Dear Diary, I just got back from the tea party. The weather was perfect! And I got to meet all of Millana's friends.
It was held at Arianna's mansion. Their tea garden is lovely. It's hedged in, with a rose archway entrance. It felt enchanting as I entered under the roses and saw the tea table off to my left inside a semi circle of roses, with a fountain of stone fish shooting out water toward the middle of the garden, and multiple beds of varying flowers (I recognized hyacinth, irises, and more roses, among others I didn't know) with a meandering path to follow to view the garden beds. The sunlight was shining through the clouds in beams, like spotlights onto the beautiful display, almost making it look magical. I half expected to turn and see a fairy. Which, Diary, seemed less silly when I remembered that I'm now in a world where there is magic, and probably fairies. Regardless, it was just the magic of nature and skilled landscaping, no real magic... probably.
I wore the blue dress that my brother, Alvize, had gifted me. It matched the color of the sky and the beauty of the place made me feel like I was floating as I stepped into the garden. My skirt swished around me elegantly and everything felt perfect in that moment.
As I entered, I saw two ladies seated at the tea table (after I'd ogled at the garden for a while and got my wits back enough to notice them). They'd waited patiently for my attention to turn to them, and then rushed at me, in a fashion that didn't seem quite becoming for noble ladies, and caught me in a tight hug. It felt good and I returned it, tears forming in my eyes at being greeted so joyfully. Once they'd released me (looking a little embarrassed and checking to make sure a tight hug wouldn't squeeze more memories out of my head), they introduced themselves.
Arianna Spriyal, whose garden we were in, had green hair and brown eyes that seemed to sparkle with excitement. She wore a blue dress, although darker than mine, which had small pink bows gathering the edges of the sleeves and the waist of the dress. Emma Theall had double braided brown hair, blue eyes covered by glasses, and freckles. She wore a simple green dress with white sleeves. We exclaimed over how lovely we all looked and how long it had been since we'd seen each other.
In the midst of our exclamations I told Arianna that I loved the color of her hair and that it was dyed beautifully. She thanked me but looked a little confused as she told me that it wasn't dyed, it was natural. I floundered for a moment, remembering that I was in a fantasy world where hair can just be green, before saying something like, "Yes, of course, well, I'm sure there are a lot of people who'd love to dye theirs that color," then complemented something else and the chatter continued. Thankfully my friends were gracious enough to let it pass.
I could see the question in their eyes, whether I remembered them, and our memories they'd detailed in the letters they'd sent. I felt sorry that I couldn't. They seemed to be trying to decide if it was rude to ask, and I wanted to put them at ease.
"I'm sorry I don't remember you," I told them, "but I look forward to our continued friendship."
There was disappointment on their faces, but I also thought they meant it as they reassured me that it was alright and they would still be here for me. That they'd do what they could to help me remember, and at the very least we could make plenty of new memories. I thanked them and initiated another group hug that felt even tighter than the first.
At the sound of footsteps we released our hug and all turned to look at the rose archway. Our fourth member was arriving, Martina Wintent. She had bright red hair (so bright I'd have thought it was dyed, but, Diary, I don't plan to make that mistake twice), yellow eyes, and a red dress that poofed out around her and made her look like a mother rose to all the roses surrounding her.
We all hugged again before Martina introduced herself. After she had, I repeated my statement about not remembering her but looking forward to our friendship. She seemed surprised, like she'd thought, or hoped too optimistically, my memories might have come back by now, but reassured me that we'd continue being good friends.
Emma and I are daughters of earls, and Arianna and Martina are daughters of viscounts. It seems best to me, Diary, that we're somewhere in the middle of the noble classes. Heroes and villains are mostly dukes and counts, those who already hold power or a desire or need to rise in power. We have enough to live comfortably, without needing more. And our families don't hold enough power for others to try to take it, to cause fighting over it. Yes, right in the middle of the noble classes seems the most comfortable place to be.
I had been looking forward to the tea party, but I'd also been anxious about it. I'd hoped so much that my new friends would be just how I'd imagined Millana's old friends. However, I didn't know if they'd be different with me, or even if how I'd imagined them when reading was a correct interpretation with the short glimpses that the book gave. What I found at the tea party was quite a cozy group of friends. They were warm and gentle with me, welcoming me into their friendship but also giving me space to get to know them again. There were moments when they’d be talking about past instances like I remembered them, and then I’d ask a question or they’d even just see the confused look on my face and they’d pause and give more backstory so that I could understand.
After meeting them, I felt like I knew Millana better, like I was closer to her, and closer to being her. She and her friends got together often, and these were the people with which she shared her hopes and dreams. Millana had been wanting to learn to ride a horse, although she hadn’t ever voiced that to her parents and the closest she’d come to it was sneaking into Emma’s family’s stables with her to enter one of the horse stalls and pet the horse while offering it an apple. Martina particularly enjoyed embroidery, and tried to help Millana improve her skills, which she was happy to work on although the attempts at improvement seemed mostly useless. As children, Arianna and Millana would often watch Arianna’s family’s knights train and dream of becoming knights themselves. My suspicion that Millana had already asked her parents about learning to use a sword seemed likely.
More recently, however, Millana’s dreams had turned to finding a good partner and becoming a good wife and mother capable of taking care of the household. Her dreams seemed similar to my dreams, settling into a good life and enjoying it, being comfortable without high aspirations to be a particularly important person or living grandly. I knew what I’d thought she was like, but it was the first time that I was really getting enough of a glimpse into who Millana really was, and how similar we seemed to already be. Not that we were the same, our childhoods had differences certainly (Millana had seemed much more athletically inclined than I’d ever been for one), but maybe that we were recently, that what we wanted out of our adult lives might be the same, that our dreams and goals had recently started to merge.
Another topic of discussion that came up was a night market that’s happening soon. It’s some festival and I didn’t follow all the details, but it essentially seems to be a fair that goes on for a week from evening to the early morning hours. Martina brought it up. There will be a couple merchants there that she particularly wants to visit. One will have a booth for clothing and the other for magic items (which sounds fascinating although that’s a big step into this new world that I’m not sure I’m ready for). Arianna was quick to express her interest in us all going as well. Apparently there will also be a circus there, including a knife swallower. Emma and I both added our agreements. So I guess that I’ll be going to a night market soon. It does sound exciting, and fun to be able to go with good friends. I was going to have to venture out further than a tea party anyway, since the ball where I say my one line is coming up soon, so it’ll be good to have one more activity to become more familiar with this world in between now and the ball.
For much of the afternoon we were in the garden catching up and making plans. I almost wish that I could have Millana’s memories, to properly remember my new old friends. But I’m excited to get to know them even further and explore the night market with them. When we left I think that we’d all enjoyed each other’s company and gotten over any awkwardness that my memory loss had caused, and we were all excited to have plans to reconvene later. So, Diary, I suppose I’ll be updating you next about the events of the night market after that occurs.
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