"Elliana you will marry sir Kegan!" The duke shouted at the petite form of his seventeen year old daughter.
"No father I will not, you do not know him, I'm sorry but I will not marry that pig!" Elliana cried her blue green eyes sapping in anger and hidden pain. She turned on her heel, her light blue dress twirling as she spun and quickly made her exit.
Lady Danielle got up from her cushioned seat and walked over to her husband.
"Thargor, must you be so hard on her? Maybe there is some credit to what she says!"
"I do not care! She should not have spoken to me that way!"
"You are right; she should not have spoken to you in that manner, but that she spoke to you in that fashion is why I believe that there is credit to what she says of Sir Kegan."
"Of course you are right, my wife. I thank you for bringing wisdom into my rage." Thargor said as he embraced his wife.
"My Lord and Lady," a tanned servant exalted as he bowed low before the couple, "The Lady Elliana is gone!"
As soon as she had left the presence of her father, Elliana ran down the hall into her bed chamber. She changed out of her blue dress, and into a forest green dress. She went to her dresser and pulled out her leather belt, which held her dagger and hunting knife. She slipped it around her trim waist, and snatched her bow and quiver. Before she walked out the door she grabbed her cloak. As she fastened the clasp, forged in the shape of a torch, she thought back to her fifteenth birthday...
Her mother had entered her bedchambers just as she had been fixing her old blue cloak.
"Elliana take that cloak off. You can not go to the banquet like that!" Her mother had scolded. "Here your father and I wanted to give this to you." her mother turned her so she faced the mirror, Then she put a deep aqua cloak around Elliana's shoulders.
"Mother, it's beautiful, thank you!" Elliana said in an awed voice.
"Stop turning around and moving all over, I'm not done yet!" Lady Danielle had commanded crossly. Then she pulled out a little box, and pulled out a silver clasp. She fastened it at Elliana's throat. Elliana reached up and touched the clasp.
"A torch?" Elliana asked in confusion.
"To remind you that you have been a light of joy in our world, and will be a light to others who have the honor of knowing you." Lady Danielle said, pride and love in her green eyes.
Now Elliana, with a small smile, touched the cool silver torch with golden flames coming out the end of it. Memories aside she steeled herself in her resolve. With a solid press, she sealed the letter on her desk, glanced around the room, and made her way down the torch flickering corridor.