Vistulahöfuðból
Eiderwig, Prydania
"Pabbi!" Laurits Eiderwig called out as he made his way through Vistulahöfuðból, the Eiderwig family estate. He made a beeline for his father's office, finding him not at his desk but off to the side with a partially assembled rocking chair.
"What is it Laurits?" Stig replied as he continued to work on his project. He'd found more time to devote to carpentry now that the War was over. It was comforting. He could focus on projects, and that focus allowed him to work through
some of the guilt and anger he felt from the War.
"Have you seen what they're debating in the Alþingi?" Laurits asked, his voice tinged with a degree of both panic and anger.
"The Alþingi debates a lot of things" Stig replied, still focused on his chair.
"The Constitution!" Laurits replied.
"Have you read it?"
"No" Stig replied.
"I'm not just blowing smoke when I tell people I'm a soldier and not interested in politics. I don't even take up my seat in the Alþingi."
"Well you should!" Laurits insisted.
"Or you won't have it much longer." His voice was full of urgency now, but Stig's only reaction was to shrug.
"They're talking about abolishing the peer seats, eh?" he said with little concern.
"Like I said, I don't even take it. What's it to me if it's gone?"
"I don't know, tradition?" Laurits replied.
"And the traditions of our family that we fought to win back?" Laurits paced his father's office as Stig focused on his project, clearly not sharing his son's concern. Laurits, however, wanted to vent. The Constitution was before the Alþingi, which meant the Cabinet must have come to an agreement with the King on its contents.
"I can't believe Tobias did this to us" he grumbled.
"After all you did for us, for him!"
That caught Stig's attention, setting his tools down and looking over at his son.
"You think I watched young men and women die for fifteen years, so I could have a seat in a legislature I don't even want? No. I did it because because fifteen years worth of hell were worth it to save the country from those criminals. And now that we've
all won? It's time to let the politicians do their jobs."
"You're not the least bit angry?" Laurits shot back.
"That after all you did for Tobias he's gone ahead and agreed to abolish our House's ancient privileges?"
Stig stood up. Slowly. He brushed his hands against each other and walked to his son. He thought of saying any number of things to him. How he should show his cousin respect, as King. How he should understand that duty was about doing the right thing, and not about expecting favours in return. He contemplated telling him all of that, but years of fatherly experience had given him insight into what was truly bothering his son.
"You can think and do what you like when it's just yourself. Or even just us. But find a way deal with your animosity towards your cousin if you're going to interject yourself into the political realm. I won't have my son dragging his family drama into public over something as petty as a useless seat we don't even take up."
Stig walked past his son, leaving his office. He was hungry.
"Pabbi!" Laurits called out. Stig just stopped and turned around.
"Deal with it privately, or stay quiet publicly. I don't care which, but those are your options."
Laurits stood frustrated. Part of him felt betrayed by his father just now, that he hadn't sided with him. A deeper part though...that part stung... was that his father knew what lay at the heart of his frustrations.
Absalonhöll
Býkonsviði, Prydania
the present
Klara Eiderwig hugged her cousin as she sat down with him in Absalonhöll's banquet hall. Just the two of them, on one end of the long table.
"It's good to see you, Toby" she says with a smile as they both began to nibble on the tray of smjörbrauð* that was prepared for them.
"It's always nice to see you Klara" Tobias replied. His words were honest, but his voice was a tad forlorn.
He adored Klara and Laurits when he was younger. And he'd since had to grapple with the notion that those affections were not necessarily returned.
"I wish we could talk more often."
Klara nodded a bit nervously.
"Well I don't get to come out to the capital much. Pabbi seems to like the ideas I have to improve the infrastructure in Eiderwig."
"That's good" Tobias replied.
"I hope that, assuming the constitution is passed, you get involved in Provincial politics."
"That's
sort of what I'm here to talk about" Klara said, getting to the point. Tobias sighed. He wasn't expecting to hear more whining about the Thanedoms being reduced in importance from Klara of all people.
"Look" Tobias replied, "we have a chance to fully modernize the country. Put the feudal structures behind us and..."
"Toby" Klara shook her head, holding up a hand.
"I'm not here to argue about that. I think it's a good thing. Pabbi putting me in charge of the Thanedom's infrastructure projects has made it painfully obvious how outdated the system is."
"So" Tobias mused, "what do you want to talk about?"
"It's Laurits."
Tobias rolled his eyes.
"What does he want?"
"That's...sort of what I wanted to talk about. He thinks you're betraying our family, after all Pabbi did for the FRE."
"That fucking..." Tobias growled, his hand clenching into a fist. Of all the fucking things Laurits could say... for him to insinuate that he had any desire to hurt Stig?
"He really thinks that?"
"Pabbi told him he was full of shit" Klara nodded, reassuringly.
"So what do you want from me?" Tobias asked, frustrated.
"Pabbi called him out. He said Laurits has some issues with you that he was letting influence how he felt about this."
"Wouldn't surprise me" Tobias muttered in response.
"Yeah, well, that's why I'm here. I want to see what it'll take to make this better, between the two of you."
Tobias looked at his cousin for a moment and then lowered his eyes.
"You know all about it."
Vistulahöfuðból
Eiderwig, Prydania
one day earlier
"Pabbi doesn't know what he's talking about" Laurits grumbled.
"Thinks this is personal on my end."
"Well...is it?" Klara asked.
"It's about the principle of thing! Tobias just let them write off our Thanedom! Pabbi's seat! After everything we all went through!"
"Pabbi doesn't care about the seat, and he doesn't care about politics. So stop using him as your excuse" Klara said matter-of-factly. Laurits looked at her angrily before shaking his head.
"Not you too."
"Oh come on" Klara said as she rolled her eyes.
"Come down off the cross. We need the wood" she said, mocking her brother's attempts to play the martyr.
"Pabbi doesn't care. The only reason you do is because when he's gone you'll be Thane, and you want all the pomp that you feel should go with that."
"That's not true!" Laurits shot back defensively. Klara just shrugged though.
"Well that's what I have to believe your motivation is. The alternative's somehow even more petty."
"Yeah, what's that?" Laurits mumbled.
"You know damn well. You've always given Toby a hard time. For reasons I've never been able to figure out."
"Oh come on" Laurits replied.
"You think this is about some past bullshit?"
"Isn't it?" Klara asked.
"You're one to talk!" Laurits rolled his eyes.
"It's not like you and him were close either."
Absalonhöll
Býkonsviði, Prydania
the present
"I...I know what Laurits thinks" Klara said softly.
"But I've never...I mean I've guess what you've thought about about. I just never heard you talk about it."
"No, you'd have to..." Tobias almost said "care" but he stopped himself. At least Klara was here making an effort.
"...we'd have to talk more."
Klara nodded, blushing just a bit. She and her brother...well...the stories about their history with their cousin were similar. The difference was Klara had grown to feel bad over it, seeing it as something to improve. Even if she found herself sometimes too busy for it. Laurits, however, just reacted to it by getting self-righteous about it and looking for excuses to justify his past behaviour. If that was how it was going to be then...well...fine. Only now Laurits' quest to chase windmills was possibly leading him into a public confrontation with his cousin and King, in the middle of a constitutional debate. One their father wanted nothing to do with.
If she could fix it, mend this relationship, then she would. And if that meant actually reaching out to her cousin and hearing him out then that's what she'd do. Even if it was full of awkward familial baggage.
"I know Toby" she said softly with a nod.
"I want to talk now though. I think you and Laurits...well I think I can help."
Tobias wanted to grumble. Klara, in his mind, wasn't really in a position to take that stance. Again though- she'd made an effort. That wasn't nothing.
"I've always wanted siblings" Tobias muttered. He blushed too, and looked over at Klara nervously. Unsure if she'd find what he said sad, pathetic, or funny. To his immense relief his cousin only smiled softly, understandingly.
"As a kid at first. And then...well...Mamma and Pabbi were killed. Astrid was killed. I really felt alone, and I would think if I had a brother or sister...it would be easier to have someone to be there for, and for them to there for me. Sometimes I'd imagine Rylond, Fylkir, or Bjarkar were my brothers." He chuckled nervously.
"That's pretty sad, right?"
"No" Klara replied insistently. She paid attention to what her cousin was saying. "As a kid at first." It highlighted how much she didn't know about her cousin, because it just dawned on her. Tobias- either subconsciously or consciously- considered his parents' executions the end of his childhood. He was only seven at the time...and yet...that was the end of being "a kid" to him. She'd known him most of her life but she had never known
that. Until just now.
"No" she continued, "it's not sad. I thought it was the end of the world when Mamma died, but...well. I don't think it's sad that you looked for someone following all of that. It's not sad at all."
"I looked for you" Tobias said bluntly, his heart racing for a moment before he calmed down.
"I looked for you and Laurits. I mean...look" he paused as he tried to collect his thoughts.
Klara blushed again, trying to give her cousin space. She just nodded and sat there, letting him work out what he wanted to say.
"I wanted siblings back before all of that, when everyone was still alive. Astrid was...well she could be nice whenever Uncle Andy's influences weren't showing. You and Laurits were my cousins too though. Older cousins too. I thought you were both so cool" he chuckled softly.
Klara couldn't help but chuckle, only to see Tobias' wounded face. She had a bit of a panic and quickly moved to insist she wasn't mocking him.
"Sorry, no. I'm not laughing at you...it's just funny because Laurits kind of thought the same thing about you."
"Huh?" Tobias replied, dumbstruck. He'd actually looked up to Laurits when he was a kid. That Laurits might have felt some envy towards him seemed unbelievable.
"He never said as much, but he thought Býkonsviði was the coolest place on Eras. And you got to live there as a kid, while we had to go back to boring old Eiderwig after visiting.
And Uncle Robert took you on his motorcycle while Pabbi was just 'study, study, study!' in those days. He definitely felt that way about you."
"Well he never showed it" Tobias mumbled.
"He was my older cousin, and he always acted like I was burdening him. The thing is...I kind of get it."
"You do?" Klara asked, knowing how Laurits felt.
"Kind of," Tobias emphasized.
"At first, before the Syndicalists. He's five years older than me. Does an eleven year old really want to play with a six year old? Especially an annoyingly excited one like I was?" Tobias chuckled. Klara chuckled too.
"You WERE very eager to pull us this way or that way."
"Yeah, because you were my big cousins and I wanted to spend time with you...but I get it. That's not what this is about. It's about what happened....after."
That hung in the space between them, heavy and intimidating. They'd each lost family when the Syndicalists couped.
"I didn't want to 'hang out' with my big cousins after that" Tobias said softly.
"I wanted to be with my big cousins because you were the only family I had left here. I wanted a big sister, and a big brother, to tell me things were going to be alright when I..." he wanted to say "woke up screaming" but he thought better of it. He had awoken screaming many times as a child after he'd seen his parents executed, and William was always there to comfort him. He wasn't going to guilt trip Klara.
"...when I felt scared. You and Laurits...you never were there with me though. Rylond, Fylkir, Bjarkar...Krista...everyone moved around, but there was an eight year period after the Syndies took over where I didn't see Laurits. I saw you...now and then...but not him. And seeing you, well...it must have meant he just didn't want to be there."
"Those were hard times for us too, Toby" Klara said softly.
"Mamma was gone, and they didn't want us three together. In case the worst happened."
"Yeah" Tobias muttered.
"Eight years though. I saw you in that period. Not him. Never him."
Klara could only nod. She knew why...
"
I already felt like my family abroad had abandoned me. And then....the last family I had here did too. My big cousin Laurits. He would just rather not have anything to do with me. Just like he always did."
"You need to understand" Klara replied, "that what he was feeling..."
"I don't know what he was feeling" Tobias said, interrupting.
"I know how he expressed it though.
I know how he insulted my father, and how he'd rather I be a good little figurehead instead of actually being there for me like family's supposed to be." Tobias' voice was raising, but he stayed calm. Careful to not erupt.
"Laurits," Klara replied, "is a selfish person. Well...he was. To his credit he's worked on fixing that. But at the time..."
Vistulahöfuðból
Eiderwig, Prydania
one day earlier
"No, we weren't close" Klara replied to her brother.
"Maybe I should have been though. Maybe you should have been too."
Laurits clenched his jaw.
"I had my own shit to figure out!" he shot back.
"Mamma was gone! Pabbi was fighting a war! I had to care for you! I didn't have time for Toby. Besides, he had William and Axle. He didn't need me."
"Maybe we could have cared for each other" Klara replied, herself trying to choke back tears.
"We had Pabbi at least. Even when we couldn't be with him, we knew he was there. Toby lost Uncle Robert and Aunt Hanna."
Laurits sighed and shook his head.
"Everyone says Uncle Robert this and that.
You know he trusted the people who shot him? Good judge of character he was."
"Everyone has to come to terms with the fact that their parents aren't perfect" Klara replied.
"Lord knows we had to. Imagine how hard it would have been to accept Pabbi's flaws if he was taken from us too though. Now imagine some of the only family you had left screamed those flaws in your face. You didn't need to go off Toby about Uncle Robert. He probably had a hard enough time dealing with his father's faults as it was."
Laurits grit his teeth. The fucking motorcycle thing.
"I don't...look...I don't hate Uncle Rob. I mean fuck...that would be pretty fucked up. But he didn't...he had his flaws. He was too laid back, he trusted the wrong people. And then I saw Toby- who our soldiers were pledging their lives to fight for- just acting like his pabbi because of whatever the hell reason. I'm sorry if I was harsh but..."
"You were harsh" Klara shot back. "I still don't know what possessed you
to say that to him."
"It's what Pabbi would have done" Laurits replied bluntly. Klara could only stare dumbfounded for a moment.
"What?"
"Pabbi is...he's the responsible one. He was always the one who always cut through the crap and told it how it was. That's what I was trying to do."
"Pabbi never told an orphan to stop looking up to their parents" Klara replied softly, still trying to process her brother's justification.
"Yeah well..." Laurits rolled his eyes, "Toby needed to hear it. He was always bugging us for attention as a kid, and then when the War started I donno...he became this icon to people, but he still acted like an impulsive, angry kid. I was sick of him being childish, Klara. So I did what I thought Pabbi would do, and I told him flat-out why maybe Uncle Rob wasn't the best person he should be looking up to."
"That's not what Pabbi would have done. Because that's not what he did" Klara insisted.
"Pabbi felt sorry for him. I did too, but we're closer in age. It was my job to tell him."
"Who gave you that job?" Klara asked, knowing the answer.
"I did" Laurits replied.
"No one else would, so I gave it to myself."
Absalonhöll
Býkonsviði, Prydania
the present
"You've been getting along with your Santonian cousins" Klara said as she ate.
Tobias nodded with a smile.
"They're nice. All of them. I..." he stopped. He wasn't sure what he should say. What could offend Klara or not.
"I feel like I can call them my brothers. I don't really know if they feel the same way about me, but they've welcomed me into their lives. I'm..." he smiled hesitantly. "I'm grateful for what they've done for me. I haven't felt, I mean I haven't felt family like that since Mamma and Pabbi were killed."
He blushed. His own desire for family was a deep vulnerability for him.
Klara took another bite of the smjörbrauð she was holding, thinking about what her cousin had said. Tobias both seemed to embrace his relationship with his Santonian family, but also qualified it. "I don't really know if they feel the same way about me" was what he said. Everything she had seen- and heard- was that they all got along well. Why did Tobias feel the need to say that? Maybe because...because he'd needed her and her brother to be his family in a time of need and they really...hadn't been? Had their unwillingness to be there for him left him in a place where he doubted his own worth, even to relatives who were ready to embrace him?
She swallowed her food and nodded.
"I'm sorry" she said.
"For not being there for you more."
"You were there more than Laurits" Tobias said.
"It wasn't enough" Klara replied.
"I can't defend myself. I can only explain it. I want you to know, so that whatever else you feel, you know the truth about how I felt, and you don't carry any of that forward with you."
Tobias picked up a smjörbrauð himself but set it down, not feeling hungry. He nodded at his cousin.
"Ok" he said softly.
"Back before the Syndicalists you were annoying" she said with a disarming smile.
"It wasn't your fault, but Laurits and I were just at that age where teenage disinterest in everything was just taking hold. I don't know what our relationship as cousins would have been like in a world where the Syndicalist Coup and the War never happened. I'd like to think we'd all have gotten along as we got older" she smiled.
"But that's not what happened. Laurits and I were devastated with Mamma's death, and Pabbi was fighting an insurgency. Maybe you could have said that it was understandable, but we should have supported you with your losses, like we did with each other. I'm...I'm really sorry we didn't. I've wanted to reach out and make it better between us, and I'm sorry I keep finding excuses not to. Please, Toby. You're my cousin. I want...I want us to be there for each other now."
She felt her heart racing as she spoke, nerves putting her on edge even as a few lone tears escaped her eyes. Tobias smiled meekly.
"I love you Klara" he said softly.
"I'm always ready to be there for you. And Laurits. I just don't know if he will be."
Klara choked a bit on her heart seemingly pounding into her throat, but nodded.
"He will be."
Vistulahöfuðból
Eiderwig, Prydania
one day earlier
"You gave yourself that 'responsibility' because you wanted to be Pabbi, but you couldn't get over being a little kid. You were twenty-three at the time, but you were a fucking child."
"Shut up sis" Laurits grumbled, but Klara wasn't having it.
"You just told me you laid into Tobias because, at the age of twenty-three, you were still annoyed at him for wanting your attention as a five year old. Jesus Laurits, maybe Toby was an angry, impulsive kid back then but so were you. So was I! We all were! We didn't have a choice. The difference was you were so full of yourself you thought you weren't. You were just using Pabbi as an excuse for your behaviour. Just like now, with this constitutional bullshit."
"I'm leaving" Laurits growled as he got up.
"No you're fucking not" Klara demanded.
"Excuse me?" her brother shot back.
"You don't understand, Laurits. This isn't some bullshit where you whine to Pabbi. This is serious. This is the constitution of the government of our country. This...." she shook her head.
"Do you understand that this is going to define what every one of us suffered through for? Forever? I don't know what Toby and the Prime Minister negotiated, but I know you weren't there, and neither was I. Pabbi could have been but declined. So I'm NOT letting you leave here today, ready to blow up this whole process because you want to air your selfish fucking grievances to the public!"
"My 'selfish' grievances? NO! I'm tired of..."
"Tired of what, Laurits? Tired that your cousin wanted a relationship with you? Annoyed at the prospect of actually caring for your fucking family?"
"You didn't care either and..."
"Yeah, well now I do. And so should you. Whatever problems Toby may have with you, I know he didn't negotiate a constitution to spite you."
"How do you know that?" Laurits demanded agrily.
"Because between the two of us I'm the only one smart enough to realize that you're not the centre of the fucking universe."
Laurits felt tense all over. He just stood there, staring at his sister. It was only a moment, but it felt like forever. Eventually....he sat back down. Anger...it was insidious. "I'm not angry, I'm annoyed." "I'm not angry, I'm disappointed." Anger had a lot of ways of tricking someone into thinking they weren't angry. All the while anger's clouding nature continued to grow. Laurits wasn't thinking in those terms, but he was experiencing the results of accidentally realizing that. With anger fading, and clarity returning.
"I wouldn't even know what to say" he mumbled.
"You could start by saying 'hey, it's your cousin. I'm here for you.'"
"There's too much bad blood for that" Laurits sighed.
"Well I'll see what I can do. I've been meaning to go back to Býkonsviði for a bit now."
Absalonhöll
Býkonsviði, Prydania
the present
"Will he?" Tobias asked.
"Yes, he will" Klara replied. "He's selfish, but like I said, he's grappling with that and understanding that. He'll listen to you if you explain to him the rationale behind the Constitution. And he's willing, finally, to put all of that bullshit from before behind him."
"Ok" Tobias said as he nodded.
"Ok" he repeated. "I'll invite him."
"You could come back to Eiderwig with me" Klara offered.
"No, I think this will be better" Tobias said with a smile.
"You told me Laurits liked Býkonsviði. He should have a chance to see it since the reconstruction."
"He'd be thrilled, I'm sure" Klara said, grinning.
Tobias chuckled and stood up. His cousin stood with him, and Tobias hugged her.
"Thank you, Klara."
"Anytime, Toby" she replied.
Absalonhöll
Býkonsviði, Prydania
one day later
Laurits Eiderwig's visit to Absalonhöll was lowkey. Very little media reported on it, and there was no pomp.
"You've got a good name" Laurits remarked as he was escorted to his cousin's residency quarters by Laurids Hummel, the Lord General of the Knights of the Storm. Laurids chuckled.
"My mother told me that the spelling with a 'd' was the proper Austurland way to spell it" Hummel smirked.
"Eiderwig is in Austurland" Laurits protested.
"No, Eiderwig is Austurland's hat" Hummel chuckled.
Laurits smiled. He knew that the new Lord General of the Knights of the Storm wasn't from the aristocracy. Whether that was by choice, necessity, or it just simply didn't matter wasn't known to him, but regardless, he appreciated how informal he could be.
"His Majesty is spending time with his children, while Her Grace the Empress is attending to urgent business in Norsia. His Majesty wanted me to convey to you that he was excited about Prince Baldr and Prince Hael 'meeting their uncle Laurits.'"
Laurits smiled softly and nodded as Hummel led him through an ornate set of doors to a rather cozy looking room. There was a television that seemed to stand out against the stone walls and wooden inserts, but no one else.
"Enjoy your stay, Lord Eiderwig" Hummel remarked before leaving.
"Huh" Laurits said to himself as he looked around, slowly walking into the room.
"Laurits?"
Laurits heard his cousin's voice. It came from an adjacent room.
"In here."
Laurits made he way across the room he was in, to a side room that housed two cribs. His cousin was sitting in a chair next to them.
"You made it!" Tobias remarked.
"Yeah...Klara relayed your invitation. I'm...I mean..."
"Baldr, Hael?" Tobias interrupted.
"This is your Uncle Laurits."
"Hey...babies..." Laurits awkwardly remarked as he moved closer to the cribs. The twin baby boys both looked up at him.
"You must have staff to help you with them" Laurits remarked.
"Yeah, but I like to spend time with them" Tobias remarked, getting up to look at them with his cousin.
"They're my sons. I can't not want to be there..."
Laurits looked at his cousin. His father had told him parenthood changes people. This was the first time he'd seen Tobias since the Princes were born and....he seemed more at peace.
"So...Klara told me you have concerns about the Constitution Act that being debated in the Alþingi" Tobias said as he sat back down.
"Should we go somewhere else?" Laurits replied.
"You know, with the babies..." Tobias just waved his hand dismissively.
"Trust me, they don't care."
Laurits chuckled and dragged a chair across the room to sit closer to his cousin.
"I think we both know Klara talked to both of us about more than the Constitution."
"So we're jumping into the heavy stuff..." Tobias chuckled.
"Family stuff is heavier than the Constitution?" Laurits asked, raising an eyebrow.
"My wife overthrew her mother to become Empress of Norsia" Tobias replied with a laugh.
"Never underestimate family stuff."
"I guess that's fair..." Laurits said before pausing to collect his thoughts.
"I guess the two are kind of interwoven for me. I thought one affected the other."
"You thought our problems were behind the Constitution?" Tobias asked curiously.
"I mean..." Laurits replied, realizing how silly it sounded now.
"Look, man..." he said, his heart pounding. Admitting fault was not the easiest thing for him.
"I'm sorry" he said quickly, like he was ripping a band-aid off.
"I'm sorry for how things have been between us, because I think it's largely on me. I said a lot of things I shouldn't have said, and there's no excuse for it. So...I'm sorry. I've been unfair to you, and I...I failed to do right by you."
"I'm sorry too" Tobias answered softly.
"What for?" Laurits asked. He had come here with the goal of making amends. Not accepting an apology himself.
"Look..." Tobias replied.
"Whatever it was between us...me staying angry obviously didn't help you get over it. Maybe if I'd reached out earlier, instead of being mad."
"I know all about wishing I'd done things differently" Laurits muttered.
"And it just took a constitutional debate to get us to talk to each other" Tobias chuckled, smiling.
"Yeah" Laurits blushed.
"I just took all of that anger, and I saw what you were doing to the Peer seats and the Thanedoms..."
"The Thanedoms aren't going anywhere" Tobias replied.
"Stig's still going to be Thane of Eiderwig if this passes." He left it vague when he said "passes." He hadn't told anyone yet of his plans for a referendum.
"I just want the country to be the best it can be. And maybe it's a good idea to shake up a lot of the feudalism we inherited after we won the War. A Province of Eiderwig doesn't stop your father from being Thane of Eiderwig, it's just that now local administration is streamlined instead of going through all the old feudal layers."
"Klara was mentioning that, yeah" Laurits remarked.
"I told her I wished she would run for office if the Constitution is adopted."
"She'd be good at that" Laurits nodded.
"I was just worried...well no..." he shook his head. He was trying to break the habit of dressing his own concerns up as something else.
"Not worried...I saw the Thanedoms being reduced in status, I saw no more Peer seats...and I let that mix with our...my...past problems. I just...I want to be family, Tobias. I don't want this toxic anger lingering over everything."
Laurits was a ball of nerves now. It had been hard to admit fault, but once he had? He just laid it all out.
Tobias contemplated something for a moment before turning to Baldr and Hael.
"What do you say, boys? Should I make nice with Uncle Laurits?"
Laurits relaxed a bit and he cracked a smile as the baby Princes both laughed in that way babies do when they're paid attention to by their parents.
"Well I don't have a choice. They seem to like you" Tobias grinned.
"I'm glad they think so. I'd like to have a relationship with my cousin again."
Tobias nodded.
"Are you heading back to Eiderwig tonight?"
"I mean...I'm not really sure. I'd like to spend some more time in Býkonsviði."
"Then how about you spend the night and we can watch Konunglegur Býkonsviði play Alaterva? It's just me and the boys with Aly in Norsia. And as much as I love them they're not great conversationalists...yet."
Laurits nodded as he sat back in his chair. There were other things he wanted to do and see in Býkonsviði, but that could come later. He'd finally taken the steps needed to repair his relationship with his cousin. He nodded.
"I'd love to, Tobias."
"Great" Tobias replied.
"And thank you."
*smjörbrauð= "butter and bread," an open faced sandwich that consists of rye, butter, and cold cuts, pieces of meat, fish, cheese or spreads, and garnish