Chapter II: Playing with Fire
A/N: Took a bit longer than I anticipated, but here's the next chapter of Skyfall. Thanks go out to MsMarvel21 and theicemenace for their beta work on this chapter. Enjoy! SSD
Now that they were at their uncle's place and had rested up a bit, it was time for both Hanna and Astrid to start to get ready for the night's feast. They gave each other as wide a berth as possible, since they'd been in forced proximity for the duration of the trip to their uncle's home.
Hanna looked at the possible dresses she could wear. There was the deep blue dress that would make her eyes seem even bluer. Then there was her dark green dress with the gold embroidery. The third dress was a silvery blue dress. It was the newest of the three, and she hadn't had a chance to wear it just yet.
Hanna smiled. The silvery blue dress would go perfectly with that sapphire necklace of her mother's. That necklace was the focus of one of her few clear memories of her mother before she died.
After donning the dress and the servants laced it up, Hanna went to find the necklace herself. She just hoped Astrid didn't get to it first.
Just as Hanna picked up the necklace and was about to put it on, she heard a sneer from the doorway saying, "I'm wearing that tonight."
Taking a deep breath, Hanna turned around and countered with, "I got here first." And once she took in her sister's yellow dress, Hanna snarked back saying, "Besides, it'll go better with mine than yours." She placed the necklace reverently on the table next to where she was standing.
"I'm the older sister. I get first pick of our mother's jewelry," Astrid snarled.
"To you, it's just stones and metal. Something to be coveted. To me, it's a tender memory of our mother."
Hanna bit her tongue at that. Showing that kind of weakness to Astrid was never a good thing.
With a cruel smile, Astrid suggested, "Well since both of us can't wear it, we could always break it in half and both wear the two pieces."Astrid snatched the necklace off the table near Hanna. Holding it between her hands, she pulled it taught, straining the silver links in the chain. The sapphire center was eye level between the two of them.
Hanna turned ashen at the thought of the necklace breaking. As much as she wanted to wear it herself, the alternative was unthinkable. "Astrid, that's all I have left of mother's!" she cried.
Astrid smirked as she tightened the chain around her hand. "Then what a shame it would be if it was to break then. All because you were to selfish to share it with me."
Hanna glared at her sister as she made her final decision. "Fine, take it then!" she snarled as she turned around to hide her emotion.
###
"It is truly fascinating the things the servants know. King Haakon must talk around them as if they were deaf." Loki thought as he slipped around the castle unnoticed and invisible.
Something that he'd heard was that the current king's father had nearly changed the line of succession so that his younger son, Sven would be king. While Haakon was not incompetent, his younger brother probably would be a better king. But Sven, it seemed, had talked his father out of doing that, saying that it would better to have him advising Haakon rather than having Haakon being the one doing the advising.
This was also an easy way of sensing magic signatures. Most everyone, even the servants seemed to have a standard level of magic potential with a few exceptions in either direction.
His thoughts on magical signatures brought him back to the fact that the king did not seem to know when to keep his mouth shut about his family. Not that it mattered to him. Apparently his youngest niece Hanna had been having issues with her magic abilities. The servants whispered that she was a pyrokinetic, a rare find even in a family as strong in magic as her own.
Smirking to himself, Loki made his way back to his rooms.
"Let's see what the girl does. Perhaps tonight will turn out to be interesting after all."
###
Hanna was doing her best not to glare at her sister too much. As Hanna figured, while the necklace still looked good on Astrid, it clashed a bit with her yellow dress. And as always, Astrid was getting a lot of male attention. Right now, she was talking with one the Warriors 3.
"Looks like Fandral. He's a charmer, if even half the stories told about him are true."
Hanna and Ragnar favored their father with their inky black hair and blue eyes. This meant that they stood out in the crowd of normally fair haired Vanir. Ordinarily Hanna liked the fact that she stood out in the crowd, but tonight it only made her uncomfortable. She felt eyes on her constantly. And most of the times she'd turned around tonight, it had been the younger prince of Asgard watching her. She had the feeling that she was being watched again.
Turning around, she noticed that Prince Loki was watching her again. And when she didn't look away from him, he smirked. Rolling her eyes, she went back to her food. She hadn't done anything to court his attention. She had the feeling that she was not about to lose his attention.
Dancing was the one thing she enjoyed about gatherings like these. She never had a shortage of dance partners.
As Hogun led her out to the dance floor, Hanna took note of a torch that her sister was sitting near. She would remember that for later.
###
After participating in several dances, Hanna felt like her feet were about to fall off. Astrid was sitting down now as well, talking and flirting with every uncommitted male who happened to cross paths with her.
Hanna knew that she needed to find an excuse to leave the feast and soon. Her anger was bubbling up and she did not want there to be an incident, especially given their visitors.
Though before she would leave, she and her brother would have one dance. It was a tradition they had. She scanned the room with her eyes, catching a glimpse of him as he slipped out a side door.
"Come on Ragnar, hurry up. I need to get out of here…" She was prevented from thinking on this further when she heard a cough behind her. Turning around, she saw that her brother was in fact behind her. Holding his hand out he asked, "May I have this dance, with the only woman that does not have to worry about me stepping on her feet?"
Hanna snickered slightly, "Who am I to refuse such an offer." She got up as her brother led her out to the dance floor. It was a simple waltz, a dance that both of them had long since mastered.
After going through a few of the moves on the floor, Ragnar asked, "Has anyone been watching you tonight? Or has anyone caught your eye?"
As Hanna did her own move, she rolled her eyes before replying, "As a matter of fact yes, someone has been watching me tonight." She gave Ragnar a look that said she didn't want to continue the conversation.
Choosing to ignore Hanna's look of warning, Ragnar teasingly asked, "Well who is it, Hanna?"
Knowing how protective Ragnar could get when men showed an interest in her, Hanna started with, "First off, little brother, I have done nothing to attract his attention." Taking a deep breath, Hanna continued with, "Prince Loki seems to be watching me like a hawk. Why I'm the one he's watching, I'm sure I don't want to know."
After seeming to think for a bit, Ragnar replied, "My dear sister, you are the most beautiful woman in the room. Even more so than our sister Astrid. Perhaps that is the reason His Royal Highness seems unable to look away, and therein lies the source of her jealousy."
Hanna scoffed at that before saying, "Astrid is jealous of my abilities, dear brother. It is her belief that she should have been given the power to manipulate fire. My looks have less than nothing to do with it."
"You've got to stop comparing yourself to Astrid. You are very beautiful."
Hanna had to smile at that before saying, "You eel, when did you become so smooth?"
Again, her brother replied with a smirk, "Practice I guess."
As they did the final spin, Hanna was facing the doorway. She then saw something that shocked her to the core. Her brother was standing in the doorway, looking for her.
Pushing away from her dance partner, Hanna hissed angrily, "Who are you?"
Her partner turned around and saw that Ragnar was back. "Damn, I thought he would take longer." He had an unnatural smirk on his face when he turned back to face Hanna.
Barely keeping her anger in check, Hanna quietly snarled, "Who the devil are you, so I know who ask my brother to give a good beating?" He'd done that sort of thing in the past, and wouldn't hesitate to do it again, to protect his sister.
"I think you would prefer your beloved brother to not get into trouble." As he was saying that, there was a green shimmering light, and who she had thought to be her brother turning a lot taller and a lot lankier. Her irritation and shock spiked when the transformation finished and she saw a smirking Prince Loki right in front of her.
When taking in her shock, he grinned, "Speechless are we? I tend to have that effect on women."
Glaring at him, Hanna growled, "Hrokafuller svin"and started to walk away before an idea hit her. Turning back towards the prince with an evil grin of her own, she hauled off and slapped him hard across the face, before stalking off.
###
Loki rubbed his jaw. The girl certainly had fire in her in more ways than just her magic abilities.
Instead of being angered about her slapping him, Loki was pleased that she'd stood up to him. He heard a loud, roaring laugh behind him. Thor must have seen a fair portion of the event
"You really do have a way with women brother. Just not always in the way you make yourself out to be."
Loki let Thor lead him away to go get some more wine. Oh yes, the night had been very interesting.
###
Motioning to a servant to pour her a cup of winter wine, Hanna took a deep quaff of it, savoring the jolt of the alcohol coursing through her veins.
A few moments later, she heard the chair next to her being pulled out. Hanna looked up to see who it was. It was Ragnar. Or so it seemed.
Done with Loki's trickery for the night, Hanna smiled fondly at her brother. "Ragnar, do you recall the day we dumped a bucket of mud over Astrid's head?"
"It was not mud, but paste. We propped the bucket above her bedroom doorway." Ragnar chuckled at the memory. "It took a full seven days for her to remove it from her hair, and she refused to leave her room the entire time. Why would you mention an incident from our youth, dear sister? Are you thinking of repeating the performance? You know as well as I that Astrid will be even less kind in her quest for revenge than she was as a child."
Taking his hand, Hanna sighed. "I had to be certain you were who you appeared to be."
"And why wouldn't I be me?"
Hanna took a deep draft from her goblet before beginning her explanation. "I was dancing with someone earlier whom I thought to be you."
Retrieving his hand, Ragnar reached for his own goblet, peering into it as if the answers to the universe could be found within its depths. "And what was it about this scoundrel that made you think otherwise?"
An impish smile crossed her lips. "It was the effortlessness with which he attempted to charm me that gave it away."
Her brother's mouth dropped open then closed with a snap. He sipped from his goblet before replying. "Are you saying I lack appeal to the fairer sex?"
She waved away her younger brother's protest. "Of course you do. But he was bold and unashamed when his deceit was discovered."
Hanna took another long sip of her wine, still berating herself for not realizing that she'd been tricked into dancing with Loki, of all people.
"Tell me his name and I'll show him the error of his ways." Ragnar gripped Hanna's free hand, lightly squeezing. "I shall thrash him within an inch of his worthless life."
One eyebrow moved upward a fraction of an inch. "As much as I would enjoy the spectacle, doing so would create a diplomatic incident that would not soon be forgotten."
Watching Ragnar try to puzzle out the identity of the man who had duped his sister, Hanna saw the moment when the answer came to him, that it had to be one of the visitors from Asgard. And with that insight, came the knowledge that there was only one person capable of such mischief.
"It was Prince Loki, wasn't it?" The calmness in Ragnar's voice did nothing to cover his anger as his eyes scoured the room for the Asgardian.
Placing her hand on his arm, Hanna said, "Please don't do anything you'll regret, brother."
He must have heard the note of pleading in her voice because his eyes met hers, softening with affection. "Because you commanded it, I will take care in how I handle this breech of courtesy with the prince. Give me a moment to take my leave, and I'll escort you to your chamber."
Hanna smiled at that. She loved that her brother looked out for her. Unfortunately, they heard a high laugh. It was Astrid, showing off the necklace.
Ragnar looked at his sister worriedly. She'd dealt with a lot tonight and was probably reaching the end of her rope. Then he saw the evil grin on her face. She was planning something.
Hanna wasn't even looking at her brother. All she saw was her sister wearing the necklace that she should have been wearing. Under normal circumstances, Hanna would have been able to deal with that. Both the business with the necklace and then the incident with Prince Loki were burning her up inside.
Noticing that Astrid was still sitting near that torch, Hanna focused on the flame, and did a small waving motion with her hand and directed it towards Astrid, only intending to make her feel the heat of the flame.
Unfortunately, like with most of the cases when she used her magic, something went awry. Instead of just making her feel the heat, the flame took on shape and set Astrid's hair on fire.
A/N 2: I know, evil cliffhanger. But it will be well worth the wait! Please tell me what you thought of it!
P.S- The phrase in Icelandic means "arrogant pig".