His Queen | Book 1

Twelve: Flower Beds

"There is it." Freya said, striding across Sigyn's chambers in an outstanding golden dress with large dutch sleeves. Sigyn sat at her vanity dragging her brush through her tame white hair. Freya came up behind her running slender fingers through her hair.

"There is what?" There is resentment in Sigyn's voice, for what happened yesterday.

"That look." Freya began to part Sigyn's hair. "In your eyes. You are in love."

Sigyn puts down her brush tearing away her eyes from her mother. She looked herself in the mirror, stared herself straight down in the reflection. She doesn't see any look in her eyes. Nothing is different. (In love?) She doesn't see how her mother can pick that out just by looking at her eyes. "How can you tell?" she asked, bewildered. "I am not in love."

Freya chuckled, a cruel undertone to the laugh. Her fingers twisting Sigyn's hair into braids. "Even if you don't see it yourself, Siggy, It is evident in the way you looked just then. Daydreaming, where ever is may be you where. I know the look because it is the same one Nanna and Baldur share. It is the same one your father gives me. Just the mere thought of that person will spark that look in your eyes. I have lived many life times to know."

"But, mother... How can you say I am in love when I don't even know it?"

"The heart is a mysterious place. It can be full of warmth and light, but it can also be dark and cold."

"Riddles won't help." Sigyn pouts in the mirror.

Freya smiled brightly, her hands working to decorate Sigyn's hair. "I could not be more happy that you have finally found love with Thor. Does he feel the same? Have you spoken to him?"

"No." her cheeks blushed pink. "I don't think he does."

In the mention of love, Thor was not the one on her mind. But Loki instead. She tried her best to shun him away, but he overcame the thunder god taking the lead on her thoughts. She did find love, but, where it is not meant to be.

"Oh, mother, the Norns torment me."

"Why? Isn't it better you love Thor, as you said?" Freya raised an eyebrow.

"I meant - why is that you say I am in love, when I don't feel like it, or know that I am myself?"

Freya smiled deeply to herself, concentrating on placing the braids in Sigyn's hair. "Love is a thing not even we gods can understand. While others can see you love someone, you yourself might not see it. It is up to you to look within and realise that feeling."

"How will I know what it feels like?"

The smile on Freya's features grew wider. "You will know. It will hit you harder than anything before and it will overwhelm you and you will be filled with enlightenment and complete and utter... LOVE. You will feel as though you are suddenly anchored to the ground. The twines which our fate are woven will be twisted so tightly you will feel it inside your heart and soul. You will be able to see the strings connecting you to him, but it's metaphorical, of course. That's just my experience."

Sigyn gazed down at her hands in her lap. All those things sounded like a tale in a children's book. A legend only some will have the privilege of experiencing. It won't be Sigyn. She will be married to Thor, doomed to love Loki.

"Mother, what did Loki gift you?"

"A golden boar." she replied. "It's bristles are of gold. I have never seen anything quite like it. It can run through air and water, by night and by day, better than any horse, and that never was there night so dark that the way by which he went would not be light from his hide. To your father, he gave a golden ring which every ninth night would drop seven more just as valuable as its first. To Sigvard, he gave a silver bangle which could expand to an unbreakable shield. To Frigga, he gave a ship which could fit inside his pocket and would always have the wind where it goes."