Sigyn's Discovery (Part 1)

Finding the Truth (LOKI)

In Frigga's room, the clever servant appeared sooner than I expected. It was time to find out exactly how faithful she could be.

"Are we going to have a problem, Sigyn?" I asked, panting on her face. Her fear smelled like bitter metal—wonderfully acrid and proof of my power. The quickening of her breath made my heart pound at the same pace. It had been too long since I had such an effect on someone else.

The girl's eyes widened and watered, paralyzed as the rest of her from my spell. I waved a hand before her to break it, and she immediately dropped to the floor.

"I'm sorry, My Lord," she sobbed, rocking back and forth on her knees without meeting my eyes. Her voice was deep for a woman's, even now with her panic. "What will you have done with me?"

I folded my arms. "Ah, you see, it is not so simple. One cannot kill as easily now that Asgard lives in peace, so where does that put you?" I chuckled and reveled in my height over her. "Just look at this sniveling girl on the floor."

She said nothing, though I wanted to see her strength. Wanted to feel challenged.

"Look at me."

Her whole body trembled. Not enough of an answer.

"Look at me!"

Sigyn snapped her face upward. Her eyes searched my body and every muscle in her face twitched with inner thought, yet a softness appeared—the same care she had when she thought I was Odin on the balcony. "You can't be real," she whispered, reaching with her hand.

How dare you try to touch me? I leaned away with a glare. "Get up."

She rose with precision, but her body language couldn't lie. With one foot behind the other, she shifted her weight, then again. Preparing to run. A prey animal with one chance for escape. In a burst of movement, Sigyn twisted toward the reflecting pool but was met with another one of me. Another and another surrounded her. I multiplied—which one was real? She couldn't know, and she couldn't leave. A snap of my fingers and all the candles in the room lit to their brightest point.

"I am very real." My projections and I marched toward her, forcing Sigyn backward and against Frigga's bed. The illusions melted into me and I closed us in together, away from the eyes of the city below.

When her legs hit the mattress, she fell and scrambled to sit up. Sweat leaked down her face and a few strands of hair were stuck in place. Keeping her hands busy, Sigyn tugged at her black sleeping robe as though pulling it could make her disappear.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. What are we going to do about this?" My own voice was a gift after so many months of speaking as Odin, and I particularly enjoyed watching her cower beneath it. Even my very tone had power over her. My stance had to match, so I took a heavy step closer to her.

"I am sorry, Lord." Her refusal to look at me again made me wonder if she was genuinely attempting to be reverent, or if her averted eyes meant something else.

"And what precisely are you sorry for, Sigyn?" I hissed her name on purpose, smirking with victory to see goosebumps appear on her neck as I did so.

"I am sorry...sorry that I came to..."—she clenched her eyes shut—"...that I came into this chamber when I shouldn't have."

I tipped my head. "You're sorry for trespassing?"

Her own questions and disbelief outweighed my confusion. "The Allfather is...is you?" The girl stammered, "How can this be? How is it you're alive?" A distinct tear flowed down her cheek.

"Do you not believe your eyes?" Perhaps I'd overestimated her and put myself at risk for nothing if she didn't understand the gravity of what I'd done. "What if I am all that I appear to be, hmm? What then?"

"I...I surrender. " Something in her attitude shifted. A new kind of submission. "Spare me pain and give your orders, whatever they may be. I will comply and give you everything I have to prove my worth." She choked on her breath and hugged herself.

I scoffed. "What could you possibly have that I want?"

Sigyn's eyes darted across the floor. "I suppose I have nothing but myself to give. M-my service, and..."—with this, she gulped and put a trembling hand upon her sleeping gown, opening the top button.

My brow furrowed instinctively and I snaked my head back in repulsion. "Do you take me for a monster? Is that what Odin told Asgard I was? That I was mad enough to force someone to bed me?" I accused both him and her with my tone and rising volume. "Do you believe you're some great conquest? Think you've been spared as a prize?"

"No, no, Lord, I—"

"You have nothing I want. The only trouble you're worth is the effort I'd use to bury you." I yanked her chin up. "Look at me when I speak!"

She opened her eyes and wheezed. With the full power of light around us, I searched her azure eyes for deception and found nothing, only clear, eternal blue. "The...th-the Loki I knew w-was once merciful." Sigyn gulped and never blinked. "When we were children—"

"When I was a child my life was a lie. Why should I take pity on you now?"

"Because I loved your mother. Please..." She knelt before me, taking my hands tightly. Her cries made my stomach drop in an uncomfortable tug. "For Frigga, spare me."

I pried away from her grip—yet at that moment, Mother's voice filled my mind and begged me to have more grace. It tempered the inferno within my chest, though nothing relieved the rush of adrenaline Sigyn gave me with her touch. I looked at my tear-stained hands. "Come now, look what you've done," I whispered, unaware I said it out loud.

Sigyn, embarrassed by herself, lifted her skirt to dry my skin.

"No, please, don't," I said, backing away.

She wiped her eyes instead this time, hiding her face all the more. "I am sorry. Please forgive me. I mean no harm." Quiet hiccups interrupted her every few seconds. "If you let me live, I will do you no wrong. I swear it."

For a few moments, we met eyes—I stood against the dresser while Sigyn remained on the floor. The power differential between us was evident by height alone. I'd won.

But the girl was more than a mindless drone and stood with impressive grace, putting her hands behind her back and composing herself. She bowed slightly. "I will do whatever I can to serve you, as my king."

The title she gave me had no hint of sarcasm. An honor. A truth. I was king. I was king. To the woman, it made no difference if the station was filled with Odin or myself. Just as I'd hoped.

I chuckled and shook my head, closing the gap between us. While hesitant at first, I placed my right hand heavily on her shoulder. "Thank you, Sigyn."

She stared at me squarely until I took my hand away—then she nodded in response.

"I trust that you will keep this between us, yes?"

"Yes." She didn't hesitate, though she did take in a deep breath afterward. "My duty in these halls belongs to my ears and eyes alone."

"Very well." I tipped my head back to appear ever taller and stared for an uncomfortable minute, making certain that the scent of fear faded from her enough that I could trust her words. We traded silent breaths and shared the air. Her presence was close enough, it tickled.

It was only an instant, but as she watched me, the corner of her lip twitched upward. Not a simper of deceit—a flash of gladness. Was she grateful I had spared her, or happy to know I still lived?

"We'll see more of each other soon, Sigyn." This time when I waved her away, I said her name with a similar smile, cocking my brow. "You are dismissed." With a flicking wrist, I released the bedchamber and the main doors, dimming each candle she passed on the way out until she was securely in the hallway. I locked the space again and hummed to myself in satisfaction for having an accomplice.