NovMo24: All That Glitters

Then, on the third day, Cyrus came back – wearing an eyepatch.

The eyepatch startled Solea more than it should have. She always knew that Cyrus had a bad eye. It was one of the first things that she noticed about him! At first, she had thought that his eyes — always perpetually cross-eyed — were a bit strange, but as the months passed, she found it endearing the way his eyes seemed to dart around without explanation. It was as if his entire body had so much enthusiasm that even his eyes couldn’t stop dancing, and Solea couldn’t help but be charmed by it, even though she admitted it looked a bit strange.

But now? It was as if Cyrus had closed himself entirely from everyone. Had Solea not known Cyrus so well, she might have thought he was a completely different person. He seemed older and quieter than he was before, which made Solea feel even more uncomfortable. It felt like he was a stranger.

Cyrus walked differently too. Before, his walking almost seemed like a dance. Sometimes, when he got too excited, he would dart around so quickly that he grew dizzy and lost balance. Not that he had ever seemed to mind! When he stumbled, he had always laughed at himself and continued the class with a grin.

But now Cyrus seemed sure-footed and balanced. There was no tottering around or false steps anymore. He was in control.

When Cyrus walked to the front of the class, Archondid at his heels as usual, he gave the class a warm smile — though Solea noticed he didn't look at her directly. “I'm sorry for leaving you with so little notice. As soon as I took a day off to rest, I'm afraid everything caught up with me. Still, thank you for your patience.” Then he touched his eyepatch lightly. “Before anyone asks, yes, I know I look a little different. I was getting too dizzy in class from my bad eye, so Archondid suggested I wear an eyepatch. This means, of course, that it will be even more difficult for me to see the other side of the room now. So please! Let me know if there are questions from the other side of the room.”

There were murmurs and giggles around the room, but Cyrus ignored them. He grabbed his satchel and pulled out a handful of letters.

- I need to describe him not wearing an eyepatch in the new chapter.

- I need to describe how Archondid knocks off the eyepatch during the scuffle.

- I need to describe how odd it is to look into Cyrus's eyes when he is blinded.

Most of the class left in a hurry, glancing at Sergius oddly before they left. But Solea did not. Alainna was still sitting at her desk in a daze while Clarise sobbed into her cloak.

Cyrus looked over the classroom to see who was left, then knelt near Clarise. “I am so sorry,” he muttered, his head bowed low. “I failed you.”

Clarise only sobbed louder.

“Enough!” Sergius yelled, grabbing a book from Cyrus’s satchel and throwing it at Cyrus’s head. Then, when Cyrus yelped and scrambled away, Sergius turned to Archondid angrily. “What was that?” he demanded. “The entire reason why you’re here is to make sure Cyrus doesn’t touch the students! And then you let him close enough that one jumps into his arms? What were you thinking?”

“What was I thinking?” Archondid cried, his feathers fluffing up in fury. “What were you thinking? You just attacked a student! Yes, Cyrus might have touched her, but it wasn't as though he invited her into his arms to make love to her! The poor girl just clung to him because she was scared, that’s all! At least Cyrus didn’t attack her like you did!”

Sergius’s face turned red. “Clarise insulted our mother.”

“So what?” Archondid snapped. “Clarise should have been sent to the headmistress where she could have been reprimanded properly. Not thrown onto the floor and forced to do a Swan apology! In what world did you think that was an appropriate reaction?”

“She insulted our mother!” Sergius repeated.

It was then that Solea stood up, trembling in rage. “Don’t pretend you care about the Lady’s honor now!” she snapped, glaring at Sergius. “As if you haven’t insulted Alainna dozens of times before! The only reason why you attacked Clarise was because she defied you and you wanted to punish her!”

Sergius glared at her. “Your teacher told you to leave. You should obey him.”

“What is wrong with you Swans?” Solea continued loudly, feeling her face flush. “Why are you always so violent? Everything you touch is destroyed. Everything is blood and honor and possession and humiliation and poison and pain. Even you White Swans, who are supposed to be healers! Even you bring the same suffering.”

Cyrus bit his lip. “It is more important for my students to feel safe in class than it is for my job security,” he said firmly, though he didn’t look completely convinced of these words.

Sergius laughed. “Job security? Is that what you tell yourself? My boy, your entire life is at stake right now. Do you think the headmistress will punish me? No! I am a son of Diamea, and a White Swan, no less! She won't dare touch me. Instead, it will be you who will take the fall if you are stupid enough to report this! And what will you do if she fires you? If you can’t stay employed here, you have nowhere — and I mean nowhere — to go. You have no family, no real friends, and no connections, outside of this little school. You have no money, other than the little that you’ve scraped together in a month — and even you know how little that is. If you lose your job, you’ll burn through that in a couple of days. Then what?”

Archondid hissed. “Sergius, you are contemptible. Now, get out before I bleed you! You have caused enough trouble today.”

Sergius glowered at Archondid, but left without a word.

Archondid flapped his wings loudly and turned to Cyrus. “Write a dismissal for Clarise and Alainna, stating that they do not have to go to any more classes for the rest of the day, if they do not want to. After you write that, we will go directly to the headmistress and report the incident together. When we do, I promise I will vouch for your conduct and character. There is no reason to despair! Sergius may be a son of Diamea, but so am I! Please don’t think you are alone.”

“No, stop!” Solea cried, hurrying to keep up with Alainna. “Let me talk to you!” She moved to run ahead, turned a corner — and crashed into a man.

At first, Solea was bewildered and wondered if she was imagining things. After all, men were not allowed in their school. Ever. This was one of the selling points of this school. The servants were girls. The teachers were women, mainly widows with too much free time. Wealthy parents would send their daughters to the school, and their daughters would remain safe from any interaction between men, until their parents brought their girls out to marry them off.

Then Solea looked closer at the man whom she had crashed into and paled. The man was not really a man. He couldn't be! His hair was shockingly white, as if he were an old man, and yet his face was curiously youthful. Instead of wearing the typical clothes for a gentleman – trousers, a button-down shirt, and a fitted jacket – the man wore a white tunic, embroidered with silver Swans, that went to his knees, along with some loose silk trousers that looked more like pajama pants. On his shoulders was a White feathered cloak which gleamed with magic.

A White Swan!

But not just any White Swan. One look at his dark blue eyes and the stern way he grimaced, Solea recognized him.

Sergius.

The last time she had seen him was when she was only ten. At the time, she had just been pulled out of her home after being found an Indeterminate and brought to his office. He took one look at her, glanced at some papers in front of him, and ordered that she be brought to a holding cell in that terrible stone prison…

When Sergius saw Solea staring at him, he scrambled up, watching her with fierce blue eyes. “Watch where you’re going, girl!” he snapped. “You could have bled me with your clumsiness!” Then, when Solea shrunk away without a word, Sergius looked at her closer and snorted. “Solea, isn't it? I should have known! I almost killed you once, didn't I?”

Solea stared at him, her eyes wide, and backed away.

Suddenly, Solea felt a hand clasp her shoulder. “Are you threatening my sister?” Alainna snapped, stepping in front of Solea and facing Sergius directly.

Solea stepped back behind Alainna, thankful for Alainna's intervention. “Thank you,” she whispered to Alainna.

“I’m still not talking to you,” Alainna whispered back under her breath. Then, to Sergius, she said, “You shouldn’t be here.”

“And you should mind your own business, little girl,” he snapped back.

“Is this the way you dare to speak to the Lady?” Alainna demanded, her voice rising arrogantly, glowering at the man.

And Solea hated when Alainna used this voice against her. She hated having it rubbed in her face whenever Alainna reminded her that she was the Lady. She hated having to fight for herself to even get a shred of respect.

But Solea loved seeing Sergius’s face turn red.

Sergius swore under his breath. “You are the Lady?”

“Yes, I am the Lady, and you owe me your allegiance,” Alainna said. “Kneel to me. Now.”

Sergius looked furious. He glared at Solea, then Alainna, and finally forced a smile. “Very well, I will kneel before the Lady.” He gathered up his cloak so that he wouldn’t trip on it and knelt down before Alainna.

“Not so fast!” Alainna snapped when he tried to get up. “Who are you and why are you threatening my sister?”

Sergius looked annoyed. “I am your son, Sergius, and I am not threatening your sister.”

Alainna scowled. “Then why were you talking about killing her?”

“Because I almost killed her once, a long time ago,” Sergius said impatiently. “But never mind that! The whole thing was just a slight misunderstanding that was quickly resolved. Now can I get up now?”

At those words, Solea began to tremble. “A slight misunderstanding?” she blurted out, her voice only a squeak. “Why, you imprisoned me and set my execution date! And you call this a slight misunderstanding?”

Sergius looked even more annoyed. “Of course, it was only a slight misunderstanding. You're not dead, are you?”

And what could Solea say to that?

Instead, a White Swan whom they had never met before named Tiziano — and they only knew his name because Archondid and Sergius yelled at him before they went into the carriage — accompanied them in his human form.

Their meeting had been a strange one. Solea and Alainna had been waiting outside for their carriage for Archondid, when suddenly both Archondid and Sergius, both in their human forms, came up to them, dragging a man between them.

Solea barely recognized the man as a White Swan at first. He wore ragged clothes that had been patched up so many times that he looked as if he were a walking scarecrow and clutched a large, bulging bag that clanked metallically as he was dragged across the ground. If it weren't for his white, feathered cloak, which he wore inside out and under a different ragged cloak that rivaled Solea's cloak in appearance, she might have thought he was a poor old man.

Tiziano didn't look like a White Swan either. Instead of having shockingly white hair, paired with blue eyes and youthful skin, Tiziano looked like an old man. His face was weathered and lined with wrinkles while his dusty gray hair seemed to match his worn-out face.

When the Swans approached the girls, Sergius yelled, “Tiziano! Pay your respects to the Lady!”

Then he pushed Tiziano face first into the ground.

As soon as Tiziano fell, the giant bag that he had been holding burst open and toys of all shapes and sizes spilled out. There were spinning tops and jump ropes and rag dolls. There were wooden blocks and tin whistles and bags full of marbles which burst out, even as everything else burst out of the bag. The whole scene might have been comical, had not Tiziano been weeping so hysterically.

“My Lady, have mercy on me!” Tiziano cried out before dissolving into tears and burying his face into the dirt.

“It’s all right, you can get up now,” Alainna mumbled quickly, her face growing red. She reached down to help Tiziano up. But when she reached for his arm, Tiziano only jerked away and sobbed harder. It took several minutes for Alainna to convince him to get up. Only for him to throw himself back down on the ground as soon as Solea was introduced to him as Uclepidies’s daughter.

Finally, Sergius grew frustrated and forced him up. “There!” he spat out while Tiziano stood unsteadily. “You’ve met them! Now, we need your help! We need you to accompany them in that carriage as their escort so they can go back home to their family.”

“You want me to help them go back to their family?” Tiziano stammered, his eyes wide. Dirt was streaked all over his face from sobbing into the ground. “Me?”

“That’s what I just said,” Sergius said, looking even grumpier. “Archondid was going to go with them, but thanks to some complications, he has to stay here. Their home is several hours away. I want you to sit in the carriage and accompany them as their escort until they meet up with their family.”

“Are you sure?” Tiziano asked, trembling hard. “I don’t think Uclepidies would like it if I were with his family. Do you think Uclepidies would mind? I don’t think he would. Perhaps we ought to find someone else to help.”

At his words, Sergius slapped him across the face. “You coward! You fool! There is no one else to spare right now, thanks to your worthless incompetence. All you have to do is stay with the girls and make sure they are safe for several hours. Or can we not trust you to do even this simple task?”

Tiziano turned to Archondid wildly, but if he was hoping for support, he was mistaken. If anything, Archondid seemed angrier.

“Tiziano,” Archondid hissed, all his neck feathers standing on an end. “Do not have such a high opinion of yourself that you think Uclepidies cares for you. You are nothing to him.”

“Don't worry about Uclepidies!” Solea said quickly. “He won't hurt you! Here, I'll help you find your toys!” She stooped down, grabbed a stuffed dog full of sawdust, and threw it into Tiziano’s bag while Tiziano only sobbed more.

“Never mind the toys!” Sergius snapped. “You need to go!”

With that, Archondid and Sergius grabbed Tiziano and shoved him into the carriage while Solea scrambled to get as many toys as she could into the bag.

When Solea handed him his bag of toys, she had hoped that her gesture might calm him down a little. But Tiziano only stared at her in horror, as if she would murder him.

So the plan for that is:

1. First round of edits: do major edits and try to reduce word count as much as possible.

2. Personal read-through: read through the entire darn story without trying to edit and see if it's better. (To lessen the temptation, I will change this to an ebook so it is really hard to make edits, haha.)

3. Second read-through: read through the story again, this time editing it at will.

4. Again, change it to an ebook and read through without making changes, other than stupid typos.

5. If it looks good, I'll see about sending it out to beta readers and see about querying it to actual agents???

Honestly, the person I am most excited about giving it to is my son. He, unfortunately, knows all of the major plot twists, despite not reading any of the book, but he loves reading and rereading things, so I am hoping that he enjoys the story anyway. I am slightly nervous about it because girly boarding school dramas aren't really his thing. other than Harry Potter, and, let's face it... the first book is that, hahah.

The person I am LEAST excited about giving it to is actually my husband... he is really analytical and gives fantastic advice and unfortunately he has already killed an old novel of mine before by pointing out several embarrassing mistakes that I couldn't edit out and so I abandoned the story instead. XP (Honestly, looking back, it is probably better that way... the story really didn't have a plot, sadly, and my subsequent attempts at forcing the story to have a plot failed misersably, so I abandoned this story instead. Which is honestly probably a good thing, lol.) Anyway, he read Book 1's old draft once before and liked it (though, he gave me A Look at the ending and was like, "IS THAT HOW IT ENDS?" before grudgingly starting Book 2, haha. Anyway, I followed a bunch of his advice (which, as stated before, is actually really good advice) and I am nervous about what he thinks about it now. ^^ Hopefully he still likes it? I am still nervous though!