Frigga.
Frigga was sitting at her loom, with her women around her: Fulla, Sjofn and Gna. Odin motioned silently to Gna from the door, then told her: “Tell my Lady Wife I have a surprise for her. She will like it. Ask her to hold her hands ready on her lap and to close her eyes.”
“At once, my Lord.”
That done, he crept into the room, and laid his bright-eyed silent bundle on her lap. Odin knelt, holding his own hands ready in case the baby started to fall.
“You may open your eyes, my love.”
She did, then startled (Odin had expected that), then cooed. “A baby?”
“I thought you might like another; with less pain, this time.”
“Who is he?”
“The child of a veteran of the Jotunn Wars. That should be enough.”
“One of your Hounds?” Frigga raised one wary eyebrow.
“No, thank my ancestors.”
She looked, unwrapping and inspecting the child, laying a warm finger against his cheek and watching him smile. The child’s bright green eyes blinked. Frigga looked at her husband.
“Who is he, really?”
“Send your women away.”
“Sjofn, Fulla, Gna—please take your things and go.”
“Now. Who is he?”
Odin waved a hand, temporarily disguising his spell. The baby cooled and turned blue.
“Odin Borson, if you mean to feast on him, I am leaving now and will never see you again!”
“No! Wait, look. This is Loki. See his mage-lines? There are no grown mages to be had in tamed Jotunheim, but I found him in a Care Center. I could not leave Loki to his fate there.”
“You could leave the rest?”
“Not willingly. But we are starving too, Frigga, or will be soon. To shut the Center down would be to declare war; and no-one will go to war with our own People across the river. Not yet.”
“Hmm. I must mourn the other children, then.” Frigga looked down at Loki, then up again at Odin. “You have a plan. You always have a plan.”
“I hope that you will agree to raise him, as our child. Again, see the mage-lines? He will grow to be a powerful magician. If you teach him your magic, and I teach him mine, perhaps he can end this eternal springtime.”
“Not yet. Not even soon.”
Odin sighed. “I know. But this is the best chance I see.” Bending over the baby, Odin kissed his wife.
Someone knocked at the door, called out. “My Lord? There are several urgent issues…”
Odin waved a hand, and Loki was again green-eyed and Asgard-pale.
“I know, Hermod! Give me a few minutes more with my wife, eh? I’ll meet you in the study behind the throne.”
“And you will tell Thor he has a brother?” Frigga asked. “Fortunately, I don’t think he is interested yet in where babies come from.”
“We could both tell him, after this meeting. In fact, we’ll tell the whole court at dinner. How is that?”
“All right. I'll talk to Thor.” Then a moment of doubt. “Odin, husband? I raised kittens and livestock when I was a girl, but I’ve never raised a Jotunn.”
“My mother raised Jotunns,” Odin said. “How hard can it be?”
“Vili and Ve. I remember your stories. But, still—they were older than you. How much do you know about their early lives?”
“I will have the library searched for any remains of my mother’s notes. One thing I do recall her saying: A Jotunn is not an inferior Asgardian. They just have different abilities and weaknesses than we do.”
“How different?” Frigga raised an eyebrow.
“Different magic, for one thing, else we would not need this one. But one important similarity”—the babe in Frigga’s arms, Odin gently rubbing his fine-haired head—“they respond to love.”
--A/N: Sjofn, Fulla and Gna are all Frigga’s handmaidens and Norse goddesses, of whom little is known. Gna is the messenger goddess.