When Darkness Falls - LOKI - Book One (Editing)

14. Brennivin ✓

     It took Athelia days to stop looking over her shoulder, never knowing when Odin's men would come to take her to the dungeons or if she were to be sentenced for her indiscretion on the Bifrost. Though as the days passed, her father's opinions of the man who called himself a king rang true, and she had lost what little respect she still held for him. 

     A part of her wished he would have wielded a blade against her, that he had taken her actions as a threat. Then maybe she would have been relieved of this world and all that she despised about it. Athelia knew death was the only punishment for threatening Odin as she had done, and though she refused to accept him as her true king, she still walked among his people and slept within his palace walls. She knew she should have been grateful for what had been given to her, but even now, with his stone in her hand, she could not find peace in the truth that he had told her.

     The thought of her people living under his rule was sickening. 

     She couldn't sleep. She couldn't eat. She couldn't even find it in her to walk to the dungeons to try and clear her mind. So she sat in her room, her legs propped up on the desk in the corner as she watched the suns rise through the grand doorway of the balcony, rubbing at her burning wrists.

     A knock fell on her door not long after Athelia had slid herself into the tub. She wanted nothing more than to continue to soak in the cold water as it was the only thing that brought relief to the burning cells within her body, but she knew the Queen was on the other side with her dressmakers, ready to fit a bride.

     "Athelia," Frigga spoke her name softly as she stepped into the room alone. She pulled her robe tightly around her body and smiled, despite the concerned look on the beautiful woman's face. "You look unwell."

     It hadn't been the first time she had been told such a thing, but it was the first time she hadn't been bloodsoaked, bleeding, or beaten when she heard it. So, she brushed it off and assumed it had something to do with the fact that she had been spiraling into an unhealthy cycle of self-deprecation and invited Frigga to step in.

     Athelia received a timid yet warm smile from the Queen and did her best to return it, but there was a tension in the air that she couldn't mistake, and she feared it went far beyond the royals. Nobody in the kingdom would talk about it openly, but the altercation between Odin and Athelia had been heard by many, and unrest had settled throughout the streets of Asgard. They were divided. Some had wanted her to leave their world and go home as much as she did, but then there were others who were thankful that she was here to help them if something were to come from the claim Odin put on Dorian.

    "We could come back tomorrow if you would prefer?"

     Athelia shook her head, her wet hair falling over her shoulders. "That won't be necessary."

     "Are you certain?" Frigga gave her one last chance, but she insisted she would be fine, and before Athelia could change her mind, the door opened, and a hoard of obnoxious women came barreling in.

     Frigga took a step back, her gaze falling to the state of the room instead of the overwhelmed look on Athelia's face. There was no mistaking the saddened look on the Queen's face as she took in the bare walls and the lack of luster she had adorned the room with when she learned the Dorian Princess was coming. The silk sheets had been exchanged for the stiffer ones the villagers had slept on, and the curtains, once a bold crimson, were now gray and barely moved in the breeze that came in from the sea. 

     Frigga knew Athelia had not been one for extravagance, but when she noticed that even the trunk of dresses she had had specially tailored for her was still setting in the corner of the room, locked, her heart sunk, as she finally realized there was nothing she could do to make her feel more welcome in their home.