Chapter 64.
Loki and Floria stood in shock as Odin placed, his staff hitting the floor and Thor holding Sera's hand as they both confessed the what they had done. Floria looked at Loki, her head shaking and she looked guilty for her actions and she bit her lip.
"I am sorry." She said to him, and he could not look at her. "I was so very wrong."
"You two have caused quite a mess. I hope you are both proud, choose other beds to show affection toward each other in." Odin said to the two women. Sari hid behind her silver hair, and Thor put an arm around her. Frigga looked at Loki, her face sympathetic.
"Loki, go and speak to your Wife dear. She looks so sad and guilty for everything that happened." She said and he nodded, still not looking at Floria.
"I do not have much to say to her." He replied and he walked out of Frigga'a chambers and to his. The only sound behind him was the soft tap of Floria'a shoes as she followed him. She hung her head, hiding how ashamed she was at what she had said to him and she wanted to cry into her hands.
She stood silently in their chambers, and he sat heavily in his chair and stared at her. Her eyes rooted to the floor, and she trembled.
"I did not mean to say..." She started and he stopped her with a wave of his hand.
"Don't, you meant it. And in a way it is true, I am a Monster, a Defilier of innocent girls, and a Murderer." He replied, his calm voice scaring her more than anything. She trembled, and looked at the floor. The only time she was spoken to like that, was when she was told she was sold to a Pleasure House. Her Master calmly speaking to her as if she was the least of his worries, a tear traced down her cheek and she felt it on her chin.
"You may go." He said and Floria stayed rooted to her spot. She was thrown away again, and he stood and walked toward her. Except it was not him, it was her Master and he was going to beat her. She took a step back, fear taking over and she stumbled over a chair, she fell backwards and crashed to the floor. The heel of her shoe breaking, and her gown tearing at the sleeve on the edge of a table as it cut her arm open. She yelped in pain, and lay still on the floor.
"I am sorry." Was all she said, Loki looking at her and she pushed off the floor to look into his eyes. "I did not mean it."
"Go to a Healer, you are bleeding." He said and Floria looked at her gown. She got to her feet, limping to the door and she stopped and looked back at him. He could feel her staring at him, but he did not look back at her. His calm not at least showing the storm inside him. She opened the door, stepping into the hall and saw Sera walking toward her. She reached out to her friend and saw her anguish, taking her arm and wrapping it in her shawl.
"Floria, I am so... so sorry. I did not want you to suffer like this, it was not my intention." Sera said and Floria looked at her and sobbed.
"Sera... I am cast off. I am nothing again, and... and I have another child inside me." She wept and Sera held her friend as she cried in the hall.
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Floria sat in the borrowed Chambers alone, her arm wrapped and coated with a salve that prevented scarring and quickened healing. She had been alone all day, and the knock at the door made her look up. She stood, opening it and saw Frigga looking in at her and she held a letter in her hands.
"May I come in?" Frigga asked, and she saw the activity in the hall. She nodded, and Frigga entered and looked at her.
"Loki wanted me to give you this, he is leaving soon and I do not know when he will return." She said and Floria took the letter, setting it unopened on the table. She heard another knock, and Sari stood outside and gasped for air from running.
"You should read it, it concerns your household and everything in it." Frigga said and Floria couldn't bring herself to touch the letter.
"Am I to leave the Castle?" She asked and Frigga nodded softly, her eyes sad.
"I am so sorry dear." Frigga said and Floria nodded, looking at the cradle with her Daughter in it.
"Then Amora and Yolanda got their true desire in the end, I am to be cast off and my Common Blood purged, my child a Bastard, and the one I carry now to never be known by its Father." Floria said, Frigga walking toward her and she looked at her Daughter in Law.
"You have to stop him! You are with child, and he does not even know!" Frigga said and held her shoulders. "He has right to know that you still love him, and that his child is now growing in you again!"
"He will not even look at me. He turns away, and will not look at his Daughter! How can I convince a stubborn man to stay with a woman he cannot even look at in affection any longer?" She asked. Frigga urged her to go, begging with her eyes and let a tear fall.
"Because I know him, he is stubborn and a fool at times, but he will not leave you with a child growing in you! Now go, and tell him before he makes a terrible mistake!" She said and Floria ran past the Queen, she raced down the halls and burst through the chamber doors to see the empty rooms and the lack of his things in them. She heard him giving orders to a man for another trunk, and she walked toward them. He regarded her, and he closed his eyes and waved the man to his task.
"I see my letter has reached you, are the terms not to your liking?" He asked and she shook her head. He folded his hands behind his back, staring at her and she bit her lip.
"Please dont leave." She asked him, folding her hands and thinking of how to word what she had to say. "I apologized over and over to you, why do you not listen?"
"I believe I said my peace enough in my letter..."
"I did not read it. I came to tell you something, I love you and pray you will listen." She said and he walked past her, collecting his cloak and putting it on. She stared at him, watching him fumble with the ties and he walked to the door, leaving her and she walked after him.
"I have no time for this, am late as it is. Go to the Estate I planned for you, it is very nice and you can raise your Daughter there." He said and she grabbed his arm.
"She is your Daughter too. Will you abandon her with no future, leave us because of foolish pride? To never know her Father as you had no contact with yours?" She asked and he pulled his arm away from her.
"She will adapt, and have a better future than you think. Go on and pack, and say nothing more to me." He said, walking through the gates and toward his horse.
"Where are you going then? So I may send you a message, to tell you..." She started as he mounted his horse and he looked down at her. He waved the coaches to hold, and Frigga walked out of the gates and stood silently.
"Tell me what? How your trivial life is progressing?" He asked her and laughed, his eyes flashing in anger. "Or how you still find me a monster?"
"To tell you when your child is born, I am carrying your second now." She said and he stopped looking back at her. His eyes widened at her revelation and he shook his head, ignoring how she looked up at him in hope that he would stay with her.
"I... I am to be a Father again?" He asked her and she nodded. She turned and began walking through the gates, her heart pounding and she hid her tears.
"You are, I will wait here for you to return Husband. For I am your true Wife, and no woman, or man will convince me otherwise." She said and continued to walk back to their chambers. Frigga smiled at her, walking next to her and they did not hear the heavy boots walking toward them. A hand grabbed her arm, making her gasp in pain at the cut under her sleeve and she turned to see Loki standing beside her.
"You have my children." He said and she looked him in the eyes and she nodded. "You stubborn woman, when will you learn?"
"When my Stubborn Husband..." She started and fainted, her body going limp and he caught her.
"Fetch a Healer!" He shouted, and looked back at the man carrying a trunk. "Take them all back to my chambers, I have a Wife with child to care for!"
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"It was a warning, and she must remain in bed for the duration of her time with child." Eir said, Frigga and the Maids looking at her as she opened her eyes. "No upset, she must be kept calm. I will check her in a month and see if she is able to go for short walks."
"Thank you." Frigga said and she sat next to Floria. She lay against the pillows, her eyes filling with tears at the lack of one person.
"Is he gone?" She asked and Frigga shook her head. She held her daughter's hand and smoothed her hair, calming her with a simple spell.
"Don't worry yourself Dear, you have a child to think of. He..." Frigga started and Loki walked in, carrying their daughter and a large bundle of Rose's in the other hand.
"I thought you should have something beautiful to look at while you rested." He said and Alarea giggled as he tapped the end of her nose. She hugged to her Father, and wiggled down from him and sat on the bed with her mother.
"Mama." She said and curled close to Floria, she gasped and felt her eyes fill with tears. Frigga having to use the magic again to keep her calmed, taking care of her Daughter.
"I am so happy you are here." She said and Loki took Frigga'a place. He held her hand and Sari took the flowers to put them in a vase. "I am so very sorry, please stay. Dont leave us, and..."
"I am where I belong." He said and kissed her lips softly. "With the woman I love and the children she has given me. I should be the one who is sorry now, for you are my life and my true Queen."
"I cannot leave the bed. I am to stay here or the baby will die." She said and Loki grinned at her. He shook his head, picking up their Daughter and smiled at her. She wondered at what he was doing, and he held his child close to him and she blinked back tears at the scene.
"Alarea, Mother is to have another baby. How do we take care of her while the baby grows?" He asked the little girl and she giggled.
"Hugs! And make Mama west!" The child said and he tapped her nose gently.
"My clever Princess, you know what is best." He said and helped Floria sit up, his arms around both his girls and he felt a tear fall down his cheek in response to the love he was surrounded in. He felt so very stupid at what he had almost done, the woman close to him once so trusting and he abusing it again. She trembled in his arms, and he feared he could not fix the damage he had done this time.
"She is like her Father." Floria said and felt his tear hit her cheek. She pulled away, looking into his eyes and blinked. "Please dont ever leave us, I am a life divided without you."
"I won't, I am a fool to contemplate such an action." He said and she held him close to her, his hands in her hair and her heart aching for him to never let go.
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"Thank You Eir." Frigga said to the Healer with a smile, she lips thin and her eyes sparkling at her work.
"I do not lying to my patients My Queen, she only fainted from hunger. The child in her is well, and healthy." Eir replied, walking with her Queen down the halls and letting out a resounding sigh. "This meddling in a marriage could go awry, just know that. If one person does not wish it to continue, then it will fail."
Frigga sighed, her hands open and looking at the woman with her. A knowing smile on her lips as she stood before the dark haired Healer, her own blue eyes shimmering with knowledge.
"I have seen their bond in my meditations, if one leaves, the other will die. I fear prophecy and fate have stronger plans for the both of them, and their hearts are linked by forces stronger than their own wills." Frigga said, and sighed. "Who am I but a simple slave to the wheels of fortune and destiny?"
"A Queen, and a meddling woman. My Queen." Eir said and sighed, walking on and Frigga folded her hands at the scolding. She looked back toward Loki's chambers, her heart sinking for what storm she saw coming in her visions and she hid her own sadness.