4. You lied

Song: crying in the club - Camilla Cabello.

The smell of freshly baked bread fills Sydney's nose as she enters her mother's house. 'Mother?, are you home?'

'Yes, I'm in the kitchen...' comes her reply.

She kisses her mother on the cheek before making her way to the already laid out table. She sits down and watches her mother lay the food down on the two plates.

'So there was a ceremony at the castle today...' her mother speaks up as they eat. Sydney puts doen her cutlery and looks her mother in the eyes. 'Yes I know...'

'How did you know that?, you were gone all day...'

'Well...it was...it was for me...' Sydney admits, she can see her mother tense up.

'What do you mean?' Her tone is dangerous almost, of Sydney won't choose her words carefully, this might ensue a war between them.

'The ceremony...it was for me..I became a guard at the castle...the guard of the prince...I start tomorrow...'

'So you lied to me this morning..about where you were going?!' She drops her cutlery herself and stands up, the chair getting shoved back harshly.

'Yes, But mother I really want this, you should see me fight... Don't you want me to be happy?' Sydney desperately tries to calm the situation.

'I already saw you...once at the castle, I was visiting and I saw you training with the prince.. I don't want you to fight..and you know that. you lied to me!' Her angrily raises her voice, bringing tears to Sydney's eyes. 'Sydney I told you not to continue with this madness!'

Sydney slams her fist down on the wooden table. 'My whole life I've been hiding, I want to be a hero for once mother!, any given parent would be proud of their child being in the royal guard, Odin trusts me so much that he trusts me with Loki's live!..doesn't that make you a bit proud?'

'Sydney calm down...' Her mother's face grows scared, as if she's faced with a terrible monster.

'No I won't calm down!, I want to fight for my home mother...I want to be like father who put his own life on the line to protect us!' Tears flow down her soft cheeks.

'That was a lie I told you...your father...he ran away from us when we needed him...he got caught and I called out to Heimdall, he send Odin and he saved us..not your father...your father told Surtur the plan and Surtur came after us, your father sold us out..' Her mother spits out, Sydney is taken aback by this sudden revelation. But she doesn't notice the flames grabbing hold on everything around her.

'So you lied to me all this time?!' Sydneys anger returns fast, as fast as the fire spreads around them.

'Sydney calm down please...I beg you...' her mother starts to cough violently from the smoke spreading rapidly through the small house.

Sydney now realises what's happening and she tries to calm herself and with that the flames. But she's too late. The house is going up in flames with them in it.

She calls out for her mother when the smoke makes it hard to see. She shoots out of her seat. 'Mother!' Her mother doesn't respond.

'Mother!' She calls out again with the flames caging her in.

'Sydney...you'll get yourself killed!' A strong arm pulls her out of the house. She recognises the voice as Loki's.

'No I have to go to her!' Sydney protests heavily against Loki's hold but he doesn't budge. At least not until he tries to grab into her bare arms with his hands.

A sizzling sound can be heard when he does, the burning sensation making him let go. She uses it to her advantage, she runs to the house. When she tries to get in, a beam blocks her path, it falls and nearly traps her underneath but she manages to step away before it does.

Sydney looks at her house burning down and falls to her knees. The realisation hits her like a thousand sledgehammers. A hand clasps over her mouth while ugly sobs bubble up her throat. 'No... no.. mother...'

Loki kneels down beside her and immediately wraps his arms around her. He has never done that before, but that doesn't seem to matter. She slumps into his embrace.

She just lost the most important person in her life. And she couldn't even make it up to her. She did it, she made the house burn. And if that wasn't enough to break her...

she was the cause of her own mother's death.