Content Warning: Abelism, Child Abuse Mention
Elizabeth resisted the urge to glare at the personal maid she had, though Odelina didn’t recognize her. Not that that meant much.
The only maid that Odelina trusted was a scullery maid, Thea.
Thea was bright and smart, warm, even if they looked constantly morose with big wide green eyes that were always looking close to tears. Called a chambermaid because that was what the position entailed and the Empire of the Triumvirate, or the Ieldin Empire, didn’t care about gender.
A title was basically whatever sounded best. You could be a Duke while being female, or a Duchess while being male, or either while being none of the above. It was about the title that you liked best or reflected the work you did.
It had been another reason Elizabeth had loved the story.
The reason she was glaring at this maid, however, was that she kept trying to ‘help’.
“Breakfast will wait five minutes,” Elizabeth said and then braced herself.
Despite it looking like an old-timey wheelchair, the arm swung aside so she could transfer herself. She did not need to rely on anyone.
One hand on the seat of the chair, the other next to her, she took a deep breath.
The bed was at the perfect height for it too. With a grin that was more like a primal baring of teeth in a declaration of war, she transferred herself.
There was a sharp gasp as she sat, panting quietly and then carefully sat in the chair, swinging the arm back into place, settling comfortably. “Time to get ready for the day then,” she said simply and with a brush of her fingers the wheelchair began to move.
Edmond resisted the urge to just toss Thurston over his shoulder and carry him to the dining room. “Thurs,” he said as he leaned against the wall by the door, staring at his older brother.
“In a minute,” Thurston muttered as he did what he could with the limited power he had in the aftermath of their Father’s death.
Not that Duke Attwell Argentum Northsend had been much of a father to any of them. Distant on a good day, a roaring, enraged, bull on a bad one.
How was Edmond the only one who ended up with all the muscles in the family?
“At this rate, Odelina is going to eat without us.”
Thurston paused and slowly looked up. “Odelina?”
“She was cleared to have breakfast outside of her room. And she took it.”
Thurston stood up so fast that the chair’s legs groaned against the stone floor, catching on something and falling with a clatter. Not that Thurston was there to stop it or pick it up, he was already tugging off his shirt sleeves and tossing them on the coat stand before he made sure his sleeves were pristine and tugging on his coat. “We mustn’t be late for breakfast Edmond,” Thurston said like he hadn’t been buried nose-deep in papers just a second ago.
“Yes, yes, that would be a tragedy,” Edmond agreed instead standing up and grinning over how despite reaching his chin, Thurston looked so tiny next to him.
“Shut up,” Thurston said and Edmond grinned as he followed his older brother out in such a way that their size difference was noticeable.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were thinking it.”
Edmond just smiled as they headed for the dining room.
“What are you doing?” came Odelina’s sharp tone and Thurston picked up speed.
The dining room doors were open, as they should be, allowing Edmond to hear clearly.
The ones for the family dining room.
“Milady…?” came a feminine voice, in a horrific tone that made Edmond’s stomach turn.
Edmond wasn’t sure what to think when he saw Odelina glaring down the maid from the Dukedom of Bleufleur.
“What is going on?” Thurston demanded.
Ode–Elizabeth damn it–had finally placed the maid.
Odelina did know her but had worked hard to treat her as poorly as she could get away with.
She was Adelaide Chalon, the fifth daughter of the Count of Chalon of the independent Bleufleur Dukedom, south of the Ieldin Empire and the Singing Desert.
She had come with the third son of Chalon, who was also her fraternal twin, to head up the arcana stone trade in the Ieldin Empire. And the reason they had come was that the House of Chalon was one of the main providers of arcana stones.
That said more about the household's standing and wealth than anything else when arcana stones were one of the three reasons Bleufleur Dukedom held their independence.
The other two reasons were strategic marriages and the fact their Magus came third to the two land empires.
This didn’t change the fact that the people there adhered to strict ableist, sexist confirmations that meant this maid thought Odelina was an infant, unable to care for herself.
Of course the Duchess of Northsend picked her.
She couldn't have her daughter becoming independent. That would break the narrative.
Odelina’s mother, hell even Elizabeth’s, couldn’t have that.
But it explained the maid’s lack of ability to be helpful.
Elizabeth kept up what Odelina started, slapping the woman's hand away whenever she tried to touch her wheelchair. "I do not need an escort. The family dining room is the only room with open double doors," Elizabeth said sharply.
She paused when she noticed that two copies of their coat of arms hung across from the family dining room. A golden swan, readying for flight from the blue water on a field of green. Metal on color.
She stared at it, noting that it was an actual shield, one she could, theoretically, grab down and defend herself with. Along with the two swords, she realized that it was meant as a quick defense, hidden as silly decoration and directly where they ate.
She smiled a bit, ignoring the maid beyond using a needle from the sewing kit attached to the solid arm of her chair to stab her hands. The maid let out a shriek at that, but it was hardly less than she deserved, trying to touch Odelina’s wheelchair.
Now Elizabeth’s. “I was admiring my family coat of arms. Is the Dukedom of Bleurfleur so uncouth that they do not do the same?” she retorted simply before she turned in.
Like the rest of the house, it was white, or pale grey stone, with dark accents, omitting the gold.
Subtle, thy name was Northsend.
And sarcasm’s name was Odelina.
The family dining room’s theme seemed to be navy blue. Or at least, she assumed so since the open curtains, the backdrops of the tapestries depicting the three Gods, or Ethereals, in various stories of triumph, the rug (which depicted two swans facing each other in the center with waves on the edges, in gold thread naturally), and the cushions of the chairs, were that color.
The wood in this room was, surprisingly, golden-brown and…the runner was the same color.
She ran her finger along the arcana stone in the handrest and noted that with her entry, servants were exiting the well-hidden servant’s entrance.
They seemed surprised to see her, but Odeli–Elizabeth damn it–didn’t care.
They had come out of one of the spots with a tree. That tree was important, but it was escaping her right now.
Why? Odelina’s memories said it was important, the tree was important, and Elizabeth knew she had read it being important. But why couldn’t she remember the specifics?
She was about to order them to move the chair next to her chair away when the maid that came with her (Why? Elizabeth bemoaned) began to remove her chair.
“What are you doing?” Elizabeth demanded sharply.
Adelaide Chalon froze and turned to Elizabeth. “Milady?” she asked in that awful, patronizing, babying tone ableist asshats always used with her.
That tone made her want to rip their throats out with her teeth just so she could force them to never speak that way again.
She gritted her teeth to rein in the impulse.
She was about to unleash a carefully constructed fury at the woman when a male voice, Thurston’s, came behind her.
He sounded like he wanted to rip Adelaide’s throat out with his teeth just as much as she did. “What is going on?”
Elizabeth turned to face Thruston and was surprised to see both of her brothers were there. In the sunlight, she finally also really got to see them.
Thurston would be willowy like her if he didn’t have muscles from his martial training. Instead of bulking out as Edmond did, he had corded, so he looked deceptively fragile. She was surprised to see that his hair was actually silver and that had not been shorthand to depict white blonde, and he was almost as pale as Odelina, suggesting that despite his martial training, he still spent most of his time inside.
Not that that meant much, since she knew that the training hall was directly connected to the manor.
It didn’t draw away the fact that his eyes were as dark as a moonless, starless, night, and his skin, as well as his wine-red coat, only seemed to accent that.
In contrast, Edmond would likely have darker blonde hair, if it hadn’t been bleached by the sun. And he looked like he spent time outside. Where he wasn’t tanned, he was sunburned, suggesting that they were in spring going to summer. The time of the midnight sun.
He would likely pale out in winter, before starting it all over again come spring.
He was also wearing dark colors, though these were hunter green.
And while Thurston was obviously dressed as a prime nobleman, with a shirt that had a high collar with a cravat pinned with their coat of arms, Edmond was dressed for the outdoors and summer.
The hunter-green poet’s shirt was likely only laced up because Thurston wouldn’t let him in otherwise with brown boats and loose pants that blended near seamlessly into them.
Their dark-colored clothes made her own sky-blue and dove-gray high-necked, long-sleeved, dress stand out further, alienating her from them.
She hated it.
It was then she noticed that Edmond had the same eyes as Thurston and she hesitantly reached up to touch her cheekbones, just below her eyes.
Unlike them, her own eyes had flecks of silver in them. It gave the impression that someone had plucked the night sky from the heavens and turned them into her eyes, with the new moon as her pupils.
Something that had thrown her for a loop when she had seen them in the mirror, since they had not been described like that in the book.
In fact, none of the Northsend siblings had been described dark eyes in the book. They all had pale leaf-green eyes in the book, taking after their mother in that aspect.
“Your Grace, Your Lordship,” Adelaide said respectfully, which snapped Elizabeth out of her confusion.
“Thruston, I’ll handle this,” she said calmly and turned back to Adelaide.
“Lady Adelaide Chalon, fifth daughter of the Count of Chalon of the Dukedom of Bleufleur, and fraternal twin of Lord Antoine Chalon, third son and arcana stone distributor of Chalon in the Ieldin Empire, I have had enough. Enough of your tone, enough of the way you treat me, enough of the way you do not even bother to do your duties, as you find them beneath you. I had to call two other maids off their other duties to attend me this morning, something I should not have had to do, and tell one of them to call up the dressmaker because you had failed to put in the order yesterday, thus I might not be able to see her till next week,” Elizabeth said calmly and then she bared her teeth in warning. “You are fired without reference. I want you gone before the dining bell this evening. Are we clear?”
“Milady!”
“It. Is. Your. Ladyship. I am the daughter of Duke Attwell Argentum Northsend & Duchess Cordelia Maia Northsend, born Westsend. I come for the ice and snows of the North and the sea and winds of the West and I will not tolerate this disrespect further! The fact I hold the title of Baroness does not exclude my birthright! I even only hold that title because a barony is a traditional gift within Dukedoms should one have baronies that are under the guardianship of the Duke or Duchess themself upon the 18th birthday as a way of proving one can properly aid the Northsend Duchy. I am sorry that your family is in such dire straits that they are unable to do the same. Now leave.”
Adelaide looked like she had bitten into a lemon just as someone slapped her with a live fish.
“I believe my sister said to leave,” Thurston said, his voice as frozen as the Shattering Fields of the north.
Lady Adelaide Chalon stumbled, did the most awkward curtsy of her life, and tried to sprint out of the dining room doors.
She didn’t get far since she crashed into Edmond, who hadn’t moved out of the way and she hit the ground. “Use the servants’ stairs. I don’t want to run the risk of seeing you again and deciding to just throw you out immediately before you have a chance to pack,” Edmond said sharply as the former maid picked herself up in that slow way that meant she was in pain.
“Your Lordship!” Lady Chalon protested.
She had likely hoped to become the First Spouse. It was the most likely reason she had been sent with her brother, after all.
The Northsend Dukedom was second to the Royal Family in the purchase of arcana stones, and only then because they had their own arcana stone mines. The First Spouse was an alliance marriage and the only one who could hold the equality title.
And what had made Duke Attwell Argentum Northsend & Duchess Cordelia Maia Northsend the talk of society, having only one spouse each.
Each other.
In a society that had multiple spouses of multiple genders, with the first three the ones that even had specific duties, they had stood out for only marrying each other. And even more so for Duchess Cordelia, as she had given up her born surname to fully enter Northsend Duchy, thus giving up all previous lands and titles she had achieved within the Westsend Duchy.
Then again, she became Duchess of Northsend, Countess of the Shattered Strait, Viscountess of Northsend Manor, and Baroness of Ebonyriver, Markedtree, & Twinfort.
Mother had always enjoyed her power. Not that it helped keep her alive.
What had they been thinking, chasing after her personally? They had knights for that, honestly.
“I have a bunch of titles I could list off. But the important ones are Viscount of the Magus of Northsend, and the temporary holder of the title of Viscount of Northsend Manor. They are important because I earned them by skill, not blood. I have every right. Get out. I am not as polite as my elder brother or my only sister.”
At least the Chalon lady got the message and took off for the servants’ door.
Odelina sighed quietly and rubbed her left temple before she made herself perk up slightly. “Thurston, Edmond, come, let’s eat breakfast! Could someone remove the chair next to my place and pull back my chair? No tabletop means I won’t need any help being pushed in.”
They both seemed to shake themselves out of it, and their smiles were real. “Of course,” Thurston said as the footmen and scullery maids quickly moved to do just that.
Elizabeth found herself floating again that night. She made a sound and opened her eyes, only to freeze when she found herself looking at, well, herself.
Elizabeth’s form, floating with her brown hair curling through the night sky of home smiled back, making her brown eyes crinkle. “Hello Odelina,” she greeted warmly. “I’m glad to meet you properly. I’m Elizabeth, and was, well, you.”
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