5- Edwina's Invite

                                        

                                              
Edwina's hands were shaking as she looked at the formal invitation that arrived for her. It was thick, perfectly bleached white, and the ink used to engrave the letters glittered with an almost metallic sheen despite being black. The university had invited her to display not only her non-magical paintings, but wish to have Master Gentileschi evaluate her magical ability. While Lord Daro would always have her utmost gratitude, and likely love, Edwina was mature enough to realize she needed a true Master to help elevate her own abilities. Master Gentileschi was a renowned artist from the Republic of Yang, and if she could impress her, Edwina may be given a spot at the university despite her age.
It was an ambitious desire, but likely far more probable than her unrequited love for her first mentor, Lord Daro Korolenko, ever being fulfilled.
She'd always had a talent for the arts; Edwina could sing with Alaric and Derbie, dance with Hida and Calvin, and embroider with Farran. Only Gavin lacked any artistic talents to share with her, his skills instead all in the kitchen, and Edwina, her real talent shined when she could paint. There was something inherently magical about being able to capture the look and feel of a place with her brushes, and it had nothing to do with the actual magic she could perform.
Her parents had always encouraged each of the siblings to pursue their passions, and Edwina had grown up with teachers before Lord Daro ever became her mentor. She had learned the delicate spread of watercolors, the acrid stench of oils and dyes, and the endless slick trickery of trying pottery before she discovered a limit to natural talent. She could do landscapes and still life, but struggled to properly paint people as they actually were. So, her parents had found the youngest son of the Korolenko Countship, Lord Daro, and hired him to mentor Edwina as he was a professional portrait artist. She was 16 when he arrived, and father had jokingly called him her birthday gift, a fact her heart took all too seriously.
Lord Daro was 10 years her senior, a fully grown man and one of the few men she knew who openly wore glasses; she found the metallic frames quite appealing on him. From the moment Edwina had first seen his face she'd been able to paint it perfectly, and from there she learned to paint others in portrait perfection.
She also learned how her magic worked.
Her task at the time had been to paint a perfect duplicate of a bouquet of flowers he placed in front of her. Farran would have known what each individual flower meant but Edwina was trying to convince her heart to calm down because Lord Daro had brought her flowers at all. He'd been her mentor for a month, and she knew he wouldn't look at a child with interest, no decent person would, and still his mere presence sent her pulse fluttering.
But then her body and mine calmed.
All of a sudden Edwina looked at the painting she'd done and realize it had an impossible depth to it, like she could easily reach out and pick up the bouquet she'd fabricated. She didn't even realize that Lord Daro watched as she did just that, reached into her painting and pulled out a bouquet of flowers. It was a good thing too, because that first sign of her magic quickly failed, melting back into wet paint all over her hands. He'd excitedly helped her clean the paint up and explain her magic to her parents, his pride in her leaving Edwina buzzing with adrenaline. Usually, one's magic was a private matter unless it was the type to be showy by its very nature. The fact that hers would be showcased but that Lord Daro had seen at first fed into her little girl crush on him.
She had never told him, Edwina was a silly little girl but she knew it would only make him uncomfortable. But her heart rejoiced when his contract to mentor her was extended another six months so he could continue to help her. And he sealed his fate as her first love when he shared the private details of his own magic so she could feel at ease learning about hers. Lord Daro's magic was the ability to pull objects, even without touching them. He explained that while she could reach into her paintings and pull an item out, he could look at an object and pull it to his hand without moving himself. And to her delight, once Lord Daro had told her of his magic, he hadn't hesitated to demonstrate it around her either.