Chương 39: Chapter 38: Navigating the Household

++I had quite a simple family as far as the nobility of Garamon were concerned, though it was complex enough to keep me busy early on. Getting the hang of living with others was almost anathema to my very existence. ++ - From the writings of Isabel Vornholt, 'The Great Lich'. 1, 891 A. E I slept well that night, my first night back from Winzorth, for several reasons.

The most obvious was that Vornholt estate was simply more comfortable than even the Institute's fine rooms, and I found myself almost melting into the thick bed beneath me. Needing to sleep as a lich was an interesting experience, because I did not simply lose consciousness the way an unaugmented human mind might. Whether I dreamed or not was entirely my choice, and tonight I decided not to. I let my consciousness drift and felt out for the magical strand connecting it to my phylactery. It was strong, as ever.

And as undetectable to anything but me as it ever had been. I was still safe from total destruction so long as that remained the case. Whether I was safe from returning to the Depths, however, I did not know. There was another thing to study. It seemed there always was another, an endless list of things I did not know about the world. That was fine. I had eternity to learn, and one day I would know it all. I only wondered what I would do once everything about magic was already known to me.

Perhaps I would get into the God business myself, I could certainly do it better than those who currently held the title. Morning light greeted me when I finally awoke, and I wasted no time in getting out of bed, changing clothes, and heading downstairs. I was not surprised to find my wardrobe already stocked with attire that fit me well enough, apparently my parents had somehow gotten the correct measurements before I arrived despite our last meeting being several growth spurts ago. That was no shock.

No, the first surprise of that day was when I found Victoria already waiting outside my room to ambush me as I left it.

"Magic!" she demanded, as if I were a servant sworn to please her.

"Not now," I growled as I tried to step by my younger sister. She did not, the little wretch, allow me to do so, moving to get in my way as I did.

"Magic!" she repeated, more urgently this time.

"Isabel! Magic! Magic!" She appeared to have become so excited now that her grasp of language had degenerated to that of an infant, or perhaps a rabid animal. There would be no reasoning with her. I prepared to finally do as she demanded, if only to buy myself some peace, before a new idea occurred to me.

"I could do magic," I shrugged, "or…I could teach you magic later?" Victoria's eyes could not have lit up more if the sockets had been flooded with fire.

"You can?!"

"Shh," I urged her.

"Yes, maybe I can, but I will need you to promise me that this is our little secret, okay?"

"Okay!" she could not contain her excitement, apparently. That was just fine by me, enthusiastic students only made the process of teaching easier. And I did fully intend to keep my promise, mostly for my own gain of course. It was not fully understood how the power of magic was inherited, but it was known, in this time especially, that magicians were more likely than average to give birth to additional magicians. The child of two magicians was more likely still to inherit their powers.

Neither my father nor my mother had much mastery over the arcane, but father's odd physical ability seemed to stem from untapped potential. And Agrian and myself spoke for ourselves as a result of our parents' union. It was possible, even likely, that the Vornholt family was some freak product of nature, and boasted especially powerful magical talent in its blood. Granted, Agrian the Younger may have just been a random, one-off occurrence, my own birth was hardly a normal one.

But I would not know that without testing to find out, and the best way to test was currently with Victoria. I was losing nothing here.

"Magic now though?" Victoria asked me abruptly. I bit back my irritation.

"You need to learn how to take no for an answer," I told her. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Father doesn't take no for an answer."

"That is because father is a misogynist who thinks he is entitled to do as he likes to women." I could see from her face that I had lost her, so I sighed and tried to translate.

"Do not copy father, or mother. Copy…Copy me."

"Okay!" I could tell she was enthusiastic about the idea, which was just fine. I was clearly the best role model she could hope to have. The best that any child could hope to have.

"Good, then your first lesson is to stop defying my will and leave me in peace. I have things to do. We will probably see each other soon anyway."

"Mother told me to tell you breakfast is ready though."

"Why did you not do this immediately then?" I snapped.

"Magic," she grinned. I would have to one day devise a spell to rid the world of small children, perhaps find some way of skipping that awkward transitional phase between infant and adult. For the time being, however, I was stuck with them, so I merely bit back my irritation and accompanied Victoria to breakfast. Lots of meat and eggs, which was fine by me, and, for once, no sign of my father, which was even finer. What did surprise me more than that was that Agrian the Younger was missing as well.

"They're out," my mother explained as she sipped her tea.

"Out where?" I asked.

"That's no concern of yours, Isabel."

"Yes it is. Where are they?" She looked up at that, sharp.

"You will be married in a few short years, Isabel. When that happens you will need to learn not to pry into your husband's affairs, just as I do not."

"But I am not married," I pointed out.

"And father is my father, not my husband. Where is he?"

"I don't know," she snapped.

"Damn it all Isabel, you need to start acting more like a lady." The only way that was going to happen, I decided, was if somebody removed a large portion of my brain. And even then, I was actually quite sure that I would simply continue puppeting the vegetative husk remotely. Still, it was clear I would not be learning any more today.

Breakfast proceeded more frostily at that, with the tension being broken only by Qaigor catapulting his food at Victoria, ignoring my mother's calls to stop, and Victoria herself retaliating by hurling an ice cube directly into his eyeball.

"Do not defer my will!" she yelled. Putting aside the malapropism, I was proud to see she was learning her lessons so well already. Punishment swiftly followed of course, which was yet another lesson. You had to be ready for the world to oppose you, and know how to handle it.

Agrian was beyond tired by now, and his father barely seemed to be slowing down.

"Just a few more spots," the Baron assured him. He had been saying that for ten spots now, and each one had proven it even more untrue. They were checking with every associate his father had in Lachfel with any significant remaining ties to the army. Family serving as officers, that sort of thing. Checking for information, to verify the news of this upcoming war in Iruchi, Almost none of them actually knew more than the Baron himself, naturally.

They were mostly less connected than even he was, but Agrian Vornholt the Senior was not a man to let a little something like near-pointlessness keep him from pursuing a goal. Nor would he allow his own son's growing exhaustion to have him even pause it. They came to one final spot, one final contact, and once more Agrian was left standing outside while his father entered the room. This time, at least, he came out with news.

"It's really happening," he grinned.

"War in Iruchi, can you believe it?" Agrian actually could believe it quite easily, as far as he was aware the Garamon army shelled at least something in Iruchi every other month. He actually wasn't sure what it was that made this upcoming conflict a war, and everything else mere 'peacekeeping'. But then colonial politics was not among the many topics he studied at the Winzorth Institute.

"We're going home now?" he asked his father, too tired to even bother being polite about it. The Baron glowered at him.

"You sound like a damned child, whining like that. Stiff upper-lip, as I said, Agrian."

"My upper lip is tired, once I've napped and eaten I'll see what I can do with it." The old man just sighed.

"Well we've already made contact with everyone I knew who might have had insight into this, so there's no actual reason not to head back. Save for your whinging I suppose." Agrian didn't laugh, his father was just the sort to keep dragging him around an hour longer purely out of spite. Fortunately, that did not happen. Not this time at least.

The sight of Vornholt estate, in his current condition, was among the most beautiful things Agrian had ever seen in his whole life, and even tired as he was, he found himself half-jogging back to it as he thought of those wonderful matresses. He wasn't even hungry anymore, sleep deprivation overruled everything else in his body. Agrian headed up to his room and collapsed into the bed. Time skipped ahead without any further incident, and by the time he woke up it was well into the afternoon.

He still wanted more sleep, and would gladly have buried himself back in his covers to claim it if it weren't for the incessant knocking on his door.

"What?!" he groaned, silently willing whoever it was to just leave him be.

"It is me." Isabel, he recognised her voice after a moment. Recognised her mood a moment later.

"Don't come in," he growled.

"Leave me alone."

"You need to get up, there are things happening. Important things."

"Like what?" he snapped.

"We are under attack again." Well that got him up quickly, Agrian rolled over and quickly dressed himself, half-stumbling to the door with magic ready as he burst out— —and saw his sister just standing there, fully at ease.

"I was lying," Isabel told him, not appearing even remotely shameful of the fact.

"I needed you to get up. Doctor Brown, he is finally free for us to go and see." Agrian glared at her, and wanted nothing more than to throw himself back into bed. Save shoving his little bitch sister down, maybe.

"You could have chosen ANY LIE!?" He snapped.

"Why that one?!"

"I needed you to be too panicked and energised by fear to go back to sleep after you found out," she explained. Then turned to start walking without another word of elaboration.

"Hurry up, you have already made me late." He could still kill her, Agrian mused. Make it look like an accident perhaps. Such a young girl with all that power, she must have done some dangerous experiment without proper supervision… Still feeling like he'd just been put through a meat grinder, Agrian followed after her. Despite himself, he couldn't quite fight back the excitement as he thought of seeing Doctor Brown once more.