The last thing I ate before leaving home was my father's home made Emma's Day Tart, so many memories of grinding the saffron as I help him around the kitchen replayed itself in my head as I ate every gingerly bite off my plate. It was my last meal with my family and yet everything tasted so foreign to me. Tears filled Aria eyes as she stops taking small bites of the tart but began using her hand to shove it in her mouth.
"Aria slow down!" yelled her father as he slid a cup of water across the table. The cup stop at ease not losing a drop.
Aria cleared her mouth of the tart and continued to cry like a child kicking her feet further annoying her father. She couldn't tell her family the truth. The tart tasted so foreign to her because it wasn't her grinding the saffron. She is no longer needed in the kitchen anymore to help cook or clean, she played a different role now, she is now a provider for the family like her brother was. She wanted the tart gone so she wouldn't have to remembers her youthful days in the kitchen.
"I just going to miss," she wiped away those tears. "This tart!" she lied shoving more tart in her mouth.
Dad laughed. "Child, you're going to choke again."
The last words I received from my family before I left were so encouraging but I was too sad to feel the encouragements but those words will forever be engrave in my mind as I recite them over and over again but they will never be heard by my ears again. Those words were genuine to be spoken by another.
"Stop that crying!" ordered her father striking the side of her leg with his cane. Aria jumped and rubbed her leg that was covered by her dress and wiped her tears away. His eyes eased and he smiled to Aria, a smile she haven't seen for so long since she started studying for the exams. "Big girls don't cry." He told her.
My father is so strict yet so kind to me and his selflessness is unmatched by no other, he spend so much time perfecting our little home located on the edge of Sablier since mom and brother disappeared that it hurts him so much that I'm leaving. I feel as though I have destroyed all his work because the family is incomplete.
Aria fell to her father's height and she held his hand. "Father you are my hero. You are always my hero." Aria placed her hand on the wheelchair's arm rest then placed her head on her father's numb legs. "You save me countless times so please, I beg of you, take care of yourself."
Her father chuckled and place his hand on Aria's head. "I am a old man now, taking care of myself is the only thing I can do now, little Aria." Tears formed and fell on Aria forehead.
My father lost his legs five years ago protecting our family when we crossed the rode together during one of our family outings. A carriage not drawn by a horse was unable to stop as it fell down hill. My dad was far behind me and he saw the carriage coming over the hill before anybody because he was taller so he pushed me out of the way. However the carriage was much quicker and his legs were ran over by the wheels, both his legs broke that day. I remember it very clearly, his body laying in the dirt rode as he reached out to my uncle to get him off the rode. "God Thomas get over here!" he said as my uncle did so, the rips on his paints widened for me to see his boned sticking out of his knee as bone marrow mixed with blood gushed out. His legs only connected by veins and a small strip of meat. I love my dad so much and I have so much respect for him, he was so strong but because of us wonder off he has reduce down to half his size.
Her dad produce a article of clothing from a leather bag hanging from the right handle of his wheelchair. It was his white cloak that he treasured so dearly because it was given to him by mom but never wore because of it's color.
Aria kneeled before him allowing him to swing the cloak over her shoulders. The cloak hovered behind her for a few seconds as is fell like a feather against her back. He buckled the golden clasp around her neck and kissed her on the forehead and she stared at her father with tears falling down her cheeks but her face still held her composure.
"Dad why must we part like this…" she laid her head in his lap again. "Following a dead man's wish?"
I can hear the growl inside his chest as he rolled away from me. My hands fell against the cold ground halting me from falling face down. He said, "Because I don't make the rules anymore." Aria tilted her head upward surprised that his stern voice does not match that tearful face of his. "But if I could. Your mom would still be here, Gregory too…and you would continue to live with me till the day you marry and start you're own family." He look upwards hoping to stop his tears from falling and dry up. "It is his wish that you serve for one of the Four Dukedoms…"
"Dad I'm sorry. If only I was stronger then…mom and Gregory wouldn't have-"
"Enough Aria." He looked back down to his legs. "It's my fault too…" He rolled back to his daughter and took hold of the lock of white hair peeking out from under her hood. "So child. Live white…" He took her hand. "Forever white."
Aria retracted her hand to find something new. A white lace ribbon held together by a golden clasp designed in a shape of a wing. "Oh father…leaving you is like mom and Gregory leaving us again…" is what Aria wanted to say but she said. "Goodbye father. Wish me luck…"
"I wish you all the luck in the world."
It was testing day and it was held at the Nightrays this year in the front of the entrance. All important members of the Four Dukedoms were present sitting at there own tables facing down at the crowd of potential agents from there throne like chairs.
The examinees received the written part of the exam from Liam Lunettes. Aria waited in line impatiently because of the other eager examinees cutting in line. Aria couldn't stand under the sun for too long or else her pale ,almost translucent, skin will burn despite the fact she was wearing her cloak other her white dress with her hood up. The hood cast a dark shadow over the half of her face to protect her pale skin from the sun. Her dad thought of everything.
When Aria reach Liam he gave her a raised eyebrow. "Aria Vered?" He smiled. "Rather warm to be wearing such heavy clothes don't you think?"
"Yes…" answered Aria taking the exam from her hands rushing to sit in the back left table where a tree casts a shadow.
After much strenuous studying in the library Aria believed she was ready, she know she was ready. She answered all the question with long answers. She let out a sigh of relief. She looked up to see if the others have finished. "Oh!" she covered her mouth hoping nobody heard. She was surprised that they weren't finished with the exams yet.
"Okay, pens down and close your booklets and pass them to the left," instructed Liam. The other instructors picked up the booklets while Liam continued talking. "In thirty minutes we will begin the Chain portion of the exam. Please return at six o'clock. Any later and you automatically fail."
Aria was busy refitting the lace gloves on her hands that the words that filtered through her ears were "Chain, six o'clock, fail" so she sat there for a seconds fitting the words together. "What?" she shouted causing heads to turn her direction. Embarrassed she put her face against the table and covered her head with her arms. The atmosphere was silent and Aria can feel the sweat beads forming on her forehead and her face becoming hot.
A abrupt laughter was heard from the front of the room from Xerxes Break and attention was drawn towards him. Taking the opportunity to escape Aria exited through the gate.
Aria walked through the market place head hang low remembering what happened a half an hour ago. How she completely made a fool of herself and also the fact she haven't made a contract with a Chain of her own yet. "What am I going to do…I can't go home empty handed…" she leaned against a brick wall. "I have two and a half hours to find a chain…" she took out a blood seal mirror given to her in the mail three months ago from Pandora.
"Hey there." A girl in a red cloak with her hood up leaned against the same wall three feet away from Aria.
Aria examined the girl up and down once before answering. "Hey." The girl she assume by the height she was the same age as her and she was dressed unusually and very similar to her, even the hem of her dress peeking from beneath the cloak had the same lacy pattern as hers.
"You're taking the exam too, huh? Made quite a fool of yourself back there." She said happily.
Aria hit the back of her head against the wall before answering. "No doubt about it…"
"You don't have a chain do you?" The girl asked looking at the mirror.
"No…" Aria stood upright and she pressed her palms together. "You…don't happen to know where I could get one do you?" Although the bottom half of the girls face was visible she could tell the girl was not amused by her question. "Guess not."
"Actually." The girl took a hold of Aria hand and lead her to a alley way. "Follow me. I'm a Contractor too and I know a chain looking for a Contractor."
Aria gasped, "Really? You're not lying are you?" she yanked her hand away from the girl's grasp. "Because this is serious, I have to pass the exam so don't you dare trick me." she said in a serious tone but showed no anger on her face. There was a silence in the air before the girl turned her head at her.
"I got you right where I want you…" the girl said in a silky voice and a sickening smirk on her lips she bit the tip of her finger drawing blood.
"What in the world…" Aria backed away. No sane person she know would cause themselves to bleed with a smile, even if it was a smirk. Aria stood with her hips squared with her feet. "Don't try to pull anything funny my dad's a gunsmith." Aria pulled a hand gun, a Rossi model 64 she named Lyra, hidden beneath her sleeve held in place by the ribbon her dad gave her.
"You wouldn't shoot me. Would you Aria?"
"You…" Aria lowered the gun but brought it back up again. "Who are you? I never gave you my name!" The girl didn't say anything but just smirk allowing the blood on her lips to spread. She drew her hood back. "That face…" That face of the girl was Aria's! Every lash, the curve of her lips, the paleness of her skin…everything!
"Are you mad that I took your appearance Aria?" She combed her finger through her white hair and from the root to tip her hair turned to the color red orange. "Is this better?" She closed her pale blue eyes for three seconds opening them again and reveal green ones. "How about now?"
"What are you…?" Aria pulled the safety off and was about to shoot but the girl snapped her fingers and Aria body froze.
"Isn't it obvious?" The girl grabbed the hand that held the gun and kissed the barrel. "I am you."
A/N: Phew, I remade the chapter I'm so happy. Well, you will notice some grammer mistakes but I hope it wouldn't butcher the story...too much.
So lets see...oh yes thank you's!
Thank you XKey of the AbyssX for being my first reviewer and complimenting my story! Thanks for the suggestion too.
Thank you MissIndigo for messaging me and reminding me about the character's age! Your suggestion is a big reminder.
