You Promise(d) Me - Loki Laufeyson

Chapter 7

Deciding to leave the conversation at that, she turned the book she had taken earlier, flicking the pages through her hand with boredom before setting it aside.

The shapeshifter reached quietly into her bag, her fingers brushing against various items before finding what she was looking for. She pulled out a worn-out journal, its still sleek cover despite the passage of time was filled to the brim with paper sticking out from the sides, the corners were tattered, and the edges frayed, clear signs of its age and the countless hours spent with its pages. Gently, she placed the journal on the floor beside her.

Her attention turned to her bag again, her fingers working with practiced ease as she extracted worn colored pencils and pens, that had been replaced many times over. She arranged them neatly beside the journal she finally opened.

Loki redirected the topic to another, knowing she would not extend her answer. "Why do you use other tools when you can do it on your own?"

Her lips turned a bit upwards as she looked at her blank page. "I prefer to use the real thing when I draw. Besides, it feels rather weird when I do it using myself." Her fingers hover over the pencils and pens. "Now, I do need to concentrate."

With a swift motion, she picked up a pencil and started sketching, her movements deliberate and controlled. The lines and shapes began to take form on the paper, guided by her steady hand after years of practice.

"And you just can't conjure it?" He waves his hand in a twist, a newly created pen at his fingertips. She sighed, knowing she wouldn't be able to ignore him now that she had his attention as she placed her sketchbook aside to the right.

"Well, I can't do magic." To demonstrate, the shapeshifter created a fork from the palm of her hand. She grasped it when she turned it over downwards and it stayed in the palm of her hand instead of falling. "This is just an extension of myself." The fork dwindled in size quickly until it fully disappeared.

"But, it's been a while since I've seen magic," she admitted, her gaze thoughtful as she scratched the side of her head. "Only really seen it in movies and one of the other groups I used to be with my adopted father did it, but we weren't in the same circles due to them having disagreements, also because he could've found me out."

The shapeshifter grinned. "But my brother was impressed when I could do this." She pulled out a glass ball from her bag and managed to juggle it from the palm of her hand, over her fingers to the back of her hand without ever letting it drop before grasping it. "How do you do magic anyways?"

"My mother taught me and I trained."

"No," She shook her head, trying to make herself understood. "I mean, how did you control it and not mess up, like to not blow up?"

Loki squinted his eyes at the line of questioning but decided to indulge her nonetheless.

"Well, when I was first trying out, I had to concentrate intensely on what I was trying to do. Before I started some protections would prevent things like such from happening." He threw some sparks that created a small shield in front of his hands before they died down. "But in that moment, it was just me and my abilities, and it's important to not think of the possible terrible consequences that could happen, just that I could do it. You must aim for the reward, not its potential downfall. Do you understand?"

She mused his words, then nodded. "Alright. Can you please do some more?" Her tone was soft as she edged closer to the end of the line, trying to be as close as possible to capture it all, with her eyes wide open. Loki snorted at the blatant manipulation but decided to continue to show off to let off steam.

He ended up showing more magic to her before the lights turned off and they headed off to bed. He started to drift off while she waited a bit longer before she stood.

She went to the furthest corner of the cell, away from the guards near the wall, her back against Loki asleep on the bed with her front towards the orange magic glass of the cell. She breathed in and out while her fingers played with the necklace that hung at her neck, calming herself. With a mixture of apprehension and determination, she lifted her hair up, lifted the jewelry off her body and set it aside to her right, still within her eyesight, placing her hands in front of her, palms down to the ground.

She kept calm, ignoring past memories as she tried to stir something up, anything from the ground on her side of the cell. Her hands started to dimly glow but nothing appeared to show until her eye caught something beyond the cell. A blue stem seemed to grow beyond her reach.

She felt a mix of guilt and awe as it grew more until she looked down at her hands and saw that the black started to overwhelm her fingers and spread inwards. Panic surged within her, and she hastily placed the necklace back around her neck, trying to prevent the consuming substance in her hands from touching other parts of her body. She breathed out as it started to recede the moment that the gem was replaced on her neck, along with the floor appearing as normal.

She dragged herself back to the wall, her heart pounding in her chest as the terrible memories overwhelmed her eyesight. She drew deep shaky breaths, trying to reground herself in the present.

With each passing moment, the grip of the flashback loosened. The wall against which she leaned became a tangible anchor as the panic slowly ebbed, and the guilt-laden waves abated. She sat, once again in control, the necklace a reassuring weight against her skin as her vision and breathing became back to normal.

The shapeshifter reopened the eyes she didn't realize she closed, and observed her surroundings, making sure she wasn't in danger. She dropped her hands to the floor beside her, the one on the right catching hold of the opened sketchbook.

Ignoring her feelings of fatigue, she felt for her pencil. She shakily gripped it as she placed the notebook close enough to the light from the barrier to see while adjusting her vision to see the unfinished drawing and sketched until the next morning, avoiding the echoing pain in her head.

A/N: Hey y'all! I'm back and better than ever! I'll hopefully try to update more often now that I have the time (school was rough this semester due to so many issues like schoolwork and strikes against the government to have a better deal for teachers).

I've also been keeping up with all the new installments and let me just say, I may have accidentally predicted some stuff that does actually happen in canon with my own fics. Don't worry, it won't be noticeable until much later, but I swear, I did not expect my weird theories to actually work and I have an eyewitness (my friend) who can attest to my creative (insane) ideas.

Anywho, I might come back on this chapter for minor edits, but I think I'm mostly alright with it. Have a happy holiday break and I'll see y'all next time.

07/01/2024: Unfortunately, I have no updated chapter or anything, because I jinxed myself with my statement and ended up being sick immediately after I posted and still currently am. So from now on, I'll try to be even more ambiguous with my status online because it seems that everytime i open my mouth about it, something immediately counters it like as if I was cursed.

The next update is the 04/02/2024