NOTE: Thanks to those of you reading!

Chapter Three

The Child

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Sif was so ready. So incredibly ready for this baby to get on its way, out of her.

Yet she was also a little afraid, because he was early, and Eir and the queen had shared a look that Sif wasn't supposed to see, even as they both encouraged her that everything was fine.

"Is he all right?" Sif asked anxiously.

Frigga glanced at the monitors which were tracking both Sif and the baby's health, and she smiled at Sif, stroking back her hair. "He's doing well, Sif. So are you. Let your body do what it knows to do. Relax, breathe, and now… push."

She bore down, gritting her teeth and pushing and barely had a chance to pull in a breath, before she had to do it again.

"Very good, I see the head, you are almost there, my lady," Eir said.

"Almost he's here, keep going, my darling," Frigga coaxed her. "Push again."

The pain was like nothing she'd ever felt, ripping up her spine and down her legs, but she pushed anyway, yelling out through her clenched teeth like this was a battle.

"I have him!" Eir reported. "The head is through. One more-"

Sif didn't even hear her finish, putting all her strength into one last muscle push.

"Here he is! Oh, he's lovely," Eir said.

Sif flopped her head back against the pillow, panting for breath. Frigga's free hand mopped her face with a cloth, wiping off the sweat, and she smiled. "You did it, Sif."

"Can I- Can I see him?" she asked, still trying to catch her breath. "Why is he so quiet? Shouldn't he be crying?"

And on cue, a soft cry emerged as Eir stood up, cradling something small. "Of course you can see him."

Eir gently set him on Sif's chest, and guided her hands around him. He seemed fragile, that was Sif's first rather panicked thought; she could break him so easily. His little stick legs and his tiny head could fit in her hand.

He was… blue. Not the same blue as a Frost Giant, paler grey-blue like a cloudy sky, but definitely not pink or peach. His hair was wispy but clearly black, and then his eyes opened, and they were red. The irises were ruby, as he blinked slowly, brow furrowed at this strange cold place. She looked into those red eyes and her heart filled with a sudden wave of desperate love and adoration. It didn't matter that he was still covered by the birth fluids, or his face was sort of squashed, or his skin and eyes were different. He was her son. And in that moment… she knew everything had changed forever.

She smiled down at him, and kissed his forehead. "Hello, little one," she whispered. "Hello, Ullr Lokisson."

"Thank you, daughter," Frigga told her and kissed her brow. "Rest now."

She rested, with Ullr, as the others cleaned up. Eir took him briefly to clean him up as well and examine him, and then brought him back to help her to try to nurse him, though she was afraid he got very little. "It is well, lady Sif. He has enough. He is early but strong, and it will take a little time for him and you to learn what to do. You will see."

"Thank you, Eir," Sif said. "I am grateful."

Eir smiled. "You did all the work my lady. I merely caught him. Rest now." She took her leave, and Frigga then was the only one in the room with Sif and Ullr.

The baby was asleep, exhausted from the birth, but Sif wasn't quite ready to join him. She was tired, but it was a good tired. She'd waited all this time for him and she wanted to keep watching him sleep.

"Eir will be discreet, of course," Frigga murmured. "Nor has she ever cared about such things, regardless. But for the others …" She held a hand over Ullr, and under Sif's astonished eyes, his skin color shifted, the blue tone seeming to drain from it, leaving Aesir pale peach behind.

"What- what did you do?" Sif demanded, looking from Ullr to Frigga.

"It's only illusion," Frigga answered. "He is too young for a permanent shift, but it can be done. He is only half so it is even easier to-"

"Pretend?" Sif interrupted sharply. "Lie to him?" As she spoke, the knot of anger that had lodged within her chest at Loki's death flared and grew to a cold rage. "Take it off him! You want me to make my son live a lie, as you made yours?"

Frigga flinched, and her lips parted in shock that Sif would say such things to her.

Sif was too exhausted to move, and far too exhausted to curb her tongue. "Loki flung himself off the Bifrost! He's dead. What more do you need to understand that keeping it a secret was wrong! And you want to make my son go through all that as well, pretending he's something other than what he is?"

"Asgard is not welcoming to those of that blood-"

"Then maybe you should have tried to do something about that!" Sif retorted furiously. "Instead of letting everyone continue to believe that the Frost Giants are primitive monsters, you should have tried to teach us all that they're people. Then maybe your son would still be alive!"

Frigga's face went white and she opened her mouth, but no words came out. Sif felt terrible at the cruel words she'd hurled at the queen, blaming her for Loki's death. "I'm sorry," she said hastily. "That was… low. I shouldn't have said that." She looked down at Ullr, too ashamed to meet Frigga's eyes.

"No," Frigga admitted hoarsely. "You're right." She hovered a hand above Ullr and pulled back the illusion she had cast, restoring his proper skin. "We should have done more to ease the tension and prejudice against the Jotunn, but it's still there, Sif. Ullr will find it difficult to appear like this."

"If Asgard is unfriendly, then we will go somewhere else," Sif said. She lifted him in her arms, his tiny weight scarcely more than feathers against her palms, and she kissed his head. She realized she meant every word. For all these years, her first and only love had been Asgard, but now? To make sure her son was happy, she would leave this place and find another.

"I will not raise my son in a place where he hates what he is or where others hate him," Sif vowed softly. "I faced down those who said I could not be a warrior, and I will face down those who call my child a monster. Because he's not a monster. And he deserves better than a choice between a life of lies and secrets, or a life of hate."

Sif knew when Frigga left that she might have fractured her relationship to the queen forever, but she would not take back the words. Ullr did deserve better, and Sif would give it to him.

tbc...