Choices

Chapter 56
"Do you know how lucky you are?" Queen Frigga chided her son and his companions. "To enter sacred ground without regard for their rule and practices." Frigga was disappointed in her son and his friends.
"We did it for Sif." Seraphina insisted. "We couldn't just leave her there."
"You could have done it without Loki," Frigga pointed out crossing her arms. "I haven't told your father about this, but you can imagine how angry he would become should he find out his own son caused such an uproar within the Valkyrie stronghold." Loki had been silent the entire time since his mother had broken up the battle.
Frigga had spent some of her youth there with the Valkyrie, it's where she'd learned to fight and she still had allies there who were kind enough to inform her of her sons appearance. In a way, Frigga took his complete disrespect to heart. After all she once followed those rules herself long before she'd ever left and met Odin. She held respect there among them and for her son to cause such a scene was embarrassing.
"We're sorry, we weren't thinking what would happen if we did get found out. We really just wanted Sif back." Cephera told Frigga regret in her eyes. Frigga sighed and shook her head. She hadn't felt this emotionally riled up in a very long time. Usually, she was able to keep a straight head and that was what she was trying to get back now. She needed to calm her overactive nerves.
"I know you didn't mean for this to happen, but from now on you are all banned from stepping foot in the Valkyries territory, I won't always be there to save you." She warned them, taking a breather. Frigga set her eyes on Loki and was glad to see he looked a little sheepish. Had it been Odin talking to them, Loki might have become defensive. "You are all dismissed but Loki." Frigga watched Cephera glance at her paramour, frown and reluctantly leave.
"I know what you are going to say," Loki said though she doubted it.
"Loki, this shapeshifting, you need to take more care with it. I worry for your mind. Could you not feel the difference in you when you change? The way it affects your emotions." Frigga had always been happy to teach Loki magic, but lately he seemed to have become obsessed.
"I felt fine mother." Loki lied easily even to her, she could see the familiar glint in his eyes as he spoke.
"Loki, what Amora says, did you transform her into a rat and leave her to die?" Frigga already know the answer, but she wanted to know, had to know if Loki would take responsibility for this horrid event.
"Of course not, clearly she's bitter over our breaking up." Loki replied without a second thought. Frigga wanted to frown but she kept her face passive. In this Loki had disappointed her. Amora had developed serious brain damage that would take years to mend. Currently, she was in the palace healing room being taken care of by the best.
"I do hope that transforming anyone for any reason is something you will never do, least you will make me very unhappy." Frigga warned. She couldn't outright tell Loki he was lying. It would only cause a he said she said fight that Frigga didn't need to hear. She knew the truth, but it was clear Loki would not speak it.
"Of course mother." Loki replied and smiled. How could he smile so innocently?
(Cephera)
"May I come in?" Cephera asked Queen Frigga after knocking on her chamber door and opening it up a crack.
"Of course," Frigga said taking a seat near the window. Cephera joined her and together they sat silently for a time.
"How's Amora?" Cephera asked looking at her lap.
"Dark magic has poisoned her mind, but she's in the right hands now. She'll recover." Frigga told her with the same solemn tone that Cephera felt. "I asked him if what Amora says is true, he denies it." Cephera looked into the queens eyes and together they shared the same worry.
"He's lying." Cephera hated to admit it, but she saw the lies when she'd asked Loki herself. It was easy to read a person after knowing them so long.
"I know." Frigga replied. "I'm worried about him."
"Me too," Cephera said.
"Don't give up on him." Frigga asked. "He needs someone who can stay by him. He needs your strength."
"I'm bound to Loki since the first time I met him. I feel like it was meant to be. There were hundreds of outer realms my father had wanted to align himself with, but he chose Asgard. I love your son and I will love no one else. Whatever Loki is now, whatever he does I'll stay by him. I don't agree with his choices but I won't abandon him." Cephera promised and Frigga pulled Cephera into a hug.
"Thank you," Frigga said.
"I hope that this becomes a lesson for Loki, that he realizes the gravity of what magic can do when used for the wrong reasons." Cephera didn't have her hopes up, Loki had this dark side that just seemed to get bigger and bigger every passing decade. She could only hope that it didn't swallow up the man she loved and replaced him with something worse.
***
Cephera looked at Loki while he slept. Did he feel no regret or remorse at all for the state Amora was in? Right now he looked so innocent with his eyes closed and his facial features completely relaxed. His lips slightly parted and soft sounds of air passing them.
Cephera had kept to herself that she knew Loki was lying, aside from telling Frigga. She hadn't told her sister, she didn't want to give her an extra reason to hate loki. Cephera was sure that Loki would never hurt her in any manner like he had Amora, but that didn't mean she was happy that Amora had gone through what she did. Cephera felt just as guilty for what happened to Amora simply by proxy.
Being with Loki wasn't going to be easy, especially if he did anything else like this, but she would stay at his side. Without him she felt just as bad, just as empty. Amora was alive and in the mend. She had to be thankful for at least that and find a way to move on. She would do everything in her power to keep Loki on the straight and narrow.
(Thor)
Thor stumbled down the hallway and came across a sight he'd never thought he'd see again. Stood far away, in one of the many entryways of the palace was Sif. She was speaking to Hogun. Thor stared a moment and then walked away. He wouldn't face the woman who humiliated him, besides he was too drunk to properly engage anyone in a conversation.
He found his way to his bedroom and collapsed on the bed. Mead had become his bedtime supplement and sometimes sex. It was clear to him that his wife would not be returning to him, so be it. Thor belched and groaned, tonight he'd drank far more than usual. The drinking didn't make things better, he knew that but the parties were fun. There was always some kind of celebration to be found in town and he'd been attending them all.
Just the other night he'd thrown a few men around a bar after a man came in claiming Thor slept with his wife. Well Thor didn't recognize the woman but he'd been so drunk as of late he very well could have. Either way, she'd been just as much the conspirator, Thor would never force himself on a woman.
Thor came out the winner in that battle, as usual. It was odd though how this behaviour, that he'd enjoyed many a night in his youth, was now somewhat boring and predictable. He didn't enjoy it like he once had. It didn't hold that same free feeling. He hated that, he hated how everything in life seemed like that now. Nothing held the same excitement.
"Drunk?" Sif's voice roused Thor just enough to roll over and glare at her.
"Be gone woman," Thor said.
"I've just come to collect my things." Sif told him. Thor ignored her and allowed her to get her stuff. "These are not mine," Sif said with distaste and threw a pair of panties on top of Thor's face. Thor shook them off and glared once more.
"Are you finished?" He asked rudely. Sif narrowed her eyes.
"I didn't come back here to have this childish behaviour enacted against me." She warned. "Really Thor, grow up. You brought this on yourself." Thor growled.
"You failed me." He accused sitting up.
Sif moved along the floor and Thor refused to move when she bent over him and lightly kissed his forehead. "No Thor, we failed each other." She told him and for once Thor had nothing to say in return. Guilt washed over him and he suddenly felt he should reach out to her, but he didn't. He allowed her to gather the rest of her things and leave.

Notes