Consequences

1

Brynja and Loki lived together quite nicely in Asgard, surpassing the number of years anyone Thor's betting pool thought they would last. Most people assumed that after twenty years or so, Loki would get bored, start trying to take things over again, and would end up imprisoned or dead, which, given his history, was not an entirely unreasonable assumption. Instead, he had turned out to be quite fond of a more domestic life, especially with the two children to raise. Sunny, with her emerging interest in magic, asked both her mother and her stepfather to teach her what they could. She learned quickly, asking them to let her begin working with Freyja on occasion. She improved on their spells and reinvented them, playing with magic and challenging both of her parents to keep up to her. Her aptitude impressed Loki, as she started to show an interest in shape-shifting and projecting herself into other rooms and spaces. Both of them knew she would surpass them in skill.

Loki had been incredibly anxious about taking on the role of father to the two young girls, his primary concern being that he would have a favourite child and dote on her far more than the other, creating resentment in the same way he still somewhat resented Odin. Brynja reassured him he could love both children equally and, in time, he discovered he did. He sparred with Katja, teaching her how to fight with daggers and a staff, teaching her the foundation skills she would need to enter training with the soldiers when she was old enough. Loki taught Sunny magic. The three of them grew close, Loki often finding himself reading stories to them in the evening, a child on either side, Brynja getting things ready for the next day before joining them. They did this even as young teenagers, making up for the lack of storytelling from their birth father.

On occasion, both Loki and Brynja played tricks on one another, much to the amusement of the girls. Even as Sunny and Katja grew up, they found the little pranks funny, laughing as Loki jumped back from the cooking fire in the garden as the kindling came to life and dodged the flame or as Brynja found all of her clothes hanging upside-down when she went to dress for an evening event. Sunny joined the mischief as soon as she learned how, often leaving little tricks waiting for her parents when she went off to study with Freyja, her favourites involving little black newts so like the ones she had seen in the creek in upstate New York.

Brynja's children sought out a relationship with their father only when they were older- Sunny, the more forgiving of the two, had approached him first, asking him in her early teen years if they might meet for tea to discuss some things that had always bothered her. He acquiesced to her request and hoped the conversation would not be too horribly awkward. It was worse than awkward, but he endured it, answering questions she shot at him like arrows, carefully thought out and phrased in ways so he could not be evasive. They talked about his treatment of her mother, of her sister, his views on the place of women, and his relationship with his current wife. She asked about his torture of Loki, something she had only recently found out the extend of, and his feelings about her mother having taken Loki to her heart and to her bed. There were no questions Sunny felt were off limits and Fandral did his best to be patient during what he thought was probably the most difficult interrogation he would ever endure.

Katja came to Fandral many years later. She had established herself well as one of Sif's protege and showed up at Fandral's door in her full armour, gleaming in the evening sunlight. She had sworn off marriage, wanting only to focus on her studies with Sif. She told him she did not want to speak to him if he still did not want a daughter who was a warrior. Fandral thought back to the years before and looked at his wild daughter, her eyes sharp like her mother's. He opened his arms and embraced her, apologising for his mistake, revealing that he had not valued her for who she was, but resented what he saw in her that reminded him of her mother and the traits that reminded him too much of Loki- her sharp and often insolent tongue, the deep way she felt and remembered every slight, and her ability to hold a grudge for years, carefully planning for the opportune moment for payback. Katja asked what he thought of her now, still the girl she was, but also so much more powerful in her skills as a fighter both with weapons and with words. Fandral finally told her he was proud of her. Katja considered that enough and asked no more questions.