“What are you planning to do?” I asked.
“I’m looking over past treaties.” She tapped at the papers in front of her. “I’m trying to come up with an exchange agreement, so we can give back the Markis and buy ourselves some peace. I don’t know that Oren will ever stop coming after you, but we need some time before he launches another attack.”
“Oh.” I was momentarily disarmed. I hadn’t expected her to do anything to help me, or Loki. “What makes you think that Oren can mount another attack? The Vittra seem too damaged to fight right now.”
“You know nothing about the Vittra or your father,” Elora said, simultaneously weary and condescending.
“And whose fault is that?” I asked. “If I’m left in the dark about things, it’s because you’re the one who left me there. You expect me to rule this place, yet you refuse to tell me anything about it.”
“I don’t have time, Princess!” Elora snapped. When she looked at me, I could’ve sworn I saw tears in her eyes, but they disappeared before I could be certain. “I want so much to tell you everything, but I don’t have time! You’re on a need-to-know basis. I wish that it could be different, but this is the world that we live in.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “Why don’t you have time?”
“I don’t even have time for this discussion.” Elora shook her head and waved me off. “You have much you need to do, and I have a meeting in ten minutes. If you want me to save your precious Markis, I suggest you get on your way and let me do my job.”
I lingered in front of her desk for a moment longer before I realized I had nothing more to say to her. For once, Elora was on my side, and she didn’t plan to execute Loki. It would actually be better if I left before I ended up saying something that would change her mind.
I expected to find Finn waiting in the hall to take me to my room, but instead I saw Tove. He leaned against the wall, absently rolling an orange between his hands.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“It’s nice to see you too,” Tove said dryly.
“No, I mean, I wasn’t expecting you.”
“I was coming to see you anyway, so I let Finn go.” Tove smirked and shook his head.
“Am I supposed to train today?” I asked. I enjoyed training with Tove, but he’d thought it best that I take a day or two off so I didn’t get burned out.
“No.” Tove tossed the orange up in the air as we started walking away from Elora’s study. “I’m staying here now, and I thought I should check up on you.”
“Oh, right.” I’d forgotten that Tove would be living here for a while, helping to ensure the palace was safe. “Why should you check up on me?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “You just seem…”
“Is my aura off-colored today?” I asked, giving him a sidelong glance.
“Yeah, actually.” He nodded. “Lately it’s been a sickly brown, almost a sulfur-yellow.”
“I don’t know what color sulfur is, and even if I did, I don’t know what that means,” I said. “You talk of auras, but you never explain them.”
“Yours is usually orange.” He held the fruit up as if to illustrate, then began tossing it from hand to hand. “It’s inspiring and compassionate. You get a purple halo when you’re around people you care about. That’s a protective and loving aura.”
“Okay?” I raised an eyebrow.
“At the meeting yesterday, when you stood up and you were fighting for something you believed in, your aura glowed gold.” Tove stopped walking, lost in thought. “It was dazzling.”
“What does gold mean?” I asked.
“I don’t know exactly.” He shook his head. “I’ve never seen it quite like that. Your mother’s tends to be gray tinged with red, but when she’s in full Queen mode, she gets flecks of gold.”
“So gold means … what? I’m a leader?” I asked skeptically.
“Maybe.” He shrugged again and started walking.
Tove walked downstairs, and even though I’d wanted solitude, I went with him. He proceeded to explain all he knew about auras and what each color meant.
The purpose of an aura still eluded me. Tove said it gave him clarity into another person’s character and that person’s intentions. Sometimes if the aura was really powerful, he could feel it. Yesterday at the meeting, mine had felt warm, like basking in the summer sun.
He stopped at the sitting room and flopped down in a chair by the fireplace. He began peeling the orange and tossing its skin into the unlit hearth. I sat on the couch nearest him and stared out the window.
Autumn was beginning to give way to an early winter, and heavy sleet beat down outside. As it fell against the glass, it sounded like it was raining pennies.
“How much do you know about the Vittra?” I asked.
“Hmm?” Tove took a bite of the orange, and he glanced at me, wiping the juice from his chin.
I rephrased the question. “Do you know much about the Vittra?”