Mourning Star- Chapter Seven

Seven

After they had nearly come to blows not five minutes after arriving on Svartalfheim, Loki had fallen into a contemplative silence. Thor had returned to Jane’s side, as though his presence could protect her from the energy coursing through her veins.

“You haven’t asked about her.” Thor said, not looking at him.

Because I don’t want to hear that she’s dead. “Because we still need to formulate a plan.”

“She survived the attack. Her guard locked her in her room before she could get involved.”

He was relieved, but that should have relieved him more. Sigyn had proved herself more than capable when a Chitauri turned on her in New York but the Dark Elves were more formidable. Had she been there his mother might be alive, Or he would be mourning both of them. “Why was I never told?”

Thor looked up at him. “You weren’t?”

“All the guard told me was that Frigga was dead.”

“I am sorry. Had it been me…”

“But it wasn’t. You couldn’t be bothered to tell me, and I heard about our mother’s death from some guard. I was prepared to hear that my wife was dead as well.”

Thor shook his head. “No, she is very much alive. She even played a role in your escape.”

His eyes widened in horror. Thor proved himself more a fool every day. “She what?”

“She created a diversion, distracted a group of guards while we freed you and Jane.”

Loki shot to his feet, and he would have lunged at Thor had he not been piloting their skiff. “Have you lost your mind? Do you have any idea the danger you put her in by involving her?”

“No more danger than you put her in when you included her in your attack on New York.”

“She was in minimal danger at best! Had I been successful, she would have been my queen. And I never asked for her involvement.”

“Yet you still included her, brought her to Germany and New York and had her set up the Tessaract.”

“What else was I supposed to do? She shows up out of nowhere, barely armed, and frankly looking a little worse for wear. Was I to turn her away? Send her back to Asgard and what little mercy the All-Father might have shown her? No, she was safe with me.”

“Safe? Your schemes have consequences that affect her as well, Loki. Why can’t you see that?”

Of course he saw it, and contrary to popular belief, he didn’t like it. But, Thor was missing the point, as usual. He meant well, but he only saw the one side to her; he saw her as an innocent, a passive doll that he dragged from offence to another. Sigyn may have a gentler heart than he does, but she was not without schemes of her own. He would never have fallen in love with a doormat. If Sigyn was willing to follow him, he would not insult her by denying her her choice. He’d tried being selfless once and tried to let her go and found it wasn’t in his nature. “I see it, Thor,” he admitted.

“Then be a better man. If not for me or father or mother, then at least for her. Sigyn deserves a husband who isn’t sitting in the dungeons.”

Thor was right about that at least, which reminded him they still needed a plan. Thor may think he can talk the All-Father out of throwing him back into the dungeons, but Loki knew better. At best he might be upgraded to a better cell, or be allowed a visitor once per century. He would never be free and he had no intention of rotting in some prison. “I’ll have to work on that when we get back. Speaking of, we need a plan in order to get back to Asgard in one piece.”

---

Thor rode silent beside Jane as she drove, an empty feeling settling in his chest and the pit of his stomach. Loki was…gone. And unlike when he fell from the Bifrost, there was a cold certainty this time. The heavy feel of his brother’s lifeless body in his arms had squashed any hope that this was another of his tricks. For all the pain and trouble his brother had caused, Thor would gladly trade Loki’s mischief and chaos to have him back and fix the aching chasm his death left within him.

Jane stopped at a red light, waiting. The streetlights cast shadows his brother would have appreciated, and the lights coming from all the windows seemed to peer down at him like a thousand sets of accusing eyes. A woman crossed the street, her blonde hair swinging behind her in a loose braid while she looked at her phone. Her hair was too light, but she reminded him of Sigyn when she would carry around whatever spell book she was studying or magical item she was tinkering with, momentarily oblivious to the world around her.

Tell me we will be reunited…

I give you my word...

“What do I tell Sigyn?” Thor asked; his throat was raw and his voice thick. Jane looked over at him before the light turned green and they moved forward. “I promised I would bring him back.”

Jane kept her eyes on the road, but he saw the way her hands tightened on the steering wheel, the way her breath shuddered when she inhaled. “How do you think she’ll…?” The question went unfinished. Jane had only known Sigyn for a few weeks, but even she knew that the grief would wear at her the way wind and water and sand erodes stone over time.

---

Asgard was quiet, still in mourning for the queen and others who died in the attack. Disguised as a guard, Loki made his way to the throne room, however he made a detour towards Sigyn’s rooms. No doubt she would soon hear of his ‘death’ and he wanted her to know the truth.

As he approached, he noticed that there were two armed guards standing outside her room. His fist clenched around the spear he was carrying. How dare his father put her under this kind of imprisonment? He had entered her rooms a hundred different ways before, and could do so now if he only had more time. Thor would be back soon and he had a limited window of opportunity.

Her grief will make this more believable, the trickster in him whispered. If he let her grieve, if only for a short while, no one would question that he was really gone. Only for a little while, he promised both of them; he needed her grief but he would not let her suffer for long.

Please forgive me, Sigyn, he thought as he walked past the guards.

---

The causalities may have been kept to a minimum, but the structural damage done to Greenwich during the convergence was substantial. Which of course meant that traffic was a nightmare and the construction was worse than Darcy’s hometown in the summer. She was giving Thor and Jane a little bit of alone time before they all said their goodbyes and he left for Asgard, and had decided to pick up an air mattress in case they ended up with an extra guest.

Jane had told her about Sigyn, about how she had been searching for Loki when she was on Earth, about her punishment and very recent widowhood. Her husband may have been a megalomaniac bent on domination with a fetish for leather and gold, but she remembered the loving way she spoke of him that night on the roof. Whatever she may or may not feel about Loki’s death, she knew it would devastate Sigyn and her heart ached for her.

When Darcy returned to the apartment, Thor and Jane were sitting on the couch, holding hands with their foreheads touching and looking very much like the most preciously adorable Hallmark card. It warmed her heart, really. Jane had gone through so much to find him that she deserved some happy snuggling time with Thor.

“What’s in the box, Darcy?” Erik asked, pouring himself some coffee in the kitchen and grabbing another one for her. She loved London but sometimes the gray, drizzly weather chilled her to the bone.

“An air mattress.”

“Tired of making Ian sleep on the couch?”

“Not exactly,” she said looking to Jane.

“Darcy and I have been talking,” Jane explained, more to Thor than to Erik. “With your brother’s…passing…there won’t be much need to keep Sigyn under lock and key in Asgard. If they lift her punishment and she’s unhappy there, we thought she might want to come here and stay with us.”

Thor’s gave her the most heartbreakingly sad smile, but it was Erik who spoke. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”

“Is it because you were both at New York?” Darcy asked. She had feared Erik might not be on board with this.

“Aside from the questionable appropriateness of her making a home for herself among the people she and her husband were willing to enslave, I don’t think she’ll be safe here.”

“Of course she will; she’s gone unnoticed on Earth before.”

“Except now S.H.I.E.L.D. knows everything about her. They have footage of her in Germany, and in Stark’s tower. They have her face, her body language, her voice. It will only be a matter of time before they find her, and then who knows what they will do to her.”

“So we convince them she’s not a threat,” Jane answered. “When I spoke to her, she said the first time she thought Loki was dead she nearly went mad with grief. Frankly, I’m worried about her.”

“But do we know she isn’t a threat, or won’t become one? You said she nearly went mad. What if that grief becomes anger, or a desire for vengeance against a world that wouldn’t let her husband be its king?”

“It won’t,” Thor said, staring at the coffee table. “If anything, she will turn her grief inward against herself. But…maybe time away from Asgard will help her. I will see what I can do.”

---

Thor had faced many things that tested his courage—all manner of fearsome beasts and men and armies, dark magic and darker minds—but this always gave him as much pause as any. This was not the first time he had been the one to inform wives of their husband’s passing. It was hard and it was painful, and there were almost always tears, but many understood that soldiers often risked death for glory in battle. But Loki wasn’t a solider, this time he would have to look his sister in the eye and explain that he had broken his promise to bring her husband home.

Two guards instead of one stood in front of her door; so this had been her punishment for her suspected involvement. For a moment they looked like they wouldn’t let him pass, but when they saw what he was carrying—Loki’s helmet resting on top of his cape, which had been folded over to form a small pillow for it—they seemed to understand what had happened and stepped aside. Thor chose not to comment on the sideways glance one gave at what was in his hands. No doubt he did not agree with Sigyn being given Loki’s things the way other war widows often were, but his brother had died with honor, and Thor would allow them both the respect they deserved here.

Sigyn was seated by her window, so engrossed in her book that she didn’t hear him come in.
“Sigyn.” His voice was thick and his fingers tightened just a little on the cloak.

She looked up and for a brief moment there was hope in her eyes that nearly brought tears to his; she didn’t deserve this. When she saw the helmet and the cape, her whole face went blank and he couldn’t read her anymore. With movements that were too smooth, too methodical, to be natural, she placed her book down and walked over to him. “I am so sorry,” he murmured.

Sigyn followed the curve of one of the horns with an almost reverent touch before taking both the helmet and the cape and setting them on the end of her bed. There was a sniffle and a shuddering intake of breath before she walked back over to him. Her silence was troubling, even as she rose up on her toes to wrap her arms around his shoulders.

“Where is he?” she whispered.

Did she mean to help prepare his body for a funeral? Thor squeezed his eyes shut and searched for how he can tell her that not only was her husband dead, but there wasn’t likely to be a funeral unless his father agreed to send someone to collect his body and agreed to even give him the honor of a funeral. Or if his body is even still there. The dark elves weren’t the only creatures that lived on Svartalfheim; there may not be anything left to collect. “Sigyn…”

“I knew the All-Father wasn’t likely to welcome him back, no matter he did. I have a small bag already packed with everything I’ll need. Just tell me where he is and I’ll go to him.”

“You can’t…”

“You have no faith in me, brother.” He could hear the faint smile in her voice and his chest felt tighter knowing it was the last she would give for a long time. “I found him once and I’ll find him again.”

“No, Sigyn.” He pulled back so he could see her face, and so that she could see his. “You can’t follow him this time.”

The light in her eyes started to fade. “What are you talking about?”

Thor took her hands and told her of Loki’s plan, of how he had saved his life and Jane’s, and how he had avenged their mother’s death. Tears welled in her eyes with each word, and grief etched itself into her face. Her breath was coming in quick, sharp breathes as the realization came crashing down on her. “You said you’d bring him back.” Her voice was small and brittle. “You gave me your word.”

“I know, and I am so sorry.” They were both crying now, and Sigyn pressed the back of her hand to her mouth as she trembled. “I wanted nothing more than to bring him home”
She was trying so hard not to fall apart. Thor took her in his arms and murmured apologies as Sigyn trembled and made these terrible whimpering sobs that clawed at his heart.

“I need to be alone.” She was hoarse and couldn’t look up at him. Her nails pricked through his shirt into his arm, and there was the crackle of magic in the air that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand. He didn’t want to leave her, but she had already stepped back and away from him, her lower lip trembling as she held back her sobs.
“Please, Thor. I’ll be fine. I just need…” she caught sight of Loki’s helmet and cape, forgotten on the bed until now and choked on another small sob. “Please. Just go.”

Thor backed towards the door, never letting her from his sight. The crackling in the air was getting stronger, almost pushing him towards the door. There was every chance this room would be in tatters within the hour. “I miss him, too.”

“I know, brother.” Her voice cracked and she glanced up at him. “Now let me grieve.”

When Thor shut the door behind him, he waited. Even through the door, he still felt the blast of Sigyn’s magic, and he heard the crash of furniture against the doors and the walls. He knew this was coming, and he knew the guards would jump to attention and try to see what was going on. Thor gripped their shoulders and told them if they valued their teeth they would not disturb her.

The crashes he expected, as well as the bitter screams and wailing that comes from mourning. What followed was something that made his heart clench and nearly made him turn back for her: the single, raw scream that sounded more dying animal than human.