Eisenstern 2.1
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Notes: Here we go, I’ve never written for Cecily before, I have no idea how she’s going to come out, so pardon the first few chapters where her voice is likely to be very shaky.
My sister’s regent. And somehow, I ended up heir.
Let me back-track a little, I guess. Dad (the one we’re all related to) got a random hair up his bum, and decided to leave magic realm (um, why???) and come out here to Mt. Komorebi and… you know he’s explained a few times what he intended to do, and every time it confuses me even more, so, to do I don’t know what. Something about bolstering the spellcaster race from the other side of the magic realm-not magic realm binary, but what that means, I don’t know, and he doesn’t really seem to know either.
In any case, he chose the absolute wrong child to give this legacy to. I have no idea what I’m doing, and… and you know I don’t lead! When I lead, bad things happen! Things explode, people end up in the hospital, and the next thing anyone knows, I’ve got a broken nose and I’m doing the walk of shame to the principal’s office!
… I’m really not overexaggerating.
Well, it’s too late now, I guess. Dad and dad-er… father?-ran off to Sulani with their ghost cat, and Bryn’s managing the estate’s finances until I’m a young adult. I’m freaking terrified of ageing up now. Can I just… can I not? I want to not. Dad said something about there being a such thing as an immortality potion, so he and father won’t die or age, and I’m wondering if I can find that myself and just, be a teenager, forever.
Right?
No?
Well, I guess maybe I’m just freaking out a little. I mean, normally the responsibility falls to Bryn. That’s probably why she’s regent. (Also, she’s an adult now.) Cynemaer never gets any because he’s whiny and doesn’t like people. (Don’t tell him I said that.) And Freya’s going to go to Selvadorada and conquer temples, whatever that means.
Speaking of Freya, she brought home a friend, and that was surprising because I honestly didn’t know she had friends (don’t tell her that, either!). Cute girl named Kaylie, and I kind of get the feeling there’s a little more to Kaylie being around than Freya’s said so far. Not that I’m going to pester her about it. She’ll say something when she’s ready, and in the meantime, we’ll just be courteous to her friend and get to know her and stuff.
She’s a little odd, but nothing I can’t live with at least. Cynemaer’s another story. He’s always on about how she’s weird and twitchy and says odd stuff. (So? Freya likes her.) I mean, she talks about some weird things sometimes, but hey, maybe she just has strange hobbies, or, isn’t very good with people. Cynemaer’s one to talk about that. (Don’t tell him that!)
So he comes to me one morning like, “Cec, look, Kaylie’s weird, okay?” and I’m just like “Yeah? You’re weird, bro. I mean, come on.”
“I’m going to figure out why she’s so weird,” he says. “You’re not good at digging up dirt, but I definitely am. I excel at it.” And then he turns and stalks out with that determined walk he inherited from father (I mean, he inherited everything from father, so that’s not surprising-if father had a clone, Cynemaer’s it).
Meanwhile, I’m thinking, yup, you sure do love to dig up trouble. Being fair about it, the girl just came to this giant mansion in Mt. Komorebi to meet her friend’s legacy family, of really powerful spellcasters (okay so there’s only two of them right now and none of them are any of us), of course she’s weird. She’s probably unbelievably nervous!
Well, he’ll figure that out. In the meantime, I really need to pass biology or dad’s going to come back from Sulani just to tan my hide.
Or so I thought. Cynemaer came back a few days later with interesting news.
“Cec, I figured it out!” he said.
I raised an eyebrow. “Erm, figured what out?” Honestly, I couldn’t remember the conversation we’d had about Kaylie.
“Why Kaylie is so weird!” Cynemaer answered.
“Oh! Well what’d you figure out?”
Cynemaer got this conspiratorial look on his face, and leaned forward a little, and whispered, “She’s an alien!”
“Neeb!” I whispered back. We all knew aliens existed (dad had figured that out some time ago, purely by accident, though we’d never met one).
“Yep!” Cynemaer answered. “So, I told you she was weird, for a reason other than her conversational skills suck.”
“Be nice about it,” I said. “She’s a nice girl and Freya really seems to like her.”
“Oh, I will,” he answered. “I kind of like her too.”
That was news to me.
“And now I’m finding I can’t keep track of anything going on in this house!” I said.
Diaval was barely even paying any attention. Eventually, I was supposed to bind the cat as my familiar, but so far my attempts at magic had been abysmal and slightly dangerous (as befitting an Eisenstern, I suppose). Well, I can’t keep track of what’s going on in my own house, and my siblings bring home aliens and I don’t notice, and I can’t bind a cat to me as my familiar.
Some heir I am.
It’s weird without dad and father around. It’s not like it’s quieter, and yet it also kind of feels like it is. I still have my three siblings around, at least for now. Bryn’s already announced she’ll be moving out when I age into an adult, because she wants to live with her boyfriend, Orlando. Cynemaer’s also moving out when he ages up. He met a girl in Glimmerbrook and wants to move there.
And Freya’s already long decided she’s moving to Oasis Springs and travelling. See conquering temples in Selvadorada.
So eventually, I’ll be on my own. And I don’t think I like that. I’m a walking disaster, what the heck do they think they’re doing leaving me alone?! It’s all going to go terrible! I’ll burn the house down and drop a piano on my own head!
Probably.
I was expecting dad to come by first, but it was father. He’s grey now too, but I kind of like it on him. It makes his eyes stand out, and I got my eye colour from him, even though mine are a little greenish. (I figure my eye colour is father’s ocean blue trying to mix with dad’s steel grey and somehow getting turquoise…? but it works out.)
He asked how everything’s going, and mostly I lied through my teeth and pretended I’m not in a never-ending cycle of befuddlement and panic.
Unfortunately, Bryn’s father, Sergio, passed away. Bryn didn’t take it so well, but also did? It was kind of like, she seemed not to care much because it wasn’t like he’d ever been around when he was alive, so it wasn’t as if anything changed. But then, on the other hand, now he wasn’t alive, and he’d never be around again. All those opportunities for him to come by and be her father, those were gone now.
I kind of get it. I’m trying to think of it through her eyes, with her heart, because if father was never around, well… maybe I’d feel the same way. Maybe I’d wonder what was wrong with me that he didn’t want to stay.
I wonder if she thinks that. I hope not. Brynny’s the nicest, most kindest person I’ve ever met, and she definitely shouldn’t think of herself like that. He doesn’t know what he missed out on, and it really is a loss for him. Anyone would be honoured to have a daughter like her. I sure would. I hope my kids turn out like Bryn!
Incidentally, one of my classmates and I have been getting really close. Actually she’s probably the only classmate I really talk to. Her name’s Avery. Isn’t that the prettiest name you ever did hear?
The crush is obvious, isn’t it? (Don’t! Tell!)
She has interesting food requirements. It seems she doesn’t eat meat, which means ramen is out. I can’t imagine not pigging out on dad’s ramen! Oh wait. He’s not here to make it anymore. Oh NO! I have to figure out how to make it myself because that’s just a tragedy! I wonder if he’ll give me the recipe… well anyway, we talked about it one day, and I got interested in seeing how many things you can learn to cook without meat.
So I ended up learning to cook. I’d wonder if that’s weird, but it’s probably a good thing, all things considered. I mean, I guess I’ll eventually be some kind of family matriarch, and making sure my kids are eating well is… something. Dad always made sure we did. Hmm. You know, I think there’s a kind of love in cooking.
Speaking of dad, he did finally come over. And yes, he did give me his ramen recipe (yum!).
“You should’ve made Bryn heir,” I said. “She’d make a better one than me.”
“What makes you say that?” he asked, raising his eyebrow in that way that makes you feel awfully chastised.
I ducked my head slightly. “It’s just, I’m not good at anything that makes a good heir,” I said.
“Well, whose rules for a good heir are you following?” dad asked. “Because I think you’re good at plenty of things that make you a good heir.”
“I can barely cook, I’m bad at maths, I’m horrible at magic, I’m not very observant, I mean I didn’t even know Kaylie is an alien until Cynemaer told me-“
“Cecily!” dad snapped.
Instinctively, I shut up, and looked at him.
“You’ve got a strong, and good, heart,” he said, his gaze softening.
I snorted. “That sounds like a bottom-of-the-barrel faery blessing,” I said.
“Please,” dad said wryly. “You can learn to cook. You can learn maths, and magic, to be more observant, you can learn all those things, you don’t have to naturally be good at it because with enough will power and effort you can overcome that. But you can’t learn to be a good person, Cecily.”
Oh.
Oh.
And, as cliche as it sounds, it was like for the first time the clouds parted and I saw the sun for the first time in my life, and then I wondered why that had never crossed my mind before. “I see,” I said.
Dad smiled in that odd knowing way he does. Maybe I can figure this out after all.
I was tired, but Diaval needed some play time. In the hustle and bustle of life, he’s easily forgotten about, and I feel bad about it. Normally, he plays by himself. Dad got him the cat tree with a dangle toy on it, but he does enjoy the laser pointer, and I always loved playing with him.
Well, Diaval, it’s just me and you, I guess. Bryn, Cynemaer, and Freya will be gone soon enough, and I’m nervous about what that’ll mean. But maybe I’m just being paranoid and overthinking things. Maybe dad’s right, and I can do it. Whatever ‘it’ is.
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