Chapter 6

Loki rode through the street in his Odin-guise, towards the sounds of the greatest commotion. One of the market vendors was throwing a water bucket over a pile of straw bales. Nearby, a boy sat in the middle of a small crowd as they helped him with what looked like really bad burns on his legs. Of all the faces, he didn’t see Sigyn among them.

She must have fled. He doubted she would’ve gone to her apartment since it was in a busy part of the city and she probably wanted to get away from people. So Odin took his horse to a quiet corner, where no one could see him turn into a hound. The location of the incident was a tangle of scents, but Loki picked up on a female who branched off in a hurry to a secluded street.

Following the trail on horseback, he came to a quiet little patch of trees by a lake. Sigyn was laying across a large branch, looking out at the water.

Loki changed into his recognizable form. “Rough day?”

His voice scared Sigyn so badly, so almost fell out of the trail. Her arms wrapped around the trunk just in time to save herself.

“Jesus Christ don’t do that!”

Loki frowned. “I told you my name was Loki.”

“Nevermind.” She eased herself to the ground. “What do you want?”

“Well, ‘Odin’ was informed of a situation in the market. Something about you starting a fire.”

Sigyn sighed. “Yeah, uh… it wasn’t exactly an accident, but I didn’t mean to… things got out of control.”

“Sounds interesting.” Loki leaned against the tree. “Go on.”

“Well, I was buying some stuff, and I saw this kid sneak a couple of apples in his pocket. I was like ‘hey, put those back’. I don’t know why I thought that would do anything, but he ignored me. He went to the vendor to pay, and he asked if he had anything else, and the kid was like ‘no’.” Sigyn sighed. “I get really annoyed by people easily, and so I wanted to serve a little justice. There’s this saying on Earth that goes; liar liar, pants on fire.”

Loki raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t.”

Sigyn rubbed her face. “I couldn’t help it, but I swear: I only wanted to make him hot enough to be uncomfortable and maybe end up giving back the apple. And then… flames started… but the straw starting on fire was not my fault at all, that idiot ran straight into it.”

She expected Loki to reprimand her for her carelessness, but he cracked a smile instead.

“That was the best story I’ve heard in a while,” he said.

Sigyn frowned. “Great King you’re shaping out to be.”

“A couple jokes never hurt anyone.”

“But I did hurt someone.”

“Well if what you say is true, he had it coming.”

Sigyn rolled her eyes. “Should’ve known that’s what you’d say.”

“Pardon?”

“Cause… you know… you’re the God of Mischief. I know all the stories.”

“What stories?”

“Like, you and Thor in wedding dresses, trying to get the hammer back, or… well according to those stories you’re supposed to be chained in a cave somewhere with venom dripping on your face.”

Loki shook his head nonchalantly, although the stories Sigyn mentioned sounded deeply disturbing. “I can assure you they aren’t real. When Asgardian first encountered mortals, they thought we were Gods. They made stories about us, some embellished, others straight up fictional.”

Sigyn gave a relaxed smile. “Ok. So you’ve never been imprisoned for killing someone?”

Loki stayed quiet.

“Anyway,” she said. “You have magic. How do you walk around without destroying stuff?”

“My magic is different than yours. It takes a lot of skill and concentration to make something happen. What kind of powers do you have, anyway?”

Sigyn shrugged. “Odin and Frigga never told me. I didn’t even know there were different kinds of magic. I just know it can be influenced by emotion, I can start fires, control air, temperature, and water. I never dared to really explore beyond that. I think I have mostly elemental powers.”

“Which I know nothing of. You just need to keep your head down, keep working on how to control it.”

“Easy for you to say.”