Unexpected

The Royal Tour and Portraits

We trailed up and down the many halls of the palace as Loki explained the rooms we passed. There were meeting halls and parlors, balconies that looked over the kingdom and endless flights of stairways. He showed me the grand ballroom, which made the immaculate German gala ballroom look like a child's playhouse in comparison. He also showed me a huge dining hall with a gigantic wooden table spanning the length of the room with low hanging chandeliers hanging above it and a massive fireplace at the head of the table.

From there he led me past the servants' wing where the palace, live-in servants resided and the halls that were lined with guest suites for visiting nobles and diplomats and their entourages to stay in. I wondered how many ambassadors and aristocrats from over the realms were currently living within those halls. We also breezed by the wing of the castle where the seamstresses worked, and where the laundry, storage rooms, and the kitchens all were. I recognized the doorway to the throne room as Loki and I passed it, more than a little grateful not to have to go in again. After yesterday's interrogation, I was more than familiar with that particular chamber.

Although we passed by the throne room, Loki did lead me into a room that reminded me vey much of it. It looked very much like the throne room except that it was much larger, lined in open windows that allowed the person who would sit in the massive golden throne on the standing dais to see out into the city of Asgard. There were massive columns of carved gold and banner tapestries gilded in gold hanging from the ceilings. As Loki led me deeper into the room towards the throne, I looked up and saw that above the dais was a huge opening in the ceiling where there looked to be several rows of seats that could look down upon the throne like one would while watching a performance in a coliseum, light spilling into the room through there was well.

Apparently this was the chamber where Thor had been almost crowned king of Asgard a couple years ago. Generations of Asgard's kings had been coronated here as well as hundreds of royal weddings and other large ceremonies where the whole of Asgard was invited to watch, including ceremonies where people were officially named as nobles like I would be at the end of the week. I felt like an ant as Loki led me by the hand up to the dais, explaining how the ceremony for my becoming a lady of Asgard would work. I tried not to think of what this enormous chamber would look like overflowing with Asgard's citizens. The very thought of that many eyes on me made my stomach flipflop and my hand grow slick with sweat, which Loki noticed. He tried to assuage my worries as he started walking me through the ceremony and the vows that I would be taking.

The ceremony itself wouldn't last very long it seemed by Loki's description and demonstration, but it would be the start of so much. I would be committing myself to Asgard, and with it, I'd be recommitting myself to my life here in Asgard. Would I be considered American after the ceremony? No, I suppose, by legality, that I would be considered a citizen of Asgard. No, not a citizen. Even more than that, a lady. Would I have to change my claim of citizenship on my passport next time I visited earth and wanted to visit another country? I doubted that Id be able to choose Asgard as my country of citizenship. My lips quirked at the thought, though I wasn't sure if I truly thought the idea was funny or if I was just so nervous that I didn't know how else to cope except to come up with something kind of goofy to think about.

"What's so funny, Penelope?" Loki asked, catching on to my little smile.

"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking."

He looked at me knowingly before nodding, "Would you like to continue our tour then?"

"Please."

Leaving the grand hall behind, Loki led me up another flight of stairs and down a hallway lined in huge, lifelike portraits of the royal family going back for generations. I gasped at the history of Asgard's royal family, captivated by the portraits. Loki, of course being knowledgeable of Asgard's history and the family tree explained each portrait to me. I was most interested in a portrait of King Bor in the prime of his reign, dressed in armor and bearing a helm with horns similar to those or a male ram. He had been the king to originally defeat the Dark Elves it seemed. He'd fought and hid the Aether that Thor, Loki, Jane, Selvig, and the rest had battled only a month or so ago. How long ago, it seemed to me, it was when I had been sent to England by S.H.I.E.L.D. It seemed an eternity ago now.