Prologue
Loki gasped as the band on his forearm burned, the shimmering colours fading to black, a sense of loss overwhelming him but suddenly he couldn't remember why, confused, Loki looked at his arm, trying to see what was making him feel this way, but all he could see were the soulbands that represented his mother and brother and the black band that represented the soulmate he hadn't met yet... had he? That band had always been black hadn't it? Yes, it had always been black, why would it not have been? It wasn't as if he had met many other people, and he would have remembered meeting one of his soulmates! Shaking his head at the thought, Loki went back to the book on his lap, unaware of the tears crawling down his face, unaware of the eyes that had flared red for just a moment. He would not remember what had been lost for a very long time.
Mia sat up gasping, throat feeling raw despite not having made a sound. Putting her head in her hands and pressing the heels of her palms against her eyes Mia wondered why she kept dreaming of a golden throne room and some guy with a beard being the only feature that she could reliably make out.
"The same one?" came a voice from somewhere beside her,
"yeah," a pause, "who is this guy Rey?"
"How should I know? they're your dreams Mia, and 'some old guy with a beard' isn't exactly descriptive enough for an FR search is it?"
"No, I guess not," pushing back the covers, Mia got up from her bed, "I don't think I'm going to get any more sleep tonight so I'll get some time in the shop before I have to do anything else today. You know what to do if you need me."
Three hours filled with coffee and chocolate croissants later an amused "uhh Mia?" comes from the ceiling, Mia looks up from her current project, raising an eyebrow for Reyna to go on, "what is it Rey?"
"There's a gemhound at your door, a blue gemhound,"
Mia pauses and turns her face towards the ceiling so the A.I. could get a proper look at her face and the incredulous expression that was on it "I'm sorry could you repeat that? Because I'm fairly sure I just heard you say that a blue gemhound was on my doorstep."
"You heard right and you know it," Reyna said, manifesting as a hologram of a red haired girl in a t-shirt and jeans, hands on her hips and tapping her foot in the air as if it were on the floor, "but just because I love you I'll repeat it, you have a blue gemhound on your doorstep. And you should probably go see what they want." Huffing a laugh Mia pushed herself up from the chair she had been sitting on, she gestured to the half finished statue on the table she asked, "what do you think Rey? A new addition to our little family?"
"what're they going to be?"
Walking towards the door, Reyna walking in the air beside her Mia shrugged, "I was hoping you could tell me because I sure as hell don't know," Reyna put her hand on her chin, "looks a bit like a fox but with wings, and horns too,"
"really? okaay then."