The day

The day had finally arrived. Mary was about to move into the sanctum to start her training. The past three weeks had been full of preparation, anticipation, and nerves.

Bettina had taken her to Cheara, to get new dresses made. Apparently, Bettina had already told Cheara to prepare for creating dresses suited for a trainee. When Mary had arrived, the seamstress already had sketches prepared for Mary to approve.

Mary had been afraid that her new dress code would have her wearing boring, frumpy dresses again. She had quite enough of that when she was working in the kitchen. But she loved her new dresses that Cheara had made.

They were predominantly black, with a boat neck, loose sleeves that ended just below her elbows and a flowing skirt that made it easy to move. It had a white slip dress. Under the sleeves and along the neckline, the slip dress peaked. For the waist, she had a white belt.

Today was the first day she was wearing one of her new dresses and she loved the feel. She had her red hair braided in a simple braid and the only jewellery she had on was the white bone rose that Erik had given her.

Kopa had come with her down to the river field to help her carry her chest. It was filled with her belongings. Apart from her other two dresses, she also had her writing equipment, one of the silver vases her father had made, the bone comb Erik had made, two books that Kopa had gotten her and a quilt that Bettina had made.

They had added a small name tag to one of the handles of the chest to identify it as hers. She smiled as she remembered the chest had been with her all her life. Wherever she went, it came right along with her. Kopa made sure she could handle carrying it on her own if she needed.

They stopped at the spot where she and Firlea usually met, and Mary looked around. There were a lot fewer people here today than there had been during the evaluation. She counted six people that were dressed all in black, like herself. Then there were others, probably there to see the new trainees off.

“Mary!”

Mary turned around and saw Firlea waving both her arms and smiling.

“Firlea” Mary smiled and waved back. Her friend was also dressed in an all-black dress. Her dress didn’t have a white slip dress that was showing, but it had a white ribbon trimming along the square neckline and at the end of the sleeves.

“Looking good,” Mary said as Firlea came up to them.

“You too Mary, that’s one beautiful dress,” Firlea smiled back at her. “Mary, this is my father, Emilor Kabaan. Father, this is Mary and her father, Sir Teeran,” Firlea then said.

Mary saw the man coming up behind his daughter. He was short, but looked strong and sinewy. His blond hair looked to have been bleached by being out in the sun. His skin had a dark, tanned look to it. Even if Mary hadn’t known that he was a farmer, it wouldn’t have been difficult to guess. His eyes were brown and kind as he looked first at Mary with a smile and then bowed to Kopa.

“Sir Teeran, it’s an honour to meet you,” he said.

“The honour is mine. It’s nice to meet Firlea’s father. She has been a good friend to my daughter and I’m happy that she will join Mary at the sanctum,” Kopa said.

Mary smiled at him. He could string together more than four words when he felt like it, she thought.

“Yes, Firlea is very pleased to have Mary along as well,” her father nodded.

The sound of bells sounded, and they all turned towards the dock. Once again, Furnlow was standing in front of them.

“Welcome trainees to your first day. We are happy to see all of you. Please stack your belongings on the dock and we will see to it that it will be delivered to your room. Then say goodbye to your loved ones and get into a boat. You know the routine by now. I will see you in the hall once you all are settled,” he told them, gesturing for them to get moving.

Kopa and Mary started moving towards the dock together with Firlea and her father. Kopa had just put her chest down amongst the other trainees’ things and was about to say goodbye when Furnlow came walking up to them.

“Sir Teeran,” Furnlow greeted him with a nod.

“Aari Furnlow” Kopa responded the same way.

“We are looking forward to having Mary as a trainee,” Furnlow said.

“I can tell you she is very bright,” Kopa said, placing a hand on Mary’s shoulder. She smiled up at him.

“That she is, I can’t wait to see where a bit of training will take her,” Furnlow agreed. “Well, I’ll let you say your goodbyes,” he said before walking away.

“Do you have everything you need?” Kopa asked Mary, and she nodded. “Good, if you need something, just stop the first rider you find in the sanctum, tell him who you are, and say you wish to speak to me. They will bring you to me or let me know you are looking for me.”

“Thank you, dad, it will be okay. I’ll be close by. It’s okay,” Mary said to him. As her own anxiety about moving out of the house had faded away, Kopa’s seemed to have increased to where he had thought about asking the Lady to make an exception for Mary to let her live at home.

Both Mary and Bettina had objected, and together they had convinced him she would be fine. They reminded him he spent a good deal of time in the sanctum himself. He could easily see Mary when he wanted.

“Your right, I’ll be checking in on you later before I go home for the evening. Just to make sure everything is okay,” he told her.

“I love you too, dad” Mary said with a smile and gave him a hug.

“I love you little one,” she could hear the smile as he hugged her back.

“Ready to leave, Mary?” Firlea asked.

“Ready,” Mary said, detangling from Kopa and joining her friend. The two friends waved at their fathers as they walked towards the boats.

“Mary, over here”

Mary saw Tenac waving by a boat, and she tugged Firlea to come with her.

“Tenac, you have to be careful. People might not believe you’re a captain if you keep doing private work,” Mary laughed as he helped her and Firlea into the boat. Tenac laughed with her.

“I couldn’t let you leave without saying goodbye and good luck,” he smiled as he untied the boat.

“Aren’t we going to take two more people along?” Firlea asked.

“After last time, I think we are a three-person boat,” Tenac said, making both Firlea and Mary laugh.

“Was it hard saying goodbye to your dad?” Mary asked her friend.

“At first, but I’m just so excited to get started with all the training and dad is happy for me,” she answered, and Mary nodded.

“I’m guessing Kopa had a hard time?” Tenac said.

“Yes, it’s hard on him,” Mary said.

“But he lives so close by, he works in the sanctum,” Firlea said astounded.

“Yes, he has an issue with overprotection.”

As Mary said that, Tenac snorted, earning him a look of disapproving from Mary.

“He just doesn’t trust other people around me. He’ll be checking on me regularly for the first few weeks, I’m guessing,” she smiled.

“And you are okay with that?” Firlea asked.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Mary asked.

“I would think it would feel smothering,” her friend said.

“No, I understand why he does it, and it makes me feel safe. I had a long time in my life when no one looked after me. I guess that makes me appreciate his concern. And I know he will back off once he knows I’m safe. I mean, he barely threatens Tenac anymore,” she said, smiling.

“That’s true” Tenac admitted. He had been allowed to eat lunch with Bettina and Mary twice in the last three weeks. The last time Kopa hadn’t even put up a fight, when Mary had told him she had invited Tenac, he had just grumbled a bit.

As they glided through the tunnel that led into the sanctum, Tenac turned to Mary.

“Let me know when you can get a way and we will plan something,” he said. They had had their latest riding lesson the Friday before. As Mary didn’t know when she would have some spare time, they had decided on another one. And then there was the planned outing to get Firlea and Jontak to meet.

“I will let you know,” Mary agreed.

“Good, then I’ll just say goodbye to both of you and good luck,” he said as he was helping them out of the boat.

“Thank you” Firlea said.

“Thank you for coming Tenac,” Mary said.

“My pleasure ladies”

They made their way into the hall where they had gathered during the evaluation. When everyone had arrived, they counted fifteen trainees. The hall seemed so spacious when there were so few of them. They all waited in silence.