Markela (subject to change)

Markela grinned as the two reekats kittens that play fought on the lush carpeting that covered the stone floor of her apartments. It was one of the more uniquely decorated rooms of the Tower. From the wall and ceiling swaths of sheer material in numerous shades of blue, from nearly white to a rich dark almost black blue.

Laughing she picked up and cradled the nearest one of the kittens. Its blue fur felt like water running through her fingers. The foot long creature began to purr until its whole body vibrated. The twin to the kitten in her arms pounced and stalked the hem of Markela’s bright royal blue gown.

For as long as Markela could remember everything related to her was some shade of blue. To the people she was the Lady Blue. She had yet to figure out exactly what that meant. At exactly noon everyday since she was able to walk, Markela was dressed in her usual outfit and seated in a matching couch. The people would come before her bearing gifts. Markela was told and she never acknowledged the gifts, just the questions the people asked. Even to ask her a question, the questioners also had to present some type of nature to the Order. She never understood how she was able to answer the questions but as soon as one was asked the answer was hers to give.

She had been asked about farming the land whether it was good or not. Some even asked about their lifemates. Sometimes she could vaguely remember what she had told them, sometimes she couldn’t.

Markela had no complaints with how her life was until a few weeks past when he showed up. The young man had asked her a question she did not have the answer for, ‘Who are you?’

The young man wore a loose white shirt, black knee pants, knee boots, and dark blue sash around his waist. Markela was fascinated; she had never seen anyone like him. Dark intelligent eyes watch her steadily as she struggled through her mental fog.
His skin was a red golden brown color that stood out among the bronzed complexions of the people that surrounded him. Black hair hung to his shoulders, small gold hoops decorated his left ear glittered when he moved.
She had looked at him blankly, “What do you mean? I am the Lady Blue.”

“Who are you, not what, who? Who are you?” He asked again.

Her confusion grew. “I don’t understand.”

She hadn’t realized that she had left her lounge couch and was standing directly before the young man. She eyed him for head to toe.

“Who are you? You come demanding who I am, tell me who you are?”

Then he smiled. Markela found herself drawn to that smile. It held the answers she wanted and it felt familiar. That frightened her, at first.

Her world just for a moment froze and only one thing remained him and her. Answers swirled around her mind but none came forth. Her contemplation was broken when the guards suddenly surrounded the young man. Her confusion grew. Markela thought she must have summoned the guards. Her breathing had become rapid, her heart pounded and his smile had grown. She stood in shocked silence, as he was lead away. She wanted to ask them why but the words stayed locked behind her lips. His eyes never left hers until he was pushed out the doors, and then those were closed with a loud bang that echoed in the room and in her heart.

Markela was brought back to the present when the bundle of blue fur in her arms yowled its demand to be released. Markela knelt and released the kitten. Settling on the floor allowing her dress to become a pool of dark blue against the pale blue of the carpet.

The kitten slowly began to stalk the tail of its twin, who lay sprawled in a shaft of sunlight that gave it a strange almost ethereal glow. Its tail weaved slowly through the air above its body. Where had the reekat come from? Markela wondered

It was nearly nine years ago when she has returned to her rooms after her lessons. What she had learned had become a forgotten memory but she remembered everything else that had happened that day. She had seen the two tiny balls of fur barely bigger than her palms asleep in the sunlight streaming through the open terrace doors. She knew the doors had been closed, her tutors had complained about her leaving them open while she slept. Markela still slept with them open, she never felt relaxed unless they were open.

She had picked up both of the sleepy eyed animals. When she had knelt and reached out hesitantly to touch them, two pair of golden eyes regarded her sleepily. She had cuddled them a moment before she took them to show her teacher. Both of them had yawned before settling back into sleep in her arms.

Her conversation with Mistress Waverly still remained locked in her memory.

“Child didn’t I tell you to go dress for you garden work?”

“Yes ma’am, but look what I found.” Markela held up her arms full of kittens.

“Great Blue Bonnets and Bells, it’s a reekat!” The older woman had exclaimed with a hand over her heart.

“There are two Mistress Waverly.” Markela had answered burying her face in the animals.

“It’s still a reekat, dear. Reekat are rare, they appear in pairs and merge into one.”

Markela remembered that she has asked Mistress Waverly had she ever seen it happen. Smiling sadly she had answered no and would never say anything more about the adult reekat. She had started looking up information in the Order’s library but she had been warned by one of the Order novices that those kinds of studies weren’t needed. She had left the library, but had snuck back but found all of her information and books gone. It had been one of her first warnings not to cross the Order.

It was strange, how his question was still puttering around in her mind. Who was she? The need to be outside suddenly came over her. Standing up she walked quickly causing her cape to flow gently behind her. Flinging open the terrace doors she strolled out into her private garden. It was on a balcony that formed a porch for the rooms below hers. She could look out over the city whenever she stood at the railing.

Going to the railing she closed her eyes and allowed the wind to dance with the material of her clothes and hair. Peace settled over her like a well-worn gown.

Opening her eyes she met the dark brown ones that had been haunting her. He smiled. How had he gotten out? He stood in the shadows of one of the numerous buildings that housed the important trades for the city. People walked past him, he stood out in the open but no one noticed him. She frowned and gave him her back. After a minute her curiosity got the better of her. She looked back over her shoulder. He was headed out the gate. There were some advantages to having a balcony. She had wanted to see him before he left and she had. She walked back to the terrace doors then stopped. She had discovered that she didn’t feel as bad when she didn’t have to watch the people after they had spoken to her in the blue hall. It helped her avoid the guilt she felt whenever they had to leave with answers that hadn’t met their expectations.

She looked over her shoulder and spotted him again. He moved through the crowds with ease. She didn’t know why but he turned around one last time before exiting. Their eyes met again, he bowed and walked out. Why was he bothering her like this? Who was he and why had he come?

* * *

“Come my lady it’s time to get up.” Shala said, pushing aside the blue curtains to allow fresh air to circulate in the room. She placed the tray of food on the table near the door. All of the openings to the Lady Blue’s canopy bed were closed. Shala sighed the lady must have must have been more upset than she had led the Order to believe. Normally she would arise at the gentle knocking at her door. The last time Shala could remember having to actually enter the room to wake her was almost ten years ago. Shala had been Markela’s ladymaid since they were both seven years old.

They had learned the basic school curriculum together as well as the lady-like schooling together yet each was also learning what pertained to their stations in life. Markela’s being the ‘Lady Blue’ and Shala her ladymaid. Shala had met Markela the first time when they both had been selected by the Order to participate in the testing. Most of the girls that were born on Sadia, that had a branch of the Order nearby, were tested to see if she had any mental skills. Most of the time the Order wanted and had it done before the girls were five years old. If they passed the test then they were sent to different places among the Order to be taught how to use those skills. The most powerful or the ones they suspected of being able to become more powerful were sent to the City of Kyro. There the girls were tested again by being placed in the room of blue. Those who weren’t as powerful but still had some skills then became the servants to the one who the Order named the ‘Lady Blue.’

Shala reached out to pull back the canopy’s curtains.

“Shala who am I?”

Shala gasped at the sudden voice, she looked around the room. Sometimes the blues of the room could hide things and people.

“Why did he ask me that Shala?”

Shala looked around the room. Where was she?

“What do you mean my lady?” Shala asked as she continued to look around the room.

Shala received a snort as an answer.

“I know you know my name.” Markela added.

Shala sighed in exasperation, “Markela why are you letting this upset you? You know they don’t like me calling you anything other than my lady.”
Shala went and sat next to Markela in one of the darkest areas in the room. It was a small window seat hidden by dark blue curtains. It could hide a large man or two slender young women. Shala wrapped an arm around her huddled friend.

“Shala I still can not sleep. His words haunt my dreams.”

Shala still had no clue as to what to tell her friend. There was nothing either of them could do about the situation anyhow. Shala knew that young man would probably be back, but she did want to distress her friend any further than she already was. She knew he wasn’t one to back down from anything, at least she thought he still would have that characteristic. It had been a while since she had seen him.

She had noticed the shock and surprise on the young man’s face as he was escorted out of the receiving rooms. He looked as if what had happened was not what he had planned to happen.

He was escorted out of the Tower by the guards. She had overheard some of the guards say that the young man had spent a few minutes berating himself outside of the gate. He spoke aloud as if he didn’t know he was being watch. Which was probably true. The Order had its watchers posted through out the city and they were loyal to the Order. Shala had never understood why there was so much surveillance was needed.

The guards felt that the young man was just as shocked at his own response to the Lady Blue as everyone else. He wasn’t supposed to come back for another month. No one had told Markela about what happened after they took the young man out. So why was she so agitated?

Shala hoped she could calm her friend down. Shala never had liked how the Order treated Markela when she did not act, as they wanted her too. Shala had been told that was how the Lady Blue kept focus but it just didn’t seem right to her. She remembered seeing the Lady Blue before she became a lady maid and she was treated the same way.

Shala rested her head against Markela’s, “I don’t know what to tell you Marke.”

“The truth.” Markela said solemnly.

“You know I’ve always made it my goal to tell you the truth as I know it.” Shala answered.

This time Markela sighed. She knew they couldn’t really talk in her apartments whenever Shala called her Marke. It was something they had come up with whenever Markela got a feeling that her instructors were not telling her the whole of the matter. Shala would then try to find out as much as she could about whatever it was. Markela left it to Shala to decide weather her knowing something would benefit her or not for know the real truth.
Turning her head she looked at her garden shrouded in its morning glory of the final kisses of some stars and loving warm embrace of the rising sun.

Markela often found herself wondering about the things beyond the walls that surrounded the city. She had learned to suppress her innate longings to question her world. In the weeks since she had seen that young man her curiosity to know had returned full force. She knew that Shala wasn’t a native of the city. Markela had asked Shala if she ever wanted to go home. Shala had smiled and told her that this was home. Afterwards she begun to notice Shala pausing at windows looking beyond the walls, Markela guessed she was looking back home.

Settling in her usual place near the railing she watched as the double suns of Sadia rise. Lately she had noticed that the kittens had begun to follow her everywhere. When she had first discovered the kittens, the servants had told her and Shala that the kittens were seen all over the place. She couldn’t remember but she wondered if they had been in the Blue Room in the main building the day the young man had come.


Shala had too noticed the change in her friend. Markela hid it well but Shala could remember when everything that came out of Markela’s mouth was a question. Their teachers had slowly broken or forced her to hide her quizitive nature. If the rumors were true the kittens held that aspect of her personality for her. Some of the servants told the story of the reekats. Some of them believed that the reekats were evil and could send the lady into the abyss of insanity. What really was worrisome for Shala was the rumor about the kittens murdering their mistress when both of the suns hung together in the sky. It always seemed that “The Lady Blue” always disappeared whenever that happened.

Shala’s mind flashed back to their lessons about Sadia. There were no large landmasses on Sadia. The weather was terrible due to the vast distances over the seas. It was strange how the Order had drilled that kind of information into their heads. Sometimes the Order sent out to help others who didn’t like their policies to those places where the weather was the worst. They were expected to read books and watch holographic movies about the early colonalist. The original explorers had fallen in love with the lush vegetation that surrounded the planet. How they had adored the purple water created by the medium yellow sun and the red dwarf star that circled the planet of Sadia.

Shala wondered if Markela had ever seen the purple oceans of Sadia. They were so different from the springs and fountains that were in and surrounded the city of Kyro. Now that she thought about it Markela hadn’t been outside of Kyro’s walls, since they had been brought here by the Order.

“Shala where are you?” she heard a voice ask.

Shala jumped when she heard Markela’s voice right in her ear. “I’m sorry my lady. I was just thinking.”

Shala noticed that once again in the last week Markela’s voice sounded almost as if she was purring. She knew she hadn’t been that lost in thought to not hear Markela walk up to her.

“Shala do you think he’s coming back?” her friend’s voice held a hint of upset to it.

“Do I think who is coming back?” Shala asked looking at the covered tray.

“The young man.”

“Who Yana?”

“So you do know him.”

“Know who?” Shala was throw off by Markela’s circling and she couldn’t believe that she had said his name aloud.

“Who is he Shala?” That was purred, Shala thought.

More and more Markela was reminding her of those kittens of hers. Come to think of it Shala hadn’t seen the kittens in almost a week. “Marke where are the kittens?”

Markela stopped circling and looked at Shala in confusion. “They’re here.”

Shala looked around the room. She didn’t see them in either of their two usual places; Markela’s bed and the sun lit spot in the terrace doors.

“Where Marke? I don’t see them.”

“But they’re here Shala.”

Shala looked closely at her friend. Shala grasped Markela’s face between her palms. Something was different but what was it. “Marke look at me,” Shala said after spending two minutes playing eye tag with Markela.

Shala felt her own eyes widen in surprise. Markela’s dark green eyes now were outlined in gold. “Marke when did this happen? How long have they been like this?”

Sighing Markela closed her eyes. “Almost a week now. I woke up and everything looked different. I couldn’t exactly out my finger on what was different, I felt different.”

“How did you keep others from noticing this?”

“‘The Lady Blue’ is not to look in the eyes of anyone except those who ask questions in the blue room. My eyes show them things that they aren’t ready to deal with,” Markela said as she pulled away from Shala grasp. She strode over the window. Cat popped into Shala’s head as she watched Markela’s movements as she began to pace.

“That’s a lie and you know it.”

Markela laughed. It was tinted with sadness. “You and I do but how many others are willing to look me in the eye. It’s not like they would notice. It goes against the Order.”

Shala could add nothing to that. Both young women continued life as normal. Another week passes nothing more is said changes are ignored. Markela and Shala both do their best to keep Markela’s agitation unnoticed by the Order. Ignorance is sometimes considered bliss but this time it probably would have been better they had paid more attention to the Order.


The Order had been keeping the both of the young women under surveillance. The Order had come to a decsion and it was that Shala was a threat to their plans and she need to be informed of her transgressions.

Markela found herself surrounded by energy. It was strange; it was building up to something, what it was she had no clue. It had that storm feeling to it. When it hit you weren’t sure if it was going to be good or bad. The tension was almost tangible, a living breathing entity. She found she had to keep reminding herself that nothing was going to jump out at her from the shadows.

* * *

He was here. She didn’t know how she knew but she knew her was back. She quickly left her room and made her way through the winding hallways of the Tower. She paid no attention to the servant who quickly moved out of her way. He was here. He was here had become a chant in her mind as she was pulled towards the front of building. Shala had found him first. After the two of them had talked about the changes Markela had noticed in herself, Shala had agreed to find the young man.

Yana’s here, Markela felt whispered across her mind. Just his name caused her to want to know more. Where had he been what had he seen while he was banished from the city? Her longing to go beyond the walls of Kyro has intensified since she had spoken with Shala. Markela smiled She knew she could always get the truth with Shala around.

She wondered what Shala would think of the letter she had received earlier today from the Order. Markela had noticed how there always seemed to be a member of the Order watching her. She wanted to know what they had planned for her. They wanted something, she only heard from them unless they wanted something or they felt she was not acting appropriately.
The letter had been one saying that she was in need of more training. Markela snorted as she rounded another corner. What more could they train her in? What she knew was nothing real useful, especially when what they wanted to teacher would alienate her even more that she already was.

Markela skidded to a stop in the doorway. Shala stood just inside the doorway on the opposite side of the room. Shala looked up and met the eyes of her friend and smiled. “My lady I have brought you a gift. The Order did not like that you demanded him as a gift.” Shala had a small smirk-ish smile on her face.

Markela vaguely heard her friend’s words; her eyes were riveted to one thing-Yana.