"For you, my lady."
She started, staring down at the leather-bound notebook he had placed in her lap.
"I had thought that for all the time you spend in here that you might require a place to collect your notes."
She looked him over suspiciously as she pushed a dark strand of hair from her eyes. "I don't believe we've met before."
"My apologies. I am Lo-"
"Yes, I know ," she interrupted, lips pursing. "Why you've been watching me, however, is something that I do not know."
"I like to observe my surroundings in this…" he smirked, gesturing to indicate the entirety of the room. "…Observatory."
"Ah, he has wit. How charming," she replied flatly, turning the book over in her hands. "And just what have you seen, Loki?"
"A woman with an insatiable appetite for the stars," he said, bending closer. "I must say, you seem quite the connoisseur of the stellar and realm charts."
"I am. Do you study them yourself?"
"Vigorously."
"Really?" She fixed him with a steady gaze. "I don't think I've seen you in here once."
He feigned indignation. "I can go unseen if I wish. It gives me access to the better materials before anyone else."
"Is that why I can never find the Atlas of the Norns?"
"I'm afraid that one is a personal favorite of mine. I may have stolen it a time or two."
"I don't believe that."
Loki smirked as he pressed his fingertips together and slowly pulled them apart, his eyes never leaving her face. In a wink of light, a large volume materialized before her, and his hands caught the tome as it fell toward the floor. He held it out to her. "Is this it?"
The woman stared at him as she took the volume and inspected the gold lettering along the spine. "How long have you had this?"
"Since the last time you returned it to the shelf."
Her brow furrowed. "That was two months ago."
"That long, then."
Placing the book carefully on the table, she rounded on him, irritation mildly coloring her tone. "Tell me, do you always steal a lady's favorite thing in order to gain her attention, for-"
Loki lifted his hands in defense, his face the picture of innocence. "I'm afraid I was studying the atlas myself, and only just discovered your preference for it. I now return it to your care."
Her expression softened slightly, though her voice still clipped out the words, "Thank you."
Loki reached for a chair, turned it about, and straddled it to face her, a sly grin spreading across his face. "Tell me, as I've always been curious to find another who shares my view. What do you consider to be the limitations of the Bifrost's scope? Could a portal be opened from a side dimension to lead to another realm?"
Her eyes widened. "How do you know that?"
He canted his head. "I've always made finding new passages between realms a hobby of mine."
"You did all of this to gain my opinion for your hobby?"
"The opinion of professional, yes."
"I won't deny that I am that entirely," she replied with mock stiffness, which failed to hide the ghost of a smile. "And what recompense do I get as a consultant?"
Loki nodded toward the notebook in her lap. "An atlas of the worlds."
"The pages are blank."
"Because you have not filled them in yet," Loki replied evenly, his sharp gaze watching her intently. "I hope you do not mind that I took the liberty of writing your name in it."
She scoffed. "Don't be a fool. Why would I wish to create a new set of maps, when I have plenty here?"
"Your curiosity burns, Sigyn," he whispered, daring to lean closer to her ear. "How would you like to see the stars as you've never dreamed of seeing them?"
Jane awoke with a start. The dream fled her memory the moment the sunlight struck her bleary eyes as she tried to adjust to its sudden brilliance. Her neck ached at her having slept bent over the table, head resting on her crossed arms. She worked the muscles loose, craning her neck from side to side and straightening her back until in creaked loudly in the silence. Letting out a satisfied sigh, she noticed the object she had been sleeping on: a leather-bound book still opened to the sketched diagrams of one of the realms. She did not recognize the handwriting that scrawled the pages with an elegant hand, but the contents seemed a curious mixture of numerical readings and terms in a foreign tongue. She would have to ask Odin to translate them for her. She froze. Odin! Had she fallen asleep while he had been talking to her, perhaps even explaining the World Tree to her yet again? She cursed herself for never being able to stay awake when an Asgardian told her anything of his heritage. She threw a panicked glance about the room, hoping in vain that he might have stayed long enough to let her apologize.
Her gaze fell instead upon a figure curled in an armchair some ten feet away. He was dressed in a green tunic with hints of black cloth crisscrossing in intricate patterns around his middle. She craned her head to glimpse his face, but he shielded it with an uplifted forearm as if to block out the unwanted intrusion of the morning light. Fear slipped a knife into her. Thor had told her to never go about the palace alone, as even the best of its subjects could be rogues in disguise. She had disobeyed him already more times than she cared to count, and yet here was proof of Thor's warning: a strange man lying within a few feet of her, who could at any time have…Jane shook her head with a smile. Villains didn't just fall asleep in plain sight of their victims.
Curiosity dragged her to her feet, though it was caution that put the smooth notebook in her hands as a half-measure of defense. Perhaps the man was a scholar who had, like her, fallen asleep amidst his studies. The thought buoyed her hope as she rounded the far golden settee to stand before him. As if in response to her closer presence, he shifted and dropped his arm from his face. Jane's stomach plummeted as she staggered back, clapping two hands over her mouth to choke back the scream that clawed her throat. Him.
Fear, hatred, and anger roiled within her at the sight of his peaceful form. Even in death, he had returned to mock her yet again in the face of all the hopes he had ruined and the lives he had burned. He had been the cause of her torturous wait for Thor's return, and New York…a slap across his cheek did not even scratch the surface of what he deserved. She would find Odin, tell him his son was alive and had followed her into the observatory, and the Allfather would… Realization stung Jane like a firebrand, and the leather book flew from her hand before she even realized she had thrown it. It struck Loki across the bridge of his nose and his eyes flashed open as his boots scrabbled about for traction on the slick, polished floor.
"You snake!" Jane shrieked, her hand reaching behind her for another missile to launch at him. Loki's eyes widened and darted down at his clothing in wonder, as if seeing his form for the first time. His shock gave way to fury as his gaze narrowed upon the book she had lobbed at him. Lifting it gingerly from where it had been splayed across the floor, he hissed as another volume struck his shoulder, this one thick and hardbound.
"You were Odin!" Jane bit out the words as she slowly backed away from his advancing steps. She laughed then, a hollow sound in the quiet of the room. "How silly of me to think he would actually help, that anyone would help, and it turns out it was you all along, you of all people!"
A predatory smile crept across Loki's lips, and Jane forgot herself as the rage choked out her senses. She strode forward, her fingers balled into a fist at her side as she poised to strike the insolent look from his face. Punching a god would do no good, she knew, but it might make her feel better. "It's always you! You ruin everything!" she cried as she raised her hand, but he caught her wrist, twisting her arm behind her back and pulling her flush against his body.
"I've missed our time together, Jane Foster," Loki purred down at her. "I'll admit that it was rather difficult with the disguise. What a pity that I've seemed to have dropped it somewhere."
"Where's Odin?" Jane gasped as his crushing grip forced the air from her lungs in shallow breaths.
"Asleep," Loki drew the word out between clenched teeth. "Now, as long as we're interrogating one another," here he raised his free hand and twisted the air until the three doors to the room slammed shut in accordance, "Where did you find that atlas?"
"I probably found it where all the other ones are!" Jane snorted.
His fingers clenched into a fist against her back as he held up the notebook she had thrown at him. "This one, Jane. Where did you find it?"
"You gave it to me." It didn't feel like a lie, since she was fairly certain that he had done just that by way of some magical placement or other. Books didn't just appear under maps by themselves.
"And why would I do such a thing?" His narrowed eyes grated over her.
"Just being nice, I guess," she replied before spitting in his face. His left hand released her as it flew to wipe at his eyes and she immediately stumbled away, breaking into a run as she cleared the seating area with a clumsy leap over a misplaced ottoman. She had only gone as far as the scroll cabinets when he tackled her to the ground with a furious snarl. The wind knocked out of her, she gasped for air as she felt his body press hers to the ground.
"Don't lie to me, Jane," he hissed in her ear. "I would never have given you that book. Why did you take it?"
Of all the things Loki could be upset about, Jane wondered that he had chosen to vent his rage against a single stupid notebook. "'There is your history of the Nine Realms,'" she quoted him. "'No more questions.'"
She felt his breath hitch deep within his chest. She could not see his face, but she imagined that the words had rung in his memory as soon as she had uttered them. He shifted to crouch above her, and Jane was struck at how familiar it felt to that day on Svartalfheim where he had shielded her from the blast of the shattering Aether. The question tumbled from her mouth before she could check it.
"Why did you save me back on that dark world?" she whispered against the cool floor, and watched as his forearm stiffened beside her. He didn't answer, and Jane listened to his breathing quicken above her for several long seconds. Then he suddenly released her, backing away from her prostrate form until he came to rest on his knees a few feet away. Jane pushed herself onto her back and froze at the look of utter disbelief on his face.
Impatience snagged at her words. "You didn't do it for Thor and you certainly didn't do it for me, so why did—"
"You remind me of her," he breathed incredulously, his eyes flitting over Jane as if searching for the clue that would yield the depth of some great mystery to him.
She recoiled. "Her?" A memory pricked at the back of her mind until she realized it was the image of the dark-haired woman from her dream. Dreams weren't memories, Jane corrected herself, unless—she snatched at the notebook Loki had left on the floor between them and flipped to the front page. A name, scratched neatly in faded brown ink, was barely visible on the inside cover.
"Sig-" Jane faltered, trying to place the faint letters together. "Sigyn? Was that her name?"
A thrill seemed to shoot through Loki and a strange smile twisted his lips as he began to crawl toward her. "Yes."
"Who was she?" Jane managed, fear finally clenching her insides as she scrambled backward, only to feel the scroll cabinet press hard against her back. Trapped again.
"She was mine," he murmured, moving forward to press his chest against her bent knees.
Jane felt sickness sour her stomach. "And you think that I belong to you?" she retorted, her voice dripping with disgust.
"How interesting that my brother's lady should be most like my own," Loki mused, cocking his head to the side as he studied her. Jane felt his gaze slip over every inch of her body and she shuddered under his close examination. He smiled as he leaned closer to her. "I wonder how far the similarities go."
"Get off me!" Jane ordered, aiming a booted kick square into his abdomen.
"Mm, she did often say that, though in jest."
"I'm not…jesting!" Jane snarled, gritting her teeth as she struck a blow to his chest. "Get off, you monster!"
Loki flinched as if he had been struck across the face. "She never uttered that."
"So she never told you the truth?" Jane felt boldness surge in her anger, though part of her brain begged her to temper her words. But too many questions crowded her thoughts, and civility would not get her answers to any of them. "She just did what you told her to, was that it?"
His good humor was beginning to fade, slipping from his face like a sheet uncovering something much more dangerous underneath.
"That's what you want everyone to do, isn't it? New York, Earth, and now… Asgard? To follow you without question while you trick them into thinking you have their best interests at heart?"
His jaw clenched as his glittering gaze fixed upon hers. It was a warning she chose to ignore.
"I saw what you did on TV. Kinda hard to forget. You wanted to destroy the world I love as you threatened the people I love, and now you're actually telling me that I remind you of someone that…that you loved?" Her voice rose in pitch as her teeth set on edge at the thought. "Whatever sick world you live in, you never had love to give."
He was closing in, all light having left his eyes. "Then what do monsters give, Jane?"
Cold fingers pressed hard into her scalp and she felt a jolt of pulsing force spider through her brain. Her vision went black as the answer died in her throat.
"Álfheim, the realm of the light elves, can be found near the crown of Yggdrasil, approximately one hundred and fifty thousand wing beats as the Asgardian raven flies from the heights of Hlidskjalf…"
Jane stirred at the pleasant words, and she felt the soft sheets slide against her skin, though the layers did nothing for the cold that permeated the room. She did not remember dreaming, or even sleeping, and yet she felt the soft mattress dip slightly beneath her weight as the pillows rustled when she tilted her head toward the familiar voice.
"The world itself is one of light, and is given to the orbit of three small suns that light the uppermost branches of the World Tree in its dark spaces. The realm is highly wooded along its rolling plains and hills, though no mountains exist to obstruct the horizon. The air of its nature is as sweet as a new spring breeze…"
Jane's eyes shot open and blinked her surroundings into focus. Loki sat some three feet away, Sigyn's leather book cradled in his hands as he read to her in that deceptively lilting voice of his. He seemed relaxed as he leaned back in his chair, his feet propped up on the solid oak nightstand beside her bed. His clothes had changed to those of his most recognizable armor that he had worn upon their fist meeting. She watched him read, entranced by how such an activity could render his volatile nature so calm and almost peaceful. Still, lines of tension lurked beneath the veins of his neck, as if his gentle voice was yet another strain he wished to hide.
"Fear," Jane murmured, and Loki paused in his reading. "Monsters give us fear."
He merely glanced up from the book before returning his attention to it. "And are you fearful, Jane?"
"I should be."
"Good answer." Loki licked his index finger and turned a page. "It's a healthy emotion that keeps our tongues in check."
Jane pushed herself to sit up on her elbows, though she winced as the blood throbbed painfully through her head. "You knocked me out…because I hurt your feelings?"
"Don't flatter yourself, Jane," Loki replied with grating nonchalance. "I had business to do as Odin without having to worry about you trying to tell every soul in the vicinity my secret."
"How did you survive?" Jane asked, her tone betraying more loathing than curiosity.
"Which time?" He thumbed over another page. "The Bifrost or our little outing in Svartalfheim with dear Thor?"
"You were stabbed. I saw you die!"
Loki closed the book slowly and rested it on his stomach as he crossed his arms. "You didn't exactly stick around to be certain of the fact, now did you?"
Jane's brow furrowed as she felt a pang of confusion surge within her. She had never met a puzzle as infuriating as this one. "You had just risked your life for us! Why would you want everyone to think you were dead?"
A smirk played upon his lips. "And who would have believed me, I wonder, when I came back triumphant to Asgard? Back to the dungeons I would have gone, and all would have been for naught."
"You would have still saved us," Jane reminded him pointedly.
"Yes, but you see, that would not have been pragmatic." He let out a breathy chuckle as he shifted in his seat. "What would I have gotten out of it, in the end?"
"A sense of accomplishment, of having done something good for someone else!"
Loki let out a barking laugh. "You think I would put forth all that effort for feelings? You humans are so sickeningly sentimental, as if everything needs a reason to be done!"
"Fine, avoid the question!" Jane shot back as she pushed herself up to a sitting position. "Why were you reading to me, or maybe that didn't need a reason either?"
A slow grin spread across Loki's face. "A woman with an insatiable appetite for the stars, whose curiosity consumes her every waking moment. How far would she go for the answers to the riddles in the sky?" He held up Sigyn's atlas. "Your world is contained in books and machines, Jane Foster. Isn't it time you saw things for what they really are?"
He rose from his chair and leaned down toward Jane, even as she shrunk back against the pillows. His breath was warm against her ear. "How hot does your curiosity burn?"