A Hold of Spectres
Chapter Two
She had made one such friend in her second year of training with a girl named Scarlet. Rhaean had been incredibly shy, which was why it took a year before the two girls actually became closely acquainted. Once they had, they were inseparable. She smiled softly, remembering the day they had really spent time with each other. The girls had all been taught embroidery and they were spending a few hours practicing; Rhaean's hands were small and she had trouble holding the cloth in one hand while navigating the needle over her pattern with the other. She had struggled for some time when Scarlet suddenly walked over to her.
"May I help you?" she asked.
Rhaean blushed and looked around at all of the other girls. They were watching, all of them keenly aware that Scarlet was speaking to Mother Andromeda's actual daughter, and no one had yet dared to do such a thing. She looked back at Scarlet and nodded, too timid to speak. Scarlet sat next to her and leaned in close.
"If you hold the embroidery hoop here," she said, pointing to the side of the wooden hoop, "you will have more control over it than if you hold it on the bottom." She looked at Rhaean and smiled, her brown eyes open and friendly. She was taller than Rhaean by a few inches and lanky, with dark brown hair that she always wore in braids, and pale skin with freckles.
Rhaean looked back down at her embroidery hoop and adjusted her hold on it, moving her hand to where Scarlet had pointed.
"Now, your fabric will remain steadier and your needle will be easier to manage," Scarlet said.
Rhaean tried to continue stitching over her pattern and smiled when it was, indeed, easier. She looked over at Scarlet. "Thank you," she said softly, too timid to say anything else.
Scarlet smiled. "You're welcome." She looked down at the pattern Rhaean had been stitching and smiled even more widely. "Is that the big oak tree just outside? The one that shades half the courtyard?"
Rhaean looked down at her embroidery, suddenly nervous. No one ever paid attention to her. No one ever commented on her work, and she didn't know what to do, or how to respond. She swallowed and nodded quickly, keeping her gaze cast down.
"It looks good!" Scarlet said.
Rhaean chanced a glance up at the girl and saw she was beaming, her eyes bright with excitement. Was she…in earnest? Or was she teasing? Rhaean wasn't sure, but she was caught by the immense joy in the girl's eyes. How could she possibly be so happy in a place like this?
"I mean it. Your colors are perfect, and the branches are shaped exactly as they look in the summer, covered in all those leaves," Scarlet added. "Are you going to include the rest of the courtyard? Or just that tree?"
Rhaean's heart beat fast. She wasn't used to compliments, and she was an even greater stranger to friendliness. Even when the previous cohort had been here, they treated her with something more akin to tolerance than actual friendship. Rhaean had understood that; she was a young child while they were growing into adults. But here, with girls her own age who either wanted nothing to do with her or were too frightened of her mother to try, she was an outsider, an ignored presence simply existing around the others. Not connected. Not wanted.
Until now, it seemed.
"I'm…" she started, her voice faltering, "I was planning on just the tree," she said, unable or unwilling to explain that the tree signified her own isolation in this dark, lonely fortress.
Scarlet nodded. "That will be great, I'm sure," she said, grabbing her own pattern and showing Rhaean. It was a stunning landscape in autumn that reminded Rhaean greatly of the woods around Passing's End as summer faded.
"That's really pretty," Rhaean said, smiling over at the girl.
"It's taking forever to complete," she said, "but I'm happy with the progress."
Such had begun their friendship. They were inseparable, always doing everything together. Most of the Mothers thought this a good thing, seeing as how Rhaean's progress in training improved shortly thereafter. She was still not learning as fast as the others, but she was quickly catching up. They were all pleased to see it, and so encouraged the friendship between the two girls.
All but Mother Andromeda.
Rhaean shuddered as she remembered the ways in which her mother had been cruel to Scarlet, unnecessarily so. Inappropriately so. She would push her to within an inch of utter exhaustion; she would punish her for things every other girl got away with; she humiliated her whenever she made a mistake, berated her for any impertinence, real or imagined, and yet Scarlet never wavered in her friendship with Rhaean. She took each punishment silently, no matter how cruel or abusive, and then always returned to Rhaean for company. She never forsook Rhaean. Never abandoned her. Never blamed her for the abuses she suffered at her mother's hands.
And Rhaean loved her all the more for it.
Finally, some three years later, Rhaean awoke one morning to find that Scarlet was gone. She had been removed from training in the middle of the night. Rhaean hadn't even been given the opportunity to say goodbye. All at once, the only friend, the only ally, she had in all the world was taken away from her. And she grieved for months. She grieved still.
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