The Scar

The warm spring breeze wafting gently down the bustling streets of Ouest set hearts aflame, and young Mistress Jana Trence, the general’s headstrong daughter, burned with the need for adventure. A young lass of thirteen years, her days had been filled all winter long with musty old books and tedious studies, so when the sun melted the last of the snow from the ground, she knew she had to get outside. Not just out of the house, but out of Ouest itself. After breakfast, she cornered Merlie, her handmaiden and best friend, who spent the morning in the kitchen with the other servants. Jana found the older girl seated on a wooden stool by the fire, pinching boiled beans from their skins into a metal tin. Merlie’s long, blonde curls were swept up off her slender neck in an untidy tumble atop her head, and Jana had to resist the urge to pluck at the corkscrew strands as she snuck up behind the servant. “Hey, you,” Jana whispered, coming up behind Merlie. “What ‘cha doing?” If Jana expected Merlie to jump, she was disappointed. Merlie continued pinching the beans and, without breaking rhythm, blew a wayward curl out of her face. “Hey, yourself, mistress. What does it look like I’m doing?” “Working.” Jana stepped around Merlie and pouted. “I’m tired of working. The ice is gone and the air is clear, and I’ll have no more of this working business on such a glorious day. How about we get out for a while?” At eighteen, Merlie knew her place in the world was at her mistress’s side. But she also knew she had chores to do, and Jana had studies to attend to, so Merlie gently nudged Jana back with one elbow and replied, “You know there’s a lot to be done today…” But Jana’s heart was set, and she brushed Merlie’s protests aside. “Exactly!” she said, waving his arms wide. “The whole world awaits! They say there’s a mysterious man who lives so deep in the Austral Mountains, he’ll give the first person to find him a set of magical runes. That could be us, Merle! I could find him!” Merlie wasn’t impressed. “Mistress Jana, I have these beans to prepare, and soup to make, if you plan to have lunch today.” “So we’ll take it outside, have a picnic.” With that, Jana swept the bowl of beans from Merlie’s hands. When the servant reached to take them back, Jana jumped nimbly aside and raced past her for the door. “Come! The world awaits!” “Young mistress!” Exasperated, Merlie chased after Jana, knowing that whatever her orders were, she could never tell the girl no. “Jana, come back here! Your father will have my hide!” Jana’s girlish giggles rang through the courtyard of the luscious home then out into the crowded streets. Lifting her skirts, Merlie chased after her charge. When she caught sight of Jana, the younger girl leaned nonchalantly against the open gates of the city, munching on an apple she’d snagged from a vendor in passing, the bowl of beans in the crook of her elbow. “Jana,” Merlie gasped, slowing to catch her breath. “Come now, we have to get back.” “Aw, Merlie! Just a quick picnic!” Jana held the bowl toward Merlie, who saw it had been filled with fruit and cheese as the girl raced past the stalls lining the city street. No one would complain, she knew—Jana was the general’s daughter. Any food she took would be billed to him discreetly. Merlie looked at the dingy cobblestones and the people hurrying about. “Here? At the city gates?” Jana nodded out past the gates, where the land opened to a rolling meadow edged in by dense trees. “How about out there? It looks nice enough.” Merlie shook her head. “Oh no, not outside the city walls! You know what your father said—” “He doesn’t have to know.” Before Merlie could protest further Jana was outside the city, racing for the dark grass growing deep beside the forest. With a sigh, Merlie trotted after her charge, praying under her breath that the general would linger at the palace and not come home early to find his daughter outside of the city walls.