Layalla found Maira right where she expected to—sitting in the window of her small room on the top floor of the main manor. She was bent over a black dress, stitching away. The dress Layalla was to wear to her debut party.
Maira raised her head, her straight, black hair pulled back in a neat braid, and smiled when she heard Layalla enter the room. She motioned for Layalla to join her on the window seat, moving aside scraps of fabric and sewing tools to make space. Layalla settled down with a heavy sigh.
Maira paused as she got a better look at Layalla's face.
"Oh dear… what's happened?"
Layalla stared into her eyes. They were the most striking thing about Maira, who was otherwise small and meek—one eye was orange, while the other was purple. Layalla felt those strange eyes studying her with tenderness.
And then she couldn't hold it in any longer. Tears began to stream down Layalla's face, and she let her head fall into her hands.
"I should have known," she said with misery. "I should have known it could never be…"
Maira pushed away her sewing project and wrapped her arms around Layalla. They clung to each other, and Layalla softly cried while Maira rubbed a gentle hand across her back.
"Maira…" Layalla said with gasping breaths. "We'll never truly be free… They're already planning to marry me off!"
Maira squeezed her tighter. Here was the only person in the entire world who truly understood Layalla. If anything, Maira felt her pain even more deeply than she did.
She felt a pang of guilt, as she often did when coming to Maira with her woes. Layalla had been a prisoner of the Dunn estate her whole life, but at least she'd had hope of escape someday, had dreams of being accepted into the society beyond the walls.
But Maira would never be accepted. She'd never had a promise of escape.
Maira pulled back and gently wiped the tears from Layalla's cheeks.
"My lovely flame," Maira said softly. "Tell me what has happened, sister."
And there was the injustice of it all. Layalla was a daughter of the Dunns, a daughter who had been kept from the public eye since her birth. But she was known to the public. She was considered with the respect that came with the Dunn name.
But no one knew there was a living, second Dunn daughter.
No one, that is, except for Layalla and her parents. Maira's very existence had become a secret since she was little more than four years old.
She had been born five years before Layalla. All had seemed well—she was a healthy, happy child. But by the time she was three, she was sickly and weak. A powerful healer paid a visit to the Dunn estate, and Lord and Dame Dunn learned a terrible truth: their daughter would live, but she would never be able to wield magic. In fact, she had never possessed the ability in the first place—she had been born without any affinity toward magic.
Her parents were horrified. A child born without magic? How could this be? She would never survive in Genua! And the very power that the Dunn clan held would come into question if word of a magicless daughter were to get out…
So, Maira was erased. The story that was spread was that the young Dunn daughter did not survive her sickness. The leaders of the Dunn clan were once again childless. And Maira was locked away within the estate, hidden until she reached an age at which she could be reintroduced as a servant.
All her life, Maira had been there to share in Layalla's struggles. She knew what it was to be caged away from the world—she knew more intimately than anyone else, because she had been through even worse. She had lost her freedom and her identity. To the eyes of others, Maira was merely a servant who acted as a playmate to the young Lady of the house. But the two girls knew that they were bound by more than just sisterly blood. They had been each other's sanctuary for all these long years.
Layalla had been planning on taking Maira everywhere with her. The moment she was allowed to leave the estate, she would have insisted that Maira join her as a chaperone. But now…
Now she couldn't know what would happen. If she were to marry Nimo Spire, would he allow her to bring Maira with her? Would her parents let her leave the Dunn estate, to go off and work as a servant under Layalla's new husband? Her plans were all falling to ruin, right before her eyes.
She explained to Maira all that their father had told her of Nimo Spire and the potential marriage arrangement. Even as she blubbered and spoke of her worries for the future, she was racked with heavy guilt. What must Maira be feeling hearing this, knowing that she may lose her one empathetic companion in the world?
Though Layalla had been caged within the walls of the estate all her life, at least she had been constantly showered with praises for her apparent "importance" due to the prophecy and her advanced skill when it came to Dark magic. But Maira had no affinity for magic whatsoever, and she was forced to act as a servant instead of a member of the family. She was belittled and forgotten, used and erased. And yet, she was still there for Layalla, still the sister that she needed and could turn to.
"Hush now, lovely flame," Maira whispered, wiping away more tears. "This is not the end. We will get through this, together."
Layalla swallowed her tears and looked back at her sister, grateful. She nodded.
"Together."