Fall turned to winter, winter faded into spring, and as the months flowed by I slept. I wish I could say that finding myself in a new world left me with a sense of wonder. That it gave me the drive to become strong. The truth is that being in this new land made me feel empty. The Eunora from before my awakening was hopeful, she was intelligent, and she wanted to make the Dawn family proud -even if that mattered little to the rest of the family. In truth, the Maria before my death was similar. She wanted to reach for the top of her company, to come home to the warm embrace of her fiance, to meet up with her friends and family every weekend, to allow herself to feel at peace. While neither life from before was perfect, the new life I led felt like the pits.

So I slept.

I had Lina deliver all my meals to my room.

I locked the door.

And I watched the seasons pass me by. The seasons in Maeve were longer -different than I remembered. Each were six months instead of the usual three -and their weather was more extreme. Fall had come with firestorms at the peak, slowly pattered out by the encroaching rainstorms that marked the transition into winter. Yet winter was somehow worse. Even from my room on the second story, I could see snow piled up past my window, hiding the only thing I’d come to enjoy -the view of Revel. Now spring was here, and whenever I brought myself to look over the garden below I could see renewed vigor in the trees. The season was midway -and my birthday has already passed.

I’d wondered if it would be the same as last year, but in the end, my thoughts on it didn’t matter. I didn’t go downstairs that day -nor did anyone come up. A few times the twins, Leonard and Leah, had come to try and see me. I’d let them in for a bit but before long even seeing their faces tired me. On occasion, my parents would send Theo or Eve to wake me for breakfast, but I didn’t even bother to unlock the door and decline to their faces.

Never did my parents come up to call me themselves.

Today, however, I found myself waking up to two figures sitting across the room from me. It was mid-afternoon and the glare from the suns were casting the two figures in shadow. It took me a moment to focus my eyes, but eventually, I sat up and looked at them.

And a moment passed.

Then another.

The three of us were in silence, uncomfortable and awkward. Until my father spoke.

“Eunora, it’s time to get out of bed.” His voice, which I’d once thought was warm, sounded the same as I remembered. But unlike the before, I knew what Eunora had not. I knew how people could lie. Now his voice simply sounded like a platitude.

So I stared at him, unmoving, with a flat expression on my face. Maybe if I believed in your sincerity I’d care. Or maybe I wouldn’t.

“Nora, you’re too old to be this way. To be-” Mother actually did sound sincere, at least in her frustration. Maybe that frustration was born out of love, or maybe it was born out of inconvenience. Either way, eventually she found the words she was looking for, “To be so stubborn! We’ve let you be for a while. Now it’s time for you to stop this.”

I paused, thinking, before letting a single word out, “Why?”

Even through the shadows cast over their faces, I could see their faces contort, “Why what Nora?”

“Why should I get out of bed?” I tried to meet the eyes of my mother, but I wound up squinting at the glare behind her.

My father took a sharp breath and began to speak before my mother held up a hand to him and leaned toward me, “Are you saying the reason you’ve not left your room is because there was no reason to?”

Looking down at my hands, I was mildly surprised they were clenched so tightly. Maybe I care more than I thought.

I nodded without looking up.

“What about our family? Your classes? Leveling up?”

“I don’t care about those things.”

I still hadn’t looked up.

This time my mother’s voice was hard, not offended - not really, simply stern, “If none of these things interest you, then I shall give you a reason to leave this room.”

Mother paused, turning her head towards my father briefly before standing and focusing her gaze back on me, “Eunora, I am sending you to the west -to the far reaches of Maeve.”

Confused, I looked up to her, but she continued without wavering, “While there you will learn what is required of a member of house Dawn -you will have three options. Study diligently in your classes to become a proper noble, train your body to become a member of the Conclave’s knights, or continue to remain ignorant to the world. You will remain in the west until your coming of age -if you have chosen not to study or train by then, I will remove you from the family line and you will be stripped of all privileges associated with the Dawn name.”

“You… are exiling me?”

“I believe this is a winning scenario for both of us, Eunora. I will have you out of this room and on a path other than isolation -whatever that path may be. Meanwhile, you will have nine years to decide what matters to you, without having to be bothered by the rest of us.”

With that, my mother waved for my father to follow her and made her way out of the room, pausing at the doorway to look over at me, “Remember, the Dawn family is a pillar of Maeve. Even allowing you to be cast out is a concession I’ve made for you.”

[Congratulations! Mental Fortitude is now level 4!]

“This system is sadistic,” I grumbled.

I was going to lay back down, sleep until I was forced to leave. But right as I went to fall back into my pillows, I found myself standing and walking over to the window. The garden below looked lively, I could see birds flitting around and small animals rustling in bushes. It made me want to feel alive too. So, I opened the window as wide as I could. And I jumped.

If it had been the Eunora from before, even the second story would have hurt her. Broken a bone, or sprained an ankle. But I had mid-level Vitality, Strength, and Perception. So I simply landed, bending my knees as my feet sunk into the soft soil.

Sliding through the gap between two bushes, I stepped onto the brick walkway. Lightly, I began walking to the center of the garden. From my room, I had memorized the paths within the half-dead hedge maze that surrounded the central fountain. A quick right, go past the next intersection, a left just to follow a hedge that goes into a u-turn, follow the hedge straight, another right, and a final left at the last intersection, lead me to a circular opening with a large fountain in the middle. Four stone benches surrounded it, set in between the four entrances to the clearing. All four were covered in hedged archways, but one had more ornate decorations. This was the entry to the main courtyard and where the Dawn’s held garden parties. Marked by Dawn Roses -those that hold all the colors of a sunrise, a pale orange base with petals that shifted into a soft pink and were rimmed with a bright red, these flowers decorated all key entry and exit points on the estate.

I sat on the edge of the fountain, swinging my feet right above the water, and stared up at the statue that overlooked the hedge maze. It was of the hero Countess Lyla Dawn, and it was carved with such detail that I often wondered if it was going to wake up one day and start walking around. The statue of Lyla was adorned like all pieces focusing on her were -her long hair was pulled up and through a warrior’s helm, the helm itself had two horns protruding off the sides and sweeping back away from her face. The statue had her in her standard leather armor, the tasseled skirt flowed to her knees, the greaves and bracers she wore had two blades protruding out of them. It was said that being behind Lyla’s guard was just as bad as being out of it, because no matter where you were there was always a blade ready to devour you. The sculptor had given her the signature spear she was said to have wielded in war time, with one arm by her side and the other grasping the haft. Lyla Dawn was often lauded as the savior of the kingdom during the Hilled Wars centuries ago.

After seeing her statue last fall, I had wondered what great feat she had accomplished, what mythic class she must have had. The answer was a bit mundane. Her class was a combat class, undisclosed, but her fame lies in that she collapsed the supply line of the Ylle, one of the larger Hill Tribes. After waiting two weeks, she and her company attacked the malnourished troops of the Ylle and took away the strategic outcropping they were occupying. In the end, she was yet another noble who didn’t really care about the collateral damage she caused. To this day, the Ylle lands are unable to be safely inhabited due to Lyla destroying a mountain pass and poisoning a key water supply. Eventually, the refugees from the Hill Tribes found their way to Maeve and caused a civil war decades later. One book I read featured a historian that endearingly referred to that timeframe as ‘the Dawn of a broken Maeve’. That did wonders for the Dawn name, I’m sure.

Taking a breath, I met the statue's bored-looking eyes, “Lyla, how did you make it through the war?”

As if the Gods were answering on her behalf, a strong wind filled the courtyard -bringing with it several of the Dawn Roses. One of which drifted across my face, settling onto my lap. Gingerly picking up the rose, I held it in both my hands and let a small smile form.

“You know, back home these roses had a different name -they were called the Love and Peace Rose,” I brought the bud up to my face and inhaled, “I never saw them in person, just the hand-dyed roses at the local store.”

Taking another moment, I looked back to Lyla and slid from the fountain’s edge into the water. On an adult, it may have been mid-calf depth, but it reached past my knees and drenched the edge of my nightgown. I waded to the center of the fountain and climbed to the pedestal that the statue was standing on. Reaching the farthest I could, my arm was barely stretched to her collar bone -but it was enough. I let go, letting the rose that was in my palm sit atop a precarious ledge right above the statue’s chest.

“May the Dawn never die, Lyla.”

As I climbed back down, the wind returned and caused me to shiver. It wasn’t a particularly cold day, but it wouldn’t be anywhere near warm for another month or so. It may have been pushing it to trudge through water in a thin nightgown -even if I did have five times the Vitality of other kids my age.

It may have only been for a few minutes, and most of it may have been spent talking to a statue, but I was ready to sleep until I was forced to leave for the west.