It was early morning when Darrel went to the Von Haunt estate, as directed by the text from his sister that had shown up out of the blue. She'd sent him the location, and a time to be there, but nothing else. Nothing, after all this time. He wanted to see her - desperately - but something told him that this would not be a happy meeting.
The woman waiting for him at the Estate did not look like his sister.
Her hair, for one, was longer, and she no longer dressed as casually as she did, once. Her belly was rounder, too, and as he opened his mouth in shock, she cut him off.
"We meet today as family heads," she said, loudly. "I formally recognise you as the head of a branch family. "
"What?"
"Come on, Darrel. I'm head of the Charm family now. I'm formally recognising you," she said, a mean little smile on her face. "I thought here, in the ruins of something great, might be an appropriate place to do so."
"Gemma, we're the same damn family!" Darrel took a step forward. "You can't do this. We're a part of the Charm family, same as you - and who made you head, anyway?"
"Mother never wanted our branch of the family to go to you," Gemma said, easily. "Anyone who knew her knows that. She might not have formalised anything, but I have the house, and I have the family - a growing family, at that, so I can."
She smiled at her older brother. "And you know age has nothing to do with whether or not you can take over. She might not have named an heir, but there was never any contest. My family and yours are something quite different now, brother."
With that, she was gone, walking away. It might have been more dramatic had it not had to have been quite as slow, quite as paced due to her belly, but it left Darrel shaken nonetheless.
She had contacted him, for the first time in years, just to deliver the news that he was no longer a part of his own family. It was an old practice, a traditional one, whereby a family line could splinter and spread, in order to avoid infighting. However, what Gemma had done...If she'd done it right, that was, but she'd probably already put everything in place. Both parties had met at a suitably neutral location, she had stated that she recognised his line as a separate one, and he'd not claimed headship...
And if she had, then he was well and truly sunk.
Back at home, Maranda was adjusting her scout uniform.
Being in the scouts was exactly as she'd thought it would be. It wasn't...amazing, and though she was learning skills, it did eat into her free time. She'd met some nice kids, but her attention at the last meeting had been on the Griffin Scout who had joined them.
The girl in question was Ciara Ember, and she'd met her once or twice before. Ciara had been very kind to all the new scouts, and Scoutmaster Pancakes had happily told them all that Ciara was on her way to becoming a Unicorn Scout.
"A Unicorn Scout is there to help out others! So when Ciara is a Unicorn Scout, she'll help me with the Llama Scouts." He'd smiled encouragingly. "Of course, the other Griffin Scouts are just as helpful. That's what being a scout is all about!"
He was a very cheery man, but Maranda had felt wary about Ciara. She knew of her besides just meeting her. She was friends with her sister, but her brother didn't like her at all. And Maranda knew why. Ciara could be an absolute snob about having magic, and she was even more of a snob about being the Mage's daughter.
And then there were the boards. Scoutmaster Pancakes insisted that every scout have a big, unwieldy board where they could pin the leaflets and information that he gave them, along with their badges so they didn't lose them.
Really, it made her feel a bit silly to have such a big thing in the room. Even Rhea had been a bit taken aback.
She sighed. Well, she'd received the 'Sociability' badge at today's meeting, along with another scout, and Scoutmaster Pancakes had seemed really pleased. He'd asked what badge she wanted to work towards next, and she'd chosen Arts and Crafts.
Being a scout took hard work, she supposed.
In the kitchen, Emilia took a deep breath as she looked down at the mess that her youngest had made.
"Donovan, Mommy has told you not to touch the paints." She tried not to think about how much it would cost to replace them. She'd not even had time to change out of her work uniform before Marcus had come running to get her from her room, shouting about how Donovan had taken his things. "Look, it's all over the floor."
Recently, Donovan had been acting out quite a lot, always when she came home from work. The other children - Rhea and Marcus in particular - seemed to prefer to come and get her rather than stop him. She sighed deeply, casting a simple cleaning spell that seemed to be the only magic she cast these days, whisking the paint away.
"Donovan, I'm going to put you down for a nap."
"No! No nap!" he yelled.
"Yes, nap," she said, firmly, carting him off.
As her mother walked through with Donovan and out to the nursery, Rhea tried not to give a little sigh. It was really hard to be around her younger brother when he was being such a brat these days. Mom was at least okay to tell him not to do things and clean it up, but it didn't seem to stop him. Maranda had at least only ever been a crybaby.
She continued her practice. Her violin teacher had said that she was getting better, although insisted that she practice as much as she could, and she had been doing her best. However, she kept thinking about what Chanel had said to her during the break.
"You know, Rhea..." Chanel had said, slowly. "Dad was saying that your auntie has been writing to him formally."
"What does that mean?" she'd asked.
"Don't know." Chanel had shrugged. "But he said that it was going to be trouble."
Trouble. Rhea didn't want to think about it too much, but Dad had gone out earlier and it had been a while since he had come back. She felt worried, and every wrong note made her upset as she tried to practice. Chanel's words played over and over as she tried to concentrate.
What sort of trouble could it mean?
