When Darkness Falls - LOKI - Book One (Editing)

4. Eighteen ✓

MANY MOONS LATER

     "Are you coming to dinner tonight?"

     Athelia glanced over her bare shoulder at Freya, who was lounging lazily at her desk, waiting for Athelia to finish soaking. The two had grown close, but there was still a stifle in the air between them, and with the absence of Dolcia, neither one of them knew how to handle it. 

     "I'll take that as a no."

    "You go," Athelia insisted, pulling her slender fingers across the top of the water. Her head fell back, leaving her white curls cascading over the edge of the stone basin. "You are no longer on Dorian. If you wish to do something, do it. Permission is no longer required." 

     "Regardless of where we are, you are still my Queen, and I still serve you - and only you. And I would very much like it if you would join us for dinner. I despise being the only one sitting at the table with them."

     The feeling was mutual, but unlike Freya, who had begun to find her way here, Athelia found herself spending most of her time alone in her room, reading Asgardian literature and painfully counting down the days until she would meet the man who was to be her husband. It had been months since she had been brought here. Months since she last saw her father. Though it had only been seconds since she thought of her home, each one more torturous than the last. 

     It wasn't that she didn't like it here on Asgard, as it was indeed a beautiful place. From the air that lined her lungs and the many suns she walked under to the silk cloths that draped around her slight figure - the differences were nearly too much for someone who had only ever known the darkness of Dorian, and day by day, she found herself in a constant state of displeasure, and today being the day that it was, only made matters worse.

    A rapid knock fell on Athelia's door, and she stepped out of the stone tub she had requested and put on her robe. She rolled her eyes at Freya as they took turns guessing who was there to try and coax her out today, but a genuine smile spread across her lips as she opened it to find a tall, suave man standing there with a smirk upon his face.

     "Fandral," Athelia smiled gently, opening the door for the towering man.
   
     Freya jumped from the desk chair and embraced the warrior gently before bouncing on the balls of her feet, waiting for the news she had been pacing about for hours.

     Athelia eyed them suspiciously. She wasn't fond of Freya's likeness of the Warrior's Three, but only when it came to instructional warfare. They didn't fight like her or see battle the way she did. To them, it seemed like it was nothing more than fun and games, and while Athelia loved a bloody battle as much as the next warrior did, she also appreciated the art of destruction. Between her powers as a goddess and her brute as a warrior, she knew there always had to be a balance, one that The Warriors did not understand and could not fathom teaching to the neophyte that sparred with them every morning. 

     Athelia waited, arms crossed, until he turned to address her. Fandral swallowed heavily, knowing the likely outcome of his request, but smiled at her in hopes of lighting the mood. "Thor has finally returned from Midgard with the Tesseract," he told her, quickly folding his hands behind his back as he cleared his throat. "And I promised young Freya that if she bested the Warrior's Three, then she could accompany me to Vanaheim to finish off the straggling forces."