Astyr awoke to find herself in her big bed upstairs. The light coming through the windows was diffuse and had the dreamy quality of gloaming. She couldn't tell if it was morning or evening and she had no memory of getting upstairs nor of anything that had happened after the arrival of the strange woman at Gunnar's birthday.

Remembering the attack, she sat up quickly looking around to make sure she wasn't in immediate danger. The sudden movement sent a sharp stab of pain to her head and she sat back with a moan. Hakon, who had been dozing by her side, jerked fully awake at her motion and leaned over to check on her.

"Astyr!" he said urgently, "Astyr, are you awake?"

She gave another moan and tried to put her hands up to her aching head but she found that she had no energy to move. Hakon jumped off the bed and ran out the door leaving Astyr alone in her misery. He was back again in a moment and Grima and Gunnar came in behind him.

"Astyr, dear," Grima said in a mix of concern and relief, "How are you feeling?"

Astyr just moaned and gave a very slight shake of her head. "Don't try to move, dear." Grima told her right away. "You've had a terrible shock to your system and you'll need more time to recover."

"What happened?" Astyr asked in a small voice that was all she could manage.

Grima picked up Astyr's hand and checked her pulse as she answered. "You tried to stop an Alfar from hurting me." That was a very short explanation and it gave Astyr many more questions than it answered but she was so weak she didn't know if she would be able to ask them.

Gunnar handed Grima a glass that he was holding and Hakon put his arm behind Astyr's shoulders and lifted her to a sitting position. Grima brought the glass to Astyr's lips and told her to drink the dark red liquid. "You'll feel a lot better after, dear. Try to finish this." Astyr leaned forward to take a drink but she smelled a dark coppery scent coming from the drink that made her gag. "What is it?" she said before Grima could get the glass to her lips. Grima took a deep breath and then sighed, "It's blood, Astyr. Human blood. And if you don't drink it, you'll get weaker and weaker." Astyr could see the concern on her face and she knew that Grima would never tell her to do something if it wasn't necessary so she steeled her nerves and held her breath and started to drink. It wasn't as bad as she had feared; it was still cold from the refrigerator and reminded Astyr of thick vegetable juice.

She drank the entire glass and when she was done she laid back against the pillows behind her. She could actually feel the blood working its way through her body; it felt the same as when her foot went to sleep and she had the same pins and needles feeling as the blood brought much needed energy to her system. After a few minutes she felt almost back to normal and she started asking her questions.

"Who was that woman and why was she trying to kill you, Grima?"

Grima sighed and smoothed the blanket with her hand before answering her. "That woman is Elianna, Queen of the Alfar, and she was trying to kill me because she found out that her daughter had married an Aesir and she blamed me for it."

"Why?" Astyr asked. "What did you have to do with her daughter getting married, and why is she so mad about it?"

Grima avoided looking into her eyes as she answered this question. "She blames me for her daughter turning her back on her duties and marrying outside of their kind because her daughter, Arianna, was my best friend. She often traveled with me and spent years living with me, avoiding her life with her mother who was strict and often cruel. It was during one of those times that she met your father and fell in love. Elianna is so mad at me because first, it is against Alfar law for any of them to marry someone of a different race and second, because Arianna is her mother's firstborn and is her heiress. She didn't know that your mother had married and I don't know who could have told her."

Astyr sat bolt upright in surprise and almost shouted out loud, "That woman that almost killed me is my Grandmother!"

Hakon put a hand on her shoulder and tried to ease her back against the pillows and Grima patted her leg trying to calm her down. "Yes, Astyr, she is. You are half Alfar and half Aesir."

Gunnar gave a small whistle through his teeth. "You're not just half of any Alfar, Astyr," he said, "You're the firstborn daughter of the most powerful Aesir and the heiress of the Alfar."

Grima turned to Gunnar with a stern expression and then asked him to go downstairs and tell everyone that Astyr was awake and to stay down because Astyr would be getting dressed and coming down herself soon.

He grinned sheepishly and patted her foot as he got up off the end of the bed. "I'm glad you're ok, Astyr. You had us all scared there for a couple of days."

Astyr stared after him for a moment. "What did he mean by a couple of days?" she asked.

"Oh," Hakon said, "well, it's Tuesday afternoon, so we've been waiting for you to wake up for a while now."

This was just too much for Astyr to take in. "What about school?" she asked. Grima replied, "Don't worry about that, dear. I called them and told them you weren't feeling well and would need to stay at home this week. After the fire, they were ready to give you a little leeway anyways."

Well that was one thing off her shoulders for now, she thought. But there was something else niggling at the back of her mind and even though the thought wasn't fully formed, she couldn't stop herself from bringing up the subject. "Those people with Queen Elianna," she couldn't bring herself to say grandmother, "they were all Alfar, too?" she asked. Grima answered that they were. "So I look a lot like an Alfar, don't I?" Hakon answered this time, "A little bit, yeah. But we didn't notice it until after we found out who your mother is. If an Alfar saw you, they would probably know you're mixed, though." That was what bothered Astyr so much, she decided. "If Queen Elianna knew I was half Alfar, why would she try to hurt me anyway? Why didn't she try to find out who I am first?"

Grima and Hakon exchanged a look of concern and Grima reluctantly replied. "It is against Alfar law for them to marry other races and it is considered a crime to have children who are half-blood Alfar. They are fiercely protective of their bloodlines and they see half-bloods as a corruption of their race. When she saw you, she knew what you are and she would have killed you anyway even if you hadn't tried to save me."

"Then why didn't she?" Astyr asked in a hard voice.

"Because, at the last minute, she recognized you." Grima said. "You do look like your mother, but the Aesir blood makes it hard to notice, usually. When all of the energy she was pushing onto you lit you up, you looked almost fully Alfar and she realized who you must be."

"So she spared me because I'm her granddaughter?" Astyr asked bitterly. She wasn't sure she wanted to be so obliged to the woman.

Grima gave a small smile before answering. "Actually, she spared you because she had already used up too much energy and she knew she couldn't finish you off without putting herself at risk, and her guards were facing a much harder fight than they had expected with the entire Falkor clan present. It shouldn't have been possible for you to have withstood what she threw at you and I don't know how you survived. An underage Aesir or even an underage Alfar is not equipped to process the amount of energy you did and you've never even been taught how. It's a miracle you aren't dead, Astyr."

Astyr didn't know what to say to that. Finding out that her grandmother had only let her live because it was too much trouble to finish her off wasn't exactly heart-warming. "Am I ok, now?" she asked, "Are there any side effects that I should look out for?"

Grima answered, "You seem to be fine, now, just still a little weak. You should drink another cup of blood before you go downstairs, though, just to be sure. I can't say if there will be any after effects because, honestly, I've never seen a case like this before. Just try to take it easy for now and let me know if anything doesn't feel right." Astyr promised to follow Grima's orders and Hakon left to get the blood for her while she hopped in the shower and cleaned up.

When she came out feeling fresh in clean clothes Hakon gave her the glass and she held her breath again and swallowed it down. She put the empty glass down and then turned to Grima, "So what's going to happen now?"

Grima sighed, "Well, now we're going to go downstairs. The council of elders and your father are meeting in the dining room and they all want to meet you, especially Tyr. He's been beside himself with worry ever since he heard what happened."

Astyr was stunned. "My father is here," she said in astonishment. "He's downstairs waiting to meet me?"

Hakon gave a soft chuckle. "Yeah, he's waiting for you, so let's not keep him waiting any longer." He took her arm and they walked together out of her room and down the stairs.

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