Tainted Perceptions

September 16, 1889, Midday (Unedited)

It had been two days since the body of the young Emilia Smith had been discovered in the park. The day after, the local newspapers ran the story. It had very little clarifying facts about her cause of death or even how she wound up in the park. When the story broke, Permilla took the strand pearl to her parents. Her theory was proven right as the doctor was able to connect the metal strand to the rest of the necklace found in the monosupials mouth. The second day, a red envelope had been delivered to their house.

They had been sitting having breakfast, that her father had brought from the baker, when the knock had came from the door. Permilla was more than happy to extract herself from the table. When her parents weren't arguing, the were locked in an embrace, confessing endless love for each other. She hustled away from her mother's loud coos and towards the front door.

A servant dressed in all black looked Permilla up and down before curling his lips. Before she could be taken aback by the rude gesture, he jammed an envelope into her hands, turned on his heels and promptly got into a carriage. Permilla's interest in the letter didn't distract her from seeing a symbol cared into the door of the carriage. It was an image of a queen with a diamond scepter in her hand.

She watched the carriage slowly make its way down the busy street before shutting the heavy door. Permilla basically ran back to the kitchen, sliding slightly in her slippers. She hit the corner a little too hard and ran into the wall. Her father opened his mouth as if he wanted to ask if she was alright, but Permilla held the envelope out to her mother.

Permilla was hovering over her mother's shoulder to catch a slight glimpse. With a few glances towards the contents of the envelope and each other, Permilla's parents went into a frenzy of action. Breakfast was forgotten as her father began muttering under his breath, "This is just great." He disappearing into his lab. Her mother headed towards the staircase, disregarding the opened letter.

She made sure her mother's footsteps had completely disappeared on the steps before diving for the letter. It was address to the both of her parents, which Permilla found extremely odd, until she read further down.

It was a meeting of the House of Diamonds. Permilla's mind flashed back to the carriage and the man who delivered the letter. When she was younger, her father would tell her stories about what the business trips that he and her mother would take together. They would leave for days and place Permilla in the care of Lynette's family.

They were apart of a secret organization called Society of Suits. It was a worldwide effort to protect the largest global powers and their populations from things beyond the comprehension of the public. The British division established by the royal family with the purpose of studying and erasing threats to the public of a mythical kind. There were five houses. The House of Hearts located in France, The House of Clubs located in Russia, The House of Spades, located in America, and the House of diamonds. All together they created the Society of Suits.

Even when she was young, Permilla knew she had a spot in the House of Diamonds. She just didn't know which branch she would be put in. Her mother was under the field branch, which disposed of threats and physically protected the people. Her father was under the medical branch, where the mythical threats were subjected to multiple tests and studies. Other branches included Chemistry, Research, Outreach and Maintenance.

Usually, the members of the house were put in different sectors, given their jobs and different tasks to complete. It was very rare for a meeting of the entire house to be called. Only extreme emergencies or requests from the royal family itself could warrant a meeting. The last time she remember both of her parents being called away at the same time, she had only been a little girl. That hadn't stopped her from begging to go with them.