Page 102 of A Spark So Bright
It was the first time she'd ever considered someone else her friend in a very long time.
Vigdis grinned. "And now we're picking out our piercings. But considering his brother's track record, I thought Gunnar might not have told you a single thing about what to expect."
Her troll husband at her side stiffened. "I... Uh..."
"I know about wife piercings," Rose replied. "I've lived here for a year, and I helped pick out Astrid's."
Somewhere in the group her sister choked on her own spit. "You did what?"
She wasn't going to bother explaining that one. Bjorn had been in the market. So had she. It wasn't like he could ask anyone else what gems would look perfect on her sister’s nipples. Such a sensitive question was best posed to someone else who had likely seen said nipples and wasn't going to be a threat to his bond.
Anyway, she wasn't going to dwell on that right now. Because she had wondered about earning her own troll wife piercings. She’d already had her ears pierced once in her life, but she was curious to know if there were others. After all, there were so many types of piercings here in this realm. Trolls were practically covered in them.
Gunnar squeezed her hand, and she glanced up to see him already looking down at her. "I had an idea for that, but only if you're willing."
"What is your idea?"
He scratched the back of his neck with his free hand. "It's uh... Well, they are a lot more painful than a regular piercing. But we only give them to those who have suffered greatly and returned to Trollveggen victorious. The last person I saw get them had been tortured at the hands of King James for years."
She liked the idea of that. Wearing not just a badge of a troll bride, but also one for what she had survived. "All right. I'll do that."
"You haven't heard me explain what they are."
"I don't need to know. I don't believe there is much pain in this world that is as bad as what I have survived." Facing those memories was still hard, but she knew deep in her gut that her body was ready to tell him that it did not fear pain. "I might not remember everything, but my body does. It has memories from countless years, and it is ready to face those with a little pain to be able to look in the mirror every day and see what I have overcome."
Vigdis looked between the two of them and jumped in the moment Rose finished. "There's only one person here I would trust doing that kind of piercing."
Gunnar nodded, but then he was dragging her through the crowd. Not toward any jeweler or blacksmith, like she had thought, but toward the barracks. She couldn't even hazard a guess why he would bring her here, of all places.
"Why are we going to the barracks?" she asked, a little confused.
"Because Torbin is the only person who still knows how to do these piercings." Gunnar paused. "I should probably go get Ragnar, too. He'll be helpful for this."
"A healer? They're just piercings."
"They heal better if they're helped with magic. You... Go find Torbin, tell him you've decided on the piercings and he'll know what I mean." Gunnar pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "I'll be right back. Don't get started without me. I want to be there for this."
Amused, she watched him rush back into the crowd, likely soon to shout for his brother because Gunnar was not a patient man. At least, not when it came to his brother. He was a little harsh with Ragnar, but then Ragnar was just as harsh with him, so she supposed she shouldn't question their relationship.
Meandering into the barracks, she found Torbin waiting for her in the mess hall. He had a small box next to him, and a trayof food that he tucked into as if he hadn’t eaten in weeks. And was that a… book?
"Are you reading?" she asked, sitting down on the bench next to him. "Something interesting?"
"A romance novel," he muttered. "Apparently women like these, and I'm confused why anyone would."
"What are your thoughts now that you've been reading it?" She peered over his shoulder, trying to sneak a peek at what scene he was on. It appeared to be mostly mooning over each other, which used to be her favorite parts of romance novels.
"Seems like a lot of drawing out the inevitable. If they fucked and got it over with, though, I suppose there would be no story." He snapped it shut and turned to face her. "You're going through with the piercings, then?"
"I like the idea of them. No one's told me what they are yet, though."
He handed her the box wordlessly.
Rose opened it, gasping at the tray of tiny diamonds that glittered in the light. There were so many of them. Countless glittering diamonds, each one cut to perfection with a small foot attached in metal. They weren't big. They weren't obvious. But they were gorgeous.
The foot was something she'd never seen before, though.
"What do you do with these?"
