I sat there, bored and restless, at a small tea table in the corner of the room.

Dad had been acting weird ever since we left Jillbeck’s Crossing, and even now that we’d finally reached our new home, he was acting stranger than ever.

I looked behind me where he and a butler were talking around a coffee table.

I thought we came here to see his dad… My grand-father I guess… But here I was instead, bored, at a table, while dad was working on something weird while looking at paper as if those hid some kind of hidden meaning.

I looked back to the window on my right. The view wasn’t very impressive, especially for a castle. All there was was a bit of a garden and then a wall… Maybe it’s because we’re on the first floor, but it’s still very disappointing, and didn’t help with my boredom.

I leaned back on my chair and stared at the ceiling for a moment before bringing Darkie above me.

[What do you think, Darkie?]

“I think we should explore the castle!”

[Explore the castle?]

“Yeah! Maybe there’s secret passages somewhere!”

[Oh!!! We should look for those!]

“Yeah let’s go!”

I got up from my seat and headed toward the door.

-I’m going out to play!-

I signed as I passed by and continued walking, but before I reached the door the maid at the door poked my shoulder surprising me. I looked up and saw her pointing back behind me. I turned around and saw dad motioning for me to come back toward him

I furrowed my brow, annoyed, but still walked up to him.

-What?-

I asked him.

-Where do you think you’re going?-

-I was going out to play.-

He made a perplexed expression.

-Can’t you play in here?-

It was my turn to look at him strangely.

-There’s nothing to do in here. I’m bored.-

He hesitated for a moment before turning and asking something to the butler. This one looked pensive for a moment before nodding and saying something back to my dad who finally looked back at me.

-Okay, you can go and walk around, but you see that nice lady over there?-

He signed before pointing at the maid who was still standing by the door.

-You have to hold her hand the entire time you walk around.-

I felt my cheek turn red in embarrassment and annoyance.

-I’m not a little kid!-

-I know, I know, but there’s a lot of people around and the castle is very big. If you get lost, it will be very difficult to find you.-

-I won’t get lost!-

-I know, but just in case…-

-I don’t wanna!-

-Silika. You will hold her hand or you’re staying in here.-

He signed sternly.

I bit my lower lip.

I felt ashamed that I was being treated like a baby, but I also didn’t want to be stuck in here.

-It’s only for this time, right?-

I asked, hesitantly.

-Only until the guests are gone.-

I looked at him, confused.

-There’s guests? Aren’t we the guests?-

He smiled awkwardly.

-No, this is our home. The guests are… Well… I guess they are your cousins. Or your second cousins technically.-

I raised an eyebrow.

-What’s a second cousin?-

I saw him let out a small sigh, putting me in a bad mood. I should be the one sighing from all this!

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Out of spite I let out a very noisy sigh which seemed to amuse the butler on the other side of the table.

Embarrassed, dad rubbed his eyes and faced me properly.

-A second cousin is the child of my cousin.-

He tried to explain, which didn’t clarify much at all.

Seeing my confusion he reiterated.

-Okay so, grandad had siblings. These siblings, so MY aunts and uncle and YOUR great aunt and great uncles… uhm… Like uncle Ḿrḷt !-

-Uncle Cook? He’s not my uncle?-

-Well, yes, but he’s also MY uncle. Anyway, so Uncle cook’s children are my cousins, and his grandchildren are what we call second cousins…-

This all sounded very complicated for something that really shouldn’t be…

-So uncle’s grandchildren are here…?-

-Well, no. He was my mother’s brother. The guests we have are from my father’s side..-

He stopped for a moment to try and structure his explanation.

-Okay so granddad has a brother and a sister. His brother, Sebastian, died a long time ago, but his children and grandchildren are here. Granddad’s sister is still alive and she and her daughter are also here…-

I looked at him with an empty expression.

That was a lot of people to keep track of.

-So… How many second cousins do I have?-

He hesitated and looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully as he counted on his fingers.

-Uhm… Well 4 second cousins, I think… But there’s also some other more distant family. I guess you could call them third or fourth cousins, and I think there should be about 7 or 8 in total…?-

I looked at him with utter confusion.

-And they’re all here?-

-Yes. And their parents, and some of my other cousins without children I guess… I’m going through the list right now, but there’s at least 20 members of our family visiting right now… As well as some other people-

I rubbed my eyes trying to make sense of all this.

I had been under the impression that it was just me, dad, granddad and Uncle Cook… I didn’t know we had such a large family.

-Why?-

I asked him incredulously, but, to my surprise, dad’s expression grew darker.

He said something inaudible before signing to me.

-I’m not too sure, they’re visiting Granddad I guess.-

He signed the words confidently, but his expression was all but.

He was lying to me or at least he didn’t want to tell me the truth.

-Anyway, you can go now. Remember, hold on to the maid’s hand, alright?-

I nodded, too stunned to continue arguing.

I have cousins, and a lot of them! That’s the last thing I was expecting to learn today… I wonder why dad doesn’t look too thrilled to have them as guests?

I left the room with the maid and she began walking with me through the halls.

It was my first time in a castle, but I could already tell it was very different from a manor. For one, everything was made of stone, which was probably obvious, but there was also something about how the rooms were spread out. While the manor in evergreen, in Clotop or even the ones in Lowland, were built mostly in length, following singular hallways with rooms on either side. This place was built wide, which gave a feeling of safety, but it also made the place much darker. Because of that, some rooms were built with large windows ending in a sharp point. It somewhat reminded me of a church window without the stained glass.

“Any secret passages so far?”

Darkie asked as he dangled from my hand.

[Not yet, I’ m not sure how I’ll find t…]

The maid stopped suddenly.

I looked up at her, confused, as she looked back at me with an equally confused expression.

I tilted my head waiting for her to do or say something, but then she simply made a sorry expression as she said something.

I shrugged, and looked back to the front. Maybe she thought I was speaking to her.

We reached the main castle hall. It was the largest I’d ever seen. It was built on three floors with curling staircases in every corner leading to the upper floors. You could probably even hold a ball here from how large it was, but right now it was filled with all kinds of people, either simply walking through or going about their business sitting about and talking to each other.

Dad wasn’t exaggerating, there were a lot of guests here right now. Maybe some of those were the second-cousins he had talked about?

As we were walking by, a well dressed older woman sitting at a table, sipping on some tea, called out to the maid who stopped in her tracks. The woman asked the maid for something, but this one shook her head in response before motioning toward me while explaining something.

The woman frowned strangely as she looked at me and motioned for us to come closer.

The maid didn’t hesitate to walk toward the woman, but I held back causing the maid to look at me with a confused expression.

I couldn’t say why, but I felt as though talking to this woman was a mistake. She had those suspicious eyes adults had when they weren’t sure they liked something.

The maid looked at me with a nervous and perplexed smile. Obviously she wasn’t sure how to deal with this situation.

The older woman yelped something which made the maid stiffen as she uttered apologies to her before turning back pulling on my hand strongly with a guilty expression, pinching my skin, forcing me to follow her.

I was about to let out a wince as we came to a stop a mere foot away from the noble woman.

Without hesitation she wrapped her bony cold hands around my jaw and pulled my face toward her. She scanned it over with a look of disdain for a while, moving my face from side-to-side.

I felt frozen in place, unable to even move my lips or hands in protest, shivers running all throughout my scalp and down my spine.

Who was this woman? What did she want and why was she looking at me like a bruised apple?

I could feel her nail dig into my lip as she pulled my head down to observe the top of my head, making me wince in pain and a ball well up in my throat from the fear welling in my chest.

As she did this, she seemed to be uttering something to herself and when she finally pulled my head up and stared into my eyes she asked something to me, which instinctively made me close my eyes as I expected her to slap me any moment now.

Thankfully, the slap never came as the maid responded for me.

The old woman looked at her in disbelief before looking back down at me with a frown and finally letting go of me.

I instinctively started rubbing my jaw, trying to wipe away the chilling print her hand had left on my skin.

She asked something directly to me again, but, unable to answer, I looked up at the maid expectantly.

She seemed to have regained the composure she had lost a moment ago and calmly answered the woman’s question.

After what felt like an eternity, the woman finally dismissed us with a simple wave of the hand, which only stoked the growing resentment I had started to feel toward this rude woman.

The maid quickly bowed her head before we walked away.

Relieved, but also increasingly angry I glanced back at the woman behind us.

Greying red hair and blue eyes were pretty common around this place, but somehow her face felt familiar… Where had I seen it before?