The week passed quickly. Too quickly. Asti met with Jerr two more times. He taught her an Invisibility spell, and a minor spell that closed small cuts and removed bruises, which Asti had great fun with. Sword fighting lessons however, seemed to have only gotten worse.
"Today we shall learn how to wield a sword and shield. Not in any way, but correctly."
Asti sighed. She had enough problems holding a sword...but now a shield also?
In only a few minutes, Asti managed to drop her shield on her foot, which resulted in a swollen toe.
She really had been trying, but she could not bear the weight of both the sword and shield. Asti felt tears rise up into her eyes. She tried to blink them away. Her toe hurt; very, very, bad. She felt as if it had caught on fire. She needed something, anything to cool it off...
"You cry? Children cry; not young women." Kaelin snapped. "That's nothing big! We must continue!"
Asti glanced up to see her sisters giving her a look of disgust. Asti hopped over to a nearby bench, nearly falling on her face. "I cannot continue at the moment, Kaelin. Give me a break. Please."
Kaelin shook her head. "You are weak. Warriors are strong, not weak. If you want to be a good one..."
Asti had had enough. "I do not want to be a dumb warrior! Why can't I choose my fate? Do I have to be a warrior? A..."
Kaelin was fuming. "What nonsense do you speak of? What else would you be...a magician?" Asti's sisters started to laugh; Kelessa nearly snorted.
Asti paused, then continued. She stood up, without thinking about her toe. She cried angrily, "Why can't I be...let's just say...a magician if I wanted to?"
Kaelin strode towards Asti, away from her gaping sisters. "Listen, Miss Princess," Kaelin said through gritted teeth. She gripped Asti's arm until her wrist turned white. "Are you that dumb? That would be a disgrace, if you really wanted to do so. We leave the weaker, and more cowardly jobs for the lowly men of this kingdom. Men cannot do these jobs us women do, since they are so frail ...we do it for them. Are you a coward? Are you afraid? Are you afraid to fight, to fight for this country?"
Asti locked her startling green eyes on her trainer's, jerking her wrist away from Kaelin's grasp. There was a moment of silence. Asti hesitated, then stammered, "Of, of course not."
"Good."
For the rest of the week, what Kaelin said, what Kaelin told her was the only thing on Asti's mind. Asti didn't understand it at all. It was so stupid. Asti didn't think men were weak and cowardly...at least not the ones she had met!
And Asti definitely wasn't a coward. Or was she?
She should have stood up to Kaelin. But no, she had given in. She had given up.
For everything in Jerome, women came first, before men. Women were guards and warriors. They had the higher ranking jobs, and the ‘harder’ ones. The men took care of the household. They were farmers, cleaners, cooks, and sometimes messengers. The best jobs for men were magicians, or healers. If a man or woman were to take a job of the other gender, it would be considered breaking the law. Not like the man or woman would be accepted, anyway. They would be the laughing stock of their family, and a disgrace .
Asti truly wanted to be a magician. Her brother had said that she could be one of the best. If only she was a boy. But now, every time she thought of her hope, her dream, the word ‘disgrace’ came along with it, as if it was now attached by a string. A string that needed to be cut.
It deeply troubled her. She couldn’t fix the laws, until she became Queen. She would someday, once her mother died…but Asti didn’t want to be a Queen. She could turn down the throne, and hand it over to Jilia, the next sister. But…
Finally it was the day the Queen had been jabbering about all week; Lien and Kor were coming for tea. Asti's thoughts had to be pushed aside for now.
“Girls, get ready,” The Queen said sharply. “The guests are almost here!”
“Yes mother,” Asti’s sisters said sweetly, scurrying off towards their bedchambers.
“Astianna?”
“Yes mother,” Asti said reluctantly. She limped up three flights of stairs, and into her bedroom.
Asti had a gorgeous bedroom, like all her sisters. It had a dark stained wood floor. A large window gave Asti a perfect view of the tranquil Jerome River. Red curtains embroidered in gold framed the window. A chocolate and gold colored canopy bed large enough for three people stood in one end of Asti’s room. The blanket was woven from silk and colored a dark red. On top of it sat numerous numbers of pillows, some of which that depicted Jerome's history, and some that had elaborate beadwork and designs.
Her walls were painted a rich golden color, with portraits of Kings and Queens of Jerome hanging off of it. A large cherry wood bureau stood opposite Asti’s bed; a mirror hung above it. Asti loved her room.
She ran straight towards her bureau, rummaging through it, searching for a suitable dress. There…the green one brought out her eyes nicely. She donned it, and started wildly brushing her hair like a mad man; the Queen was calling that Lien and Kor had just arrived. She braided her hair into one long braid down her back. Asti also put on a jade necklace from her last birthday and golden hoop earrings, then examined herself in the mirror.
Asti had to say, she looked quite decent.
Asti had dark brown hair like her mother’s, touched by the sun on the edges. She had her father’s intense green eyes, and his small, rounded (not pointy like her mother’s) nose. She had her mother's thin lipped mouth and eyebrows.
“PRINCESS ASTIANNA, COME DOWN!”
Asti sighed. Time to limp down three flights of stairs. What great fun.
