there’s something to be said about realizing how precious something is, once you’ve lost it - Loki @theymakemischief
Is this his attempt at an apology?
It burns.
She can’t say why there’s this budding flame at the center of her chest. Is it that he dares to speak a truth she has already learned? Or is it a kinder fury than that, one that hates him apologizing for another man’s cruelty She cannot say. She hardly recognizes the fire that engulfs her, so much of her life defined by the cold that devours.
“It is a painful lesson,” she admits at last. The lilt of her voice is strange, even to her. There’s a childishness to it, a novelty she has forgotten. Is that all Hel will be, a child lost?
But he’s found her now.
Shifting in her seat, Loki’s own eyes reflect back at him. There’s a mercy in whatever flame has taken hold of her proving smokeless. Those eyes do not water. Whatever she seeks in him, she does not speak its name. That’s for him to answer or question. Still, empathy is bound up in a silent prayer, a hope that whatever rules them will intercede on her behalf and move him towards what she ha sought for so long.