Cause
POV: Alexandra
I sat down in the chair opposite my father when we discussed the business of the manor. I looked at Seraphia, “Your Eminence, it is an honor that you should grace us with your presence.” She smiled, “I had something that came to me during my meditation so I grabbed the King and brought him over here. He was in the middle of getting his hair fixed though so it took me a while. Luckily for us, you were in a deep sleep so I was in no hurry.” She looked over at Lucien, “I must say that seeing you with short hair is rather off-putting though. You want to tell us what happened, not that I already don’t know.” Lucien sighed, “I feel weird so it’s rather off-putting to me too. I was feeling a little tired so I had decided to go to bed early tonight. Supposedly, Derek came by to inform me that the ritual would take place to summon the God so Malinus was occupied with writing down exactly what Derek had said. Meanwhile, I was asleep in my chambers and somehow someone snuck past the guard in the front of the castle, and the guard posted in front of my room and cut off large chunks of my hair. I woke up because I thought I had heard laughter only to find my hair had been butchered. I’m still not sure what happened but I wanted it fixed right away.” He sighed again and looked down.
I leaned over and touched his hand, “Don’t worry, Lucien, it will grow back and it takes nothing away from your looks. You’re handsome either way.” His face lit up and he grabbed my hand, “Does this mean the summoning succeeded?” Seraphia sighed, “No, it didn’t. Unfortunately, when one is cursed in the manner with which Alexandra is cursed, it will affect the lifting of the curse. In hindsight, Mordred should have put her to sleep immediately so she couldn’t herself interfere.” Lucien’s jaw clenched, “So it failed then…” I squeezed his hand, “There is an upside, Lucien. We have managed to trap him from returning to the Heavenly Realm. We just have to figure out where of the remaining three he went to.” Seraphia nodded, “I believe I can help with that. You see, he has contacts in the Seely Realm specifically at court. The King there is good friends with him as they both like to cause mischief and chaos. I don’t believe we should give chase. Since he is bound to the earthly realms, we have the luxury of being patient. He will come to claim her again and I know approximately when. I need to speak with this Mordred fellow though.” I nodded, “He said he was going to his tower. I’m not sure where exactly that is but I can ask him. He seems to be able to communicate with me telepathically.” Her eyes widened, “While I love that prospect of watching you do so, I think I can find it on my own dear.” I chuckled, “Will you go see him then?” She shook her head, “Nope, he will come to see me after I send him a letter with my plans. He will probably be intrigued. He seems like an intellectual and curious sort of person. This works well with my personality and plan. He will come to me willingly.”
She cleared her throat, “Now that we have the context of how His Majesty lost his beautiful long golden hair, I think we can move on to the other topic that I really came here for.” I scooted to the edge of the chair in anticipation since she rarely paid house visits. She smiled, “I know you have questions on this curse that you have been asking yourself since you found out that you had it.” I nodded, “You’re very right about that. From what I know of curses, you either need to be in the vicinity of the person to curse them or they would have to ingest the curse.” She nodded, “I’m guessing that you found out the reason why you were targeted.” I sighed, “Yes.” I couldn’t bring myself to look at Lucien when she asked this. My father asked, “So what was the reason?” I hesitated to answer, “I don’t really want to say.” Seraphia spoke, “It was his hatred of His Majesty that initially drew him to you. Isn’t that right?” I turned my head, “It was one of the reasons.” I heard Lucien speak behind me, “What? I don’t even know any Gods other than Alexandra’s soul parents.” Seraphia chuckled, “You don’t have to meet a God for them to hate you. I know for a fact that there are certain Gods that aren’t on Team Alexandra. Hades wasn’t thrilled with her and Hera also wasn’t a fan.” I shrugged, “Hey, it wasn’t my fault I had to ask him to help me with Sebastian and I can’t help when Hera’s man was flirting with me in front of her.” She laughed again, “Well, they get jealous rather fast and that is what happened to you, Your Majesty. He was jealous that you were getting all this attention from the ladies.” Lucien sighed, “I didn’t ask for that. Besides, I don’t even know who he is. No one has said. I only met him the one time and he was sort of inhabiting a human body.”
I looked back at him, “It is Loki, the trickster God.” He raised an eyebrow, “So he decided to be jealous of me because I was getting attention and took it out on Alexandra?” I clenched my hands in my lap, “Not entirely. He’s apparently always had a thing for Aphrodite and since I look so much like her, I was the next best thing. According to him, my personality is better than hers.” I saw a vein pop out in his arm, “I’m going to have a few choice words with this sorry excuse for a God when I find him.” Seraphia patted his arm, “Settle down, Your Majesty. You will not need to have words with him. I believe Brigit said that All Mighty has quite the punishment prepared for him and he’s not going to like it. She wouldn’t go into specifics though.” I also placed my hand on his arm gently, “Lucien, we should be patient and trust that All Mighty will take proper care of him once he is truly caught.” He sighed and leaned back in his seat, “It’s so hard to sit back and not help out in some way. I so badly want to be the one to be most helpful to you, Xan.” He placed his hand gently on top of mine. I smiled at him, “I know you do but it isn’t the time. You’re already my hero and you’ve saved my life once before. That’s all you need to know.” He stroked my hand, “I suppose I should understand that I won’t always be the one to fix things.” I nodded and Seraphia cleared her throat, “By the way, Lucien. To answer your mystery, Loki was the one to butcher your hair.” He jolted up, “That bastard was in my room! If only I had known, I would’ve kicked his ass!” I got up and placed my hands on his shoulders and eased him down to his seat. My father laughed, “It’s like watching your mother and me. She gets worked up and I calm her down.” I rolled my eyes, “Father, it isn’t the time for jokes.” I looked over at Seraphia, “And what was the rationale in that?” She sighed, “He figured that you were attracted to Lucien’s long golden locks. It doesn’t really make sense but there it is. Moving on, do you remember ever being in his presence before?”
I shook my head, “I would have definitely remembered meeting him or seeing him. He isn’t exactly ugly.” I heard Lucien grunt to the side and I looked at him, “Sorry, it was probably the curse talking.” Seraphia shook her head, “Nope, he is a very attractive God. I met him a few times and while he is rather slender, his long dark green hair and emerald eyes to match give him an almost elven look. You’d definitely remember being in his presence.” Lucien rolled his eyes, “Is this a Loki swoon session? If it is, I’m not interested in staying. My father nodded, “I’m not interested in it either. I’m not a fan frankly.” Seraphia cleared her throat, “Okay then, you must’ve ingested something that he gave you then.” Silence in the room set in as everyone started to think of what I might have possibly ingested that gave me a curse. It suddenly occurred to me, “I wonder if I can summon Aphrodite now.” Seraphia nodded, “Probably.” I called out to my soul mother who appeared in the room, “You rang?” I nodded, “So we are trying to figure out I was cursed and it occurred to us that I probably ingested the curse.” She nodded, “That makes sense but where did it come from.” I smiled at her, “That’s exactly why I called you.” She sat on the coffee table, “Oh? Do tell.” I looked her in the eye, “Does Loki know Phobos?” She looked up to indicate that she was thinking, “Yes, I think they do know each other.” I sighed, “I think he placed the curse in the anti-fear potion that you eventually gave to me when we captured my uncle.”
