"You should both be swinging from the gallows!" Tyr bellowed and Maisy flinched slightly. Perhaps confronting the guy who wanted her dead was no the best plan after all. But she'd fought in arena battles, been attacked by a lindworm, and survived Muspelheim - she could handle an angry old man. Probably.

"If you speak ill of either of us again I will see to it that it is you whose neck snaps from the weight of his own body, Tyr," Loki snarled, comforting hand on Maisy's shoulder.

"With what authority, boy?" Tyr rode his horse closer to them, glaring down at them as the mob moved in and the city guardsmen tried to keep them back, "You are a sniveling second son with no power and a silly vendetta against your brother."

"Have you forgotten so easily, that I am a prince of Asgard? To speak of killing me is to speak of treason!"

"Fine," Tyr nodded and then was on them in an instant, his gloved hand grabbed Maisy's white and green hair and lifted her up so that she had to stand on her tiptoes. She yelped and Loki roared, Tyr held a sword to her neck, "I do not wish harm upon the son of my former friend - false as the title 'son' may be. I will settle for this Midgardian vermin's life ended."

"Let her go or I'll-"

Maisy didn't want to hear the rest of the threat. She was still rather grouchy, and now also scared, and she didn't want to deal with more overprotective husband business. Though, this time it was probably justified, she interrupted.

"Lord Tyr," she gasped, holding the base of her hair to try and alleviate some of the pain, "Maybe if you put me down we can talk like - ow! - civilized people. I know you Asgardians can be pretty savage, but on Midgard we like to respectfully talk out our problems."

She hoped her ploy didn't sound too obvious. By calling out the fact that Asgardians fought out their problems while Midgardians tried to discuss them, she was implying that Midgard was more civilized than Asgard. Which was something no right minded Asgardian would agree with.

Even if Tyr was onto her, there were still murmurs of dissent throughout the mob. Loki's mouth snapped shut and he looked up at Tyr calmly. Maisy had known her husband long enough that she could see a rage still burning in his eyes, but he must have agreed that the best way to handle this was to play it cool.

"What say you, Tyr? Shall we come to a diplomatic solution or will you slaughter a woman in the streets like the barbarian you are?"

Tyr roughly threw Maisy to the ground, but kept his sword trained on her.

"Speak your piece, vermin."

Surprised that actually worked, Maisy dusted herself off and crossed her arms. She wanted nothing more than to slink over to Loki's side and let him do all the talking, since he was good at this kind of thing, but if she was ever going to get Tyr to respect her she had to do this herself.

"You are mad, uh, you have quarrel with me because of what hap- what occurred with your son, Drin, right? Uh, affirmative?" Her Asgard lingo could use some work, she supposed.

"You murdered my son, so yes, you filth, I'd say that is where our problem stems from."

"And you know why I had to kill him?"

"He drunkenly thought to win your hand," Tyr sneered, "He was under the influence of mead. He could not be held accountable for any ignoble behaviors."

"So, sir, you're saying, uh, you claim that if Drin had killed me, as he was telling me he would do in that moment, that it wouldn't be his fault?"

"He would not have killed you, idiotic girl."

"But that's what he said he wanted to do!" Maisy looked around at the mob, hoping to get them on her side. Tyr would never see things differently, but these people might, "He held a knife to my throat and claimed he wanted to drag me away from my friends, rape me, and then kill me. And you are saying that he wouldn't have been responsible for any of that just because he'd had one too many?"

"He was a hero of Asgard!" Tyr argued, noticing that people were muttering angrily amongst themselves, "Regardless of what he said he'd do, he has saved hundreds of lives in his service as one of Odin's warriors!"

"Yeah? Well, Loki's probably saved more lives than that, but we all still blame him for all the evil crap, uh, deeds that he's committed and threatened to commit! Your past actions don't justify your current ones!"

"Aye!" A man from within the mob shouted, "The Midgardian has a point!"

"Aye!"

"Aye!"

Maisy blushed a little and clenched her fists. She felt queasy to have this much attention on her. She was going to be sick if she didn't end this conversation soon.

"But Drin didn't kill thousands of innocents like Loki!" Tyr tried to argue.

"I thought you hated the Midgardians," Loki said cooly, "If anything, you should see my actions on their realm as a good thing."

"Do not twist my words, boy!"

"At least I never tried to force myself on a woman, married or otherwise," Loki crossed his arms and raised a brow, "Whereas I've heard tales from the palace staff that are not fit for the young ears here today. Drin attacking Maisy was not the first time he showed his abominable nature."

"That's right!" A woman from the crowd called, and pushed her way forward, her eyes were red from crying and she looked furious, "Your son may have saved my brother on the battlefield, but he also accosted my daughter who works in the palace!"

"If your daughter looks anything like you, woman, she should feel lucky anyone showed any interest," Tyr sneered and his horse snorted as if in agreement. The mob gasped in horror. Shouts of outrage were heard, which warmed Maisy's heart. She was glad to see that the people of Asgard would not tolerate such nonsense.

"So, Lord Tyr," she said loudly and the mob quieted a minute, "I am very sorry that it came to taking your son's life. I never wanted to kill anyone. But I was only doing it in self defense."

"And let's be honest," Loki said drolly, "That weasel had it coming."

The mob cheered in agreement. Maisy had once done a psych project on mob mentality (it had been an elective class and she'd failed), but she was still surprised at how quickly they changed their minds. All a mob needed was a common enemy. It was crazy how easily she'd changed that enemy from herself to Drin.

"Very well," Tyr said at last, pulling his horse's reins tightly, "You all support this false, weak princess? Fine. Be as fickle minded as you want!"

"The truth tends to change people's minds," Loki smirked and Maisy could only nod.

"Maisy Sichore, just because this is over… doesn't mean this is over," Tyr spat in frustration, "Watch your back girl! Your snake of a prince won't always be there to watch it for you!"

With that, Tyr kicked his horse into movement and nearly trampled some children. He rode off and Maisy hoped she'd never see the pissed off lord again. She breathed a sigh of relief when he was out of sight and leaned against Loki. She'd worked off her anger now and she was sorry she'd grouched at him earlier, even though he deserved it.

"Such a shame," he commented, wrapping his arm around her waist.

"What?"

"That I won't always be able to watch your back," he smirked and glanced behind her, "It is such a lovely backside to watch."

"Loki!" She slapped his arm and turned a deep shade of red, "We're in public!"

"Mmm, good point. Let us return home so we can recover from the exhaustion and irritation Midgard brings."

"Maybe it wouldn't be so exhausting if you didn't try to kill my dad," she replied as they walked through the crowd in the direction of the palace, "I've heard plotting against your inlaws can really take it out of you."

"Perhaps you're right," Loki rolled his eyes, "Ah well, we shall be staying far away from Joshua Sichore for a good while, I presume. Perhaps he and I will be able to sort out our differences from afar."

"I wouldn't be too sure that we'll be staying away for too long," Maisy countered, "At least, I hope not."

A note from the author: Tyr dealt with, woo hoo! At least for now... he, uh, might be back. Soon. :P I shoulda let Loki punch him in the face or stab him or something. Or Maisy, even though she isn't a big fan of violence. I think she could have enjoyed punching a sexist, horrible, old guy in the face. Maybe next time!

Thank you so much to everyone for reading! I'm so thankful that everyone is sticking with this story because I love writing it for you! :)

Special thanks to my reviewers:

CheetahLover: I'm glad you like how she's developing! I didn't want to change her character too much in the sequel, but sometimes you just gotta stand up for yourself so she does a bit more of that. :)

Lwolf: Hope your cold goes away soon! Those are never fun. :P

ferbette: Seriously, I keep brainstorming ways to get Frigga into the story and have her yell at him. We might have to have a ghost Frigga pop in at some point.

Ninja Squirrel: I LOVE YOUR WHOLE REVIEW SO MUCH! XD Can Ralph make a cameo in the story at some point? I want him to make an appearance. You never said what his guard companion's name was so I'm thinking Bjorn. Lol, Odin's gotten into the eggnog again! He's seriously been a lazy king lately, if he's not careful someone might just, ahem, overthrow him and put him in a retirement home. ;)

nina del carmen: I think that's a really pretty name! :) It's unique and cool!

You guys are all the best!