The Cerulean Bride

Ink Colored Buttons

"Ouch!" Brienna yelped as Cardova's pin stabbed her in the thigh. "You've been doing this too long for that." She hissed as the pain added to her already boiling anger. The plump woman just sighed rolling her eyes.

"And you've been here long enough to know beauty is pain, My Dear." Cardova had been fitting Brienna's dresses since she was six years old. Her mother had appointed her to make all her dresses finer than anything anyone has ever seen, and she did. Brienna had never seen any dress that could even begin to rival her's. Though Brienna thought simpler was better sometimes.

"Why were you screaming at that boy when you slammed the door in his face?" Cardova's brown eyes sparkled with amusement and she looked up from the edges of the dress she was making for tomorrow night's ball. "Is he one of the young men you tell me about that won't leave you alone? I'll send Barric after him. You know my son loves a good fight. That is why he joined the guard."

Brienna's anger boiled again. "I don't want to talk about him."

"Ahh Brienna, Darling." The older woman pushed away on her stool to grab some more pins. Waving her hands in the air and a deep scowl on her face. Tugging on a loose end on her hip Brienna let out a puff of air as the seams grew tighter. She was one of the few people she ever let call Brienna by her name. Cardova had been there for her long enough and she talked her through so many things.

"You're are 18 now you must think of husband and babies."

Brienna's nose crinkled. "I need to leave these castle walls before that happens. I'm far too young for that. Besides, if I marry now it would most likely be to one of my father's council men's sons." Pinching the edge of her nose a vison of shaggy blonde hair and strange brown eyes popped into the back of her mind. The two potential suitors were mildly not right for her. Asher was tall with deep brown hair and golden eyes. Dreamy to other girls here but the lad didn't have a single thought running around in that cavern he called ahead. And Jackmen, Brienna shivered. No. "I'd rather not do that."

Cardova shrugged her shoulders. "Well, you will always have Barric."

They both laughed and in the back of her mind, she silently considered it. Barric had always been very kind to Brienna even when she knew she was being a bit much. He always told her that she was pretty, and he loved the outdoors just as she did. When they were younger Barric had told Brienna to eat a leaf. Completely convinced she would grow wings she didn't think twice before shoving the crunchy green morsel into her mouth. Brienna was sick for a week after that. But despite that, he could handle her attitude, and that was important.

"I'm sure your marriage is far away considering how stressed your father has been since he got some reports this morning from the grasslands."

"The Grasslands?" Brienna's ears tingled with the mention of the place. The small tattoo on her forearm growing heavy. Anlen and her were just shouting at one another over it, had that been just a coincidence? Brienna's eyes narrowed. That ambassador was up to something. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about the reports would you?"

Cardova shook her head focusing on the steams of the dress. "Some kind of uproar." There was a long pause as Brienna stared at the wall wondering what could be in the contents of the report that caused her father so much stress. Personally, she was burning to know if a name would come across the page if she read them. "There." She announced placing the last pin right at her hip.

Brienna didn't even muster a thank you as she left. Knowing she would feel sorry for not speaking later, Brienna glided down the hall to the closest office she could find. Brienna needed paper to scribble the note she was going to write on it. To the only person who she knew had just come back from the grasslands a day earlier. Quietly slipping into the wood-lined room Brienna paused as the fireplace was lit. Daring to stick her head in farther there was nobody there. They must have just left.