Stolen by the Fiery Selkie King

"Vali don't say that! You are a part of this family, you're my brother." Narfi said. Easy to manipulate as ever. "Besides, dad's not controlling our lives here, we aren't involved in the timeline. We are outside of it. You are shaping your own destiny. He just wants us safe."

"Well I'm trapped here and I can't take it anymore! And Maeve!! How long is she going to sit here and hurt and hurt while Sirius runs around with that other girl?

"He's not going to come back! Why would he? He already found his destiny before Loki went and ruined it, so good for him for taking it back!

"At what cost? What about Maeve?! I'm not going to sit and watch her waste away here in the void like us.

"Dad doesn't know what timeline we would jump into until we do it, so I'm going to jump into one and live my own life! And I'm going to take Maeve with me whether you come or not." 

Narfi looked at Vali for a while and thought about what he was saying and then he thought about his 16 years of life here, never experiencing other people or getting to go to school with other kids, or anything he saw on tv.

Vali saw Narfi considering it. "So will you come?" Vali asked him. 

Narfi hesitated again and then nodded. He always did.

————————

When they reached the living room, Maeve was curled up in her cat blanket on the couch with her UV lamp facing her, gathering energy and dreaming. 

Vali put his hand on her shoulder and shook her gently to wake her. "Hey Maeve," he said quietly. 

Maeve opened one eye to see who was waking her and yawned, stretching a bit, "what's up Vali?" She asked tiredly. "Is it morning?" 

She glanced out the window at the dark abyss as if she could tell what time it was, but it was always dark here.

"No it's still nighttime." He responded.

Maeve sat up and looked at the boys, they both had packed a backpack and had them slung over their shoulders. "What? Are we going to school? What are the backpacks for?" She questioned. 

"We're running away." Narfi said with a serious tone. 

"What! Why?" She exclaimed jumping up, "you guys can't leave me here! I don't want to be alone!" 

"We won't!" Vali assured her, "we want to take you with us. Maybe we will leave Him behind! See how He likes it!"

"Vali I can't do that, I'm married to him, I have bond magic no matter where I go, he can find me. He will worry about me."

Vali snapped. "That was a stupid fake marriage, all he did was mark you with a drop of his blood, he didn't even mate with you and you know it! Do you want to know why? Because he doesn't want to! He doesn't love you Maeve." 

Maeve started crying and pushed Vali away, "Don't say that! He does too love me! You'll see! He's just busy right now —he said he would be back!" 

"He doesn't love you, don't be stupid Maeve!!!

Narfi attempted to diffuse the situation, "hey guys you're going to wake up mom and dad." 

Maeve curled up in a ball and sobbed for a while. Then she felt a soft feeling of love and comfort coming from Sirius. She tried to push it away but he was insisting that he wanted her to feel this love right now.

See! He hasn't forgotten me! As soon as she felt comforted he broke away from her, a feeling that made her feel like just a burden. A side thought. Her eyes got cold and dark at this feeling. 

She stood up.

"You're right. He doesn't love me. I was the one needing to be comforted, and just now, it must have affected him, he felt my pain I know it. And you know what? His slutty other wife just calmed him down. It made my sadness go away. I don't even get to feel my own feelings when I want to feel them!" 

Maeve turned her cold angry eyes towards the boys and clenched her fists. Tears welled up in her eyes without her being able to do anything about it.

 "I'm going to go live my own life and I don't care anymore if he likes it or not! He can try finding me, I won't make it easy for him! He can chase me to the ends of all of the realms and I don't want to ever see him again! I'm not going to feel this pain anymore. Good riddance!"

She gathered her stuff as the boys stood shocked, watching her. They had never seen her angry before. 

Narfi whispered at Vali, "I think you shouldn't have made her cry." 

Vali shook his head, "let that man try to look for her, I won't let it happen. I don't care about him." 

The three kids went to the kitchen and began packing food for the road. 

Vali pulled down Sigyn's box off of the top of the refrigerator and opened it. It was a collage fund that she had saved for the boys that he assumed they would never use.

It wasn't quite enough for both of them to go, but Vali had decided that it would be put to better use in their hands than in their parents hands. 

He put the box into his backpack and said "I'm shaping my own destiny." 

Narfi watched him do this in silence and sighed. Then he wrote on a sticky note, "We love you mom, thanks for everything. I hope we can see you again someday. -Narfi." 

He stuck it to the refrigerator and they gathered their belongings and turned out the kitchen light. 

Vali grabbed his fathers keys from the hook on the wall by the door and they went into the garage and unlocked the car. He backed out of the driveway and hit a button on the touch screen and with a flash, the three of them were surrounded by rainbow light and they were gone. 

————

Down the hallway, Loki and Sigyn stood behind the closed door listening in on what the kids were saying. 

"So they chose that path." Loki said. 

Sigyn hugged him tightly and tried not to cry. "I didn't get to say goodbye." She let out a sob. 

"I'm sorry Sig. I wish there was another future for them but this is the only one that will shape them into who they need to be." 

She nodded sadly. "Oh my poor son. My poor poor Narfi."