A tiny blue baby was crying… blood was washing over an icy world… swords cleaved limbs and heads and all was screaming. Then it was still. A large man with a gauge in his eye held the tiny blue infant. It seemed that blood dripped off of every surface of the man as he wound a spell around the sobbing child, a spell as strong as steel, and permanent.
Faith sat bolt upright in her bed, panting and shivering.
"What a nightmare." She whispered to herself as she eased under her sheets again and closed her eyes reluctantly.
As soon as she did a massive flood of images flew before her. She gasped for air as she watched, shocked into silence, at the lifetime of experiences she was seeing. When it lost its hold on her Faith lay there still for a moment before a wet sob dragged itself out of her mouth.
She ripped the cover off her body and slumped to the floor shaking. She'd just experienced hundreds of years of life, in less than two minutes. Heartaches and loss, joys and bittersweet circumstances unlike anything she could remember. She was gasping with the shock at having felt so much so quickly, it left a bad taste in the back of her mouth and she felt angry and bitter. She sat like that for a few minutes until she came to herself again to realize something; just who's life she had been living in her mind.
Footsteps thudded across the paneled wood of the hallway and the door to Loki's borrowed bedroom flew open with a hollow thud. He rolled over alarmed just in time to register what it was that was running towards him, as his face was covered in tousled blond hair and he felt two strong arms wrap around his middle.
He made an undignified grunt as he tried to get some words out, but even a prince is awkward in such a situation. Head still cloudy with sleep he was horrified to hear her sobbing into his chest, muffled by his sweatshirt.
"Faith! What's happened?"
She shook her head and patted his back, as if trying, feebly, to comfort him.
"Tell me what's wrong?" He was getting very worried. The tiny blonde had been kind to him, and patient, he knew that, but she was strong willed and he didn't know how to react to her distress.
"I faw lou. Wat lou wat fraw..." Came the smothered reply.
"No, Faith…" Loki tried to gently remove her from his person. He held her shoulders at arm's length and bent to look at her.
"Try that again."
Big fat tears kept rolling down and off Faith's nose. "I… I saw you, what you went through. I think I saw your whole life, Loki! Please don't think you're a… how could you… your brother… I don't know what to say!"
She reached out and gently stroked his shoulder. "You're hurting more than I thought and its breaking my heart!" Faith suddenly pushed Loki's arms away and embraced him again, in a more complete tender hug.
Loki didn't know what to say. That had been happening to him a lot recently. She could see the past, people's lives, maybe even the future or people's minds.
"You saw everything?" he said lowly.
She nodded against his chest. "Since you were a little blue baby, to when you… fell." She pulled back to watch him. "I can't even process this. I could feel what you were feeling, see your logic and hear your thoughts and… see other things. Like blood covering your father, Odin, and hearing Thor's thoughts too. And how much your mother cried when she realized you were gone."
This last part she said softly, sadly. She had seen his logic, but that didn't mean she didn't want to scream at him for allowing his pride and arrogance and self-loathing to turn him into a real monster.
The springs of the bed squeaked as Loki swung his legs over the side, resting his elbows on his knees, head in his hands. Frigg had cried for him, his mother was mourning him.
Faith pressed her face into his shoulder, rubbing small circles on his back. "You were loved Loki, but you were blind to it. You were deeply wronged, but you were blind." She whispered, hoping she wouldn't upset him. He just glanced at her hand on his arm, trying to hide the growing need to cry too.
They sat like this till her sobs had turned to hiccups and then disappeared. She suddenly wondered at how familiar she had just gotten with Loki. She had never even really patted him on the back before, let alone hugging onto his chest. But it hadn't seemed anything less than natural at the time. Now she felt silly and childish. She swung her feet over the edge of the bed too, and stared at the floor.
His hand caught her around the wrist as she moved to stand. "It's your gift. Your magic. They're called visions, you know."
"Yeah."
"…Thank you." He looked at her again. "For…"
"I'm sorry…" she said almost at the same time.
"Goodnight Faith." He nodded at her, It felt like a dismissal.
"Sleep well…yeah." Faith crossed the hallway again, knowing she herself probably wouldn't sleep at all.
She was wrong though, after an hour or so lying awake letting thoughts race around their minds, both she and Loki fell back to sleep, exhausted.
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