Isabella Foster
I like a look of agony
because I know it's true
I
am wishing for summer right now. For another summer at our families beach instead of standing in the snow and staring at the frozen lake of Denocte. I remember back a few summer’s ago when I had been small, stepping onto the beach and greeting my grandparents. “Good to see you, Granny and Grandfather. I look forward to a happy summer,” I had said as the dutiful daughter. Granny Colette had hugged me before looking down at me with calculated eyes. “Your mother told you to say that, didn't she?” She asked with a smile. “Yes,” I had responded almost guiltily before leaning closer to my grandmother. “And I am also supposed to see, nice to see you again.” I could have been in trouble for this, she could have scolded me, told my parents, but she just kissed me forehead. “Good girl.” Good girl. It was then I started to realize that whatever I truly thought, however I wanted to act on the inside, it did not matter. It did not matter in the Foster family with whatever shifted in my bones, or ran in my blood, if as long as on the outside I was Isabella Foster, darling, polite daughter, upholding the name. It did not matter how fake my smile was, as long as it was there. Bennett laughed at me, so I kicked him in the shin when no one was looking.
It is freezing in Denocte, colder than it feels in Terrastella. I do not travel much outside the Dusk Court, but my parents had decided that the event happening all over Novus was a good chance for me to be noticed and therefore, the Foster name to be noticed as well. As an ‘eligible’ member of the family, it was determined that I would be going. It was not meant to be so much a date as it was just a networking opportunity hopefully for me.
Silver eyes spin around the snowy scene looking for someone named Tenebrae. He is a monk of the Night Order, this much I know, of course I know. Our library holds not only Terrastella’s history, but history from all the Courts. His name had been easy enough to find with the help of my sisters. “Maybe he will be cute,” Imogen had said. “He is a monk.” Is all I had replied. A monk. Of all the people to be matched with, we would have nothing in common, I knew that. So I picked the activity ice skating, hoping, perhaps, it might at least provide me some entertainment from his dull company. After all, what do we have to discuss? His Goddess? I have my Goddess and By Her Hand, that is the only one I wish to know.
I place the ice skates on my feet and start moving out towards the lake, eager to get started. I look back one more time and see a man near me. “Are you, Tenebrae?” I ask him with slate grey eyes directed on his face. “You’re late.”
picture colored by Elidhu
@Tenebrae
