It's raining. There's a quiet pitter-patter of drops coming down upon the windowsill outside her room. Violet stares at herself reflected in the watery window.
She's become familiar with her long silver-white hair and light skin. Mother has it, her sisters have it. But she's not used to seeing streaks of black at the end of her hair. Or the strange tendril-like growth barely visible on her head.
She's tried to hide it beneath her bangs. Something about it makes her feel uncomfortable at the thought of others seeing her like this.
She doesn't question its existence. She's fairly certain she knows what's causing the changes in her appearance - it's felt all throughout her body, which protests often when she tries to do anything strenuous. The other children have stopped inviting her to play any games involving physical activity, and so she's fallen out of their group a bit, which hurts.
She lightly runs her fingers over the point where white turns to black. It feels mostly the same, perhaps a bit more oily, like she needs to wash it. That hasn't helped, the last few times she's tried.
Mother had some streaks of black in her hair. Violet supposes it only makes sense.
Would Mother be proud of her if she sees? This was why she was brought here, after all. To take on the blight for the sake of others. To save their lives and help the kingdom.
Despite the pains associated from the many purifications up until now, Violet finds she can't at all regret purifying others. The joy at seeing them rejoice at their lives being saved, the feeling of accomplishment, that she's living out her purpose – it makes it all worth it, to her. But one thing nags at her.
Why didn't Mother tell me?
It leaves a pit of doubt in her stomach. She resolves to ask upon Mother's return, which is soon. There's been a reprieve in her duties, allowing her to visit, and it brings waves of excitement through the child. While her dependency upon her mother has lessened with time, her attachment hasn't. She can't wait.
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Violet hops in place anxiously, while Giles stands readily by her side as usual. They're both outside the front entrance to the castle. Violet can't even remember how many months it's been - has it been over a year now? Since Mother left. The time flew by with all Violet experienced and learned.
The sound of a horse galloping and a cart being pulled up the long path to the castle reaches her ears and she bounces happily, waving as she sees the cart approach. Mother is there with Silva, Bale ferrying as usual. The few seconds it takes for them to arrive and stop feels like forever to Violet and she's hurrying up to the cart before it's even fully stopped.
"Mother! Mother!" Violet has the largest smile she's had in a long time. Silva, as usual, has that look of disdain, but it seems more subdued than she remembers. It doesn't bother her. Her focus is all on her Mother, who to Violet's surprise is staring at her in shock.
"Violet, you..." She dismounts the cart in a hurry and kneels down next to the child, placing her hand on a black streak of hair. "Did you purify someone?" She sounds worried, but Violet doesn't notice that, rather feeling proud that Mother recognized what she's done.
"Yes! I've purified a few people. They were all really happy!"
Mother starts checking her over, and brushing back her bangs, finding the small growths on her head. Her breath hitches for a moment. "Violet... why?" She sounds genuinely dismayed.
Violet furrows her brow in confusion. She thought Mother would be proud of her. "Isn't that why I was brought up here?"
Mother hesitantly runs a finger over the growth. It bothers Violet to the touch and she instinctively flinches away.
"No, you – you're up here so you can live a normal life. Grow up, make friends... not have to take on this burden." She whispers the next part. "It's my responsibility."
Violet shakes her head. "I heard that you told the king I'm up here to grow up taking on the blight so that you don't have to! That all my sisters do too! Right?" She's starting to get worried. Was the guard wrong? Did he mishear, or not remember correctly?
Mother frowns and brushes her daughter's hair back down, hiding the blighted growth again. "Who told you that?"
"A guard did."
Mother shakes her head and sighs. "Of course you'd hear about it one way or another." She places her hands on Violet's shoulders and looks her in the eye. "I said that so that the king would let you come up here. I didn't have any other choice. And you weren't – there was no expectation of you starting with that until you've grown up, either." She stares sadly at the ruined parts of Violet's hair. "Please, don't purify anyone anymore."
Violet's eyes widen. Stop purifying those in need? She couldn't. That's why she's here. That's what she lives for. How is she supposed to just let others suffer when she has the power to save them?
"I can't stop! They need me! It's what I'm supposed to do, Mother!" She's pleading. Don't do this....
Mother is surprised for a moment by the outburst, but her resolve hardens a bit. "Stop, Violet."
Violet quivers in place. The crushing feeling in her heart hurts far more than any purification she's done. "I.... Mother..."
"I care about you. You're hurting yourself. Taking on the blight isn't your responsibility, it's mine."
Violet's eyes are watery and she looks down. She blinks and a few tears fall. She can't argue with her Mother. She feels herself being pulled into a hug. It should make her happy, but it only makes her feel worse.
"It's for your own good, Violet. Trust me." The soft and comforting words are close to her ear. She wants to believe them, but for the first time, she doesn't know if she can.
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They're back in her room and Mother is fretting over her after she stumbled on the stairway up. It wasn't anything new, the aches sometimes got to her at inopportune times, but she was fine. It should've felt nice to have Mother caring about her. In the past it would have. Instead, she found herself annoyed.
"Are you sure you're okay? Where does it hurt? How bad is it?"
Violet is sitting on the bed, kicking her feet lightly back and forth as they hang off the edge. Mother is checking her over for more signs of blight damage. Violet huffs. "I already told you I'm fine." She folds her arms indignantly. This day was not going how she had planned. Mother didn't even comment on the room being cleaned when they rushed in.
"You tripped and fell. Are you saying that that's normal?"
Violet gives a non-committal noise in response.
"You need to take care of yourself." Mother says softly as she removes her hands from Violet's hair, sitting back on the bed next to her daughter.
Violet looks at the black streaks in Mother's hair, really looks, for the first time. It's far worse than her own. There's a couple signs of blighted growth peeking out from her Mother's long hair, and the glowing bracelet Mother always wears now reminds Violet of the days of Mother being bedridden down in the lab.
"Why do I have to but you don't?" Violet states.
Mother is caught off guard. "That's..." She shakes off the surprise. "It's my responsibility, Violet. I've told you this. I must bear the blight for the good of the kingdom, or else we'll be overrun by it."
"Then why can't I help you?" Violet pleads. "Everyone here calls me Priestess just like they call you that. Isn't it my job too?" She grabs Mother's sleeve and shakes her arm. "I don't want to see you stuck in bed like before. I want to help. Purifying others... it feels right." She looks down and quietly adds, "It feels like it's what I was made for."
Mother's breath hitches for a moment at that last sentence, and Violet peeks up. There's some mixture of fear and anger in Mother's eyes and Violet flinches away, scared. She can't remember seeing Mother look at her like that before and realizes she must've crossed a line. Don't question the adults, she'd been taught repeatedly. Do as you're told.
"I'm sorry..." She mumbles quietly, pulling her legs up to her chest and sitting like she's curled into a ball. She startles a bit as a hand is gently placed on her shoulder.
"It's alright, Violet. It's... not you I'm angry at." Mother assures her. The familiar gentle voice helps ease some of the pain and fear Violet is feeling. "I... I understand. It's important to you." She takes a deep breath. "One day, you can. But you're too young. As much as you want to, your body can't take much of the blight. You need to wait until you're older. Please. If not for your sake, then for mine."
Violet sits, face in her arms, dejected. "Alright, Mother." She says quietly, voice muffled.
"Thank you." She's brought into a hug. It feels nice and familiar. She's missed it. "You're brave to want to take this responsibility on. Thank you for caring for my well-being." There's a soft hand running through her long hair. "Please let me care about yours."
"...Okay." Violet replies. Her heart and body feel warm. It'd been so long that she'd almost forgotten what it was like being with Mother again. "I'm really happy to be with you again."
"I'm happy to be with you again, too."
Suddenly a white glow starts growing around the two of them and Violet's eyes widen. It's familiar. A warmth that is not her own covers her, and the minor aches disappear, the blight fleeing her body in black tendrils like she'd taken in before. She looks up at her Mother in shock.
Mother's eyes are closed and she's still smiling. The warding stone hanging from her neck glows brightly, and she shows no signs of being worse for wear.
Violet looks down at the ends of her own hair. It's pure white, without the small black streaks from before. She lifts an arm and feels her own head beneath her bangs. The blighted growths are gone. Her body no longer hurts at all. She had forgotten what that was even like, to not be hurting.
She stares at her Mother's peaceful face nervously.
"You- you purified me...?" Violet didn't even know it could be done to her. "Are you okay!?" She asks worriedly, not even recognizing the sudden role reversal.
Mother opens her eyes and they're gazing at her softly.
"I'm alright, Violet. That amount of blight was little compared to what I've had to purify before." She still holds Violet in a hug. "And the warding stone helps."
Violet looks in awe at her Mother. The fact that she'd been hurting from that amount of blight, and it was comparatively little for Mother, amazes her. She hugs her back.
"I want to be like you when I grow up." She says wholeheartedly. As much as she wants to follow her Mother's footsteps now, seeing how little blight she can handle at the moment, feeling the lack of pain in her body again, and especially the love and concern her Mother has for her – she tries to accept what this means for her. Not purifying others any longer, until far in the future.
"I-I promise, I'll wait until I'm older." she says with what she hopes sounds like confidence.
"Thank you, Violet."
Violet allows herself to be comforted in this challenging change by the love she's being shown as the two stay like that for a while, and Violet enjoys every moment with her Mother that she has.
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She doesn't have many moments with her Mother to enjoy.
Not a couple days later and a state of emergency has been called throughout the castle. Blighted hordes blown in from the east, headed towards the Twin Spires. Every knight called to arms.
Mother going with them.
Violet's heart breaks with worry.
She watches from atop the stairs in the foyer as the whole army protecting the castle marches out in formation, leaving through the large front entrance.
Mother stands beside her with a hand on her shoulder. It's comforting.
Violet's eyes scan the troops as they leave until she spots Giles. She waves sadly. He notices and gives her a salute for a moment from his spot in the lines of three, before he's out of sight out the entrance as well.
Violet takes her eyes away from the troops and turns to her Mother.
"Will you... be okay?"
Mother's eyes are filled with compassion and she bends down a bit to be at eye level. "I've had to handle this for a long time, Violet." The black streaks in her hair sway. Violet breathes in slowly at the sight. "The whole army is there, and the Twin Spires is the safest place in the kingdom, even more so than this castle. All will be fine." She hugs Violet tight before letting go and standing up. Violet blinks up at her with shimmering eyes.
"I'll see you again soon. Just you stay safe yourself, alright? Don't go wandering off from the castle."
Violet nods timidly. She understands. "I promise, Mother. I'll be safe too."
Mother smiles, and with that heads down the stairs towards the entrance, where the last of the troops have exited. The bracelet on Mother's arm glows as she waves at Violet.
"Be good!"
Violet watches as she disappears out the door, and finds herself shedding a few tears once again at her Mother's departure, but with a different kind of anxiety in her heart.
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Violet sits on a chair in the foyer, kicking her legs back and forth. It's eerily quiet in the giant hall. Her ears ring from the silence, and she hops off the seat, shoes clacking on impact with the floor.
Violet's steps echo throughout the mostly empty castle as she walks. There are nobles still there, but they've moved into their living quarters and almost exclusively stayed there. Very few guards have remained behind, the few that did almost solely to keep potential robbers from taking the opportunity to thieve the castle.
Nearly everyone is gone off to defend against hordes of the blight. Violet prays for their safety. She's never felt more alone.
Her past was always filled with caretakers – Miriel, Mother, Giles – the most she'd been alone was in her room at night, living here. She feels exposed. Uncertain.
She knows the castle like the back of her hand by now, where everything is, how to get around, where she's not allowed to go. She doubts many people would care where she went at the moment, though.
She stops and observes the tapestries, architecture, and furnishings once again. The foyer of the castle has a whole different feel to it, in the empty and quiet atmosphere. Normally there would be a dozen guards here, not to mention anyone heading in or out.
The castle has been a good home. She's happy to be living here. She hopes her sisters are happy enough where they went to stay, too.
Violet lightly runs a hand down the fabric of a tapestry. It's soft to the touch, and sways gently.
"I want to protect this." She whispers to herself, the sound deafening in the silent room. "I want to protect the kingdom." She turns her gaze to a large glass window, peering at the beautiful setting sun. She's come to love this kingdom, like Mother does. The people, the art, the culture, the protection.
"I want to grow up already." She mumbles and lets her arm fall back to her side. She runs a strand of hair between two fingers, feeling the smoothness. The oily black streaks at the end are gone, along with the pain. She's grateful, but in some ways misses the constant affirmation of her purpose here, that she's helping Mother and the kingdom at large.
But she knows she has to keep her promise.
Mother would have to take it all on, by herself. All the blighted hordes. Violet shakes with trepidation and blinks tears back, placing her hands on the glass window, staring out sadly as the sky turns dark with night.
"Young Priestess!"
Violet jumps a bit at the sudden break in the silence and turns to the source of the call.
An adult of the nobles is running up to her, with a younger one in tow, short, yet taller than Violet herself. She has medium-length brown hair, and Violet is quite certain she's at least spoken with her before at some point. The girl seems to be keeping her distance from the two of them, and Violet quickly realizes why as she spots the dark reds of blight growing on the young teen's face. Violet feels herself pale.
"Young Priestess, please – please purify my daughter. She's- the blight, it's going to-"
Violet's breath speeds up and she clasps her hands over her chest.
The girl looks at her, some pain evident in her face.
Violet's mind feels as though it's going to shut down as she tries to process the situation. She'd promised Mother not to, but here she is, being asked to save the life of a girl afflicted with this cursed rot.
"I-I..."
Of course someone would come to her for purification. She'd made it known several times that that's why she's here. She'd have to say no to keep Mother's promise.
"I don't..."
The girl takes a trembling step forwards and the adult steps aside, not wanting to get too close and contract it.
"Please. It... hurts. I don't want to die." She's got tears in her eyes.
Violet feels her legs tremble and she covers her face with her hands to avoid the sight before her.
"I told... I promised Mother..."
The other girl takes a few trembling steps forwards and falls at Violet's feet.
"Look, I'll do anything you want. Just don't let the blight take me, Violet..."
Violet's breath hitches and she peeks between her fingers at the girl near her feet. Few people called her by her name, and something about it made the situation more real and personal to her. This wasn't just about doing her job. This was about saving the lives of those suffering.
I'm sorry, Mother...
She reaches out a trembling hand and that familiar, warm river flows from her fingertips, coalescing in a white glow between the two of them. The blight on the young teen's face turns a marred white and gray as black tendrils fly into Violet as had happened before.
She shudders as the pain of the blight fills her body. It quickly turns to a dull ache. It's familiar.
She still has her eyes closed when she finds herself pulled into a tight embrace.
"Thank you, thank you Violet, thank you!"
Her heart swells, and despite the guilt over her broken promise, she can't help but feel as though she did what was right.
She can only hope that Mother will understand. She can't leave these people to suffer when she has the power to save them, even at the cost of her own well-being.