It's always foggy before the sun riseshere, I think to myself as I prune the branches of a large willow tree. I never used to mind the damp chill it brought, as the wind whistled through the shrubs and bit at your exposed skin. But everything today seemed, for some reason, grim, as if the whole city of Veridell below was waiting with bated breath for something to happen.
"Cael? Why are you just staring down at the city?" Called a serene yet curious voice, breaking from my grim reverie.
"Ah!" I jumped, spinning around to look behind me. "Oh, hi there Lady Lillian, I'm sorry I didn't see you approach." I nervously respond to the graceful young woman standing behind me.
Lady Lillian Sterling was the daughter of the noble lord of House Sterling, the man who governed the whole territory of Veridell. Or, as many others know her, the blade of House Sterling. She was a well-known adventurer, close to C in rank and viewed as a rising presence in the Adventurer's Guild. I, however, was merely a groundskeeper for the Sterling estate, though I was always treated well.
It all began when my father perished in an untimely dungeon accident that took the lives of many other children's fathers as well. My mother, no longer fully present after the loss of her husband, was admitted into the Sterling Advanced Treatment Association, which is how I became involved with such an important family in the first place. It was the very same Lillian who convinced her father, Reynard Sterling, to take me on as an apprentice groundskeeper. Due to this, despite our close age, I have always felt a strong gratitude towards Lady Lillian.
"Haha, I'm sorry, Cael, I didn't mean to startle you," you said with a slight laugh, "I merely noticed you out here staring into the distance and wanted to make sure you were alright."
I nodded in slight embarrassment at being caught slacking, even if I was unlikely to be punished for the minor error. "I simply was wondering about the odd chill today," I said, "it seems early in the fall for it to be quite this cold, it feels unnatural." I continued with a shiver.
"Indeed, now that you mention it, the temperature does seem odd. I doubt anything will come of it, though. You should relax and enjoy it while you're working." She said, attempting to alleviate my heavy mood. "I know today is a hard day for you Cael," she said softly. "It's the 9th anniversary of that attack after all."
She wasn't wrong, of course. This day in early autumn was always a particularly hard one for me, as it marked the day when my father perished in the unexpected dungeon break.
"When you're finished with business on the grounds today you should accompany me around town, Im heading out to pick up a new sword I commissioned in the afternoon." She said warmly, showing far more consideration than most to a servant for their family's estate.
With her invitation given, she turned and strode back towards the house, leaving me to my thoughts again. The loneliness left in her wake was more oppressive than usual today, leaving me with the knowledge that I still had not managed to give up my fruitless ambitions and dreams when it came to her. No matter how much I wished it, or what family I had been born into, I was destined to travel at a distance because I have a secret, one that could easily get me killed. For I... am a heretic.