Believe in Magic [a Loki fanfic]

Awakening

Ella woke up in her bed in Eir's chambers, the sunlight flooding in through the window. She turned to her side and moaned in pain. How could anyone be so stiff? It felt as if she had slept for days and the girl stretched thoroughly, then squinted - judging by the position of the sun it was late morning. A nagging pain in her stomach demanded her attention. She was hungry! Her stomach rumbled loudly. No, she was actually starving!

Ella swung her legs out of the bed and got onto her feet, feeling a weak and slightly dizzy. The hall was empty when she peeped out of her room but to her relief she spotted food on the table by the window. Fruit, eggs, roasted vegetables, cakes, something that looked like pancakes and  bread - anything she could have wished for. She decided that she would eat, quickly bathe, dress and get out of here. Loki had said that he would meet her back in the garden if she promised not to thank him anymore. Ella smiled at the memory. She looked forward to spending time with him. Loki was different to everyone else here and he seemed to need the company just as much as she did. The girl settled on one of the comfortable chairs by the table and started with pancakes. By the time Eir entered to see how she was, Ella had ravished a third of the food and felt like going back to bed. Why was she so exhausted? She looked up at Eir, slightly guilty for eating like a pig.

"So, the sleeping beauty is finally awake?" Eir's voice carried even more affection than usual - if that was at all possible - and the Goddess offered Ella a warm smile. 

"Uhm – I was starving." The girl blushed, obviously embarrassed about her ravenous apetite and Eir laughed, 

"You would have been. You have not eaten for three days." Ella'smouth dropped open and she quickly reminded herself that she needed to get this reaction under control somehow. 

"W – What?" 

"You have been sleeping."

 "Three days? I was asleep for three days?" Suddenly her expression changed from surprise to worry. 

"Loki," she whispered. He would have waited for her in the garden and she had let him down. He was not good with being let down, she knew him well enough to know that by now. 

"Loki joined Thor on a trip to Vanaheim," Eir said to ease the girl's mind. "He came to see how you were before he left." 

"He did?" Ella asked in disbelief. 

"Ella, can you remember anything that happened?" The Goddess of Healing sat down beside her, searching the girl's eyes – was she not conscious of what had happened in her inner worlds? That Loki had helped her? The girl shook her head, 

"Only that I had terrible nightmares, that is all I remember." Eir sighed and her heart grew heavy. Ella had no recollection of what Loki had done for her. She deserved to know. But then maybe it was better this way, because Odin had already ordered for the girl to be sent back to Midgard. 

"It is so unlike him", Ella said absentmindedly. 

"What is?" 

"That Loki would - That he would come to see me." Ella frowned and Eir glanced at her, 

"Everything Loki has done ever since he brought you back from Niflheim has been very unlike him. It is good for him to have company, someone to care about. He has denied himself this privilege for much too long." 

"Why is he so hard on himself? What made him so bitter?" 

"The same reason that makes everyone bitter. He turned away from his own Light." 

"He must have had a reason to do so." 

"What makes one deny their own light? Insecurity, jealousy, doubt, the feeling of betrayal or being abandoned. Loki allowed himself to be poisoned by it."