Growing Pains

Thirteen

The next morning, Helena dressed in Asgardian attire and waited in her room for Frigga to find her. She didn't want to risk running into that guard if she went to seek the AllMother herself. When Frigga did find her, she looked at Helena with concern.

"Did you not sleep well, my dear?" She asked.

"No, I slept okay." Helena lied.

Having raised a trickster, Frigga wasn't convinced. She was the only person who could see through Loki's lies. Nevertheless, she let the matter drop. If Helena didn't want to speak about whatever kept her up at night, Frigga wouldn't force her.

"Well I thought it would be best if we went to practice in a different room. I have one still set up from when I was training Loki." Frigga said.

Helena followed her out of the room, and to the training room, which luckily, wasn't too far away. On their way there, they passed an expensive looking vase that reminded Helena of the one she accidentally broke.

"Oh, um, I accidentally broke one of your vases yesterday." Helena said, looking down at her shoes in shame.

"I know, I found the pieces." Frigga laughed.

"You're not mad?" Helena looked up, surprised.

"No, of course not! You are far more valuable than any vase, my dear. Plus, after raising Thor, you get used to broken objects."

Helena laughed a little along with Frigga. Then they reached the training room. It didn't look very different from the other rooms, except for the bookshelves full of literature on magic, and the soft couch in the corner. Helena's eyes took in the whole room while Frigga took out a book and laid on a little table.

"Here." She said, and gestured Helena over.

She looked down at the book and found the text to be written in a language she couldn't read.

"Um..." Helena said, unsure of how to inform Frigga that she couldn't tell what it said.

In the end, she didn't need to say anything though, because Frigga seemed to have read her mind and read the passages out loud. Helena listened intently to the short passage being read, and then Frigga closed the book. Helena watched as it floated back to the shelf, but she was puzzled.

"Now we begin." Frigga said, holding her hands out and waiting for Helena to put out her wrists with the cuffs.

"Wait! Shouldn't we read more? I mean, what if I taken them off and... well, what if something bad happens?" Helena asked.

"It will be fine. We can't learn everything from a book, sometimes you must take a leap of faith." Frigga dismissed.

"But I don't want to hurt you." Helena frowned.

"I highly doubt you would do such a thing, but I do have magic of my own to protect myself if that makes you feel better." Frigga said.

Helena cautiously held out her wrists and felt the cuffs being taken off. A wave of energy flowed though her and she felt less tired. She looked down at her hands, but there was no black magic.

"Okay, now I want you to practice focusing in on just one thing- my voice. I'm going to speak to you, and if you start to feel scared, just focus in on my voice again, okay?" Frigga said.

"Okay."

"Now, I would like you to think back to when you could use your powers with ease. When you could control them. What did that feel like? What did you feel like when you used them? What emotions came up? ...Alright, now I would like for you to focus on just one book on the book shelf. Try to lift it up and bring it over here with your magic."