The Brightest Star

Chapter 3 - The Position

(Kára's POV):
"I must admit, that was quite impressive, despite the short notice that you had to prepare. How are you feeling now, I am sure that that must have taken quite a bit of energy," Frigga finally spoke, breaking the silence that fell upon us at the end of my demonstration.

"I will admit that I am slightly fatigued, but I think that that has more to the with the fact I did not sleep much last night as opposed to the energy exerted here. I use magic quite a bit on the daily so I must have built up a certain kind of stamina," I replied, thankful that I was not as exhausted as Frigga feared I would be.

"Well you have certainly proved capable of this task, so I suppose I shall describe it to you in more detail. The man in need of your help is my son, Loki. He has turned a wrong corner and I must get him back on the right path soon or else his father will have the chance to step in. His idea of teaching his son a lesson involves him being chained up and rotting in a cell, but I believe a gentler approach will be more affective. However, no matter who I send in there to try to bring him back to us, they have always failed thus far. Even I, who is probably the closest person to him, have failed in this regard and I must admit that I am getting quite desperate.

"He is quite advanced in magic already, so your job will be less of a teacher and more of a companion for him. You are being presented under the guise of a tutor of great skill, but once you gain his trust I ask of you to become his friend. Be someone that he can turn to in times of trouble and show him that we still care for him, despite the wrongs that he has committed. I must warn you that he will not take kindly to you at first, I am sure that he will know exactly why you are there. But promise me that you will not give up, you will find a way to gain his respect and eventually that will grow into a relationship, if all goes as planned."

"But I am afraid that I do not understand," I spoke at the end of Frigga's speech. "Prince Loki is known as a master of magic, what could I possibly find to teach him?"

"I am sure you will discover skills of his that are lacking in comparison to yours, I want you to find where he struggles and exploit those areas. There are also plenty of books of spells that you may go through, discovering ones that he has never cast before. I do not care what you find, you must get close to him, I believe that he could use a friend above all else."

I gave Frigga a bow of respect as I assured her, "I swear to you that I will do whatever it takes to grow close to him, make him see the error of his ways. I swear that I will make him understand your love and see what he is choosing to ignore."

Frigga broke into a smile, "thank you, Kára, your determination is much appreciated. Although I must warn you that many others have pledged things similar to me and have since broken those promises. This will not be easy, but I shall make it worth your while. For such time as you remain at this palace, I will send money back to your family in payment. All I need from you is to know where you live  and we shall be set. Oh, and I almost forgot, one more thing I must ask of you is to write reports on my son each day. You need not sugarcoat anything, I simply want to know how he reacts to you and if there is any shimmer of change within him. Now, I shall escort you to your bedchambers where you shall reside whilst under my employment."

As I continued trying to process what exactly my task was at the palace, Frigga did as she said and lead me back through the halls of the palace and to a bedroom that was approximately the size of the entire hut my family lived in. I gawked in amazement as I stepped in the room, noticing the closet full of dresses, the spotless bathroom adjoining my room, the gigantic bed that could probably fit about four of me, and the vanity that was filled with different types of jewelry and makeup.

"Th-this is incredible, I certainly do not deserve all of this," I finally spoke as I ran my fingers across the soft sheets of the bed.

"If you succeed in bringing my son back, you shall be worthy of far more than this," Frigga replied, watching me from the corner of the room. "Your chambermaid, Eydis, shall be here tonight after dinner. Loki has been confined to the west wing of the palace so as to restrain some of his freedoms and we ask that you remain in this area as well. Meals shall be delivered to your room as his are and you have access to the library and the garden in addition to the practice room that we were just in. There are plenty of guards around to escort you wherever you desire until you have a better sense of the layout of the castle. I am afraid that I must now depart, but please make yourself at home here and I wish you the best of luck tomorrow when you make first contact with my son."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, I promise you that I shall not fail you," I bowed in parting as she turned to leave the room.

"And I hope that you are correct, have a wonderful day," she replied without turning back as she disappeared from view.

Now that she was gone, I collapsed onto the bed and sighed. This room contained more wealth than my family ever had, even back when my parents were alive. I barely remembered my life back then, my father always seemed to be leaving for some war or another and my mother would do her best to conceal her sadness to see him go. Their bond was one deeper than I had ever seen before and it always pained each other when my father had to leave. Perhaps their strong love for one another and the fact that my father was almost always away would explain the number of siblings that I had as I am sure they tried to make up for the months they spent apart whenever my father was actually home.

The money that my father earned in the military had been enough to get by, even with the six children to care for. However when my father was killed in battle, things went downhill for the family. My mother, who had grown unhealthily attached to him, became ill at the news of his demise and I was forced to step up as caretaker of the house.

I tried my hand at any career that would accept the employment of a woman, but never could last very long anywhere. When my mother passed away, Aasveig realized that I would not be able to bring in money for the household, so she was able to land a job at a dressmakers, which did not pay very well but it was more income than we had been bringing in. We attempted to grow a lot of our own food and that which we could not grow, I stole from market and it has been the same ever since. And each year, we can only pray that one of the girls will run into a wealthier man who will ask for our hand, but so far luck has not seemed to be in our favor.

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(A/N): And now I present to you Backstory Time! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter although a lot of it was merely giving you an idea of who Kára is, but tomorrow's chapter will feature Loki for the first time and we will get this ball rolling!