nine
"no damage done, no damage!"

Breathing rapid, Lusine swore the walls were closing in on her. Inching closer with every second that ticked by, with every step she took. This sensation of being trapped in a cage with nowhere to run wouldn't leave her, no matter how deep of a breath she tries to take, no matter how hard she tries to collect her thoughts back up from where Loki's simple observation had scattered them, leaving them stars of broken glass upon the night sky.

Her mind was racing with the darkest possibilities as she hurried to where she knew her father would be. He never did enjoy the dancing delicacy that came with attending a ball. As she pushed open the grand door to the library she breathed a sigh of relief when she locked eyes with her father.

He gives her a heart-warming smile that only a father could grant with such ease and says, "Lusine, my darling, aren't you supposed to be charming that Prince?" He chuckles, his hands folding the red backed book closed and brushing over its cover.

Lusine nods her head as she closes the door behind her and crosses the room to her father swiftly, in desperation more than grace. She wanted desperately to know what was wrong with her. What it meant. Whether it would get worse.

She sits down in the stiff wooden chair across the old, scarred table from her father, bones locking and creaking.

"I was, and it was going well until this happened," She says lowly, forcing herself to stare her father straight in the eyes and make her own eyes turn into the deep purple that Loki told her had appeared.

"They're purple," He states, as if she wasn't already aware of the shift, his hand reaching out to Lusine's cheek. He brushes a stray strand of black hair out of her face and behind her ear. "My dear daughter, do you have any idea what's happening to you?"

"Not by any means," She replies honestly. He was the only person she allows herself to be transparent with. The only one she knows won't laugh in her face for her concerns.

"You're turning into who you're meant to be," He recites, looking at his little Lusine with a proud smile on his lips. "Once you reach a certain stage in your life, Lusine, you and your magic will become stronger. " He clasps his hands together. "Your power is increasing and with it comes... minor side effects such as the darkening of the eyes." He gestures to her eyes with a ringed finger.

"Purple isn't exactly... dark," Lusine says, regaining her confidence as she sits up in the ancient wooden chair that was bound to hurt her back if she stayed for long. Maybe it would even crumble under her tensions.

Bulan sighs. "I'm afraid it's going to get much worse, dear." His voice is low as he speaks the bad news to his daughter who did not seem to care much for his words of wisdom.

She heard him. She heard him loud and clear but choosing to ignore the ominous promise was a conscious decision, not a lack of care.

"How much worse? What else is going to happen to me?" She questions, rubbing her arms with her hands to try and warm herself in the coldness of the library that had suddenly swept in to shroud their unforeseen conversation.

"I do not know." He pushes his glasses up his nose. "I'm sure it'll be nothing life threatening, but you may start to feel the effects as the months go by and when they do happen come to me and no one else." His voice becomes more serious in this moment and that's when Lusine realised her father was not joking around with her.

She really was becoming more powerful as the seconds ticked by. A dark flower blooming deep inside her heart, overcoming whatever light remained with strangling roots and petals large enough to block out the sun.

"I promise I'll come to you if anything else changes," She gives him a comforting smile in an attempt to ease his worried expression and his tight grip on the red hard back.

"Lycus came in here looking for you." Those words made Lusine's eyes almost roll out of her head.

Of course, he had come looking for her. She'd left the Winter Ball with Loki and he most definitely did not approve of this new match. Though, she wasn't sure that anyone did.

"What did you tell him?" Lusine questions, narrowing her now normal eyes at him. "Actually," She says, grinning, "I kissed Loki right in front of him. He's probably about to explode." Her grin grows wider at the thought of all the destruction her brother would cause. The thought lets her push the bubbling worries of her power back a notch as a new form of amusement took its place. "Perhaps I should go and find him?" Lusine perks up, pushing herself out of the chair and beginning to stride toward the door.

Knowing he couldn't stop her he says, "Just don't break too much in the process."

"That's one thing I'm not promising, father!" She exclaims as she exits the library to hunt for her brother, the chaos already burning through her ichor.

-

She found her prey with his lover just hovering outside the door of his room, talking with her and about to go inside to retire for the night, but Lusine stopped them by calling out, "Lover boy, father said you were looking for me!"

Lycus whispers something to Pelia who nods her head before looking over at Lusine in, not fear, but disgust. Lusine's fingers curl tighter into fists as she watches the girl disappear into their chambers.

"You don't truly have interest in Loki, do you sister?" Her twin asks, eyebrow raising as if he didn't quite believe anything his sister said or did anymore. There was a time when he would've believed anything she'd said. Done anything she'd asked him to. But those days were dead. Those days were charred, burnt alive.

"What would it matter to you? You're already happy without worrying about me, so why start to worry now?" She begins to walk towards him slowly, her emerald green dress fanning around her in display. "You have Pelia now, why would you need to worry about your beloved sister?" When she is an arm's length away she begins to speak more. "You and I barely speak anymore. What happened? Oh wait, I know! Pelia fucking happened."

"Lusine, it's not like that," Lycus tries, but Lusine snaps at his lie. Before he knows it, he's launched into the solid stone wall. His mouth falls open as he pushes himself back up, using the dented wall for support where his bones threaten to yield. "You used your magic on me."

Lusine lifts her hand to reveal a ball of white glowing magic in the palm of her hand. "You lied to me." She steps towards him as he dusts himself off and lets his hand wander to his concealed weapon, noting the rage that appeared to flow through his sister.

"You really want to know why it all changed, don't you?" Lycus stands up, dusting himself off from the debris from the damage they'd caused in the wall.

"Why else would I throw you into a wall?" She hisses through her teeth. "I want to know why you withdrew from me."

"It's simple," He says, leaning back against the wall. "You got dark, Lusine." And with his words Lusine move in a flash, teleporting toward him and gripping him tightly by the neck, pushing him against the wall. "See, you're dark. It used to be fun when we were kids. You would just get in people's heads, so we could have an extra slice of cake or so that the carers would let us stay outside for another hour or two. But now, now it's just a mess. You're a walking talking mess, Lusine, and you know it too."

Lusine releases her grip on her brother, letting him drop to his feet as she curled her hand in the air between them. Her lips pulling thin as she steps back from him, face contorted by grief.

"I'm darker now than ever and it ruins me to see you with Pelia, dancing and laughing and-"

"Being happy?"

"Being happy without me," She closes her eyes tightly after saying exactly what was on her mind, the tear leaking from her eyes was stark through the powders upon her cheeks. In an instant she was gone. Teleported away to her solitude.

A solitude in which she didn't have to keep her front up; somewhere she could cry without feeling weak. Without feeling like a child again. A little girl scolded for her tears, even in the months of agony after the fire her mother abandoned her within.

-

1101 words

2016

this will most likely be the last update on this for a while because I have an exam this Friday and the following Tuesday so I will have no time to write due to hardcore revision! the next chapters will be leading into the events of the first Thor film so I would have to watch Thor again to take notes in order to write this, which sucks a little.

anyway, dedicated to geekIing because they've been commenting and showing a lot of support recently and I feel like they deserve this for it <3

-love, lau

edited: 9.8.18
new word count: 1493