Azura hadn't come back to Tilaria's room since she had led her to the prince's rooms last night. Tilaria supposed that Azura had taken her warning to stay out of her room to heart, and that was better for Azura. As Tilaria gained awareness and woke up the spells that had been in place to keep her safe as she slept shut down. Although Tilaria had only had time to place a basic spell that would wake her up of someone entered and a charm to enforce the locks around the door and balcony, Tilaria knew she would have to reinforce the spells and place the rest of them soon.
Tilaria slipped out of bed and made it up with a flick of her hand. She padded barefoot to the closet where her clothes were and changed from her nightgown into her day clothes, and checked her blades. Six small three-point throwing shards were in her left bracer, and there was a slim dirk and her lockpicks in the right bracer. Her dagger was on her side and a few blades were hidden in subspace that she could materialize if she needed to. If only she had a saber she would feel so much better, but would make do with the small knives.
To store her magic she wore a plain copper band on her left wrist that was embedded with a few quartz jewels, and she now put it on her wrist. She made a note to look around Asgard and see if she could find a better flashpiece then the band, and ran her fingers through her hair to magically comb out the tangles that had appeared after sleeping. Once she was dressed Tilaria put on her slippers as she walked to the desk in the center of the room where she had left her satchel.
She opened her satchel. It was empty since she had unpacked all of her things already. Tilaria knew that it was not really empty though, and she bit her thumb. A drop of blood ran down her finger and fell into the satchel as Tilaria whispered the countercharm. This was a special blood veil that could only be broken by her blood. As the invisibility veil dropped the grimoire Hallien had given her appeared.
She withdrew Daris's grimoire of blood magic from the satchel and gazed at the inverted five-point star on the cover, the symbol for blood magic. Tilaria trailed her fingers on its spine, and they tingled from the amount of power contained within the leather covers of the little brown book. Although she had been given the grimoire several days ago she had yet to actually open it, and it seemed she still wasn't able to open it.
It irritated her that she always stopped. This book had the secret of blood, and supposedly even had the secrets of Fel, a type of forbidden magic even more powerful and dangerous then blood. If she read the book then she would learn the power of Fel. The power she could have was astounding, but she could never bring herself to learn the secret of Fel, the most forbidden and destructive of all magic.
She shook her head in irritation, and walked over to sit in front of the fireplace. A fire crackled there merrily, charmed so embers wouldn't fly out of it, and she enjoyed the warmth. The secret of Fel was literally in her hands, but she was too weak-willed to open the book and read.
Tilaria tssked, and threw down the book by the fireplace. The corners of it bounced against a few of the tiles loudly, and the pitch of the sound as it bounced off the tiles altered as it bounced against one. It wasn't a change of pitch that an Æsir could hear, but Tilaria did.
She frowned when she heard the pitch change. One of the pitches was higher as if the space underneath it was hallowed out. Tilaria reached over and rapped her knuckles against the tiles at the edge of the fireplace. The echo of one tile changed in pitch again, and Tilaria was now sure that one was hallow.
Curious, she drew her dagger at her waist and ran it along the tile's edges. Her dagger caught on something. Tilaria held her breath as she used her dagger as a lever to lift the tile up. The hallow under the tile was disappointingly empty, and Tilaria physically traced it with her fingers to be sure there wasn't something under an invisibility weave. There didn't seem to be.
As Tilaria traced the hallow in the floor, an idea formed over what she should do with the grimoire. Tilaria used her magic to make the hallow a little bigger, and then set the grimoire in there and covered it with the tile. It fit, and she smiled. This would be an easier place to hide the grimoire then in her satchel.
She bit her finger again and a few drops of blood fell onto the grimoire's cover. Her lips moved as she recreated the veil over the grimoire just like the one in the satchel. Now no one could see it but her. Feeling better leaving it behind, she put the tile over it again and stood. It was time for breakfast, and she was hungry.
While Tilaria was already walking down the halls to the dining hall, Thor was still sound asleep dreaming of a certain Halfling. In his dream, he had just saved Tilaria from some of those monstrous Jötnar and Tilaria was leaning in to kiss her hero when something heavy landed on his chest and dragged him from the dream a few seconds too early. Thor jolted form his bed, still only partially awake and fell from his bed with the thing that had jumped on him.
"Hey!" Loki shouted as Thor landed on top of him. "Thor you oaf, get off me!"
Thor's red blanket drifted down to land on top of both Princes, more so because it could then anything Thor suspected. Thor got off his brother and dragged the blanket off his head. The static electricity made his hair stand on end.
"Thor…" Loki started, but burst out into laughter when he saw Thor's hair.
Thor looked and must have realized something about it was wrong because he scowled and tried to smooth his hair. It wasn't working.
"Try sticking your head under the sink." Loki suggested, not at all being serious. "And you do know that you've almost missed breakfast?"
Thor rubbed his sleep worn eyes and looked closer at his brother. Loki was already dressed, with his daggers on his side and in his normal emerald tunic and black pants. The fact that Loki was already dressed elicited another scowl from Thor and he crossed his arms over his chest with a huff.
"We do have lessons today," Loki warned Thor in an attempt to jog his memory from the world of sleep.
"Lessons!" Thor straightened when the fact that it was Monday sank in, and gave Loki a bizarre look, uncrossing his arms slightly from his surprise. "With Tilaria here?"
"She's going to be living here from now on," Loki reminded Thor and stood, "there are not going to cancel lessons permanently as much as I know you'd love to hear otherwise. Now get dressed. Tilaria pinged me that she's in the dining hall wondering where we are. If you don't hurry then Volstagg will eat everything."
Loki walked to Thor's closet and tossed him one of his crimson tunics. Thor wasn't awake enough to catch it so it hit him right in the face and fell onto his lap.
"Did you have to wake me up like that?" He demanded his brother and stood reluctantly to strip of his nightclothes.
"I just teleported," Loki replied innocently and tossed Thor a set of his dark storm grey pants. "Whenever I teleport to your room I always go to your bed."
Thor lazily half-threw the blanket back onto his bed, and picked up the pillow. Since Loki had his back to him he expecting to catch Loki off guard as he threw it at Loki. Loki sidestepped it however without needing to turn around and Thor rolled his eyes in exasperation.
Loki levitated the pillow to his hand and threw it back onto Thor's bed.
"Come on," he ordered Thor and teleported to the dining hall.
Thor huffed at Loki once more pulled off his nightshift so he could get dressed. The extra static electricity made his hair stand up even more, and Thor tried in vain to smooth it. He deiced to do as Loki suggested with his hair and went into the bathroom.
When he came out he remembered Loki had said Tilaria was already there and he started rushing to get dressed. As soon as he could he pulled on his boots, realized he had them on the wrong feet, and then tried putting them on again. He swiped his jacket off of the back of his chair as he ran into the hallway and pulled his door closed behind him louder than intended.
He shrugged on his jacket because he knew mother would get mad at him if she saw he wasn't wearing it, and took several shortcuts down to the dining hall. Loki was always beating him with his teleportation, so Thor had learned many shortcuts to try and keep up with him. It took him half the time it would have taken if he went the long way around, and he raced down the hall. When he saw the dining hall ahead he stopped running and walked calmly to it so he had a chance to catch his breath.
Tilaria was standing just inside the doorway with Loki, and it looked like they had already eaten.
"Does Thor always sleep in so late?" Tilaria asked Loki curiously.
Loki smirked and rolled his eyes in light humor. "Only when we have lessons to get to."
"Lessons?" Tilaria tilted her head to one side. "You are still taking lessons?"
"Hello friends!" Thor called out as he came over.
Tilaria and Loki stared at him when they saw that his hair was soaking wet. He smiled at Tilaria and she tipped her head down in hello.
"Thor," Loki frowned. "When I told you to dunk your head under the sink, you do know I wasn't serious?"
Thor shrugged. "I couldn't get my hair to stand down."
Tilaria glanced at Loki curiously.
"Static electricity." Loki explained. "The closer to winter it gets the drier the air is, and the more static there is to bother everyone."
He leaned forward and waved his hand over Thor's hair, drying it instantly.
"Do you mean you're not going to be joining us for the pleasure of lessons?" Loki asked Tilaria sarcastically as he stepped back from Thor.
Tilaria shook her head that she was not. "I finished my lessons a while ago."
Thor stared at her declaration. "All of your lessons?"
"All of my classroom lessons," Tilaria told Thor plainly. "We Ljósálfr start classes before you do, and have them for longer periods. It means we get done with them sooner."
"You don't have any more lessons?!" Thor shouted.
Loki rolled his eyes.
"No more in the schoolroom," Tilaria repeated. "I am not finished in combat and magic, but I can learn the rest of what I need to here on Asgard. You might see me training with Freyja and the other mages or with your training master Eirill, at least sometimes."
"No more lessons and no homework?! That is so not fair!" Thor growled.
Loki looked up when the light dimmed. The dining hall, like many rooms in the palace, had the ceiling enchanted to reflect the sky even though it was inside, including the level of sunlight. It was called a skyview, and through the skyview Loki was able to see that clouds were starting to darken from Thor's frustration.
"A little more Thor and we'll have rain," Loki sighed to his brother.
Thor quieted, and the clouds began to disperse a little. "What are you going to do until we're freed from our teacher?"
"I want to have a look at the palace grounds around Gladsheimr," Tilaria thought aloud. "Maybe after that I could look at your library. I heard that you've got as many magic books as Alfheim."
Thor understood why Tilaria would want to look around and further orient herself in her new surroundings, but was frustrated that she had just mentioned magic and books. Those were two points Thor was woefully weak in.
"We're going to be late," Loki interrupted Thor's train of thought. "If you want to eat something before lessons you'll have to take something and eat on the way there."
"So what if we're a little late?" Thor asked haughtily. "We're the princes. It's not like they're going to punish us."
"Come on," Loki pestered with a sigh. "Hárekr might not punish us for being late, but mother will."
"Fine," Thor admitted and threw his hands up in an exaggerated movement. "We'll see you this afternoon Tilaria, our lessons finish at lunch."
Tilaria was surprised that they got out so early since her classes usually went until sunset, but didn't say anything. This was a different world, and she had already learned that they did things differently than Alfheim.
"It is not fair that mages need less sleep then the rest of us," Thor tossed over his shoulder at the two of them, "and it's so much easier for you to wake up."
Tilaria and Loki exchanged an amused look at Thor's frustrated declaration as he went to the table to steal a bagel and some other things for breakfast. He had his breakfast gathered before long, and the brothers said goodbye to Tilaria and headed to their classroom where their teacher Hárekr would be.
Loki said something to Thor as he started eating his bagel and Thor swatted at him for whatever it was. It was easy for Loki to duck his brother's blow however, and Thor flicked a hand dismissively. The movement seemed to amuse Loki greatly.
Tilaria shook her head at the brothers, and began to walk outside the palace so she could wonder the grounds. She had a feeling she would get used to their antics before long.
Thor takes things Loki says way to literally, he he. The first half talks about the concept of Fel, but the second half is more fluff then anything. Did i do a good job with the fluff? I fear my strong suit is battle scenes, so i'm not sure.
*Gladsheimr - the golden palace on Asgard, its name translates to "bright home" in Norse mythology.