Orinthvale Reddamshire House and the Parlour That Let Its Final Chore Go Unfinished

The parlour of Orinthvale Reddamshire House carries the softened outline of a life that dissolved inward rather than broke. A faint trace of cooled tea and stiffened wool lingers above the furniture, nestling into the still folds of cushions whose impressions remain intact years after their last use.

The Quiet, Steady Discipline of Lysandra Reddamshire

Lysandra Reddamshire, tutor of careful penmanship and household arithmetic, lived with her cousin Fenric, a clasp-planer whose seasonal orders dwindled into near absence.

She tended the scribe’s narrow with an attentive calm—slates arranged by difficulty, quills trimmed to equal length, blotters turned so fresh corners awaited the next line. Before lessons, she walked a tiny grounding circuit, murmuring sums under her breath to ease the ache in her fingers. But as Fenric’s earnings receded and her joints stiffened through winter after winter, her orderly rhythm slackened: slips remained unreviewed, ink rims hardened into brittle rings, and the once-precise alcove softened into quiet disarray that mirrored her tired resolve.

The Corridor Where Her Pattern First Broke Its Step

Along the inner north passage, Lysandra’s boots lean against the wainscot, their leather stiffened and unmoving. Fenric’s unfinished clasp-planer blanks lie scattered near the baseboard, edges blunted by moisture. A cracked lamp chimney rests beside a dust cloth she dropped and never retrieved.

The Scullery Yielding to Its Own Quiet Collapse

Inside the scullery, mismatched mugs hold pale stains of dried tea. A chalk-lined kettle sits beside the smoothing stone she once pressed to her sore wrists. A linen apron droops from its peg, its former crisp pleats slackened into soft, defeated folds.

At the landing’s far end rests Lysandra’s final corrected slip—ink faint, margin trembling—beneath a shawl she never reclaimed. Fenric’s last unfinished clasp blank remains nearby. Orinthvale Reddamshire House stays dim, untouched, and indefinitely abandoned.