Prince Hreiðmarr
Chapter 10: Prince Hreiðmarr
“So, did you enjoy your first noble wedding feast?” Lord Blekk asked as he popped another piece of hardboiled egg into his mouth.
“I did. I only regret I couldn’t stay longer to watch the effects of ale as you have told me about.” Lord Blekk chuckled.
“It was quite the spectacle. Although I too regret you couldn’t stay longer, I wish to congratulate you on your quick thinking, however. It was better to leave than letting the situation escalate between the princes.”
“Thank you, my lord.”
“Lord Fandral missed your presence as well.” Lord Blekk joked. “He even sang about you, until prince Frey got angry and demanded him to show more respect.” The scene lord Blekk had painted made you laugh. A drunken lord Fandral standing on a table singing his heart out while prince Frey boiled with anger.
"I wish to discuss something with you, Svinnr.” Lord Blekk said after a moment of comfortable silence.
“What’s wrong?” You asked a bit panicked at the change of topics.
“Nothing, my dear, I only wish to discuss your sleeping arrangements.” Now you were truly confused. “For now you sleep with the other servants in the servant-wing, but Egil and I came to a conclusion that perhaps it would be better if you had your own room.”
“My own room?”
“Yes. At first I thought a room at the library would suffice given that it would be close by, but all of them are already been taken by other servants or librarians. I then realised, it would perhaps be better if you simply stayed at my own apartments, since I rarely use them myself.” Your eyes widened. Lord Blekk was planning on given you free roam over his very own apartments? “They’re close by as well, not so much as the library would have been, but still closer than the servant-wing. If you accept than I do want you to keep the place clean and if I were to receive guests when I’m there, I want you to join us as well.”
“Are you… are you sure, my lord?” Lord Blekk only laughed at that.
“I am, my dear. Besides something needs to be done about the little enemies you have made along the way. That servant who attacked you will not be the last.” He warned.
“Won’t this provoke the others more?”
“Oh, I’m sure it will. Jealousy is one of the strongest emotions amongst the servants and I am sure that this development while arouse many a rumour, but the point is that you are safe in my quarters. If I grant you access to my apartments and even let you live there, you will be able to enjoy the privileges that come with it. You can have food be brought to you, order the chambermaids around, invite guests,… Although I must say that inviting guests over can only be done with my explicit permission. I will also appoint Egil as your personal guard.”
“I’m honoured you think me worthy of staying at your apartments.” You replied with as much adoration and gratitude you could master. Lord Blekk reached over the table to pat your hand gently.
“No one is more worthier.” He said honestly. “Now, back to your copying! It has been untouched for far too long.” He said seriously again, but his eyes betrayed his amusement. You got up and quickly went to work. By the end of the day, you only needed to copy 30 more pages and you would be finished. When Lord Blekk told you, you could retire for the day, you shot up from your seat. You would finally get to see his apartments and even live in them! You thanked lord Blekk once again and bid him a good night before running up the stairs to meet Egil at the doors.
“Is this the new lady of the house of Sturluson that I see?” Egil greeted you teasingly.
“Indeed it is. And am I looking at the new head of my personal guard?” You teased him back.
“That you are.” He said while puffing up his chest dramatically which made you laugh. “Come, my lady! Let me escort you to your new housing.” He gave you his arm which you gladly took. Lord Blekk’s apartments were indeed not so far away from the archives. Only two hallways, whereas the servant-wing was close to seven hallways away. When lord Egil opened the doors for you and gave you the key of them for safekeeping, you were awed by the sight before you. You had expected lord Blekk to somehow have very messy apartments, but the floors were polished and the dark wood of the furniture in the seating chamber seemed to glow. The seats and couches were covered in a deep blue velvet and in the corner was a beautiful marble statue of a cloaked woman. Lord Blekk even had plants on the windowsills which added to the homely feeling of it all. You quickly walked into a room on the left and found a marvellous study that resembled the one of lord Skírnir, only lord Blekk’s collection of books was enormous.
Three of the four walls were packed with bookshelves and here and there piles of books were seen on the ground. You murmured a soft ‘wow’, before retracing your steps to the sitting room to explore the next room on the left, which turned out to be some sort of small bedroom. You assumed this is where a chambermaid would normally sleep. Even though this room was rather bare and not as big as the others you had seen, it was still bigger than your own bedroom back at home. When you came back to try the rooms on the right you found Lord Blekk’s bedroom with a huge four-poster bed and a luxurious bathroom with a bath that was more like a swimming pool given its size. All this luxury and lord Blekk had no problem at all for sharing it with a common girl? You felt tears pricking at the corner of your eyes, but you refused to let them fall. You were over the moon with joy for lord Blekk’s generosity and the life he was allowing you to have.
“Are you alright, Svinnr?” Egil asked as he stepped into the bathroom.
“I am. I’m just… I can’t believe he’s allowing me to have this.” You said honestly as you felt Egil step closer, turn you around and drape his arms around you.
“He respects you and your talents. You are of great value to him and he wishes for you to only have the best. I believe he came to see you as a daughter. The Norns know he hasn’t been blessed with children of his own.”
“I’m so happy to have met all of you.” You said as you squeezed Egil a little tighter. Egil was just about to say something, when he was interrupted by a soft meow. When you pulled away to see where the sound was coming from, you found a fluffy black cat staring at you with piercing green eyes.
“Well, hello there.” You said as you crouched to the floor and stretched your hand out for the cat to sniff. He did so and then gave it a tentative lick before snuggling his head against it.
“It seems to like you.” Egil said as he too crouched down to pat the cat, but it hissed at him as soon as he touched it. “Not so much me.” He chuckled.
“Is this lord Blekk’s cat?” You asked as you patted the cat some more while it purred happily.
“I don’t know. He didn’t say anything about a cat. In fact it would surprise me if he even liked animals.”
“Do you think he’ll mind if I kept it?” You asked with big pleading eyes as you scooped the cat up in your arms.
“If you plan on giving him that look, I’m sure he’ll allow it instantly.” Egil joked which made you laugh. You hugged the cat closer to your chest while scratching it under its chin.
“Any suggestions on names?” You asked Egil.
“Well, given that he doesn’t like me one bit, how about Serk?” He joked.
“No. This cat while not be associated with that vile man.”
“Alright, alright, I was only joking.” Egil chuckled. “Maybe you can settle on a name you came across in one of your books?” You thought hard about a name and came up with one you had only recently read about.
“Hreiðmarr.” You said and the cat purred while giving you a lick on your chin. “He likes it!”
“Well, that’s settled then. Hreiðmarr it is.” Egil said as he placed his hand on the small of your back to guide you back into the sitting room. “Why Hreiðmarr? Does it mean something?”
“Not that I know, actually. He was a proclaimed hero of the Dökkálfar who was said to have saved Svartalheim from ruin by tricking the light elves from Ljosalfheim, before it was named Alfheim. This was many eons ago, but Hreiðmarr would have been the very first shapeshifter to have ever existed in all of the nine realms. He used to experiment quite a lot with seidr and ended up inventing hundreds of different spells even before the Vanir decided to train and use magic themselves. You see, everyone thinks the Vanir were the original seidr-wielders, but they were not. The Ljósálfar did so long before them and used it to build vast palaces, music, statues, ships and so on. Hreiðmarr had heard about the Ljósálfar’s skill with an invisible source of power and swore his people to bring it to their world. So he spoke with various merchants from the fields of light and was gifted books on seidr. He studied them and managed to change his appearance to that of a light-elf. He then travelled all the way to Alfheim to study seidr at their university and quickly became the most powerful seidr-wielder in all the nine realms, but the Ljósálfar became suspicious as to his intentions. They had him followed and quickly came to the conclusion that he was not a light-elf, but before they could put him to justice, Hreiðmarr disappeared. No one ever saw him again, but in the meantime palace after palace was being built under the dark surface of Svartalheim. After the incident with Hreiðmarr, the light elves closed their borders for thousands of years and felt such shame they had been tricked that they hardly practised seidr anymore, allowing another realm to pass their expertise and to this day the Vanir are still known as the greatest seidr-wielders.”
“And what of the Dökkálfar? Aren’t they supposed to be the greatest seidr-wielders with the knowledge they were gifted by Hreiðmarr?” Egil asked as he sat himself down on the big blue coach.
“You would think so, yes, but the Dökkálfar are cunning. They had managed to trick the Ljósálfar into sharing their most precious secrets and I believe they have learned to keep a low profile on their own secrets. While the Vanir are openly displaying their skill in seidr, the Dökkálfar remain mysterious. Yet, their craftmanship is unparalleled in all of the nine and their mines cannot be found unless you are a true Døkkálfr. It’d say the Vanir are the most powerful seidr-wielders that we know off, but the skill that the Dökkálfar honed over all those years could be even more powerful than seidr alone.”
“Well, that’s not at all concerning.” Egil snorted. You laughed and then began telling him about the Dökkálfar or dark elves being the same as the dwarves from Svartalheim, that it was a name given to them in hate.
It was late when Egil left your apartments with the promise of keeping you safe while he guarded your door. You placed the now sleeping cat onto the coach softly before leaving to take a bath. You opened up every vile you could find on the shelves by the tub, until you found one that smelled like Yasmine and honey and dripped a few drops into the bathwater before lowering yourself into it. It felt divine to take a bath once more, given that the servants were only allowed a shower every few days. Now, you didn’t have to listen to anyone when and how long you could take to clean yourself. You closed your eyes and submerged yourself under the water. You then opened your eyes once more and opened your hands to use your seidr to form a spectacle of light under the surface of the water. You changed the colour from moss-green to deep purple to blood-red before turning it into gold. When you were out of breath you lifted yourself to break through the water barrier. You were met with piercing green eyes that were staring at you intensely.
“Tell me, Hreiðmarr, did you use to walk into lord Blekk’ bath time as well?” You joked while the cat kept staring at you. He was sitting in front of the edge of the tub that was built into the floor on the opposite side of you. “I can’t believe I’m allowed to do this. You know, back home, my brother and I would jump into the drinking trough of the cows from farmer Kare and pretend we were some high nobles taking a bath in their huge castle and we ordered the cows to get us things.” You said with a smile at the fond memory. “Of course the cows never did anything other than moo and farmer Kare always chased us down the fields for trespassing his property.” Hreiðmarr meowed loudly and came a little closer. You looked as he slowly patted closer as if he was scared you were going to trick him and pull him into the water.
“I’m not going to hurt you, little Hreiðmarr.” You then chuckled at your own words. The book you were copying spoke very highly of their national hero and here you were calling a scared little cat after him. “What I wouldn’t give to talk to the real Hreiðmarr. He might have tricked the Ljósálfar, but he didn’t use all the knowledge for evil. He only wanted to learn and help his people. At least that’s what the Dökkálfar make him come across. What’s so wrong about wanting to learn seidr?” You asked to no one in particular. The thought made you sad which you quickly used to your advantage.
You lifted your hands and concentrated on the image in your mind. With a flowing movement of your right hand the water began to swirl upwards and formed two horses galloping. You then changed it into a bird flying on the wind. The water began to tremble after a while, so you lowered your hands which made the water come splashing back down into the tub. When you looked back at the spot where the cat had been sitting, you saw him looking at you with widened eyes as if he had not expected to be treated to such a show.