Summer Garden

Astrian

Astrian carefully swept up the remnants of the couch. She was fastidious, not a single splinter escaping her attention. Her face was a picture of calm serenity, but her thoughts were a cacophony of... Something else.

Fragments from the Fate's speech. The teasing tone of a divine creature that had so easily cut through the barriers she had carefully erected around her heart. Hearing Trei screaming in pain. Watching his body topple as the Fate vanished. She'd felt as if time had stopped when Trei fell. She'd moved to his side with a teleportation spell, burning through her mana reserves in her urgency, and yet he'd hit the ground before she'd been reassembled. He fell slowly, whilst even at her best she simply wasn't fast enough to catch him.

She wasn't enough for him.

She wasn't a royal, she wasn't a divine. She wasn't the most awe inspiring, and she wasn't the most powerful. She wasn't the most beautiful, and she wasn't an artist who could render beauty. She wasn't a warrior who could destroy an army, and she wasn't the politician whose words could stop whole armies in their tracks. She was a household servant. She cleaned and cooked and most people barely even registered her existence. Her job was best done when no one realised she had even acted. She was the kind of person to fade into the background. Deserved to fade into the background. Glory wasn't hers. It wasn't her right to seek out happiness. That belonged to the people above her.

He belonged to the people above her.

She felt again a stab of pain through her heart as she remembered the flash of auras as Summer had kissed him. She'd died in that moment. Reminded of her place in the realms, and in this household. She was nothing more than a stupid servant girl lusting after her mistress' lover. Her betrothed.

Summer would marry him. That was fate, if nothing else was.

Astrian would fade into the background, a feature of their household. She'd stand quietly in the corner, waiting to be called as Summer's daughter played with Trei in front of her. That was destiny.

The butler paused, letting out a quiet sob as she held the handle of the broom. She couldn't change the world, nor could she change how she felt. She wished she could scream that it was unfair. But it was. She was a nobody.