The Tears of Loki’s Wife
What would you do in eternity for love?
Sigyn felt sorrow as if the venom spat from a snake was in her blood. It burned her. And like a snake, the sorrow was mysterious and she was not always so sure of the cause.
She was never the prettiest deity or the wisest, but she had a certain kind of smarts and a specific kind of guile that led her to appreciate the despised. Maybe because she believed they were a mirror.
“But he’s evil,” Sigyn's friend frowned. “And not just evil, but weird.”
They were sitting at the table in the halls of Valhalla, whispering as the nearby trickster god gutted the soft flesh of an apple.
“What is evil,” Sigyn smiled, “if not a snake waiting to shed his skin?”
“Huh?”
“You know, to let the beautiful in.”
“Yeah, but snakes bite.”
“Yeah, well, maybe it won’t hurt…” Sigyn said, rubbing her arm, “ too much.”
They met in a garden of falling blossoms.
He was sitting under a tree and smiled when she arrived.
“What’s your name?”
She told him.
“It’s… boring.”
She nodded, her frail porcelain-like skin appearing almost to crack beneath her eyes.
“Although you do have something.”
“And that is?”
“Stupidity.”
She put a hand over her mouth.
“To want to talk to me.” Loki smirked,” Or maybe that’s… bravery?”
She looked away.
“Either way,” a slither of a smile broke, “I like it.”
She gave in to a smile.
The storm broke out via Thor as Odin's first army rode to battle on gallant steeds. They passed between grey mountains, to face the frost giants.
Sigyn shouldn’t have been there, but she wanted to be close to Loki. Maybe even protect him.
The soldier she replaced will wake up with a headache in the morning, if they wake up at all.
“Stand guard!” Odin cried before the sight of gigantic and monstrous frost giants approached.
His six-legged horse whinnied.
“Ready!” He cried, and they charged at the frost giants.
The battle was bloody. For the frost giants.
But one particularly brutal frost giant collided with Odin.
Odin and his horse fell, and Loki cried out.
Sigyn then bared witness to the wrath of Loki in a flash of viperous green light.
Months passed, and Sigyn heard of Loki being placed somewhere to heal, but she did not know where.
Mutterings came to her as she fed bribes to certain greedy deities, and she learnt Loki had been spending his time in the royal stables.
She saw him feeding the six-legged horse Sleipner.
When she got close, he seemed not to notice. So she made him notice.
“What’s it like to be a father to a horse?”
“Mother,” Loki mumbled.
“What?”
“I’m the mother to this horse.”
“Oh.”
“Does that further startle you?
“No. No of course not.”
“Good.”
There was a silence between them. Once that wasn’t too unpleasant.
“Listen,” Loki breathed. “Maiden, my eyes caught you in battle.”
“Oh Loki, I…”
Loki put his hand up to silence her.
“Will you ride with me, again?”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh to the fields. I’d like to ride when I’m not chased. At least…” He said, smirking at her, “Chased by someone fairer than a frost giant.”
They rode across the fields of Valhalla, and as some bards would say, into each other's hearts.
Loki would later say, drunk at an inn, it was also part of the plan. After all, what's another trick from the Trickster?
They wed beneath tree blossom. No other gods were invited. It’s what they both wanted.
Some would say later, that it was as empty as Loki’s heart. Sigyn would say it proved Loki had one.
“And you don’t mind being a stepmother to a horse?” Loki asked before they exchanged their last vows.
“I don’t think Sleipner would object to having two mothers, no.”
They had a home amongst the fields, a stable for horses, and trees with such ripe apples. The apples were so sweet they almost made up for the snakes that lived within the trees.
Their two children were brought up bright and strong, although one was more wolfish than the other.
Loki slammed the door shut of their home's sitting room shut.
“What is it, my love?” Signy asked, standing up from the chair.
“The plan has gone wrong. Hide.”
“What?”
The door was broken down by Odin’s warriors and the fight began.
Loki lost.
Bound by a rock with the guts of his sons, Loki’s screams echo in the cave eternally.
A snake above him drips venom on his face.
Signy could have been spared, but she choose to be with her husband, catching the venom as it dropped into a bowl.
Forever, and all time. Because she loved him, in a way he never could.
“Eurg, witch! You piece of spit!” He cried as more venom splatted on his face when Sigyn had to empty the bowl.
“I’m — ” she said, sobbing softly for she was so tired from weeping for so many eternities, “I’m so sorry, my love.”
