Month 1 – Week 3

The Matriarchy – Offices of Covina Feggotti

“I see.” She whispered quietly. Vincent began writing a new letter to accompany the money and goods being shipped to his nemesis’s farm. Glancing back and forth between the sheets he wrote with a very convincing approximation of the Matriarch’s handwriting. He could be executed just for having those papers. Which meant that he either trusted her very much, or he was willing to kill her to protect himself. Whatever the case with her, she knew that he didn’t care one little bit about the fate of her apprentice. “I’ll have my apprentice leave.”

The treasonous Vincent glanced up at the apprentice who was facing away from them, her fingers in her ears, and rocking a little bit as she hummed a popular tune to herself. “She seems fine to me.” He shrugged as Covina stood to usher the girl out.

“Still, I’d feel better if she were not around for these types of things.” Absorbed in his task, Vincent didn’t bother to respond. The anxious Covina hurried her apprentice out the door and as soon as they were both out of sight around the corner she urged the girl into a sprint to the outside of the building. Stumbling into the bright winter sunlight the girl’s humming now had a distinctive edge of concern to it.

Once they were outside, she pulled her apprentice’s fingers from her ears, shoving her hands down at her sides and encouraging the girl to walk quickly with her as they skirted old puddles in the cobbles.

“Mistress, I didn’t mean…”

“Quiet.” Covina commanded. “For your own sake as well as mine keep quiet.” They walked quickly, but not too quickly in the general direction of the Bookkeepers’ Guild House. “I’m returning you to the Guild House and getting a new apprentice. You’ll get a good recommendation from me.” The girl stiffened and stopped dead in her tracks.

“No.” Even as the apprentice’s eyes welled with tears and her feet dug into the cobbles like a stubborn mule, Covina tried pulling her along. “Please don’t send me back to the Guild House. I don’t want to die like the others.” Her words froze Covina’s blood.

“Which others?” Certainly not any of her apprentices…

“Two of the apprentices that you returned this year.” For as frightened, as she seemed to be the apprentice was keeping herself admirably composed. “They were found drowned near the…the…the foreigners’ block of town. They’d been…”

“Why would the fate of those girls happen to you. I’m just taking you back to the Guild House. It’s perfectly safe.” Yet even as she said the words, a twisting snake of worry worked its way through her gut.

“Master Vincent,” The apprentice started, and the Bookkeeper knew that she’d been right to leave with her apprentice when she did before the rest of the words were even formed. “He’s been taking callers in your office when you are not about. He doesn’t have me cover my ears. He tells me to listen to everything and to remember that loyal apprentices don’t end up in the river, naked and defiled, like disloyal apprentices that get returned to the Guild House.”

“That impudent…” Anger flared in Covina’s eyes as she felt a fire of fury she’d never experienced before. “No one terrorizes my apprentices but me. And they certainly don’t kill them.” Her haughty exclamation brought an ironic bark of laughter from the apprentice. “Fine. I won’t return you. But come with me anyways. I need to verify some information.” In her mind she couldn’t help continuing the thought, …So we don’t end up like the others. Already she was wondering if Vincent would let her live long enough to reach the throne he had promised her.

Inheritance

Loyal Apprentices Don’t…