Valin (Book 3 of the White Lily Trilogy)- first draft

Chapter 11- What's your name

"I shall not be long," Isildilia shouted as she shut the door behind her. She appreciated the break from her work. It had been days of endless work, yards of fabrics, miles of threads, but she finally finished both of the dresses. They were some of her most elaborate dresses to date, even going so far as to incorporate a few flowers into one dress and feathers into the other.

But now they were finished, she just wanted to get outside and breathe any air apart from the developing clogging cloud of her workspace. She stood out on the steps to her house and stretched her hand high above her head, stretching out every limb as she took several deep breaths.

"Good morning, Isildilia," a voice chimed, forcing her to lower her arms and look down.

"Good morning, Rhinel," she smiled. She didn't notice upon first stepping out, but he was already leaning against the bottom post of her entrance gate. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company dear brother?" she asked. She noticed that, upon staring at him directly, Rhinel's smile faltered a little.

"I came to ask; now you appear to be a lot better, about your progress of Lovma's dress. Isildilia took a few moments to realise who or what he was talking about. "I gave you a few days to recuperate," he added. "So I came to see how you are doing." Now the name did make her remember, she quickly bowed her head in apology. Panic gripped her chest when she realised that she had completely forgotten her first memory upon waking.

"I am...so sorry. With all that happened I completely forgot. I have been tied down with so much as of late and I..." Rhinel quickly held up his hands.

"Easy now, easy. Keep that up and you'll become a blubbering mess. Its fine, I know you've needed time to recover from that nasty blackout. I actually came here to remind you about the dress, not ask for it." Now he reminded her of the event that happened at their last conversation, she looked and saw that there were the faint remains of the mottled bruising under his right eye.

"I'm sorry," she apologised again. "About your eye." He automatically reached up and rubbed the area.

"Its fine, I forgot you learnt how to throw a good punch thanks to me. But, back to the point, Lovma wanted me to tell you that she wondered if you could create some sort of flower that can sit upon her left shoulder." She clicked her tongue.

"Flowers made of fabric?" she said to herself. "If that's the case then I will need to pick some supplies. I need to see my supplier about bringing in some materials; I used a lot of my blue materials up making some of my client's dresses."

"I'll come with you," he smiled. "We haven't caught up in a while now."

"Why not?" she smiled in return, and quickly descended the steps to join him at the bottom.

"Isi, I have to ask you before we start, what happened to you?" That explained the reason his smile faltered, for she too was currently sporting her own marks upon her face. Although the concoction Valin put on it each day helped to lessen the marks greatly, they were still visible against her pale skin. She knew there was no way she could pass them off as an accident.

"I...went to see Dakelo." Rhinel stumbled in his step upon hearing that.

"You're lucky that's all he's done to you! He could have killed you; he's been on about that for a long time."

"I know, I've already been lectured about it," she sighed, as she continued her steps up the street. "So I'd rather not talk about the incident, all right?" she added. Rhinel nodded in response and matched her pace.