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Feremir
MASTER LEO WAS FARenough. Still clutching the pen between my fingers, I darted my gaze off the parchment in front of me and looked toward the other side of the library.
She was a few rows ahead of me, sitting next to the big windows warmed by sunlight. She did not turn her head to meet my gaze.
I hadn’t expected her to.
She had tucked her hair behind her ears. She was leaning on her table awkwardly enough to make her seem like she had a hunchback. I could not see her blue eyes, but as I stared at her elegant ear, I could imagine them searching the parchment and taking in all the knowledge.
She wore the same earring. It had a golden ring that circled a green stone ball. The ball seemingly hovered with no support from the ring circling it. The earring suited her well, but then again, almost everything did.
Her hand shifted quickly to the parchment she was copying. Though I could not see her writing, I knew it would be perfect.
A cough alerted me to the fact that Master Leo was looking my way. I cast my eyes down to my parchment and tightened my grip around my pen.
The oaks bent to greet the god-king to the lands of plenty, and he offered his hand to the goddess. She descended from the sky and was astonished that the river had turned upside down. Together, they arrived, and thus the realms were seen.
I wrote down the sentences as I saw them but did not dwell on what I was copying. My letters were neat, and the paper I was writing on was clean of spills. The copy I was making was as tidy as it could be, and when Master Leo came to stand next to me, he had no comments. He walked past me and toward the scribe sitting behind me. I took the chance to stare at Aislinn again.
She never seemed to realize anyone around her. She always had a book in her hand, even if we were not at the library or in class. I knew she had to be of lesser blood since her clothes were simple, and her demeanor always contained clues to her unfamiliarity with our lavish surroundings at the palace.
The first time I’d seen her was when she was feeding pieces of bread to the birds outside in the Queen’s Garden. I later discovered that it had been one of the rare moments I would ever get to see her smile.
The sun shone on her hair, making it look like there were yellow strings scattered around the brown. I knew that to be an illusion; her hair was the color of the winter trees and earth to complement her sky-blue eyes that made my...
“Your hand isn’t moving,” Master Leo said, his tone carrying a hint of amusement that he unsuccessfully hid.
“Yes, master,” I whispered as I forced myself to look away from Aislinn and focus on the parchment I was copying.
The first tribe was not there to welcome the king and the queen. The two were alone in the realms for a time, giving life to magic before birthing the fae.
There were no corrections, so I copied the part as it was.
Had she heard Master Leo’s warning to me? Could she guess why I was so distracted?
The goddess created the Unseelie in her image. They would be fierce and just.
I almost wrote down the sentences before I noticed the faint strikethrough. If I wrote down anything that the masters had decided to leave out of the new copy, I would have to start all over again, and Master Leo would know that I had not been paying attention to my work. They would make me miss dinner so I could finish the work, even if it meant I would be late for my duties afterward.
I had to pay attention. Skipping the sentences that were omitted, I moved on to the next.
The god-king did not doubt. He saw the light and turned it into life. She gave them magic, and he willed it to nature and the land. Thus, the mismatch was gone. The tribes lived in peace.
My hand worked quicker than my mind. I could not take a moment to look up from the parchment, but my thoughts were certainly elsewhere as I quickly and neatly copied the passage. Once I stopped watching Aislinn, the warmth inside the library provided a threatening incentive toward dozing off, and I had to pause now and then to wipe the sleepy tears away.
I dried my hand against my shirt and continued.
They did not doubt. The god and the goddess ruled over them until their union was broken. He banished her into the night to live in cold and dark.
The following sentence was omitted again. This particular document had a lot of that, and I knew I had to pay attention to ensure I did not make any mistakes.
She took her own with her. I skipped the sentence since it was marked to be incorrect. They would be separate but one.
I felt someone behind me. Master Leo put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it as he leaned over to check my work.
“You know,” he said, his voice but a whisper. “If you pay attention to what you write down, that will save you a lot of time.”
I looked up to see his smile. “I am, sir.”
