Chapter 002

My cousin is an asshole but I can be one too

Spending time watching someone else’s life can be boring… even if, in this case, technically it’s my own life. I can’t say I’m enjoying this but relatively speaking it’s still better than darkness - or the Trespasser’s company. About a week ago my host had his third birthday and since that one feast two years ago he never let me in charge. It seems that I’m not yet strong enough to force my will on him. But thankfully he understands the language now and because of that, so am I, even though here in the darkness I still can’t make up most words spoken in the outside world due to noise and distortions. He actually learnt it amazingly fast, despite not being interested in talking with anyone.

As much as I understand from that blurry soap opera of our childhood, we’ve spent most of our time in our room with a nanny. I haven’t seen my father even once all this time, as he’s probably too busy kissing grandpa’s ass. From my guesses, and eavesdropped snatches of gossips between my nanny and other slaves, I deduced that after seeing me acting - again - mentally impaired after the feast, he lost all interest in me. As for my mother - she never had any interest in me to begin with. This family is seriously wonderful. And oh so full of love and affection…

And so, I’m free to do… absolutely nothing. Watching my host’s life is basically the most boring and unentertaining thing I’ve ever done, but beside it being the only thing to do here, it actually might come useful later since it lets me gather informations. For example I finally learnt my new name - Varth Veles of the proud Veles family. The slave traders…

If only the ever present nothingness of my current whereabouts wasn’t so annoyingly insolent this… limbo-like place might’ve actually been enjoyable. No such luck. It’s unsettling not to feel anything. No body, no physical vessel, no senses. Only low contrast and resolution screen-like vision and sounds seemingly emitted by an ancient radio… There’s literally nothing for me to do, except for mindlessly observing my host’s dull and tedious life.

It’s boring for me, but for my host… well, his life isn’t easy. Even slaves laugh at his condition straight to his face. It’s pretty pathetic as they vent their frustration on the only member of the family who can’t do a thing about it. Only his nanny and one or two others actually treat my host like a human being. Well, it looks like a situation where a kid was bullied in the past and now is taking his aggression out on someone smaller and weaker, which might actually serve as a good summary of human civilisation. Cynical, I agree. Although I still intend to remember the faces of the offenders for… future reference… let’s call it that, for now.

However today something’s different. Usually my host is free to play in his room all day long but today his nanny is taking him somewhere. I finally have a chance to see some of the family mansion or residence… Yes, my host spent the last two years in his room… alone… and he didn’t mind. In fact, he was quite happy about it, as much as I can tell. I kinda envy him this innocent happiness. Especially since my current isolation is the main reason of my boredom. I’m not even surprised that he was left alone like that. Probably family just wanted to forget about him… It’s only my luck that I’ll have to make them remember. Anyway, right now, after crossing the atrium and entering what I assume is a separate building in the back of the family holding, we’re going through the door that seem to lead to our destination.

It’s a rather small room with a big, heavy looking wooden desk in the middle, a single chair behind the desk, and big tomes and rolls of parchment filling every space on the shelves along the walls. It seems to be a cabinet or an office of the greying baldy patriarch. He looks nearly the same as I remember from the feast - only with a few new wrinkles, and greyer hair. To my surprise already in the room are also my father, uncle and cousin. It’s a chance to slip myself in control of my host’s body! In the presence of other people he seems to become too nervous to fight back. And after just one try my suspicion is confirmed. No resistance whatsoever, as if he desperately wanted to escape somewhere else.

Looks like they were waiting only for me. Nanny exits the room after leaving me to sit near my father, yet he doesn’t even acknowledge my presence. And now, when only family members are left in the room, baldy begins talking. Thankfully, now I can understand local language.

“The two of you surely know why I called for you today.“ Judging from the fact, that he’s looking disapprovingly at my father and uncle I guess he’s talking to them. “I am slowly getting tired of your little games and schemes. I chose to tolerate them for so long because you kept them within the family, however recently I heard rumors that you started looking for backers in other Families and the Temple.”

They both seem like they want to fiercely deny his accusations but one look from him… and they withhold their protests. Looks like grandpa’s right.

“If you really thought, that they would help one of you become the head of this family out of the goodness of their hearts then you are more retarded than…” This time it’s him to hold his tongue but not before stealing a quick glance towards me. I love you too, grandpa. “Such actions are irresponsible and may become a threat to the future of the family. Truly, you should be ashamed of yourselves.”

His sons, even though they’re old enough to have children of their own, now act like a pair of naughty boys getting scolded. Well, I have no idea what’s this all about but… serves them right, ha! I expected the scolding would continue but unfortunately there was a firm knock on the door and not even a second later it opened.

The woman that comes inside has typical family looks - hair so dark navy blue that nearly black and blue eyes. She looks slightly younger than my father. 25-30 years, at best. I must also admit that she’s quite beautiful. She gives a vibe of a… um, ice-cold beauty? Probably preserved her pretty face by not showing on it any emotions, just like now. She deliberately ignores patriarch’s sons and hands him some papers.

“Here is the trade agreement with Firellians you ordered me to negotiate. I’ve managed to convince them to lower the tariffs for our goods but only by a slow margin. The last thing needed for this to become official is your signature, uncle.“ He gives her a weak smile and looks through the papers, reading them in detail, all the while nodding approvingly.

“I will sign it after I’ll finish this current… business. Thank you, Iverie.“ My father’s and uncle’s eyes are filled with hostility towards her. I doubt that she could miss it so she must be deliberately ignoring them. She keeps standing there, seemingly waiting for something.

“You should learn something from her. Instead of making petty little schemes she is actually doing something to benefit our family.“ The patriarch returns to scolding. They look angered and quite… hateful, but not really towards him. For some reason I have a feeling that she is the one scheming here. She’s just a few orders of magnitude better at it than my father and uncle.

Well, looks like they aren’t the only candidates in the line of succession. And I guess they just lost quite a few points in today’s competition. At the same time I too don’t like her, but any reasoning as to why is unclear to me. It’s just my guts telling me she’s not to be trusted or something…. Not because she can take my father’s position - which wouldn’t be good for me - but because she looks… deceitful? Arrogant? I don’t know where that feeling’s coming from, but something in me is screaming to avoid turning my back on her. And I’m inclined to listen.

Well, if she’s doing it deliberately - I mean trying to compete with grandpa’s sons - then it definitely means she’s an ambitious one. And - what I find particularly unsettling - she also looks twice or thrice as intelligent as my father and uncle combined. Another huge obstacle for me. Damn it…

“Back to the topic. “ Grandpa continues. “This… ‘feud’ of yours must come to an end. Instead of never ending attempts to undermine each other's position - which are constantly a source of problems to our ENTIRE FAMILY - I am going to make you cooperate. And you better pray I won’t divide our assets after my death between you two. And Iverie. She at least focuses on work, so maybe our family won’t end because of you halfwits.”

Ok, they don’t look angry anymore. They’re terrified. Or rather they feel both feelings at once but are too afraid of his reaction to get ‘visibly’ angry. Now that’s authority! Iverie, at the same time, hides her feelings behind impenetrable poker face and acts like she didn’t hear anything at all.

“Moreover… it would be hindering if your sons were… influenced by your petty squabbles.” I wonder how much self control it takes to act like my host is a normal kid and a potential successor at that. Well, he is going to be a potential successor - after his fifth birthday when he’ll become me - but they don’t know that yet. I guess it’s just a facade - they ignore ‘my’ mental problems so people outside the family won’t think about me as a weakness. No gossips about ‘the son of their leader having a retarded kid, which most likely means that there’s something wrong with them all’. Incest while everyone in the family looks nearly the same may not be easy to notice, but may result in genetic defects after all. I doubt that this world is grimdark enough for such a thing to come to people’s minds at first, but my family, just like every wealthy group of people, most likely has enough enemies who could spread such gossips.

“That’s why from now on Iar’e and Varth are going to spend most of their free time together.” Grandpa finishes with a wry smile that somehow reminds me of that black bastard. His sons look shocked, my cousin looks shocked, yet Iverie’s face can be described only as an enigma I don’t think I want to solve. All the while I’m amazed. And shocked. The first feeling comes from the fact that with just one decision he managed to punish my uncle for troublemaking but also make my father remember that without him my mental problems would be most likely revealed, which would start very unpleasant gossips about him. The second feeling… well, let’s say that I’m pretty sure it’s one of the ideas that look much better on paper than in real life. “This way they will learn and understand that they are a part of a single family. Which is a lesson you two unfortunately forgot about.”

Both, father and uncle, look like they want to say something, but they missed their chance.

“Uncle, if I may add something…“ Iverie still holds her poker face, even while speaking. Now that’s a skill. Grandfather simply nods. “I can’t help but feel… alienated here. Don’t you think that involving Kiera in those shared activities would be a right thing to do?” Iverie uses ‘I’m a part of family too!’. And… it’s super effective. On grandfather. Other two men don’t look even nearly convinced.

“Your daughter? Hmm, I don’t see why not.”

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“But…” Begins my father.

“She isn’t even…” Tries my uncle. And, involuntarily, triggers my grandfather.

“She isn’t WHAT exactly, son?” Patriarch interrupts. “How many times do I have to tell you, that ALL of us are one family? What does it matter, if she is my sister’s daughter instead of my own? I can adopt her whenever I see fit. I can adopt any member of the family, if I decide that none of you has enough brain to lead this House after my death. And you better not forget it.” Well, I guess my father’s now happy that he wasn’t the one to angry grandfather, huh. Iverie doesn’t react to the scolding, but I’m sure she’s at least laughing out of joy. Internally.

Father and uncle are silent, no longer capable of resisting. And then patriarch delivers his coup de grâce.

“Nothing more to say? Great. You usually talk too much, so this is a change for good. And another thing Iverie could be an example for you. Now get the hell out of my office. I have work to do… and so do you.“ He turns back to his desk and starts once again carefully reading documents he received earlier from Iverie.

So me, my father, uncle, cousin and aunt all retreat from grandpa’s office. I can hear father calling for my nanny to take me back to my room. And while she takes me there my host regains control. I’m back in the… not-so-dark-anymore darkness since the vision is already in full color and starting to look like a low quality YouTube video. It also slowed down to a real time speed and finally I can understand conversations even from here. But it’ll be tedious to wait here like that so maybe if I concentrate I could speed it up? Last time concentrating on better quality gave me sound albeit more like noise, so it might just work. And it just so happens that it does, slightly. I can get it to twice the speed and apparently no more.

Rest of the day my host spends in his room undisturbed but when the next day starts nanny once again takes him somewhere. This time to a different part of the mansion but seemingly much closer his room than grandpa’s office. There’s a lot more slaves on the way there and when we finally arrive it looks like we interrupted a conversation between my uncle and cousin.

“… and that’s why you must be careful. But when no slaves can hear it, you can…”

Oh great, now that sounds… threatening. I doubt their conversation could be about anything other than me - and grandpa’s Master Plan - especially considering the look I receive from my uncle after after he sees me. I had bad feelings about this because of what the older child could do to my young and, well, retarded host. And now I have even worse thoughts about the future for I can see an irresponsible adult actually trying to incite problems between me and my cousin. Just. Fucking. Marvelous.

* * *

Contrary to my expectations, throughout the first two weeks my cousin acted normally. He ignored me all the time. Every day was the same - my host doing whatever he wanted (usually - nothing, as that’s apparently his hobby), while my cousin supervised by a slave was continuously trying to improve his reading skills. He didn’t have lessons here, he was only practicing with some ‘lightly’ written books. Of course… he was always reading out loud.

After the fourth day of his nearly never ending monologues with terrible pronunciation I began to hope that either he or his father actually tries to kill me. If not for the apparent happiness of my host - as no one bothered him - and his strong grip on our body I could actually kill myself just to end that torture. Well, maybe I exaggerate but recently I’m quite easily annoyed. Especially when it’s about my cousin or uncle. Actually, I think that even my host rather dislikes the latter one but I have no idea why.

I also met Kiera. She’s a year younger than Iar’e, and… she looks like a younger version of Iverie. Same hair color, same eyes and similar facial features. The only noticeable difference being that there’s no ‘RUN FOR YOUR LIVES’ feeling when she’s around, and she’s at least ten to twenty years too young to be able to hold a non-stop poker face. In about a dozen years she’ll grow into a beauty, at least as long as no one feeds her with poisonous mushrooms as a part of some family intrigue.

I understand why Iverie wanted to include Kiera in this cousin bonding time… but in reality she’s absent most of the time. She shows her face around here every two or three days. And even then, she barely opens her mouth. No pronunciation trainings. She mainly just reads things. And guess what? She doesn’t need to do this out loud. So she’s already far superior to Iar’e in mental terms, which… isn’t really that hard to be honest. No wonder she acts arrogant and looks down on us.

Then, at some point, the problems began… During the first two weeks we were constantly monitored by slaves, but after that time they gradually became less and less… strict. They were still close enough to hear us if we started shouting or something, but there was no longer someone in our room all the time. That gave my cousins a lot of opportunities to do… things.

At first those ‘things’ were rather small, and done mainly by Iar’e. Angry looks when my host made louder noise or let’s say ‘uncool’ words about him and his ‘problems’. But it escalated quite quickly, and after just a few days without supervision he threw a toy at my host when he accidentally dropped something to the floor. The next day, when the situation repeated, he used heavier ‘ammunition’ - a wooden piece of something that looked like a jigsaw puzzle. Kiera was with us that day and she did nothing, just shook her head and returned to reading. Not like I’ve expected any help coming from her.

Host’s reaction is always the same. He just hides in a far corner of his mind, and locks himself there. And as the bullying progresses he gets more and more passive. And momentarily I’m nearly in charge of our body. I think I’m still quite far from actually getting full control since I’m not the one deciding to step in, but at least I can kick him out of the darkness in which he hides and force him into the spotlight.

At some point Iar’e even tried to pick on Kiera. I can only guess that she somehow made him angry by acting superior - and when she’s younger than him! Unforgivable crime, really. At least for the kids this age. I barely noticed that something was happening before the things escalated. When their behavior caught my host’s attention Iar’e was already pulling Keira's hair, while she - with tears in her eyes - was repeatedly hitting him with her fists. All of this accompanied by loud quarrel with arguments on the intellectual level of ‘MY MOM SAID THAT YOUR DAD IS DUMB!’ and so on.

Host actually seemed like the smartest kid in here, and simply moved to the far corner of the room. It made me wonder who’s really retarded. If I were in control of the body I would roll my eyes and sigh loudly, but in the darkness I couldn’t even do that.

Apparently slaves heard the noise, came inside and separated fighting kids. Kiera immediately demanded to be escorted back to her mother and they obeyed. I was left alone with furious Iar’e. Thankfully before he could unload his anger on me, dread of incoming consequences took priority. We didn’t have to wait long as after half an hour or so, his father came in, visibly pissed. I doubt if he even noticed my presence there. Iar’e ended up being spanked for picking a fight with Kiera. ‘Even though I told you not to do that.’ Yeah, right. Why didn’t you forbid him from doing the same thing to me?! What sort of father are you… oh, right. A bad one.

The next day Iar’e looked like he received the punishment yet again, so I can only guess that Iverie told grandfather about his behavior. Grandpa got angry and lashed out on Iar’e’s father, who then ended up venting frustration on his son. Being sent to orphanage suddenly started looking like a better option than staying in this family. Honestly, is there anyone around here who likes - I am not even saying ‘loves’ - someone other than himself?

I’ve spend most of the time hiding behind my Host. I felt sorry for him, but I doubt if I could believably mimic his mental problems. And the last thing I wanted to happen was me suddenly kicking Iar’e in the balls after being hit by one of his projectiles... And then, a day after the fight, I suddenly got a lovely idea. One that could be done safely, especially because Kiera was absent.

Today I’ve let host’s mind slip back into the darkness he’s so familiar with the moment Iar’e started his bullying routine of throwing things at me. And now, in full control of the body, I’m just staring at my cousin with a scary look on my face. I hope I’m looking at least like a creepy possessed child from a C-class horror movie. I try to keep staring at him without blinking or at least doing it as rarely as possible.

He notices me after a short while but doesn’t pay me much attention. No matter, I just keep it up like this for a while.

About twenty minutes later I finally get a response. He throws another toy at me, luckily it’s nothing heavy. It takes plenty of self control to avoid breaking my stare, especially since he managed to hit me right in the face. But the effort pays up, for a second there I saw a glimpse of satisfaction on his face, but now he seems confused. After looking at me like that for a short while he goes back to playing with his toys.

However he can’t help but looking at me from time to time. On his face I can see some fear slowly building up. Staring at him like this is painfully boring, but it’s much better than watching my host from the darkness. And now, when my boredom pays up, it actually gets interesting. Unfortunately our ‘bonding time’ today is ending so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to continue.

* * *

Waiting for the next day to resume my ‘fun’ was hard but now I’m eagerly waiting for my cousin to do something. I need a pretext to get in charge and start staring at him again but he, as if remembering what happened yesterday, doesn't really want to give me one. Also… Kiera’s back. They didn’t really talk with each other even before the fight but now they’re taking this cold war all the way up to eleven. Thankfully, after an hour or two of my host’s standard behavior, Iar’e comes to him and pulls a toy wooden horse right out of his hands.

My host’s standard reaction would be a moment of apathy and then screaming like a madman. Fortunately I can use that apathy to let him back off into the darkness where he’ll calm down and won’t fight back. Without my intervention, host’s loud reaction would attract slaves who would then come and take us to our room. It happened a few times before because my host sometimes screams without any reason when outside of his room. But, as I resume my yesterday’s act, smug on my cousin's face is quickly replaced with a bit of panic.

“Wha… what are you doing, you creep?” He throws the horse back at me but doesn’t use much force and I’m able to catch it mid air before it hits me. With a corner of my eye I can see Kiera in slight shock watching me from the side. And slowly, still staring Iar’e, I put the horse down on the floor. “Stop it! Stop staring at me!” Now he’s visibly afraid of me. He moves to the door while still looking my way. Then he leaves in hurry. I glance at Kiera. She is much more resistant to my actions, but a combination of a blank stare, bending my neck a little, and a weak but creepy smile finally does the trick. She leaves the room, but in a much more graceful way than Iar’e. The very second she disappears, I kick my host back in control of the body. He immediately resumes playing with the toy like nothing happened.

“I’m telling you! There’s something wrong with him!” I hear my cousin shouting in the corridor. Not before long he’s back in ‘our’ playroom with two nannies, and an unknown family member.

To my cousin’s surprise what they find isn’t a creepy possessed child, but one which acts completely normal. He’s trying to persuade people he brought in, but to no avail. The looks on their faces can be translated to ‘yeah, you’ve got us this time, but know that this wasn’t a good joke’.

Of course they didn’t believe him. I mean, who would? When he finally notices that fact, he acts surprisingly quickly. He says that he feels ill… and quickly leaves the room.

I was left alone again for about an hour. And now I have more visitors. This time it’s Kiera, some slave, and surprisingly - my father. He looks mildly pissed.

“Did you do something to your cousin?” My father says, although I can see that he doesn’t really believe that I could answer him. He sighs loudly. “You can’t do that. I have to punish you.”

Wait, I’m going to get spanked? Is he serious? Wait, what is he…

He took one of my toys and gave it to Kiera. And then left. Seemingly believing that he’s done his job.

Kiera is left absolutely speechless. Even the slave probably not really understanding the situation still looks like he witnessed something unbelievable. Hell… if I was in control right now I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from shouting ‘Are You Fucking Kidding Me?!’ after my father…

But who knows, if this was the results I achieved after only two days, this ‘bonding time’ might actually be fun.