"My Lady?" Sofia felt something nudge her body, she waved it away but no matter how fast she swatted at it the annoying nudges continued.
"Huh?" She felt something peel off her cheeks with a crunchy sound of a page-turning over filling her empty mind. She smacked her tongue against the front of her teeth trying to click, her mouth felt as dry as a barrel of salt and she felt her dry lips break sending an unpleasant sting down her jaw. With one hand she touched her right chin which felt numb from laying on it all night while reaching for a glass of water she remembered putting nearby.
*Splash*
The glass of water nudged by Sofia's fingers tipped to its side and the sound of water splattering on the polished floorboards caused her to gasp. The noblewoman instantly felt the lingering sleepiness disappear and she lunged for the crystal glass, feeling her chest hit the floorboard with a loud thump. She didn't manage to catch the glass but no sound of the expensive glass shattering ever came.
"I don't think it is healthy for you to be falling asleep here, my Lady." The maid of house Junker, Annette was standing over the hero's granddaughter holding the crystal glass in her hand. She put it down before helping her sleepy Mistress to stand up.
As she was placed on the bed, the scion of house Junker wondered how her heavily tanned maid was managing to always wake up before her and look like she always did, perfectly organised and collected.
"I feel like a mess." Sofia ran her hand across her face trying to remember why she hadn't slept in the soft bed which was calling to her, inviting her to lay down and take a bell-long nap. "Did I fall asleep while studying, Annette?"
"It would appear so my Lady," Her maid closed the open window before helping her put on her morning garb. "I know that you take your studies very seriously but I would say that there is no finer lady than you if only you have a proper sleep."
Sofia wanted to scoff at her maid's pity. Even with her family sending her to the other side of the world she felt a sense of duty burn inside her heart upon hearing that the tensions between her family homeland, Catalina and Anglas had boiled over into a war which consumed much of the minor kingdoms in the Pass too.
Her father sending her to Oriripol's magical university often called the Academy seemed now like a blessing. Many noble houses had sent their children to Oriripol, not only noble spares but their heirs too.
When she arrived in the city in early spring she had to spend the season with her father's friend, a retired low-Adamantite rank adventurer named Solan who had set up a trading company inside the city using the fortune had gathered in his youth. She learned that her father had saved Solan in his early years, he seemed like a good man and eager to pay off his debt to her father. She was enrolled in the Academy at the end of spring as an Aurum since that was what Solan was willing to pay.
The students were divided into two bodies, native Oriri nobility and outsiders with further subdivision based on how much a person paid to get into the school. Every rank meant something in Caiserspiel and her rank meant gold, the other free-ranks were silver and platinum placing her in the middle but most of the students were of lower rank than her. Each rank differed on what they could and couldn't do and where they lived with platinum rankers sleeping in a separate wing and being able to take any book back to their room while silver rankers lived like she expected monks did, with humble room for a noble being their only private amenity. Strangely everyone received the same lectures which seemed odd for the city with so many divisions but it made sense given where the two Estates ruling the city came from. Sophists were the rich nobles of Oriripol while Geni'i were the intellectuals primarily coming from the talented noble spares attending the Academy, this meant that having same lectures gave neither side an advantage or rather ensured the people staffing the Academy didn't fizzle into political obscurity.
The year seemed to have few foreign students attending but during the late spring and early summer, nobles flocked to the city as the campaigning season began and it was clear war was about to start. This was a perfect environment for Sofia to try to help her family, forging alliances with the future heads of many noble houses in the Pass and beyond. Unfortunately, her efforts bore little to no fruits and she didn't understand why. She might have been a noble from the frontier but she had a Hero's blood inside her and she was her father's sole daughter so she expected at least some male heirs to take an interest in helping her as they did in the books she read.
Feeling useless caused the noble with golden hair to redouble her efforts, studying both magic and noble protocol leaving little time for herself.
*Sigh*
"What is my schedule today?" Sofia who simply followed her maid's instructions as she was dressed in a forest green gown meant for outside asked.
"You have a free day today," Her maid replied. "The first snow had fallen earlier today so be careful when walking on the road. Tomorrow my Lady you have an enchanting lesson in the morning followed by general magic theory."
"No tea?"
"Nobody you had sent invitations to had answered."
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"Annette, what am I doing wrong?"
"I do not know my Lady. Maybe they are thinking about their demesnes, most of the people you wrote letters to are members of houses near the Catalina-Angals border."
"But wouldn't helping each other gain us a better chance of surviving?"
"It would."
Sofia's shoulder slumped before she massaged her temple, praying to the Aspects her house could survive without her help. She stepped forward toward the mirror looking over herself, a big red patch dominating the right side of her face. She picked up a comb and started to fix her slightly messy hair before opening a cupboard and taking a package from it.
It was the last day of the week and most students either relaxed for the day or studied in the library from the early morning. She was planning to study in the afternoon but seeing how much light flooded her room it was safe to assume her current task would eat up her study time making her wonder if should she take this day off.
"I'm going to the shop." Sofia called out to her stoic maid waving the package in the rough shape of a pair of gloves above her head.
"May Aspect bless you."
The heroic descendant closed the door to the room she shared with her maid. Each person was allowed a single servant no matter their rank, meaning that the small room assigned to Argenti students had a stacked bed inside of it. Unlike them, she and Annette slept in two different rooms connected by a small living room.
She followed the red carpet until it ended, she turned left and headed outside. Just like she thought she hadn't seen anyone while she walked until she passed the library which was filled with people. It still shocked her that so many people could be so quiet.
"I didn't know how much I would miss the spell of spruce." She muttered as she felt the cold almost homely air brush against her.
Sofia carefully loosened the knot keeping the leather bag closed and peeked inside. Inside there were two leather gloves with the right-handed glove tied together with a metal gauntlet. A warm orange light resembling a dying amber filled the bag. A feeling of pride filled her boyish chest, it took her three days to complete these. The gloves had a resist cold enchantment which took her less than a bell to finish, rather the articulating plates of the gauntlet proved to be the real issue given that none of her teachers ever mentioned what to do with an item made from lots of little things. Eventually, she found a crude solution which caused her to slave at these gauntlets for days but it was her solution which worked flawlessly.
Sofia gave the order back to the armour smith receiving a pouch full of coins. She had offered the owner of the forge a fair deal where she would enchant any piece of armour he had to reforge, losing the enchantments in the process for a very low price. She found having to be careful with a thing she enchanted helped her level up her Enchanter class. She turned around but rather than returning to the Academy building she chose to walk around its tall walls which blocked the wind from entering any of its many courtyards. Approaching the back entrance she heard a guard stationed there shouting at someone.
At the foot of the narrow staircase were two women, a tall elf with a fair complexion and long black hair adorned with a beautiful flower. Beside the elf with a soul-grasping frown trained at the guard was a hooded figure. Sofia would never guess the sex of the person under the hood if not for a strong gust of wind blowing the cloak upward exposing an exotic-looking dress underneath.
"What's happening here?" Sofia called out, the guards stationed around the Academy were not ordinary guards but rather its private military recruited from its students and they had a reputation for being very pompous.
"These kaffars here wanted me to explain what that word means so I did."
Sofia furrowed her eyebrows daubting the guard. She hated how Oriripol's faithlessness caused them to fracture the already fractured humanity further but having a street argument seemed pointless.
She felt her goosebumps appear all over her body as she approached the two. The elf herself seemed already suspicious, why would an elf be in the city and why would she want to enter the Academy with the symbol of Adventurer Guild hanging under her neck?
Sofia's sea-green eyes carefully inspected the elf, finding no other oddities, she wore good quality clothes which seemed appropriate for a person of her profession.
Huh?
The noble felt her heart jump to her throat as her eyes focused on the only thing poking out of the shorter woman's cloak. A signet ring made out of dark silver gleamed on a snow-white finger. It bared the coat of arms of a family the scion of house Junker only read in very old books as it wasn't a big house nor was it a house expected to be seen in the ballrooms of common aristocracy.
What is a Blackworm doing here? Doesn't Firmusa hate Oriripol and mages? Is it about the war? No, Firmusa could be said to be on the other side of the world in terms of this Southern war. Is the new king trying to say something... This could be big if I'm not seeing things.
Just in case she was wrong Sofia asked the two where are they from. The longer her eyes focused on the hooded woman the more she felt stupid for asking. The noble under it had skin so delicate and soft looking only the highest of noble daughters from the far north could achieve.
"No." The elf's cold emotionless voice sent shivers down the Valewomen's spine. She put herself between the girl under the hood and Sofia before turning around.
Suddenly something clicked for Sofia and the elf ceased to be an adventurer and became a maid. Elves were common servants in the high noble houses, some were actual servants while others were the reason for the pointer ears and powerful magical prowess of others.
"Wait..." Sofia shouted, her mind spouting words trying to turn the high noble around, her mind racing with thoughts.
Before she noticed she was standing alone her back leaning on the back door of the academy while her imagination chased the clouds. She only remembered seeing the back of an Academy staff getting further and further away, strange unintelligible whispers echoing through her skull.
Was I imagining things?
----------------------------------------
Later that day
"Are you sure this happened?" Annette asked, after listening to the story her Lady had received. She lifted herself from her seat and leaned toward Sofia, placing her hand on the noble's forehead. "It's hot."
"I don't know what happened. I think I blanked out at the end." The blond woman rested her face in her hands causing her maid to open a shelf in the tea table in front of them and reach for a herbal tincture. "Annette, do you think the war is going our way?" She said as her mind returned to the subject plaguing her mind since the news of the war arrived in Oriripol.
"I think that my Lady should stop worrying about things only in the hands of the Divine." The Catalinan woman said calmly while pouring the medicine into her Lady's cup.
"I feel like I have to do something. I can't live with a good mind doing nothing while my family are out there, fighting." The golden-haired descendant of a hero felt her body relax as the bitter-sweet taste of spring in her demesne filled her mouth.
"I'm sure if you pray for it, Aspects will grant you an opportunity to fill that void in your heart." The maid's words clearly pierced the sleepy haze which overtook her vision.
With a dextrous move, the maid freed the cup from her Lady's grasp, setting it on the table behind her with great skill as her other hand pushed Sofia's head back. The slightly older woman shook her head hopelessly as her Mistress fell asleep in the room reserved for the night by her. It was improper for a noble to sleep in the same room as their servant but it was even more improper for a servant to take residence in Master's chamber leaving the Catalinian maid at an impasse.
Letting out a sigh the maid made sure that the front door was locked before going around their living quarters finishing all nightly preparations. Locking the windows shut the maid pulled a string on the couch pulling a small platform making sleeping on the couch no different than sleeping on a bed.
"Good night." Annette said while she lay down on her bed with her uniform on, unable to even think about being so brazen as to change herself while her Lady slept in the same room.
The image of the golden-haired scion disappeared as the tanned woman blew out the last candle keeping the darkness away.