Crescent (Old Version)

+ Part 56 +

This close to the solstice had brought on the coldest snow storm I'd experienced in years. Not only had Saren canceled any training that we had planned for the week, but I stayed close to the fire most nights, taking to the study rather than the library. There was one thing Gabriel was most definitely had been right about: I didn't have the nerve. I didn't have the nerve to face him ever since our last conversation. It was easier to focus on the future.

Ceth's question had stuck with me: "What will you do?"

I'd spent all these months trying to figure out how to make it until I finally saw my family again. But, it was coming. It was practically here. I hadn't allowed myself to consider what I'd do when I got them back. But, I knew when I finally got to wrap my arms around Rosie, when I finally got to see my mother's face and hear my dad's voice again, nothing else would matter. Together is all that matters. Together, we'll start again. Dad has a knack for finding the best places to settle down. Likely another small town where he can find work in the factory or where Mom can always be a close walk to Rosie's school. Hopefully, we'd be far far away from the cold. I couldn't bare living in the cold any longer.

My family, like they had through everything, would get me through this. Just one more week and then the gala would be here. I would have one last performance, one last week to deceive the realms, to play Ceth's perfect bride. And then I'd be free.

Despite the fire blaring in the kitchen, I still shivered against the long sleeves of my sweater. They were rolled up to my elbows as I kneaded the last of Janice's bread loaves, but I was close to giving up the feat entirely. The castle was freezing, and there was no amount of warmth from the fire that would change that.

Magic was hardly enough to keep the fires going anymore. The servants had carts to wheel firewood about the castle and tend to the fireplaces. I knew even at night, there were a few hands tasked with keeping the fires going.

My teeth chattered loudly enough that one of the servants beside cast a narrow glance at me from across the counter. I'd gotten enough glances just for coming down here in the first place that the look was enough for me to quit.

New staff, thinly veiled looks my way at my lack of civility. The kitchens were for servants. My presence here was beginning to become a burden. That much was clear.

I slid my tray of loaves across the counter to her, wiping flour from my hands on the bottom of my apron. "Can you finish these for me, please?"

Her eyes fell downwards and she nodded, bowing her goodbye as I stripped the apron and discarded it into one of the dirty apron bins near the exit.

What had been a failed attempt at distraction from my duties had again left me with nothing to do but to face them. The apron had taken the brunt of my baking mess and my dress was still clean enough to wear to dinner whenever the ambassadors were finished for the evening. I could only guess that was about another hour away.

There were a few boxes of items that had just arrived from Cold's Summit this morning that I had neglected to open yet, and I found them beneath the foot of the grand stairwell for the servants to put out under the cover of nighttime. Since dinner was being served in the study, now was as good a time as any to make myself busy.

I pried open one of the crates to find a shipment of candles for everyone's arrival. Their were elegant golden candelabrums for the walls and candles as thick as my arm decorated in hand-painted celestial designs. Fabric of rich silk was gathered in another crate and I knew that was destined for the table tops scattered among the entryway. In another, there was rich fur blankets and embroidered bedsheets meant for the bedrooms. I made note of which crates for the servants to take to the rooms tonight and what little I could set out tonight, I spent my time arranging everything in the tasteful manner Moira had taught me.