Chapter 6: Everbright (2)
A tired woman sat alone in a lit office space where stacks of paper and letters formed walls on either side of her. She was expressionless, cool eyes growing strained as she continued to squint and read through various reports.
Sighing, the woman took off her reading glasses, and massaged her temples. Her pale blue hair was tied up into a neat bun earlier in the morning, but it had grown loose, and she'd made no effort to fix it. Her bangs fell and framed her icy face, frustration miring her violet eyes with contempt and helplessness.
"Damn bastards," the woman hissed, crumpling a letter from Aletera's inner capital where informants updated the woman with recent political events and movements.
She was Duchess Sophia Everbright, the proxy ruler of the Fortress City Amaranth in the injured Duke's stead.
Raised as the sole daughter of Baron Laurent of House Newmoon, she married into the ducal family through military achievement rather than political success.
Although she'd had early education in government and public affairs, she'd been a tomboy who cared little for it. Her husband had been the one to always excel both in upper society and strength, which is why it pained her further that he chose her over himself…
A surge of self-loathing had Sophia wiping her eyes, but she couldn't even afford to be seen as weak.
Noble Everbright's position was tenuous without the supporting pillar that was the Duke who most represented the noble ferocity of Everbright's white wolf.
With all races pushed to the brink of ruin from the encroaching black fog, titles and nobility meant nothing if one didn't have the capability to defend it. Weak families were replaced by stronger ones with militaristic efficiency to create greater odds of survival.
Without Duke Everbright, the justification for Everbright's hegemony in Amaranth was under siege by a coalition of other opportunistic nobles who couldn't see past their own greed. That, and prior grudges and slander pertaining to a mere Baron girl stepping over her station by seducing a Duke's son.
Now people pointed their fingers, all kinds of venomous slurs and mockery derided Duke Everbright's misfortune to have ever married the 'brute' Sophia. Worse yet, she couldn't even refute. It was her careless mistake that led to tragedy, and she'd never been the same ever since.
All her efforts so far have been to maintain Everbright's position and prestige despite lacking in experience. Other members of the Six Stars of Aletera sent their condolences, but none intended to aid her without due compensation. In the end, it would simply breed reliance, and the proud White Wolf of Everbright would never hold its head high again.
Sophia pushed her children to be the best, no matter their protests or if their relationship drifted further and further away.
House Everbright could not fall to ruin under her hands. Sophia wouldn't be able to bear it. Her husband chose her over himself, and the guilt had always weighed on her.
Sophia controlled her expression when a knock echoed from the front door of the office.
"Enter," she said tonelessly.
A maid, Natalie, stepped in. She was Sophia's personal handmaiden from House Newmoon that followed her since young, and even now in Everbright.
"Milady, there's a problem," Natalie said tentatively, flinching from the frosty look on Sophia's face. Natalie more than anyone could recall how Sophia had once been. Ever since the Duke's injury, she'd stopped smiling, restrained her brash personality, and refrained from showing how much she truly cared for her children.
Natalie could speculate how Sophia must feel when her own children were terrified of her. It wasn't the Sophia that Natalie had known and grew up alongside.
"Is it Annette?" Sophia asked, flatly.
"Yes." Natalie did not dare lie. "She's broken her house arrest and came back with three young street beggars. The guards are whispering that she might have even kidnapped them."
The feather pen in Sophia's hand snapped in two. "Does she not know the damage she could cause to our reputation?!"
Natalie inwardly sighed. The irony of the moment was not lost on her. It was like the pot calling the kettle black. Who was the crazy lady of House Newmoon if not Sophia Newmoon who filthied her reputation by presenting a bloody carcass as her first hunting trophy in a lady's tea party?
In contrast, Annette was tame.
Wisely, Natalie did not share her sentiments given the pressure Sophia was constantly under.
"Lady Annette insisted she found something useful this time," Natalie stated, causing Sophia's expression to finally break.
In front of Natalie, there was nothing for Sophia to hide, so she started wiping the tears trickling down her cheeks.
Sophia pursed her lips, hands balling into fists.
It wasn't as if Sophia was ignorant of her daughter's determination to save her father, but rather, Sophia already lost hope. Anything her daughter could have tried, was it possible that Sophia hadn't already? Her influence far outstripped her daughter's, and she'd spared no expense to hire the kingdom's foremost healers to no result.
In the end, there was no cure to blight, and Sophia was doomed to watch the love of her life whittle away into a husk of his former self.
Annette however, had yet to lose her naivety, her hope, and that was why Sophia had no choice but to constantly pressure her. It would only hurt Annette more when their father eventually passed, but still that girl never stopped.
"Evan…I don't know if I can do this anymore," Sophia whimpered out of public sight.
Natalie kept her silence.
Sophia no longer knew what she was going to do with her own daughter.