At the end of the fellowship, as Anna was bringing Darius back up to his nursery, she was very much hoping to find Kiara there waiting for her. And although she was disappointed, she was not surprised to find that her hopes had been in vain.

If you've ever loved anyone, you will know the absolute moment-to-moment agony of every tick and tock passing by as you come deeper and deeper into the visceral understanding that your beloved is hurting while you are otherwise occupied. In that moment, all your other responsibilities are duties no more, merely chains- enemies to be avoided, destroyed or otherwise overcome.

Every little hair stabbing out of Anna's skin, from the edges of her nails to the borders of her crown, called for her to get up and go to her daughter. And for any lesser task she might have done- she might have shattered the chains and gone. However, the Fates had placed upon her a chain in the shape of a young boy whose mother was in a frightfully bitter mood and whose father was hearing all manner of vulgarities from his wife. As Darius looked up at her with the ruby and the emerald which his noble house called eyes, she thought to herself...

(picking the boy up) Oh bother. I'm not leaving you, am I?

And, indeed, she didn't. Not until a certain hour arrived along with a certain servant to relieve her of her charge for a certain reason. But until then, Kiara kept to herself. She returned to hers and Anna's room, where Minnie had gone to get her earlier that morning. And there she waited, simply sitting on the edge of her little bed. She scarcely moved at all and peered emptily into nothing in particular. She did not even feel like turning the light on. And it would have remained off had it not been for Minnie and others periodically coming in and out to comfort their sister.

At one point, five of them- including John Smith -played three full rounds of cards right in front of her in the hopes that she would be enticed into joining them; or at least be annoyed enough to get up, pick up her notepad and write a message telling them to bugger off. However, she remained as a statue. And when the children's boredom began to override their sympathy, a staring contest was considered. It was Della who first asked aloud if, at any point during their visit, any of them had ever seen the girl blink. Their concern began to mutate into astonishment at the prospect that, although she had been staring at nothing, she might have been staring for hours without pause. They moved to remove her darkly lensed mask (that was the closest they had gotten to making the girl move) but as soon as Smith caught them in the act, he decided that their potential for useful company had been exhausted and so they were all made to leave. Kiara, though relieved a little, remained terribly irked by the light and was honestly tempted to turn it back off. She had spent much of that time hoping that one of them would do it but when Smith closed the door behind him and the light was still on, that hope was extinguished and a fearsome debate took place over the ashes.

Just get up and turn it off.

You get up and turn it off.

That's what I'm saying.

Stop twisting my words! I'm not getting off this bed!

But I really need a wee.

Quiet, you!

We were doing so well!

How did we lose focus?

Lose focus of what, silly girl? We were staring at nothing!

Not true, we were staring at (looking around) that nice flower pot.

How'd you know it's a flower pot?

How'd you know it's not?

There're no flowers in it!

Well.. not now! Just because a dining table doesn't have anyone dining at it doesn't suddenly make it not a dining table.

Have you ever seen Mama- or anyone -put flowers in it?

All I'm saying is that it looks like it could keep flowers.

Silly girl! Look at the state of it, it probably couldn't even hold water.

If I can't wee, you can't talk about water!

Indeed. And what does this have to do with water anyway? We're talking about the pot holding flowers!

Wow...

Honestly...

Yes. Yes. I heard it.

Can we please cut the rubbish and just-

(creaking open the door) Sweetie?

It's time.

Here we go.

We'll tell him today.

No more no's.

That was two.

Quiet!

There you are.

With light steps, almost- but not quite -with a series of tip-toes, Anna made her way to Kiara's side and sat gently there; the very edges of their sleeves only lightly touching as a silence fell in the space between and around the pair.

What can I say? It seems cruel to begin with business.

Enough already. Let's head off.

Perhaps...(pulling out a confiscated note) This is quite the little scheme. (after a pause) Doesn't quite look like the whole story though. Written in parts? (Kiara softly nods) I see. I only guessed because I see nothing about bribery here and yet I seem to recall Eddie and Minnie partaking. (smiling as Kiara finally smiles) So how did you get them to help? What did you promise them? They have schemes of their own you promised to help them with? Or were you planning on making off with some of Darius' nicer toys again? It was a pain to replace them last time y'know. If you must make a mess, at least let it be easy to clean- (noticing that Kiara was no longer smiling). So close. Was it something I said? I made a point to be cheerful.

Beginning, inconveniently, to tear up under her darkly lensed mask, and deciding that she had waited silently for far too long, Kiara took hold of her notepad and wrote up a quick "Can we go now?" which was so poorly written that only Anna could have possibly understood it. When she did understand it, her head fell to hang a little lower than before. Yet, with a smile, she replied...

Of course.

Then the two got up and as soon as Kiara was upright, it all came flooding to her at once. Anna was nearly out the door when she saw that Kiara hadn't even taken a step toward the egress. Looking back, she found the girl doing the sort of clunky dancing for which "Toilet break?" was really the only sensible translation.

When that was settled, the two went on a certain outing which was- for them -the latest of an annual tradition. It had been nearly six years to the day since the death of Ellie Gibbs and that meant a few things. It meant that Cornelia would be agreeable only to her fellowship and to no one else. It meant that James would spend much of the day trying to make Cornelia as pleased as possible. It meant that, when the time came for the sun to set, Darius would have a different nanny and Cornelia would go into her room and not allow anyone in. It meant that James Gibbs would disappear from his house to visit his daughter's grave alone. And, for Kiara, it meant that Anna would take her down a secret road to meet the good sir.

When she was younger, she didn't really understand the purpose of the tradition. When she was two or three, she, quite frankly, couldn't. Then, when she was four, she began to wonder why she was never allowed to tell her brothers and sisters about it. It was around then when she began to notice their parents stealing a glance at her every so often. The most blatant clue came in her fifth year, when she realised that James was kinder to her during the outing than he would ever be at home. It wasn't long after that when she deduced part of the story. And she did so on the night after the fifth year's meeting. After she had returned with Anna that year, she finally came upon the deduction while looking in a mirror.

The graves of Gibbses past were quite a ways away from the main house. It was, after all, very unclean to keep corpses too close to where you ate, slept and played. Yet, the yard was well-tended to- as much as any other holding in the Gibbs' estate. It looked more like a garden than a graveyard. The flowers and the soft breeze made walking there an absolute delight, especially in evenings when the sun was setting and a golden-purple hue painted the sky and all the world beneath it. Kiara adored the place and the walk when she was younger. But the whole place seemed a lot more grim during her sixth visit. When she was younger, the concept of a graveyard had not quite sunk in. But, that year, it had and no amount of majestic dye could disguise the dead. And since her discovery of death, and of her personal deduction, her heart had come weighed down by anchors far too heavy for her to ever be whisked away by the waltzing of the sun and moon and all the stars around them which the poets call twilight.

As they came over a familiar hill, Kiara looked and saw, at the highest point visible, under a hunchback tree, the silhouette of the good sir standing beside a certain stone.

Here we are. (after a pause) You don't have to go if you don't want to. (with much hesitation) I can take you back home. Make you some mushroom soup. We could read another chapter of "Captain Ulysses' Ridiculous Adventures" and then sleep the night away.

After hearing her suggestion, Kiara handed the Madame Anna an innocent smile for a parting gift before skipping off towards the silhouette on the hill. As she neared its foot, her skipping stopped and her smile gave way under the shadow of night- which, in accordance with its duty -veiled the sun and unveiled the lesser lights in their multitude. By the time she reached the tree and the stone on its head, the night had settled in its fullness. Near the ground were two burning candles to the left and right of a carefully carved stone which read "Ellie Gibbs" at its centre.

"Make Lady Gibbs happy". (after a pause) That was what your fellow said, no?

He didn't wait very long for an answer. Rather he walked sternly up to the foot of the tree and took a seat there. And from his seat, he matched Kiara's gaze before speaking again.

You know, don't you?

Though he seemed a little anxious at first, the good sir's ultimate reaction was nothing short of exactly as expected, given the circumstance. In a fit of feigned confidence, she pulled out of her bag, a little note- which she had crumpled up into a ball -and flattened it out on the gravestone. When she had come right up to him, she waved the note in his face, with the lanterns hanging like fruits from the tree branches as her spotlight. The note said plainly "I'm not that kind of dumb" and when he had finished reading it, and finally looked up at its writer, he found that she had unveiled the ruby and the emerald- long hidden by her mask's dark lenses. In truth, she had been a little uncertain about her deduction until then. Then his smile at hearing about it confirmed it all.

Well then, take a seat Madame Gibbs.

And so she did, though the effect of her being able to see without the hindrance of dark lenses was somewhat diminished on account of the night having already fallen and the lanterns and candles being far too dim to be anything but pitiful and a strain.

You must have a lot of questions. Our time together may be short, but I want to try and answer as many as I can. You deserve that much.

Now he talks about what we deserve!

Quiet.

Where would you like to start?

With her head low and her eyes towards the swaying grass, Kiara reached into her bag and pulled out another note. She didn't really care which one then. All the ones left in the bag were questions and so she figured that they were all equally appropriate. The one she did pull out read "Is Anna really my Mama?" and it gave James no small amount of grief. At the very least, it let him know that Kiara hadn't come to the whole story. That was his first thought. His second was his noticing that Kiara had pulled a note out at random. Guessing, quite accurately, the circumstance, he spoke the note's contents aloud for her sake.

Hmmm... let's see....

Wait... see what? Which one is this?

How am I supposed to know?

Maybe we can get clues from his answer?

Silly girl! Do you know how many yes or no questions were in the bag?

As well as you do!

Let's just take a peek-

No!

Bad idea!

Why?

Silly girl! If he sees, it will make us look weak!

Let's just try to-

Is Anna really my Mama?

Aha!

By the pinky, that was lucky. But next time, look!

Fair! Fair!

Quiet now! He's answering!

Wait... Which one did he choose?

Oh why did it have to be that one?

How dreadful!

Yes. Beyond a shadow of a doubt. She has raised you all these years, soothed your every nightmare and braved your every illness. Anna is your Mama. You are a Nurse as much as a Gibbs.

As expected of the good sir.

But that phrasing. There's no doubt about it.

Cornelia is our Mama.

Also our Mama.

Right.... also.

Anything else?

She turned to face him at last and his warm smile was nothing short of infectious. With a renewed vigour, she reached into her bag and pulled out the next question and then the next and then the next until she knew the whole truth- the truth of how she had been given over to Anna to be raised as a servant girl in order to save her from being killed as a noble girl for her voicelessness. The tale itself left her rather melancholy. If ever she paid any mind to its consequences, she found herself hating the good sir with a terrible bitterness. And yet, his presence and his manner of speaking made him dear to her; dear and honey-sweet. So it was that, for a time, her opinion on the matter remained a mystery even to her.