Chapter 8
As soon as the door closed behind Eir, Frigga turned and strode over to a specific spot on her bedroom wall. She pressed a hidden catch and pulled open two cleverly-concealed cabinet doors. This revealed an oval mirror, with various pieces of jewelry displayed on the inside of the cabinet doors. Odin had seen her use this many times, and thought it nothing but an ingenious vanity.
And so it was, but that was not its only use. Frigga pressed gemstones set around the mirrors frame in a certain order, and the mirror misted over. Now she could only hope that Gerd was near enough to perceive the signal at her end, and willing to speak to Frigga. She took a seat on the padded vanity stool, and began planning what she wanted to say.
After a few minutes, the mist cleared away. Now the mirror no longer reflected Frigga’s face and private quarters, but the beautiful and severe face of the Jotnar maiden Gerd. She was in what Jotnar called their “warm form”, her pale, rose-tinged skin as flawless as the day that the pervert Skirnir had targeted her. Gerd’s long, straight gleaming mane of palest strawberry-blonde streamed over one shoulder, long enough that had she been standing it would have been well past her hips.
In retrospect, Frigga wondered how she could have missed the resemblance between Loki’s unblemished ivory skin and the famed dewy perfection of Gerd’s complexion. Though their faces were different, both had beautifully carved features. Frigga suddenly wondered how closely Gerd was related to Laufey, and thus Loki. Kinship might be another tie to sway Gerd into helping Loki… except for the awkward fact that Loki had slain Laufey. This was going to be difficult…
However, it would get no easier by delaying. “Greetings, Gerd,” said Frigga in a determinedly pleasant voice, smiling.
“Frigga,” returned Gerd, in a neutral tone, with not even a trace of a smile. No, this was not going to be easy at all.
But her child’s life was on the line, so giving up was not an option. “Gerd, I need your help.”
Gerd’s eyebrows rose. “How so?” she asked in the same impassive manner as before.
Frigga had decided that the best policy was to give the essential information as concisely as possible. That lessened the chance of Gerd cutting the connection in fury before Frigga had finished. “I have just discovered today that Loki is a Jotun, and a Jotun child at that. I have also been informed that Loki first learned that fact a year ago, right before Odin’s collapse into Odinsleep. I believe the shock and distress caused by this revelation had much bearing on Loki’s later actions. I do not believe he was in his right mind at the time that he focused the Bifrost on Jotunheim, and in fact he attempted suicide by deliberately dropping off the broken Bifrost immediately afterward.”
Gerd froze as if turned to stone, a look of blank shock on her face. Frigga wondered if it might be courteous to allow Gerd to absorb this information before continuing, but she considered it best to maintain her her chosen strategy.
“We believed Loki dead, but just a few days ago Heimdall saw Loki on Midgard, apparently attempting to conquer it and rule it as king. Odin used dark magic to send Thor to Midgard to thwart Loki. In the course of battle, it was uncovered that Loki was acting under a forcible geas, and as soon as it was removed, Loki acted to sabotage his plans before they could come to fruition.
“However, this act of defiance came at a severe cost. Loki was severely wounded by this effort, and added to the many tortures he received while in his captor’s hands, he now lies close to death. The Midgardians healing abilities are too primitive to save him, and with the Bifrost incapacitated, we have no way to get an Aesir healer to his side.”
Frigga paused to wet her lips, gauging Gerd’s reactions. She still seemed stunned, but she was listening… or at least she hadn’t cut the connection. Cautiously heartened, Frigga launched into her entreaty.
“Please, Gerd: Help him. You know how to travel the dark passages between worlds, and are a skilled healer of Jotnar, Vanir and Aesir. I beg you, if not for the sake of a tormented child, for the sake of the aid I gave you when you needed it.” A sob escaped her throat. “Please, Gerd. He is not born of my body, but he is my son nonetheless. Please.”
Gerd remained silent at first, lips slightly parted. After a few moments, Gerd finally spoke. “How is it that you didn’t know that your younger son was Jotnar until today?”
“When Odin brought Loki to me, he only told me that he was a child of noble breeding who needed a home. He cautioned me not to ask for specifics, hinting that there was some scandal involved.” Frigga smiled sadly. “I… I was so happy to have a second child, that I did not wish to try to unravel the mystery, for fear that it might lead to my learning something that I had rather not know: The thought that the child might be Odin’s bastard occurred to me, bolstered by the fact that Odin insisted on the name ‘Loki’ for the babe.”
Gerd frowned slightly. “Odin chose the name Loki?”
Frigga wasn’t sure why Gerd was asking about this detail, but she would work with any interest Gerd expressed. “Aye. In fact, he said ‘His name is Loki’ as he laid him in my arms. I had grown up hearing tales of Odin’s great love for his foster-brother Loptr-Loki, so it was not surprising that he would wish to honor a child with this name.” Frigga’s lips crooked wryly. She’d also grown up hearing speculation about the nature of their love, and whether it was the reason Odin was delaying marriage for so long. It was only after Loptr’s tragic death that Odin had approached Queen Freya about wedding Frigga. “It seemed as good a name as any.”
Gerd didn’t seem to think so. There was tension in every line every line of here body, and her frown was fully manifest. “Frigga… when exactly did Odin bring Loki to you?”
Frigga hesitated a moment, because it was a sore subject to all Jotnar. But she could see no choice. “It was right after the Fall of Utgard, and the treaty which ended the war.”
“And… how old did your Loki appear to be when you first laid eyes on him?” From Gerd’s manner, this was no casual question.
“Why, a few weeks old. We and Eir were put to some difficulty to come up with an explanation as to why he wasn’t a newborn.” Frigga frowned, remembering Odin’s blasé suggestion of using the Odinforce to physically transform the infant into the “proper” age.
Gerd sagged, as if this answer disappointed her. “I suppose it was too much to hope for,” she murmured to herself, looking down at her hands. Then she straightened her posture resolutely, raising her gaze back to Frigga’s face. “You said that you’d only recently learned of Loki’s race. Tell me how you discovered this.”
“Odin told me that Loki’s intended invasion of Midgard had come to naught, but that Thor and Loki were being detained by ‘an injury’ to Loki.” Frigga felt renewed outrage at Loki’s dire condition being so dismissively characterized, in a tone that suggested Loki were malingering to avoid answering for his misdeeds.
“I was too impatient and anxious to wait to see my boys, so I projected my astral form to Midgard. The mortal warriors told me that during the course of battle, Loki had been struck by a weapon which removed his mind control and his Aesir seeming after impact… and also revealed him to be a pubescent b… youth.”
“It was then that Thor shared with me what Odin had told him a year ago: That Loki was Jotnar rather than Aesir or Vanir." Yes, her anger was clear in her voice, but what of it? It wasn’t like Gerd had been any great admirer of Odin before this.
Gerd brushed a few shining strands of hair back from her face. “Did Thor also share how Odin acquired a Jotun infant in the first place? Or who the parents may be?”
Frigga took a deep breath. She hadn’t wished to raise this issue, but there seemed to be no choice. She closed her eyes and pulled up the memory. “Thor said Odin told him that Loki was the son of Laufey, and that he found him abandoned in a shrine. Odin said that it was because the babe was a runt, no larger than an Aesir infant.”
Gerd stood, her stunned face as white as alabaster. Frigga winced mentally; kinslayer was an evil name in all the Nine Realms. But when she finally spoke, her words were nothing Frigga had expected. “Frigga, can you show me what Loki looked like when he was four years old?”
Frigga frowned; Gerd’s responses were baffling. But she could see no reason not to comply; it was to Loki’s advantage that Gerd view him as an innocent child. “A moment, Gerd,” Frigga replied as she reached for her treasure box.
After a little rummaging, she found the memory crystal she needed. She searched until she found the visual recording labeled ‘Loki’s 4th birthday’. She stepped back, then displayed a life-sized hologram of an excited and adorable Loki, bouncing and spinning as he eagerly awaited the signal to enter the room where his party was set up. Frigga couldn’t help smiling at the image of her beautiful second son.
A gasp from Gerd drew her attention back to the Jotnar woman. Gerd was staring at Loki as if he was a miracle, tears rolling down her face. “You… you had Farbauti’s child. He was alive, all along.”
It was Frigga’s turn to gasp. “What?”
“Farbauti… she was so furious with Laufey for what he’d brought down upon Jotunheim… She decided to return to… to her own people. She retrieved Loki from the palace nursery, and took him… Frigga, there are many Jotnar secrets, which I am sworn to never divulge to another race. But there is a shrine, which contains a portal to… to Farbauti’s homeland. Do not ask me more!” Gerd wrung her elegant hands in agitation, then bit her lip and began to pace.
After a few seconds, she seemed to master herself and turned back to Frigga. “Once she reached the shrine, Farbauti discovered that the portal’s power source was missing. Laufey said later that he’d ordered it removed to keep Odin from taking another Jotnar treasure. Perhaps this was true; perhaps it was not.
“But either way, it left Farbauti with a dilemma. As a seidkona she was a small Jotun, and Loki was an awkward burden to carry through the deep drifts created to thwart the invading Aesir army. She dared not teleport carrying him, because of Loki’s nascent worldwalking skills. He might have instinctively fought for control of the shift, possibly destroying them both.
“So she made a difficult choice; she bade Loki to remain in the shrine, waiting for her return. She trusted that the long tradition that shrines were sacrosanct even in times of war would keep any Aesir soldier from entering. She left Loki, believing he would be safe.”
Gerd buried her face in her hands. “Farbauti never saw Loki again. He was gone when she returned with the power source. She searched frantically, as did her friends and supporters, but no trace of him was ever found. Farbauti was never able to forgive herself. Finally, she did return to her kinfolk. Alone.”
Frigga’s vision blurred. As a mother, she couldn’t imagine experiencing such a devastating loss. And I was part of that loss. I should have questioned Odin, I should have made certain Loki’s mother consented to the adoption… but I didn’t want to risk losing Loki. I was willing place my joy over another woman’s grief, and I must accept the blame for that.
Gerd dropped her hands and continued. “When the word came that the Queen of Asgard had given birth to a second son named Loki, it seemed like nothing more than a cruel coincidence. The idea that Frigga’s Loki and Farbauti’s Loki might be one and the same, that someone might have used forbidden magic on Loki to hide him…”
“Forbidden?” gasped Frigga, jolted out of her self-recriminations. “Why forbidden?” Magic was only forbidden if it was extremely harmful.
Gerd grimaced. “Forbidden is perhaps too strong a word. Say rather abandoned, after it was discovered to be pointless. At one time, it was believed that one might gain practical immortality by deliberately de-aging oneself at periodic intervals… but it was discovered that the restored youth slipped away in a few decades, or a century at most, leaving the caster back where they began. Indeed, re-casting the spell repeatedly in an effort to hold on to vigor and beauty was found to actually speed the march of time. This made it worse than useless for those seeking eternal youth.”
Gerd began to pace again. “But if cast on a child just at the end of infancy… After four years, children change but slowly. Who would notice four extra years in a child of 100 years? Or perhaps an even older child; it was noted that the years came back more slowly in younger mages.”
Since it seemed that Odin’s use of this spell had done Loki no obvious physical harm, Frigga decided that contemplating the metaphysical and moral implications could wait until the current crisis was resolved. “Gerd, will you agree to help my child?”
Gerd whirled so quickly that her pale hair fanned out behind her. “Aye, but there are two things you must agree to beforehand. The first is that as soon as Loki is safe, I will travel to Farbauti to tell her of his survival. You must swear to make no attempts to keep her from her own child.”
Frigga felt her heart break within her chest. The searing pain was like nothing she’d ever felt before, but Frigga kept her eyes fixed on Gerd and said “Agreed” in an almost-steady voice.
“The second…” Gerd’s voice faltered. “The second is that you find some way to keep Skirnir busy while I’m… out.” The Jotnar woman looked very young and vulnerable suddenly; this would be the first time she’d left her sanctuary with Freya’s shieldmaidens and Valkyries since the failed attempt to convict Skirnir for his crimes.
“Agreed,” Frigga stated in a far firmer voice. Frigga would have agreed even if she hadn’t been bartering for Loki’s life. Which reminded her…
“I have Loki’s complete medical record from Eir on data crystal. Would you like to copy it ere you depart?”
“Yes, of course. Let me get a blank crystal… there are many things I must pack as well.” The mundanity of the task seemed to settle Gerd. She rummaged through a desk drawer, then drew out an emerald-green crystal and slotting it into her receiver; Frigga took the fact that it was a near-perfect match for Loki’s eyes as a hopeful omen. She fitted her crystal into the appropriate space on the mirror frame, and started the data transfer as Gerd swiftly filled a gray leather satchel with various medical items.
But when the chime signaled that the transmission was complete, Gerd turned and strode back to the mirror to pull up the interface. Her long, elegant fingers danced as she expertly navigated the display, a look of complete concentration on her face.
At one point she paused, coming out of her trance to look hesitantly at Frigga. “Frigga, did you know that Loki is blessed by Ymir?” Seeing Frigga’s incomprehension, she asked “Ymirheil? Kaksineuvoinen? Possessing both male and female sexual organs?”
“Ah. Yes; Eir told me earlier today. It is just that I am used to thinking of Loki as my son, so I continue to use those terms.”
Gerd opened her mouth as if to say something, then shook her head. “We must speak more of this later. But it is not an immediate concern. What did you learn of Loki’s condition on Midgard?”
Frigga closed her eyes, seeing Loki’s pathetic form before her again. “The mortal healer spoke of physical tortures… and he was evidently starved in addition to that; he was skin and bones, poor child! He was also burned over both arms, up to within a few inches of his shoulders, and his seidr is apparently too weak to allow him heal himself. Also, since he is unconscious they are having trouble getting nourishment into him, not to mention that preparations meant for Midgardians are not suited to his needs.” Frigga swallowed and opened her eyes again. “He is so totally depleted, that attempts to give him nutrition must be carefully metered, lest his heart falter.”
Gerd gasped, a hand flying to her mouth. “His condition is dire indeed. I need to pick up a portable Soul Forge, and some other specialized equipment from the Valkyries’ storeroom, then I will go directly to his aid.” Gerd turned and settled the items in her satchel, then closed it and slung the strap over one shoulder.
Then she looked over her shoulder hesitantly. “You will remember your promise about Skirnir, won’t you?”
“Absolutely,” Frigga replied, giving Gerd an encouraging smile.
Gerd took a deep breath, and steeled her shoulders like a warrior heading to battle. She moved back to her side of the mirror, and placed her hand lightly on the frame. “Farewell, Frigga.”
“Farewell, Gerd. And good fortune!”
Gerd nodded, and then with a look of resolution, pressed the disconnect, leaving Frigga gazing at her own reflection. After a second, Frigga gave herself a firm nod, then began securing her private communication system away, already thinking of what kind of assignment she could give Skirnir to keep him occupied and out of the way. It would have to have sufficient prestige to suggest that the ever-ambitious courtier might weasel his way back into favor if he completed it well, but that didn’t mean it should be anything enjoyable…