Chương 28: Chapoter Twenty-Eight

Three weeks passed in a daze I've taken to calling 'preparation'. Stacks of papers had accumulated on the desk in my room. Pages upon pages dedicated to a single letter of the alphabet, written by my hand. But that stack was dwarfed by the ledgers. Oh, the ledgers. Mom had me copying them since the moment she declared: "Good enough, now let's put that skill to use and refine it further." I couldn't look at my desk now and not see the colossal waste of money that was paper and ink.

At least the ledgers had practical use. But everything until that point… I shook my head. The only thing worse was my closet. A dozen sets of casual cloths ranging from day dresses to tunic and pants. All with an adult cut and not the childish cut that the various proprietors initially provided. But that's not all! There were two dozen formal sets of clothing for a range of possibilities I couldn't imagine happening. I admit to being in a bit of a daze when Mom ordered everything.

I'm just happy that I wasn't so far gone to have accepted the more garish children's clothing that two of the proprietors pushed onto Mom while we went to pick them up. And Mom bought them! Worst, each one had to be fitted. Every. Single. Piece of clothing. I had to stand in front of some seamstress as she pinned needles and thread making the general fit of the clothing much more form fitting. And now my closet's full.

And Mom has interrupted my penmanship training, etiquette training, and I think she even had a session on training me to breathe properly, to have me change for one made up activity or another. Whoever made makeup a thing needs to be flogged. Standing in front of the mirror Mom had bought for my room I scowled at the blue and black 'evening gown' that I had dubbed Torture Device A. It brought out my cheekbones and drew attention to my cyan eyes, that were even now faintly glowing.

My hair cascaded down my shoulder in rivulets. Apparently, hair had a religion built around it called style. And I was now a victim of it. My ears were displayed prominently. Long, and pointed as they stood above my head. It's almost been two months and I was still processing the changes to my body. And the cheek powder and eye liner. Who makes something meant to be applied next to your eyes burn when it touches them? That wasn't helping.

"Lyra?! Are you ready? Please come down so I can double check you!" Mom's voice pierced the door even though I knew she was in the guest floor and her voice shouldn't have reached me. There was no hiding from Mom's voice when she wanted to be heard.

The first time she used that particular trick had been her calling out my full name, the one penned on the Kingdoms adoption paperwork, after I used the clean spell, I had finally learned to 'clean' the hair off Gaven's head after he dropped a water ball on me to help 'train my reflexes'. Lyra Lavith Toordor. When they had asked for the rest of my name after Lyra, I had frozen. Then looked at Mom and Dad and threw it at them.

"Kids don't choose their own names, their parents do." I said, ultimately earning two new names. Even the system recognizes them.

"I'll be right down Mom." I said without emphasis. If I could hear her voice, she would hear my response. Another unpleasant lesson. I felt Mom's mana withdraw and sighed. Leaving the room, I stepped the way I was taught. Held myself the way I was taught. And tried not to trip over my own feet which had shoes so impractical that I was loath to call them shoes. Why invent shoes that actively try to kill you? But they did make me taller… Heel-toe. Heel-toe.

I made it to the stairs with little problem, though I admit to a wobble or two. Three weeks simply isn't enough time to change everything about myself. I gratefully held onto the railing as I made my way down the flight of stairs to the ballroom, which had been arranged for a formal dinner. Tonight's scenario being a formal dinner with an important person of some sort. Mom had words to properly label the person, but by the time she had said it my mind was already mush.

I opened the door to enter and stopped when I heard an unfamiliar voice in a conversation with Dad.

"The army's come together quickly. I expect that they'll be marching in another week or two. I'm surprised at how developed the logistics are. Usually, the army marches in front, but I daresay that the logistics have outstripped the army in this case."

"We've never for… Lyra. There you are." Dad started, but redirected when he saw me enter the room. Mom and Gavin were also in the room along with a Toordor woman I hadn't met yet surrounding a human in a particularly fancy set of robes. They shared the same dark colors as my academy uniforms, though his were far more elaborate. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. But the real surprise was who was standing beside him.

"Lyra!" Stella exclaimed as soon as she saw me, Beth was beside me with a small smile. They were both in their school robes, though they looked used and had several obvious stitches in them repairing holes that I couldn't imagine them causing.

"Look at you! You look amazing!" She ran over to me and wrapped me in a hug as I tried valiantly to not fall. Beth's smirk said she had noticed the wobble. She knew I was pretending, but didn't say anything about it.

"You're here!" I said enthusiastically returning the hug before walking to Beth and giving her a quick hug also. She looked startled for a moment before returning it. Hugs would be easier if I wasn't so short. Maybe I should get bigger shoes?

"What are you doing here? I thought…"

"What we're not good enough for you anymore?" Stella asked.

"What?! No, I didn't mean it like that!" I immediately backpeddled before I realized the smile and somewhat smug look on her face told me she was teasing. I hit her in the side with a pout. Then paused when I realized what I did. Stella looked like she had won something. I was just glad they were here.

"Lyra." Gavin said sounding like he was holding back a surprising amount of mirth.

"Let me introduce you to Danniel Valclamp, Vice Head of the magical academy here." He indicated the older human in fancy robes. It took a moment to reset my brain. When I did, I performed the curtsy I was taught and introduced myself with the words I had drilled into me.

"Hello Mr. Valclamp. I'm Lyra Lavith Toordor. It's a pleasure to meet you." I glanced at Mom as I straightened. Past mistakes had generated a significant amount of extra training so I would get it right. A mistake now, when there was an actual person outside the family to see… I repressed a shudder at the additional training that would cause. I saw the small smile, there and gone, from Mom's face and knew I passed.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Miss. Lyra. I'm Danniel Valclamp." He bobbed his head in acknowledgement. Gavin didn't let silence take hold, but immediately continued introductions.

"We've not had a chance over the last few weeks. So let me introduce Cynthia Toordor. My wife." Gavin made a grand gesture at the woman standing beside him. I almost, almost, threw Mom's lessons out the window. This was the woman who lived with Gavin! If she would help me… I caught Mom's less-than-please glance, and switched to survival mode. I stopped myself and curtsied. Mirth danced across Cynthia's face as she watched me.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Cynthia. I'm Lyra." Formalities with strangers were mandatory. Family was different. Sister-in-law was close enough that most of the rules became loose suggestions. But not today. Mom's glance told me that.

"It's a pleasure Lyra." Cynthia said completely ignoring all the protocols Mom made me memorize. Not fair!

"You had a very interesting rendition of the clean spell last week." She leaned forward and stage whispered: "I'll have to teach you some of my illusion spells. They work great to get Gavin to…" Gavin's face went for surprised to horror as Cynthia talked. He moved behind her and clasped his hand over her mouth.

"I'm sure Lyra will be busy learning at the academy dear." I giggled. I was afraid that she would be upset about the hair thing. But it looks like she was going to be a wonderful sister. My eyes danced at the possibility she mentioned.

"Well, now that we're all acquainted, how about we sit for dinner? Then we'll let the younger generation off while we handle our business." Dad said, gesturing to the table. The table was large enough to hold twice as many people, but that room was used instead for various decorations around each setting. I took my seat, on the family side sitting across from Stella and Beth. For some reason I still didn't understand despite Mom's lectures there were nine utensils surrounding my area.

Along with three glasses, one already filled with water.

"I don't think I know what I'm supposed to do here." Stella whispered to me as Beth nodded, looking uncomfortable. The comment gave me a sneaking suspicion why they were here, but I couldn't voice it. I nodded back.

"Just pick up the utensils I do." I whispered back.

"It'll be fine." They didn't look particularly relieved at my words and had tensed up considerably by the time the first course arrived. A soup that was more flavor than substance. It tasted like someone made a hearty soup, then tossed all the ingredients. I remember complaining about it the first time I had it only to learn that the contents were used in a later dish. I picked up the soup spoon and took a sip. Carefully.

Dipping the spoon trying not to cause a ripple, lifting the spoon so as to not spill a drop, then setting the spoon against my lip and tilting the spoon to transfer the soup into my mouth. I shudder to think about how many stains my cousins had to work out of my clothes while Mom insisted, I learn this. Meanwhile. Across from me. Sluuuuurp!

"Oh, wow! This doesn't look like much, but it's delicious!" Stella exclaimed. Mom didn't say anything. My eye twitched. Beth for her part put the entire spoon in her mouth and used her lips to scrape the soup off as she extracted the spoon. Her face showed she obviously enjoyed the soup. But I was still reeling from Mom lying to me. It was okay to eat soup the way I had been!

"Since Tenoth fell: Glendale, Lethilin, and Verinoth have all increased their border watch. Ironically, they aren't watching for demons but their fellow elves. While they are letting civilians in, they are turning away all nobles or soldiers." Mr. Valclamp was saying around sips of soup. Executed in the same clean movements I was, well, as I was trying. I caught Mr. Valclamp's conversation as Stella started telling me all about her last three weeks.

The rooms had space for four, and they were sharing with two beastkin named Pam and Felia. Both were catkin of different varieties and both were going to school to learn herbology and potion making to bring the skills back to their tribes so they could provide healing services to them. They sounded nice. Giggling, Stella explained how Pam would pur in her sleep, then adamantly insist she wasn't if they brought it up. A lot of tension left me as I listened to them talk about everything.

Classes hadn't begun, but the library was opened and both Stella and Beth had tried their best to get ahead of the curve by self-learning a spell. The explanation of how they failed was as humorous as it was expected, and luckily, they both laughed at the scenes they painted along with me.

"Only two cities have stood with House La'Tithe. They've passed varying laws removing rights from citizens based on their racial traits and they are in open conflict with the elven queen. It's expected to turn hostile before long."

"So, Lyra. You start in two days. Are you excited?" Beth nodded at the question.

"Are you prepared?" She added and I could only shrug.