Children, children everywhere. Zap had gone to spend some time with the little ones, and after nearly twenty minutes of traversing the Solstice Spiral for the fun of it (and having gotten everyone involved sufficiently dizzy), Eva sat the kids down to tell them a story so they could all unwind. "How many of you know why we decorate 'Christmas' or Jól trees?" she began. Amongst the youth were Torben, Mateo, Gwen, Kellan, Brayden, even Gael. There were others - mostly of Asgardian birth, some orphans, who'd all waved their hands for the queen's attention at her question. She grinned, the baby on her lap where she sat on the floor opposite the group. "Go ahead," she pointed to a little girl who reminded her of a young Jubilee. "Yggdrasil!"
Zap nodded. "Yes - we bring trees inside and adorn them with things that remind us that spring is coming," she smiled. "What is Yggdrasil, though?"
"The tree of life!"
"Is it a real tree?" Eva asked the answerer, who was Mateo.
Some of the children shook their heads 'no'. "No, but we can see it when we look at the stars," her eyes went wide with wonder and a sparkling outline of the tree that represented the Nine Realms and the cycles of life arose above her head. Her hands left Torben's sides and he leaned back against her chest to watch above them.
"The lights we hang remind us of..."
"The stars!" This time it was Gael and she was holding her boot up in the air to demonstrate with a smirk on her face.
Zap smirked and the tree spun a bit, "That's right, the stars and the realms are all places along Yggdrasil, but what's at the tip top, here?" The spot began to glow brighter than the rest. "Yes..." she pointed to a little blond boy she knew was called Sven.
"Valhalla," he said, seriously.
"You're right," Zap confirmed with a wave of her hand. There were suddenly lights waving and glowing above the slightly-dimmed representation of the tree, which looked very much like the Northern Lights. "A view like this can be seen from all of the realms. On Midgard, they're called the aurora borealis." Purples, greens, blues, whites, yellows; they turned and changed in slow, shifting motions. Torben slumped over onto her arm. Eva smiled and adjusted him, then made the tree grow bigger and brighter again, as well as the rainbow of lights above it. "Who wants to decorate the big tree?" The magical display whooshed back over the kids and settled upon the frame of a real pine tree, big and bare and ready to be spattered with the attention of children. And probably some adults. The lights she'd created began to fade, and when the children looked back to the queen, she was standing.
"Whoever finds the star gets to put it at the top when you're all finished!" she challenged, and from behind the darkened tree slid wooden boxes filled with traditional Asgardian and Midgardian winter decorations, all fit for a tree in the palace of Alfheim. "Go!" she laughed because she was only speaking to a few polite stragglers. "Go, go!" her hand waved for them to move, and then it came up to replace Torben's pacifier, but his lips were sealed and his eyes were shut. She bent her head low and kissed his nose, then hugged the baby closer to her chest. "You're my little star," she cooed and rocked him quietly while, nearby, the rowdy children rustled through ornaments and garlands to find the prize. The song being performed behind her somewhere in the hall was a waltz, and she moved to the tempo as she did a half turn to take in what all of the other guests were up to. A lot. That's what. She sighed with contentment but could hardly ignore the conflict gnawing away in her... even though she'd tried to feed it two or three helpings of yule log cake already that evening.