"Thank you, for letting me stay here." Vivienne said shyly; not quite able to make eye contact with the Queen. Even so, she felt the sympathetic smile coming from her left. It was a smile that she'd grown used to over the past few weeks.
"It's not fair that you were taken away from your home so cruelly. It is our fault, or rather my son's, that you ended up here on Asgard. Providing you with somewhere to live comfortably is the least we can do." They reached the end of the corridor and turned to overlook the gardens. Vivienne's breath caught, though most of the flowers looked decidedly exotic the layout reminded her of her parent's carefully planned out garden at home, and once again she felt a painful pang in her stomach. She was used to them now, little reminders that she would never see home again. It seemed they were everywhere.
"Can I ask you why none of the other lodgings I chose took your fancy?" The Queen asked lightly, breaking her trail of thoughts. The question didn't sound threatening, it was kind and curious.
Vivienne sighed. "It wasn't the homes so much. In terms of the rooms themselves I'd feel more at home staying with an ordinary family than in a palace. It's more the way they looked at me, like they wanted to keep me as a pet." She shivered slightly, failing to hide her discomfort.
"You'll have to be patient with the attitudes of those in Asgard. Many of them have not seen a Midgardian for almost two-thousand years; it is only my sons and their friends who have made any recent trips to your world, seen your advancements. It is three weeks since you have been here and I still find myself underestimating you and your abilities on an almost daily basis."
"That's me, always surprising." She joked, and Frigga didn't miss the bitterness in her voice. The Queen bit back her sadness and gestured for them to head back into the palace, towards the rooms that Vivienne had been staying in since arriving.
Vivienne followed silently, deep in thought. For what seemed like the thousandth time she replayed the conversation in her head that had occurred two weeks earlier.
"What do you mean I can't go back?" She screamed angrily, screwing the bed sheets into balls in her hands. "You zapped me here, zap me home again!"
"The magic it took to transport you here took a toll on your body. You were unconscious for five days before we could revive you. Your body does not have the strength to be transported again." The Queen explained patiently to the blotchy, tear-strewn face in front of her.
"Well then I wait a few weeks and heal and then go back!" She insisted. The Queen simply shook her head.
"Magic affects the body differently to a traditional physical wound, especially a Midgardian body. It will not leave your system. You would have to become a god before you had the strength to go back." She moved to sit on the edge of the bed next to Vivienne, putting one gentle hand on her shoulder. She took it as a positive sign that it wasn't shrugged off.
After a moment Vivienne's expression changed suddenly and she looked at the Queen intently. "That's an option? I could become one of you?" She demanded. Frigga sighed; only her immediate family usually dared speak to her in such angry tones, yet again the young girl surprised her with her boldness and the weight of her emotions.
"You could do, and then go back yes. But I strongly advise against it. It will take the equivalent of five or six Midgardian years to get you to enough strength, and by then you will no longer be of Midgard, you will be stronger, faster and longer lived. If you return you will doubtlessly be tested by the authorities of your planet, unable to live a normal life, and you will physically outlive all of your loved ones. It is a cursed fate to live, and not one I will allow." She looked down on the heartbroken face in front of her, and said truthfully "I am sorry."
As they arrived back at the door to Vivienne's rooms Frigga clapped her hands and stood straight, looking powerful and confident as always in her elegant pale robes. "Well, if you are going to be living here on a more permanent basis we will have you moved to a more private section of the palace, rather than in the guest rooms. If it is our family you are staying with I will move you into our wing."
Panic flashed across Vivienne's face. "Oh no, I don't want to intrude-"
"Nonsense child", the Queen cut back in. "You have said it is us you feel the most comfortable around and therefore we will keep you close." Her voice softened. "I feel it is my responsibility to look after you here."
"I don't want to be a burden, honestly. I'll just keep to myself for the most part." Vivienne insisted. When she first realised she was here to stay, there had been part of her that had demanded compensation of some sort for being stranded. But that had since receded, and now she felt terribly exposed being made so publicly part of the most important family in this bizarre and magical land of gods. The more she thought about it the more of a burden it seemed to her for the Queen to carry. Vivienne also didn't want to draw any more attention to herself; she felt somewhat like a circus attraction already.
"And then you'll die of boredom child. Do not worry about the amount of time I have spent with you, I am able to balance my duties around this. If it really worries you I shall get my sons to show you around, Thor loves the chance to explain our heritage." She moved to walk down another corridor of golden arches towards a part of the palace Vivienne had not been before, presumably to the royal living quarters. They walked in silence again.
The silence held for a few minutes, and then Vivienne couldn't help but question Frigga's phrasing. "You keep saying 'sons', yet I've only seen Thor." She stated softly.
Frigga sighed and took a breath. She paused and then started to speak slowly. "You remember the attack on your world a couple of Midgardian years ago?" she asked.
"Yes. Wasn't Thor fighting for us?" Vivienne asked, trying to recall what the news bulletins had said about the attack over on New York just over two years previously.
"Yes, he was. However," she paused, "my other son, Loki, was fighting against your world. He was the one leading the invasion." Vivienne blinked, trying to absorb the information. She looked at Frigga with a frown. When Vivienne only looked at her silently, Frigga continued. "He has spent a long time repaying for his actions here. He is currently away alone for the first time since the attack on your world. It is only a light diplomatic mission to the Elves, and we expect his return in a few days. For the most part he is still confined to this city, and is constantly complaining of boredom."
"So you're hoping showing me round will give him something to do." Vivienne finished for her, still not really feeling any reaction. Part of her wondered why she wasn't worried about being shown the sights by a mass-murderer, but a larger part of her didn't think she was able to be surprised anymore, after the amount of new culture she had been exposed to recently. She still voiced her concern though:
"Surely if he tried to conquer my planet he won't be too pleased with me being human and all." She said.
"He will not harm you, he cannot fatally harm anyone without the rules of his confinement breaking. If anything he will simply treat you with contempt, as if you are not worth his time. But be patient, you have surprised me vast amounts and I am sure you will be able to surprise him too. Maybe this is what he needs." She smiled wistfully as they approached a set of double doors, which guards opened to let them through. The halls inside here were of a different style, a softer colour with more creams.
"These are our family rooms. Odin and I reside in the hall off to the right, that is where you will find me if you should ever need me. Thor's rooms are in down that corridor ahead and to the right, and I recommend you go and visit him often, he loves guests." She started down the corridor to the left. "Down here the corridor branches in two directions. Loki resides on the left side, as far from the rest of us as possible. There are a spare set of modest rooms down the right corridor in which I feel you will be more at home."
They followed the corridor down to the split and Vivienne looked down the left side of the corridor out of curiosity, however it twisted round before anything was visible. They continued round to the right until they reached a large door, made of a light wood with ornate carvings of nature and birds. Vivienne smiled at the intricate design before opening the door and stepping inside.
Frigga stood in the entrance hall whilst Vivienne looked around. Off a central hallway were two curtained archways. Through the first and largest led to a large living area, with two ornate Asgardian sofas in front of a fireplace with a coffee table of sorts, intricately carved from the same light wood as that of the front door with similar bird and nature related carvings. Vivienne wondered if they had coffee here, it was something she'd have to investigate. The room was various shades of wood, everything panelled and obviously expensive. Over on the left wall was a large archway leading out onto a small balcony with two seats. Vivienne paused at the idiocy of having a fire in a room with an open wall and sighed, concluding that it must just be another magic thing, before moving to open another door at the back of the living room. It had taken a while for her to adjust to being surrounded by things that Earth physics couldn't explain, everything from the architecture to the food she had been eating seemed abnormal.
Through the door at the back of the room was a moderately sized bedroom, not quite as grand as many other Asgardian rooms she'd seen but still with very large bed dominating it. It was the first item of furniture in her new rooms that didn't appear to be made mostly of wood, the frame was a light metal with intricate railings twisting and twining to meet each other across the headboard above the silky blue bedspread. Aside from that there was a series of what Vivienne presumed were wardrobe doors set into the left wall and a dressing table with mirror and stool to the right wall. Also on the right side of the room was another door. Moving through it Vivienne gasped at a white marble bathroom containing what might possibly be the biggest bathtub she'd ever seen, set down into the middle of the floor. She was certain she'd be able to stand in it and have the water reach her chest. After admiring the room for a few minutes she moved back out into the entrance hall to see Frigga and take a look behind the other curtain in the entrance hall.
The sight that greeted her there made her smile even more. It was a relatively small square room with a desk in the centre (that and the chair behind it covered in the same theme of carvings as the rest of the rooms), and the three walls without the door were covered by floor to ceiling book shelves. Most of them were empty, just with a couple of rows of volumes behind the desk. Frigga appeared behind her and said "This is yours as well. I think it is important everyone has a place to work alone."
"It's wonderful, thank you." Vivienne said truthfully, eyes drinking in all the details in wonder.
Frigga smiled back. "I still think it feels rather impersonal at the moment, I'll have the furnishings updated as soon as possible. We'll consult with you ideas for the designs. What colours do you like?"
Vivienne grinned at her, excitement flaring up. "Oh do I get to help redesign the room?" She asked, relieved at the thought of a project she could comfortably work on rather than the superhuman games and puzzles they'd tried to entertain her with in the past few weeks, which the Aesir deemed child's play and she struggled helplessly with
"If you'd like." Frigga stated, her heart warming at having found something that peaked the girl's interest.
"Oh thank you. Decorating is one thing I loved doing back home."
"So what colours would you prefer, for the most part?" Frigga asked again, feeling more confident than she had before that she'd be able to make Vivienne feel comfortable here. Maybe even one day she could make up for what the girl had been put through.
"Well the woods in here are quite warm, fire-y colours might be a bit overwhelming. I think greens for the most part, with some blues as well." She said, eyes passionately roaming around the hallway.
Frigga smiled at her. "You like greens?"
"I love them, it's such a complicated colour. It's like, new life and stuff but it's also the symbol of sickness. It always gets to me when green is depicted as evil. I won't try and explain Harry Potter to you now but let me just say, greens can be so rich and beautiful." She babbled, fingers running over the currently brown fabric of the curtains.
The Queen smiled. "I take it back – I think you and my younger son will get along just fine."