Felicity: The Sixteenth Life

Chapter Five: Intriguing Mysteries

“You’re kidding. How would you know that?” Hazel told Ryder, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m positive it’s her. That untamed mane of brown hair and her eyes – especially those eyes… It’s sapphire-blue like mine. Aside from Father, I haven’t seen anyone else with eyes the same shade as mine so I remember it vividly,” Ryder told his siblings.

The youngest twins looked at each other, locked their eyes for a moment and seemed to have reached a telepathic decision. They crouched down next to the second roll of parchment and unveiled it as well.

The portrait contained the same mother and daughter but this time, it was painted outdoors with a flower garden as the background. Dalia was looking even more beautiful, wearing a yellow sundress with her hair in tumbles over her shoulders and a solitary rose pinned over her right ear. She was sitting down on a chair placed atop lush but properly trimmed grass. Young Felicity seemed to have grown a bit and she was standing next to her mother, clad in a cute floral summer dress, holding onto the armrest of the chair. Her hair had grown longer and less curly; combed down and set with blue forget-me-nots. By her feet, there seemed to be a big ball of white fur or rather a curled up white puppy, sleeping peacefully.

Carter lifted the parchment by its bottom left side corner and saw the same curly handwriting. “Lady Dalia, aged nineteen, her daughter Lady Felicity, aged two and Kenley, Opal’s guard dog”

“Kenley!” Ryder exclaimed in excitement. “That confirms everything! I didn’t get to ask the girl’s name but her dog was named Kenley. That’s what she had been calling it,” he declared.

Meanwhile, Chase found an important piece of information written at the top right corner of the parchment – the dates at which the portraits were drawn.

The first one was about seven years ago, and the second one, six years and two days from the current day’s date.

“Well, this is quite interesting… Do you guys think that this girl and her Mom may be the last ones to live in Opal mansion before it got abandoned?” Liam said thoughtfully.

“It’s a possibility,” Carter answered.

“Now that you’ve mentioned it older brother… I wonder why Opal mansion was written off from the Countdom’s properties in the first place? And why was it abandoned? I mean, it’s been right under our noses this entire time and no one told us about its existence… Do the servants even know about it?” Chase asked.

“If it’s six years ago, it wasn’t that long yet. I mean, all of us were already born by that time…” Carter added.

“You guys are right… Opal mansion’s circumstances are really fishy…” Liam commented.

“Maybe we can ask Madam Clementine about it? Or Sir Merill? They’ve been working for the household ever since Mom and Dad got married. Surely they’ll know a thing or two about Opal mansion and about Ms. Dalia and Felicity’s identity,” Carter said.

“I can’t believe you guys are being such doofuses about this…” Ryder suddenly interjected. “Adults keep matters secret for a reason. They’re obviously hiding Opal mansion’s existence, to the point that a new map was even made to exclude it from the list of properties,” he told them.

“Ryder’s right… Not only was the existence of the place taken off the map, there’s no records of it in the main library. We’ve gone through every inch of the library since we’ve played there a lot throughout the years but did you ever see a section of shelves with the logs and documents regarding Opal mansion? Every one of the mansions in the Countdom has one, containing lists of servants and employees through the years, compiled reports on who had resided on it from generation to generation, and even blueprints and records of when the building was still being built,” Hazel added.

“You have a point,” Liam said and the youngest twins nodded in agreement.

“It’s quite likely that even if we ask the servants who had been in service since six years prior, I don’t think any of them would give answers. Or maybe I’m just thinking too much into it,” Ryder guessed aloud, looking thoughtful.

“Well, maybe we can find more clues with the other objects we were able to find… One of the boxes had some notebooks in it…” Carter said and immediately scanned the carpet for the presence of said notebooks.

There were two of the notebooks thus the siblings split into teams of three to read one each.

The notebooks were completely hand-written with petite and neat writing. Here and there, they found pages that were pasted on with pretty colored clippings from fashion catalogues and old newspapers.

The siblings remained quiet as they read the entries, but every so often, one of them would pipe up with “Don’t turn the page yet, I’m still not done reading!”, followed by some glaring, kicking or whacking each other’s heads.

Half an hour later, they all realized one thing. The notebooks were not only Lady Dalia’s diaries but also little Felicity’s baby journal and a clear record of her growth from babyhood to age two.

~~~

Eric Stranoff was conflicted.

After spending some time to accompany the knights at the welcoming luncheon, Count Herald slipped out of the celebration to return to his office and receive reports on the status quo of the Countdom, starting from the Head of the Obsidian Order to relay documentations and surveillance crystal records on the safety status of the properties that accumulated over the past year of his absence.

Although Eric had sent regular reports on a weekly basis to his Lord, a follow-thorough must be carried out to help sort conclusions or improvisations to the current safety protocols being implemented. After all, the Count would no longer be returning to the battlefield, thus he would have a different routine wherein he would require the allocation of a portion of the Obsidian Knights as his bodyguards. There was a lot to be discussed and a lot of new work to be done but those were not the reason why Eric was disturbed in mind.

“Should I tell the Count, or should I keep my mouth shut about this matter?” he asked himself as he made his way to the third floor of the Sapphire mansion, towards the Count’s personal study.

He was not able to come to a conclusion and before he even noticed it, he was standing in front of the enormous, majestic doors of the study. “Ahh, whatever… Let’s just go with the flow. If he asks about it, I’ll tell him; if not, I’ll just keep this to myself,” he thought as he sighed and knocked on the door.

“This is Eric Stranoff, Your Grace… Reporting for duty,” he called out in his business tone.

“Come in,” came the voice of Count Herald.

Eric opened one side of the double doors and made his entry.

“I greet the Shield of the Kingdom,” Eric said with a bow, following proper greeting etiquette.

“At ease,” Count Herald said as a signal for the knight to lift his head. “Ahh, Sir Eric, how’s your day? I couldn’t seem to spot you in the luncheon earlier,” he remarked.

“Please spare me the jokes, my Lord,” Eric replied in exasperation.

The Count gave a slight smile. “I know, I know… I was the one who gave you the orders never to leave your post unless called by the main house. You have performed your duty all too well… But do lighten up. Today is a special day for all the knights and that includes the Obsidian Order. You may stop by the banquet after this and join the merry-making. Consider it half a day-off,” he told him.

“Thank you for the benevolence, Your Grace,” Eric answered with another bow.

Then they quickly got into business as the Count asked for the reports and the surveillance records. Eric handed over the box of files and surveillance crystal records, and the Count looked over them on his desk. After hearing briefly about the overall status of the protection over the Acker properties and the surrounding fiefs, the Count started asking more questions about his children.

“I received your last report before we departed on our return to the capital three days ago… The children got themselves in trouble again, haven’t they? And this time Ryder returned with injury,” the Count said, sounding a little amused.

“Yes, Your Grace. I didn’t do anything since you ordered for me to let the children run around freely as long as they stay within the Acker properties; and to only interfere on emergency situations, but Madam Clementine was livid with me for letting the second young master return injured… Their trips had been getting a little risky as of late… Perhaps it’s time that they be escorted by personal knights on a daily basis?” Eric replied.

The Count looked a tad apologetic as he answered. “I’m sorry about this, Sir Eric… I’m sure it’s tiring to keep the kids in check all the time especially since they’re a mischievous bunch, but I really don’t want the childhood of my kids to be like mine and the other nobles… I wish for them to grow and play freely and I want them to enjoy their younger years as long as they could, until it’s time for them to focus on their duties for the family and act as proper members of the aristocracy. Can you bear with surveying them until then?” he remarked.

Eric was quick to reply. “Your Grace, I’m not saying this because I want to relieve myself of the task of looking after your children. It’s an honor, truly an honor that I was appointed to protect and observe the future heirs of the Acker Countdom…” he said, quite flustered. “It’s just that the second young master was injured this time and it would be better to prevent such injuries from now on…”

“Oh, so that’s what was worrying you…” the Count said in understanding. “You don’t need to concern yourself so much about it… Children can get hurt when playing especially when they go out in mini-expeditions like the way my kids do, and it won’t hurt for them to know what pain is, to experience getting themselves injured and figuring out their own ways of preventing such occurrences in the future. It’s all part of growing up,” he added with a bit of pride in his tone.

“If you say so, Your Grace, then I will be continuing to observe them and protect from afar without changing the previous protocols…” Eric answered.

“Well, now that we’ve been talking about it, where did the kids go that day for Ryder to get injured? Did they really play in the West Forest like they said?” the Count asked.

Eric pursed his lips. Now that the question was asked, he had no reason to keep the truth to himself. Despite his internal conflicts, perhaps he was actually looking forward to hearing that question.

Although he tried stopping himself, he couldn’t help but be curious once more about the circumstances of the Opal mansion. What spurred his interest into life again was the sight of that mysterious little girl in the caretaker’s cabin. There was something about her that made him think that she was no ordinary child.

Eric eventually gave in to curiosity after debating it with himself for a whole night. For once in his two-year service from the Acker Countdom, he disobeyed the warning given by the Head Maid and Head Butler about leaving the Opal mansion alone, and conducted a small investigation regarding the identity of the mysterious child.

He learned a handful of information about the girl from the nearby town and from having a couple of knights look around the cabin while it was unattended. He noticed that there were several parts that didn’t quite make sense with the results of the background check but investigating further would need the approval of his employer. After all, the matter involves matters regarding the Ackers thus, he considered reporting to the Count about her existence. Perhaps the Count would also be curious about the cutely-sized illegal settler and Eric would be able to conduct further investigation and be permitted to use the Countdom’s resources to learn the child’s identity.

“Please allow me to show you the records so you can see for yourself, Your Grace… It’s kind of a complicated situation…” Eric said, his blood pumping in his ears with mixed excitement and nervousness, and unearthed a crystal screen from the box of records that he brought.

The Count looked curious as he watched Eric set up the device. The screen flickered to life and he saw his children snooping at the grounds of an old-looking building. He narrowed his eyes, thinking that the building seemed familiar. It took a minute or two before he recognized the infrastructure as the abandoned Opal mansion. He couldn’t help but frown as he was reminded of a few bad memories from the past.

Ever since he received the report about that woman asking for a hefty price to leave the fief and to never be seen again, he ordered for his people to never set foot in the Opal mansion. After all, even after the woman left, the blood pact between them was not abolished. The place was still under the woman’s name because the title of the transfer of ownership were written with the Count’s written promise never to take it back. It was the woman who insisted to add that clause.

He wondered once or twice why she would leave without settling the ownership issue of the land she took pains to negotiate with. The Opal mansion was the smallest of all the Countdom’s residences but the land would still fetch a hefty amount if she attempted to sell it back to the Ackers, but as he focused more on the war and his duties at the battlefield, he stopped thinking about it. It was the woman’s choice to leave with the child and there was even an agreement that she sent herself, thus his ill fate with her ended there.

“How did the kids know about Opal mansion?” the Count asked, his face a serious mask.

“We looked into the sitting room that the young masters and young lady uses as a common area and found an old map of the Countdom’s properties, one from over a decade ago. Perhaps they decided to explore the place after learning that there’s another mansion beyond the west side of the Countdom…” Eric answered, relaying the fruits of the investigation that he carried out after the incident.

The Count gave a nod, looking somber and continued watching the footage recorded by the crystal. It showed of Ryder parting with his siblings and going off towards the old garden. From there, the situation got a turn of surprise as he decided to climb off a precipice.

The Count reacted as Eric did, flinching in surprise out of concern for the little boy.

“That kid really… Does he even consider what would happen if he falls off that place the wrong way?” the Count said, repeating almost the same words that Eric told himself during that afternoon.

“I must tell him off for this later…” the Count thought, making a mental note.

He focused on the crystal and Eric paid attention to the Count’s expression, watching the bewilderment slowly seep onto his somber face little by little as the situation being shown before his eyes unfolded further. He looked on unblinkingly at the surveillance crystal until the moment that his son was safely sent up the precipice.

Eric ended the record there and turned it off before taking a huge breath. “As you can see, my Lord… I can’t really make sense of the situation. I was told about the basic information regarding the Opal mansion and I didn’t include its area under my jurisdiction via Madam Clementine and Sir Merill’s orders. But it seems that a little girl is living on the Opal mansion ground’s cabin, the one being used by its care-taker when it was still in active use.”

“Should I presume that you have conducted a basic investigation regarding this little girl?” the Count asked.

“Yes, I did, my Lord… And I apologize for disobeying the orders given about Opal mansion. I just found it necessary to conduct a basic investigation since the unknown little girl met with the young master and had been living in close proximity from the main house,” Eric answered.

“The orders given about Opal mansion… Can you elaborate on that?” the Count suddenly queried.

His question confused Eric and he wondered why the Count was asking about something he should already know but he replied anyway. “Madam Clementine and Sir Merill told me that the title to Opal mansion and its surrounding land was transferred to someone named Dalia for reasons that they said I needn’t know about. Thus, it was no longer a part of the Acker’s properties and I should refrain from having any of my surveillance animals or the patrolling knights near the area. Those were the only information made privy to me,” he explained.

“And what of the information about the girl? Do tell me what you’ve learned about her,” the Count asked again with a rather serious air.

Eric took out a small notebook, given by his subordinate the night before. It detailed the results of the investigation regarding the girl. Eric studied the contents while the welcoming parade was ongoing and he was left quite confused after taking in all the information.

“I have sent a couple of knights to the cabin and had them confirm if she’s living alone and they said that there was no trace of another person co-inhabiting the cottage. I had the child followed by a surveillance bird for the past two days and sure enough, she’s living there with only the dog as her companion. The people in Burke’s town seemed to know of her and I had a knight disguise as a commoner to ask around. The child’s name is Felicity and the townspeople refer to her as Lissy. Her mother was named Dalia who had arrived to town with her daughter approximately six years ago and started going around for menial chores like sewing and doing laundry.

As for the background of the mother and daughter, we got several differing answers from the townspeople. A woman from the flower shop said that Dalia and her daughter came from the capital and settled somewhere downtown. The baker said that they were from Brett’s town since they always came to Burke’s from the axillary road connecting the two towns. Some said that Dalia was a p********e from the red-district of Ezgal City and there were other rumors of her being the mistress of a noble and that she ran away with her child to the far countryside to flee from that family. Even with these answers, no one was exactly sure where they live and as the people of Burke’s and Brett’s value peaceful living, they do not pry into details about their neighbors or people visiting their town unless those people cause some disturbance.

The owner of the coffee shop said that Dalia had not been seen around town for maybe two or three years ever since her health failed and since then, it was her young daughter who goes out to town to receive some work for her or deliver some goods to sell, simple things like herbal tea bags and handicrafts. The knight had met with the two local physicians in town to ask about what Dalia’s sickness was but they both admitted to being unable to diagnose her disease and referred her to the Holy Temple. They assumed that Dalia must have gotten treated for she would not have much longer to live if she didn’t.

However, it was only through young Felicity’s words that the townspeople had heard of Dalia for the past two or three years. The child is currently living alone in the cabin and there’s no trace of Ms. Dalia anywhere. There were a lot of things that didn’t quite match up thus further investigation is necessary… Perhaps if we could delve into more detailed probing using logs and documents, we could put the pieces of information together and decipher the facts from the false ones.”

Eric finished his long explanation and took a breath. When he lifted his eyes to his Lord’s face, the Count was frowning deeply.

“Eric,” he suddenly called in a cold tone which shocked the knight. “Call Madam Clementine and Sir Merill to my office. Tell them to drop everything and come see me this instant,” he ordered.

Eric straightened and gave a bow. “Understood Your Grace. I shall come fetch them,” he said and was immediately dismissed.

~~~

The siblings were quiet as they processed all the surprising information they learned about and looked questioningly at each other as if telepathically asking what they should do next. The stillness was continuously dragging until Ryder spoke up.

“I can’t do this anymore…” he said before placing the portraits on top of one another, rolling them up carefully and placing them back to one of the receptacles.

“What are you doing?” Hazel asked as she and the others watched Ryder find something from the cabinets. He took out a sling bag made of cloth, tied it to both ends of the receptacle and pulled on the strings, securing the container with improvised straps. Then he tied the strings across his torso while replying to his sister’s question.

“I’m going back to the Opal mansion’s cabin and find the girl. I’ll ask her myself if her name is Felicity. There’s still a lot more time before our dinner with Father and I won’t be able to focus on anything unless I satisfy my curiosity and get to the bottom of this,” he said matter-of-factly.

Chase and Carter suddenly got up from the carpet as well. “I’m coming with you,” they chimed in at the exact same time.

“You can’t. The cliff was pretty steep. You won’t be able to go down there without help. Even worse, you might get injured,” Ryder told them.

“We’ll decide by ourselves if we can’t climb down the precipice. We’ll have to see it first,” Carter remarked persistently.

“Yea, Carter’s right… If we see for ourselves that the task is impossible for us or that it’s really dangerous to climb down, we’ll stay in the garden and wait,” Chase added.

“In that case, I’m coming as well,” Liam interjected. “I’m the eldest, thus I must make sure all my younger siblings are safe,” he declared.

“If Liam’s coming, I’m following as well,” Hazel said, getting up. “I’m not gonna let you boys exclude me on anything, that’s not fair,” she added with a pout.

“Okay,” Ryder said with a nod. “In that case, those capable of climbing down may come with me to look for her. Those who’re not confident, will stay and keep watch,” he instructed.

“Oh, I just remembered something! Don’t we have a rope ladder stashed in the base, the one with hooks? Can’t we try using it to climb down the precipice?” Carter said, his tone brightening.

“We can bring it with us. But if it’s not long enough, we’re not using it,” Liam answered.

And with that, the siblings made quick preparations and snuck off once again, taking advantage of the celebrations still ongoing.

Meanwhile, Felicity was rolling around on the cool floor of the cabin which she covered with a thin cloth. She settled on her stomach, munching on carrot sticks placed in a tray beside her. She was currently reading her new spellbook whilst eating additional snacks. Kenley, that greedy little fleabag, ended up gobbling more of the pancakes.

Unaware of the trouble coming her way, she continued to read on until an hour later when the sleeping Kenley suddenly woke up, raised his head and gave a low growl while looking at the window.

Felicity put her guard up at the dog’s change in behavior. “Intruders…” she thought and reached over for her satchel where she kept a small knife and some bug spray for self-defense.

However, Kenley seemed to have sniffed a familiar scent in the air and he stopped growling, tilted his head curiously to one side, got up and calmly strolled outside.

Felicity blinked, confused at the dog’s second change of demeanor.

It was at that moment when she heard the muffled conversations outside, coming nearer and nearer.

“Whoa, there’s really a cabin,” an unfamiliar boyish voice said.

“And there’s the garden. Aw, how pretty!” a childish female voice followed.

“I can’t believe this…” another boy said, sounding quite breathless.

“I couldn’t believe it either when I first stumbled upon it,” a third boy said, with a voice oddly familiar.

A second later, she heard Kenley bark and there were screams which startled the dog and got him back to growling.

“No, no, don’t get scared! That’s Kenley! He’s okay, he won’t bite you, just keep your distance,” the familiar boyish voice exclaimed. “Hey, it’s me. It’s me, Kenley. Don’t you remember me?” he added almost immediately, trying to sound calm.

At that moment, Felicity finally realized what’s happening.

Although she hoped that the uninvited guest from three days ago would be traumatized enough from the injuries to never return to the place where a dog attacked him, she had been anxious about him coming back to her cabin out of curiosity or some other dumb reason. But as three days had already passed with no sign of him, she thought that she got him out of her hair.

She wasn’t that worried about him flapping his gums, telling people about a girl and a dog living in a cabin, since people won’t believe a child saying such a farfetched scenario. Adults would have seen it as a story he concocted to explain the wounds on his arm. Adults would be adults and just accuse the child of being naughty and blame him for going to weird places to play and getting himself hurt.

And somehow, despite just spending several minutes with him, she trusted the boy to keep the secret to himself. He didn’t seem like a blabbermouth and he had a debt of gratitude from her for saving his life and treating his wounds.

Who would’ve thought that the kid would return days later and in addition, bring other kids with him?

“I should’ve let Kenley deal with him then I could’ve just buried him somewhere. This is what I get for keeping my guard down,” she told herself internally with a sigh before getting up.

“Well… I gotta deal with this sooner or later, so let’s just get this over with,” she mumbled under her breath and lazily dragged her feet outside.