It's early morning, light filters through the windows into Elowens room, her alarm rooster wakes her up from its loud crowing outside. The smell of the port wafted through the house, the smell was permanent even when a little bit outside the city. Elowen groans, rolling over with her pillow covering her ears to try and mask the sound of the cawing rooster determined to wake her up. Eventually she gets up and the rooster, hearing her feet hit the floor, shuts up. The room is partially lit through by the sun peaking through the curtains, her candle had long since burnt out from the night before. Her mother comes rushing in through the door, waving the mail given this morning. Elowen opens her mouth to chastise her mother for always barging in on her, unaware if she's proper or not. But the seal letter she had waving in her hand stops her dead in her tracks.
"Is that?" Elowen asks, not bothering to finish the sentence. Her mother nods vigorously, handing Elowen the letter before stepping back. Her mother was an energetic woman, she had to be doing something, anything to keep herself sane. Crocheting had been the most recent hobby her mother had taken up along with cross stitch. Her brown hair was always in a pony-tail, swaying back and forth as she stepped. Elowen grabbed the letter opener from her nightstand drawer and cut it open. Pulling the letter from the fancy envelope, she opened it up.
"Dear Miss Elowen Everglass,
We are happy to tell you that your test scores have awarded you a full ride scholarship to our school, Dorian Academy. Due to your high scores in language, magical knowledge, diplomacy and debate, you have been selected to attend the course 'Diplomat'. The term starts in four months on August 4th, please bring proper clothing and use the vouchers in the envelope to buy your uniform and books. We look forward to teaching you.
Wishing you well,
The Dorian Academy teachers."
Elowen finished reading it aloud and looked up at her mother, "I got in." She whispered, not truly believing it at first before she spoke louder, "I got in!" She shouted with pride. Her father came rushing to the room, his blonde hair still a mess and his blue eyes hazing from sleep.
"She got in,William!" Her mother cried out, hugging her husband tight. "That's two for two." She beamed. Her father sent her his signature reserved smile before walking over to her and ruffling her hair.
"Good job kiddo." He said. Unlike his wife, William was a reserved man, never raising his voice in anger or excitement and preferred the slow, hard, tedious work it took to maintain the family farm. Secretly, while her parents celebrated Elowen thought of her sister, Nuri. Five years ago they had received their finally letter from Nuri in her signature messy handwriting stating she was going to serve a noble family in the court, that she would contact them she got a chance. Apparently, she's gotten a chance for five years, when Elowen questioned it, all the adults pushed her off. It was common for lower class people to no longer seek contact with their family when they entered higher classes. But Elowen never believed that Nuri of all people would stop talking to her family.
Nuri was nothing if not a family person, Elowen still had the letters Nuri sent her during her time in the Academy, the first month had at ten and she got at least one a week until the day Nuri graduated. Graduation was for noble families to attend only, a clear line drawn in the sand of Dorian Academy, a message. 'Your child might be able to graduate from here, but you aren't allowed here.'. Elowen knew Nuri's test scores, her mother had kept the letter and the test score confirmation, had shown it off to all her friends at one point or another. Nuri was strong, quick witted and clever. Her language skills were average as well as her debate and diplomacy skills, but her physcial test scores were off the charts, something her father was immensely proud of.
"Can't believe our family of all people have the last name Everglass." Her father would joke, his entire side of the family were hard laborers. Miners, farmers, wood workers, the works. The family got their name from being originally glass blowers, a notoriously hot job.
"She's going into the Diplomat course!" Her mother told her father. "I told you she's got a golden tongue."
Elowen felt the heat creeping up her neck and onto her cheeks, "Ma! I told you not to say that! It means something different now." Her mother waved her off, saying how she'll use it how she likes and that Elowen knows what she means. Giving one last hair ruffle, her parents walked out her room, discussing who would take her to get her items. Elowen let out a sigh, falling back onto her bed. She was accepted into Dorian academy and this time, she wasn't going to let adults tell her what happened to her sister. She would find it out for herself, one way or another.
As the day dragged on, her parents agreed that her father would take her to the market because it was Saturday. Saturdays were always hectic, the large amount of thieves that came crawling out didn't help with the chaos either. Its joked that despite the city begin named Glory, there was nothing glorious about it. Dorian Academy, the school she was going to start at, didn't even reside in Glory. It was two days away by carriage in the city of Vander. Elowen kept close to her fathers side as merchants and swindlers tried their hardest to get them to stop by but with her father, they plowed through the crowds heading straight for their destination. Dorian was attended by most of the noble children, which meant that there was an entire store dedicated to it. Elowen often complained that the fancy schools got their own stores but while she was attending in public school she had to go to six separate stalls to find what she needed.
Inside, the bell rang to signal their arrival, a clerk at the desk glanced up before looking back down with a grimace on her face. Not bothering to look at the pair as she spoke, "You have the wrong store." She droned, flipping to the next page on the magazine on the counter.
"We aren't actually," Her father said, slamming down the vouchers in front the woman, making her jump. Behind her glasses, she glared at the two before grumbling and grabbing the vouchers, studying them.
"Mm, fine. You lower class are getting smarter huh?" She said with snark, walking from out from behind the counter and grabbing the correct books. "I'm guessing you're a medium?" She asked Elowen.
Elowen blinked, she always made her own clothes, "I guess?" She said, raising her palms in uncertainty. The old woman rolled her eyes, grabbing two of each uniform. "You can take them to get them fitted later if you can afford it." Elowen seethed, she wondered if Nuri had to endure this kind of treatment. Then it struck her, she would be attending a school for nobles. She would be around people like her all the time.
Luckily, because it was all in one shop, she wouldn't need to visit others. At home, Elowen blinked away sleep while she sat at her desk, staring at her books from the store. She could understand most of it, the mathematics and debate books were making her head spin. She wanted a good start, she wanted to prove to the noble children attending the school that she was just as good as them. That she's even better, because she had to work for it all. She spent late nights pushing herself to learn more, she used all her allowance money on more books and pens when her ink ran dry. She didn't get tutors or fancy private education all her life, and she had a true reason to try as hard as she did.
Nuri's disappearance. Elowen had never truly bought into her fathers conspiracy theories, how the upper class was planning something that would destroy the lower levels. But when Nuri disappeared, it started to sound reasonable. Because who would look for a missing low class girl? No one, especially when led to believe she's living a bigger and better life. But Elowen refused the idea, she wouldn't accept it and she suspected her father didn't either. But whatever anger he had in him, whatever defiance, had been stomped out of him during the wars.
Elowen read all about the wars, she heard stories from her father, learned battles and victories from school. But she had grown up in peace, it was all she knew and like most of her generation, she wasn't plagued by the constant uneasiness that came from the knowledge of unstable times. All she had was stories, victories but not horror. Not the days were her mother and sister would go without eating because they hadn't been given ration cards. Not the weeks they spent worrying about their husband and father without even a letter to soothe them. Elowen didn't know this pain, but Nuri carried it in her bones. It clawed at her, the uneasiness and made her aware.
Nuri had always had a great sense for danger and had once stopped her mother from going to market because she felt something was wrong. It turns out that a sudden storm had blown in from port and flooded the market, causing deaths into the 50s. Nuri knew when something was not as it seemed, and Elowen knew in her bones that Nuri was not writing that letter willingly. It just didn't sound like her, she would never proclaim that she might not contact them for a period time. Nuri would have slaughtered animals to keep in touch with her family, tamed a bird if she had too.
Elowen blew out the candle at her table side and walked over to her bed, feeling it against her shins. She laid down in bed, turning over to face the wall. She would find out what happened to her sister, and if it turned out to be true. If Nuri truly didn't care about her family anymore, then Elowen would be satisfied. But it gnawed at her, the silent idea that something terrible happened to her sister. She would find out in four months.