Another day and my House Cymbelline file grows heavier. I don’t think I’ll ever close this, but at the same time, there’s a part of me that doesn’t want it to close. I remember when you asked me how I can be okay with it, with the job and the things I have to do. I gave you some convenient answer because I didn’t know how to explain it back then. Now I do. I’m fascinated by them and the different ways they tug at their leashes. I’m also afraid, of and for them. I’ve told you this isn’t tenable. There will be violence again and likely in no less than two generations. I don’t know what the reasons will be or how it will begin, but I know who the likely combatants are. I now know the Directory quite thoroughly, but puzzling out the muzzled elite has been the true struggle.

The recent addition to the case file of House Cymbelline once again concerns the ongoing tangles with the marriage assignment between Alexander and House Faust’s ward. The Fausts aren’t considered an OFS House by the Directory’s definition. At the start of the revolution, the House had already been shrinking. By the time the dust settled the Fausts were reduced to two members, the Lady Rosalind, and her niece. The House was allowed to keep some of its rights and duties, but the Merchant Princes of Auview have taken control of most of the House’s former functions. What remains will be transferred to them after Rosalind dies and the House will be no more.

The girl, Zilya, was assigned with Alexander before she could walk. Her childhood years oscillated between a quiet and perhaps lonely life and the perennial notoriety that hounded every Cymbelline scandal. When Mortimer Cymbelline died his sudden death, the Directory had to station Watchers around her home. They even prosecuted a couple of tabloidists. Zilya was around her twelfth year at the time and hadn’t even met Alexander.

The marriage date looms now. Alexander has reached his twentieth year, and Zilya is closing on her seventeenth. In calmer contracts, the Houses would have already shared a few dinners by now. The last year is spent on small property inventory and finalizing, and most of this is handled by the Directory. Even among Houses with little warmth between them, it’s common practice to regularly communicate during this time. These parties are one of the few social occasions left where the Old Families can meet freely without causing suspicion.

The Cymbellines and Fausts have never met. As far as the Directory knows they haven’t even so much as exchanged letters. That is, until last month. A personal auto was delivered to House Faust by an employee of House Cymbelline and presented to Zilya. Not just any car either, it was an import with a going price that most citizens could live off of for years. Of course, Zilya doesn’t have the clearance to operate the vehicle. Somehow, two weeks later, the car ends up partially wedged in the Auview canal with a portion of the guard gate tangled up with the engine. Zilya was admitted to the hospital, but not for injuries. The doctor’s records reported her condition as an inexplicable fever.

I’ve said it before, everyone in House Cymbelline is strange. The Directory can use that rationale to explain the absurd gift. Not to say they believed the fever story, but it was the sickly season and Auview has historically been a higher contagion zone for all its commercial traffic. Zilya has no bad marks to her name, so it’s let go on the idea that the poor girl had such a dizzying fever she got into the vehicle and lost control of it, perhaps trying to take herself to the hospital. It may help to mention that there was no contingency plan if this contract fell through.

Some time passes quietly before Rosalind Faust notifies the Family Planners of another vehicle, once again delivered to their doorstep. Another import with a slightly more modest price tag. Most citizens could live off it for one year. The Directory makes arrangements to pick up the auto within the week. They would store it until the time of marriage and then work with Zilya on getting driving clearances if she so wished. But before they could get to the Faust estate, Zilya drove the auto head-on into the ten-yard stone wall that contains Auview’s famous cemetery. It was dusk and there were nearly a hundred witnesses. The Directory was quicker getting agents to the hospital. The girl was said to have reeked of liquor.

She survived. Rosalind Faust allowed Directory agents to search the estate where they found no signs of liquor. Nor did they find any journals, diaries, or scrap of note that could have offered insight into Zilya's sudden self-destructive urges. I was brought in to start a new case file. The girl had already been removed to her Aunt’s care by that time, but I wanted to talk to the hospital staff first. The medics who transported her said nothing different than the briefing I’d been given by the Family Planners. What I did find interesting was a certain name in the visitor’s log. For the entirety of Zilya’s hospital stay, she was visited daily by Cassandra Cymbelline.

I’ve never brought up Cassandra because frankly, I forgot she existed. Cassandra is the firstborn child of Mortimer and Cora Cymbelline. Like her younger brother, she was educated at the estate by a variety of tutors. Of those tutors that had been appointed by the Directory, all of them noted the same things. That she has an unusual musical talent even in her youngest years, a very impressive vocabulary, and seemingly no interest or ability to learn any academic subject. House Cymbelline had never been an extroverted set, preferring instead to stay within the delights of their vast estate. So what few times they do poke their heads out they inevitably garner a lot of attention. Before her father’s death, there were only two photographed instances of Cassandra out in public with her family. There’s not a whisper of gossip about her even after Mortimer’s passing.

I spent a couple of days around the hospital reading their records and interviewing the staff. They could confirm that a woman who wasn’t Rosalind was seen visiting every day, but no one seemed to be able to come up with an adequate description of her. Tall woman, long dark hair. Few spoke to her and those that did say that she was polite, but not conversational. Profoundly lackluster descriptions particularly for a member of House Cymbelline, and one that hasn’t been publicly seen or heard of in years.

Once I’d gotten all I could from the hospital I made my visit to the Faust estate. I’d never been before, but it was quite lovely for a diminished House. Dark stone, like they all are in Auview, but with I walked down a front path shaded with a hanging terrace garden containing all the varieties of wild roses native to Auview. The manor itself was not small, but cozy. Rosalind was still using the old vapor lighting and it made me feel like I was in the first sunset of Spring. The girl was still in no state for conversation, but Rosalind allowed me to visit her for a moment. The worst of her injuries was her two broken legs. The doctor had prescribed her an opium distillate so I doubt the poor girl ever woke while I was there. Mam. Rosalind took me to a small, but dreamy patio overlooking the bay. We shared a pot of the best ruby tea I’ve ever had. She poured my share neatly and said, “I presume you want to know why I’ve taken Zilya from the hospital’s care?”

“It would have come up, yes.”

She sat down and took her cup. “Well, have you been there yet? You may hear Zilya had a certain, unusual visitor. One who I managed to never run into during my own daily visits.”

“I have been there and I did see that. Cassandra Cymbelline, do you know about her?”

“Not really, though I’m not one for keeping up with the peerages. She’s some relative of that Alexander. The staff there had little to tell me. In fact, they seemed to think I’d have some kind of information about her. But whoever she is, she’s never contacted me. I had Zilya released soon after I found out.”

“The name she used in the visitor’s record was Cassandra, which would make her Alexander’s sister. Though I’ve not found substantial evidence that it was her or rather, someone using her name. Were you concerned for Zilya’s safety with this visitor?”

“Perhaps, though that’s not how I would put it. My niece has always been a quiet girl, a small girl. I was never able to have children of my own, it’s only ever been her and I. She had friends when she was little, of course, but here on Auview, they don’t grow up under the specter of marriage assignments. When Zilya reached the age of chaperoned socials, what could she do but sit out while her friends drifted on into their next stage of life? She was a lonely girl and she was made lonelier for that awful contract. And I’ve never known her to drink liquor, and she hasn’t a friend left who could have procured it for her. She didn’t ask for those ridiculous autos and we were never told anything about them until they showed up here. It’s all become too much mystery for me. So I brought her home. You probably won’t believe me, but the Old Family way has been near as foreign to me as it is to the commons. The only difference is that I know just enough to not believe that any of these things the Cymbellines have done are acts of good faith.”

You asked me once how I came to have the position that I do. I was defensive when you did, and that was unfair because I understood why you asked, even back then. I had no notable presence in the First Era, nor a connection to anyone who did. As far as professional experience went I should have been no more than a clerk in an unimportant office. I’ve already shown you a few of my orientation papers, this time I’ll give you the correspondence that marked the start of my career.

AIRTEL TO [REDACTED]

RE: COUNTERINTELLIGENCE

DISCONTINUANCE

Purpose: To secure approval for discontinuance of the disruption program among the Highland Old Families in order to eliminate paper work.

Observations: The captioned program was initiated on [REDACTED] to cause disruption within the Highland zone OFS and to alert the commons of these entities’ subversive characters. Prior to [REDACTED] this program was supervised as an adjunct of the Directory’s counterintelligence branch. Currently this program is being supervised by the substantive desk responsible for handling the investigations that concern the Highland zone Houses. Field agents are not required to submit status letters and potential counterintelligence actions are handled on an individual basis.

Since the last evaluation of this program in [REDACTED], four proposals have been considered with three being approved by the Directory leads. No significant tangible results have been reported to date.

Recommendation: In order to eliminate paperwork wherever possible, it is recommended that captioned disruptive action be discontinued as a program. In the future, disruptive programs directed against the OFS, or other mobilized groups, will be handled on case basis when deemed necessary.

[CONCLUDED]