The Family Lokison (Part 4)

The Visitor (LOKI)

"Laufeyson, this is your last warning."

I believed him. But what was the price? My hands shook while I reached for the handle and my mind buzzed with hundreds of possibilities. He might strike me quickly. Might demand confessions first. There could be an army outside that waited for me to return home. A heavy sickness settled when I considered what might've happened to Ginny if he'd come only a few minutes before.

There weren't enough spare seconds to do anything but surrender. I clicked open the door and threw my hands up to show my empty palms.

I spoke slowly, deliberately, giving no care for what my fate would be. "Please don't hurt my children."

Heimdall's yellow eyes dissected my very being. His folded arms were easily double the girth of mine. He must've been quite a sight for our neighbors, walking through the fortress in his golden armor, with a helmet too tall to come into the house. The darkness of his skin shined somehow, like Vanaheim's purple skies enhanced him.

Sigyn panted with fear behind me. The boys sighed with awe. I prayed they would survive whatever he had in mind.

"Nearly nine years since I last chased you from the palace," Heimdall said without breaking his gaze with me. "If I'd had my way, you never would've seen another sunrise."

I swallowed hard. "And if you aim to fulfill that wish now, I only ask that you dispatch me away from their eyes."

Vali's unmatched gumption wasn't cute in the moment. The sound of his voice shot my heart to the top of my throat. "Are you from Asgard?" he asked.

Sigyn snapped, "What?"

I stayed where I was and flared my fingers toward him, too afraid to turn my face away. Had I mentioned it in passing? Had Freyr? Grid? Björn? For all that I'd avoided telling my sons about the rest of Yggdrasil, it never occurred to me that they might've learned about it on their own.

And in the process, what had they learned about me?

But Heimdall immediately turned to my right to answer, smiling for my son as if he wasn't here to destroy me. "Why, yes, young one. I am Heimdall, Gatekeeper of the Bifrost, Asgard's doorway."

Narvi whispered, "I told you I said it right."

"Boys," I yelled.

"Lady Sigyn," Heimdall said, somehow able to stand straighter while addressing her. "Tell me your children's names."

She stood at my side and squeezed my left hand, trembling ever so slightly. "They are Narvi and Vali. Here..."—she touched the top of her belly in an obvious and piteous signal—"...is our daughter. We call her Hela."

"Hmm." He shifted his focus back to me and narrowed his eyes.

"Please," I whispered, commanding the itch in my cheeks to stop so I wouldn't openly weep before my sons, "they're innocent. Any wrongdoing is mine alone."

"They are indeed." He cleared this throat and changed his arms from being folded in front to resting behind his back. "I have been ordered by Thor, son of Odin, to enter Vanaheim for the purpose of summoning your clan to its true home. It is your duty as Asgardians to serve as warriors for what's to come."

The floor fell out from under me. I squeezed Sigyn to stay upright. "I beg your pardon?"

"All of Yggdrasil faces its end. The great serpent has awoken Surtur, who makes his way up the great tree as we speak. He will fight the Allfather on the plains of Vigrid, and the fate of all rests in the balance." Heimdall squared his jaw, ultimately repeating his mission. "The House of Loki is called to fight in Ragnarok."