Loki frowns. "What about when I'm older?"

"I do not think the day will come when it would not be a shame to your mother."

"I wouldn't be ashamed if Thor learned magic. I would think it was interesting."

"Your mother feels differently."

"Why?" pleads Loki. "I wouldn't do anything bad with it."

"To Odin, the fact that you did it at all would be bad enough."

Loki pouts. "I don't think any of this makes any sense. And she doesn't like me anyway, because I fall."

"Falling is not a thing you choose to do," he says, "so it is far less of a disappointment. And Odin's word is law whether it makes sense to little girls or not."

"Is it against the law for girls to do magic?"

"It is against custom."

"What makes that different from law?"

"When you break the law, the penalties are named and understood. When you break custom, they are more subtle."

"What happens if people break this custom, then?"

"Shame and dishonour," says Frigg. "And many enemies."

"What actually happens, though - with the shame and dishonor?"

"Oh," says Loki, and she sighs. "I don't really want to be a boy, but I want to be allowed to learn whatever I want."

"You cannot be a boy," says Frigg. "And if you were determined to learn sorcery, I am sure I could not stop you. But I am also sure there would be consequences, and perhaps grave ones."

"I don't like that," Loki says. "I want to fix it."

"One day," says Frigg, "you could be a queen, and perhaps you will be able to do something about it then."

This appears to have been the exact right thing to make Loki's day; she grins from ear to ear.

Frigg smiles indulgently at her.

"But, I don't know how to impress Mother," she adds, suddenly sobered. "She doesn't like me."

"Your mother hopes you will grow up to do great things," says Frigg. "Great and honourable, as a princess should."

"I want do do great things," Loki says.