out of continuity, by contrivance

[purposeful_glory]

Loki soon chafes at home, after three years of freedom. She does not mean to be gone long, but she does mean to be gone. Not Midgard again. Alfheim will do, a week will do, just a little break before she wedges herself back into the confines of Asgard and its Aesir.

Heimdall operates the Bifrost for her without comment. She notes her location, draws a little map, and heads east.

Comments

[headunbowed]

"I've never met your mother, and I don't plan to tell her. Concoct spells? This is - not spellcraft, it's... I'm not sure how to explain it, I've never had to before. It's like opening my eyes and moving my fingers, all through the trees around me. Is that what your magic's like?"

[purposeful_glory]

"Nnnno. Not so intuitive. It's easy to use a spell once I have one, but I have to build it first, piece by piece."

[headunbowed]

"Hm. Strange. I'm sorry, that sounds terrible. I would feel blind without it."

[purposeful_glory]

"I've never had the chance to become so accustomed, so I don't find it terrible, but your magic does sound interesting. Can it do much besides plants?"

[headunbowed]

"Not particularly. We have some influence over small and simple animals, but nothing big. I couldn't call any to die for me, but I can entice them somewhere they'd go on their own."

[purposeful_glory]

"How much of this," Loki gestures at the plants, "is a particular technical skill with the magic, and how much is sheer art?"

[headunbowed]

Taking a minute to think, Zeviana replies, "I couldn't tell you where one stopped and the other began. How do you ask, say, a dancer where skill stopped and art began? It's both."

[purposeful_glory]

"Well, what I mean is - is it actually harder for you to make plants do this than it would be to make wire do the same thing by hand, or is the work in the design and in the time investment?"

[headunbowed]

"It's easier to do this than with wire, though that might be because I've had so much practice with one and none with the other. The work is in the design and time investment, but there's finesse to it, as well. When I was little I couldn't have done this," she explains, grinning a little. "And now I can."

[purposeful_glory]

"Interesting. I have been known to dance, incidentally," Loki adds, smirking a little, "and in my case it is at least eighty percent magical ability. As a child I could barely take ten steps without falling. I had to fix it with a spell."

[headunbowed]

"Have you?" asks Zeviana, delighted by her visitor. She likes to dance. "I'm glad such a situation could be fixed - that sounds terrible. Not as bad as not having my magic, but still awful. Do you use your magic to do other things, as well?"

[purposeful_glory]

"The spell for grace was one-time - I could cast it on someone else, but haven't seen anyone who'd benefit by enough to warrant risking my discretion. And I can heal, and do illusions, and I think next I will learn to change myself into a bird."

[headunbowed]

"That all sounds very useful! If you learn to change yourself into a bird, tell me what it's like to fly? I can only imagine..."

[purposeful_glory]

"It will certainly take me decades to work out a spell for it. Optimistically. But if I still know where to find you once I have tried flying I can write you a letter. Or visit again and turn you into a bird."

[headunbowed]

"That would be even better, as long as I could turn back. I would miss many things of how I am now. I think, for that I would stay here for several decades just to see the results."

[purposeful_glory]

"I do not think I will be inventing any irreversible bird-shape spells. Although I might not be able to arrange it so that you can change back on your own, I will be able to do it."

[headunbowed]

"Hmmm. Understandable. Hopefully I'll still want to when you're finished making it," she replies.

She paused, then grinned. "I don't see myself losing the desire to, anyway, but sometimes things change."

[purposeful_glory]

"I have wanted to fly for a very long time. It simply hasn't been my highest priority - and some of the other spells have left me building blocks that will let the invention go a little faster, too."

[headunbowed]

Zeviana nods. "It's not something I'd stop wanting to do, but I have just met you, I don't want to just turn into a bird without knowing that I will go back. But as to making it easier - I'm glad to hear it. It sounds like your magic is difficult, but useful in many ways. It's good that you have it."

[purposeful_glory]

"I am glad to have it. I think I get better results, working on my own instead of learning from other sorcerers who wouldn't have me on account of magic being unwomanly - but it is slower, yes."

[headunbowed]

"Unwomanly?" she asks, honestly confused. "What, did you become barren by using it or something?"

[purposeful_glory]

"No. I think I would have been told if it were anything so obvious. It's an Asgardian cultural - thing. Women the warriors and leaders, men the sorcerers and practitioners of gentle arts, if they are to be anything at all. I am not bad in a fight since I cast my spell of grace - and I don't think I would like a boy's constraints much better than I like the set I have - but it chafes."

[headunbowed]

"That is confusing and strange. Only men can use magic? Only women can fight? That's like asking one sex to blind themselves and the other to cut off their hands. Is that why your mother shouldn't know about you having magic?"

[purposeful_glory]

"She would be apoplectic. I might be disowned, banished - probably not executed, but mostly because it would embarrass her further. It's not even a matter of ability. I had to learn the basics by - unorthodox means, but there is no inherent barrier. Men are," she adds, "allowed to defend themselves in extremity - my father knows a little about the dagger - but there is considered to be no legitimate reason for a woman to want to practice magic."

[headunbowed]

With absolute seriousness she replies, "Do you want me to show up at your home with my magic and just taunt them? Maybe cause some damage if they truly have a problem with it? That's insane!"