"Baby! What baby?" Thor and I asked at the same time.

The healer looked a bit uncomfortable.

"Umm... this is a surprise?" she asked.

I got up from the bed, and the green energy beam shut off.

Thor started to laugh, smiling hugely. "I'm going to be an uncle!"

"I am going to kill your brother!" The wind started to pick up in the room.

"Now Shannon, calm down. The healers will never forgive us if we destroy their workspace." Thor was holding his hands out to me, palms out, entreating me to stop.

I snatched back control of the wind, drawing it with me as I strode out of the room and burst back into the hallway.

So angry and distraught, I almost mowed down the tall, elegant raven-haired woman coming towards me. In the nick of time, I halted, expending effort to tamp the swirling wind down. Even so, it was whipping her beautiful, silver brocade dress around her feet. I yanked at my control further. With one trembling hand, I shoved my hair back from my face.

She stopped as well, looking behind me with one dark eyebrow raised.

"Mother, this is Loki's Shannon."

A burst of energy surged out of me with Thor's introduction, along with an inarticulate short scream of anger.

"I am not Loki's Shannon. I am my own person, and I am going to kick Loki's ass from here through all the realms until he is a pathetic whimpering heap at my feet! He lied to me!"

The woman's lips quirked up, and she drew me in for a quick hug, startling me. She smelled of cinnamon and apples. Immediately comforting, I inhaled the familiar scent.

"I'm Frigga. I'm very glad to meet you, Shannon. Go away, Thor." She waved him off, and I heard him say he'd see us later as he left us alone.

With an arm around me, she steered me through a nearby arch and outside to a beautiful garden courtyard. Strolling arm-in-arm, she guided us along a pathway filled with greenery and brilliant flowers. "Now tell me what my infuriating, mischievous son has done to drive you to this state? Perhaps I'll help you kick his ass."

I blinked. Hearing their elegant mother, the queen, speak like that made me laugh, driving away some of my anger. The story spilled out in a torrent of words.

I told her of meeting him on a flight, thinking he was Tod, and how he invited me to join him for the movie. That he'd revealed himself as Loki, and I'd panicked and fled. How he'd stalked me as a cat at my conference until I made a bet to get him to show himself. I explained my reward for the bet, not knowing what Asgardian mead would do to me, and how it activated god genes. I confessed my anger, fear, and denial, not wanting to listen when Loki told me I couldn't tell anyone. How hard I'd worked to become a professor, and how everything I'd thought I'd known was now worthless. I admitted I'd again fled, ended up with Isis, who'd taught me how to use my powers. I spoke of the wonders I'd found, learning what I could do, and how it'd helped me start to come to terms with the changes in my reality. How Thor had found me, saved me when Isis discovered I was Loki's soulmate, which I wasn't sure I believed. Finally, I told her Thor had taken me to the healers, who'd revealed that I was Aos Sí, and also more than four months pregnant. My voice cracked as I said the last part, my mind a seething cauldron of anger, fear, loneliness, and yes, shock.

Through it all, she listened patiently, with an affectionate, kind smile, not interrupting, but letting me get it all out. As I neared the end of my tale, she steered me to a bench under an arbour of fragrant, multi-coloured roses. We sat, and she took my hands in both of hers.

"First of all, everything will be fine."

She waited until I looked up into her brilliant green eyes, her gaze understanding, and kind, but with a comforting inner strength.

"Second, I will help you kick my son's ass, but I don't think you'll actually need it. I expect you are more than strong enough to handle him on your own."

I smiled a bit at that, appreciating the warm glowing ember of confidence it gave me.

"Third, I expect you have some questions, so let me see if I can shed a little light, okay?"

I nodded. "Yes please."

"You said he revealed himself. What were the circumstances?"

I looked away from her gaze, dropping my eyes. Heat crept up my face as I tried to think of how to answer. I was not talking about sex with Loki, with Loki's mom. Nope. Not happening!

Frigga laughed, a delighted sound that made me squirm. Seriously, where was the nearest black hole to swallow me up?

She smiled. "Your blush is all the answer I need. I'm going to assume the two of you were having sex."

Uncomfortable and fidgeting in my seat like an errant toddler, I nodded.

"Sweet child." Frigga put her hand on my flushed face, tipping my chin up to look at her. "There is only one set of circumstances that will cause an Asgardian master mage like Loki to lose control of his seidhr, his magic, after his age of mastery."

"What is it?" Despite my embarrassment, I was deeply curious.

"The Asgardian binding ceremony when two soulmates meet and are intimately joined for the first time. It only happens during intercourse."

My mouth dropped open. I didn't know what to say. Hamster-like, my mind spun on its wheel.

She smiled, affection and delight in her expression, as she waited for me to get my composure back.

"So... so we really are soulmates?"

"Absolutely, my darling. There is no question whatsoever. I expect afterwards he was able to read some of your thoughts and you his? To communicate with each other through your minds?"

"Yes." I recalled how intimate it felt to talk to him mind-to-mind. I missed it, despite how I'd tried to deny the feeling. "But why didn't he tell me?"

"Not to excuse him, but did you really give him a chance to?" she asked with a gentle smile.

I winced, guilt squirming in my stomach. "Not really. I kinda took off within an hour or so of waking up." Another thought occurred to me, darker, with a return of my earlier fury, as I waited for Frigga's answer. "Is that how he was able to get me pregnant? Loki told me it took conscious magic for that to happen between a mortal and a god. Did he lie to me?"

She smiled. "No child. Loki didn't lie to you. That is absolutely the truth, but it isn't the whole situation for you, is it? You are not mortal. You are Tuatha De Danann, Aos Sí. Do you know what that means?"

My fury abated somewhat, relieved he hadn't deliberately misled me.

"Thor said something about the Sidhe. Isn't that elves or fairies?"

"We call them elves, but the Aos Sí come in many more forms than pointy-eared humanoids of Midgardian folklore. In their realm, the light elves, or Ljosalfar in our tongue, Seelie in theirs, live on the parts of the planet Alfheim that are eternally summer. The dark elves, or Svartalfar or Unseelie as they call themselves, live partially or fully underground on the parts of the planet that are eternally winter. Some of the greatest weapons craftsmen across all the nine realms are the Dvergr, an evolved subset of the Aos Sí different enough to be called dwarves. They live entirely underground in their own realm, Nidavellir. Just as the Vanir and Aesir tend to have different aptitudes and abilities, the same is true between the light and dark elves. However, one thing uniting the most human-like Sidhe, those elves like you, is sex is often a catalyst for their magic. We have to assume the same is likely true for you."

"Is that why... this is so embarrassing." I cringed, trying to force myself to talk.

"It's okay, Shannon. I'm a fertility goddess myself. I won't faint from talk of sex, even if you are talking about my son. Just ask your question, please."

"Is that why, after I drank the mead, it felt like I kept building up energy I couldn't get rid of without Loki... um, without him... ah damn it... without him finishing inside me?" I finally got out in an embarrassed rush, my voice squeaking at the end.

When I could finally drag my eyes back up to her face, I saw Frigga's lips twitched with humour, and her eyes twinkled with mischief.

"Knowing what I do about how those transitions go, how much magic and time it takes for the full transition, given you were activating not just a few genes, but your entire genetic make-up, I take it this was a particularly eventful transition. How long did the transition take?"

"At least eighteen hours, I think, give or take a few," I said in a small, embarrassed squeak.

"How many waves of magic were required?" she asked in a calm, soothing voice.

"I don't... I don't know. At least every hour," I whispered, barely able to get the words out.

Frigga started to chuckle, then laugh, and didn't stop until she was almost crying with it. After a few minutes, I lost some of my embarrassment and joined her.

She pulled me into her arms, hugging me tightly.

"Oh, my wonderful, blessed daughter. I'm so sorry for laughing, but that was quite the introduction to goddesshood. It must have been an intensely memorable experience," she teased with an amused smile as she rubbed my back.

I blushed, but nodded in agreement, unable to disagree. That night had replayed in my erotic dreams many times over the past four months, haunting me with the feel, taste, and smell of Loki surrounding me.

"There is no doubt in my mind that at least one of your parents must be a fertility god. Loki is a fertility god on his Vanir side. It also explains why you are pregnant. Frankly, after that transition, and the amount of magic involved, if you weren't pregnant, I'd be thinking something was wrong."

She kissed me on the cheek.

"Loki has never participated in an adult's transition before, so he wouldn't have known. Without knowing your parentage ahead of time, he couldn't have predicted the outcome."

"Okay, so maybe I won't kick his ass for lying to me then."

"True, he didn't lie in this instance. However, given all the facts, I suspect he would have gone ahead and given you the mead, even if he did know the outcome. I'm sure it didn't take any convincing to get him to participate, now did it?" Her green eyes twinkled, amused.

I shook my head.

"Right. You go ahead and kick his ass," she said, lips twitching up at the corners.

I looked at her in surprise.

Frigga smiled more widely and patted my leg. "Keep him on his toes. It's good for him to not always get his way."