Chapter 3: Chapter Three; The Note
When Sebastian's father went anywhere you could immediately tell he was someone of importance. The way he carried himself with a certain level of dominance and danger, with a hint of a mischievous smirk.
As he walked into the Winter's residence, his eyes leering around his surroundings, the judgement clear as day on his face when he stuck his finger out and ran it across the side table. A thick smear of dust and perhaps pollen or some other unknown substance coating his long finger. Running over the dust with his other fingers with a peculiar look of interest or distaste it's hard to tell which before ultimately wiping it off on the trunk of his pants.
"Pleasure...yes...I am sure" his 'Grace' replied with a little bit of sarcasm.
Sebastian followed his father into the Winter's residence staying close to his side while taking in his surroundings. It was his first time out in the countryside this far away from home. Thus everything was new and foreign to him.
It was quite humbling to him to see how the rest of society lived apart from the Elite's he knew from his father. There were a few occasions he would stop by the nearest village and wander around the marketplace, but he always had several guards with him then and wasn't allowed to loiter for very long.
From what Sebastian could tell the house was relatively small. He thought about how many could fit into their entire estate, fifty? No, maybe it was closer to one hundred? He also noted the furnishings were scarce. Only the essentials like a simple couch that looked a little worse for wear and a small coffee table that sat in front of a fireplace in the living room.
To Sebastian it actually looked like people used the space quite often like a normal family would. Sitting around the fire, talking about how their day went. A twinge of jealousy crept up in the back of Sebastian's mind.
He wondered if the people who lived here had a child his age he might get to know and perhaps befriend in time. Though he was a quiet boy who kept to himself, it wasn't like he loathed the idea of making friends, he just didn't know any since he was homeschooled like most other Elite's who's parents thought they were too good to send their kids to public schools.
His father and other Elite's would sometimes come over their estate for business meetings, bringing along their children if they had any. But to Sebastian, the Elite kids and himself had nothing in common. He thought they were all rather obnoxious and pretentious.
Whenever they were over the estate, he would shut himself up in his room and read whatever book he was working on at the time.
"Bash come out and play with us won't you?" He heard one of the other children knock lightly on his door. "Mmmm.." Sebastian groaned as he mulled it over. "Can't..too busy" They would probably just make fun of him again or tease him about his dead mother. They would say things like she didn't love him and wanted to get away from him, that's why she died and left Sebastian all alone.
Of course they knew nothing about his mother, her death or their relationship. Sebastian himself knew very little about the cause of his mother's ultimate demise.
She had died right before Bash had turned five years old.
From what he remembers she didn't appear to be sick or unwell in any way, but had suddenly passed in the night according to his father and the estate's personal physician.
The following day was Sebastian's fifth birthday, his father had the maids plan a party for him as if his mother hadn't just died the night before. A maid knocked gently on his bedroom door before opening it to stand in the doorway with her hands behind her back.
"Bash won't you come down, everyone is waiting for you downstairs" the maid called out gently.
Sebastian was laying on his bed, his nose buried in a book so you couldn't see the tears falling down his face. "I'm not going," he replied lazily.
The maid took a few steps towards where Sebastian was. "I see..It's probably better I give this to you here instead anyhow." While bringing forward what she was holding so Sebastian could see.
"What's this?" he glanced over his book towards the maid seeing the maid hold a rectangular shaped box wrapped with paper.
"A birthday present from your late mother. She left it with me about a week ago, in case…" the maid's voice faded out to a whisper.
Not hearing anything past 'late mother' Sebastian reached out his hand to grab the package from the maid. He stared at the box running one of his hands over the paper wrapping tenderly.
"I'll take my leave now, I hope this eases your pain a little. I loved your mother dearly as well." The maid said before stepping out of the room and closing the door behind her.
After the door had clicked, Sebastian carefully unwrapped the package. Inside was a novel that his mother had read to him many times before. It was one of his favorite's, often requesting his mother read it to him nearly every other night.
"Why…" Sebastian thought as he stared at the novel. He did love this book quite a bit, and it might have been the best birthday present he had ever received. He couldn't fathom why his mother would gift him the book though. They already owned the book, it sat in the estate's library after all.
Casually flipping through the book's pages he saw a corner of something sticking out that was a different color and texture than the rest of the book. What he found was a piece of parchment with a note from his mother. 'To my sweetest Bash, I'm terribly sorry that I am no longer with you on today of all days. Just know that I will always be in your heart, and you in mine. Take care, my sweet boy, and look after the girl…-Mom.'
"What girl?" Sebastian pondered after reading the note, folding it back up and placing it inside the book once more.
He didn't know of any girl besides the Elite's children and he didn't want to look after them even if his late mother had told him to.
Getting up he placed the book in a safe spot so no one would be able to find it, before laying back down on the bed and drifted off to sleep.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone