Chapter 11.
They walked through the bustling streets of the city, Floria pausing to look at items that caught her eye and he being patient. She had bought herself a shawl, a pen of glass with shimmering blue dust in It, and a small, wine colored, blown glass perfume bottle that she thought was pretty. Now, she paused at a comb seller and looked at the gold and jeweled hair combs the old woman was selling. He folded his hands, admiring her and seeing how her fingers traced gently over the hair accoutrements in front of her. The woman put one in her hair that looked like gold feathers with a carved, aemythist violet in the center of them and she blushed and nodded shily at the woman. She gave her the required coins, and he watched as the Matron patted her cheek, and said something to her that made Floria smile and he hoped it was kind. She waved to the older woman and walked toward him, looking sorry for making him late.
"It is beautiful Nightengale, and is a fine contrast to your hair." He said and she smiled softly at the compliment. He lifted her chin, and she looked worried she was going to be scolded for a moment. "Walk with your chin up, it lets everyone see you are happy with your purchase."
"I am sorry Sir." She said and folded her hands over the boxes with the pen and bottle in them. "There is just so much to see, so many wonderful things. I am not yet accostumed to being around so much beauty."
"I agree, and you will get used to it but there is no need for an apology. May I carry that for you?" He said and gestured to her small bundle. She handed it to him, and he hooked his fingers through the twine that tied the wrapped boxes together. "We are almost to the bookbinders, and you will need a journal to write your lessons in and how much you come to learn from your journey into becoming my Appretence."
"I understand Sir, but... but what if I am unable to do anything you teach me?" She asked and he paused for a moment, looking down at her and she pulled her deep crimson, wool cloak around her to keep the chill away.
"I believe that you will be able to at least do a few parlor tricks, it just takes practice and discipline." He replied, walking toward the shop and opening the door for him. She lifted her brown and wine colored skirts, stepping over the threshold and looking at the many leather bound volumes in front of her. The Shopkeep looked up at them from his work and stood, his smile wide as he walked over to Loki and Floria.
"Hello, My Prince! What brings you in today?" He said and looked at Floria. "And who is this lovely creature?"
"This is Floria, I need a journal for her as I am going to instruct her in magic. I will be making the purchase if it suits you Tallan." He said and the slender man wearing an apron of leather and a blue tunic nodded. He walked over to a shelf, picking one up that was bound in blue leather and embossed with flowers. A plate on the front in bronze was a rose set in a circle of ivy, and the clasp that held the book shut was three roses entwined.
"Does this one please you Miss? Your name alone told me that this was the one for you." He said and Floria looked down at the book in her hands and smiled at it. She nodded shily, opening it and finding the thick volume filled with blank pages.
"Yes Sir, it is very pretty, I like it very much." She said and he took the journal from her to wrap. Loki watched the interaction carefully, and liked her choice himself. He took the cloth wrapped bundle from Tallan, and paid him the required coins.
"She is young, she will learn fast My Prince." Talian said, and Loki nodded. He added the bundle to her other purchases, regarding the man he often bought blank books from. He was suspicious for a moment about his interest in Floria but put it aside, knowing she was her own person after all. He would never have wanted her to think he was her Master, and would be content if they ended at only being friends.
"Yes. Youth has its benefits, but discipline is another need one must have in order to learn the finer points of magic. She does have plenty of that." Loki said and he walked back to Floria, he opened the door for her and she stepped back out into the street.
They walked along together, and eventually found themselves at an herbalist, and then a shop that carried a multitude of crystals where Loki bought her six items there. She gazed at the shelves in one shop filled with strange items, leaning close to a glass jar that contained a strange spider like creature, it's pink body covered with scales and the long legs of it facinating her. She put her nose close to the glass and it leapt at her, trying to attack her through the walls of it's prison and she jumped. In her shock, she bumped a table covered in a deck or colorful cards with pictures on them. The old woman behind it regarding her with interest, she blinked in fear of what was going to happen to her. and the woman gestured for her to sit in the chair across from her with a kind smile.
"Nasty things. I never liked them myself, or saw the appeal of them." She said and Floria sat in the chair. She looked at the woman as she took the cards and shuffled them, fanning the deck on the table and gestured to them.
"Pick a card Dear, they don't bite as that awful beast does." She said and Floria nodded and selected a card from the deck. The picture on it was of a bird in a cage, and the woman took it from her to see the pictues.
"Ah, the caged bird. See how the door to its cage is open?" She asked the silent girl and Floria nodded.
"Yes Madam." She replied and the woman laughed.
"The bird is trapped by circumstance, but is free to leave because the door is open to her. All she needs to do is fly away, but something keeps her in place. What kept you so trapped?" The woman asked and Floria looked down at her hands. She shivered in her memory, and she looked back at the woman who waited for her answer.
"Fear Madam. I was afraid that something awful would befall me, but I eventually ran away and came to be here. I am now much happier, or at least content." She said and the woman nodded. She rested her gold ringed hand on the table, and played with a strand of her firey red hair. The sheer silks the woman wore reminded Floria of a pleasure girl, and she felt nervous for a moment. Wondering if she were doing something wrong, something that would give her past away.
"So you did take advantage of an open cage, you are stronger than you look. Pick another card." The woman said and Floria selected a card and turned it over, she looked down at it and saw a picture of a woman sitting in the dark. A single candle lighting her surroundings and she looked into the flame, her face soft but sad.
"Ah, the light seeker. You wished for knowledge and found it, see how she is in the dark but illuminated by the flame?" The woman asked and Floria nodded. "She is looking into it in hopes of learning some secret that was once forbidden to her. It could be anything, and everything to her."
"I just learned how to read and write, I was never allowed to do so before. I find that I like it very much, and wish to read many books." Floria said and the woman smiled at her. Her eyes studied her for a moment, and she looked down at the ring on her finger, the ring Loki had given her.
"Do you want to pick a card and know your future?" She asked Floria and she nodded silently. The woman gestured to the cards, inviting Floria to pick the last card and the girl trembled a bit. She selected a card and Loki walked over to the table, finishing making his purchase and regarded the scene. Floria turned the card over, and it was a drawing of a man and a woman locked in an embrace in a garden.
"Taking my Apprentice's money?" Loki said and Floria set the card down on the table, she folded her hands as if she were caught doing somethig terrible and hid her face for a monent.
"No money was exchanged Prince Loki, I was curious about her and wanted to see what her future held. She has a heart that burns, it only needs to be let out to see the sun." The woman said and smirked at the card Floria chose. She leaned close to her, and said one statement.
"The last card is called The Lovers, something grand is coming to you my dear. Don't be afraid of it, and it is closer than you believe it to be." She said and ran her hand over the table to pick the cards up magically and she held the deck in her hand again. Floria stood, Loki taking her elbow gently and guiding her to the door. She glanced back at the woman and blushed, not hearing what Loki said to her before they entered the street again. She glanced up at him, her eyes wide and he repeated himself.
"I am famished, let us go take a bite of food somewhere." He said and she nodded, she made an effort to keep her chin up and they walked together in silence.
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They sat in a corner away from the bustle of the Tavern with their meals, he enjoyed a plate of roast and potatoes while she ate from a bowl of stew in front of her. She sat and stirred the food with her spoon silently, her mind on the card that she had seen and Loki noticed her thoughtful expression. He sat back, looking at her for a moment and clearing his throat. She jumping and dropping the spoon into the dish, she picked it up and set it on the table.
"What are you thinking Nightengale?" He asked her, but she could not say what was on her mind. She folded her hands in her lap, looking at them and he sighed. He clenched a fist, the emerald and gold ring on his middle finger getting her attention.
"Are the Maids still being cruel to you?" He growled and she shook her head quickly. He eyes darted to his face and she froze, a deer caught in lights.
"No Sir, I have hardly seen them today. I was thinking about the twins." She said, being half true in her statement. He laughed to himself, and he ate some bread.
"I heard rumor that they had been dismissed last night, they did not keep to their vows to the Queen and were less than maidenly. You have nothing to fear Floria, you are a good and chaste girl with many virtues." He said and she smiled slightly. "I should warn you that Thor will begin to pursue you again, and that you need to stay vigiliant against that."
"Why would he have interest in me Sir? I am of little conquence, a nobody really." She asked and she ate a bit of her stew, dipping her bread into it. He worried that with the twins gone, he would go after her and she would eventually give into his charms.
"Thor likes a challenge. He likes that which is not his to take, and will often chase it until it cannot run any more." He said and she blinked at him, she shook her head and her mouth opened.
"I... I do not fancy Prince Thor though, can he not believe me when I say that?" She asked him and he laughed.
"He will not listen. He has no need for reason at times, and you will always be that thing he could never possess and toss aside when he grew bored." He replied, mopping up some gravy with his bread and eating the piece. She nodded at him, thinking again how to make her friend hear her.
"But he is so loud, and large. He frightens me, and I am afraid he will hurt me. I want to hide when i see him, and feel very small at the same time." She said and He nodded. He looked at her as she hugged herself, and shivered. "I do not like him."
"He will not hurt you Floria, he is loud and spoiled but not cruel." He said and she nodded her head again. "He chases what ever he wants and, is an oaf at the best of times."
"You are different from him." She said and he took a bite from his plate. "You are quieter, and much more intelligent Sir. I... I trust you more than he."
Loki choked on the food in his mouth when she spoke, swallowing fast and he took a drink of his mead. She blushed, biting her lip and wanting to take her words back. He cleared his throat, coughing again and chuckled.
"Thank you for the complement, I have to admit that it was unexpected." He said and she laughed, she turned shy again and he pushed his plate aside while she finished eating. She ate little tears of bread, and he found her sweet as spring honey. He looked back at the Serving Girl and she took his plate away, promising to return with more to drink.
"Floria, I only tell you this story to put you on guard, nothing more." He said and she looked up at him. "I was once in love with a pretty Handmaiden of Frigga's, she had golden hair and could stop my heart with her laugh. She was what the sun was truly jealous of."
"What happened to her Sir?" She asked, feeling a bit of jealousy at how the girl that had his heart was described by her friend. She folded her hands and the girl took the dish away from her. Leaving two more tankards of mead. Floria sipped at the drink, and he sighed.
"Thor happened." He said and growled, he stared at Floria and she looked shocked. "I was going to ask if I could court her, but on the day I arrived she was being dismissed. Thor had lured her in, and become bored of her. Casting her aside, and she was in a compromising position that had to be hidden before it got out that she was carrying his bastard."
"The poor girl." Floria said and he nodded, he remembered turning away from her in her tears. She was ruined, and it was because he had shown an interest in her, and Thor being the spoiled Prince has to take what was never his to begin with. He never chased the fairer sex after that, and never wanted to let his heart show out of fear it would happen again. He devoted his life to other pursuits, and not looking from one pretty face to the other.
"It was very sad for her. She was taken to her family home quietly and married to a son from a Noble Family. I never saw her again, but heard that she died in a fire trying to save her children." He said and he saw a tear on her cheek. He smiled at the memory of her, and looked at Floria with her gentle nature. In his mind the sun, the moon, and all the stars were jealous of her. He gave her a smile, and she wiped away the tear.
"I did not mean to give you reason to cry Floria. I am sorry." He said and she shook her head. "I want you to be very careful around Thor in the future, he is not overly cruel as I said, but a fool that seeks his own ends."
"I will be Sir." She said and smiled at him, wanting to change the subject to make him happy. "I am to be in a play, to entertain some of the Alfar."
"You are, I will have to look for you in it then." He said and drank his mead. "And who are you to be?"
"Goddess Autumn. I am supposed to protect the forest from a Hunter who seeks to kill all the animals in it." She said and he laughed, his smile genuine.
"Should I say that I cannot be in it Sir?" She asked and he shook his head. He waved his hand, and dismissed the sentiment quickly.
"We can work around your practice. I want to see how you vanquish this villian." He said, and smiled. "I want you to be as free as you can Floria, there is always time later for the serious. Don't forget to play and be happy, for there is much to be celebrated in laughter."
"Yes Sir." She said and blushed, her eyes looking tired. He put several coins in the table, and held out his hand to her.
"Shall we?" He asked and picked up her packages. She stood and took his offered elbow, leaving the Tavern and walking the street toward the castle together. He knew that he could never have her, but the idea that he could take her and show her so much of the world was enough at that time.