Well, this happened. Right now Celestine and Sylvianna are sitting next to each other on a couch that probably cost more than their house. The entire room they were in looked like it was ripped straight out of the Titanic. The wall was solid wood. The banisters up the staircase to the second floor and around the balcony on the upper floor were decorated with patterns in wrought iron and gold leaf set in the wood. The stairs were a combination of probably brass and a white stone tile. The floor of every room we've seen was marble with regal rugs to decorate the floor. The architecture was... poor. I hate this building. It's supposed to be a mansion, and it's certainly big like one, but from the outside it looked like just one giant rectangle house and the inside was just as uninspired. The various furniture and decorations were just a distraction.
Oh, about the events of the other day? Nothing really big happened after the old man spoke to Celestine and Sylvianna. He explained that because of the mixed results from having three conduits, there was no way to figure out her magic affinity until she starts practising magic. Affinity is the branch of magic most suitable for the individual. There are apparently several types, light being one of the most common, but he didn't go into too much detail. Sylvianna and the old man talked a bit about her future and then she took Celestine home.
That actually would have been a good time for her to tell her mother about what she wanted to do, but perhaps she wanted to keep it a secret considering the results of the ceremony. First person in the world with three conduits and she wants to be a painter. That's like someone with the knowledge to cure cancer and world hunger at the same time wanting to perform on Broadway instead.
After returning home, her mother made dinner. After eating, Celestine saw her mother writing a letter and sealed it with a wax seal that she's never seen her mother use before. At least it looked like wax. It was black as tar, though. The next few days, Sylvianna was finally telling Celestine more about the city they lived in. The name of the city/town/village, whatever you want to call it, is Arture. There are about ten thousand humans living in the town with a few snake beast-men mixed in just to experience human life. It isn't a socialist city-state like I initially thought. People do have to work for a living or they go hungry. There is a thriving economy. The reason Sylvianna doesn't need to work is because of a certain arrangement with Celestine's father. I'll get to him in just a bit because all I have is speculation. Sylvianna wouldn't go into too much detail because Celestine is just five years old.
Anyway, Arture is a few centuries old and has been independent because of the relationship with the local controlling beast-men tribe. They are lamia, or at least that's how I am going to translate it. Lamia are snake people. Top half human, lower half snake. And they are extremely territorial. They've maintained their control of this temperate-desert region of Izaibis for longer than Arture has been here. Arture has been allowed to develop because of a certain product a single family can produce. Anti-venom. A lamia's greatest attack is it's venomous bite. Unfortunately, you can't exactly sell dead prisoners of war into slavery and they aren't well developed in the field of alchemy. So in exchange for being allowed to develop the city and the lamia's protection, the head family provides the lamia tribes with anti-venom with the guarantee to the recipe's secrecy.
Why is this relevant? Well, Celestine's father is the current head of that family. I was hoping for her father to be an adventurer or a soldier or something. Nope. Now I have to figure out the game of nobles and their politics. Sylvianna said to Celestine that her father didn't want her, her being Sylvianna, so he does the minimum by giving her support. A house, a monthly allowance. It was partly lies from what I gather and even Celestine figured that much. Whenever her mother was trying to bend the truth, she never looks her in the eyes.
Frankly, I don't blame the man. Celestine is the epitome of a meaningless existence. Whether Sylvianna was his wife, a maid, a concubine, or whatever she did before she was knocked up was irrelevant as soon as the results from Celestine's birth were known to him. Probably inheriting none of the potential he had hoped for, he disowned them, and not to raise a stink with the populous, he still supported them quietly. I still don't know quite how culture works in this world. For all I know, Sylvianna could have been a mistress and she blackmailed him so she wouldn't tell his wife. Though that sounds unlikely considering it would have just been easier to kill her and Celestine in that circumstance. This is the only human city for miles. Actually, does Sylvianna have any living parents? She's never taken Celestine to go meet them. Maybe no one would miss Sylvianna or her bastard child?
Okay, I'm getting a bit dark here. Obviously that didn't happen, so there's no reason to fret over it. What is happening, however, is we are currently sitting across the coffee table to a man in very expensive looking clothes. Serpentine green coat that looked like it was woven from leather of a snake. That was a bit morbid considering the snake people are currently supposed to be your allies. But I suppose it's like how humans see monkeys. Why would a lamia care if a human wore the skin of its lesser kin? Why would we care if a snake man suddenly started wearing gorilla-hide? Anyway, the snake coat was double breasted with two lines of golden brass buttons, though he didn't have them buttoned up. He had a black vest on under the coat with a white undershirt. He wore a pair of green pants that were probably dyed to match the coat. Overall, this man did not match the interior of the house at all. Maybe that was intentional. Give him a green zebra-patterned fedora and a gold cane and he'd look like a pimp. His brown hair was cut short enough that it stuck up wildly. He was clean-shaven. His brown eyes looked between the letters he was reading and Celestine. He looked young. Maybe five years older than Sylvianna? Sylvianna looks roughly 20, by the way. Still haven't figured out the length of a year in this world.
I wanted to keep looking at the room we were in, but Celestine's gaze keeps going back to a boy eyeing us from the second floor through the railings of the banister. A sibling maybe? She has no memory of him. No memory of her father either, so that makes sense.
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The man made Celestine incredibly nervous, so she didn't speak a word and just let her mother do the talking. From her inner thoughts, she just kept going on about how she wanted to go home. I wanted to reassure her, but I promised myself after finding out the system voice I made was probably the cause for the third conduit that I wouldn't interfere in her waking life any more unless she specifically called for me. And I made that clear to her in the dream she had the night after the ceremony.
When Sylvianna had first entered the house with Celestine, there wasn't much of anything to say, really. Both adults knew the circumstances. They just greeted each other coldly by saying their names. His name was Daemon, by the way. No translation, that's how it is said. They use a different word for the demon-kind species, so there's no relation there.
He tossed the papers onto the coffee table, making Celestine jump. "Well'p I've decided!" The man declared. He turned to look toward the banister and shouted, "Hey! Sullivan! Get your >#@$< down here and greet your older sister and her mother!" He had a booming voice when he shouted at the boy, who's name was Sullivan. He immediately ran away as soon as attention was on him. "Ahh, >%$&##< it boy! Sorry ladies, one minute!" He leapt to his feet and ran up the stairs, skipping every other step. This man was a noble? His stride up the stairs looked ridiculous.
Actually, no, would noble be the right word? There was no kingdom here. No one to grant nobility. Just a few rich folks who did work that warranted their pay check. This man was not a noble, he was rich. And he was eccentric. Celestine looked up at her mother, who was wearing a silly looking grin. What was that about?
The sound of screaming could be heard echoing upstairs before the man reappeared with the boy over his shoulder limp in defeat. I don't think I want to know what happened up there.
The boy's outfit was rather plain compared to his father's. Just a tan vest, white shirt, and tan shorts. Celestine's outfit was just as plain. A blue corduroy one-piece dress that stopped at her ankles over top an off-white shirt with sleeves that ended at her elbows. This was actually the best outfit she owned. Her mother was wearing a burgundy gown that went below her knees underneath a white tunic with sleeves cut just above her elbows. I don't think they have skirts in this world, or at least in this area of the world. When the man got back to the couch, he lifted the boy off his shoulder by his collar and stood him up in front of Celestine about a meter from the end of the couch.
The man got down on his knee next to the boy, put his hand on top of his blonde hair and spoke, "Now, introduce yourself."
"I-I-I-I'M S-S-SULLIVAN TANENTT!" The boy hollered with his father bearing down on him.
"Now now, Daemon. He's about to wet himself. Is this Kari's boy?" Sylvianna said, her silly smile never wavered.
"Aye. She disappeared right after he was born. As soon as her legs could carry her, she left me with him."
"I guess she wasn't as >$#^#!*#@< as she thought she was, huh? Ahh he looks just like her. Even has her blue eyes~ Are you sure he's your son?"
">@^&%$&#< if I know. Guess we won't know till he's 12 and they do that ceremony on him. He sure as >@^%#%< doesn't have my personality!"
"What a loss." She said sarcastically. "Well, pleasure to meet you, Sullivan. I'm Sylvianna and this here is my daughter and your half-sister, Celestine." Sylvianna said, placing her hand on top of Celestine's head.
This boy was incredibly shy. He was shaking with all eyes on him. It was pitiful to watch.
"Well, with the introductions out of the way, let's get down to the main topic!" He brought his foot up to the coffee table and forced it out from between the two couches. He let go of the boy, then crawled over to Sylvianna's lap. "PLEASE MOVE BACK IN WITH ME! SYLVY! I BEG YOU!"
"Huh?"
Celetine's voice sounded when this scene erupted and I couldn't let my thoughts go silent either, though only Celestine would hear that.
The man was grovelling and crying at Sylvianna's feet. I have no idea what kind of past they had, now. All previous theories are out the window. I think most of the words he spoke before that Celestine didn't understand were profanity, and the word Sylvianna spoke might have been something like 'infertile'. Sooo, did this guy have a two-girl harem at some point and Sylvianna was a member of it? Then she left to take care of Celestine only for the other member of his harem to take off after the birth of their son? I don't think Celestine is going to get the whole story until she's older, if at all.
Sullivan's mouth had dropped at the sight of his father acting like this.
"Hmmm, Celestine, dear, why don't you go with Sullivan and play somewhere?" She was ignoring the man and focussed on the two children in the room.
"O-okay..." Celestine uttered, scooting herself off the couch and walking over to the boy. She grabbed his hand and pulled him aside. "Um, do you have a library in this big house?"
"Uh- Uhm ah, y-yes, u-upstairs." Super shy. He responded in a whisper
"Show me!" Celestine said excitedly, grabbing his hand into both of hers and looking into his sky blue eyes.
Celestine spent the rest of the day in the library reading books and reading to this new sibling she got while the sounds of a grown man screaming and crying echoed downstairs. Lalalala, that's none of my business...
During the next couple days, Sylvianna and Celestine moved into the mansion. There were plenty of empty rooms. Celestine took two, one for sleeping and changing and the other for her own personal library. She still wanted to keep her books separate from that man's books. Sylvianna slept in her own room to the dismay of her daughter's father.
Also, Celestine became Celestine Tanett. It seems this series of events would have happened regardless if she was gifted or not. From what Sullivan told her, their father was prepared to beg her mother to live with them and part with any sum of money to do it even without the letters from the church and Sylvianna. Sylvianna only had her daughter's future in mind. She had refused to take the name Tanett, though. I won't ask.