Page 2 of Pawns of Fate
“Ava Sharp stepped on Tory’s dress.” Luanna pointed to the whining girl and tried to cover the worry in her voice. “Tory responded by calling her a clumsy cow.”
“What!?”
“She did it on purpose,” Tory retorted, crossing her arms.
“Luanna…” Rose and her cousin exchanged glances. Concern danced across Luanna’s face. Her cousin already understood the gravity of the situation. Even though Tory was the one who launched the insult, it happened at Luanna’s party.
“You shouldn’t have insulted anyone like that,” Rose chided the girl, “but especially not Lady Ava Sharp. The Robsons and Sharps are neighbors. What will we do if this creates bad blood?”
“I don’t see why it’s your problem, Rose. You’re not Luanna’s older sister, after all. Spats like this happen at coming-of-age parties. You wouldn’t know that since you never had one,” Tory hissed with all the venom a teenager could muster, which Rose thought was quite a lot.
“I may not have had a coming-of-age party, but I have better manners than a child who insults the guests at other people’s celebrations,” Rose snapped. Stress pulled on her temples. Rose massaged her forehead. Tory had crossed a line, but now she had, too.
The other girls all gasped; Rose was creating a scene. Her aunt and uncle would punish her later for ruining Luanna’s party, especially since Tory was from an influential family.
Rose felt a pressing need to run away.
Thankfully, Luanna, in a rare show of maturity, took it upon herself to stop further arguments from her cousin and friend. “I think that we should all—”
She was interrupted by the noisy arrival of the birthday cake.
Praise the gods, Rose thought to herself.
She quickly found her way to the crowd’s edge, watching Luanna take center stage as Arnold wheeled the cake to the birthday girl’s tent.
The candles sparkled like a rainbow of tiny fireworks.
Her uncle must have paid some lucky fire mage a pretty penny for that spell.
After everyone sang the birthday song to Luanna, Rose quietly excused herself and went deeper into the garden, reaching out and feeling the soft petals of the flowers as she went.
She needed fresh air and space. Maybe if she disappeared long enough, everyone would forget what happened with Tory, and she could avoid Ghislaine and Luanna.
After walking through the flower hedges for a few minutes, she meandered to her favorite spot in the garden, a small, secluded pond.
It was far away from the festivities and would certainly be empty.
Rose could regain her composure there. After, she’d head back to see if her aunt had any other tasks for her.
As she rounded the corner of hedges, bringing the water into view, she paused, noticing a young woman sitting on a bench, crying at the pond’s edge. Rose’s shoulders slumped. She’d wanted a few minutes alone. Was that too much to ask?
The girl was clearly a partygoer from her golden gown and curls piled elegantly atop her head. Rose couldn’t tell what family she was from, though.
The young woman looked up at her with chocolate eyes that matched her hair. She’s very pretty , Rose thought. She stood up, the top of her head barely reaching Rose’s nose.
An uncanny feeling tickled Rose’s consciousness as she observed the young lady more closely. Brown eyes and hair. Short with a pretty face. A voluptuous figure and rich attire. This woman was Ava Sharp.
She looked at Rose with tears in her eyes, mumbled some sort of apology, then made to leave.
“Wait!” Rose couldn’t let her walk away without remedying the situation. “You don’t need to leave. I’m not here to force you back to the party. I also come to this spot when I’m feeling unwell.”
Ava sat back down on the bench, her tears slowing.
“Do you mind if I sit?” Rose asked. Ava scooted over slightly. Taking that as the girl’s response, Rose cautiously sat beside her.
After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Rose asked, “Do you want to tell me about it? Misery loves company, after all.”
“Are you just trying to gain influence over the Sharps by being nice to me? You do know who I am, right?” Ava’s voice was surprisingly cold to a would-be friend.
Rose realized that she had made a few assumptions about Ava based solely on the rumors that she had a friendly, boisterous personality.
She hadn’t expected Ava to snap, but couldn’t blame her.
A few hours at Luanna’s birthday had also put Rose in a poor mood.
Ava was trying to find peace and quiet from the party, just like she had been.
“I do know who you are. I am Luanna’s cousin, after all. Knowing all the guests at the party is one of my duties as a—” Rose thought about how to phrase her position in the Robson family, “—as Luanna’s cousin.”
With resolution, she added, “I did not approach you to gain influence over the Sharps. Truthfully, I didn’t intend to find anyone here.
” Ava’s brows rose as she listened. Rose gave her a soft smile and admitted, “I come to this spot when I feel unwell. One of Luanna’s ‘friends’ said something rather insulting to me during the party, so I needed a bit of distance from the festivities to regain my composure.
” Ava nodded as if she understood exactly how Rose felt—perhaps she did, given the situation.
“When I found you here, I just wanted to make sure you were alright,” Rose said.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to assume the worst. I’ve insulted you.” Ava let out a shaky breath and wiped away a few tears. “It’s been more than a year since I married York. No matter how hard I try, I still don’t fit in at these events.”
“It’s hard to master all the etiquette rules that govern high society.” Rose laid a comforting hand on Ava’s shoulder. “If you ask me, some of the rules are quite silly. Don’t you think? Like always using the utensils in the correct order during a meal.”
“I mess that one up all the time!”
They shared a laugh, and the mood lightened.
“Luanna’s cousin… So, you’re Lady Rose Robson? I should have known from your pink hair. It’s such a unique, pretty color.”
“You outrank me as the daughter-in-law of a marquess. You don’t have to use titles when speaking to me.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Rose smiled reassuringly. “It isn’t something you need to apologize for.”
“I shouldn’t have doubted your intentions,” Ava said, finally relaxing. “You’re probably the only one here who wasn’t born into the nobility, like me. You understand how hard it is to learn all this after growing up in a different sphere of society.”
Rose winced inwardly.
It was true. After her parents died, Rose grew up in an all-girls orphanage.
At the age of fifteen, her Uncle Hector found her and brought her back to House Robson, despite neither her aunt and cousins, nor Rose herself, being fond of the arrangement.
She’d at least had kind caregivers and even friends at the orphanage.
With the Robsons, she’d had her basic needs met most of the time, but not much else.
And, of course, as soon as Rose came of age, her uncle started using her as collateral in his political schemes.
No one else in the family was sent away, essentially serving as a hostage for families who needed a guarantee that her uncle would follow through on his end of their deals.
But Rose had become Uncle Hector’s favorite pawn in that regard.
Rose pulled her thoughts away from her upbringing and precarious position in the Robson family.
Ava didn’t realize how rude she was to bring up Rose’s past. Her childhood in the orphanage was a constant source of shame.
Other aristocrats considered it a massive flaw, unsuitable for nobility.
Ava was the first person to see it in a different light.
It warmed Rose’s heart just a little.
“Yes, etiquette can be a lot to master. I had to study with a tutor for three years before I was ready to join high society. You’ve only had one year. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”
“Thank you. It means a lot to have somebody listen to me for once. York listens, but he would have already gone and picked a fight with the girl who insulted me. I love him, but he can be such a hothead. He doesn’t understand that when he makes such a fuss, it makes things worse for me.”
Rose stifled her surprised reaction to the information that a nobleman like York Sharp would pick a fight with women on his wife’s behalf. Ava clearly viewed it as a problem already. Rose decided to guide the conversation in another direction as tactfully as possible.
“I believe he’s been that way since childhood. I don’t know him well personally, but my cousin Hermes was friends with him when they were younger.”
“Oh, I wish you did know him well! I would love to ask for stories about young York from somebody besides his brother, persnickety Nicholas.”
Ava lost herself in thought for a minute.
“Can I ask you an odd question?”
“Certainly,” Rose replied, though she felt a bit nervous. Now that she was more relaxed, Ava’s boisterous personality was starting to shine through. It made her more unpredictable than the cold nobles or apathetic family Rose usually dealt with.
“Do you really have a soothing aura? It’s such a rare magic.”
“I do have a soothing aura. I wouldn’t say I have mastered it, though. I practice regularly enough to use it for calming others.”
“Can it truly increase mages’ mana?” Ava looked at Rose with wide eyes.
“My uncle says that no one has been able to do that for at least six generations.” Rose didn’t know if she believed him, but since Hector had never been interested in hiring a tutor, Rose had only been able to master things she could teach herself, read in books, or overhear when eavesdropping on Hermes’s lessons.
It limited her capabilities in a frustrating way.
In the Robson archives, she’d read about one of her ancestors using the aura to calm drakes, mountain trolls, and even a basilisk.
Rose could barely manipulate the emotions of other humans, let alone animals or monsters.
“That is still amazing!” Ava wiggled a little, then mumbled, “I wish I had an aura or a mana affinity.”
Ava’s curiosity made sense to Rose. Auras were a very rare form of inherited magic.
It tended to skip generations, and the soothing aura was the rarest of the aural magics.
She’d heard of only one other family that could use it, and Uncle Hector had told her they were distantly related to the Robsons.
“Could I see it?” Ava asked, curiosity plain on her face.
“Oh!” Rose paused. It was rude to ask someone to use their magic like a party trick, but perhaps Ava didn’t know.
And truthfully, there wasn’t any harm in Rose using her aura.
Her cousin could use his aura to manipulate emotions and consciousness in people and animals, even going so far as to make others fall asleep in the middle of a conversation.
But all Rose could manage to do with it was soothe the emotions of other people, and Ava already seemed to have calmed down.
If she’d really wanted to impress Ava, she would have used it when she first stumbled across her, but it wouldn’t hurt anything to show her.
“Can I use it on you?” Rose asked. “It will feel pleasant, like a warm hug from a loved one.”
“Certainly!”
Rose took Ava’s hands into her own. She focused on the energies around her, searching for her tether to the aural plane. The tips of her fingers tingled, then her senses shifted, allowing her to touch and see the life force surrounding every living creature in the garden .
Rose drew her focus inward. She needed to be fully aware of her own aura, her own life force, before she could manipulate Ava’s.
But she was distracted by a human-sized, masculine-shaped energy that gave off small sparks.
She hadn’t seen anything quite like it before, but Rose had to assume it was a mage with an affinity for elemental magic like fire, wind, or perhaps lightning.
It had to be a lively element, given how kinetic and ever-changing the energy was.
They were rapidly approaching her and Ava.
Rose regained her focus. Her fingertips now tingled as if she were sticking them too close to a fire, which meant her aura had manifested on the physical plane.
“You’re glowing! It’s pink!” Ava was delighted.
Rose focused on transferring soothing, calming, aural energy to Ava, whose positive energy wouldn’t need or feel very much. Still, Rose enjoyed using her magic in a way that made someone else happy.
“Oh, you were right,” Ava gushed. “It feels so nice, like I’m taking a relaxing bath! Thank you!”
Rose turned around as she untethered from the aural plane. The owner of the masculine, kinetic aura should be showing themselves soon.
“What are you doing?” a low voice inquired.
An aristocratic man with wavy silver hair approached the two women, directing his question at Ava. Rose couldn’t help but glance at his well-muscled figure and deep, blue eyes. Was this Ava’s husband, York?
“Nicholas, this is my friend Rose,” Ava announced cheerfully .
Rose didn’t take long to rack her brain and realize who ‘Nicholas’ was. Marquess Sharp had two sons. York, Ava’s husband, was the younger. If Rose remembered correctly, Nicholas was the older and, according to noble gossip, far more cunning of the two.
She understood now why his energy presented itself so kinetically on the aural plane. He was a lightning mage.
“I didn’t ask if she was your friend,” Nicholas replied curtly. “I asked her what exactly she was doing, using magic on a member of the Sharp family?”
Rose felt her jaw clench and pulse quicken as she realized the implications of his accusation.
The scowl on his striking face told her Nicholas thought she’d been using her aura to control or harm Ava.
He had no way to know that Rose didn’t have those capabilities.
She needed to clear up the misunderstanding, but Ava jumped in before Rose could even gather her thoughts.
“I asked her to show me! Stop jumping to conclusions, Nicholas. No one was trying to hurt me,” Ava scolded her brother-in-law with no fear. Her blunt personality could come in handy after all, Rose realized.
Nicholas’s face softened. Rose breathed a sigh of relief, then stood up to introduce herself to this man who had already made her pulse race for more than one reason.