The Matriarch's Daughter

Chapter Three: Mail Call

Sometime later, Thepa returned to her office alone. Still in her sweaty training clothes, she examined her skin closely, searching for any trace of the fire that had covered her body. Hands, nails, horns—nothing seemed amiss. Even her hooves, which she had been certain sent off sparks against the pavement, appeared as clean as they had after her bath the previous day. The only odd thing she noticed was that they weren't as dirty as they should have been.

When she came up empty, she sat at her desk, unsure what to do about what had happened, allowing it to mull over in her thoughts.

"Are you a druid?" Aldermoon asked her on the way down from the wall.

"No," Thepa responded, desperate to escape. Of course, she wasn't a druid. A druid might have turned into an animal, not lighting themselves on fire. Even stranger, unlike her foster brother and sister, Thepa had never before manifested magic. From what she understood, it happened at a young age.

"Then what—" she started to say, but Thepa cut her off, quite rudely now that she thought about it.

"I said I don't know."

That was the end of that. Frustrated, Thepa ran back into the barracks, ignoring anyone else who crossed her path. When she calmed down, she thought she might go back and apologize to Aldermoon. Deciding there was little she could do about it now, she turned to her mail, studying the pack of letters.

On top of the stack lay a letter from the palace. It was rare for Thepa to receive such correspondence; usually, her orders came directly from the Royal Guard. When a letter did arrive, it was typically an invitation to a party or ball, almost always demanding her presence for ceremonial duties. But with grand events scheduled weeks or even months in advance, this particular one was unusual. Intrigued, she carefully opened the golden envelope to find it was from the Archduke himself.

Captain Fox,

A delegation of the nations will convene tomorrow. I suspect your presence will be necessary. Furthermore, two of the delegates will be arriving from Wildehaven. Please make yourself available to them when the boat arrives tomorrow morning.

Leoxidor

Thepa winched. The idea of a delegation of the nations intrigued her, having never been a part of one before, but the thought of who she might have to escort worried her. If Wildehaven was going to send delegates, she assumed it would be among the four guild leaders. If she were lucky, one of them might be her former instructor, Minister Goodshadow.

Like all halflings, Goodshadow was a jolly Youngling of the Trees. Though skilled with a bow and an expert tracker, he took very little seriously. Thepa respected his knowledge and valued his instruction, but she quickly learned to take everything he said with a grain of salt.

One time, early in Thepa's training, she caught the minister with a group of students in the hall, singing a loud, off-key ballad. He invited her to join, but she politely declined. Her refusal earned her a peculiar look and a statement that left her staring awkwardly as the group walked away: "Don't be so serious. Study hard, party harder." Later that night, Thepa saw Goodshadow pass out in the hall. There, she vowed that if she ever became a leader, she would be careful about how she presented herself around others.

Still, Thepa mused. If Goodshadow is one of the delegates, that leaves just one more. Mistress Verola and Minister Deephallow aren't so bad, but if it's Deeprabbit... Oh, El, please don't let it be Deeprabbit.

Of the four ministry leaders, Thepa feared Deeprabbit the most. It wasn't as if she saw Deeprabbit as a bad person, but the woman almost expelled her and Rory from school over one of Rory's reckless schemes: Stealing the Mistress's sherry. They had been caught, and at the military school, that meant she and Rory both received a beating for their scheme. Even so, she considered it an important day in her life: the day she met Claudia.