Sorcha's Secret World, Part 2: Mystery and Mischief.

Chapter 30, For better, for worse.

"IS HE INSANE?" I screeched the moment we were out of the dining hall.
"Shhh!" Loki clapped his hand over my mouth before I could say more. With one arm around my shoulders, he firmly led me through the palace.
"She's overcome with gratitude," Loki casually lied to a guard that eyed us curiously. The man just nodded, not believing him but thinking better of getting involved in a spat between the god of Mischief and the queen of Frost Giants.
I struggled but Loki held firm, his hand clasped over my mouth as he manhandled me through the golden halls.
"Will you just calm down?" he asked irritably. "Will you promise to stop yelling and struggling if I let you go?"
"I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!" I shrieked the moment he took his hand off my mouth.
"Yes, I don't know what else I expected," Loki muttered to himself. "Threatening the AllFather in his own palace is not your brightest idea darling," he whispered as several of the guards raised their weapons threateningly.
"She's talking about me, it's just a jest, it's her love language," Loki reassured them hastily as he slapped a hand over my mouth again before I could say more.
"Come, I know just the place where you can curse him to your heart's content, I have done so many times myself over the ages," Loki practically dragged me through hallways and up the stairs.

"Tada!" he finally said as we stood still before a door.
"Where are we?" I asked once he removed his hand from my mouth. For a moment, I forgot my anger as my curiosity got the better of me.
"This is your name!" I traced the runes on the door, circled by engraved serpents.
"These are my rooms. You'll have to forgive the mess, I haven't been here in a very long time and it is probably dusty and... oh!" Loki interrupted himself.
He had opened the door as we spoke and snapped his fingers to turn on the light.
"It is just the way I left it..."

I stepped inside. The room was large and warmly lit, it was clean and cosy.
"Mother always demanded the servants keep the rooms clean and tidy even after I left, so I would always have a place to return to.
No matter how often I left and no matter under what circumstances, Mother always made sure I was made to feel welcome and at home when I returned.
She made certain I was never made to feel there was no place for me in Asgard anymore.
They must have honoured her wish even after her death."
There was a little quiver in his voice.
I felt sorry for Loki and I felt sorry for Frigga. All these years she had kept the door open for him, kept a light on, kept his room ready for him just in case Loki would make his way back home.
It must have broken her heart to see him return, sinking further into darkness, depression and bitterness each time and then leave again. It must have broken her heart to have the son she was so close to spurn the hand she reached out to him because, by her actions and lies, the trust between them had been broken.
Loki had been hurting, but Frigga must have been hurting too.
I couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like if the bond between Jessie and me broke like that.
I took Loki's hand and gave it a little squeeze while I looked around me.

The centrepiece of the room was a huge bed. Placed on a low dais it was made out of wood stained so dark it was nearly black, the wooden posts inlaid with golden filigree. It was draped with heavy green curtains embroidered with gold thread.
Dark green silken sheets, thick blankets and black furs covered the bed, and at least a dozen thick comfortable pillows were scattered all over it.
Plush green carpets lined the floors, and beautiful tapestries hung around the room.
There was a huge fireplace with a comfortable dark green sofa and matching deep plushy chairs in front of it.

"I was reading that before... before I last left. I never got to finish it," Loki said softly as he picked up a book from the low table in front of the sofa.
A lute stood on a stand next to one of the chairs. Loki picked it up and strummed it. "A bit out of tune, but still playable!"

To the left of the bed was a door that stood open. Curiously, I peeked inside.
The sight of a smaller room greeted me. A cosy study, with a big desk and a comfortable leather chair in front of it, a journal still open with runes written in Loki's handwriting. There was a work desk too with a half-taken-apart magic trinket on top of it, and the walls were lined with shelves upon shelves filled with books. More tomes were stacked on the floor in individual piles.
"I have a system, I assure you!" Loki said as he caught my gaze.
"Even if your name had not been written on the door, I would have known instantly these rooms were yours," I smiled. "Everything in here just shouts Loki."