"Al!" A high-pitched screech abused Allaysia's ear drums when she walked into the palaces great hall.
She laughed and caught the young girl flying into her. "Sen, stop screaming like that or else you will never find a man. Especially now that you are available for courtship."
The young girl, Seninya, wrinkled her nose. "I don't want a man. You don't have a man and you're still the best Healer in Heilenheim. I don't need one either."
Allaysia laughed again because she couldn't think of an appropriate response. Instead, she adjusted the young girl's headdress. "Tonight is your big night, Sen. Are you ready?"
"It's just a little pain that every Heilen has to go through. I, soon to be a full warrior, will be fine." Seninya rolled her eyes and tried to laugh if off, but Allaysia could detect the note of nervousness underneath her brash attitude.
Allaysia just patted the young girl's shoulder and let her fly to greet another friend. After tonight, Seninya would move out of childhood into being a woman. Allaysia could still remember the young girl as a child, crying for more nectar of honeysuckle in her nourishing liquid...
"Don't think too much about it or you shall feel much older than you really are." A pleasant voice sounded to Allaysia's right. Tauristrander had moved close without her noticing.
"Your Majesty." Allaysia began to bow, but he caught hold of her arm before she could finish the form. She looked up and was caught by those familiar soft, gray eyes looking imploringly into her own golden ones.
"Come on, Al. We are surrounded by just family and friends to celebrate Sen's initiation into womanhood. Can't we forgo the formalities tonight? Just one night?"
She sighed, giving in. "For tonight, Your -" Allaysia hastened to correct herself when his eyebrows shot up. "Tauri."
Tauristrander's face broke out into a big smile. His arm went around her shoulders good-naturedly and dragged her to the long dinning table, burdened to the point of breaking with food.
As the king, of course, Tauristrander took the seat at the head of the table. Seninya, being the focus of tonight, sat at the other end. The old queen, Tauristrander's mother, sat at his right. To Allaysia's discomfort, Tauristrander placed her at his immediate left, the spot that would have been for his wife had he been married.
She had quietly argued to change her seating, mindful of the whisperings and knowing smiles of the other guests. But he would not allow it and ultimately had to order her as her king to sit.
Allaysia sat, but not without resignation and apprehension at the gossip that would spread like wildfire tomorrow. It would evolve into a hundred different versions by the end of the day.
The evening passed in pleasant revelry that had quickly turned into drunken revelry.
Allaysia was able to push back, if not quite forget, Tauristrander's title and enjoy the attention of an affectionate man. They joked, laughed, and danced with each other like the way they did when they were young.
Time passed away far too quickly for anyone's taste. Midnight struck and the Seninya's tittering laughter echoed in the dark night.
She looked around at the quiet, expectant faces, and sighed. "It's time, isn't it." Less of a question than a resignation of fact. She stood up and walked inside, accompanied by two women of her family. A chamber had been prepared for her inside those hallways.
The departure of Seninya marked the end of tonight's celebration. The guests all congratulated Seninya's mother, the old queen, of another beautiful daughter eligible for marriage and parted in good humor.
Allaysia waved off any offer of company, especially from Tauristrander himself, on her way home. She need the solitude to walk off the effects of the drinks and rebuild the wall between the king and herself.
Strolling leisurely, she tilted her head and gaze up at the night sky, breathtaking as always in the brilliantly hued swathes of veins of the World Tree and the sparkling fruits of other worlds and realms. On a cloudless night like this, she didn't even need a lantern to see her surroundings, bathed in the glorious heavenly lights.
Her mind suddenly wandered in an unexpected direction, as she studied the stars above her. Was Asgard one of them? Or was it too far to be seen here? Did one of those veins lead to that bright, idealized realm with its golden clad warriors?
But it couldn't have been so perfect. Else why would the fallen Asgardian man cast it aside with bitterness? How did he fall off the bifrost bridge? Did none of his honorable fellow Asgardians save him, for when the bifrost bridge was borken, there must have been others? What must have he done to deserve so? What must have he suffered to break ties with all of his brothers and sisters?
Startled by the turn of her thoughts, Allaysia quickly shook her head, not knowing if it was to shake away these uncharacteristic thoughts or the images of Loki curled around wrangled bedsheets, murmuring "I could have, Father. I could have done it." Even in sleep, his face was twisted with anger, pain, and a despairing sadness that had caused her to frown and stumble out of the room hastily.
Allaysia had crept into Loki's chamber a few more nights afterwards, feeling more foolish each time but could not hold herself back from opening that door. Each visit lasted only twenty or so heartbeats before she rushed out of the room, quickly but silently closing the door behind her, as Loki's pained expression etched itself deeper in her mind.
She could not, should not, feel anything but resentment or hatred for the Asgardian. Definitely not pity, or…
Her thoughts were broken as Allaysia reached her house. She took a deep breath of the chilling night air before opening the door. In the hallway, Allaysia only faltered briefly in front of Loki's doors before resuming her pace. A few steps farther, however, she heard a low groan of pain from the room she just passed.
Allaysia paused with a slight frown, waiting and hesitating. Perhaps the Asgardian was just having another one of his nightmares.
Another moan, muffled by the closed door, reached her ears. Allaysia gave an inaudible sigh and doubled back.
The first thing that hit her when she opened the door was that it was freezing. Heilenheim nights are very cold, but a furnace usually kept the room nicely temperate. A glance at the dark furnace showed the fire inside to be out. Strange, as one of the few magics allowed, the fire was suppose to be never go out.
Her frown deepened when she saw Loki trembling on the bed, the sheets wrapped tightly around him. Sweat beaded on his forehead and drenched the sheets, and yet he was shivering.
She hurried over, hand out to test his forehead. It was wet and sticky from the sweat, but most important, it was cold, almost as cold as the room.
Shit. How did he catch a Chameleon Fever while she was gone? It was but a mere few hours in between. Her brows could not furrow further.
Unlike an average Hot Fever where his body temperature would remain hot even when his mind cycled through the hot-cold phases, a Chameleon Fever would adjust his actual body temperature to whichever temperature extreme he thought he felt. It was much more lethal than a Hot Fever simply for the fact that his body would not be able take the extreme changes in temperature.
Then she thought of the body throw she had executed this afternoon. Could she have overestimated his healing progress? If his bones were not yet set, then the throw would have caused hairline fractures. His body might have been too busy healing the bones to fight off the Chameleon.
Allaysia sat on the bed and firmly shook Loki until he opened his eyes, glassy green stones that had lost their brilliant focus. "Look at me, Asgardian. What happened? How did you become so sick? Where did you catch this Chameleon?"
His eyes focused briefly on her before sliding away again. He shivered violently. "Cold. It's so cold, Allaysia." Muttering and shaking, he shifted closer to her, the only source of heat in the room.
She tried to get up to find her medicine and rekindle the furnace fire, but Loki had both arms wrapped around her waist and wouldn't let go. His grip was strangely strong for someone in a feverish, weakened state.
"Asgardian." Allaysia turned his face with both hands so he could look at her, but his eyes wouldn't focus. She hesitated. "Loki." The name rolled off of her tongue easier than she had expected.
Loki's eyes flickered at the sound of his name.
"Loki." It was easier the second time around. "Let go of me. I need to get medicine for you." She said it slowly and clearly, hoping to reach his fever-clouded mind.
His eyes had focused when she called his name again. His face broke into a weak smile. "Allaysia dear," his teeth chattered slightly as he whispered her name. "I'm cold. Really cold." He held on tighter, even curling his body around her to gain more warmth.
A look at his bare chest showed Allaysia that Loki had already gone through a hot phase, in which he had taken off his clothing in an attempt to cool his burning body.
This is not good. It was the most dangerous after the first hot-cold cycle. If he didn't receive treatment before the second cycle started, his mind would not be able to take another heat wave. He would turn crazy and eventually die.
Allaysia attempted to no avail at prying apart Loki's arms. Conflict warred in her golden eyes before resignation shone through.
Turning in his arms so that she could face him more directly, Allaysia placed one hand on Loki's temple and the other on his chest, where his heart would be. She took a deep breath and focused deep inside of herself, calling up the Healing power she had been bestowed upon birth.
A coldness slowly traveled up her hand to her arm and eventually to the rest of her body. The Healing power was really nothing more than a transfer of some pains from the sufferer to the Healer, easing the burden on the body so it would not break first before it had a chance to heal.
Allaysia shivered violently as her heart clenched at the drop in body temperature. Loki gave a small sigh of relief as his body temperature rose. Soon the two huddled close together to share what little body heat they could combine, Allaysia now completely enclosed in Loki's arms.
In the recess of Allaysia's mind, intact from the coldness and the concentration, reminded her of the hard part that was yet to come. She could feel both of their bodies begin to warm up.
She brought her face close to Loki's and whispered, for that was all she could manage without her teeth chattering, "Loki, I need you to listen to me."
His eyes opened with more clarity than before, although still clouded by a feverish veil.
"Your body will become hot soon. You cannot push me away when that happens. If the Healing is broken before completion, both of us will die."
A corner of his mouth lifted in a small smirk as Loki moved his head even closer, bringing them nose to nose. His emerald eyes stared deep into her topaz ones as their breaths mingled. "I knew you cared very much for me, Allaysia dear." The intimate, almost seductive, mood was ruin by the hoarse rasp instead of his usual silky smooth low voice.
Allaysia fought the hysteric urge to laugh. Instead she pressed with her hands on their point of contact, reminding him of her warning.
Loki tightened his arms, bringing her body closer, as his head lowered to rest on her shoulder. One of her hand was trapped between their bodies and the other between the side of her neck and his head.
"I will not let go of you, the person who will be keeping me alive." He promised softly.
Allaysia frowned slight at his strange wording, but her mind was quickly taken by the burning heat inside her body as the hot phase swung into full force. She felt Loki's muscles tense and his body burn, but she couldn't see his face from this position.
Thus, she didn't see the scheming gleam in his eyes or the twist of his mouth that nothing to do with fever. Of course he wouldn't let go of her, Allaysia dear. Who else would help him in his revenge?