Dorothea cries for what feels like an inexcusably long time, but in reality is only a few minutes. Eventually she wipes her face off on her sleeve, managing to get most of the makeup off her face. Sylvain, surprisingly, is still there, waiting patiently for her to sort herself out. She bumps her forehead against his shoulder once and then straightens back up, sniffling.
"I was tested once before, as a baby," she explains, and oh, does that explain a lot. There's no reason for a commoner like her to have been tested, but he'll know that the children of a noble family (or even children of questionable parentage born into noble households) are always tested, usually at birth. If she'd been tested in such a way, then that means...
"My mother was a maid in waiting in a nobleman's house. She served his daughter, usually--Mama always told me how kind she was--but he had a son, too. His son had a crest, and his daughter didn't, and when his son died in an accident... well. He was desperate to have an heir."
Dorothea goes quiet, looking out over the scenery. Everything seems so peaceful. The irony is not lost on her.
"When I was born without a crest, we were both thrown out. Mama couldn't find work anywhere. He saw to that. No work meant no money, meant no home, meant no food. My earliest memory is picking through a garbage bin for any morsel of food I could find." It's a staggeringly vulnerable thing to say to a man like Sylvain, who is notorious around campus for not taking things seriously, but she knows there's more to him than that. "She died when I was about five."
It isn't her entire life story by a long shot; shockingly, it isn't even the worst parts of her history, but she's not ready to divulge those parts of herself to him yet, if she ever will be. Everyone knows she's an orphan, though. That had been common knowledge in Adrestia, even been used to promote her meteoric rise to success.
"If I have a crest, it means... that man really is my father." She gives a visible, involuntary shudder. "It means Mama died for nothing. It means everything I suffered through was for nothing."
She bursts into tears again, this time leaning on Sylvain's shoulder.
no subject
"I was tested once before, as a baby," she explains, and oh, does that explain a lot. There's no reason for a commoner like her to have been tested, but he'll know that the children of a noble family (or even children of questionable parentage born into noble households) are always tested, usually at birth. If she'd been tested in such a way, then that means...
"My mother was a maid in waiting in a nobleman's house. She served his daughter, usually--Mama always told me how kind she was--but he had a son, too. His son had a crest, and his daughter didn't, and when his son died in an accident... well. He was desperate to have an heir."
Dorothea goes quiet, looking out over the scenery. Everything seems so peaceful. The irony is not lost on her.
"When I was born without a crest, we were both thrown out. Mama couldn't find work anywhere. He saw to that. No work meant no money, meant no home, meant no food. My earliest memory is picking through a garbage bin for any morsel of food I could find." It's a staggeringly vulnerable thing to say to a man like Sylvain, who is notorious around campus for not taking things seriously, but she knows there's more to him than that. "She died when I was about five."
It isn't her entire life story by a long shot; shockingly, it isn't even the worst parts of her history, but she's not ready to divulge those parts of herself to him yet, if she ever will be. Everyone knows she's an orphan, though. That had been common knowledge in Adrestia, even been used to promote her meteoric rise to success.
"If I have a crest, it means... that man really is my father." She gives a visible, involuntary shudder. "It means Mama died for nothing. It means everything I suffered through was for nothing."
She bursts into tears again, this time leaning on Sylvain's shoulder.