Proposition

The Arrival

Ezabella saw me off the morning of my summons, her face giving away her feelings about what I was about to go through with.

We had tried not to pay much mind to it after our discussion, but it was always the elephant in the room that became increasingly more difficult to tiptoe around the closer the date came.

When I stepped out of our small home, I was greeted with the biggest carriage I had ever seen.

The outer design was white and trimmed with intricate gold patterns that swirled and curved around each other, held up by four wheels that somehow looked both brown and gold at the same time.

Four pure white horses were at the front, being held by deep red reigns and I immediately felt my spine prickle with discomfort.

This kind of welcome wagon was far too elegant for the likes of me.

The escorts hardly said a word to me and instead ushered me into the carriage like there was no time to wait, Ezabella had barely managed to throw my bag in behind me before the door was slammed shut, secured and the carriage lurched harshly as the horses started trotting back towards the palace.

How quickly Ezabella disappeared from view caused my heart to give a painful squeeze and the comfort of home disappeared just as quickly.

I started to berate myself for agreeing to put myself in this situation.

Ezabella was right, I had put a price on my virginity and body for a stranger of high status, it was foolish but it was also too late to back out.

This was for the best, it would finally get us something better in life.

The trip to Asgard's palace didn't take as long as I believed, maybe even hoped, that it would.

It felt like I had only been staring at the beautiful expansive horizons for a few minutes before we entered the gates carted around the palace walls to a rear entrance.

Just as quickly as I was shoved into the carriage, I was pulled out and tugged inside as people in servant's clothing rushed around me, talking amongst themselves so quickly that I could barely make out what anyone was saying.

I was pulled by my arms this way and that through a maze of narrow corridors, that I would hazard a guess were used by the workers of the palace to go from point A to point B without disturbing the people of a higher position.

This was not at all how I had envisioned my first introduction to the landmark of our realm.

Not to say that I had expected warm smiles and welcoming hugs of congratulation for what I was about to do, but I had anticipated at least being eased into what was going to happen.

This was ten times more stressful than I had thought it would be.

Before I knew it, I was pushed into a room, my bag was unceremoniously dropped by my right foot and the door I had just been forced through was slammed shut.

Sat before me on a bed, one of only three bits of furniture within the room, was Avena.

She tilted her head as she regarded me in silence, which was more than a little awkward, until she smiled and slowly rose from her position.

"I was hoping you wouldn't keep me waiting long," she commented, making her way towards me.

"Long? I feel like everything that just happened barely took five minutes."

"Yes well, I told them to be hasty about it."

"Hasty maybe, but I like my arms in their sockets, thank you."

I couldn't tell from where I stood if she genuinely rolled her eyes or if it was just a trick of the light, but either way she didn't seem too pleased with my response.

"When you're done answering back, we need to get you made over."

"Excuse me?" I asked, raising my eyebrow.

"We have a few hours and we'll need to sort out," she paused and looked me over, using a pointer finger to indicate my general being, "this."

I looked down at myself, feeling more than offended at her shift in attitude.

"If this needs fixing, why hire me and not someone else?"

"You had a reputation for completing jobs efficiently and your looks can be altered in various ways," she shrugged uncaringly.

"Great."

"It is," she continued, either not noticing or ignore my sarcasm, "come, let us get you washed and then we can work our magic on you."

Once again, I found my wrist in a tight grip and that I was being pulled towards a door on the opposite side of the room that I had entered in.

Behind this door was a bathroom that appeared to be larger than the bedroom itself and stood in the room were four other servants, all waiting to get started on me.