Fate works in funny ways.
Feng Jiu was a witness to it all.
"One only learns how to value something when it is already gone," she'd once told Loki when she decided it was time for him to end his cruel actions against his wife, his Princess Consort, Lady Sigyn.
Truth be told, she never expected Loki to be moved by Sigyn's character, gentle and flower-like, to his icy and cruel one. But he was. And by then, it was too late.
"The only thing... I regret... in this life... is loving him dearly..." Sigyn told her on her deathbed as she gazed lovingly at her twin sons who was just born. "... I... I can't even bring myself... to hate him..."
Sigyn died of a broken heart, following the death of her parents. Not even the birth of her sons could give her the will to live. When Loki arrived, the words he had caught were ones that stung deeply, and forever were carved into his soul and his heart.
"If I ever have a next life... I won't... ever... fall in love with him again..."
And just like that, Sigyn breathed her last and left the world of the living.
The mourning was a quiet affair. One that people did not talk about loudly. Anyone would think that Sigyn didn't hold much importance in Loki's heart, but Feng Jiu knew Loki most out of all of them.
The reason why her death was not much spoken was because Loki did not want to remember how he indirectly killed her. The reason why he sent his sons away was because it reminded him of his failure. If Sigyn did not suffer from a broken heart, she would have been able to deliver Prince Nari and Vali safely and healthily.
If he didn't do all those things, she still would've been alive.
But she wasn't.
She was dead and nothing could bring her back.
Not even his regret.
She could still remember the day when a poisoned spear had gone through the heart of Prince Vali. The enemy indeed was vile and cruel. The poison transformed Vali into a wolf, and Prince Nari became a victim to his brother who was out of control. Vali, already a wolf, tore Nari to pieces, and when he had regained his bearings, naked as the day he was born, the first thing he saw was his brother's decapitated body, his entrails scattered. Vali immediately understood what happened and went mad, then went on to kill himself.
They were late, and Loki could only hold on to his sons' remains as he wept in anger, demanding the Heavens to bring his children back.
That day, the Heavens wept and mourned with him. Every shout brought forth a thunderstorm. Loki was not willing to accept that his only son with the woman he loved was dead.
So this was love.
After that, Loki went into a state of comatose from time to time.
Hela, who was still a child that time, asked her grandmother what was wrong with her father.
"It's love," Frigga answered as she caressed her son's face, forcing herself to not shed tears.
Hela did not understand. So did she. "I once heard that the King of the Elven Fairies died shortly after his beloved wife died. Is that because of love too?" she asked. Frigga nodded. "Why do so many people die for love?"
She wanted to know too. Why would Loki who was obsessed with the throne be like this because of love?
But Frigga only smiled. She gathered her granddaughter into her arms and caressed the young girl's raven locks.
"When you meet the one you will love most dearly, you'll know."
At that time, her identity as Freya did not know, but when she was back in Zhe Yan's Peach Tree Woods, even with her fatal wounds, all she could think of was how right the Queen was.
Her love for Dong Hua was so immense to the point it was unbelievable. It was unconditional and loyal that she cut one of her tails for it. The pain was so tremendous that she believed she'd die right then and there.
Love makes someone weak.
This was her conclusion as she lay on the grounds of Peach Tree Woods with her blood feeding the grass. As she lay in pain, all she could think of was all the foolishness and embarrassments she had done to get his affections. Then she remembered all the heartbreaks and pains he caused her. She wanted to be angry at him, but she couldn't, because after all, she was the one who made moves, not him.
So she let it go.
She dug out her ability to love from her heart and placed it inside the largest luminous pearl down the Lake of Qing Qiu, which she later gave as a birthday gift to A-Li, instructing him to never ever, in any circumstances, must it be broken.
A-Li will never know what was inside that luminous pearl, nor will her aunt, or anyone in Realms except for her. Not even Cheng Jiao knew where she hid her ability to love.
She was a queen.
She must not be weak.
She will marry for peace, and not for love.
Seeing Dong Hua again in the Nine Heavens made her realize just how potent the magic spell actually was. No one in the Realms could now move her heart, not even Dong Hua.
So when the recently awakened Demon Lord, Wen Chang, who also held the title of Di Jun, asked for her hand in marriage for peace, she barely batted an eyelash and agreed, calmly sipping her tea, and aware of the shock her decision had caused to everyone.
She can no longer love. What was the point of declining a marriage alliance for peace when she held no one in her heart?
Her first marriage was riddled with happiness, but it was overweighed by the heartbreak and sadness she experienced. This second marriage of hers will have no feelings involved in it. Wen Chang Dijun had concubines, so she can leave the production of heirs to them. She had long realized any child born from her will be a pitiful one, for no matter how hard she will try, she cannot give the child the parental affection she was always given.
Anyone. With the exception of that child.
Fate was funny.
In the end, no matter how much she cried herself to sleep after seeing the name beside her on the Rock of Three Incarnations that was not Dong Hua, telling herself she will not marry anyone other than the silver-haired god, she still married him, with no resistance from her side.
The wedding was very grand and extravagant to the point that one would think that Qing Qiu and the Demon Clan had emptied their resources for the wedding.
'It looks like this Demon King had taken a fancy at me,' Feng Jiu concluded when the wedding was over and was sitting inside the bridal chambers.
But whether he had taken a fancy to her or nor was none of her concern.
She could not reciprocate his feelings.
"Wen Chang Dijun," she greeted as soon as he arrived in the bridal chambers. The demon lord had a young face, but she knew just how much older he was than her. He was handsome and looked happy seeing her that she almost felt sorry for her next words. "Our marriage is simply an alliance. For this, I will request Dijun to agree to my request for our marriage to not be consummated."
He looked heartbroken. "Is it because you love another?" he crouched in front of her and took her hands. "You were married to Dong Hua once. Is it because you still love him?"
"Rest assured that it does not have anything to do with him," she replied.
"Then why-"
"The reason is for me to know, Your Majesty."
"How could you be so cruel to me?" he whispered, his face dangerously close to hers. "You were the only one in all my years of living who I fell in love with at first sight..."
Falling in love at first sight was merely falling in love with the face, just as how she had been with Dong Hua.
'Is it, though?' snickered a tiny voice from the back of her mind, almost mockingly.
Those affections will merely fade with time. Falling in love after a performance? That was merely falling in love with the figure.
In the end, Wen Chang Dijun was just like any other men.
In the end, Wen Chang left the bridal chambers in fury and spent the night with another one of his concubines. The next day, she was immediately drowned with stares of pity, and she could care less.
The next day, she left for Qing Qiu and for another 5 decades, that was how their peace marriage worked. Wen Chang in the demon realm with his concubines, and Feng Jiu in Qing Qiu governing her kingdom.
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Welp, so in here lies the reason as to Feng Jiu's apathy. The magic spell was inspired from Who Made Me A Princess - that was what my other story is about, "The Sleeping Princess".
There is a reference for a new character here, so comment it down if you see it ;-))
So, since there are Norse names here. Sigyn is Loki's wife, both in here and in the mythology - damn she was really faithful though. In the Norse Mythology, she did not die, and as I said, really faithful. When Loki was fastened to three rocks in the cave with the entrails of his slain son, which the gods had turned into iron chains. Skadi placed a poisonous snake on a rock above his head, where it dripped venom onto his face. But Loki's faithful wife, , sat by his side with a bowl that she held up to the snake's mouth to catch the poison. But every so often, the bowl became full, and Sigyn would have to leave her husband's side to dispose of its contents, at which point the drops that fell onto the unrepentant god's face would cause him to shake violently, which brought about earthquakes in , the world of humanity.
Like I said, really faithful.
Nari and Vali, on the other hand, are Loki's children with Sigyn also in the mythology. In chapter 50 of Gylfaginning, to punish Loki for his crimes, the Æsir turned his son Váli into a wolf and he dismembers his brother, "Nari or Narfi", whose entrails are then used to bind their father.
Yes, Nari's entrails were used to bind his father as mentioned above in Sigyn's paragraph.
I don't know what happened to Vali after that, but I had the two of them die in here.
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