A Court of Heritance and Destiny

Chapter 6 Freya

"Hold your head high." Dorothea instructed her, "Shoulders back, Freya, you need to walk with grace." Freya swallowed and tried to do as she was told. Etiquette classes had been more and more common in the last months. Walking, dining, talking. Dancing. Dorothea held all of them, just like the rest of her lessons.

"Freya, I can hear your feet dragging, lift them! Take steps!" She continued on, only to give up as another round of criticism washed over her.

"I am tired." She tried, it was not a lie, but it was an over exaggeration. Her body was always tired, especially right now. The healers had been by just a week before giving her that cauldron awful tonic that tasted like ash, and her body was still feeling sick.

"Not an excuse, as Lady of Spring you will need to always be presentable." Freya rolled her eyes and sat down, refusing to continue her lesson. "Freya, get up."

"I said that I am tired." Freya argued back, "I can't learn anything when I am tired, and when I am Lady of Spring I can decide when someone can see me or not."

"That will be your husband's decision. Not yours." Dorothea walked over to her, towering over Freya as she craned her neck to look down at her.

"And if I don't want to marry?" Freya bit back. What did she do now? She was twelve, dressed in an itching dress, her hair pulled back in a painful knot in her neck, sick and tired of having these walking lessons. Marriage was not something she wanted to talk about.

Her cheek started to burn, black spots danced before her eyes. The sound of Dorotheas hand slapping her skin registered in her head after the pain faded and the spots disappeared.

"Stupid girl." Dorothea hissed through her teeth, "The things I have done for you, for your father. Your ungrateful child." Freya lifted her hand to touch her cheek, it burned at the touch. "The sacrifices I have made to raise you, to foster you to be the perfect Lady of Spring." Freya just stared at her in shock.

She had hit her, slapped her over her cheek, the fact didn't fully land or make sense to her. Yes, Dorothea could be rough sometimes, dragging her around the Castle by her arm. She could be mean in her criticism and berate her over small things. But hitting her? Freya stood up, and walked away, half expecting to be dragged back, to hear Dorotheas screams behind her. But the priestess was quiet.

She walked on the white stone floors, out from her lesson room, down a set of stairs, the secluded hallway, and out to her part of the garden. White gravel made up the path, the roses had bloomed over for the cycle, but new buds were already taking their place.

A wall of green surrounded her. Freya wrapped her arms around her body, and one single tear fell from her eye. She felt so small and alone.

They said that Fate had big plans for her, that she was a piece in an even greater path for the future. So why did she feel so small? So unimportant? A few subs clawed in her chest and Freya sank down to sit on the ground, totally alone, that was how she felt. Totally alone... She closed her eyes, trying to keep her breathing in check. The green bushes around her looked like walls, keeping her away from the outside world, the blue sky far above her head felt like an insult. So large and free, a place open to a selected few.

The flying guard of the Dawn Court came to mind. With feathered wings to take them everywhere. Nothing could hold them down.

A wind came over her face, like a gentle hand greasing over where she had been hit. Freya closed her eyes, hearing the wind moving the leaves and branches, hearing how they moved and ruffled, a song that could never be repeated. She sat like that for as long as she needed, the wind's songs changed over and over, adding new sounds and harmonies. A never ending symphony. S