The morning of Anise's wedding day, she awoke to a knock on her door. 

"Anise?" Her sister Violet peeked around the door. "Can I come in?" 

"Of course."

Violet had a bundle of white fabric in her arms. She sat on Anise's bedside and smoothed the skirts out on the bed. 

"I... For your wedding gown... I know there wasn't time to prepare anything but... This was my dress from last spring. It's the only suitable thing I could find. It'll be too big, but we can cinch it tight with this ribbon, and it'll be long but... Wedding gowns are meant to have a train, right?"

Anise hugged her sister. "Oh, Violet. You are too sweet for your own good..."

"What? This is the least I can do for my favorite sister on her wedding day."

They hugged each other fiercely. 

"I am going to miss you the most," Anise sniffled.

"H-hey... No crying. Your eyes will be all red and puffy for the ceremony..."

She's trying so hard to make this seem normal. 

"Is Kalina furious with me?" 

Violet ignored the question. "For a veil, I found this... It's the overlayer for one of my winter gowns, but that style has been out of fashion for two seasons now..."

Anise sighed quietly to herself and let Violet help her out of the bed.

She felt very much like a life-sized doll as Violet dressed her. Is this what it's like to have a maid dress you every morning?

"Now, turn around. Lift your arms. Face me again?" 

"Violet," Anise couldn't help but laugh. "You've fussed at me enough."

"No I haven't. We haven't even started on your hair!" 

"I've been doing my own hair for nineteen years now. I'm sure I can manage."

The dress was a white, gauzy thing with fabric so thin it seemed to float on the air. The spring fashions that year had been all about pastoral scenes. Young girls in pastels, with plain and simple designs. 

With sleeves that draped off the shoulders and long skirts made even longer by the sisters' height difference... "Do my shoulders have to be this bare? I feel like the dress is about to slide off at any moment."

Violet laughed. "It will not. I danced in that thing for hours with no issues. It will be fine for a walk down the aisle."

The pale blue ribbon around her waist did its best to hide how much the dress didn't quite fit, but it still felt like... "Like wearing a cloud."

"That's a good thing!" 

"If you say so..."

"And look!" Violet handed Anise the long white stick she often used as a cane. A strip of the blue ribbon had been cut and tied to the top to match her dress. 

"It's beautiful, Violet." She took it and smiled at her sister, but Violet was turned away. 

"Have you, um... Have you finished packing?" She busied herself with the veil, not looking up. 

"Yes. I didn't have much to pack... Just my clothes, some books, and a few other things."

Violet nodded, giving no other response. She looked at Anise in the mirror and clicked her tongue. "Wish we had a necklace..."

"Oh, hold on." Anise went to the small trunk she'd packed her things in. A moment later she returned with an amber pendant on a plain chain. 

"What is this?" Violet took it from her and helped clasp it behind her neck. "I've never seen this before."

"It was my mother's. Or... So I've been told." She fidgeted with the drop of amber. It was already beginning to warm against her skin. "There's a flower inside, see? It's very small, but you can just make out the petals..."

"Oh, how cute! You should wear this more often, Anise!" 

"I didn't want anything to happen to it..." Her hand closed over the pendant protectively. "If the chain broke and I lost it..."

"I understand. "Violet looked at her sister in the mirror, her smile wavering. "You... You have to write to me, okay? Write me everyday."

"Violet! I'm not moving across the country. Sir Linden's home is still part of the Baron's lands, you know."

"I... I knew that."

Her quick answer made Anise smile despite everything. She hugged Violet close, stroking her hair like she would when Violet was still a girl. 

Anise was several years older than Violet. Both of them grew up without knowing their mothers, as the Baroness died shortly after giving birth. Violet had the best nanny money could buy, but... She still came to Anise for comfort first. She always had.

"I will miss you," Anise said again. "More than you know."

There was another knock at the door. 

"Miss? His lordship requests you be ready to leave within the hour." The maid at the door bobbed a curtsey when she saw Violet. "Lady Meliere. Good morning."

"Tell father we'll be down in a moment."

The maid hesitated. "The Baron specified that Anise was to join him. Only Anise."

"What?! That's ridiculous. Of course I'm coming to my sister's wedding. Tell Father that I--" 

"It's alright, Violet. I suspect it won't be much of a ceremony anyway."

"But--"

Anise silenced her with another tight hug. "I will find a way to visit you as soon as I can."

Violet huffed and protested as a footman came for Anise's trunk, as they walked down the halls and stairs, and was about to continue to her father himself, but--

"That's enough, Violet. Anise? We're leaving."

Violet went silent, staring up at them with her small, ineffective glare. 

Anise grit her teeth as she stepped into the carriage, struggling to manage it without help. She looked out the curtains and saw Kalina standing silently behind Violet, her arms crossed over her chest. 

I'm sorry, Kalina... I didn't mean for any of this to happen... 

The Baron sat across from her, and Anise gripped her walking stick so hard her knuckles were nearly white. 

With a rap on the wall behind him, the Baron signalled the driver, and they jolted to a start. 

As the wheels crunched over the roads, Anise watched her childhood home get smaller and smaller, then fade away all together.