Welcome to Gaia! ::

Blaise nodded numbly but kept her head down and didn’t look at them. She was glad to hear that Rosette, though she seemed stressed, was faring well. Chrono didn’t seem to shed an emotion about the current situation but she knew he had to be feeling something. For her, however, things weren’t looking bright. She was beginning to feel the stress of an entire way of life, hundreds of lives, depending on her direction and leadership – not to mention the difficult and taxing trick they had to pull with the lake.

Thumping her fist on the table lightly she sighed, “Alright . . . we should head to my house. I need – erm – a little time to think.”

“Only a little something, Rosette.” Blaise said solemnly, “I can’t have you stumbling onto a battlefield intoxicated. Tonight is going to be hard enough as it is.”

Blaise stepped out of the Counsel Quarters and into the fading light. A Forester was going around and lighting the lanterns that lit up the pathways and the faces of buildings and trees. The Forester gave her a curt nod as she passed and she returned the gesture. The silent forest was eerie – it seemed so strange, like she’d never seen it before. She hoped she’d be able to see it in this way when she returned.

Ciaran mewed to her as she came up to her front door and opened it. It was warm and bright inside her house as usual and this comforted Blaise in a way she greatly needed. A little bit of weight seemed to leave her shoulders as she relaxed and stepped inside.

Blaise sat in a chair opposite of Rosette and leaned back to relax a little. Closing her eyes she listened to Rosette’s question and stayed quiet for a moment before answering.

“Aye . . . I did. My only sibling was a little girl – her name was Annalise. This was hers,” Blaise lifted her left wrist and pulled back her sleeve to show Rosette a small bracelet with five little beads on it, each one a different bright color, “I’ve never taken it off. My parents would get her a new, different colored bead each year for her birthday. She loved the different colors. When my parents were killed I got her a bead for her fifth birthday – it’s the green one. She always said it was her favorite one; she liked the color. She was taken from me before I could get her another bead. I still haven’t lost count of the years though. If Annalise were with me today then she would have ten beads on her bracelet. I miss her more than you can imagine. I loved my little Annalise.”

Blaise didn’t answer right away, the memory of what had happened flashing in her mind.

Blaise answered the knock at the door as her little sister sat on the bare floor of the one room home they owned pretending her fingers were little people. Opening the door she cowered in the shadow of a tall guard.

“Tell me; are there any children in this house beside you?” The guard asked right off. Blaise nodded shakily with her hands quivering at her sides.

“How old?” the guard said gruffly.

“I-I’m t-ten, and m-my little s-sister, Annalise, i-is five.” Blaise answered.

The guard turned and motioned to someone behind himself and two more guards pushed their way into the room. One of them lifted Annalise from the floor as the other one stood at attention reading a scroll.

“By the Monarchy’s command all children under the age of eight are to be sold into slavery. This is for the good of the Monarchy and anyone who stands in the way of these commands will face death. Long live the king.”

Annalise squeaked as she tried to hold back tears and Blaise looked up at the terrifying men. There was nothing she could do. She was only ten years old after all.

“P-please, can’t I say g-goodbye?” Blaise stammered desperately, “C-can’t I h-have a moment w-with my sister.”

“Absolutely not!” the guard barked at her, “If you interfere you face the noose! And if I see a single tear you will both be dead. Move out!”

The guard holding Annalise began walking out the door and the little girl reached out for Blaise silently. As the guard passed Blaise held Annalise’s hand and the little girl placed her bracelet into it. The other guard saw the two girl’s hands touch but luckily for the girls he didn’t see the bracelet. The guard stepped up to Blaise angrily and pushed her away from her sister. Hitting her on the side of the head she fell to the ground and everything went dark.

Sighing deeply Blaise shook her head slightly.

“Annalise . . . was sold into slavery – there was nothing I could do to stop it. I don’t know what happened to her. I began stealing; ignorantly thinking I could buy her back. Then I was caught by a man but he and his family were kind enough to take me in. They taught me to read and write and I worked my share to pay for things. Then war was declared and I was drafted to fight for the Monarchy. I was caught writing a letter to the family and was sentenced to death. After I was saved and came here, I did all that I could to get good enough to go out on the runs so I could look for my little Annalise. I never found her and can’t continue looking. I fear that she might not still be alive . . . but I know in my heart she has to be.”

“Alright, alright!” Blaise exclaimed throwing her hands up as Rosette hit her, “I know she’s alive, alright? It’s just so frustrating. As I get better times get more dangerous. I cannot go out and look for her anymore like I had used to. Now the only time I can ever look for her is when we go on runs to the prisons, but she’d never get arrested, not like me.”

Standing up she walked over to her window and looked out. Rosette had made an offer but it was almost difficult to accept. She knew what those people were like, most of the thieves anyways. Before she was taken in by that family she used to run with the crooks and bandits, trying to find her own way and some way to reclaim her sister. They were a tricky lot.

“Just as long as we give them what they need?” Blaise repeated skeptically, “And what exactly would they need? Hmm?”

“No you don’t . . .”Blaise said quietly staring out the window. She remained in this way for a while, just enjoying the silence – the calm before the storm. Bits of incomplete thoughts skittered around in her mind but they always trailed back into the silence.

“Alright,” she said finally, “I’ll do whatever it takes . . . anything. I just want my little sister back. I just don’t know where she could be. How am I supposed to find her? Never mind, that doesn’t matter. I’m going to find her even if it takes going out myself and taking on the cover of a traveler and going from village to village and finding her.”

“Yes . . . but I’m just fifteen. Strange isn’t it?” Blaise smiled softly, “Life brings you experiences that you don’t always want to go through but you have to pull it all together and push your way through anyways. I s'pose only the strong can really tough it out. Even now that I look back on it all it’s hard to believe I survived at all. I always try to imagine what I would be like if I hadn’t gone through all that I have, if I had a normal life – but I never can. I suppose I’d be soft . . . nothing like I am now. Hard to imagine . . . haven’t you ever tried doing that? Imagining what a normal life would be like?”

Blaise paused for a second then looked to Rosette, “What do you suppose your brother would be like if he were here now?”

Blaise smiled a bit and said, “My mum always used to tell us stories at night. She couldn’t read but had remembered them from her parents who could read. They were all fantasies, but I liked them. Anything to escape the world we lived in, you know? But Annalise never believed them or even gave them much thought. She had already accepted the way things were for us and knew there wasn’t any way to escape it. After our parents died she’d never even listen to anything that mentioned fantasies of the sort. She told me, ‘If the fairies and the magic couldn’t save mommy and daddy, then what’s the use in believing in it? It doesn’t help me when I need it to so it must not be there.’ . . . It broke my heart so see little Annalise in such a state after they died. She was upset but never stopped worrying about me because of what I had to do after they were killed.”

Blaise stopped suddenly and looked back out the window. She didn’t want to continue the conversation anymore. Feeling greatly bothered she went and sat back in her chair.

“Well, I guess it’s better to have memories of your parents then to have none at all. You lived in an orphanage, didn’t you?”