Reidier

9: Araldia

A/N: Hiya all! I have to put a slight trigger warning on this chapter. There's nothing direct, nothing too graphic- but do you think I should change the rating anyway? 

>< There should be an MA between PG and R... I think MA for this, not quite R territory quite yet. 

But yes. Enjoy! :3

The signal came five days after Ivendite's. The day after, Araldia had received a huge bouquet of white roses- clearly the work of Reole Quis. 

The roses scared her, even as all the other girls eyed it enviously. She had never liked white roses- her father had left white roses on their doorstep when he left Ma for good. Her mother had sobbed and raged and torn them up, cutting her fingers on the stems. All she could see when she looked at the flowers were torn and bloodied petals. 

She'd always thought that roses were the mark of the White Women- the ghosts of women who took their lives after being spurned by a lover. Perhaps it was because of her father's roses. 

The question was, how did he know? It was deliberate, she was sure of it. The other girls got fiery gladioli and camellia in full bloom. She got these haunting roses. 

She'd inspected the bouquet for any sign of that "signal" that he said would come, but all that achieved was to shred her fingers to bits. Now, though, she looked down at the plate she was busy rinsing. This clearly was the signal. The underside was marked- there was a circle, a rectangle and two arrows- one pointing out of the rectangle, one in the circle, pointing up. She guessed that the rectangles was a door. The circle may be a sun- maybe the arrow meant sunrise? Whatever it is- it was clearly a signal, a mark. 

And the ink was also curiously indelible. It took three rounds of scrubbing to get it off. Because of that signal, the supervisor- an ugly crone named Maerey who might have been slightly pretty back in the day- yelled at her for wasting water and time. It was embarrassing to be singled out as incompetent, and Araldia had gritted her teeth, biting her retorts back. 

"Don't worry," Vela had said. "She's just jealous of yer roses."

As she scrubbed the plate, she was plagued by disturbing thoughts- how did he know that she was washing dishes tonight? Could he see her- day and night? 

Did he have eyes inside Ivendite Hall?

It was chilling to think that he was having her watched. 

She wondered if she should tell Vela. But no. Reole Quis would kill her painfully and do the same to her Ma and her sisters. 

But she so badly wanted to tell someone. She wanted to tell Vela, really. They told each other everything- and now she was holding secrets. It felt quite strange- not in a good way- to keep this from Vela. 

But she was up before everyone else- at the crack of dawn, just as the signal suggested. Vel still slept- her blonde hair was a graceful tangle, framing her delicate face. She looked so beautiful- so tiny, like a little bird. Araldia frowned at her own reflection in the water trough as she scrubbed her face. She was filthy- there were smudges of ink on her face from when she finally managed to get it off the back of that plate. And her face was plain as well as dirty. Vela had fine features- while Araldia's nose was just a little too flat, her cheeks a little too round, her forehead a little too big, her eyebrows a little too thick, her lips a little too thin. 

She thought back to how Lumis had stared. Clearly he'd never met someone truly beautiful, like Vel. But it had felt nice- and a little scary. She'd already sold the dress- she didn't have the sterling to spare- but she had felt a strange reluctance when it left her hands.