"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."

"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?"

"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."

"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..."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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."

"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."

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

"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."

"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?"

"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."

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!"

"I would rather not suffer the repercussions of bringing home a guest bound and determined to be socially unacceptable, and doubt you would accomplish much."

"Worth a shot," shrugs Zeviana. "I wouldn't now that you don't want me to. I do know what it's like to have something absurdly unfair against me like that."

"Oh?"

Zeviana shifts a little uncomfortably, getting into a slightly more guarded stance. "Some of my preferences have caused problems."

"I promise not to tell your mother."

She snickers, a little. "I wasn't worried about that. She already knows. I don't like men romantically. At all. I prefer women."

"Well, if it helps, on Asgard that wouldn't even get you a raised eyebrow unless you were the heir to some sort of dynasty that required you to carry it on with children of your own."

"That does help. A little. It's not so accepted here - I don't care what people think of me, but it is frustrating to have men be sent my way to 'show me what a real man is like' or something."