Algernon Black

(Chapter 19) First Impressions and First Lessons

Lucy got up the next morning to dress in her finest blue gown. She knew it would be nothing compared to what the other girls would wear, but she carried more admiration for one of her handed-down dresses than any of the nobles did for their entire wardrobe. She wore white small heels that were a bit too tight and a white ribbon to hold back her hair. Though, no matter how many times she redid it, whips of baby hairs would fall out of the ponytail and onto her cheeks. She tucked them behind her ear as best she could and finished her outfit with Jared's parting gift, strapping the dagger to her inner thigh by the holster it had come with. She had been used to wearing one over her pants when they traveled and the not yet worn in leather irritated her leg now that she wore it against bare skin. She debated taking it off but felt comforted knowing she had a piece of him close by.

Lucy walked out of her room to the chaos of girls running in all directions as they frantically fussed about with their outfits.

"Lucy," Freya called from the next door over. "Please could you button this up for me?" She asked, facing her back to her.

Lucy saw what was probably 30 small buttons in a place Freya had no luck reaching. She got started right away. "You look very pretty." She said.

Freya smiled. "Thank you. You look nice too. Although, if you have anything more eventful you might want to change. The nobles are very snooty." She meant for it to be helpful, but it just reminded Lucy of how inadequate she appeared.

"I'm fine wearing this," Lucy said, finishing half the buttons already.

"Are you sure?" Freya asked. "Everyone can be very judgmental. Like Pecilia but not even half as nice."

Lucy laughed at the thought. "Yes, I'm sure."

Freya walked back into her room to pick something up from her desk. It was a jeweled encrusted hammer with ruby red stone and a handle of pure gold.

"That's beautiful," Lucy said, after following in after her.

"Yes, it really is such a waste to sacrifice such a thing, but my parents insisted on it," Freya replied.

"A sacrifice?" Lucy asked. "To who?"

"To the last king," Pecilia answered from Freya's opened doorway. She took one look at Lucy's confused face to see she had no idea what she was on about. "Oh no." Pecilia mocked, "Don't tell me you've never heard about the offering?"

"No," Lucy replied, her voice not rising with anger at Pecilia's condescending tone. She was actually thankful for the information "Should I have?"

"Yes, you really should have," Pecilia said, rolling her eyes and getting annoyed that she combated her rudeness with kindness again, and now had no more ammo to be snide with.

Freya started to look through her drawers of things frantically. She pulled out a silver jewel-encrusted comb and some other random accessories. "Oh no these will never do," She said in a panic. "I have nothing here you could use for the fire."

Not that Pecilia was offering, but she didn't have anything either. Her family was broke as it was, though they pretend very well they weren't. The crown she was throwing in looked expensive but if anyone looked closely, they would see all jewels were foe and the gold was thinly coated pewter.

"Why is it so important?" Lucy asked, wondering how expensive one offering had to be to be found acceptable to a thousand-year-old dead man. Just the comb in Freya's hand looked expensive enough for a month's supply of food for her and her brother.

"It's to honor the last good king," Pecilia said like it was obvious. Though she herself found the entire thing trite and outdated. "Because through his sacrifices he became a vessel of the gods and built our school and saved our country," Pecilia said though her tone openly mocked the idea. "And those of us here to serve his memory and live up to his cause are of course going to offer all we can to show our allegiance."

"Oh," Lucy sighed as they watched Freya compare her comb and hair accessory for which would cause Lucy less scrutiny.

"It's also the very important first impression everyone will have of you, and likely the only one people will ever have of you," Pecilia added with much more seriousness. Really it was a way to show status and how deep each's pockets went, though she thought that idea even more pointless. But this school was run by a severe caste system of the elite, and if one didn't abide somewhere within it, they were going to get crushed under it.

Freya held the comb, which had won out but was still severely lacking. She was already worried for Lucy because of how she dressed, and the fact she wasn't from a noble family, but the welcoming ceremony was something else entirely. It was the judgment of all the teachers, all the students, and all the nobles that had gathered to send their children off as they looked over the new recruits. It was taken seriously by everyone. Even graduations weren't considered as big an event.

"Some of us here have been preparing our gifts for months. Even saving up small fortunes so they can show how prominent and dedicated to Attwood and the king they are." Pecilia rolled her eyes at her own words as if it would ever be anything so pure. 

The small fortune remark made Lucy recall the dagger her brother had given her. She pulled it out.

"Let me see that," Freya said, grabbing it for inspection. Pecilia also eyed it over, seeing it was quite a beautiful piece of quality.

"This could do." Freya said. "At least it will be enough for everyone to not judge you too harshly."

Pecilia laughed to herself. "Too harshly?" She repeated. "You'll be lucky if you're alive by the end of the year." She glanced Lucy up and down before leaving and wondered what the future would hold for that girl. By the sum of her not much, especially not with that kindness she promoted.

Lucy looked down at the dagger and bit her cheeks. She knew that her brother must have been saving for years to afford it. She imagined how happy he probably was to buy her something like this for the first time in her life. She recalled how easily Jared had gotten rid of their things, nothing ever seemed to be in their possession much longer than a few months, and he always said that she should never form an attachment to just an object. She knew he would tell her to sacrifice it, but the thought didn't settle well within her.

A bell started to ring outside in loud thudding warnings.

"It's starting," Freya said, grabbing her hammer and walking out.

Lucy followed, clutching her dagger like it was a lifeline.