"Astrid, where are we?" Muirgheal frantically looked around, only to be immersed in playbacks of images in her line of vision.
"What does your mind tell you?"
"It isn't telling me anything. I'm scared, Astrid. Please tell me where we are," Muirgheal's lips began to quiver as she squeezed her eyes shut and retreated back to the nightmares of her childhood.
"We are in the convoluted chasm of your subconscious, Muirgheal. All the moments that have fabricated the threads of your life into a complex web are here, stored within your mind. The smells, the sensations, the sounds, the tastes, and the sights of your past are recorded here. The impressions of your first sensations are still inked upon the faint images of your memories, but they were obscured from your ability to recollect them in the future, hidden."
"What are you talking about?" Her head was spinning wildly in torment and agony at the shrilling voices of her childhood.
Athena stepped toward Muirgheal and placed two warm hands along her slender face, "Close your eyes and seek them out."
"What? What am I supposed to do? Remember my mother? I can't do that. I was just a newborn. No one can remember that far back," Muirgheal stared up at the stranger in front of her, the voices still suffocating her mind.
"Anything is possible, my dear. Please try to remember her. She wants you to see her as she first saw you, innocent."
Muirgheal unwillingly closed her eyes and sat there trying to recall the past, "It's not working, Astrid. I can't remember anything."
"Clear your mind, my dear. I will guide you," she whispered sweetly.
"What— " Muirgheal was silenced when she felt Astrid softly kiss her forehead. A strange warmth encased her body and suddenly, the voices disappeared. She no longer felt trapped by her human form or helpless. She felt free and flowing like an undisturbed stream of water.
Do you remember?
Murigheal could hear Astrid's voice echoing around her, instigating her to push on.
Let the smells and the sensations lead you back to the mother of your senses, your eyes.
Murigheal tried to focus on the scent of a newborn, the softness of their skin. At first, she could see nothing behind the perpetual darkness of her eyelids, but then she started to see little rays of light cutting through her vision and a gentle, tender voice softly cooing a lullaby.
It's her, Muirgheal thought, It's my mother.
The woman revolved around the spot in which she stood to glance at the lovely sight before her, our sweet Muirgheal.
"Oh, my sweet child," she smiled, fighting back her tears, "how I truly yearn to nurture you and love you like the mother who was taken from me. I am so sorry that I must follow a path set before me while you live amongst the humans. There have been a series of unfoldings that prevent me from keeping you. I am leaving you because I love you and want to keep you free from the ruins of my world. Oh, my dearest vision, you will never feel how much this hurts me. I do not even think it wise for me to come back to you when this is all over. Please forgive me, my flower."
The woman leaned down to place a kiss on her daughter's small newborn head, "Goodbye, my love."
Muirgheal opened her eyes groggily to find Astrid removing her lips from her head. The tears began to sting her eyes in realization of the identity of the woman standing before her, "Mom?"
"Hello, my love," her voice broke as she secured Muirgheal in her maternal hold.
"So, it's you? You're Athena? And my mom?" Muirgheal's eyes spilled over as she felt her mother's heart beating furiously. The tears began to hurt when she felt her mother's chest convulsing with sobs.
"It has been so long since I have been able to embrace you, Muirgheal. I do not expect you to willingly accept me, but do not let hate poison your heart. I can only dream of a life where I took the risk to raise you, but all I can offer you now is my love and condolences for the years of mistreatment you received from those horrid mortals. Allow me to try and be your mother, my love."
Athena had Muirgheal's hands encased in her own, both of their faces damp with bittersweet regret, "Why did you leave me? All those years on Earth I spent hating myself for being alive. I wanted to cease my being on Earth. I lived my life as an unloved child. Why did you leave me?"
Athena choked on her words, "I promise to explain it all to you, but believe how necessary it was to keep you out of harm's way."
Muirgheal stared blankly at the goddess before her, Should I forgive so easily?
"I do not wish to hold onto the past, but I cannot vanquish the malice that has been growing in my heart for so long."
"I need to redeem myself, I understand. Allow me a fighting chance to be what you need."
Muirgheal longed for a mother so much, "Promise that you will never leave me as you did before?"
"My love, no force would be formidable enough to keep me from you now."
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Innocent Mischief | Loki Fanfic
Fanfiction"Muirgheal has been a part of a prophecy as old as time itself. When Chaos, one of the first primordial beings, ruled Midgard. One of his children was the most vile of creatures. She was beautiful to all who laid eyes upon her but her very presence...
