Fayolla's Fire: Sparking Change in Treva

I turned to the mirror and adjusted my dress. My skin was a deep brown and my hair was tightly curled. I was wearing a golden necklace with two small discs that fell just above my breasts. I had never seen anything like it, but it looked nice so I kept it.

"You look lovely," said my father. "I'm proud of you."

I smiled weakly in response and continued to examine my reflection. I was anxious about being in the city today and meeting Lord Pruso and his family. My father had told me repeatedly that this meeting would be important, but he wouldn't tell me why. He only told me that I would need to be on my best behavior, as if he sensed that something was bothering me. I sighed and tried to shake it off. The last thing I needed was for them to see me as a scared little girl, especially if it meant that they'd take advantage of our family's debt.

"Father," I said, turning towards him, "I want you to know that whatever happens today, I want you to know that I am proud of you too." My voice cracked slightly at the end of the sentence and I cleared my throat before continuing. "I can't thank you enough for taking care of me all these years."

He looked down at the ground before looking back up at me with misty eyes. His hand reached up toward his scarred cheek as if he were trying to remove his eye patch one more time before he caught himself and let his hand fall back down to his side. He walked over towards where I stood in front of the mirror, reached out and gently ran his fingers along my face while smiling softly at me.

"Thank you," he said sincerely before walking away from the room without another word. As soon as he left the house, I felt a slight tear escape from my eye and run down my cheek. We had lost so much in our lives but somehow we always found a way to survive because we had each other. But now... now we were going to be disowned from our people if this didn't work out as planned, leaving us alone without any friends in the world except for each other.

After wiping my tears away, I left the house and started walking towards town square where everyone had gathered for our meeting with Lord Pruso's family. Some people gave me odd looks as they passed by because they knew what was going on; most of them have been at least peripherally aware of our situation over the last few months since my father took out this loan from Lord Pruso's father when they were both very young men who could barely keep their families fed after their wives passed away during childbirth together. But they didn't need to treat me like some kind of animal either; after all, nobody liked being treated like an animal even if they were one themselves sometimes!

When I finally arrived at town square, there were people everywhere standing around waiting for something to happen like there had been rumors about this event for days now and even though nobody really knew what was actually going on between our families, everyone seemed prepared for something big to go down today because their attitudes so far hadn't been particularly friendly towards anybody who wasn't part of their group or family unit which consisted mostly of young children who hadn't yet become aware that life sucked sometimes and couldn't do anything about it despite how much somebody might wish they could help them not suffer anymore than they already did on a day-to-day basis running things here in this district while most adults went out into the city every day doing work for wealthier people elsewhere in town instead of home taking care of their own families so that nobody had to feel sorry for them when nobody else really cared about anyone else's problems because everyone had their own problems!