Briette
Legacy Name: Briette

"Such talent! What an astounding performance!"

Oh, if only those simpletons knew the truth. Everything about her was a performance, right down to every blink of her eyes and every smile on her face. They saw her as a prodigy, a teenaged musical genius with a kind persona and the perfect family. She smiled and humbly thanked them for their praise. The least they could do was come up with something more unique to say, but it seemed they were so busy using their money that they must have forgotten how to use their brains.

Excusing herself, Briette slipped away from the small group of nobles that had surrounded her. With the excuse of freshening up, she bowed gracefully into the hallway and upon confirming that there were no other occupants, her face fell into an exhausted grimace. The performances themelves weren't tiring at all - she would get so immersed in the music that she could forget all about the crowd before her. It was everything after that was the problem - the socializing, the small talk, the ever present unnatural stretching of her lips to the point where it almost felt as if the corners of her mouth were twitching from the strain. She couldn't stand being in that room for a single second more.

She made her way to the dressing room with thankfully no surprise encounters and quickly changed into plain clothing, ducking out of the room's frosted glass window before her parents could notice her absence. Pulling the hood of her capelet up, Briette made her way down the torchlit streets of the Gemstone District. It was a long walk to the Clay District, but the night air was cool and soothing after the stifling miasma of the ballroom.

With her hooded capelet, Briette was able to blend in with the late night crowd wandering the streets in search of entertainment. Though the Clay District's crowd were less affluent than those of the Gemstone District, they were somehow more tolerable. As she neared the residential areas, the crowd thinned until she was the only one traversing the dirt roads that gave the Clay District it's name. She wound her way through them until she reached the stone wall and wrought iron gates of her destination. The gates were padlocked at night to protect the children inside, but she had long ago learned of the back entrance, a tree close enough to the wall that she could slide across it's branches to the other side. Then it was just a matter of climbing the ladder on the side of the orphanage until she reached the roof.

As usual, Zevi was waiting for her there. Though the roof was slanted, the windows jutted out from it to form flat surfaces upon which to perch. He glanced over his shoulder as she approached, brass eyes sparkling in the moonlight. The breeze ruffled his chocolate hair as he held a finger before his lips and pointed downward. Beside him, Qiu was curled up, his head resting on the automaton's lap. One of them must have had some foresight, because the platinum-haired Keeper had a blanket tossed over him, tucked loosely under his sides. Briette didn't think he looked all that comfortable, but he was sound asleep regardless.

Quietly, she sat down next to them. Upon closer inspection, she could see that Qiu was pale and had dark circles under his eyes. "Rough day?" she asked softly.

"Yes," the tan boy answered. "There must have been a battle somewhere. It was far away, but he received many souls at once, and they weren't keen on passing."

There was no sarcastic response to this topic. Briette knew that the souls Qiu gathered were made up of emotions, and that those who died violently were particularly unpleasant to receive. He didn't mention it often, but she knew that he felt every ounce of their pain, regret, and rage. When so many died simultaneously like that, the pain he felt was as if he were dying himself. He was cursed with the eternal life of experiencing the deaths of everyone else. It was the one thing she found herself unable to brush off with snark. Whenever she thought her own life was painful, she remembered what he had to live with every day.

"How about you?" Zevi asked. "Rough night?"

She sighed, leaning back to support her weight on her hands. "The usual - pretend I'm happy to meet people, smile a lot, love my parents and all that."

"All that pretending must be exhausting. I don't know how you manage to convince the masses that you are a nice person," he responded with a sneer, and she lightly punched him in the arm. She had been hoping to play some music with Zevi - it was amazing what he could play on a saxophone without the normal limitation of breathing - but she could wait another night. The automaton never slept, and she did so only barely. Qiu needed the rest, and as one of the only people to ever accept her for her true self, all faults included, he deserved some preferential treatment.

"Well, they aren't exactly the smartest of creatures. How is the composition coming along?" she asked, looking out across the moonlit courtyard.

"Nicely, of course. I am a genius, after all," he answered majestically.

"I didn't mean to question you, your Highness. You are sheer perfection."

"Yes, dearest plebian. Do continue to sing my praises," he responded in an equally sarcastic and over the top manner.

For the first time all day, Briette laughed genuinely.