CH 1~ Waiting Out The Unpleasantness

Things had been so quiet, so serene for the entirety of “the unpleasantness,” as her sisters had been calling it, that Francine had trouble believing anything beyond the borders of their estate was amiss. Yet, she was sure something must be happening, or her father, Grantline Honorium Duke of the Nethervale, wouldn’t have sent them all out to their castle at the Nethervale months ago?

She’d always preferred the hustle and bustle of the city to spending time in the country. Her friends were all there; at least they usually were. Maybe they had all fled to their country estates and were stuck there just as bored as she was. With no entertaining alternatives, Francine occupied her time reading the letters she had previously received from Matthew, her betrothed. To her heart’s despair, she hadn’t received a single missive since they had been sent away months ago. The situation seemed dire to a girl only half-past-eight (seventeen years old in Earth years), which was probably why she read and reread the ones she already had.

Francine practiced her dancing and harp lessons, but with little enthusiasm. She’d lost all interest in having her hair arranged or asking her servant to sit with her and draw dresses she might have created once the social season resumed in Shadowmirre.

This house was more extensive and part of the Nethervale Holdings, but it wasn’t where they lived; it was a summer home, a place for grand parties, and they certainly weren’t in the mood for partying right now. She occasionally declared how much she preferred their Villa in the capital over this drafty old castle. Still, with no apparent time for their return, it did her little good, and at a point, it began to vex her sisters.

All Francine could do was write in her diary about what plans she wanted to make when they returned, with no hope of ever actually living them. She’d been all set to attend Abionne Academy Girls School with her friends soon; would that ever happen? Uncertainty infected every aspect of life.

Her only comfort was her nieces and nephews, Priscilla and Argento. Both were more like older siblings, and the younger ones —Benny, Penny, and Pingo —kept things lively. As the youngest of three girls, she was raised by her eldest sister, Maria, who was already married when their mother died, giving birth to Francine. Without them, she would have felt utterly alone; at least with them there, they could play in the garden or make games to play in the ballroom.

This gave Frannie the feeling of being a very wealthy and high-placed orphan, though she had a large family. Sometimes, she would catch her father talking to the painting of her mother, though he rarely spoke to Francine.

She occasionally talked to the same painting, hoping to find some connection to the woman who bore her. To the woman who, with every passing year, bore a more uncanny resemblance to her, or more accurately, to whom she bore a more uncanny resemblance, deepening the chasm between her father and herself. Francine wished that painting were here; there were a couple of portraits of her mother, but that portrait was so beautiful, so alive, it gave her the feeling of really being in the room with her mother.

Finally, just as it seemed, the stillness and wondering would go on forever. That this mystery would suck the youth from Francine’s face, causing her to die here, an old spinster unaware of any passing time or events, everything changed all at once. As if out of nowhere, the gears of destiny began to turn, and Francine could either hop on board the train or be crushed between the broad, flat wheels and track.

One morning, which seemed to begin the same way it had since they had arrived, there was a knock at the door, shaking them from the eerie silence that had blanketed the grounds for most of every day; the loud, determined rapping of the oversized decorative door knocker sent the house into a whole commotion. Every servant was flinging themselves into motion, from the kitchen crew setting water to boil for tea to the cleaning staff running to dust anything they could, somewhat too late.

With a deep breath, the Lady’s maid to Maria, Francine’s oldest sister, who had taken charge of the reasonably small group of servants running the household at minimum capacity, opened the door with as much bravery as she could muster into her tiny halfling frame. Revealing a glorious blue angel-touched swashbuckling knight, a long blue commander’s coat, and an impressive plume erupting from her finely milled hat, flanked by another lovely lady knight with short-cropped fiery red hair and amazing angel wings attached to her armor. What, at first glance, looked like a tall halfling or gnome, standing barely five feet tall, wearing full plate armor, backed up by a vast, hulking orc and a mysterious, veiled woman.

The situation started rather tensely, but it was quickly moved from the front door inside. While intimidating and equipped for battle, these women seemed reasonable; several seemed to look at the group with pity. Once inside, the Blue Shining Knight introduced herself as Lady Azure Arsenault. The veiled woman was a powerful Jet Elf wizard, and the halfling was no halfling but a young woman around Francine’s age. The family was extremely nervous at this turn of events. All except Francine, who hadn’t quite figured out how bad things had gotten until it was spelled out for her.

“Francine, is it? My name is Azure, and it breaks my heart to see that a man could destroy his entire family to such an extent that he might leave so many women and children with nothing, destitute in the streets.”

It was finally becoming clear that these were soldiers. The unpleasantness had finally reached them, but what had their father to do with it? He was no soldier; he couldn’t possibly have gotten caught up in the fighting…

“I won’t stand for it. It won’t be allowed to continue spreading. The evil your father perpetrated has been stomped out, but your lives won’t be as long as you swear loyalty to the Queen and are willing to join my family, Francine; you will go on like none of this ever happened. I can’t save every one of your family members, but both of your sisters are already married, and I will do what I can to help them sever themselves and their good names from your father’s misdeeds.”

An audible sigh went through the room when she said that out loud. Argento ran up to Francine, seeing the tears welling up in her eyes as she struggled to answer. He grasped her hand tightly.

“She accepts your generous offer. I will stay by her side if you accept my offer to serve as my aunt’s bodyguard. I am not trained well in the art of the sword, but I will learn and work hard. And I will serve your house well if you take me.”

Argento may only have been less than a year older than Francine, but he was much wiser and had always looked out for her growing up; she wouldn’t need him any less now; in fact, she would need him more and more from what he could see, and he wasn’t lacking in courage. Azure saw the grit and genuine spirit and accepted the offer. However, she made it clear he would be given the place he requested, and while the adoption contract for Francine was being drawn up, so too was one created for Argento, that they would join Azure Arsenault’s household.

From a toothless Dukedom stricken from the Herald’s list to a lioness Barony rising, this is the story of Francine. She will discover how ordinary she truly is and that in a world of magic, monsters, super tech, and living Gods, maybe that is just fine.

K.B. Silver

The story continues in chapter two, Settling In.