#methodicmadness

It had been a very productive day for Sigyn, she had finished detailing two of dresses and had reigned in numerous costumers. It had been over two weeks since she had seen Loki last but despite this being a common thing for him, she couldn’t help but worry. Even thought she was distracted for most of the day, she couldn’t help but let her mind linger on what he was doing and whether or not he was alive. She found her answer just before midnight. 

After eating a snack of Midgardian cereal called 'Lucky Charms' (which Nanna decided to bring back), she went to bed with a few new books in hand. One was filled with new patterns- Which all had to be sorted, along with the ones on the floor in her closet. She would be up for the most of the night, but she had no other time to do it, so she brought up the box of cereal and opened the doors to her closet. Gowns cluttered the racks and boxes of patterns sat on the floor. Pulling all of the boxes out, she then dumped one out on the floor to sort. At the back of the shallow closet laid a sword that her father had given her quiet some time ago. Sigyn hadn't used it in ages, she picked it up and pulled it out of the sheath to admire it. It was a very light sword and the blade was still as sharp as ever. She set it aside for the moment, knowing that if she had a sword in hand, Nanna and Zelda couldn't protest to her talking a day off.

With her legs folded up to the side of her, she started going through the papers. One stack would be throw away, one would be to save, and one would be for the patterns that she wanted to use immediately. With a few handfuls of cereal in between, she was done with three out of five boxes by midnight. At that point, she decided to go to bed and once the lights were out, she quickly fell asleep.

A rustling at the window made a shiver run down her spine. Without hesitating to look out, she closed the window and locked it shut. She crawled back into bed slowly and just as she was about to set her head back down, she noticed a familiar shape standing near the doorway.

"She's got a little spirit this one!"

"Bind her magic, damnit! Before the King sees!"

Sigyn screamed as the soldiers tied her up with the chains, cursing them loudly until one of them shoved a gag in her mouth.

The twenty-something prisoners were being paraded before the King of this other realm - one by the name of Loki - so that he could decide what to do with them. The soldiers, particularly the two restraining the still bitterly struggling Sigyn, were leering at the prisoners and telling them all the horrible ways they could kill them if he gave the order.

Her eyes flashed angrily - she was a captain in the army of her people, and one of their best mages, and yet she had been reduced to this, a snivelling prisoner to an army of imbeciles.

It was far from being the first time that Sigyn had dreamt of Loki since he had escaped from his holding cell. There had been many nights where she had tossed and turned, just to wake with tears in her eyes and an empty feeling in her chest. Some nights, the dreams were more vivid, more like visions than dreams and those were the ones that ached the most to witness. There were locations in her mind that she did not recognise which made trying to understand what was happening all the more frustrating.

Sigyn’s relationship with her mother – Freyja – had always been tense but if there was one thing Freyja knew better than anyone it was love and the effects it had upon people. Ever since Sigyn and Loki’s engagement had been called out, Sigyn had returned to living in her Mother’s halls and one night, after a particularly vivid dream the young goddess had found herself seeking Freyja’s counsel in hope to decipher what it all meant. Freyja herself could not provide many answers but she provided Sigyn with names that could.

                                                       [My daughter, Heimdall cannot even see him.]

                                     There has to be someone who can! Someone who can help me locate him.

                                                       [I know of two people who can possibly match Loki’s skill but I would hope you would have the brain not to contact either of them…]

                                     Who?

                                                       [Amora and Karnilla.]

                                     I would not go near Amora with a joust, Mother…Can you give me directions to Nornheim or not?

                                                       [Yes…]

Reluctantly and after hours of arguing, the Valkyrie had given her daughter directions to Nornheim. Sigyn had not taken the Bifrost, she had travelled by horse and by foot so the journey had taken her weeks longer than she had wished but she had not wanted to raise alarms of giveaway Loki’s whereabouts to the Aesir if Karnilla was about to provide any answers to it. When Sigyn had arrived in the Nornkeep, she had knelt before the Norn Queen. The goddess was smart enough to stroke the Queen’s ego without being overzealous about it and her behaviour won the favour of the Norn Queen and she had agreed to help the goddess locate her former fiancé. Yet, no favour from Karnilla came without a price. Sigyn’s price was a returned favour to be collected whenever Karnilla wished to collect it.

Sigyn had agreed, her love for Loki and desire to be reunited was greater than anything Karnilla could ask her for. The goddess had waited in a room to the side while Karnilla worked her sorcery to locate the missing God of Mischief. Sigyn lost count of how many hours it took the powerful sorceress to locate the building Sigyn had described witnessing in her dreams but before the next dawn rolled around the Queen had come to bring Sigyn what she had found.

                                                       [Midgard, my dear. A place called Salem in the state known as Oregon. I cannot narrow it any further.]

                                     Thank you, your Majesty. I am indebted to you.

                                                       [I will hold you to that, little Valkyrie.]

By no means was Sigyn a true Valkyrie since she had never completed her training but she inclined her head respectfully before she was on her way. One of the many things she had learned from Loki was there were other ways to travel through the Nine Realms and that was something Sigyn had trained vigorously to master. There had been no times she had used it or intended to use it until now and so, in a wisp of magic she left the court of the Norn Queen and in a similar fashion, she arrived in the location Karnilla had named; the Oregon State Capitol.

So this was Midgard. For a brief moment, Sigyn looked around in awe at the realm she had never visited. The city was huge and Gods knew how many hours it would take to find Loki. She didn’t exactly blend in either with the black and green leathers of her corset and skirt, paired with her thigh high riding boots.

It was a normal day and a quiet night for the household above the shop. Nanna was reading, Zelda was writing in her diary, and Sigyn had decided to go to bed early. Her room was rather warm and she decided to dress in a short, satin nightgown. The loneliness returned as she admired herself in the mirror, she wanted someone to climb into bed with and she didn't care if it was sexual or not. Her bed was too spacious for one, tiny woman like her. After quickly untangling her hair, she turned the light out and tugged the sheets up to her chest. She fell asleep quickly, curled up on her left side facing the windows.

Minutes, or possibly hours later, she woke up with a start, her eyes traced over every detail in the room. The fear set in when she found something out of the ordinary, something - someone - that shouldn't be there. The moonlight splayed across the floors and sheets did nothing to illuminate the person's face. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as she started piecing together a plan. Play innocent and stab him, that should work. It will work, it will. The Gods will keep me safe.