"Alone for a while, I've been searching through the dark
for traces of the love you left inside my lonely heart."
One year ago.
* * * * *
Erisande stared at her reflection in the mirror of her vanity. Candles flickered in their sconces, casting shadows across her pale face as she simply stared into her own blue eyes.
Her brother Emile, her first love, her father, her mother, Aulairet, Adriel, and now...her fiance.
All of the most important people in Erisande's life had left her behind. Some, of course, were taken from her far too soon. They would stand beside her if they could. The rest...had all left by choice, walking out of her life for one foolish reason or another.
Her little brother Aulairet had always been eager to please and eager to stay at home with his books. Yet he'd taken their mother's death almost as hard as Erisande herself. He took to the bow and she'd not seen him since.
Adriel was another story. She'd always been rather close to her only sister, though sometimes they bickered without reason. Adriel was the only person who could rile Erisande's temper almost instantly. Still, Erisande knew that her little sister struggled with some of the same issues as she - a lost love, and their family's turmoil. Erisande was glad she at least had a vague idea of her sister's whereabouts.
With a sigh, she pushed away from the vanity. Though the loss of her siblings hurt, the deep ache she felt now was for a lost love. She'd once thought they would be together forever, but in an instant it had all ended and she was left to mend her broken heart in her family's enormous and empty house.
Hugging her shoulders, Erisande looked around her room. It was the room she'd grown up in, though her childish things had long ago been replaced with those of a woman. Mr. Mooglesworth, her favorite stuffed toy as a child, still held a place of honor upon a chair near the bed. She'd woven the coverlet upon the bed herself, she thought with pride. After several moments she realized she was staring blankly at the dark green threads, her thoughts churning.
"Is this to be my life?" she mused in her head. "Am I to be forever left behind in this house, to tend to the business, to tend to the family's honor and wealth?" She shook her head, grabbing the coverlet in her hands and staring at the fabric, even though she wasn't seeing it as the tears began to fall. The ache for her lost love sputtered to the surface at first, and she felt the fresh sting of his betrayal as she fell to her knees beside the bed. Though she wanted to curse his name, his face was quickly replaced by that of her mother, and she wept anew for the one person who'd always loved her unconditionally.
Erisande allowed herself a few moments to weep openly in her bedroom, allowing the hurts a chance to be cleansed away. When at last she picked herself back up and straightened the blanket upon the bed, an epiphany struck her.
"What keeps me in the Shroud other than my family and the business?" She thought as she began turning and forming plans in her head. Even with her gone, the business would still run, she'd hired the right people to ensure that it did.
The thoughts and plans came quickly as she moved around the room in a new sort of haze, plucking clothing from her wardrobes and laying it on the bed to be packed. All the while, only one word danced in the back of her mind:
Coerthas.
