The silence after the ring was almost unbearable. Frigga was the first to react, her expression softened when she recognized the ring, and something quietly emotional passed through her eyes. She knew exactly what Loki had just given Eirlys. Odin looked equally surprised, though his reaction was more restrained, his gaze moving between his sons and the woman who now wore the symbol of the arrangement they had created.
King Freyadóttir looked relieved. His younger son, however, stared at his sister with open disbelief, as though he was still trying to understand how quickly everything had changed.
Sif said nothing as her eyes remained fixed on Eirlys's hand. Fandral looked between the couple and Thor, clearly sensing the disaster brewing beneath the surface. Volstagg's expression had lost its usual amusement, while Hogun remained as unreadable as ever.
And Thor… he could not look away. The ring seemed impossibly bright against Eirlys's hand. Only moments ago, he had still been trying to convince himself that perhaps this could all be undone. Now Loki had placed something precious on her finger in front of everyone. It was official.
Thor felt his chest tighten. He had never hated a piece of jewellery before, until then. He barely heard the congratulations that followed. All he could see was Eirlys. His Eirlys. Wearing Loki's ring. Thor had to leave. He turned before anyone could stop him.
The corridor swallowed him, but the image followed. He walked faster, then faster still. By the time he reached the empty balcony overlooking Asgard, his hands were shaking. He gripped the stone railing and stared into the distance. He had fought monsters, faced death, survived exile, humiliation, and the destruction of everything he thought he understood about himself. None of it had prepared him for this. He had finally admitted the truth to himself.
He loved her and now she was promised to his brother. Thor closed his eyes as the memory of Eirlys telling him she would have chosen him came rushing back.
If you had wanted me, I would have chosen you. He had wanted her. Gods, he wanted her. But he had been too late. Or perhaps he had never been brave enough to say it when it mattered. He thought of Loki placing that ring on her finger and his stomach twisted. That ring meant nothing to him. It should have meant nothing to him. Yet knowing Loki had chosen something precious, something that had belonged to their mother, made the gesture feel disturbingly intimate. Thor's jaw tightened. Loki had always wanted to take what Thor had. Attention. Approval. The throne promised to him. And now Eirlys.
"No." The word escaped him quietly. He shook his head, furious with himself for even thinking that way. Eirlys was not something to be taken, she was a person and she had made her choice. That should have been enough. So why the hell did it feel like his heart had been ripped out anyway? Thor stared down at his hands. He had spent years assuming Eirlys would always be there. He had never considered that one day she might belong to someone else's future. And now that future had a face. His brother's face. The thought was almost unbearable. Thor drew a slow breath, forcing himself to calm down. He would respect her choice, he had to, even if it destroyed him. Even if every time he saw that ring, some bitter part of him wanted to tear it from her hand and tell her that he had finally understood.
He loved her. He had always loved her. He had simply realized it when it was already too fucking late.
Eirlys could barely feel the congratulations around her. Her attention had fallen entirely to the ring on her finger. It was beautiful and that was the worst part. The dark gold caught the light whenever she moved her hand, and the deep green stone seemed almost alive against her skin. She knew enough about Asgardian heirlooms to understand that Loki had not chosen something meaningless. There was history in it, sentiment and something personal.
And suddenly the ring felt unbearably heavy. She looked towards her father, looking completely helpless. Her eyes silently pleaded with him to explain what she was supposed to do now. She wanted to take the ring off. She wanted to place it back in Loki's hand and tell everyone that she had changed her mind, that she needed time, that agreeing to an engagement did not mean she was ready to wear a symbol of it in front of half the royal court.
But she could not bring herself to move. Her father's expression told her everything. He was watching her with a mixture of guilt, affection, and helplessness. He had wanted this to be good for her. He had trusted Odin and Frigga. He had trusted that, maybe as they promised, Loki would not be the disaster everyone feared. Eirlys swallowed, she was angry with him. aBut looking at him now, she could no longer convince herself that he had deliberately betrayed her.
He had simply believed he was doing what a father was supposed to do, protecting his daughter. Even when she had never asked to be protected from a choice she had not been allowed to make. Her fingers curled slightly around the ring. She thought of Thor, it was what made it unbearable. She had told him she would choose him. And now she was wearing his brother's ring. Perhaps she had made the wrong decision, she had made the only decision she could make with what she knew.
Either way, there was no taking back the sight of that ring once everyone had seen it. Before she could decide what to do, her younger brother stepped closer. He had been watching her carefully for several minutes, noticing the uncertainty she was trying desperately to hide. Without saying much, he reached into his robes and produced a small ring of his own. It was simpler than Loki's, made of Vanaheim gold with a tiny green stone set into the center. Eirlys stared at it as her brother gave her a faint, reassuring smile and placed it in her free hand.
It was not an engagement ring but a piece of home. Something their mother had once given him, something he had carried with him for years and apparently decided she needed more than he did at that moment. Eirlys closed her fingers around it, the weight in her chest eased slightly. She still did not know what she was doing. But at least she knew that, somewhere beneath all the decisions being made around her, her family still saw her as their Eirlys.
Eirlys looked down at the ring on her finger for a long moment. The dark gold caught the light whenever she moved her hand, the deep green stone resting against her skin like a small piece of Vanaheim trapped inside something unmistakably Asgardian. It was pretty. It was far too beautiful for something that had been decided for her before anyone had thought to ask what she wanted.
Her gaze slowly lifted to Loki. He was watching her with that familiar, unreadable expression, though there was something different beneath it now, something quieter, and more uncertain. The ring he had placed upon her hand seemed to have made the entire arrangement real in a way that words had not. She could still feel the weight of it, not only against her finger, but somewhere much deeper.
Eirlys reached for his hand. For the briefest moment, Loki seemed surprised. "Don't look so surprised. I'm just returning the unwanted favour you did me."
She turned his palm upward and carefully took the ring, the motion was deliberate, almost painfully calm. She did not want anyone to mistake what she was doing. If this was to happen, if she was truly going to stand beside him, then she would not be the only one carrying the symbol of it. Her fingers closed around his hand as she guided the ring toward his finger.
Loki remained completely still. "You could have just worn that, no one asked you to—"
The ring slipped over his knuckle with little resistance. She pushed it gently into place, only to find that it did not fit as neatly as her ring had upon her. It was slightly loose around his finger, leaving just enough space for it to shift whenever he moved his hand. Eirlys noticed that as her thumb brushed briefly against the edge of the ring before she lowered his hand, studying it with a strange mixture of satisfaction and unease. It looked almost right there, despite the imperfect fit. Perhaps that was fitting. Neither of them had chosen this. Neither of them had been prepared for it. Yet somehow, they were both wearing the same promise now.
It was shocking how Loki had no clever remark ready. He simply stared at his hand. Eirlys finally looked up at him. Whatever he expected to find in her expression, it was not fear. Nor was it surrender. There was uncertainty there, clearly. Hurt, perhaps but beneath it was something far more dangerous. A decision.
"It is loose, I'm aware. This is temporary, work with it." She had placed the ring on his finger herself. And whatever happened from that moment onward, she would not allow anyone to pretend that she had merely stood there and let her life be decided for her.
Eirlys let Loki's hand fall gently back to his side before taking one last look at the ring resting loosely around his finger. She said nothing more. There was nothing she wanted to say in front of the elders, not when her thoughts were still tangled between anger, hurt, and the strange certainty that she had just taken a step she could no longer easily undo.
She turned away from him and crossed the room, her robes brushing softly against the polished floor. The elders continued their quiet discussion behind her, their voices fading into an indistinct murmur as she approached the doorway. Sif was still there, watching her carefully. Eirlys did not need to explain, she simply reached for her hand, giving her a small, knowing look before leading her out into the corridor. They walked together through the corridor until the sounds of the elders' voices disappeared behind them, eventually reaching one of the quieter balconies overlooking the palace gardens. Eirlys rested both hands against the stone railing and stared down at the gardens without really seeing them. Her thoughts were moving too quickly, each one colliding with the next.
The moment the doors closed behind them, the weight of the room seemed to lift from Eirlys's shoulders. She exhaled slowly, only then realizing how tightly she had been holding her breath. Sif remained beside her as they walked, waiting. Eirlys glanced toward her, her expression finally losing some of Its practiced calm. She needed to talk. Not as a princess or as Loki's future wife, just as Eirlys, with the one person who had known her almost as long as Thor had. Eirlys did not speak immediately and Sif seemed to understand that she needed the silence.
She looked at Sif. "I need to ask you something."
Thor, Loki, Jane. The stupid engagement, the ring, everything bothered her. Sif leaned against the railing beside her, her expression immediately becoming serious.