Feeling sorry for keeping most everyone locked up, I released the complete lockdown, allowing for full internal access to do their work. I kept up the lock on no external travel or communication, at least for now. Mainly because I wasn’t sure of what to do about the proliferation of news leaving Fastidious House.

Releasing the full lockdown also meant that Red Frog and Hope could have others helping them in the baths, with that help not being me. Despite my bravado with Exalted Pine, what I wanted to teach them was making me uncomfortable. Maybe I should get Exalted Pine to deal with it.

The other thought I was having was just why I was pushing so hard for Red Frog to see Tier Three as people.

With Red Frog and Hope going to the baths by themselves, and Exalted Pine taking care of the toddler and the pregnant twelve-year-old, I was left alone with the eleven men of the Core Twelve.

Not knowing what to do with them, I took them to the chapel and removed their goddess related traits, added security features, and changed them to adaptive trait mode. I asked if any of them wanted any of their other traits changed or removed, but none of them were sure, so I left their traits alone.

I then sent them to do their normal daily activities, leaving me alone. Not having anything else to do, I headed to the top of the tallest tower in Fastidious House. Since I had come back to Fastidious House, I hadn’t had time to just be and just be alone.

Yes; things had turned out well.

Yes; things seemed like they were progressing well.

Yes; I had fallen in love with Exalted Pine and had enjoyed our time together. Both our private and public time together.

But I hadn’t really, fully, emotionally accepted that my Brother had died. I knew it was true, even if I hadn’t seen the evidence. But up here, right now, even though I knew my brother was dead, I could still feel his presence near me. It was this tower we had climbed when he told me about our father still being alive. Maybe it was because of the memories of that chat we shared up here, or maybe it was because the snow-capped mountains and the vast forests in the distance seemed the same as they had back then.

Whatever the reason, I felt closer to my Brother in this moment than I had before in my life. Looking back on all of our interactions, even though he seemed open, there was always a sense he was hiding something.

I allowed myself time to just stand up here, leaning on the tower wall, thinking about my Brother. At times, the lovely air distracted me. There was none of that overpowering perfume which others swore was essential.

Bringing my thoughts back to my Brother grew harder and harder each time I grew distracted. Finally, I stood up straight, easing my poor back and sore arms. I allowed myself to be distracted by the air and the grand landscape of snowcapped mountains, forests in the distance, and seemingly endless grasslands which were supposedly part of Fastidious House. From this angle, it was hard to see the Tier Three settlement and the farms. It was easy to see the sprawling mansion and the small town within the stark grey walls. Most of the land within the fortress-like walls of Fastidious House had been walled off to allow for future growth.

Just what was my father thinking when he created Fastidious House the way he did? None of the other Houses I visited were built like this, nor did my body’s memory have any sense of other settlements like this. They often had many walls isolating the older core settlement from the newer settlements. Not just this, but there seemed to be more thinking behind the scenes that made little sense. For example why did such a small House such as ours need such a grand and sprawling mansion?

Until a moment ago, I just took it for granted. But if there was only a single wall around an enormous expanse of land, why then was our mansion so big right now? Most, if not the majority, of the rooms were kept locked up except for the occasionally cleaning.

Father did say that he did as the Oracle asked in bringing us up. In that case, was the layout of Fastidious House impacted by the thoughts and directions of other Oracles. Or, maybe, he some sense of his latent Oracle remained even though the trait no longer existed.

If he had been impacted by Oracles, then what of my Brother, did he know his life was at an end?

Until now, I would never have thought so. But being generous in looking back now it makes at least little sense, especially as during that walk he gave so many hints and clues as to things which would help me: things like the Key.

But some of them didn’t really make sense to me, even now. Maybe if he’d said something, I’d paid more attention.

One thing which really was strange was that I had never met my Brother’s lover, nor had Red Frog or Exalted Pine. From my marriage lessons, and the memories of this body, lovers were often kept around in the house the same as wives and mothers. A subtle, unwritten lesson I picked up was that if a husband or wife couldn’t look after a lover, then they didn’t deserve to have one. But from the sense I got from Red Frog, she wasn’t jealous about whom my Brother spent time with. And my mother normally lived elsewhere, so my Brother’s lover didn’t need protecting from her.

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Which meant that there was a reason the lover needed to be protected beyond… Maybe… No, it couldn’t be a Tier Three, could it? I wasn’t sure. However, it was likely that there was someone hidden within Fastidious House who… Why did it have to be within Fastidious House? My Brother hadn’t been shocked by the state of the Tier Three settlement. At the time, I put it down to the fact that he’d been through there many times over the years either by himself or with our Father.

But had I missed something back then?

The stench of the manure overwhelmed me, but he seemed to ignore it. A reaction that most of the Tier Three who lived outside the walls shared. Further more he had walked off towards the large pond, before stopping.

He laughed the mistake off, saying he wanted some fish to take with us, but the catch would happen at a different time. Back then, he told me he would normally wait for the catch before departing.

But the catch didn’t happen and hasn’t happened over the past few days. I knew this because there had been no fish piled up waiting to be delivered.

So if it wasn’t fish, why did he head in that direction?

Was his mistake a genuine mistake, or was it another hint he gave me to decode at my leisure?

The only thing I could really do was to see if there really was something my Brother was leading me to in that direction.

Ignoring my empty stomach, I trudged down the multitude of flights of stairs. I then headed towards the tower, which led out to the Tier Three settlement. The large chamber was similar to how I had seen it last, but now there were two crude guardsmen sitting on a bench looking bored. They looked similar, a bit like younger and older brother, with their clothing pulled tight over their rounded belly—the first overweight people I’d seen in Fastidious House—and their dirty blond hair. The older one looked like he was in his late twenties, whereas the younger looked like he was slightly older than me, probably about eighteen.

They made to stand up as I walked through.

‘At ease,’ I told them. But they were still looking uncomfortable. ‘Did my Brother come through here often?’

They looked at each other, the younger of the two, then sheepishly looked up at me. ‘He ordered us never to say anything to anyone, but on the day he left with you, he told us it was okay to tell you if you asked about it.’

I nodded. ‘Thanks. What do you do during your shift here?’

‘Nothing,’ the older one said. ‘Other than making sure any Tier Three is dropping off what they are quotaed for.’

‘And is there anything you would like to do? I’m guessing your shifts are quite long and tedious.’

‘But we cannot ask that of you. We are doing our job, and we’re not allowed to do no more than that.’ The older of the two said.

‘Well, I’m in charge now, and that means things will change. So please tell me, what would you like to do during your shift?’

The two brothers looked at each other. Then the younger one blurted out, ‘it’s like what the witch said would happen.’

The older brother quietened the younger one. ‘We’re not meant to talk about her. It’s why we got stuck in this job in the first place.’

‘But she said this would happen.’

‘When?’

‘Uh, when I snuck out to look at some of the beauties out in the field last summer, you know when they worked without their clothes on… She caught me,’ he blushed and snuck a glance at me, ‘umm, she caught me and told me that things would change. That maybe I would be lucky and able to pick her as my wife. You see, there’s this real good looker, great figure, lovely bright blond hair the colour of the sun, and I swear that she looks at me whenever I’m around.

‘I never sampled them, I swear, I just enjoyed, uh, looking at them. That’s all.‘ He looked at me earnestly, before blushing and looking away. ’Mostly. But, I never touched them. Never!’

‘That’s okay.‘ I said, happily. Here was proof that at least some people saw the Tier Three workers as people. Which would make it easier for me to start integrate them into society. ‘What I would like to know is where do I find this witch?’

‘She lives somewhere near the lake, not sure where though, I never sought her out. But your bro always headed in that direction, didn’t she?’ The younger one said.

The older one nodded.

‘So you’ve finally come to find me then,’ a strong feminine voice called out. I looked in the voice's direction.

There, standing silhouetted in the doorway against the bright spring day, was an insanely sexy elf wearing little but straps over her private areas. And she was holding a large rounded, pregnant belly in her hands.