A Symphony of Ice and Shadow

Chapter 8

Marion made her way down to the library with her stack of books which were left outside of her chambers. She still did not know where this mysterious stack of books came from because when she thanked Thea for the books this morning, Thea was just as surprised as she was.

Yesterday after the healing session with Thea, she had spent the remainder of her free time reading books. One of the books left for her, she had read in the past, and it was one of her favorites; about a pirate prince who fell in love with a woman of noble birth. Marion loved a romantic forbidden love story. The other two books were also romance and she read those titles rather quickly. Rhoe had cancelled their lesson yesterday due to a conflict, but she did not mind because the cancellation gave her the opportunity to read into the afternoon.

Marion entered the library, slightly before the beginning of her lesson on Wyrdmarks, to return the books which were borrowed and look for another set to read. She sat her returned books on the desk belonging to the librarian and walked over to the section of the library where she found books to her liking.

Marion searched through the section for titles that caught her eye. As she walked along the shelves of books, her hand lightly brushed along the spines of the books as if just touching the books could give her a brief escape from this world. As a title caught her eye and she pulled the book from the shelf, she heard a slight knock on a shelf beside her.

Marion looked up from her book into turquoise eyes and that cocky smile spread across the prince's face. "I did not want to startle you again so I thought I would make myself known to you" the prince explained. Marion just looked at him. Normally the males around her did not think about how their presence effected the people around them. Rhoe looked down at the book in her hand with an almost hurt look on his face. "If you did not like the books that I brought to you, firefly, I would have gotten you different books" he said nonchalantly, as if retrieving books for her was a normal thing in their relationship. Do we have a relationship? Marion thought. They were not romantically involved; but were they friends? Colleagues? Family friends? Marion had always seen the prince who was constantly drunk or had his tongue down a females throat. She had never seen the side of the prince who made sure she got back to her room okay when she fell asleep in the library or brought her books to read.

"You brought me the books?" Marion asked.

"Yes, I was trying to cheer you up but obviously that didn't..." Rhoe started to go off but before he did, she interrupted him and said "Rhoe, I already read them. I just need more." He halted his rant and blinked. "Oh, well, I am glad you liked them" he said. There was a moment of silence between them before he said "Come on. We have a lesson. You get to practice writing Wyrdmarks today." This made Marion perk up and smile. One step closer to protecting the people around her. As he walked away, Marion followed him but before they left the section of the library they were in, Marion said "Thank you, Rhoe."

"I can't let your light go out, now can I, firefly?" Rhoe said smirking and continued walking back to their normal study table.

                                                                       ___________________________

Marion examined the design of a mandala woven in a tapestry on her way back to her chambers. The colors of the ocean caught her attention, but she realized, upon further inspection, each color was a different type of bead. Due to the nature of the mandala, smaller beads were used towards the center and as the shape grew and expanded along the tapestry, the beads became larger and more intricate. Marion was impressed by the artwork, and she wondered how long it took the artist to create the piece and what mastery they must possess to create something so intricate and beautiful.