Brynleigh Pasternack
Brynleigh dismounted from her horse, holding the reins to walk alongside him as she walked towards the gate of the castle. She tried to straighten her back to appear calm and confident, despite that not all being what she actually felt. But she couldn’t let the guards see that.
She flattened down her dress that was dirty from traveling on the road for multiple days and sleeping on forest floors. She was well aware that she probably didn’t look her best, but as she gazed around at the other people around her lining up, she saw that they looked just as bad as her if not worse.
She wondered briefly how long or how far every single person there had traveled and what types of hardships they had endured along the way. But also, what reason did they have to do it? She knew why she was there, but what about the others? She doubted anyone else was there for the same reason as her.
She waited there for hours with only those hopeless types of questions to keep her entertained, along with her horse acting with just as much personality as he usually did. He kept trying to nudge her out of line to go run back along the road, but she stood firm and kept both of them there. The lines were only getting longer, and she really didn’t want to stand there into the hours of the next morning.
Then finally, “Name and reason for being here please miss?” The gatekeeper asked, as she had heard for what seemed like the millionth time after standing behind so many people. She already knew her answer.
“Katherine Cavendish, sir. I’m here for the Servants Program.” She smiled to try and appear as genuine as possible.
“Aye, we have a lot of you folk wanting that particular job. Not fancying becoming a Knight, ey?” He asked her, turning his nose up. She was certain it was because she still had her accent from being from the West of the Kingdom. Which wasn’t exactly known as the most glamorous part.
“No, just trying to get checked in. Here are my documents.” She held out her papers, hoping to end the uncomfortable interaction as soon as she possibly could.
He just nodded at her, not giving her another word as he looked over all her papers. She felt her hands become slippery as she saw him raise his eyebrow at one of them. She hadn’t had much of a chance to look over the fake documents while she had been traveling on the road, not wanting to get any of them dirty for fear that they wouldn’t take them at the gate if they were in that condition.
She had been assured multiple times that everything looked real and legit. She had been promised that she wouldn’t be caught. She had also been promised that if she was, she would be killed without a second thought. She tried to hide her nervous swallow as he looked back up at her with an incredulous look on his face.
“‘Fargot’ is a stupid middle name.” Then he tossed back everything to her and yelled, “NEXT! Name and reason for being here, please, sir.” She began to walk away before he could change his mind.
She looked down at the paper and saw that it really did say Katherine Fargot Cavendish. She may have hated that guard, but she couldn’t disagree with him that it was, in fact, a very stupid name.
She stood up straighter, though. She had only gotten through one station so far, and she still had three more to go. She had been told many times before leaving what she was supposed to do at each station.
She moved forward to the second station, where they would search her belongings.
She held up her bag, but the lady there didn’t pay her any mind when she said hello. So she just stood there as everything was pulled out and inspected without much care of if it broke or not. She tried not to yell at the lady when she ripped one of her few shirts right down the front of it. ‘It’s fine’ she thought to herself, ‘I can always just sew it up later, I need the practice. Don’t I?’
“Turn ‘round. I need to check your pockets and all that.” Brynleigh nodded and continued to be patted down and shoved around to see if her dress had any ‘secret pockets’. She fought not to roll her eyes.
Then, the third station. It was where they would take her horse.
She walked up to the second to final station and found herself faced with a boy around her age. Which surprised her since everyone else she had been greeted with thus far had been at least twenty years older than her. But she decided not to pay him any attention, he probably wouldn’t pay her any either.
“Nice horse. What’s their name?” He asked, his voice layered in a Central accent that affected how he said his i’s and his a’s. But there was something else there that she couldn’t put her finger on.
He looked at her, waiting for an answer, and she realized that she didn’t have one. She hadn’t bothered to ask for the name of the animal she had traveled on, but that answer wouldn’t do.
So, she responded, “Talker.” Before she could think up a better name to tell the person in front of her.
His eyebrows furrowed, the dark hairs casting a shadow on his face. Even more so than his dark curly hair already was doing. “That’s a bit of an odd name, isn’t it?” He asked her, waiting for more words.
“Um, it’s just because he has so much to say. I know he’s not talking right now…but he usually has so much personality.” She tried to make it seem like she had actually known the large animal for a long time.
He nodded and smiled, taking the reins as if he was about to walk off. She blurted out before she could think, “Your voice sounds weird.”
He looked back at her with another confused expression. He straightened back up to look down at her. He raised an eyebrow before asking, “And how so is that? I don’t think my voice sounds weird.”
She cursed at herself internally before continuing, “No, I just mean that you have a Central accent.” He nodded again. It was obvious he would have that since he lived in the Central part of the Kingdom. “But there’s just something else that I can’t really put my finger on. It’s stupid, forget I said anything.”
He chuckled a bit before responding, “Yeah, I’ve lived up here for the past five or so years. But I grew up farther down in the Kingdom, near Bueno de Amor. We speak a lot of Spanish down there. Some of my friends in the castle are also from there, so we still speak it a lot. That’s probably just what you’re hearing.” She just blinked as he gave the over explanation of his voice.
“So…what’s your name? You sound like you're from the East.” He continued.
“Oh, yeah. I am. I’m Katherine, but a lot of people call me Kat.” She internally winced at the smallest thing, making her lie the tiniest bit more intricate. One more bit of information she had to remember and couldn’t slip up on.
“Well Kat, I’m Cyrus. You might see me around if you’re working as a servant.” He said with a smile.
She tried to think of how she could move on from this interaction without appearing too suspicious. “Great! I’m sure you have a job to get back to, though, and I should move forward to the next station. But, it was nice to meet you.”
“Yeah, see you later.” He said before leading her horse, now named Talker, off to a stable. Presumably.
‘Hopefully not,’ She thought to herself.
Sure, he was nice, but she could easily see that he would become a liability further in the future if she got closer with him. Everyone that she met and interacted with from that point forward, she had to have a reason to. Especially if she continued interacting with them on a common basis.
She was well aware of what her mission meant and how important it was. She couldn’t afford to waste time on people just because they had been momentarily nice to her. She also couldn’t afford to have anyone or anything within the castle that could even possibly be used against her.
She proceeded to the next station, the final one, where she would get her badge and be allowed into the castle under her official role as a servant.
She stepped up after the last person exited the tent and walked away. She saw an older lady there. She smiled at her and received the same gesture in return. Her mannerisms, as she moved around the tent, reminded Brynleigh of Cherry, but she quickly shut down those nasty thoughts.
She had to stay focused, and she had to forget everyone from back. Not just her brothers, but everyone.
“Well dear. Let’s see…Katherine Fargot Cavendish…is that correct?” She asked, pushing her glasses up her nose.
Brynleigh just smiled and nodded, not wanting to give away any of the familiar feelings that she had towards the older woman. She gave her a folder full of papers and told her that she needed to keep it no matter what. It could not be destroyed or lost without serious consequences on her part.
Brynleigh nodded, not wanting to give off any sort of bad impression. But the idea of ‘bad consequences’ if she just so happened to misplace one of the small papers absolutely terrified her. Especially knowing what those types of consequences had meant for some of the people she had known.
She moved along without another worry, for the most part. She looked into the folder as she exited the tent, seeing copies of some of the fake documents she had brought. Birth certificates and such, she was surprised they had copied it so fast.
She pulled out the one thing that was fragile, paper, nor thin. There was a clunky piece of material in there that had lettering on it.
Katherine Fargot Cavendish
Servant
Number - 02895674
Starting year - 793
Ending Year - 803
Serving for: 10 years
(Me: I'm gonna write a Cyleigh book set in an old-timey fantasy world!
Also, me: *Only has them meet in Chapter 9*
One of my favorite original characters is coming up for their introduction in Chapter 13. Which I'm so excited for! (It will only be led up with heartbreak and sorrow in Chapter 14).
I made her fake last name, Kavendish, knowing damn well that all of my writing friends absolutely hate that name and the person behind it.
I'm literally done writing this book. I just can't keep up with a consistent posting schedule.
Kitty Kat!
I really don't know what else to put in this author's note, lol.
Hope you enjoyed! Bye!)