The Summer Solstice came quickly. Preparations for Brant and Tora's wedding making the days seem to fly by. The couple would have the honour of not only having their nuptials in the great hall but would also have the royal family in its entirety in attendance as well as being married by Odin himself.
The day of the wedding dawned warm and clear and Maryn helped Tora dress in her gown of cream silk with an overlay of chiffon, silk flowers scattered over the neckline and skirt, and white satin ribbon wound around the bodice and up into the gown's straps. Tora wore a wreath of silver flowers in her hair with braids and curls laced up into the circlet but no other decoration.
Maryn, as Tora's witness, was wearing a soft gold gown with a beige chiffon overlay that had gold lace on the hem of the skirt, at one hip, and across the bodice. The chiffon wrapped elegantly around the gown and tied on the opposite hip to the lace. She wore her engagement ring and thin gold bangles around her wrist with tiny light blue and dark blue sapphires set into them. Her hair was pulled into a bun of curls at the back of her head using a spell and gold pins to keep it in place.
The ceremony was short but heartfelt and Maryn couldn't help but continue to glance at Loki throughout the day wondering what their wedding day would be like.
Tora and Brant only had eyes for each other throughout the entire day and the whispers of the court around them told of how lovely the young couple looked together.
Frigga stood with Odin overlooking the feast that followed and couldn't help but turn to her husband with a joyous smile, "Loki and Maryn seem closer than ever."
The Allfather nodded with a small smile of his own, "It is good to see him happy. He seems lighter for it."
Leaning against Odin's arm, Frigga sighed at the picture her son and his betrothed made. Their dark heads were bent together where they sat at a long table; the Warriors Three to their right. The couple looked to be discussing something and when Maryn threw back her head and laughed at Loki's words, the dark prince's gaze softened and he reached out, cupping Maryn's jaw and brushing a small kiss over her lips, causing a light blush to slide across the young woman's cheeks. She then leaned into his touch speaking to him.
"Yes, you chose a good match for him, my love," Odin spoke so that only Frigga could hear, the endearment bringing a soft pink to Frigga's own cheeks.
"Mother, Father!" Thor's voice boomed as he crossed the hall and pulled his mother into a hug, clasping his father's arm in greeting. "Have you seen how my brother and his little wife are acting after their visit to Nidavellir?" the blonde god of thunder was well into his cups and all the more jovial for it.
"Yes, Thor," Frigga nodded serenely glancing over once more to see that Loki and Maryn were too absorbed with the conversation they were sharing to hear her eldest son's comment let alone notice the eyes that had turned to them at Thor's loud words. "Your father and I were just discussing how wonderful it is to see that they have reconciled and become closer for it."
With a wide grin, the blonde god turned and saw his brother and soon-to-be good-sister share a look and a kiss before Tora dragged Maryn out to the dance floor where all the young women of the court, both married and single, were dancing together.
"I will go and see if Loki would care to join me and our friends in a drinking competition now that his lady is off dancing," Thor said before making his way toward where his brother was leaning back watching Maryn dance.
"Perhaps it will lessen the sting," Frigga sighed once he was gone, looking up at her husband.
Odin grunted in agreement, "I fear nothing will curb his anger once he knows he has not been chosen to rule."
Sadness filling her, Frigga looked at her dear son again, remembering how happy he had been as a child before he had realised that those at court would never truly accept him because of how different he was. She had seen that light in him once he and Maryn became closer and feared that the news he would never be king of Asgard would snuff out that joy in him forever.
Odin, sensing her distress, turned to her and tilted her chin up with a crooked forefinger, "There is nothing we can do to ease his pain. We can never tell him the truth, Frigga."
Tears building in her eyes, the Allmother nodded her heart breaking even as she knew that Loki could never be told what he truly was.
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After the feast had started to wind down and the married couple had slipped away for their wedding week, Maryn left the great hall and made her way to her chambers. Once she was there she had the maid Frigga sent to attend to her while Tora was away help her take off her gown and shift, as well as let her hair down and put away her bracelets. She dressed in a simple white gown which she normally wore while relaxing in her rooms. It was made of the softest cotton and chiffon with a bodice and sleeves of chiffon over the top which cinched in at the waist. The ruched sleeves reached to her mid forearm and the chiffon neckline plunged lower than the rounded neckline of the gown underneath it. If she wasn't careful the sleeves had a tendency to slip off her shoulders. The only adornments she wore was her engagement ring, the pendant Loki had given her at their hand-fasting, and silver pins in a braid holding her hair back from her face with most of the mass of dark waves loose down her back.
Restless and still wide awake despite the emotions and length of the day, Maryn decided to go and talk to Loki. Dismissing her maid the brunette pulled on her white silk slippers, clasped a cloak of green velvet around her neck, and left her chambers. She didn't try and hide where she was going but because of the feasting still undoubtedly going on in the great hall the hallways were quiet, the only faces she saw being those of the guards patrolling to make sure the royal family, who inhabited that wing of the palace, were kept safe.
She came to a stop outside the heavy double doors that led to Loki's rooms. They were gilt and the large handles were shaped like the horns of his helmet. Lifting a fist, the small brunette knocked tentatively wondering if the prince would welcome company after such a long day.
There were a few moments of silence before Loki's voice came from the other side of the portals becoming louder the closer he got to them, "I have told you before, lady, I do not…" he trailed off when he swung the door open to reveal Maryn.
Twisting her fingers tightly together before her in a sudden flurry of nerves, the princess asked, "Who did you think I was, Loki?"
He sighed and stepped back from the doorway to usher her inside, "Lady Sigyn has taken to coming to my door and asking entrance," he sneered leading Maryn deeper into his chambers and motioning for her to sit on a green velvet and dark wood sofa in the anteroom he used as a library, study, and sitting room. Maryn ignored the gesture and moved to his shelves upon shelves of leather bound books as he poured her a glass of wine from the silver pitcher sitting in the middle of a small but elegant wooden table near the chaise lounge. She glanced up when he offered the glass to her. Taking it she unclasped her cloak and used her magic to drape it over the chair of his desk nearby as she moved to brush her fingers along the spines of the myriad of books which lined two walls of the chambers, never knowing that the sight of her so comfortable as to use her magic so easily before her betrothed made him think of things other than discussing what Lady Sigyn had been up to.
Maryn's voice brought him back to the present, "Let me read to you," she murmured choosing a book of poetry from the many she was looking at and making her way to the sofa. Gracefully she stepped out of her slippers and put her goblet down on the small table before the lounge. Sitting on the soft settee she put her back to the arm, a plush pillow behind her, and then lifted her feet to place them on the sofa cushions as well, the book balanced on her bent knees while she tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and then started to leaf through the pages to find a poem she liked. Her hands stilled when Loki, dressed now in only his black leather breeches and black tunic, sat down opposite her, lifted her feet into his lap and then made himself comfortable, relaxing back into the comfortable sofa and cushions.
Maryn started to read keeping her voice low and soothing as she let the cadence of the poem wash over them both. She sensed the tension that had been in Loki's body ever since he had spoken about Sigyn making a nuisance of herself slowly melt away, and when she glanced up while turning a page it was to see that his head was leaning against the back of the sofa and his eyes were closed. He wasn't asleep however; she found that out a moment later when the long fingers of one of his hands curled around her ankle and started massaging. Distracted by his touch she tried to continue reading only to stutter and halt when his fingers swirled higher to press into her calf.
"Loki," she breathed looking up to see him lift his head and look at her with his intense emerald gaze.
His hand ceased moving and he leaned toward her, his free hand lifting to run through her hair a spell twining through her locks easing them from the braid so that the strands fell around her face and the silver pins floated to the table where her goblet sat. The book was forgotten in her lap as they gravitated toward each other and his hand left her calf to cup her cheek pulling her closer. When their lips met Maryn could barely stifle a quiet moan. The moment wasn't even ruined by the quiet thud of the book falling from her lap to the carpeted floor, her hands too busy lacing into his hair to bother with trying to catch it.
Loki tilted her head back, easing her closer to his body with a hand at the small of her back. She opened her lips under his encouraging him to deepen the kiss. There was something else in the way they touched each other this night. It could have been the knowledge that they would be married in barely five months, or the emotions linked to seeing a wedding a few hours before, but whatever it was, Maryn didn't want him to stop kissing her. As his cool tongue stroked hers, she dropped one hand from his hair to fist the front of his tunic and pull him closer. He seemed to be in tune to what she was wordlessly asking and tipped her back, slanting his mouth over hers and leaning down over her, his hand sliding languidly up her ribs as he did so.
A knock on his door separated them and they stared at one another, breathing heavily until the knock came again.
Loki noticed that her conscience was catching up to her and pressed a firm kiss to her lips knowing she was about to pull away from him again. "Wait for me, sweet one…please?" he asked quietly.
Heart pounding Maryn searched his eyes and saw the feelings flitting through them too fast to read or understand. Biting her bottom lip she nodded and he pressed a kiss to her forehead before getting up and making his way to the door across the room.
Sitting up, the small brunette tried to calm her breathing as she tucked her hair back from her face and pulled one chiffon sleeve back over her shoulder, which had fallen during their ardent embrace. The familiar voice from the doorway snapped her focus to Loki who stood angrily in the portal, his shoulders tense and voice low and menacing.
"Don't tell me you would rather sleep all alone in that large bed, Your Grace," Sigyn's simpering tone made Maryn's teeth grind together in annoyance.
Taking a breath to calm herself, she picked up the book that had fallen to the floor and settled herself into her original position on the lounge, looking up when the persistent lady pushed past Loki only to stop a few steps into the room at the sight of Maryn lounging easily on the sofa.
With a feigned smile of greeting, Maryn closed the book and looked to Loki, "I did not realise we were to have company at this hour, my lord. Do you wish for me to call for refreshments?"
Loki looked shocked for a split second before recovering with a smirk, "There is no need, love, the lady was just leaving. Besides," he made sure Sigyn was watching as his smirk turned into a grin full or innuendo, "I would prefer to have you to myself this night."
Maryn's cheeks bloomed with colour and she dropped her gaze to the poetry book in her hands but could not quite hide her smile at Sigyn's affronted gasp.
"You have…I-I mean…you are sleeping here?" the taller woman asked.
Seeing that Loki was about to come to her rescue and salvage any virtue she had left in the eyes of the court women, Maryn spoke before he could utter a word, "I don't believe that is any of your concern, Lady Sigyn."
The lady gaped like a fish for a moment before a cruel sneer twisted her beautiful face, "So the blushing virgin will wear white on her wedding day whether or not it is a true reflection of what she is?"
Maryn put the book down and turned to face the cruel, bitter woman before her, running her gaze over the revealing gold gown she was wearing, "The status of my virginity is not an affair you need worry yourself with, Sigyn. I would say that if the rumours are true your virginity was long gone when you married your husband but you were the one to flout that fact the first time we met so it must be truth and not gossip." She turned her gaze to the book in her lap and opened it once more, dismissing the woman with a careless wave of her hand, "Go back to your lord husband, lady, you will receive no dalliance here."
Fuming Sigyn turned on her heel and rushed from the room without another word.
"You have only succeeded in angering her further, my love, no matter how arousing it was to see you do so," Loki spoke from where he was leaning back against the door he had closed on his ex-lover's retreating form.
Blushing crimson at his words Maryn kept her eyes on the pages of the book in her hands, although she wasn't reading a word of it. "You…enjoyed…that?" she asked barely above a whisper.
Crossing the room to her side Loki leaned over her and lifted her chin so that she was looking into his darkening eyes, "More than you know, little girl." He took the book from her hands and pressed a heated kiss to her lips. "It's time you went to your own rooms before we both do something as foolish and stirring as that tongue lashing."
Nodding silently, Maryn allowed him to help her from the sofa and into her slippers and cloak before escorting her back to her chambers. Once outside them he lifted the pendant she never took off and pressed his lips to the gem whispering an incantation she could not make out because his voice was too low.
"What did you do?" she asked curiously.
Loki looked into her grey gaze with a kind smile, "A spell to keep any nightmares at bay, sweet one. That is all."
Gratefully Maryn nodded wondering if she'd had a nightmare when they were together with the Nidavellir but not wanting to ask in fear of tainting the night they had just enjoyed.
Loki kissed her forehead and waited outside the door until she had closed it with a shy smile and a whispered goodnight before he made his way back to his chambers to get some rest.