I opened the door when neither of the two adults in the room made to move. "Hello, I'm Dragon Tower Representative Serafina Stewart, it's nice to meet you." It was a greeting I had ran through my head a few times yesterday. I said it automatically before I realized who I was talking to.

One look at her and I knew she was Ruby Flare, Jarec's mother and Mom's sister. My aunt.

One of her eyes was the exact same shade of red as her son's. The other, her left eye, was pale. The area around it was covered in long-healed scars. It looked painful.

"Ruby Flare," she greeted and held out her hand.

"Ruby!" Mom nearly shouted with joy. I couldn't really hide my flinch.

I shook her hand once in a hurry and then got out of the way.

"Lucinda, it's nice to see you again. I admit when Jarec told me you were coming I wasn't sure what to think. But you seem to be doing well." Ruby's voice sounded warm. I was relieved that there wasn't going to be tension here.

Mom was grinning wider than I think I'd ever seen. "It's so good to see you!"

They shared a hug while Mom seemed to be struggling with keeping still and Ruby returning the enthusiasm with an amused smile.

"How have you been? It's been too long!" Mom's excitement seemed to be overtaking her.

Ruby responded by raising her eyebrows at Mom.

"Okay, yeah that's more my fault than yours but still. Motherhood! How did you get old enough to be a mother?" Mom teased.

"You're not that much older than me. We were in the same year at school. And yours came first," Ruby teased back.

"My baby sister is all grown up!" Mom fake-complained.

"While Lucinda gets that out of her system," Ruby gently pushed Mom to the side by placing her hand on Mom's face, "Jarec has told me a bit about you."

I shrugged, "Mom barely talked about her family so I don't really know what to say here."

"You must take after your father," Ruby said as she got free from Mom's pestering.

"She does!" Mom sounded so proud of that. "She's cuter than I was at that age."

"You were also fond of putting bugs in the beds of people you didn't like, so yes I would say she's an improvement. Unless Jarec has been leaving things out of his calls." Ruby was still smiling.

"She's so much better behaved than I was. It's almost unfair." Mom decided to start messing with my hair again.

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I wanted to go find a hole to hide in now.

"I'm not sure how, but Serafina has caused the least amount of paperwork between the five dragons. Jarec's the second least," Vivian interjected.

"Victor's influence. Serafina and him both prefer not to be bothers." Mom left to go lean back on that same empty shelf.

"Except for when she grumbles about her fellow council members being eaten by ghouls." Traitor! I told her that in confidence!

"That one's on me. I take full responsibility for that," Mom said that, but she was still grinning.

I sighed.

"But more importantly, tell me about my nephew! I want all the details," Mom poked Ruby's side.

"Jarec's like you. Somehow. Maybe a bit better at aiming his mischief and not getting caught." Ruby said it with an accusatory look at Mom.

"That was the one time!" Mom was using her genuine defensive tone.

"Caninin's hair was blue for a month. He nearly stopped talking to you," Ruby was amused.

"Natalie liked it."

"Natalie likes him."

"She said yes to dancing with him, blue hair or not. So, really no harm done."

I was getting the impression they'd had this argument before. It was playful and teasing in tone.

Vivian was looking at Mom with that look again. That fond softness that I wasn't sure how to parse.

"Luckily Jarec hasn't dyed anyone's hair. Accident or not. There was an incident involving some newspaper club members and some printing ink though," Vivian commented.

I suddenly remembered Thoth complaining about stains. Or maybe it was Jarec bragging about them? Probably best to not say anything.

"Good for him," Mom sounded proud.

"And have you followed in your mother's footsteps?" Ruby asked me.

"No. Too busy dealing with class and representative duties. As well as…um…" The curse. I looked over to Mom.

"You know how it is, just because Serafina knew about magic beforehand didn't make the transition from there to here any easier," Mom waved her hands like it wasn't a big deal. Hopefully Ruby wouldn't ask more questions. If Mom wanted to talk about the curse, she would.

Whether because the timing wasn't great or if she even planned to at all I had no idea.

Ruby nodded grimly, "First couple of months here were pretty hard, even before this happened." She was pointing to the scar on her face.

I got the distinct impression I was missing context here. I was going to have to ask Mom about it later.

"Right," I rubbed at my wrist and tried to not let my thoughts linger on the feelings of awkwardness.

There was a moment of quiet.

"I forgot to mention what happened, didn't I?" Mom asked.

Ruby chuckled, "Of course you did."

"There's a lot she didn't tell me until very recently," I explained and accused at the same time.

"My scar was given to me by Dearil Merripen, it got him thrown in prison. Well, that and the murders."

Ah. Oh. Oh.

Mom winced at the name. Vivian was looking out the window.

"The single worst person alive, got it," I nodded.

Ruby blinked at me for a moment. "I won't argue, but that's a strong opinion."

I shrugged, "It's a long story."

Mom looked tense and stiff. Anger on Mom usually fizzled out, but I guess with both me and her sister having been hurt by the same person it was different.

Ruby looked at Mom's posture and then to Vivian before a clear expression of realization crossed her face. "Does this have anything to do with the time Jarec asked me about curse magic?"

I looked to Mom who gave me a slight nod.

"Probably. I'm cursed. And everyone says it's the same color as Merripen's magic."

"He cursed you?" She sounded worried, but then turned her next question to Mom, "How?"

"He cursed me. Serafina just inherited it."

"Horrid man."

"Nothing to do about it now though." I sighed.

Mom sighed too. "I always knew I couldn't ignore the past forever. Just wish it hadn't been like this."

It could have been a lot worse though. I rubbed at my wrist again.

Mom's eyes were focused on the movement. Then she caught me catching her and then pretended to be looking around at Vivian's office.

I could tell that the three of them, maybe even the four of us, had more that was going to need to be said. But there would be time for that later.

For now there was an insistent knock on the door.

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