Apologies for not posting these days. If you're in Western Europe, you might've heard of Storm Kristin, and let's say my town was right on its path. I'll post 3 chapters today and 2 tomorrow to make it up.
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Arianne of Tarth
With her vision activated, she shot another glance at the giggling Lenora, who was holding a dainty hand over her mother's arm as she shared another piece of the scandal.
Her mother let out a soft gasp, eyes wide with secretive thrill, and Lenora's hand briefly clenched tighter on her arm.
At that moment, a crackle of red splashed against the lady's aura, and Arianne jumped on her chair at the sudden spike. Her needles fell and clattered on the marble floor.
Two sets of eyes turned at the sound, but Arianne found herself fixated on looking at Lady Lenora's aura, trying to catch every subtle shift in its color, every surge and every dimming.
She didn't know for how long she looked. She had never tried to study someone's aura so deeply, and she thought she could easily get lost in the intricacies of the shimmering energy that radiated off of her.
"Arianne! Can you hear me?" Her mother was talking to her.
She turned, blinked. "What?"
"Are you well, my daughter?" Lady Addison was suddenly by her side. Her voice was a soft thing, as if afraid Arianne was a porcelain doll bound to breaking.
"Uhm, yes." Arianne smoothed her skirts and composed herself. "Yes, I am well. My apologies for the fright, Lady Lenora, I was lost in my own thoughts." She dipped into a short curtsy.
"Oh, it's quite alright, dear," the lady said, but the flash of color on her aura told otherwise. The woman rose from her seat. "It is just as well, as I must be taking my leave now."
"Yes, of course," her mother said, giving the woman a thankful smile.
Was it because she was leaving or because she had ignored Arianne's strange actions?
"We must get ready soon as well. Be sure to return, will you Lena? It has been so long since we caught up."
The lady was all smiles. Arianne felt a churn in her stomach.
"Let us speak during the victory feast tonight, then," Lady Lenora said. "I shall consult my lord husband about what we spoke about, and when I can confirm the invite, you must not reject it, do you hear it?"
"Never," her mother said. "I'd be delighted to go, truly."
The woman smiled, and with a curtsy of her own, she turned to leave, her skirts flowing behind her. Once she was well and truly gone and they could no longer hear her footsteps and that of her guard, her mother turned to her.
"Are you truly feeling well?"
"Where?" Arianne asked. Her mother gave her a quizzical look, so she explained. "Where would you be delighted to go?"
An elegant eyebrow rose at the sudden shift in topic, but her mother was quite adept at indulging her children's curiosities.
"Lord Whitehead's seat. She invited me to spend a week with her there, hawking and riding and wasting the night away talking like we did as girls."
Arianne felt a sense of unease at the idea of her mother going somewhere with Lady Lenora Whitehead, a sinking feeling in her gut.
A part of her couldn't help wondering how this feeling would look were she paying attention to her own aura, but she shook herself. Being consumed by thoughts of auras and emotions would do her no good.
"I… I do not like her, mother," she said. "She feels… false, as if she's hiding her true feelings."
"What? Darling, no." Lady Addison sighed, exasperated. "Lena and I are old friends, we spent years together at Mistwood under Lady Mary's tutelage, and the Whiteheads have long been friends of Tarth. Ask your father, if you must. He has bought grain through Weeping Town for many years when the island needed it, as did his father before him."
Looking at her with worry in her eyes, her mother came closer to her and put a hand over her forehead.
"Are you certain you feel fine? You're sweating, honey."
I'm fine, she wanted to say. Better than fine. You're the one who won't be if you go anywhere with that woman. She hates you! Can't you see it?
Swallowing her words, Arianne only nodded, plastering a shaky smile on her face. How could she explain she only thought Lady Lenora was being deceitful because she saw lights around her?
Of course, she didn't even know if that was true either. Mayhaps her vision simply didn't work on Lady Lenora, or there were more to auras and emotions than the spikes of color implied. It wasn't as if she'd been learning about her power for a long time now.
No, she couldn't say anything. Her mother would think she'd finally gone mad, then she'd end up being sent to the Silent Sisters and Arianne didn't think she could stay quiet for that long.
More urgently, she didn't want to give her mother any more reason to keep her clustered in their rooms.
Trekking down to Lannisport with Galladon was the most she'd gone out besides trying to attend the feasts, and earlier this morning, Alysanne had already slipped away without her with some other young ladies from the stormlands.
She wasn't exactly thrilled about spending time with some of those girls, but she had certainly wanted to have the option to go with them. She'd wanted to reject their invite, not tell them she couldn't go!
Worse of all, should her mother truly think she was having another of her incidents, she might even be forced to miss Galladon's tourney finals later on in the day, and that she couldn't countenance.
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Read ahead if you want. Chapters on [PATREON] are longer than on Webnovel. Patreon is roughly 20-25 Webnovel chapters ahead, or 10 regular chapters.
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