"I'm sorry," Loki said after they had trekked nearly a third of the way back to the cabin, breaking the silence that had fallen between them.
"It can be overwhelming as the memories return. Your mind is strong. It wasn't easy to obfuscate them from you. It's also as impatient as I remember, if not more so," Fari replied.
"It wasn't the first time I'd learned something had been hidden from me, unsure what was real, what was a lie."
"You speak of discovering your true heritage. In Asgard, when you first took my hand…it was not only your language I perceived. I saw what you had been too young to remember," Fari paused for a moment before continuing, "Would you like to know…about your mother…your true mother?"
"Frigga was my mother," Loki responded after a moment of silence, "Why didn't you tell me?"
"It didn't matter to me--"
Fari slowed her pace, setting the lantern down and stepping away from Loki, sinking to her hands and knees and retching, emptying the contents of her stomach in the valley's tall vegetation. Loki knelt beside her, moving to put his hand on her shoulder before recalling her wounds, instead placing it on her lower back.
"Are you ok?"
"Wynargs' claws and bite are toxic...I'll be fine...in a day or two. Wynargs aren't common in this part of Interdis, nor are rylets," Fari explained, referring to the smaller reptilian creature who had been preparing to make the God of Mischief its next meal on the shore of the lake, "It's too cool for their liking, especially during the rainy season. You weren't scratched or bitten? Did it's venom get into your eyes or mouth?" asked Fari with concern.
"No…a little on my skin."
"When we return to the cabin you must wash," Fari said, moving to a sitting position.
"I haven't had need of two baths in one day since I was a child. I believe the record was five. My mother threatened to throw me off the Rainbow Bridge if I needed another. I don't think she was joking," Loki jested in an effort to cheer the stricken woman and to mask his concern before lightning flashed in the distance in the direction of the cabin followed by a rumble of thunder, "It seems I may be saved the trouble....May I ask you something?" Loki said, the approaching storm reminding him of how he had awakened alone on the shore in the rain, "I don't remember much...about us...why did you leave me at the lake?"
"When I looked into your mind…for the first time in your life, you were unsure if you wanted to survive. If you chose to, I knew you would find me. If you chose not to, nothing could save you....We have to get back."
Fari attempted to stand on shaky legs, Loki taking hold of her arm, gently lowering her back to the ground, taking her hand in his, "As I said, I don't remember much as of yet, but I know you're strong…you don't have to be strong all the time."
"I used to tell you the same," Fari smiled wanly.
"Why do I get the feeling I didn't listen?"
Loki stood, retrieving the lantern and handing it to Fari, picking her up in his arms to carry her for the remainder of the journey as the first sprinkling of rain descended from above.
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Upon reaching the cabin door, Fari in his arms, Loki pushed the door open with his foot, entering the darkened cabin, the fire in the fireplace having died down to glowing embers. Setting her on her feet near the table, he took the lantern from her, placing it on the table before scooting a chair out from under it, Fari lowering herself into it as Loki made his way to the fireplace.
Grabbing a poker, Loki stoked the embers before tossing more firewood onto them. Getting down on his knees and bending forward he took a deep breath, blowing into the glowing embers, the fire flaring up, catching the wood.
Rising from the hearth, he stepped over to the still full tub a few feet from it and knelt down, washing his hands and face in the now cool water before returning to Fari.
"Ale," Fari requested, "The cask," Fari pointed in the direction of the corner of the room to the left of the door.
Taking an empty mug from the table, Loki made his way to the cask, removing the flat wooden top and dipping the mug into it, filling it. He sat it on the table in front of Fari before returning to the fireplace, grabbing the handle of a pail and crossing the room to the door, stepping out into the rain.
Using his magic to create another ball of green light, Loki looked in the direction he recalled seeing the well, spying it and walking to it, hooking the pail onto the rope and lowering it as lightning illuminated the yard. Once filled, he raised it and removed the pail, turning from the well, startled to see a goat standing a few feet behind him.
Loki stepped forward, expecting the goat to move off but it remained planted in the same spot, staring at him.
"Shoo…out of my way!" Loki called out, the goat failing to respond.
Walking around it, Loki returned to the cabin with the pail as the goat turned, watching him, as he entered and closed the door.
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Loki moved the stool behind Fari, setting the pail on the floor beside it.
"More...please," Fari said in a strained voice, placing her hand on her mug, Loki taking it and returning to the cask, refilling it and finding a rag before returning it to her, "Could you play something...the phonograph...something happy," she asked.
Placing the rag over the side of the pail, Loki dutifully crossed the room to the phonograph, replacing the record he had played previously into the cabinet, searching through her collection before selecting one and putting it on the turntable, winding it up and starting it. The zippy notes of a jazzy tune emanated from the speakers as he returned to her once again, seating himself on the stool behind her.
"Perfect," Fari commented on the tune.
Loki stared in dismay at the shredded back of Fari's blood stained chemise and the deep scratches and fang marks marring her flesh.
"Happy days are here again, the skies above are clear again, let us sing a song of cheer again, happy days are here again…" a chorus of male voices sang.
Loki grabbed hold of the back of the chemise, ripping it down the middle and sliding the two sides down her arms, revealing Fari's back, Loki horrified to view along with the fresh wounds, the entirety of her back was crisscrossed with long, raised scars, the scar tissue almost white against her ice blue skin.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
"Altogether shout it now. There's no one who can doubt it now. So let's tell the world about it now. Happy days are here again. Your cares and troubles are gone, there'll be no more from now on…" the song continued.
"Have you been attacked by one of those creatures before…or something else?" Loki asked.
"No."
"Your back...who did this to you?"
"My brother."
"Your brother did this?!" Loki asked, aghast and disgusted.
"How many times have you stabbed your brother?"
"I lost count a few centuries ago. It's not as if I kept a ledger...that was different. I knew it would do him no real harm. It was all in good fun...most of the time."
"I struck a deal with Klarien for the gifts you'd given me…so he would allow me to bring them with me, to keep them here…I'm not sure I could have survived without them. I barely felt it. I placed my consciousness elsewhere…reliving the night you took me to the Monseigneur and introduced me to Al. We drank champagne, you and I danced every dance."
Loki sat silent for a moment, struggling to recall the memory she had related.
"We must have had a wonderful time."
"By the time we left you were so drunk I'm not sure you would remember it anyway. On the way back to my flat you almost got us arrested."
"That sounds like the best part, actually," Loki said, grinning mischievously.
"I went back years later during the war, with a soldier from America, but it wasn't the same."
"A soldier?" Loki asked, curious, taking the rag from the pail and dipping it into the water, wringing it out, as gently as he could cleansing the oozing wounds, the rag turning pink...then red.
""I was working for the Allies...volunteered, actually. You'd left me with enough money and gold, but after Al...I had to do something to help put an end to it. We'd only met days before. It wouldn't have gone anywhere, it couldn't have, of course. He was in love with another woman. He was sent on a mission not long after. He never came back," Fari explained.
"I didn't visit Midgard during that time…I doubted it would be much fun."
"It wasn't."
"Do you have any bandages?" Loki asked.
"No, but there's fabric in the chest, beside the loom. It's clean," Fari replied, "There's salve in the cabinet where I store the soap."
Loki crossed the room, coming to a halt as he passed the phonograph, the song having ended. Stepping back to it and following the same procedure as previously, Loki selected an album and set it to play, a piano tinkling a few notes before an orchestra joined in.
Loki moved to the chest and opened it to find a length of off-white cloth folded atop a stack of what appeared to be men's shirts, night shirts, and tan woolen trousers taking up half the chest, the other half filled with long skirts and chemises identical to what Fari was now wearing.
"Was someone else here with you?" Loki asked, puzzled, as he stared at the clothing.
"No…I've always been alone here. Klarien used to visit once or twice a year. He would bring me things sometimes."
Loki closed the chest, stepping over to the tall cabinet and opening it, perusing the contents, spotting the small clay pot of salve, removing it from the cabinet and returning to stand beside Fari who was now shaking with chills, her pale blue skin even paler than before.
"I'll need to remove…" Loki trailed off, pointing at the shredded chemise, Fari understanding what he was hesitant to say, nodding in assent.
Loki carefully slid the sleeves of the chemise down farther, Fari slipping her arms out of them. She made no effort to cover her exposed breasts as if modesty was a trait wholly unfamiliar to her as Loki dipped his fingers into the jar of salve and gently applied it to her wounds.
"The very thought of you and I forget to do the little ordinary things that everyone ought to do…" Al Bowlly began to croon from the phonograph after the extended instrumental introduction.
Loki produced his dagger, using it to slice the fabric before tearing it into long strips, winding them around Fari's torso, over her shoulders, until the ugly gashes and fang marks were covered.
"I'm living in a kind of daydream. I'm happy as a king and foolish though it may seem, to me that's everything…" Bowlly suave voice continued from the phonograph.
Loki returned the salve to the cabinet. Opening the chest, he removed a clean chemise. Turning from the chest, his eyes fell on a nude Fari standing beside the chair, her broad shouldered, muscular frame somewhat mannish yet exuding it's own sort of femininity, the skirt and the ruined chemise in a crumpled pile around her feet.
"The mere idea of you, the longing here for you, you'll never know how slow the moments go til I'm near to you. I see your face in every flower, your eyes in stars above, it's just the thought of you, the very thought of you my love…" Bowlly went on.
Loki approached her, unfolding the chemise and placing it over her head, Fari slipping her arms into the sleeves. Loki adjusted the drawstring at the neckline, tying it into a neat ribbon so that the chemise hung loosely off her injured shoulders.
"It's just the thought of you, the very thought of you, my love…." Bowlly finished, the song ending with a few notes from the piano followed by static.
Fari's deep blue eyes locked with Loki's as she reached out, taking both of his hands in her own, an electric sensation filling Loki's skull.
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Loki suddenly found himself standing in a candlelit bedroom, dressed in a shirt, tie, and trousers, a radio playing 1930s era music at a low volume in the background, the muffled sounds of traffic and an occasional car horn mixing with the music as he and Fari in her mortal guise passionately kissed beside the bed before she stepped away from him.
"My people...this isn't our way…it's not like this...we must be chosen...it's only done...I've never…" she nervously babbled, "You've done this before…"
"A few times," Loki replied, with a hint of an amused grin.
"I…I'm afraid I'll…I don't want to disappoint you."
'You have nothing to fear," Loki reassured her, closing the gap Fari had put between them and gently gripping her shoulders.
"Why? Why would you want me? The women in Asgard…the men…they're so beautiful."
"You find Volstagg beautiful?" Loki chuckled, "I'm sure he'd be flattered. In my experience that sort of beauty is too often an illusion. You're real. In every way that matters to me...you're the most beautiful woman I've ever known."
"More beautiful than your mother?" Fari asked with a sly smile.
"You are new to this," Loki joked, "On most worlds, people generally avoid broaching the subject of a each others' mothers as a topic of conversation when they're about to make love...a sort of unspoken rule...but then I've never been an adherent to rules. If I was I'd be a boor like my father."
"It's acceptable to speak of fathers?"
"Not usually, no."
"It seems I have much to learn."
"I have no doubt you'll prove a quick study," said Loki seductively, moving his lips to hers.
Ending the kiss, Fari, her hands slightly trembling, loosened Loki's tie as he untucked his shirt from his trousers. After she had unbuttoned it, Loki let it fall from him onto the floor, taking hold of her forearms and guiding her to place her palms on his chest before gripping her waist as he kissed her once again.
Fari turned her back, raising her arm to move her hair aside as Loki unzipped the zipper of her sage green dress, deftly unfastening the hooks of her brassiere, sliding its straps and the sleeves of her dress off her shoulders, the garments joining Loki's shirt on the hardwood floor as he kissed and nuzzled her neck before Fari turned to face him once more.
"I can be anyone you want me to be," Fari told him.
"I would rather you be yourself," Loki said as she smiled, Fari now appearing to Loki in her true form as he swept her from her feet, carrying her the short distance to the bed.
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"Thank you," Fari said softly in appreciation of Loki's care for her wounds, her voice jolting Loki back into the present, before a wave of vertigo overcame her, Loki steadying her, moving the Interdite woman to sit down once again in the chair, "I need the elixir, the same I gave to you. It cures many ills, though as you experienced it causes its own for a time."
"Why didn't you ask for it when we arrived?"
"I wanted a drink first," Fari said in a tired voice her speech slightly slurred as she laid her head on her arms on the table, closing her eyes, "I would have rather had champagne but there seems to be a shortage in Interdis. The last time I had it was when I went to the Monseigneur with Steve. I only had one glass. He said he couldn't drink….he could, it just did nothing for him. He said he didn't mind if I did but it didn't seem right. I had ginger ale and grenadine the rest of the evening."
"Where do you keep it?" Loki asked, concerned Fari would lose coherence or consciousness before she could divulge its location.
"The cabinet…bottom shelf…the box you gave me…."
Striding quickly to the cabinet, Loki opened it once again, searching the bottom shelf and retrieving the ebony wood box, gold inlaid stars on the top, rushing with it back to the table, setting it down and turning the key in the lock. As it opened, tinkling music played, a smile crossing Fari's face as she closed her eyes, singing along.
"Let me call you sweetheart, I'm in love with you. Let me hear you whisper that you love me too…" Fari sang in a quiet, weak voice.
"There's nothing in it," Loki said.
"Keep the love light glowing, in your eyes so true–" Fari went on singing.
"Fari!"
"What?" Fari said, sounding drunk and annoyed, as she languidly raised her head.
"It's empty."