A Warm Bed

Yavanna awoke in the morning and smiled. It was rare that she got a good night's sleep. She clutched the soft furs in her hand but frowned when it didn't feel like furs. Raising her head blearily, she blinked at where her hand was. She pressed it further into the bed and her frown deepened when the bed felt firmer than it should've.

Her vision slowly cleared and she leapt up and stared, frozen, at the king who was sharing her bed. The king whom she'd been spooning in her sleep. Her mouth gaped and she hurriedly scanned the room but found it was empty. The events of the previous day slowly returned and her lungs deflated.

The king's eyes suddenly opened and he met hers from his place on the bed. She watched him silently and knew he was observing the same way. His golden hair was ruffled and his blue eyes were stiff as though he was trying to keep something back.

Yavanna swallowed and crawled off of the bed only to find that her feet were bare and that the wood boards were freezing. She squeaked and jumped back onto the bed, clutching at her poor toes.

She heard the king roll his eyes before he stood from the bed which creaked in relief from his weight leaving. He shrugged a coat on and then left out the door. She relaxed and crawled backwards onto the bed and pulled the furs to cover her feet.

Looking around the small cabin she tried to make sense of everything that had occurred the night before. She took her lower lip in her mouth when she remembered Mirella's story. Her heart stabbed at the feeling of betrayal; why did it have to cut so deep. Tears stung her eyes when she thought of how much better her life would be if Mirella had just stayed in her room that night.

Closing her eyes she rested her head against the wall and let the tears fall. She bit her lip to hold back the shuddering breaths that aggravated her sensitive throat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So, how come you and Amory haven't done the deed yet?" Mirella asked while they sat in Yavanna's temporary haven. Though it wasn't entirely safe, so far the king and her traitorous sister had made it inside.

Yavanna looked down at her cup and took a slow sip before writing an answer. Her lips pressed closely together when she spotted pity in Mirella's eyes. She sighed silently and handed it to her, "He has no interest in me."

Mirella gaped, "That's impossible. You're beautiful and if he said anything different he was lying." She stated with her hands on her hips. Yavanna thinned her lips. "Well, I certainly know that Amory is fairly easy to seduce. So it shouldn't be too hard to lose that veil now. Especially since I've talked with him."

Yavanna tilted her head, and wrote, "What did you talk about with him?"

"Oh, just about the fact that what we had wasn't love or anything. It was just a fling of sorts." She waved her hand and bit her lip.

Yavanna furrowed her brows, and wrote, "Did you love him?" And more importantly, had he loved her?

Mirella rolled her head along her shoulders and massaged her neck, "At one point… I thought he was my everything. But how I feel about Rune—compared to Amory… it's like," She paused with her eyes glowing, "Oh, it's hard to explain. It's as though I'm feeling the sun for the first time in years."

Yavanna picked up her wooden cup and sipped her tea, wondering how seriously the king had felt about Mirella. Luckily, her sister enjoyed speculating and talking, so she received her answer soon enough, "Amory cared for me—he gave me everything material that I needed. But… in comparison to Rune, it wasn't love."

Yavanna scoffed, 'And since when did you become an expert on this?'

"I hope he sees it one day." She continued, "And that he does find love one day."

It was then that Yavanna realized that she didn't really like her sister.

"But, on another topic. Let's see how we can get that veil off of you." Mirella's eyes adapted their typical sly gleam and Yavanna gazed on boredly. Unimpressed. "Amory loves red. He's passionate about it, and of course, wear as little concealing dresses as possible—"

"Did I ask?" She wrote and shoved the piece of paper into Mirella's face. She didn't want to know ways to seduce Amory. He wanted nothing to do with her… and she wanted nothing to do with him.

Mirella's eyes flashed with hurt, "N..no. But I thought you'd want some… tips."

'Well you thought wrong.' She wrote out, as best she could recall to memory, every word Amory had said to her that day. Every cruel thing. And she watched as Mirella's eyes hardened and darkened as she read them.

"He said this to you?!" She exclaimed as soon as she was finished. Her hand crumpled the paper viciously, "Oh my word! I can't believe it. This—this—gah!" She flew from her seat and marched out the door with angry steps.

Yavanna sank back in her seat and sighed. Raising her hand she focused on it, trying to make it glow as it had the night before. But nothing happened. The creature had appeared last night, its long hair and ratted clothes haunting the trees. It had glowing eyes as well, she had noticed.

It had asked her to follow it, but the king had taken her before she could decide whether she wanted to or not. She wanted to now. She wanted to learn to control her magic, to have a form of protection, of power.

She sighed and walked to the window. Perhaps she could call the creature? She looked down at her pale hand again. In her mind, images of every moment she'd blacked out and discovered that she'd hurt someone or of when she'd watched them be hurt. How could they be capable of such violence?

Yavanna sighed. She needed to speak to her mother, or her father. Something told her to speak to her mother first.