Hey guys! First, I'd like to thank you all for the dozens of follows and favorites, and the lovely comments! I am sorry I've been away for a while , but the good news is that I will be posting a chapter a day for almost a week :) The chapters are finished and only need to be reread and posted, although I am still only just starting the story I have planned in my head.
The following morning Aislinn rose early and went down to the training grounds only to find Thor absent. She practiced her form and worked up a decent sweat battling wooden dummies for more than an hour before she decided that the eldest prince was probably not coming. Drink had flowed freely at the feast last night, and the palace grounds were quiet this morning. Bored battling stiff wooden figures, Aislinn decided to pack up early and head to the library.
She had been looking forward to a duel this morning. It would have cleared her head and let her think about what she had heard last night.
She found the library before too long, still taking a few wrong turns in the immense golden palace. When she crossed through the large arched doorways into the library she took a long slow breath with her eyes closed. It smelled of old paper and fine leather, like her father. She found the quiet warmth of the library very comforting, its stillness washing over her like a balm.
She walked down the nearest shelf of books, her hand running over the leather bound covers, reading the glossy titles of histories and legends. She continued deeper into the library, exploring it more thoroughly than she had been able to before. It was a massive round room that stretched up at least ten floors. Each floor was marked by an immense gallery with gracefully spiraling staircases between them. She wended her way up several tiers, absentmindedly admiring the books, until she saw a door set into the shelves on the fourth floor, with some magical runes about it. She approached it cautiously, and, reaching out with her right hand, grasped the heavy and old fashioned iron ring that served as a nob. She had half expected something to happen; a wailing sound, a sharp shock, or maybe she would be turned into something slimy.
However, the door creaked open at her touch and she walked through. Inside was a smaller library in the image of the large one. This room was about twenty yards across and also cylindrical. It even had three galleries, although they were little wider than walkways. In the center of the room sat an enormous mahogany table, with matching chairs strewn about it at uneven intervals. There were multiple guards in golden armor standing watch in this room, lest the tomes of magic come to ill use.
The books on the shelves that lined this room radiated with mystical power, and Aislinn knew she had found the volumes on magic. She scanned the titles of the books hungrily, mentally cataloging everything she wished to read and research until she encountered a book of illusion spells. It was a subject that had long fascinated her, and she grabbed the enormous tome off the shelf and carried it to the table behind her. It was not until she set the volume down on the table that it occurred to her that the guards might protest, but they stood stoic as ever.
The first chapter covered the act of disappearing, which Aislinn had long ago mastered. But the subsequent chapters revolved around disguise, creating false doubles and so on. She sat pouring over the pages for hours, reading spells until she memorized them, and absorbing the notes and suggestions carefully.
So absorbed was she in her new discovery that she did not hear the door open again behind her, or note the shadowy figure it admitted. Loki watched her from the shadowy edge of the room as she used a spell of disguise to turn her hair as blue as her tunic, and watched her laugh, pleased with herself. She set it right with a flick of a finger, and then held her arm out in front of her, making it disappear and reappear. Loki was confused for a moment, until he saw something move on the table. Aislinn was holding up an illusory arm and trying to move a piece of parchment at the same time: the ultimate sleight of hand.
Loki cleared his throat and began walking towards the table, causing Aislinn to jump. The illusion broke, and she simply had her hand on the book. She flushed a little, embarrassed that she was caught acting childishly. When she saw it was Loki coming out of the shadows, her face clouded a bit.
"You are not happy to see me." He said. It was not a question. Aislinn fretted a bit, shifting uncomfortably in her chair. Loki sighed and said, "What is it? Tell me."
Silence hung between them for some time while Aislinn tried to plan her words carefully. "Someone… told me something about you." She said at last. Loki did not respond, but waited for her to go on. She blurted out, "Is it true you cannot leave the palace?"
Loki closed his eyes and released a long shuddering sigh before he sat down at the table a few feet away from her. "Yes. That is so." He said simply.
"Then it is all true… that you broke up Thor's coronation by committing treason?"
Loki said only, "Yes."
Aislinn looked downcast, and asked, "Why?"
"I have always played tricks. I suppose it is in my nature. Thor and I were raised in competition with each other. We were two princes, but there was only one throne. I was angry when Thor was chosen, and why shouldn't I have been?" Aislinn said nothing as Loki found himself pouring out his story in a way he never had before. "My brother." He spat. "Golden boy. He is nothing but an angry reckless fool, thirsting for blood. I deserved the throne more, I would have made the better king. Perhaps I hoped Father would see that, when Thor reacted to the frost giants. But I did not imagine the giants or the guards would die. I thought the Jotuns would spend a few nights in an Asgardian prison cell."
Aislinn nodded slowly as he talked and then said, "Thank you for telling me the truth."
"What?" Loki said, half teasing and half aggressively, "No lecture on the evils of violence or disdainful judgment from the great lady?"
Aislinn looked hurt, but said carefully, "You could have tried to lie, but you did not. I care nothing for who you were and what you did before I met you. I only care about who you are now, and that you have saved my life."
Loki was stunned, and fell silent for a moment, reflecting. Over the last few months, or perhaps for his entire life, he had been used to being judged harshly. It was overwhelming, at last having someone give him the benefit of the doubt.
They sat quietly for a time, both lost in thought. Loki then tentatively asked Aislinn about her choice in illusion magic.
"Oh. My father was a great practitioner of magic, but he specialized in elemental spells. My mother had some small ability, and she taught me the little bit of illusion magic she had learned. I always wanted to know more, but neither of them could teach me."
"How much power did you actually acquire?" Loki asked. "I should know where to begin, assuming you still want me to teach you."
"I have never met another magic user, so I am not sure. I think my father was quite powerful, and he always told me I had the capacity to out match him."
Loki rose from his chair and gestured for Aislinn to follow him. They went through a door opposite to the one Aislinn had entered through. The next room was high arched and the walls were of a bare grey stone. "This is where we will actually practice magic," his voice echoed through the totally empty room. "The stone here insulates all but the most powerful of magic, and there is nothing in the room to be destroyed, obviously."
Aislinn stared up at the ceiling of the cavernous space and murmured something inaudible. Eyes still fixed on her face, Loki flicked his wrist and summoned from the empty air a wooden target, such as one might use to practice archery.
"Strike the target." He said simply.
Aislinn waivered for a moment, trying to decide what Loki might be after. She raised a hand before her, churning blue light beginning to pour from her palm. She made a throwing gesture with her hand, and three sparkling arrows of ice whistled from her finger tips and thudded home in the wooden target.
"No," Loki said. "Do not just hit it. Destroy it." Aislinn looked doubtful.
She put her hands together, just above her heart and summoned a globe of shimmering yellow energy and lobbed it at the target. When the energy ball struck it, the target exploded into a shower of broken and twisted wood. Loki noted an imbalance in her stance, and reached forward suddenly, grasping her left hip bone and right elbow to correct her.
As soon as he made contact with her body he froze as if struck, releasing his grasp as he remembered himself. Covering, he used only the tips of his fingers to adjust her posture and then stepped back, summoning a large stone statue in the middle of the room this time.
"I want to see the extent of your power. Strike at it as if it were your worst enemy. Strike at it as if it will kill you if you fail."
Aislinn placed her two hands on her chest, and took a deep breath. She pictured the battle in her childhood home, the monsters that had destroyed everything she had ever known. She thought about the menacing face of the one who had collared her, pictured his hands around her neck again, pressing cold golden bonds into her flesh.
She lit up suddenly like a falling star, intense yellow light suddenly illuminating every corner of the room. She threw her hands up in front of her at the target, and a blast of energy flowed between them like a gout of flame. Loki recoiled, shocked and frightened. As suddenly as it happened it was over.
The statue was gone. Not merely destroyed but vaporized. Aislinn wavered unsteadily, and then began to sink towards the floor, dizzy and weak.