Inheritance

Month 1 Week 3

The Matriarchy – Streets of the Matriarch’s City, Guild Quarter

Suspecting that Vincent was having her followed, Covina had merely asked the Headmistress of Apprentices at the Bookkeepers’ Guild House if she could get back her last apprentice and make her a permanent apprentice. But sadly, the headmistress informed her, that apprentice had suffered a mishap. “It was such a shame that she had strayed into the Foreigners Quarter. Men from other countries were such savages.”

“Such a shame.” Covina had lamented, very briefly, that she couldn’t have that girl back. But since she couldn’t she would just have to make, oh what was the new girl’s name? Pearl? Gem? Jewel? It was Jewel.

“Jade Mistress”, her apprentice had helpfully provided. All, Covina had wincingly done, was ask the Headmistress of Apprentices to make Jade her permanent apprentice.

Luckily, Covina was notoriously dismissive and borderline cruel to her apprentices, so the Headmistress thought nothing of it when she hadn’t even been able to tell the woman her girl’s name. She hadn’t known any of the girls’ names. The ones who she had thought she was protecting from Vincent by sending them back. All that time, her attempts to keep them from information that might get them harmed had only sentenced them to death.

The other apprentices’ faces turned white, stricken with terror for Jade as Covina escorted her to the dormitory to collect her things so that she could now reside with Covina as her permanent apprentice. She would stay with Covina as custom demanded until she was ready for her journeyman’s training. At that point, she would go to a new household to study.

Yes. It was unusual for an apprentice to be assigned a permanent Mistress, but it was Covina Feggotti, next Matriarch of the Great House Feggotti. One just didn’t say ‘no’ to a Feggotti unless one was a Freyan. Besides, it was Covina Feggotti, how long could she possibly want to keep an apprentice? Covina hated apprentices!

It was easy for Covina to anticipate the Headmistress’ thoughts as she willingly gave permission for the young woman to move in with such an influential personage without even the slightest thought of asking the girl’s mother for permission. This is crazy. The thought floated unbidden across the turmoil in her mind. The Headmistress wanted to ingratiate herself with Covina, and the girl’s mother would be ecstatic her daughter had such a high-ranking patron if she had been asked.

This is the kind of thing that Vincent used to convince me to help his cause. The unchecked power of the Great Houses. No one even thought to tell me what had happened to my past apprentices. Because no one assumed any connection between their deaths and my returning them to the Guild House. Because the Great Houses are beyond reproach.

“Come girl.” Covina hissed before the child packed more than could be carried comfortably in a not-too-large bag. “I’ll send a servant to get the rest.” Her brisk tone as she walked out of the dormitory left no room for argument and Jade stumbled awkwardly after her struggling to close the straps as she crammed one final item into the bag.

The Matriarchy – Offices of Covina Feggotti

“Everything is fine.” Vincent glanced up distractedly from his concentration at forgery. “Your slut merely asked the Guild House for the apprentice’s position with her to be made permanent.” It was just his trusted lacky. The man thought he was an equal to Vincent and Vincent let him continue to delude himself this way.

“Hmmm…” A small smile formed on Vincent’s face. “That’s good. Covina finally found an apprentice who she thinks is trustworthy. Our men in The Quarter will be disappointed that they won’t be seeing a new job to entertain themselves with for a while.”

“I still don’t think what was done to those girls was necessary.” The other man scowled darkly. “I don’t a…”

“You don’t approve of murdering young women who would have gladly had you killed for daring to want the same freedoms as they?” He was haughty. Vincent was always haughty, and his comrade found it grating.

“All, a woman would have had done to us is execution for treason.” The other gritted out through clenched teeth. “And the things that were done to those apprentices was…unnecessary.” He was a native of the Matriarchy. He was proud of his country, of the peacefulness there. His ambition just drove him to want a little bit more than he was permitted to have by law. He certainly didn’t want to see violence in their revolution.

“They needed to be found to have died in a way that would keep suspicion off Covina. If every apprentice she returned to the Guild House just turned up murdered, there was bound to be gossip. This way, they blame the foreigners in The Quarter.”

“If that’s everything?” The man who’d been assigned to follow Covina and make sure she wasn’t betraying ‘The Cause’ turned to leave, his dark and gloomy expression darker and gloomier than normal.

“Yes, yes.” Vincent agreed distractedly. He waved a greasy hand in a shooing gesture then used it to smooth back some greasy locks of his dark hair that had fallen over his face as he gleefully forged another letter in the Matriarch’s hand.