Stolen Time: The Bells of Prison

Edelgard rolled over and her eyes fluttered open as she did so. Morning filtered through the curtains and she stretched a bit. Juliane kissed her head and pulled her into her arms. "Good morning, El. Are you planning on your normal routine or are you planning on going to see your siblings again?" "I'll go to my normal routine." Yeah, she really couldn't see her siblings too often even if she wished she could be around them all the time. Toby... He was in such bad shape that it hurt her heart. Same with Alina. She didn't remember it very well, but she could feel the sense of loss deep within her heart and knew they weren't doing very well. The stress really did make it hard for her to remember much. All she knew was that she did need to see them every so often. Hopefully they would have good memories of her in the afterlife... Alina... Toby... Eckhart... None of them deserved the fate that they'd received. If only one of them could've been sacrificed for the rest of them. She was the only remaining one with any sort of sanity. It was just a matter of time until the three remaining died. "All right. Well, let's get you all cleaned up and ready for the day." Juliane smiled at her warmly and they got out of bed. They ran through their normal bathing and morning routine, Juliane sending Edelgard on her way after breakfast. She headed down to Helen and Ueli's house so that way she could help the woman bake bread. She knocked on the door politely with Hubert standing behind her. "Well good morning, Edelgard! How're you feeling?" The woman smiled at her warmly and Edelgard returned it. "Pretty good." Helen moved aside to let her in and they headed into the kitchen. "How early do you get up in the morning, Helen?" She was curious. The woman always had the yeasted bread ready to be kneaded. She didn't know much about the time it took to make bread or anything. But it seemed impressive that she always had things down to an absolute perfect window of time. Things rarely seemed out of place for the couple of mornings she'd been doing this with her. She wouldn't complain; she was just curious. "Oh, I always get up before dawn. Bread takes a few hours to make. I know I could just buy it down in the city, but I prefer to make it myself. Nothing beats homemade bread. Of course, bakers still bake it fresh throughout the day, but the first batch is rarely the best. And I'd need to pick up the first batch." She nodded a bit and went over to the counter, climbing onto the stool to get ready to start kneading it. "If a baker's first batch usually isn't the best, shouldn't it stand to reason yours won't be the best...?" Just the way she worded it... She really didn't understand how it was any different. Helen handed her a lump of dough. "Well, bakares make much larger batches of bread than I do. I make two or three loaves compared to the eight to ten they do for each batch. I can be sure that I do everything right. You're helping so things are a little slower than if I did them by myself, but I don't mind teaching you." She smiled at Edelgard, obviously trying to take away any sting that the statement had. Edelgard nodded a bit. That did make sense. Having someone inexperienced helping would definitely slow things down. Especially when they had no idea what they were doing. Which she was still slowly picking up. She was starting to get the precepts of baking and cooking, but she was still new to the entire world. She did appreciate Helen's patience with her when she didn't understand something and with her knife skills at dinner… "I see." Yeah, she wasn't offended at least. She knew having a newbie slowed things down. It always happened when she switched teachers. Their lessons were objectively slower as they tried to figure out where her skill level was and how she learned best. Annika would be going through the same thing. The teacher would be incredibly slow while they figured out how to best approach her and where her skill level was. Which, to be frank, was below par. She was starting from scratch. Edelgard at least had some months behind her which was better than nothing. Of course, she still did have a lot ahead of her before she went to Garreg Mach Monastery... She just hoped that she would be able to handle what the monastery threw at her when she got there. "Well, thank you for putting up with me." "It's really no trouble, hon. You're sweet and learn quickly. And you're enthusiastic. All of that goes a pretty long way to ensure you're gonna learn in a quick, concise manner." Helen continued to smile at her while they kneaded the bread. Edelgard returned it, though shyly. She attempted to do the best she could whenever she did anything. She didn't like hurting people like combat, but she knew that Garreg Mach would be one of the best places for her to learn about the rest of Fodlan so she could lead the Empire to the best of her ability once she ascended the throne.   Eventually, they got all the bread ready and Edelgard stretched. "Well, I can take Annika to combat lessons now," she said.   "Annie! Come on down!" Helen yelled. The older girl came downstairs and offered Edelgard a hesitant smile.   "Shall we head off then, Your Highness?"   Edelgard frowned. "Just call me Edelgard." Helen and Ueli had basically accepted her into their family and were treating her as their own. There was no reason for Annika to be so formal about things. She was pretty sure she'd told her this before. She really saw no reason to be so formal when they were spending a decent amount of time together.   "O-Okay..." She swallowed and they headed off to the training grounds. The next few hours saw them training with Annika taking up a little bit of time at the  end of the lesson. She still felt bad that Juliane had to pay two teachers, but Annika's shaky confidence made it impossible for her to learn from Edelgard's main teacher. Their learning styles were just irreconcilable. She really wished she could help with Annika's confidence, but there wasn't a lot she could do about it. She responded incredibly well to her teacher which was good but yeah... She wasn't going to get much of anywhere with being babied like she was. She didn't get much, if any, criticism from her teacher and it felt like a waste to Edelgard to have her learn under someone so soft.   Her issues aside, they headed back to Ueli's house where he greeted them with a warm smile and a wave. "Well good afternoon girls! How'd combat classes go?"   "They're going real great, Dad! My teacher is so nice! I learn so much from him!" Annika smiled broadly.  How was she learning anything when she got no criticism? It didn't make any sense. How could she possibly get anything of worth or value from such a soft, gentle teacher? She just couldn't follow... It didn't need to be harsh, of course, but some criticism was necessary if one was to grow. She just...really didn't know how to take any of this. But, then again, if Annika was learning, who was she to say anything against it? Juliane was the one footing the bill in the end... Helen and Ueli should really be the ones paying, but she wasn't sure if a private combat tutor was in their budget...   "It was fine. I'm starting to move onto some advanced drill sets already," Edelgard replied. Annika would be at the basic level for a long time since she had nothing to start with. Edelgard had started from scratch a couple months ago, but she was flying through a lot of basic and even moderate-level drill sets. Of course, she was nothing compared to the instructors, but in terms of drill sets, she was capable of quite a bit. She would really need to start training with other people soon, though... Drills could only get people so far. It was real, human opponents that got people to understand how to fight.   "Sounds good then." Ueli smiled broadly at them and handed the bucket to Edelgard. "Wanna help me finish up with feeding?"   She nodded. "Sure." Though she did look at the bucket in her hand, feeling her stomach flip a bit when she saw the headless quali again. "Do birds of prey need to feed everyday...?" She didn't really understand their anatomy or physiology so she hoped this question would be turned away. Then again, he hadn't turned away any of her questions. She was a beginner. She needed to have everything explained to her bit by bit. She was trying her best to learn but yeah, things needed to come little by little.   "I actually feed on a rotating schedule. I feed one bird every 2-3 days since once they crop up, they don't need to feed for a few more days. The exception is birds I'm working with getting them back in free flying shape. However, for right now, that's only Romy. We have a couple months until the molt ends and I get most the birds out. Their crops are basically bags that hold food until it can be digested and I make sure they crop up whenever I feed them. Make sense?"   She nodded. "Yeah, it does." She'd seen the birds have large bulges on the upper part of their chest and had seen them go away after a day or two. So those were the crops... She'd at least picked up on Ueli's feeding schedule a bit too. One block of mews got fed one day and everything rotated every few days. She started tossing the quail into the mews for the birds and finished up where she headed into the house and sat on the couch. Romy sat on a perch in the room, head tucked under her wing. She seemed to not really care about anything at the moment. She was clearly asleep.   Ueli brought out her glove and tied Romy to it, then handed her the tidbits. "Well, there you go, Edelgard. Feel free to feed her up." Ueli smiled and Edelgard nodded. Romy mantled over the tidbits but it didn't faze Edelgard too much... She was getting used to the bird's behavior at least in that regard. "Mantling is something you can't entirely avoid, but the main thing is when they're on a kill. You can let 'em mantle over the kill, but what you really don't want is them carryin' it away."   "Why's that?" she asked. She really had no idea what she was doing here so she really needed to learn.   "Mantling is a normal behavior in the wild as is carrying, but carrying is a real problem. They can get away from you. It means they don't trust you either. Give 'em a lure with some tidbits on it, then swap them off the kill. It takes a lotta time to get to the point they'll trust you. Thankfully Romy's well used to the rhythms of the seasons at this point, so I don't gotta worry about it with her quite as much. But a brand new peregrine or eagle being entered in? Yeah, that's where problems can happen. And eagles are a real danger too. You don't wanna get punctured by any raptor's talons due to all the gore and viscera accumulated there, but an eagle has enough force to crush your hand." That made Edelgard pale a little bit. She knew eagles were powerful animals, but to be able to crush somebody's hand? That was terrifying.   "How do you know that exactly?" She was curious, though absolutely horrified. She didn't want to have her hand crushed by an eagle. That would be a very good reason to not get Evelin out. She really, really didn't want the eagle to suffer any longer, but if she could crush her hands...   "Don't take much to figure it out. They can crush the skulls of animals like hares and rabbits and can even take small deer, foxes, and even wolves out. Plus... One time the Prime Minister went out on a hunt with His Majesty and me and, well, that ended with the Prime Minister gettin' his hand crushed like because he disrespected the eagle. Took him months to recover from my understanding." Good. He deserved to have his hand pulverised into dust. It was the least that he could suffer after having done so much to harm her family. She knew there was a bit more to the situation than Juliane had told her, but the Empress thought that she didn't need to know the entirety of the situation yet...   "I see." She had no sympathy for him at all. Period. He had killed seven of her siblings, driven three of them to madness, and then irreparably damaged herself... She could feel somehow, deep down, that her lifespan was shortened... Throw in the lack of memory and she was completely unlovable. Nobody could or would love her... She'd probably have to marry someone from her own age group shortly after graduating from Garreg Mach. She shoved the thoughts away, not wanting to linger on them for too long.   "Well you don't sound too tore up about it."   She shrugged. "Not really. He's...done a lotta bad things." That was all she'd say on the matter. Hopefully he wouldn't be able to write or something for the months that he'd been recovering from having his hand crushed by an Imperial eagle. Pissing one off definitely was quite the offense... She couldn't imagine how bad it'd be to have one's entire hand crushed. She'd been through a lot of pain during the Crest experiments but still... It was at least all in the past now. She hoped he remembered the pain and how it affected him... She wished she could make him feel that again. He deserved all of the pain he got for what he'd done to her family.   "I mean most nobles have. He don't seem much different from the majority of them, though maybe a bit more self-important than others..." He shook his head. "Anyway, yeah, Carrying is a bad behavior you don't want. I've gotten Romy to the point she doesn't carry unless her weight is too low. I keep a close eye on her weight through training. Once she hits too low, then yeah, she will start attemptin' to carry the lure off which we don't want. For her, it's definitely a fine balance of having her weight just right. I've gotten her pretty dialed in, though, so I understand her ups and downs. Honestly, if you can spare a little bit of time, I can show you how I do weight management in the mornings. Shouldn't take more than an extra ten minutes. Sound good?"   She blinked but nodded. "Yeah, I don't think that'll make us too late to combat lessons. As long as I'm not super late, Mother Juliane won't mind." She didn't want Edelgard consistently missing tons of class. But three or four minutes? It would add up over time, but she doubted it'd be too much of an issue. She'd have to talk to Juliane about it once she got back to her room for the night. She'd just have to be careful... She really was trying to learn to handle birds effectively and weight management would be critical to that... She hoped that Juliane wouldn't mind. She woke at the dawn, so it wasn't like she could easily get up earlier...   "Sounds good then, Edelgard." Ueli smiled warmly at her and she returned it. "Honestly, after this, we can do some lure swinging lessons for, like, ten minutes then let you get to your leatherworking lessons with Helen. And don't forget about practicing the falconer's knot on your own. If you need some string, I can offer you some."   She nodded. "I haven't had any time to go looking for any..." she admitted. Ueli got up and went into another part of the house, coming back with string wrapped around a large wooden dowel. He handed it to her. "There you go. This'll be like a creance which is one place you'll be practicing the falconer's knot, so it'll be good for that. Though you will also be tying it with thicker rope. Until then, though, the creance will be good enough practice for you. Sound fine?"   She nodded. "Thank you. That'll work." She would have to find thicker rope to practice with as well. She was really trying to get all of this down as much as she possibly could. Falconry was beyond complex. Of course, Ueli was handling the majority of the hard work. She was really just along for the ride and learning basic skills. She would probably never really use the skills she learned with leatherworking... She would have to practice making hoods day in and day out in order to really master that. It was about then that a knock came on the door and Edelgard looked up. “I wonder who that is,” Ueli asked. He answered it and a messenger stood there. “Her Majesty requests Her Highness return to the castle.” Edelgard frowned on hearing it but nodded, hand Romy off to Ueli. She followed the messenger back to her and Juliane’s room.  “Mother Juliane, what's wrong?” She had no idea what was going on.  “Sorry, El… We had a real scare with Alina today and I couldn’t just stay on the throne…” Edelgard frowned but nodded, going to Juliane’s lap and snuggling into her. She didn’t question anything. She knew that Tobias, Alina, and Eckhart would eventually die, but still… She didn’t want it to come any sooner than it needed to… So to have a scare. She couldn’t blame the woman at all.  She stayed snuggled against the Empress until they headed to bed for the night.