King Loki

Chapter 22
Her thirst for knowledge outweighed her torn feelings between whether or not Loki was a good choice to be King or bad. She became consumed with the books in his tower.
Often, after his days spent spying as Lana and attending Kingly duties in the throne room, Loki would join her. He'd sit at his desk with his head down. A book was always open nearby that once in a while he'd write something in.
He spoke to her about what she'd discovered that she found fascinating. He indulged her hunger, something no one else ever had, not even her sister. She'd given up the chance to learn more about magics, enchantment, and alchemy. Given it all up to set her attentions to creating a family. Krystoff was always insisting she would never need her power, that he'd keep her safe and that she only needed to keep her mind on the family.
She was happy she'd never achieved that goal with Krystoff. Leaving him would have been that much harder. He might have been content with one child and then simply going their separate ways, but Krystoff made it no secret he desired her permanently. He wasn't your typical Mechanovian.
Cephera had come across a few things she hadn't yet mentioned to the King, but she was dying to know the truth. She got up from her place sat on the floor in front of the hearth, padded up toward his desk with a specific book in hand, and placed that very book on the edge of his desk.
His attention was brought to her immediately. "A question?" He inquired as if he knew her well.
"I've been looking over this book," she began and pushed it closer to him. He moved aside what he was looking at in favour of her offering. "And I've come to the conclusion that beyond these walls, your power is far less affective. The runes on and around this building enhance you. It's why you never leave."
Loki looked her over with a hint of a smile. "I thought you had a question." He asked her, teasing her.
"Am I right?" She urged.
"You are correct," he nodded. She was slightly shocked he admitted it. "What will you do with this information now that you have it?" He asked her putting her on the spot.
She hasn't considered doing anything with it, now she wondered if she could, or should. "I had no plans for it. Simply satisfying my curiosity." She finally replied. "But why so many of the same ones? From what I gather it takes the right combination of runes to create what you have to enhance your magic, but I've seen that pattern repeated throughout this Spire."
His smile widened. "Inquisitive today," he mused. She didn't reply, instead she waited for his answer, if he graced her with one. Sometimes he left her hanging on her curiosity.
"It's to ensure that if one is damaged or for some other reason loses its affect, I have another to ensure a backup." Cephera felt like slapping her own head. Of course, logically that was the only good reason to have done what he did.
"Why not carve it onto your body?" She did wonder why he just hadn't made it portable.
Loki gave her a sideways glance. "You have yet to research further I see," he said. "To put a rune to anything inanimate has a much more different affect than putting it to flesh. Blood runes happen when met with the living and they can be more than you bargained for. Simply too unpredictable and most of the time dangerous." Cephera considered the information.
It must be pretty dangerous that not even he would attempt it. "What about carrying something around with you that have them on it?" He grinned, he oddly seemed to enjoy her questions.
"What ever the rune is etched into, it will draw power from that item. Everything has energy, even things not living still have a residue of energy. This Spire is large enough to do exactly what I need it to do, but a small object would not be sufficient."
Again Cephera thought over his answer and found herself lacking anything more to inquire about. It would seem runes had more rules than magic itself. Race, mental stability, stamina, health. All those things affected magic but it would seem any being able to perform magic could learn just about anything. Those limits only affected their potency and perhaps even accuracy.
She wondered if this was the same for the powers the resistance girl had. Cephera was curious what her power draws from and what it was that she could do other than those balls of energy. Cephera knew there was more to learn about these super humans and it wouldn't be easy to find the answers.
With Loki allowing Dr. Whitehall to do his experiments unguarded, no one with special powers would willingly allow themselves to be within these Spire walls. Cephera had to wonder if Loki planned to revoke the doctors current freedom or at the very least put him under surveillance. She really had no clue what steps the King had taken to ensure Whitehall wasn't working against him.
XxX
Loki was thrilled by Cephera's reaction to his tower. He hadn't expected it to go this well. She was comfortable in a room with him in it. She didn't have that guarded pose she often had when he'd been forcing her to stay where he could watch her.
He'd given her a sense of freedom and it seemed to be just what he needed to draw her in. Her inquisitive nature made the decision easy. She wasn't the kind of person who plotted maniacally against anyone, so the information he provided her was not a worry to him.
Loki was playing the strongest card he had and that was playing people by paying attention to what best pulled their strings.
Cephera made it clear she'd been suppressed in some manner against learning about the world of magic and he could hear the yearning for a chance to get her hands on something. Loki went above and beyond by giving her his entire collection to fawn over.
It couldn't have worked out better. She'd only been enjoying his room for three days and he'd notice the way the corners of her lips turned up into a smile when she'd come across something that pleased or amused her. The way she leaned closer to the books page when she'd find something intense. He adored the way she flipped back to older pages to confirm something she found later in the same book. She reminded him of himself when he'd first grown a love for the art.
He'd spent hours everyday studying anything he could get his hands on. He'd sit in his mothers study attentively hanging on her every word or teachings. At night he'd read and read until the words began to blur together in a sleepy haze.
Once Loki was sure that Cephera's comfort level had reached its peak, he'd turn his attentions to ebbing her closer to him. He wanted to make her fall in love with him so that everything he could want from her would be his.
She seemed the type that could love easily. He just had to take the right steps to ensure he pushed her in the right direction.
"The shelf closest to the brown armchair," he said to her pointing in the direction. "Third shelf down, the eighth book to your right. I think that would be of interest to you." Loki grinned at the sceptical look she threw him.
"There's no way you remember where every book in here is," she gave him a look of disbelief but he only smiled wider.
"I am a meticulous organizer if you know my system. Given enough time in here, you'll figure it out I'm sure." Loki gave his hand a flick to encourage her to go take a look. With another glance back at him she finally did as he suggested.
Loki watched for her reaction and was not disappointed. She seemed to have forgetten he'd pointed it out. She hadn't even sat in the armchair, but instead she leaned halfway to sit on the armrest flipping through the books pages eagerly.
Her eyes were a continuous motion of back and forth, her lips moving at times mouthing the words to herself.
After a moment of staring at her, Loki found himself too distracted by Cephera and finally turned his attention back to his own studies. One could never have enough knowledge. There was always something new to discover.

Notes