The Frituals

Shauna

1

Shauna

When she comes in, I am standing in a sea of skirts and bodices. Some of the fabrics are thick linens, tightly woven fabrics in soft shades of greens, blues and browns that hold their shape when thrown over a chair back. Other dresses are made of slippery silk that draw the eye with their vibrant hues. “Taytra, what do I wear?” I ask as I wade through the sea of fabric, looking for a dress to wear to the Fritual testing.

“I told you at lunch, it doesn’t matter what you wear. After the water test, they have a change of clothes for you,” my older sister replies from the doorway to our bedroom. She is in her signature red gown.

“Why am I given a new dress again?” I ask, discarding a soft yellow piece.

“What? All your research hasn’t given you all the answers you need?” Taytra teases.

“Come on Tay. You know I’ve done as much as I can.”

“Alright,” she says, “I can tell you this.” Taytra waits until I turn from the mirror. “You will need a new dress because you will have to get into the water. I don’t know why they don’t warn people beforehand, so they don’t wear something that will be ruined. But I guess they want it to be more natural. They said something about letting the water react to you. I don’t know why, it didn’t really make all that much sense to me. I just know I went swimming, took a bath, and then went to an amazing feast where they told us we had all failed the test and none of us were the water Fritual. I think they wanted all the candidates to look the same.”

“You got to go to a feast with mother and I had to sit here and do extra chores?” I ask, finally settling on a soft green dress.

“That may be what happened,” Taytra says. “Hurry up, Father is waiting. You may have to go alphabetically, but we have to catch the first boat we can.”

“I’ll be quick,” I say, turning from my sister and flinging the green dress over my underclothes.

I am struggling with the ties for the corset of the dress when Taytra calls from the hall, “Shauna let’s go! We’re going to be late!” She pokes her head back in and notices that I am struggling. “Father is waiting outside,” she says coming up behind me to fix the dress. She heads back towards the door. “Come on we don’t want to be late.” I push a curl out of my face and hurry after her.

I step outside to see Father leaning against the fence that lines our property. He steps to the side to walk next to Taytra as we approach. Father strikes up a conversation with her, smiling and looking around at the sunshine; but behind those dancing eyes I can see that he was hurting. I know he wishes Mother was here to see me take the test. I wish she were here too. It has been a hard couple of months without Mother. The vision of her lying under the quilt she had spent months making, shivering, unable to keep down any of the food we tried to give her, was burned into my mind. She came down with the flu and couldn’t shake it. At least that was what the doctors said. We tried so hard to make her better, but no matter what we did she just seemed to get worse.

“Shauna,” Taytra calls to me in her shrill voice, breaking me from the memory. “You don’t need to walk so fast.”

I pause and give them a chance to catch up. “Sorry, I’m just eager to get there. I didn’t realize you had fallen behind.”

“You were in your little world again,” she says rolling her eyes. She turns to Father, catching her skirt in her hand, to stop from it getting tangled in her legs as she takes long strides. I’m guessing by the way she grips it she would have rather have worn pants or at least a shorter skirt, but when it comes to events like this Father has to be strict about what we wear.

“Father, do you think you could tell me the story again?” I ask watching birds dance on the path in front of us.

“I think I can do that,” he says, with his soft, lilting voice bouncing off the leaves, wrapping them up in the story too. “Many years following the fall of Queen Chima and after Queen Moraine took her sister’s place, Moraine drafted a treaty that ended the war. The rebel groups that had helped her stop her sister from destroying both races tried to return to their homes.”

“A young elf named Matron and a girl named Serena struck up an unlikely friendship. Serena met Matron as a client through his blacksmithing business. As she was half elf- half human, she spent most of her life in fear that people would find her out. But when Matron didn’t care, they became fast friends. Some, like Matron’s Father, thought they were too close. Even in this time of peace, the races were still not content with each other. The two were advised to cut ties, but they continued to fight for their friendship; inevitably falling in love.” Here, Father makes a face, scrunching it up playfully in fake disgust. He always gets so flustered when a suitor comes to the door for Taytra. He isn’t ready to see us grow up and leave him yet. So whenever he gets to this point in the story, Father tries to pretend that love isn’t all that it was made out to be. But Taytra and I know better, we saw him with Mother.

“Now Matron was gifted with the ability to control four of the five elements: earth, air, water, and fire. Only the descendants of royalty could control the last element, spirit. These descendants didn’t have to take the throne, just be related to those on it. While most elves here were only able to control water, the Goddess blessed Matron with his extended abilities. The people didn’t know how he was able to control so many magicks, So they created a name for this anomaly, a Fritual. With so many people hating their love, the young elf wanted to make sure his partner was protected. But he needn’t have worried, Serena had her own set of skills. Her father was well trained in the art of sword play, who had taught her all he knew. Between the two of them, Matron and Serena made a formidable team.”

“Serena and Matron were married, but in secret for their safety. Sadly, when their enemies did find out, disaster struck. Matron’s father led an attack against his own blood. Matron was able to fight them off long enough to give Serena the time she needed to escape, but it cost him his life. It is rumored by some that Serena had a son named Amicus. A child that would continue the line, but no one knows who he was, or if he inherited any of his father’s magick.

“It was discovered over time as our races mixed that humans block the magick making the offspring of an elf and a human unable to control it. So the powers that were held in the time of old faltered. Legend says that Matron’s blood and his magick run through the two races. After two hundred years, men and elves decided to test young people as they came of age for the presence of magick. We live at Cabineral Lake where seventeen-year-olds are tested to see if they have power over water.” Coming to the story’s end, Father smiles and turns to me. “Today you shall join the tested children.”

“So what happens now that I have taken the test? What do I get to do?” Taytra asks eagerly, cutting off my attempts to ask questions. I let her roll over me. Someone is bound to be able to answer any of my questions today.

“I wouldn’t sound so excited over there. There isn’t anything special planned for those who have failed the test already. We just get to meet the candidates later and eat good food,” Father says.

“So, what you’re telling me is I have all day to do as much exploring as I want?” Taytra asks, a mischievous grin splitting her face.

I am pretty sure I know what she is going to be up to, but I’m not going to be the one to say it. But Father purses his lips and narrows his eyes, giving away he had already guessed it. “And just who do you think you will be doing this exploring with?” he asks, c*****g an eyebrow at his eldest daughter.

“I was going to go looking for fabrics with Jacinta. She got an order for a new yule ball gown, and she needs to get some new fabric swatches,” Taytra says spinning a web of lies as smoothly as she would run a brush through her wavy golden hair.

“Uh huh, sure. Would you lie to me if you had plans to go see that soldier boy?”

“Father, his name is Andrew. He asked me for one dance at Beltane. One dance! You just don’t like him because he is a soldier. Andrew and I are just friends. Nothing more.” She crosses her arms “he wasn’t even a good dancer.” She says quietly.

“All it takes is one dance. That’s what it took for your mother and me.” He misses a step as his thoughts turn inward for a moment. He shakes his head clearing away the past “I’m sorry. This day is meant to be about Shauna.”

“Hang on, why are you so against him?” she accuses, quickly adding, “I don’t want to be with him, but if I did why would you be so opposed to his presence?”

“Because he is training to be a soldier. We aren’t in a time of war, we don’t need soldiers. I don’t see the point in training for something that isn’t likely to happen anytime soon.”

Taytra scoffs. “So what? There may not be a war coming but since he is training he gets to go and live in Cabineral City. He doesn’t have to stay in this sad little town. He can go and make a better life for himself over there. I am proud of him. I hope he does well. Him and Ward, you don’t seem to mind as much when it isn’t your best friend’s son.”

“The city isn’t as great as you think. It’s a lot more expensive,” our father counters.

She rolls her eyes. “Whatever, money isn’t the only thing that is important to us.”

“Us?” Father snaps, and I pick up the pace again. I don’t want to listen to them bicker the entire way to the waterfront.

“Yes. Us. You, me, Shauna. Men. The race of man. Us. There are more important things to us than money,” she says exasperatedly.

“Shauna, where are you going?” Father calls ending the fight.

“I was trying to avoid being seen with you,” I say, waiting for them to catch up.

“I am sorry. That wasn’t right of me, I should have paid more attention to you. It’s—”

“It’s my special day. I know.” I say cutting him off. “Sorry, where do I have to go? I want to be there before they get to the D’s, so I know I have plenty of time to get in the lineup.”

“Your mother would have been so proud of you. I know you are hurting. You never show me an attitude.” He pushes a lock of hair from my face and kisses my cheek. “You need to go to the first pier. They are splitting the alphabet into three to try to get the process to run a bit smoother. That means there will be three of you in the water at once. We,” he points to Taytra and himself, “will be at pier six. They wanted to put the parents in the water far enough away that we can’t shout things at you. Not that that makes any sense since none of us know what is happening when you get in the water. But we will see you at the banquet,” Father says pointing to the crowd of people I am going to have to sift through. “We will let you get to it,” he says, turning from me and glancing at my sister. “Tell me more about these fabric swatches.”

She shoots me a look over her shoulder that could only be described as a desperate plea to help her escape. But I have to try to fight and find which pier ‘Shauna Flynn’ is going to be called from. I don’t want to be late for the Fritual testing.