Loyalty and Mischief (WIP - On Hiatus)

Chapter 39 - If only you would notice how I ache behind my smile

Of course, how could he have forgotten? He had only recently been given proof of it. Sigyn had risked everything in facing Mephisto to reclaim his soul and life, so it was more than fair to assume she would go beyond that if she believed there was even a sliver of a chance of being reunited. That desire would fuel her fire until it consumed her, as it did countless fire mages before her. Her power was one of the greatest Loki had ever sensed, and he wasn't sure even the Allfather himself could stop her then. If she gave in to her grief and single-mindedly pursued her desire to have him back... she could destroy the Nine Realms and kill millions.

"Loki, hear me, please," pleaded Hermes. "I've come upon many kinds of love when guiding souls to Hades, and I swear to you, none were ever as pure as what I sense in both your hearts. Were Eros here with us now, he would echo my words. You are reaching your truest potential thanks to Sigyn, and she hers thanks to you. Do not leave her to fend for herself, for she will never leave you."

Loki shook his head. Hermes giving him advice on matters of love... It was the definition of cruel irony and an utter joke.

"For Zeus's sake, why are you so determined at ruining all you have?" demanded Hermes then. 

"I have nothing," answered Loki miserably.

"You have Sigyn. You have her heart. And you deserve her, Loki."

"I don't. And she certainly doesn't deserve someone like me. I've brought her nothing but pain."

"And have you not shared her sorrow? Were you not also grieved by others? Loki, do you not see? If you didn't love Sigyn as you did, or if she didn't love you, would there even be any pain to speak of? It is the sacrifice that comes with such great love. It is the balance of the most natural and primordial magic in existence. Life and death, love and hatred, comfort and agony... One needs both in their existence. Else, what is the point of it all?"

Hermes' words made sense, yet Loki refused to take them in. For if that was truly what love was, he didn't care for it. 

"Join your wife," said Hermes then. "Speak with Hera. Be strong. For yourself, and for Sigyn. You are in this together, Loki. She will not forsake you if don't forsake her."

"Since when did you become so insightful?"

The tip of Hermes' fingers caressed Loki's jawline. "Since I learned that lesson the hard way... agapi mia."

A breeze swept Loki's hair in his face. The brush of the other's lips against his was so fleeting, Loki was certain he had imagined it. Yet the lingering faint impression prickling his senses was far too great for it to have been a reverie. As he put his hair back behind his ear, he found the Greek God of Messengers and Mischief was gone. 

***

"Dearest sister of the North, I bid you welcome to Olympus." Hera took Sigyn by her hands and kissed her cheeks in greeting. "I am so glad at finally making your acquaintance, Sigyn. Freya spoke of you with much fondness."

"Oh? I cannot see how as I never met her." 

"She is the guardian of the daughter you lost. She knows you through her."

The mention of her baby girl made Sigyn press her lips together. She glanced over her shoulder, finding Rúna and Fandrall silently standing on the side and Loki still at the bottom of the steps, speaking with Hermes. He seemed to be in some sort of argument with the Greek God, whose panicked expression didn't bode well.  

"You worry."

Sigyn returned her attention to Hera as the Queen spoke to her. Those upturned, dark-violet eyes appeared kind and all-knowing, but like everything in Olympus, it was a mere cover for the blight festering inside. The books Sigyn and Rúna had perused in the library had described many of the Grecians as spiteful creatures, since they took great offense in the slightest of insult. Yet Hera and her fellow ruler, Aphrodite, were renowned for their jealousy and quick tempers. Neither forget an injury and 'punished' with a fierce vengeance. It still puzzled Sigyn why Freya would send her and Loki to them, of all deities.