Venomous Gaze - Chapter 2 - Welcome Home (V. 3) (Patreon)

I know some of you may already be sick of this chapter and be wondering why I'm spending so much time on reworks. Honestly, I just love the characters and world that are rattling around in my head, and I really want to do them credit. Unforutnatly that means major rewrites to work out the kinks early on, to make the story more satisfying later.

I think this version of chapter 2 is FAR more satisfying than the previous two. It set up the disfunctional family dynamic, shows Dahlia's hate for her aunt, and establishes there's something special about her without making Kathrine and Dahlia sound... overly cautious, or afraid.

I think a big thing I want to do is pull back on how big the family is. I want them to be important, but I can give them all more personality if there's not dozens of them. Tighter knit group of psychopaths.

Tomorrow I'll probably get around to working on chapter 3. Hope you enjoy.

“You’d think with all the money our family makes on potions, they’d be willing to invest a little bit in the local infrastructure,” Kathrine snarled as the carriage we were riding in lurched violently.

I put a little extra strength into the leg I’d pushed against the opposite seat in order to keep myself in place during the bumpy trip, but didn’t bother looking up from my book. “At least we could take the train most of the way here. Can you imagine how long it would have taken us if we’d had to come in from one of the border holds?”

“Probably at least a week,” Kathrine grumbled. “At least out in the border towns, they maintain the roads.” 

“We’re in the heart of the largest swamp on the continent. All the moisture makes the ground quite soft and causes the ground under the road to shift over time. I expect the locals have enough trouble keeping the road open, never mind level,” I said. “Besides, Aunt Helena has several Terramancers on staff to keep the estate completely stable, so she could fix up the road if she wanted to. She’s probably keeping it in this state to dissuade unwanted visitors.” 

“She doesn’t need to go that far,” Kathrine snorted. “Her reputation and temperament do a far better job of dissuading visitors than a rough road would ever be.”

“Careful with what you say,” I muttered, looking up over the top of my book. “You wouldn’t want your words to get back to your mother.”

“It’s fine. The coachman is a mute, and I already know what you think of my mother,” Kathrine said. “I only vent to you. I’m not stupid enough to do it with the rest of our family around.”

“Speaking of which,” I said, slowly lowering my book so I could look Kathrine in the eyes. “Did you manage to figure out what’s going on? It’s rare for your mother to call us back to the estate, and even rarer for it to be an emergency.”

“No, when I contacted Terrance to confirm the message was authentic, he told me that the situation was delicate and it couldn’t be discussed through message stones; My mother would brief us in person once we arrived.”

“I don’t know she couldn’t just encrypt the information and send it to us that way. We established the system of rotating ciphers so we could send sensitive information through the stones, and not worry about the messages getting intercepted.”

“Perhaps she thought it wasn’t worth the risk, even if the message was encrypted,” Kathrine said.

“Maybe,” I muttered. “But she’s trusted the system up to this point. What changed?”

Kathrine shrugged. “I don’t know, but I plan to ask her once we arrive.”

I nodded and leaned back in my seat so I could look out the tiny side window. “Speaking of which, it shouldn’t be long now. It looks like we’re coming up out of the slew and back onto solid ground again,” I said.

A moment later, the carriage changed from a nausea-inducing bumpy ride to a nearly flawlessly smooth one. The scenery outside quickly changed from a fetid swamp to gently rolling hills, and a few minutes later, I caught sight of a massive, familiar stone-and-wrought-iron fence.

The road turned and followed the contours of the outer wall, giving me quick glimpses of our family’s gothic-style palatial estate in the distance. The main building was as intimidating as it was impressive, and I could just make out flashes of the dozen or so smaller outbuildings through the gaps in the thick foliage that surrounded the estate.

As we approached the front gate, I finally turned away from the window and closed the small curtain covering it.  While the estate was home to numerous greenhouses, herb beds, and alchemy labs, the main drive was decorated with immaculate flower beds and ostentatious, almost gaudy statues. While they served to show off the family’s wealth and obscure what was happening in the outbuildings, I hated looking at the ugly things. 

Since it would take a minute for us to get up the drive, I started preparing myself, tucking my book into the satchel at my feet and subtly checking that all my weapons were still in place. 

“You ready?” Kathrine asked.

“As much as I can be,” I muttered. “I have a lot of bad memories of both your mother and this estate; I’m not exactly eager to be back here.”

“Can’t say I blame you,” she muttered. “You should consider yourself lucky that you’re family; otherwise I expect you’d still be locked in an observation cell.”

“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t exactly call myself lucky. If I’d been born into any other family, I wouldn’t have had to deal with that in the first place,” I growled. “I just had the unfortunate pleasure of ‘The Tyrant of Salven’ being my next of kin when my parents died.” I paused for a moment. “And you know that I still have questions about that…”

“Yes, and while I wish I could assuage your suspicions, we both know how my mother can be sometimes,” Kathrine replied. “Now, considering we’re coming up to the main estate I think we should both take your earlier advice and watch what we say going forward. We wouldn’t want to get on my mother’s bad side before we get out of here again.”

“She already knows about my suspicions and what I feel about her,” I grumbled.

Kathrine gave me a hard look. “That may be true, but we gain nothing by reminding her about them and raising her ire,” she said. “Besides, if you got in a fight with her, or someone else in the family, who knows how long we’ll be stuck here.”

“Don’t worry, no one will complain while we’re here,” I told her.

Kathrine’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t you mean you’ll avoid getting into a fight while we’re here?” she asked suspiciously.

I gave her a wry smile. “No.”

Kathrine opened her mouth, probably to admonish me, but before she could the carriage shuddered and slowed. I stuck a finger through the curtain, parting it just enough to confirm that we’d pulled up to the front doors.

“Well, looks like we’re here,” I muttered. “Don’t worry, I’ll be on my best behavior. As you said, I don’t want to be here any longer than you do.” 

Kathrine nodded quietly and pushed open the door while I grabbed my satchel and threw it over my shoulder. 

As we descended the stairs, the front doors were thrown open, and half a dozen maids and butlers emerged from the building, led by the Steward. “Welcome back, young misses; we’ve been expecting you,” Terrance declared before bowing.

“Terrance, it’s good to see you again,” Kathrine said smoothly. “Is my mother available?”

“She is currently in a meeting with the heads of several branch families, discussing how to handle the situation,” the elderly gentleman replied. 

“And what exactly IS the situation?” I asked. “What was so important that we couldn’t be told by stone?”

“Even though I know you two were called back to help deal with the situation, the mistress has declared that no one is to discuss it without her express permission, so you’ll have to wait until you can talk to her,” Terrence declared as he adjusted his glasses. “She should be available shortly, but until then I suggest you rest and freshen up. Your rooms have been cleaned in anticipation of your arrival, and I can have some food sent up if you're hungry.”

“No, thank you,” Kathrine said. “Just inform my mother we’ve arrived and let us know the instant we can meet with her.”

“Very well,” Terrence replied, bowing slightly. “The footmen will bring your suitcases up to your rooms shortly. If you need anything, please let me know.”

“Before you go… since the family heads are here, I assume they brought some of our kin with them; You wouldn’t happen to know where they are, would you?”

“I believe Lady Monique and lord Pierre are out sparring with the guards, and Lady Marielle is out in the greenhouses, as usual. Lord Dimitri is around here somewhere; however, I haven’t seen him today.”

“Wonderful, he’s the second-to-last person that I wanted to run into today,” I grumbled. “Thank you Terrance, that’ll be all.”

The steward bowed again before turning and returning to the building. 

“I can understand not sending information through a stone, but not allowing Terrence to talk about what’s going on?” she whispered. “On top of that, she called in several of our relatives to discuss the situation before we arrived… I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“Let’s stick to the plan, keep our heads down and ears open, and hopefully we’ll be able to avoid any unpleasant encounters,” I replied.

“You honestly don’t believe that, do you?” she asked.

“Not for a second,” I said. “Once the others know we’re here, they’ll descend on us like a swarm of blood gnats. All we can do is prepare to react appropriately when they do.” I stepped aside and swept one arm towards the entrance. “There’s no point in putting it off; they’ll find us no matter where we are on the estate, inside or out, so we might as well choose a place that benefits us over them before they arrive.”

“True,” Kathrine chuckled as she stuttered past me, heading towards the door. “There’s no place like home.”