Each morning she inevitably woke earlier than everyone else around her, and typically snuck out to the cabin’s common room with the new reader Leonora had gifted her with. At the beginning of the week her reading skills were very weak from lack of practice, but now she was getting back into it. The Princess was encouraging her, giving her newer and harder books. Then came breakfast, and Elysha loved that it was hot.
After breakfast her day varied, and was usually dictated by Cecile, or sometimes by Kathryn or Alexa. Elysha had told Cecile just enough about her background for Cecile to understand why Elysha was relatively ignorant of the social graces, and she had then decided that she should spend these next five weeks getting Elysha more civilized, and Kathryn and Alexa had both agreed to help. Elysha learned how to hold a proper conversation according to both Cecile and Kathryn, then watched as they argued on how it ought to be done. Then they saw her table manners and forgot all disagreements in the face of how horrendous they were, and now Elysha was not allowed to eat any meal besides breakfast without strict supervision. Elysha refrained from mentioning they had once been far worse before Leonora had taken her in hand when they’d been traveling together, but she was getting the feeling now things had been far more informal than usual in her company.
Each of her new tutors also had particular things to teach her. Cecile instructed her on the tinier minutiae of just about every aspect of her new life, from choice of words to how to sit down without wrinkling her skirt. Kathryn taught her about higher culture and history, having her memorize the list of kings and queens who had ruled Topsipil and reading out loud to her from the great works of literature of Reena and Suenter and other countries that Elysha had heard the names of and knew the vaguest details about. Alexa knew more about those countries themselves, and she gave Elysha a map of the world and drilled her until she could point to all the most important places, but her true area of expertise was magic, and taught Elysha the history of that and even a little theory, but not how to use it. “I’d have to be an Archmagess to teach you that,” she explained.
After dinner, which gave the Elysha the most practice in using different kinds of forks and knives and spoons, she was able to relax. Cecile and Kathryn both liked to play cards, and while Cecile had taught Elysha how to play sparks and commons and other card games Elysha wasn’t very good at them and they soon found they enjoyed themselves more when Cecile and Kathryn played their fiercest games against each other while Elysha watched. They usually played in the kitchen, and Elysha liked the way it felt to sit there with her chin pressed into the table, not having to focus her head on anything.
Tonight, however, was different. The train was approaching the first of three maintenance stops, and would stay overnight in the town of Statford. This, Cecile had declared, was to be Elysha’s first night out, and though Statford was over two hours away they were already getting ready.
The Princess had provided Elysha with three old corsets, which were helping Elysha get her posture down, but she didn’t find too comfortable to wear, and while she was starting to get used to them now, Cecile had just attached a skirt mesh which hooked into her waist and dug into her skin and made her feel uncomfortable and constrained all over again. But Leonora hadn’t provided her with any dresses that passed Cecile’s strict muster for what she could wear for a night out, and so she had to wear one of Cecile’s instead, which meant a wide skirt. She’d already had to practice walking in the mesh, just to be sure that she could.
Cecile was also in her corset and skirt mesh, and was sorting through her gowns. Her own outfit for the evening had already been picked out: yellow silk with a deep brown shawl that she could pin to her sleeves, brown stockings, black gloves and heeled button-up boots. For Elysha she had already pulled out her only pair of non-heeled shoes, so she would have one less thing to worry about, but was unsure what else she should wear.
“Doesn’t match the shoes...definitely doesn’t match the shoes...too fancy...too plain...maybe this one?” She pulled out an ivory dress with the most ruffled skirt Elysha had seen yet, and pressed the sleeve against Elysha’s shoulder, wrinkling her brow. “Not sure if it’ll look good on you.” She put it to the side, then went searching again. She next pulled out a baby blue gown, but she looked at Elysha, shook her head, and put it back. She eventually found two more gowns, one gold, one red, lay them both out on the bed, and then stood between them, looking at first one, then the other.
Elysha looked with her. She noticed immediately the gold was much fancier than the red; it was covered with ruffles and beads and about five layers of lace. In contrast, the red was very simple. “I like the red.”
“The red?” Cecile held it up, and Elysha noticed the skirt was much shorter than the ones on Cecile’s other dresses. “I don’t know if that’s the best idea. Do you want to show your bare arms and legs?”
“I don’t like the gold.”
“Well, if it’s that...” Cecile picked up the ivory dress. Its extra ruffles, when compared to the gold dress, didn’t look so bad anymore. “Try it on.”
Elysha did so, and it fit well enough. There was a looking-glass on the door, and she stared at her own reflection, and wondered what Cecile was seeing as she looked at her. For her own part, when she looked at herself in this ivory dress, she didn’t see how she looked any better or worse than she would look wearing the baby blue dress Cecile had rejected.
By some scale of measuring that Elysha couldn’t understand, however, Cecile studied her, then nodded, and said, “If you like it, you should wear it.”
“I like it,” said Elysha, though she didn’t really like or dislike it; she just wanted the whole thing done with.
“All right, then, good. And your opals go with it, too, so that’s good. I’ve got some ribbons for your hair. Now let’s get ourselves oiled up.”
That meant they had to take all their clothes off, which made Elysha wonder why they’d had to put them all on. Then they had to cover the delicate dresses with their blankets before taking a sprayer and filling the room with a thick and sometimes noxious mist, just to make sure their skin was fully permeated. Elysha would have thought it more efficient to rub it in directly into the skin, but Cecile rejected that idea, calling it “gross.”
The oil settled into their skin quickly enough, and also into their hair, which then had to be combed and styled while it was still moist, as Cecile lamented that Elysha’s hair was exactly the length it was. “If it was shorter it would easier to take care of, but instead it’s merely too short to do much styling for.” Still she pinned it here and twirled it there, and weaved golden ribbon through the dark locks, until Elysha personally thought she looked a little silly, but she knew this was what was considered pretty and stylish.
The other girl’s hair was much longer, and Elysha had to help her brush it and do all the fancy things that her own hair was too short for, hairstyles and braids and twists of ribbon that had names in foreign languages. Cecile claimed that the maids in her childhood home could get her hair done in only minutes, but for the two of them, even working together, it took an hour.
By now dusk had completely blanketed the train, and the lands it was chugging its way through. Outside, they knew, magical dell flowers were beginning to emit their nightly glow from where they were planted on either side of the train tracks to aid in navigation, and their light would be needed that night, for the sky was hidden by a thick cloud cover; there would be no moon.
But there was more to do. Their hands had to be “waxed” with “wax,” which wasn’t much like candle wax, in fact, Elysha had no idea what it was or what it did, and then their nails had to be painted, after Cecile had inspected Elysha’s to make sure they didn’t need cutting again; she had commented already that they grew back strangely quickly after being clipped. Then at last they could get dressed again, and Cecile helped her into her shoes, which she found uncomfortable even though they didn’t have heels. Cecile took Elysha’s fur cloak and draped it over her, then stepped back to appraise her. “It’s a look that works well, I think, with the cloak. There may be questions about it, as fur is becoming less common at this time of year-two weeks ago and noone would think anything of it-but say the Princess gave it to you and you need say no more.”
“Must I?” Much as she was grateful for Princess Leonora’s attention, it did mark her as different from the other girls. Here on the train it mattered less, because she would have been noticed as different anyway, but that night she had hoped to be viewed as just one of the girls by whoever met them.
“You don’t have to linger on it; that might be considered rude anyway,” said Cecile. Just then there was a knock on the door. “Come in; we’re dressed.”
Kathryn stepped through, and Elysha didn’t know what Cecile thought, but she thought she looked far more beautiful than either of them. In the style of the nobles her dress was narrow, with a long skirt that swished about her stockinged feet in silvery white twirls, occasionally flashing her shiny heels. Her sleeves were simple pieces of translucent, shimmery cloth that floated down her upper arms and just touched her elbows with starry, sparkly jeweled ends. Her hair was loose, the top of it adorned with dewy silver-white jewels. Around her neck she had placed a single ivory bead.
“And you’ve done a wonderful job with her, Cecile!” She took a minute to regard Elysha from the front and back, from the sides, and from uncomfortably close up; she was just starting to feel like a thing when thankfully the noble girl stopped in favor of showing off her own vestaments, not that the other two hadn’t already admired them, but they both made a show of looking again, to be polite.
“We’re less than half an hour from getting there,” she said. “Alexa’s just getting herself ready; she can do it with such astonishing speed. And, unfortunately, our other two friends are not keeping to their room.” “Our other two friends” was one of the ways the other four girls in the train carriage referred to Taylor Ressetini and her roommate Natasha Volk. “They were none too impressed with my appearance tonight.”
“Idiots!” cried Elysha.
“We knew that already,” said Cecile. “Any chance they could be herded out of the corridor?”
Kathryn opened the door just far enough to peer out, then closed it and shook her head. “I doubt it.”
“Should we hide in here? It might not be ethical to leave Alexa out there alone, at their mercy.”
“She’s a sorceress,” said Elysha. “Can’t she brave it on her own?”
“There are things even a magicienne does not dare. But let’s wait a few minutes. Maybe they’ll leave on their own.”
They sat back down, and Elysha asked, “What does Statford look like? It’s smaller than Dalebarn, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know much about it, as a matter of fact,” said Kathryn. “I’ve never been there. What about you, Cecile?”
Cecile was trying not to blush; her lips were pursing hard. “No,” she said, “I haven’t either.” She hadn’t yet admitted to anyone besides Elysha that she had never been outside of Dalebarn before she’d boarded the train.
“And I haven’t even heard much about this snug little town. It was founded about forty years ago, because of the railroad, probably. I don’t know what the population is, but I can’t imagine it being more than a thousand, probably less. Bit of a homey place, probably; our other two friends out there will probably hate it.”
“Speaking of those two,” said Cecile, “I think Alexa’s trying to advance her way through them.” Elysha had heard it too, the high-pitched, excitable voices of the two roommates, and Alexa’s smooth voice only giving the slightest hint of her disdain and impatience, a hint her two listeners almost certainly wouldn’t notice.
Then Taylor spoke loud enough for them to make out her words: “…and reflects badly on your temple and on your mistress.” From Alexa’s response, they could hear the words, “my mistress,” “you”-said with such scorn even they couldn’t miss it, and “tell her yourself, if you can make yourself heard to her.”
Footsteps near their door, exclamations from the other two going ignored, and the door was opened and closed again and Alexa was with them, a bolt of angry lightening sculpted into the form of a woman and barely restrained by the swathes of white cloth that covered her. “I ought to strike them for their insolence. If they had come into my temple and said things half as offensive they would have left with their hands burnt, and that would be if I was kind enough not to attack their faces!”
The sheltered Cecile looked a little shocked by this speech; the other two were less surprised. Kathryn only said, “You know what would have happened, had you done so.”
“Believe me, that was the only reason I refrained. But how could they even think it was at all acceptable…noone talks that way to me in the temple, and I’ve had plenty of visitors from Chank, so it cannot be only that.”
“You ventured into the outside world, Your Honorship,” said Cecile. “Your Honorship” was an extremely old-fashioned form of address towards priests of individual gods, hardly ever used in a serious context anymore. “You must be prepared for all the horrible ways life is conducted in this uncivilized place.”
“Perhaps, but I don’t have to like it, I don’t think.” She sat down in a huff near Elysha, and seemed to notice her for the first time. “Gold and ivory,” she commented absently. “Surprising how well it becomes you. Looking forward to your first night out?”
“Yes, very much,” said Elysha, though she was getting the feeling, somewhere within all the talk and fuss and preparation, that she was supposed to be far more eager about this than she in fact was. It wasn’t that she wasn’t looking forward to seeing this new place and finding out all about it, she was, and looking pretty had not lost its charm for her. But Cecile and these other girls, they seemed to view this kind of activity as the most important thing in life, and after the life she’d lived, and the things she’d seen and known, well, Elysha just couldn’t agree with them. She couldn’t even understand their viewpoint. Had all their education truly taught them so little?
Outside they heard the sound of the door of their train carriage opening, and the voice of Princess Leonora, loud and commanding, addressing the two Chank girls. Their exclamations of dismay gave Elysha pause; they didn’t dare talk to the Princess the way they did everyone else. A flurry of footsteps, the sound of another door closing, and then there was a knock on their own door. “Miss Baker? Miss Briante? Are you in there?”
“Them, Miss Liass, and myself, Your Highness,” replied Alexa, and as the door opened all four girls were on their feet and bending their knees down. Elysha was pleased that after hours and hours of curtseying again and again under Kathryn’s strict supervision, she could finally match the noble girl’s curtsey with no apparent flaws, or at least none apparent to her own eyes.
“I have bad news,” said the Princess. “I have been told by Mr. Lonet that there is an unexpected lag in the engine, and we will not reach Statford until well after midnight.”
“That can not be!” Kathryn protested. “Surely we would have felt the difference in speed.”
“I understand we are likely to feel it within the next half hour. In fact, I would advise everyone to sit themselves down to prepare; the deceleration may cause you to lose your balance otherwise. I must go speak to the other girls on the train about it, now, but I will come back shortly to talk privately with Miss Briante.”
All the eyes traveled to Elysha, but for once she didn’t feel it. All this time she’d been waiting patiently to learn what was going to happen in her future, sure Leonora had to tell her soon, and now it sounded very like she was finally going find out where she was going when this train ride ended. She was so delighted she escaped any disappointment, because such a late arrival in Statford made their night out unlikely to happen now.
She was more fortunate there than her three companions, the minute the Princess was out of the compartment it was filled with a bundle of heavy sighs. “And after all the plans I had for tonight,” groaned Cecile, who was likely even more disheartened than the other two.
“But we’ll still have to stay in Statford for hours,” Elysha said, trying to cheer them up. “Maybe, at least, we can step out in the morning.”
“It’ll probably be too early in the morning when we leave,” said Cecile glumly. “I suppose it might have been different when you were traveling with the Princess, since she is the Princess, but in most polite society, a lady doesn’t appear out until the sun has been up for a couple of hours.”
“And it won’t be a couple of hours before we’re gone,” added Kathryn. But was it just Elysha’s imagination, or was there the tiniest hint of relief from her as she spoke? Seeing and being seen was a more complicated affair for her than for the other three.”
“No,” agreed Alexa. “We must give up Statford, and confined ourselves to this train for another week, until we arrive in Klosair. Though if this had to happen, better it happen this week than next one. It would be a real shame were we not able to see Klosair.”
They all agreed with this sentiment, including Elysha who had already learned about Klosair. It was said the great Magess Lynette Winston d’Abenaki and her husband had founded the city after the murder of their first son, and her famous gardens were one of the most beautiful sights in Topsipil; one of the big regrets Leonora had expressed during their countryside journey was that they hadn’t been able to see them. It was also over five times the size of little Statford. Kathryn talked gushingly of the salons there, the museum, and the concerts.
“So what are we to do with ourselves tonight?” Cecile asked. “Should we walk through the train and let the other girls see us all done up?”
“That’s what our other two friends are likely to do,” said Alexa. That was a reason to avoid it, though Elysha found it wrong that they should be so pushed into not doing something.
“Can we take our photographs?” she asked them. “You said we would take them together.” That was something that had fascinated her, the idea that her likeness, or the likeness of anything at all, could be reproduced so exactly in black and white, but of course there hadn’t been any photographs when she’d been with Leonora; the Princess had wanted those who had seen Elysha with her to forget she had been there as quickly as possible.
But now, with certainly nothing else to occupy them, Cecile unpacked her camera, and they set to, each of the other three girls placing themselves in a very dignified sitting position on the bunks so she could bathe them in light that she insisted was not at all magical in nature. “You would be amazed at what they’re doing with these machines in the non-magical countries, things we are still only experimenting with here in Topsipil, while down south, in the United States, they have brought new arts to full sophistication.”
Then there was the matter of Cecile sitting in front of the camera, and who was to make the camera work. Both Kathryn and Alexa had been the subject of photographs before, but they had never taken them, and it was the first Elysha had even seen the device. And yet somehow, paradoxically, both of the other two were of the opinion that she should be the one to do it. “You are practice of learning to do things for the first time,” argued Alexa. “You should be able to understand it in the flick of a bird’s wing.”
And she was right, in that when Elysha was thus persuaded to take the picture, she understand Cecile’s instructions clearly and concisely. However, when Cecile had sat down, Elysha was obliged to kneel, in order to capture her with the camera’s artificial eye, and doing that in the skirt mesh was something no one had thought to instruct her in. Perhaps Cecile had been moving about in her wide dresses so long she had taken her ability to do so for granted, and even Elysha herself initially didn’t think about it as she dropped down, but then her knee slipped on the crumpled up mesh and cloth. She shoved her hands forward to break her fall, but then her back foot slipped too, and she sprawled her way across the floor, one of her shoes falling off and two pins falling out of her hair and ruining Cecile’s hard work. The camera clattered down and lay sprawled on the floor as she fidgeted about, realizing, to her horror, that she wasn’t sure she was able to get up. She bought back an urge to panic; this was not the streets, she reminded herself; noone was about to kill her. It wasn't easy.
Above her, the back half of the skirt mesh continued to push out, exposing her undergarments to the clear sight of anyone who might walk behind her. Such as Princess Leonora, when she returned to their train carriage. She knew it was her as soon as she heard the door open, and she felt the shame turned her face scarlet even before she heard her dismayed, “What is this?”
“She was trying to take a picture...” Cecile sounded even more embarrassed.
“Will someone please help her up?” The Princess demanded impatiently, and all three of the other girls hastened to give Elysha aid. Between them they hauled her to her feet, and helped her smooth out her crumpled and even tangled skirt.
“Forgive her, Your Highness,” said Cecile, dipping an extra curstey as Elysha also produced one. “She has never worn this kind of garment before tonight.”
“Yes, that is very clear. Well, never any of you mind it; we must still have our talk.”
“Why don’t we go sit in our room?” Alexa suggested, and the other two girls went out into the now safely empty corridor. Left alone with the Princess, Elysha nervously ran her hands down her skirt again. When possibly one’s entire life was about to be revealed to a girl, she knew, she ought to look the person telling it to her in the eye, but at the same time, she was afraid that to do so with Princess Leonora would seem too bold.
“I’ve been a little negligent so far,” said Leonora, “for which I must apologize, but I hope you will understand that the first week of this journey has been a very busy one for me.” Elysha nodded; she would have no problem forgiving the week’s wait, when she thought about it like that. “I hope you have been good and well generally.”
“I have, Your Highness.” Of course she had to do the pleasantries; she was the Princess.
“I am, however, concerned about one thing Miss Liass told me about. Elysha, is it true that two days ago you said to Miss Volk that you found her to be the likeness of a carriage rat?”
Elysha had spent the days before working up the courage to tell those two what she truly thought of them, but now the same words she had been proud of a moment earlier incurred in her the deepest shame, when her benefactor repeated them so incredulously. She nodded, unable to get any words out.
“Elysha,” Leonora said, “I am aware that Miss Volk has her flaws. But you made yourself worse than her with such words, and that in unacceptable. You know, do you not, that you are associated with me by every girl on this train? That everyone you say and do reflects upon me?”
Now she was even more horrified at herself. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t think-”
“See that you do so in the future, Elysha. And think also of this; girls like Natasha Volk and Taylor Ressetini may have been unknown where you came from, but in most of the world there are commonplaces, every other woman whose hand you shake at certain gatherings. If you go snapping and swiping in such a disgraceful manner at every one of them, you will allow them the triumph of turning you into the only person hated even more than them. You do not want to do that, now do you, Elysha?”
“No,” said Elysha miserably.
“Then you simply must bear it. There is no other way.”
“I will. I am very, very sorry.”
“Good. There is one other thing I wish to talk to you about, Elysha, and it is a much more pleasant topic. You have finished reading first three books I have given you, I believe.”
“Yes,” said Elysha, now confused. How could that have to do with what the other topic of conversation had to be?
“I am glad, for the speed with which you got through them makes me think you can handle this text.” From her bodice she drew a little booklet which she handed to Elysha. The cover was brown with black lettering, and Elysha’s mind had to work to decipher the letters and spell out the words written, though eventually they deduced the title to be Topsipil, Dragons, and Goblins.
“This is an informative report,” she explained, “about the dragons and goblins that live in our mountain boundaries, summarizing our relations with them, with special attention paid to the last five years; it came out only a month ago. You will find some of the words are longer than you are used to, though I hope your three friends will be able to help you out. I suggest you seek out Miss Liass; the information that reader contains she would already know. If you can have that book read within two weeks I will be satisfied, but if you are feeling ambitious, it might be better to get it done in one.”
“Elysha? Are you all right?” Elysha was speechless. It was clear now that Leonora had no intention of telling her anything about her future tonight, and after being so scolded she dared not ask.
But after a minute she remember her manners, and thanked the Princess for her gift. Then with a “You are most welcome, and I shall see you, hopefully, tomorrow morning,” Leonora made her graceful exit.
It took a couple of minutes before she stopped staring stupidly at the booklet. It didn’t help matters that when the door clicked shut the frustration and indignation kicked in. Grateful as she was to the Princess, aware as she was that she wasn’t in a position to make demands, Elysha couldn’t think of a good reason why she hadn’t yet been told that piece of information so important to her mind, and it seemed a bit cruel and random for it to be held back like this.
But there didn’t seem to be very much she could do about it, and when she faced that, she decided she might as well go and join her friends in the other cabin. She took the book with her.
She expected questions when she slipped into the room and found the other girls slumped about on the floor, Cecile’s skirt probably getting damaged the way she was leaning her knees on its folds. But as she picked her way through them and found a spot near Alexa’s altar, they all just smiled at her, looked at her book, and then didn’t even ask about that. It seemed kind of weird.
“We were talking about how much traveling we’ve done,” said Cecile. “And everybody else has done. As you know, none of the four of us have been out of the country except Kathryn when she was four, which doesn’t count because she barely remembers it. I supposed our other two friends might have been, but now Alexa tells me that’s less likely.”
“It is,” said Alexa. “I was just saying that while the total percentage of Topsipil’s population that has gone outside the borders is low, the self-designated elites make it almost a point of pride not to do so.”
“And it’s very wrong of them,” said Kathryn vehemently. “Out of a false sense of superiority, which they disseminate, their poor example results in our people shutting themselves away from the rest of the world, encourages them towards ignorance even. Did you know, Elysha, that when you confessed to me you had no little notion of a world beyond the mountains my first throught was, ‘Well, she’s hardly alone in that'? And we can educate you, but how to educate all the people who have no interest in learning? How to fix things when the richest man in Topsipil meets with the ambassador from Suenter, and reveals without shame that he can’t even name the country’s Queens? How to even apologize for all the insult? It is without a doubt the worst thing in our country, the isolationism, and within the next few decades, we will no doubt pay for it, and pay for it badly. Do those fools really think we will never need their aid? With the goblins in the mountains increasing with each passing year, and the dragons unreliable friends at best? That will come to war, make no mistake about it, and then, well, we will have to hope the other magical countries of the world are willing to forgive a nation of fools, because I don’t know if we can win without them.”
Elysha had never heard Kathryn express strong opinions like this, and, in fact, she had gotten the general idea that she wasn’t supposed to because of her family history. This seemed supported by the surprise with which Cecile and Alexa were looking at her.
There was an uncomfortable silence, into which she offered, “The Princess just gave me about all that, actually. She suggested you help me read it.”
“Let me look at it,” said Kathryn. “There are a lot of treatises out there that depict false versions of the situation, though I would very much hope one provided by the Princess would be truthful.” She took it, and Elysha watched her read. It amazed her, how quickly some people could get through written words, glancing over them as if there weren’t even single letters. When she looked into the pages herself she saw the lettering was very small and there was much written on each page; she worried it would make her eyes hurt. But it wasn’t two minutes before Kathryn had turned the page, and after she she seemed to read still faster.
Meanwhile Cecile took a look out the tiny window that the cabin had near the floor. “The flowers are in full bloom,” she said. “You two want to have a look at them.”
“I don’t think I can get over there in this skirt,” sighed Elysha, but Alexa crawled over. She was lucky, in her light robes, and Elysha wasn’t sure how much of a sense of modesty she really had; all three of them had already seen her with her legs and even her hips almost totally bare. It was true, of course, that Elysha herself wouldn’t have cared had they even seen her naked, but she was aware that she was supposed to care. Alexa, it seemed, was exempt from caring; as a priestess she was supposed to be above such petty concerns.
“I’ve never seen them in that colour before,” she mused. “Though if they were a little darker, I’d be worried about potential danger.”
“They can warn about that?” asked a fascinated Cecile.
“Sometimes,” said Alexa. “Remember, when trains were first made, they terrified people.”
“Extremely accurate and up to date,” Kathryn announced, and she handed the book back to Elysha. “Even more surprising when the language it uses is relatively simple. I wish I knew who wrote it. Elysha, are you sure the Princess didn’t?”
“Sure?” Elysha shrugged. “How can I know anything?”
“I bet she did, didn’t she?” Cecile winked at her. “You special girl, having books specifically written for you to read!”
“She has done a lot for me already,” said Elysha, and she felt in ingratitude once again. “I am an extraordinarily lucky girl, for fate to have selected me like this.”
Alexa had come back over and slid up to sit right behind Cecile. Now she asked, “You really think that? You think you are selected by fate?” There was a new urgency to her voice, and anxiety Elysha had never heard from her before. It was unnerving.
“Well, I don’t know, really.” She hadn’t thought about it, hadn’t questioned why things had happened the way they had, why she had been born to the parents she had, why the Prince and Princess had stumbled into her little room that day when she’d still been a child, why she’d managed to survive the streets when there was at least one night she should have ended up dead, and instead had escaped not even defiled, why Princess Leonora had remembered her, and chosen her to help. She was often afraid to look at her new life too closely, for fear it would somehow scurry away.
“If you don’t know, don’t say that,” said Alexa sternly. “Those who are selected by fate and destiny for great deeds often come to bad ends. Glory comes with a stern price, so does anyone changing the world by themselves. Sometimes it must be done, of course, but only fools wish to be the one to do it.”
“Like in the tale of Renn and Ilon,” said Kathryn softly. “They both came to violent ends, and Renn’s the more anguished.”
“Renn and Ilon?” asked Elysha.
“You’ve never heard it, have you?” said Cecile. “We should tell it to you. I think it’s a very romantic tale, though oh, so sad.”
“Would you like me to?” asked Alexa. “I do tell it sometimes; it’s one of the stories I have in my repertoire. Back in my temple I tell them every Friday night to whoever comes to hear me.”
“Is it a very religious story?” asked Elysha. She hoped Alexa wouldn’t take that question the wrong way, but the priestess knew Elysha had trouble comprehending and keeping up with more religious matters. Apparently her parents and the other members of the community she had grown up in had denied themselves things, ironically, for religious reasons, but none among them had ever fostered the concept itself in her mind; she had simply believed what they had told her to be true until she hadn’t and that was all.
“Not in the way you’re worrying about,” said Alexa, smiling, “though it is about battles between gods. But that’s not the themes.” She drew away from Cecile and they all settled more comfortably against the cabin walls, then she began.