The Caveat

Prologue

The village was the largest in the known area, accommodating not just the poor or the rich, but a mixture of the two. It was thought of as odd by neighbouring villages as the rich had been known to trade with the poor, and socialisation between members of different social statuses was not as uncommon as one may think. The poor members lived in the centre of the village, their tiny homes huddled together like they themselves when the weather grew too cold. On the outer edges of the village lived the rich in their large and well-built houses and, occasionally, manors. Between the two was the trading square, school, graveyard and river.

The village was called Berning, which was ironic, seeing as a horrid storm had caused a fire to wipe out half of the village, both from the outside and the inside. One such destroyed buildings was the Elderwood residence, consisting of two parents, two children, a dog, a maid and a cook. All of them perished except for the children, Lucius and Diana, who were across the river when the storm struck and had to watch their house burn from under the cover of the trees.

The next morning, when they could cross the swollen river, they returned to their destroyed home and joined the salvage effort to recover their belongings and the bodies of their deceased relatives. Once cleared, the siblings sat on the charred floor of the shell of their home and stared at the remainder of their possessions, namely the singed leather suitcase and contents found in the attic they never knew they had.

"Do you think it's real?" Diana asked quietly. Although voices no longer bounced from the marble tiles, it didn't feel right to speak so loudly in a place so scarred by tragedy.

"Of course not!" Lucius scoffed too loudly, he brought his voice down when he next spoke. "It must be one of Father's art pieces." The smell of a recently snuffed candle crawled into Diana's nostril, except on this occasion the candle had been their home.

"Father loved art," Diana agreed, her body numb. Neither of them had processed the extent of their loss. "But if it's not real, why did he hide it?" Lucius spluttered at his sister's question.

"It must be worth loads! Maybe it's the only one." Diana looked at her brother sideways, unconvinced.

"Father owned masterpieces. He had some of the most beautiful paintings and tapestries hung around..." A huge ball of emotion wedged itself in her throat and she had to pause to swallow it down. "Why on Earth would he own – never mind hide – a family tree that says our family is –"

"Our family are dead, Diana. This is nothing. Grow up." Lucius rose to his feet and Diana clenched her teeth. "We need to pick up the broken pieces of our lives, not mess around with that stupid-"

"I'm going to Ma Gilbert," Diana announced defiantly. Lucius paused and turned to stare at her incredulously. "She deals in the occult. She'll tell us if it's real or not." Something brewed in Lucius' gut. A mixture of feelings; rage, loss, betrayal, but most of all was fear. He was terrified of what was to become of their lives after what had happened and the last thing he needed was that thing on the floor to be true.

"You're doing no such thing. I forbid it." Diana rose to her feet and glared at her brother.

"I lost my family today, Lucius. Everything I love. This is the only thing we have left from them and I'm not going to let you destroy this too." The siblings stood opposite the fallen staircase, now consisting of only two steps, locked in a hateful glare.

"There's a reason father had this hidden. Because he knew the moment you saw it you'd go crazy!" Diana stood still, her fists and jaw clenched so hard it was as if her bones could snap.

"You can come with me, or you can stay here. But you can't stop me going."

"Fine, go to her. Get yourself killed. Destroy what's left of our family name. It's all your fault they're dead anyway!" Lucius snapped. With a growl, Diana tore out of the broken building with tears streaming from her eyes.