Soldier of fire

Chapter 1

The  levitating cup

Echo woke up with a start to the not-so pleasant feeling of a maid shaking her blankets.
    "The Lord has summoned you to the Main Hall, Lady Bluebottle. You must be there within the hour," she whispered.
"Ta," said Echo stiffly. She stretched and got up, trying urgently not to wince at the pain of her ribs. "Would you like to stay for a spot of tea, Miss...?"
"Please, just call me Olive, Lady Bluebottle. And, I would love to stay for some, if it's not intruding on your privacy."
"I would rather have company than any more damn privacy," she said. Olive nodded and took a tiny step back from her.
Echo pulled out the small, wooden table, along with two rickety chairs, teacups and a teapot. The cups had to be handled with care; the porcelain started to chip along the sides recently. Although, she became fond of them over the years.
She glided over to the shelf, studying the bottles.
"What kind of tea would you like?" she called over her shoulder.
"Whatever you have will be fine," she replied. Echo proceeded to pull out two bottles of rose petals.
As she added the petals into the teapot to boil over the fire, she thought of the difficult day ahead; Lord Balthaige would make sure of that. You see, there was so much that a Lord could do in his own manor, and that included a limited resource of entertainment. Harlequins and jugglers only did so much to satisfy him, so he called for Echo when he felt especially bored. He asked her to do a number of things, sometimes to do simple theatrics on a tightrope, or to grab a weapon and fight him, though he'd always win. Either way, she ended up with marks. He was never pleased with her performance.
How it made her go crazy.  But, Echo thought of the upside. She had the skills of an acrobat and a warrior
And in the moments she had to lay down in a certain position as not to hurt herself, she would fantasize about picking the locks of her room, bypassing all the guards, and running off into the night to live happily ever after in the village of Heilga. But, this was only a fantasy, and harsh reality would smack her in the face when Balthaige, well, smacked her in the face.
Once the tea was ready, she set the cups on the table and waited for Olive to sit down. This was a very special morning, for Echo never had guests in her room. She wanted to make this moment last as long as she could.
"Would you like some sugar or honey?" she asked.
"I like mine plain, thank you," Olive said.
"You haven't been working here long. Am I correct in assuming that?"
"Only started yesterday, Lady Bluebottle. How could you tell?" Echo's ears picked up Olive's unusually quick rhythm that were her heartbeats. The table vibrated from an anxious foot tapping against the floor. Her body gave off the slightest of a shimmer from the sweat. Her eyes kept darting back and forth between the door and the cup. Some would call her insane for noticing things like this, but noticing was all she did, day after day, week after week, month after month. 
It made her head spin just thinking about it.
Instead, she said, "It's not obvious, if that is what you're worried about. The hems of your uniform are not frayed yet, that's all."
She was so very good at hiding that deranged part of herself.
Olive, looking completely nonplussed, nodded and took a shaky sip of the tea. The table lurched when she put it down, causing the cup to tip and fall to the floor.
Echo's most prized possession, and the one thing that brought her happiness in this dungeon.
Falling to its doom, where it would shatter into a million pieces.
Then, the cup stopped. Not from the impact of the floor, but of the air itself. The teacup was levitating.
Echo was beyond the border of stunned as it eased itself back onto the table. This was one of those things that only happened if she daydreamed it, but she could tell it really happened. Olive's face was all the proof she needed.
"It was a trick of the light," Echo said awkwardly. She mentally gave herself a beating for that.
"T-The cup! I s-saw it float in m-midair!" Olive tried to step away, downright gobsmacked, but upon realizing she still sat in the chair, fell backwards. "I h-have to go. Thank you for the tea!" she squeaked, and stumbled over just about anything in her path. Echo shut the door behind her and sighed. She knew this was going to be too good to be true. Something always spoiled her fun there.
"And just when I made a friend," Echo said to herself, giggling quietly as she drank her tea.