The Ar’vor family home was quite spacious to Lily, paintings of old ancestors from past generations hung on the wall, some she didn’t even know by name but she did know her great great great grandpa, who died after insulting a poor farmer but sadly the poor farmer got his whole family executed but what a tale to tell Lily mused, the floor was cold and newly cleaned, the marble that once was full of dust was sparkling and clean but also horrifyingly cold.
Lily called out to her maids, Sio and Vina, two maids that had been taking care of her since the day of her birth, they were good company but Lily thought they were becoming too friendly and quite braced in their attitude which needed to be ironed out but time was ticking.
A maid with short hair and a burly build came running towards Lily, “Yes, Lily.” She answered out of breath, Lily looked at her up and down before answering “Get the bath ready and tell Vina to get my night clothes ready.”, Sio ran back to the second floor towards Lily's bathroom not before bowing.
Lily looked at her trembling hand as the maid left, the smears of red made her almost puke, was he dead? Did she pierce his heart, could he still be alive calling for help? Was her plan all that easy? The air became too thick to swallow, and the reddish stains on her hands became unbearable, the existence of it was a mistake, a stain which marked her for years to come unless it was cleansed, Lily looked around her in a panic, her eyes darting towards each corner of the hallway, her heart raced, breathing became harder, she was being watched she thought but by who? Lily moved around in circles checking every window in the house, passing the maids without a word, she didn’t dare to talk now, she had to ease her mind.
Her body ached as she pushed open the first window beside the living room, the night cloaked whoever was watching her, it had to be him and here he was plotting to kill her soon, no doubt Lily concluded “COME OUT” she yelled outside the window, “COWARD” she cried but only the desert answered in silence, the ever burrowing desert, the historian and the thing that outlasts us, the sand kept skeletons of all eras of history and now it kept her secret she hoped.
Lily backed away from the window, the night was still young and the fatigue of running took hold of her, yawning as she walked towards the bath, the smell of sweat was foul and it had to be cleaned, the hot water relaxed the tense muscles, the maid waited inside, Lily hated being spied on but for today she would allow it.
Tomorrow was still hours away as Lily got out of the bath snapping her fingers for the maid to dry her up, Lily rubbed her hands, they felt clammy, and her eyes darted towards corners until the task was done which she hurriedly dismissed the maid, she had to be alone for a while, she wasn’t her usual herself, she was acting erratic she wasn’t herself, herself she repeated, those words felt like a dagger piercing her heart, she had only herself but if it meant losing what else did she have. be cool as the sand was the saying in her home, she had to calm down as tomorrow would show her the true results of her labour.
Lily opened the door to her room which was connected to her personal bathroom, papers and books of all sorts laid upon her desk all mixed in with each other, her bed tidied up but filled with yesterday's clothes, cleanliness was at the bottom of the list of things she was going to do right now but a bit of studying would make her forget about tonight she assured herself, grabbing the bulkiest book which sat in the middle, its title covered with desert dust as she also forgot to close the windows after going out. She blew air on the front revealing the title of the book “Istoria” she muttered, a word that meant nothing today, its meaning lost in the desert edges, she carefully flipped the book, and Lily's finger travelled across the edges of the book feeling the leather that was bound to the book tears were many even on the paper pages which if not carefully turned would tear off, history was a fragile thing, as a story teller it tells us the wrongs and the rights of living things, defeats and victories, inventions and revolutions all in some way bad or good, each feat done by a different person, different species with a different mind set but with all the greatest achievements we accumulated, we had one fall, a dark time which the beating heart of faith crumbled to bits, the age of isolation, the book she so held was written during that time, when the great house of Ar’vor was just but a farmer name and when sentinel was nowhere to be seen letting the untamed desert fill itself with life, tribes of various nations planting their lives in the desert soils, pilgrimages to the undiscovered desert of Amnoria but we don’t know why? Why did the people travel to the desert? Why did they stay after the separation were the questions the book held but it was twisting it in every way it could, hiding the truth behind religious stories, night time stories of short length and finally lying, the book lied about many things, Lily's tutor once ranted about how many things the book speaks on is all just make-belief or word play, “Its a tragedy built upon the gripping interest a scholar might have for an old book like it, it laughs at your face, be littles you and wastes your time.” he would go on until the lesson was over, he was quiet talkative and idiotic Lily would think as she listened on and on about his academics, lessons always started with the bloating and ended with discovery, his way of teaching history irritated her and enraged her, the book was the last copy of its kind, its leather was made of human skin, touching the covers disgusted her but it didn’t feel like human skin rather it felt like regular old leather which horrified her even more, how many more books could there be that were made with humans or different races was a thought she wouldn’t wanna imagine, but it was important for it be bound, bounding books in the old times were harder then most think and leather was as rare as water.
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Lily looked out of the window, the white marble in the sky was no more, it meant dawn would soon come, Lily sighed, the exhaustion she felt was no more, she didn’t desire to sleep until she found out the news, the confirmation that he was dead, gone, buried in the deepest pit they could find, the uneasy feeling still wouldn’t die down, they were so far from civilisation but yet so close, it irked her but she also missed the talkative noble ladies that visited the house often, the chirping of gossip and drama was a quiet grand but studying had to take root, the saying “Studying is bitter but at the end, it's sweet” was a saying that her father used to say and it was the only good he ever said.
The studying lasted hours as she looked over history again, math, literature, old and new, geography and finally the ugly subject of politics of inner sentinel. It's a touchy subject to most but Lily loved every bit of it, learning about the mistakes of other people was great fun for Lily. Still, most importantly, she was keen on learning the ins and outs of the law she could use. Still, she lacked something, an important part of politics from what she got was–Experience, her family barely went into sentinel so she didn’t know many of the noble lines that resided in there, the only thing she knew was, how to walk but she didn’t know how to run and the only place to learn politics is if it failed at its own game which would cause.–Conflict, well not against another country but a collection of them, the so-called war of the desert they call it now has been going on for years, the war for land or even crumb of it resulting in thousands of deaths but why was the real question that lingered with Lily was. Why are they so interested in land that barely maintains itself, with sunderings happening more often than ever? The answer was somewhere in sentinel.
Lily in her dreamscape of studying overheard a voice yelling and commanding the maids, the only person who would fit that description would be her uncle, her dear old uncle, to lily he was like her second father, a bit better than her father but the mutual hate she had for the previous one stayed for the next.
A second voice, a voice of pleading rang out which Lily instantly recongnized, her little brother, her only family member she deeply cared for, her heart was racing, breathing became a choir, and exhaustion swamped her body as she fell and walked toward her bed, she had to shut the voices, her plan was perfect and for it to fail to her heart would be—bad, for this one night she had to forget so she could remember later, she had to forget, FORGET, FORGET. Lily's breathing became erratic, her eyes darted towards the window, and she felt her heart tear up even thinking about her brother's voice, suddenly in seconds, she couldn’t hear, breathing was still hard but she couldn’t hear, her eyes could barely see anything until she could nothing and passing out in her bed.