LOKI'S POINT OF VIEW
"Please," Sigyn begged, laughing as we walked into our chambers, "Please, please, please, let me name her Hela."
"We are not naming our firstborn child Hela," I said, putting my hands up, "It's not happening, I'm sorry my love."
She rolled her eyes, "Well I suppose it's not really up to you. You're dead, therefore, I get to make the choice," she said with a smirk.
"Don't be so cruel, Sigyn," I whined as she untangled her gilded hair.
"What about Ingrid or Hilda or Strid or just about anything but Hela."
"No, no, and let me think, no," Sigyn said walking away from me, "All of those sound like they belong to grandmothers. Besides, why do you hate Hela so much?"
"I don't hate it, I'm just not sure I like it," I bargained, following her as she walked into the bathing room.
"What is so wrong with it?" she said looking over her shoulder as she began to run the bath.
"I just feel as though she needs something more regal, more suitable for a princess," I explained as I helped unlace the back of Sigyn's gown, "What was your mother's name, again? Perhaps we could name her after her."
"Absolutely not, no way," Sigyn said, "My mother's name was Runa. She doesn't deserve to have our daughter named after her."
I nodded, I had forgotten how much Sigyn loathed her late mother. From what little she had told me, Sigyn didn't believe her mother was the pinnacle of motherhood. She often strayed away from the subject but she had once shared with me that her mother had left most of the childrearing of her sisters up to Sigyn. Even as a little one, Sigyn was the one expected to wake up her sisters, feed the young ones at night, and put dinner on the table. Regrettably, I had failed to remember all this.
"What about Iona?" I asked, grabbing Sigyn a towel.
"Hmm," she paused, "Iona Lokisdottir? Not my favorite."
"Hillevi?" I suggested, receiving only a look of disgust in return, "Not Hillevi."
"Just you wait, Loki," she said, helping me take off my heavy armor, "Once you see her, you'll finally agree with me. You'll see she's meant to be a Hela."
I laughed, "We'll see about that."
We soaked for an hour, going over every possible baby name we could think of. Astrid through Ylva, we couldn't land an agreement on a single one. For a while, we simply sat in silence, somewhat defeated.
Eventually, Sigyn piped up and said, "Before we need to worry about names, what we really need to worry about is what to do about you and Odin."
I sighed, rubbing my face, "Don't remind me."
"Somehow, we have to reveal your identity, maybe we could fake Odin's death and somehow say you were never dead in the first place? I don't know, I'm sure there's something," she said, "We have to think of something, I have to have you by my side, the real you. I can't do the rest of this on my own."
"I know," I agreed.
She was right. I had to devise a plan to reveal myself. I couldn't expect Sigyn to be alright with me parading as Odin, especially as she was soon set to deliver my child. I knew she wanted me at her side in this new chapter, I knew it's what I wanted as well. So desperately, I wanted to be able to hold her hand through it all, offer her support in birth, nurse her back to health, be there in the late nights with our daughter, and truly assume my role as a father. But before I could do any of this, I had to bring Loki back to life.
But how?
"Maybe, what you could do is um...cast an illusion one day whilst you're in the great hall, showing both Odin as well as yourself. Odin will of course be on the throne and you could come in, hurt and ragged, right? The story could be that you were stranded on Jotunheim and spent all these months struggling to get home," Sigyn said, her eyes looked wild as she attempted to explain this grandiose plan of hers, "Besides, it's not as if they ever brought a body home. We didn't even have a funeral."
I stared at her in amazement, "That might just work...it needs some tweaking but it'll work...what about Thor though? He saw me die."
"I can't help you there, I'm fresh out of schemes."
I laughed, kissing her tenderly.
"Well, I'm glad to see a bit of my mischief has rubbed off on you."
She smiled and shrugged, "What can I say?"
I laughed, pulling her close to me and covering her with kisses. Oh, how I adored her mind.
As we laid in bed that night, I thought about what she had said. I knew I had to somehow come up with a way to allow me to miraculously come back to life without sacrificing my illusion as Odin. This raised another issue of keeping up the facade of Odin's presence after my resurrection as well. I couldn't possibly be in two places at once, being king and being me. I knew somewhere in my plan Odin would have to die. It was the only way to allow myself to do everything I needed to do as King of Asgard as well as uphold my position as Sigyn's husband.
For hours, I stared at the ceiling. I thought of every single solution to my problem, ruling out ones that I knew would inevitably end in disaster. I thought of ways that I would have Odin end up dead, leaving me as the only one capable of ruling. I thought of ways to keep Odin alive. I racked my brain with every single scheme I could possibly think of.
Meanwhile, Sigyn laid in the crook of my arm, sleeping peacefully. She held one of my hands close to my heart and snored softly. I smiled as I watched her. I couldn't help but think of myself as lucky. I had the most gorgeous woman in the world as my wife and I was soon to have a daughter. Before long, I joined my wife in her slumber.