Fara sighed as she looked Lurai up and down, examining the stance that she corrected, and after a full minute of silence, she was satisfied that Lurai had not relaxed her position. For Lurai, that was the longest minute of her life as she was observed with a scrutinizing gaze yet again with no explanation. With a deep breath, Fara continued to speak.
"There are multiple rules an elf must follow in the estate and matching that stance at all times is the first rule, as it shows elves as trained and proper. Since you are not a child, I will move through them so that we can get to the physical instruction of today. After all, your actions will impact us all."
"Oh, so the actions of one will punish all. That's not very fair." Lurai thought with sorrow as she thought back to how Ser Jakan treated her family, "I'd be like this morning."
Fara went to speak before freezing stiffly as if she had been grabbed from behind by something, and after a few moments, she now had a more sorrowful look on her face as she looked down at her hand. She tensed her face with sorrowful pain without glancing up towards Lurai.
"It's that message spell." Lurai thought in a tone of shock, "What was she told just now?"
Fara, with a tired sigh, held up her hand to Lurai as her hand began to glow. Lurai, realizing that Fara was about to use magic, instantly held out her hand in protest. Fara lowered her glowing hand with a shaking of her head.
"I was told to use magic to implement the knowledge of the estate etiquette into your mind again." Fara said in a monotone voice, "I must do as commanded."
"No." Lurai spoke up, which brought back the annoyed look from Fara, "I can learn from your words alone. You don't have to sacrifice part of your life for something that can be told to me in a matter of minutes. I will do my best to remember them."
"You—" Fara looked upon Lurai with a look that could either be shock, happiness, or comfort, before she shook her head again, "No. I must do as commanded."
"Please. Let me learn from you as intended. " Lurai said as she bowed in front of the elfish woman, "You are already tired, so please don't bring yourself closer to death because of me. That tattoo can only be—"
"Enough," Fara said before remaining silent for another minute in contemplation. After that minute, she looked up towards Lurai with a softer look and a little sorrow behind her eyes, "Okay. Listen very clearly, or else I will pay a severe price."
Lurai smiled towards Fara, "Thank you! I promise to listen clearly."
Fara sighed, "Also, you may talk with me here. I usually hold that rule for children that are active and must be broken-in." Fara adverted her gaze from Lurai, "For some reason, I thought you'd be similar. Apologies."
Lurai smiled, "I'd just like to talk to you, Fara."
Fara smiled slightly before bringing her smile back to a straight face. "Okay, all elves must follow five rules, or they will face punishment. This could mean death. Do you understand that?"
"Yes," Lurai responded.
"Good. The first rule is the one we already discussed. Proper attention and responding stances must be used at all times. When responding, you must have been commanded to speak."
"How often are we asked to speak?" Lurai asked curiously, "It seems that most humans don't like elves to begin with."
"So, you remember the prejudice. Probably a good thing." Fara frowned in response before continuing, "You may go entire days without being asked to speak, but when you request to speak, it is often seen as an annoyance to humans."
"Oh. That's rude." Lurai said sharply, which prompted Fara to look very concerned at Lurai. "I mean, if I was human and asked an elf to speak, I wouldn't be annoyed by my request."
"Don't assume what a human will think." Fara looked directly at Lurai with a level of intensity that scared her, "It could mean your death or worse."
Lurai gulped, "Understood."
Fara sighed before going back to the teaching face that she wore, "The second rule is that there will be no communication between elves will be made inside the estate walls. This is a rare case that has been approved, but if anyone knew how much we were talking, I guarantee there would be punishment."
Lurai nodded as a confirmation of understanding, but then a question came to her mind. "How do they expect us to cooperate on cleaning tasks?"
Fara sighed, "They don't. We report to Ms. Lanz every morning for direction, and that is all we get for the entire day. Our elves will continue to work no matter what."
"So, it's like that here too." Lurai thought as she recalled how her father, Reginald, had required his slaves to be in the manor.
"Thirdly, you must never ask any questions towards a human. Anything told to you by a human must be done. Anything." Fara stated sternly, "Is that one clear?"
"I assumed that, yes," Lurai said plainly.
"Good." Fara said with a small smile, "You'd be surprised how many children give slight resistance."
Lurai raised an eyebrow at this comment. "I guess I would be. I have only met slaves at the age of sixteen or older." Lurai shook her head, "Do they ask lots of questions too?"
"Too many." Fara rolled her eyes, which prompted Lurai to giggle. Fara's face remained stern as she continued, "No, that's a bad thing."
Lurai frowned as she heard that. Even in her old life, she never got the chance to experience what made a child childish; in fact, she only had what she knew from what her mother and father explained to her. Now, she finally understood it when she met Lykas and Cial.
"Children will always be children, but elvish children are easier to break in." Lurai said solemnly, "Am I right?"
"Unfortunately." Fara agreed with an expressionless face, "Humans often take pleasure in teaching the children a lesson through physical means."
"So, their childhood is stripped from them before they can even understand it?" Lurai remarked in a saddened tone, "That's very unkind."
"That's how life is for elves." Fara said weakly, "Even if your memory doesn't remember it, the scars on your body and face do."
Lurai reached up to touch the scar on her face, causing her to shudder from the image that this is happening to children. For some reason, she could feel the intensity of the pain as she touched this scar as if it had been created to remind her of the pain at every touch. Lurai winced as she touched it and lowered her hands back down to her side.
"Strange. It seems your lack of memory has left you with the impression that how we are treated is wrong." Fara's eyes widened in curiosity, "This is how it's always been, and I assume it's the same outside of this land too."
"Fara..." Lurai thought sorrowly, "You say that, but I see your eyes trembling."
Fara cleared her throat, "Moving on. You cannot lie to any humans, including guests to the manor. While we are never able to lie to the master, we are not bound to the truth when speaking with others; however, it must be done, or we will all face punishment."
"We aren't allowed to lie to the master?" Lurai questioned with intense curiosity.
"No. We just simply aren't able to do it." Fara responded in a rather slow voice, "The slave contract doesn't allow slaves to lie to their masters. We simply can't, and if we ever have to be pulled before the master because one of his guests or guards accuse us of lying, severe punishment is certain."
"Slave contract…" Lurai looked down at her chest with a heavy frown, which prompted Fara to perk up.
"Oh no, please tell me you know what a slave crest is." Fara's eyes widened, to which Lurai nodded. Fara let out a sigh of relief, "Oh good. That would impede the training time, which we have already wasted enough time, so you best make true on your promise."
Lurai nodded and said, "What's the final rule?"
"You must not use magic above the common tier unless permitted." Fara looked most severe on this one. "Our lives are to be used as the master sees fit, and magic shortens our lives. Only use it when instructed to by Ms. Lanz or the master himself. Any record of magic users will be dealt with swiftly."
"How would they find out if we did use it?" Lurai's eyes widened as she remembered this morning with Ser Jakan, feeling incredibly lucky that she used the tier 0 spell.
Fara straightened up as if she didn't expect this questioned to be asked, "I'm sorry. I don't know, but they always do."
"I see," Lurai said as she began to ponder.
"Now, please follow those rules to the best of your ability so that you don't get every slave killed. Okay?"
"Understood." Lurai nodded as she went back into the attention stance, which was more proper and suitable to Fara this time.
Lurai patiently waited as Fara walked across the room to grab a large, wooden broom that rested near the window. This broom was rather old-looking as it had markings and splinters coming off the end of it, while the brush at the end seemed to be frayed and unkempt; however, the broom was completely void of dust or uncleanliness, unlike the room. As Fara walked over to Lurai with the broom in her hands, her position changed to hold the broom a certain way: right hand about half a meter from the end left hand near the top.
"First, you will sweep this entire floor." Fara said sternly, "I will show you the proper holding that we must do, and then I will show you the motions of how to sweep the floor."
Lurai nodded as she watched Fara sweep the broom across the floor, kicking up tons of dust in the process. Within a minute, there was a distinct clean line across the floor where the broom had swept, and a pile of dust rested near the windowed wall. Fara then handed the broom to Lurai and pointed at the floor.
With a quick nod, Lurai began to work swiftly, and it was quite a surprise to her how her hands instantly grabbed the broom with the same grip that Fara had without much thought. Lurai looked up towards Fara with an impressed look, only to be met with an unimpressed look.
"I get that I am technically new to this, but a little praise would be nice." Lurai thought inwardly as she turned around from Fara to begin sweeping.
Over the day, Fara demonstrated each task before observing Lurai working on each of the tasks prepared: sweeping the floor, cleaning the dishes, making beds, and washing and drying clothes. Each of the tasks was met with intense diligence from Lurai, and to Lurai, she didn't notice much more after the broom incident.
As she was performing the tasks, her body just seemed to move on its own, which confused Lurai. "How do I know all of this already?" Lurai pondered before it clicked in her mind, "It must be you, Lurai..."
After her final task was done, Lurai turned around and smiled at Fara, who was looking rather impressed at her progress. Lurai set the broom down against the wall closest to the bed as she looked over the room once again. The room was in heavy contrast to what it was before.
The floor now shone off the pale white light of the undusted stone, and the kitchen was now free of multiple dishes, and the clothes from the table were used to replace the bedding. The bed was now tidy with the sheets resting inches above the floor, and the clothesline outside was now barren above a small basin of murky water that was used for the washing. Unbeknownst to Lurai, her outfit was also free of new stains.
"You finished faster than I expected, and your outfit is spotless, except the ones from before." Fara said with a smile, "We only have one last thing before I can confirm that you are cleared to work."
"And that is?" Lurai smiled as she walked towards Fara and took the attention stance again.
"Often, maids are tasked with tending to female guests, which requires preparing them for formal events such as dinner parties and tea parties. We must be delicate and ready for their call."
"Meriah." Lurai's face fell as she remembered her old best friend and maid. All of the memories of her growing up with Meriah dressing her and preparing her for dinner events with her parents and guests came back to her mind. She remembered all the bathing, preparing her hair and dresses, and applying cosmetics to bring out her natural beauty—more than anything, it brought back the melancholic nostalgia that pained her heart.
She snapped back to reality as she turned to Fara, "I—I believe I am ready for that task too."
"This isn't about if you are ready or not," Fara shook her head from side to side, "You will learn that task today too." Fara walked over to the door to the room, exited the room for a few moments, and then came back with a rather feminine mannequin, a small box, an eggshell-white corset, and an elaborate scarlet dress that seemed to flow as if flames were rolling off the dress itself.
Together, Fara and Lurai worked to dress up this mannequin in the dress, which took longer than Lurai initially thought. The hardest part for Lurai was tying the corset, which had multiple holes that required intricate dedication and delicate fingers to slip the string through. After a few minutes of that, the mannequin was then prepared with various cosmetics from the small box, and as the two female maids worked away at painting up the mannequin, both seemed delighted with the result—a mannequin that was well decorated.
Lurai couldn't help but crack a short laugh, which made Fara turn to her with an annoyed look, "Why are you laughing?"
"I'm sorry." Lurai said with a smile, "It's just that it seems rather off-putting when you think about it."
"This is the standard training that we've done forever. It shouldn't be laughed at." Fara said sternly, but that didn't break Lurai's mood.
"I would have preferred to dress up you," Lurai said as she moved all the cosmetics back into the box and set it on the table.
"What kind of thinking is that, um--" Fara stopped as she lowered her head in a bit of shame, "I never asked your name."
"It's Lurai," Lurai said with a smile.
"I don't usually ask the names of those I train. Children usually just tell me." Fara laughed slightly, which made Lurai smile even bigger. Fara smiled as she began to untie the dress on the mannequin. A moment of silence fell before Fara spoke again, returning her tone and voice to her emotionless state, "Thank you for a moment of happiness in this place, Lurai, but unfortunately, that's the only amount we will ever have."
"Well, that killed the mood." Lurai thought inwardly with an annoyed tone, but she held her outward smile all the same, "I understand. Thank you for training me."
"Head back downstairs to Ms. Lanz. I will follow shortly and report with you there." Fara ordered as she continued to remove the dress from the mannequin. Lurai bowed slightly before leaving the room. Fara stopped removing the dress as she heard the door close.
"What a strange elf." She laughed to herself, "No one gives their thanks here."
+++++++++++
Outside of the manor
It didn't take long for the silent front of the estate to become lively with the sound of voices.
"Oh! Sir, I thought you wouldn't be back until next week. We haven't done much of the preparations for your expected guests." A shrill tone of a female voice said as it attempted to be on the more pleasing side.
"I don't need to inform you of my return, Lanz." A brutish voice smacked words together as if the person speaking was eating something plump. " I do as I please at my own home." The man spat what he was eating onto the ground, as he burst through the front door of his estate with the doors making a loud reverberating clamor. "Oh, how I missed my beautiful home," the man said in a lighter tone of voice but his face and voice hardened intensely as he saw multiple slave maids that were cleaning the main floor turn and bow to him, "and I'd be able to appreciate it more if only these damn vermin weren't the first thing I'd see within it."
"Oh, of course, sir." Lanz said as she said in a pleasing tone before snapping towards the maids, "Back to work, all of you!"
The man was rather portly as he took massive waddling steps into this manor. His double-breasted coat swung elegantly as he walked as if he held himself above all he met. His face was mainly covered by a large mustache that became mutton-chops on the sides of his face, and he wore a single large monocle that covered his left eye.
"Now," Duke Einstall said with a cough, "Have you anything to report to me?"
"Sir." Lanz smiled wickedly, "There is a severe matter to report."