Eleni was sprawled out on her bed, catching her breath from her latest healing. Her first day of page training had been everything she had expected. Everything and more.
Warren had explained the schedule that would be Eleni's life for the next four years. Her mornings would be dedicated to rigorous physical training. After a midday meal, all of the pages would attend lessons taught by Mithran priests.
Eleni was sprawled out on her bed, catching her breath from her latest healing. Her first day of page training had been everything she had expected. Everything and more.
Warren had explained the schedule that would be Eleni's life for the next four years. Her mornings would be dedicated to rigorous physical training. After a midday meal, all of the pages would attend lessons taught by Mithran priests.
"After the useless classes, we get to the fun stuff!" Schuylar had been scandalized by Warren's disregard for literature and mathematics. Warren didn't care and continued on, "After mathematics, Master Radzimierz teaches us history, he-"
His words faltered, and he hung his head low. Eleni thought she heard him say a quick prayer before he looked at her. And then Schuylar looked at her. Both had the same sorrowful look in their eyes. And then she finally understood. Great-grandfather Myles had previously taught history. And now he didn't.
Some would have called her shameless for not mourning her great-grandfather, a man who had given his all to the kingdom, but her family never did. Eleni had met the original Myles when she was one year old. All she could recall was a warm voice and sure arms that wouldn't put her or her twin down for a moment. Eleni's great-grandfather visited the isles a total of three times, the last one being the one where he met his great-grandchildren.
Then the Black God took him. Those who had been close to the family had expected it for over a year. The original Eleni had fallen ill and died a month before the twins were born. Thus they were named for the two relatives they might never know. But Eleni had had her time with her great-grandfather, and the family had agreed that the time for mourning had passed. Great-grandfather Myles was together with his loving wife in the Realms of the Black God, and nothing would tear them apart again.
"Great-grandfather Myles has been gone for a while. I wasn't three yet, when he passed away, and my family has mourned and so has everyone else. Please, don't feel the need to do so all over again because of me."
After that rather uncomfortable exchange on their way to breakfast, the day got better for Eleni. When they sat down, Varick and Herne were already seated, Simon and Devin were nowhere to be seen. Right before the bell sounded, Simon and Devin came dashing in. A minute later, Lord Paidrig began his morning prayer.
As the boys started to eat, Eleni saw the bruise that was forming on Devin's right cheek. "What is that?" She knew that the easily distracted boys would want to know too. " There's a similar bruise on your left cheek, Simon. What happened?"
Herne saved the younger pages from answering. Without looking up, he told them, "If the little one's bruise is on his right, then I'm assuming Artan didn't like the way he was looking at Pier. As for Simon, Tirragen is my guess." The boys' downcast eyes confirmed Herne's explanation.
A heavy silence hung over the table as everyone went back to their breakfast. Everyone, but Eleni. "Why? Why do you assume it was Alex?"
Varick chose to answer her. "Tirragen doesn't have the greatest reputation, and-"
"So he must have done it?" Her voice was rising and she knew that the others thought her daft for defending him.
"No, that means that Tirragen earned his reputation all on his own by doing exactly what we assumed he did."
"That doesn't make any sense! You're judging him befor-" Warren put his hand on hers, the one that had unconsciously gripped her knife.
"Let it go, Myles. Tirragen has earned our mistrust, and we refuse to give any of them a second chance."
The slight episode aside, the morning progressed splendidly. That is, until they arrived at the training yard. Lord Paidrig, in all glory, had devised a new method of training, surely meant to torture new students. It appeared to Eleni that Lord Paidrig was an old advocate of the hazing system. Why else would he make new pages learn their staff work from older pages?
And because the gods adored her so, Eleni was lucky enough to be paired off with Piers' bulldog, Artan of Bjorn. Two night ago, she had not been able to get a good look at him, but in the morning sun, she could she the benefits to keeping someone like him around. The boy was as big as a bear, and he was only a third year!
By the end of staff work, Eleni was convinced that the whole of the training staff hated her, and they didn't even know she was girl. Neither of the two instructors, stuffy and conservative knights, paid Artan's overzealous hits any attention. If they thought that pairing her up with a left-handed giant would make the Lioness' grandson run, then they didn't know that crows were both tricky and creative. Eleni could use her left hand just as well as her right one.
It seemed that the instructors had done pairing on purpose, and they were sorely disappointed when they saw Eleni switch her staff over to her left hand. They were even more disappointed when she held her ground. In fact, they had the audacity to yell at her when she hit back just as hard and made Artan stumble.
Archery was another matter comepletely. Eleni's skill rested with the bow, and she let her talent show that morning. Which
Needless to say, her instructors were less than pleased.
"Modesty is a grand virtue in a knight, Pirate's Swoop," said Sir Asher of Mourning Pass.
Eleni did not care for his sense of modesty one bit. The man walked about with his pride on his sleeve, literally! Why any training instructor would come to practice in a brocaded satin tunic was beyond her comprehension. At least, until she saw that he made of Sir Morven of Berm do all of the physical teaching. Gods forbid that Sir Asher should touch a page!
Honestly, I will never understand these conservatives.Her first six arrows hit the bullseye. While watching poor Sir Morven run around correcting stances, she managed to get five more perfect shots. Look at the poor idiot, following the fat one's orders like a pathetic lapdog.
Her twelth arrow missed by a hair. Eleni didn't it, she knew she had plenty to still learn about the bow. She was fine with that, until Sir I-don't-really-do-any-work-but-I-can-yell-at-you-all-I-want opened his mouth.
"Apperently Pirate's Swoop will learn humility the hard way. His marksmen skills are still lacking."
Although she was tempted to show the conservative twit just how good her aim was, she saw the pleading look that Warren was sending her from down the line. Humility, then, was the road she chose. With just a drop of mischief.
"Forgive me, Sir Asher." She covered up a small giggle as Warren put a hand over his eyes. "Perhaps you could demonstrate how it is properly done, I would be honored if you did." It was moments like these that showed the player blood running through her veins. "Please, Sir Asher?"
Of course the fat knight could not do it, but rather than show his lack of skill, he merely labeled Eleni as a disruptive individual and sentenced her to two hours of extra practice, come Saturday morning. Warren was still covering his face in defeat.
On the way to the baths, Warren only had one word to say to Eleni, "Why?" His tone was so sad, so dejected, that all his two pages could was laugh at him. It did not make anything better. "Why did you insist on making the man angry?"
Fighting her laughter, Eleni managed to choke out, "Didn't you see his face?"
And Warren started chuckling, too. "Fine, I admit it was funny, but you have punishment duty, on your first day no less."
"I know, but the extra practice can only make me better." Now back inside the palace, Eleni knew that she had to get rid of the boys. "You know, I forgot something back in my room. Go on without me."
The boys didn't argue, and Eleni was able to bathe quickly in her own room. At lunch she told the boys that she had found it more comfortable to bathe in her own room, and they left it at that.
If Eleni thought that the gods were cruel for leaving her to be beaten by Artan, she thought they were just being malicious for allowing such boring Mithran priests to educate the pages. The conservatives were bad, but it was possible to please them. These priests were touchy and assigned so much work that it would be impossible to finish it all.
As they made their way to the room where their history lesson would be held, Warren kept giving Eleni the same look he gave her before breakfast. After reassuring him twice more that she was over the death of her great-grandfather, the three pages found three seats together in the middle row. And at the bell's first peal, the most flamboyant man Eleni had ever seen stepped through the doorway.
Eleni had never seen someone so gaudy, and in the Copper Islands everyone was a little flashy. But this man was something else. His perfect flaxen hair was braided so that it draped over his left shoulder, and his clothes were more ornate than Sir Asher's.
Mithros, don't ler this fop be Great-Grandfather's replacement.
"Good afternoon, class. My name is Radek Radzimierz, and I humbly welcome you to the world of History." He bowed. A player's bow. "I will not expect you all to keep up with me, no, never." He giggled and he set to rebraiding his hair. "But, please, do try to keep up with me."
Good gods, a clown, they let a clown replace Myles of Olau. A clown!
Warren had been afraid of Eleni's reaction, and now he knew that his fears were not unfounded. Not everyone adapted to Radek easily, in fact he aggravated most people. Ad it appeared to Warren that neither of his pages found him worthy of teaching.
It was a very long lesson, to say the least. Eleni swore to shave the man bald if he kept twirling his braid in class. How the king could let someone like that replace her great-grandfather she would never know. To be honest, the man did know his material, but his vanity wqas quite irksome. At least she had dinner to look to.
Dinner was not much better than class. Apparently, Shuylar was fixating on the blonde fop, and insisted on repesting the entire history lecture. On more than one occassion, Warren had to take Eleni's knife, and once her fork, for fear that she would gut the poor fool right there. Eleni was grumpy, though she did not admit it.
"Did anyone else think he was an idiot?" Silence, his year mates and the older pages were mortified. Even if they agreed with his opinion, one did not say that about any of the teachers. "I say we play with his hair dye."
"His what?" Herne of Tirrsmont was rarely confused, and when he was, he didn't like it.
"That bumbling blonde is not a real blonde." More confused looks from the silent pages. "I happen to have a mother, four sisters, six aunts, an annoying great-aunt, and a grandmother who refuses to look like a grandmother. I think I can recognize glamours and beauty elixers."
Devin of Disart had been fairly silent until this moment, and his first words, so to speak, were not what the pages expected. The small boy, though not as small as Eleni, had deceived them all with his golden honey eyes and little smiles. The boy was trouble.
And they liked it.
Simon was the first to recover this time, and, having been seated beside him for dinner, he gave the much smaller boy a oneover, then slung his arm around Devin's shoulders. "And you wanted to know why I picked the runt. The boy is worth my weight in gold."
That was how their plot was hatched. Herne and Schuylar were the only ones of their group, and therefore capable of ruining the mage's spells. After much goading on the part of Herne, Schuylar agreed to keep quiet, even if he wouldn't participate. Plans laid out, the group returned to their rooms quite happy.
All except for Eleni. Vartan saw fit to give her a last minute lesson, as payment for the humiliation he suffered during staff practice. But it was over soon enough, when Perci appeared at the corner of the hallway. Neither pages were enough to deter her happy continence.
At the end of the night, Eleni was just happy to have lived through her first day, even if it meant healing a black eye.
Sorry this took so long. Once again, college reared its ugly head and demanded attention. And fencing. Fencing required some love from me, too. BTW The Artan v Eleni situation is based on the evil nature of my fencing captain. He thinks its funny to pair the shortest fencer with the giant left-handed fencer. The only difference is that I'm not ambidextrous. But it is pretty realistic.
Thanks for reading!