he was a mere child? It would have been much less disastrous. Perhaps his mother was right, it was so that he wouldn't feel different. Yet what was worse, knowing you're different because you're a different race, or just thinking something is wrong with you and never being able to figure out why?
Thinking you're going crazy because there is something so obviously wrong, yet you don't know what, so you convince yourself it's all in your head, but then others treat you differently and you just go around in circles, arguing with yourself. Then you think you're even crazier than before, because what normal person screams at themselves in their head? Why hadn't Odin just told him?
"I was wondering when you would come down." Lost in his thoughts, Loki hadn't realized that his feet had kept going towards his mother.
"Why are we here?" He knelt down, absentmindedly picking up a flat stone and turning it over in his hand.
"We needed a break from Asgard." We? Why would his mother need a break from Asgard?
"You shouldn't have gotten me out of prison." He murmured, fixing his gaze firmly on the rock in his hand.
"I do not believe that you belong there."
"Then you are a fool. In case you haven't noticed, I am a monster. Monsters deserve to be locked up." He shrugged, trying to get the simplicity through to her.
"No. I care not what race you are. I raised you as my own. You are my son." He laughed. How naive could she be? It was in her nature to see the good in people, but there was no good to be found. Not in him.
"Origins aside, I have committed too many crimes to walk free. Even you must see that." How could she not? How could she not see what he had become? What he always was?
"For someone who claims to hate the AllFather, you sure sound like him. I know the boy I raised is in there. He's somewhere under the hate and hurt and bitterness. Under all that fear. Something horrible must have happened while you were missing. Something horrible that has hidden my son. I will find him."
"The boy you raised is gone. The sooner you accept that, the better off you'll be." Just forget about me and move on. Thor did.
"If that were true, then you would have no problem disposing of me." She stood, summoning a blue blade. She grabbed it by the blade, slicing her hand in the process. Blood dripped down as she thrust the sword into his hands.
"Go ahead. If my boy is truly gone, then kill me." She used one hand to drag him to his feet, the other to move the blade closer to her chest. He couldn't move. It was as if time had stopped, waiting for him to make a decision. He couldn't kill her. He couldn't kill her and he couldn't face that she might be right. He gripped the hilt until his knuckles turned white, the blade shaking in his hands.
"I can't." The blade dropped, slipping from his hands into the sand.
"You are my son. Nothing will change that." He had heard stories of a mother's love on Midgard. How a Midgardian mother could lift an automobile if their child were underneath. Were such things true? Did it truly not matter what he did or where he was from? He couldn't deny that he still considered her his mother. Yet he knew it was too dangerous to tell her the truth. You will long for something as sweet as pain. She was safer if everyone thought he hated her.
"What of Thor? Are you just going to abandon him? We cannot stay here." Wherever here was.
"Thor does not need me right now. You do." Only his mother would choose him over Thor.
"Heimdall? Einherjar will be here any minute. We will both be apprehended, me for various crimes and you for treason." He pointed out.
"Heimdall cannot see us. We are where the witches trained their apprentices. The location has been the witches secret since before I was born. Nobody will find us unless we want to be found."
"Apparently others besides the witches know where it is, seeing as I am here and I am not a witch."
"Is that so? Then by all means, where are we?" The question caught Loki off guard, but he recovered quickly, reaching out with his seidr. He tried to pinpoint their location by finding any villages or well-known landmarks and make a mental map between them. As soon as he thought he found something, it flitted away into a fog. He tried again and again, but reached the same conclusion everytime. It was as if something was suppressing his seidr. Yet he had not sensed any wards.
"I don't understand. I know we are on Vanaheim, yet I do not know where. Which would usually mean that there are wards somewhere, yet I did not sense them." It was frustrating, how he didn't know where he was. How he felt inadequate because he couldn't solve this puzzle that had been presented to him.
His mother hummed.
"Perhaps you didn't look hard enough within the seidr." He took a deep breath, flexing his fingers as he released it. Closing his eyes, he focused on the seidr around him. Now that he actually focused on it instead of just glancing over, he saw that it was quite... different. It jumped away in a playful way, twisting like sunlight in the ocean. His own seidr flared up, first shying away, then lashing out aggressively at the other seidr.
That was when he noticed. His seidr had fractures spiderwebbing throughout it and they were growing. The other seidr stopped it's playing and rushed towards his own seidr, merging into one long ribbon of light and wrapping around him and his seidr.
A force stronger than Mjolnir hit him, a thousand thoughts and scenes and smells were thrust upon him. A villsvøve was hunting a rype in the tall gress. An ekorn was nursing her kattunger. An osp was ever so slowly reaching for the sun. Two blåfugler were fighting over a mark. Deep underground, hærmaur tunneled, bringing food to their queen. They rushed past, most too fast to distinguish. Then it stopped, leaving Loki breathless, sweating and shaking. Somehow he had ended up on his knees, his arms barely supporting him. His mother waited a few minutes before asking,
"Have any luck finding where we are?" She was crouching, drawing runes in the sand with her finger. He waited a bit more, trying to even his breathing.
"No."
"It's impossible to find this place if it does not want to be found. No one will betray this location because if anyone ever comes here, a small piece of seidr attaches itself to the wielders seidr and will erase all memories of this place if it feels it is threatened." Loki glanced at his hands. He had a feeling that more than a little bit had attached itself to him. Now that the shaking had subsided, he felt healthier than he had felt in over a century. Not just physically. He was still a wreck, no amount of seidr was going to heal him overnight. Yet he felt slightly better. It was as strange as his feelings towards Thor. He hated him so much he could kill him. And yet... He would do anything for his brother. He would do everything he could to protect him. Even if it killed him.
"I suppose that means you can't tell me the name of this place."
"Don't be ridiculous, we are at Häxornas Helgedom" He could see why she could tell him that. It essentially told him nothing. At least nothing he hadn't already put together himself.
"So if the seidr of the Häxornas Helgedom will erase memories if it feels threatened, then how did you get me in?"
"It's not just a place for training, it's a place for healing. Forgetting this place was a risk I was willing to take. Now come, we will talk more in the morning. Right now is the time to sleep." She summoned a candle and turned starting to walk up to the cave, the light slowly growing smaller, leaving Loki in the dark. He figured he could make a choice. Stay in the dark forever, or follow the light before it extinguished completely. Was it actually possible for him to be redeemed?
A/N: So, this chapter basically told us nothing, but I don't want this story to feel rushed and I needed a good foundation to build the rest of the story up.
Translations for Norwegian text:
Kalkstein is limestone.
Fjærende Mose is springy moss.
Bambus is bamboo.
Furutær and Osper are pine trees and aspens.
bregner and gress are ferns and grass
villsvin is boar and løve is lion, so I made villsvøve a mythical hybrid of a boar and lion. Just imagine a lion with tusks, back hooves and a boarish face but still with a lions mane. If that makes sense.
Rype is grouse.
Ekorn ironically is squirrel. I'm pretty sure it sounds like acorn too.
Kattunger are kittens. Apparently that's what baby squirrels are. Can also be kits.
Blåfugler are bluebirds.
Hærmaur are army ants. Though imagine these the same size as a mouse or chipmunk.
Swedish translations:
Häxornas Helgedom is the sanctuary of the witches.
Review replies:
The Committee x, Thank you! Here it is.
Wesa, yes, hopefully quite a lot will change, I'm playing it by ear.
Thank you for the reviews, they mean a lot!
I don't know what language the Vanir would speak or if they would just speak Norwegian like the Aesir, but I used Swedish because I figured if Norway and Sweden are neighbors and Asgard and Vanaheim are similar, then it should work. I think I may have overdone the Norwegian but oh well. I've been reading some Star Wars books which sort of gave me an idea for the forest here. Plus I figure seidr is like the Force. For any Star Wars fans that get the idea. Unintentionally, I just realized that in moving Frigga offworld, that takes care of her not dying. For the time being. If anyone has any other ideas about languages to use for the Vanir, please share. The next few chapters shouldn't be as slow as this one, though as I said earlier, I'm working on not rushing though chapters. All in all this chapter wrote itself, so please point out any plot holes or inconsistencies if you see them. Have a great day!