Lenora
Lenora awoken by the vigorous shaking her maidservant, Felicia, was giving her. She cracked open an eyelid and sleepily looked up the offending party. “Felicia, what are doing? Its only...” She glanced at the ancient grandfather clock standing in a corner of the room. “Six o'clock in the morning.” The look on her maidservant's face caused her stomach to drop like a stone. The girl's face was scrunched in worry and her eyes were alight with panic.
“You have to leave right now, Your Highness! Its the Council, they've decided they want to be rid of ya. They say you don't have what it takes to be Empress, and you should be disposed of.”
Lenora's chest clenched. Her first instinct was to believe Felicia was lying, but she'd known her for years, and knew she didn't have a dishonest bone in her body. She felt her own panic start to set in. “What about High Councilor Julius? Surely he would be against it. He's the most loyal person I know.”
Felicia looked on the Empress with sympathy. “He's the one leading the decision, Your Highness. He's going to be the one they put in power.”
Lenora felt her entire world come crashing down. She remembered how sick her father got out of nowhere, and began to question to the popular theory of it being a heart sickness. Anger seeped into her as she realized who was probably to blame.
“I must go in front of my people,” she said with determination. “I will tell the public what is transpiring, and they will back me up.”
Felicia shook her head in desperation. “The common folk don't care who's head where's the crown as long as food is in their bellies. You have to escape.” She grabbed an outfit that was on a nearby chair and flung it at Lenora. “Put this on. Its my sister's traveling clothes.”
“I can't just abandon my duty,” Lenora said, eying the brown corset short and black pants.
“Live to fight another day, miss,” Felicia said.
Lenora saw the wisdom in that, so she quietly got dressed while Felicia braided her hair. After she was finished, she asked Felicia, “But where do I go?”
The maidservant put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “There is a Scavenger group in the Airship District that is looking for a cook. Betty in the kitchens was going to take it, but she's agreed to let you have it.”
Lenora didn't know who Betty in the kitchens was, so the gesture warmed her heart all the more. “Tell her how extremely grateful I am. But I don't know how to cook, I've never cooked anything in my life.”
Felicia smiled and started directing her out the door. “Just make sure you add salt instead of rat poison and you'll do fine. Now let's hurry up and go.”
She led the empress down the hall and through the Servant's Quarters. They got a few odd stares, but most people were too busy with their work to pay them any mind. Eventually they made it to the servant's exit that took them just outside the palace. Felicia pointed Lenora towards the main road. “Just follow it to the left and you'll come to the Airship District. Go to the Anima Caeli airship and request the job as the cook. And hope you don't get turned down.” She said that last part with a nervous smile.
Everything finally started to sink in for Lenora. She was no longer welcome in the only home she ever knew, and was about to leave everything she ever had behind. She latched onto Felicia and gave her tight, long hug, whispered a quiet 'thank you', then rushed off.
There was a lot of foot traffic on the road that day, so she blended right in with hardly any stares. She knew her way around the Sky District, so she was able to quickly make it to the Airship District. There is where she ran into problems, as she had never been there before. She got turned around several times, and had to ask a dockworker where the Anima Caeli was. She eventually found it, and saw a group of people standing in front of where it was docked. She straightened her back and walked over to them with her head held high, even though inside she was a bundle of nerves. When she spoke the speech she had been working on since the Sky District, she said it with a steady voice. “I hear your looking for a cook. My name Nora, I was a cook in royal kitchens and I would like to come work for you.”