Capítulo 160: Till you smash a hole in it
"Want papa!" a little girl goes relentlessly smacking.
I almost pity the masked guard that holds my adorably violent little sister. Almost. If he's silently wincing in pain now, I sorely hope he doesn't ever taste one of Lily's magical hits when she grows up. Anyways, that's a long way off and I'm a bit busy here myself.
"Bring us to your shady employer, our Father, at once! Or you shall be charged for cruelly handling and harming our delicate rice cake skin, threatening our lives and our fragile ladies' sensibilities. At once! Don't think of kidnapping us in the wrong direction, I will sue you. You cannot afford to be sued!" I smack the one charged with carrying me.
Though I cannot see their faces or expressions, I imagine them to be grimacing in pain. More mental than physical I'm sure. After all, we are so tiny! But it makes me feel a bit better.
I may have been practicing willing away those magical effects, such as what I had done with Cass, but it may have all just been a fluke. The guards show no reaction at all no matter how much I try voiding or smacking.
Well, that's what I get for dreaming too much about OP powers I don't have.
Lilyanne, however, is being a wonderful annoyance, smacking slight whimpers of pain on her guard, even through their hooded armor. You go, Lily!
None of the other escorts look to be having a very fun time. Not with the way Lukas hangs around them, blabbering away. Occasionally he climbs up someone's leg or hops on their back to talk, talk and talk some more. Much to their annoyance, and then surprise when all attempts to shake him off fail.
When the masks do look up, turning to silently motion or communicate with one another, I imagine it to be along the lines of "Get me out of here", "I did not sign up for this", and even "Do you want to switch?".
The easiest position actually seems to be guarding the only verified 'threat', Cass.
She practically seems to be amused, in some ironic fashion. As the most dangerous one here, four guards stand on every corner of her proximity. Yet she takes it easy, walking in cuffs as if she was only playing along and could easily escape at any time. The only real threat and danger, taking it the easiest.
Unless you count the smacking of my and my sister's fists?...Yeah we're not as dangerous as I would hope.
"Oh, I know you! Well, I don't know know know you but I know you! You're the kinda fancy smelling one Amar likes, with the funny music. Hey hey hey what does it sound like? It does ding ding do phoooo~ You're very tall! What do you eat to be so tall? Is it bacon? I bet bacon. I'mma gonna grow up super tall, even taller than Cap! But not too tall I can't live anywhere because that would be sad to smack my head at doors all the time." Lukas climbs someone, much like a pet monkey.
Why he isn't shaken or shooed off is anyone's guess.
Are the guards aware of or afraid of Gable? Do they recognize Lukas in the connection? Who knows? Not me. I know nothing in this household apparently.
Doesn't matter if I lived a short privileged life before this. There are rooms I don't know about under my own damn house, let alone this messed-up family.
To be a little fairer, it is a very big house and property. A lot of space to bury.
It's a bit regretful then, how long my sister and I spent trying to escape this golden cage. We struggled so hard to escape our childhood, our misery, that we didn't look close enough to what it contained. Or how good we had it. The villa was constricting as it was safe. Far away from the hub of everything. It was the only peace we knew and we took that for granted without our parents to lock us up or protect us.
Be it for business, pleasure, or just plain teenage rebellion, we 'escaped' when and where we could. The midways lands, the social seasons, big towns, and capitals.
We were just kids.
We didn't know what we were doing or how things really worked, even if we thought we did.
Everyone had their reasons I'm sure. Same as how everyone hides skeletons in their closets. What my parents were hiding before they died, the real reason why a man like Grampa seemingly disappeared from our lives, his own investigations, all skeletons. Why did they bother to isolate us so much from the truth of society, with the glitz and the glamour blinding our young eyes. Why conceal the details of that doomed connection to my arranged marriage, or the deals made with the main church of this world?
Everything is deeper than it seems in the eyes of a tired young girl.
I'm sure Lilyanne learned lessons I didn't, long after I passed. Those hellish dreams sure indicate so. I wonder if she ever found out the secrets here, under, and around our childhood home. Our home now.
I wonder if she even cared. Not that it matters much in the present.
It's always changing. Updating and evolving. Maybe I'll find out details I passed over or missed, like how my own parents really are. Maybe someone decides to build more watermills and funky festivals for no reason. See, the changes are already happening.
So what I mean to conclude is that I need to keep my mind open to anything. Especially in this little life of mine here and now.
In full knowledge of that, it still does not prepare me for when Cosimo leads us to where he 'escaped' from.
A life sized marble statue of my own shitty Grampa. God damn it.
"You must be kidding me." I stare up at the glossy white stone.
"Grampwy!!!" Lilyanne cheers.
"I know I got out from here but I'm not too sure how to get back in..." Cosimo slowly explains, looking somewhat unsure of himself.
I would be too. Where is the door or entrance? It's a damn statue!? A nasty one too. How many profiles of that shitty old man does there need to be? Who keeps making these overly ornate statues? The world does not need any more statues of my Grampa!
Sadly, I know that the demand and supply for them will continue on for many years. What terrible tastes this world has.
"Oi. One of you. Open this thing." I point around the not-so-secret guards.
Someone has to know how to operate this thing if it's even operational at all. Cosimo doesn't have the habit of making up tales or lying outside of direct money profit. Especially at this tender useless age.
They all look at each other a little too long though. For Lukas goes clamoring over it like a squirrel to a tree.
"Whooooooooa so cool. They have got this awesome scar right, and this funny line on his face, and that funny line and-"
They are called details, Lukas.
Maybe I should just let him break the statue and hopefully, that does something.
"Am I gonna have these when I get awesomey famous and grown up? Needs to be aweseomer. Oooooh the boobies are not right, Cap's are bigger and better. But the hands feel just right, all cold and rock and stuff still about right when I hold it and- Huh?" my blabbering minion goes on before a gross creaking sound is made.
"Lukas?" Georgie tries to slowly approach.
"IT WASN'T ME, I DIDN'T BREAK NOTHING." Lukas cries, doing a very convincing job.
Holy moly, that actually worked? Never mind, then. Apparently, nothing with Lukas or my own bad jokes ever makes sense. Let's just go with it.
The hand to the statue bends, but not to something as simple as Lukas's breaking it. Thank goodness.
It looks as if the right thing was activated after all. A small entrance suddenly makes itself known in the shadows of the statue's cloak with that.
Once again, the guards seem to be having a silent argument between themselves. Despite the masks, I mockingly imagine the contents to be something like: "Are we going to get in trouble for that?", "Well, it wasn't us that showed them", or "I'm scared of children."
"Whoooooaaah, cool! But I didn't break it, ok?!!" Lukas claims in self-defense.
"Papa! Fonso! Down, go go go!" Lily cheers, pointing down the darkness.
To be fair to the guards' hesitation and fearful invisible looks, I too would be afraid of children if Lilyanne and Lukas were the main examples.
"Will we just be standing here all day staring?" Cass snarkily asks, uncaring of the surrounding guards immobilizing her.
If the binds and ties tighten on her, courtesy of the silent guards, she doesn't show much of a reaction.
Georgie at this time likes to act as if she doesn't exist, once in the guards' care. One could call him petty if they didn't know what exactly just happened between them.
"This is indeed where you came from?" he questions Cosimo in a forcibly polite way. The tone where he's trying his best to humor a crazy child in his charge.
My cousin blinks, his young poker face already in full effect not because of any harsh upbringing but simply because he's just like that. It is the emotionless judgemental face of a rich young master, a future overbearing CEO, definitely from the same gene pool that created my Father.
"....No?" he thinks and then points down to a vent below the podium of the statue.
Well....that's one security concern identified. But good enough verification. Down we go the easy route!
Guards first of course.
Go on. Be the guinea pig. Prioritize the safety of your delicate young misses.
"Guinea piggies!" Lilyanne repeats and cheerfully demands, yelling at people to enter into the darkness before us.
What a bossy little girl, typical of a so privileged she doesn't know it. I don't know whether to be disturbed or proud of her.
I shall settle instead then, on keeping my own mouth shut. Darn it.
But my own bad habits are on the low list of concerns. The tallest masked figure nods and signs something that must include a code for approval. Two are sent down the hole quickly. A few more disappear into space elsewhere, outside my vision. As for the rest, the guards surrounding Cass remain diligent over the proven threat.
The tallest remains. Lukas draped over his shoulder like an out-of-place scarf.
Instead of doing anything though, he steps back. With one arm behind his arm, he partially bows in silence. Dare I say it, towards Cosimo in particular? It's a quiet motion, one could decipher it as a go-ahead, a 'please, before you'.
"Guess it's down there we go then. They can't kill us or anything." the little red-haired boy shrugs, leading the way down in our group. At most waiting for us with an unimpressed expression of 'are you coming or not'.
"Okay! Bye Rock Cap!" Lukas jumps down and barreling into the darkness, unwilling to not be first in anything.
"Wait! Lily tooooooo!!! Papa, wait for Lily!!!!" Lilyanne also can't stand to lose once the momentum is started.
If we ever needed to make a quiet sneaky entrance, it's already been ruined. Never take Lukas nor Lilyanne anywhere. I fear this list will expand over time.
Once everyone has passed the threshold of the entrance, the tallest guard snaps something hidden from view.
Then it's like the lights have turned on. Low and slow, like the hallways of movie theaters, in order to see just enough where you're going. A steep ramp with more reasonable narrow stairs on either side. The temperature surely drops even further as one descends.
It's already chilly outside but now it's getting downright freezing.
Amar must be feeling very cold, wherever he is. He's not as robust or supernaturally strong as Lukas. He's nowhere as spoiled and cared for as Lilyanne. He wasn't wearing much when he was taken. The forces running this place are doubtfully very hospitable. Regardless this is not the place and treatment for a child.
Complaints later, rescue and answers first.
The voices of children echo, loud and lingering in this still place. I yell down for Lilyanne to get back here or at least slow down before she trips and hurts herself. Any attempts at being secretive were never taken in the first place.
"You look worried." Cass states vaguely, generally.
I turn to look, to answer maybe. But Georgie speeds up to scoop me in his arms and walk ahead.
An awkward state of affairs is to say the least of it. But I suppose I can't fault Georgie for actually doing his job and looking out for me.
He's feeling just as helpless. Probably. Something like that.
We're a very useless pair of mistress and servant at the end of it.
The end huh?
"An ill-fitting location of play, forgive the inadequacy then to welcome my young misses properly. As I have stated to the staff time and time again, children will get into anything. A blanket for young misses Lilyanne and a serving of warmth in the form of some milk tea then." the tall shadow of my Father's butler stands center, seemingly at the end of it all.
Stone walls stand behind Alfonso, who smiles all the same in his usual black, his hair and face neat. Serene as if we were standing in a garden. Expecting us, ever the same.
Perfect as ever. I shouldn't be surprised. No one really is, not with the way those contracted under this house bow and defer. Alfonso was expecting us. How could he not? Most likely around the corner, there will be tea, a room set up with nothing out of place.
How scary. I had gotten so used to it, I have forgotten how scary this household can really be in retrospect of everything. Or rather, Rosalia never realized.
I have no excuses.
It's just so very tiring to be on guard all the time. In my own home nonetheless. I've adapted in my own way, to not worry so much or perceive the harm to come to me. It's not so immediate. But that's not the case for others.
This household is dangerous, insane. Every part of it.
I suppose then, that I'm just as much a part of that.
"Tea? Extra warm with less milk today. You're late Alfonso. Please do see to my younger sister, she's making a mess of herself. Georgie here is too stressed and traumatized to be a very good assistant, but still much better than the secret guards that don't even listen to me. Oh and there's a criminal here searching for my unexpectedly kidnapped minion. Take care of it."
I walk ahead in confidence even though I may not know where I'm going. It is the way of a noble lady.
As expected, Alfonso steers me in the right direction even when it seems like I'm about to smack into a cold stone wall. Like night and day, a pleasantly furnished room, entirely out of place within a dungeon, awaits me with a table fit for a little girl's play tea party.
It's....more than enough to floor a normal person off their feet in shock.
"What?!" Georgie's jaw drops.
Also just as expected.
Luckily, I already wiggled my way down from his arms, otherwise, I might have been dropped with him.
This kind of skill and distraction, it's ridiculous how anyone can get used to it. With the common sense of an adult, it shocks me too. Amazing how the original Rosalia actually lived with it daily, all without batting an eyelid at Alfonso.
So this too, is what she would do to get what she needs.
"Seems a tad lukewarm." I take my seat. Waiting, as a lady should, for my butler to serve me. Magically almost, for Alfonso does so while balancing not only one but two wiggling children.
"It stays heated, at a moderate rate, and shall cool appropriately well. No worries, my young miss Rosalia." Alfonso answers easily, cleaning and seating messy children as if it happened every day.
Maybe it does. With my age and all. I forget sometimes.
I forget too much.
"You're saying then, that you all know best for me, and to safely accept what I am given. Is that correct?" I take a sugarless sip.
There's not one bit around to sweeten this situation. Not too hot, not too cold though. Just right. How perfect.
I hate it.
"What fanciful ideas my young misses. Please enjoy." Alfonso answers seemingly good-naturedly, grouping my words in the same group of Lilyanne's babbling.
That is, until he turns to the still shocked Georgie.
"Have we forgotten our post?" The butler's tone drops to the professional tone reserved for the staff, always between the spectrum of a tad admonishing to emotionlessly judgemental.
"...No sir." Georgie bites the inside of his cheek, holding it in as he straightens his posture.
There's no use in tattling, complaining, or even trying to explain one's grievances. Not that it matters. What with the various guards reporting back and forth. Even without them, I fear all is already known with Alfonso. The only overbearingly powerful figure when it comes to running a noble family and estate.
Which of course then means it gets back to my Father, of all people.
He knows too much. He's always known too much.
It must be the case then....that Rosalia's Father has always known her pain. The cases of negligence, the mocking, the rumors, the slashes of abuse all around. The guards are everywhere, the spies even further spilled in the cracks of this world.
How would Father not know?
Alfonso has always known all. My only lifelong steady companion. At the same time, Alfonso has always served my Father first and foremost. So many secrets were kept from me, trickling down slowly at their whims. So many whys I don't know will ever get answered.
Father is a man I don't think I'll ever understand.
I grip my little cup, too childproof and sturdy to shatter like how easily Mother breaks hers.
She breaks them to shards then cries to the comforts of Father's terrible and sweet words. The replacement fine China and porcelain ready to take the place of that fragile image.
Was that all this was then? This life of mine? Just another teacup to replace the last broken one?
Ha. I'm too jaded to be hurt by something like that again. Not again.
"Georgie's place is behind me." I sip, naturally defending my useless little Jr. assistant.
Mine. He's mine.
I loved Alfonso in a place that's special and hard to place or explain. In a way, I will always trust him more than my own family. The only stable adult figure of Rosalia's life. But even then...he's not mine.
This makes it especially clear.
The whole point to even trying or bothering with raising these absolute strangers was to have something of my own. A small fighting chance to survive this world. With or without my cursed fate and name. Not my parents'. Mine.
"My servant did nothing wrong. Needs some polishing to be fit up to par, yes, but nothing wrong." I look up, accusing.
Alfonso has been through much with me. He's helped me in all these ways. I can't even begin to start listing. He kept me stable, he kept me sharp. But that was a lifetime ago. That was a load of sins ago.
I have done things I am not proud of. Rosalia, the acting head of the Ventrella family, is not an innocent little girl. That is something that cannot be helped in any position of power. Not if you want to keep it, and yourself, in one piece. Alfonso was there for me through it all, even without my parents in the picture.
That is how I know what our head butler is capable of. The horrors and crimes that he can sweep away, all without even tussling a stray hair on his perfectly combed mustache.
With me, it was leaning and priming a child. Bit by bit, Until she's fit to rule.
With my Father, this original young master and lord, there's no telling what they're doing. What they're hiding.
What have they done with my little minion and what are they planning for him?
"Did we come all the way down here for tea?" Cass, still bound and guarded, lets out sarcastically, tone harsh.
It's only my small age, and the young sensitive witnesses with me, that Alfonso hasn't dealt with her in his typical manner. My old butler is holding back, considerate of the impression he makes on his still too young misses. The Alfonso that a teenaged Rosalia knew wouldn't be so easy. But then again, how much do I really know him?
"I am afraid there has been a great misunderstanding. On multiple points." his old eyes crinkle closed as he smiles lightly, professionally.
The floor under Cass, and just her, drops.
She struggles, her mysterious abilities unfairly keeping her afloat, but only for a brief moment before the two guards around her do something. Still, her fall softens, slows with that as to not just thump and injure herself at the bottom of the sudden holding cell.
"You are on Ventrella private property. All visitors, regardless of status or service, are subject to the household rules and orders. You are neither a guest nor an employee. Troops' status is a separate identity." Alfonso speaks as if reciting a very boring list of disclaimers. As if there's nothing strange about sudden imprisonment or even torture.
How very in line with this family's values.
"Uh oh." Lilyanne whispers over to Lukas.
"Big uh oh!" he seems to agree.
I only continue to sip my milk tea. Georgie waiting behind me with his hand behind his back, taking in the calamity that is our everyday. Something he's very well not trained for yet.
"Where is he?!" Cass growls from below, unseen but for the angry pounding force of magic, fully contained.
The whole reason she's here, even bothering with us in the first place. Amar.
"A great misunderstanding of one's place and position. Regardless of reasons, this is no way to behave on the property of a fine house such as this. Nor can we permit such rudeness? Isn't that right, Georgie." Alfonso straightens out the lined up guards, before dismissing them.
Only the tallest remains, silently observing everything.
"...Yes, sir. " Georgie answers even if he's still confused, unsure.
"We shall work on it yet. Of course, it is partially our fault as well, which is why the Ventrellas shall go above and beyond in following up despite there being absolutely no need for us to take responsibility." Alfonso declares most professionally, never a button or speck of dust out of place.
I turn my gaze to the young servant behind me.
"...responsibility?" Georgie masks the question as a simple repetition, learning.
"Why yes, an excellent opportunity. Quite generous of our Lord, as well as every hand and support, to arrange such. To dote on and organize the proper education for the desolate child of a late companion. To think Aishwarya would pass so suddenly, and leave a son already so big yet so young."
The waves of Cass's pounding, sparking up reverbs of a faint orange glow, ceases at that last sentence to leave Alfonso's mouth.
Finally, the information I can actually use. We have a name at least. Before I can implore Georgie to probe more questions for me, my lovely little sister would like to remind us all she's still here.
"Aishy wah wah wat?" she picks up on the thing she can't pronounce the most.
"Noooo, stinky face. I think he said awesomes!" Lukas joins in.
"Nooooooooo you da stinky face! Not awesomes!" Lilyanne defends herself in the oddest ways.
Thank you, children, for your great input and viewpoints. It shows how absurd this all is in the first place.
The pit where Cass had fallen and was fighting in is silent. Ominously so. Like she was taking it all in. If I'm not mistaken, that 'Aishwarya' is the lady she once served.
"That's Amar's mother, correct? A former troops' member. How else would a child that small end up here? My wretched papa knew her then. Far more intimately than a mere employee of the troops." I see no choice but to get this conversation on the right track. As well as confirming new information, as well as what I could only infer from talks before.
I've only heard about her in passing.
Amar speaks fondly, and with the anecdotes of a child remembering silly things, but he doesn't name her. Obviously. I don't go around calling my own mother Maria Helia or anything. So while I've heard things, ever since the first mention of Amar's incident with that Giloh man, to Damia's confusing taunting, I could never find anything.
It would make sense then, why no one could answer anything for me. Not when my Father is involved.
Alfonso indulges my question, much like he does when serving snuck away desserts or the occasional heads up of where my busy Father has gone or what he's up to expect of me.
"Ms. Aishwarya was a delight of a personal children's tutor, previously employed not by the troops but the old Bicchieri. It was then, that your Lord Father made her acquaintance, still but a tiny domineering young master himself. My how the years seem to fly." he sighs, huffing out like a wistful old man.
As terribly fond of Alfonso as I am, I can't help but to suddenly see him as a super pinata. And I, with the stick, trying in vain to wack candy wrapped information out of him. Terribly inefficient, but still the best source I have.
"Awia!!!" Lilyanne clatters her milk and cookies, calling in mangled titles.
"No, Lilyanne. Our paternal grandmother is not here." I answer automatically, used to her.
"Awia! When papa was little? Littler or bigger than Lily and Rosa?" Lilyanne does as she always does and half tunes me out.
"Why, hardly much older than yourselves, my young misses. And so much redder. Time goes by so fast." Alfonso brings a handkerchief to his dry eyes, as if to wipe the tears that I doubt are even there.
"Red." Lily reaches to pat my hair, before turning to shake her head in mock comfort. "Red red red. It ok. Look at big sister bruder."
Cosimo, though far more interested in trying to peer over the trap hole in the floor, sits blankly in the bad show that is our family. A real awkward cousin moment.
"Even redder, the youngest master Frederick was as bright as a fresh deadly poison apple." Alfonso takes to covering half his face with the handkerchief, as if distraught in the long past memories.
If it makes Alfonso feel any better, I'm sure we can shine a light on my Father's matured head tonight or so to achieve a similar shade and effect. But I will not be led off topic.
"So when my Father was a child, at the young age of disturbingly bright red hair, he was tutored by Amar's mother?" I verify.
"Precisely." Alfonso sniffs.
"And what does that have to do with creepily kidnapping Amar and keeping him below the dungeons now?" I keep it cut and blunt.
"I don't get anything either!" Lukas raises his hand.
Another adult may struggle to take the frontal shots of children's questions, but not Alfonso. Ever so oddly ready for anything.
"So many years have gone by since then. To think she would pass, and leave her sole child at such an inappropriate facility such as the troops. Such a shame. Even more so when it appears he has taken more after her than we thought, to inherit her gift. Yet without a proper mother or instructor to raise him to control it. A great shame indeed." Alfonso goes on, answering without exactly doing so.
Behind me, Georgie bites his lip, taking in what he will of this information. What he makes of this situation. It's been quite a dramatic day and honestly doesn't feel like it's anywhere near ending.
"Ohhhh I get it! So Amar's a lot like his mama, like I'm a lot like Gable but not as much so and Rosa is like her scary parents but not just like them! Hey? When I found out my powers, I went to go live with Gable! Apprenticing, they said but I don't think I apprentice anything but Gable teaches me lots of stuff no one else ever did and I know he's special and I know we smell a lot alike even when he doesn't say anything. Because he's mine. So now Amar sang everyone to sleep and everybody calls that magic, who are they gonna send Amar to?" Lukas processes.
One point to another, pinging almost too fast to keep up. He comes to a conclusion even I didn't fully think of yet. One that makes too much sense to be untrue.
What did Alfonso say earlier? To organize and educate? Amar's powers are something Father has seen before.
Not just him, but something the Bicchieri have seen before. Oh god, what sort of shady thing can that family do with someone who can mass sing people to unconsciousness? How does it work? Is it just sleep? Oh never mind how it works, what are the other applications of that?
"You're sending Amar away? To someone who knows more about his abilities. To someone...who knew his mother? The Bicchieri connections. They would know. Father would know." I realize, connecting the dots.
"Why yes. What a bittersweet thing, but a wonderful connection for a child to reclaim of his late parent." Alfonso says it like it's a good thing.
"When?" I feel a chilling tingle return up the back of my neck, my nerves zapping away, stronger than ever.
"Why....right at this very moment." the old butler answers with a mysterious smile.
I would react, but the shock of his statement makes me feel as if there was a sudden trap hole under my chair, and I've joined Cass down below the pits. So my Georgie has taken over in reacting, rather incredulously too.
"What?! I don't mean to be rude sir, nor question anything, but right now? So suddenly? Without even giving the kids any time or reason? The young misses Rosalia and Lilyanne went looking all day, I know Lukas too. And now Amar is being sent off without even giving them a chance to say hi or goodbye? No matter what relations the previous generation may have, what part does it play in the children? They'll be distraught." his words spill out no matter how hard he tried to hold them back previously.
He knows it isn't appropriate for him to speak, especially not in front of someone so far his superior, the unmatched Alfonso. In fact, he warily steels his limbs, as if warily expecting a pit to open up below him too.
We're all a bit still concerned about that, especially if Cosimo's and Lilyanne's curious staring means anything.
"Perhaps so. Tis not our place to question such things." Alfonso responds, shutting down all arguments with his standard authority.
"Is he being taken right now, now? Or now in a different way? You adults all mean funny things." Lukas scratches his head.
"As soon as possible I'm sure." I reason.
"As soon as possible indeed," Alfonso repeats, "which should be right about now."
But that's literally impossible. Time wise, how does that even happen? What, did Father get some direct express uber stagecoach? Dig a deep enough pit down to hell? Might as well be extravagant and open up a magical portal to...
Grampa was involved last night. A portal. It's possible? It's insane and wasteful to be using the resources to open a portal but....hasn't it been done before?
I don't know.
I don't know what's going on or what to do.
"Where?" I manage to croak out, demanding.
"A place you do not know of, my young miss," Alfonso answers calmly.
That doesn't help. That doesn't help at all.
I clink and clatter my frustration with my hands, hopping off the seat.
It's not that a big deal if I lose a minion this early on. Even better if he's supposedly being sent away somewhere to better train his abilities supposedly, if that's even to be believed. But it's too many principles of wrong. It's an abused kid that already went through too much, and it's about trying to not make it worse.
It's frustrating why I even care when I can't afford to care about anyone but myself. But that's just what makes you human, maybe.
Ah, damn it.
"Georgie. Follow along. Lukas, you come too. Sniff out your ridiculous superhuman senses. We're going to crash into their terrible adult plans. The rest of you may do as you please but do not slow me down or get in my way." I walk off, snapping.
This whole thing was a trap. Father doesn't want me around obviously. For god knows what reasons. Alfonso is, of course, his personal man and more than happy to keep up distracted with a table of tea of all things. It's not that I'm stupid so much as Father is too crafty, and quick too.
"There is no need to behave so, my young miss Rosalia." Alfonso takes to cleaning the table, as if it were all a regular day, a regular occurrence.
"Yes. Yes there is. Because right now so many wrong things are happening. The adults have their plans, my Father has very own specific ones. Everything is going their way, without thinking about how we feel. Or what our thoughts are. Like we can be tossed around any way you all please. There's probably a very confused and very scared child. I myself am a scared and confused child. And you all keep things from me! Important things! What am I supposed to do?" I pant, not even taking the time to breathe between my sentences.
What am I supposed to do when you don't tell me?
It's always been like this. Always.
Even a lifetime ago, when all I had was you, Alfonso.
There were so many things you wouldn't tell me. For my own good, I was at times told. For when I was old enough, for when I was ready. There were things that just were straight put kept from me, their heir and acting Lord.
What good was I like that?
With a limited view, limited tools. How much trust do you really have in me? It was nothing right? Nothing compared to my Father? I know. I've always known.
I can't be him. I'm not as decisive, I'm nowhere near as intelligent. I lack, I lack everything, falling short of everything I try. I know that's what they all say. I know.
I was never good enough for anything, not even to know the secrets my late parents hide, the curtains and locks still held by Alfonso's gloved hand.
I wasn't enough then.
Now I'm not enough to even keep a single minion, a mere idiotic little child, safe.
How useless.
Time to make it a personal problem to fix then.
"Stop being so useless down there and help us, me out. You heard everything, right? Cass? You're the one who probably cares about him the most." I peer down the hole, artificially darkened to a veil I make out.
But it's magic locking this thing down there. And I'm beginning to know exactly what to do with magic.
Tear it apart of course. Trample anything in my way. That is indeed the way of the villainess. Or a demanding spoiled brat of a child. Both work right now.
"Rosa?! Rosalia no!" Georgie shouts at me.
Speaking is easy, doing is the hard part. So there's no one and nothing to stop me as I jump right in.
Shoo pesky magic, don't bother me.
"That can be dangerous to one as weak as you." comes the familiar low voice of the shady maid.
It cannot be described as wind, there is no gale or breeze, but a dry force slows my descent. reducing my velocity by turning the gravity around me to jello. It stands out in this dark background of spelled trap magic, in the way torchlights shine in the darkness. The invisible glow of orange heat and dust.
I concentrate to avoid nulling that. Cass's magic, isolated in all this. I keep it up even after she catches me, gently.
"Not bad, for a pampered young miss." the older woman remarks.
For once, it feels like she's on my side.
"Rosalia, you can't just- ooompf" Georgie crashes down the pit with not even an ounce of grace. Landing on what looks to be collarbone first.
Whatever magic Cass used to ease me down was not so graciously extended. Luckily, the pit isn't all that deep as it looked with the trap spell now dispelled. Georgie is still a youth in his growing prime. He looks fine. Probably. Most likely.
"That's awesome Rosa, coming through! Let's go save Amar. Again! Huh, he makes a pretty bad sidekick after all if I gotta keep saving him. "
"Me too! Lily too!"
Look, he lets out very alive-sounding squeaks as the other terrible children jump down his exact spot. Using his back as a landing pad. Georgie is very much fine, not a single crack of broken bone. Even Cosimo joins along, though he climbs down most of the way rather than the admittedly reckless move I started. He does, however, hop the last step to follow suit in making Georgie squeak at being used as the welcome mat at the bottom of his pit.
Sorry, Georgie, it's not like I told them to do that or anything.
"Not that I don't appreciate the solidarity guys. But the plan was for me to free Cass out of this prison and get us all out of here to actually find Amar. Not for us to all jump in together....Now it will take even longer to get us all out." I deadpan, not sure what to make of this unruly unexpected gang.
It's honestly the worst one I've seen.
But for Rosalia....that original lonely little girl with nothing but her parents' money and power, it may be the only one she has.
Can't be helped then. Just like this pathetic rescue mission. They're all I have now.
"That will not be necessary, young Miss Ventrella." Cass smirks lightly.
I nearly screamed out half my soul turning to glance where she was looking. Not at the narrow passageway that certainly did not belong here in this prison pit, magic dispelled or not, but at the terror on the floor right in front of it.
That blasted doll! Ponyo Annabelle Coraline!
Why? Why does it keep appearing to scare the crap out of me?
A very cruel joke, whoever did this!
Up above, Alfonso seems to be speaking unreasonably loud and unlike himself.
"Oh. Such naughty young children. To think they would all willingly jump into a holding like that. Duty calls. It would not be too unwise to give them some reflection time down there. After all, they have been adequately fed, watered, and checked, no? Don't you agree, Jean? Yes, they are all safe and magically secured down there. Where they have no way to reach the top of the sick bay tower. Where they would never even think to look in the first place. Absolutely no paths available. What a shame."
How very unlike Alfonso, and yet very much so still him.
The silent guard doesn't seem to say anything back, but the long pause is as good a hint as any.
"Yes. Very right. We are not to blame from this point on. Back to work now. You know how fussy the Lords can get." Alfonso finishes with a flourish, steps exaggeratingly click-clacking away.
Thank you, I think as he supposedly walks away. Leaving us to this doorway.
For the snuck desserts. For the comforts hidden in the mundane and oddly every day. For putting up with Rosalia, me, all that time. I might not be the kindest, clearest, or even grateful when I should be. But thank you.
But it's not time to be touched.
"You heard the man, to the sickbay! The Lilyanne princess tower! Oh god, we were looking in the wrong place? Dungeon to the tower? What a difference in distance, what a trap we were led in." I mutter.
Too crafty indeed Father. Well played. Frustratingly so.
"Why is it Lily's tower?" my sister can't help but pipe up.
We're too short on time for me to explain or correct myself. How the tower her sickbay balcony was posted in my memory, doesn't apply to this lifetime. Where she is so healthy and bustling around on her energetic short legs, that the connection never was made in the first place. It was never her tower.
Luckily, Lukas rushes us both out of our musings and questions with a classic loud "Who cares! Let's go!"
As he says that, we're already being carried off by the babysitters down the narrow pathway. Georgie and Cass are at a hushed truce for now.
"I can take them both." Cass says, running down with me, and the picked-up creepy dolly, with ease. Some kind of magical stabilizing is at play, I think. Since I don't get jostled with any motion sickness.
"I can do this much, but you lead." Georgie's breathing picks up at the increased exertion, especially with a bouncy Lilyanne cheering her ride on.
It goes without saying that both Cosimo and even Lukas can keep up and charge off on their own. That is if Lukas knew the directions.
"Now which way!?" He skids as we come to a four way fork in the road.
"If I know my layouts of the villa right, it should be-" Georgie starts to judge.
But Cass acts before he can finish. By unexpectedly throwing my cursed Dolly in the air with the force of a flip flop at a small bug. The sudden action jolts me, more out of fear than anything.
When it lands with a dusty plop, Cass starts in the direction it randomly landed in.
"That way." she points out, picking up the doll as she keeps moving.
Neither I nor Georgie have anything to say to that. Better not to question scary shady maids and their methods. Especially whenever she tosses and plops Ponyo like a very bad impromptu compass.
Reason and sense aside.... I think only she would be so fearless to use such a move.
Let's not question anything for now. How it works. Whys. As long as it works. Which it oddly does.
The maze and mystery of my own villa are still content that I'm uncovering. Some old, some new. Just like the mystery of this family, who I thought I understood better than anyone. After all, I lived in it. But I'm just one person, one child. All the memories I had of those places, these people, were through the eyes of a real child. A very limited, and emotionally stunted window.
It's a bit humiliating then, but necessary, that I need someone else to lead me out. Or a lot of someones. How troublesome, this life I'm making for myself.
"It's fresh air!" Lukas hits at a gate. One that looks locked.
"Out of the way." Cass takes control again, shooing the kid away enough with one outreached hand.
Without understanding what she's doing, I watch on, careful not to affect or null the stream of magic radiating out of her. Once again, the feeling of dryness in the air surrounds me, making me feel a bit slow and lethargic. But it's that magic that focuses, literally bending and breaking that gate open.
Ok then, it is certain then. No question of making shady maids mad. We do not get on that one's bad side.
Behind me, I can hear Georgie gulp, probably doing his best to not scream or imagine himself or any other human in place of the now tossed aside broken gate.
"I can do that too!" Lukas feels the need to mention his property damage abilities, not wanting to lose out.
"Hmmmm." Cosimo graciously responds, eyeing the destruction like the little businessman he will be.
"Ok, ok, stop tossing that doll, the sick bay tower is that way." Georgie regains use of his mouth, his sense of direction much more clear now that we're back on ground level.
Cass shrugs, putting the creepy child tracking compass away but not relinquishing the lead so easily. More surprises up her sleeve.
"It's not a short walk and some of you are slow. Gather around me. Young Miss Ventrella, I ask that you do not hold me back." Cass hands over my little body to Georgie, who easily accepts to balance both my sister and I.
As I am too stressed in busy processing things, I take no offense. I do, however, join Georgie in screaming as I cling to him. Our bodies were suddenly surrounded by that dry denseness of Cass's magic, lifting and propelling us all through the air as if we were on an amusement park ride.
Too much learning new things today, not good for my heart!
"Wheeeeee!" Lilyanne counters my reaction by being the very carefree opposite.
The one way Cass tram stops in front of the garden side of the sick bay tower, short of ramming us right into the wall.
"That was fascinating." Cosimo can't help but remark as we all fall over, unsteady on our feet.
"Fun!" Lilyanne compliments.
"Why don't we do that more!? That was awesome!" Lukas agrees.
Only children could think to have fun in crazy stuff like this. But we don't even have the time to be motion sick!?
"Thank you...for the ride....but..." I huff, trying not to spit back out my milk tea.
"Breathe Rosa, breathe. Here's a bush." Georgie holds me out over a nearby one.
It is a small side effect to pay. After we right ourselves up, I finally notice the energy fluctuations taking place near the top of the tower, a good some floors even higher than the sickbay. No doubt my sister feels them too, with how she stares upwards, eyes wide and open.
Dear lord, we're barely keeping it together just getting here. Now we have to climb stairs?! All those stairs?! With these legs?!
"Is there any way we can speed ride something our way up too?" I reluctantly ask.
"Oh oh oh me me me!" Lukas offers.
"Icey slide?" Lilyanne remembers from last time.
"Yeah that! Zoom zoom slide." Lukas bounces through the doorway, ready to save the day.
"Wait, Lukas no." Georgie can't stop him fast enough.
Unfortunately for Lukas, gravity and physics are actually a thing. Going up is not anywhere so easy as going down.
"...How do we get up there now?" Georgie twitches, kicking the new ice slide covering the main stairs.
"We!....Oh." Lukas slips right into Georgie's tired hold.
This seems to be a hazard and a very bad plan." Cosimo comments, joining Lilyanne in staring upwards, wondering what she's staring at.
I don't know what it is exactly she's seeing, but for me, it's as if lightning has struck. Again and again in multi colors. The pure power that goes off up there is something I've never seen or felt before. Yet it feels terribly familiar.
"I can get us up there. Get back out here and gather around me. In fact, hang on." Cass calls after she finishes swallowing a small vial of something she pulled out of her pocket, stabilizing her breathing.
"You sure?" Georgie looks at her warily, almost as if concerned for her.
"I won't drop you if that's what you're concerned about." she brushes off. Her face was a shade or two paler than usual. The constant use of her mysterious magic surely wore on her.
But what choice are we left with?
"If you would please, you shall be more than sufficiently rewarded later." I promise a reasonable payment.
"Rosalia." Georgie snaps at me in warning.
"I'm fine. I've been through far worse than this." Cass continues to wave off, regaining her breath.
With a motion of her hands, the heat rises around to surround us, making us all huddle together.
This time, we began to float up slowly as if Cass was concentrating on stabilizing our position. Then it was a straight-up bad amusement park ride, all over again. Only going up up up in nothing but air!
This is awful!
"Wheeeeeeeee!!!!" Lilyanne cheers again, enjoying every moment of my suffering.
"Don't look if you're going to be sick." Georgie holds me tight to his side.
I'm not looking, it's just happening!
The very worst part was not the momentum, the burst, but the sudden stop right before Cass warns us in only two words.
"Don't scream."
I bite Georgie's shirt and hide my eyes to do just that. We head straight for the stone walls before I have time to process anything else.
"Ooompf" Lukas rolls out as we land inside, messily.
"Indeed, interesting." Cosimo pats the dust off himself.
When I look up, assuring that we are all unharmed and have all our limbs still attached, I see the literal stone blocks and parts of the wall moving as if possessed. Floating out and around a neat hole, somewhat messily sealing themselves back where they belong.
She made a hole? Midair? And then fixed it?
"...It was the easiest way…" Cass breathes heavily, barely acknowledging the incredulous looks she receives.
"Do you need rest? Medical attention?" Georgie worriedly asks.
"Nothing you can provide." she waves him off again, drinking another small vial kept on her person, the herbal smell reaching even me.
"Gable!" Lukas shouts out of nowhere, running off by himself again.
Damn it not again.
I look back and forth at the remaining people before making my choice.
Cass saves us a lot of time and effort but clearly needs a rest. Georgie is technically the second lead as the only other adult. Lilyanne is sniffing the air like a confused dog, while Cosimo is just taking in the show.
"Blast it all, Lukas! Lukas where are you going, hey wait up." I called out.
Someone has to keep him in check. Might as well be me. Besides, we really must get going, especially when we're so close. I can just feel it.
"Rosalia! Not you too, hey hey the both of you." Georgie calls out after the both of us, looking back and forth on what to do.
Regardless of his choice, or how he manages to handle anyone, I don't have the time and luxury of looking back. The air feels wrong. It feels like something is about to burst.
"Hurry up, sidekick!" Lukas's running back is all I can see, clearing my way.
It's small. Objectively, he's still so small, the back and legs of a child. But to me, it's the light of a doorway. Something to race towards, with the brightness almost overwhelming at some points.
Until it really does, an overwhelming flash or multiples of them wash over my vision in holographic colors. Hazy like a storm in full force. Cracking down the first bolting sheet of rain.
"Gaaaable?! I can feel you but can't see you?! Amar? Where did you go!? I haven't seen you all night and day, whatcha doing all the way up here? Are we all playing hide and seek again!?" it's impossible to not make out Lukas's voice.
Ah yes, my one beacon in this mess that had me stunned. Just follow that annoying source if the magical storm wasn't obvious enough. But it does shake me out of it enough to make my way through.
But my vision is blurry. The blood in my ears rushed. It feels like something about to burst, something with far too much magic all condensed in one too small space.
"Where...what is this." I gulp.
Stone and emptiness, what should be little nothing than a storage space or an utter mundane mystery, now holds something hard to fathom let alone put into words. The magic is here vortexing. Spinning and spiraling my head into a mess.
It hurts….my head….really really hurts.
"...Lukas? ...Rosa?" a tentative voice calls out, soft enough to be drowned out in this pounding.
It's not Lukas I see when I look up, though the little hero wannabe was surely so far ahead of me. It's the source of all this headache. The hidden unexpectedly most troublesome of all minions. He looks to be safe. Whole.
"Amar?" I call back, running over to the other lost child.
To anything, I can grasp really. Everything all feels so dizzy. This whole time has been such a mess after my birthday, nothing ever good comes with growing up.
"Rosa, what are you-?" Amar starts, making way as if to catch or support something.
Me maybe, the floor feels dizzying. Like it's moving, when it's clearly not. The raging energy is still all around.
"Amar! Rosa!" Lukas shouts from where I can't see him, sounding muffled, as if behind a thick wall of glass.
"God damn it, no... how did she get all the way in there? Rosalia, can you hear me?! Get out of there! Please!" the somewhat unfamiliar voice of a mature man yells out my name.
"What is that!? Why does she have to get out if Amar was in there already? We can't all play? Gable, I don't like this!"
Both voices sound so close, as if in the same room, yet so far away.
This thick heavy sensation is too many times worse than any magic I've ever felt.
To hold and direct Lilyanne's magic is so easy it feels literally like nothing. I hold her hand and take a nap, I twist and pry her streams as easily as playing games. Towards others, I barely just began to be aware of how to sense theirs. Let alone how to consciously not dispel that magic, something I must have unconsciously done my whole life.
But this?
I've been thrown into a swamp, a storm. It's too disorienting, drowning.
"Rosa?"
Tiny arms and a small face, reaching out to tug me. There's no water or air bubbles but magic fills the space, but I can't help but vaguely remember that mundane day of nothing in particular happening, where we fell over a watermill pond. A swim too early in the season. Childish nonsense and peace.
Limbs heavy, I reach back.
*ZAP*
Things happen too fast, I don't fully see what's going on. Instantly, I feel relief in the air, my senses lighting up too bright. A great weight I hadn't even realized I was carrying, freed.
"Kids!"
A panicked voice that sounds like Georgie's, high pitched and whistling like an incoming missile. The sparks that light up my vision. My own relief, feeling as if I could finally breathe after holding it in. The sensation of falling backwards off my feet.
Amar, his face scrunched up, eyes closed, flying back as if he had just been violently struck. Dangerous electric sparks going off all around us, coming straight out from my outreached hand.
Did I...did I do that?
It all goes by too fast.
Momentum finally registers to me, only one short breath later, and I fall a good deal backwards. The force I felt, that I might have created, is akin to a great static shock, repelling me in a natural reaction. It doesn't feel like it would lose out to a fully magically charged hit from the original Lilyanne, not at all.
No time to be surprised. Not even when Georgie runs out onto the scene from behind, from nowhere.
"Rosalia! Amar!" he shouts, blocking part of my fall with his own body, before lunging over to the other missing child in concern.
"Guys! Gable says get out of there fast!" Lukas shouts behind wherever he is.
Someone or something behind him screams in words I can't make out. Georgie rushes, barely managing to grab Amar in the sizzling burn of sparks. That's the last thing I see. Too fast, too soon.
Darkness blinks.
Like that blind spot after lightning strikes.
Then...they're gone.
The storm inside the room calms...and they're gone. Just like that. I can hardly believe it….I don't even believe it.
"Georgie? Georgie? Amar, this is a very bad joke. Come out? Come out! Georgie!?" I feel myself clamoring.
My movements shake as I crawl over to touch the spot they once were. Where they obviously just were.
Where did they go?
Not like this? It wasn't supposed to be like this? It was….I don't know. I don't even know anymore. But it wasn't supposed to go like this.
I'm very tired now.
This body is too tired now.
It can't hold anymore. Not anymore magic or emotions or anything else. I don't want to cry, I really don't. I should stop it in its tracks. Losing a servant or two isn't something to make Rosalia Ventrella cry.
I sniff, feeling the hard cold floor of nothing below me. Nothing at all.
Strong footsteps, ones too heavy or just too stupid to ignore. The vibrations echo across even stone floors, steady, strong, the thunder after the lightning. One and the same.
"Rosalia….oh I'm sorry Rosa girl. Are you hurt? Does your head or anything feel off? Come on. There, there, I'm sorry. I'm sorry baby, you can blame me. If it hurts, you can blame me." the deep echoes of a warm voice I hate, thick strong arms picking me up to hold against his chest.
"Grampa why! Grampa! Give them back! Give me back my Georgie, this is all your faults. Why Amar, why like that? We didn't even get to say goodbye or anything? Grampa, you stupid! Why why why!" I can hear myself wailing.
But more than that I feel like crap, hiccuping and crying ugly into his warm familiar chest. I feel. I can feel everything, and I hate it.
Life was so much easier when I couldn't.
Grampa rocks away and pets at my head, the soothing currents running through my scalp are not unpleasant or unwelcome. But they hardly matter. Now with this unknown pain and frustration all coming from inside of me. I'm mad at this situation. I'm mad at my blurry past confused with the present. I'm mad that I'm even mad.
So I let it all out, violently even. I scream, I hit, I think tears aren't the only things coming out of me. My eyes scrunch up so hotly and painfully I can't see right, even if my vision wasn't entirely blocked by Grampa's overbearing hug.
If more sparks fly, unknown dangers of pent up and redirected magic, then I don't see it. I can't.
"It will be ok Rosalia. You can let it out now, let it all out now. It will be ok. It's safe, you're safe and your friends are too. There, there, I'm sorry. Let it all out, Grampa is sorry, I should have found a better way, a better time. Shhh, you can blame me, yes yes it's all bad Grampa's fault." he soothes and bounces, like I was a mere baby.
No more intelligent words can come out of me. Just crying, Pathetic nasty crying.
I hope I really do have magic so these hits hurt. I hope I ruin his whole day with the snot and tears I rub on him.
"Damn it, that Frederick." Gable curses out nearby, tone unrecognizable.
"Gable. Not now. Wait for him to return from there….for now the kids." my Grampa hushes.
"Yes, of course." Gable lets out a long sigh.
If I focus long enough past my own blood rushing and deafening sobs, I would hear more of Lukas's low whine. But it hurts too much to focus on anyone or anything else right now. Just not right now.
I'm too tired.
The adults have a lot of explaining to do. My Father especially, the real mastermind behind this sentence. I hate it. I hate how he is and how he just does things. I hate how much I need him, how much I actually let myself trust him. How much I still want to trust him.
I hate it so much but I'm too tired right now.
"It will be ok, Rosalia. They're strong. You're strong. We did it the wrong way today, we didn't consider how you feel. I got you Rosalia, you can rest easy and beat me up when you wake up. I got you. You can blame me." Grampa speaks like a broken record, gentle and strong.
Oddly though, I don't blame him. Not fully. Not this time.
"...I don't." I let out, voice garbled in hiccups.
What I most dislike is how it affects me, calms me. Because in all honesty I never hated him, even when he failed me. When he failed Rosalia. Grampa's our big hero, as shitty of a one he is.
"Sshhh, let it out Rosie girl, I got you." he held me back strongly as I cling, relief feeling like a cleanse, all that negativity slowly draining out of me.
An explanation is needed, from anyone and everyone. I will have that. But right after this rest.
I may be small, and rather useless. I may cry ugly and need a lot of naps and guidance. I may not be worth anything at all in any life. But I know I'll make good on debts owed to me or inflicted unjustly, that I swear.
Father will pay for this.
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
CCmei
CCmei Here we have it, a pickled over a month chapter of UT!!! Whooooo!!!!
Thanks for voting or keeping UT in your thoughts all this time. You guys encourage me so much, even when life gets hard and messy and far far far too busy to write as much as I would like. Thank you for keeping Unloved Twin alive and thriving. But enough thanks, ONTO THE COMMENTS.
I'll be going back to old chapters and answering more things 'late', so check those for clues and more importantly, leave me tips in the motivation jar with your new comments.
Theories? Questions? General reactions. Pure screaming.
I like them all.
Stay safe everyone. Till next time onto Rosa's life as a big girl, at FOUR years old.
.....we have a long way to go.
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