Neither Sif, nor Loki would ever admit whose idea it was.
First, there were letters delivered – one at a time, at odd intervals – to Hermod, a young member of the Einherjar, who had only just finished his training a season or two before, and who, on an unrelated note, had two unique characteristics. The first was that – for whatever reason – Vali had chosen to make no secret of his admiration for him. The second entailed Hermod's own likes and tendencies. His likes – for example – the liking he'd taken to Sif over the past few weeks. And tendencies – like his tendency to flirt and play with a girl, or his tendency to walk directly into something without giving it much thought.
All details aside, letters were delivered to Hermod's room. None of them signed. But on several nights, Hermod walked into his room, to find that a note had been slid under his door – notes that gave him great pleasure to read, even if the handwriting was a bit harder to decipher that one might expect from a girl. Haakon, who was bunked in the same quarters, thought it all great fun, but could guess surely no more than Hermod could. Though surely a girl who trained with warriors might be expected to have a similar weakness in the writing field.
Sif's manner, incidentally, became quite different toward Vali during this period, as if overnight. While the others were about, she was her old self, but – it occurred to Vali after several days – she seemed to be seeking him out more often. She would stand or sit beside him, or ask to be placed in his team. On more than one occasion, Vali caught her looking at him, and not in the murderous way he had become accustomed to. It began to appear to him that there might be a few perks to having a female as one's training companion. So, when Sif came up to him after practice one day bidding him silence and smiling in that new way she had and handed him a note, he read it and did exactly as it asked.
That evening, Hermod also discovered a letter. This one promised a revelation, if only he would come down to the stables after dark. The secret composer would reveal herself, and the secret by which he would know it was she was that she would approach him, and ask for someone else by name.
He thought it an odd arrangement, but – as he commented to Haakon – these palace girls did have odd ways. It was best just to laugh with one's fellows and allow them their eccentricities.
As the reader has surely guessed, Sif did not meet Vali in the stables that night. Nor did Hermod discover a maiden waiting with fluttering heart for his embrace.
But, largely through Hermod's amazement, Haakon's amusement, and to Vali's consternation, rumors spread.
Vali did come away with his suspicions. He cornered Loki one day, pressing him up against the wall, "I know you had something to do with it."
"What have you ever done that might cause me to wish you harm?" his voice was low and eyes glittering. Suddenly he grinned, "But we may wish to have this discussion elsewhere. I hear someone coming and I do believe you have enough people talking as it is."
Loki had always been skilled at talking himself out of a well-deserved hiding.
Unfortunately, the plan did have one flaw. And it was not an inherent flaw. It really wasn't what one might call a flaw at all, so much as a slip-up.
Hermod, being a new member of the Einherijar, was bunked with the others in a reserved place in the palace. His was the sixteenth door from the entrance to the main hallway. Arik, who happened to be a friend of Thor's, shared the fifteenth room.
When one hears voices coming closer – about to turn into the passage you are in, in fact – and one has a clandestine task that must be completed with all speed…what is the difference between counting fifteen and sixteen? Only a single digit. It was an honest mistake, one anybody might make.
But it was one that Loki would pay for.
And it wouldn't have been a mistake worth mention at all, if he hadn't gotten too worked up and pleased with himself in the first place.
Now, Arik, besides having become a friend of Thor's since entering the service, also considered himself a good friend of Uller, who was Sif's second-to-eldest brother. They had lived on neighboring farms. Uller had been the one to bring Sif into the city, to beg a place in the hall for her on account of their long-deceased mother's friendship with the AllMother. Sif had been accepted – much to her own dismay – and after bidding her farewell, but before actually taking his leave, Uller had sought out his friend and found him, asking – on account of their friendship – that he keep an eye on his baby sister.
When Arik found the note – unsealed, and with no address – slipped beneath his door, he sat down on his cot to read it.
Now, whether it was through some fault of Loki's excitement at the nearing closure of the game, or through some word Sif herself had dropped, Arik thought he knew from whom the note had come. Not knowing for sure, however, he went to the next room and handed it off to the one whom the salutation indicated. The next day, however, he found Sif. Bringing her aside, he asked her what she was about and if she really knew what it was she was mixing herself up in. She laughed, dispelling his worry by telling him that the letters were not from her, but from Loki. She'd caught him delivering one a few days before.
Sif would say no more, and now quite puzzled, Arik mentioned this news to Thor. Thor was no more appraised of the situation than he. Not sure whether to be alarmed or amused, he asked his brother about it. Growing angry, Loki had demanded to know where he had heard such a thing. Thor told him how Arik had heard it from Sif – who said she had caught him in the act. At this news the frown melted from Loki's face. "Did she," he more said than asked, and – laughing – strolled away, leaving Thor more puzzled than he had been before.
Neither Arik nor Thor were the kind to spread tales – at least on Thor's part, not tales that were barely understood. So the incident went no farther.
Well, not in that direction at least.