The necklace spun around slowly, wrapping around her finger and unwinding repeatedly. It was a habit developed over the years to aide in her thinking process, the action kept her focused, at least somewhat. In all honesty Angie was completely unfocused most days and scatter brained on the others. Except today, today she was completely focused on one thing and one thing only. Choosing Day was only a week away.
Choosing Day; in Angie's opinion the end of her life.
Choosing Day was supposed to be a big, grand occasion where the Ward children who had turned fifteen would be apprenticed to the Craft Masters of Castle Redmont. Or doomed to a life of menial labor, a fate Angie feared would be her own. It was not that she was unlikeable or incapable; she just apparently did not fit in with their departments.
What Angie had really been hoping for was an apprenticeship with Master Whey, the lead chief in the kitchens. But the kitchens were fully staffed and at the breaking point with students; there simply was not room for her. She liked cooking, especially after she had been forced to help the cooks for a Yule time feast as a punishment, five years in a row. She could really see herself doing that for the rest of her life.
The Couriers had turned her away, saying the just did not see her blending well, whatever that meant. She would have tried for an apprenticeship with the Scribes and Lawyers, but that was a tedious task that she had no patience for. All the other Masters worked in departments she was certain were boring and not worth her time, or something she simply could not do like coopering or the Battle School.
This ultimately led to her conclusion that she was going to suffer as a laborer in Wensley Village or some out laying farm, and become a farmer's wife with too many sons and thread bare clothing. It was not often that the children of the Ward were unable to be apprenticed to the Craft Masters of Redmont, but it did happen. And it was happening to her.
Angie sighed looking down as the twin oak leaves on her necklace came to rest on the back of her hand. She was meant for more than a farmer's wife, she could feel it. Her parents had sent her to Redmont for more. But what could she do, anything worthwhile had decidedly rejected her weeks ago. Her only hope was the Scribes, and that was not a life she wanted.
"I'm doomed," she sighed spinning the necklace out again.
The necklace was a mystery. One that for a long time was all Angie ever really thought about. The matrons looking after the children in the Ward said she had arrived one rainy day with the necklace clasped tightly in her hand and a message telling her name and that her parents were heroes. Who they were was never learned, and what the necklace meant was just as unclear. But one thing was clear to her; the daughter of heroes was not going to be a farmer's wife in thread bare clothing.
"Angie," one of the other Wards, a girl called Mandy came across the courtyard to where Angie was thinking. "Why didn't you come to lunch?"
Was it already lunch time, Angie straightened to watch Mandy's approach. At the mention of lunch Angie's stomach rumbled, something Mandy did not miss. The girl smiled tossing an apple to her friend.
"You're lucky I was able to slip these, you know how Whey is about food."
Mandy was tall and elegant, her parents had been Inn Keepers, but they had been killed in a Scotti raid when she was ten. Lady Helena had said that she would gladly take the inn keeper's daughter for apprenticeship in the Diplomatic Services. Once upon a time Angie believed she would be joining Mandy with to the Couriers, but a little over a month before Choosing Day, Lady Helena came to the girls telling Angie that she was not going to blend well in the Couriers.
Angie smiled in appreciation catching the apple, "Soon it won't matter."
A week, there was only a week until Choosing Day. Angie had to convince someone to apprentice her. She spun the necklace around her finger, rolling the apple against her leg with the other hand.
"Stop worrying so much, I'm sure you're needed somewhere. You're smart and really talented," Mandy was a very optimistic person, even beck when she first arrived at the Ward, but since her arrival everything seemed to have gone in Mandy's favor. Angie lacked that kind of luck.
"Oh, that's why everyone turned me out," Angie spun the necklace faster as she frowned at the ground between her feet.
"Surely not everyone," Mandy laid her hand on her friend's shoulder.
"Everyone except the Scribes and Battle School," Angie sighed, catching the pendent on her necklace in her hand and hitting her knee slowly.
Mandy's nose wrinkled with her smile, "I hadn't realized that was on option."
"It's not," Angie was in no mood for jokes. Her future was closing in on her and it was dismal.
"I guess I could go to the Scribes," she said after a few minutes careful thought, spinning the necklace around her finger again.
"I thought you couldn't stand that stuffy Scribe Master, George," Mandy watched as Angie's necklace spun around between them.
Mandy had a point. Angie lacked the patience to read those ordnances and laws and countless documents the Scribes stooped over every day. She hated the constriction of sitting at a desk all day reading, and she especially could not stand to stuffy, know-it-all Scribe Master George Carter. But, all of that aside, Angie felt she could stomach the lifestyle, it would be better than a farmer's wife. And it was her only chance.
"He's my last chance," Angie whispered standing up. The Scribes were the only crafters left in all of Castle Redmont who had not already turned Angie aside.
"Maybe Lady Helena will change her mind," Angie laughed.
Lady Helena, the head of Diplomatic Services and the Couriers did not change her mind. The woman had been confronted dozens of times, and stayed by her original decision. She always won. Saying she would change her mind about accepting an "unfit match" of her department was like hoping for a miracle.
No, Angie's last hope was the lawyers, and book makers. It did not take a genius to figure it out. She slipped her necklace over her head and took a bite from the apple Mandy had brought for her. "I have to go," she called over her shoulder crossing the yard.
"Lady Helena still might change her mind," Mandy called after her friend.
Angie made no outward sign that she heard Mandy calling after her. She had more important things to worry about than false hopes. She had a week to convince the Scribes that she really wanted to do that for the rest of her life.
Angie crossed the yard quickly, by passing the Ward where the others in her age group were lounging by the door. They would rub it in Angie's face, the fact they had been accepted somewhere. Angie had been in the Ward her whole life, she had been four before Johnny Pritchard arrived. She and Johnny hated one another, and he had managed to turn each and every single new arrival against her. Well, until Mandy arrived when they were nine.
Angie had avoided the majority of the people that should have been her friends for hours to spare herself unfair ridicule over things she had no control over. And in light of the recent situation, and her inability to find a Craft Master to take her as an apprentice, Angie just outright avoided all of them. She had not been in the Ward building for nearly two weeks and had only been to two meals with the other Ward children in the same amount of time. It was a good thing she was adapt at sneaking into the kitchens, and that several of the cooks took pity on her.
Had they not looked up Angie would have made it into the castle. But luck was never on Angie's side. Johnny and his partner in crime Steven Cooper looked up just in time to see Angie climb the castle steps.
"Well, look who decided to grace us with her presence," Johnny came to his feet quickly, he was tall and very athletic with a wolfish face. Steven was on his feet seconds later, the two were so similar they should have been brothers. Thankfully they were not, Angie could not bear the thought of having to live with the both of them for eleven years.
"If it isn't the misfit of the Ward," Steven was not very original; his taunts were nine times out of ten, immensely idiotic. As dumb as they might have been his comments were still hurtful.
"I'm not a misfit," Angie seethed turning on them.
"Then why haven't you got any friends," Johnny loped across the yard, leading his pack to circle Angie on the stairs. "And that weirdo Mandy doesn't count."
"I have friends," Angie defended narrowing her gaze at Johnny.
For years Angie had been sneaking out of the castle, the people of Wensley Village were preferable to the bullies in the Ward. She knew plenty of children her own age in the Wensley and had been invited to hang out with them on several occasions. They were more like acquaintances that actual friends, but Johnny and his pack did not need to know that.
"Oh really," Johnny wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
No way out now, Angie told herself deepening her glare at Johnny. Johnny liked to hold her in the circle for the taunting, so the others could all get their barbed words in. The confrontations were rarely physical, Angie was thankful for that, but she always preferred it had an actual fight.
"Why haven't I seen them?"
"You're always alone or with the freaking Inn Keeper's daughter," Annette snickered. The girl was short and gaining weight at an uncanny rate, Angie was sure she snuck into the kitchens for snacks, and the bruises on her arms suggested Master Whey had laid into her with his wooden spoon on every occasion.
"Mandy's not weird or freaky," they could say all they wanted about her, but Angie would not allow them to insult Mandy.
"She must be," Kevin, the last of Johnny's pack spoke from behind her. The scrawny little son of a shepherd had come to the Ward when he was seven, and mainly just followed the group. He enjoyed fitting in so much he went along with whatever they were doing, even when he knew it was wrong and felt bad afterward. "She hangs out with you," not very original, yet still painful.
How she wished that this was a time when someone threw a punch at her. Angie could have fought them off, she had learned some pretty good moves from some of the boys in Wensley. She would never start the fight, but if just one of them looked like they were going to hit her, Angie would beat the snot out of all of them. Especially the snooty Annette with her little button nose.
"Let me go, I have places to be," it was a tired tactic, and its effectiveness was becoming little more than a pause in the verbal abuse.
"Always in such a hurry," Johnny smiled it what would have been a charming manner if Angie was an idiot like Annette. "Why not stay and chat?"
"I have somewhere to be," she spoke through gritted teeth. Johnny's grip tightened around her shoulders, he pulled her up against his side.
"I don't understand. No one wants you, where could you possibly have to go," he spoke with a soft voice. Angie bit her lip, fighting to keep the tears from pooling in her eyes.
That barb was the worst. No one wanted her. No one had ever wanted her. And Johnny took every opportunity to rub it in. They all knew what happened to their parents, they all had proud heritages to proclaim. Her parents, her whole family had sent her away. She attempted to pull away from him, but Johnny was stronger.
"Let me go Johnny," she tried to push at him away, her arms straining to form a gap. If she could just get her hands between them she could be free.
"No, I don't think so," Johnny said sweetly. His pack nodded in agreement.
"Why not just tell us where you have to be," Steven asked closing in on Angie's other side.
"Tell us," Annette chimed in.
"So we can tell them that you're no good."
They were all closing in on her, trapping her. Johnny and Steven both had their arms wrapped around her shoulders, Annette was smirking and she could feel Kevin breathing down her neck.
"Who could possible want anything to do with you?"
"Why don't you just run away, like you always do?"
"No one here wants you around."
"No one wants you."
Caught up in tormenting Angie none of the Wards of Redmont saw the Ranger enter. It would have been difficult even if they had been watching. He came in on foot with a caravan bring supplies in from Wensley. Will stopped as the caravan continued around the yard to where they would unload their goods, hearing the ward children nearby.
He was not pleased with what he saw. And he was enraged by what he could hear. The taunting, the harsh words, how could that have been missed? He had been there to check on the girl daily when he was not out on a mission; he had various servants and Craft Masters watching as well. No one had made any mention of Angie being bullied.
He crossed the yard as a shadow and loomed over the teenagers. "What do you think you are doing," he spoke in a harsh whisper, a sound he knew was more intimidating than anything else.
The two boys who had were holding Angie released her quickly, the circle spreading out to from a line. All five of the ward children looked up at Will with fear glazing their eyes. He narrowed his eyes at the two boys who had been entrapping Angie, a scowl pulled at his lips when her recognized Steven Cooper. His father had been a smith from the Ranger's, forging weapons for the Corps, before the forge had exploded killing the smith and his wife.
Will's anger rose, "well?" he asked when no one answered him.
"We were just talking, sir," Annette stuttered, all the children had seen him before, he could just appear like he had that day, he could do magic and kill people with a single look. And the ward children were all certain he was going to kill them with one of his magical looks.
"It looked like a lot more than just talking," Will took his voice even lower, turning on the girl who had spoken. "It looked an awful lot like bullying."
"Bullying," Johnny chirped in mock surprise. "We would never," Will's angered frown turned on Johnny, freezing the remainder of the comment in his throat.
"Yes, bullying," Will hated repeating himself. "All four of you." The four bullies gulped, shrinking down into themselves. "Now go, and if I hear that any of you have been acting up again," he lacked a proper threat, but he never really needed one for simple people. And that was exactly what these children where. When he left the sentence unfinished the four bullies nodded quickly and ran when he shooed them away.
Leaving Angie standing on the steps of the keep, Will turned to her fighting to keep his face neutral. Her fists were clenched tightly at her sides, a half eaten apple in the left, her face contorted between sorrow and anger.
"Are you alright," he tried to ask, but Angie stormed away.
"Leave me alone!"
Will sighed watching her disappear through the door, apparently his help was not needed. Remembering to when Horace had bullied him, Will realized he might have actually made Angie's situation worse. He shook his head turning from the door, he still had to go talk to George about Angie's future.