"Lady Sif!" The guard clapped a fist to his chest respectfully, "The Allfather requests your presence immediately."

"Hold on a moment!" Sif called, turning back to Maisy, "Alright, just keep practicing against this dummy. I must say that you are doing much better with the bow staff than the daggers. Remember to swing low then hit high!"

"Okay," Maisy nodded, getting back to her practice dummy with renewed determination. Any encouragement from Sif always made her want to work twice as hard. Sif was just so freaking cool and Maisy wanted to be exactly like her.

Once the warrior had disappeared Maisy practiced on the dummy until she was out of breath and then pushed herself to practice for five more minutes. When she deemed herself ready for a water break, she set the staff down and tiredly trudged over to her water bottle. The bottle was one of those nifty purifying ones that she'd had in her backpack when she'd been attacked. She supposed after so long in use the water filter probably didn't do much anymore, but she liked to think that it kept weird Asgardian things out of her system. She wondered if Asgardians had chlorine and fluoride and stuff in their tap water or not. Eh, even if they didn't they might have something that was slightly harmful to humans in it instead.

"Have you ever seen a Dark Elf fight?" A voice said and Maisy stopped drinking to look around the training area. She spotted Drin lounging lazily against a column.

"Excuse me?"

"Have you ever seen a Dark Elf fight? When they invaded Asgard I saw it first hand," He was examining his sword blade, and he tilted it so the sun reflected into Maisy's eyes, "They are monsters in battle. If you take their weapons from them they'll tear you apart with magic and their bare hands."

"Really?" Maisy took another swig from her water bottle, and tried to subtly move closer to her abandoned staff, "How interesting."

"What about a Kree warrior? Have you ever come nose to nose with one of them?" Drin pushed himself off the pillar and moved closer to her with a swagger in his step, "They'll crush your throat in the time it takes for you to realize you are being attacked."

"Then I'm glad I've never had an argument with one before," She shuffled closer to the staff, never taking her eyes off of him.

"And I'm sure your charming husband has told you about the terrors that live in Muspelheim. Not much can be bred there except fiery skeletons so the people who inhabit it are the cast offs. The hybrids. The results of foolish inter-specie relationships. And they are all bitter. Bitter and desperate," Drin laughed, "The disgusting creatures have been trained by Surtur to stop at nothing to get what they want. It would be unfortunate to get on their bad side."

"Yep, you're probably right about that," Maisy bent down and grabbed her staff and when she straightened up he was a mere foot away from her.

"I haven't even said anything about the elegant ferocity of the Light Elves or the poisoned blades of the Krylor," Drin put a hand on her shoulder and his expression softened, "And this poor, small, untrained Midgardian hopes to defeat them all? Daisy, I do not think you stand a chance."

"Please remove your hand," She straightened her shoulders, "Lady Sif is nearby and she will come if I call out."

"She is not. I told a guard to tell her that Odin wanted to see her. I told the guard that Odin was in a room on the opposite side of the palace. She won't be able to run to your aid."

"Well Loki is-"

"Gardening. I made sure. You are all alone here."

"Then maybe I should leave," She pulled away from him and started backing toward the exit. His hand wrapped around her wrist in a grip of steel and he yanked her closer to him, "Hey! Let go!"

"Did you know that ever since you've started spending time with that Krylorian laundress that all of the maids and laundry girls have started ignoring me?" He barked out harsh laughter, "They simply turn me away and say they are tired of me! I wonder who could have given them the idea to do that?"

"I'm glad they're ignoring you!" Maisy grunted, trying her hardest to pull away, "You are a creep!"

"They turn away from my kisses and my affection," He snarled, switching his hold from her wrist to the collar of her shirt, "And I'm a very affectionate person."

"I think you need to take a look at a dictionary!"

"So if they won't have me then you will. I never did get that kiss I asked for," He crushed her against his chest and before she could do anything his lips crashed painfully onto hers, demanding and hateful. With him distracted, she took the opportunity to whack him in the head with her bow staff. When he winced and pulled out of the kiss, tearing her shirt a little, she swung again and hit him in the crotch. She'd never heard such a high pitch before. Feeling brave on adrenaline, she hit him once more in the chest and then grabbed her water bottle and ran.

She ran until she reached the laundry room and then she sprinted over to Linn and the tears started flowing. The laundress dropped the towels she held into a tub of water and gave Maisy an enormous hug, holding her tight.

"Whatsamatter Maisy? You alright?"

"Odin's going to kill me!" She sobbed and took a few breaths, calming down with the smell of clean laundry that Linn exuded, "I-I broke the r-rules! Now he's going to, he's gonna kill me!"

"He can't, now can he?" Linn patted Maisy's back, "You've gotta perform in the contest fingy. He can't take you out now."

"But, but, but..." Maisy shuddered and squeezed Linn tighter.

"Hey, hey, calm down. Let's go find Jane and Sif, alright? Then we can all talk 'bout it."

Calling for one of the other girls to cover for her, Linn lead Maisy back to the elevator, but right as they hit the "up" button the doors opened and a very angry Drin stepped out, brandishing a knife.

"Oh sweet Andromeda!" Linn yelped, "Who's this psycho?!"

"You thought you could get away from me that easily, Daisy?" Drin laughed, but his voice still sounded a little high pitched, "I can't have you running off to tattle on me, now can I?"

The other laundresses began to stir, murmuring amongst themselves and glaring at the intruder. The head laundress, an ogress, walked over with a carpet beater in hand.

"Lord Drin," She said, eyes narrowed, "Can I help you?"

"Stay out of it," He growled, "This does not concern you - any of you! This Midgardian wretch has wronged me and I intend to set things right."

Drin made a mistake in saying where Maisy was from. The laundresses who knew her would have helped her regardless, but when the ones who didn't know her heard "Midgardian" they knew exactly who she was and they all stood up and took a threatening step toward Drin.

"We will not let you harm her," The ogress said.

"You touch a hair on her head and I'll skin ya!" One of the others called.

"Yeah!"

"Fine!" Drin shouted, "But you cannot protect her forever and I will be waiting around every corner for her."

"Get out of here!" Linn shouted right back, standing in front of Maisy, "Get out!"

Drin left and all the laundresses cheered. Maisy started crying again and the ogress rolled her eyes, muttering about weak Midgardian emotions.

"It's alright!" Linn promised, having the fleeting thought that she should chase after Drin and kill him, "You can stay down here for a bit, even if Madame Veru banished you. We'll send someone to go get Sif and she can take you back to your room, kay?"

"Kay," Maisy sniffled, "Sorry."

"Dat's alright. What did he do?" Linn asked, leading her friend over to a stool and sitting her down.

"He ambushed me in the training area and he," Maisy looked around and lowered her voice, "He kissed me - if you can even call it that."

Linn felt something come over her that she didn't disagree with. She wanted to take Drin and throw him off the Rainbow Bridge. She wanted to skin him alive and then throw him in hot oil. She wanted to cut out his heart and put it in a blender and push puree. Or maybe put Drin's face in a blender. Only Linn didn't know what a blender was. She didn't know where that thought had come from, but she couldn't say that she minded it.

"Well it's settled then," Linn said cooly and Maisy gaped at the strange voice coming from her, "Drin will just have to die. A pity it will have to wait for, what? Four more days? That's how long we have until the commencement of Taka af Brúðr, do we not?"

"Linn? Are you okay?" Maisy asked, "You sound funny."

"Huh, what?" Linn shook her head, "Nuffin is wrong with me."

"You sure about-"

"I'm going to go get Sif, kay? You wait here, the girls will protect you."

Linn left her friend and took the elevator up. When she exited she found Drin standing there just as she expected. He glared at her and pointed his knife at her heart. She sneered.

"You fink you can kill me, pretty boy? Fink again," She grabbed his wrist and yanked the knife out of his hand, her eyes glowing orange, "Touch Maisy again and you'll die a long painful death."

"What happened to your voice?"

"Get lost," Linn growled and shoved him to the floor. She then smiled and whistled as she walked away. She had her heart set on finding Sif and she wouldn't let the little advisor's son get in her way.

Linn didn't know why she was going to Sif instead of Loki, but part of her was inexplicably furious with Loki for allowing this to happen to Maisy. The stupid Asgardian prince was probably pulling weeds without a care in the world and he didn't deserve to know what had happened.

A note from the author: Thank you all for reading! And, as always, special thanks to the reviewers: ferbette (Odin, in fact, does not have a sense of humor and is, indeed, a crabby poop) and Lwolf (Tony will be showing up soon so we'll have to see!).

Ta-ta!