Mother's dance-style was interesting. It was a cultural dance from her home country of Sihbar. It's a difficult thing to describe in words as the country and therefore style did not exist on Earth. Best I can say is it is somewhere halfway between ballet and belly dancing without being too similar to either. As a predominantly rhythmic gymnast, I definitely had a background in acro and classical dance but I liked Sihbar dance, it was a lot freer. Parts of it were a lot more about feeling the music than technique, not that we really had music. Mother would have to hum the tunes.

After her performance, I pestered her repeatedly to teach me. Eventually, she gave in and we began meeting twice a week. I think this was good for her, I could definitely see her getting a bit more lively in the house too, although it was nearly imperceptible unless you were watching her closely.

It was a warm day after an intense dance practice that my brother and I spent a lazy morning locked in the family library.

I stared at Eden expectantly from the other side of the table, my chin resting on the cool surface.

I sighed.

Eden shook his head in amusement but continued to read.

I sat up and leaned my weight against the back of my chair, and stared at the library's dark oak ceiling. The window was open letting in the fresh summer air. I sighed again, louder.

"Are you done studying today?" Eden asked.

Brother of mine, I was done with studying from the moment we sat down after breakfast. "It's just so boring!" I whined.

"Maybe the material is just too easy for you," he said. "You've learned adding, subtracting, multiplication and division pretty fast. If you want, I could show you exponents?"

I grimaced. "No thank you."

"But if you could get it, you could become the smartest six-year-old in the kingdom," he said.

"That's a hard pass," I said dryly. It was absolutely not my goal to be mistakenly identified as a math whiz. It didn't really feel like I would have earned it anyway. Although come to think of it... if anyone in this house was exceptional, was it normal for a nine-year-old like Eden to be so far in his studies? Again, it was pretty hard to tell without other kids around to gauge our abilities. Occasionally, some of the girls from the tea party would come over but the last thing any of us wanted to talk about was math.

Mostly we'd explore each other's houses, drink tea, craft, or take our embroidery classes together- which always seemed to be a bit of a bummer for Eden since he would be left out to preserve our family's image. When we didn't have visitors, Velma reluctantly let him participate in my 'bridal' lessons. At first, I thought he just did them to keep me company but I think he really ended up loving embroidery and tea parties.

His stitching might actually be the prettiest of anyone our age, from what I've seen from everyone else's work.

Meanwhile, besides math, my schooling wasn't really going that great. Literature was boring. Etiquette was Spending hours on embroidery even with the social aspect was driving me insane.

More than anything I just hated being cooped up in nice weather.

Eden glanced outside and frowned, "I know this is where I usually give in and say we should go on a walk outside, but... it's less than a month until my tenth birthday. I have to prepare..."

I looked at him in confusion. "Prepare for what?" I asked.

He chuckled a bit, "Briar, you really have been neglecting your societal studies, haven't you?"

I stuck out my tongue cutely, busted.

"I mean, I already knew that given the state of your tan," he teased.

Ladies in this world were not supposed to let their skin brown. If they went outside they needed to take parasols or cover-up and wear hats. It was especially hard for me as I gained the Sihbar skin-type which very readily tans in the sun. The only reason my mother was so pale was that she never goes out in the day.

I was technically supposed to already be in my beginner corset too, but eff that.

"When nobles turn ten they have to travel to the temple," Eden explained.

"Why?" I asked.

"We have to get our magic awakened and tested," he said.

I paused for a moment to register what he just said. "Shut the front door! There's MAGIC?" I asked, slamming the table in excitement.

"Of course," he blinked in surprise. "Did you really not know this?"

"I am shookith," I said.

He laughed and reached over to ruffle my hair. "You say such weird things sometimes- and yes, most noble houses have some level of magic. Some commoners too due to... illegitimate relationships."

"So why do you have to study so much?" I asked.

His smile dimmed, "Mother and father will be accompanying me... I just don't want to mess anything up and embarrass them. I haven't been alone with them since you were born, and we've never travelled together."

"You're going to the capital right?" I asked.

"That's right."

There were a couple of days' journey there and back meaning, "I'm not going to see you on your birthday?" I asked in devastation.

"It's alright," he smiled sadly. "I do wish you were there though..."

He sighed loudly and stood up, "I've changed my mind! I can't think about the ceremony any more today! Let's go out!"

I grinned, I had big plans for today that I thought were going to be ruined. "Yes!"

I hopped up and we set outside.

"Which garden path do you want to take today?" He asked.

"About that..." I started, "I think I have a slightly more ambitious route for today."

"What do you mean?" He asked wearily.

I gave only the shortest mischievous glance before I turned and said, "follow me."

I lead him to the southern wall of the estate. "You know, no one is going to look for us until supper..." I said, testing the waters. "What if we... go a little bit further on our walk today?"

Eden stepped back in surprise. "Briar! We can't just leave the estate!"

"Why not?" I asked innocently.

"Because we can't! It's not allowed!"

"Has mother and father ever explicitly told us we can't?" I asked.

"Well, no..." He said uncertainly, "but no one has ever said we could go outside either, and, it's common sense right?"

"It's not our job as kids to pick up on adult common sense," I scoffed. "This is their fault no matter how you think about it."

"Briar..." He said. "It's not a good idea."

"You're right," I said. "It's probably a terrible idea but this is the time in our lives where we're supposed to make bad decisions! Getting away with misbehaving is a luxury of youth and we're wasting it! You're almost ten for Earthia's sakes!" I walked up to the wall, "Now boost me!"

Eden didn't move.

"Come on, don't be a dork!" I said. "I'll go either way, don't you want to make sure I'm safe?"

Eden bit his lip and I sighed in exasperation. "Fine, just think about it as a different type of studying..." I said, backing away from the wall for a running start. I sped forward and scaled the wall myself. When I was on top I looked back at my brother. "You're going to be the count someday right? What kind of leader will you be if you don't know your people?

Eden finally sighed, "Alright."

"Throw me the pig's-skin over there," I said, pointing at the medieval soccer ball sitting under a nearby tree.

"Why would we take that to town?" He asked.

"We need something to win over our new friends with," I said.

Reluctantly he walked over and grabbed the ball. He handed it to me and I helped lift him up onto the wall. He looked at the other side as if it was an insurmountable void and not an open field.

"Whelp, no time like the present," I said and gracefully hopped down.