Lokasenna

A few days passed without much happening, but Sigyn still had not grown accustomed to being in Loki's presence. Since Frigga had supplied him with something to read, he had not asked for anything except to take a bath each morning. He would talk to Sig, who never talked back, and he would tell her of some of the old legends: of the Norns, Ragnarok, the creation of the nine worlds. She listened, but always pretending not to. She did not want him to know that his stories fascinated her. Of course, she had heard them all before, but he had a way with words that made everything sound much more interesting and exciting. She enjoyed hearing his voice and since he seemed to love hearing himself talk as well he made little objection to her incessant silence.
One morning however, Sig was stopped on her way down to Loki's cell by one of the prison guards. His shimmering armour reflected the torchlight.
'It is not safe for you to come here,' he said in a low, grave voice, 'last night one of the men on watch was attacked.'
'But I have orders to-' 'I cannot let you pass, ma'am. I have orders too.'
'What happened exactly?'
'When taking over the watch, one of the guards was attacked and killed by a prisoner.'
'Which prisoner?'
'The traitor Loki, ma'am.'
Sig let out a tiny gasp. 'I cannot let you through.' the guard repeated. 'Yes… I understand…' She thanked him for warning her, then turned around and hastily made her way upstairs to Frigga's quarters. While she was walking, she kept thinking: 'It could have been me.'

Frigga was pacing through her room when Sig entered.
'Sigyn!' she exclaimed when she noticed Sig and stopped pacing, instead coming towards her. 'You have heard what has happened?'
Sig nodded. Frigga wrung her hands nervously. 'Someone needs to calm him down…' she said more to herself than to Sig, who simply watched her as she started pacing again. 'He needs to be calmed down. But I cannot go myself, people will talk if I go myself. No… no, you must go. I will write him a message and you must bring it to him. And then resume the day like you would any other. Pretend nothing has happened. Do not be frightened, he can sense it when you are and he will act on it.'
'The guards will not let me enter the prison, my lady.'
'Then I shall write them a message too!' Frigga finally paced over to a writing desk, plucked two slips of paper out of a drawer and started to write. When she was done she gave them to Sig, who tucked the first slip of paper -which was intended for Loki- into the folds of her dress. She left Frigga's quarters carrying the second one in her hand. When she was back in the dungeons the guard stopped her again. 'Ma'am I already tried to tell you, I have orders not to-' 'I have this,' Sig said, cutting him off. She handed him the slip of paper. He let his eyes run over it, then he looked back at her and finally stepped aside. 'Thank you.' she murmured, feeling her heartbeat quicken with fear when she continued the way up to Loki's cell.

Loki sat in the chair when she entered, his back turned to her. He did not react when he heard her come in through the glass, nor when she cleared her throat to make her presence known. She did not want to come near him, afraid of what he might do to her. Slowly she walked around his chair to face him and held out Frigga's note. This made him look up and he took the note from her. His hands, another rush of fear surged through her when she noticed, were covered in blood. 'What is this?' he asked, folding the paper open and examining its contents. Sig did not need to answer, nor did she plan to. His eyes darted from word to word, growing larger every second. When he had finished with it he got up from the chair, put the note on the table and turned to Sig again. 'I would like to wash myself,' he said quietly, 'as you can see: my hands are a little… dirty.'
Sig hesitated a little when she tried to fasten the bracelets around his wrists, she did not want to touch the blood on his hands although she could not help staring at it. 'It's only blood,' Loki said softly and added in a whisper that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up: 'nothing to be scared of.'

She waited outside as she always did until he had finished washing. When she returned to accompany him back to his cell he did not seem as if he was ready to leave yet. He was leaning against the table with the basin on it, his arms crossed over his chest.
'Do you know what Frigga wrote to me?'
She shook her head. 'She tells me I must find peace within myself. To accept my sentence and hope that the Allfather will be merciful if I behave well.' Even though she was not looking at him she could hear the smirk on his face while he spoke. 'What do you make of that?' he demanded, approaching her 'Do you agree that I must find peace in myself?'

Forgetting what Frigga had said about showing fear, Sig backed up against the wall while he came closer still. 'What is your opinion on all this?' he said in a whisper, he did not need to raise his voice any louder since he was so close that she could read his lips. 'Or are you so simple that you just take whatever your superiors tell you to be the truth?' Angrily, her eyes darted up to his. He smirked again. 'No, maybe you are not entirely suited for servitude. Maybe you are of a greater mind than others give you credit for. If this is so, you have yet to prove me wrong.'
'I don't have to prove anything, especially not to you.' Sig heard herself say through gritted teeth. His eyes grew larger, his grin widening, 'She speaks!' Sig had not been able to control herself. While he had been taunting her, anger had started to boil inside her chest. She bit her lip, trying to prevent herself from saying anything else.
'What more can she say, I wonder?' he said, bringing his face uncomfortably close to hers, examining her while she tried to keep her eyes down. 'What more is occupying that pretty little head of yours?' Sig kept her lips tightly shut and convulsively jerked her head to the side, away from him. She should not have done so.
He grabbed Sig by her jaw and painfully turned her face to his again, forcing her to look into his eyes. 'So this is Frigga's way of helping me, is it?' he whispered angrily. 'She sends me a stoical mute for company. A weak little girl to look after me. She means to humiliate me even more than Odin already did.' his hand moved from her jaw to her neck, almost throttling her. 'I could snap your neck like a twig, and no one would ever know.' he growled. Sig looked at him.
'Go ahead, try.' she said, as clearly as she could muster with so little room to breathe and without betraying the panic she felt. For a moment they stared at each other, he still had her pinned against the wall with his left hand around her throat. Then his anger seemed to melt off his face, he let go of her and chuckled. 'Well, at least you know when not to keep your mouth shut.' When he turned his back to her, Sig let out a trembling sigh of relief.

When they returned to the cell and Loki stretched out his hands so Sig could take the bracelets off he watched her with a new interest. He knew she had been frightened, but she had displayed a strength of mind which intrigued him. 'You have never told me your name,' he said softly, 'if we are going to spend all this time together, you might as well tell me your name.' Sig ignored him while she started on the other bracelet, but he withdrew his hand and instead tilted her face up. 'Tell me your name.' His touch was much more gentle than moments before in the bathroom. Sig felt a little flutter in her stomach when her eyes met his. Quickly, she recovered her sense. She grabbed his hand, took off the bracelet and turned around to exit the cell. 'I'd like a new book.' he called after her. She nodded, her back still turned to him, and left.