That night in bed, I trembled from cold and fear. Even if Mairi hadn't been particularly nice to me lately I didn't want anything bad to happen to her and I knew that precisely that was going to.
In this place, where you got beaten quite often for trivial matters, I didn't even want to imagine what the punishment for an actual offense like the one I witnessed would be.
The sleep just wouldn't come. I kept staring at the door, thinking frightened of what they would do to Mairi and even to Chioma, who I didn't know that well, or to myself if they would find out I was there too. If by any chance I didn't wipe well enough the water my footsteps left on the hallway, they would know I was in the garden; they would know and assume I wanted to escape too.
The light of the golden star, Sham Soleilis, started illuminating the room. I hadn't slept at all but neither had I been beaten. Mairi and Chioma didn't return to our room, and neither did I see them that day at breakfast.
Salma whispered something I couldn't understand to Fera, grumbling over her porridge boul. The two weren't friends, but unlike Fera and Itotia that never talked to each other, they were at least cordial.
"What did she say?" I asked in genuine curiosity.
"What all of us are thinking: where Mairi and Chioma might be. It is rumored they escaped."
I wasn't sure how to react but telling them what I saw didn't seem like a good idea. Maybe I would have told Fera since she was the only thing resembling a friend there, but I didn't dare.
"If they escaped they will not last long unless they are very lucky," said Salma. "It is difficult to survive in the desert and they likely couldn't take many things with them and if they went into the mountain land it's certain death too by the weather or by the mountain clans."
Fera wasn't offended, how I would have expected her to be, hearing Salma's statement about the mountain clans. She only said, "Yes, they would likely kill them. We don't like foreigners."
"What if they didn't manage to escape," I add carefully.
"You mean if they got caught? Then I don't want to be them. Death is a lighter punishment than the scorn of The White Grace."
"You mean they get a beating?"
"No. You usually get a beating, they would get a horrible death after..." Fera hesitated, "having been taught the painful lesson they refused to learn over and over again."
"You mean that they would be tortured and killed?" I asked horrified and at the same time, I already knew I was right and felt like kicking myself.
"Yes. The White Grace hates disobedience almost as much as she loves power," whispered Fera.
Sometimes the way she talked didn't seem to be that of a girl fourteen star-circles of age. She seemed to have seen much of the world.
I looked towards the table of The White Grace. She was a rather small woman, white-skinned like the mountain people with an ageless face. She could have been any age between thirty and fifty. She also didn't seem mean or hateful at all. Her mimic was generally rather expressionless, still, the night before made her seem plainly frightening. The image of the thunderbolt that left her hand and struck Mairi and Chioma down, got burned into my mind forever.
That day I couldn't concentrate on anything, neither cooking, nor lessons, nor what Fera was saying. I kept seeing Mairi's face and how her body fell limp on the grass below the wall, how she opened her eyes and crawled towards Chioma while blood was trickling down her chin.
Mairi was grumpy and had been mean to me, threatened me and mocked me often, but she had also helped me or tried to. She gave me water when she knew she would likely be beaten for it and she told me her secret for whatever reason. And besides everything, she was just a little girl, just like me, that watched her family get murdered, just like me or worse. If I thought about that, her being mistrusting and mad at the world did make a lot of sense.
I concluded I wanted to help her, I just didn't have any idea how. If she was still alive I had to find a way to help.
"Hey, world to Zaretha. Grab the eggs and let's start," said Fera.
The two of us and Salma were on dinner duty. It had not been our turn, but the turn of the two deserters. Still, we got screamed at by one of the sisters for having forgotten we were up.
"Yes, sorry."
"What were you thinking about so focused?"
"If Mairi and Chioma are dead if they tried indeed to escape and got caught" I answered truthfully.
"If they weren't killed last night, they might still be alive. The sisters were all around the monastery today and so was The White Grace, so they likely didn't have time to get rid of them just yet," said Fera.
Once again I noticed how shrewd Fera was. She had been right about everything she said, I just didn't naturally notice those things, or at least not back then; in time you learn.
"Do you think they can be saved?"
"You mean that The White Grace forgives them if they actually tried to escape? Unlikely. She is very proud, and obviously doesn't like to be crossed," said Fera and disappeared into the pantry to get the tomatoes and lentils we needed for the stew.
"Fera is right. There is nothing The White Grace is more sensitive to than power," whispered Salma and her beautiful features were unusually sad. "Unfortunately there is nothing you could offer her that might change her mind. It's a nice gesture though, that you thought about it. You have a kind heart and that is dangerous in here."
Salma had always been friendly even if she didn't interact with me that often. She had Amal and another ghazal girl she stuck with, but still...
"Salma, who were your parents?" I ask and can't smother the idea that just bloomed in my head. It was a feeble little thing but I couldn't keep it from growing.
"Ambassadors from The Realm of Almeid."
The Realm of Almeid, the vassal state of our nation, is located the east of Quomared and can be reached only by crossing a small and rather dangerous mountain pass or sailing over the stormy East Sea. Though gazal could be found as a minority all over Quomared and Tajir, they originated in The Plains of Almeiz so the ambassador of Almeid in Quomared was quite an important figure.
"They died in an ambush on our way to assume the position at court in Miayatma. My father held magic and was noble, while my mother was empty and common-born. It was quite the love story," she said smiling, and tears were glistening in her eyes.
"I am sorry," I said and put my hand over hers. At that point, she let the tears roll.
After dinner, which was unusually gloomy that evening, I took a walk through the garden with Fera. We still had some time till dark and I knew that the dormitory door would be guarded that night.
"Out of the girls that ought to become wives, who do you think will make the best marital match?" I asked Fera, betting she would know the answer.
"Marital match," she scoffed. " You surely had quite a few tutors growing up."
This time she reminded me again of Mairi just that her tone was slightly different, a small nuance I couldn't place at that point in time, that now I know would qualify as disdain.
She was quite right though; I had had at least ten over the years.
"I suppose Salma or Yara. Yara's parents were both magic-bearing, but they were executed as traitors to the realm together with Chioma's family. That's why she is here. But... she is not very comely while Salma is a beauty. You are rather beautiful yourself even if you look a bit unkempt. Who were your parents?"
That was a question that, I could see quite clearly, wasn't a good idea to answer. Regardless of my feelings towards my father, or his towards me, I was his daughter, the daughter of the former second most powerful man of the realm. Both of my parents bore magic, and I used to be Alsayida. Whether I wanted it or not, I was a rare commodity and I was going to make use of that.
"Chioma's parents too?"
"Yes, they were lowborn but magic bearers. Yara's parents gave the orders but they swung the swords."
I couldn't help but wonder how many gruesome things happened in this realm that I was unaware of.
"One last thing: do you know how the priory is financed?"
"You mean where the money comes from? Part from the imperial court, part from when we are bought off, and part from donations of the girls that were brought up here. You didn't answer my question."
Neither would I anytime soon, I thought to myself and ran off, not stopping till I reached the carved door of the room of The White Grace.
I had never been in that area of the priory and instinct and previous experiences told me to be frightened. I was. But I was also full of resolution. I had to try.
After a few breaths, I knocked. There was that overwhelming feeling to run away, but I gritted my teeth and desisted of it. The door opened and I was face to face with her, The White Grace, the most frightening creature around, after what I had witnessed the night before.
"What do you want?" she asked plainly.
"To talk to you, Your Grace," I stutter. I wasn't even sure that was the correct way to address her. He shouldn't address her at all in the first place.
She raised an eyebrow.
"What makes you think you are allowed?"
"Nothing. But I think you want to hear me out anyway because I know I am important and you know that too."
I was totally bluffing. My father was dead after all and all I had was a legacy, but it seemed to work. She gestured for me faintly to enter.
Her rooms were surprisingly opulent. Or maybe I was in the wrong about being surprised, Fera and Salma said she was proud and loved power. She also seemed to be an art lover judging by the beautiful paintings in her rooms.
"Be brief."
"I want you to free Mairi and Chioma. It is not in the interest of the realm if they die."
She frowned at me and I was pretty sure I signed my death sentence.
"You know, as the former Alsayida and daughter of one of the most powerful mages that have ever lived, I am very valuable to you. And the realm, the realm is very important to me. I bet you already have a few matches prepared for when I come of age and the customers would be disappointed if I... say... have an accident. I can also pledge a big donation, in accord with the family I will marry in for the priory and yourself. I know Mairi bares magic. It would be rather stupid to let that go to waste and Chioma can be sold at a high price based on her magic genes, and if that fails, based on revenge."
For a few seconds, she looks at me dumbfounded.
"Give them a beating and let them go. I will keep an eye on them. If they try that next time you will know early on and you can do what you please, but now I propose you this understanding."
"Very well. I don't like disobedience but I hate wasting resources. Now you bear responsibility for whatever they will do from now onward, and you owe me a debt I will collect at some point, Zaretha daughter or Karim Wayatashir. I never forget a debt. Now go sleep and don't tell anyone about this conversation. They will be there in the morrow."
When she said the last words, her eyes, the color of sapphires, shone in white light. The White Grace was a magic bearer and a strong one if there was still any doubt about that.
I shot my shot so I went away praying it worked. When I laid down in bed I couldn't sleep despite being tired but a sudden wave must have made me seep into the dreaming in the end.
When the light of the golden star woke me up the next morning, and the first thing I saw was Mairi's bright red hair, I knew that even without magic I did hold some power... Or I was very good at faking it.
Mairi looked terribly weak and bruised but most importantly not dead.
One of the sisters came into the room to give the wake-up call as it usually happened and told me that surprisingly I and Mairi were on breakfast duty that day.
All the girls exited the room and I looked at Mairi that was struggling to stay on her feet.
"Here, take my arm, or else you will fall."
She looked away frowning.
"Don't be proud. Pride will only get you hurt. You were struck by The White Grace's lightning, you can pride yourself on having survived that."
She looked at me with big eyes and was somehow humble for the first time.
"How... Do you know?"
"I saw you. Now walk with me," I said extending my arm again. That time she took it. "I know you don't like me but now you will have to listen. The White Grace freed you because I asked her to. But now whatever you do wrong will be on me too. If you try to escape again I likely die too. So starting now you are in my debt and you will listen."
"I know something happened because I know the punishment for what I did is death. But you? How? If you lie..."
"You kill me? Refrain from that. How? My parents happened to have been really powerful. I told her she will damage her best match if something happens to me and asked for your lives in exchange."
"I cannot kneel and thank you, my legs were broken and she healed them only a bit. So what do you want in return?" she asked in her usual snarky tone.
"A few things. The first, that you stay put, the second, that you talk to me again and teach me to climb like that, third that you stop being mean to Fera, she is my friend too."
"Alright. That is a rather cheap price. But say... What kind of parents must one have had to hold it over The White Grace, Weed?"
"They used to call me Alsayida, and I will kill you if you tell anybody.
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The first chapters are built up. I hope they are not boring though.
Any questions about the world and characters?