The morning sun streamed through the window as the young girl looked at herself in the mirror. Her red curls had been washed to a shine and pinned so they framed her pale face and blue eyes. Although the face looking back at her was her own, nothing else seemed to belong. The dress she wore was new, sent over from Cereus House by the Dowayne. A pale blue damask with cactus fines and Cereus flowers embroidered all over it.
“You look beautiful,” the woman said, standing back to admire her daughter.
Aliksandria wrapped both arms around her mother in a warm embrace. She had been looking forward to her tenth birthday for so long, it seemed hard to believe it was truly here.
A knock came at the door, and then a man with black hair and the same blue eyes as Aliks walked in. “My, you truly are the two most beautiful ladies on Mont Nuit.” Her father’s flattery made her giggle.
He held out a small wooden coffer with enamel inlay. “A birthday gift.” She opened the lid to find a pair of pearl earrings nestled on a velvet cushion.
“Thank you, father,” she said, as she removed the small hoops most fosterlings wore and replaced them with the new pearls.
It was time. Holding onto the coffer – her only possession – Aliksandria walked with her parents out of the nursery of Bryony house, the only home she had ever known. The clothes she had worn as a fosterling would stay here, to be worn by future adepts. Her bed would be slept in by another. All the things one could need would be provided to her by her new House, as evidenced by the dress she now wore.
Several people stood in the Dowayne’s office when the trio arrived. The Dowayne of Bryony House, her Second, the guild secretary, and the Dowayne of Cereus House. The paperwork was completed in short order, first her parents each signed, then the Bryony Dowayne, followed by the Cereus Dowayne. Then the group turned to her. Her new Dowayne held out the quill to her. “I don’t understand,” Aliks said quietly.
The Cereus Dowayne smiled gently then said, “Ever since the time of Phèdre nó Delaunay, guild law has stated that no marque may be sold without the holder’s consent. You must agree to this, child.”
“What happens if I say no?”
The Bryony Dowayne answered. “You would stay here. But I assure you, I would not sell your marque unless I thought you better suited for success in a House other than Bryony.”
And with that, Aliksandria nodded and signed the parchment, consenting to have her marque sold to Cereus house.
~
Aliks had been living at Cereus House for a few months, learning to wait at table, speak Cardicci and Helene, and prepare a bed chamber. Sometimes a guest instructor would come by to teach the initiates something of their specialty, which is what happened on this day. Regular lessons were canceled and the initiates went to the library. That is when Aliksandria saw who their instructor was.
It made perfect sense. Naamah’s service was a business and that required its adepts to have an understanding of money. Who better to teach that than an adept of Bryony House?
“Mother?” Aliks said, stopping short when she saw the rusty auburn hair. The woman smiled and motioned for her to sit with everyone else.
After the lesson, Aliksandria and her mother walked about the gardens and caught up. She hadn’t realized she was lonely until that day.