by Shelby Hild
Vivilyn couldn’t help but take one more look over at Brayleigh and Freya.
How do they always look so proper? She wondered for what felt like the hundredth time.
It wasn’t just those two either. Whenever all the women were together, Vivilyn felt more and more out of place.
Just because I look more like them, doesn’t mean I’m a lady. I need to figure out what they do that makes them so different from me.
With a deep breath, Vivilyn finished rinsing her brushes off in the water Fiona brought. Tia stood staring at the painting she had been working on.
“Are we looking at the same horizon?” Tia asked, her head slightly tilted as she looked back and forth between the painting and the trees in the distance.
“I’m playing around with colors and technique a bit,” Vivilyn said.
“Oh,” Tia replied, “because that doesn’t really look like any of the women down there, either. Why are their faces all shadowed?”
The shadows Vivilyn had been seeing on everyone’s faces since she’d hit her head on the way to the estate had been getting worse. She wasn’t sure what was going on and she was slightly worried something was wrong.
Part of her wanted to tell someone about it, but she couldn’t be sure the shadows didn’t have anything to do with her abilities. If it did, then how long would it be before she was disqualified and killed?
Wizard Vic had mentioned it appeared that one of her energy-lines was opening. And they did that because of puberty or head trauma. Although she wasn’t entirely sure exactly what that meant, she had hit her head hard on the way to the manor and that was when the shadows started to appear.
No. Telling someone about it was just too risky.
Just one more thing that kept her from feeling like she could ever truly belong. Who else here had such a secret that could cause her death if it came to be known?
“Isn’t everyone shadowed somehow?” Vivilyn asked instead, as she stood up to follow Fiona. “We all have our secrets.”
The dark shadow on Tia’s face seemed to intensify as she said that, but then it settled back down into its normal tone.
Tia went about packing up the paints to move them back to the spot Vivilyn had taken to storing them, next to the armoire in her room. Vivilyn and Fiona made their way into the building and toward the small parlor in which Malcolm had requested them to meet.
“Lady Vivilyn,” he called as soon as they entered. “How pleasant to—what did you do to your hair?”
“It was time for a change,” she said as she lifted her hand to her hair protectively.
It felt different to her when Malcolm said it as opposed to when anyone else did. Something about the look in his eyes. Almost like disappointment? All of his warnings from the first few weeks about not letting the process change who she was echoed through her mind for a split second.
“It is definitely different,” Malcolm said. “But it suits you. New hair for a new place.” He nodded to himself. “Come stand here.” He gestured to a small platform in the center of the room. “I’ve been given word of three different potential group dates that they are planning for our stay here.”
“Three dates?” Vivilyn asked as she stepped up. He pulled out a tape measure seemingly from thin air.
“Yes, and I want you to have a few new outfits,” Malcolm said, as he began taking her measurements. “Since you’re still young and growing, I just want to be sure your numbers haven’t changed before we put you in a few of them.”
“Okay,” Vivilyn said, “but let’s hear more about these dates.”
Vivilyn held her arms straight to form a ‘T’ with her body.
“The only one I can really say for sure is at Dream Lake,” Malcolm said. “But that is likely going to be the last one.”
“And the others?”
“I’m not entirely certain, but one might involve a talent competition and the other an obstacle course.”
Malcolm finished the measurements and waved to someone at the side.
“Andrea!” Vivilyn exclaimed with a smile, as soon as she saw the woman walking out holding a large black dress. “What are you doing here? Is Nell here too?”
“Calm down, calm down,” Malcolm said as soon as Vivilyn started trying to step down and greet the other woman. “She’s not here to stay, just to drop stuff off. How I handled these things before she came along, I’ll never know. Somehow I managed to forget about half of our supplies back at the Ettravil Palace.”
Vivilyn hadn’t realized just how much she missed having her team together, if only because they were her team. The only reason they were all there together was because she had been chosen.
Andrea handed Malcolm the dress to give Vivilyn a quick hug before taking the dress back again. Malcolm left the room in order to allow Vivilyn to change in semi-privacy.
As she quickly stripped, Andrea mentioned how much she loved her new hair. She was the first person that didn’t make Vivilyn second guess the change.
Fiona helped straighten the dress after it came over her head as Andrea went to go grab Malcolm. When they returned to the room, they both had a mirror so that Vivilyn could see how she looked.
The entire dress was black. The bottom of the ball gown was made of a layering lace that blended together like a forest filled thick with trees. The top was a solid, silky black that rose into a sweetheart neckline. The illusion of a higher neckline and sleeves was created with a black gauze-like material.
The dress was pretty.
“Isn’t it…” Vivilyn paused trying to find the proper word. “Isn’t it a little plain? Compared to the other dresses that everyone has seen recently anyway.”
She could easily see how the others would laugh at the sheer simplicity of the dress.
“What do you mean?” Malcolm asked. His left eyebrow rose.
“I’m not meaning I don’t like it,” she said, as she tried to picture how Freya might wear a similar dress. “It is pretty, but it doesn’t really compare to the other ladies, does it?”
“Why do you want to compare to them?” Malcolm asked. “We should be contrasting against them, showing how different you are from them.”
The words caused her to cringe. You’re a fraud repeated in her mind almost like someone was singing them.
Andrea elbowed him.
“How do you think we should change it,” she asked, prompting Vivilyn to look closer at the dress.
“Well,” Vivilyn tried to imagine it differently, “perhaps if we remove this.” She gestured to the sleeves. “And add some sparkles. Maybe make it a bit more risqué?”
“Risqué?” Malcolm’s voice cracked. “Why risqué?”
“I mean, the others have all shown off their bodies throughout the last few ceremonies and seem like, I don’t know, like they’re showing off that they are sexy or something.”
“They’ve shown skin, yes, but that doesn’t mean your outfits don’t show—” Malcolm continued.
“It’s not the same.”
“We should do it,” Andrea said.
“What?” Both Malcolm and Vivilyn replied within seconds of each other.
“Let’s get you out of that and go ahead with the changes.”
“Can I speak with you for a moment?” Malcolm asked his assistant. When she nodded, they moved outside the door but didn’t entirely shut it.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“You can’t see what’s happening here?” Andrea queried. Vivilyn could imagine Andrea raising an eyebrow at the older man. “Typical man.”
“What I see happening here is you agreeing to let her wear something her parents will get mad at me for putting her in. Have you seen Suzetta when she’s threatening your life?”
“I was there when she told you that it would be on your head if you disgraced her daughter,” Andrea said. “So yes, I’ve seen it.”
Vivilyn couldn’t help but smile at the thought of her mother’s threat putting fear into her handler. Gran
ted, Malcolm had been on edge since the beginning of the Trials, right up to the carriage ride to the palace on the very first day. The memory of him not letting her off the platform to hug Maia and Ryso goodbye filled her mind, before quickly shifting to him jumping at her dropping a package.
“It would be on my head and my neck and my hands and my feet and even more sensitive areas.” His voice sounded almost panicked.
“She’s not asking for much,” Andrea said. “And she is giving her input for what she wants. If we say no, she’ll either do something rash which we will all regret or she’ll never give her opinion again.”
Whatever they said after that, Vivilyn couldn’t hear because of the ruffling sound the dress made as Fiona worked on getting her out of it.
Quickly, she changed back into the comfortable clothing she’d been initially wearing.
“Fine,” Malcolm said as he burst back into the room, “but if your mother says anything about it, remember this is your idea, not mine.”
Chapter 10
“What’s going on?” Marisol asked as she stepped next to Vivilyn in the large gymnasium.
“I’m not sure,” Vivilyn replied, looking around carefully.
That morning while at breakfast everyone received notes to meet in the gymnasium at different times in groups of twenty-five.
Both of them stepped up to a small group that had formed in the center of the room. Jolene, Entra, Freya, and Rose all greeted them as they approached.
“There was another attack,” Jolene said. “This time there was a message. One of the bandit groups up north—you know, from Kreistos—are trying to cause a revolution.”
“Where did you hear that?” Entra said.
“Louise told me,” Jolene said. When Entra remained silent, she continued, “Louise heard it from Lola who heard it from Clara who heard it from Daisy and Rose who heard it from one of their managers who got it from a letter from home.”
“Hearsay, rumors, gossip,” Entra said. “That’s all it is. Besides, what could we want to have a revolution over? We are in one of the best kingdoms in the whole world.”
“They’re just trying to cause dissent to destabilize us,” Freya said. “It’ll fail. Their spies and agents won’t ever make it through my family’s estate. They’ve never been able to break into our kingdom before and that isn’t going to change.”
“Haven’t spies and other agents already made it through? Do the attacks on the rails and, oh, a small little place like the Ettravil Palace not ring a bell?” Jolene asked.
“They didn’t get through my estate,” Freya said. “Natalie’s on the other hand…” all eyes fell onto the other woman who had just entered the room.
“We don’t know how they got into the kingdom,” Vivilyn said, not wanting everyone to gang up on Natalie who had just started making her way to them. “And we don’t know exactly what they want. All it is at this point is as Entra said. Just rumors and gossip.”
“I’ve heard,” Natalie said quietly as she joined everyone as well, despite most of the group shifting uncomfortably as she stepped up, “some of the rails have arrived at locations completely empty.”
“What are you talking about?” Freya said with half a laugh and an eye roll.
“What I’m saying is everyone on the rails vanished,” Natalie said as she pulled her hair back into a tail, “and there’s no evidence of where they could be.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Rose said, shaking her head. “Almost as ridiculous as the rumors of the ship that arrived in Port Shroe the week the Trials started being empty except for eighteen cats. People were trying to say all the sailors turned into felines.”
Adontus entered from a door on the opposite side of the room.
“Then what are we all doing here?” Marisol asked, attempting to have her original question answered.
“Thank you for asking,” Adontus said, loudly, grabbing everyone’s attention. “If I could get all of you to scatter out onto lines marked out on the ground. One lady per line.”
The lines were spread out evenly across the floor. Each woman stood more than double an arm’s length apart. All of them were far enough apart that if Vivilyn wanted to do cartwheels, she could do two and not worry about running into the person in front of her.
“As winter is rapidly approaching us,” Adontus said as he wrinkled his nose and shivered, “we have decided that it is important to keep you ladies active. After much deliberation, we have come up with the idea to teach each of you the beginnings of different types of self-defense.”
As concerned whispering began, Adontus added, “Not because we are worried for your safety, but because it’s good to know. In general.”
Adontus pushed out an uncomfortable laugh.
It didn’t help the building tension in the room, but some of the ladies threw in their unnervingly forced laughs to his.
Vivilyn did not. Neither, she noticed, did Natalie, Jolene, or Marisol.
“Well, anyway, let me introduce our very knowledgeable instructor, Captain Verit, of our Purple Guard with his assistant, Guard Lance.”
Lance and another man in the same uniform marched into the room and up on the small platform that Adontus stood on.
As soon as they reached the top of the stage, Vivilyn noticed how all of the women seemed to stand up a little bit taller. A brief visual of a younger version of Captain Verit filled her mind of him fighting hand-to-hand with a larger man.
“The stage,” Adontus said to the captain, “is yours.”
Then he stepped down and sat in a small chair in the corner of the room.
“Thank you.” The man’s voice was low, but strong. Vivilyn wasn’t sure how she was able to hear him from where she stood. It sounded as though he spoke directly in front of her rather than across the room on a stage.
Lance remained frozen in place, back straight, hands behind his back, feet shoulder width apart. Vivilyn shifted her own posture to match his.
The captain seemed to notice all the women grew still and he nodded.
“The most important thing about self-defense is what?” he asked them.
“Hitting them where it hurts?” Marisol said loudly, while laughing.
“No.”
“Breaking their nose?” someone else ventured to guess.
“No.”
“Prevention,” Natalie said firmly, as though she’d heard it before.
The Captain nodded.
For the hour they were in the gymnasium, the group discussed different ways to prevent getting in situations where they would need to defend themselves. After about fifteen minutes of talking, Captain Verit split the women into five groups of five to test their ability to assess situations and determine who, if any of the people brought in, should be considered dangerous.
No one did well.
The women mostly considered the hour to be a waste of time.
As they left the gymnasium, the next group of twenty-five were collecting outside the door.
“It’s nothing to be worried about,” Jolene told Darissa as they passed by. “It was just a lot of talking.”
Rather than return to painting, Vivilyn decided to sketch since it had been a while since the last time she had done anything besides paint. After she picked up a pad of paper and something to draw with, she began to wander the estate. She wanted to see somewhere different in hopes of finding new inspiration for her picture.
She walked through the entire building, only pausing near the bookcase that she knew held a stone doorway behind it. Despite her prior trepidation, she had a strong urge to go in through the doorway. She wanted to go in so badly that it frightened her. It was as though something was attempting to draw her in. The longer Vivilyn stared at the spot she knew the door was, the more the hairs on the backs of her arms rose.
Vivilyn closed her eyes and visualized herself entering it, but she couldn’t imagine what would happen after stepping through. It was as though there was an absolute block, a black wall
in her mind that wouldn’t even let her envision going in.
But deep down, she felt the same heaviness that she’d felt before seeing the dark mass in the throne room.
She pulled herself away from the bookcase and the door.
Nothing will ever convince me to go in there. Vivilyn shivered as she walked down the stairs. The chill in the air outside seemed fresh compared to the air in the building. There’s only darkness in there.
She shivered again as she walked to the perimeter of the estate right before the tree line. She was alone except for a cameraman following her. It wasn’t Maxwell, but instead one of the women, named Ally. She hadn’t seen her much, but she knew of her. She’d only ever seen her around the sisters from Frinta.
Despite the cold, Vivilyn didn’t consider going back inside. She shrugged more into her jackets, trying to hold on to her warmth a little more. There was a slight change in the foliage of the trees as she wandered. The leaves hadn’t fallen off as much as those she’d already passed.
Instead of continuing along the side of the estate, Vivilyn turned and went into the forest.
None of the trees seemed strong enough to possibly climb. It was a shame. Trees were so calming to climb. She couldn’t feel their bark through her gloves.
“I don’t think we should go much further,” Ally said, the first words she had spoken since introducing herself. “I’m not sure how safe the woods are.”
“I went through a self-defense class,” Vivilyn said, waving her hand in a dismissive way that she had seen Brayleigh and Freya wave off statements from people before. “If there’s danger, I know how to avoid it.”
She hoped Ally hadn’t been one of the eight camera people who’d been present in her training session.
“That’s what the meetings were all about this morning?” Ally asked.
“Yeah,” Vivilyn said, wondering if that was considered luck that Ally hadn’t been in the room. “And we’re to meet every morning for the next few weeks.”
