Broken Remedy |L. Odinson|

Chapter Nine

"I imagine you won that competition?"

It was time for dinner, the only time when the whole family was gathered together in the same place. It had started without anybody talking, but it seemed like dinner was about to become an interrogation of sorts.

"Mother, it was a drinking competition," Cuyler mumbled, seemingly embarrassed as he looked at his food.

"It's alright, son, nobody is going to notice you are not much of a drinker when you are such a brilliant warrior," the father smiled slightly. "How were your rooms?"

"We wouldn't know," Cuyler replied again, "we slept on the table."

Ingrid blinked as she looked at her blond son. "You slept on the table?"

"Cuyler and I passed out at some point during the competition," Brandt explained before his brother could speak. "We were not moved from that place."

"You weren't?" Brynjar raised an eyebrow at his daughter sitting directly opposite him. "You couldn't have bothered moving them?"

"As I am sure you know," she replied without looking up at him, "I am not physically strong enough to carry them. I could have not moved them no matter how hard I tried."

"You could have always asked someone else," he said as he set his fork on the table. "One of the Princes, perhaps?"

"Thor had yet to lose the competition," she looked up at him, "and Loki was affected. It would have been risky to ask him something like that."

"Very well," he allowed, "what did you do then? I doubt you kept watching the competition."

"You are right, I did not stay around for long."

"Eir did sleep in a guest room," Cuyler revealed, "someone escorted her there."

"A handmaiden?" Ingrid guessed but the blond shook his head.

"I heard that Loki himself did."

"But I thought he was affected?" her father mocked.

"He was but he could still walk," she pursed her lips.

"Of course he could-"

"Cuyler," Brandt cut in with a glare, "keep quiet."

"Why should he?" Brynjar questioned. "The way this is going, we are getting more answers out of Cuyler than Eir. He is free to speak as he wishes."

"Why do you want to know what I did last night so much?" she asked as she set her fork on the table.

"Your movements lately are suspicious," he stuck his chin out, "first, you refuse to open your door to your brother but you do open it to Loki, then, you refuse to ride Levi but have no issue riding with said Prince. And now, he was the one to escort you to the guest room. You left your brothers behind and went with him. This is all very suspicious. Of course, you do leave the house every morning to go horse riding. Who knows if you meet him there as well."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "What I do is not for you to know."

"Since you have no wish to tell us, it means you are hiding something," he smirked. "I had never thought you would have secrets from your family, Eir."

She glared at him. "And don't you hide, father?"

"Enough," Ingrid cut in sternly, "answer his question."

The brunette pursed her lips but after some time, realising she would get nowhere, started talking. "Last night, after speaking to the Queen and Sif, I led Loki to his chambers and stayed in the guest room near his own room."