There was something about him that Fandral found familiar. Perhaps the glint in his eyes or the tilt of his head when he was thinking, but most of all, the way the Svartalfheim ambassador looked at Maisy. It was such a familiar gaze and yet Fandral could not place it.
"Does he remind you of anyone?"
Sif looked up from her dinner plate and studied the ambassador for a moment. She narrowed her eyes and elbowed Volstagg, who sat next to her.
"Does Ambassador Berilo seem familiar to you?"
Volstagg munched a roll as he peered at the Dark Elf, crumbs falling into his beard.
"Perhaps he was one of those who we fought during the Convergence?"
"Those elves are most likely all dead."
Volstagg pondered it a moment longer, still eating, before he nudged Hogun.
"What say you, Hogun? Is he not recognizable somehow?"
"I do not know him," Hogun replied.
"He reminds me of Loki," Fandral said quietly, "Don't you think?"
"No, no," Volstagg picked up a hunk of cheese, "That's not it at all. We all just have Loki on our minds since his death is so recent."
"It has been nearly two months," Sif replied, "It is not that recent."
"Two months is not long at all!" Volstagg argued, "Particularly to our poor sweet princess."
The warriors cast a collective worried look in Maisy's direction. From her seat a ways down the table, she picked at her food. Though it was probably due to her pregnancy that she had become a more selective eater, the Warriors Three and Sif all took it to be a sign of continued grief.
"Look at the poor thing!" Fandral clucked.
"I do not know why Thor felt the need to leave only a few days after the funeral," Volstagg said, "You all know I love our prince, but surely vanquishing the murderous artificial intelligence on Midgard could have waited until after Maisy settled into life here!"
"And then he says he will be traveling around the realms because of some vision that he had!" Fandral tutted, "While our poor princess must grieve alone!"
"Sif, how is she doing? Truly? You speak to her the most."
"She fares better than I expected she would. It was wise of Odin to allow her to maintain her royal title and provide her with duties to attend to. She is distracted from her sadness I believe."
The warriors fretted over their friend for a while longer and then returned to watching the new ambassador.
Berilo of Svartalfheim.
He was handsome — for a Dark Elf. Skin as pale as the dead and hair the color of moonlight, his shining green eyes were the only bits of color on him apart from a bit of red embroidery on his tunic. The rest of his clothing was black, with a white coat over it and white arm guards in the Dark Elf style.
When Odin and Queen Melantha had introduced the ambassador and announced the trade agreement between Asgard and Svartalfheim, many people had disapproved. Everyone thought that Asgard should not make agreements with the realm that was responsible for beloved Queen Frigga's death. But Odin had declared it time to mend the wounds of an old battle. Melantha wanted peace and she wanted to apologize for the actions of her predecessor. It would take a long time before the people of either realm could forgive each other, but it was a start.
"A whole feast in this elf's honor," a noble near the warriors grumbled, "And the Allfather seems more aloof than ever."
It was true that Odin had become more reclusive since the death of Loki, but he was hardly aloof. He was actually changing all sorts of things to make Asgard a better place. He provided more funding for the orphanage, created more jobs in new construction projects, and even put together a community theatre program.
"I for one, am not complaining," Volstagg gobbled down half a roast chicken, "A feast is a feast, whether it be in honor of a former enemy or not!"
"Ah, Maisy is standing," Fandral pointed, "Do you think she is leaving?"
"No, look, she's taking up her goblet," Sif said.
Maisy clanked her fork against the goblet and the room fell silent, all eyes turning to her. She smiled nervously and Fandral caught Ambassador Berilo looking at the woman with such kind eyes that it was impossible to deny that the elf had heard of the princess and her recent tragedy.
"H-hi everyone," Maisy waved a little, "As many of you know, I am pregnant."
Polite applause sounded.
"And today, on a trip to the healers station," she cleared her throat, "I found out something… uh, shocking. Very shocking. I wanted to share that shocking news with everyone."
Berilo's kind expression turned to worry.
"It's nothing bad," Maisy said quickly, "Err, instead of having one baby… it's twins!"
The news was met by dead silence, but Fandral was watching Berilo's face. The elf was trying hard to keep calm, but Fandral could see it was a struggle. It made him wonder if the ambassador had any sort of acquaintance with Maisy Sichore or if he was simply an easily excitable person.
The silence continued.
"Heh," Maisy rubbed her arm and blushed, "Yay?"
There was more polite applause.
"Geesh, you guys. If Linn was here she'd be dancing on the table!" Maisy tried to laugh, but that got no response either so she just winced and sat down, "Okay then."
Fandral looked to Odin and saw that the monarch was frozen. He looked stunned and he wasn't moving. His expression matched the one on Berilo's face. The expressions were so similar, down to the movement of the eyebrows, that Fandral realized why the newcomer was familiar. He reminded him of Odin! Of course! It was right in front of him! Silly to think Berilo was anything like Loki.
Odin eventually unfroze and began to clap loudly, causing others to clap for the news as well. The warriors joined in whole heartedly, as did the ambassador. Maisy blushed again and she glanced at Berilo.
Fandral raised a brow at the silent exchange between them and he wondered if, perhaps, there might be a friendship between them. Ah well! He thought that he probably should stop snooping and just enjoy the feast before him. It seemed that Berilo would get along just fine in Asgard.
A note from the author: Sorry this one is short, but hopefully the surprise in it made up for the shortness! ;) There will be, not one, but two babies! So basically prepare for trouble and make it double. And we know they're going to be trouble simply based off of who their parents are lol.
Minor announcement: We need ship name suggestions for Bjorn and Linn. Just for fun. So tell me your suggestions and then I'll put them all into a poll on my profile and we can vote for the official one. :)
The next chapter will be longer and fluffier, I promise. With the weather being bad here I will probably be cooped up inside and post another chapter relatively quickly. Like, possibly tomorrow.
Thanks for reading guys!
Special thanks to my reviewers:
Ninja Squirrel: Linn and Bjorn aren't in the rest of this story really, but I already have a really fun oneshot written about them that may or may not involve a school dance... I'll never tell. ;) Also, is your hut made out of textbooks warm? I may need to move into it with you. Where I am things look a little bit too much like a snow globe being thrown around by a toddler. It's too snow globey for even the queen of snow globes lol.
Dragoncat: Oh my gosh that's a lot of cake! That's fantastic! Cake is pretty much my favorite desert ever. I never like to commit to having favorite things, but I had chocolate cake the other day and I have been wanting more cake ever since. Cake is the best. I'm sorry, that was a really random rant about cake. XD
You guys are the bestest! Until next time!