Firsts

Nobody had quite known what the sickness was. The 'Black Plague', the chemists were calling it; bodies had shivered, grown pestules along their skin and people were dropping like flies without a cure in sight. Children were left orphaned, adults were left without children, and entire fiefs were wiped out.

The Hyral family was no stranger to this, as brother and sister had left their ancestral home, sent instead to live with the noble Beoulve children, who they had seen often enough but rarely met in person.

It was expected that Teta Hyral would have moved towards the Lady Alma first, but the little girl didn't move far from her usual spot, huddled behind her big brother and clutching his shirt with her eyes wide and trembling with fear.

"Now, now. Come out behind there, would you? It won't do for a lady to hold onto her brother so."

...That was what that hellion of a governess had said, that pudgy face coming closer to the two, which made Teta hide even deeper in her fright.

...

But it was he who had driven her from her hiding place. It was that soft, naïve, but still authorative tone that pierced her ears and her heart, causing that little brunette face to peek out from behind Delita's back and finally, finally, step out into the sunlight.

"It's okay, you can come out. We're not going to hurt you!"

Though somehow, everyone had always assumed that Ramza had spoken to Delita first that day.