Family

"Magic! I can do Magic!" Eres laughed and turned wide-eyed to Freya. Just as he began to continue, the patter of feet running up to the door was heard and the purple light began to fray and dissipate. Eres turned back with a groan as he lost concentration, but then the door slammed open, bouncing off the wall behind it and then was jammed closed again, held closed by the new arrival.

"Shush shush shush a second okay, I need a break and that dreadful woman is hounding me today!" the tall silver-haired girl whispered quickly, leaning her whole weight against the door. Dark red eyes peered out from under a rough silver fringe, hair slipping out from the high ponytail and waving around her face in the heavy pants as she tried to regain her breath.

"Ellsa, you do know how to make quite an entrance," Eres chuckled at his older sister's rumpled dress, sweaty face and glaring eyes. "Freya would you be so kind as to get my sister and I some tea?"

Ellsa von Hytheiem, the only daughter of Baron Hytheiem, wheeled around in panic when she realised her brother wasn't alone. Seeing the shocked face of the maid in front of her, an audible groan escaped her lips.

"Calm down Ellsa. This is Freya, my personal maid and attendant. She has seen me being myself for a day now, so I am sure she can deal with one of your outbursts, but if you start berating her because you made a mistake I won't share dessert with you for a month," Eres spoke slowly and clearly, looking into his sisters eyes the whole time.

Ellsa stuck her bottom lip out in a pout and slumped into the spare chair as she whined, "You are no fun Eres. How am I meant to get used to being a Baron's daughter if I don't yell at the servants at any little thing and -" watching Eres' face begin to darken Ellsa suddenly sat up straight and quickly rushed out, "Come on brother, I am joking, just joking! Seriously, you are no fun at all whenever I get to see you these days!

I am Ellsa von Hytheiem, thank you so much for taking care of my brother. Excuse my dishevelled state and the interruption," as Ellsa stood and gave a small curtesy in the direction of the maid, Freya's mouth once again dropped open as Eres chuckled from the chair at the desk he had returned to.

"You are far more interesting when you are honest sister. Anyway, I am studying so what brings you here today? Other than running from that old hag Bruna, of course," Eres spoke with his gaze roaming across the tomes on the desk, wondering which to read next before he brought his eyes back up to his once again pouting sister.

"Here I am coming to visit my lonely younger brother and he doesn't even want to see me? How times have changed from when you used to run into my room crying that -"

"Okay, okay, you can stay!" Eres hurried out, eyes panicked, "Gods, I never can win with you,"

"Of course not, I am older than you!" Ellsa laughed as she walked across the room and gave her brother a brief hug, "I have missed you though. Life has been so boring since I had to start all these lessons, I never see you anymore. It's just lesson after lesson on etiquette and tea parties and the correct way to fold a napkin, it's so tiring!"

"So you ran away?"

"So I ran away," Ellsa grinned, "Come on, you have already said I can stay, let me hide here for a few hours of rest, please?"

Eres let out a deep sigh, though the small smile betrayed him even if he didn't know it, "Of course you can stay. Though I need you to keep quiet about what I am learning in here, I don't want people to start having expectations of me now. I would much rather stay the unwanted third son for now"

Ellsa winced at the bitterness in his voice and hugged him again.

"Of course, I won't say anything but why so secretive? Your blessing is common knowledge at this point," Ellsa wondered.

Eres waved a hand towards Freya as if he was too tired to explain as he pulled another book closer to him.

"Well, you see, Young Miss, the Young Master is rather…" Freya stuttered under the gaze of another member of the household, but eventually, just let out a sigh and strangled out the word, "Unusual."

"Eres has always been unusually quiet and interested in reading, so that's not new, is it?"

"No, it isn't that…Oh Gods, your brother has already created a Magic Core and succeeded in not only manipulating bother internal and external Mana but has even managed to manifest a spell. I am sure I don't need to tell you that doing that in under forty-eight hours is incredibly rare. It would usually be reserved for those genius' with uncommon Mind blessings or who had been trained as mages before their blessing even developed," Freya finished her explanation staring at her toes and slowly brought her eyes up to Ellsa's face, which was frozen in shock.

Slowly, as if a creaking doll, Ellsa turned her face to her brother who was casually reading a book. She placed a hand on his shoulder and spun him to face her, grip tight as her teeth ground together.

"Explain."

Eres looked up at her, sighed, and said, "I just get it. I don't know what to tell you, Sister, it just makes sense quickly to me. Maybe this is why I got this Blessing in the first place?"

Ellsa just slowly blinked, staring at her brother's face.

"Fine, alright. I get it," She grumbled before her eyes lit up wide, "But you have to show me some magic or I won't let this go!"

Eres let out a soft laugh at the similarities of their reaction to magic and hopped off his chair once again.

"Shield!"

* * *

After nearly three hours of hiding out, chatting and pestering her brother about magic, Ellsa finally decided that she should quit her hiding and venture back into the treacheries of lessons and etiquette. Or at least that was how she bemoaned her near future as she wandered through the door swinging it shut behind her.

Eres watched as Freya's shoulder dropped as she let out the breath she was holding.

"You can be with her as you are with me, we are both just children after all," Eres laughed at his new maid's demeanour as he spoke.

"Unfortunately, Master Eres, that is not quite how it works. I can change my way of calling you at your request, as I am your personal attendant, but I still must respect the rest of the household as I have been commanded,"

"How… dull," Eres commented drily, "Nobles and servants we all live the same, bleed the same, die the same. What do titles matter then?"

The room was silent, and he realised perhaps his other memories were leaking through, so Eres just shook his head and smiled bitterly.

"My apologies Freya, I misspoke. I must still be bitter about my place in this, do forgive me,"

"Of course, Master Eres,". Freya's voice was quiet and tight with concern, and the silence stretched on for a few more minutes as Eres finished the tome he was reading, storing away the incantations and visualisations of the spells in his mind and filling reams of paper with detailed notes.

"That should do it for today, I suppose I should get that formal request for a teacher written down shouldn't I?" Eres rolled his shoulders as they cracked slightly from his hunched posture the last hour. He grabbed a fresh sheet of paper and began to write out his requirements for a teacher, in order of importance, while still attempting to phrase it as a polite request.

While Eres himself had had only a few lessons on written etiquette, he knew enough to be polite and simply hoped it would be enough to get him what he needed. He read it through and rewrote various parts to seem more like requests than demands, before rolling it up and sealing it with the family seal. This way when it reached the Baron he would be able to identify it quickly rather than it getting dropped onto the long waiting pile. At least, that was his hope, that he wasn't so out of favour that it would work against him.

"Freya, would you mind taking this to the Baron's -"

Before Eres could finish his request, a sharp rap of knuckles on the door interrupted him. Letting out a slow sigh, he gestured Freya towards the door.

His tone was even and steady, with a slight hint of strength that neither he, Freya nor the party on the other side of the door expected he simply said, "You may enter."

Freya pulled the door open to see a young servant standing there, somewhat pale in the face and still. When he hadn't spoken even after a few moments's she cleared her throat, and the young man at the door shook his head clear of whatever had clouded his mind.

"Apologies, Young Master, I have come to collect you. The Lady of the House requests your presence in an afternoon stroll through the gardens,"

"Oh, is it that time of the month already? I had already forgotten," Eres thought as he pasted a smile on his face.

"Well then, lead the way to my Mother, if you would?" Eres hopped down from the stool as he spoke, stretching out his aching body as he spoke, "Freya, prepare a bath for my return, The dust in here is making my eyes itch. Dinner in my room tonight as well,"

Freya's eyes widened a fraction at the imperious tone in Eres' voice, before seeing the softness in his gaze.

"A show is it, Master Eres? Well, if we must we must." Freya thought as she nodded towards her master, head bowed slightly and gaze towards the floor.

"Very good then. Well, lead the way then," Eres strolled out the door to the study and gestured at the servant who still stood just outside it.

With a swift nod and a stiff back, the servant silently led Eres out through the halls of the manor and into the Baroness's personal garden. Neatly trimmed flowers and bushes lined the multitude of paths, all of which were crisscrossing around tall fruit trees, water features and stone sculptures, before finally converging on a raised wooden pavilion in the centre of the garden.

On the pavilion rested tables and chairs to seat the multitudes of Ladies of other households that attended tea parties and gatherings. Of course, all of the furniture was gorgeously upholstered with various colours of fabric that matched the soft woodland tones of the surrounding flowers. For now though all but one of the seats were empty, with only the simplest of the stools currently being perched upon ever so carefully.

Adalia von Hytheiem always looked composed, it was one of her greatest strengths when talking to other nobles and even when dealing with her husband. Eres had noticed this a long time ago, so her was barely surprised when he saw her sitting gracefully on the edge of a servant's stool as if she had only perched there for a moment.

As she saw them approaching, her face lit up in a gentle smile. It was kind and motherly and Eres even an inch of it. It was the same smile she wore at the dinner that his father, the Baron, had declared he wouldn't be supported beyond the bare minimum as all the house's resources were needed to raise the heir to the household. The same smile she had worn when he had come crying to her at only five years old because he had cut his hand on a tree outside, just before she had sent him off to be treated by the maids so she could meet with the Baron. She hadn't spoken to him then, simply smiled and then told the maids to take care of it.

Eres thought he had learned to ignore these slights, after all ten years of the same thing will lead anyone to become numb to it. However, with his new memories of a mother who loved and cared for him when he was still Adrien, all the pain and anger at his family soared into his chest, and his throat and it felt like it was choking him.

Swallowing down the numerous emotions that threatened to spill from his lips in expletives and shouts, he instead pasted on that same small smile. The smile he had learned to put on in these monthly walks, in the family dinners and meetings and whenever he had seen his brother and father out talking and discussing the future.

"Mother, you look well," His voice was calm and even. He had surprised even himself, as the choking pressure at the bottom of his throat like he wanted to cry out hadn't yet faded, "You wished to see me?"

"Yes, I am. Walk with me?" Adalia smiled as she looked at her third child, and gestured down the path, setting off slightly ahead of him.

Eres stifled a sigh and began to follow her, wondering just what inane topics would be covered on their walk today. However, the following words passed his mother's lips and left him cursing himself.

"How are you? I noticed you seemed unwell before we visited the church the other day, have you recovered?"