Chapter 18: Walls and Wells
Luckily, Loki could solicit the answer to his question right away, since "he" would have been watching "them" the entire time. At the end of the hall, he waited impatiently for the guard to unlock his hands, and then strode back to the door. He flung it wide, intending to march straight in, but froze when he saw her.
Arianna was curled up into herself, crying into a bundle of blankets clutched to her chest. Her shoulders were shaking uncontrollably, and even with the sound muffled by the fabric, he could hear her loud sobs as they ripped through her.
He couldn't move. He just watched, frozen, somehow unable to think of what to do. Or rather, unable to do what he had planned to. He hadn't seen her break down like this before. It made sense, after so long alone, and finally getting to see her friends, but seeing it right before him was something else entirely.
With a shudder and a sniffle, Arianna looked up at Loki with red eyes. "I suppose," she said, her voice wavering, "you intend to ask me what I just said?"
Mutely, he nodded.
"I...I said-" she gasped a little as another sob threatened to burst from her throat, but she caught her breath. "I said I love you. In her native tongue…"
"Ah." And with that, Loki spun around and left, trying to quell the disconcerting feeling in his chest.
The next morning, Arianna stared down at her plate of food in shock. It was much nicer than before - rather than basic gruel and a hard lump of bread, she had been provided with grilled fish, fresh fruit, and a steaming seasoned potato. She silently thanked the gods and dug in with gusto.
Not a moment after she finished did she hear footsteps from behind her, and leapt out of her seat, tensing into a fighting stance.
Loki grinned guilelessly at her as he leaned against a poster of the bed. "Still so wary?"
"Well, it's instinct," she replied, forcing herself to relax. "It happens whether I mean to or not," she shrugged, sitting back down at the table. "Well, take a seat, your Highness."
Loki shook his head as he walked over. "First, you come to me. I have something for you to wear."
At first, she looked over with a worried expression, but relaxed when she saw what he was holding.
"Oh? Did you expect something more risque?" he teased, twirling one of the bracelets around his finger. "Well, these can act as handcuffs if you're so inclined," he added with a grin. They were as clear as glass, except for a thin line of gold that must be where they split
"I'm not, really," she replied nonchalantly, holding out an arm. "Are these intended to stop my magic?" she asked, watching him clasp the first one around her wrists. It flexed smoothly in his hands, but felt as hard as steel when she squeezed it curiously.
"In a way," Loki replied. "They absorb magic."
"They...they absorb it?" she asked hesitantly.
His eyes glittered as he regarded her. "Yes. Is that a problem?"
"Maybe," she replied seriously, holding her other arm away. "What do they do with it afterwards? Do they send it back into the ambience?"
Ambience? "For the record, no." He reached for her other arm, but she stubbornly held it away. "Don't be foolish and fight me on this, woman."
But Arianna's face was wrought with legitimate concern. "What happens if- what if they overload?"
Loki scoffed and yanked on her arm, finally gripping her other wrist. "They won't overload," he replied, snapping the final bracelet on her.
She pulled away desperately, like a cat, and he finally released her with a frown. Wincing, she held out the bracelets in front of her, bracing for...something.
Loki put his hand to his forehead, sighing at her overreaction, when the gold lines on the bracelets began to glow and spark. He stared in shock as even the clear parts began to glow, and Arianna desperately began to pull at them. "Loki, please," she cried. "Get them off!" They were burning her skin, leaving white marks that glowed even without filtering for magic. After a half a second more of shock, Loki snapped his fingers and the two bracelets clicked open. Arianna flung them across the room, where they hit the far wall and fell to the floor, half melted and misshapen.
Slowly, she turned to face him, holding her hands up in surrender. Even now
"Explain yourself," he spat, advancing on her. "You said your magic was locked away. Why, then, are you pumping out enough magic to overload the bracelets I crafted myself?"
"It's more complicated than I was able to explain before," she stuttered. "But I still can't use fluid magic!"
Loki grabbed her hands and forced her down to her knees. "Explain it to me, then."
"My magic is abnormal. That's why I had to lock it away. But the lock is partially a lock, partially a, a pump." She looked up at him. "How do you-ah, ahhh-" He was pushing her wrists even further back. "I'm not going to do anything, just let me talk!" she cried. "I can't concentrate on explaining it like this!"
"Fine," he sighed, releasing her. She fell back with a thump, and scooted back until she reached the chair and climbed in.
"I don't know how you envision magic, but we envision it like a well. Water is the magic, and it fills from groundwater - ambient magic - slowly seeping in."
That was a very simplified concept of it, but ultimately...not that inaccurate. Loki settled into his armchair to listen.
"I was born with a normal well. But at that place…" Her eyes glazed over slightly, and she shook her head, rubbing the fabric of her shift between her fingers. "They..they dug into my well. They burst it open, so it's no longer a well, but...a funnel. Or, or, as if it's open to an underground river. And if you take off the cap, it gushes out and it's really hard to control."
He steepled his fingers as he leaned in. "You...absorb energy. At abnormal rates. Is that what you mean?"
She shrugged unhelpfully. "I suppose, by your understanding. The lock is...well, the lock pumps the magic back out at a constant rate. If it just capped it completely, it would...explode…" Arianna's eyes went hazy again. Her fingers, treading her gown, went slack as her voice faded.
"So it's happened in the past, then," he prodded. "This 'explosion'."
She didn't respond. Her eyes were wide but unseeing, and she seemed to be curling into herself.
"Arianna." Still no response, except for perhaps a brief flicker.
Loki slowly leaned forward and put his hand on hers. "Arianna."
She blinked rapidly, refocusing. He tried to pull away, but she captured his hand. "Hold on...hold on.." she breathed. Slowly, but surely, she resurfaced, and finally released his hand. "Sorry," she mumbled. "I was talking about...ummm…"
"Tell me why you can use those small spells, whatever you called them," he said.
"Oh, the cantrips." Her eyes moved back to meet him, bright once more. "Well, there's leaks. I actually have far more skinspells than I can actually use. I can only activate the ones that use a tiny bit of magic, with the lock activated." She held up her hand. "The one I used on the mistletoe. It's a herb freshener, basically, to keep them effective for healing work. Look."
The finger and thumb of her left hand began to glow, lighting up all down her finger and part of her palm. But at that moment, a small pop sounded from behind her. She half-turned around, then let out a grunt of pain as something hit her shoulder.
Ah. The trap. It was good to know that it worked.
Arianna looked at him with a long-suffering expression. "Why didn't you tell me?" she groaned, reaching for the dart. With a wince, she plucked it out of her shoulder.
Loki grinned. "You learn a lesson better through experience than through words," he replied smugly.
She just let out a disgruntled noise and examined the dart. "If this makes me ill with its toxin, you'll have to deal with it," she said.
Loki sighed. She had a point. And in this case, she hadn't tried anything underhanded. "Fine," he grumbled, and leaned over her shoulder to see the tiny wound. She shivered as he pulled blood straight out of the wound with his seidr, then sealed it up on the surface. When he sat back down, Arianna was wearing a strange expression on her face.
"...What is it?"
"It was you... wasn't it?" She looked almost...betrayed? But more than that, deeply, achingly lonely.
"What are you talking about?" he asked, even though he was pretty sure he knew the answer.
"Yesterday. You were Chandra." As upset as she looked, though, she held his gaze relentlessly.
"How did you know?" he asked, eyes narrowing. "Don't tell me you 'saw through it' again."
She shook her head. "No, no. And I've never seen through them. Your illusion was perfect. You just...forgot a very critical thing. For that situation."
Well, it was true that he hadn't exactly practiced beforehand. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. "Mannerisms?" he proffered, but she shook her head.
"No, that was perfect too. Good enough that, with the illusion, I really doubted myself until just now. No, it's…" Her cheeks turned slightly pink as she trailed off.
"What is it, woman?" he spat out, more harshly than he had intended.
"Um." She looked away. "It didn't...smell like her…"
Ah. That he had not expected. Right, usually you were never that close to the people you were trying to fool. Or that 'close' to them, either.
Her cheeks grew even redder. "And when you leaned over me, it..it uh, was the same as then," she mumbled awkwardly. "Umm...sorry…"
Well, this was certainly interesting. A far more vulnerable reaction than he was used to seeing from her.
"You're awfully flustered just from that," he teased with a smirk. "Have you fallen for me?"
"Lord, no," she shot back immediately. Her embarrassment disappeared, immediately replaced with mild distaste. "I barely know you."
"That has little to do with attraction," he purred, putting his fingers under her chin.
"Maybe for you," she retorted, jerking her face away. "But not for me. And captive's love doesn't count."
Loki grinned down at her. "Are you saying you have captive's love for me?"
To his surprise, she sighed heavily. "I'm trying not to, but it's not exactly within my control."
Ah. He had not expected her to actually confess it. He wasn't quite sure what to do next.
"Prince?" Arianna leaned her head on her hand. "What, shocked that I would say as much? Is that not what you were hoping for?" Now she was the one grinning up at him.
"You should hope that I don't want that from you," he replied glibly. "You're hardly in a position to refuse me."
Arianna's smile didn't waver, but her eyes grew cold and sharp. "If you did try. You wouldn't come out unscathed."
"Hmm." For a moment, they regarded each other, hazel green eye to emerald eye. Eventually, Loki stood with a stretch. "You're right. I have no interest in you. Unfortunately for you," he added with a smirk.
Arianna simply rolled her eyes. "See you later, prince."
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