Choices

Chapter 19
"Try it again." Loki told her. He was growing impatient, he wasn't even sure why it was so important for him to have her learn this. He didn't need a partner in his secret endeavours and yet the thought was enticing. He watched her closer as she spoke the enchantment and her eyes blinked slow in concentration. Her female form, which they had finally gotten restored after two months of continuos effort, began to fade. Her image disappeared in a slow succession.
He was almost pleased with the new results, but not completely. Loki walked to where her full form once stood and tugged on her ear. The simple movement had her back to full view and rubbing her ear. "Was anything else viewable?" She asked frowning.
"Two of your fingers and I'm pretty sure the tip of your nose." He replied sighing. "It was better, but not perfect." Loki tapped his foot and rotated his hand from the wrist to indicate she should try again. Cephera nodded as Loki walked away to allow her proper room to concentrate. Until she got used to the enchantment, concentration was key.
Again her visual faded and Loki was glad that all that remained was a few wisps of hair. He didn't move this time, he waited. He wanted to see how long she could hold it. He was afraid if he spoke she would reappear. It took him a while to get the hang of this too although not as long as her. Loki excelled quickly in the magical arts which was why he was considered a prodigy, an unconventional one but one all the same.
He saw the glimmer of movement that was her attempting to move and in that moment he realized she hadn't completely disappeared, more so she melded with her background. Camouflage, something altogether different from what they had been trying to achieve. How she managed that using the words for a different spell was baffling. Loki stared as he watched her easily, her outline skimmed from one area to another blending as she walked. Anyone not looking directly at her might see a movement from the corner of their eye but very little else.
"How are you watching me? I've done it wrong again." She huffed reappearing once more.
"Actually... you succeeded though not in the planned art we had been attempting." She tilted her head at him blinking a couple of times.
"What do you mean?" She asked indulging him after he waited for her curiosity to give way to her impatience.
"You didn't vanish as you were suppose to, you simply blended yourself in with the surroundings around you." Her brow furrowed in thought.
"That's bad right? That means I'm doing everything wrong." She threw her arms up in the air with a growl. She turned and promptly threw her entire person onto his lounging couch. As dramatic as the action was it was also amusing enough to cause Loki's mouth to twitch into a smile.
"Not a complete loss." He told her. "Your use of magic is odd and not effective in the natural ways, but you still have plenty of potential. We will keep trying." His offered condolence and lack of reprimanding had her staring at him with scrutiny. She didn't question his words, but instead let out a long breath and sat up.
"So I'm not a total failure." She weakly smiled up at him.
"No. Let's keep going." He offered. She nodded and took her place once more and he took his.
XxX
Loki lay on his bed tossing a small ball into the air and catching it again. The ball had been a gift from Frigga when he was a boy. Something he cherished as he did all gifts from her. He was in deep thought and had been that way since his lessons ended with Cephera. Amora had a family matter to attend to and so his lessons with her had not occurred. It was becoming apparent to Loki that his lessons with Amora were just about done. There was little she'd shown him lately that he didn't master on first try. In fact, he only kept up his lessons because of his attraction to her.
His lessons with Amora wasn't what had him in such deep thought, but rather his ones with Cephera. She had talent it was true, but there was more to her willingness to learn. She was always so eager and sometimes became so frustrated over her own inability to get things to work right that it had him realizing she had motives that extended beyond just passion for the art.
He hadn't asked her. He didn't want her to think he cared about her worries or desires on a personal level. It was just curiosity. With every spell she managed to succeed in she would rejoice with a jump in the air and dancing in once spot. He'd never seen anyone get that excited over learning something new. Loki was always good at reading people and Cephera had worries she carefully hid and magic was her escape. No doubt her sister knew of these worries, but Loki knew better than to ask her.
Sitting up he tossed the ball onto a shelf and stood. He straightened his tunic before channeling his spell and every inch of him became invisible. Invisibility had its uses. For those with strong magic in them he had to take care to keep his distance, but for what he was about to do he wouldn't have to worry about being caught. He left his room carefully and ventured downstairs to the room Cephera and her sister occupied. He knocked on the door and when it opened Cephera stared right passed him and then glanced up and down the hall.
Loki carefully passed her and entered the room. As far as he could tell she was the only one present. Her sister was probably whoring about. He watched Cephera close her room door with a shrug and walk back to the small round dining table she'd moved onto the balcony. He was curious as to what she did in her free time and he wasn't disappointed.
On the table was spread three books he had her learning from. She was making notes in some leather bound book to the side and then scrutinizing the texts. Her head rested in her palm and her fingers pulling at her hair as she bit her lip and then wrote something else. After a moment she looked up at the third book lying furthest from her. She muttered low the words to move it and it shifted across the table like he had taught her to do. It would seem she often practiced things she had already perfected and Loki couldn't help but admire her dedication.
He also couldn't help but notice her dress. Now that night had fallen she'd changed into a simple nightgown of a golden color. In the moment she settled her head back into her palm the sleeve fell off her shoulder causing the front of the dress to hang, revealing the naked flesh beneath. Just enough to see most of the swell of her breasts. Loki averted his eyes. He remembered the conversation he'd had with her those few months back about their professional relationship and also his own personal resolve to not get involved in any intimate way with either Princess.
His choice still stood. Cephera was still only a girl by most standards and Loki didn't find himself attracted to her in the same manner as he was for woman he'd bedded or courted. That wasn't to say a small attraction didn't haunt him from time to time. A tiny, curious tug of a fleeting feeling deep in his stomach at certain moments when he was with her. Moments she showed spark and a fire in her. Moments he could look passed her childishness to other things. Still those moments were few and far between, enough to easily ignore.
She shifted again, fixing her dress and standing. She moved across the room in soft gentle steps that reminded Loki of the grace his mother walked with. She pulled from a shelf a small cloth that when opened revealed a handful of letters. He watched her expression coil inward with a deep frown. She replaced the letters without opening any and returned to the table and her books. She stood off to the side and closed her eyes. She said the words of invisibility and her fists clenched together.
Loki watched her try over and over as she continued attempting it. Without anyone else present she would never know if she had gotten it right, but Loki grinned at her insistent nature. She didn't completely disappear, but like practice with him she came close. She didn't replicate her previous camouflage and so the mystery still remained as to how she had managed to begin with.
While she continued to practice he moved to the letters, now folded back on the shelf. He made certain she couldn't see him and carefully slipped his hand into the cloth and tugged out a single folded paper from the tiny pile. His eyes still on her he softly spoke an extra enchantment to make the letter also vanish. His curiosity not completely settled he knocked on her room door again so that he could leave her room and see what it was she kept hidden.
XxX
Loki made it back safely to his own room and once the door was closed he gently unfolded the letter he'd confiscated.
"Dearest Princess,
I cannot express to you how much your presence in this kingdom is missed. Your songs and laughter no longer echo in the halls of the palace nor the sound of your bare feet running along the floors. I hope you find yourself well in Asgard and that you are being treated with respect as you should be.
I hadn't expected to feel such loss. There have been many time I have wanted to journey to Asgard to see you, but I do not want to invade your personal space. I feel you and I have grown closer in the past years and wish only to be your friend if you would not have me as more. I do not care that you are cripple in the ways your bloodline is meant to be special. I only want your happiness. I hope to see you again soon.
Forever your loyal and humble friend,
Krystoff"
Loki read the letter several times before frowning. That was a waste of time. What he thought might be something of interest turned into nothing more than a love letter. Still Loki couldn't put the letter down. It bugged him the look Cephera gave when she had picked up those letters. Perhaps she missed him, or maybe she felt she didn't deserve his devotion? Maybe thoughts of him were what caused her to become distracted in her studies.
It might do him some good to find out more about this situation. If it was impeding her studies he wanted to know so that he could end it. She was no good to him if her intentions were in the wrong place or her thoughts for that matter. Something about this situation unsettled his stomach. He was worried that her eagerness to learn magic was misplaced and perhaps she didn't have the devotion to it he thought she had. Perhaps her reasons for learning were misguided and that was something that angered him.
Still he thought to her back in her room where she studied diligently with no one there to tell her to do so. She did it on her own, willingly. Surely with that kind of dedication her heart was in the right place. Loki would get to the bottom of this and even if it turned out it had nothing to do with her studies at least he would have silenced his curiosity. The question was how to bring it up? She rarely spoke of people in her own realm specifically. Mostly they just spoke of training. He would look into it, it was now his newest mission.

Notes