Last Rank

Chapter 5

- Elly -

Elly rose early that morning. Even before the sun cast her first warm rays upon the lands. She was too nervous to sleep properly either way. Strange dreams had chased her throughout the night. Of lands drenched in blood and misery beyond the forests she knew and faceless men that moved oddly like that one servant of the Count.

Wasn't it strange somehow that the Count only had one servant? She didn't know much, but whenever the Baron had left the castle for a trip, he had taken a whole crowd of his servants with him. She had dreamed of being among them many days and nights, but she had been too young to go and lately the Baron did not go on trips anymore.

Elly found her way to the kitchen for a cup of water. She was surprised to encounter her father sitting at the table, working on a clock he must have brought from his shop. He hardly did that, bring work home with him.

They shared a look and a nod, Elly wouldn't have known what else to say and her father was a man of few words anyway.

As she leaned against the stove, drinking her cup of water, she watched her father in silence. He seemed to have trouble putting the pieces of the clock back in place. His hands were shaking uncontrollably, like she hadn't ever seen before.

"Are you quite alright?" she dared to ask.

"Mind your own business," her father gave back, unproportionally angry. A dark scowl clouded his face.

Elly bit her lip. She regretted asking, she didn't want them to be at odds on their last day together under the same roof.

Since there was not much else to do, Elly went about preparing breakfast. Her mother would appreciate it not having to do the work, and the familiarity of the task calmed Elly's nerves.

Eventually Elly's father put his unfinished work aside and sighed heavily, as if the weight of the world lasted upon his shoulders. "You do know I love you, child, right?" he said.

Elly turned to look at his face. It was old and exhausted. "Of course. I love you too, father," she said.

"You have to know, it isn't about you. I'd give you the world, if I could. But I have got no choice."

"I understand." Elly said, although she didn't.

The odd words haunted her throughout the morning, even until after her mother had her dressed in heavy silence, and later on when the hairdresser came by to bring forth a masterpiece on her head.

Her mother had prepared Elly's hair at times, ever since she had been a child, but her mother was a cook, and she had said this special day required special appearances.

Now the hairdresser's odd stares pulled Elly out of her thoughts going in circles.

She looked up at the woman through the mirror in her bedroom she sat infront. "Does my hair smell bad?" she asked. "I have had it washed thoroughly last night, if you must know."

"You have beautiful hair. A rare colour," the woman said. Her lips pursed with words she didn't mean to speak, but she couldn't help herself and spoke them anyway. "And a pretty enough face. It is hardly a surprise."

"What is?"

"Don't ask like that. You know fairly well. You young girls are all the same these days."

Elly's mother's face brought forth a frown. She slowly put the flowers down, she had been working on, then stood upfrom the bed.

"No wonder either, with that drunkard of a father who rather spends his nights at the bottom of a bottle instead of watching over his daughter as he should."