Peytor used to tease me relentlessly about being adopted until I went and cried to Father one day. His normally twinkling eyes turned to a storm, and Peytor never made fun of me again—at least for that.
I sighed, consciously loosening the ball of anger and frustration in my chest.
My father was a soft spot for me.
“Okay, Father. I’m sorry,” I whispered, “I just worry.”
His face softened as he patted my hand across the table. “I know, sweetheart. It’s that big heart of yours.”
I laughed woodenly before extracting my hand from his.
“May I be excused?” I asked no one in particular.
My father simply nodded, and I stood from the table, only to be intercepted by Mother.
“Ellowyn, there is a new maid in your rooms.” My feet froze and I turned slowly to regard her.
“What happened to Talunda?” Talunda was my maid my entire life, and we’d formed a bond that I didn’t have with my mother.
Who would I go to when she was particularly combative or aggressive?Talunda was my safe space.
“She had to return to her home. Something about her son falling ill with Mage Sickness.” She waved her hand dismissively.
I blanched at that.
Mage Sickness?It wasn’t contagious and only affected Mages when they pulled too much or not enough magic, causing their magic to eat their organs from the inside out. It was a particularly nasty and painful way to die and overwhelmingly plagued the lower classes who generally only had access to crystals for magic storage rather than a Vessel. The crystals came from a singular mine in the northwest corner of Elyria, and their rarity caused Lord d’Refan to ration the number given to each person. Those who were older or sick received less, those in his army received more. Smaller villages were only given an allotment after each of the larger cities. Similarly, the lower classes were given access after the upper classes, which always seemed strange to me as the lower classes needed them the most. They were the ones who worked for the upper classes, they were the ones Awakened early, and they were the ones unfairly plagued by Mage Sickness.
My heart broke for Talunda and her son—there was no known cure for Mage Sickness and generally the afflicted were just given a drug for the pain or even just a small dose of Pleasure Magic to help ease their passing.
“Yes, it’s all dreadful. But Pip is your new maid. She’s young andinexperienced, so I expect you to teach her as best as you can, Ellowyn,” my mother said without looking up from her dinner.
I nodded my head curtly. “If that is all?”
My father smiled warmly before gesturing for me to leave. I curtsied before making my way to my room.
I was exhausted from my day at the temple and the dinner of surprises, and the last thing I wanted to do was teach a new maid how to do her job.
Surprisingly, when I entered my room, I found a hot bath waiting for me in my attached bathroom, but the maid was nowhere to be found. Usually, Talunda helped me out of my dresses, dirty from a day spent at the temple, and into my nightgown once I bathed, but today my clothes were simply laid on my bed.
I stripped from my day dress as quickly as possible, struggling a bit with the laces that tied the dress together in the back. Once the knot was loosened, I was able to slip the dress off my shoulders and let it pool on the ground. My underclothes were quick to follow and, once naked, I padded across the warm stone floor to the large oak door that separated my bathroom from my bedroom. The door matched that of my bedroom’s main door and was a dark and heavy oak with wrought iron designs crisscrossing in a flowing pattern.
The ostentatious nature of my living quarters carried from my bedroom into my bathroom—the dark stone floor was heated throughout, and a massive iron tub dominated the space. It was deep enough that, when the water was full to the top, I could sit on the bottom and simply duck my head into the water to clean myself. It was glorious, and my favorite part of the bathroom. Lit candles lined the top of the walls, creating a bright and glowing ambiance, even with the lack of windows in the space. There was also a small table with a matching iron washbasin for my morning routine, but it was currently empty.
I crossed the room and climbed the stool at the base of the tub, carefully swinging a leg over the lip of the basin and hoisting the rest of my body into the deliciously warm water. I left my hair in a bun at the top of my head. Tomorrow I’d have this new maid braid it—I was simply too tired to wash it thoroughly tonight.
I sighed as my body sank into the tub, my tight muscles slowly relaxing in the warm, borderline hot, water. Someone had activated the tub warmingmechanism with their Fire Magic before leaving, so the water would stay warm as long as I needed or until her magic drained from the device. Some days, I would sit in the tub for an hour, letting the warm water soothe both my skin and my soul—I did my best thinking in the tub—but today I simply wanted to crawl into bed. My thoughts were too muddled after my parents’ announcement about the Keeper, and no amount of warm water would unravel them.
I reached for the rough sponge and lavender oil goat milk soap that rested on the stool next to the bath. I quickly lathered the sponge and set to cleaning my body, focusing on the areas that were rather grimy from the day. Once my body was clean and slightly raw from the rough sponge, I lathered my hands with the same soap and quickly washed my face before splashing water to rinse everything off. The soap always made my bath water smell like the lavender fields that surrounded our home, and it put me at ease.
I pulled myself from the bath and made quick work of exiting and wrapping myself in a linen towel. I dried myself off as best I could without the help of Talunda and made my way back into my bedroom.
I picked up the nightgown from the bed before dropping the towel.
A nightgown was one thing, but how was I going to dress myself in the morning without help?
The small sound of a throat clearing startled me from my thoughts and I screamed before using the nightdress to cover my exposed body.
“Uh, excuse me, uh, miss.” A small girl probably no older than twelve or thirteen stood just to the side of my open bathroom door.
