Soulbonds and Fairy Dust

Chapter 12

Sigyn gave him a more serious look, appraising him now that she remembered more of the boy he'd been. She could still see that boy in the man who stood in front of her now. "Is it hard that I look nothing like the Sigyn you remember?" she asked him softly. She'd found an old portrait in her suite of the golden-haired girl she'd been.

Loki considered her question, but shook his head. "I still see some of her in you. You may not look the same as you once did, but the personality is still there. I still see you behind the fae,"

She gave him a warm smile, reassured and relieved. Something else came to her mind and she sighed. "I'm surprised I haven't been called before the Allfather yet..." she grumbled. She knew that all visitors to the realm had to face the Allfather. Even though she wasn't a visitor, as Asgard was her home, she hadn't been home in centuries, so of course Odin would call her before him.

Loki sighed. "I expect it will happen soon. Heimdall likely reported to him as soon as we headed to the palace," he reminded her. Heimdall was always tattling on everything interesting she and the princes did. He had their entire lives, which was annoying when he saw everything.

"Probably," Sig groaned. "I hate getting called in front of him. He's so mean~" she whined, sounding much too much like the child Loki had known.

"Can you imagine how I feel? I am supposed to be his son, but I have always been nothing but a pawn to him."

"You win," she conceded the point. "Granted the last time I got called in front of him was to take the blame for your bilgesnipe incident," she reminded him with a smirk.

He rolled his eyes in mock exasperation. "Why are you putting all of the blame on me for that? You were there too," he insisted again, just as he had all those centuries ago.

"I didn't suggest we lure bilgesnipe into the palace. I said repeatedly that putting bilgesnipe in the morons' lair was a terrible idea," she replied firmly, her hands on her hips as she mock-glared up at him. "But you'd already been grounded once that month and the Allfather was threatening to send you to hard work in the army stables to keep you out of trouble if you got yourself into more trouble. So I had to take the blame and the grounding so I didn't lose you,"

Loki sighed and raised his hands in surrender. He wasn't willing to argue over something that happened so long ago. Sig smirked and accepted her win. The pair laughed together at the old memory, even if Sig had gotten grounded for it.

They both stiffened when there was a knock on Loki's sitting room door. Loki's expression became serious, hard, guarded as he moved to answer the door. It was his court mask, Sig realized. "Yes?" He asked the person on the other side. Sigyn's expression hardened to her court mask too. She had a bad feeling about this.

One of the einherjar was on the other side of Loki's door. He bowed to Loki before he spoke. "Your highness, the Allfather has requested the presence of Lady Sigyn," he told Loki. He'd known that Sigyn would be found wherever Loki was.

Sig had expected this and didn't let her dread show on her face. Loki inclined his head. "We will be there shortly," he closed the door and didn't give the guard the opportunity to argue about him going along with Sig to face the Allfather. Sig couldn't help being terrified at the process of going before Odin. Loki saw her expression and gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, old friend. I will be with you the entire time, I swear it,"

"Be careful making promises to a fae," she warned him automatically, distracted with her fear of going before Odin. "I doubt he's going to like that I'm fae, or that we're soulbound," she reminded Loki softly.

"There's nothing he can do about either. Nor does he scare me any longer. I am no longer a child and I will not allow anything to happen to you,"

Sig was reassured by his words, but sighed and steeled herself. "We'd best get this over with, then..."

He held out his arm for her to take. "Don't fret, darling. Everything will be alright," he reassured her. He didn't seem to notice that he'd slipped into a term of endearment. She wasn't about to draw it to his attention either. She definitely approved of the development.

/Mother, would you consider sitting in on Sigyn's meeting with Father? She might need the reassurance, more than what I can offer/ Loki asked Frigga telepathically as Sig laid her hand nervously on his arm. She was already shy around people and the Allfather was scary even when he was in a good mood. In a bad mood, he was downright terrifying.

/I'm already here, darling. As is your brother. Your Father is literally just going to welcome her back to Asgard and congratulate the two of you on the soulbond/

/Have you told him about the fact that she is fae?/

/I have. He is just glad she has been returned to us/

Frigga could feel Loki's relief over the link between them. /Thank you, Mother/ He cut the connection and returned his attention to Sig.

"My mother informed the Allfather of your current state and of the soulbond. You have nothing to fear," he reassured her gently.

She sighed in relief. "Your mother is a saint as always,"

"That could not be more true," he agreed fondly. "She knows how to protect her charges,"

Sig gave him a look. "I'm not in the healing wing..." She wasn't one of Frigga's charges.

He chuckled. "True, but Mother has already adopted you. You are her charge in and out of the healing wing, as are Thor's moronic friends and Lady Sif. Mother has quite a few adopted children,"

She laughed in reply. "Mama Frigga hasn't changed a bit..."

They continued walking to the throne room and it didn't take long for them to reach the throne room doors. "Are you ready?" Loki asked as tradition dictated.

"No, but let's do it anyway," she replied per tradition. They both took a steadying breath and donned their court masks before Loki nodded to the guards to admit them to see Odin.