Angela didn’t know what to make of Emillia. Her older sister was…. Strange. She had always heard stories of her sister, whispers from the maids in the main house always painting the young woman in a… unflattering light to say the least. The help always describes her as rude and unapproachable… but she seemed kind to her own maid?

Angela had spoken to Riley a handful of times leading up to The actually going to see Emillia, and it was clear even to the young girl that the maid held her sister in high regard. Angela was positive it was exaggerated, as Riley went on about how intelligent and kind Emillia is, but it’s obvious in the way she never had a bad word to spare about the girl that Riley cared a great amount for her.

And Emillia must share the sentiment… right? Why else would she give Riley so many enchanted bracelets? It didn’t add up from what she had heard, could someone be both rude and caring?

But that also didn’t sit right. The help in the house was far from her only informants about her sister. After all, Emillia had made quite the… impression during her 12th year introduction. She had heard the hushed conversations her father had with those who came to visit after the ball, often ending in heated arguments where father would demand the others leave. 

Another family trying to ask for Emillia’s hand in marriage had ended with father laughing at them as they were escorted out. That was one of the nicer ones, others were… not great.

A few soldiers came and tried to convince dad to let them take Emillia, something about weapons and the betterment of the kingdom. Angela ran away after that since Father did not like that one bit, she had never heard her dad yell before, but he was scarry.

Someone from the Hinsdale family came, the eldest son she believed, and demanded Emillia be held responsible for the damage she caused during her duel. Well, Angela assumed he meant Emillia given the man only referred to her as the “Frenzied witch”. Father reminded the man that it was a sanctioned duel before the Queen herself, the decree of the fight is to be upheld regardless of the outcome. This made the man… very mad. 

It turns out Emillia had really hurt the man she fought; Angela wasn’t sure what “disfigured” meant but it didn’t seem pleasant. She had never heard the word before but if Emillia can do it to people, she had to be really strong… right? She must be, after all only strong people like dad get titles like “Frenzied witch”, but why was her’s so strange? Father is the “Silver gale” and mom is the “Green grove”…

But Emillia didn’t look all that strong. Quite the opposite really, she was thin and despite being a few years older than Angela herself the two sisters were the same height. Not only that but Emillia looked almost… sickly. Unlike everyone else in the family who had a nice, tanned complexion, Emillia was pale, nearly sheet white with dark bags under her dark eyes. Her short choppy hair, if one could call it that, looked as if it had been hastily brushed given it still stuck out at odd angles. Well, the side of her head that still had hair did at least; Angela tried not to stare at the side of Emillia’s head that was nearly shaved to the skin, a silvery sheen the only indication her hair was just cut really short.

As to why someone would willingly shave half their hair off and chop the other half so short, Angela couldn’t be sure. Maybe it was some weird fashion statement she wasn’t aware of? 

She remembered mom’s reaction to Emillia’s appearance the first time anyone saw her out in the yard exercising.

Angela had always known their mother didn’t… approve of her sister, but it was the first time she had actually scowled. The whole rest of the day, a day Angela was training her magic with mom, she kept muttering about how her sister was a disappointment. At dinner that night mom and dad fought, something about kicking Emillia off the property… or was it out of the family? How can you kick someone out of a family? Angela didn’t understand it all really.

How could Emillia make the family look bad? She never leaves the house? And why would making her leave be better? Was it because her sister couldn’t use magic? Sure, that was… weird, but it wasn’t Emillia’s fault… was it? Was that why mom didn’t like her? 

Even Johnathen always talked badly about her, saying she was cursed, and they should just get rid of her. Was her sister cursed? Is that why she can’t use magic? Ethan seemed to think so too, well maybe. Ethan never actually said anything about Emillia, he just kept agreeing with mom and Johnathen, which was strange as her older brother never missed a chance to take part in family conversations before. But he was… quiet every time Emillia came up.

The one time he did speak up it wasn’t even about Emillia herself but about her enchantments. Something about messing with the status quo unless controlled. It was another thing Angela couldn’t quite understand… Maybe she wasn’t smart enough to understand what was wrong with Emillia. That must be it, she just needed to learn more, maybe once she is a little older, she will get it. 

But… if there was something wrong with Emillia shouldn’t they try and help her? They were family after all, and dad always says family should stick together. That’s probably why he keeps defending her, he must be trying to break the curse! That’s it, and if that’s the case it’ll only be a matter of time, dad is after all super strong and smart! Just… Why doesn’t mom seem to be helping him? If they just worked together Angela was sure they could break some silly magic-blocking curse! 

She considered asking once, but who would she ask? Mom was… difficult to talk to, and whenever Emillia came up, she would get mad and say bad things about both her and Father. And dad, though easy to talk to, always seemed so sad whenever Angela asked about her sister. He never said anything bad, but he would always say weird things like, “I should have paid more attention” and “Gabriella kept saying she would take care of the children.” 

That last one was strange until she learned that dad didn’t actually train her brothers like he did her, mom was apparently a teacher before and had been the one to train both her brothers, something both the older boys had commented about before, but dad simply waved them off. 

It was that that led to another fight that ended with dad leaving for a few days. When he came back things were… different. He told everyone to leave Emillia alone and well… they did. Angela didn’t ask what happened, but Johnathen had said something about a royal decree. Had dad gone to the capital? Why would the royal family get involved in all of this? 

Then again mom and dad no longer slept in the same room after that, and all the maids called mom Lady Astaron… Angela didn’t like that, but mom was still here, so it was… fine. Though dinners have been odd, mom and dad don’t talk as much anymore, and mom takes long trips to see her family now. But as long as she didn’t ask about Emillia everything was fine, almost back to normal! So that’s what she did. Well, she tried to at least.

Mom always says Angela needed to “stand out”, she was a high noble woman and needed to present herself as such. So, when it came time for her 10th birthday only one thing came to mind, the bracelets. Unlike her sister, Angela had traveled a lot, always going with dad when he needed to send a message or meet with other nobles, so she was pretty confident that Riley was the only person she knew of that had them.  They would definitely make her stand out, so she had asked… and mom and dad fought again. 

Thankfully it was short this time, mom had told them all that such useless trinkets were unbecoming of a noble family which… didn’t make sense. Ethan had suggested asking the maid for them only for dad to shoot that idea down, apparently, he thinks that trying to take them from Riley would anger Emillia. Angela agreed with him, Emillia didn’t have magic, but she was clearly strong somehow; she had blown up part of her house a few months ago after all. 

Johnathen had tried to get an enchanter he knew of to recreate the bracelets but… well the results speak for themselves. Angela was afraid Emillia was going to break after seeing her clear disgust by the attempt to recreate her enchantments.

And now she sat in her own room… confused about her sister. Emillia didn’t seem… mean. And the tea was great! She would never say it but the tea at the house was always so bitter, plus Emillia hadn’t been rude really. Sure her and dad argued about pricing and such but the other girl had been… brash? Was that the word, not rude or mean it just seemed like they had been bothering her a little; which if you ask Angela made sense, after all, mom always said it was rude to just show up at someone’s house like they did.

They probably interrupted her while she was doing something, that has to be it. Next time will be different, just a few days for Emillia to make the bracelet, after all she did pick the day herself so she would definitely be ready… right?