Unevia, The White Locket

A white haired girl (Part 2)

Soon she reached the gigantic gate in the outer wall of Ardesco. The gates were wide open for people to stay and leave as they pleased. They had been open for as long as Raelyn remembered, there had never been a reason for them to be close. The land of Kaiswen had known peace for years now. This was mostly the result of the magic barrier that the ancient wizards had put up around the borders of Kaiswen. Signs and marks that Raelyn couldn't read were engraved into the wood of the gates. She walked underneath some large arches before reaching the courtyard. 

The courtyard was a big open space where various kinds of trees grew in a circle. The center of the courtyard was a small herb garden. She stopped, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath through her nose, enjoying the different smells of nature before continuing her walk across the courtyard to enter the castle.

The halls of Ardesco were high but narrow. The sound of her leather boots hitting the tiles of the floor echoed through the now empty halls. She made her way to the kitchen where the cooks and maids were working hard to prepare the dinners of the high magi. Raelyn stayed out of their way to prevent herself from getting yelled at again and waited patiently until the chef handed her the dinner for magus Keardath. She mumbled her thanks before leaving the turmoil of the kitchen. She took the plate of steaming food through the halls of Ardesco. She passed a group of maids that stopped their talking when she approached. Raelyn could feel them staring, their faces full of disgust.

"White haired freak." She heard just barely behind her.

She ignored them, as she always did, and continued her way to the tower. The smell of delicious food made her mouth water as she walked up the stairs. When she reached Keardath's chambers she knocked against the wood of the door and waited until she got the command to enter.

The residence of the magus was not large, but it had all the essentials. Red curtains hung at the sides of the long windows. A canopy bed stood in the left corner of the room while Keardath sat at his desk in the right corner. Three high bookcases stood against the wall  behind him. He looked up at her from his book. Keardath wore an olive-colored robe and a circlet around his forehead. The circlet consisted of a metal band engraved with signs much like those on the gates and in the center of the circlet there was a square green emerald. His withered chin was covered in short grey stubble and wrinkled as he smiled at her. She answered his smile as she closed the door behind her and set down the plate of his food in front of him. She stepped back and placed both her hands in front of her, waiting for further commands.

"Thank you, Raelyn." He said to her "How are you?"

Keardath took the fork that lay on the plate in his hand and cut a potato in two with it.

"I'm fine magus," She answered, "...just fine."

He looked at her after taking part of the potato in his mouth. Raelyn gulped down some of the saliva gathered in her mouth. The food smelled and looked so good, and she was hungry. The magus swallowed down the potato and pointed the fork at her.

"And that?" he said, nodding his head towards her arm "Who did that to you?"

Raelyn looked at him a bit confused before she moved her gaze down to her arm to find that her sleeve had moved up, exposing a red weal on her skin from the crop she was hit with. She quickly pulled her sleeve down, covering her stripe before looking back up at him.

"It's nothing, really." She knew Grorm would do far worse to her if she told anyone "A branch whipped me on my way back from the stables, magus."

Keardath shook his head and took another bite before speaking to her again. "So Grorm again, huh?"

He gazed at her with his blue eyes that appeared younger than the rest of his wrinkled face. Raelyn shook her head, her long white hair swaying from side to side as she did.