The ancestral house had Old Fred taking care of the house when they arrived. As soon as the two appeared, Old Fred eyed the silver arm that Natalya wore.

“Milady,” Old Fred greeted. He eyed Mavin whose eyes were dulled. He tried to hide it, but he hated that old look that his young master had. Natalya’s smile bothered Old Fred, he glanced at Mavin, walking up the stairs. Natalya twisted on the couch, adjusting the gears on her arm.

“What is it?” Natalya asked.

“My Lady, now that you are part of the Tomas Family. I shall be serving you truly.”

“Is that so?”

Old Fred started. “I can persuade my lord that you…don’t want to be tied to this household.”

“No can do,” Natalya said tonelessly. “Old Fred, the Emperor wants to use my blood. A justification that I should be bonded to the Tomas Family so that I can have a proper claim on that throne. Do you not know? In exchange for my life that was spared thrice, I am to be bonded to Mavin Tomas. I am now legally his wife on paper.”

“Are you fine with it?”

“To be forced to be wedded to the man who put a scar on my head, and had recently cut off my left arm? What do you think?”

“The young sir must have a reason.”

“You know, Old Fred,” Natalya said indifferently. “That he had done this because he was wary of my mark. I understand the fear and if he knows what I could have done. He had every right to do it.”

“My Lady…are you truly not?”

“Angry? Do I curse him? Do I loathe him? I do not know, Old Fred. Lately, I have been thrown around, feeling as if I am repeating my days, unable to understand a single thing. I only knew of the Nuller and the Magi, and you people have been living in this kind of world, knowing that there are such things as this.” She held her hand out, trying to produce the power. “And that power was cut off immediately as if it was nothing more than a momentary dream. A horrible dream that I am somewhat glad to be rid of.”

“And it’s not like I don’t understand where this is coming from. It would be a mercy if he just shoots me in the head. It would have been far easier for him to do so. I would do that,” she said as if she would have done it without hesitation. “I’m pretty sure that Old Fred knows what it means to have the mark and the power of the Whitefall on me. Imagine it, a woman with the blood of the Whitefall flowing in her, and had the power before someone had taken it up to himself to cripple this power by directly removing my left arm, and making it as a catalyst for whatever he had done. I do not understand it myself, but you know that if they get a hold of me, then I’ll be someone who will have worth.”

Old Fred kept his stare. Natalya slid the panel on her silver arm and leaned back. “Even as the Lady Bellatrix, I am still susceptible to pregnancy. I have a strong body. If they got a hold of me, they would have every right to bring people to their cause, a divine right in which I could grant through the power of my womb. Isn’t it lovely?” she chuckled. “That even without the Imperator’s Mark, I can still do so much damage. The Emperor knows it, and so what better way to get it out is to use my own blood? Even now, they are using my name, my reputation to get what they want. It would have been mercy to just get rid of my blood, but he chose mercy. The worst part is, that I was afraid, Old Fred. Afraid that I would have died. I could kill, but to be killed scares me. I have visions…but I was afraid that it would come to me. I am glad, but sickened by this.”

Old Fred didn’t answer. He perked up his ears, sat down, and locked his fingers.

“Do you think of my family as monsters?”

“I am not a child who thinks that there is only good and evil. How lovely it would have been, if that was the case. I understand the reasons,especially in this shithole of a city, but emotions barely could reason now, doesn’t it? Old Fred, I like you, you are a mentor to everyone, and it makes me happy that you are willing to serve me, but your words are an insult to me right now.”

“I see.”

Old Fred looked down. Natalya stared at the ceiling. Her single eye moistening. She wiped her eye with her right forearm, and gave out a heavy sigh.

“I do not blame you. Truthfully, I’ve been told of what he was back then. I saw him on the train before Flost, he was warmer than this, and yet do you know? He looked at me better when he didn’t know that I was the person that he almost killed.”

Old Fred looked lost. His expression told that he didn’t know how to respond to what she was saying. Natalya noticed his face, and chuckled tiredly. “It’s okay, Old Fred. I don’t hate you. My feelings for him are strange. Besides, it was always a fate of a noble to be married off when it is convenient to do so. I was bred to be ready, and only because my mother was a tolerable person that she had allowed her daughter to go to war. This time, I need it for my survival.”

“The young lord had decided to carry your weight,” Old Fred remarked. “I don’t know what the young lord plans, but I assure you that—”

“Assure what? Don’t worry Old Fred, from the start, I know that we already have such a twisted relationship.”

Her smile was lonesome.

Old Fred went upstairs to check on his young lord. He sat on his bed, staring at his pistol, before holstering it. He looked at Old Fred with such dullness in his eyes.

“What is it?”

“I don’t like it. Two of the children that I have taught to be like this. I was hoping that you would have a better relationship, considering that you are now lawfully wedded.”

“Yes, wedded,” Mavin said tonelessly. “She keeps on saying that I should have finished her off. That I should have put a bullet on her. Indeed, if those hidden under the veil knew her, then they would still seek for her blood. I could have saved her from this…but the Emperor demanded all of this. That I should keep her alive since I have crippled her powers, and that we needed her blood as justification for the reparations that the Frans are refusing to pay.”

There was an air of calmness on him.

“I was planning to truly kill her the moment I saw that mark. Once I was done with the crippling, I would have used the hilt less saber to make sure that she does not stay alive. The Huntsmans who were following her had stopped me, demanding that I take the Magi back. The Emperor learned many things. He would want to  know what happened. I had no choice but to tell him about the Imperator’s Mark, who is the possessor of such a mark, and that I should choose. Truthfully, I wanted to be rid of her. Nonetheless, the Emperor has plans for her and chooses to bond me to her. Make use of her identity, and that she is more useful alive than dead. The Emperor’s not ignorant of the mark, and he had allowed me to see the records of what the Imperial Family have on the mark to make me understand. He wanted to get the method of how I did it, and I told him. Of course, I didn’t put much detail into it, knowing that there is no need for it.”

“Do you really believe that this is the case?”

“I do,” Mavin said confidently. “I’ve used our resources to gather these boons, Old Fred. All for the moment that I would be able to destroy that pesky mark. You understand how these fanatics work. You know it better that the Emperor chose to keep her alive because it would mean that the target for their hatred would not be the Great Silence, but to the Ghost who had crippled their rightful ‘bearer of the mark’ and rid them of their power. Even without the mark and the bloom, they can still gather enough force to threaten me. I’ve placed a mark on my back, and yet I could only do nothing but bear this weight.”

“Do you hate her?”

Mavin locked eyes with Old Fred. “I don’t hate her. The moment we tried to kill each other, I knew that it would be hard to mend our relationship. It would have been better if we didn’t know who was who. I don’t regret my choices, from the start, I was always ready to end this mark. I wouldn’t hesitate like I told you to. I didn’t spend years gathering the boon to just give up on it for the sake of a person who I don’t know what to think about. If anything, it is unfortunate that we have to meet in such circumstances.”

“Mavin Tomas.”

Mavin looked up. His face told Old Fred that he didn’t expect to be called by his full name. He softened up, the stone mask that he hid his face behind vanished. To Old Fred, there was only the ‘son’ that he had watched grow. The ‘son’ that didn’t carry the weight of a self-imposed goal.

“What is it?”

“Do you not know how miserable you looked?”

“Am I? Indeed I must look terrible to you now, pa.”

“Mavin Tomas, you looked better when you returned home. Nonetheless, you have always been someone who worries too much. You bear so much weight that you don’t think of allowing anyone to carry. Son, do you intend to bury that secret to your grave?”

“You know that this is related to the powers. You always asked me what had happened on that hill. I’m sorry, I cannot tell you, but I think that you have an idea on what I saw during that day.”

“I have my theories, but I think I understand your worries. The Imperator’s Mark is a powerful mark, and many worshiped it as a mark of divinity, a stigma that all the people under the light must follow. And yet Son, you crippled it, removed it as if it was a stain from the world. The Old Age dies, and you are the instrument of it. You could have refused, my son. You know it better that the Emperor will allow it.”

“I know. See? I told you that I am not fit to hold the choices for the family. All of it was a fluke, pa. Nonetheless, it’s not time to be soft-hearted. The demifiends east of the mouth of Pustalo lives. I need the Emperor’s Huntsmen to carry out the mission. I am willing to throw our Hounds to the fire if it means we can destroy that nest of evil.”

“My son, if you succeed in this goal of yours. What do you intend to do?”

“I don’t know, pa. I didn’t expect that I could take care of the Imperator’s Mark this early. I would not hesitate to go in that hive, but even Cousin Derrick won’t allow it. You wouldn’t allow it. You would deny me of my right.”

“And you will never have that wish of yours, my son,” Old Fred said sternly. “I had made an oath that I would not allow you to pursue this. I wouldn’t change my mind, my son. That is the only request that I cannot grant you.”

“I see,” Mavin nodded. “Treat her well. She is now a Tomas and no matter what, we treat those who have the Tomas name well. That’s all I ask of you, pa.”

“I understand, my son.”

“Thank you.”

Mavin nodded. There was a shift that happened. The stone mask that he had dropped was back and Mavin’s face became dulled again.

All for the sake of that goal of yours, Old Fred thought, closing the door behind him. He reaffirmed to himself how he truly hated the quagmire that he had been stepping on.