Maid in Arrun - Part 1
It was just after dawn and the morning mist still filled the courtyard of the Tristain Academy of Magic like a brewing cauldron. On a normal day the serving staff would already be scurrying about preparing things just so for the young masters and mistresses.
There were no more normal days. The grounds of the academy were quiet. The courtyard almost still save a few isolated workmen finishing their tasks in the dormitory towers. Covering the furniture in tarps and filling the linen storage with mothballs.
It had not been this way before, Siesta was told by the older servants. In times of war it was typical for the young men to be called off to service by their households while the young ladies continued their educations.
War with Albion was different, however. It was to be an 'air war' that could range across the skies from the oceans around Albion to the foothills of Northern Tristain. Many noble families had become stricken with fear that Reconquista would take inspiration from the success of the Faerie 'aerial bombardment' to strike at the young heirs apparent housed within the school.
Families had decided to take up the burden of tutoring their children at home for the duration. Where they would be, at very least, smaller targets for reprisal while those of pourer means would take up apprenticeships.
Without the students there was no Academy. And without the Academy there was no call for the army of serving staff supporting those students in the manner to which they were accustomed. Nor the tuition to pay their salaries.
What students had not yet departed, for war or for home, would be leaving today and most of the professors would be journeying to continue their service with the Academia. Only a small staff of caretakers would remain to hold stewardship over the grounds and guard the various magic treasures in the academies collection, until some time in the future, hopefully, when the students could return.
Siesta sighed as she folded the sheets of her cot one final time and laid her pressed uniform upon the night stand. She supposed she was still very fortunate. The Academy had always prided itself on a diligent serving staff. Many of its students had gone on, quite naturally, to be heads of household so a letter of recommendation from the school did count for something in the circles she traveled.
She had a little money saved up. And worst came worst, there was her uncle Scarron . . .
Or she could return home to Tarbes.
Her mother had written that things had even improved a little since the old Count had started showing himself again.
Siesta surveyed the little attic room one final time. A cot, a small table and chair, and a chest for her personal belonging. It had not been much, but it had been home.
With another sigh, she straightened her clothes, picked up her suitcase, and stepped out the door, making her way down the narrow and rickety servant's stairs to the kitchens to say goodbye. She heard the other girls chattering from the dining room from the far end of the hall but decided to check in on the kitchens first where Monsieur Gusto was even then setting out bread from the oven.
"Good morning my Petite Tourteau!" The fat old chef chuckled as Siesta announced herself.
"Good morning, Monsieur." She hadn't made many friends in her time at the Academy, but she'd miss Monsieur Gusto. "I was just wondering if I could take a few loaves for the road. I have quite a walk ahead of me."
"Ah, already setting out then, Tourteau?" He asked, nodding that she could take a few of the fresh loaves.
"I don't really have any reason to stay any longer do I?" She observed. "I mean, each day would just be another without finding work."
"But surely you at least want to see if your contract will not be bid on! What is a few days wait?"
"And what about your Monsieur Gusto?" Siesta asked as she gestured for permission, and having it given, took some fresh butter as well. "Aren't you packing to leave today?"
"Ah well that is different my Petite Tourteau." He sighed. "You should know work will always find those who love to cook. But you . . . You should take advantage of the academies reputation. It might make finding work that much faster."
"Siesta." A voice called from the down the hall. Then a little louder. "Siesta!"
"See?" Gusto laughed as he went back retrieving loaves from the oven.
"Monsieur Gusto!" Madame Didina stood panting and red faced in the kitchen doorway. The head housekeeper straightened her hair and her glasses before stepping inside, swinging her broad shoulders, she gave the impression of an agitated mother hen.
"I seem to be very popular this morning!" Gusto chuckled. "What can I help you with la Poule?."
"Not you!" She clucked sharply. "I though I heard . . . Siesta! I caught you before you left!"
"Is there something you need Madame?" Siesta asked politely. While she might have counted Monsieur Gusto as something of a friend, who always had some left overs in his pot when she was made to work late or rise especially early. The same could not be said for Madame Didina.
Nobody was friends with the Head Housekeeper. It was simply the way of things. In normal times she would oversee the hirings and firings of the staff as needed and instructed by the headmaster. She did not allow herself to grow attached. But within her domain she was not unkind.
She gave Siesta a cockeyed look. "You need to be going."
"Going?" Siesta asked.
"Going!" Madame Didina repeated enthusiastically. "This very moment in fact!" She shook her head. "No that will be no good . . . They're already on their way!"
"Who?" Siesta was beginning to feel a little worried. She'd never seen the Madame like this in the years she'd worked at the academy. "
"Has la Petite Tourteau done something wrong?" Gusto wondered allowed.
"No." Madam Didina worked herself into a fluff. "But that Founder benighted fool headmaster has!"
"The headmaster?" Siesta and Gusto said together.
"He had that new strumpet of his place the servants contracts out for open bids! Siesta's already has a mark!"
"But that's good yes?" Gusto reasoned. "See Torteau I told you a diligant young woman would find work right away!"
"Not when it's the Count de la Motte!"
There was strange moment as the easy expression on Monsieur Gusto's face began to curdle. He shared a look with the Head Housekeeper and then both looked to Siesta who had just taken a bit from her bread.
"What?" She asked. "What is wrong with the Count de la Motte?"
Whether in Halkegenia or in the world they had come from, it was taken as a safe bet by the Fae of ALfheim that there had never been a living organism as large as the World Tree.
The impossible spiral trunk towered higher into the sky than the tallest buildings of Earth's greatest cities and evidence of its root system could be found as far away as the Ghallian boarder. The entire settlement of Arrun, no small town, sheltered comfortably against its base.
Yggdrassil was so large in fact that its mere presence had an effect on the city's climate. Entire districts would find themselves shaded over the course of the day. And the vast tree's transpiration could even lower the temperature on a dry day by as much as five degrees.
The cooling moisture was also the source of a peculiar feature of Arrun, a deep mist that people had taken to calling Faerie's Fog which tended to persist on shady streets and beneath tree canopies until mid morning. As the fog slowly burned away, the waking city revealed itself, first the brass roof tops, then the highest floors of towers and apartments and until the slowly filling streets were laid bare.
Kirigaya Suguha, the Sylph Leafa, had decided that it made a great way to keep track of the time in the morning. She always knew just when it was time to leave the house for work.
But first . . .
"Ha!"
The hard -clack- of shinai filled the garden beneath the branches of a fragrant olive tree.
"Again!" Leafa commanded, stepping back and easily meeting the next strike and the next.
"Ha! Ha! Ha!"
She let the young girl expend herself and then, just as Yui was overextending, the Sylph stepped aside deftly and let the force of the Maeve's vigorous downward swing carry her forward. The Shinai in her hand cut a sedate arc through the air ending in a small -pat- against Yui's rump. Not enough to hurt, but enough to send the overbalanced child sprawling.
"I think that's just about enough for today." Leafa said as she helped her student back to her feet. She brushed the dew and stray blades of grass from Yui's gi while asking. "Now, what did we learn this morning?"
"Your swings need to follow through." Yui recited. "Aim for just beyond the target."
"But?"
"Don't lose control of your sword or you can leave yourself vulnerable."
The Sylph nodded. While she couldn't say Yui had much of an inherent knack for swordsmanship, her neice made up for a defficieny of talent in sheer determination. An enthusiasm that hadn't wavered even once since she had started practicing.
'Maybe she has what it takes.' The Sylph mused.
"Now . . . One of the fundamental principles of swordsmanship is your footing." Leafa preferred to end her lessons giving her student something to think about. To demonstrate, she took her place in front of the straw practice dummy and took a conservative stance, feet wide but resting lightly. Then she stepped in, never off balance, and perfomed three strikes in quick succession before returning to ready.
Yui simply watched her, big eyes drinking it all in.
"Your stance is key to providing stability and leverage to strike both powerfully and quickly. So far, I've taught you to maintain your stance through your legs, back, and arms. But we Faeries can also use our wings to help keep our balance. Using our wings, we can even create our own leverage. This becomes essential in aerial combat."
Taking a ready stance again Leafa started from further back this time. She breathed, closed her eyes, and concentrated.
'Feel the muscle stretching.'
Bones forming.
'Imagine the nerves connecting.'
She didn't need to imagine for long as slender translucent wings conjured between her shoulder blades. Her awareness of them as an extension of herself came alive. A gentle gust rippled her gi, and a faint almost musical humb filled the air.
She stepped and with a surge of thrust pushing against her back, took off.
Skating just above the ground, Leafa first blow was a thrust straight for the throat fueled by the momentum of her kickoff and renforced by a flair of thrust from her right wings. She felt the impact through the hilt of her shinai, her palms stinging, the strips of ALfheim timber flexed only slightly before releasing their energy back into the practice dumby.
The wooden post creaked.
It was a perfect strike. In a real duel an opponent wouldn't be getting up again.
'In a real duel the opponent can block and perry'. Suguha reminded herself privately.
"Like that." Leafa told her clapping neice.
"Amazing!"
"Don't get too excited. Your wings are powerful. But there are limitations."
"Huh?"
"Think about it, Yui-chan. We Faeries fly by generating thrust. So when we move to make a strike in mid air we're committing to a motion just like we are on the ground and it can make us vulnerable. That's why you can't rely on your wings to make up for sloppy footwork. Poorly utilizing any of your abilities means that your whole technique will suffer. Understood!"
"Un!" Yui nodded vigorously.
"Now . . .It's about time to get ready for school so . . ."
"Leafa-chan!" The sylph pinpointed the source of the voice, a lime haired boy in the process of climbing over the garden wall.
"Recon?" Leafa glanced back to her neice. "On second thought, practice your strikes. Then we'll go in and get changed. Remember, carry through, but don't over extend!"
"Un!" Yui acknowledged before setting her stance and proceeding to swing at an imaginary target level with her shoulders. Leafa kept an eye on her. Handling a Shinai was good exercise for a young girl, but she still had to be careful not to over do it.
"Good morning, Leafa-chan!" The Faerie boy greeted with a familiar enthusiasm as he dropped from his perch on the wall. "Were you and Yui-chan training?"
She nodded. "We do it every morning." Ever since her brother and Asuna had given their approval.
Yui, for all of her fearless exuberance, was a clumsy child. The directed exercise seemed to help her coordination.
It was also an opportunity for her aunt to impart all of the lessons that the young Maeve had never learned as a real little girl. Things like how to remain alert for danger and what to do to get away if someone tried to hurt her. This was a hostile world, much more so than twenty first century Japan. It was clear that her family couldn't always protect Yui, but at least they could prepare her to protect herself.
"So, what's up?"
The Sylph boy's nose began to twitch and his eyes started to water as she grew near. "Uhm . . . Leafa-chan . . . What is that smell?!"
"Smell?" Leafa frowned. A faint whiff of something sour wrinkled her nose and caused her to sniff the collar of her gi. "Oh yeah . . . I guess we are pretty ripe!"
"Huh?!" Recon blurted. "It's you?!"
"We've been working up a sweat all morning." Leafa laughed. "Or did you think girls can't stink?" Suguha paused as she saw the boy's cresftallen expression. "Don't answer that!" Then when he seemed to be having trouble tearing himself away from the thought, Leafa crossed her arms beneath her chest and tapped her foot expectently. "Ahem!"
"Oh right! I ran into GiNo and she told me you're on market duty today. So you should go right there instead of the watch house. They sure have been keeping you stuck in the city recently."
"It can't be helped." The Sylph sighed. "The market is so busy now it's drawing all sorts of troublemakers."
"Right and people are getting anxious for the Watch to catch the Kurotsune!" Recon immediately regretted his words as the Sylph girl gave him a look.
"We can't even confirm the Kurotsune exists." Leafa said.
"Well there was that rumored Quest during the last update." Recon fidgeted, bringing his hands together and touching index fingers.
"And it was JUST a rumor." Leafa sighed, exasperated. "Do you know anyone who actually completed that quest? Anyone at all? People are just attributing the thefts to the Kurostune because they don't know who else to blame it on." Probably just a ring of petty thieves. "Honestly Recon you can't believe everything you read on the inter-"
-wump-
Leafa blinked as she felt something pat her broadly across the rump. Turning, she found Yui, her Shinai extended. The little girl wore a thoroughly focused expression that split into an enormous smile at the look given by her aunt.
"Don't let your guard down until your opponent has put down their weapon." Yui recited.
"She has a point you know." Recon observed.
"You! Come along and get washed up!" The Sylph girl pointed to Yui. "And YOU!"
"Me?!" Recon pointed.
"You can wait outside the kitchen while we get changed." She ushered Yui back towards the house while shooing recon to keep his distance.
Leafa had started a large pot heating beside the kitchen hearth before they had started training. By now it was just about perfect. She instructed Yui to strip down and helped her neice wash herself while Recon spoke loudly from the garden.
"In any case, people are getting impatient for answers with all the things that are getting stolen." Her old schoolmate went on. "If they don't get the Kurotsune soon then they'll want somebody."
"I guess so." Leafa said, starting to loosen her Gi. She wetted herself down and began scrubbing with sponge and soap. 'We're going to need more soap soon.' She thought. And the gentle herbal scented bars were hard to come by . . .
"And if they don't get anybody it'll reflect badly on the watch."
"We're trying our best!" Leafa insisted, helping Yui to scrub her back.
"Yeah well . . . Let's just say it's probably good then that people don't put a lot of faith in you guys."
"And what's that supposed to mean?!"
She could practically hear Recon shrug as he answered tactlessly. "It means people are expecting the watch to fail."
Leafa opened her mouth to riposte and nothing came out. "We're a little thin on volunteers is all." She answered lamely. "And the ones we get . . . "
"Aren't the best?"
"Y-Yeah."
It wasn't that they were bad people. But . . . there was a reason most of them were in the Watch rather than the Defense Force or Harvesters . . . The best fighters were more urgently needed elsewhere.
'And what does that say about me?' Suguha wondered as she towled her hair dry and began to get dressed for the day. Sturdy work trousers and cotton blouse under a green leather coat, hair tied back with a simple cord. Hardly the fantastical clothing of a Sylphic warrior, but they were durable and comfortable and she could move around all day in them without feeling restricted. Most of all, they made her look professional.
At least, she thought they did.
The clothes made the woman was probably something her mom would have told her and she wondered if Kirigaya Midori, the real Kirigaya Midori that was, would have been proud knowing her daughter was following in her grandfather's footsteps.
It wasn't easy.
'Although Grandpa had Grandma to help out . . ." Suguha thought as she surveyed the Kitchen. Somehow, she doubted whatever war zone her brother and sister in law were stationed in was half as dillapidated as Asuna's cherished kitchen was at that moment. The sink and counter full up with dirty dishes and the tile floor covered in a scum of fireplace ash and soap suds. The rest of the house was generally better, besides Suguha and Yui's rooms, merely caked in a layer of dust. Oh and the windows needed a washing. And the floors a mopping. And the bath really needed to be scrubbed . . .
'How did it get so bad?' Suguha wondered to herself. It wasn't as if she or Yui were home much. It was just a lot of house for two people without the benefit of modern conveniences. About the only thing they'd managed to keep up with was the garbage.
"Here, let me help you with that." Suguha offered as Yui, fully dressed, fumbled with a hair ribbon.
"I can do it for myself!" Her neice insisted.
"Well alright then. But then you'll have to finish it while we walk or you'll be late for school."
"Right right!" Yui answered as she started for the door.
They had just left the garden, Recon in tow, when a gentle cry broke the morning stillness. Yui, running a bit ahead of her aunt suddenly retreated as from around the street corner slender, almost translucent, tendrils crept along the walls like fast growing ivy, crawling along the stones and wrapping about the lamp posts. A bulbous snout came into view next, covered in rows of black dots, primitive eyes. Then the rest of a great bulk glistening wetly in splotchy stripes ranging from pink to deep violet.
Any alarm faded as quickly as it had arrived when Suguha recognize the course matt covering the Dinomoebas back like a hempen blanket and the Cait Syth rider sitting cross legged and gently stroking the sensory fronds of his giant mount.
"Good morning Yui-chan!" The cat Fae waved down from his perch, almost eye level with Faeries watching from second floor windows. He was a thin framed young tom that was just a little too squashed nosed to be called perfectly handsome, at least by Faerie standards, but the boyish grin he wore gave the impression that it was rarely far from his face.
"Good morning Miura-san!" Yui waved back. "I hope Dina is getting a really good breakfast!"
"A lot of fish in last nights refuse. It'll make good compost!" He laughed. "Now if you can please stand aside me and Dina-chan will be finished in just a moment." He gentle coaxed the mammoth creature forward. 'Dina's' delicate sensing tentactles danced across walls and paving stones until they found something of interest. Their discovery would be deftly interogated, and if judged to be food, stronger tentactles would quickly extend to seize the morsel and gobble it up.
This went for everything from leaves and discarded apple cores to the contents of trash cans that had popped up like mushrooms outside of homes. As Suguha watched, the Dinomoeba extended a half dozen of its largest tendrils to snag the can outside their front door, lifting over head and dumping the contents into its waiting maw before slamming the can back down like a beer stein and moving to the next.
"Take care of yourself Miura-san!" Leafa called, receiving a final wave as cait and slug proceeded with purpose down the street leaving a shimmering trail of slime and tidied pavement in their wake.
"Pretty amazing what people think up isn't it?" Recon observed. "I mean, who knew slime type mobs could be so helpful?"
"Well . . . I think Asuna suspected." Suguha thought back to the thoroughly bizarre Mister Kimura who had journeyed with her Sister in Law across Albion. "But you're right. It is clever. Now hurry up or Yui and I will be late!"
Author's Note : Hello everyone, this is a sidestory to my main crossover, Halkegenia Online, which I wrote last year as practice to get back into the swing of writing. It it is being pulished here on fanfictiondotnet for archival purposes. Thank you for your time and reviews. :-)