The council of elders of the Aesir didn't meet very often, never more than once or twice in a millennium, but when they did, they were sure to discuss everything that was important to the Aesir and to keep each other informed of the progress of the humans and on their relationships with them. The last council meeting had occurred shortly before the start of the Industrial Revolution and so the members spent quite a lot of time talking about the advances in technology that the humans had come up with and on the population explosion that had taken over the earth.

They were sitting at the dining table in Frey Falkor's home and the nine members of the council were enjoying the hospitality of their host as they caught up with each other and heard the news from around the world and discussed various families that were now widespread and distant. They had spent the entire day talking about everything that was thought important but no one had had the heart to bring up the matter that had brought them all together today. As they finished eating the supper that Gerda had prepared for them they lapsed into an awkward silence; it was time to discuss Astyr and someone needed to start talking.

Tyr sat at the head of the table and he looked like the CEO of a major corporation with his dark cashmere suit that contrasted nicely with his tanned skin and mane of pure white hair. He had very few lines around his eyes and except for the white hair could have passed as someone in their forties. Aesir only got lines around their eyes from centuries of smiling and Tyr had had very few reasons to smile in the last fifteen thousand years. Ever since he had become the head of the council of elders he had faced problem after problem and he felt more tired than he could believe possible.

He had once been happy and able to live a normal life, he could easily remember those days. He had been married and his only responsibility was the running of his family's estate in what was now called Syria. It had been a good life and he had enjoyed being able to walk in his fields every day and teach his humans new ways to farm and raise livestock and work with metals and stone to make their lives easier.

It had been a simple life but Tyr had loved it, he had loved his wife and had been looking forward to starting a family with her when everything had gone wrong. His wife had betrayed him and in his pain he had run headlong into the war. Not caring over much whether he lived or not had given him an air of courage and he rushed into fights where others thought twice. Being over ten thousand years old then meant he had tremendous control of his powers and he managed to stay alive despite his best efforts and tales of his deeds were passed around by both sides in the fight.

Afterwards, when there were so few left, he had taken up his position on the council and had spent the next fifteen thousand years working to make sure there wasn't another war.

He hadn't been interested in finding another wife, he still felt heartsick at what his first had done to him, so when he had met Grima he almost took no notice of her quiet Alfar friend. But they say still waters run deep and Arianna had been a revelation to him. Behind her watchful countenance had been a wellspring of intelligence, courage and humor that had drawn Tyr in like a bee to a particularly enchanting flower. He had tried to resist, had tried to tell himself over and over that there were too many good reasons they should stay away from each other, but it did no good. She was just as drawn to him and in the end their reasons fell to pieces in the face of their love.

Tyr had done his best to protect her but his enemies were insidious and had no scruples when it came to getting revenge on him. If it wasn't for Tyr's belief that Arianna was still alive somewhere he wouldn't have had the strength to keep living these past fifteen years.

He had spent his time roaming the earth turning over every stone he could think of in his search for her but he had found no clues yet. His despair had momentarily fled when Grima had informed him that she had found his daughter, but then the fear had rushed in to fill the void. And with the fear came a crushing disappointment that the child had no leads to her mother. The poor girl didn't even know who her mother was. Tyr wasn't exactly hard-hearted against Astyr, he was just too absorbed in his grief for the woman he missed so much and too afraid that being anywhere near the girl would only bring her to harm and put her in the sights of his enemy. It was far better for her to stay anonymous and safely out of the way.

But even that wasn't going according to plan. Somehow Arianna's mother had found out about the marriage and had shown up to take Grima to task for it. Tyr had known that Elianna would find out someday and he knew it would be a difficult situation but Arianna had begged him to let her tell her mother and he had kept his word and his silence. But now Elianna knew and Arianna wasn't here with him to stand with him and face the queen of the Alfar.

This was a very precarious position for Tyr, he knew the laws of the Alfar and had pledged as their ally to make sure that his people didn't break those laws, but he hadn't been able to turn away from his love. Now he had to face the rest of the council and explain why the Alfar were on the brink of declaring war against them.

This was everything Tyr had been trying to avoid for thousands of years and it was entirely his fault.

He was pulled from his thoughts by Bragi; his fellow councilman could always be counted on to speak when others were too cautious. Bragi was dressed in a gray tweed suit that was well tailored and with his salt-and-pepper hair and neatly trimmed beard he looked like the kind of professor who would be teaching at a very small, liberal college which was exactly what he was when he wasn't meeting with the council of elders. "I would like to be able to offer congratulations to you on your marriage, Tyr, and good wishes for the birth of your daughter, albeit fifteen years too late." He said slowly, "But I fear that to do so, I would only appear to be condoning your rash behavior. How could you, above all others, fail to fully consider the consequences of what you have done? How could you lead us all onto this path that offers nothing but strife, hardship and danger?" Several of the other men banged their fists on the table and loudly voiced their agreement with these sentiments.

Before Tyr had a chance to reply, Odin drowned out the others, "The Alfar have always been our friends and now they will come after us because of you!" He raised his voice even louder, "We don't have the army it would take to defend ourselves against Queen Elianna's forces! You have doomed us all!" Odin was standing with his fists balled on the table in front of him and his wife Frigg put her hand on his arm in an effort to calm him down.

Tyr looked Odin straight in the eye and said to him in a steely voice, "You are the last person on the council who could possibly speak to me of endangering our people. It was your love for that bastard foster brother, Loki, which held me back when I should have rid this earth of him and his sorry excuse for a family years ago." Odin silently returned to his seat and looked down at the table in front of him knowing that he was in real danger of bringing Tyr's anger down on himself.

The hard look on Tyr's face brought a few of the others back to their senses as well. Even though he had been the soul of reason and diplomacy during his time on the council, few at this table failed to remember that it was his ruthless strength and viciousness in battle that had made him their leader at such a young age.

Thor, who had been a close friend to Tyr through the years, came to his defense. "I'm sure that Tyr never meant for any of our people to come to harm. A man has a right to a little happiness after so many years alone and I'm sure he had a plan to keep us from war." This last part was spoken with a slight tone of questioning in it and all eyes turned to Tyr expectantly.

Tyr gave a sigh and knew that he would have to explain everything to them. So he told them all about his relationship with Arianna and how they had been trying to protect Arianna from both Loki and Elianna when she disappeared. Odin narrowed his eyes and said through his teeth, "Just because you don't like Loki, it doesn't mean that everything bad that happens is his fault." There were a few gasps at his audaciousness and his wife actually leaned away in the hopes of not being included in the punishment that was sure to come. Tyr stood up and walked around the table to stand behind Odin's chair. He put his hand casually on Odin's shoulder and addressed the rest of the members of the council. "I know for a fact that Loki's grandson, Hati, was involved in the disappearance of my wife." Odin looked down at his hands in nervousness as Tyr continued, "And I know that Hati's son, Randulf, recently tried to get close to my daughter. I don't need any more evidence than that to know that Loki is behind this and if anyone gets in my way finding that son of a bitch, they'll face the same fate as him." He sent a bolt of power through his hand into Odin and Odin clenched every muscle in his body tight against the pain. It only lasted for a moment but everyone around the table knew that Tyr was deadly serious about this.

Frey came to the entrance of the dining room at that moment and held his fist to his chest in a sign of respect to the council members. He waited to be invited to speak before announcing that Astyr had woken up.

Njord answered him, "Thank you, son. Please let us know when she will be able to come down." Frey assured him he would and left the room again.

Bragi spoke up again, "What's past is past; we need to concentrate now on what is coming." Several others agreed but Tyr was in charge of the meeting and he still had something to say about Loki. "That mutt is as big a danger now as he ever was. We will not have peace until Loki is caught and brought to justice. Odin, since you were always so close to him, I am putting you in charge of hunting him down." Tyr gave Odin a serious glare and went on, "If you fail me in this, you will suffer in his place."

"I will find him and bring him to the council." Odin said and the rest of the members took note that he had said 'council' and not 'Tyr'. Odin was making sure that Tyr knew he would be bringing Loki in for a trial and not for execution. Tyr didn't mind, Loki would be facing the same fate either way.

Njord brought them back to the matter at hand, "What are we going to do about the Alfar?" They all looked expectantly at Tyr. He sighed and sat down again. "I don't think Elianna is planning to attack us. She has had plenty of opportunity and she hasn't done so. I think we might have a chance for diplomatic negotiations to find out what she wants." Everyone looked hopeful at these words and Njord spoke, "Who should we send to find out?"

Frigg was the one to reply, "I think it's obvious we should send Frey again. He had such good results the last time." There were murmurs of agreement and it was agreed that Frey would take a delegation and see if there could be a peaceful resolution to this problem.

Bragi once again brought up something that everybody had been wondering about. "What about the girl?" He kept his usually verbose sentiments down to the briefest possible statement.

The council members looked to Tyr to see how he would react. The girl wasn't just the focal point for a potential war between two powerful races, she was also Tyr's daughter, his firstborn, and no one on the council was sure of how he might react to any mention of her. If Tyr was honest with himself, he wasn't even sure how he would react. He wasn't sure how he felt right now. He knew it would be hard to deny that just the thought of her existence brought him joy, he didn't even know the first thing about her but she was his, and he loved her just for being a part of him. But he couldn't afford to give his heart away so easily. He had too much experience with the pain of loss to let her have total control of his feelings. And Tyr knew that there was a very good chance that he would lose her. There were too many things out of his control and too many forces working against him. No, it would be better for all concerned for him to just keep his distance from Astyr for now. With that resolution, he rejoined the conversation.

"Is it true that Queen Elianna couldn't kill her?" Thor asked the council in general. Tyr answered him, "I don't know if Elianna couldn't or if she chose not to, but the fact is that Astyr is still alive." Frigg jumped in with a question, "But she's underage. How did she withstand the attack at all?" They all turned to Tyr to see if he had any explanation. He shook his head in frustration, "I don't know. It shouldn't have been possible. Elianna came here ready to kill Grima so she had stored up a great amount of energy. She should have been able to easily handle a fifteen year old half-Aesir. We will have to meet Astyr and see if there is something different about her."

Odin gave a sneer of derision, "You mean more different than being a half-breed?" Frigg grabbed his arm in a panic and turned to apologize to Tyr but he made a gesture to keep her quiet.

"Odin, your half-breed brother is my least favorite person on earth right now so don't put yourself in the same place as he is."

Odin had a look on his face that was half apologetic and half frightened. "My lord, I meant no offense." He back-pedaled desperately, "I only meant that she is half Alfar. We all know that Elianna made it illegal for Alfar to intermarry because it makes them weaker. I was only referring to that."

Tyr gave him a level look. "My daughter doesn't seem to be weaker than anybody so try to remember that before you open your mouth."

Njord took the opportunity to speak and to try to get Tyr and Odin back on subject. "Regardless of her status, what are we going to do with her for now?"

That didn't seem to be the right thing to say because Tyr almost growled in anger. "We are not doing anything but keeping her safe for now. She will stay here with Grima and learn what she can before her birthday. That's all." His pronouncement was final and nobody was foolish enough to go against him on this.

Frey entered the room once more and waited for permission to speak. "Astyr is ready."

Tyr thanked him and told Frey that he would be resuming his duties as ambassador to the Alfar.

Frey nodded his acceptance and went to bring Astyr before the council of elders.

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