Changing of the Guard, the Final Journey of the Eight

Chapter Three

The morning sun drifted through the open shutters and filled the room with natural sunlight. Princess Erikanna, known to her friends simply as Kanna, sat up and brushed her curly amber locks out of her face. Both the room and the princess within had changed over the past eighteen years, but today the little girl was now a woman.

Kanna looked around her room as her thoughts ran bittersweet. Today, she was an adult, and although she had a few more lessons, tutors and classrooms were to be replaced with real-world education as her father and mother wanted her to sit with them in the great hall during court. But why? She could never be Earl, so why did they insist on her being involved with the activities of the court? Kanna muttered a silent curse and stood to retrieve the dress that had been laid out for her the night before.

Earl Gregor and Lady Erika had servants. They were paid staff, and many had served Gregor's father, but Erika's general discomfort of being waited on hand and foot eventually bled down to her children. No staff were released, but at Erika's request, hand maidens and valets were reassigned because "I kin dress 'me damn self!" Kanna felt the same way, and while she enjoyed it as a child, as teen she began to understand her mother's ideals, agreeing that being served made one soft and fat; something that none of the four royals wished to be.

Kanna stood and pulled her dress over her head and then sat at her vanity and stared at herself in the mirror. Freckles and red-brown hair stared back at her, so she painted her lips and brushed blush onto her cheeks; something that she was taught by the girls in the palace as her mother had no clue how to do such things. She giggled quietly to herself, knowing that as much as she loved, adored and respected her mother, she was glad that she hadn't been born in Alkanat, and that her tutors had kept her from inheriting her mother's thick highland accent.

As she struggled to pull her brush through her thick, curly hair, there was a knock on her chamber doors. "Come in!"

The door opened to reveal another teenaged girl, with pale skin and lips, brown eyes, and ebony hair, wearing hooded robes and sandals.

"Good morning, Mianne."

The young sorceress nodded in acknowledgement.

Over the past few months, the two girls had formed a strong, although somewhat odd friendship. At Elor's urging, and due to his inability to instill social skills into a girl one quarter his age, Mianne began attending Kanna's nobility classes. She finally began to speak, occasionally, although precious few people ever saw her smile. She approached the princess and placed something on her vanity.

Kanna looked up and eyed the emotionless girl curiously. "And what is this?"

"Happy birthday," Mianne whispered, as the right corner of her lips curled ever-so-slightly upwards.

Kanna beamed. "Mianne, you shouldn't have!"

"We are friends," she replied somewhat louder, but still with a hushed tone.

Kanna unwrapped the cloth to reveal an amulet, made from what appeared to be a chunk of melted glass which had been carefully sculpted to give it the appearance of a gemstone. "Mianne, it is beautiful!"

"I know that you usually prefer real gemstones, but this was the result of one of my lightning strikes on sand. I thought it was pretty..."

"This means more because it is from you," Kanna gushed. "Thank you so much!"

Mianne smiled, albeit uncomfortably. "You and Elor are my only friends here in Kar'eth, though my Master is too old to confide in."