Sigyn's Revenge

Chapter 8 - What is love

Anyone with eyes in their head - even Odin with his one eye - could see immediately that something was up between Loki and Sigyn. Sif gave a satisfied smile, Frigg a slow nod as if an event she had been waiting for had finally taken place to her satisfaction, even Odin seemed rather pleased - perhaps mostly because this likely meant that Sigyn would not be likely to come to Loki's aid ever again. Out of everyone assembled on the field, only two people seemed to really care. Max and Ian had shared one look once they saw the defeated hunch of Loki's shoulders and the determination with which Sigyn avoided looking at him. As soon as Odin had given his promises and Sigyn was satisfied, Loki had taken off, Max close on his tail. Ian had hung back to walk with Sigyn. This is how we find them now, the whole party split up and ripped apart.

"Freya could take you back to Midgard," Sigyn says, her voice broken, and her gaze turned downwards.

"I am good right here," Ian replies simply and takes her hand firmly in his own. She doesn't look up, she doesn't acknowledge his friendly gesture in any way, but she also doesn't pull her hand away.

"You are a good woman, Sigyn," Hel tells her. "My mother would despise the words out of my mouth, but they are true, and Loki is not worth your tears." Fenrir gives her a loving nudge, but doesn't speak.

"You guys go ahead," Sigyn replies, she doesn't want an audience right now. Hel nods.

"I will send your sons to meet you on the way," she agrees. "I did not think you could do it, but you held up your end of the bargain, and more too. Your sons are free to return to the living."

Fenrir lies down on the plain to allow his sister a piggy bag ride. She climbs up, but only a few steps along the path Fenrir stops and turns.

"She's right you know, he isn't worth your tears." Sigyn nods her understanding at the ground. Logically speaking, they might be right. She closes her eyes and forces back the tears. She will under no circumstance bow under and cry right here in the open where all of Asgard can see her. Fenrir turns back and sets off at full speed, stretching his legs, making full use of his muscles for the first time in a thousand years. Ian gives Sigyn's hand a reassuring squeeze, but he waits until they are in the cover of a forest before he speaks again.

"They are right, those two, no man is worth your tears, not ever." He pauses briefly to let the statement sink in. "But you don't cry for their sake, you do it for yourself." With that small permission from a virtual stranger, Sigyn breaks down. Ian wraps an arm around her and lets her cry into his shoulder, never once trying to shush her or telling her to get over it. A part of him wishes he had a tub of ice cream to offer her, maybe an old movie or a greasy pizza, but those things don't exist in Asgard, so he simply lets her cry until she runs out of tears.

"Do you wanna tell me what happened?" he asks softly, sitting down on the forest floor. She follows him down. Somehow, she doesn't mind telling him, not Ian. Ian is somehow both safe, a friend, and yet a stranger with a clear, unbiased view. So she tells him everything. Part of him wants to freak out at the mention of cold blooded murder, but Sigyn doesn't seem as obsessed about that part as the whole "he tried to manipulate me" thing.

"I don't know what to do," she finally admits. "It's been... I can barely remember my life before him, I was so young when I first saw him... He has been my whole life for so long, I don't know who I would be without him."

"Well," Ian says, almost smiling. "I wouldn't say Loki exactly did a lot on this whole quest. I mean, sure, he went and fetched the apples from Idun, but that was about it. You got him free, you walked all the way to Helheim, you recruited Hel, you freed Fenrir. You caught Mjolnir, you defeated Odin. You did all that."