Alba - One
Her eyes were on the sea, watching from the dark stone walls that guarded the Meriden coast as a voice drifted towards her on the breeze. “You should not be up here.”
Turning, she searched to find an excuse, yet at the sight of her older brother she simply life her skirts and ran towards him, wrapping her arms tight around his middle. He gripped her tight, lifting her off the ground for a moment before letting her go. His smile grew even larger as he carried on, Alba taking a step back to take the sight of him in again. “Imagine if father or Fabia caught you here,” “Neither of them walk the walls anymore, you should know that.” She replied with a smirk. Her oldest sister had longed deemed walking along the castle defences as ‘unladylike’ and she could not remember when she had last seen her father here. Or out of his chambers at all. “How was the Midlands?” Harin simply sighed. She knew he was supposedly sent Nord for diplomatic reasons; the tribes had become worse over the last few years from what Alba had overheard her father saying every now and again. Yet he had left so suddenly and was gone for so long, it could not be just a treaty that he was sent away to sign. Looking him over again, Harin looked tired and heavy. She had not seen him like this in years, and it unnerved her. With most of her siblings she could not be at ease as she was with Harin, their bond much closer than the rest of the Cicern family. She had great pride in him, knowing one day he would be ruler of the Surd and Midlands. His hand rested on his brow before he finally found the reply he had been searching for. “I need you to listen to me,” His tone was far more serious than before, something she rarely heard from him, “You are going to receive some news, news you will not want to hear. It will come in time so please do not ask me to tell you now, but know I did my best to stop this.” Her stomach lurched, his face softening again. “How was it here?” “Fabia keeps to her room, Marcius and Marine bicker constantly, mother tries to make peace and yet all father does is cause problems.” Alba’s mind was only half on the current conversation as she carried on. With her older brother gone for the past season, her family had become yet more difficult. All the titles and gold in Surd clearly did not mean happiness, whatever the people may say otherwise. “Do they know you are here again?” “No, I have not seen them as yet. Word has most likely been sent to father the moment I left the Nords, although I doubt he is keen on searching for me.” Again with the heavy sigh and dark look, something was playing across his mind that left him plagued by his thoughts. “Harin, if there was something amiss, something that-“ “I would tell you.” He interrupted, probably trying to put her mind at ease and yet somehow achieving the opposite. “I would always tell you.” “Make sure to see mother first,” Alba leaned up to place a kiss against his cheek, “She will not want to wait for you to deal with his Majesty before she can see you are well.” He held her hand tight for a moment, before leaving towards the steps down the wall to the armoury.
She looked over the walls once more, glancing to the sea, to the horizon on which if the god was good you could see the Red Isles in the distance. It seemed to churn and surge beneath them; hitting the base of the wall with such a force she could not imagine a man strong enough to survive it. She’d heard a tale from her nursemaid of the Nords, of the gods they worshiped and how to them, they would be sent to the sea if they betrayed their clans. She had thought it nonsense, fifteen years ago when she had sat with her sisters and listened to tales of how some of them were magic, how they could move water and fire to fight with it. The wind tossed her hair like it tossed the sea, and she leaned closer to the edge of the wall, wanting to see more of what lay beyond the horizon.
“MISSTRESS ALBA!” She heard a familiar voice shriek, watching her maid sprint towards her from the steps and pull her away from the wall. Gintare held her tight by the shoulders, rocking her tightly as she fretted in her usual way. “You should not be up here! It is dangerous for a young lady such as yourself, by the god, if your father knew you were here he would be furious!” Alba tried not to laugh at the older woman, at how her face creased whenever she worried; which seemed to be always. She thought about telling Gintare that she had been here with her brother, however the woman was in such a state she could not find a way to speak without interrupting her. Finally, she managed to pull herself together. “Come, away from here. We are to begin lessons for the day, and let the god be good when your father hears of this.”