Meiandra Arvis is sitting on a covered wagon. The covered wagon is part of a two-wagon covoy. The second wagon is a carriage. The weather is terrible. It's the rainy season. Everywhere is mud. The convoy has an escort. They are not soldiers, but two women with swords, whom Meia does not know. We learn that the country is called Jena and that Meia is traveling with this convoy because she is the maid of a certain person. 'Meia's mistress was Erika Brandt Von Rosenberg, the queen of the country.'
.../
Flashback:
Meia reads a book and complains about its contents. She is at home in bed. We learn that it was her birthday recently and that it's the rainy season. Eventually she puts the book aside and goes downstairs for breakfast. Her father is reading the newspaper. He barely pays any attention to her. The table is set. Meia eats. In the meantime, the lady of the house comes back from shopping. The water tank is broken. That's her next chore. Her father gets the mail. Meia takes the newspaper. The headline tells us where we are. 'Jena Southwest District, Wiestahl Prefecture' The Arvis family are the administrators of this prefecture. There has been a war between Jena and a country called Ceramare for longer than Meia has been alive.
All of a sudden her father is very excited. He gives Meia a letter addressed to her. The letter is an invitation to a summer party and comes from a man who is not unknown in Jena. 'Jean Monet, 1st Noble, 2nd Son of the Monet Clan, Area Administrator of Jena North-East, Stadtholder of Blenas, Guardian of the North Cape' are his titles. We learn that the Arvis also belong to the nobility. In the letter, the man sounds besotted with Meia. But she doesn't even remember having met him before.
Her father has been trying to hook Meia up for some time. For him, the letter is a blessing. He parades up and down enthusiastically.
Suddenly there's a loud bang. "Mr. Arvis! The tank!" shouts the housekeeper. The water comes down the stairs after her. Her father scolds her, then hurries upstairs with her. Meia remains sitting alone. After a while, she sees her shoe float past. "The front door is closed," she realizes. All the water runs into the dining room.
.../
It's lunchtime. Meia has been dressed up by the housekeeper while her father pesters her with instructions. The family home is on a hill. The village is in the valley. A carriage comes to pick her up. The horses are majestic. ~The horse has better hair than me.~ Her father presses bottles of wine onto the coachman as a gift. Meia strokes one of the horses, then they drive off. Alone in the carriage, Meia becomes melancholic. She gets her hopes up. Eventually she falls asleep.
Meia is woken up by a handsome man. She quickly realizes that it is Mr. Monet himself. He leads her to the back of the courtyard, then through his garden. There are no other guests. It seems as if he wants to spend time alone with her and has therefore let her come early. Mr. Monet wears a blue cross as a badge. It is the family symbol. There is a pool in the courtyard and Meia puzzles over a large wooden ball floating in the water. There are also two beautiful maids. There are strange plants in the garden. It's something like a vine. The vines have infiltrated the whole garden and Meia finds it eerie. We learn along the way that Meia is 16 years old.
After the garden, the two are back in the courtyard and Mr. Monet offers Meia coffee and cake. Before the maid can serve, a man comes up to Mr. Monet. He whispers something in his ear. Then Mr. Monet suddenly has to leave, leaving Meia alone. After the meal, the maid takes her to the toilet, then to the reading room. Meia finds the toilet surprisingly interesting. 'Meia bent down next to the toilet so that her dress didn't touch the floor and knocked the wall to examine it.' The toilet was in the outside wall. Meia wondered if there were any pipes. Apparently it wouldn't normally have been built like this and it seems that Meia herself isn't quite normal either.
Meia talks to the maids and the butler. She meets Mr. Monet's half-sister. In passing, she learns a lot about these people. One of the maids is strict. The other maid is just fooling around all the time. The butler is quite normal, but Meia keeps seeing him in different roles and suspects tax evasion.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
On the second floor is a large double door with a carving. There is a pretentious text on the door.
In the reading room is a large tree made of a luminous material called Krystafei. There is a pretentious text under the tree.
Krystafei is sometimes used by the rich as a source of light. Poor people tend to use gas or oil.
It is evening. Guests arrive. Meia is dressed in a different dress by one of the maids. She is very uncomfortable because she is wearing revealing underwear.
The maid leaves her alone, even though the dress doesn't fit in one crucial area. Meia has to stuff it so that it stays up at all.
At the bottom of the stairs, a brat sits and builds a castle out of ice cubes in the doorway. One of the maids doesn't like the way he is behaving and kicks the castle to pieces. The brat threatens, then runs away. Meia comes into the courtyard. Everything is full of guests. Her plan is to get to know people, but each of her attempts fails, and then she is even reprimanded.
'When Meia stepped all the way to the edge of the pool, she gave up her plan to make friends. She saw her reflection in the water and understood again that she was waste. She had been fooling herself. Just because one person had a motive to be temporarily nice to her did not mean it was true for everyone. Friends did she want to make? Why would anyone want to be friends with a worthless person like her? What reason could there possibly be? The answer to that question was simple. - There was none.'
In the end, Meia stands sadly in the corner. Then she finally sees Mr. Monet, who had not come to see her. She wants to go to him, but the dress is too long and she falls down on. Of course, Mr. Monet helps her up again and then leads her into the dark hallway. Meia wants to kiss him, but he activates his virgin shield in time and is able to ward her off.
He sends Meia home. Not because of the kiss. For unknown reasons.
"I'm sorry, my plans have changed. That's all."
Then he leaves, but not before putting a handkerchief in her hand because she is crying.
.../
In the middle of the night, Meia arrives back home. Her father is furious. He hits her so hard that she falls to the floor at the table, then he picks her up again.
"Do you know how much work it is for me to give you opportunities like this? And what do you make of it. Nothing! You never make anything out of it. Once again you've ruined everything. Are you doing this to spite me! All day long you don't have to do anything while I put your food on the table and put a roof over your head and throw money out of the window for you! And where's the gratitude for that!"
Meia says nothing about all the accusations. Finally, her father sends her to bed.
Meia is lying in bed. She cries and reflects.
~No one needs you. No one knows you. No one hates you. No one loves you. You are worthless.~
In anger, she scratches her arm until she bleeds.
'It was not the light that was empty. - There might have been a bed in this room, but there was no one in it. It was just an empty room.'
.../
Her father kicks her out. He sends her to work at the royal court. In winter, she comes to the capital of Kiras and becomes a maid. After just under six months, she is unexpectedly promoted to the position of maid to the queen. She has done nothing for it. She has no idea why. But she is happy to have her own room now.
.../
Meia is woken up early by a seagull. She has a tower room with a sea view and a prison window.
'Black sails broke out of the fog and dragged white veils onto the sea. ~Pirates?~ Suddenly thunder roared through the walls. The cannons from the palace fired their charges in chains. The force of the weapons rattled the window and made the glass vibrate.' The ships were fired upon. The first was sunk. A second caught fire.
Meia continued to watch. It looked as if the ships wanted to turn away, but they didn't.
'A sound became loud. It was like a violin being bowed, but it sounded as if the instrument was being pushed to its limits, as if the strings were about to snap, as if it were a plea to stop. The sound got louder and louder. It drowned out the bells and then the cannons. It was a sound that tore the air apart. It was pure noise.'
The ships fired at the palace and the bullets sounded like violins in a school play. Meia hid under her table.
'It took an eternity. Meia did not know how long. Then the shelling stopped.
A man breaks through the door to get to her. Meia recognizes him. It's Francis Monet from the Kingsguard. He is the uncle of Jean Monet. He talks to her, but Meia barely understands what he is saying. He puts a band-aid on her leg and carries her out of the room like a sack of cement.
Downstairs, there is a head count, after which Meia goes to the doctor and then she is placed under arrest. Meia doesn't know why. She doesn't get an explanation either.
Two weeks later, in the morning, she is almost kicked out of bed, has to pack her things and is taken to the convoy.
.../
Meia is on the convoy. The two women that act as the escort are described. One woman is sexy. The other woman is scary and wears a mask.
The sexy woman talks to Meia and is nice. She intruduces herself as Violet. After she leaves again, a piece of cloth comes to her side. Meia doesn't know what it is.
Next, the scary woman comes up to Meia and pulls her off the wagon. Meia doesn't know what she wants.
"Follow."
.../ End V01