It's a Beautiful Life

Writers: Heather
Date Posted: 19th October 2024

Characters: Cithara
Description: Cithara reflects on the end of another Turn.
Location: Printer Hall
Date: month 13, day 29 of Turn 11

Cithara

What a Turns End celebration it had been at Emerald Falls Hold!
Carefully, Cithara removed each piece of her jewelry and stored them
neatly in her jewelry box. Her fingers lingered over the pearl
necklace given to her by her first husband, Benoir. She remembered how
pleased he had been to gift it to her on her birthingday. He had
scrimped and saved for the first five Turns of their marriage to buy
the necklace.

Benoir would have really enjoyed tonight's festivities, she thought.
The harpers had put on an excellent show and they had sung one of
Benoir's original compositions. It would please him to know that his
music had lived on.

With a little sigh, Cithara slid the bejeweled ring from her finger
that her second husband had given her. Amereld had hated big parties
or things where he had to dress up. Despite being a profitable minor
holder, he'd always preferred the company of his runnerbeasts than
humans. Yet, he had dutifully cleaned up and shined up for each Turns
End celebration that Cithara had planned when she had been the lady of
the hold.

Unbuttoning her dress, the fabric fell to the floor in a soft
'whoosh.' Stepping out of the pool of material, Cithara strode over to
her wardrobe and pulled on her favorite nightgown. The whistle of the
boiling kettle of water caught her attention just as she was letting
her hair down from the tight bun she'd been wearing.

Once her largest mug was full of hot klah, with a healthy amount of
sweetener, Cithara carried it over to her chair. Setting the klah on
her side table, she pulled a thick quilt over her lap, then picked up
her favorite notepad and pencil.

There were so many wonderful memories of the evening that she needed
to write them all down before she went to sleep. There were several
moments from the evening that would make excellent tidbits for her
pamphlet.

'Trader Bozram's daughter, seen leaving the guard quarters at a late
hour unattended.' This one made her smirk a little as she wrote it.
Bozram would be absolutely livid, but then, it was fun to press his
pompous buttons.

'Master Shimbert danced with the same young lady apprentice six times,
while dancing with his wife only once.' That had been particularly
interesting seeing as how Master Shimbert's forte was romance poetry
centered around marital infidelities.

Cithara continued jotting down the minute things that she had observed
until her mug of klah was empty.

"You'd better call it a night," she said to herself. Despite it being
Turns End, the Printer Hall would still expect breakfast in the
morning, and as Headwoman, she needed to be up to make sure her
kitchen staff dragged themselves out of bed on time.

And then later, tomorrow evening perhaps, she would draft up her
latest edition. It took time, crafting the words just right, but it
was something that she took immense pleasure in. She wondered if
Benoir or Amereld would be surprised at her talent or that she chose
to do it at all.

Becoming 'Master Unknown' had really happened by accident. She'd kept
diaries her entire life, of all the things she'd seen. Writing one
such anecdote into one of the Printer Hall's gossip columns had been a
whim. The success of it a surprise. Her entries had then expanded to
an entire pamphlet.

She had more money to spend now than she ever had when she was
married. Not that she wanted an extravagant life. Her needs were met,
she could afford a want here or there, and she had purpose as the
Headwoman of the Printer Hall.

"What a beautiful life you have, Cithara," she said to herself as she
turned off the lights in her quarters and climbed into bed. "Although,
you'd better quit talking to yourself before someone hears and thinks
you're crazy."

Last updated on the November 4th 2024

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It's a Beautiful Life