Chapter 10:
Lectias’s Lament
ELSEWHERE THAT DAY, LECT WAS ON HIS way back to his lord’s estate. He had much to report regarding his mission to escort Melody—Cecilia, rather—to the Summer Ball, but something was off. A frantic air suffused the estate.
It’s more than that, he thought. It’s tense. Taut, like a string. Harried. What’s happened?
He tried to stop a number of people for answers, but no one could spare him a single moment. It was enough to make him feel guilty for his lazy week.
Nothing for it but to ask my lord during my report.
Once Lect scheduled an appointment, his lord approved his entry almost instantaneously. And so into the count’s office he went.
“Reporting, my lord.”
“W-welcome back.”
Lect tried to hide his suspicions about his lord’s strange behavior. “As per your orders, I’ve sought out Lady Cecilia and secured her approval to attend the ball with me.”
“So you have! Very good!” Cloud lit up like the sun, then promptly withered, as if spying rain on the horizon. “Very… Very good.”
“My lord?”
“Er, well done, my boy. Very well done. Send her my regards, and invite her to visit soon.”
“As you wish.”
His lord said nothing else. Something was off. Lect thought he’d be overjoyed, but the count hunched in on himself and spoke almost apologetically. His reactions were terribly subdued, the mood in the office stifling.
“My lord, since my return, I’ve noticed a strangeness in the manor,” Lect said. “Has something happened in my absence?”
The count twitched. Something had happened, and evidently the count could not share it with Lect. The strangeness encompassed the entire estate. What kind of secret could the count need to keep from Lect alone, while the entire rest of the estate knew?
The count, unable to bear the weight of his knight’s scrutiny any longer, let out a sigh. “I suppose I will gain nothing from hiding it. You see, well…” The rest came out as barely a mumble.
“Pardon?”
Cloud raised his voice, reluctant though he was. “They found my daughter. She’s here. In the estate.”
“Pardon? My lord, is this a joke?”
That’s impossible, Lect thought. Never had he looked at his own lord thus, but never had he heard something so absurdly incorrect either. As a younger, more modern generation might put it, Lect regarded his lord with the stinkiest of eyes. Your daughter’s living her life with House Rudleberg, pouring her heart and soul into being a maid.
Lect knew the truth. He knew where his lord’s daughter was. They could not have “found” her. It was a lie. Pure chicanery. He let his incredulity show.
Count Leginbarth, however, went stoic. “Not long after you left, I received correspondence from Sable. They found her across the border. They found Celesty. He wrote that they were already en route back to the capital, and they arrived five days ago. She was emaciated. Her lonely pilgrimage in foreign lands had taken its toll, the poor girl. When Sable found her, someone had stolen her things and she was struggling to get by. Thank heavens he found her. She’s resting in private now.”
“I…see. And she has silver hair? Bright blue eyes?”
“Naturally.”
It was impossible. Lect knew it was impossible. Yet he dared to hope.
If Melody isn’t my lord’s daughter… He could love her. Freely. Guiltlessly. He could tell her how he felt. Later. At a later date. Once we’ve gotten to know each other better. It’s only proper!
Perhaps his beloved’s circumstances did not stay the knight’s advances, in truth.
“I’ve given her a new name,” Cloud said. “Celesty will go by Celedia.”
Lect snapped out of his stupor. Now was no time for delusions. A stranger loitered in his lord’s home, claiming to be his daughter.
He couldn’t delude himself. Melody was, in all likelihood, his true daughter. Her hometown was in the right region, she had the right hair, the right eyes, not to mention the matter of Serena’s entire existence. Any number of things might explain a coincidence, but, just this once, Lect was not willing to chalk up a living, breathing, magical maid automaton bearing the likeness of his lord’s beloved—and Melody’s mother—to chance. She and her creator bore an undeniable resemblance that no hackneyed reveal could refute.
But Lect knew nothing of this new girl, Celedia. He could not prove she was not who she said she was. Only Melody herself could do that, but that would spell the end of the life she had built from nothing.
And then she’d… Lect could not bear to think it. Sir Gutless the Lovelorn was a sensitive soul. The mere notion that his beloved might loathe him stung more deeply than any steel! I’ll just have to wait and watch for now, but something still eludes me.
“My lord, why are your spirits so low? Is your daughter’s return not a good thing?” Lect asked.
After the loss of Selena, her child remained the sole light of hope in the count’s darkened heart. As despair beset him, the thought of reuniting with his daughter provided his only solace. So why did he seem so reserved now that he had what he sought? The brief spark that news of Cecilia’s attendance at the ball had kindled in his eyes was blinding in comparison to the apathy with which he spoke of Celedia.
“Wh-whatever do you mean? Of course it’s a good thing! It’s a joyous thing!” The count barely managed a twitchy upturn of the lips.
Does he suspect it too? That this girl isn’t really his daughter?
Then why would he have given her shelter? Lect was at a loss.
“I’ve nothing more to report, my lord,” he said. “I should take my leave.”
“Right. Dismissed.”
The knight bowed and exited the room, leaving Cloud to his ruminations.
Cloud leaned back in his chair and heaved a heavy sigh. “It isn’t what I expected,” he muttered. “I thought—I knew the moment I saw her I would take her in my arms and never let go.”
She’s my daughter. Our daughter! I ought to have. I ought to have!
“So why do I feel…nothing?”
He’d been certain he would know her at a glance, that he would feel the same surge of emotion he’d felt upon laying eyes on Cecilia, twofold, but it never came.
“She’s just a girl to me,” he sighed. “A silver-haired, blue-eyed girl.”
Those features should have marked her. They should have meant she was of Cloud and Selena’s blood. Yet torturous apathy plagued the count. In a panic, he’d cut their reunion short, pretending it was out of concern for her well-being. He did not want her to think he did not care about her.
“I’ve failed you, Selena. I’m no father.”
Cloud gazed out his window at the vast expanse of sky stretching before him. And he felt nothing.
“Lect, old friend!”
“Oh, Sable.”
On his way out of his lord’s estate, the fire-haired knight met with his comrade in arms, Sable Pufontis.
Sable jubilantly jaunted over. “Many months it’s been. Too many. Are you well?”
“Well enough. Yourself? You were away in foreign lands searching for His Lordship’s daughter for an awfully long time.”
“Hale and hearty, as you can see. And bursting with pride! Nothing does the heart good like a successful mission.” Sable posed dramatically, as if his words were not convincing enough.
Lect grinned politely in an attempt to hide his growing weariness. “I heard. Well done.”
“Yes, well, it was a long and arduous road, but we made it in the end. That’s what matters.”
They started to walk.
“And she has silver hair. Blue eyes? Like lapis?” Lect said.
“Bluer than the ocean! And how her hair shimmers. I wish you could meet her, but she’s still on the mend, you see. You may not lay eyes on her until the Summer Ball.”
“She’s attending the ball? In her condition? Will she be well enough in time?”
“His Lordship insists on her attending the academy during the upcoming semester. He wants her to have some manner of debut before then.”
“It’s all very sudden.”
“High society can be an uninviting world. His Lordship has her best interests at heart, I’m sure. Though I do hope the girl’s health holds.”
Is my lord hoping to rush her into the dorms so he doesn’t have to see her? Lect wondered, but he cast such thoughts from his mind.
“I’ll be joining her as her escort,” Sable said. “She’ll not be dancing, however, given her upbringing as a commoner. Something to look forward to next time. And you? Have you any plans for the big event?”
“I’ll be there with an acquaintance of mine.”
“A partner? Of your own choosing? Now that’s a rare thing. I look forward to meeting her.”
Lect considered the poetic irony of the scenario, an irony only he could appreciate.
Sable was not the type to deceive. He would never knowingly bring back a fake just to appease Count Leginbarth. It would have benefited no one, least of all himself. So was it merely a twist of fate? A coincidence?
Who can know?
Lect certainly couldn’t, especially not before he’d even met the girl. Again, he elected to wait. It was all he could do. His friend saw him to the door, where they parted ways. Sable was going to be very busy guarding his new charge.
Melody’s secret. Serena’s existence. And now Celedia. So much to consider, and so few answers.
How many secrets would it take to break this knight’s back?