The girls spent an hour trying to get to dance. I'm not graceful and I'm pretty sure that Calista loved every minute of my fumbling and bumbling. Alina, Cali and I finally, aimlessly, found our way out to the terrace that led into the royal gardens. It felt like ho to be hanging out with these two.
"Jack, you are beyond help." Cali punched my arm as we descended down into the gardens
"I will be surprised if that one fall didn't end up in a bruise" Alina admitted.
"If the fall did not leave a mark, Cali's fist might." I jokingly rubbed my arm and was t with generous laughter.
"I cannot wait till the party tonight!" Alina's excited glow could not be extinguished, even by my fumble footed attempt at movent.
" Hoping to dance with soone besides Jack?" Cali pointedly laughed. We all joined in.
" Actually, yes. I am looking forward to dancing." Alina avoided Cali's gaze leaving to do Cali's dirty work.
" You know Cali will not leave you alone with that answer." I warned.
"You bet I won't! Who, pray tell, are you looking forward to dancing with, Your Highness?" Cali teased and flourished her question with a curtsy.
Alina hesitated. Sothing was difficult to express. "Well my parents danced on my Mom's eighteenth birthday. Maybe I could keep the tradition going?"
Cali was not as quixotic. Yet she seed to appreciate Alina's romantic tendencies. "That would be a lovely tradition."
"Glad we got you out of class so that you could practice with before you et your future husband tonight." I joked.
"I cannot believe my parents hired that professor." Alina confessed in a slightly agitated tone. "Do you rember the poem from the Battle of the Forging of the Four Swords? The one that set Ensis free?"
" Every primary school child knows that poem." Calista uninterestedly retorted.
"I swear he makes recite it every day!" Alina complained.
Dramatically I wanted to entertain. "You an this poem?" I cleared my throat and pretended to throw a cape over my shoulder, stopping the girls in the middle of the rose garden "The eighteenth year had been marked, a new dawning of the sa. Betrayal and doubt then sparked, her country no longer ta..."
"Oh good! Jacobson is finally graduating from the primary levels of education! Only took him till, what? 16?" I was rudely interrupted by Sir Carrion, Lady Calista's twin brother. Although they both celebrated their 18th birthday earlier this year in the spring, he seed older. Donned in black breeches and doublet, he seed decidedly poised to take on anything.
"Carrion always knows how to keep humble! Glad I could graduate out of primary, just before he could matriculate. I unashadly needed soone to show the way." I smiled and took the jest in good spirits. If the future held what our fathers wanted it to, at so point we would be brothers-in-arms.
Alina and Cali both chuckled loudly at the sparing. This was the best way I knew how to spar. No fists. No swords. Nothing but words. Clauses. Phrases. I could hold my own here, except maybe with Cali.
"Fair enough." Carrion did not enjoy the banter as much as I did. "Cali, Father sent for you. He wants you ho before the princess's birthday. I think he has sothing for you."
Cali accusingly shot a knowing glance toward Alina. "Does Father have sothing for , or does he have sothing from you?"
Alina feigned innocence. "Whatever could you possibly an?"
"If I get ho and there is so monstrosity of a frock, I might not co back to this palace tonight." Cali hurriedly walked past her brother. I assu she thought that speed ant that fond farewells were optional. Carrion turned on his heel to follow her.
"You will love it!" Alina shouted apologetically after Cali. "You will see. She will. I better go get ready too. I will save that special dance for you Jack!" Alina's voice was trimd with excitent. This was going to be the ball of the century.
I went ho to wash up and found my uncle still training under my father's careful watch. The sword Capreolinae would most likely beco my Uncle's duty next. Every clan had their own rules for how the sword was to be passed to the next clan leader. Capreolinae was passed to the next kinsn that wielded the sword in battle or ceremony. Since my uncle and father were rarely apart, it was assud by most of my clan that John was the next successor.
Luckily, I did not wait long before my father saw watching.
"Jack! Back so soon?" As if cued, the town's chis rang out quarter to 6. My father blanched. "I guess ti got away from ." That was the only quality I seed to inherit from my father. Whenever either of us is passionate about sothing, ti seems to disappear on us.
As the rest of my family rushed to get ready, I walked the halls of our city ho. I focused on the painting hanging crookedly in the front hall. I straightened the image. We had a manor outside the city walls that I rarely got to see anymore. This painting was from before I was born. My mother loved that land, however to it seed a hazy mory. She always looked at this piece longingly. I could hardly rember the last ti I was there for any significant amount of ti. Training always seed to be at the top of my daily agenda.
As if my mother knew I was staring, she found in the hall. I did not get to spend as much ti with her as I used to. My two younger siblings took most of her attention. With age gaps of 10 and 12 years from , they still needed most of my mother's focus. Her eyes drank in the painting for a mont before she quickly dispatched to the waiting carriage. It was not in my family's nature to sit and dwell on things they wish could be. Well most of my family. As always, I seem to be the exception
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