In The Name of Love

Minna sits at her dressing table, quivering as she contemplates Adalberto’s words on the parchment in front of her. She came here to freshen up for the Friggenter celebration this evening, the shortest night of the year, but then Agda came with this letter and a small bag made of wine-colored velvet, and she couldn’t keep from opening them right away. I wish he was here, or that I was there, so that we could speak in person, Minna frets, but there’s no way to make that wish come true. I’ll be seeing him soon enough, she tries to comfort herself, knowing that she and her retinue are meant to leave Adelhyod in two days’ time. Adalberto’s words and his gift make her more certain than ever that she’s chosen well in her Quest for Favor, and her heart feels full to bursting. I know I’ll miss home so much, but now I’m sure I’ll be happy with him, and in time I hope he will be happy with me. Please, Chuezoh, make it so, she prays.

“Minna, are you ready yet?” Fifi asks from the dressing room doorway, tearing Minna’s attention away from her fiancé’s letter. “They’ll be expecting us in the grand courtyard soon, and I want to give you your gift here, without everyone watching.”

“I just need a moment,” Minna tells her sister, pulling an intricate gold chain crafted in a design of roses from the velvet bag on the dressing table that came with Adalberto’s letter. “Will you help me put this on?”

“Of course.” Fifi crosses to Minna and takes the bracelet from her trembling fingers. “Oh, this is lovely. Your fiancé has good taste.”

“Yes.” Minna extends her left wrist for Fifi to fasten the bracelet. “I feel bad that his gift won’t arrive to Zosya in time for the celebration…”

“I’m sure he’ll find it worth the wait. Emrik agreed that a hunting dagger would find a good home with him, and I’m quite partial to the ruby-studded design for the hilt.”

“I’d be upset if you weren’t, since you sketched it for me.”

“Speaking of….” Fifi crosses to the armoire and pulls a slim leather letter-bag from between two gowns. “Here. These are for you. With Friggenter’s blessings.”

Minna takes the letter-bag with a quizzical expression. The design in the leatherwork is one of pine branches laden with pinecones, almost certainly done from one of Fifi’s sketches. She opens the bag and pulls out a piece of parchment—a drawing of a frog posing near a water lily, glistening with moisture as its throat sac inflates. Another drawing follows, this one a closeup of rhododendrons in bloom.

“Your drawings? You’re giving me your drawings?” Minna breathes, noting the clean, sharp edges of the pages where her sister must have cut them from her beloved sketchbook.

“Some of the best ones. To take with you to Syazonia. I’ll send you new ones every so often, but…I want you to have these. To keep part of me with you in your new life.”

“Oh, Fifi…” Minna gently sets the letter-bag and the drawings on her dressing table before getting up and crushing her sister in a hug. I must not cry. I must not cry, she tells herself, knowing how displeased Agda and Lise would be if she or Fifi did anything to disturb their cosmetics or their gowns. “They’re wonderful. Thank you. I have yours, too….” Minna opens her own armoire and takes out a leather bag that hangs heavy from her hand.

“You didn’t have to, with the wedding and everything—”

“Hush. None of that nonsense. Just open it. For you, with Friggenter’s blessings.”

Fifi takes the leather bag and opens it, then draws out a gilded music box, shaped as an octagon with a design of birds in flight on the lid. “Oh, Minna, it’s beautiful.”

“Turn the key,” Minna urges, biting her lip to contain an expectant smile.

Fifi winds up the music box and then lets it play. The notes of a sweet summertime melody that Minna composed herself fill their dressing room, emanating from the box in Fifi’s hands.

“Sweet Sunshine,” Fifi smiles, recognizing the tune at once. “How did you even do this?”

“One of our violinists in the Royal Orchestra knows an expert craftsman in town. We rode past the shop during the procession this noontide.”

“Thank you so much. I’ll play it every night, when I can’t whisper to you….”

“Stop that. We can’t cry now. Like you said, they’re expecting us in the courtyard.”

Fifi nods and blinks rapidly, then examines herself in the looking-glass. After taking a few deep breaths and adjusting a few errant strands of her reddish-brown hair, she turns back to Minna. “Then let’s go, if you’re ready.”

The two sisters leave their chambers together, hand in hand, matching each other step for step. Were it not for their differing hair and eye colors, they could be mistaken for twins, so similarly are they in height and figure, and their matching dresses only add to this illusion. The gowns imitate fire in honor of Friggenter, which celebrates Chuezoh’s gift of fire to humankind; the bodices and shoulders are a glittering violet-blue of the heart of a bonfire, which blends into reds and oranges and yellows in the full skirts and long bell sleeves. Both of them wear gold and ruby jewelry and tiaras to match, as well. Their jewels catch the torchlight and fading sunlight coming through the windows as they rush through the corridors of Adelhyod.

King Ansgar, Queen Ingrid, and Prince Emrik are all waiting for them at the doors to the grand courtyard. The king wears his trademark royal blue and gold attire, but Ingrid is resplendent in a maroon and gold gown with embroidered phoenixes adorning her skirt, and Emrik’s striking orange and gold doublet perfectly suits his personality.

“We wondered if you’d gotten lost,” the king remarks with a disapproving frown.

“It’s my fault, Father,” Fifi volunteers. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to give Minna my gift before we came down.”

“And I received a letter from Prince Adalberto while we were freshening up,” Minna adds quietly. You can’t always be taking the blame like this, Fifi, she wants to tell her sister, but now isn’t the time to say such things.

“We will discuss it later. The time for Friggenter is at hand,” King Ansgar declares, cuing the Chief Royal Steward to start a trumpet fanfare while other servants open the double doors to allow the Royal Family of Aethyrozia passage into the grand courtyard.

The largest courtyard of Adelhyod is outside the main doors of the palace. Normally a bustling place of horses and noblemen and servants coming and going with business and deliveries, for Friggenter it has been transformed into a gathering place, studded with five large piles of firewood and several long trestle tables accompanied by low benches. The nobility are already gathered in the courtyard and applaud as the Royal Family makes their entrance, just as the sun is beginning to set beyond the courtyard walls. Minna smiles at them, but she has to force it as she realizes that this is more than likely the last time she will celebrate this holiday in the only home she’s ever known.

She struggles to keep her composure as she and her family meet the High Priest of Chuezoh in the center of the courtyard. Each member of the Royal Family is given an unlit torch by a servant. The High Priest of Chuezoh holds aloft a lantern, blazing with sacred flame from the Royal Zoche. He prays to Chuezoh, thanking Him for the blessing of fire and all the other gifts He has bestowed upon his creation.

“May we bless each other likewise,” he finishes, and then he extends his lantern to King Ansgar. The king lights his torch, and then Queen Ingrid does the same, followed by Emrik, then Minna, then Fifi. Each of them then walks to one of the piles of firewood in the courtyard. At the High Priest’s signal, they drop their torches into the wood, setting the piles ablaze.

“Blessed be Chuezoh!” the crowd shouts in unison, and then the Royal Orchestra, which has set up in one corner of the courtyard, starts to play a lively tune. Minna and Fifi find each other between their two bonfires.

“Are you ready?” Minna asks Fifi. This year they have the honor of leading the traditional Friggenter fire dance.

“If you are,” Fifi smiles. They join hands and make their way through the crowd towards the most central bonfire, the one their father lit. Around them, people start to clap in time with the music. Once they reach the fire, they separate to opposite sides of it and face each other, swaying and clapping with the crowd. Ingrid and Emrik come to Minna’s sides and they link arms. Across the bonfire, some of the noblemen’s sons are around Fifi, which doesn’t surprise Minna at all. Like as not they’ll be angling to curry favor with her, before her own Quest for Favor comes, she muses. I wonder if they know what Father’s planning for that. I know he hasn’t told Fifi yet, and I’m not allowed to, either, but Greta says there have been rumors….

More of the nobility have linked arms around the bonfire, creating a circle. With a whoop, they start to dance around the fire, kicking and swaying and leaping in time with the wild music from the Royal Orchestra. Everyone’s faces are alight with firelight and joy, but to Minna, no one beams brighter than Fifi. Strange. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen her so happy, she ponders. She can’t imagine that Fifi’s forgotten that they depart for Syazonia in two days, even though her younger sister has always enjoyed traditional festivals and dancing. But for some reason, Fifi is dancing with extra fervor this year and grinning ear to ear.

With a start, Minna realizes she recognizes the two young men Fifi is sandwiched between—Lord Karl of Fyrlenth on her left, and Lord Nicolaas, called Kai, of Lyrnola on her right. Could one of them be the reason she’s so happy? Minna wonders. She doubts it’s Karl; Fifi was just as displeased with his answers in the Questioning as she was. But Kai, on the other hand, sought her out for the first dance at the Ball. And they met in the courtyard on the day of the Talent Round. And they have a fair bit in common….

Despite the heat of the fire and the exertion of the dance, Minna’s insides have frozen over with dread. Fifi isn’t looking at Kai any more than she is at Karl or anyone else in the dance, and Kai doesn’t seem to be paying Fifi any special attention, either. Maybe I’m just imagining things, reading too much into it, she tries to assure herself. Fifi knows how much Father hates the Earl of Lyrnola. She wouldn’t set herself up for disappointment like that. And I can’t believe she’d keep such a huge secret from me. But Minna can’t shake the idea that maybe Kai has something to do with Fifi’s frequent disappearances since her Quest for Favor, and the idea makes it difficult for her to keep smiling and dancing as though nothing is the matter.

Then Minna’s eyes meet King Ansgar’s as he watches the fire dance from his place at the head of the largest feast table, and she redoubles her efforts to appear happy and carefree. He mustn’t ask me what’s the matter, she resolves. Minna doesn’t think she can lie to her father, and she knows that suspicion of wrongdoing is nearly synonymous with condemnation in the mind of the King. I can ask her about it later, in private, she tells herself before wrenching her thoughts away from Fifi to focus on enjoying the present moment. After all, Friggenter comes but once a year, and this is the last year she will celebrate it in Adelhyod. She might as well make the most of it.