Sacrifice - Hela Odinson

#9 - Dinner

When Hela saw that Freyja and I kinda liked each other's company, she seemed satisfied. She tolerated Pat and I made up for it by befriending her friend.

Soon, the four of us developed a habit of dining together. I caught myself counting down until dinner time, and I don't think I need to say more. We were kinda like a weird, but fun family. Pat must have had similar thoughts, because she said the exact same thing at the end of our first week here.

"Like, you two will be married soon, I'm the daughter, and Freyja could be the... fancy aunt." she chuckled.

Hela rolled her eyes. She stopped commenting on Pat's "disrespectful" behaviour, because "despite everything, she still isn't her daughter, and she definitely won't help raise or discipline her" (and those were her words). At least we won't have to call each other Mother and Daughter when she's around.

"Speaking of your marriage, when is the wedding?" Freyja changed the topic.

I choked on the water I was drinking. Hela must have expected the question, because she didn't seem thrown off guard in the slightest.

"I decided to give them a few months to get used to Asgard. It would be embarrassing to have an outsider in the family." she responded. "I want the wedding to be on the anniversary of Odin's death."

I choked again.

"Don't you dare die on me now." Hela glared at me.

"I'm good..." I said in between two coughs.

Pat hit me on the back to help, but that just made it worse.

"I can perform CPR if needed..." Freyja offered with a worried look on her face.

"No, really, I'm good." I cleared my throat a few more times.

The love goddess leaned over to Hela and whispered something in her ear, but they weren't far enough from me, and I heard each word.

"You sure you want another mortal? You could find a goddess instead, you know, someone who lasts..."

Not gonna lie, that felt like a punch in the stomach. The past few days were so peaceful and happy that I already forgot the way Hela viewed me -- that I'm nothing but one of many, that I'm like a pair of shoes that only last a few months; something you buy just because you can, step on it a few times, watch as its life span expires and get a new one.

"So... You want us to learn about Asgard?" Pat, the only one who didn't know what was going on, changed the topic.

Hela only nodded in confirmation. The conversation went on, and despite the empty feeling in my heart I forced a smile on my face and pretended to pay close attention to it.

"What is there to learn anyways?" My friend leaned back in her seat comfortably.

"For you? Literally everything." Freyja chuckled.

"Our teachers always say that 'literally everything' is not a proper response, you have to name specific topics." Pat smirked.

"This is not your puny mortal school." Hela said in a rather condescending tone. "That place is not good for anything but mental torture. Pointless busywork, memorizing useless information from outdated books -- a waste of time."

"What Hela meant to say was that we don't want you to know our history from A to Z, we want you to fit in." Freyja explained. "And the only way to fit into a society is through social events."

Pat and I gasped at the same time.

"My head injury hasn't healed completely, I have to stay in." I said quickly.