It was nearly a week later when Iris was summoned to the palace to move Loki into her home. She had sent him a sketch of the room and dimensions for the wardrobe in advance and hoped he had done some thinking so the packing would go quickly. She had always hated packing, even though she had never moved with more than her trunk. It always seemed to take so long to get everything in it, if only because things tend to wander to where they are most used and that means her few items were always spread across her entire living quarters, whether that was at her parents' house, her husband's house, or in Loki's chambers.
When she arrived in the infirmary, a nurse was very sternly telling Loki that he was not, under any circumstances, to carry anything. Loki was trying to argue that the unbound book Iris had left was not heavy enough to do any damage and she was not willing to bend on just what she meant by anything. Iris slipped in and retrieved the book.
"Stop giving the poor woman a hard time. Today is a joyful day, not a day you get to irritate everyone we encounter."
"But I take great joy in needling others."
"I know, and you are quite good at it, but not today. Be happy, and share that with them."
"If I do not do it now, I may not have the chance to do so in the future."
"Then I suggest you leave them shocked with your gentle kindness."
"I can be gentle. And kind."
"Have you ever been so with the palace staff?"
"Likely not."
"Then make a change. Consider it a challenge."
A guard met them at the door and they were escorted to his cell and instructed to pack anything he wanted to take with him.
"Do you need a writing desk, Iris? It is not a fine one, like the one I have upstairs, but if you would like it for your work, I would be happy to bring it. It is most certainly sturdy."
"I would love to have it for the shop."
"Then it and its contents will come with us. I do not ever wish to see that cot again, though."
Iris glanced at it- while it had been cleaned, it was still stained with his blood, "No, never again."
Their escort took them to his chambers, "Remember, my friend, my home is not very large and your room, while a fair size, is nowhere as large as this."
"I do not wish to keep much. My desk. If this is to be a clean start, I do not want to clutter it with the trappings of my life here." He went to his wardrobe, "Would you pack some of my clothing for me?" She went through the garments one by one and packed what he wanted in a trunk. They added some of his papers on top of the clothes. He packed the contents of a small bookshelf, a hand mirror and brush set, and a few pair of boots in another and then they went to pack his desk. When those things had left the room, Iris caught him staring at his armor displayed on a form against the wall.
"What troubles you?"
"It has been a part of my life in the best of years and in the worst. I want it, but at the same time, I do not."
"Is there one piece that you would like to keep above all others?"
"My daggers."
"Then take only them."
"Thor will never allow it. They are not even in this room, confiscated to the vault long ago before you and I were allowed to cloister here."
"Ah."
He took her hand, "What is, is. I cannot change it."
"Acceptance is something new for you."
"And I am fighting against it every moment."
"You would rather make some bitterly sarcastic remark."
"You know me well, Iris."
They left his chambers and were led to the courtyard. Thor greeted them, wished them fair travels, and invited Loki to send word when he wanted a private audience and it would happen, no matter what else was on the king's mind. Thor embraced them both and sent them on their way.
They tried to attract as little attention as possible as they walked from the palace followed by a horse-drawn cart. Guards disappeared the best they could into the crowded streets as they travelled. Loki kept his head down while Iris led the horse, greeting those who were familiar to her as they passed. A few people asked questions, but she simply said she was helping a friend and could not stop to talk. Their journey was easy.
She tied up the horse outside her door and Loki hurried to move toward the house and out of the street, "You do know you will be recognized some day, do you not? And you will have to answer those who ask if you are the prince?"
"Of course I do. By then I hope to have a witty reason that I am here rather than having to tell everyone it was this or the dungeon, or possibly sedated in the infirmary for the rest of my life."
"That would likely not reassure the neighbours."
"The mention of sedation, the dungeon, or my presence at all?"
"As we have no idea, as a whole, why you would be sedated, likely that one. Though the dungeons might draw some odd reactions as well. It is not a stretch to imagine you were kept there after being discovered on the throne."
"It was to me. I thought I would be dead."
Amaryllis slung the lightest of the trunks on her shoulder, "Come now, stop chattering like a pair of starlings and get these trunks in the house."
Iris gestured to the one full of books, "I certainly cannot lift this one on my own and he has been barred from lifting."
"You can lift the other, can you not?"
"Not on my shoulders! You show off your strength!"
Amaryllis laughed, "Indeed, I do! We must establish right away that I can carry him over my shoulder if he misbehaves!" She disappeared into the house.
Iris heaved the lighter trunk off the cart, "Come inside. See your new home."
Loki had never been in the house of a commoner before. He stepped into the large open room that served as a kitchen, dining room, and gathering room and looked around in amazement. The ceilings were only a few feet above his head supported by long rough hewn beams that stretched the entire length of the room, the walls panelled in old red timber richly oiled. He sat down at the worn dining table and waited as Amaryllis and Iris hauled the trunk of books into his room. Lastly, they carried in the desks.
Iris sat hers down in the gathering room, "I will take this to the shop once you have had the chance to empty it."
"There is little in it- your drawings, our book, a few pens and pencils."
"Then we can make light work of it after the rest of your room is settled. But come, you have not yet seen it."
Amaryllis went to talk to the guards while Iris brought Loki down a little hallway between the gathering room and the greenhouse that led to the rooms behind it. The hallway turned and there were five doors along one side, one door opposite leading back to the kitchen.
"This first room is our sunroom- we often take breakfast here, or gather for stories here summer evenings so we can look out over the back gardens to play games, read, and watch the fireflies dance. It is lovely."
"The entire rear wall is glass. And it abuts the greenhouse with more glass. And even part of the roof..."
"Yes. More glass. You will enjoy watching rain roll off the roof. The shadows it casts are entrancing." She had to gently tug him from the room, "In the summer, we leave the door open to the back gardens. You have much time to explore this place."
"Unless I do something terribly wrong."
"You will not. Now come, this next room is my sister's. She would be quite unhappy were I to show it to you uninvited. You will have to wait for her. But beyond is the washroom, then your room. Mine is on the end. Shall we enter yours?"
"Please, yes." She opened the door and he stepped in. He stopped, staring at the windows, "So much light..."
"It is lovely in the early mornings, the way the sun streams in."
"Is that the tapestry from my room? I did not notice it missing."
"Thor found a remnant. The fabric is very rare."
He stared at the desk, neatly settled in its place under the window, and at the row of pictures she had framed on the wall above an empty bookshelf. A soft chair was tucked between the bed and door, a line of hooks and a boot tray along the wall between the door and windows. The wardrobe was nestled in the far corner.
"You can always rearrange it if the furniture is not where you would like it. We used the room for storage for many years, so putting it back together as a sleeping space was a bit of an experiment."
"Thank you. It is wonderful. Will you help me unpack?" It took very little time to hang his clothes, place his books on the shelf, and settle his boots under the hooks. She then left him sitting in the soft chair and retrieved the contents of his other desk and put everything in its place.
When she was done, she gestured around her, "Welcome home."
"Home."
"Yes. For the present. Life may take you far away, or it might keep you here. You cannot know until you live it."
He smiled, "Yes. Home."
A bell rang from somewhere else in the house, "That would be Ama calling us to make supper. Come, I will show you my room quickly, and we will wander the greenhouse, shop, and gardens after we eat." He closed the door behind him and she led him to the last room. It was very small, windowed from floor to ceiling as the others were, but only had enough space for her bed, a small writing desk, her trunk, and a narrow wardrobe.
"Your room is so small..."
"Yes. I chose it years ago. My tastes are more monastic."
"So I did not displace you? It feels odd to have so much larger a room than one of the ladies of the house."
"No. This has been my place since I returned here. I am happy and want no larger." The bell rang again, "Amaryllis must be eager to start teaching you to cook."
"So soon?"
She closed her door and smiled as she gently pushed him down the hallway, playfully resisting, "Oh yes. Amaryllis is determined to have you thoroughly integrated into our daily life as quickly as possible. But don't worry. You will learn quickly. Life is not nearly so hard here as I am certain the nobles make it seem."
"I have heard many tales of short lives filled with toil and dredge."
"Well I assure you that you will enjoy what toil we have and I have never dredged anything except the garden pond."
"Is that a dirty job?"
"Oh very. And if anything drowns in it, it is rather disgusting and slightly horrifying."
"The nobles would faint at the sight."
"I have no doubt. But worry not, if you faint the first time you have to fish a drowned sparrow from it's shallows, I will assuredly catch you."
"Oh, what a charitable soul you are. The model of generosity."
"I will even bring smelling salts."
"You go above and beyond your duty." He paused, "Do you really think I will faint?"
"Only if it falls in during winter and we do not find it until spring."
"That sounds revolting..." His face showed clearly that revulsion was possibly not even a strong enough word.
She held the door for him as they entered the kitchen, "Now. Time to cook supper!"
Amaryllis saw the look on his face and shook her head, "The poor man, you're making him wonder if this was a better choice than the dungeons."
"I will only strive to be horrifying on the first few days. He will get used to it and the rest of our life will seem easy."
"I won't faint when I have to retrieve a dead sparrow, I promise."
Amaryllis laughed, "Is that the worst she could come up with? Let me tell you the story about the time when I accidentally left ten pounds of potatoes in a sack outside during the heavy rains for two weeks...have you ever smelled a rotten potato?"
He shook his head, "No..."
"It's far worse to nose than a freshly drowned bird."
Iris pointed Loki to a stool and placed a large wooden bowl in his lap, "Be my table while I peel apples." As the peels curled in the bowl, she thought, "Ooo, did I ever tell you about the time I found a snake stuck in the tool shed? It had been there quite a long time..."
"Was it dead?"
"Very."
"Is this story going to be as disgusting as the pond?"
"Worse."
"You are terrible, Iris."
"And you would not have it any other way."
He chuckled, "You are most certainly right."