All of the rooms in the ambassadorial wing, Tilaria realized quickly enough, followed Asgard's main architectural pattern of having way too much gold. She was surprised when Loki agreed with her, and the two of them checked out the rooms one at a time to try and find one that was only mildly stifling with luxury.
After a while, they found one meant for the ambassador's aid that could be salvaged from the overabundant amount of luxury, and Tilaria put her satchel down on the canopy bed and hopped onto it. The silk sheets were soft and it felt to her like the mattress was stuffed with soft goose down. It was softer than her bed on Alfheim for certain.
Loki gave a start as if something invisible had just bit him and Tilaria raised a hand to her chest level palmdown with the fingers curled so she could charge a spell quickly. Her movement made Loki smile and he waved her down. It seemed that Thor had gone looking for Loki when he hadn't returned to lunch and was now hovering outside his room.
Tilaria did a time spell, and was surprised to find that an hour had already passed since lunch. It didn't feel to her that too much time had passed. Loki decided that he had better check in on Thor, and advised split telling Tilaria that it would probably be best is she didn't wait up for him. She nodded goodbye and sat up in the bed once he left.
Although Tilaria had found one room she liked, she still hadn't finished looking through all of the suites in the wing. With that in mind, she left the door to the room her satchel was in open and continued inspecting the rooms. It took another half hour to finish searching, and Tilaria decided that she liked the first room she had found best.
She headed back to the room to unpack her things from her satchel, and was surprised to see that the door was wide open where she had left it mostly closed. Wary, she reached out telepathically, aware that a senseline might give her presence away if the intruder was a mage. There was someone inside moving about the room, and Tilaria waited until their back was to her before slipping inside and pouncing on them. When Arlen had attacked her she had been caught off guard, and she was not going to let that happen again.
She swept behind the intruder and grabbed the back of his tunic with one hand, yanking his head back as she set her dagger under his chin. Her captive gave a shriek that dissolved into an eep, and Tilaria realized that her intruder was a she instead of a he. Tilaria recognized this girl now as the servant she had scanned for a map of the palace earlier, but the knowledge that it was a girl wasn't enough to make her lower blade and release her.
"Please," the girl whispered.
"Who are you precisely?" Tilaria asked the servant in a low voice, "and what are you doing in my room."
"I am your maid," the girl exclaimed.
Tilaria was so surprised by the girl's declaration that she released her and walked around to face her directly. "My what?"
"Your maid," the girl repeated, "Frigga assigned me to you. I know that you are going to pick out quarters for yourself here in the wing, and I wanted to clean up your room a little. When I saw the door to this room open I assumed that this was to be your room."
Tilaria glanced over at the satchel she had left, but it had not been touched. That was lucky for the intruder.
"It is," Tilaria assured the girl seriously, "but I hardly need a maid. Like all mages, I can pick up after myself."
"You don't want me to help you?" The girl asked in confusion.
Tilaria's magic and her telepathy were warning her that this girl was no threat and had no ill intentions, so she sheathed her dagger back to her side and wished yet again she had a saber. Daris had taught her how to use a saber, but she simply didn't have one of her own.
"No," Tilaria answered simply. As she tried to think of a way to make the maid leave, she thought back to Loki. "Does Prince Loki have a maid?"
"No," the girl admitted, "it's dangerous to go into his room when he's not around with his security spells."
"You should consider my room the same," Tilaria warned the girl in what she hoped was a dismissive voice.
She made a note to put up some security spells of her own once her visitor left.
The girl didn't take the hint and leave though. "Is this to be your room from now on?"
"Yes," Tilaria relented.
"Can I at least tidy up around here today?" The girl asked Tilaria. "This room has been empty, and is hardly ready for occupancy."
It wasn't that big of a deal to Tilaria, but she didn't think the girl would go away unless she was able to do something. "Fine. What's your name anyway?"
"Azura," Azura bowed.
"What?" Tilaria sighed and turned away to walk to her satchel. "I thought Æsir had a father's name. You don't have one?"
"I don't know who my father was," the girl said softly.
Tilaria stopped walking to the canopy and sighed. Obviously she had hit on a touchy subject accidently.
"That makes two of us," Tilaria assured Azura by way of an apology.
Normally, if the father's name couldn't be used then the mother's name became an Æsir's last name. Azura hadn't used a mother's name either though, and Tilaria guessed she didn't know her mother's name either. That was something else they had in common.
"If you're going to fix up my room then now is your chance to do so." Tilaria told Azura briskly, unsure what to say to make up for her verbal blunder and deciding to simply change the subject.
Azura tipped her head and began to walk around the room Tilaria had claimed, and left to fetch fresh sheets and wood for the fireplace. Tilaria let her go wordlessly, and started taking things out of her satchel.
Loki never did make it back to Tilaria's room to help her finish searching for a room thanks to Thor, and later that day Thor suggested that the children take some tents and go camping in the forest. This would likely be one of their last chances before it became too cold to do so comfortably. After a quick scolding from Loki saying that they shouldn't go without telling anyone, and that his magic said it would storm tonight, Thor dropped the idea.
The sun had set now, and an icy wind howled around the palace from one of the first cold fronts of the season moving through. An icy drenching rain began to pour from the clouds, and the wind made it blow almost sideways. Thor was now glad that he had listened to Loki and stayed indoors although he still wished Loki had told him where Tilaria had gone.
Thor stood just inside his room behind his balcony doors and watched the rain fall. It was so thick that Thor could hardly see to the end of his balcony, even with the lights inside his room off. The storm tonight had only rain and no lightning, so Thor didn't bother to go outside into it like he would otherwise. Even inside however, he still relished in the power hidden in the clouds that he could feel thanks to his bond with Mjölnir.
"One day," Thor whispered to himself as he watched the rain fall. "One day I will wield Mjölnir, and I will become the God of Storms."
He knew sadly that that day was not today, and likely would not come until he was much older and had proven himself to Mjolnir that he was worthy of its power. Thor didn't move from the doors however, and watched the storm in the dark.
As usual, Thor had left his door open, and he was too entranced by the storm to notice that something was watching him. It was a shade, a construct of shadow made from a high ranking shadow mage, and it was annoyed. Although the shade had managed to locate Thor, it had yet to find its real target.
The mage controlling the construct tensed when they realized that someone was coming, and the shade melted into the shadows of the hallway by its command. It was done none too soon because that was the moment when Loki opened the door to his room. He had just finished taking a short shower, and his black locks were still wet although dried to the point that they weren't dripping. Loki planned to check in on Thor to make sure he wasn't mad at him for hiding Tilaria's location so she could unpack in peace.
Although the lights in his brother's room were off, he could sense that Thor was still awake and no doubt watching the storm. Loki stopped at the doorway to Thor's room when he felt an echo of magic. A mage or something like a mage had been here, and Loki knew it couldn't be Thor. It didn't feel like any of the mages here at court, and Loki warily remembered that Daris was still at large. He was a mage.
Loki's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of glass shattering from within Thor's room, and he gave a start. Still thinking about Daris, he ran inside Thor's room and stared at the scene before him. Thor had somehow managed to crash through the doors of his balcony and was now lying out on it in the rain. There was glass everywhere.
"Thor!" Loki called out to him, checking that there was no intruder rapidly.
Thor waved a hand in the air without sitting up, "Present."
Loki stared at him, and then sighed deeply. There was no intruder, which meant Thor had just outdone himself yet again on the scale of ungracefulness. He walked up to the balcony where Thor was, relishing in the chilly breeze that now swirled about the room.
Once the mage realized that Loki's attention was diverted they warily informed their shade to return, and the construct separated itself from the shadows and took on three-dimensional form again. The target was still nowhere to be seen, and that irked the shadow mage. Their annoyance was made worse when they realized there were two more beings coming. With a sigh of irritation, the mage made their shade vanish once more.
The mage tensed when they saw that it was Tilaria and a servant girl who had come walking to the prince's quarters. Tilaria thanked Azura for guiding her to the prince's rooms, and Azura left with a curtsey. Azura walked away while Tilaria noticed that Thor's door was open and approached. She peered into Thor's dark room, and took in the scene in front of her just as Loki had not long ago.
Thor had moved from the balcony, and was sitting against the wall. Loki was standing beside his brother, inspecting the shattered balcony door as rain poured inside. Both of them were soaking wet, and there was a brisk autumn breeze circulating through the room. Tilaria pulled her cloak closer to her form and stepped inside.
Thor spotted her before she could say anything and called out cheerfully, "hi Tilaria!"
Loki glanced over a shoulder briefly when he saw Tilaria, and magically turned on the lights in Thor's room so he could see the door better. He technically didn't need to turn on the lights because his eyes were quite sensitive to the dark. Although Loki couldn't see in pitch darkness he could see quite well in twilight gloom, better than he could see on a brilliantly sunny day where the brightness made his eyes sting.
There was the slight scent of blood in the air, and Tilaria forced herself to walk forward despite the iron tang the wind was circulating. With the lights on she could see that the blood came from Thor and he was still covered in glass. She wasn't scared of the scent of blood, quite the opposite. Her stomach growled, and Tilaria began to wish that she had gotten dinner instead of dismissing Azura without telling her to bring a meal.
"What happened?" She asked cautiously.
"This oaf," Loki jerked a thumb at Thor, "tripped over his boot and went through the door. I have no idea how he managed it. He says he was too busy watching the storm."
Thor looked between Tilaria and Loki shyly and held out his hands, silently asking Loki to help him with the glass. Loki sighed elaborately and bent down next to his brother, curling his fingers to his palm to charge his healing magic. A soothing mist like aura of healing magic soon glowed around the tips of his fingers and Loki traced the gash on Thor's forehead.
Outside the room, the mage dared to rematerialize their shade and look again. It was indeed Tilaria, just like the informers on Alfheim had said she had moved to Asgard. The mage finally dissolved their shade before one of the two mages within the room noticed it with a satisfied yet sad voice. Depending on Daris's next orders, the mage would have to either kill or capture Tilaria. It would depend on what Daris said when the mage confirmed that she was indeed on Asgard.
The mages within the room were unaware of the danger that had just passed them by working under Daris's command, and focused on damage control. While Loki checked over Thor to make sure he was fine, Tilaria raised a hand to the damaged doorframe of wood and glass and whispered a basic reconstruction spell.
The scattered glass and wood from the balcony door floated off the ground and reassembled themselves like a jigsaw puzzle. Seams from where they had been broken healed without leaving a trace, and Thor winced as some of the glass crept out of his wounds. Tilaria cleaned the red from the fragments, and the wind began to die down as the door reassembled itself.
Once the door was reassembled Loki froze the water on the floor into ice without looking away from Thor, and then dismissed it into water vapor. Tilaria nodded at him, and Loki smiled a little in return. He and Thor stood, and Thor shook himself to try and get some of the water off of himself. Loki used a charm to dry himself, and Thor scowled at him when he did so.
"I don't know how to cast that charm on another person," Loki apologized when he didn't dry Thor off. "You're just going to have to take a bath, and soon before mother sees how bloody you are."
Thor paled a little when he looked down and saw the blood on his tunic. It wasn't much, but it was enough for his mother to scold him. He nodded agreement, and Loki helped shoo Thor towards the bathroom.
Tilaria took her leave, deciding to leave Thor to Loki and head back to her room. This trip had been short, but now at least she knew where the prince's rooms were and she was sure she could find them again. She was cold from the wind, bitterly so. Ljósálfr didn't experience cold, and so they had no tolerance to it. Ever since she had died during the civil war against Daris though, her tolerance to the cold had been lower than before. Perhaps when Hel had resurrected her, she had accidently brought her back wrong.
Tilaria admitted that was a possibility, but was so busy with her thoughts that she walked right past where the shade had been without noticing the echo from its presence. Neither she, nor the princes realized that Daris was already making his next move, and they would come to regret not knowing soon enough.
Yep, Daris is not going to stay quiet much longer. He's got a spy on Asgard, and things are going to get very insane very quickly before long. The spy has to report back to Daris and get new orders, but that won't be much of a delay all things considered. No one even knows there's a problem. Daris has the element of surprise and that's going to give him a disastrous advantage.
As for Azura, she's just a filler character more then anything right now. I don't believe that the princes, their friends, and Odin and Frigga are the only people on Asgad so there are a lot of little filler OC. Don't worry if you can't keep them all straight. Some of them are important, but not all. You'll be able to tell which filler's are important to the plot.