Before sunrise the next morning, I was quietly escorted out of the castle with a week of necessities stuffed into three modest satchels. I wove between the aisles of residences on this grassy cliff, the colors of sleeping nature muted beneath the blue haze of dawn.
Here was where I'd live for the next week, but I didn't find it intolerable. I only found punishment in my father's abrupt command to only to bring necessities with me. No creative tools. No books. Nothing to keep me entertained while away from the castle. I would weep from boredom before complaining about sleeping in a servant's home.
We arrived at a single-level house that looked newly built, the birch exterior solid and smooth, as though freshly sanded, while the other homes were already splintering and worn. The young man escorting me faced me and bowed.
