8 months later…
Loki didn't even bother sitting on the throne much anymore. It was quite boring. Instead he lied on the floor behind it, his illusion up and active in his stead. To all, the Allfather Odin was sitting calm and fearsome in the seat of the throne.
Loki brought his sight back from the search for Sigrün. He had no way of finding her, unless he had some help. Their blood-bond let him find her easily and speak to her; in theory…but really only if he had an idea of her location.
However, right when he was brought back with Thor, he was imprisoned and soon after lost his mother…much by his own folly, he painfully knew.
After that horrible time, he'd gone with Thor to assist with getting Jane free of the Ether. His brute of a brother had been successful, but Loki had "died" in the process.
Unfortunately, news of his fake death had reached Sigrün long before he had the means of catching her first. If she hadn't left the tower, he would have been able to reach her, to tell her he lived. Hel, if she'd stayed in the damn city, he would have found her!
Yet months ago, she disappeared from the tower and it was completely out of his ability to find her.
Loki would have to enlist help from someone who would not blow his cover. He was still technically king, even with his illusions; his brother had given up the throne and he was an Odinson, despite his true heritage.
Plain and simple, Loki was the only one keeping Asgard under a steady rule. He needed help from someone who could see farther than he, but also had the better interest of Asgard in his top priorities.
With a grimace, Loki knew he'd have to go see Heimdall. "Shit." He uttered and raised himself from the chilled tiles. Ever cold…he thought.
He hadn't known warmth since his little spitfire had left his life. He would do anything to have her back under his control, even deal with a person he hated to do so.
ooo
Siggy cursed as the jeep hit another large rock in the road, which dislodged her aux cable from the haphazard radio setup. It had been a good-travels gift from the family they'd lodged with a week ago; the kid was a genius though, don't get her wrong. You can't ask for a better option when all you had was Bulgarian radio for two months straight…a two whole months without her beloved music.
"Oh come on!" she barked and her partner in the passenger seat laughed aloud at her distress.
"Give it up, Red," said the slim woman as she expertly scribbled along in her notebook and tablet, despite the precarious ride. "You may as well give up."
"Never, Sam." Siggy nearly snarled at the radio as she fished for the cable once more, and connected it. Fiddles, drums and guitars erupted once more in a fast beat and she sighed with relief.
"Flogging Molly is so early 2000's." Sam said with a sly look, though the missile did not connect. Siggy was too pleased and deep into her music.
"So when you get to heaven, May the devil be your judge!" She sang shrilly and her companion winced.
"Can we listen to like, Lindsey Stirling or something? At least there aren't a lot of lyrics for you to—
"Drown me with yer ROAR!"
"Damn it!" they heard from the back. An immensely muscular man sat up and pulled an earbud free. "I swear to the gods you two…Siggy, finish up and switch it over."
They met gazes in the rearview mirror, and she smirked. "Hear you loud and clear, Jonnie. Sorry about that, Sam."
"Thank god." The other woman said and got back to her notes. "I'm working on the grid plans for the site so I need a good vibe going."
Not a moment later, guitar rhythms began and both Siggy and Jonnie began rocking to the beat. Sammie shook her head and her eyes widened with disbelief as she literally tossed her pencil out the window of the jeep.
"Ooooooooh Barracudaaaa!"
ooo
Loki had a hard time convincing Heimdall to help him. At first he tried to intimidate. "It will be useless and painful to fight me," he began, to no avail. Then he'd said it was in the Guardian's best interest, for now. But that did not sway him whatsoever.
Only when Loki dropped his illusions and appeared, in the flesh, before the god, was he given a true and fair judgment.
"Loki Odinson, for your act of searching to benefit someone other than yourself, I shall help you. Your Valkyrie…she's kept herself busy to point that she's unhealthy. She was broken when she heard of your death, but since that time she has tried to push it away…along with her refusal to access emotions and fear that she's threaded to your memory. Tread lightly with her."
Those were the Guardian's last words before he gave Loki an image of her location on Midgard…and that was all it took.
At last…
Once back in the safety of his rooms, he dug deeply and relentlessly for her image. He needn't have bothered.
Once he'd known her position, down to the very country, he was able to focus in on her aura with ease. It had been so long, even 8 months for a god such as he felt like a lifetime. When his illusion materialized for him, it was at the edge of a large blue tarp. As if by clockwork he spotted the wee spitfire through the eyes of his illusion.
Sigrün walked towards him in the same beat up hiking boots he'd last seen her wear in person. She was also much more sun-kissed. Her legs and arms looked lightly bronzed, but despite that healthy glow she still looked…off. Like she was struggling with her energy.
Still, despite Sigrün's emotional state, her body was actually very strong. She moved forward over the wild grasses with ease as she lifted shaded spectacles onto her face.
She heaved a canvas bag over her shoulder and hopped a grouping of rocks just before she walked into his invisible illusion.
"Siggy!" she was hollered at from her caravan and stopped short to look back. Loki hissed with frustration on his end as Asgard. If she'd gone a foot further, she would have walked into his spell and thusly would have connected with him just enough so that she could see and talk to his illusions. He could tell her he was alive.
Yet there she was, being irritatingly yelled at by a tall woman near the vehicle that Sigrün had just exited. "Hey! Did you want PB&J or, like, something else?"
"I just want some hardtack…maybe an apple. I'm ready to get to work on this so dirt is gonna basically become a condiment at this point."
Heimdall's words repeated in his head, so Loki decided her wanted to gauge the situation before interrupting her work. What if she reacted badly from him distracting her from something she'd obviously invested her energy into?
Decidedly, Loki moved his illusion to the far side and watched her get to work.
ooo
Siggy grabbed an end of the tarp, along with Jonny's help, and they rolled it back. "Those fuckers." She snapped, and they heard a howl from up the hill. "Language!"
"Shit, how hard is it to make sure all the debris and dirt is gone?" Siggy asked Jonnie, blatantly ignoring Sam.
"No respect." He said, shaking his head with disappointment, as he watched her carefully maneuver the visible bones and working areas.
"Damn" she said wistfully, with a small smile. "How in the hell did the Thracians get these enormous war-horses into this pit, keep them on their feet during the burial, and kill them at the perfect moment so their heads were just malleable to position the exact same…personally, such a waste. I love animals, there's no need for this."
Jonnie scratched his chest and shook his head. "That is true, but they also held their horses in high regard. To them is was a huge honor to the great beasts that bore them. I'm sure they were drugged, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to be buried like this."
Siggy smirked at her partner. "There you go, Jon, spouting reasonable knowledge and shit…though I am glad to hear it. I hate digging up animal remains...but it's more fun than sitting around doing nothing."
"Hey, what happened with that? I thought you were doing a covert case study right before you came out with us." Jonnie inquired as they rolled out their canvas tool kits and got to work. He removed a tiny specialty toothbrush, and though it contrasted with his sheer size, he wielded it like a surgeon.
"I was," Siggy said as she leaned over the site with an immense camera and took a few photos before setting it down and joining into the meticulous dig. "I just…I lost someone. Twice, it feels like…because once was a goodbye and the last was…" Siggy suddenly attacked a dirt mound with her brushes and said nothing more on the subject. "And then there was nothing for a couple months and I was getting antsy."
Jonnie said nothing more on it as Sam appeared above them with lunch and snacks. "Looks like we're still early, but the other crew will be here soon to sink their little paws into this dig."
Siggy smirked at the prospect of a competition as she and Jonnie got into their work even harder; nothing like a little friendly competition. Plus she could tell them to clean the site up better next time…
ooo
It had not been anything close to a competition. It had been a goddamn shut out.
Hours later, Siggy was sitting in the back of the jeep ripping jerky bites with her teeth whilst staring angrily at the group below. They had actually been Bulgarian government-funded archaeologists and not their second team. The bastards had shown up with police and paperwork authorizing their hold before taking over the dig.
"Almost a year of searching for funding…" Jonnie spat. "The planning to even get here, paperwork…months of digging in the toilet."
"I don't know how the hell this happened under our noses," Sam said as she pulled their huge rolling packet of files and pictures to her side possessively. "But they do not have our preliminary work and all the evidence we've gained. They're on their own for typography and the strata levels. Hope they have fun piecing together decay data."
"Their data will be incomplete without it," Jonnie said and patted Siggy's shoulder; he could practically feel her anger simmering at the fore. She ran hot even on a good day.
"I know it, and we haven't lost this. It's a fight they want, they won this time. But we'll win the war." She said and hopped off the jeep's tailgate. "When we get back to our home-bases I start processing the data, Sam and I will bounce notes. Jonnie, you should get with Rodge and the other two so we can start cataloging bones and cleaning up the artifacts. When this bitch is ours again, and it will be, you all know where to reach me."
"Yep yep," Sam said as they began packing it in. "I don't know why you don't just stay put in New York and take on that teaching job you were offered."
"Ha," Siggy said with a snort and loaded the camera equipment in alongside Jonnie and the amount of material they'd gathered that day. "I like being isolated up there, with my mom and my dogs. That way I get my research done."
"And frostbite." Jonnie added in.
"Hey, I like the cold, okay?"
"Well considering you seem to heat up the jeep all on your own, I'll take your word for it." Sam said with a laugh and saw Siggy's frown. "Hey, I sure as hell don't mind! Remember Romania a few years ago?"
Jonnie shook his head. "You know, if I didn't know any better, that would have sounded more interesting that I know it was."
"Perv." Sam said and hoped into the truck with her bundle of electronics and books.
Siggy grinned at him and they high fived after closing up the back of the vehicle. "All right, call it in to the others. I'm sure they were intercepted and are already back at the inn. We need tickets out of here stat. One can only take the coffee here for so long…"
With that, she started the jeep and immediately blasted "White Wedding" by Billy Idol, much to Sam's delight.
ooo
Back in Asgard, Loki had formulated a plan. He would not lose his hold on her again, but he could not interrupt her around her peers. She'd be spitting mad, he was sure. Something told him her knowledge at his not-being-dead- dilemma isn't going to be a calm situation.
Decidedly, he moved to the throne once more and sat to contemplate. He would find her at her mysterious home, and until then, he can figure out how to get his hands on her once again.