9 09: A new lifestyle

After what seemed many hours of tutoring, Amaris thoughts she had a decent grasp of the runes that Ivailo had shown her. The alphabet, he had called them. Twenty-six letters that could be arranged into thousands of different variations, creating written words. She fell back onto the bed, exhausted from the lesson. Someone had called away Ivailo from the tutoring session, leaving Amaris with the strict instructions that she must practice her letters as much as she could. Right now, all she wanted to do was take a nap. Before she could, someone knocked on the door.

"What is it now?" She grumbled, getting off the purple satin coverlet and staggering over to the door. The last thing she wanted at this given moment was guests. Opening the door, she found two beautiful ladies, evidently members of the court.

"Can I help you?" She asked, taking them in. They looked a lot like Ivailo and were identical to each other.

"Yes. Are you Miss Amaris Willow?" The one on the left asked.

"Who's asking?" Amaris said, getting a little defensive. Kenia had mentioned that many members of the court did not like the idea that a vampire could sit amongst their ranks, especially one of the Willow clan.

"I am Lady Lyra, Lady of Laws," the one on the right answered. "And this is my twin sister, Lady Kafei, Lady of War. We are Ivailo's older sisters." Amaris stiffened. She had unintentionally been rude to not only two of the most important ladies of the court, but Ivailo's older sisters.

"Milady, milady, please forgive me for my rudeness. I did not know who you are, and if I had known I would have minded my tone." Amaris curtsied deeply.

"That is quite okay, Miss Amaris. You have your wits about you, and that will serve you well in this court," Kafei said, pulling Amaris out of her curtsy. "And please, refer to us Lyra and Kafei, respectively."

"Certainly. Would you like to come in?" Amaris offered, stepping aside to let them through.

"That would be lovely." Lyra said, stepping into the room. "if we could also have some tea, that would be exceptional."

"That does sound lovely, doesn't it?" Amaris responded. "Unfortunately, I am still yet to figure out how to summon my lady's maid." Kafei crossed the room, stopping by the left side of the large four-poster bed swathed in purple bed linens.

"We equipped every room with a bell and pull systems in order to convey brief messages across the castle. In the bedchambers, the pulls are always on the left side of the bed," she said, holding a long, golden twisted rope that Amaris imagined would have cost more than the entire property of The Bitterhead Inn. "One pull means that you want a servant, two pulls means you want a messenger and three pulls alerts the guards to an intruder." Kafei explained, as she gave a slight tug on the golden rope. Within an instant, Kenia reappeared.

"Is everything okay, Milady?"

"Could we please have a pot of tea and something to eat?" Amaris asked.

"Certainly, Milady. It will be here shortly."

"Thank you for showing me how to summon her," Amaris said, turning to Kafei.

"That is quite okay, Amaris. There are many secrets to this castle that you will need to learn, and given your history you have a lot more to learn."

"I feel as if I have learned a lot already. Just today your brother was teaching me how to read."

"You never learned? But your mother was such an avid reader that she had laws passed that every child, no matter whether slave or free, under the age of twelve had to learn how to read, even if they received no other instruction." Lyra sounded as if what Amaris had just told them was so inconceivable that she might have said that the sky was yellow.

"Well, as much as my mother may have been a patron of literature and a supporter of children getting an education, the owner of The Bitterhead Inn did not share that view, and he was the one in charge of making sure I got an education according to the law."

"If you cannot read, how do you know that specific clause exists?" Kafei asked as Kenia came back into the room carrying a tray that was so heavy with tea, sandwiches, and cakes that Amaris was afraid that she would drop it. To her delight, Kenia did not drop the tray. Instead, she gently placed the tray on a low table that looked as if they made it from leather-bound books and a circular piece of glass, so clear that Amaris could see her own reflection.

"While I did not study books, you overhear so much working as both a barmaid and a wench that could substitute for reading a book." Amaris responded, motioning for Lyra and Kafei to be seated on a pair of leather couches on either side of the table. "Please, take a seat."

For many hours the trio talked, flowing seemingly effortlessly from one topic to another. They talked about many things. Amaris learned all about the individual histories of each of the members of the council, how when Ivailo had announced his plans to kill the emperor to the other slaves he was met with raucous cheers that dissipated when they found out that they would need to kill the other members of the family. She learned about the policies that Lyra had made into law and shared her lived experience under these laws, offering slight changes to implementing these policies.

Finally, Amaris had learned about how the siblings' mother had been sold into slavery in Thoasia, the new stronghold of the Oblivion Kappa and the place where the Ablundite that made up much of her bathroom fixtures. She learned that the ruling family of the Oblivion Kappa had slaughtered their mother, Rain, as a part of a sacrificial ritual designed to ward off evil spirits and to stop war. Little did they know that killing the mother of the soon to be emperor was an act of war. Amaris learned about the plot to start a war between Acad and Thoasia, and how the lords of the high council did not like the idea that a vampire on the high council, threatening to withdraw their support for the upcoming war if Amaris was not removed and killed immediately.

Exhausted from both the lessons and socialising with Lyra and Kafei, Amaris flopped back on her bed, intending on getting a nap. So many changes in so little time cannot be good for me, Amaris thought, pulling the covers over her head. She had enjoyed getting to know Ivailo, Lyra, and Kafei. She had enjoyed getting to know the world she was supposed to be born into. She had enjoyed getting to know her mother, if only through stories. She had not enjoyed learning about all the grisly details of how Ivailo had taken the throne by force, or why it had to happen. She did not enjoy learning that not all members of the High council did not want her to be a member, and may resort to kill her to get what they want.

Her nap lasted longer than she had expected, and by the time that Kenia woke her it was dark outside.

"Milady, if you do not get up we cannot get started on training you to be a lady." Amaris groaned, groggy from sleep. "Now is the perfect time for me to learn basic table manners, before you have dinner with the family."

"Very well, I'm up." Amaris hauled herself out of bed. The room would have been pitch black, if not for several candles in elaborate gold and abulandite candelabras, giving the room a warm glow that would have been perfect lighting if had not been so cold. Shivering, Amaris pulled on the cape that Kenia handed her, purple velvet with white sable fur.

After making sure that the cape would not leave her ladyship cold by slipping off her shoulders, Kenia bowed low, slipping matching purple velvet and white sable fur slippers onto Amaris's feet. After admiring her handiwork, she led Amaris through a small door that she had not noticed before into the small dining room off of the main bedchamber.

The room was, compared to the bedchamber, brightly lit, and reminded Amaris of the main room of The Bitterhead Inn. Despite its comparatively small size, the room was decorated well, with a circular dinning table covered with a purple tablecloth embroidered with golden roses all over it. The side table, supposedly trying to mimic the low table in the sitting area of the bedchamber, was laden with more food than Amaris had ever seen in her entire life. Roasted beef and pork, boiled potatoes, and many other foods that Amaris had never seen before littered the table, making it look as if Amaris was hosting her own private feast.

Kenia pulled out one chair that had been placed at the dining table, and Amaris sat obediently. In front of her lay what she recognised to be a plate, though it was the most elaborate plate she had ever seen. Edged with gold, the plate had a strange collection of flowers painted on, some she recognised but many that she did not. Above the plate she recognised the familiar shape of spoons, though she had never seen spoons wrought out of pure gold before. On either side of the plate were several strange looking utensils she had never seen before, wrought out of the same gold that the spoons were. Amaris looked at Kenia, bewildered.

"Kenia, what are these?" She asked, pointing to the ones that were solid until a point, then split into four prongs. Kenia came over to the table carrying a dish of what looked like turkey, but the meat was too dark.

"Those, Milady, are called forks. And these," Kenia put the dish down and pointed to the utensils that looked as if they were wrought from solid blocks of metal. "They called these knives. When you eat, you stick what you want to with the fork. If something is too big to fit in your mouth, you cut it with the knife down to a size that will fit in your mouth elegantly."

"I am glad to have you Kenia. I would have made a fool of myself if they had asked me to dinner tonight."

"I am glad too, Milady."