Sif stared at her lunch as if daring it to do something that same day. Fandral sat to her left, looking in his mirror with an upset expression. It seemed to her that he had misspoken around Tilaria and hadn't made the best impression. Volstagg was already working on his second piece of chicken, unbothered by Fandral's moodiness by Hogun was quieter then usual as if there was something on his mind.
It didn't take a genius to guess that Tilaria was also bothering Hogun. It could be simply because she was another royal from another realm visiting Asgard as he was, but Sif doubted that was the whole story. Tilaria had barely been here for an hour and it was truly astonishing to Sif the degree that she was interfering with life at Gladsheimr.
At first Sif had been glad that there was going to be another girl here who was skilled in blades, but she had heard some very dark things about what Tilaria had done during and before the Ljósálfr's most recent civil war. Tilaria appeared now, walking into the dining hall beside Thor. That really irked Sif, as if the vixen was trying to cloud the minds of all of Sif's friends.
Hogun nodded hello to her and Volstagg said it with a mouth full, earning him a disapproving look from Hogun for talking with his mouth full.
"Milady," Fandral greeted Tilaria honorably, trying to undo the damage he had done earlier.
Sif ignored them all, and Tilaria. Tilaria respectfully said hello to them, but she hesitated near the door. Thor sat down and was surprised when he realized that Tilaria wasn't next to him. He turned around and looked at her curiously.
Tilaria telepathically sense Loki walk up behind her although his step was so silent that she was still surprised when he spoke to her, and asked politely. "Are you going to eat something?"
Although Tilaria's last visit to Asgard has lasted three day, she had spent most of that time in the Healer's Ward and had yet to eat with all of companions other than the welcome feast when she and Arlen had first arrived. She didn't count that as actually eating with them though. Tilaria nodded at Loki and walked with him to the table, sitting on Thor's right. Loki sat to her right so she was now between the princes.
Tilaria curiously picked up her mug and took a sip of it, smiling at the taste of creamy milk.
"So Tilaria," Sif started while Tilaria took a sip.
Tilaria looked over the rim of her mug curiously, and lowered it back to the table.
"Let me see if I understand this right." Sif tapped her spoon on the table, letting her soup cool. "Queen Anastasia and King Hallien adopted you when you were a babe. Sometime after that, they had Eragon and Anastasia died soon afterward. Eragon is now the light elves heir."
Tilaria nodded that Sif was correct, but didn't like the tone of her voice.
"Allfather has now agreed to Hallien's idea that you be fostered here because your mother was Æsir like us," Sif said in a voice that was more of a question then a comment.
"Yes," Tilaria agreed, and because she hadn't left Hallien much of a choice.
"Is that the only reason?" Sif probed. "Because you're a Halfling?"
"I like Asgard," Tilaria said carefully, "but I didn't get to see much of it last time because of Arlen. What I did see though is that it's nothing like Alfheim, and I mean that as a compliment."
"So… It wasn't because you killed a few dozen innocents and the elves deemed you a threat to security." Sif casually threw down her ace in a manner of speaking.
"Sif!" Thor hissed.
Tilaria tensed, amazed that Sif knew in that much detail what had happened on Alfheim.
"It is an honest question." Sif shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly.
"Where did you hear that?" Loki asked in a dubious and disrespectful voice. "Jonelle and her girls? I thought you had better things to do then partake in idle chatter. Did you even finish your homework?"
"Yes I finished it and no, not from Jonelle." Sif waved her spoon and continued. "I also heard she tried to assassinate Hallien over a century ago, and that's the real reason why Arlen tried to kill her."
Thor realized that Tilaria seemed distressed and warned Sif to "stop it."
"She also uses blood magic, which works only when she kills others," Sif pointed out. "That's forbidden, and it was her who started Alfheim's civil war, not Daris."
"ENOUGH SIF!" Thor ordered loudly as if he were Odin demanding silence in court.
Sif scowled at Thor's frustration, not meaning to upset the prince but hardly surprised that he had jumped to Tilaria's aid. Tilaria had ducked her head, and her hand rested on the spoon she had been about to pick up.
Sif pointed her spoon at Tilaria like it was a Dark Elven disruptor triumphantly and demanded, "well?"
Loki beat Thor to the reprimand when he threw his spoon at Sif. The handle hit Sif's hand perfectly, and Sif dropped her spoon onto her plate with a clatter.
"Ow!" Sif jumped in her seat and waved her hand, the back of it now red from Loki's throw.
Loki met her scything glare solidly. He knew that Tilaria had killed Arlen, and that she used blood magic. Although rumors abounded over the subject of Alfheim's civil war nothing was known for certain about it other than that Daris was a traitor, he had tried to kill Eragon and Hallien, and had escaped.
"Hallien was going to have me executed for killing Arlen," Tilaria said quietly. "As soon as the Bifrost dropped me off at Alfheim we fought."
The princes and the other children looked at each other and then at Tilaria in surprise by her words.
Tilaria took a breath to calm her heartbeat before her magic acted on its own and raised her head strongly. "Hallien beat me, but I escaped his trial later on with my blood magic. If the Immortal Guard had stepped back instead of trying to recapture me, they would still be alive. It was during that skirmish that Hallien began to suspect Daris was dabbling in forbidden magic, so I suppose in a way I did start the civil war."
Sif frowned at her, surprised that she was admitting all of this. "So why did you try and kill Hallien?"
"I didn't," Tilaria lied with another hiss. "If I had tried, then he would be dead."
Something about the surety of her tone made Loki's skin crawl, and he accounted it to her blood magic. Blood magic was arcane, and like all arcane, the more of it you used the more powerful you felt. The more addicted you would become to it, and the more of your sanity was destroyed as you began to love killing more and more. It was a vicious circle.
"Pardon me," Tilaria hissed as she stood up while Sif continued to glare at her. "I seem to have lost my appetite."
She left her untouched lunch and stormed out of the dining room.
"Nice one Sif," Fandral muttered, and viciously stabbing his soup with his spoon.
"That was harsh," Volstagg said around a full mouth.
"Shut up," Sif spat at them.
Hogun surprised everyone when he spoke up. "Elves are different from us. They truly despise half-breeds, and she has just been through a war. A war she did kill in. You should not judge her so harshly."
Everyone stared at him. He had just said more in two minutes then he usually did in two days. Hogun glanced at them and went back to eating.
Sif looked at them, perplexed. "Why is everyone taking her side?"
Unnoticed, Loki slipped from his chair and chased after Tilaria.
"Tilaria!" He called out once he had put some distance between himself and the dining hall.
Tilaria didn't stop walking. Her movements were sharp and exact, her hands bunched into fists.
"Tilaria!" Loki called out again and increased his pace to close the distance to her.
"What?" She stopped so suddenly Loki had to teleport in front of her to keep from walking into her.
"So," she started just as Sif had. "Got any more accusations to make? You already know I'm a blood mage."
"Sakat," Loki said instead, waving his hand.
The sounds of distant voices and clattering dishes of the dining hall faded to silence. Now they could talk privately.
"Do you want me to make more accusations?" Loki demanded, "Because I can. Sif missed a few rumors."
Tilaria bared her fangs, surprisingly long and pointed, and hissed.
"Did you really kill?" Loki whispered.
"Yes," Tilaria answered impatiently. "Yes I killed eight Immortal Guard. I tore one apart so you could not recognize that he used to be elfin in an effort to get at his blood, and broke every bone in another's body. When reinforcements came, I killed some of them to, striped the flesh straight from their bones. That is blood magic, and I couldn't use any other magic with restrainer cuffs so I used it. That is just the start. Daris used blood when he tried his coup so I had to as well to protect Eragon."
Loki was startled by how vicious Tilaria spoke, but did not miss the fact that she said to protect Eragon. Just like Loki would use forbidden magic if he needed to keep Thor safe, so Tilaria would do the same from Tilaria. That part Loki understood perfectly.
"I can't say anything," Loki responded in a soft voice, "because I don't know what happened during that war. I don't know what situation you were in or your reasons, so it would be wrong for me to assume I do and judge you. I've used forbidden magic to because the situation called for it."
Tilaria glanced at Loki at his admission and then looked away. Oh suns, she wasn't supposed to be telling Loki about the war. Her condition with Hallien was that the Æsir stayed in the dark, and now Loki was saying that he understood. There was no way a pampered prince like him would understand what it had been like for her growing up as a despised half-breed, alienated even worse than the Ljósálfr born with black hair.
Loki was about to say something else when his right ear started to ring, alerting him that someone was approaching the soundproof dome he had put into place around himself and Tilaria. His magic warned him that it was Sif, and she wasn't happy.
"Einca na." Loki whispered the generic counter charm, dissolving the soundproof spell. "Sif is coming."
Tilaria made a hmph sound, but made no move to leave. Loki realized that Tilaria might want a fight, and realized also that it would be a bad idea. Thor would get mad at him if he let Sif get hurt, so he stepped forward and set his hand on her shoulder without first asking. When he did so, Tilaria made a move to swat his hand aside and break the contact, but his teleportation had already set and her nerves froze as the two of them disappeared in a swirl of emerald sparkles.
When Sif stomped around the corner muttering about how those idiotic boys couldn't see that Tilaria was trouble, she didn't even slow down.
Loki wasn't aware of the fact however when the teleport dropped them off in an empty hallway. With her nerves free, Tilaria swatted Loki's hand aside and stepped away sharply. She looked around warily, but seemed to realize that she was in no danger.
"Why did you do that?" She demanded Loki, "and where did you take me?"
"If you hurt Sif Thor's going to get mad at me because I was right there and didn't stop you first of all," Loki answered. "Second, this is the ambassadorial wing. I sometimes teleport here because this wing is empty, so I know I won't materialize next to someone and scare them out of their boots. That actually happened one time, kind of a funny story…"
Tilaria didn't seem aware of his comment about the story and looked around. "These are the rooms Odin spoke of?"
"Yeah," Loki straightened out of the slouch he had adopted accidently. "I can unlock all the doors so you can look around and pick out a room you like. I'm also going to have to remember that I can't keep coming here since someone's going to be living here."
Loki used his rank as Asgard's prince to unlock all the rooms filled with expensive silks and other things so Tilaria could look around.
"Most of the rooms are connected with another so the ambassador can stay close to his escort, but they can be sued for a single person," Loki explained. "The rooms closer to us are fancier then those further away, but I don't know if you want one with all the fluff and frills that some of them have. Where's your stuff?"
"My what?" Tilaria asked blankly, and then realized what Loki meant.
She closed her eyes and a tan satchel materialized on her right shoulder in a flurry of fuchsia glitter.
"Is all of your stuff in that one bag?" Loki asked in amazement.
"Yes," Tilaria said defensivly. "It's got an expansion charm so it's larger inside. Why?"
"Most girls, from what I've seen, have a lot of luggage and makeup and jewelry and stuff." Loki replied in the innocent manner befitting one of his age.
"Elves don't typically wear jewelry unless it's a flashpiece, and I've seen some of the Æsir around here with makeup, but I don't know what it is very well." Tilaria replied shyly, aware that her knowledge was minimal compared to most.
"Do you mean flashpiece as in an amulet to store magic?" Loki asked, "And flash as slang for Seidr?"
Tilaria nodded. "I suppose that is Eladrin terminology, so I wouldn't expect you to know about it."
Loki nodded to himself as he thought over her words and then straightened. "Well, how about we look around for a room you'd like?"
"You'll miss lunch," Tilaria reminded him.
Loki shrugged, "I can always steal something. There's this kitchen maid named Jeanne who helps me smuggle out snacks all the time."
"All right," Tilaria said dubiously and adjusted the way her satchel sat on her shoulder so it wasn't about to fall off. "If you insist."
Tilaria is not a bad guy, but she's not really a good guy. More of an anti-hero/possible supervillain then anything. Sif has good instincts to be wary of her. Don't forget though that Tilaria's been through a war, died, and technically she's only about 12 or 13 by human time. A human her age going through all that would have a cloudy hue as well.
Sif's accusations, even if they're technically right, are pushing Tilaria's patience and emotional control to the breaking point. Rather, as the story says, she's being pushed to the shatterpoint. You will hear more of shatterpoints later and understand why this story is named after them.
*(Cloudy hue, Psyco-Pass reference. Anyone get it? If not you should watch it, it's an amazing cop, sci-fi anime.)*