Entwined in This Infinity

19. Dusk - Scarlett

The family Blackwood is liberal in a sense. They are a matriarchy, for one, where in other families it is fashionable to reduce women to dolls. They give slaves basic rights, a prospect that leaves other families guffawing. They spend a good portion of their wealth on keeping their people afloat, and the other families pale at the very idea of parting with some of their gold.

Family Blackwood is also conservative beyond reason. Ceremonies, schedules, guards at everyone’s heels, arranged marriages. They hold a tight rein with their strict rules, cold walls, and chiseled masks. They present themselves as caring, loving people, and then behind closed doors they are automatons that dissect and make decisions based off calculated risk. Emotion does not have a part to play in family Blackwood.

This is why you are leaving.

You can be the heir they want. You can and have been an emotionless statue whose sparing words are the ones that need to be heard. You are sharp, intelligent, and cruel enough to do more than get by. You can lead this family to greatness.

You merely don’t want to. It is a suffocating life that will leave you stifled and your wings clipped.

That said, you pack smartly and thank the Demon that curfews are one of the Blackwood’s conservative principles as you slip past guards and brush out the kitchen door.

The Stepping Stones are as massive as you remember them from your bi-annual trips to the Blackwood allies below. You avoid the patrolled paths and take the unsafe trails down. Your fingertips rub themselves raw on sharp rocks, but if you’re swift enough you can make it to the ground before dawn.

Your future lies in the dawn, in the renewal of this day.