The Unremarkable Tale of a Knight

Although my life had been sworn to my lady the moment my foot touched the damp soil of the seaside kingdom, my first year at The Ocean Vale was spent on my training. As I mentioned before, I had no education to speak of, no basic skills that most low bred animals were wont to learn, and as such was all but worthless. It may sound cruel to repeat, but truly I had been sold for far more than my life warranted. 

It is beyond luck that I managed such a prestigious appointment. Even with the Solms' station barring them from true sway in the world of the ruling kingdoms, their royalty was without a doubt genuine and pure. They, surely, could have afforded a servant from much higher breeding than the cesspool where they found me. If I were to indulge my own ego I would call what happened to me fate. In my most saccharine moments, I truly believe I was always meant to come to the Vale. That I was always meant to serve lady Euphrosyne.

Maudlin, yes, but even still I can hardly begin to guess how I have been gifted this life if it not being the whim of some gracious hand above. Although now, with the cruelty we are heading towards, perhaps that hand has struck out for balance. There is no giving without taking.

My lessons were that of a Knight; honour, decorum, might. I learned the ways of the sword -something to which I took surprisingly easy. While my breeding was poor, I was in possession of a body built for hard labor. I was broad of chest and shoulder even in my youth and seemed to build muscle without much effort. I was often mistaken for a boy child as I lacked the softness common of my gender.

In my womanhood I am no more soft. I may have the expected assets of my kind, but something of my nature holds me apart from other women. 

As well as the physical, my lessons focused on the intellectual. Once I was proficient in reading and writing I was to learn geography, politics, arithmetic. Anything that would best prepare me to navigate the intricate web of the court. While I would not serve as a Knight in the truest sense, I was to dedicate my life to protecting my lady’s vow -the nature of which I wouldn’t fully come to know until much, much later. This required a level of astuteness I did not inherently possess. I spent many nights lost to my studies in an attempt to keep up with this new world I had been thrust into.

Throughout the year I would catch glimpses of Euphrosyne. I had met her just the once upon my arrival, not even a true introduction, but I knew she was the one I was to serve. We had been separated soon after as I was expected to begin my training forthwith. Until I could serve my lady, there was no point in our proximity -or so that seemed to be the consensus of the ones dictating my actions. I knew very little of my ward aside from her name, but oh how I wanted to.

Something about her called to me. Beyond words. Beyond the entrapments of mortal interactions. That first moment sparked something to life behind the narrows space of my ribs. A hot, bright light.

I came to cherish the moments my gaze would land on her, a happy surprise during the grueling days of training. Often I would manage no more than a glimpse of her passing figure, but some days I was able to spend whole minutes regarding her. Even now those moments remain precious to me.

Her face covering was always secure, a perfect, porcelain oval that changed with the dresses she donned. I recall cataloguing her collection, trying to decide if there was a system to her choice. Obsessive little observations. I had never stopped to wonder what was beneath the mask because to me the lady was so much more, a sentiment only reinforced the closer the two of us drew together in the ensuing years.

My lady was fifteen then -another fact I learned belatedly- older than me by scant years, if that. If she had been born earlier in her line, she would have been well on her way to marriage, but life had afforded her a different path. Another stroke of luck beyond luck. This freedom gave her a choice normally outside her station as a woman. As a result, she had turned to faith early, finding her calling in the worship of her family’s Saint: Our Lady of Perpetual Night.

I knew nothing of Saints then, but I could hardly deny that my lady was a pious, pretty thing. Her devotion was what I was to become devout to.

In the following Spring, after months of rigorous study, I was finally released to the services of Euphrosyne.