I do not own Shadow and Bone.
The Wandering Isle was boring. Novyi Zem was boring. Keira had thought that since the moment she could explore and remember the world around her. Her mother was Kaelish and from the Wandering Isle, which they had visited on occasion. Her father was Ravkan, a deserter from the First Army. Keira never heard anyone whisper about her father and his betrayal, nobody seemed to care about your past in Novyi Zem. They just cared about farming and honest work.
"I think I might die of boredom." She muttered to herself, causing her mother to look up. She was an older woman with red hair streaked with gray, her stormy blue eyes currently narrowed.
"What was that?" Brigid asked her daughter, who was supposed to be focused on her stitching.
"Oh, nothing, mother." Keira said hastily, frowning at the embroidery in her hands. She thought it looked like a flower. Sort of. If you looked really, really close. Or not at all.
"If you are feeling restless, then go and use that energy to collect the apples from the orchard and the herbs from the garden." Brigid said.
"Yes, mother." Keira sighed, setting her embroidery aside in a basket and getting up, hurrying outside.
Their farm was on the outskirts of Cofton, they harvested vegetables for the most part, but her mother had insisted upon planting an apple orchard before Keira was born. Her father could never refuse her mother and had agreed, of course. Keira looked around as she walked, grabbing an empty basket from a barrel just outside the door. She could see her father and two younger brothers working in the field. Her father, Viktor, had Ravkan features, with brown hair and dark eyes. Her brothers, Ferris and Rowan, took after him, apart from the eyes. Keira glanced at her reflection in the lake that ran the edge of their farm. She took after her mother, from the pale skin, red hair that she kept tied back, and stormy blue eyes.
"Keira! Keira!" An excited voice called, a smile quickly upon her face as her best friend, Eileen, ran over, nearly tripping over her skirt in the process. "Are you going to harvest apples? I'll come, I can keep you company."
"Thank you, Eileen." She chuckled, the two heading down the path. Her friend had tan skin, brown hair and brown eyes. "Mother banished me to the outside world, a good thing, really. I was butchering a flower."
Eileen softly tutted. "Stitching again? It really isn't that hard, Keira…"
"It is for me, but that isn't the point. What made you so excited?" Keira blinked, Eileen blinked before grinning.
"Colin wants me to spend time with him later, I suspect he'll ask for my hand tonight."
Keira blinked at that, unable to help the sharp sting she felt in her heart. She had never been interested in courting, though the boys had tried. Her mother often spoke as though her daughter couldn't hear, wishing that she would find a man and marry, settle down and give her grandchildren. The idea that Eileen wanted to, and most likely would be, on that path made her sad, but she forced herself to smile anyway.
"That's wonderful, Eileen. He's an idiot if he doesn't ask for your hand." Keira said, suddenly glad as they entered the orchard, focusing on the task of harvesting. Some other feeling deep inside her had stirred at the feelings of hurt, something she couldn't understand. She felt it in moments of great anger or sadness, she had felt it call to her when her beloved grandmother had passed away. She never knew what it was and so, like she had many times before, she shoved it aside.
"What do you want to do, Keira? People have seen you down by the harbor when your family visits Shriftport to trade, there's gossip that you want to run off." Eileen asked after they had been collecting for a while.
Keira paused. What did she want? I want to stop feeling like a bird in a cage. I want to stop harvesting apples and having mother shove me at every man I meet.
"I want to leave Novyi Zem, I've saved up enough for passage to Ketterdam." Keira said after a long moment, Eileen's eyes went wide.
"Ketterdam? Why? To attend the university?" Eileen asked, her voice practically a squeak.
"No… Maybe. I don't know." Keira sighed with a helpless shrug, looking away. "We're going to Shriftport to trade tomorrow. I'm leaving then."
"Does your family know? Your mother won't-"
"Saints, I don't care what my mother thinks!" Keira cried and instantly regretted the sharpness of her tone, Eileen shrinking away from her. "I- I'm sorry, Elly."
"It- It's alright. I should get home, I hope that you…" Her voice broke as she seemed on the verge of tears. "I hope that you find what you're looking for, Keira." With that, her lifelong friend turned and scurried down the path.
Keira stared after her, disgusted at herself. Or was it the expectations that the world had set for her? She would find what she was looking for. Saints, she had to.