Hel to Pay

....in Clarappidium

Jaycee Strong might be in love with what she has seen of Vanaheim so far but she doesn't trust Njordon for a moment.

She knows he's hiding a good deal from her. He never answered any of her questions about Loki. He's too damn charismatic for his own good. He inspires his people but they aren't completely trusting of him either; not fearful so much as wary that his moods can turn. She doesn't like his self-assured smile. She's never met a man with so much self-confidence. It's...icky. She doesn't have a better word for it.

But while she is leery of Njordon, Bjern takes to her immediately and the two of them waltz through Clarappidium, the great capital of Vanaheim. Bjern is like the little brother she never had, always excitable, always so happy, especially since he was given the honor of showing the new queen her kingdom. Or, queendom, Jay thinks with a small grin.

She is worried about Loki, the Avengers, her life in general but she really can't help but enjoy herself.

Bjern and Njordon keep her identity a secret from the people they introduce her to, pretending she is a cousin from the far reaches, in the "big city" for the first time. She can't really hide her resemblance to Sigyn all that well and all day people are exclaiming at her likeness. Seeing her discomfort at this, Bjern stops at a market stall and buys her a beautiful silver head scarf to cover her hair with. She struggles to figure out what to do with it for a while, wishing for a baseball cap instead. When she thanks him, he tells her it matches her eyes and then blushes so red that she tells him that he looks like the roses for sale at the neighboring stall.

They start in the market place, emerging from the cellar onto a narrow street full of merchants shouting and hollering at customers and each other, shaking products above their heads. The noise is a cacophony of human activity, colorful and vibrant, with people smiling and talking to each other. There is so much to see even just out of the door that Jaycee can't help it. She grins like a satisfied cat and opens her mind, feeling all of the minds around her. There is so much to experience!

There are vendors selling colorful dresses in an exquisite style she has never seen. Njordon and Bjern let her keep her pants and shirt but gave her a robe to wear over top so as to avoid attention until they can purchase her Vanir clothes. As much as she doesn't want to stay and be queen, Jay finds that she actually would like to learn more about the people here. An older lady selling the dresses exclaims at her beauty and Jaycee blushes as the woman holds up a gorgeously made yellow dress. Jaycee demurs, stunned by the kindness of strangers. They pass stalls overflowing with exotic fruits and vegetables, stands with jewelry made from bright gemstones she has never seen before and her favorite, a small boutique selling hand-bound journals strung together with fabric and leather with pens whittled with miniscule carvings. She could learn to love it here.

As they walk through the city, Njordon and Bjern tell her about Clarappidium. They are in the Middle Ring, the market and merchant level, where most of the business in the capital takes place. The Lower Ring is where the workers live, the Outskirts where the poor and homeless live. Seeing it from afar, Jay is reminded of the pictures of favela in Rio de Janiero she has seen in her voracious study of Earth. Njordon glosses over these parts of the tour and they don't go to those levels although she can tell by Bjern's face that the poverty of these people upsets him. When Njordon is stopped by a merchant friend selling weapons, Jaycee discretely pulls Bjern aside and convinces him with a couple of batted eyelashes to take her there later in the evening.

The Upper Ring sits on a terraced hill above them, crowned by the royal palace. The whole city is surrounded on three sides by sandstone cliffs, or at least what passes for sandstone in Vanaheim. The cliffs protect the city from attack, Njordon explains, and the tiered structure of the city inhibits a breach of the palace without first passing through the defenses of the rest of the city. There are large walls surrounding each of the rings and Jaycee can't help but notice the tone of derision is Njordon's voice when he talks about the lower classes. It's interesting that no matter where she has traveled in her short life, there is always class structure, always a division between people.