{-Alfonse-}
Personally, he felt that all escalated far too quickly. Nótt took Reginn nearly as quickly as she came in and in minutes they were beginning the fight in the arena. From where the rest of them were, they could hear the crowd cheering even if they didn't understand why that matching was made. Everyone in the room was quiet, though, seeing for themselves the kind of power Nótt possessed.
Anna dared to ask the question they were all wondering. "Does Reginn really stand a chance against her?"
"Reggie couldn't read the room even if her life depended on it, so she's probably told you where she's from." Dagr watched the fight with a grin. "I know I could never really understand what that was like and, from the looks of it, neither could any of you. But she's done a lot that she never should've. She's the kind of person who hears the negative outcome, laughs, and does whatever she can to change it. Trust me, she always goes above and beyond expectations."
Alfonse tried to find a bit of assurance in that as he watched the fight. "How long have the two of you known her? It sounds like you're close."
"It sounds like a really short time, but a year; around the time Fáfnir started to get headaches." She paused when she noticed the confused looks of the others. "So, according to Reginn, Fáfnir was originally a friendly guy; the people of Niðavellir practically worshiped him for stabilizing their government and such. Then he got snappy and paranoid and built an army. He gave Gramr to Mom to assure the jötun that it wasn't a threat for us. I guess the real climax of that is his invasion of Askr." She shook her head. "Anyways, what about the four of you? How long have you known each other?"
"Sharena and I are siblings and we've known Anna for six years," Alfonse replied. "We've only known Fauna for two."
"You've been friends for a while, then! Way longer than I've known anyone that's related to me or my future role as queen." Dagr seemed so proud until she realized none of them particularly reacted to it. "What, do you usually hang out with princesses and future queens?"
"More like two kings, five princesses, a prince, an álfar, and a ton of other noble Heroes." Anna shrugged.
"Damn, you're a downer. But I guess you do all look pretty high up there." Dagr shrugged. "And, uh, what's an álfar? Is that a dverger thing?"
"Elves," Sharena said first. She kept going on when Dagr made no sign of it clicking. "Ljósálfar and Dökkálfar, live in Ljósálfheimer or Dökkálfheimer? Ruled by Dream-King Freyr and Lady Freyja? They give mortals dreams and play with kids in the dream realm, but usually they're forgotten when those kids grow up. Eitri knew who they were…"
"Eitri's a sage, probably a bazillion years old, and way smarter than any of us. Nótt said something about Ótr telling her that Eitri knew about the lands across the sea before anyone in Niðavellir could cross them. I'd be more surprised to find something she didn't know," Dagr remarked. She glanced back at the arena. "Hey, they're talking! Less talking, more fighting!"
The others stepped a bit closer to see, too. It still looked like Nótt and Reginn were trying to talk to each other, though they were still fighting.
"I bet Nótt's trying to call it off to save her reputation," Dagr grumbled. "Or getting Reggie to give up so that Ótr's still happy. Come on, Reggie, you're better than whatever she's trying to tell you…"
"There's nothing we can do aside from wait and see what happens," Alfonse pointed out gently. "And while we're waiting… would now be any better of a time to tell us why you and your sister seem at odds?"
She didn't look too excited to share but it must've taken her attention off of the battle enough to answer. "So you know when siblings have this big fight over something really stupid then they're back together by the end of the day? That happened. Except that fight had real weapons in it. And we still haven't made up…" She sighed. "Jötun tradition says that whichever of the queen's daughters can beat her in battle is the next queen. I guess we kinda always knew that meant that we'd be competing against each other as long as both of us wanted the throne, but it felt like the time for that was far away. Then, a couple of years ago, Mom wanted to see how far our training was going… and she made us go against each other. I didn't want to fight my twin because, you know, she's my twin. Mom and Nótt took it as cowardice and, even though it was ultimately a tie, we've just drifted since then."
((A/N: We don't talk about what Dagr thinks of Nótt and Ótr's relationship. It also doesn't help with what Nótt thinks of Dagr and Reginn's relationship. So generally, the introduction of the Niðavellir royalty only made things worse.))