A few weeks had passed since the ceremony. Solweig was lying on a bed in the healer's office, her sleep magically induced so she could not feel the pain. The bright morning light of the Asgardian sun was shimmering on her pale face. The girls she shared her room with were queuing outside the door, trying to see what'd happened to their friend as well as to peak at the unusual and unexpected gathering of the finest of Asgard's aristocracy in their quarters.
Loki was covering the girl with the bedsheet when his brother and his friends entered, yet not fast enough for them not to see her. Sif had gasped in shock. The princess' body was covered in bruises, her skin cut as if she'd been whipped, her hair stained and sticking to her face with blood. Her lower lip was swollen and she had an open wound on her cheekbone.
Sif cursed: "Who is the bastard who did that?"
"Who do you think?" sighed Loki loudly.
"How did you find out?" asked Thor, turning to his brother.
"Daia informed me" he replied, his tone dry.
Thor looked at the girl standing next to his brother. He knew her for she was the first of Loki's slave and the sister of one of the girls he himself owned. They both were former princesses, the twin daughters of one of their father's ally who had sent them to Asgard as a birthday gift for Odin's sons.
"I… I was coming to check the princess' well-being. Prince Loki asked me to do so since the princess had moved out of the palace. I always come at night so nobody can notice me but when I arrived this time I heard someone screaming. The princess was on the floor, in the barn behind the academy. That… King Harald… He was beating her".
They all looked at her, stunned.
"The only thing I can fathom is that he couldn't help himself, after all he had to drink at the banquet yesterday night" hypothesised Loki, standing next to the bed in an outfit that suggested he came right away once he woke up.
"He's an animal" whispered Sif horrified. She had been relatively close to Solweig before. She had trained her in archery, inviting her to join them every morning like this one, when they all trained together, for Solweig did not know how to fight.
"So after you noticed what King Harald was doing to her, you called the guards and ran to get my brother?" Thor questioned cautiously. He looked successively at her and Loki. Something didn't seem right but he couldn't put his finger on what.
"I… I was meaning to report to him immediately but… because of the festivities they would not let me approach the banquet hall. I could only ask to see the prince this morning".
Daia was looking on the ground, her face burning. She hadn't gone to Loki, but not because the guards would not let her in... It was because she couldn't find him.
"It is more impressive than it is grave" said the healer who entered the room, interrupting Thor's query. He was accompanied by a tall and gorgeous woman who seemed particularly displeased by their presence. "Two ribs broken, a couple of contusions. The cuts might take some time to heal since we had to cut further to remove the pieces of the fabric that had stuck to the flesh" he nodded in the direction of the blood-stained dress that was laying on the chair next to the bed. "Have no fear, she will definitely survive it".
"The girls are scared" started the tall woman, her tone reproachful. "As the leading mistress of this academy I cannot let this slide…"
Thor and Loki turned to the woman, frowning.
"The doors are opened and closed at a fixed hour, everyday, and the doors are locked for the night. No one is allowed inside the building past the curfew and the girls must already be in their bedroom by then. If she was outside in the middle of the night, it was because she wanted to be".
"What are you implying?" asked Thor, frowning.
"Well, it is no secret that she was not pleased to join us here. I simply suspect that she might have tried to run away" replied the headmistress with an unpleasant voice.
—-
Loki had summoned Daia once he was back to Asgard. He was lying on the couch in his room when she entered. He had had very little sleep the night before and needed to relax, but he first wanted to make sure everything had worked out as intended. He would go to Odin afterwards, confronting him about what Harald had done to Solweig.
"You wanted to see me my lord" the girl kneeled on the rug before him.
"Thank you for your help yesterday night. I could not have done it without you" he caressed her hair as she was looking down.
"I beg your pardon for having lied, my lord"
"It's all right" he whispered as he stroke her cheek absentmindedly. "I know you did not expect my brother to be so nosy. But you did well and you will be rewarded"
He stood up and headed towards the door.
"I have to talk to my father now. Go back to your room, you deserve to rest"
—-
The meeting was taking place in Odin's hall even though the king would have preferred for the news not to spread. Odin seemed greatly displeased by the complicated turn that this whole story had taken, his fingers tapping on the arm of his throne in an impatient gesture.
Thor was already speaking to his father down the stairs. The people were gathered on the sides, excited to witness the twists of what they already called the princess affair.
"King Harald broke the rules Father. She is not his yet. This is an attempt of stealing, for he did not only degraded her, he also tried to force himself on her".
A wave of indignation raised from within the audience. Rape was considered a very serious crime in Asgard.
"If the guards would not have arrived in time, who knows what would have happened to her?! She would have lost the only value she has left" stated Thor, loudly. "The rules on Asgard do not tolerate such misconducts"
"I am very well aware of the rules on Asgard son" replied Odin with authority, before glancing at his guest. "What do you say in your defence, King Harald?"
"I have been tricked" said the elf, his gloomy completion even darker in the dimmed lights of the hall for Svartálheim was the land of the dark elves. "I swear before Odin that she had tricked me"
Whispers ran across the crowd.
"I am not lying" Harald turned to Odin, declaring: "She had led me there!"
"How?!" shouted Odin. "That girl was locked inside the slaves' academy, how could she have possibly escaped in the middle of the night?! Have you no honour for lying straight out to my face?!"
"I swear King Odin, she had come to fetch me in my own room. She was in the palace, right here! She asked me to follow her"
"Oh really?" asked Loki who was joining the discussion, walking down the stairs towards the crowd disdainfully. "If what you say is true King Harald, then some other people must have seen her too".
Loki walked down the hall slowly: "Surely such beautiful creature does not go unnoticed. Those of you who witnessed the princess last night in the palace's corridors, I ask of you to introduce yourself".
The crowd was quiet.
"No one?" questioned the prince once more, a presumptuous look on his face. "I will ask once more: who can testify having caught sight of princess Solweig last night?"
After a short while, the raven-haired prince turned around, sneering. "No witness?! What a shame!".
Odin was annoyed by his sons' little games but he must admit they were right. He could not let King Harald leave with the girl as he had clearly broke the laws of his kingdom. He sighed, for he was tired and wanted this audience to be over: "King Harald, you are to leave tonight for Svartálheim without the slave that I had promised you. You won't be punished for you proved to be an important ally of Asgard but I cannot grant you a present you proved yourself unworthy of".
