Evolution

Chapter 19

Brynja returned to Asgard and was met by Odin himself, "Loki broke our bargain. Are you ready to keep up your end?"

She bowed her head and answered quietly, "Yes, Father. I am."

Odin nodded, "Good. I have found you a worthy match. Fandral will provide for you well and Thor speaks highly of him."

Brynja smiled ruefully, "There is something sadly funny that you will wed me to the same person whose interest for which you sent me to live in the walls."

Odin took her hand, "Perhaps that means this match is meant to be. Do not enter this marriage as though it is the end of your dreams, my wild-hearted daughter, much happiness can come from such unchosen fates."

She sighed, "Of course. I just worry that it might not. I am a wanderer. Settling in one place is a frightening process."

Odin walked with her to Frigga's chamber, "Your mother is waiting to help you ready for your wedding. Fandral would like to wed by the end of the week."

Frigga did help her prepare- they sorted through the few things Brynja had brought back to Asgard- her purple robes, the long sage gown she wore when in her role as princess, her leather jacket, and a few skirts, tousers, and dresses from Midgard she had been particularly fond of. Frigga opened her wardrobe to her daughter and helped her choose gowns to wear as a warrior's wife and they selected a long silver gown with a train for her wedding dress. Frigga also gifted her daughter jewelry- gold and silver necklaces, long sparkling earrings set with multiple precious stones, armlets, bracelets, and rings.

Brynja attempted to smile at her wedding, but it felt like lying. She was still very saddened by Loki's decision and also very disheartened by her arranged marriage. She did it as often as she could, anyway, trying instead to enjoy the attention, the company, the food, and the fact that for once, she was dressed like a true princess of Asgard, not a wall-woman.

When she was taken to her new husband's house, she sat on the edge of his bed and stared at the floor, waiting for him to ask for her to do something, but instead he sat down next to her, "Brynja, I know this has not been your ideal for your wedding day, but I will do my best to be a fair husband, even if I am not who you would have chosen. You have been in my sights for many years as a fine wife. If you do not feel up to performing your wedding night duties after such a long and emotional day, I will be happy to delay a day so that you can get some rest."

She thanked him and he gestured to the small divider set up in the corner of the room next to a wardrobe that held the dresses sent over by her mother, her duffel bag tucked under them, her Midgardian clothes stowed within.

She went to change out of her finery and he stripped in the middle of the room, "Today, dear wife, we begin our lives anew."

Brynja tried her best to be wifely. Fandral did not allow her to travel outside of Asgard, but he did not ask her to stop her visits to the halls of her parents or to the halls of Freyja. She would not have stopped visiting if he had, but it made things easier on her to know there would be no argument over those visits.

There had, however, been arguments about the little gold ring she had moved to a chain around her neck on their wedding day and had worn every day since. She refused to say more than it was in memory of the very dear friend who had given it to her. He believed the friend to be Loki and insisted she remove it. She assured him it was not a gift from Loki, that the friend had been a Midgardian woman. He pushed the matter until she used her Witchery to hide it as it hung around her neck.

Brynja mended, she cooked, she cleaned, she oiled the leather of Fandral's armor and polished the metal to a mirror gleam. She attended her father's court dressed in finery on her husband's arm. And eventually, she bore him two daughters, only a few years apart in age. He did not know what to call the girls, so he left naming up to her. The eldest was Katja, a name she had first heard in Midgard's Germany in 1939, a cabaret girl with long dark hair who had disappeared. The youngest she named Sunny, after a woman she had lived with in New York City in the 1980s.

Fandral did not understand either name, but Katja, he thought, could at least pass for Asgardian, as it had a 'j' in it. He chided his wife for naming their second Sunny, though, and asked her regularly why she chose such a silly name for a warrior's child.

The little girl was not even a year old when he asked, "Brynja, why don't you have that child rechristened something more familiar? I don't even want to tell men what you've called her, they will laugh at such a name."

Brynja did not waver, "Then tell them that she is named after one of many young warriors who fought against a disease that was unstoppable and lost. It was spreading like wildfire amongst my friends many of them died. She had no family and I arranged for her funeral. It was for her I wore the ring. I will not change this child's name- I have never seen people fight for their lives harder than those friends did. You can just live with that, especially since you had no ideas at the time and refused to think up names for little girls before either child was born."

Fandral shook his head, "Next you must bear a son. We have enough girls."

She glared at him, "We have the children we are gifted with. I cannot control the matter."

From that day onward, their relationship cooled even farther than it had already since he had obsessed over the little gold ring. Fandral took to finding reasons why he had to stay out late and rise early while Brynja spent most of her days "introducing the children to their family". When Thor visited Asgard years later, Brynja spent the better part of the week in her father's house with her children. Thor was thrilled to play with the girls and made no distinction between what stories he told them and the stories he had told Loki as a very small child, though his storytelling skills had improved quite a lot in the many years since. He also told them of his own adventures. Katja came home talking of being a warrior and fighting monsters, her sister wide-eyed at her bravery and daring as she climbed on furniture and jumped off, brandishing a sword made of a broom handle.

Fandral came home for lunch not long after and saw his daughter in mid-air as she leapt from a chair, "ENOUGH! What in the name of Odin do you think you are doing?"

Sunny froze, afraid of her father's yelling, but Katja tossed back her long, curly hair, so much like her mother's and grandmother's, and boldly explained, "We just got home from seeing Uncle Thor and he fought giants! I want to fight giants! And monsters, just like in New York! I'm going to be a warrior like you and Uncle Thor!"

He shook his head, "You'll do no such thing. Ladies can't be warriors."

Katja furrowed her brow and tipped her head to one side, "So what is Lady Sif? She's a lady AND a warrior. I bet nobody tells her she can't be both!"

Fandral sighed, "Sif is different and you know that. You are my daughter and you will do as I say. No more playing warrior. No more talk of fighting monsters. I will have a talk with your uncle about what he is and isn't to fill your head with."

Katja was crushed and her face showed it. She threw down her broom handle and stormed off, very angry. Sunny rushed off after her.

Fandral turned to Brynja, "How dare you let him fill their heads with such things! My daughters are going to be proper women of Asgard. They will grow up tall and beautiful to marry warriors, they are not going to BE warriors themselves!"

Brynja shook her head, "If you think I am going to tell Thor to be anyone but who he is in front of his nieces, you are greatly mistaken. They are still very young and have no need to be thinking of marriage. I will let them play- children only get so long to dream before others cut them off and tell them they have to grow up."

Fandral pointed at her sharply, "They will not end up like you, wandering the worlds, doing who knows what, seeking thrills in places they ought not."

Brynja kept her temper, though she felt like telling him to take his ideas and stuff them the same place she thought he'd shoved his head, "My daughters will make up their own minds, I will be sure of that. Their futures are not yours to determine."

Fandral stormed out of the house and Brynja went to find the girls; they were listening from behind the nearest closed door, "Your father and I disagree on many things. This is one of the largest disagreements we have."

Katja glared at the front door, "I don't like Father right now, Mother."

Brynja knelt down and drew both girls close, "If there is anything I am good at, it is standing my ground. I will not let him push you children into futures you do not want for yourselves."