Chapter 4

“Veille! Didn’t you hear the maidens? Get up!”

I opened my eyes as Dornell poked his head up over the side of my bunk. His blond hair was unruly, as per usual – which was a shame, because whenever the maidens did it for him it really looked beautiful.

I squinted at him and grumbled, more for show than anything else. I knew I couldn’t be late. Punishment for tardiness was a certainty even at the simplest of times, but it would be especially today, because today was a first for all the youngest members of Mannerly Hall, and almost as important for everybody else.

Still. I grumbled because I didn’t like being woken up by anyone.

Dornell squinted right back at me. The last five years had made him slim, but not gangly. While still a few inches taller than myself, we now had much the same build – if anything, I now carried just slightly more muscle, a thing which I was proud of.

His slanted eyes narrowed even further, and he began poking me with one finger, much to my dismay.

I hated when he poked me. I hated it because it was effective. I first rolled away in a futile attempt to escape; and then, as his attacks not only increased, but found their way into my more sensitive spots –  the side of my ribs and the meat beneath my armpit – I began to giggle. And that was the worst part of all.

“Alright – FINE!!” I shouted. And I flung aside my covers, trying to knock Dornell off the bars and down to the floor in the process. It would’ve served him right; however, he merely laughed and disappeared back down below.

(I was glad that I hadn’t actually knocked him to the ground.)

I finished untangling myself and swung my legs over the edge of the bunk. As I did so, I noticed Elodie doing her morning stretches halfway across the room. My face immediately flushed, and I struggled to look away.

She was already dressed in her Estate attire. While I watched her limbs move gracefully through a series of overhead arches, I thought for the thousandth time that she had the body of a dancer, perhaps why she was valued so highly by the Estate’s staff, and indeed, by Madam Dro herself.

And the outfit did nothing to hide it. Bare shoulders, a low neckline, and even slits along the outside of her stomach and her hips, only served to punctuate what a beautiful woman she had become.

I felt a stirring within a certain area of my bedclothes. Fortunately, the dress attire made for the boys in our group tended to be looser in those lower regions than for the girls – although, if anything it was even tighter in the shoulders, chest, and buttocks. Ours also had revealing slits cut across the torso and along the pelvis, and the material that formed the legs seemed just a little bit too thin, if not technically diaphanous.

Somehow, Elodie always knew when I was watching her. Without even breaking form, she pivoted beautifully in my direction and locked eyes with me, that warm smile I loved already happening upon her lips. She even managed to wave at me briefly while making it look like it was part of her routine.

I smiled back, far less embarrassed that I might have been when we’d first yet years ago. Elodie was my dear friend, now; and while I’d never stopped craving her from afar, that craving had soon given way to genuine love, the same affection I might have for a sister, if I had one. It was, perhaps, a complicated mix of feelings… And yet it had never seemed at all complicated to me. I loved her, and that was that.

Elodie had never shown the same desire for me that I felt for her, though I knew that she cared deeply for me too, if only in the way of a little brother, and of course as a friend. But she had never seemed to mind me watching her. Either I was still just a little boy in her eyes – and Ellie was nearly twenty-one by now, compared to my fifteen – or she simply wasn’t interested in me for some other reason. In fact, I wasn’t even sure that she had a taste for men, or for anyone at all; she remained mostly apart from all the miniature dramas happening around her between her peers in the Hall. While that thought saddened me, I told myself that it was preferable to watching her fall in love with some other person, with me looking on wistfully from afar.

I leapt from my bunk straight to the floor, landing deftly. Raising my arms above my head I began to stretch as Elodie was, keeping one eye open just in case she decided suddenly to take particular notice of me, just as I did every morning. A few whistles and cat-calls came my way from the other members of the Hall, however; of course I would have their interest, little as I wanted it.

I noticed a younger girl watching me from a bunk nearby. This girl – Mylannes was her name – blushed deeply and looked away as I caught her eye, and smiled.

I was used to this. Most of us were, in fact. Here at the Mannerly Hall, we were articles prized for our good looks and physiques, and other desirable traits. And while everyone here, both child and adult, frequently received hungry looks from each other and even from the maidens, not all of us were built quite the same.

Take Ellie, for example. Her beauty and form were regarded with the most queenly respect by nearly everyone, almost as if she were a creature too beautiful to behold, something I wouldn’t hesitate to agree with. And as for myself…

At fifteen, I had already left much of my childhood behind, and that went for my features as well. I was widely considered to be one of the best-developed members of Mannerly Hall. I often received compliments on my strong chin and chiseled nose, the latter of which I always thought was a bit too long and hawk-like, though seldom was that opinion shared by others. My dark amber eyes, while not as striking as Dornell’s smokey blue ones or Elodie’s green, were said to be warm and honest, and every bit as enticing as those of my friends, if not more so.

I personally felt of two minds about such praise. Yes, it felt great to be regarded as handsome, even beautiful; and it was also uncomfortable to be the object of so much desire, and so little else. I’m sure all the others felt that way on occasion, too.

As I stripped from my nightclothes and began putting on my daywear, I noticed Dornell watching me from the corner of his eye, too. He looked away immediately and blushed. I only smiled, shaking my head.

While I did not share Dornell’s interest in men, it somehow never bothered me to find him looking at me in such a way. Maybe that was just because I trusted him; not once in my life had Dornell ever done me wrong or made me feel undervalued because of his attraction. I didn’t mind him looking because, well… I trusted in his tastes. If anything, he made me feel more confident about myself.

It also helped that we shared a mutual interest in women – something which always left me confused as to why he didn’t see Ellie through the same rosy lens that I did. Maybe he was just better at hiding it.

Shirt went on, pants went on, leaving only a delicate silver circlet – set in the middle by a black onyx gemstone – as nowhere to be found. I spent a panicked few minutes rifling through my drawers while Dornell looked on, concerned, before finally, with a gasp of relief I unveiled it, hiding among my underwear.

I ran a gold-inlaid comb through my hair and admired myself in the mirror. Not too bad. Eyes had a bit of baggage, but being woken up early always did to me. Cradling the circlet delicately between my fingertips, I placed it carefully in the middle of my head, making certain that the onyx was centered and that no brown strands of hair flowed out beneath it, only within its circle.

No sooner had I done this than a sharp voice echoed from the doorway, startling me so much that I almost lost my balance.

Maiden Threwon stood at the entrance to our room, examining those of us that she could see. The past five years had not been kind to Threwon; the maiden I remembered leading Dornell and I to the Hall had been a stern looking woman, sure, but also calm, rarely appearing agitated. She was good with children. I’d felt safe around her, at least as safe as I felt around any of the maidens.

But some stressor had since added an invisible hound to her heels, making her impatient, more blunt, and generally a pain to be around. Nobody wanted to be on maiden Threwon’s bad side these days, or make even the slightest mistake in her presence – which was, unfortunately, the only time to be making them.

“Mannerly Hall” certainly lived up to its name. Since being brought here, I had been coached nearly every single day in a number of subjects, all of which seemed oddly centered around presentability and housecare. I’d had “proper language” drilled into me at every step, along with a-thousand-and-one ways to tie a bow, blow a kiss, or to welcome a guest (which we’d never ever had, apart from the maidens or, on the rare occasion, Madam Dro herself, or one of her secretaries). I began wondering how many people actually lived on the Estate regularly, given how few I’d ever actually seen.

I’d learned how to open a letter, sharpen a knife, how to use a knife (but only for slicing bread). I’d learned how to make an apology, smile seductively, and how to phrase an offer so that one couldn’t reasonably refuse. I knew almost a hundred different kinds of dances by this point, and could perform each of them impressively well, though I would never dream to match Ellie’s supernatural grace.

I also knew several hundred ways to say ‘yes’ to someone – but, crucially, we hadn’t been taught even a single way to say ‘no’. Only that we were never, ever, to say it. To anyone. Not even to each other.

It was obvious that we were in training to become some form of servant; though what exactly, I couldn’t be sure. Some of our lessons left me confounded as to what use they could possibly serve. No one else talked as though they knew the answer either, although there was much speculation going around.

The maidens always gave a similar answer whenever I’d pestered them about it, and it usually included meaningless reassurances such as “you’ll come to enjoy it” or “just keep your head focused, and you’ll be fine”. I kind of took it for granted that we’d ultimately have a choice in how we served, or if we chose to serve at all. Obviously everybody in the world needed some kind of work – that was just common sense – so I supposed this was the Estate’s manner of making a living, and it was now being passed down to us.

I often mused about whether they expected us to stay and work at the Estate. If so, I wondered how we’d be paid. I didn’t even know what different sorts of payments there were. Food and housing seemed the most obvious to me, both of which we had, but I didn’t much like the idea of being tied to one place in particular without any other options.

I knew I wasn’t alone in hoping that one day, I could earn enough money and skills to leave this place behind, because as nice as the Estate was, it was the only thing I’d ever known. There had to be more that the world could offer to me. I was determined to see it for myself.

I snapped to attention as maiden Threwon began walking down the center of the room, scrutinizing each of us in turn. She passed by our bunks one-by-one; the first one held Syrieze at the top and O’mally at the bottom, seventeen and sixteen, respectively.

Next up were Norn and Bleuc, a boy and a girl, both my age. They were twins, which I gathered was quite rare within the Estate. Unfortunately neither of them had any memories about who their parents were, just like the rest of us. I got along well with both of them.

The next bunk Threwon passed by contained the one and only Torvis – and I hated Torvis. For one thing, Torvis was the only other person in the entire Hall who shared an adoration for Elodie that stood equal to my own, and that alone made him my rival. That might not have bothered me so much on its own – there was at least one paloyamorous  relationship taking place within the members of the Hall, that I knew of – only, Torvis was the type of person I couldn’t ever, possibly, even with the most extreme stretch of the imagination, see myself as sharing my Elodie with. It didn’t help that Torvis was nearly eighteen, and that put him much closer to Ellie’s age than myself.

I had a number of other different reasons for not liking the boy, and very few of them had anything to do with jealousy. Certainly not.

Maiden Threwon continued moving past the other occupants of the room with equal scrutiny. There were ten of us in total, including four boys, and four girls. Madam Dro insisted that there were six boys.

The maiden stopped at the end of the room nearest to Dornell and myself and addressed the entire space: “Good morning, everyone.” Thirteen voices rang out in response, and only a few of them sounded hollow. I hoped mine didn’t. “As you’ve all been told, today is a very special day for each of you, especially for the youngest. A chance like this doesn’t come around very often, you know. Thankfully, I have the utmost confidence in each and every one of you.”

The way she said that last part promised doom upon those who failed to meet her expectations in this endeavor. Across from me, I saw Mylannes shuffle her feet uncomfortably and look at the floor. Even Torvis looked apprehensive. Dornell… Well, Dornell always looked a bit uncertain of himself.

A bead of sweat began to form at my brow. If only we’d been told what today’s event even was…