The past two days I have been focused completely on my battle plans, plans that are now complete. All I need now was to communicate with the leaders of the human world, a signal was going to be sent out tomorrow. A signal that they could not ignore. I looked up at my counsel and smiled, our plan was almost flawless.
"Are you sure this will work? We don't know how the human leaders are going to react." Keon said as he came and stood by my side.
"I'm confident this will work, the humans will answer this call. It will work, brother." I said as I grabbed Keon's shoulder. He looked at me and smiled lightly, after our disagreement 2 days ago Keon hasn't left my side. He has been working closely with me to help with the plans and to fix the link in the chains that binded us. We had never had an argument like that before. Next week we would be going to the human world once again, Ivarr and Rokii would be return home from their 2 week long stay. Keon and I would be spending our time hopefully, communicating with the human leaders.
"Alright, call a meeting. Everyone needs to know of our plans." I said, Keon nodded in agreement.
"Go and bathe. I had the smiths work on a new armour for you, wear it. For me." Keon said as he left. I took a whiff of myself and decided that a bath would be very much a good idea, the inventions team should have our new bath houses done now, I wanted nothing more than a shower like the one in New York. I walked up a flight of stairs and across to our chambers, they were on the same level as the medical room but across in the other tower. As I reached the stairs to my chambers, I could sense there was something different and I was excited. I reached my door and walked into my new chambers. My walls and floors were still the same with my large bed, but it was now covered in a fine new red silk, my drapes were the same colour. Fresh new furs covered my stone floors and a new human seat sat in front of my fire place that was already lit. I smiled, I was going to dry myself there after my shower. I walked towards the left side of my chambers to a new large open area, my bath house. It was all a fine white stone, a water flushing chamber pot that I sat on rather than have someone change. A large white bath, big enough for 3 people sat in one corner, it was pre filled and full of rough bubbles and waves. And my shower, a big square shower head and an easy tap for me to adjust the temperature. I smiled a wide smile, I wanted to try everything, I didn't know how my team created this but I'd be sure to give them my regards.
I undressed and placed my armour on the new dresser with a sink and mirror above it. I first used my new chamber or toilet, as the humans called it. It was so strange pushing a small button and to have everything flushed away and clean. I walked towards my new bath that was bubbling and steaming, I placed a foot in and instantly felt relief, it felt like a hot waterfall. I slipped into the bath and the water massaged my body, I tipped my head back and moaned, this was incredible. After I looked back up I noticed little glass bottles of liquid. I took the lid of each bottle and smelt them, the smelt of various flowers. The one that smelt of roses caught my attention, I placed a small drop of the liquid in my hands and rubbed it together, it foamed and begun to smell better. It was a body wash! Like the stuff at the hotel. I tipped more into my hands and begun scrubbing every inch of my body, before I knew it my entire bath house smelt of roses and my bathe begun to over flow with bubbles. I laughed as the bubbles over flowed.
"Your graced?" Called a womans voice from my chambers.
"I'm in here!" I called back as my handmaiden walked into the bath house.
"By the God's there's bubbles everywhere!" She said as she looked at the floor and looked at me, she smiled after seeing how relaxed I was after my past few days.
"Come my Grace, your guests are arriving." She said as she held me a fresh towel.
I walked into my chambers towards my bed after I dried myself, as promised Keon's armour he had made for me sat in the centre of my bed. I dropped my towel upon looking at it in disbelief. The armour was of pure black leather, with golden trimming and chain mail for protection. Everything matched from the chest piece, to braces and my new leather boots. My arm braces where engraved with golden ruins, spelt out to say 'Odin's Chosen Champion'. Keon must have spent a lot of time planning this. The new cape he made was black and lined with gold as well, the fur on the shoulders was black, the chain used to hold it together was gold. Unlike the other cape we have, this one had a hood. On the centre of the armour was a large golden dragon engraved into it. I smiled at the dragon, there was much effort put into this armour. I begun changing and dressing into my new armour.
After I finished dressing I looked at myself in the mirror, the armour fit me perfectly. I has grateful for Keon's kind gesture. After I finished braiding my hair, I swung my two battle axes tightly onto my back and exited my chambers. I made my way to the elevator, my first time experiencing this sensation alone. But as I arrived I found Keon waiting by the elevator doors. He smiled happily at seeing me dressed in the armour.
"I was worried you weren't going to wear it. I took a gamble with the golden dragon." He said as we shook arms.
"Its perfect." I said as we stepped into the elevator and begun the travel down.
"So, everyone is here. Lady Astrid has been trying to extend her apologies for a few days now, she has much guilt of your disagreement. She will be wanting to speak with you after the meeting. After today our plan will be into motion." Keon said, I nodded in agreement. I had forgotten about my disagreement with Lady Astrid, but she knew better than to try and confront a God. But her intentions were pure, she cared deeply for her children. The elevator stopped and opened the doors as we arrived on the throne floor. Keon and I stepped out gracefully as everyone in the room turned the attention towards us. We walked by everyone quietly as we stepped up by the throne, Koba had already taken his place on the left side of the throne as Keon took his place by the right. I approached the throne and turned when I was in front of it to speak to my counsel. The sea of faces turned to me as I begun to speak.
"News would have spread through the village by now, that there were Dark Knights found in our boarders. That is correct, there was an army of 28 Knights here." I said, the crowd gasped at my news.
"They were eliminated with no causalities on our side, our warriors fought bravely. There is no need to fret, the War Team and I have been working closely and we've created a plan to stop this from happening again. Not only have we constructed a plan to eliminate the threat here, we've constructed a plan to destroy the plague in the human realm as well. Keon?" I said. After I presented I took my place on my ruby and ebony throne as Keon stepped forward to present the plan.
"By the Gods there is some beautiful faces in this sea, and some shit ones!" Keon shouted, making the crowd laugh with him.
"Right, to the plan. To eliminated the threat here, we are sending 3 teams to each boarder in each direction. North, South and West. East is obviously ocean, so unless you want to swim, the East will be fine. These teams will be in charge of protecting the boarders, killing and Knights and reporting to us weekly on their findings. Anything usual must be reported immediately, I can not stress that enough. Vili has been working continuously to train our warriors and he has done a marvellous job at doing so, our warriors will protect the boarders." Keon said as he paced backwards and forwards, capturing the attention of the crowd, but not everyone. I sensed someones eyes on me, I searched the crowd to find the lingering eyes when I found the two blue eyes locked on me. Vili stood in the far back corner leaning against a large beam with his arms crossed, his tattoos covered arms were bulging. His black hair was past his eye brows now and was pushed forward in a messy way, his eyes were almost glowing. I looked away as I remembered I hadn't spoken to Vili since his mother and I confronted each other, once again guilt begun to consume me.
"Freydis and I have been working closely with the inventions team, they've created a machine that is going to send a message to the human leaders. A message regarding a meeting with us, the message will be sent to their settle lights, search through the data until we've located every means t contact them. Emails, phone numbers, home address are some of the things that the message will be sent to. Freydis and I will be travelling to the human realm next week in hopes to create a plan with humans, a battle plan to face the plague on an open battle field in Norway." The people spoke quietly amongst each other momentarily.
"While Freya and I travel to the human world, Ivarr and Rokii will return to help protect the realm. Koba will have the job of protecting the castle always. If anyone has concerns please speak with Koba." Keon continued.
"Freya and I will be leaving in one weeks time, enough time for the humans to receive our message and agree to meet."
"Now, all of you head to the feasting halls, let us eat and drink until the dawn takes us!" Keon yelled, the room erupted into cheers as everyone begun flooding into the feasting halls. I stayed seated as my companions left with the crowd, amongst the crowd was Lady Astrid waiting patiently and staring directly at me. I stood up as we remained eye contact, I motioned for her to follow me to the gardens beyond the throne room. An outdoor area full of flowers, small water falls and trees. It was a peaceful area, perfect for speaking alone and consulting our problems. I waited by a small water fall for Lady Astrid to join me, water falls were a symbol of power.
"My Grace, thank you for seeing me." Astrid said with a bow.
"Lady Astrid there are no need for formalities for bowing in here, please call me Freya." I said as she stood to her feet.
"Then please just call me Astrid." She smiled.
"These gardens are the most peaceful place in the Kingdom, I had them made to create a safe place for speaking freely and voicing our concerns." I said as we walked slowly through the gardens.
"They truly are powerful, I feel much calmer than I did once I walked in." Astrid said.
"I want to apologise for what I said to you, Astrid. I shouldn't have snapped at you like I did." I said as we came to stop by a large rose bush.
"No, please don't apologise, I should be the one too. I'm overly protective of my children, I was very much unaware of you and Vili sharing such an intimate relationship. And after his downward spiral last time, I wanted to protect him." She said as she stared at her feet in shame.
"There is no need to feel shame, you were protecting your children and that is fine, I respect that. Keon and Vili didn't tell me that Vili flew with Keon, that is... A shock to the system. Vili and I had always been close, when I learnt he didn't tell me about this I was hurt." I said as I picked consciously at the red roses. Astrid looked at the roses beside us and picked a big beautiful red one.
"When you awoke and Vili came home, he slept spoke about you." Astrid said as he admired the rose in her hands, I looked at the rose she held.
"Eyes as red as a single rose in a snow storm. He repeated that so often and he still does." She said.
"He loves you Freya, more than I think you can understand, but it pains me that you can only love your soulmate, the one your dragon accepts. When I learnt this during your last slumber, I introduced Vili and Fiona in hopes that he would forget you. I was so wrong, his feelings will never die for you." She said as she begun to cry, my heart pulled at her tears. I held her hands with the rose and looked into her blue eyes, the blue she and Vili shared.
"There is more to the story than you know. I have also dreamt of Vili, continuously. He invaded my dreams and thoughts daily. Not only has he claimed my own heart, he's claiming the heart of my beast." I said, Astrid's eyes lit up.
"Wh... What do you mean?" She asked.
"Vili made contact with my dragon, he didn't fly with me but he touched my beast." I said as Astrid's mouth turned into a smile and more tears fell.She embraced me into a large hug.
"Vili is my soul, my completion, my mate. He always has been." I said as she hugged me tighter. As our hug broke, she gifted me the single rose she had picked and made her way back inside as she wiped her face of tears. I smiled looking down at the rose, I was glad to have admitted that to someone.
"You were mad I kept a small secrete from you, yet you have kept this from me?" Said a voice from behind me, I turned to see Vili standing by the waterfall. He stood in disbelief, his hands were in fists. I stared back at him, unaware of what to say. And in a beat he was gone.
"Vili!" I called, as I tried to run after him.