Hi readers. Thank you phantomshadow99 for following. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 4
Tari woke with an aching abdomen and tear stained cheeks. Memories of last night flashed inside her mind. The pain, the fear. She had never thought that Gorran would go so far over so little. She hadn't done anything wrong. She had been talking with a friend. That was it.
Tari painfully dragged herself out of bed and dressed. To her horror, her stomach, back and sides were covered in purple bruises. It hurt to move. Tari sat in a chair, holding herself stiffly so she wouldn't aggravate her bruises. If Gorran had been so angry about her time with Loki, then she wouldn't be able to speak with him if there was the slightest chance of Gorran seeing. She wouldn't be able to speak with warmth to ay man. Not if she didn't want a repeat of last night. It saddened her that she could lose Loki as a friend , but she didn't have much choice. Loki had been the only person who had deigned to speak with her and she was being forced to give that up.
.
Loki stifled a yawn. He was in a council meeting and it was possibly one of the most boring events of his life. Odin insisted that he and Thor attended council meetings so that they might improve their understanding of how to rule. Loki did not feel that he needed this. He fully understood a king's duties. Loki wished that Odin would make the decision of who was to be his heir. He wanted to know if he was wasting his time; Odin had always favoured Thor over Loki and Loki had never understood why. But surely even Odin couldn't overlook the fact that Loki would be the better king. Thor was a warrior. He would plunge Asgard into war with the slightest provocation, surely Odin realised that? Loki sighed. He wished the bloody meeting would end. After what seemed like an eternity, it did. Loki left as quickly as he could. He began to make his way to the library. He spotted Tari in the corridors. She was holding herself stiffly, as if in pain. Loki frowned. Had something hurt her? He approached her.
"Hello." He greeted her. She flinched, as if he had frightened her.
"Hello." Tari said quietly, without looking at him.
"Are you alright?" Loki asked. She was acting so different from yesterday. Before, she had been mirthful and talkative, but now she was cold and quiet. What had changed?
"I'm fine." Tari said. "I have to go." She turned right and disappeared down the corridor and Loki was left alone. He frowned. He had thought… she had acted like his friend before. He had thought that he'd found someone who liked him and accepted him. Clearly not.
He reached the library and stepped inside. He sat down to read, but it felt lonelier than ever.
.
Tari winced as Gorran snaked an arm around her waist. He had pressed on one of her bruises. They were at dinner with another lord, whose name Tari had forgotten. She couldn't keep her mind on the conversation. It had been a week since she had blanked Loki in the corridors and she hadn't counted on how lonely she would feel. She didn't understand why the loss of one person had affected her life so much. She'd had a grand total of three conversation with him, but… well, he had been the only person who had treated her with any kind of warmth for years and years. Now her life was cold sand empty, aside from the pain that Gorran inflicted upon her. He had beaten her twice since the night that he had accused her of flirting with Loki, and he had badly twisted her wrist. There had been no reason for his violence, Tari had done nothing. She thought that perhaps he was trying to make her scared of him, so that she wouldn't defy him. The truth was, it was working. She trembled every night, terrified that Gorran was going to come and hurt her. She hated the fact that she was going to live like this for her entire life; living in fear of the man who was supposed to love her, with no one who truly did.
Tari sat silently through the rest of the meal, barely eating anything. She wished that she could just disappear.
Eventually, the meal ended and Gorran left Tari alone in the corridors. Tari didn't want to go back to her chambers. She felt too enclosed there, like she was trapped. She wanted to go to the gardens and draw. She retrieved her leather sketch book and a pencil from her chambers and made her way to the gardens. The sun was setting and the sky was turning from pink to blood red. She sat down on one of the white stone benches and opened her sketch book. She drew the little green bird that hopped around a few feet away from her. Then it was the setting golden sun, but her drawings grew darker and more sinister: eyes staring out of darkness, knife sharp teeth and claws and last, a girl cowering away from shadowy hands that tried to hit her, control her, change her. Tari blinked. That was her. She snapped the book shut, tears streaming down her cheeks.
.
That's all for today. I hope you enjoyed it. I should update by next Monday.
