“Please excuse me.” She stood. “I am weary from the day’s ride.”
“My lady, allow me to escort you.” Aldrik was on his feet as well, along with the Western lord.
“I’m fine, Aldrik, just tired. Please enjoy the company,” she encouraged.
Vhalla knew he needed to mingle with all the lords. Their Empire depended, in no small part, on their unquestioning loyalty and resources. She also knew, justly or not, that some things were more easily shared between men, and she trusted Aldrik to take advantage of the opportunity.
Despite what she said, Vhalla didn’t retire to her room. She hadn’t had much time alone with Fritz since the East. She found her Southerner curled up in a plush chair by the fireplace in his room.
“You look cozy.” Vhalla shut the door softly behind her.
“Quite cozy. Come join me, Vhal.” Fritz lifted up the edge of his blanket.
She was happy to accept his invitation and wedged herself next to him on the oversized chair. “Cozy indeed. What book did you find?”
“Something awfully boring. A collection of family autobiographies. They’re all talking about how amazing they are.”
Vhalla laughed, flipping through a few pages. She shook her head. “Nobility.”
“Hey now, you’re a noble. Soon to be the noblest of them all.”
Rather than laughing it off as she would any other time, Vhalla paused, studying the fire. “Do you think I will do a good job?”
“Nope.”
She blinked at him in shock.
“I know it.” Her friend nudged her playfully. “Don’t doubt yourself.”
“If I do, will you be there to reassure me?”
“Always.”
Vhalla closed the book in her hands, leaning on Fritz’s shoulder. “You’re right, this book is boring. You should tell me a story about you instead.”
“Well, I suppose if the Empress demands a story, she will get one.”
“I’m not the Empress yet.”
“Yet,” he agreed only on that one word. “All right, let’s see . . .” He shifted before settling into a more comfortable position. “When I joined the Tower, I was mostly alone. I didn’t really know how to make friends. I’d always had my sisters, and they had to tolerate me. But, well, you know, our home was far from the village, and my family was nervous about my magic freezing another child or something horrible. So I didn’t have much interaction with other kids.”
Even in the best of cases, like Fritz, magic was still a separating force.
“I was finally around people like me, and I had no idea how to bridge the moat that I had unknowingly dug around myself. Larel took pity on me, after one instruction, and went out of her way to sit with me in the library. For three months we met there at the same time, same table, every day. It was never formally said, but we both knew where we would wait for the other.”
“Was that the table where I found you?” Vhalla thought back to the first time she had laid eyes on the messy haired Southerner. It felt like a lifetime ago.
“It was.” He rested his cheek against her forehead. “I met Grahm there as well . . . One day, I walked in, and my table was taken. Now, the old me would’ve just sat somewhere else. But that was my table, and my friendship with Larel had made me bold. Plus, he was really, really cute.”
Vhalla laughed softly and closed her eyes. She wondered how often Fritz thought of Grahm. Right before she dozed off, she wondered if the Eastern man she had befriended was even still alive.
CHAPTER 14
Just a handful of weeks after leaving her home, Vhalla found herself once more in the Crossroads. It couldn’t have been a happier sight. The hustle and bustle of the market, the shades of every type of person strolling about. Victor’s tyranny and Vhalla’s last, less than favorable, experience at the Crossroads couldn’t diminish her fond memories or the good energy that was palpable in the air.
It was the center of the world. It was where she had confessed her love for the man she would marry. It was where she had made and lost friends. It was where she had found strength. She had dreamed, cried, laughed, and—it dawned on her in short order after arriving—gained a glimpse of the future.
Her gaze was locked on the main market as they passed, headed toward the standard Imperial hotel. Vhalla was suddenly very curious.