Chapter 16
December 20, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Blake rolled over when the first light of dawn trickled through the windows of her little sleeping house. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, stretching and yawning. She was used to rising with the dawn despite living in the innermost part of the castle. There were fake windows to simulate the day/night cycle to help keep them on a normal schedule. She was used to this, but it didn’t make it any less tricky. She really just wanted to go back home, but she also wanted to keep getting to know Weiss. She would be treated poorly by Queen Maryam if she returned home after making such a big fuss about wanting to go on her Peregrination. She hated having to work for her keep, but at least it was work she was moreinterestedin now… The jewelry was interesting to work with and so was learning to deal with the soul.
She got dressed and went up to where the women gathered for their meals. As usual, they were split up into age groups with plenty of gossip being passed around. She still didn’t really know how to interact with them. They had no real overlap in how they worshiped andwhothey worshiped. That was really her main thing in day-to-day life. She just…wasn’t used to interacting with people outside of her family. Large as it was, she really didn’tneedanybody else to talk to. There were servants and Weapons, of course, but that hardly constituted normal social interaction. The girls here were nice enough, but she just reallydid notknow how to interact with them. She was so out of her sorts that she didn’t know how to handle it.
A couple of them came over. “Hey Blake.” One of them smiled at her. “What are your plans for tomorrow?”
“Uh, just go to work then visit Weiss.” She didn’t really have any major plans. Well. Flying Kalena was in there, of course, but that was probably a given. She didn’t really know what else to say to them. She had fallen into her daily routine and was following it to the T everyday. Sheneededto be able to go see Weiss so that way they could decide what their future was… Of course, three months wasn’t a very long time byanystretch of the imagination, but it was the only time they had to decide. Weiss didn’t seem too keen on the idea of staying here longer than three months, unfortunately.
“Well, there’s a gathering tomorrow night in the park. We were wondering if you wanted to go.”
Blake tilted her head. “Well, I can’t miss meeting up with Weiss… What time is it?” Each and every meeting she and Weiss had, everyday, was important. They were getting to know each other. She wasn’t sure what they’d choose in the end… Weiss definitely seemed rather peeved at some of the things Blake said even though they werecategoricallytrue. Then there were the matter of the books… She really needed to read them. Weiss’ patience definitely seemed to be wearing thin at times, but she continued to talk to Blake despite how she seemed to push Weiss’ buttons. She really didn’t know what to think about Weiss… She was so mysterious and broke the norms of Sodocroa… She guessed it only made sense since she was a foreign human. She wouldn’t fully know all the ways of Sodocroa.
“It’s after dark. I know we normally go to sleep after dark, but it’s an annual event we have to celebrate the harvest. You usually get back around dark so it should work out just fine. You wanna come?” She smiled hopefully at Blake. “We follow mahloa, so there’s no risk of food contaminated by animal flesh! Some people in town do raise chickens for slaughter, but everyone brings food without animal flesh. Does that sound good?”
“I mean, I eat dinner with Weiss…” It was earlier than she normally ate, but that was fine by her. She had plenty of savings in her account, so even if she ate out each day for all meals, she’d have plenty of money left over. She wasn’t sure how well Weiss was getting paid, but for the time being, it was easier for Blake to just pick them up a meal and take it to Weiss. She was trying to get to know the mysterious girl, but she seemed to have impenetrable defenses… She was clearly averyhigh in the Echelons and knew what she was doing. Granted, it wasn’t unusual in the Donati family, but she hadn’t expected it from an outsider… It would’ve made life a thousand times easier if she could just read Weiss’ Seraphic. Oh well… There wasn’t much she could do about it…
“Well, you can skip a meal for once, right?” the girl asked. “It’s not everyday you get to have a big community meal like that.”
“I’ve never done anything like that before,” Blake confessed. They had their own take on harvest festivals where the family had a massive banquet each year around this time, but that was as far as it went. She didn’t know how a town celebrated, especially in a smaller town like this. She would bestarvingby time she got back here if she didn’t eat with Weiss. Maybe she could compromise by eating a smaller portion with Weiss, then filling out the rest of her appetite with whatever the town had to offer. She knew better than to be picky with food at this point especially on special occasions. Queen Maryam would always jump down her throat if she refused to eat something at the large banquets. She did love food, but there were just certain things she had never liked…but she always ate them because it was the polite thing to do. She really wished that she could be freer, but she was chained to the royal family. She loved her mother and siblings (not so much her father) and, if she wanted to maintain contact with them, she couldn’t just go around and say or do whatever she wanted.
Absolutely frustrating, but there was nothing she could do about it.
The girl clapped her hands together. “It’s a ton of fun! There are dances and there’s more during the day… Usually we have the day off from work, but some places remain open. You’ll have to ask your boss if you’re off for the day or not. It starts at dawn—but if you’re working, you’ll miss most of it.” She frowned. “It’s a ton of fun. I hope you’ll join us.”
“I don’t know what I’ll be doing.”
“It doesn’t matter. People come from other villages to join us and they don’t necessarily know everything. Maybe you can invite Weiss! Wouldn’t that be fun?”
Heat crept into Blake’s cheeks. “Um… I’m not dating her. I’m just getting to know her. I’m notallowedto date.” She kept saying that, but nobody believed her. To her, there was a difference between just sitting and talking with somebody and dating. She wasn’tallowedto date; she was only allowed tocourt.Somebodyhadto be present with her if she were meeting with someone she wanted to potentially propose to, be they male, female, or gendervoid. It was to protect her from anyone wishing her arm as well as protecting her virtue. Granted, in her domination, sacred sex was practiced and she couldn’t really be ostracised or anything if she went with a sacred sex priest or priestess. But by the royal family’s rules, sheshould nothave premarital sex unless it was sacred sex. She had no real interest in it, though… She’d never felt those urges. Not once in her life though she knew a lot of the girls around her agereallywere going boy- or girl-crazy.
The girls giggled, ears and tails twitching in amusement. She could feel they didn’t believe her onebitand thought she was lying or in denial. She wasn’t… “Still, she might enjoy it. There are humans in this town. She might find some new friends or something.”
“She’s only going to be here for a few months and she’s here on business; I doubt she’s looking forfriends.”That just didn’t make any sense to her personally. Why would Weiss look for friends when she was out here on ajob?Yeah, it just didn’t make any sense to her. Honestly, Blakecoulduse some friends herself. But she had work to do and she couldn’t exactly step away from it easily. She had to work for her keep despite her robust savings. Ninlil had said working was part of the Peregrination that all royals did. To deny working would be to deny the heart of the experience. She still didn’t like having to work, but she had learned it was better than to scream and cry and try to have her way. It wasn’t endearing her to people and they weren’t happy if she put up such a fuss.
“I guess that does make some sense… Still, it’d be nice to have her with us.” The girl smiled. “I mean, humans are horrible, but it seems like you two are getting pretty close… Why would you want to get to know ahuman,though?”
Blake sighed. “That’s personal.” It wasn’t like she could exactly explain what was going on between her and Weiss. To explain that they had an errant soul bond wasn’t going to go over well most likely. It made absolutelynosense and went against everything they knew about the soul. Souls were created anew whenever a person was born. As far as she was aware, people couldn’t be reborn. It’d break the cycle of how Melanthios worked. The Dark Father himself wouldn’t break the cycle. There was justno wayhe would do that, lest it cost him his contract with Source.
Wait.
Where didthatcome from?
She shrugged it off mentally, not wanting to think too deeply about it.
The girl frowned. “You’re really closed off, you know that? We’re trying to make friends with you and you just…ignore us and push us off.”
“There are just a lot of things I don't want to discuss with people that I don’t know.” She wasn’ttryingto be rude and closed off… These people werestrangersto her and she didn’t want to discuss personal things with them like why she wanted to get to know Weiss. That just feltwaytoo personal for her. It went against everything she’d been raised with to believe. Weiss didn’tseemlike a horrible person, but that might be revealed later on after they were more comfortable with each other.She didn’t want to let her guard down too much around Weiss, but it was hard when they had that errant soul bond. She felt tugged toward Weiss in a way she’d never felt toward anybody else. There was also that other errant soul bond, but she had no idea who that belonged to. She wondered who it belonged to, but there was no way to track them down, it felt like… They were nearby, but she had a feeling that, if they tried to track the person down, they’d justleaveand not allow themselves to be found.
Annoying.
“Still… You couldtryto be friendlier. I know you won’t be here forever, but could you at least be nice? We just want to get to know you, but you keep pushing us away.”
Blake’s ears went down. “That’s not my intent…” She sighed. “If I’m honest, I just…don’t really know how to interact with people outside of my family.” Some of the relations were quite distant, but still. Aside from parties and daily staff, she had never really interacted with people like this before. She really didn’t understand social norms outside of the royal family. She knew some norms when it came to upper-class social life, but she didn’t understand how commoners operated. She was still shocked to see that men and women were separated like that. Well. She knew that they were separate in most religious services, but she didn’t know they lived separately from each other in a commoner household. Her parents shared a room while the people here were segregated from their husbands. It made no sense to her.
The girl nodded. “Well, you can just start by talking to us like normal. If there are things you don’t want to talk about, just say so. But you can at leasttryto talk…”
Blake’s ears stayed down. “Sorry.” There were just a lot of things like religion she didn’t want to—andcouldn’t—talk about. She was in a mystery cult and thosedemandedsecrecy. “My personal sect is a mystery cult, so Ican’ttalk about that.” Religion was usually one of the easiest things to talk about in Sodocroan society because the nation was a theocracy. Most sects mandated some level of veiling. Only certain sects and atheists tended to be unveiled. Some required full-body veiling; others only required a headscarf like her own. Everyone currently wore a headscarf in this household. To be seen without a veil of some degree was scandalous. Weiss didn’t wear one, but she wasn’t Sodocroan, so she didn’t share their beliefs most likely.
The girl nodded. “I see… Can you at least say who you worship?”
“The Dark Father Himself.”
The girl’s lips rounded and her eyebrows shot up; several other girls did the same. “Wow. That’s…impressive. To approach the Dark Father himself… That’s incredibly intense. I know you said you can’t talk about much and I respect that… But what made you decide to join a sect dedicated to the Dark Father himself?”
“It just felt right for some reason, even in my youngest years. I can’t really explain it in any words.” She really just couldn’t put it into words; it was just afeeling.Something about him felt familiar and comforting. She wasn’t sure what was, but it justdid.She really just wanted to be able to exist in a way that felt the most comfortable to her. Granted, that was pretty limited, considering Queen Maryam had such a tight grip over the family. She probably wouldn’t be the same person that left on her Peregrination when she returned to the castle. The Peregrination often caused extreme changes in people’s personalities; she’d seen it since her youngest years. Watching people go off for a year and a half, then come back… It was insane just how much people could change in such a short amount of time. She wasn’t sure if she’dlikewho she became or not…but that was up for debate.
“Sometimes you do just feel called to things… I haven’t varied from the family, though.” The girl smiled. “By the way, do you remember my name?”
Blake shook her head. “No, sorry… It’s just a lot of different names to take in at once.” She hadn’t been herethat long,so memorising a couple dozen names wasn’t something that would happen overnight especially when she wasn’t working with everyone everyday. If she had been down in the tailoring business, she would probably learn everyone’s names relatively quickly. But she wasn’t. She was working with the jewelry maker as an apprentice. She only saw these people for a few hours a day, so it would take her a lot of time to get everyone’s faces and names down.
“I’m Noemi.”
Blake nodded. “I’ll try to remember but…no guarantees.” She wasn’t trying to be rude; it really was justa lotof names to try to take in. Several generations all lived together and she could only imagine there were about as many men here. She still hadn’t met any of the men from the household… It seemed like they lived largely separate lives. How must that be for a marriage…? She had no idea how marriages survived when the men and women were so separated. It was hard to think about how they had to feel being so separated and not seeing each other most of the day. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever fall for someone herself or not… Weiss felt like the only choice to her. Thankfully, there were positions in society for people like her… People that just didn’t experience sexual or romantic desire. Those people were rare, but they weren’t discriminated against, thankfully… Maybe looked down on to some degree, but not discriminated against.
Noemi modded. “There are a lot of us, so I guess I can’t entirely blame you. Still… Hopefully you will be nicer.”
Blake sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. She hadn’t intended to be so standoffish. She just legitimately didn’t know how to interact with people outside of her family. Her job was to work with jewelry now, so it wasn’t like she could sit and gossip with the girls while they worked. They did that a lot from the couple of days she had spent working in the tailor’s shop. She was used to gossip, but she wasn’t the type to really participate in it either. It just didn’t feel…right or kind to her. Women could be majorly gossipy hens and it frustrated her for some reason It just didn’t sit right with her talk about people behind their backs. It had never sat right with her, and she doubted it ever would.
“So have you figured out things with Kalena yet?” The girl that had constantly asked about seeing Kalena fly approached.
“No, not yet. I haven’t had Weiss out in the field with me to help me learn how to take down prey just in case Kalena can’t.” She paused. “What’s your name again?” She really needed to try to commit some of these names to memory. It was just hard when there were so many people around and she wasn’t constantly with them. She was really trying, but it was hard. She was completely overwhelmed and out of her depth. She couldn’t even remember the names of everyone in the castle and her family, or the Weapons. There were so many people to keep track of and she could barely keep up with those around her, let alone people she hadn’t been around with for too long.
“Yafa. I’ve just…heard tales of royals coming to stay with us and them often bringing their eagles. I’ve always wanted to see an eagle fly. I don’t necessarily need to see ahunt;I just want to see aflightin the open spaces.”
“Honestly, that wouldn’t be too hard then. I have a lure and know how to stoop her to one.” She was glad that Yafa didn’t necessarily need to see a hunt. Of course, a hunt would be more impressive than just seeing a flight, but seeing an eagle come down from a soar was still an impressive feat. She could definitely arrange to have Yafa see a flight. “You’ll just have to get permission from Ninlil to get off work early one day.” Yeah, that would be the big thing. Blake got off early which was a big deal… Ninlil had beenmorethan reluctant to let Blake off work early, so she wasn’t sure how anactualmember of the family would fare with Ninlil’s strict control over the women here.
“I’ll go see!” Yafa hopped up and walked over to Ninlil. They spoke for several minutes, and then Yafa came back over. “She said I could get off early today. I’m a good worker and never slack on my duties, so she’s okay with me getting off a bit early as long as I come back.”
Blake blinked but nodded. “All right then.” She was surprised it was that easy. Ninlil seemed generally unwilling to allow people to get off early…or maybe it was because Blake was herself. She had no real idea. Ninlil was such an odd woman that seemed to be full of contradictions. She was old and ornery, that was for certain. But as long as Blake could fly Kalena, she wouldn’t complain. She would have to send Kalena back to the royal falconer when this season wrapped up… She would miss her friend dearly until next season, but there wasn’t a lot she could do about it… There was no point in keeping her here when it came to fattening her up. The royal falconer could handle that on his own.
“I’m so excited! I’ve always wanted to see an eagle fly!” Yafa practically buzzed with excitement. It was almost adorable to see the girl, who seemed to be maybe a bit younger than Blake, so excited. It was a rarity to see a golden eagle fly. Only royal family members could fly golden eagles in Sodocroa. If anybody else was caught flying golden eagles, they were prosecuted to the full extent of the law. They were the symbol of the Donati family and to violate that sacred law was blasphemy. People could fly any other bird like buzzards and hawks and such, but to fly a golden eagle was sacred by the order that the majority of the royal family followed.
“It is pretty exciting. I still remember my first time seeing Kalena fly… It was mesmerising. Though a hunt is always going to be the best way to see. But I still need to have Weiss come out into the field with me a few times before I can really do that. I’ll try to remember that you want to see a hunt too.” She was trying to get along with them; she really was. It was just hard when religion was a main topic of discussion and she simplywasn’t allowedto discuss things of a religious nature. She was part of a mystery cult and those traditions were passed down strictly by word of mouth. Nothing was recorded in writing because they didn’t want their rites to be seen by outsiders… The practices had been passed down for thousands of years and they didn’t want anybody to know them.
“Man, that sounds amazing… Hopefully you can get Weiss out there with you soon so I can see one!”
Blake nodded. “Yeah, hopefully. It’s just hard when she’s on Queen Maryam’s payment and too much deviation will potentially put a black mark on herandher family.” It was really tough; she actually felt bad for Weiss. The queen wasn’t a kind nor forgiving person. If anyone did anything that displeased her, she could andwouldabsolutely mete out punishment for them. Weiss was in a precarious position, but it sounded like she was doing her best regardless. Blake really hoped that the queen wouldn’t do anything drastic to Weiss if she were out every so often on falconry hunting trips… Then again, if this got back to the queenat all,she would be furious at Blake. Meeting with ahumanwasn’t acceptable nor proper for one of her standing…but they had both known about the soul bond forso longand wanted to see what would come of it.
Yafa cringed. “Oh, that is pretty bad… I hope things turn out okay between you two.” She smiled at Blake and Blake felt warmth in her cheeks. Theywere notdating. They weren’t evencourting.They were getting to know each other and that was strictlyit.Nothing more, nothing less. They just wanted to get to know each other to see what they thought. Blake had thought about this soul bond for far,fartoo long and couldn’t let this opportunity pass her by. Shehadto try to give Weiss a fair shake and try to get to know her. Blake honestly wasn’t confident that they’d end up together; Weiss was a human supremacist and an apologist for human supremacy. She would read those books if she could learn the languages, but that was it. They were fundamentally incompatible in such a way… It wasn’t likely they were going to end up together.
“Uh, thanks.” She really wasn’t sure what to say to that. Thankfully, breakfast was brought up at that moment and they all grabbed their plates. They mostly ate together and talked, but Blake opted to try to down her food as quickly as possible to get out of there and go to her job. She knew she should’ve stuck around longer, but she really needed to get to work.
The day was relatively calm and quiet with Blake continuing to learn the ins and outs of how to make jewelry and how to apply the Seraphic in ways she hadn’t known possible. She learned a lot and was actually a little disappointed when her boss told her that she was done for the day. She had honestly really been getting into the work and learning about what to do and how to do it. Working with the soul wasso interestingand she really enjoyed it… She knew Queen Maryam would befuriouswhen she got back and had magic, but it wasn’t like one could change course from Order to Chaos magic… Celaecyal wouldn’t take magic back because it was a gift. To exchange it was a massive insult to the goddess and she would just take it back, then not give anything else in return. Blake didn’t want that to happen, so she would hopefully be able to keep this quiet…
As one rolled around, Blake got off duty and found Yafa waiting there for her. The girl smiled brightly at her. “Can we go out now?” she asked, practically vibrating.
“I need to do a few things first. I need to go to a restaurant and order something for me and Weiss, then I need to get Kalena.” Blake did feel a little bad it wouldn’t be immediate, but this was what her life was now. She wasn’t particularly happy with it, but there wasn’t a lot she could do about it either. Weiss was always incredibly grateful for the food which was a nice feeling… She didn’t often receive gratitude from anybody but her immediate family. The more extended family could be mean and cutthroat at times and she didn’t always want to spend time around them because of that. It was just hard to exist as a royal… Gratitude felt really nice. She wasn’t trying to do thisstrictlybecause Weiss was gracious; Weisslegitimatelyneeded the food because the field rations weren’t enough, and coming to town to get food three times a day simply wouldn’t be feasible.
Yafa looked down, her tail drooping a bit. “Okay…”
Blake mounted her horse and clucked her over to the restaurant. She got their typical orders and then put them in her bag, then she swung around back to the house and grabbed her falconry bag as well as Kalena. Naliaka followed them at a distance while Blake headed out to the scrublands that surrounded the town. She tossed Kalena up into a soar and took out the lure. She could sense Yafa looking up at the sky in amazement as Kalena just became a tiny dot in the sky. Blake smiled and looked up as well. Watching an eagle soar was definitely one hell of an experience, she had to admit. She was really glad she had been born into the royal family because she never would’ve gotten to experience this any other way.
She allowed Kalena to circle for a little while, simply riding the thermals. After that, she pulled out her lure and put it on the ground, urging her horse into a canter. The best way to do eagle lures was on horseback as far as she was aware. Her mare cantered and she could sense Kalena starting to come down. Lower and lower Kalena came, her wings tucked close to her body. Blake couldn’t see it right now, but she knew what it looked like after having seen the display so many times. Slicing through the air like a bullet… It was crazy just how intense eagles were. She really did appreciate Kalena so much as well as all that they did for the royal family… So majestic and proud and quite acrobatic…
She twisted an ear around toward the back and heard the thump from Kalena hitting the ground and felt the tug on the lure’s rope. She kept her mare going for a bit until she saw Kalena really wrestle the lure and ‘kill’ it. She stopped the canter and dismounted, going over to Kalena. The eagle hopped onto Blake’s glove and she tidbitted her. “Good job, girl.” Kalena’s feathers lifted a bit and she held her head high. Yeah, this was the life. She wished that she could be out here more often, but she had toworkto earn her keep. She still hated it, but at least she was doing work sheenjoyednow. She really just wanted to be able to hunt all day, everyday but yeah… Then again, if she were doing that, it’d probably be obvious to anybody in town. Golden eagles were a sign of the royal family, so seeing someone out and about with one… It was pretty obvious.
Yafa rode over and smiled, her eyes wide. “Wow, that was incredible! I’d always wanted to see an eagle fly and it was just as incredible as I thought it was!”
Blake smiled and nodded. “Yeah, it is pretty incredible.”
“Could I hold her?”
Kalena lowered her head, her feathers streamlining. “That…would be a no,” Blake said. “Royal eagles areonlyto be handled by the royal family or the royal falconer. They won’t allow themselves to be held by anybody else. And youdo notwant to be punctured by an eagle talon.” Considering what eagles used their talons for, she could only imagine the grossness that existed underneath them. The infection would be swift and relentless. Being bitten wasn’t great either, but it was better than being punctured by a talon.
Yafa pouted. “Can I at least pet her?”
“You really shouldn’t pet a raptor; it messes with the waterproofing on their feathers.” She could and would pet Kalena’s keel bone, but that was as far as it went for her. She didn’t want to damage Kalena’s feathers unnecessarily.
“Well…at least I got to see her fly. Hopefully you’ll be able to get her out hunting soon.” Yafa smiled. “I’ll see you later, Blake!” She reined her horse around and headed back to town.
Blake stayed out for a little while longer, then sent Kalena back to Ninlil’s, and she headed to the dig site. She was really looking forward to seeing Weiss…
