Today, Cressida was over at my house to play. We had started out with dolls, but that got boring particularly fast and eventually we ended up outside taking a walk, and then sat on a hill of wildflowers, Cressida braiding whatever little colorful ones she liked into my hair. I let her because she was the best braider I knew and her hands were always gentle, since my head was so sensitive.

 

“Sida, do you ever think about the future?” I tipped my head back to look at her kind of upside down-ish but she pushed my head back up.

 

“Don’t do that, you’ll mess up your pretty braids.”

 

“Sorry. But do you?”

 

“Think about the future? Not that much, honestly. It’s so far away and all.”

 

“But isn’t the future also tomorrow, or the next hour, or what I’m saying right now?”

 

“... Were you sneaking in on Duman’s philosophy class today?”

 

“Maybe just a bit.” Cressida let out a huff at that and held my hair in one hand to get more flowers for her lap.

 

“We’re not old enough for those things. Only old people talk about that sort of thing.”

 

If I’m old enough to have a special secret comrade in my head, I think I’m old enough for old people arguing about things you only worry about when you’re old and have the time.

 

“Then do you think about becoming the Duchess? You’ll have to do all sorts of important things, like paperwork. And… isn’t it just paperwork?” I turned to look at her over my shoulder as I heard Cressida laugh behind me.

 

She did a final tuck with my hair before nodding at her handiwork. “It’s not just paperwork. I have to do diplomatic things like listen to petitions and manage the peers under me so they don’t act up.”

 

I pulled the braid to my front to look at it, little white and blue flowers in a sea of shiny black. “That sounds like paperwork to me. Do you even want to be Duchess?”

 

“Of course I want to be Duchess, it’s not like anyone else will do it.”

 

“But who would?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“If you didn’t want to, who would be the next Duke?”

 

Cressida paused for a moment, and tipped her head to the side while she thought. I put my hand under her head so she wouldn’t go tumbling down the hill. “Well, if it was after something happened to father, then the Duchy would go to Uncle Nius, then my cousins Everette and Jayce would inherit.”

 

“Then what would happen with Auntie Vita?”

 

“Well, my mother would be the Dowager Duchess and she’d get penchant from the lands until she died or remarried.”

 

“Then if Uncle Ennius became Duke?”

 

“Mother would still be the Dowager, even if Uncle Nius was Duke. Auntie Petra would become the… 2nd Dowager I think and get a penchant from whatever lands were left until my mother passed, since that’s how ‘endowments’ are split up.”

 

I absently stroked my hair, looking up slightly at that. “So Mrs. Petra would get less?”

 

“Technically. Why do you care all of a sudden? I thought you didn’t like doing arithmetic.”

 

“Just curious. I don’t know much about how the peers work like that, I just know that when Duman inherits I’ll get a lot of acres for my dowry that no one but me can manage.”

 

So, if Mrs. Petra did give Mr. Ennius Mora’s Pox, what was the point of doing something to Auntie Vita? It’d be much faster for her to do something to Uncle Cyrille and Cressida so that her husband would inherit. I feel like it somehow goes deeper than money… but I don’t know how yet. I also don’t know when Mr. Ennius gets sick so I don’t even know how much time I have to figure it out…

 

All this deduction stuff is difficult, but if I don’t do it people will die.

 

“Ada? Ada, are you still in your head?” … “ADA-”

 

“Oh, sorry! I’m listening now.” Cressida’s forehead scrunched up again and she took my face into her hands, bending me left and right.

 

“Are you sure you’re alright? Ever since the night you slept over, you’ve been acting strange.” 

 

“I’m perfectly fine! Everything’s great!”

 

“... And now you’ve picked up a lying habit, I knew something was up! Tell me!”

 

“I can’t!”

 

All of a sudden Cressida’s soft hands turned into weapons of destruction, diving for my stomach and dancing in tickles over it as I fell to the ground with her on top of me. 

 

“Tell me, tell me, tell me!”

 

“No- HAHAHAA, LEMME GO- I CAN’T- HEHEHEHE- STOPPPP!”

 

“Not until you tell me!”

“I CAN’T- NOOOO, SIIIIIIIIIDAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

 

… I wish that every day could be like this. It’d be good for Cressida. It’d be good for everyone.

 

—

 

[ It was fun, looking at that pathetic woman shiveling and choking on her own vomit on her death bed. I thought that it would appease that dark black hole in my center, on the contrary, it had only gotten deeper. ]

 

[ “I wonder, Mrs. Petra, how it feels to die the same way your husband did? Perhaps you can see his spirit now, despite your eyes being stuck shut.” ]

 

[ She whimpered pathetically, no longer the haughty nobleborn lady she liked to present herself as, but an infirm, helpless mass of something resembling flesh. ]

 

[ “You know, I actually discovered the cure to this long ago. It was actually much easier than first presented, after all, I had plenty of willing test subjects to use. You included. It was just so endearing to watch you get sicker and sicker everyday. I think I understand how you felt when it worked on Mr. Ennius. Then Auntie Vita and Uncle Cyrille. Watching people you think are inferior suffer truly is it’s own delicacy.” I giggled as I watched it attempt to shift away from where I sat at her bedside. I grabbed her by her hair and yanked her back. ]

 

[ It was like hearing a mouse squeal. ]

 

[ “Those sons of yours, as soon as you’re gone, they’ll tear the Duchy apart for whatever bit they can get. And both of them will be left with nothing. Just what they deserve. Who taught them to desire things that were never theis, Mrs. Petra? It’s a bit sad that you won’t get to live to see them rip each other to shreds. I’ll watch every bit of it so I can share it with you in hell.” ]

 

[ “After all, it’s what all of you,” I yanked her hair again and watched her tremble under my hand. “Every single one of you deserve for thinking you could even touch a hair on Sida’s head. And just for her, I’m going to sit here. I’m going to sit and watch you rot like the trash you are. Don’t worry though, you aren’t the last.” If she could have seen me, I’m her my grin would have killed her on the spot. “You’ll have the rest of this country to follow you long after. I’ll make sure of it. ]

 

• [ The Grand Sage’s Destruction ]