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There's a blond man nearby who is tall, extremely muscular, and generally eye-catching. Also, shinily clad.

He's examining a cluster of Legos with genial bemusement.

(They look kind of tiny in his hands.)

He does rather draw the eye, yes, when when you're from a world where armor is kind of par for certain courses.

(Moreover, Amy doesn't think he looks at all like being generally eye-catching is a new and different experience for him.)

"They sort of mush together," Amy offers helpfully (and Cheerfully) from her chair table. "And then you can build things with them."

"They seem very fragile," says Thor, genially considering. "What does one build with them?"

"Well," Amy says, after a moment's consideration, "I suppose one builds whatever one likes. Or at least whatever one can figure out how to build.

"But I think they're more meant as toys or a way to build things for fun than a way to build things you'd actually use. We don't have them in my world, but I've encountered them here before.

"I'm Amy," she adds, because introductions are polite and generally make things easier.

Hmm.

Amy might be a common name -- it's not on Asgard, but who knows, with all the worlds of Milliways -- but X did mention Amy who was queen of Ambergeldar.

"I am Thor," he returns, with a slight nod of greeting.

Well, if not common, it's certainly Ordinary.

"It's very nice to meet you, Thor.

"Are you X's friend, then?"

Thor grins. "I am."

"Then you are Amy of Ambergeldar, and the Lady X's friend as well."

Points for good taste in comrades, Amy!

"It's nice to meet you also." He says this back a little as if he's quoting a foreign greeting custom, which is accurate. But politely!

"Would you like to join me?" Amy asks, pushing the tinker toys off to the side and out of the way.

"X mentioned you were a prince, but not say of which realm."

Amy's going to guess it's not France . . .

However did she guess??

"Thank you," Thor says gravely. "I will."

Sharing a table at a neutral place is not the same thing as offering or accepting hospitality -- although he'll be doing that too soon enough, along with X -- but there are certain courtesies to be observed anyway, with another monarch. No matter the scale of their kingdom, and with Ambergeldar he honestly doesn't know.

When he comes over, he brings his handful of Legos. They get set down by the tinker toys.

"Yes. I am Odin's son, of Asgard."

He might have a lot of complicated, conflicting feelings towards his father at the moment, but that will never not be said with the quiet pride of certainty.

Courtesies have their uses. They put everyone on familiar solid ground while they work out which courtesies can be dispensed with, and generally make meetings (and Ambassadorial Visits) go more smoothly.

"I'm afraid I'm not familiar with Asgard, or with Odin," Amy says, after a moment.

And eight years in Milliways mean that it feels perfectly natural to follow that up, "Is Asgard on some version of Earth? Ambergeldar is, but I've very rarely met people here who had heard of it at home."

Technically, she's met one.

And she married him.

"No."

Although if Ambergeldar is, that lets him place its context and size a lot better. X had just said it wasn't on her world, which leaves a lot of options.

"My world has an Earth, which we in Asgard call Midgard. But Asgard is another realm. I think you would say it's in a different solar system."

Is he getting the Midgardian terminology right?

Amy would be the wrong person to ask. She vaguely understands the idea of a solar system, from Milliways and knowing people like Malcolm Reynolds, but it's not a term they use in Ambergeldar.

(They're still working on that whole Earth-going-around-the-sun thing. They haven't gotten to other suns yet, let along other planets going around other suns.)

But she follows well enough.

"I think I understand," she says. "It's like . . . Spain. I know it's there, and part of my world, but it's another realm.

"Only you're working on a larger scale? With Asgard and Earth?"

"Near enough," he says, amiable.

Thor is not an intellectual scholar, to get all fussy about precision here.

"We say that they're on different branches of the world tree. The distance between is vast, but there are paths one can travel."

Which is its own fraught topic right now, for Thor, but never mind. He can keep himself from thinking about Loki and his Midgard, at least mostly, when they're only discussing basic generalities like this.

Amy nods.

She's got it well enough for the sake of conversation.

"So did you meet X here?"

"Of course," says Thor, faintly amused.

The narration points out that it's only 'of course' if you know how Asgard and Asgardian resources work, but Thor tends to occasionally forget that others don't share his frame of reference.

The amusement's gone already into seriousness when he adds, "Upon my first entrance. She was very kind to me."

"She's a very good person," Amy says. "I think she'd be a good person to meet here, when you're new.

"She's helped me out any number of times, and with some very difficult problems.

"Starting with the time my husband got kidnapped by a dragon. She saved my life."

Thor's eyebrows rise slightly -- not as if this is an unbelievable story, but as if it's a perfectly comprehensible story that he's taking appropriately seriously.

It's presumably an all's-well-tat-ends-well story, though, from her manner.

"I take it he was safely rescued, and the dragon vanquished."

Kidnapping is kind of outside the usual purview of the various creatures Thor associates with the term 'dragon,' but you never know when you'll get a weird individual or a particularly convoluted situation -- and besides, Milliways.

Stories in Ambergeldar tend to end well, at least for the good people, though the occasional Evil Uncle ends unhappily. (That is what fiction means.)

"Perry -- that's my husband -- negotiated his way out of the situation, so the dragon wasn't vanquished so much as hired," Amy says. "He's been a very effective addition to palace security.

"His name is Norman. He's a friend of X's as well. They go flying together."

Thor grins, bright and cheerful.

Flying is awesome.

(Negotiating to a mutually satisfactory accord is... well, probably better than vanquishing in most cases. He does know that, especially after recent events.

It's less fun, though.)

"He sounds a worthwhile ally."

"We've found him to be so, though we did have to give the entire kitchen staff a raise and some extra time off.

"It turns out feeding a dragon on a daily basis is a bit of undertaking, even for a palace kitchen staff."

And Amy knows exactly how hard the palace kitchen staff works.

"He's very fond of apple pastries."

"Humans eat very lightly," Thor agrees.

It's totally weird.

"A dragon would make for a demanding bondsman."

Bonds...creature. Whatever.

Amy makes a mental note that if X and her guests stay to supper, she will have to give the kitchen staff a heads up.

People who make the statement humans eat very lightly are going to require Extra Provisions.

"Most of his demands have been reasonable. The Royal Hatter had a bit of time coming up with a hat grand enough to suit him, but that did finally get squared away.

"And what about your world? What's Asgard like?"

Elle has curled into a chair at a nearby table, one arm hooked over the chair's back, the other held out slightly, her hand open as though she were waiting for someone to give her something.

One would have to look upward to see the reason for this - a few feet above her, the long metal pieces of an Erector set are hovering in the air, gently shifting and clicking together like a stringless wind chime.

It's the clicking that initially gets Amy's attention, then the wind-chime-ish pieces, and finally the woman beneath them.

And because it is rude to watch someone and not at least greet them (at least to Amy), she adds Cheerfully, "Hello."

The pieces stop moving, but still hang in the air.

It's another moment before Elle looks over, and answers, "Hi."

(The slow movement and short answer appear less out of reticence, and more that she seems to be pulling herself out of something that took intense concentration.)

"Oh, dear.

"I didn't mean to interrupt.

"I'm so sorry.

"Have I caused a problem for you?"

"No."

She looks back up to the metal pieces.

"They didn't fall or anything."

Which is good, because that kind of thing could poke someone's eye out.

"That's good.

"Is it magic?"

And, after a second, "I'm Amy, by the way."

She shakes her head.

But while trying to think of a way to explain it, she answers, "I'm Elle."

"Oh, X's friend, yes?" Amy asks.

"Well, it's very good to meet you, Elle."

Now, the pieces do fall.

Elle raises her hand, and they stop again, still a safe distance above her, and she takes the time to ensure they float down and then settle on the table next to her, before looking back to Amy.

Maybe it distracts her from returning the pleasantry, as she asks, "You're X's friend?"

(It's not the right way to say it, but she's using Amy's words.)

"Yes. X is a very good friend.

"And my son Laurence's godmother."

Well, one of them. He has several.

"She saved my life once."

After a beat, Elle nods.

"She's good at that."

"Yes, she is."

It's a very good thing to be good at.

"What does she do?"

Beat.

"For your son."

Elle's main reference for 'godmother' might be Cinderella.

"For Laurence? Well, he's still very young, so not terribly much yet, but she's been wonderful with my older children. Susan, in particular, is exceedingly fond of her. And I can't think of many people I'd rather have her look up to.

"'Godmother' is largely an honorary title, in this case. It's meant to convey the esteem we hold her in more than any particular duty to Laurence."

There's really very little chance that if anything happened to Amy and Perry, X would be called on to raise Laurence.

Or, you know, help him get to a ball in improbable footwear.

(All else aside, X is probably far too sensible to suggest glass shoes.)

"Oh."

On the other hand, Elle feels generally confident in X's capacity for fashion advice, even if glass slippers are probably off the table.

"I didn't know. How it - works."

"Well, I think a lot of that comes down to the people involved. This is the way it works for us, but other people may do it differently."

Amy, after all, has a lot of godmothers and godfathers, some of whom she could scarcely pick out of a lineup.

If Ambergeldar had lineups.

Which is really doesn't.

"I don't think I had one."

Or at least, she has no idea if she does.

A little more brightly, because, it's something for her: "But I'd heard of them."

"And you know at least two now, because X is a godmother and so am I."

Many times over, in Amy's case.

Elle looks down.

After a pause, she admits, "The ones I'd - heard about were in stories."

So, yes, the correct number is two.