Chapter 2:
A New World in Black and White
“MOTHER, WHO’S THAT PRETTY LADY?”
Little Celesty pointed at a young girl in a pitch-black dress with a sheet-white apron. A cap of the same sterile hue rested on top of her head.
Selena thought her daughter’s question strange. She wasn’t all that pretty.
“Pretty lady? Ah, that’s just a maid.”
“A maid… Huh?”
It all came rushing back. Images. Knowledge. Memories.
Maids… Plane… I… My name is…Mizunami Ritsuko.
Celesty’s past life flooded into her mind. Her love for those uniformed servants. Studying abroad in England. The plane she’d boarded. The turbulence. They’d hit water. Then it all went black.
Mizunami Ritsuko died that day. Her last words to her parents had been an innocent “Be back soon!”
“Celesty? Does your tummy hurt, sweetie?”
“Huh?” She was crying. She hastily scrubbed at her tears. “No. I’m okay. Something in my eye.”
“Okay, well, what do you say we start heading home?”
“Mm-hmm!”
Selena led her daughter by the hand, and Celesty let her new mother take her—though not without a great deal of guilt toward the one she’d lost.
Celesty McMarden was her new name. She was six and had no father, only Selena. Celesty had her mother’s eyes—a brilliant lapis lazuli—but not her hair. Selena was a brunette, but Celesty’s hair was a tumble of striking silver that must have come from her father.
Somehow, this child had become Mizunami Ritsuko. Or perhaps it happened the other way around.
Either way, this was certainly not her world, and she had several reasons to come to that conclusion. First was the land she apparently called home: a small village named Anavalez in the Avarenton March, a borderland in the western reaches of the Kingdom of Theolas. Ritsuko could recall no such territory existing on Earth.
Second, there was Anavalez itself. The architecture was reminiscent of medieval Europe, and yet they had…functioning toilets. The kind with the lever and the flush and the swirls. That was to say, Anavalez was far more sanitary than the period its aesthetic stylings suggested. No one was defecating or urinating in the streets as far as Celesty could see.
She shuddered.
What confused her, though, was the seeming lack of plumbing: The people still got their water from a well. She couldn’t make sense of it.
When she finally figured it out, it became the crux of her “other world” theory.
“Lamplight. Luce.”
A small light appeared at Selena’s fingertips, and she set it atop a candlestick. It didn’t light the candlestick—not by a flame at least—rather it emanated light without burning at all.
Magic. Ritsuko didn’t believe it at first, brushed it off as sleight of hand, but there was no trickery in what she witnessed. It explained the toilets. Apparently, their invention dated to before Theolas itself, originating from a mage with particularly good ideas. To these people, a toilet that didn’t flush was as alien as a cloud that didn’t rain.
In this world, magic was something you were born with; at least, that was Ritsuko’s understanding. At the age of five, a local church would measure your aptitude to see if you possessed a spark. Celesty had not been so blessed.
“I can sense power, but not the switch with which to access it,” she had been told.
She remembered being upset at first, but she’d long since put that behind her.
I don’t need magic to be a maid!
And as luck would have it, maids were in abundance here. Amid this tragedy shined an opportunity, and she would seize it. Hence, color returned to her world.
“You’re in an awfully good mood today, Celesty. Does Mommy get to know why?”
“I am! And it’s a secret. I’ll tell you one day, though!”
“Oh, I’m already dying to know.”
Childlike glee lightened Ritsuko’s steps. Of course, it helped that she literally was a child again. Still, she retained enough intelligence to know she couldn’t achieve her dream as a six-year-old. Fifteen marked the age of maturity in this culture, so she would have to hold out until then.
Celesty would tell her mother when the time came about Ritsuko’s dream.
She had not learned her lesson about the suddenness of goodbyes.
“Mother! Oh, Mother!”
“I’m sorry, Celesty… I left a letter for you. Read it, sweetie… It will explain…everything.”
“Mother!”
When Celesty was just fourteen, Selena fell victim to the plague ravaging their village.
There was a modest funeral. Celesty didn’t remember much of it, racked with grief as she was. The loss of not just one mother but two nearly broke her. So unyielding were the waves of misery that she almost forgot both her dream and the letter.
The latter would have been lost to her forever were it not for pure chance. A postman happened to pass in front of her home six months later, jogging her memory. Celesty flew to her mother’s room and threw open the chest by her bed. There it was.
My sweet Celesty,
Words do no justice to the pain I feel leaving you so soon. I only hope you find it in your heart to forgive me. Would that I could see you blossom into a woman, to celebrate with you when you finally become a maid. Oh, yes. I knew your secret all along. I saw you practicing your curtsy when you thought I wasn’t looking. I wish I could have told you how beautiful you were.
You’ll make a fine maid, my darling. To tell a secret of my own, I used to be one myself—which is why I must warn you. A life in service to others may sound idyllic and charming, but it comes with dangers, and those dangers only increase the higher in society you climb.
Your father’s name is Cloud Leginbarth. When I knew him, he was the son of a count. I imagine he’s inherited his father’s title by now. We truly loved each other. That, I promise you. But it wasn’t meant to be. We lived in different worlds, he and I. Society would never allow it. When his father, who was lord at the time, discovered us, he dismissed me, and I never saw Cloud again. It wasn’t until later that I learned I was pregnant with you.
He does not know you exist. Please do not begrudge him that.
Read these next few words carefully, Celesty. You have two paths before you.
You can go to your father and tell him who you are—an easy task, I should think. You both have silver hair. Not many do. Know, however, that if you do this, you yourself will become a noble. A lady. And ladies do not become maids.
Your second path is quite the opposite: Become a maid.
In truth, I do wish he could know you as I have. If I had one wish, it would be that, but it is your decision to make. Whatever you choose, I know you’ll do what’s right for you. Follow your heart.
Actually, perhaps I’ll amend that last statement. Should your heart guide you to follow in my footsteps, my one wish would be that you do so with every fiber of your being. If becoming a maid is your dream, you had better become the most perfect maid this world has ever seen. I’ll be watching, just to make sure you do.
I love you, Celesty. We’ll meet again, but hopefully not for some time. If you’re not old and gray the next time I see you, we are going to have words.
Sincerely,
Mom
Tears blurred the ink on the page. Upon finishing the letter, Celesty made a promise.
“Thank you, Mother. I’ll follow my heart. I will. I do want to meet my father, it’s true, but I also want to be a maid. I always have, for as long as I’ve lived twice over. So that’s what I’ll do, Mother. I’m going to be the best maid. The most perfect maid this world has ever seen! I swear to you!”