A/N: Thank you guys so much for the support of this fic! As I stated some chapters ago I had no idea where this story was supposed to go, and now I have a bit of an idea. It's going to flow from the plot of the movie to my own plot (like an in between movies sorta thing) so just bare with me. I promise it will pick up again soon.
Disclaimer: I don't own.
I write Sins, Not Tragedies
7.
Xaneom was, from a native's opinion, a great place to live. Until recently it was the only world Thyliase had ever known. Her people didn't travel to the surrounding planets, they didn't bother building relationships with those outside their kind. Xaneomians kept to themselves, fought in no wars, and caused no problems. Their world consisted of serpent shifters, and what a Xaneomian could turn into depended upon their sex alone. They had a royal family- a king, queen, and prince. They made the rules that their people followed. They kept their people's best interest at heart.
There were no riots.
No uproars.
Just peace.
A utopia if there ever was one.
To the Asgardians below Xaneom was like another moon, there at night yet so far away with a heavenly glow. Bustling with life that went unnoticed.
"Thyliase?"
Her mother's voice was nostalgic. It was soft, warm yet raspy from age. Dark, weathered eyes regarded her daughter's presence, as said child stood mindlessly in an open field of dead grass, a mere shell void of emotion, with kind open arms.
"Where have you been all this time? I feared something terrible had happened to you."
"I… I am fine, mother." Thyliase said softly as she approached the hunched form of her mother. The shifter felt like she was in a daze, unaffected by all bustling life around her."I have been on As-s-s-gard."
"Asgard? What in the heavens were you doing there? Were you in s-s-s-ome sort of trouble?" Her mother's wrinkled brow furrowed in confusion.
The young shifter shook her head as she melted into her mother's embrace. Her mother held onto her tightly, encasing her in a blanket of security that she very much needed. Thyliase didn't want to think of Asgard, she didn't want to think of Loki's passing or remember how much it pained her so. For a while the two, mother and child, held onto each other in silence. Thyliase quietly telling her mother of all the things that happened over the course of the passing weeks, of all the emotions running rapid within her chest and her mother soothing all the troubles and pain away.
"Thymie?"
Thyliase tensed at the stern calling of her childhood name, something she hadn't been called in years. She released her mother slowly, turning to see a dark haired man approaching them. Midnight hair that once hung just as long as her's was now cut short to the beholder's skull, eyes a piercing shade of sapphire bore into her soul as he took hold of her wrists.
The firm yet gentle hold was nostalgic, the touch electric.
"Asgard? You have been on Asgard?"
"Hello to you too, Dakarai." Said Thyliase as she stared into the face on her best friend, the crowned prince of Xaneom. Having watched the man before her grow into the handsome man he was before her, needless to say he meant a lot to her.
As she him.
"You know the rules-s-s-s, Thyliase. You know you are not to leave Xaneom alone." Dakarai said. His expression softened a bit. "Why did you leave?"
"Queen Frigga summoned me," Said the shifter.
"What could the queen of Asgard want with you?" Asked the prince, skeptically.
"Does it matter?" Countered Thyliase. She was exhausted, both physically and emotionally. She didn't have the energy to put up with Dakarai and his ways.
She didn't return to be lectured like a child, and the prince could argue until the end of time to prove a point he deemed important.
"Yes-s-s-s it does when you very well know the punishments for breaking the rules! How am I to help you when you are not giving me anything to?"
"Who says I even want your help?"
"Thyliase!" Her mother scolded.
"I left because I wanted to leave!" Shouted the girl. "I wanted to see what lied beyond the walls-s-s-s we put up for ourselves, and I found it! I found it… and I lost it… are you happy now?"
Thyliase turned away quietly, heading for her family home. She wanted to lock herself away from the world, she wanted to be left alone.
…
Days turned to weeks, those weeks to short months. Thyliase returned to the life she'd always known, a life that revolved around her family and dance- the life of a commoner of Xaneom. She smiled, and laughed, worked hard and supported. With little effort her presence wove back into society perfectly, just like she'd never left.
Only time would heal the wound Loki's passing left etched onto her heart, and everyday got easier.
"Welcome home."
Thyliase was greeted by the familiar faces of her family as well as Dakarai as she entered through the rickety, wooden front door. It was just as she remembered before she left for Asgard. Her parents, her father reading by the fire while her mother cooked, her sister filling the void of silence with mindless chatter and the prince egging her on.
"Thank you," She smiled kindly. "For the prince you spend more time here than at the palace."
Dakarai got to his feet, broad shoulders squared as he chuckled lightly. "Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe I like it here?" He teased. "Besides-s-s-s, my future in-laws have no problem with my being here."
The shifter rolled her dark eyes. "Please don't start with that again." She sighed tiredly. She didn't want to have that conversation again. The same, ongoing, nagging conversation on her betrothal the handsome prince. Like if she hand the talk one more time her mind would magically change and she would agree to give her life away to the kingdom of Xaneom.
It simply wasn't going to happen.
"Start with what?" Questioned Dakarai, innocently.
"That… getting married stuff. I told you before, I am not marrying you."
"You say it like that is going to change anything, the date has been set, Thymie." Dakarai said, sighing dejectedly.
Thyliase turned to face the prince at his full height. "That… this right here… this-s-s-s is why I left. How am I to marry someone I don't love? I love you, I do and with all my heart but not like that. I don't have a say in anything I do here! I am supposed to fall in line and obey like a good, mindless-s-s-s pet like every other female."
Cerulean eyes narrowed darkly, "You found someone on Asgard." He accused. "You found someone and you love him." Dakarai laughed aloud. "You absolutely enjoy breaking our rules, don't you? You leave without being accommodated, and then you bed an As-s-s-sgardian?"
"How did you…?"
"I knew right away, " Said the prince, matter-of-factly. "I could smell his s-s-s-stench all over you, it sickened me then just like it sickens me now! You are to abide by the rules set for your protection!"
"Protection from what?" Asked Thyliase. "Where is the harm? Where is the danger you seem s-s-s-so afraid of? Because I didn't find it! I found Loki… and… I…"
"Loki…?" The name sounded so familiar to Dakarai.
"Loki…" She murmured softly. "He is too far away, of another world. He is a prince with all the world before him, a chance to change his fate and make things right, while I am just a foreign commoner. He is handsome… and loved though he doesn't see it. He could never love s-s-s-someone like me."
"Oh Thyliase," Said her mother softly.
"No… don't 'oh Thyliase' me like you're taking pity on me. The last thing I need from any of you is pity. Loki is dead… there's nothing left for me on Asgard. But that doesn't mean I plan on throwing myself into the arms of another man, especially you."
Dakarai's features darkened as he took a threatening step forward, closing the space that separated them. "You are given no choice, Thyliase. We are going to wed, weither you are willing or not matters little to me. The palace of Xaneom will be your kingdom or your prison." He tugged the shifter harshly to him, bringing his lips to the shell of her ear. "You have known me for quite some time, and you know how I feel about others-s-s-s touching my things."
Thyliase glared up into beautifully darkened eyes, "I am not yours to own."
"Nor are you his."