At the Fields of Fire and Blood

Chapter IV

Kayla stared straight ahead into the mirror as Edna, her Governess, busied herself putting makeup on her shoulder, clicking her tongue almost every time she had to go back to the pan for more product. Her right arm had healed considerably during the past half-day, the bones mending at a speed that should not have been possible, but the skin was still bruised a deep red and purple. It also still hurt when she moved it, but that was a worry for herself only. The fact that she wasn't flawless to present to the Earth House was a far greater problem for everyone else.

They had made sure she was presentable in every other way: braided her hair at the back of her head and pinned it with delicate roses, put her in a new dress and gloves and stockings and shoes and all the jewelry to match, painted her face and lined her eyes and shaded her lips red. Only the skin on her shoulder insisted on remaining dark and strangely hued, no matter how much Edna tried to correct the color and cover it.

"I wish I could just give her a cape and be done with it," the Governess grumbled to Sebastian, her Butler, who was standing next to the door to her room, waiting for her to be ready so he could escort her out.

"That's the Earth Scion's relic," Sebastian admonished and Edna huffed.

"Well, let's hope the veil is enough, then," she said and dropped the sponge she had been using to blend the product on Kayla's shoulder to go and fetch the veil the Scion was to wear.

Kayla didn't know what was particularly different about that day. Whether that it was someone from another House, rather than her own, leaving on the Pilgrimage, the gut-wrenching feeling she always got when she was about to be in the same room as one of the other Scions or, more likely, the words she had read on the piece of paper she had stolen, but she felt the acute urge to rip off the pins holding her hair, yell at them that she wasn't some doll to be made pretty for them to display. Yet her body remained motionless, her lips softly closed, as if she was exactly that.

Edna came back a moment later, struggling with the long veil, and pinned it to her hair, pulling it over her shoulders to try and hide the strange hue on the right one.

"Try not to move around much so it won't fall," she said, fixing it one last time as Kayla got up.

The Scion nodded, careful not to disturb the veil's placement, and walked towards the door without bothering to check the vanity mirror or the full-length one next to the closet. Edna huffed again at that, annoyed that her hard work wasn't being appreciated, but Kayla wasn't in the mood to be appeasing other people's emotions that day.

"Are you ready, Scion?" Sebastian asked with a small bow when she got close to him.

Her only answer was to reach for the doorknob and open the door before he could do it for her, a stab of guilt hitting her chest as his elderly features fell for a second and then rapidly composed themselves again into their usual calmness. Neither of them had ever been bad to her. Edna was just fussy and following her orders. Sebastian was naturally aloof and also had his orders, no doubt. It wasn't right to take her anger out on them as if she were a child throwing a tantrum. She almost wished she could cry to them instead. Just let go of all pretense of power and composure and elegance they seemed to think she had and sob her heart out on their chests and ask for comfort. But that most likely wouldn't come and she wasn't going to risk it.

Instead, she walked down the corridors and stairways that took her to the back entrance to the banquet hall, where she was to make her grand appearance on a stage set specifically for her. Not even the King or Crone had that honor. It belonged solely to her and she hated it.

This time, Sebastian was faster in grabbing the bronze doorknob, holding it still for a moment.

"Are you ready, Scion?" he repeated his earlier question.