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I lean against the other desk in the room where I mix my paints. When I look down at myself, my shirt is completely stained with the dark blue paint I used earlier. Drops of vivid red paint are splattered across the dark blue, and they look faintly like droplets of blood against the darker stain.
“Clearly I am not a bastard,” I say idly, lifting a pencil to clean the paint from underneath my fingernails. “You and Father did have your mating ceremony before I was born. Or will you be creating a greater scandal than my bachelorhood is?”
My mother seems to have become apoplectic. I watch her with some interest, because I cannot help but be curious about what would happen if she lets her anger take over.
My mother has a lot of anger.
I think anger is a prerequisite for being of high social standing. The gods know I have a lot of it, too.
“I just want the best for you.” She has taken several deep breaths, and her voice has dropped several octaves. Nexus is still growling.
“That is all I want. And you aren’t making it easy. You need to find a mate, move out, and settle down. It will do you a lot of good.”
My own frustration and anger at my mother’s unwarranted attack bubbles over. I walk past her, grab my coin purse and house keys, and whistle to Nexus.
“You cannot avoid this forever!” she yells as I run down the stairs. I walk through my bedroom with Nexus practically bouncing alongside me.
“Trust me,” I mutter underneath my breath as Nexus and I leave the house. The air in Python is crisp and bright, and my anger dissolves slightly. “I can avoid it as long as I need to.”
Evening has fallen, and the aftermath of the winter still lingers. This year’s winter was particularly difficult, and it isn’t going away without a fight, although the days are warmer and some spring flowers are coming up.
Frost still creeps across our window panes every night, and walking outside without a jacket at night, like I have just done, isn’t the best idea.
Right now, I am dressed in just my painting clothes. An old cotton shirt that has completely lost its original color and a pair of thin trousers. On my feet I wear a pair of beat up taura leather shoes that won’t provide me much protection from the elements.
I decide to walk into town tonight, despite the cold. I could have taken one of the many carriages that line the driveway, but Nexus prefers to walk. Besides, I don’t think I want whatever I do tonight getting back to my mother. I have long known that all the carriage drivers, and all the house staff, report back to my mother about my movements.
I am not sure what she hopes to discover about me. She probably hopes to find some information on me that she can use to blackmail me with.
At this point, she’d do anything to ensure that I find my mate and complete the mating ceremony as soon as possible. She is becoming desperate, and I shudder to think what she is going to do when she reaches her last straw.
Something in me says that she is pretty close to snapping, and I am not quite sure what I am going to do when that day comes.
Nexus leaps through the air in an arc as we finally reach the gates that surround my family’s estate. A sudden feeling of euphoric lightness descends on me as Nexus and I walk through the gates.
“What do you want to do tonight?” I murmur to Nexus who chirrups at me. Sometimes I think that Nexus is the only one really listening to me.
I am not sure my mother is capable of hearing anything but her own voice, and my father is never around.
All I have is Nexus.
“All I have is a wild likar and my paints,” I mutter. I stick my hands into my pockets as the city comes into view. “I’m as pathetic as my mother.”
2
ALTHIA
“You should have gone the other fucking way!” the dark elf noblewoman screams as I carry a bucket of water through the front of her house.
“You’re going to mess up my floors!” she continues, even though I have left the floors pristine.
She’s a fucking dark elf, I think moodily to myself. What did you expect when you signed up for this job?
This particular family is hosting the King at the end of the week, and they have hired extra servants to ensure that their estate is up to standard. However, there weren’t that many zagfers available, or willing to work for them, so they had to lower their standards and hire me, a human.
I personally do not think that she lost anything by hiring me. I have always been a good worker, and I am quite particular about getting things right.
But she’s still screaming when I return with the tub of roses scented wax and cloth.
