The maid

Unlike many other nations, Peter was not scared of being near Russia. Perhaps it was because he knew that his foster mother and the other members of her family, which was now his family as well, would be able to protect him. After all, the Vikings were the ones who had attacked into Russia without being affected by the winter.

The three Baltic States were still with Russia, and that was why Peter was able to discover that tapestry.

"Lady Anya, I found this scrap piece of fabric. Should I throw it away?" Latvia asked as he entered, holding the fabric by one corner.

The result was that Peter was to understand why the others would be so careful around Anya, as her anger could be truly frightening.

Upon seeing what Raivis was holding so carelessly, Anya slapped the young boy hard. At the same time, she was cursing in Russian. Peter did not understand any of it, but he could guess the context easily enough due to her tone.

"You idiot!" Anya finally switched back to the common language of the nations. By this time, she had taken back the tapestry and placed it carefully on the table. "If anything happened to this then I'll…" upon this, she switched back to Russia again, which was a good thing. Judging on how pale Raivis became, it was best to not understand what the threat was.

Peter was not scared, but he knew that he better be on his best behaviour. Anyone would be in that situation. However, his curiosity did get the best of him, so that was why he carefully went to take a better look.

He was not surprised at seeing a similar tapestry in Tino's house, because Tino and Susanna were very close, as well as having a shared past. However, it did not make sense for Russia to have a similar one.

Unlike the ones in Susanna and Tino's house, the tapestry that Anya had was very small. It was more like a piece of embroidery.

The tapestry showed a very different Anya. There was a gentleness to her expression that only a few has seen, an expression that most would regard as alien and impossible. Therefore, the artist was clearly someone who must be fairly special to Anya. But then, why would this person be close to Susanna and Tino?

Anya was dressed in a very fine gown but the most dominating part of the picture was the necklace. When one looked at the picture, one could not help but to focus on the necklace.

"…who gave that to you?" Susanna asked, her tone almost sharp.

Anya's eyes were very cold: "Why should I answer you?"

Out of the Vikings that suddenly came to her land, only one person showed her kindness, and that person was not Susanna.

Anya could remember how carefully Ranveig had worked on the stitching of the necklace, wanting to get very detail right. Yet the work would be given to a maid. As if her giving something she made to a maid was not strange enough, she was so careful with it.

"I want to give the necklace back to you, but I am not sure if I will be able to." Ranveig had said as she compared the real object and the rendering of it again. "However, I know that this necklace is very important to you, so I want you to have something that will be able to help you remember."

Because Ranveig knew that they were not going to stay there that long, she was unable to do a large tapestry. However, the small size actually made it easier for Anya to carry.

"I do not look like that at all. Lady Ranveig." Anya had said, shocked at the final result. "You are like this, but not me."

However, her mistress merely smiled.

"You are as beautiful as Freyja." Ranveig said gently.

Author'sNote: I don't think the way that Russia treats Latvia is right at all (for goodness sake, he stretches him!), but I have to say, I can sort of understand why. After all, Russia probably got home after a hard day's work only to discover that Latvia donated his clothes to the museum. I would be mad if I was him. In addition, I really feel that Latvia would be the type who, in his attempt of cleaning Russia's desk, actually ended up burning the bunch of paperwork that Russia just spent the whole morning doing.

This chapter relates to chapter five in 'Neither princess nor queen'. During a raid in Russia, Denmark took a necklace from Russia and gave it to Vinland. Because the necklace is very beautiful, he describes it as the Brísingamen, which is the extremely beautiful necklace of the goddess Freyja. Freyya is very beautiful and she is said to be even more beautiful when she wears the necklace.