The great house Bensari, of the outcast and adrift moon Baes of their same named system. An unimportant world, in the grand scheme, but one visited by the Barges regardless. Bensari being of the great houses on the moon bore the great honor and responsibility to give their own blood for the Barges as tax. A single child, once a generation, to be given wholly to the Barge that visits their system. In most systems a great honor and joy, but of Baes a looming terror.
Baes, and by association its noble houses, is small enough to be ignored but large enough it warrants the siphoning of mana from a Barge. Due to the smallness of the population, even a single member being lost a generation could mean the fall of a noble house into drudgery or worse. While most societies offer their best, brightest, and most worthy, the Bensari house maintains their control by only ever offering what they don’t need. Those who live but become unfit for work, those who show no talent, and the lowest of their high born children. The cycle soon comes to a close, and the Barge soon to arrive by the day. Mevi, a name meaning small by the Baes people’s ancestors, has been long groomed since birth to join the Barges. As such Mevi has been ignored and neglected by all her house, and forced away from her parents and siblings.
Mevi awakens suddenly, clenching her heart tightly as if it may leap from her chest. A nightmare, one she has had for several years but can never remember the contents. While not ideal, Mevi thanks its presence for awakening her so early so as to make herself useful in the bright before the morning. Mevi takes in her surroundings, the soft bedsheets beneath her and woolen blanket now strewn onto the floor both remain the same, her small room being barely large enough to fit a bed made for a child. Mevi climbs from her rest and fixes her sheets to her bed’s frame, smoothing its wrinkles and creases to calm her nerves and slow her heart. She knows something is happening soon, but doesn’t understand what or why. So many of her cousins and revered elders watch her so intently these last few months. Their gazes on her at all times but the earliest hours, when she cleans and tidies the mansion alone, she is graciously welcome in.
Mevi, leaving her undecorated room and collecting her small decorated metal bucket and carved plas-wood mop. These two items being one of the few she calls her own, the mop carved from a fallen branch of an artificial plastoid wood tree, its handle twisting at the end with a crudely crafted flower’s bloom. Not Mevi’s best work, but with her time abundant she finds crafts and cleaning to her liking. Her bucket, an old and should be rusted thing only not for her loving care and attention, painted with flowers and landscape twisting with its curl and bend. Her materials in hand, and the pond close by the work to clean before the house’s awakening begins.
Mevi starts with entering through a nearby hatchway to what she calls “The Pond”. Then her usual filling of the well, maintaining the water reserves of a certain level is a task begrudgingly taught to her by a kinder-than-most cousin. Her bucket filled with a portion of what remains at the bottom of the divine provider, an old device that creates water almost by magic, Mevi begins her cleaning of the mansion. Vast halls of polished stone and metal, befitting that of a single great lord, but strangely cramped for the large noble house. Decorations minimally placed along the empty corridor, large metallic statues of the original colonists twisted into strange art pieces Mevi never truly understood, but understands she is not clever enough to see their meaning. Along the stone tiled floors the shine reflects from the incoming meteors that often fall to the barren icy planet Baes orbits. The tiles themselves each unique but simple and cheap in design, with artistic and inspired designs that flood into shapes of any imagination. Mevi occasionally would become lost tracing their flow through the long hallways when she was younger, though she is older now and knows to not let her imagination wander as often. While otherwise unremarkable, beyond the sigil of the Bensari house a cheap and old design of some strange creature called a bird, the mansion expands as one large hallway marked with rooms and doors on both sides. The main door, in great contrast to the small hatchway to Mevi’s well, two large beams of a substance called wood stretch at least ten meters, arching at the top in a spiraling connection that twists into metallic plates that are etched with inscription. The mighty plasteel doors able to open almost as wide as the doors are tall, but the wooden frame is without blemish or decoration due to its rarity.
While Mevi scurries and scrambles for her duties to clean and polish the marks and dust away from floor, wall, and anything she can reach, the faint light of the Baes star creeps in and fully illuminates the mansion. Suddenly thrust from the dim Mevi works in the blinding light that is almost beautiful as the star’s rays of blue and purples shine through the glass ceiling that protects the household from the outside air that is almost toxic and completely unfiltered. While it is the noble houses’ duty on Baes to provide them, many common workers and people cant afford or obtain a breather that allows for normal unfaltering labor in the muggy outside air. The mists and smoke visible outside through the windowed ceiling even in the dimness of first and last light.
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Mevi quickly finishes, having fully polished and cleaned the entire mansion’s hallway in only a few hours. While machinery, leadership, technology, or heavy labor is outside of her reach, Mevi can take water and rags and clean just about anything in moments. As Mevi admires another good day’s work she hears a crack of a door, a sudden moment of panic flushes the color from her face. Nobody becomes awake this early, the star’s light as it breaches the atmosphere of the planet below creates near-blinding rays until the star is eclipsed again a few hours after first light. Few laborers even attempt to work in the early hours of the morning for fear of sudden blindness.
In the direction of Mevi’s small room, a door creaks slowly open. As if time became slowed, Mevi panics and attempts to internally debate what to do. Deciding on hiding herself, she quickly finds one of the art pieces hanging from the walls, while most are statues or carvings in the wall, some are long drapes or cloth decorations. One such decoration hangs low enough for Mevi to fit behind. She darts quickly and positions herself on the lip of the floor that curls in meeting with the wall. Her small frame useful enough to allow her to press against the tiny ledge and not allow her feet to be visible on the floor. The door finishes opening and clicking heels can be heard, thankfully progressing away from where Mevi hides. Another door is quickly opened but no new feet exit. Mevi presses herself fully against the wall to prevent her form disfiguring the draped cloth. Not able to peak around and past the cloth due to the artistic curve causing it to almost envelop her. The door that was just opened seems to shut after a few moments, and the clicking walks away calmly, but suddenly the clicking stops. Mevi holds her breath, as she remembers the bucket and mop left in the middle of the hallway. Indeed the figure seems to be suddenly walking in this direction. The walking becomes louder and louder as the echoing of shoes against floor tile comes closer and closer. Only what must’ve been a meter away from Mevi’s hiding spot do they stop.
The shoes and their menace stop clicking, but being only a few steps away Mevi knows whoever this is must have stopped next to her clearing supplies. The unknown figure sighs and an elderly and stern man’s voice is heard, “Mevare, I know you must be here somewhere. You wouldn't leave your supplies unguarded.”
Mevi gives no response, hoping the figure has other business and will soon leave.
The voice speaks again, “You know Mevare, the cleaning servitor is able to do this work for you and without your help…”
Suddenly feeling insulted, without meaning to, Mevi blurts out, “But it doesn’t polish the corners as shiny and wastes solution against the walls!” Quickly covering her mouth as if to catch the words before they escaped, Mevi moves and soon falls from behind her perch.
Clattering to the ground, Mevi throws herself to not tangle in the drape’s cloth so as to not pull it down. Landing stomach first, arms and legs sprawled out, a slap against the tile floor echos for a few moments down the hall. Mevi quickly gathers herself into a knee-sitting position and looks up to see who had found her and insulted the art of cleaning. To Mevi’s surprise, it was none other than her revered grandfather, the current leader of the Bensari house.
Mevi’s grandfather, seems to appraise the heap on the floor, “You always seem to rise early, even before the star’s light. Your mastery of stealth makes us none the wiser to the cleaning outside of a few…”
Mevi quietly mutters, “The servitor can reach higher but does a worse job with too much wasted solution… I just wish to be of use, grandfather.”
The man, tall with entirely grayed hair and a short trimmed beard, leans forward with his thin frame as he seems to inspect Mevi further. “You are good at what you do, this is true. But a pointless task is still useless to us. I have need of you, and since you are awake you may come to my quarters as soon as you put your things where they should be.”
Mevi quickly responds, “Yes grandfather, right away grandfather.” Her conditioned responses kicking back in after the pain and startle of her fall fades away.
Both leaving to their respective directions, Mevi begins to clean up what mess she left behind and walk to her room. Then she realizes what grandfather had said, to meet him in his quarters. But Mevi had never been there before, only important people or important meetings are hosted there. Mevi couldn’t possibly be either… Suddenly a pit forms in her stomach, and realizes she could only have done something wrong and is in great trouble. Enough trouble that it warrants an audience with her grandfather, Mevi realizes how badly she wished she wasn’t found. Quickly hastening to her room, Mevi puts her belongings away and begins to get dressed in a proper noble’s tunic and long skirt. Hand-me-downs and old pieces of clothing, but her best dressings she could find. The blue tunic being the only thing that matched her skirt, and while both were simple the soft fabric was regardless extravagant compared to the normal clothes she wore.
Mevi quickly set out to meet her grandfather, not allowing herself to waste any more time than necessary. Whatever was to come, Mevi needed to be strong and mindful of what she hears, regardless of what she may or may not have done wrong.