The Unbearable Truth

Sigyn is interrogated by Odin about Loki's whereabouts.

The blow came swiftly. It was so forceful that the chair she had been strapped into knocked back onto it’s two back legs before snapping forward again, and she swallowed back a wince �" resetting her jaw. 

”Where is he?” Demanded the All Father. His lips were curled back over his teeth, in a menacing snarl-like expression as he glared down at Sigyn. She was pathetic. Vulnerable, weak and suffering. Her heart was thudding rapidly in her chest, to the point she thought it would burst out of her rib case in a squishy scarlet mess.

Nothing but grave silence came from the girl before him. A thin trail of blood had slowly started to flow out of the corner of her mouth; Her cheek had begun to bruise after suffering from several merciless strikings. After an uncomfortable period of time passed, Odin nodded to a guard and the brute again stepped forward towards her. Without hesitation, the man clasped a large paw around a fistful of her radiant blonde hair and yanked her neck back forcefully, pulling on her thick mane until she felt he would rip it off by her scalp. With a short yelp, the guard yanked once more before throwing her head forward.

Sigyn let her head hang, her knotted hair falling over her face to hide it from her torturers. The All Father gave her a moment to gather herself; When she did not lift her head, the guard gave her a swift smack to bring her out of her daze, before pulling her gaze up again by her hair so that she was forced to look Odin in the eye. He leaned down close to her,

”I’ll ask you one more time,” He began, his single eye glaring with a ferociousness she believed only existed in the Frost Giants she heard about in stories. “Where is Loki?” He spat, his menacing voice echoing against the four walls of the small incarceration room. “I don’t know,” She whispered, voice slightly desperate in it’s plea. She could taste her own blood, it was flowing into her mouth from some unknown internal wound. 

With a loud scoff, Odin pulled his face away from her’s and turned his back �" waving his hand. The guard grabbed his scepter now, and with a swift and fluid motion, he was slamming the back of it into the side of her face. Twas a blow of such force that her chair flew backward, knocking back until it met with the ground. The back of her head also met with the floor, and she cried out loudly from the impact as her vision blurred with the tears misting at her eyes. The pain was almost unbearable.. 

”Please!” She cried out, her body starting to tremble lightly as she stared around the room with wide, horrified eyes. She saw stars.. The room was spinning. She could smell, feel and taste her own blood and it was sickening. 

“I don’t know where he is! How could I be any more knowledgeable than you?!” She was anything but screaming her words now, breathing heavily in terror as the guard lifted her chair back up onto it’s four legs. He held her head up from sinking as it did by her hair, his face cold and apathetic as he stared down at her.

She pulled gently against her binding, trying to yank her wrists and ankles free �" but such actions did nothing but waste her dying energy. She was bleeding now from her head and mouth, and her cheek had bruised from the blows she had suffered; None of which had been delivered by Odin’s own hand.

”You were the last one to see him,” Odin remarked, his back to her as he paced the room. 

“You were the last one to speak to him! He must have told you where he was running to!” He shouted, whirling around again to face her. 

“Why would he tell me where he was going? Do you know whom you’re even speaking of?! I would be the last person he would inform of his whereabouts!”

”Why?!”

“Because he’s intelligent! Intelligent enough to know you would be dull enough to capture me, tie me up in some s**t hole room where you can abuse me until I’m nearly dead for the answers you so desperately see�"” She was silenced, again struck to leave her silent and breathless.  

She spat out blood from her mouth unto the floor, gagging slightly at the metallic salty taste of it. “Loki is wise enough to predict you.” She added before clenching her jaw and hushing herself. It was clear being defensive would get her no where.. Odin wanted answers. He would do everything in his power to get them. 

There was a long, uncomfortable silence as time passed in the room. She was trembling terribly now, uncontrollably within the little petty wooden chair. Too weak to again try and struggle against her restrictions, she slumped over in the chair as the guard released her hair from his hold to stand obediently behind her chair, awaiting orders.

”He is wise,” Odin began. “But he is also arrogant and confused.” He said quietly, the words coming under his breath. 

Sigyn lifted her gaze then slightly, sitting back and sinking into the chair. 

”I should have never told him the truth.” Mumbled the All Father, mainly to himself. 

“What truth?” 

The guard gripped her hair, and she immediately silenced after yelping slightly. Nonetheless, without acknowledging her cry Odin turned to her. “The truth of what he is, foolish girl.” He sneered, “The Jotun.”

Sigyn’s heart stopped for a mere second, her eyebrows furrowing. “What?”

The All Father merely laughed at this. A sick laugh that sent an uneasy shiver down her spine. “Oh my dear girl, he hasn’t told you? Perhaps it was too unbearable.. Especially for you, of all of the ones Loki associates with.”

“Told me what, exactly?”

The guard tightened his grip on her hair, and she winced. 

“No, that’s alright.” Odin said. The guard loosened his grip only slightly.

”He hasn’t informed you of his Jotun heritage? Laufeyson.”

Odin gave another odd laugh that made her cringe slightly. Without whimpering or faltering, Sigyn glared at him. 

“That is a lie.” She said firmly, though swallowing hard and clenching her jaw again, only to feel blood begin to flow into her mouth once more.  

“Is it a lie? It seems you know more about my son than I do. How interesting.”

Sigyn felt her heart speed up again, and she shot forward in her chair; Only to be yanked again against the back of it firmly. “You disgrace Loki’s very name with your lies!” 

”Silence!”

She was struck again, leaving her silent with a blunt, stinging pain and complete numbness as she slumped in the chair again limply.  

“Since you seem to be so immensely educated, perhaps you could properly inform me where Loki is hiding.” Odin began once again, though receiving silence in response. Her body ached �" every muscle in it, every ounce. Her cheek stunk and pulsed, and blood had begun soaking through her hair from where her head had met with the hard floor. She was quivering with intensity, her heart pounding in her chest. Back to square one. 

“I have told you,” She began. Her voice cracked slightly, tears slowly beginning to drip from her eyes beyond her control. “I don’t know where he is.. I could not be any more honest with you, sire, if my life and his depended on it.”

Odin sneered, glaring at her. “Oh, but it does.”

The All Father had said the words so plainly, yet something in his tone sent shivers of terror down her spine, and brought goose bumps to her flesh. Odin turned her back to her, taking towards the door. 

”Get her out of my sight. She is useless to me.” He spat, making a swift exit through the door and disappearing from her sight as quickly as he’d come. In a forceful manner, the guard broke away her bonds and gripped her by the forearm to lift her out of the chair and to her quivering legs. Almost as soon as he released her from his hold, her legs collapsed under her and she was brought to the ground in a pathetic manner. What an inconvenience. The guard scoffed in annoyance, once again gripping her by the forearm and wrenching her to her feet, which she stumbled on at first as she was brought from the small room. Her dress was soiled with dirt and blood, her cheek bruised. She was bleeding still from her mouth and head, and another cut had found it’s way upon her right-sided brow from being struck with the metal staff. Her wrists and ankles held horrific bruised and bleeding cuts, from the tightness of her restrictions. Her face was numbly apathetic, as if she had aged by centuries in the matter of a few hours.

It wasn’t a surprise that crowd had formed by the time she was lead out of the palace. Once she stepped but a foot out of the castle the guard released her �" forceful enough to bring her to her knees in the dust.. Though no one came to her assistance. The Aesir but stared at her, sympathetic disgust clear on their faces as the woman betrothed to Loki �" the Mischievous Second Prince; The King of Lies �" rose to her feet and stood before them, abused and pathetically weakened. Stripped of her dignity and respect. 

Nonetheless, Sigyn held her head as high as she could as she gazed about her slowly.. Catching every eye that rested upon her and reading their expressions of sickening sympathy, furious hatred, and numb disrespect. Not a single soul in the crowd offered her assistance. Not a single soul offered her words of assurance. 

None of her old friends. 

None of her associates.

None of her Asgardian peers.

None of the men and women that she had known since childhood. 

How much this said about their society.. Suddenly, she was glad she was not offered help. Instead she walked on, watching as the crowd parted in a line to let her pass.

She didn’t need them anyway.

But it was then, of all times she had believed she needed him, that she longed in an immensely desperate manner for Loki’s presence the most.