Aislinn and Loki slept blissfully together all night… for too long. Aislinn's eyes opened with a snap as she heard Tofa and Sigrid talking in her sitting room. Tofa was laying the breakfast table, with a noisy clinking of dishes and asking Sigrid what they should do if Aislinn was unwell again today. She heard Sigrid scoff and Tofa chastise her.
Loki gathered her against him tightly, wrapping her up in his arms and making sleep heavy, contented sounds. He kissed her forehead, the tip of her nose, and one very light kiss on the lips, before smiling and holding his finger up to his lips suggestively. Aislinn's bedroom doorknob began to turn with a rattle, and just as Aislinn was about to cry out for Tofa not to come in, she found her arms and her bed suddenly devoid of Loki. The blanket, sagging abruptly with in his absence, no longer covered them both. She would not be caught in the arms of a prince in the morning after all.
Aislinn flopped back onto the bed, rolling into the place were Loki had left his warmth and his scent, trying to make a show of being asleep. Tofa peeked around the door and whispered, "My Lady? Aislinn… it is time to wake up my friend."
Aislinn gave a little shake she imagined looked like someone starting out of sleep and yawned, " 'morninahhh… Tofa." Rubbing her eyes and wondering if she was laying it on too thick she sat up, still reclined on her pillows.
"How are we feeling this morning?" Tofa said with evident concern in her voice, reaching to touch Aislinn's forehead.
Obliging, she let Tofa touch her face, searching for signs of a flush or paleness, heat or cool. "You know what?" Aislinn said as her friend-playing-nursemaid scrutinized her. "I feel really, really… GREAT! What are we having for breakfast?"
"Well, I suppose that is a good sign…" murmured Tofa, still eyeing her charge.
Flinging her blankets back, Aislinn tumbled out of bed in the best humor Tofa had ever seen her in. She practically skipped to the table and began piling high a plate of fruit, pastries, eggs and breakfast meat before flopping down on the couch to begin working through it. Her good mood restored, she realized she had barely eaten since… when? Her anguish and uncertainty about Loki's feeling and Thor's friendship had left her with no appetite. Thinking back, she had consumed little since the breakfast before she last sparred with Thor four days ago, excepting wine. The thought made her shudder, but she still managed to shove half a fruit and cream filled tart of some sort in her mouth and swallow it almost without chewing. Volstagg would have been proud.
Tofa watched her eat with gusto, visibly comforted by her lady's now voracious appetite. Sigrid looked affronted and mildly nauseated. She ate so little and in such a dainty fashion Aislinn wondered idly if she lived on snobbery, gossip and the salt-tanged Asgardian air. Finding she almost relished Sigrid's distain, she picked up a patty of some spiced meat in her fingers and bit into it, watching her flinch and trying not to laugh. "Tofa," Aislinn asked through her mouthful, "Can someone send word to the Princes that I would like to start training again today?"
"No!" Tofa said, "Absolutely not. You are not fighting today; the Allfather would have my hide for letting you exert yourself so much after being ill."
Aislinn looked deflated, but said, "Surely I can go read in the library with Loki? I have already missed much he wished to teach me this week."
"Spell-weaving is said to be every bit as exhausting as combat, and harder on the mind. You told me that yourself."
"But if I rest until my usual meeting time…" Aislinn found herself pleading with a woman no older than herself as though she were her mother. Tofa might be a maiden still, but a mothering aura radiated from her like light from a torch. It was nice to pretend, though. It made her friend happy, and it let Aislinn imagine her childhood had not been stolen from her. "I only want to read, Tofa."
Tofa narrowed her eyes at Aislinn and said, "We will see how you are then."
Aislinn finished her breakfast, relishing every bite and replaying yesterday's events on a loop in her brain, unable to keep from smiling for no reason like a besotted school girl. Tofa asked her repeated questions about her sudden glorious good humor, but Aislinn just laughed her queries off and put it down to her renewed good health.
She walked into her bathing room, stretching and bending luxuriously to limber up her muscles as she went to wash up. She changed into some sensible clothing, and wandered back into her sitting room, hoping to find a way to slip her overprotective friend without giving insult. When she saw Tofa, she looked slightly shaken.
Aislinn rushed over to hear and asked what was wrong. "Prince Loki came by. When I told him you could not be disturbed he looked so angry, and he used his strange magic to create this!" Tofa handed Aislinn what appeared to be a small but very official looking scroll, sealed in green wax with an imprint of a coiled serpent in it. He's messing with her, Aislinn thought. "He told me not to open it, or the snake would come alive, and then he just… vanished!"
"It will be alright, Tofa. I promise. I am sure he was only trying to play a trick, and I will talk to him." Aislinn broke the seal on the scroll, causing Tofa to jump. Inside were a few lines of elegant handwriting.
The first line read, "Good morning, beloved." Struggling to hide a grin from her handmaidens, Aislinn turned around. The words were already fading, and in a blink of an eye, they were gone. Below the newly empty top of the page, there came the following note:
A-
Come to the Library today. I have an idea.
-L
Aislinn may have been left with a note without a sign of it, but she felt Loki's affection in this action. She was unsure if he wanted her to come to the library for actual research or for more romantic reasons and she did not care. She just wanted to be in his company, even if only to read.
"It is a royal summons to the library." Aislinn announced soberly. Tofa looked vaguely horrified, but Aislinn laughed and said, "it is only a note. Look, it is not even ten words. Hardly anything to be afraid of." She handed it off to Tofa, now that it did not hold anything incriminating. She looked as though she were expecting it to turn into a hideous snake at any moment, when it suddenly vanished in a puff of green dust and caused Tofa to squeal. Aislinn rolled her eyes as she went to flop down on the couch: she really would have to say something to Loki about it.
…
Aislinn sped down the hall with a cheerful bound in her step. She had managed to escape Tofa; she supposed that her handmaiden wanted to avoid displeasing the trickster prince as much as possible, or she would not have been able to leave her room without a fight.
She hastened, anticipating seeing Loki. She alternated between jogging and speed walking with a skip in her step. She drew the stares of many people as she wended her way down to the lower floors to reach the library; guards and courtiers alike watched her go. Some found it improper, but most marveled at the beauty of the young ward of the King with her face lit up with an unknown joy.
She reached the magician's library quickly, finally used to the palace's twisting paths. It was all she could do to prevent herself from bounding into the room, hoping to find Loki waiting for her there. She was not disappointed: he sat there in a large leather backed chair with a stack of books beside him. He did not look at her, but she saw a grin spread over his face as he pointed to the chair opposite him without taking his eyes off the page.
Unsure what he was planning, she sat down where he gestured. Loki handed her a book without saying anything, and then deliberately placed a small golden coin on the ornately carved end table by his chair. Aislinn watched, bemusedly as the coin seemed to reflect an unknown green light. She heard a female voice ask an offhand question about magic, and heard and watched Loki answer, although there seemed to be no one else here. She needed to stifle a shriek as Loki stood up out of the chair, leaving an exact replica of himself there. He put his finger to his lips and held out his hand for her. Aislinn stood and turned around, only to see herself there, reading and asking Loki a question about how to pronounce a certain word in the language of magic.
He led her away from the illusion quickly, and out into the practical training room. The yawning grey cavern was once again empty, but Loki still led her into the corner of the room farthest from the door before saying, "I am sorry about that. I did not want the guards to know we were gone."
"What kind of spell was that? It seemed different than your other illusions."
"I needed it to last for a very long time, even when I cannot concentrate to maintain it. I enchanted the coin to support the image. It should last more than the day, longer than we need."
Aislinn was fascinated by the magic, but could not help flushing a little bit as she tried to imagine just what would be occupying so much of Loki's focus.
"Aislinn, dearest." He said, drawing her towards him and holding both her hands in his, "After searching for many weeks, I believe I have discovered a way to uncover your missing memories."
Of all the things Aislinn imagined Loki might say, that was not one of them. "But you tried, and you said that I formed no memories while the manacles were on!"
"I know, and that is true. But I believe there may be a way to reconstruct your body's experiences over that time. You still saw and felt and heard. But made no memory with your mind because of the bond on you."
"How is that possible?" Aislinn gasped.
"It very nearly is not. The spell is adapted from one used to learn the last experiences of a dead body. It has taken me weeks to perfect its use on a living form. I will have to construct the experiences of your body backwards, from the moment the spell is begun. I can ask your mind if you can remember how events progressed five years ago, but the body cannot rationalize like that."
"How long will it take?"
"Many hours, perhaps all day. In theory, I should be able to make our minds perceive your body's impressions faster or slower depending on whether or not they seem important, but the magic will become increasingly difficult for me to manipulate the farther back we go." "I must know if you are absolutely certain that you want to do this. It will likely be uncomfortable and painful for you to witness."
"No, I have to know. For the safety of the realm as well as myself. We must know if there is a continuing threat."
"You are certain?"
"Yes. I would rather endure all the bad memories in the world than allow my fate to befall another."
Loki nodded, understanding but obviously still burdened by something. "Aislinn… there is one more problem. To perform this spell, I will have to remove your mind from your body and house it within mine. Your mind will fight the spell so long as it remains within you – as I said, the spell was made for use on the dead. This is dangerous, and has only been attempted a few times in the history of magic. You will have to have complete trust in me."
"I trust you, always. With my life."
Loki nodded again, and pressed his lips to her forehead. He then turned; dropping her hands, and began to change the room with magic. He walled off the end of the chamber, so that they were in a room with no doors or windows. He created a large square bed that stood in the center, low to the ground – and began using magic to inscribe a circle of glowing runes all around it.
Aislinn knew that his magic called for deep concentration, and that he could not afford to make any mistakes now. She got out of his way and sat motionless in the center of the bed, knees to her chest as she watched him work. It took him about ten minutes to complete the circle, but watching him at his craft did not lose any fascination for her. His power was palpable: she could feel its intensity humming in the air from where she sat. It was heady and intoxicating, almost as profound as the experience of using her own inner power.
When the circle was complete, and he had checked it several times for mistakes (there were none) Loki crawled into the center of the bed with Aislinn and knelt in front of her. "We have to lay down, and in such a way that our bodies are not in any danger. Unlike sleep, this spell will not let us move to relieve a cramp or cut off circulation."
Aislinn complied and lay down on her back, carefully arranging her limbs. Loki followed suit by her side, although he linked arms with Aislinn and held her hand, lacing their fingers together. Impulsively, and not a little nervously, Aislinn lifted their joined hands and kissed the back of Loki's hand.
"We can still stop." Said Loki. "Tell me if you are afraid and that will be the end."
"I am afraid, but I am ready. I trust you."
"I love you."
"I love you too."
"Aislinn?"
"Hmm?"
"Do not let go of my hand, even when we are within the vision. You ready?"
"Mmmhmmm." Aislinn bit her lip.
Loki began to intone a complex chant in a foreign language. At first, Aislinn's heart pounded in her chest but as she listened to him speak it slowed. She breathed deeper and heavier, relaxing to the silky sound of his voice as it filled the air. It was so comforting and inviting, she could listen forever…
Aislinn's eyes drifted closed under heavy lids, and she knew no more.