𝑩𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒅𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑮𝒐𝒍𝒅

chapter forty

Emriana

"Put your right hand on your knee,"

"Like this?"

"No, on the right knee," he followed along with a not-so-subtle eye roll making his annoyance visible. I raised a brow at him, unimpressed by this petty behavior of his.

"Now place the other one on the stack of books. Don't flex your arm too hard, just let it relax naturally," he gave me the smallest nod of acknowledgment while looking anywhere except at me.

"Are you done, little girl?" He snarled, and I chuckled at him.

"Almost. Now, sit straight and look forward, chin up," I finished, and he grumbled something under his breath, finally putting himself the right way.

"That's good," another eye roll and scoff.

I gave him a tight smile and glanced back at Miss Adelina, who gave me a satisfied nod. She had pinned up her brown hair with a hair clip. Her used apron with old paint stains was now wrapped around her waist and would protect her pale green dress.

"Good Emriana, now get the last jars of the light palette in the back," she instructed me.

"Where?"

"In the hall, in the bigger chest,"

"Okay," I shuffled out of the room quickly and found her huge wooden chest placed against the wall.

I could hear the distant voices of Miss Adelina and Sir Kibo, but couldn't make out the words. Opening the lock and lifting the top, the old hinges squeaked as I pulled it all the way open. I took the peach, eggshell, and baby blue paint jars and walked back into the room.

Miss Adelina was doing the last touches to the uniform of Sir Kibo, and he seemed as if he was on the verge of having a tantrum. She straightened out his coat and pushed the dark overcoat away from his chest. His hair was slimed to the back, looking decent.

"Perfect, this will do. Emriana start doing the layout on the canvas, use the black crayon, the two-centimeter one," I nodded and walked over to the easel where a large empty canvas had been placed.

Behind it was two high stools, and I took the left one. I reached for the crayon and looked over the canvas, and mapped out in my mind the space around him. I started faintly drawing the outlines of Sir Kibo. I drew a few lines before looking back at him and drew some more. I repeated the same thing over and over as I let my mind wander.

I wondered who our next clients would be, Miss Adelina had so many connections in Nelovia. I had been working for her only for a few days, but it never ceased to surprise me whenever we would have viscounts and viscountesses as clients and high-rank nobles.

The pressure felt similar to how it felt to paint the chapel for the royal family of Ekudal. It had to be perfect, and their standards were sky-high. It was a challenge, but I liked it.

But it was so different at the same time. She and I worked on portraits instead of detailed landscapes like I was used to doing. She was amazing in her precision, her brushwork was out of the ordinary, and I knew I would never be that good. I was so honored when I got this opportunity to assist her.

After my fight with Kove, I had gone to stay with Gretta as she was the only person I knew in Nelovia.

She let me stay in a room above her shop, and it worked well for the first two days, but when Kove started coming to the shop and pestering me to come back, it became overwhelming.

I knew he was angry that I left and turned him down. He had every right to be mad at me, but it didn't mean he had the right to come to yell at poor Gretta to beg her to let him in.