Chapter Twenty-One: And The Walls Came Tumbling Down
1212 Words
Lady Regina Lione Alpensa.
“No, not that dress, the pink one without the frills, Bernadette!” Regina instructed as she shimmied into her nightgown. “Most of my luggage should be packed for school by now, so why did you not finish the gowns earlier?”
Regina asked as she settled herself on her dressing table, ready to moisturise before her late slumber.
She was late partly due to the wait for her father, but on the news that he would sleep in an inn then take a detour to the academy to see Arusei, she decided to hasten her own admission date.
The idea of being left out of the loop despite being the long lost one sat miserably with her, and at odd hours she felt as though she truly could hear her uncle.
Was Arusei really trying to replace her? Steal what is hers even though she was undeserving?
“The rest of the students will be doing their finals, after which they go for their holidays. Are you certain you cannot wait till the next semester, that you may get set up with the incoming class?” Bernadette, her newly appointed maid, asked.
“What do you mean? I do not need another session with new students. I pride myself in being a fast learner, so I am sure I will fit in splendidly with the students in Arusei’s year.” She answered, “Plus ‘homeschooled’ doesn’t mean behind. At most, it is by only a few units which I can compensate over the next two weeks while the rest are doing their finals.”
She did believe herself a fast learner. Perhaps not enough to top all the nobles in the exams, but still, if Arusei could do it, could she not?
“Okay, but all these ball gowns…there is no need to have all these ball dresses in reserve. Especially if you intend only to attend the final two weeks of the semester.”
“That may be so, later on in the term when Arusei’s group leave but did you not see the letter from Princess Pricilla! She wishes for me to join the upper circle in the upper rooms. I cannot disappoint.”
“Hmm, alright then. What else?”
“We need to go shoe shopping tomorrow. Dearest sister doesn’t have any nice shoes I can borrow.”
“Are you certain? I hardly packed her good shoes. She always saves those for outings?”
“Really? I guess our tastes differ because I find the remaining shoes plain?”
“Lady Arusei does not like to bypass the marquis’s budget. Everything in her wardrobe has either been gifted from potential suitors, his lordship, and friends or items she bought.”
Friends?
Regina thought curiously but chose to pursue another line of thought.
“Is that not disrespect to the Marquis?” Regina frowned, “Father ought to do something about that. I mean, by refusing to use father’s money. Is she not shaming him? What if other families begin to address our financial situation as lackadaisical?”
“Oh, my ladyship, who would dare?”
“Well, not now, but if we let sister do as she pleases, then our family name will be ruined.”
“Hmm, you are right. Truthfully, when she first came here, dressed in torn clothes that smelled of street filth, I could not believe that the Marquis brought her!?”
“Was she dirty? Why? Where was Arusei from?
“Oh, dear! Have the maids told you nothing?”
“Have the maids told me nothing of what?”
“Of Lady Arusei, do you not know that she is the child of a p********e?”
“What!”
“Apparently, her mother grew ill, so she asked the Marquis to care for her.”
“How- how does father know a p********e?”
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“You must not drop your guard. The child your father took in wishes to take everything from you, you know.”
“What do you mean, uncle?”
“I mean that if you show kindness, one mistake, and everything shall be stolen from underneath your feet. I have met the girl. Cunning as a fox.”
“But…she is my sister? Father, in our correspondences, asked that I think and treat her as a sister!”
“Did you not hear? She is to be the next Empress. A title that should have been yours from the beginning.”
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Regina shuddered at the memory of one of her last conversations with her uncle.
“Why was father with a p********e!”
This time, the words were a command, not baseless gossip to humour Bernadette.
She turned hastily to the maid, dropping the cream in its rightful position.
“Well?” Regina pressed at the continued silence.
As though noticing the abrupt change, Bernadette no longer maintained her upright and confident posture. Her gaze was to the floor, near her third suitcase.
“I believe I asked you a question, Bernadette,” Regina said as she slowly stood to face the maid.
“Y-you must promise not to tell his lordship!”
“I will not, now out with it!”
“He was lonely.”
“Lonely?”
“Your father had just lost your mother, and then there you were, the physicians all certain of your shortened lifespan. The lord was devastated.”
“We- we were all certain his lordship would….”
“Would what?” her voice shuddered as she asked the question in an emotion she was all too familiar with.
But Bernadette did not continue with her line of thought.
“Her ladyship’s mother seduced a wounded man.” Bernadette continued, “So he took care of her, out of responsibility. You understand how virtuous your father is.”
“So they used father? Is that what you are saying.”
“H-how else would a prostitutes child represent this family?” Bernadette stumbled, “And soon if all goes according to your father, she will be the Empress and then-,”
A hard bang echoed in the room, silencing the maid.
It took Regina a while to notice the sting on the palm of her hand at the movement she could not remember initiating.
Surely it was unforgivable! It had to be!
How dare those wretched women try and toy with the Alpensa name! How dare they use father in such a foul way!?
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Lady Arusei E. Alpensa
The beast came into view slowly as my hesitation grew more founded. By ‘into view’, I mean simply where the moonlight reflected.
It was pale and ghostly, its eyes a gleaming red similar only to the blood dripping down its hand. Its body was clad in armour so tight you'd think it was embedded in their skin.
Their hair was a pale, deathly white that seemed to flow haphazardly with the wind.
Its expression was dormant, unchanging in the way it exposed its gagged and sharp teeth that did not promise he would do poorly unequipped.
Everything in the creature matched the bestiary definition of a wight. In simple terms, a powerful undead.
- Writer
