The Rhyming Riddle

As soon as they entered Loki's bedchambers, Frigga was visibly taken aback by the amount of damage occurred within. Shattered glass was all over the carpet and a few chairs were upside down, lying broken on the floor.

Frigga caught sight of Nevaeh fast asleep on his bed and approached her curiously. She gasped as soon as she saw Nevaeh's hand, lying limp at her side. 'Loki, what have you done?'

Loki looked at her with mild annoyance. 'Why do you always assume it was I who did something?'

'Syf told me that a young girl attacked you in your chambers and you ordered the guards to be left alone. That being the only reason I didn't stop by earlier,' Frigga said knowingly.

'I do not know what happened to her hand, but I didn't do it, at least not on purpose. Can you heal it?' he asked.

Frigga analysed the co-ordinates and was about to ask something when Loki sharply closed his eyes. 'Please, mother. Spare the questions for later. How can I heal her?'Loki asked quietly, opening his eyes to look at her. Frigga sighed, halting the tide of questions rising inside her mind.

Frigga sat down next to Nevaeh, took her hand, gently placed it on her palm and closed her own eyes. As soon as she clutched her hand, the wounds on Nevaeh's palm started to glow golden. Loki kneeled next to his mother. He was expecting her to heal Nevaeh's wounds in an instant. After all, she was the most powerful sorcerer he looked up to.

Frigga's shut eyes flickered as she heard a female voice echoing musically inside her mind.

"It is the beginning of an end, the god fears. He is lost about the future, so he brought a Seer," the voice spoke, chuckling warmly. Loki watched anxiously as Frigga's brows frowned.

'How did this happen?' Frigga asked. Loki looked questioningly at his mother wondering who she was talking to, but her eyes were tightly closed.

"When a blessed one is entranced by deceit and acts of malevolence, it shakes the sacred stability, bringing about an imbalance," said the voice gravely.

Loki quietly watched as his mother's frown grew deeper.

'What is it?' whispered Loki. Frigga opened her eyes to shoot him a lethal glare, without letting go of Nevaeh's hand.

'What acts of malevolence and deceit have you committed, Loki?' Frigga asked sharply.

'Did – did she tell you this?' asked a blinking Loki, his green eyes reflecting nothing but innocence, but Frigga had witnessed that particularly convenient twinkle in his eyes far too many times to succumb to them.

Frigga sighed. 'No. I think she is unaware of everything that is happening right now.'

'How do you know all this? Did you hear something?' he asked urgently.

'You can hear it too. Hold her hand with me,' Frigga said.

Now, it was Loki's turn to sigh. 'She doesn't really approve of me taking her hand,' he admitted quietly.

Frigga scoffed, 'I wonder why that is.' She took Loki's hand into hers while maintaining her grasp over Nevaeh's wounded arm. She again closed her eyes, followed by Loki quickly doing the same.

'How can we heal her?' Frigga asked quietly.

"You can Right the wrong, if you don't take too long. For, when the lies are rehearsed, one can be nothing but cursed," finished the voice gravely.

Loki frowned, without opening his eyes. 'But, I am the one who told all the lies! Why am I not cursed?'

The voice made a disapproving clicking sound.

"Never blame the liar, for it is in his nature to defy; thus, cursed are the naive, for whom those lies had sufficed…"

Frigga opened her eyes, letting go of Nevaeh's hand. 'The ancient curse of imbalance,' she whispered.

'What curse? Did I miss something?' Loki asked.

'Right your wrongs, undo your lies, unveil your secrets! No spell or charm can fix this, son,' Frigga said, getting up and staring at Loki through grave eyes. 'You have meddled with something far worse than you can imagine. The voice that spoke to us came from within her, but it wasn't hers. Nevaeh was never meant to be inflicted by that curse, but some dark external source must have been unknowingly blended with it,' Frigga said, as they walked away from her.

Loki was thinking fast. He had a feeling that the dark source his mother was referring to was Loki himself. The Grace's beam had connected Loki and Nevaeh for a while and it had hit her squarely on the palm. Also, it had activated the pendant around his neck chain, which he'd acquired through dark magic.

'Mother, I never meant for this to happen. They were just harmless lies. How can they have such consequences?' Loki said as she halted near his door.

'Lies are never harmless, Loki. Lying is a dual path; one lies and the other listens. The consequences depend on how strongly one feels about the truth, or the person who they thought was speaking the truth. You should realize it better than anyone,' she finished.

Loki nodded and just as his mother turned around to depart his chambers, he quickly halted her. 'Wait! How did you know her name? I never told you her name.'

'The – the voice told me her name, but you do not worry about that. Worry about the task at hand,' she said pointedly. Loki nodded one last time before bidding her farewell. Loki closed the door behind his mother and sighed heavily, leaning his head on the cold door for a second.

'What am I doing in your bed?' a sharp voice came from behind him. Nevaeh was awake. 'Someone else was here,' she said slowly, taking a look around.

'Never mind that,' Loki said, facing her. He had accepted the fact that the only way of healing her hand was to come clean about everything he'd done, no matter the consequences. He couldn't just leave her the way she was! All his lies have finally caught up to him. 'We need to talk.'