*No More Tricks*

What have you done?

Ruby's POV

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_ As we reached our destination, the guards helped Loki and I dismount the horse and left us there. 

"Which one of you is hurt?" 

I turned around after hearing a female voice . "He's not well. It's the heat." 

She looked at Loki and quickly nodded. "Follow me." 

I had Loki leaning on me to help him stay on his feet. She led us to a very cold room and helped me lay him down on a bed. 

"How did he get like this?....I doubt it was just the heat." She said to me as she raised her left eyebrow.

I looked down. "I may have said...certain things to upset him."

She only looked at me and down at Loki. "Did he at least bring something back to life?" She looked up at me as she injected Loki with something. 

"What is that? What are you doing to him?"

"I'm helping his body adjust to the cold temperature once again. I know what I'm doing girl. Do not question me."  She pursed her lips.  I did not like her attitude. Not one bit. Just because she was the queen, did not give her the right to treat others with disrespect. 

"So... you're the queen....the wife of King Vulcan." She only looked at me and nodded quickly. "How is it that you can stand such cold temperatures as you are doing right now? Your husband is the king of the fire demons. Are you not one as well?"

She slowly raised her head and looked me right in the eyes. Her eyes were icy blue. She touched Loki's chest for a few seconds before turning to me. As she walked towards me her skin turned blue, and marks that were not on her face before, suddenly appeared. It only lasted for seconds though and afterwards her skin changed back to a light brown. She looked tanned. With jet-black hair and light blue eyes. She had been staring at me just as long as I had been staring at her. She sighed before speaking. 

"I am Claerwen of Jötunheim." 

My eyes widened. She was an ice giant. I cleared my throat. "So...I take it you're friends with Frosty."

She smirked. "You're not funny."

"Wasn't trying to be."

"King Frost is my uncle. My father fell in love with a Midgardian woman. A mortal. Don't ask how it happened because I do not have an answer."

I stared at her with a blank expression. "So you're telling me you're one of...them"

She looked down and paced around the room. "Not completely. You see...I never knew my mother. She died that fateful night she gave birth to me. Yet, she gave me something to remember her forever. The one thing that makes her hate her." She walked right up to me. Her face inches away from mine. "Mortality." she whispered. 

"So you-"

"Yes. I am not immortal. It was I who made the deal between the Frost Giants and the Fire Demons. The deal that would grant me my immortality."

I slowly shook my head. She scoffed and walked away from me. "Don't tell me the idea of spending eternity with your loved ones does not attract you. You could have a life better-"

"I like my life. I like knowing that I am not immortal."

"You truly are a strange girl. Maybe you're just saying so, because you're a goddess and you're tired of living for so long."

"No. I'm saying it because it is how I feel."

"Insolent girl. You think you can talk to me this way?"

"I have said nothing to offend you."

She pursed her lips. "You know...I have been dying to know if you really are as powerful as you are said to be."

I raised my right eyebrow. 

With a quick and swift movement of her right hand, she made two daggers appear. "That's right. You and Loki are not the only ones with magic powers...Let's test you Yggdrasil."

"I would not do this if I were you."

She laughed. "Keep talking and your Loki will wake up and find his girlfriend's corpse right next to him." She threw one of the daggers at me. I did not want to fight her.

She gave me a puzzled and curious look. 

I bit my lip. "I will tell you something you do not know." She simply looked at me and seconds later charged at me, if I had not quickly moved to the side, she would have stabbed me.

I struggled to speak but I tried my best to make her understand.  "I am a goddess, but I am not immortal and knowing that pleases me. Even if you do become immortal, you'll only end up envying me and all the other mortal gods. And you will envy us." 

She screamed at me and attacked me once again. I dodged it. "You'll envy us because we're a lot like the mortals."

"Your pathetic mortal life has nothing good about it. There's nothing that could ever make me like my life for as long as I remain mortal." 

The more I dodged her attacks, the more powerful I felt. "I love my life. I love knowing that any moment might be my last. It makes me appreciate it more." I almost stabbed her but she moved fast. "Look at you Claerwen. You are a beautiful woman, and you stay mortal, you will never be as beautiful as you are now. You will be doomed. Your live will be destined to end at one point...But that is the beauty of it."

She seemed to be blind and deaf. Even after what I had said, she kept trying to kill me. "Stop this now!"

She was deaf to my words. She ran towards me and met my dagger. We both heard the sound of the blade piercing flesh and she smiled. The she looked down and her smile disappeared. Her eyes were wide when she looked up at me and leaned on me. I pushed her way and felt the warm liquid on my hand. She was gasping, struggling to breathe and I looked in horror at my right hand which held the dagger. I dropped it and as she fell on the floor I rushed to her side. 

"Claerwen...I-"

"Do you see what happens to 'pathetic mortals' like me?" she gave me one last smile before closing her eyes and exhaling her last breath. 

"Yggdrasil....what have you done?!" I turned around and saw King Vulcan and the horrified look on his face.