Chapter Text
Chapter 1
-The Orphanage-
Allisia was walking home when her hand brushed her 8. Everyone in Tristis has a number on their forearm; the number represents their ‘place’ in society. 1s are the best, living in the luxury of palaces. Only the Royal fairies have 1’s. 10s are the dredges of society.
Allisia turned into the dark alley and arrived at the house. It was an old woman named Lissy’s house. It had been converted into a small makeshift orphanage, and Lissy took all the kids that had nowhere to go. Even if that made all the kids eight’s. The house itself wasn't much, the walls used to be white but now just like all the houses in this part of town they had turned green with moss and mold, the roof was red with rust and the wooden door creaked when you pushed it open. The inside was a different story, the walls were covered in drawings and flowers. Space was crammed but they made the cramped space work. In the entryway, there were many pairs of little shoes, all worn. And two small bowls, one with water and one with the old food scraps, this was for whatever stray creature walked in whether that be a dog, cat, rabbit, or even a Pixie. Then there was the central part of the hallway, to your left you could turn into the kitchen and dining room, and to the right was the living area. It had couches, old books, and a few mattresses on the floor with dozing children. In the middle there were stairs and a hallway, down the hallway were 2 bedrooms- both severely cramped, and a bathroom. If you went up the stairs there were more cramped bedrooms and Lissy's bedroom. And then there was a ladder at the end of the hall, and up that ladder was Allisia and her Sister’s (Sylvia) room. 2 years ago When Allisia was 14 she got bored, not old enough to start training at the palace, but old enough to be out of Lissy’s school program. So she went up to the attic and cleaned it out with Her sister and Lissy's Help. so she and Sylvia got to sleep there. Alissia had offered the space to other kids but Lissy insisted they keep the room to themselves.
“Hey Alli.” said a voice. Allisia jumped
“What are you doing up Sil?”
“I was Waiting for you.” Sylvia smiled. Sylvia was an elf like Allisia. Her pointy ears poked out of a blanket of blonde wavy hair. Her eyes were a light green with golden flecks. She was dressed in a plain off-white shapeless nightgown. She sat on a small mattress and had one of the old leather-bound books clutched in her hands.
“What are you reading?”
“Tatechee Aechideen geeoweldeen teareesyuar, some old elven novels. I’m working on improving my elven, I’ve got the pronunciation down but my reading is not good. What’s doyuaeariyowar in English?”
“Warrior. How about- if you go to sleep now, when I get home tomorrow because I leave early on Friday, I’ll read to you and if you have questions I’ll answer them.”
“Okay- I’m sleeping!” She closed her eyes and made snoring noises.
Allisia walked around the mattress and to the homemade dresser drawers that she had made out of scrap wood. She pulled out a nightgown similar to Sylvia’s and got changed; she then went to her mattress. As soon as her head hit the pillow her eyes fluttered shut
She awoke what seemed like a second later but it had evidently been a few hours. The morning bell was installed by Lissy herself when everyone was too loud before 6:00 am. The rule was you couldn’t be loud or leave your room (except for the bathroom of course) until the bell went. But the second it did, all hell broke loose. The bell chimed 3 times and then there was the frenzy as a bunch of doors opened and then the gradual build-up to loud chatter. Alissia sighed, got dressed, helped Sylvia put in her handmade traditional elven earrings, and climbed down the ladder to join the crowd of children aiming for the stairs. She wove through the kids and managed to make it to the stairs as quickly as possible. Sliding down the banister and running to the kitchen to help Lissy who was already hard at work heating the wood stove. Lissy was an older elf woman, she was specifically a water elf- meaning different dialects of elven and her not being able to teach her and other elves that weren’t water magic. Allisia being the oldest kid there helped teach the earth elf’s like Sylvie but could only help the fire and wind with books.
Alissia ran to the cupboard and grabbed some bread and butter, only to find to her dismay that they only had 2 loaves of bread left.
“This is our last batch of bread Lissie, I can get some yeast at the market if you can milk some flour from the wheat?”
“Yeah, I got Rue to get the eggs from the chickens. Billiam is milking the cow. Poor Joey is sick so I had Fol go to the apothecary- not that those are cheap. Do you have anything on after work?” She added as an afterthought now helping Allisia butter bread.
“Umm, I’m going to read to Sylvia one of the books in Elven- to help her learn. She’s getting really good!”
“Oh, how sweet of you! You guys never spend enough time together. Once you’ve gone through a few chapters do you think you could maybe come down and make some bread? She can help knead it while you do the mixing and stuff, I’m sorry but there are not enough people to help. You’re one of the only reliable ones! That’s why you get your own room.” Lissy winked at Allisia.
After finishing buttering all the bread the stove was hot enough. Lissy Scrambled the eggs and they portioned it out. Half the plates had eggs, half didn’t. Allsisia took a deep breath and called
“Breakfast is ready!”
There was the sound of 20 children stampeding toward them. Allisia grabbed her plate and slipped away, getting the best seat by the fire. She downed her meal- if you could call it that and returned her plate to the now overcrowded kitchen.
“Bye Lissy! See you tonight!” She said heading for the door. She looked around for Sylvia but evidently, she was lost in the flood of kids.