The Highlander Way [Finished]

[Kari Muffin]

Kafziel that idiot. Josephine smiled weakly at the girl in front of her, this was going to need a lot of explaining... and maybe a bit of reading from the history books. Fantastic. "It's all right that you don't know. Your father... had his reasons. So, let me explain. Devya was a very prominent mage from the Highlands. He made a name for himself, and from that name came a continuous line of Highlander Mages. Until... rather recently. The books can explain all the small details that you need to know about the family history, but ultimately you are from a long line of very talented mages."

Which was a lot of pressure but Josephine could careless. She was a young girl and had plenty of time. "Our specialty in short, is torture. Breaking down a person bit by bit and finding the truth behind it all. Everything that makes a person squirm, or uncomfortable, and the magic involved to do so. With magic there are an unlimited amount of abilities and options. For example, your grandfather took the route of apply magic to physical and mental thresholds. Of course the original research of the family was much more complicated, but a variety of things.... changed the direction."

Her head sudden snapped to the side to see Conway cleaning a statue. He had been standing there for quite sometime. "Boy, come here," Josephine said watching him jump a little, but obeying.

Conway didn't like where this was going.

"Thyme, what do you think would upset Conway?"

[The Jenn]

Thyme listened with interest as her aunt explained things about the family she'd never been allowed to learn about. More than interest, she listened with absolute fascination. She had no idea there were mages on Dad's side of the family too! She knew Aunt Josephine was rich and powerful and lived somewhere really nice, but she didn't know anything about what she did or how she came to have money. From her family, obviously.

"So I have mages specializing in torture on both sides of my family." She stared at her aunt blankly for a minute, not quite sure what to say. This was... unexpected, to say the least. "Grandpa and Grandmother do a lot of work in the area of mental control and subversion, or so I've gathered, and some of their friends seem to specialize in that kind of thing too. Not that I've met many of them, just a few, but they kind of tend to leave an impression."

Magic on both sides of the family. That absolutely thrilled her! Would Aunt Josephine be teaching her magic along with everything else? Her talk of theory and practice yesterday hinted at it. The girl's eyes were bright with interest. What kinds of things would her aunt be willing to share? She knew how to use her own abilities well enough, but she'd never thought about learning more except in passing. Neither of her parents had really encouraged it.

Her eyes snapped over to Conway when her aunt addressed him. She hadn't realized he'd been nearby with how much she'd been focusing on her own thoughts and what she'd just learned. He didn't look very happy about getting her attention, and she really couldn't blame him.

...especially not with a question like that. She blinked, startled, and looked between Conway and her aunt once or twice before hesitantly responding. "Ahh. Well, um, I guess anything to do with making fun of his being mute would upset him." It would upset me, anyway, if I were him. "Or anything to do with where he came from, cause that's a touchy subject no matter who you are. Ahh... maybe something to do with his bone accessory? I don't really know what it is beyond bits of spine and some sort of rope."

She wasn't sure she liked where this was going herself. Her eyes kept flicking back and forth between the pair of them.

[Kari Muffin]

Oh yes. They did that didn't they? Submission and all of that wondrous stuff that was sometimes rather tame. And there was Lord Ghi wasn't there? She smirked for a moment before she listened to the girl continue.

"Mocking him for being mute is a very easy thing to do. I simplistic answer like that couldn't get you all that far. Yes, region is a touchy subject, especially for those from Hisstor, The Wood, Golfram and now the Bog. You're on the right track with his bone ornamentation, though, it's very much not a rope." Josephine, without hesitation, suddenly reached out and yanked on the muscle that was attached to the bracelet and Conway's spine.

Conway crumpled onto the floor with a unheard yowl of pain. His eyes teared up as he whimpered on the floor. This job was a Bad Idea.

"That is an example of using physical pain. Using an ability you could easily extract mental information while his guard was down. Family and close relationships are a sensitive subject with most. Physical pain is sometimes a good way to get a bit of information out of someone, however, it's less than desirable. I also could have aggravated his injury from this morning." She leaned forward and picked up her tea to take a sip. Crossing her legs she set it back down on the table to look Thyme square in the eye. "The more you know about a person by asking casual questions, the more you can use information to destroy them if you need to. My best example is targeting you. I would know to go for Rosemary, your mother, and your father before anyone else in your family if I wanted you to do something for me."

Conway continued to twitch on the floor as he listened through the pain. He made a mental note never to piss this woman off seriously. GAH AHAHAHAH Why did she have to do that? He made another whimper as he did his best to sit up, or something. He promptly fell forward, the pain still mind numbing enough that he needed to stay on the floor for a while.

[The Jenn]

Thyme's eyes went wide as Conway suddenly crumpled to the ground from the pain of having his ornament tugged on. So it really was a part of his spine? How could he stand to have that out and exposed? Why didn't he cover it or hide it away to protect it? Even if she couldn't hear his scream of pain, she could feel it by watching.

"Oh," she said faintly, not having expected any of that in the slightest. It took her a minute to go back to her more neutrally curious expression. Poor Conway. Why did she have to use the one Thyme already liked as part of the example? But then... that might have even been the point.

And then her aunt's words sunk in a little more and she slowly nodded. So those questions on the way here hadn't been idle chatter at all. Or at least, not entirely. She'd thought it had been safe to talk about things, since she would be living with the woman from that point on and she was family and 'safe'. Obviously not. Well, maybe not.

...could she trust her aunt where she herself was concerned? She was young enough to hope that she could. "Would you ever use those things against me, Aunt Josephine?" she asked with a touch more seriousness. "Because just saying things like that where others can hear you is bad enough and lets them know the same targets. How closely does the Highlands take family?" In the Wood it was a very personal thing. If you loved your family, great. If not, fine. If you killed your parents, well, you probably had a good reason... so long as you were both Tulgey. And if you weren't then everyone else would be on your head faster than a vulture on a fresh carcass. Her parents had worked hard to make sure that she and Parsley escaped that kind of harm while they were young.

[Kari Muffin]

Conway was going to be on the floor for a very long while. That stupid bitch. He hoped she died a horrible painful death.

"I wouldn't betray you, unless you did something incredibly stupid, such as murder. Justice here is simple, follow the rules or be punished. The same goes for our family." Of course, if she murdered someone particularly useless Josephine couldn't care a wit. It was just a matter of covering tracks then, not politics. Politics were just a mess that Josephine didn't want to deal with.

"But don't tell anyone besides me important information about the people you care about and your feelings and so forth. You don't want someone using them against you, and if you need to vent you should keep a journal under lock and key, and probably a magical seal." Josephine said as she picked up her tea again. "Highlanders believe primarily in proper justice. If you do drugs and other idiotic things you have no right to be a Highlander. It's not a right, it's a gift. But... anyway... if any of the servants show you disrespect, such as Conway listening to our conversation, you have every right to punish them however you see fit."

[The Jenn]

Thyme had no plans to murder anyone anytime soon, so that was a big relief. Nor did she see the attraction of drugs, especially after watching Grandpa sometimes after he took a scarily big dose of opium. His addiction was just getting worse and worse and it had Mom worried. No way would she do something as stupid as start down that route.

"I'll live up to it, Aunt," she said, meaning it. She wanted to be a proper Highlander so badly! She could never truly belong back home, where her colors gave her away as foreign despite her heritage and Outsiders were always seen as a threat. She wasn't quite an Outsider... but she wasn't a Tulgey either. So she would be a Highlander, dammit, and she would learn how to be a good one. Her aunt could teach her. She would listen.

And she hadn't even thought about Conway listening in on their lesson as being disrespect, but really, when her aunt put it like that, she supposed she could understand. She still didn't think he deserved whatever ungodly level of pain had just been visited on him, but he was her aunt's servant now, not hers, and it wasn't like she would say anything to counter her aunt's word. Not when she still didn't really understand anything about this place at all. She would learn...

"If a servant shows disrespect, do I just have a right to punish them, or is it also an obligation?" She was curious how the woman would see it. At least she hadn't messed up quite as badly as the other wolf apparently had on her first day. Then again, it was still morning. She very easily could. He just wasn't having a good day at all, first with his tail and then with his back.

[Kari Muffin]

"Obligation?" Josephine repeated as she lifted up one of her heals to put on Conway's back. It was an inch away from his exposed spine. A smile curled on her lips as she watched him twitch at the slightest touch. He was still in quite a bit of pain, wasn't he? All the better. "It's a duty, dear Thyme."

With that said she drove the heal into the boy's back and watched him squirm and cry. And yet he didn't make a sound. Curious. She figured he would at least make a sound of agony, but apparently not.

Conway was very much not enjoying this. He was at the point where pain was somewhere between mind numbing an infuriating. One day he was going to get this woman back. One day.

"Servants always need to remember that their place is below us. You can punish them as you see fit. Be it pain or be it a pay cut. Either way they won't disrespect again."

[The Jenn]

Thyme nodded her head seriously, eyes on her aunt's heel and Conway's back. His poor back. Damn, that had to hurt a lot. She had vicious heels on those shoes. She couldn't help but wonder what kind of resentment something like that would cause. Fear was one thing and it could probably be glossed over, but resentment... was something else. She kept that opinion to herself, though. It wasn't her place to give it. She was the one being instructed here.

"I understand, Aunt Josephine," she said with a nod, not completely sure that she did but close enough that she wasn't going to say anything. Maybe there was something she could do to distract her aunt's attention away from him, though. Because damn, ouch.

She looked up at her aunt suddenly and blinked. "Is there any way that you could introduce me to the servants sometime soon, Aunt Josephine? I just think it would be good to know who belongs in the house and who doesn't. Until I hear from you that they're members of your household, they're all just strangers to me and I wouldn't know whether to be alarmed or not."

[Kari Muffin]

Oh yes, she had completely forgotten. The old woman smiled an removed her heal from the boy's back, shifting to her crossed leg position. She watched him remain quite still on the floor before returning her gaze to Thyme. "Later tonight I'll introduce you to the staff. There's only five or so people besides Conway. I doubt you'll see the gardener and he only shows up on the weekends, so we'll go without introducing him for now. I'm sure the staff will tell him that you're around, and he'll be pleasant if you ever cross paths."

Her gardener was a rather cute Highlander horse. If his rank hadn't been so low she probably would have hired him for something else. That was besides the point, however. "Oh yes, and I should probably tell you when we have breakfast, lunch and dinner and all of that. You'll have to forgive me sometimes, I've been living alone for years with only my bander and pets for company. Having a young girl in the house is going to take a lot of getting used to."

But she was more than happy to get used to it.

Conway winced slightly as he shifted his weight. Nope. Still not going to move for a while. So much for dusting the rest of the house. Maybe the old bag would call for someone to drag him out of here?

[The Jenn]

Listening and nodding as her aunt detailed the staff, Thyme's tail wagged lightly once or twice. For one thing, she'd stopped hurting Conway, which was rather nifty. For another, this was stuff she really needed to know if she was going to be a functioning member of the household, much less the family.

"I hope I won't be too much trouble for you, Aunt. I really don't want to be. I... want to be a Highlander. A good one." Again, something she would risk saying around the woman, because she wanted her to understand just how much this chance meant. To get out of the Wood and be her own person in a place where people wouldn't give her strange looks just because of the markings on her fur. It was a heady thing! They could give her strange looks for other things, she didn't care. Just not that.

She would trail along after the woman and absorb as much as she could that day.