Fidēlis/Fealty
Chapter One
The tall grass makes perfect cover for the ambush she's about to spring. Beside her three kittens watch, and wait, while she surveys their pray. Hapless younger brothers and unsuspecting Mother. The oldest Amell child waits, breath held, until she sees the perfect moment to strike. She jumps from her cover as the twins fight over their play thing and the racket she makes frightens her mother awfully.
Little Lona shrieks in delight as Mother falls back and lands, hard, on the basket of food awaiting the break in field work that was sure to come soon. She is still giggling in delight, surrounded by her squad of attack kittens, when Mother turns her angry gaze at her. Her harmless prank has ruined the family mid day meal. Mother sometimes beats her for these surprise attacks but the sun is warm and the breeze is pleasant. Now Mother just shakes her head and dusts herself off. They are too far from the house to go back for more food and the family will just have to wait for dinner.
Blond curls streak out behind Lona as she runs back into the brush for cover. She has been playing this game for hours now and skittish Mother plays along. At six, she is fearless and predatory. She watches the world around her with eyes that catch many details. She fancies that one day she can be a mighty warrior. She will never be the wife of a farmer.
The last attack leaves much to be desired along the lines of surprise. Lona should have waited longer, she knows. But it's so warm and lovely outside. She just wants to play. Mother doesn't even look at her when she slinks back into the grass. The kittens are so soft. Perhaps they'll want to stalk her. Her excited giggles draw her brothers into the grass.
This beautiful summer day with the sun beating down is the best day Lona can think of. When the scary men appear and start yelling at Mother she thinks that she can jump out and frighten them too for being so loud. They are starting to scare Mother. Lona will be a great warrior one day, she thinks.
Next to her, one of the twins gives a shout and draws the attention of Mother and the yelling men. Lona tells him to be quiet, that he'll give away their location. The first twin starts screaming harder; the other joins in. Brothers are noisy and ruin everything.
She's turning to tell them to just be quiet and she'll save the day when she smells the fire. It springs up around her so quickly she cannot react fast enough. It's already on her and Lona starts crying herself with surprise. Her hand is on fire! Around her the grass starts to catch and the twins, not yet old enough to walk, are stuck. She is on fire but it doesn't hurt, she realizes, so she reaches for one brother and then the other. Her touch turns their skin black.
She is six and she is hurting her brothers. She cannot stop; she only knows that she has to help. Something must be done and she will be a brave fighter one day . . . she will protect her family against the bad men.
One twin has stopped crying and moving. Lona is still burning but she reaches for him again. The flames grow around her and it is too warm now, too nice. Her hand is still outstretched when she's picked up under her arms and tossed free of the heat and the grass. Mother has saved her! Mother has come and gotten her and is now saving the twins. Lona watches the long fabric of Mother's skirt as it catches fire as well.
This is the moment that Lona realizes that this is all her fault. The bad men, who have yelled at Mother and made her scared, are trying to push their way through the growing flames to help. They are too slow. Lona hears Mother scream; the sound draws on forever and makes her cry all the harder with confusion and panic.
Her hands burn on.
-!-
The sisters at the Chantry are nice. They are friendly and they tell her lovely stories about a lady in the heavens called Andraste. This sky lady is beautiful. Lona knows because she saw a sculpture and she thought the sky lady was the prettiest woman she'd ever seen. The sisters tell her that if she's good she'll be able to meet Andraste one day but for now, she has to behave.
She sits in her room most of the time, surrounded by buckets of water, the entire four weeks she stays at the Chantry.
She asks about the buckets, once, thinking that perhaps they should be warmed and she should have a bath; it's been a long time and Lona really likes baths in warm water. The sisters smiled and told her that the buckets were there for her own protection.
Four weeks and one day after she arrived at the Chantry her bed accidently gets on fire somehow and learns that the water in the buckets is very cold. And that she is something that the sisters call a mage.
The men that come to take her away are very shiny and are very mean. They look at her with suspicion and Lona wonders why. They are very big and she is very small. The shiny men do not talk to her, even when she has a very good question. She wants to know about their swords and they draw them and point them at her when she reaches for one. After that they wrap a special piece of fabric around her hands. She feels as though she is covered in a blanket, though it's just her hands that are covered. She doesn't feel like she can breathe.
She feels fear for the first time in her life.
They make her walk for days. Many days with this special cloth binding her pass by and the shiny men are always watching her with their swords she so admires within reaching distance.
They take her to a place that is very tall and surrounded by water. She has never seen so much water in her life and it fascinates her. When she tries to dip her foot in, just to see if it's as cold as those buckets in the Chantry, she is tied again, around her ankles, and put onto a boat.
It is another beautiful summer day. Despite being bound hand and foot, Lona appreciates the wonderful sunlight on her upturned face and the air that blows so strongly across the water. When they land she watches the water as long as possible as she's led inside just to watch a flock of birds skim the surface and she smiles. The heavy doors of this new place, Kinloch Hold one of the shiny men had said, slams behind her and Lona no longer sees the blue skies that have framed her childhood so far.