Endlessly

The Impossible Child

You awaken with a start, immediately grasping for your slightly protruding belly, unsure where you are for a moment.

"Gersemi!" Loki's familiar, albeit panicked, voice jolts you into complete consciousness.

"My Prince, with all due respect, I must demand you give my patient some space." A dark-haired woman strides to your side, immediately beginning to examine and manipulate the wisps of light floating above the soul forge you lie upon. "If you do not wish to have him here, just say the word. If you are too fearful of him to outright say that you do not wish to have him here, simply think of the word 'serpent,' holding it in your mind for several seconds." She taps her temple. "I have programmed the soul forge to send me a specific reading if you do so." She stares at you until you give her a nod of agreement, and then continues. "Your body temperature is far too low. Have you been trapped somewhere cold?"

"No- I actually feel really warm. Could I get a glass of water?"

"I'll get you some water, but it will be hot. We need to get your temperature raised."

She averts her gaze to Loki, just long enough to give him a pointed glare, before turning back to you. "My name is Eir, and I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure you and your baby are well." With one final glance at the wisps of light, she departs.

It isn't until she's left that you realize Loki is in chains. He stands only a couple paces away from you, his face contorted with worry- but the heavy metal cuffs around his wrists and connecting chains to his waist, being held tightly in the hands of two einherjar at his flanks, are the only details you can seem to focus on.

"They let you out." You rasp. Your voice is far more horse than you expected.

Gods, I could really use some water.

"I can be very persuasive." He croons, reaching out to you with cuffed hands, before the guards violently jerk him backward away from you.

"Do you believe me yet?" You attempt to sit up, to better look him in the face, but a horrific pain in your lower back stops you.

"Please! Gersemi- Just lie back and rest." He lurches forward in your direction again, the einherjar reacting immediately by pulling him back even more roughly this time. "I believe you, Gersemi- I'm sorry, it's just..." His face twists with torment. "I'm not what I seem. This form, I-" He attempts to place a hand on his chest as a gesture, but the chains and cuffs make the move impossible which only exacerbates his distressed state.

Sensing Loki's uneasiness, you put on your well-practiced, hopefully convincing, face of authority. "Guards, please give us some space. We have private matters to discuss." You bark the command as definitively as you can muster.

"Miss, he is a prisoner of Asgard, it is our duty to-"

"Leave my room- at once. You may stay just outside the door if need be. Eir has instructed me on how to give a signal if I am distressed."

The two guards look at each other for a moment, before giving you a wary nod and proceeding to wrap Loki's chains tightly around a pillar near the doorway to the room and securing them, then stepping out of sight.

"Speak." You command, feeling perhaps the most powerful you ever have before.

Loki looks to you, his expression one you have not seen before. He's pissed- there's no doubt about that. Yet, it is most certainly not you his aggression is aimed at. His ears are just barely the softest shade of pink you've ever seen, which is usually an indication that he's feeling just a little bit embarrassed- although you'd never confess to him that you knew that- but more than anything, he looks utterly distraught.