Work Text:
“I can’t see into the future; I’m not a witch.”
Their mother had taught Loki her magic, when he was young. She had told him he was capable of so much more than others believed, so much more than he believed.
He was gifted, and smart, and strong, she’d said. And he could do anything.
But there was one thing Mother had told him he must not do, something she refused to teach him. She’d made him promise - a binding promise.
He was never to learn seidr. It was something known to many in Vanaheim. Even Father knew how to do seidr magic though he rarely used it.
Seidr - spinning, binding charms. The threads of fate. It was the magic that allowed one to see and affect destinies.
It was a dangerous magic to try and see and alter what the Norns were spinning and weaving for you.
Mother had insisted Loki promise never to practice such magic.
And Loki had been young and trusting, and a good and obedient child. So he had agreed to that binding promise to never learn seidr, to never look into the future and see what was in store for him or his loved ones.
But plenty of people were not bound thus by a promise not to see the future.
And what they saw made them wary and distrustful of the young prince.
It was only after the centuries of being looked at with suspicion, only after Loki had discovered what he truly was, that he realized Frigga, and Odin, had a reason to keep him from learning seidr and seeing his own future. A reason apart from defying the Norns.
It is difficult for there to be secrets in a family if everyone can see their fate.