Standing in the grass, Pippa curled her hand around the little handle of her pumpkin cauldron and focused on that power and Chillingham. It was hard to be honest, even as she spoke, what a mumbling thing she kept feeling tug at her in her mind. It wasn’t something she had exactly known but like Kingrul had said, it just seemed to come to her. It had been pulling at her for a while now but she’d been too distracted by figuring things out to have listened to it until now.
I pledge my life and loyalty to Saturn, and to Chillingham.
I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine.
I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine.
She half expected nothing to happen, pouting slightly but then everything shifted and she swore she saw a crack of lightning streaking across the sky. Except it wasn’t the sky she had just been looking at, and that looming and decrepit castle thing wasn’t in Destiny City. “Oh… Freddy’s gonna be mad.” This wasn’t just down the block or a short hop and skip to another city. This was space, her space? And it looked ancient!
Whatever sort of path had been laid down once was covered in dried and dead thorned vines, pricking at the fabric of her pants and shoes as she tried to avoid the worst of it. “Hello,” she called out, even though there hadn’t seemed to be any signs of life. Something about the place didn’t seem like the sort of magical wonder she had expected from what Kingrul mentioned.
Far in front of her, down the barely visible path, stood what must be Chillingham. It was a little intimidating if she was being honest, but if this was supposed to be the place she needed to be, then she was going to look around. She’d have to tell Freddy, of course she would, but as she thought she saw what looked like a skeletal hand reaching out from beneath a mount of thorns, she decided to leave details out. Nothing would give her brother a heart attack; that was the goal because she wanted to keep doing this magical hero thing.
Something moved, or had it, as she managed her way to the door. Something moving past one of the empty windows where they must have been stained glass or something. Even the door had some sort of decoration in it, even if she couldn’t quite tell what it was just yet. Grabbing at the metal ring, after wrapping a bit of cloth around it, she gave it a tug. Pulling on it did nothing and after a few rough shoulder checks, the ancient wood creaked and gave in, slowly moving on its hinges even as it whined in protest. Already her opinion of this place was going down hill, but she still hoped it might be as amazing as she imagined inside.
“It’s you, not what I expected. How… depressing. I would’ve thought my family line might have remained a bit more hearty.” Standing, no floating, just inside was a figure and they looked displeased to say the least. As soon as Chillingham had crossed the threshold, he made a slow loop around her while eyeing her up and down. Occasionally he paused, once trying to pull at a loose strand of that cotton candy pink hair of hers. It wasn’t something from his side so it must have been from someone married in somewhere down the line. It was… upsetting, in his opinion, but very few things had piqued his interest until now.
“Oh… who… what are you,” she asked as she tried to spin and follow them while they circled her. They didn’t seem gross and evil, feeling like the corrupt senshi or the agents she’d seen in the city. But she also wasn’t in the city anymore. This was far far away from all that, from what she could tell and the sky above crackled with lightning that she swore didn’t look or feel right. Even now that she was inside this place, she could still see a bit of the sky through some of the holes in the walls and roof.
“You really are dull… can’t you tell? I can tell who you are, you have some resemblance, even if it is slight.” Stopping with the circling, he leaned in face to face with her, eyeing her as that impatience of his seemed to bristle. “God, how imperceptive you are?! Isaiah, I’m your ancestor. Now hurry and tell me of things. It’s been so long I’d lost hope that the labs might get used again. So many pretties to make, so many second chances to give my little friends.” Floating back as he cackled and pulled a hand back through the mess of brown hair on his head, he revealed a long stitched scar over his forehead on the left side. It didn’t take him long to settle down onto the floor; it was not that he needed to stand, but he was a bit sad about how much height had been lost. She was nearly a foot shorter than him and he’d been the shortest of his brothers.
“Oh you’re such a wanker, how rude! That’s no way to talk to a lady! Even if we are related, which ugh, you’re so rude!” Stomping her foot down as they pushed her for information, she went to swing at them and found her hand passing right through them. Blinking and swinging her pumpkin instead, she thought she felt like it connected but then it too seemed to phase through the man as he went on about some sort of lab and pretty things. “Ew that sounds like homework, this is magic time not school!”
“And you’re lacking manners swinging at me like that. A nice young lady should feel honored to get an education from me,” huffing as he started walking away from her with purpose. His feet phased through the piles of broken stone and brick that were scattered over the floor, parts that had fallen from the walls and roof above them both.
“Where are we going? And I’ll have you know I’m already taking classes! Music classes! I want to be a rock star and travel across the world!” But it felt like she was arguing with a brick wall and as he got further and further away, she decided to just follow him because how else was she going to figure out what the heck this place was and why this guy was saying they were related. How far back was he anyway, and he looked pretty gross. It made her think of some sort of Halloween costume with the stitches and scar on their head.
“To the labs of course,” he exclaimed as he motioned towards what looked like a collapsed hallway. “Be a dear and move this? I can get through but I doubt you can make the squeeze, even if you are rather small.”
Staring between Isaiah and the pile of rubble, she sighed after a few moments of them looking at her expectantly before she decided to start trying to move some of the fallen stonework. It wasn’t easy and she had to really throw her body into it to get things to move, but eventually most of the path was clear and she could see a room ahead with broken glass strewn across the stone floor. “Are you sure it’s safe in there? It looks trashed.”
“It won’t cause me any harm but if you’re worried I think… there might still be some lamp oil somewhere in the lab here.” Moving ahead of the girl, he was unbothered by the broken glass aside from the fact he didn’t like seeing his lab and work in such a state. Even in the dark he knew where things were, where each and every book or table was even if all the rest had fallen to time. A sourness settled in on his face as he moved forward with the little pink-haired girl following along cautiously. At least she had sense not to touch anything yet. Nor had she started trying to break things or destroy his work. Not everyone had approved, some believed the dead needed to stay buried, but that wasn’t his opinion and he had made progress on that front, much to the distress of those naysayers.
“Just on the wall, there should still be some oil in that lantern and the flint lighter is on the counter there next to the stack of books.” Watching as she moved, grumbling something under her breath as she did so, he leaned back to rest on one of the cracked tables. At least it appeared he was leaning on it but it wasn’t exactly that.
When the light slowly blossomed in the lantern as the girl brought it down from its hook on the wall, he did offer a pleased little laugh. “Welcome to my lab pumpkin.”
Nudging things around with her shoe, Pippa was amazed that not only was there a lantern, that there was still something to light it so she could see. Swinging it around slowly, she looked over all the broken tables and bottles. It looked more than a mess and she was immensely disappointed that this was the magical place that had been harassing her to come visit. “The name is Phillipa, thank you very much, not pumpkin. Ew.” She would have tried swinging the lantern at him to spook him but so far it didn’t seem like something she could really manage, which was frustrating.
Walking around Isaiah, giving him plenty of distance, she looked at some of the books and found she couldn’t even tell what language they were in. Each and every book she saw had some sort of winding scrawl on it that she couldn’t recognize and some books had little holes in them. Were there magic silver fish here or did normal things like that just exist here? Ugh more studying is what it looked like, unless they would just tell her. But the weird man didn’t seem like the type that would just say things straight.
With a frown plastered on her face, she nudged the glass into a pile with her shoe as she went. “It’s worse than beneath the tube station in here. Do I have to clean all this up? Can’t you do something about this if it’s your lab?” Lifting the lantern up to get a better view of him, she noticed the cages just behind him finally. In each one was a pile of bones that looked all mish mashed together and it had her gasping and stepping back from both her ancestor and the cages. “Oh cripes… you’re insane!” This wasn’t some sort of magical place like she imagined, not at all, it was like Frankenstein’s manor and she had to deal with it first hand.
Standing up as his descendant complained like a petulant child, he moved to get closer until she screamed at him. Just that last one had him freeze as he stared coldly at her. Insane? How many times had he been called that for his work, he’d lost count. And now by his own descendant? Unforgivable. This child needed to learn, had to learn, because he wasn’t going to let it all go to waste. How far had they fallen, had his line fallen to their emotions? Yet here he was doing the same, reaching out to grab her by the collar to no avail. His hands simply passing through her as they passed through everything in this place. He was a fixture, a source of knowledge, and he was terribly bitter about the state of things now.
Taking a deep breath, he bit back the words he wanted to say because this girl was hardheaded and he knew how it would go. It was aggravating but it was also the first time in a long time that anyone had been here. To see his lab, his work, and his appearance in such a state did nothing to relay the true beauty of things. Something he doubted she would understand if he spoke to her like a colleague.
“It’s… your lab now. The princess is long gone, everything has been eaten away by time.” Yes, there was still a solid foundation of things, the stone walls remained mostly intact, but from the look of things, the language he knew was gone to time and so were the ideals and goals of his lineage.
Jolting as they reached to grab her by the collar, she swung the lantern at him but just as his hands went through her, the lantern went through him. But she noticed the change in him as he moved back and she stepped back towards the wall where the lantern had come from. Lifting the lantern up to try and see him clearer, she started to feel bad. So he was stuck here in this place and couldn’t do anything to fix it, that would drive anyone mad.
After a few minutes, as things seemed to settle down, Pippa moved around them to give an honest look around at things. Stacks of books were scattered over the broken tables and in one corner was a bookshelf that had collapsed, leaving the books heaped in a pile on the floor. Feeling a bit bad, she started to pick them up and dust them off. “If this is my lab… then I guess I should start tidying up. Do I need to worry about anything other than the glass?” Looking over her shoulder at him, she was still not happy with how things were, but they looked out of sorts and she didn’t like that. Also, if she wanted to bring Freddy here… she’d definitely need to clean up all the broken glass and tidy up, otherwise she’d get an earful of how dangerous it was and how she needs to not come here.
Watching as the girl seemed to start actually picking things up, he drifted over towards one of the doors that led to the small side rooms. He stayed there, looking at the door for a moment as he questioned things. Of course he knew what was there, but if she’d been startled by the skeletal remains of his projects, then no doubt she would take offense at the form that he knew was just on the other side of this door.
“Most of the chemicals have seeped through the stone when the glass tubes shattered. Avoid any that are still filled for now, I can…” Pausing because he knew he couldn’t actually pick them up or help, he sighed and turned back to her.
“You may need some additional assistance… perhaps from someone taller.” Speaking flatly, given it was a fact that the girl was shorter than him by not a small amount, he pointed up towards the taller shelves that she’d need a stool to stand on.
“I doubt the wooden chairs are intact enough to stand on and I doubt you want to put your leg through one either.” Turning back to look at the door, he did wonder for only a moment longer.
“Okay…. You can?” Getting the idea, she nodded. “Oh… yeah I guess I can see. I have a brother but he’s just… normal? I don’t think he’d approve of this… or you.” Trailing off as she noticed them looking at a door again, something seemed to have shifted more.
“Is there somethin’ in there you need me to get?” Taking the initiative, she moved forward and through them as she grabbed the handle, barely noticing as they tried to stop her. The door creaked open with more ease than the main door had, the difference being the cloud of dust as it swung open and cracked against the stone wall.
“Don’t!” But it was too late and he stood there in the doorway behind her as she stepped forward. It was a scene he didn’t like looking at, a sad little end that he wished had been grander. Moving to stand beside her as he looked over what remained, this was maybe not the best thing for the girl to find so far.
“Oh…” Lifting her lantern, she gasped and covered her eyes for a moment as Isaiah shouted. It didn’t stop her from seeing it, couldn’t make her unsee things either. That skeleton slumped over a work desk with a long piece of metal run through it, pinning it in place. The cloth that hung off it almost looked like what Isaiah was wearing, but she didn’t want to look again.
“Not… a great end… Come along Phillipa… you don’t need to look.” Hovering his hand over her shoulder, he tried to avoid looking at the scene or his ring that laid just on the desk. It would help her, but this girl wasn’t anything like he’d expected. She was too young, too naive in his opinion and maybe a bit too emotional. All things that didn’t make for a good researcher, even if he overlooked them being mouthy.
“No need to worry about the dead, nobody has in a long while.” Speaking matter of factly, he shrugged and turned to look back towards the lab. With just the little work she’d done, there was at least a cleared path without any glass between the door to the main area and this side study.
Taking a breath, she did look again, taking in the sad scene. Noticing he’d called her by her actual name instead of the quickly growing pile of nicknames he was giving her, she steeled herself a bit to step forward and look over the papers on the desk. Keeping her eyes up and forward as to not linger on the pinned skeleton.
“Phillipa?” Turning back, he saw her leaning over and looking at things, albeit a bit stiffly. “There’s a ring on the desk, just next to… my hand. You’ll need it and I can explain how it works. I doubt you can read the paperwork, not yet at least. Grab it and hurry out of there.”
“S-sure. Just grab it and off we pop back to the lab. Sounds good.” Scanning for what he mentioned, she saw that a few fingers were missing from the skeleton, almost like they’d been gone longer than it had been lying there. Closing her eyes, she reached and grabbed the ring, wincing as she touched the skeleton. It was definitely real, not some spooky parlor trick or haunted house thing. She liked it even less as she looked and saw where the other hand was clutching the piece of metal, it almost looked like something had come from above. A fact she confirmed as she looked up and saw that she could see through the floor up into the room above. That would be something she should probably fix sooner rather than later unless she wanted to have the same thing happen to her.
Stepping back, she slowly shut the door before opening her eyes and looking down at the ring. It was tarnished and dusty but she could tell there was some sort of symbol cast into it. “What’s this?”
Having watched quietly, he moved to let her close the door even if it didn’t matter to him either way. What was seen couldn’t be unseen, but he could guess it might be easy to not have to look into that room. It wasn’t for those of gentler hearts, something he still didn’t quite like about this girl, but if she could get things done then maybe that would be good enough.
“That’s my signet ring. You can use it to reach out to others like us. You press it into the paper much like a wax seal and off it goes. The Grimmstones is what my family name used to be, though I doubt the name has continued on exactly.” He didn’t know how many generations had carried it or where it had traveled, even if it was still around, but at least this girl was here so something had worked out.
Moving back towards one of the side tables that had stacks of books and papers on it, he couldn’t help but wonder how she’d even begin sorting this without knowing what any of it meant. “You’ll have to listen to me to get things in order. I don’t care about the broken glass or tables but the books need to be in a particular order.” It wasn’t alphabetical so the order only made sense to him and to others who had similar projects running. It was his way of doing things and even if this wasn’t his place exactly anymore he’d be damned if his books weren’t properly taken care of.
Wiping the ring off on her vest after breathing on it like she would a pair of sunglasses, she saw it looking slightly less gross. It sounded like some sort of magic spy thing, which was more in line with what she’d been wanting from things, so she pulled it onto the middle finger of her right hand for now. She wasn’t about to wear it on either ring finger because ew and it was a bit big to be on any other finger.
“Okay, I can ask someone about that part then. A squire told me I should answer that call to come here and I didn’t really get what he was carrying on about. I don’t know about that name but… I’ll look it up?” It was the least she figured she could do, considering some people were really invested in all that family code and house thing.
Looking at all the books, she honestly didn’t know where to begin, so if she could just listen to things then that made her job easier. “Works for me, but I think I need to get the glass up first and look at bookshelves. Most of them look terrible.” Gesturing vaguely at the collapsed bookshelf and the piled up books, she sighed and looked around for a broom or anything to try and help so she didn’t have to actually pick things up.
Checking a few other doors, she gave a cautionary glance at Isaiah in case there were any more literal skeletons in the closets. After the fourth door she found what looked like a supply closet that had old buckets and some sort of wicker broom. It wasn’t the best but it was better than nothing.
Humming along, she figured she’d at least get the glass in this room into a pile before getting it into one of the buckets. After that, she had no clue what to do with the glass, she’d have to ask someone how to get rid of it because she had a feeling there wasn’t a dump here.
“Once it’s gathered, you can melt it back down in the basement. The furnace hasn’t been lit in far too long but it’ll do the trick once it’s running again.” He didn’t mention that the dust was from cremation, not today, considering things were reaching some semblance of understanding. He wouldn’t say it but he thought this little peppy young woman might not be half bad. At least she was working and listened and honestly… it was nice to talk to someone again.
Word Count: 4,025
