The Witch's Familiar

Chapter 21

There were loud voices nearby when you started to rise from the enchanted sleep. A man was roaring: "Send the mortal back to Midgard at once. Let one of their healers tend to her!" he was shouting.

"Lady Y/N is no mortal. She is Loki's love and has made him better since he has been on Midgard," Thor's voice yelled back.

Your brain panicked, sensing danger and tried to wake you the rest of the way, but Loki's spell had only lifted slightly and wasn't letting you wake any further than the vague awareness you had. "Shh, love. You're safe. No need to wake yet, my darling," Loki's voice in a healer's croon, soft and soothing.

"Odin, darling. I love you dearly, but kindly have your argument elsewhere. You are disturbing my patient," came an overly patient gentle woman's voice.

Loki's arm was under your shoulders and he lifted you to a sitting position, your head supported on his shoulder. You hadn't even risen enough from the enchanted sleep to open your eyes. Loki held you to him, cradling, supporting your nearly dead weight. You made a soft pained noise. "Shh, love," he bid you softly.

"Hurts," you murmured, becoming aware again of the burning pain

"I know, dearest. That shit, sorry Mother," he said quickly. The woman laughed. "That stuff those pieces of walking carrion drugged you with is quite nasty indeed," he held a glass to your lips. "Drink this, love. It will help, I promise." It was hard and took so much effort even with help, but you managed to drink the potion. It felt like ice flowing through your veins. "Good, my love," he told you gently and the glass vanished. He laid you carefully, so carefullly, back down on the bed and kissed your forehead. "Back to sleep, my love," he told you warmly as his sleep charm pulled you gently back to sleep.

You woke a couple more times, just long enough for Loki to feed you potions and healing brews, just long enough to hear his gentle, loving words, his reassurances that everything would be ok.

*

You woke again feeling a pull in the depths of your power? heart? soul? It was a difficult feeling to explain, but you felt the calling and had to answer. Your eyes snapped open and you found yourself in a large, plush comfortable bed in a bright, airy room. The morning sun was coming in through the open balcony doors. Loki was on the bed next to you asleep, propped up against the pillows, the book he had been reading open in his lap.

Before you could investigate your surroundings further, the call pulled again, demanding your attention. You swung your legs out of the bed, insistent on following the call. Loki's eyes snapped open and his hand wrapped firmly around your wrist. "Love, stay in bed. You aren't well," he told you when you looked at him with glazed, unfocused eyes.

"She calls me," you informed him, your voice far away and dreamy.

He looked you over more closely, your dull voice and glazed, distant eyes drawing his attention. "Darling?" The call pulled again, forcing you from the bed, despite Loki's hold on your wrist. "Love, what is it?" he asked firmly, scrambling off the bed after you, refusing to let go of your wrist.

"She calls me," you repeated. Why didn't he understand?

"Who, darling? Tell me who," he pulled you into his arms, despite your protests that you had to go.

"Seraphina,"

You stepped forward. He would either have to let you go or come too. He growled and held firm. The force pulling you hand't expected that outcome. You whimpered and tried to push out of his arms. You had to go. "Curse those witch hunters to the bowels of Hel for obliterating your defenses," he cursed while you tried to tug out of his grip, wailing that she was calling for you and needed you. Your body was weak from the drugs, no match for him. Your mind wasn't there, only the call was registering at all.

"She's calling," you whimpered at Loki. You had to go to her.

"Alright, love. We'll go find her together," he finally agreed. You sagged in relief. He summoned a cloak to wrap over you, covering your simple nightgown. He took your hand firmly, but stopped trying to restrain you and hold you here. You feet moved on their own and you padded from the bedchamber.

"Brother, what did you need?" Thor asked, coming out of a room just down the hall, finishing buttoning his obviously just put on pants, Mjolnir dangling from one wrist. Loki must have sent an illusion or something to wake his brother. "Y/N?! Should you be out of bed?" he added, seeing you. Loki's arm was around you, holding you on your feet.

"Come with us," Loki told Thor urgently, not daring to try to get you to pause on your...sleepwalking... "Something or someone has possessed her. I don't know what's waiting for us when we get there and I feel better to have backup," he admitted. He hated admitting that Thor had uses, or that he could trust his brother to help him.

"You cannot stop her?" Thor asked as he caught up with you.

"No. She can't be reasoned with and I couldn't break the compulsion with magic. It will only hurt her to forcibly restrain her. The only thing to do is let it run its course. With both of us to defend her..." Loki trailed off.

"She will be safe, Brother," Thor replied and came up to walk on your other side.

And so the three of you padded through the halls of the palace, the boys on alert while you followed the call, unable to do anything else.

"The magicians' corridor?" Thor asked as you wandered the halls. Loki stiffened. Thor and Loki traded places without a word, so used to fighting together over the years, Thor's arm was around you to support you, Loki moving to guard. If it was a magician messing with you, he was more equipped to deal with it than Thor.

You finally entered one of the magical workrooms. "You can't be in here!" a voice greeted the three of you. You kept following the pull of the call, ignoring the man.

"I am sure you will agree you were mistaken on that comment," Loki told the man with an icy edge to his tone. The man gulped when he recognized the princes. You ignored them and went straight to the back of the workroom to a cabinet there.

"No!" the magician protested. Until he had a dagger to his throat.

"What have you done to my lady?" Loki snarled at him.

"I have done nothing, but that is mine!" the magician protested as you knelt and opened the cabinet, surprised by the heat inside. There was a nest and a heat lamp, the whole thing looking like an incubator. In the nest was a large purple egg with a thick shell. You lifted it into your arms, cradling it to your chest and cooing at it softly.

"Seraphina," you told it softly, stroking the shell of the egg, sitting on the floor happily cuddling the egg.

"I assure you, whatever that creature is, it does not belong to you, nor should you have had possession of it. The queen is being told of this as we speak," Loki snarled at the magician.

The compulsions finally broke, now that the egg was in your possession. You blinked stupidly up at Loki and Thor. "Lokitty?" you asked, confused. You were exhausted and should not have been out of bed. You definitely shouldn't have been wandering the palace in your pajamas and not completely healed.

"Thor, if he so much as moves... well, be creative," Loki told his brother and rushed to your side. "Darling, are you alright?" he asked you, worry in his tone. You laid your head on his shoulder.

"Tired," you mumbled, cuddling the egg to your chest.

He smiled softly and kissed your forehead, his arms around you and holding you to him, safely cuddled in his arms. "I know, dearest. You have no business being out of bed. Your magic is still gone and you've barely been cleared to leave the healing room,"

"Seraphina needed me," you told him and stroked the egg again. Happy even in your exhaustion.

"The creature in the egg called you here?" he asked. You nodded tiredly.

"New familiar," you told him softly, your eyes were too heavy. Your eyes snapped open and you held the egg more defensively when footsteps came into the room. For better or worse, whatever was in the egg was your charge.