Chapter 776

“Ok. Apep, is there like a secret backdoor or something we can use? With the cooks in the kitchen on top of the guards I’m not sure we can get out...” said Kat.

“Not really?” said Apep awkwardly.

Kat let out a long sigh, “Right. So do you have any suggestions at all? Or will I be stuck here until night time? When do the chefs start lunch anyway?”

“Um... pretty much straight away most of the time... they have a lot of food to serve. Not just my family but the guards and the rest of the staff as well...” answered Apep.

*Well that’s seriously not ideal...* “So... how exactly did you plan to avoid getting caught?” asked Kat.

“I um... sort of didn’t? I just assumed I’d get caught by the chefs so I was going to sneak out with a piece of jerky or chocolate or something and pretend that was the whole point?” said Apep.

Kat frowned and said, “Right ok... so... I can understand that but... but what exactly where you planning to do with the demon you summoned?”

.....

“I kinda... just sorta... assumed you’d have the answers to my issues and we’d um... just... go over them and then I’d fail to sneak out but know what to do about Zuhra?” offered Apep as his answer.

Kat sighed again, she was doing that a lot in this conversation. “Right...” Lily do you have any ideas?

[I mean not really... the guard patrols are probably pretty good and we don’t exactly have stealth skills that are particularly advanced... certainly not good enough to get past trained guards actively looking for issues. Sure we could probably bust out and get away with it but the problem is we need to get back in to see Apep to deliver answers and we can’t just charge back IN. Though, we should ask how we’ll find Jara’s house.]

*Good idea. That’s something. Keep working on potential exit strategies I guess. I wish my mist form was a bit more versatile. Then I could like ghost out of here.* “Well putting that to the side for the moment... how can we find Jara’s house?” asked Kat.

“Oh that won’t be too hard... um... if you can fly you can just get high enough to and look for the buildings with giant 6’s on them. My house has giant 3’s as well so... that might be useful? Um... if you aren’t coming at it from the top, look for any of the larger compounds and walk past the front gates. They’ll have whatever Number of Ten they are... so that’s another way I guess. Um... also the estates are laid out in order actually, well except for nine and ten. They got swapped around a long time ago. It was this big thing... um I can tell you if you want?” explained Apep.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

*Do we want to hear about this? I mean it doesn’t exactly sound relevant but I think it could be interesting.*

[Sure go ahead. I think I have an idea to get us out of here without being seen. Well, not without being seen at all. I just need to think on the details and you’ll need to help me test something...]

*Righto,* “It sounds like it has to be a bit of a story right? I’m happy to listen,” said Kat.

Apep nodded and said, “Sure... um... ok so... when I say this was a while ago, I think it was... five hundred years? Maybe it was more than that? Sorry I’m not so good with dates. The Tenth of the Ten family was slowly dying out. We’re not sure why even to this day. Countless healers checked for poison or other kinds of foul play, but checking the records this was actually happening to the family for a long time. Their bodies were just sort of giving out on them.

“Things sort of came to a head when there were only two people in the lineage left. Twin brother and sister. The brother stayed on to manage the estate while the sister happened to marry into the Ninth of the Ten. They were having a slightly different issue at the time, but it’s a lot more complex and doesn’t matter for this particular story. So, she married into them and managed to have three kids, which is meant there were the most descendants from Tenth of the Ten in like... 600 or so years. One again, don’t quote me on the dates,

“This was sort of fine and her brother managed to marry... but he died fifty years later with no heirs. Apparently not from lack of trying... but I learnt about this story when I was a lot younger so I didn’t understand what my tutor meant when they said that. I do NOW but it also means I never thought to ask if one of the husband or wife was barren and if so which one, or if there was miscarriages. Anyway, I don’t know so I guess it doesn’t matter.

“It did mean though, once he died, that his sister was the first and only person in line to be in charge of the Tenth. Which... created a bit of an issue. To prevent succession issues, the Ten families made a pact which was later made a law, that when you take on another family name as part of the Ten, you are waiving your right to inherit the title. Not the lands, just the title. This meant that the sister, owned all the Tenth’s holdings, but nobody was sure if she could be the new Tenth or not.

“This was further complicated by the fact that she was openly gay, and married a women but had kids with the butler, though this was all before it was socially acceptable. Anyway... this was a bit of an issue for everyone because she had, technically speaking, bastard children that might or might not be able to inherit the position. It could only go to her, but she technically gave it up, so her children should have it but they were bastards and she was already married.

“Oh, um, a bastard can inherit as long as the parents marry before the child is elevated. That particular law was codified pretty early on. The only issue was, the sister had no interest in fixing that particular issue because she was very happily married and her wife was perfectly on board with everything. They raised the children together in fact.

“That’s where everything went to shit though. See, the Ninth was having issues internally with succession. Mary, oh that was the twin sister and her wife was Joeline, forgot that. Now, they were suddenly maybe in position to be the two ladies of the Tenth. This was before people were totally accepting of gay couples though. So they weren’t happy with that, and the rest of the Ninth was undertaking a small civil war because the current head was an idiot.

“See, he said that it was to be a fight between his heirs. We think, he meant a series of honourable duels but instead everyone started poisoning each other and going for assassinations. Joeline, seeing this, backed out of the race and abdicated her position as the 3rd daughter to take her completely out of the running and keep her kids safe.

“Which would be great if the last Tenth didn’t die during this fiasco. So now, despite not being in line for the Ninth, she was in line, or at least ‘her children’ were in line for the Tenth. So a couple assassins try to go for her and failed. Well, she showed them who was top bitch,” Apep gave a polite cough as he looked warily around the room. “Um sorry. She showed them who was boss by just murdering the rest of them. Now, some accounts differ here. Some say she murdered everyone, and their spouses and their kids, while others say she murdered the people responsible for the assassins and offering surrender to the rest who rejected it.

“Either way, she was the only one left. And since technically she didn’t abdicate properly, because she kept her family name. Now she’s in charge of the Ninth and potentially the Tenth as well. She didn’t want the power though so she pushed for her children to inherit one each. Sounds fine right?

“Well the final issue was that when they came of age there was a rather large fight. Both wanted to take up the mantle as the Ninth of the Ten. The older child because they didn’t have any interest in the old compound, and the younger child because they wanted to honour Joeline and become the new Ninth of the Ten. This was settled by Joeline, forcefully, because she didn’t want another civil war.

“She split the estates and titles and basically told everyone else to deal with it. And so that’s why the Tenth of the Ten’s compound is out of order, because it was originally the Ninth compound but they got swapped around!”

[Great timing on the ending. Kat. I have an idea that’s so crazy it just might work]