Frey couldn't help but linger where he stood in the middle of The BBT's stable. It wasn't as though he wouldn't go back there to visit, and Damien had been kind enough to let some of Frey's horses stay there, but it was a big change. He'd spent so much time there over the years and now he was supposed to leave it just a week after making the decision to move in the first place.

He blinked as a sunbeam shone through the window. It was high time to pack up the last of his things. His mother would arrive soon enough both to pick him up and also discuss the seemingly endless West Kerilia problem. It would hopefully not be a long meeting though. If Damien had kept his promise things would at least move in the right direction, and if he hadn't, Frey just had to sit back and watch if Valdís would kill him or if Lucius would get to him first.

"Alright," he whispered under his breath, moving along the stalls to quietly say goodbye to the horses. The horses he used to see every day.

"Oh, Lord Clausson." The stable master appeared as Frey reached the end of the first row. "I... heard you were leaving today. Saying goodbye, then, I take it?"

"That would be correct." Frey didn't look at him, feeling much more inclined to keep talking to the horses. "I hope you will continue to take good care of them."

"That goes without saying, my Lord." The stable master sounded offended. "I would never neglect my work and responsibilities for any reason."

Frey nodded, beginning to turn away when the stable master cleared his throat.

"I... would like to apologise for how everything turned out, my Lord." His eyes were tilted downwards as Frey turned his head back. "I had misunderstood the situation between you and Marius and reacted poorly, and it pains me that the event caused so much... trouble for you."

"Carrigan's actions are what caused me trouble." Frey's voice had gone cold. "If you should apologise to anyone it's Marius, who you've hurt physically on multiple occasions even before the misunderstanding."

"I... may treat my grooms and stable boys harshly," the stable master admitted, looking less offended by that accusation than implied subpar work ethics. "It was never a personal thing against Marius, but I will take your criticism into consideration regarding the method itself."

Frey felt no need to prolong the conversation further than that, so he turned away again.

"I hope..." the stable master still continued. "... that you will be happy together, at least. I wish you both well, and... If it's not too much to ask, since I hear he won't be coming back here, I'd appreciate it if you could relay my apology to him."

Frey narrowed his eyes, but still wouldn't face him. Was a simple apology good enough? Not to Frey, but perhaps Marius would appreciate it.

"I'll let him know."

"Very kind of you, my Lord."

Being left alone again, Frey continued with his goodbyes, spending a little longer at Sweeps' stall to thank him for having pulled Tea For Two out of that ditch before. It may have been the first time he said 'thank you' to Marius, but he'd never extended the same gratitude to the other rescuer.

"Hopefully there won't be any more ditch adventures." He patted the horse before moving on. "Especially not before Bonfire Dancing 'til Dawn is grown, but not at all if I can help it."

In the end he spent more time with the horses than he'd planned to, and it was already past noon when he reached the mansion. It's not that he was scared to make his mother wait, but also kind of, so he quickly made his way towards the stairs.

As his everyday surroundings would have it, however, he only got halfway through the entrance hall before he had to pause, reluctantly acknowledging a floor plant's unusual but all too common accessory.

"Luna," he said to the girl crouching behind the plant to spy on a man just exiting the corridor further away, and she hushed him way too loudly for her stealth's sake. "Have you ever considered a pastime more suitable to your skills? Or at least more unsuitable to your flaws?"

She scowled at him through the leaves.

"I'd be doing much better if people weren't interrupting me."

"And if floor plants were actually good hiding spots."

"Well, if I'm so bad at it..." She stood up from the floor, brushing away wrinkles from her dress. "... How did I come by that bank loan information that proved so important?"

"Because girls who investigate werecows are usually not considered a threat to business."

"And isn't that to my advantage?"

Frey couldn't disagree with that. Making people drop their guards had been a convenient method when he was younger and could play innocent, but the difference was that Luna had no idea what kind of information she was gathering and worst of all her lacking focus could end in misunderstandings.

"But I guess the werecow theory didn't hold up." Luna folded her arms with a pout. "He was discussing meat earlier this week and while I guess a werecow would indeed rather slaughter pigs than cows, I don't think they'd be fond of slaughtering at all."

"See, if you knew Lord Hamerling and his business better you could have crushed that theory long ago," Frey pointed out, not without a frown at the possibly unreliable information. "Never forming it would have been preferable but since it's you, that's the advice I'll give."

"Frey?"

Frey had to summon all his composure not to jump at the sudden appearance of Noah's voice. Did that boy have no presence at all?

"Oh, you're both here."

"Can I talk to you alone for a bit?" Noah nodded to the side, and though those words were clearly a direct challenge in Luna's ears, Frey sent her a stern glare to make her stay with her plant friend.

"Alright, what is it?" Frey threw the sun outside the window a glance. "I'm pretty busy, so—"

"I just wanted to tell you that you were right." Noah's eyes were gloomier than usual, and Frey's mood took a turn for the worse.

"What happened?"

"I was... Well, nothing did happen, but... could have." Noah looked down at the floor. "Lord Growder wanted to talk to me in private, saying he had information about some vampires in The Entrails. He thought since I've been worried about The Entrails before, I should want to know, but..."

"He wanted something in return." Frey suppressed his anger into his balled fists, taking a deep breath to relax. "Well, I'm relieved you didn't take him up on it."

"I just figured I should thank you for trying to warn me." Noah's words turned into a mumble. "I suspect you'll want to gloat now, but the fact that you were looking out for me still remains."

"Even I know when gloating is inappropriate." Frey was still seething, so fed up with the upper class scum he might just explode on the spot. "I did what any person with basic decency would do."

"I'll try to be careful from now on, at least." Noah's eyes narrowed in pain, making Frey feel even worse. "Try to make myself less of a target. Less gullible, for once."

Frey hesitated, sending a subtle look in Luna's direction to make sure she was still spending quality time with the plant before sighing.

"I knew what they would try, not because of your exhaustingly altruistic behaviour, but because I know them and I've seen it before." He switched focus, but couldn't face Noah at the time so he stared out the window instead. "They prey on the young and inexperienced. Those who are still starting out and want to prove themselves."

He didn't need to look at Noah to know how it finally dawned on him.

"I'm... So sor—"

"That's not necessary." Frey gave him a sharp shake of the head. "I'm only telling you this to let you know that it can happen to anyone, so... Don't feel bad."

He glanced to the side to see Noah's still crestfallen look.

"Still doesn't feel great." Noah was back to mumbling, so Frey couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Listen." He couldn't believe how deep into the empathy trench he was willing to dive. "It may have taken me years to figure it out, but that doesn't mean you have to suffer the same way. What I didn't know back then is that they don't decide your worth or how you're supposed to act to be accepted."

He even went so far as to place a hand on Noah's shoulder.

"The one person whose opinion of you matters the most..." He nodded gravely. "... is me."

Noah's shoulders slouched, so Frey continued.

"But after that, it's you. I need you to remember that now that I won't be around to remind you."

"So you're really moving out?" Noah asked a little louder, enough to give his sister a chance to butt in.

"But you don't actually need to do that," she insisted while hurrying up to them. "You can just take Damien's money forever. He won't mind."

"I would stay if I could, but things are too complicated." Frey had to make an additional effort not to drop his unbothered mask. "I'm at a crushing disadvantage when it comes to my job and Marius would not be welcome here even if Damien allowed him back, so this is for the best."

"Well, at least you'll be together." Noah, the tireless romantic, did not seem as upset as his sister. "But we'll miss you."

Luna curled her lip, so Noah bumped her shoulder.

"Yeah..." she conceded with averted eyes. "... We'll miss you."

"I'm sure you'll find someone else to bother." Frey didn't have to lie about that. "But... I suppose things will be a little more boring without the two of you around."

Before the twins could go into their regularly scheduled mere-existence-induced obnoxious frenzy, he made his way up the stairs to finally reach his room, only to be greeted by another kind of chaos.

"I was almost done," he complained to his mother who had seized his desk for clutter purposes, and she irately blew a lock of her hair away from her face. "What's all this?"

"I just..." Valdís' eyes darted around. "... There has to be something, right? Something to take him down."

"Mother..."

"It's not fair." She clasped her hands, hiding her frustration behind a calmer exterior. "You shouldn't have to give everything up to fix the mess we've made."

"You didn't do anything wrong." Frey eyed the table of old papers and contracts. "Not to West Kerilia."

"Would you mind looking through them before we leave?" she still asked. "Maybe I've missed something."

"I doubt it, but I'll have a look," Frey relented, picking up a couple of papers. It was as he'd suspected though. His mother had an equal attention to detail and no matter how he combed through the texts, he couldn't find anything.

He had to scoff at one of the contracts.

"He really did offer Father money not to marry you." He shook his head and Valdís gave the contract a bitter glare while he moved on. "And this is just a contract regarding a drinking competition? How are we losing when they were both idiots?"

"They may have been idiots, but I suppose even they could put reckless idiocy aside for business idiocy."

"I'll keep looking, but would you mind emptying my desk in the meantime so we're still getting somewhere?"

Valdís obliged, pulling out a drawer to go through the various notes and documents.

Then she paused, hand hovering over something and she pulled out a letter from the bottom of the drawer.

"What's this?" Her tone was already accusatory before Frey could answer, and he grimaced as he recognised the wax seal. It was the letter he'd asked his valet to throw away multiple times.

"Oh... That."

"You didn't even open it?" Valdís looked aghast, more or less shoving it into his face. "What if it's something important? What if it could help us?"

"Don't be mean to me, I was hurting." Frey leaned away before grabbing it out of her hands. "But fine, I guess I should have thought about that."

His fingers still trembled as he broke the seal. He hadn't wanted to open it before for a reason, and it had hardly changed over time. Chances were it would just end up hurting him.

As far as the current situation was concerned, Frey had to be a little disappointed the letter did not contain any kind of will, but what made his stomach sink harder was the fact that he recognised the handwriting.

To Frey,

I realise by the time you read this, things may have gotten even worse than they currently are. I don't see myself getting out of this alive but hopefully by the time you receive this, it will all be over.

First of all, I want to tell you how sorry I am for what I've done. What I've become. I made a poor decision for the sake of the town but ended up putting it in more danger than before. As soon as I try to do the right thing, my mind won't let me... He won't let me.

And now that nightmare blight is sweeping through the streets, all because of what I did. I hope you can understand that I never wanted to hurt anyone, no matter what has happened and what may end up happening in the future.

At this point, there won't be much to leave you or the others. You will keep our land and properties, but I hope you'll take mercy on our town as well with what's left.

I can't offer much more than that except for my title. You will be the new Lord Clausson, after all, so I hope I haven't ruined the name beyond repair.

I would also like to ask that you look after your mother. She may not show it, but the two of you are more alike than she lets on and with me gone I believe you two will need to put down your guards and be each others' support instead. I would ask you to look after Annarósa and Sigveig too, but I suspect it might turn out the other way around. Regardless, I hope you'll all be there for each other. Don't let what's happening tear you apart, and please remember me for who I was, not what he made me become.

Your father.

Frey drew a quiet breath. How ridiculous of him to think he could read it all without tears welling up in his eyes, and he blinked them away while handing the letter to Valdís.

Her eyes had the similar, appropriate reaction, and as she reached the end of the letter a weak smile curved her lips.

"Oh, Claus..."

She turned her eyes up to look at Frey.

"Carrigan is so screwed."