VIII. Preparations

The Tailor’s arrival is an important event, enough for the Lady in Apron to make us work together.
Until tomorrow night, we monthlings will have to clean every corner of the orphanage as well as ourselves.
She also gives us personal tasks to complete before the selection, mine being to clean the cellar by myself, alone.

The Lady’s intentions during the preparations have always been a mystery yet to be unveiled.
She makes us look appealing, hides our bruises, cleans our wounds if we have any, and sometimes even mends our music boxes with whatever she can find in the orphanage.
All of those acts make us less likely to be chosen by the Tailor; it is as if she were truly trying to send as few monthlings away as possible.

It is during the Tuning Ceremony that monthlings are supposedly bought nonetheless, or so I have heard.
That is the reason behind the rules she wrote: for us to behave according to society’s standards and hope to someday be purchased.
Therefore, why would she work so hard to prevent us monthlings from finally escaping her responsibility?
It would be foolish to believe that she could grow attached to us or feel anything other than hatred after all she has made us endure.

Usually, only half of the selected return once the ceremony comes to an end.
What is truly concerning is that this half never mentioned anything about auctions, exchanges, or sales that could explain the disappearance of the others.
Still, they do.

Thoughts aside, I am done cleaning the cellar.
I descend to the second floor where Febry, whose duty is to dust the rooms, currently works.
The majority of the other monthlings are cleaning the bathroom and the dining room.

While stepping down, a detail occurs to me.
With Mayth being absent, no one should currently be passing by the Lady in Apron’s bedroom, giving me an opportunity to enter without needing to break in; only, obviously, if that opportunity presents itself at the right moment.

Taking everything into consideration, the amount of time at my disposal to get my hands on the flute is much shorter than I expected.
And even if I managed to steal it, I would not know how to conclude the deal I made with Mayth, due to the lack of information I have about both her location and my necklace’s.

“Is everything alright on your side, Febry?” I ask.

Febry is not a very talkative boy, although he is far more open to discussion than Decy ever was.
His face is covered in freckles, he is red-haired, and touched by the rare condition known as vitiligo.
I rarely speak with him, but whenever I do, he always finds a way to make me laugh.

“It could be worse to be honest, I could’ve been the one cleaning Jurny’s room!”

I giggle.

“Do you require my help with anything?”
I ask.

“Nah, I just finished the biggest part, but thank you though!”
he answers.

“Hey, the ceremony being in a few days means it’s almost time for the new arrivals period!”
he points out.

“Yes, and the ceremony comes with the possible departure of some of us.”

“Yeah… you’re right.”

“Tell me, Febry, how is Mary feeling about the recent events?”

“Well…”
He hesitates.

“You know how easily she gets influenced by others, especially Jurny. She’s also a huge coward, but that’s nothing new. She believes what he said earlier about you.”

He looks at me with a touch of panic in his voice.

“Eeeh, don’t worry though, I know you’ve done nothing! It’s common knowledge that Jurny has always hated you. This is just too good of an opportunity for him to accuse you of anything, haha!”

He keeps going.

“Sorry if I didn’t defend you too. I was too afraid to move because of the situation and… what happened to Decy.”

His honesty has always been something I appreciated about him, making our rare conversations relaxing and valuable moments.
If he had a bit more confidence, he would surpass Apry in many ways.

“Do not worry about that matter, I am used to such behavior,” I reassure him.

Betraying his honesty is something difficult for me to forgive myself for.
I would feel relieved if I could tell someone the truth about the events.
But I cannot afford to lose the few things I still have left.

I nod to him and walk toward the stairs.

“I have a message for you,” he says in a more serious tone.

I turn back to face him.

“What is it, Febry? And who is the message from for them to not say it directly to my face?” I ask.

“Yesterday, Mayth told me to tell you something.”

My heart beats faster than usual; stress returns to my limbs.

“I don’t know what that means, but she said: plant the sprout in my garden, I’ll put the rope around your trunk.”

He chuckles.

“Since when do you two garden together?”

I nervously giggle.
Her words are simple enough for anyone with context to understand, and misleading enough for those without it.
Yet I am concerned about her ability to honor her words, considering she said that before knowing what would happen next.

“Thank you for delivering the message. I must be going now, see you soon enough, Febry.” I smile at him.

I walk toward the bathroom searching for the Lady in Apron.
I discreetly glance inside, but she is nowhere to be seen.

I descend the stairs again toward the first floor and approach the dining room, yet again, she is absent.

“Why aren’t you working?”

The voice startles me.

“L-Lady, I was searching for you.”
I turn toward her and bow my head.

“I have finished the duty you assigned me. I was seeking another one.”

“Why such motivation all of a sudden?” she asks.

“It has been six years, my Lady, and not once have I been able to participate in the ceremony. By showing you my enthusiasm, I hope to become one of the selected.”

“Hmm…”

She seems skeptical of my fabricated speech. I had no better idea to ease my next request.

“If I may ask, Lady, I still have my broom and towels ready to be used. While searching for you, I walked past your room and noticed no one was cleaning it. If you would allow it, I volunteer to make cleaning it my new duty.”

She does not appear suspicious of the request itself, but rather of it coming from me.
If she refuses, I do not know when another opportunity to enter her room will present itself.

“Agreed. I better be able to eat off the floor. Mayth was conscious about it and never disappointed me. I hope you will work harder knowing that.”

With that said, she enters the dining room to inspect the work done inside it.

There, I have it. My opportunity.
I can almost feel the retrieval of my necklace getting closer.

As of now, all I need to do is clean her room better than I have ever cleaned anything in my life.

The Lady in Apron’s room is located at the end of a corridor to the left of the first-floor stairs.
It is far enough from the monthlings’ rooms on the same floor to avoid being disturbed in any way.

As I walk toward it, I feel pressure weighing down on my shoulders.
I fear failure and its consequences.
The cost of searching for my necklace is already a burden heavy enough to carry.

I push the door open.

Her room is smaller than ours. Empty shelves serve as decoration, no books, no pictures, no fancy objects.
A bed rests beside a window overlooking the garden, and a desk stands nearby with a quill resting beside an ink pot.

Her desk is the most elaborate piece of furniture in the room: tiny drawers on its sides, a glass-protected shelf in its center, and behind the glass, amidst various letters and books, a white flute.

Various emotions fill me the moment my gaze locks onto it.
Relief, for I have finally found the object of my search, and along with it, doubt.

The flute rests behind protective glass.
It is a sight the Lady in Apron sees every time she enters her room, meaning its disappearance would immediately be noticed.
But that is only the first concern I have about it.

The glass appears to be locked, fortunately by the use of a key, but I have never seen the Lady in Apron carrying one.
She either always keeps it on herself or hid it somewhere; if so, I dearly hope it is inside her room.

Yet even if I find a way to successfully steal the flute, I am the last monthling to have entered her room.
I would become the only suspect.

Some time passes as I scrub every corner of her room while thinking about the solutions available to me.
Only one could truly save me, but it relies far too heavily on luck.

My selection for the ceremony and my sale during it.

It would remove me from the Lady in Apron’s reach for the rest of my life.
I would never have to face the consequences of stealing the flute and would hopefully retrieve my necklace as well.

I have until the Tailor’s arrival to steal the flute, meaning I need future access to her room.

I open the door and examine the locking mechanism.
Naturally, it is on using a music-box certainly tuned to her note, but the locking logic itself remains identical to any ordinary lock: a metal piece preventing the door from opening by sliding into a hole in the wood.

I know a way to prevent it from locking.

I reach for the trash bin beneath her desk and gather old letters she had thrown away.
Out of curiosity, I attempt to read one of them.
As expected, its contents are hidden; she left not a single readable word upon it.

I tear the paper apart and form a tiny ball from the scraps.
I then place them into my mouth to soak them with saliva.
The ink spreads its bitter taste across my tongue. I have had better meals, but this is necessary.

Once wet enough, I repeat the process until I have a ball large enough to fill the hole and prevent the metal part to slide in it.
I quickly glance outside to make sure there are no witnesses, then shove the wet paper inside it.

A one-time trick to prevent the door from locking.

Now, the only remaining condition to start my plan, is my selection.