She had taken her time collecting things because the rest of her family had relented to Ophelia wisdom that they couldn't have such a pathetic heir.
She had to fend for herself. All supplies from the the main house were cut off. Luckily she remarked snidely her sisters had been young enough to avoid the same fate.
Lucy and Marianne were considered innocent and stupid enough to be indoctrinated into Ophelia's way managing things. Ciel had no way of contacting her eldest brother Henry who had disappeared a few year prior to the incident that had destroyed their family. Ciel felt sorry for the knights servants and peasant that protected them. Countless of them died but they were given dismal funerals. It definitely changed the way ciel through about her family. One of her grandmothers had launched a serving girl lucinda into the crowd as some sort of projectile weapon her head smashed up the stone pavement.
Ciel remembered the moment and stared back at the golden pieces longingly.
It brought her solace to know that she could use these tiny gold pieces to find a way out. She had a plan she would go to the near by academy to fix her damaged manna paths and seek a path on her own. What she wanted to do required some anonymity. She fought back the fiendish grin that danced upon the lips. She had a curse sleeping in her veins that changed the way that she thought. She was trying desperately not to become a twisted aberration but often the curse would eventually mutate her all body parts so she resembled a monster.
She sighed and hid her gold. She would need to steal more to make a start up fund so she could go to the academy.
The extra money was for things like starting up business and protection.
She slunk into the shadows hoping she wouldn't alert the watcher birds.
In the town she took an appreciative breath of fresh air. It was night but there was still some semblance of life the scent of dried bread aging fruit and meat. The last smell was odd. There was a hushed chatter front the alley ways and brash singing from a drunk woman with a wobbly hand holding up her cup of alcohol. A few rats skirted under the boards of buildings. And was that toffee? she took another appreciative sniff. She turned around the corner to find the herbalist shop. A young apprentice with sweaty palms and a permanent dazed gaze worked the courter. The warmth of the shop was impressive for a herbalist shop should would have though that they would have wanted to keep the place dry. She looked first at the cuts on his finger and up to his eyes. I would like some of the curative ointment for mana affliction. "Alright it's in the back. "He headed to the the back gates into the dried herb storage the herbs were still a bit further in so he ended up heading out of sight. There was a plant with thin leaves that looked like it would slip out of it's place in the shop. Ceil resisted a chuckle as she saw a tiny glass bottle with the words love poison on it. Hopefully whoever made the bottle meant to spell potion. Instead of poison otherwise she was a little bit terrified about what sort of wild crazy things they were up to. Some herbs made her head feel fuzzy if she got close enough. Two people entered the shop she couldn't see much of their faces and the apprentice was still out so she resumed her inspection of the herbs within the shop.
"Do you know what herbs we are going to try this time" the male one said.
Hopefully not another bogus recipe the female one chirped back.
Uninterested in the conversation and pleased to see the apprentice was back ciel passe some of the few silver coins she had left over the apprentice and left the shop.