In short order, the intriguing reeve is sent on his way by my fast-acting uncle, who has appeared now as if suddenly gaining the power of teleportation. He has no right to be here, let alone throw my guests out of the estate.
I consider the means at my disposal, but without any proper servants, let alone guards, still living, I have no one who can remove the man from this house.
Should I try and talk sense to him, it would only devolve into an argument. My uncle acts as he wills. The rotten man has no respect for anyone but father, and even then, it’s a tenuous thing.
With father gone, the man is sure to throw around his rather sizeable weight, and already he’s making it clear that he thinks of this house as his own. By right, this home and all the lands and titles of my parents are passed onto me as the direct progeny of my bloodline, yet here he is.
The man glares down at me with the sort of hunger I’ve seen from other lesser nobles wanting to rise above their station, not satisfied with their place in the world. It isn’t anything beastly, he’s not quite so low, but it’s not a noble quality that shines in his eyes.
“An awful thing to have happened,” he says, though he doesn’t even try to disguise his smile.
While my disgust for him is nothing new, was he always so brutish as this?
Was I always so cold as to focus on such things? My family lies dead, but my eyes are dry, and I feel no passion in my still chest.
The least of the changes that have taken me, but uncle has no such excuse for his own behaviour.
Even still, his greasy smile comes as no surprise. Born into noble blood through a mis-sight of the divines, they cursed him well in turn.
I don’t know the putrid details, but his ill scent is something born from his own sickly nature. A sickness of his guts, that has left a hole in his oversized belly that drips with his ‘droppings’. I honestly can’t stomach the thought of it, and if I ever see it for myself, I’m certain that I’ll vomit.
“Quite awful indeed,” I say, meeting his eyes. “So why have you appeared here in my home, and with such a large entourage at that? I’m sure you understand that I’m not in such a position as to be entertaining guests, so I’d ask that you leave me to my mourning. A few months in the darkness should see my heart recovered enough to entertain you and your family.”
“I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving you to suffer this tragedy alone. Why that reeve walked in from the streets with the intent of laying the blame at your very feet, what would you have done without me?” He says, shaking his head in feigned sympathy. “I’ll properly ensure that your estate and lands are tended to until your engagement can be settled.”
“My engagement?” I ask, “I can recall no such arrangement. Now, I ask that you take your servants and leave.”
“Oh, no. I don’t think I will,” he says, his fat lips curving upward, “You aren’t yet of age.”
“A few months is nothing so considerable,” I say.
“Oh, I think they are, and I know others who would agree with me. Do not worry, I will care for your estate with great care until your marriage is fully arranged. My son is in need of a wife, he’s kind-hearted and I’m sure that he’ll treat you properly.”
“My cousin? He’s barely five years old.”
“Six, actually,” uncle says, huffing a short laugh at my expense. “Now, my servants are preparing to take care of this property, and I’ve called for a proper reeve to look into this matter. Just stay quiet and in your room until a proper lady’s maid can be found to take care of you.”
I blink, staring up at his pudgy face, waves of indignity flow through me from my toes to my scalp. Æther flows through my veins, guided to a proper flow by instincts forced into me.
My eyes burn with magic as I glare at the face of the pig before me, but though he takes a step back from me, he quickly recovers from that moment of weakness.
“If you wish to discuss the issue then you may bring it up over dinner, but I’m sure we’ll be busy discussing the deaths in the family. It would be quite unpleasant should distasteful rumours persist, so it would be for the best if you were to restrain yourself.”
He says as much and leaves the room while I’m still working to formulate a reply that wouldn’t involve any cussing. If the man had as much wit as he did confidence, then perhaps he’d be able to get a wife of equal standing at least. Instead, his wife is the daughter of a Knight of all things, with only a trace of proper noble blood in her, and even she has trouble suffering his presence.
A few servants enter the room to tend to the blood stains and the sole victim still lying dead on the floor, a man whose face is vaguely familiar. It seems that one of the maids here is somewhat more familiar with him, her mouth opens and closes like a fish pulled from the sea. She wails like a banshee while clinging to the corpse and covering herself in blood.
It’s… intriguing.
This is how grief is meant to be expressed? How I should have acted upon finding my family this morning? It seems so alien, and… ugly. She howls and whines like a dog, and her face is completely twisted into animalistic expressions that seem truly unfitting for a proper human.
The sight of her, suffering, pained, and despaired, summons a distant longing within me. A thirst that inspires my dead breath to return to me as I taste at the lingering blood in the air, flavoured with the tears of the servant still weeping.
The other maids and butlers are quick to help the crying woman, but the looks that they direct toward me are wholly unkind, and even a little fearful. It just proves that they’re not proper servants, a true maid or butler can be recognised even if completely stripped of their livery, they move with far more dignity and never dare to look at their masters as these do.
I suppose a noble of filthy blood would only surround himself with servants that are as counterfeit as himself. What a terrible state for this house to degrade to. I really must find that red-eyed fiend and see that he is properly disposed of, but first I must deal with uncle and his family.
Noblesse oblige. Even now, even cursed to be burned by the sun, I still carry the responsibilities of the blood that was drained from me.
A noble must always act as a noble. They must ensure that their peasants are fed and protected, they must be ready to answer the needs of the kingdom, and they must stand and act always with proper noble bearing and dignity.
I cannot let my house be filled with such unsightly cretins like my uncle. Such creatures must be returned to their proper place, and for far too many surrounding me today, that place is buried in the manure fertilizing the roses outside.
Setting down the awful tea, while considering the conundrums that will be born from this change to my noble self. I head out to greet the rest of the roaches that are settling into my home.
“Oh, Tina. Are you okay? Were you injured at all?” My aunt rushes at me, wrapping me up with her frighteningly muscular form. Her heritage as a Knight’s daughter couldn’t be clearer than right now in the cage of her pulsing muscles.
“Aunt Newark,” I say, pulling away and curtseying to her, hoping that it might be enough to have her realize that this is a house of civilised nobles, even if most of them are still splayed on the dinner table.
“You look alright… How did you survive?”
“I was lying among the dead,” I say, “It seems the killer thought my pale complexion a consequence of injury. How glad I am of my beauty, that it could protect me in such a way.”
“Oh, I’ll need to bring you out and show you how to use a sword and a spear,” she says, ignoring me. “You have to learn to defend yourself, but don’t worry. I’ll be here to protect you if that awful monster ever comes back. No, if anything happens, I’ll come to protect you.”
“Then I’ll take the chance to escape in the moment that you busy him,” I say, turning to the boy clinging to her tree-trunk legs. “This boy is my husband-to-be, then?”
“Oh, did Lucien say that already?” She asks, blushing bright. “I’m really not sure about all of this. I mean you’re cousins and he’s so young…”
“Yes, well uncle is an unseemly sort. You should know that better than most, sharing his bed,” I say, kneeling to get a look at my young cousin.
He hides his face from me, hugging his mother’s leg.
“Do you want to come out for a walk?” My aunt asks as I stand.
“No, the sunlight is dreadful for my skin,” I say, stepping away and leaving her to tend to her business of taking over my home.
“Are you sure? You shouldn’t be stuck in here, especially not while we’re still cleaning, and the reeve is still investigating,” she says, but I only smile and nod.
“I’m quite fine,” I say, leaving her to deal with her young cretin.
Ordinarily, I’d be able to call upon some of father’s knights to help me deal with this infestation, but it seems as though something has delayed them. Perhaps they don’t think me worthy of my title, or maybe they’re waiting to be called upon. I’ll have to see what’s delaying them when I have the chance.
“Just… so much to get done,” I say as a servant pulls the curtains in the hall.
I catch her by the hand before my skin can go from red to bubbling, and I close the curtains again.
“Leave all the curtains closed at all times of the day,” I say, meeting her eyes and glaring at her. She squeaks a quiet reply, that doesn’t make much sense, but it’s not a refusal.
“I am the Countess, and this estate is mine. You will do as I say.”
//Due to character limits most chapters are split in two, they'll be released together, just treat them as one chapter when reading//
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