Part 24
A/N: This chapter was inspired by Olivia Rodrigo's album Sour, especially Driver's License, which I was listening to for the later part, yes, that hints at what's going to happen, and the first part was inspired by the fights between my brother and I. Neither of us is married, nor are we royalty or anything other than middle class, but you can tell I'm the older sister who does usually know better but has only recently learned the value of subtlety, although I can also sympathize with Freyr here because I invented the character from scratch, dammit, so enjoy.
Siblings will always hate each other unless they have a common enemy.
Freyr welcomed his sister into a comfortable sitting room. "Frigga, what brings you here?"
"Freyr, who wrote that letter instead of you? And Loki for the matter?" Frigga could manipulate politicians if necessary, but she had always been relatively blunt for one who had such a high rank her whole life, from being crown princess of Vanaheim, until she married Odin, and then Queen of Asgard.
"Frigga," Freyr started, but she cut him off.
"I raised Loki, and I was groomed to be Queen my whole life, albeit for most of it, not one of Asgard, what with us being at war, not that you'd remember it. I can tell a lie, so stop it."
"Does it even matter? What does your husband even have to say about you being here?"
"I'm trying to stop the restarting of the war mother died for, the war I abandoned this throne to you to stop. The war that your careless actions have given Odin have basically restarted. For what?"
"Frigga, that is irrelevant. I invited you back here not to boss me around and lament over the fact that I am King of Vanaheim and that you have yet to take this one thing away from me."
"Mother was delirious to leave the throne to you."
"No, she was sensible, because leaving the throne of Vanaheim to the Queen of Asgard would have destroyed everything non-asgardian about the realm. I'm not a child, I still remember that your husband's firstborn was permanently exiled, not like your son who got to come back."
"Yes, on that topic, where, exactly, did an alliance with Hela come from?"
"Frigga, neither of us like each other, but it is necessary."
"Necessary, Freyr?"
"Necessary."
"Necessary for what? Who is pulling your puppet strings?"
"I am pulling my own puppet strings. It is a mutually beneficial arrangement between myself and Jade's sister."
"Jade as in your bride to be who I, and most of our realm, has yet to meet?"
"That is unimportant Frigga, and you have made your choice obvious. It is my realm, it seems Asgard has grown on you, even though by the agreement of your wedding, you only needed to bear Odin an heir, and then you didn't have to do anything with the realm." This was not the first time the siblings had that argument.
"You think so low of me that I would abandon my own son? Or rid him of his inheritance by raising him here? For the fact of the matter, why do you seem so intent on not seeing the fact that Odin and I love each other?" That was usually the end of that argument.
"Because I have taken a step back and looked at a bigger picture. Look at what happened to everyone else Odin claimed to love. Alina died, her daughter exiled for following in her father's footsteps. Nobody on Asgard has ever heard of your husband's dead first wife, nor his true firstborn, his daughter. Thor was exiled instead of being taught, and Loki was locked up like a common criminal." Freyr had never mentioned those points before, but this time, he had the necessary confidence boost to shoot down his sister.
"Yes, and you busted him out, I was making progress." Frigga shot right back, all her frustration spilling out onto her brother.
"Progress in what, Frigga? I have talked to him since then, he has attachment to you solely because you were simply the only person on Asgard to never ridicule or berate him for his talents. That is simply it. No true love, no true connections. And Thor, he is half-Vanir, yet in the last century he has only spent a total of a week here, spent bashing in as many heads as he could, though until I have a child, he would have been in line for the throne of Vanaheim as well, but a realm cannot have a king that knows nothing about it."
"Since when was this about my husband?"
"Since you came here to demand I grovel for the allfather," Freyr said sarcastically, "to forgive my sins for daring to not be his attack dog."
"Freyr, I came here so that we would not become enemies. So I would not have to make the impossible choice."
"No, you came here because you already made your choice, and are just realizing you'll have to live with it."
"For once, you're right, Freyr. I have already made my choice. Now, all that's left is for you to make yours."
"What do you mean, sister?"
"My choice is already made. My home has been with Asgard for over sixteen centuries, and Odin and I do love one another. I would not betray him, nor my son, Freyr, not even for you. Now all that's left is your turn."
"I don't have your choice, Frigga. My choice will always be with Vanaheim."
"Of course it will, I expected no less. But your choice, unlike mine, is not for yourself. It is for your realm. Loki means well at heart, but his daughters seek to bring war unto us. I suspect he may no longer be the mastermind of these plans. You were conned, Freyr, into giving your army, not for a diversion for the rescue of an ally. I have seen the magic work, Loki could have been broken out without the battle. Your armies were not used for a distraction, but for a statement. It was a show that Asgard has enemies, enemies that can be manipulated and whose armies can be used as a mighty battering ram. But that was one ambush. Asgard will not fall if there is to be a repeat, we are not the realm eternal for naught. Your choice, brother, is, whether you agree to stop this foolishness, I can talk Odin into forgiving you and not acting on the breach of the treaty Mother died for,the one which ended the war Father was killed fighting in, you can choose me, or you can place your wager on your bride and her sister, you can choose her, and plunge the nine realms into a state of interplanetary war. It's on your shoulders, Freyr. That is the truth of ruling, which is why I told Mother a throne would suit you ill. You suit a throne well, but the weight of a world changes you."
"I know, sister, I know."
"Freyr, I do need to go back. If I need to stay my husband's hand, it needs to be done as soon as possible, certainly before his advisors get involved."
Freyr took a deep breath in and out. "I will regret either decision, but you know in the choice between you and Jade, I will choose you. Tell your husband the breach in the treaty has been amended, Vanaheim still stands by Asgard."
"Good. And what of your wedding?"
"What of it?"
"Freyr, that wedding is the exact reason you acted so foolishly. I will not think to dictate your final choice of who to choose as a partner to spend your life with, it is pure luck, and wisdom on mother's part that my marriage ended up as well as it did. But marrying your current choice? That is one of the worst decisions you could make. Call it off."
"Pardon, sister?"
"You must call off that wedding, for the good of your realm. For the good of our realm. She will destabilize Vanaheim." Frigga stated with finality.
"I will live to regret this, but for you, I will." Freyr agreed.
Frigga called for Heimdall to take her back to Asgard, satisfied she had done right by both her realms.