Dawn

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Hi! I wrote this is a pretty awful dialect, I promise she's the only character I'll do it for because I despise reading it but I hope you suffer through it. Alexinia is a pretty nice lass, Aliza just has issues with trust from a lifetime of abuse, which would make sense. Either way, thank you for reading my book and I hope I'll some day get more that 8 views on my book :-)

Upon entering the kitchen, I saw a rather old woman with a huge spoon stirring a pot that looked not dissimilar to a coldren.

Ana dragged me to the stools placed at the counter and forced me to sit down, but I kept my eyes on Coldren Lady.
"Oh!" she exclaimed and I jumped in my seat, frightened.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't mean ta' scare ya!" She said jubilantly. I nodded, eyeing her up.

"I'm the chef here, betcha Ana's been tellin' you 'bout me!" I again nodded, and she wiped her hands on her apron quickly, before making her way towards me.

"I'm Alexinia, most people call me chef or Alexa. Call me Alex and ya' dead meat." She had a joking glint in her eyes, but she still terrified me none the less.

"I'm... I'm..." I stuttered out.
"Aliza, is it, at least I think that's what Simon said, innit, Ana?"
"Yeah, she's called Alizaaa." Ana smiled gently.

"Hey, I'll tell ya' what, innit weird to have three girls in the house with names that start with 'a'? If this was a book, the author would need to learn a lesson 'n diversity!" She chortled, and Ana laughed along with her.

"Hey, Ana, how 'bout you go play and I'll fix up Aliza some food, aye?" She hinted to the girl.

"But I wanted to get Aliza jelly." She pouted.

"Yeah, but I can bet cha Aliza ain't had no food in a while that was good for 'er. So you run along now, kiddo." She said, quite sternly; but not harshly.

"Okay... But she's getting jelly sometime today!" she dragged out. And with that, she ran off; fleeing into the unknown halls of the castle.

Alexinia floundered around the kitchen, humming to her self and making something; I'm not sure what.

"Sugar or milk? How do take ya tea?" she asked me. I looked at her, confused.
"What's... Tea?" I questioned. She gave me a compassionate smile.

"It's a drink made from pressed leaves, that most people enjoy with some milk. English people are known for loving tea, or at least we used to be before everything changed." Her smile shrunk, before jumping back up. "We're gonna have some tea, an' have a chat."

She placed 2 cups full of a steaming light brown liquid, which I now knew was called tea, onto the dining table and hustled me over into a seat.

"So, where's you from?" She asked me.
"Umm... The Pet Sanctuary #3012." She looked at me, confused.

"But the world wasn't over taken until 1999... That means you'd have to be younger. You're less than 18?" She said the last part louder, seeming shocked.

"Yes. I think so. I don't know when my birthday is." She seemed to be trying to get over that fact.

"I didn't know we were allowed to be sold before we turned 18." She informed me.

I shook my head, "No. We can be sold as future maids at 6 months, sex slaves at 5 years and blood slaves at 17." I informed her.

She gasped, covering her mouth.

"Sex slaves at... Five?" she said,
distraught.

I nodded again. "That's normal, isn't it?" I asked, confused.

"No, darlin', that's not normal at all. Before the world changed, every country had a law about 'the age of consent' meaning when it was legal, do you know what legal means?" She asked me.

I shook my head.

"Legal is is something that is allowed by the law, a law is something made by the government. So the law you just told me means if a child was four and a half and sold as a.... sex slave then it'd be illegal. You following?"
I nodded slowly.

"So every country had these laws, and they let people know when they could have sex with someone. Most countries had this law, the 'age of consent' law at 16-18. Some had it as low as 13. But only countries that didn't have this law let children be 'had sex with' at five." she spat out the words.

"Back then, if you had sex with someone who was under the age of consent it was considered rape. Do you know what rape is?"
I shook my head.

"It's when a man, or woman has sex with you without your consent. Your consent is you saying 'Yes, I want this to happen and I am happy to have sex with you'. You don't need to audibly give your consent, but you need to think that yourself and if you don't agree, if you think 'no, I don't want this to happen, I don't consent then it's called rape."

I thought about it slowly. So that's what it's called.

"Understand hun?" She looked at me with sadness in her eyes.

I nodded.

"Has that... Ever happened to you? Have you ever not consented to sex and it happened anyway?" I nodded.

She frowned, and pulled me into a hug. I froze for a second before hugging back slightly.

"Why are you upset? That's normal to happen. If a master, or mistress wants something, you comply." My eyebrows pulled in, confused.

She shook her head violently.

"No! You have free will, you're a person, and you deserve respect just as much as anyone else." she said fiercely.

"Oh." Well that's confusing. "Is that why Simon is so nice to me?" she nodded.
"We are all equals here." She said.

"What's an equals?" I asked her.

She looked at me and smiled. "I have many a-things to teach you, I see."

"Being equal is when you and som'n- else are treated exactly the same." She paused, "Drink ya tea, t's goin' cold."

I obliged. "So, in your old houses, you and your masters were unequal, because you were treated differently than him, understand?"

I nodded.

"Okay. Drink up, we'll continue this coversation tomorrow." I nodded again.