A large house towered over Sal, Lea and the constable. It covered them in its shadow. The house glittered it seemed and the concrete walls were covered in fuschia bougainvillea vines and the windows decked in expensive Caligarian glass and winding pillars. It looked so much like a castle.
Lea repeated what she’d been parroting earlier. “Tiya Edihna would open her door to roaches than let us in. I know her more than anyone else. She’s a witch! If that Lawyer or whatever he may be was not a jerk, I wouldn’t need to ask for Tiya’s help.”
“Hey! You have your trusty constable here.We just have to knock by her door, like tok-tok-tok. Nobody can say no to this face. “ The constable remarked.
“Impossible,” Lea groaned. “ I’d rather get caught by constables and be exiled out of here than put up with her face.
“ Well, Sal thought the impossible had just happened. Sal clutched the bag she got from Comaco’s apartment. Amidst the mess, a small bag caught her attention then. She pointed to it until her hands moved on their own, felt the texture on the hands and imagined what would be inside. The housekeeper allowed her to keep it, citing that the Sgr. Comaco had too much junk lying around.
A soft, mournful familiar melody from a harp fluttered from inside the house, a melody she heard as a child. She followed the sound as conversations in Caligarian trickled in. She then found herself in front of a steel gate guarding a vast yard filled with various kinds of flowers and lush grass divided by a neat pathway.
Lea showed up just then and hung an arm around Sal’s shoulder so she pointed at where the music might be coming from.
Lea didn’t seem to be interested. “What? No. Point me somewhere else. I don’t want to get caught.”
“Get caught by me, of course!” the constable popped up behind them. And then ensued the dance of Lea and the constable. They would sing in screeching sing song voices, pointing back and forth statements.
Suddenly, a voice boomed, asking who was trespassing in the yard. Sal froze on the spot as she roamed her eyes around only for watching Lea bolt away before being dragged away herself.
Tired and a bit nervous, Sal stayed behind seated by the shade of a tree while the two bickered. Eventually, Lea did concede to the constable’s plan so they walked up to the gate like proper guests.
Sal kept herself hidden behind the tree as she watched the constable call forth for the Ms. Edihna and meet dead silence. A few more minutes and a few more tries, the constable was met by a man a little bigger than the constable himself. The big tower that must be the Ms. Edihna’s butler, judging from the almost Mercantile-like clothes he wore, was unmoving unlike the constable who punctuated his words with his hands.
Sal contented herself to stay behind and watch and sift through the sounds she heard and look for that familiar melody. Then, it stopped. So did the Caligarian conversations. Up above the second story, the window moved ever so slightly.
A woman clad in black skirt with a sheer dark veil over her head appeared between the glass-encrusted windows. The figure eyed the people below. She stayed in her spot, unmoving. A specter.
Sal wandered close with her eyes fixed on this specter. She watched the minute movements in the woman’s dress or the turn of the figure’s head.
“A ghost.” Sal whispered. “A ghost.” more assuredly.
The window slammed shut and the butler promptly yelled at them to get out.

***

The constable closed the door from behind him and sat on the floor between Sal and Lea. “ I already talked to ‘Nay Rosa. She was concerned that we were out the whole day so I had to explain things to her.”
“I owed you one there. “Lea replied.
There was quite a bit of silence. All the energy in the two’s conversations seemed to be drained as only the sounds of the night whispered to each other.
The constable started, “ Let’s get some rest for tonight. And tomorrow too.”
“No,” Lea interjected. “We’ll be dead meat in here by tomorrow. We can’t stay here tomorrow. ” She stood to her full height as she approached the constable. “ To put it simply, the constables will come for me. Someone said I’m the Cuorre’s child.”
The constable laughed, the lips not quite reaching his ears. “Now, that is not funny. Besides, little girl here hears you.”
Sal’s ears flinched at the mention of a little girl. She leveled a long stare at the man who looked like a stupid waiting dog. “I’m seventeen.”
“Child, I-”
“I was almost married.”
“Lea, tell me-”
“She’s seventeen. I’m fifteen.” Lea sat there with a straight gaze. “When did I ever make jokes with you?” Lea rolled her eyes before sitting on the chair nearest to the constable. “I believe you know the rumors floating around the caretakers, everyone surely will blab their mouths around you.”
“Well, I’m just that handsome and-”
“Surely you heard, some of them believe that a Cuorre bastard child exists and that person is in this hospicio. You remember Meriang? That mermaid-haired caretaker? She believes I’m that child.”
The constable scratched his nape, the smile and the lightness in his face fading at every second.
“It’s another visit tomorrow for the hospicio, right? Meriang. She already called the constables on me.”
“But you’re not that child.”
“It does not matter. She believes I am. Who will your colleagues believe? The word of the caretaker or a green child like me?”
The constable sat on the bed staring in space for awhile. “Meriang is a shy one. Surely, she can’t do something like that.”
“She resented Marcia being adopted away.”
“Oh,” the constable buried his head in his hands for awhile before he started again. “Alright, you could count on me. I’ll talk this over with ‘Nay Rosa.” He donned a wide smile as he bade the both of them good night.
Lea stared at the door for quite a while before turning to Sal. “Talk’s over. Now, sleep.”
Sal retraced the conversation that transpired before her instead. It seemed important yet she could only remember the specter in the Casa. As it was the thing only she has seen, Sal brought it up.“That house has a ghost.” Sal waited for a reply from Lea. None of interest. Sal grudgingly plopped on the bed, making a loud creak.
Lea sighed, “If it was the Tiya Edihna you’re talking of, she’s more than a ghost. She’s a bitch who speaks like a sheep and stabs you in the back. She’s a wolf.”
“How bad was she?”
Lea steadied herself on the mattress, and paused for a moment. “It will take days to tell you the whole story and yet it seems it will still no be enough to see why she’s a bitch.” She raised one finger. “ For one, whenever there’s fights between the mothers, you’ll be sure Tiya Edihna was involved, or is involved, and will be involved. No, she does not go around whispering in their ears to stir trouble. She’ll show up crying to your doorstep and you’d think we’re all ganging up on this poor woman.”
Sal mulled over the words, as she imagined a snake in sheepskin. Rolling around like a worm. Yet, Sal admitted she did not understand how hateable Lea claimed her to be.
“ The thing is, she has everything . It was unsure if her mother was the Missus, but she was treated better than most of his children. The Missus doted on her! Imagine! An education at the better schools in Pontmari and a bid to attend school in the capital when the best my other sisters and aunts could dream of is a school at Pontmari. We will all be married anyway so what is there else to learn? But Tiya Edihna, she was supposed to be different. She was a genius. She was a perfect princess. “ Lea paused, collecting her thoughts. “ The family used to own a medal bestowed to the previous head of the family or something for his efforts in the war or some story like that. When the Missus died, the medal was gone. No one speaks of it, but everyone of age when the Missus died, knew where it went. ”
She was a bad person because she stole something? Sal stirred in her seat.
Lea faced the window, turning her back to Sal. “ The few months before the Missus died and she was still sick on her deathbed, Tiya Edihna came back from Alimpio. She was already studying then. We were all fooled into thinking that the Missus was getting better. Tiya Edihna came back for Alimpio early, too early in fact that she left almost a few days before Missus passed.“
“ I’ve always believed that the Missus only accepted Tiya Edihna for grandfather’s sake but when the Missus passed, I was there. She would only whisper ‘Dihna, ‘Dihna, my child.’ the last thing she said.”
Sal sat silently, almost regretting the story she asked. There was a rush of embarrassment and a need to flush out the last remaining parts of the story from her memory.
“I guess that’s it. Anymore questions?”
Sal shook her head.
Lea laid open the straw mat she’s been using as her bed. “Good. Telling anymore about her would make me barf.”
Sal laid back in bed and stared at the dark, empty ceiling. To be honest, all of Lea’s talk seemed like a story she read from a book. Lea’s telling her that this woman is bad, and she hates her. As of now., this Edihna woman is bad and nothing tells her yet otherwise.

***

Sal knew that the three of them were walking into a lion’s den if she is to believe Lea’s stories. Lea told her specifically to behave for apparently, this woman had the habit of offending someone and telling everyone that you were at fault. Be mindful of her actions, Lea had repeatedly told her over and over. Edihna will always find something to speak ill about her to the others. Better to choose the least horrible thing to be gossiped about.
Lea had prepared fruits and a few rare sweets for the visit. They’d be thrown anyway, but it was important to show face, she said.
Waiting at the gate, Sal kept her stance straight. She tried not to stare and to converse normally like the other. Sal felt like a child itching and squirming at uncomfortable clothes.
The gate opened, this time, it was not the big guard but a maid who met with them. She had vehemently refused to let them in without a summons or at least a word of their visit to the Missus.
But just then, a woman called from the door, “Bia! Do let them in.” It was a high, trilly voice.She was a tall woman, almost with a similar built as Lea but this woman was taller and looked as if she was a queen who had made time to clothe herself in a commoner’s clothes. She had opened her arms wide, with a graceful lilt of her arms. “Why? If it is my beloved niece.”
Lea approached and donned a wide smile as she met the other woman’s greeting with a sweet-pitched reply, “Oh my! I missed you my dear aunt! How have you been?You’re getting prettier every day!”
“You! How have You been? I thought you’ve forgotten me. Everyone really. I’ve missed you.”
Truth is, Sal cannot help but stare at how pretty and almost perfectly sculpted the woman’s face is like a statue and how her eyes almost drooped like they’re about to cry at any minute.
Sal flinched at the woman’s stare and immediately brought her eyes down. Sal mustered up a little curtsy earning her what must be a pleased remark.
“Are they your friends? You’re so kind. Who have you taken after you little flower?” She turned at the two of them. “Anyway, you lot should get inside or the sun might do an even more greater number at you.”
The woman invited them inside her house. The size of the house was nothing remarkable in comparison the the Cuorre’s casa, but it gleamed. Almost all corners are lined with bright gold and faded fleur-de-lys patterns. Each wall seemed to be dotted with paintings.
The woman gave a little lilt of her hand as she turned to face them when they climbed up the grand staircase. “It’s quite a pity. Do excuse my humble dwelling.”
. Is she joking? Or lying perhaps? But her face remained low and modest. So, Sal gave a good look around the house.
“It is small for a Casa. It is pretty, but it shines. Shines too much. Like glitter.”
Lea reached out to Sal and gave her hand a tight, harsh squeeze as she pursed her lips together, warning her eyes.
She had told her to behave, it seems she just messed that up. She looked up as Lea’s expression shifted to one that almost lighted up with a light smile, contrary to the scowl Sal always sees. She looked silly. Where was the woman who told her this Edihna was a witch?
“You bastard!”
Sal flinched at the trilly, high-pitched hiss as Edihna pointed a slender arm at them. Her fingers, pointed directly at them, Sal followed until she saw Ro who was in front of a blue, porccelain sculpture of a winged creature.
“Get your filthy hands off, you peasant. That vase costs more than your life!”
Ro panicked as he tucked his hands behind him and backed off. He bowed to the woman, propping out sorry’s.
Then, the woman’s voice softened, “Constable? My apologies. I didn’t know you were a constable. I thought you were my gardener. He gets handsy inside the house, you see.” She gave out a small laugh with a slight wave of her hand.
She seated them in the sala which was in full view of the gardens of the house.The woman excused herself for a while to look after the kitchen and prepare some sweets. She called for the servant who escorted them to the sala when she promptly left.
Ro came first. “Should we really sit here? I mean, the tables and chairs might be porcelain too.”
Lea promptly sat on the chair with one foot propped on the other chair while Sal knocked on the table and listened for the sound. Ro had to shepherd the two properly.
Few minutes later, a servant laid out trays and trays of pretty looking sweets and confectioneries on the table. Sal could name most of them. She admits that she’d wanted to grab them off the table promptly, remembering how much she’d asked for them yet the maid in the Casa would assert the sweets are only for particular occasion. This time, they were told to help themselves to the snacks.
Signora Edihna sat across them sipping tea as her eyes flitted back and forth between her drink and the three of them. It almost made Sal refuse to eat, but the sweets were too tempting. In between sips, Signora Edihna would ask them. “Does it taste good?” or “How does it taste?” or “ Can you taste the honey in the cream?”
Sal for the most part, has kept quiet for the womans’ trilly raised voice was still in her mind. She gathered her breath to speak when-
“Of course! These are the best sweets. My aunt is the best. Though these reminds me of the ones you’d bring for us back in the house with Grandpapa. You won’t believe me, Arcenia would often look for these sweets when you leave.” Lea went on telling more stories about them.
Sal sat down listening to the stories of these people as if they are storybook characters.
“How about you, young miss with long, long hair. How do you like it?” Sgra. Edihna asked.
Sal tried to stop herself from answering but found that the woman would not remove her gaze from her until she did answer. But when she tried to speak, Lea did too. Whenever she’d speak, Lea would. And the woman’s gaze almost never left her.
“The sweets are nice. I actually love them.”Sal spoke, maybe out of spite. For the goose, Lea has been talking too much. Sal checked and saw that Sgra.Edihna held a proud smirk in her face. “Why do you need to ask?”
Lea promptly interjected and laughed, “Oh my! I still can’t get used to your jokes.”
Sal stared directly at Lea who only squeezed her hand.
The woman turned to the constable next who promptly answered, “It was a filling meal. You are very much a generous host.”
The woman sat there and breathed in as she crossed her legs and leaned on the back of the chair. “You two are nice kids. No wonder Lea wanted to keep you all to herself. She does not want you talking to me. It’s not like I will snatch them away.” She turns to Lea, a gleam in her eyes. “Come on, this kid. You must have thought I’d think your friends dirty and filthy.”
Lea straightened up in her seat, “My dear aunt” she started in a soft voice, “We just took a long bath before coming here for the sun will be so hot. “ Lea rubbed a finger at the furniture, gathering up dust in her hand and showing it off to the Signora. “I thinking you think us filthy? of course, nothing of the sort passed by my mind.”
“Well, that was so bad of me. I was not saying you are poor and dirty. My! calling fire on the smallest smoke really is a bad thing.”
“I don’t consider myself someone who sees clouds on a sunny day, unlike some people.” She paused. Her head trained at the woman in front of her. “ And also, you were so generous to us. We will never refuse you.”
“Of course, we should never refuse any blessing, especially when we need it the most.” Edihna eyed the two. “I was beginning to think that you don’t want to be here. Well, it was not surprising. No one ever liked me.”
The woman excused herself, leaving Lea leaning on the seat with a proud smile on her face. Suddenly, a servant came in carrying a bouquet of chrysanthemums. “Sgr. Nerida just sent these Madam, where should I put the-Oh.” The servant stopped.
They were the biggest of chrysanthemums. The white flowers were arranged in a strange manner. From afar, it must have looked like clouds dotting a funeral.
Edihna excused herself.
A surprised look crossed Lea’s face before she sped off after the woman.
It only now struck Sal, Sgra.Edihna was still wearing black

***

Signora Edihna was a ghost as she flitted to and fro in the hallways almost perpetually draped in that same black dress. Her face was always blank of sorrow Sal might have expected from someone with a child who just died.
The woman could not have been any more strange. She downed a smile and the same trill in her voice whenever she spoke to people, the airy smile on her lips.
Lea was trying to keep her standing as the guest cleaning lady, insisting to help around the house so as not to burden the hostess but the woman had refused, citing that she has plenty of servants enough. Afterwards, Lea told Sal that Sgra Edihna just does not want her touching anything.
That day, Sal lay on the floor of the room the Signora gave them. The breeze touched the soles of her feet as she lifted them in the air. The room was scattered with colors, opposite from the room in the Hospicio. Sal could spend the time alone inspecting the painted leaves on the wallpaper and the detail of the carving in the chandelier, but another thing was worth the attention.
A loud, happy tune from the piano has been playing over and over again. The woman singing the same happy song from the day they came in until today. She’d hear it a few times every day. It must have been the thirtieth time she heard it, she lost count
The title she must have known, but it was irritating to see she cannot name it.
Sal got on her feet and wandered the place to follow the tune to the parlor where the Missus Edihna payed the piano in the empty parlor. Her hands hopped across the keys as she sand and threw her head slightly like a gentle bird
Maybe, this is just how people like them are. They do not have tears stored in their eyes. People only cry in stories and folktales. Unlike them, Mercantiles, people of big houses like them should keep an air of grace and refinement. Sal paused. She was a refined woman despite her strangeness it seemed.
The woman called out. “Who’s there?” Even calling for her servants.
Sal told herself, she must run, but was it not a waste of time when she was this close to knowing that familiar song?
The woman’s harsh tone changed upon seeing her. “You are Lea’s friend, am I correct? Anyway, little child, is there anything you need?”
Sal was mildly entranced at the pretty curves in the woman’s face but was taken out by the mention of her being a child. She shook it off and pointed at the piano, trying to mouth her question. Backtracked, thinking of how to better word her query.
“Perhaps, you were wondering what this is?” she grazed a few notes and began a long lecture about the instrument. “This will be easy to master, but it is quite a feat for those with short fingers. “ the woman glanced at Sal’s fingers. “I’m not good at playing this. Pardon my mistakes.”
When the woman apologized for her bad playing, Sal commented, “ The song was slower for the many times I heard it before. It was such a strange playing you do.”
“Well, everyone can play a song anyway she wants. “She waved it off and sang the next stanza anyway.
Sal stood there, unsure of what to do. What tune was that? She raced the tune in her head, trying to follow the woman’s playing amidst the many acrobatics she does with the song.
Signora Edihna stopped playing. She leveled up a stare at Sal with a monotone in her voice. “ Not many people know this song.”
Sal stood quiet. The woman looking at her serious like this. She pursed her fingers together. What should she answer?
The woman giggled “I am just unused to this, please excuse me you have to bear this old woman.”
Sal stared at the woman as she continued to sing without abandon. Her hands leapt over the keys as she sang in that trilly voice of hers.
The woman stopped and turned her whole body to see Sal. With a slight furrow in her brow, she asked. “Is this like a thing you do in your village? An audience member joining the performer? Just curious, you can tell me if it is.”
“I remember the song supposedly always being sung by two people. I was confused on where should I come in to sing.”
The woman looked up at her, her droopy eyes turning a bit larger. She smiled a little then quietly closed the piano, slow and somber. She sat with her hand on her mouth for quite a while.
So, is this what her sadness is like? It was only a song.
The woman started, “Might you have interest in the garden? I have rare flowers planted and maintained in there. The gardener would be more than happy to assist you.”
Well, flowers are great but there was one thing Sal was missing. “ Do you have a library?”
“Yes. Go straight across the hallway until you reach the stairway. It is the first room after that.”
Sal mulled over the instructions as she stood by the door. Signora Edihna came out at the moment and sighed. “Come after me,” she ordered. She walked her into the place.
The library was a forest, waiting to be explored with trees of bookshelves and canopies of intricate art decorating the ceiling. Sal could easily burrow into the bookshelves and the books and get lost in them.
Sal turned to the woman, “Can I stay here the whole day?”
“Yes, you go on.”
“Can I stay here tomorrow?”
“You heard me right. Do feel free.”
“Can I stay the next day after that?”
The woman grabbed a book from the shelf and plopped it on the Sal’s lap. “You can come here whenever you want. I have a lot of books in my collection, as you can see. But it is a pity, they are not plenty enough.”
“ Do you have ‘Adventures of the One-Inch Man?’ ”
“No.”
Sal thumbed through the pages of the book on her lap “I have not yet reached the ending.”
“That story is unworthy of your time. The characters are horrid fools and the author must have written that hanging upside down by his window, dead drunk.” The woman coughed then smiled, apologizing for her tone.
“Then, do you have ‘Two sisters and a Skirt?’”
“Child, there is no need to suffer through books so horrid you cannot even finish them.”
Sal looked back at the woman as she excused herself away. Sal remembered what the maid told her then. Children who betray their families will be cursed by their children in return and suffer the misery they made for themselves. The woman was not sad, at all.
Sal followed the woman through her activities for the next few days, nary a sad bone in the woman’s gait. Perhaps, Sal could think that the maid’s statement was a lie.
Sal spent the rest of the nights in the library, fetching books from the shelves, reading them but stopping halfway for they were all in alignment to the woman’s tastes. Never have she thought she will find a ceiling pattern more invigorating. Sal rose herself up from the pile of books she was almost buried under. Perhaps the best books she does have are hidden somewhere so one can forgot them. She set her sight on the ladder then on the blue tome by the highest shelf.
As she reached for it, she found herself looking down, the distance between her feet and the floor greater than she thought she could stomach. She lurched as her feet stayed glued on the ladder.
After what felt like ages, Lea opened the door and tiptoed around before she saw Sal clinging helplessly on the ladder. She immediately beckoned Sal to come down.
But her legs have fallen asleep, she climbed down without feeling the landing of the wood in her feet. At an impatient call from Lea, Sal slipped on the last stair, falling on the pile of books below.
Lea came to Sal’s side to check for injuries. “If you were in bed already sleeping, you wouldn’t hurt yourself like that. Who cares about that woman’s stupid books?”
Sal withdrew her arm from the woman and proceeded to plop herself on the floor.
“Behave yourself! Bloody heavens, Tiya Edihna will kill us.”
Sal looked up idly from her spot, “She said I can stay here today, tomorrow and the day after.”
“Hah! That woman was making you slip.”
Sal sat still. The woman had horrible taste in books but Lea only babbled on about her.
Lea then began scouring the books on the floor. She whispered conspiratorially, “Is there something interesting here? Odd? Like a promissory note? A record book? A carved-out book?”
Sal gave her a long stare.” You.You said you can’t read.”
Lea slapped a book on the floor,” That is where you come in. I have been trying to snoop around and cleaning the house around for nothing. Perhaps if it was not in a case, she might have kept a letter or a record about it somewhere.”
“Well, I found books. She has a collection of books from different authors. A dictionary and old maps of towns and rivers here in Alimpio and a few of the whole country, a few letters and exchanges from books in the past. One or two books on law and medicine.”
“That’s not what I’m asking but-”
“And a book on needlework.”
Lea sat still on the floor looking out in the distance before hanging her head down. Silence. Her lips were pursed, was very much a wilting flower slowly waiting to be pulled down by gravity.
Sal had stayed far too long in the place. Moonlight faintly illuminated the fleur-de-lis patterns and the arcs of the chandelier as a tinge of lamplight peeked from the corner of her eyes. She never got tired of the same sight, perhaps basked in it too much. She was forgetting who else would own such a place.
She repeated what Ren had said before. A different blood, a different blood. Yet, this stranger’s house feels familiar, an old companion, a shackle she was told to take off.
As Lea excused herself out, Sal beat her sleeping legs and ran to her and reached at the end of her shirt instead. In a rushed voice, Sal spoke, “I am not forgetting the deal. I will read what you need. Please don’t tell anyone about the Signor. Please.”
Sal stood in anticipation at the words to follow. The goosemouth took too long to speak.
“Hey! What do you think of Tiya Edihna?”
Sal stuttered, “She’s a happy woman?”
“If I turn out to be wrong about my Tiya, would you stay in this house?”