Loki and Sigyn, His Glorious Purpose

Chapter Twenty Four

All day long, men and women fussed over Loki. They brought him gifts to celebrate his return, fawned over the adventures he told them, and generally they all hung on to every single word he told them. 

Loki, of course, basked in all the attention. In the infirmary, as I patched up his fake wounds a crowd of Asgardian nobles had gathered. He was telling them a very fake story about interstellar pirates that he had encountered on his journey home. He told him that they stole his clothing, beat him up, but eventually he used his magic to vanquish them all. He explained with dramatic detail that he was able to steal their ship and use it to get the majority of the way home before it combusted. 

They all awed, gasping at the particularly gruesome parting and sighing blissfully as he told them all just how much he had missed me

"I never grew hopeless," he explained to them, "You see, I always knew that if I were able to return home, I'd finally be reunited with Sigyn. This, as well as the opportunity to meet our child, was truly the only thing that kept me going."

The small audience all awed in unison. I chuckled at the lunacy of it all.

"The thought of her face, her smile, her tenderness," Loki said smiling at me, "Among other things, all reminded me of my desperation to return to her side, to return to Asgard."

"How did you finally get home?" a man asked inquisitively.

"Uh," Loki paused, "It's too gruesome to share, I really shouldn't subject the innocent ears of ladies to such a tale."

I rolled my eyes, pinching his side before I addressed the crowd myself, "Thank you all for your concern, but if you would please excuse us. The prince is in dire need of some rest."

They all nodded and gave a mutual hum of agreement. With a lot of goodbyes, handshakes, and bows, the lot of them eventually disappeared. 

"You enjoyed that attention a little too much," I said with a smirk as I put away all of my equipment.

"Of course I did," he said, "I love it."

I laughed, "I'll make sure I give you more attention then," I said kissing his cheek.

"Oh, I wouldn't mind that at all," he admitted, smirking.

"Are you happy with how your scheme turned out?"

"More than happy, however, as I said, you could stand to take a few acting lessons, my dear."

I scoffed, "How could you possibly expect me an enormously pregnant, barely awake woman, to pretend to be your all-powerful, ancient father? I've all together spoken to him about twice. I had no clue what to do."

He chuckled, taking my hands, "I'm only teasing you. You gave an acceptable performance."

"You're so mean!" I said, laughing as I pushed him away, "Acceptable? Really?"

"Yes! It was acceptable," he affirmed, "You definitely won't be picked up by the Asgardian theater company anytime soon but you did the job. That's all I could have asked for."

He kissed me gingerly, holding me by my waist, "Are you doing alright? You've been on your feet all day."

I nodded, honestly I felt faint, my stomach was cramping, and my joints were aching terribly. I really didn't want a whole fiasco of him fussing over me or scolding me for not taking a break. 

"I'm alright," I assured him.

He looked at me unsurely, trying to decipher whether or not I was lying. Apparently, he couldn't tell because he just nodded. 

"Whatever you say, my love," he said, kissing my cheek before jumping off the exam table.

"It feels good to be back," he said with a sigh, "You don't understand how absolutely awful it is pretending to be an old man for months on end. Especially Odin. He's so unbelievably boring. Finally, I get to be myself and most importantly I get to kiss you and touch you whenever I damn well please."

"Mhmm" I mumbled softly. My head was pounding as I grabbed onto his arm. I tightly closed my eyes, stabilizing myself on Loki as I waited for this dizzy spell to pass. I could hear him saying my name as he held on to me, trying to snap me out of it. But soon enough, everything faded to black.

LOKI'S POINT OF VIEW

"Sigyn," I said, repeating her name over and over as she collapsed onto me. Her eyes had rolled into the back of her head and she now laid completely limp in my arms

"Help! I need help!" I called out.

Thank Valhalla we were in the infirmary as about ten nurses immediately rushed to my aid.

"We were talking and she just collapsed, I don't know what happened, she said she was fine," I said as they laid Sigyn down on the examination bed.

As they examined her, taking her vitals and shining lights in her eyes, she was completely slack. Her arm hung off the table and her head hung loosely to the side. As they moved her head, it was as if she were a rag doll, completely lifeless. Sigyn's skin had rapidly lost all of its color, the pink draining out from her complexion.

I stood helplessly at her side as nurses scrambled to find what was wrong when all at once, blood began to pool. My breath caught in my throat as I watched a steady crimson flow begin. 

"What are you doing?" I yelled, standing up, "She's bleeding, why aren't you doing anything?"

A nurse quickly stepped in front of me, "Your highness, we're doing everything we can."

"Everything you can?" I asked, my tone growing malicious, "My wife is dying."

Before I could truly harm the stupid little nurse, a guard entered and asked to escort me to my chambers. 

"No, no, I'm not leaving, not until she's alright," I argued, stepping away.

"Then you must calm down and let us do our job," the nurse said calmly, gesturing for me to sit beside Sigyn

I glared at her before regrettably doing as told. At that moment I wished I was a healer. I so desperately wanted to just fix this all myself.