“Good morning, girls,” High Abbess Gudrun purred in her sing-song as she twirled her sausage fingers and smiled sharply. “Welcome to the the Iasos Unified Preparatory Abbey.” She turned slightly, drawing her hand in the air presenting the the abbey behind her. The girls looked up at the great columns surrounding them at the entrance to the the abbey, then looked at each other. Mr. Andvari stood behind them with his hand on their shoulders. He patted and smiled lightly as he kneeled down putting him eye level with the young girls.
“I need to leave—the kids and I. We have to head into the mountains for a few weeks. It’s not safe for you. You have to stay here. Besides, it’s time for you to attend the abbey officially,” he said calmly. The girls stood tall and strong, their eyes hard. They were used to being left alone but together. “You will be placed in the same dorm and the same classes,” He glanced up at High Abbess Gudrun whose smile was still painted on her face. He stood and patted the girls again. “High Abbess Gudrun, I present to you, your newest acolytes, Ylli and Yolli.” Mr. Andvari nudged their backs and the girls stepped forward, their heads bowed and eyes on the ground.
High Abbess Gudrun leaned forward slightly and continued to smile. She placed her finger under Ylli’s chin and lifted it. Their eyes met. Ylli inhaled through her nose slightly as she studied the fat dwarf face. “Work hard, do as you are told, and you will succeed here fine,” purred High Abbess Gudrun. She released Ylli’s chin and the girl dropped her head. High Abbess Gudrun moved between the girls and turned toward the door. “Good day, Mr. Andvari,” she said with her back to him. “Come girls. Let’s begin your education.” The dwarf placed her hands on their backs and moved them through the doors held open by two guards. As soon as she passed the threshold, the guards shut the doors. Mr. Andvari turned and headed back to Leftover Hall to finish preparing for their trek.
High Abbess Gudrun walked into the grand hall with Ylli on one side and Yolli on the other. The building was bigger than anything either girl had ever experienced, and yet they kept their heads down. They were met by four elderly elf women adorned in plain, long sleeved, ivory dresses and bonnet covering the hair and tied under the chin. The elves columned the girls on either side, snatching the girls’ wrists with their thin, wrinkled but surprisingly strong hands. Yolliwas scurried off first, far across the grand hall behind the staircase and down the main hall. She never turned back toward her sister, not once, despite her stomach curdling with pain. Yolli knew better than to show fear. High Abbess Gudrun watched the entire time. Ylli kept her head down as the elves carted Yolli off. The oldest girl’s breathing remained constant—calm. Interesting, thought High Abbess Gudrun. Compliant. Restrained. I can do a lot with these girls. The dwarf nodded at the two sharp-eyed elves remaining—the taller one was the same who had chastised Mr. Andvari about Geros the day he left for the salt mine—and they quickly snatched Ylli by the wrists and hauled her across the hall and up the staircase.
Ylli and Yolli were used to being traded, bartered and sold as day laborers, farm hands, kitchen maids or worse. They were not, however, used to be being separated, at least not for long. The elves, still clutching her wrists, pulled Ylli down the hallway and to a large bath hall, every inch covered in smooth blue marble with a large pool in the middle. They raised her arms and pulled off her rags then pushed her naked body into the waist-deep pool. The elves, fully clothed, waded into the warm water delicately with brushes and lye soap in hand and scrubbed her body red and raw. Ylli stood in the pool motionless, calm, her head bowed slightly as the filth muddied the otherwise sapphire water in the pool. Her body was limp and moved however the nun’s desired, save for her tense legs holding her body upright. They pushed her to the side, picked her up and sat her on the edge of the pool then grabbed her feet upwards. Ylli fell back against the marble as the elves purged the muck and mud from her knees and toes.
“Gracious, child!” one nun exclaimed harshly as she looked at Ylli’s feet covered in rough, cracked skin. She snarled at Ylli then grabbed a rough stone from her soaked apron and scraped it along the bottom of Ylli’s feet. She couldn’t contain herself. Ylli squirmed, jerked her foot and giggled. The nun slapped Ylli across the face. “For the love of Yauuh, be still girl!” A slap in the face was nothing to Ylli; she’d experienced worse and worse again many times over. It was enough to bring back her bearings. She laid still, calm and controlled for the rest of the bath.
The nuns stood Ylli at the side of the pool and dried her off with a coarse rag that was too small to absorb the water and was so harsh it cloth-burned what skin was not damaged by the lye soap and scrubbing. Once dried, the waterlogged nuns turned their attention to her strawberry blonde hair. The taller of the two nuns stood behind Ylli with a fistful of her hair in one hand. With her other, she dragged a wooden comb through the rats and tangles like a farmer digging a hole. Every few strokes the nun had to stop and remove hair and scalp from the bristles of the comb. The other nun combed out the front of Ylli’s hair but with a more delicate touch. Their eyes met. Unlike the tall nun, the shorter elf had a softness about her like a woman who was a mother once, long ago. Ylli deflected the nun’s gaze and held strong. When her hair was combed out, the elf ladies twirled her hair into a tight bun on the top of her head.
When they were done, they dressed Ylli’s svelte frame in an ankle-length, white underskirt covered by a long, high-wasted, cornflower blue bib dress with short straps and a long sleeved, white cambric shirt. She felt ridiculous but showed no sign of her disgust. Ylli stood strong and endured the dressing. As they dressed her, girls her age came into the bath hall and picked up the used linens and rags that were Ylli’s clothes. Two girls knelt on the floor and sopped up the water. The nuns grabbed Ylli by her wrists and pulled her out of the room and down the hall leaving a trail of water behind, which the cleaning girls dried quickly.
Ylli was placed in an older child’s dorm and sent to classes all on the second floor. Her level housed several large dorm rooms with bunk beds and trunks along the walls, sleeping twenty children each. She was led to her trunk at the foot of bunk beds stacked three high. Hers was the top bunk and had three changes of clothes folded neatly on it.
“Be on time and tow the line,” said the taller nun as she snapped her fingers. “And you will do well.” She spun around and they left, still followed by the floor-drying girls. Ylli stood with her trunk at her feet staring at her bunk ten feet off the ground.
“If you climb at the corner, it’s easier to get up there,” said a chocolate-skinned half-orc girl dressed in the same cornflower blue bib dress. She pointed to the corner post of the beds where some cross beams were attached. “Don’t step on Hilda’s bed when you get up, though. She’ll freak and hate you forever. I know.” The half-orc had two white tusk nubs protruding from her bottom gum that gleamed against her dark skin. She was thicker in the shoulders and hips than the other girls and a little taller. “My bed’s under yours.”
“Don’t bother her, you slack-jawed cretan,” Hilda said to Lagotah as she walked up. “She’s not going to like you, Fat-otah. No one likes you.” Hilda turned to the other girls behind her and rolled her eyes then snapped her head back. “Why don’t you just kill yourself, already and rid us of your stench?” The other girls giggled behind her.
Lagotah glanced at Ylli who was staring at the floor, slumped her shoulders, then shuffled away. Hilda moved into her spot, close to Ylli. “I’m Hilda, but you probably already knew that,” she smiled the same smile as High Abbess Gudrun. The dwarf was eleven years old with the beginning wisps of light brown hairs on her upper lip. Hilda wore a cornflower blue dress the same as the rest, but with a brooch of Yauuh pinned on her left shoulder strap. Her dress was tight fitting around her rotund belly. “Don’t bother with Slag-otah,” she said loudly, glancing at Lagotah. “She smothers every new neophyte the minute they get here, trying to get them to be her friend.” Hilda stuck her tongue out and snorted. “She’s disgusting. No one likes her.”
Ylli nodded slightly then turned toward the beds. She put her foot on the lowest mattress and used it as a step to climb to her bunk. Hilda grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
“Um, yeah, that’s my bed,” Hilda grimaced pointing to where Ylli put her foot. “You don’t want to put your feet on it. Feel free to climb all over Fat-otah’s bed if you want. Pigs like stink.” Ylli bowed her head and smiled, turned, placed her foot on Hilda’s mattress and climbed into the top bunk. “Ugh!” snorted Hilda. The girls behind her gasped. “You’re a pig-lover, huh?” She twirled around toward her friends and walked away. When she reached the other girls she stopped and looked back. “I hear they had to drain the bath hall because you mucked up the water so bad. You and Pigotah are just perfect for each other. Pigs love slop and slop loves pigs.” The gaggle laughed as they congregated in the corner of the room.
Lagotah lumbered back to her bunk bed and looked up at Ylli. “You shouldn’t have done that. No one will be your friend, now.” Ylli cocked her head and pointed at the half-orc furrowing her brow. Lagotah smiled. “Yeah, I’ll be your friend,” Lagotah said. Ylli smiled, grabbed the side of her bed and rolled herself from her bunk to Lagotah’s bunk beneath. Ylli rolled around and snorted like a pig then turned on her side, facing Lagotah, her hand holding up her head. Ylli snorted and smiled. “Are you making fun of me?” asked Lagotah. Ylli smiled and shook her head then slipped off the bed. She landed next to Lagotah and kissed her cheek then snorted and smiled again. Lagotah stood, stunned.
Ylli put her hands up, palms facing Lagotah and cocked her head. She then pointed at Lagotah and snorted like a pig. Ylli’s finger turned toward her own chest and she made a slushy fart sound with her mouth. Lagotah had never met a girl like Ylli before. She squinted and cocked her head from side to side. Ylli repeated the motions and sounds again until Lagotah understood.
“I’m the pig and you’re the slop?” asked Lagotah. “I don’t think I like that.” Ylli sighed, frowned, and shook her head then grabbed Lagotah’s dress and pulled them together bumping chests. Ylli raised her eyebrows.
“Oh, I get it,” said Lagotah. “We might be the pig and the slop—just like Hilda said—but we go together.” Ylli clicked her tongue twice with a smile and nod, then lightly punched her fist into Lagotah’s chest and then her own. “I don’t like being called a pig,” Lagotah said drooping her head.
“Pfff,” puffed Ylli shrugging her shoulders, glanced at the other girls in the corner then flicked her fingertips against her chin toward the girls across the room, getting a snort from Lagotah.
“Are you crazy?” exclaimed Lagotah with a grimace. “They’ll kill us,” she said glancing at the girls, but they had not seen. She turned back toward Ylli and shook her head. “You,” she stammered. “You. You’re not like … I think you’re going to get me in trouble,” Lagotah exclaimed, giggling. Ylli clicked her tongue again then sat down on Hilda’s bed. “And I don’t think I care.”