Chapter Seventy-Four
Months of scouring the countryside took its toll on the nobles, unused to such lengths. I did my best to give them some days of rest, but with how the whole of Gallia was made, sometimes one simply had to push the extra mile. Also, refueling the Night Wind took its time. While the fallen nobles I had hired could pour wind elements into the stones, the ship needed to remain docked for the procedures.
The wind stones were effectively tiny engines, which had an input and an output. The input was the mage pouring wind elemental willpower into it, ad the output was a small gust of wind and a levitation effect. As the nobles, and most of the commoners, enjoyed their daily leave and had fun in the port town of St. Mallon, I instead took upon myself to read the correspondence that I had warned to forward to our base of operation here in the biggest port of the country.
My dear husband,
I have received your latest letters. Most certainly, I will look into these acts. I am also happy to inform you that the letters of fealty from the current nobles of the Duchy of Brittany have come in. Little Helene is staying here in the palace as a guest, and she's been such a sweet little girl, but again, I'm giving her all of the good examples she needs to have. You have received a letter from your sister, and I have forwarded it. I did not open it, but I do wish you'll warn me if there was something that involved me in it!
I am feeling a bit lonely without your presence, even when surrounded by playmates and my cousin, I still find myself sincerely wishing you were back. I hope you will find that unfortunate child of uncle and auntie, and bring her back into the folds of the family of Gallia. Even though...even though, do you remember when you told me the story of the hunch-back? That passage, about the smile and the sorrowful loss of Esmeralda? How the nice bishop was cast aside, and the evil bishop had a change of heart and patted Quasimodo's shoulders? That piece right there, I'm afraid I can't remember what happened next. It's been such a long time.
I blinked.
I do hope you'll find that poor girl, though! When you do, please keep an eye on her. She'll definitely be scared, and worried, and who knows what might have been told to her by whoever was despicable enough to kidnap such a young child! Why! Such evil!
I send you my kisses and my warmest embrace.
Yours, Isabella.
I furrowed my brows and hummed, moving to the next letter on the pile.
It did come from my twin sister, and it had been apparently left untouched. However, from apparently to actually the difference was a magic spell. I still opened it, deciding to trust on Isabella's good will.
Within the letter, there was a small figurine which I quietly palmed and placed into the pouch around my neck.
Dear brother,
first of all, how dare you make me worry like this! I'm so angry with you, I'm sending back the gift you bought to apologize! Not writing to me for a few months in a row is a grievous sin! Do you hear me? No! I won't forgive you, absolutely not! So take this letter as a stern warning that I won't tolerate this kind of behavior any longer. I want a letter from you every week! And if you can't, then I expect double the amount the next week!
The stray I found and brought home is growing up happy, but he's a bit lonely. He's got such a shiny yellow fur now, you'd never guess he was taken by the side of the road! He misses his friends a lot, but Louise plays with him regularly. Mother is thinking of sending him along her to the Academy, but she doesn't really know since it might not be the case.
She heard of the troubles in Gallia, and hopes everything is going for the best. Well-she didn't really say it like that, brother. More of "That foolish child of mine! Making me worry like this!" but I'm sure you'll be fine.
Now, on to better, happier news! Father told me I was old enough for a really important gift, and so...he made me the proud bearer of a new family name! I am Cattleya la Fontaine! How do you think it rings? Funnily enough, the La Fontaine fief is one of the richest-with the money from it, I could go anywhere, be with anyone-and yes, I'm sure since it's you brother, I'm sure you've understood already!
Jean-Jacques and I are getting married later next year!
I very slowly stood up from my desk, and proceeded to the wine cabinet. The servant by the side of it didn't as much as move, the gaze in my eyes enough to make him freeze on his tracks. I grabbed the bottle, uncorked it, and the sat back down behind the desk.
I took a very deep swill of it.
He's a prospective Captain of the Griffin Guards-I told him I could wait, that if his career is important, he should cultivate it, but he wants to marry me. Even if he's passed up on the position, he doesn't care. We'll be moving to the La Fontaine villa one we're married, and Jean-Jacques is already taking care of having it restored to order, and to my tastes. He's such a sweetie-but this isn't everything I wanted to write you about, brother.
How have you and your wife been getting along? I've been corresponding with her, and she's a bit lonely. You really should think about-
Cattleya, being bed-ridden most of the time, had all the time in the world to write. This meant that her letters were pretty much long scrolls that could go on for meters to no end, and I cherished it. It felt like the days I spent by her bedside telling stories, or simply exchanging random and trivial information about nothing in particular.
Though the fact that Josette was apparently safe and with blond hair now was way better news than I had expected.
I closed my eyes, and sighed.
Suddenly, victory.
Suddenly, triumph.
My eyes snapped open as Raven's vision shared itself with me, and two persons came into the view of his eyes. Finally. Fucking finally. After all these months-calm, calm, you must be calm, Raven.
Raven's eyes showed the vision of a young girl and a young woman, both trudging along the forest, and stopping to rest in front of the abandoned house. One had dark green hair, and a wand in her hand. A small earth golem, stocky and badly built, held into his arms the duo's luggage.
"Here," she mumbled, "This is the place the villagers talked of-" she turned towards what could only be Tiffania, a large hat that easily covered most of her face, not even a hint of hair emerging from it. "For a cursed house-" Raven, did you do something? No forthcoming answer, but it was clear that Raven was hiding something. Perhaps he had scared some kids away with his voice, which was highly possible. "We can put it back, it won't be like the tower, but..."
"It's fine, big sister," Tiffania whispered. "I like this place," she added with small, kind smile on her place. "Can I...can I remove the hat now?"
Mathilda looked right and left, and for a brief instant her eyes glanced over the nest where Raven stood silently. From such a distance, perhaps he looked just like any other normal-sized raven.
"Sure," she said in the end. "I'll get started on repairing the roof-" as the earth golem deposited the luggage and disappeared, Tiffania removed her hat to reveal her slightly pointed ears and blond hair. She began to rush towards the back of the house, and in that moment, Raven sprung into action.
Blocking the path of Tiffania, Raven cawed and flapped its wings. "Tiffania!" Mathilda yelled, but Raven yelled louder.
"Hello!" he said, flapping his wings. "Hello!"
Tiffania blinked, taking a step back and then carefully lowering her arms from guarding her face when no attack seemed forthcoming. "I'm your friend!" Raven said excitedly, hopping back and forth. "I'm Raven! Nice to meet you!"
"Tiffania-" Mathilda hurried forward, stopping only once she was right by the young girl's side. "This-" she furrowed her eyebrows. "It must be a familiar."
"I love my master!" Raven said with a happy chirp. "He said to wait here!" he added.
"An abandoned familiar?" Mathilda mumbled, only for Raven to caw angrily.
"No!" he yelled. "Master loves me! And I love master! He said to wait for you here!" he cawed, "Master is really smart! And hugs me lots! And tells me everything! He wants you to come with me!"
"Is your master working for the imperial family?" Mathilda asked, her voice wary, her wand in hand slowly rising.
"No!" Raven cawed. "Master works for love and hugs!" I blinked at that sudden exclamation. "Master loves happy people! He loves helping people! He's the best master there is!" he hopped a bit closer. "You need a hug! You want a hug?"
Mathilda's eyes seemed kind of a mix between shocked out of her wits, and scared senseless. "I want a hug," Tiffania said, childishly stepping forward only for Raven's wings to surround her frame and-
Wait a minute.
Surround her frame?
Raven...how much did you grow while I wasn't looking? I hadn't bothered noticing it, but Raven was talking eye to eye with Mathilda. How had she not noticed him atop the rooftop then? Perhaps amidst the foliage, his dark plumage had hidden him, but still-
"He's warm!" Tiffania said with a giggle, "The feathers tickle-" she giggled some more.
"Your master...what does he want?" Mathilda asked, and to that Raven answered by showing his neck.
"Pouch! Take pouch! Inside is letter with instructions, and money! You take, you follow instructions-master prepared everything! He has friends who can help! Just wants child safe, because all children should be safe!" as Raven said that, Mathilda swallowed and neared her hand to take the pouch. Raven didn't resist, and soon the young woman had a pouch in her hand.
In front of Raven's eyes, even as Tiffania seemed to be loving the warm hug of my fluffy familiar, Mathilda opened the pouch and pulled out the letter within. "Dear Mathilda of..." Mathilda mumbled, "He knew I'd be coming this way? The letter's a bit old..." she whispered to herself, "I know you must be feeling angry-rest assured, you are not alone." Mathilda swallowed. "This patronizing tone," she said after a while, crumbling the letter and burning it as by the instructions written on it. "He must be an old man-I don't remember any of father's friends having a crow as a familiar, one as big as this-but..." she nodded. "You can tell your master we'll be on our way."
Raven cawed, and the opened his wings to release Tiffania from the hug. He hopped slightly back, and made a bowing motion with his body. Since when did he know how to bow?
"See you soon!" he cawed, widening his wingspan and taking off on the double, excitement and feelings of having done a great job pouring through him like a geyser.
And as my smile showed itself through my lips, I knew everything would soon be in place properly.
Now, to put this apparently innocuous figurine hidden in my pouch among the children born eaten by a minotaur or an orc...and then, obviously, make this hunt end.
Isabella's warning had simply confirmed my suspicions, in the story of Disney, Frollo came with a knife behind his back. It was clear that the reason I couldn't say whom I was looking for was because once found, I'd have to bring her back to the palace and then...
Then I supposed the Duke would be the hard man taking the hard decision, and chop the girl's head off if he wanted to regain the lost pride as a noble. Pride, for a noble, was a great thing, just like one's oaths. Of course, this was simply Isabella's worry, which didn't necessarily translate into something that would really happen -and for the sake of my plan, didn't need to happen. After all, if Charlotte's sister died, then there would be no problems if the succession line changed from Joseph to Charles.
Supporters of Charles might just want that to happen regardless of what Charles would wish for his daughter, so in the end...
In the end, I would not take the risk of letting a young girl fall out of my supervision and risk death. As it was, Josette was happily playing with Louise, her hair blond and a new holy relic she had to never remove, not for baths, not for bed, never ever, around her neck.
Now, once I got Mathilda and Tiffania safely within the fief of La Blois-father would take care of that.
He owed me for the hippogriff, so, rather than buying me one, he'd take care of those two and keep silent.
The official excuse?
I needed a fallen noble to take care of the coffee plants I had left behind.
Decadence, the number one excuse for why a noble would hire foreigners, and which nobody bothered to even check about.