Her aunt merely saw it as a boon, good for business. Good for the woman who looked forward to filling her coffers with a hungry eye, choosing to forget that her source of income came from the misfortunes brought to another’s doorstep. Not that Magda did any of the work to earn it, with little to no interest in learning the responsibilities of an apothecary. Which was precisely why Anelize was up at dawn, and not her beloved aunt.
She slipped on a pair of worn knit gloves Enid had made for her last winter with the bit of yarn she’d been able to buy as Anelize entered the market square. She kept a keen eye over the merchants’ stalls and vendors’ carts, eager to make any earnings they could with what little they had to offer. Food and medicine were often scarce in these parts, leaving very few options to choose from by those who could hardly afford tospend so much as a singleruen. Regardless, they all made do one way or another.
The bakery in the square was full when she arrived to deliver a set of tonics to the baker and his wife, who had contracted a pestering cold that started to spread in the district. Any hopes she’d had to trade them for a loaf of bread wilted when she saw how sickly they were, frantically trying to keep the frenzied patrons within the bakery at bay. Their shelves already barren. It was a high probability that they’d barely had enough bread to sell to a handful of people.
As she turned down a street, she stopped when she noticed a man dressed in a wool coat and thick fur cu?maatop his head, grumbling up at a wall, his ruddy face filled with contempt as he wrung a rag from a bucket on the ground, the water sloshing with ice forming over the surface.
“Damn flagrant criminals, the lot of them,” he said as she walked past him while he began scrubbing the wall. She stole a glance at the red dye that had been used to mark the wall with spiraling symbols and whorls that formed a strange rounded four-pointed star, the corners being wiped away in a messy streak. Nothing more than a taunting mark, a sign of retaliation for all to see. It would only serve to create more hatred rather than anything truly productive.
It certainly wouldn’t dissuade the king from hunting down the very one’s he’d declared responsible for the malady in the first place.
If not the Watchmen, then the Vedrans,she thought with a shake of her head as she continued moving through the city.
Her work carried on throughout the morning the same as it often did, delivering tonics and remedies to patrons who had placed their orders from the shop. Anelize collected as manypayments as she could, though she knew her luck was bound to run out eventually. When a handful of the shop’s most loyal patrons could hardly pay half the lofty sum Magda demanded, seemingly increasing the prices with each passing season, Anelize had made the unfortunate…mistakeof forgetting to collectruensat all. Magda wouldn’t be pleased if she caught on to Anelize’s so-called frequent mistakes. Though, so long as she paid the debts owed to her aunt, Anelize hardly thought it held much significance in the end. In a way, she must have gotten the horribly martyrized habit from her father, which is why she was left paying off his debts in the first place.
He never liked preying on the weak, just as he’d taught his daughters to never do so either. It was, unfortunately,nota trait her aunt had inherited from him over the years.
Anelize had often questioned the sort of luck she was dealt as a child. To be reduced to laboring day in and day out, to avoid the wrath of a woman who held her and her sister’s lives in the palm of her hand. Even now, at twenty-six name days, Anelize couldn’t help but feel an invisible noose tightening around her neck. Her aunt, ever the eager hangman.
By midday, she had traveled to the outskirts of the district. Following the narrow-graveled path that led to the Old Church which sat proudly over the tallest hill where she could hear the distant toll of the bell.
As she reached the top of the hill, she looked out toward the Abanos Sea where the black waves no longer danced as one but sat as frozen arches as if carved from black tourmaline. Ships and long boats permanently confined within their icy depths. She had never once heard the hiss and crash in the distance, and Anelize wondered if she ever would.
The Abanos had frozen long ago during the War of Kings,effectively saving Elvir from being invaded, while simultaneously sealing them all away from the world beyond, including the rest of Madic. Providing them with no escape whatsoever while forsaking those beyond the city. Yet another reason so many had come to despise the Vedrans and their wicked ways. The catalysts for the kingdom’s ruination.
The rounded domes of the church and the stone walls surrounding the grounds of the monastery made the small structure appear mountainous as she grew closer. A looming structure that dissuaded many from venturing too close. Unless, of course, they wished to grow one step closer to the forest that stretched far beyond the eye could see.
There was an ever-present silence that haunted the grounds as Anelize stepped onto the flagstones and approached the façade of the Old Church. She walked past the opened archway, gazing upon the faded red and blue painted along the curving walls. Each faded stroke depicted the rise and fall of the seven saints stretched out across the ceiling of the nave. Worn from time or neglect, Anelize could hardly make out the faceless figures illuminated by the faint glow of the several long, thin candles that stood solemnly lit throughout the church.
The soft murmuring of voices to her left made her slow in her stride. Her gaze locked onto two figures sitting on the far end of one of the pews, their faces painted warm golden hues from the candlelight.
Anelize stifled a sigh as she watched Enid, who was smiling up at a young man she recognized and was none too surprised to find with her sister. They leaned in close, his arm wrapped around her sister’s shoulders. Just as Enid’s lipsparted to speak, a slight flush on her cheeks, her eyes shifted over his shoulder and landed on Anelize.
“Don’t let me interrupt. I was merely passing through,” she said flatly as she approached.
They quickly broke apart, putting distance between each other. Equally flushing the same shade of pink.
“You left without me. Again,” Enid said by way of greeting, a slight pout on her lips.
“I left you to sleep for a change. I saw no point in having us both freezing out here to satisfy Magda’s demands. Though, from what I can see, you had no problem leaving the shop yourself for entirely different reasons.” Her gaze shifted to Wellyn, the only son to the Dobrin family that owned the tavern near the square. The young man was the same age as Enid; both having turned twenty name days this year. They’d practically known each other their whole lives. Enough that Anelize trusted the boy with her sister. Still, it wouldn’t have dissuaded Magda from creating a scandal if she’d been the one to have caught the two alone, even if it was within the walls of the Old Church. “Wellyn.”
“A-Anya.” The young man stood, running a hand through the thick red curls on his head. His eyes bright as they shifted from Enid to the eldest Yarrow sister. “You’re looking well. Running errands for the shop again?”
“Someone has to. A sentiment I hear you share, seeing as you’re to take up your father’s business someday.” Anelize grinned, always a glutton when it came to teasing Wellyn, merely to see him grow flustered by her swift assessment of him.
Like Enid, she had met the Dobrin boy through their father’s life-long camaraderie with the owners of the tavern.Kind people who had never quite developed the wariness so many of the citizens of Elvir possessed.
Timid, yet instantly taken with her sister, Wellyn and Enid had become close friends as they grew up together. Unlike Anelize, who had been left with no choice but to leave her childhood behind and take her father’s place as the sole apothecary, Enid and Wellyn had been given the time to grow and flourish together, along with their own quiet hearts that slowly yearned for one another. Her sister hadn’t told her that she’d started to fall in love with Wellyn for a long time, and yet Anelize had watched them from afar for so long that it hardly came as a surprise when she did.
Wellyn cleared his throat before turning to Enid. “Well, I think it best I be on my way.”
Enid nodded, standing from the pew and walking him toward the archway. They both glanced at Anelize, who conveniently looked toward the clergyman as he walked past her, murmuring a greeting. When she glanced back after a moment, she found the two wrapped in an embrace before breaking apart as if it would be the last time. They both did it so often that Anelize couldn’t help but roll her eyes.
“How many times do I need to tell you to stop flustering him? Don’t you feel shame for constantly being his tormentor?” Enid muttered when she joined Anelize, tugging on the wool gloves she so loved to wear, the color a soft gray contrasting with the rose pink of her dress.
“It’s not my fault he scares easily.” Anelize chuckled, her voice echoing through the nave. “Besides, we’ve known each other our whole lives. I’d have assumed he’d grown used to me by now.”
“Growing accustomed to your jests doesn’t negate the factthat you intimidate him.” Enid slumped down onto the pew, the ungraceful movement reminding Anelize of a golden-haired child dressed in a black mourning dress who had once gazed up at her through teary big eyes, both in admiration and uncertainty.
