Chapter Text
Sebek had many regrets.
So very many, many regrets.
So perhaps it wasn’t the brightest idea to scream in the face of your parents who love you very much that you would rather go live with your tyrant of a grandfather.
But in his defence, it wasn’t like he thought they would actually go through with it.
So now here he was, packing all of his belongings as his family prepared to split for the foreseeable future. Becky and Ced were staying to look after the house, his mother and father were going to the Queendom of Roses, and Sebek…
Sebek was moving to Faeburg.
Draconia Manor, to be exact.
He’d heard a lot of rumours about the nature of his grandfather’s job over the years. Seen him on the news a couple of times as well, actually.
Baul Zigvolt was the personal bodyguard and head housekeeper of the legendary Malleus Draconia. His grandfather’s employer was a household name, the richest man in the world, a renowned adventurer, the last son of the noble house Draconia from the ancient land of Briar Valley. Yet, his mother had insisted to him on several occasions that his grandfather had chosen the Draconias over his own family on numerous occasions, and that Malleus Draconia was nothing special. Sebek’s history teacher would very adamantly disagree with her, but he digressed.
Sebek didn’t know what he was more terrified of.
Living with a trillionaire, or his emotionally stunted grandfather.
But he was packing either way.
He kept getting the feeling that his parents expected him to rescind his choice, to beg them to take him with them abroad, but he wouldn’t bend.
They could go if they wanted.
He could look after himself.
He would look after himself.
Though, the more he thought about it, the more that mantra seemed to fail him. He picked up another shirt, folding it as small as possible as he shoved it in the corner of his suitcase. Becky was working through his wardrobe, trying to figure out what he would need immediately, and what could be picked up later.
“Your Darkwing T-Shirt?” She held up the purple article of clothing. Sebek shook his head. She placed it into the large cardboard box they had labeled ‘Later’.
Sebek stared at his room. His bed. His desk. His window.
He was really starting to regret this.
“What if he eats people?”
“Who?” Becky startled, nearly dropping the pair of jeans she had been folding.
“Malleus Draconia.” Sebek muttered. “Rich people do that, right? Or, what if he’s a vampire? Or a soul absorbing demon-”
“Sebek.” His big sister sighed, shoving the jeans into his suitcase. “Malleus was really nice, from what I remember.”
Sebek blinked.
“I forgot you used to spend time with them.” It still didn’t clear them of suspicion in Sebek’s opinion. Another question jumped to the front of his mind. He turned away from his luggage. “Why don’t we talk to Grandfather? Aside from him being, well, you know. A jerk.”
“I can’t really remember.” His sister continued folding his shirt, packing it tightly in with the others. It looked like that was everything he would need for the first week, at least until Ced and Becca could send the rest of it. “I was only seven when Mum cut contact.”
“I thought he disowned us.”
“Nope, it was Mum.” She shook her head, before raising her hand to her chin in thought. “I think. I’m about 98% sure. You know what, don’t quote me on it.”
He rolled his eyes. “Does Ced know?”
“He might.” She shrugged. The two glanced back to his bedroom door, thinking of what lay beyond it. They didn’t really have time, not if Sebek wanted to get all of his things packed before their elusive grandfather arrived to take him to his home for the next year, but…
The two dropped everything before running out and hammering on their eldest brother’s door.
“Ced!”
“Open up, it’s urgent!”
Heavy footfalls approached the door, before it was aggressively thrown open.
“What? What?!” Cedric demanded, pulling his headphones down to his neck. “Geez, I’ll be down in a minute, I’m working-!”
“Why don’t Mum and Dad talk to Grandfather?!” Sebek demanded, placing two hands on his hips.
Cedric paled, before looking up and down the hall. He yanked the two inside before closing the door, tight.
“You couldn’t have asked before you decided to move in with the guy? Geez, Seb.” Cedric shook his head. Sebek looked around the room, before finding Ced’s open laptop surrounded by dozens of papers. He looked back at Becky, feeling a tad guilty for bothering him. She didn’t.
“C’mon,” She prodded, poking him in the arm. Cedric swatted at her. “Spill the beans. Tell us we’re not dropping Sebby into a murder den.”
“REBECCA!” He scowled.
“Both of you, shut up.” Cedric grimaced, looking to the door once more. “Look, Mum and Dad wouldn’t tell me anything. I only remember what happened that afternoon, but even then, it’s not a lot-”
“We don’t have all day!” Sebek grumbled. Cedric pushed him by his forehead. Sebek headbutted him in the gut in retaliation. “Oof!”
“Guys!”
“Right. From what I remember…” Cedric walked to the doorway, cracking the door, peering out into the hall, before turning back to them and whispering, “Some guy died in his house. Weirdly. While you were there.”
Sebek blinked. “Me?”
“Yeah.” Cedric sighed. The other two leaned in closer. “Police thought he might’ve done it, but all the charges were dismissed, and he moved out of that house like right after. Nobody knows what happened.”
“But, he’s not a criminal, right?” Sebek stammered, a tad desperate.
“Mum wouldn’t let you live with him if he was.” Cedric assured, though he didn’t look too confident himself.
The three sat in uncomfortable silence for a moment.
Sebek very much regretted his choice now.
He wondered if it was still too late to go ask his parents if he could come with them.
Like the universe continuing to pee in his cereal, the three tensed as a car pulled into the driveway.
The three bolted to the open window, looking down into the front garden.
Sebek knew the neighbourhood they lived in was fairly well off, his father owned his own dental clinic that catered to a local clientele, and after setting up an orthodontist within the same building, the family were making a pretty penny. Very few places in Greater Faeburg could boast the sales that his parents made in teeth.
But holy snap, that was the fanciest black car he’d ever seen in his life.
His neighbourhood was Mercedes rich. These people were Bugatti rich.
“Holy shit.” Becca swore, leaning out. Sebek had to pull her backwards by her shirt before she tumbled out onto the roof.
“Language.” Ced scolded, but had equally starry eyes. Sebek wasn’t much of a car enthusiast himself, but he knew his mother and his siblings were avid watchers of anything with James May, but even he knew any car that compact and sleek had to cost more than his parents made over the past twenty years. It was so snobby that it didn’t look practical. “Do you think he’d let me sit in the driver’s seat?”
“In your dreams!” Becca scowled, before darting out of the door. Cedric followed after her, shouting all the while, and Sebek peaked his head out once more. The engine switched off, the door opened, and Sebek startled backwards as an incredibly tall man with slicked back dark green hair stepped out.
The man looked up.
Sebek shuffled backwards until he was out of sight.
This… this was a very bad choice.
This man looked like he cracked skulls for a living. While Sebek did enjoy all of the martial arts clubs his parents signed him up for, the only type of sport he excelled in, he didn't know how committed he was to that kind of violence.
“H-Hi, Mr Zigvolt.” He heard his father greet from downstairs.
There was no reply. More steps followed into the hallway downstairs.
“Lettie.” A deep voice began. It was cold, firm.
“Father.” His mother replied, equally toneless.
He had never heard his mother so terse. She was a loud individual, who accentuated everything she said with emotion and determination.
This man seemed to drain that from her.
He took a careful step into the hallway. His brother and sister were frozen at the bannister, looking down at the group of adults below.
“Cedric, Rebecca, Sebek.” His mother called suddenly. The trio jolted. “Come down and say hello to your grandfather.”
Rebecca and Sebek looked to Ced.
“Seriously?” He grumbled.
He still went first.
The stairs creaked as the three descended, and Cedric wouldn’t breach the hallway. Never taking the last step.
“Ah. Look at the three of you. You’ve grown so much.” The man remarked, perhaps willingly oblivious to their discomfort. His eyes scanned over the three of them. “Come. Greet me properly.”
Sebek wasn’t sure what that meant, but both his brother and sister shuffled down the last step and stiffly hugged him. From behind their backs, Sebek could see the man falter, his face falling just a moment as the coldness continued.
He let them go.
Sebek took that last step.
The man towered over him.
“Hi, Mr Zig-” He stopped himself when he saw the brief appearance of misery on the older man’s face. He looked to his mother and father, their unnerved faces, before he turned back to Baul Zigvolt. “…Grandfather.”
Some of the ice melted away.
“Sebek.” The man’s stern eyes softened slightly. He knelt down so they were closer to eye level. “Why, you were practically a baby the last time I saw you.”
Now that Sebek was closer, that he’d been allowed to see his grandfather as he was, two things had changed.
The man was somehow less scary, but entirely more threatening. Sebek could see mountains of scars across his face, across his neck despite how much he was attempting to hide it with his turtleneck sweater. He looked as though he had been through a meat grinder, yet still managed to look put together in a way that Sebek didn’t think was quite human.
It was uncanny.
A small buzz filled the room.
“We’ll have to leave soon.” The man stood up abruptly, before lifting his phone from his pocket. “I have a meeting later today, and I’d like to get you settled in before I have to go.”
“R-Right.” He stammered.
“Where are your things? I can go grab them while you say your goodbyes.” His grandfather stood up, and suddenly, it was like Sebek disappeared from his world altogether.
“We left them in the landing.” Ced explained, his voice strained.
His grandfather nodded, before disappearing upstairs.
Sebek looked around at his family.
It was too late. He knew it was too late. He was leaving all of them.
His father’s eyes were completely red with unshed tears.
Sebek stood up as straight as he could, bracing himself for the worst.
Becky was the first to crack.
A harsh sniffle cut through the room, and his mother opened her arms. All three of her children fell in, with Sebek in the middle, and their father covering Cedric and Rebecca.
Sebek clung to them as they wept.
“You promise me you’ll call every night. Every friggin’ night, okay?” His mother demanded.
“I promise, Mama.” He scrubbed at his eyes.
“And if you need anything, anything at all, we can be home within the day.” His father assured. “And Becky and Ced are just a train ride away.”
“We are.” Ced continued. This was the first time Sebek had seen him cry in years.
“Everything’s going to be okay.” Sebek promised. He promised as hard as he could, because maybe, just maybe, if he wished as hard as he could, it would come true.
The stairs creaking once more interrupted their family huddle.
His grandfather stood at the base of the stairs, Sebek’s suitcase held in his heavy hands.
His mother pulled back, looking away quickly as he attempted to dry her eyes.
“You’ve said your goodbyes?”
“Yes.”
“Then let us be off.”
And with that, the man stepped out.
His grandfather didn’t offer his mother a goodbye, nor any of his siblings, and barely glanced at his father. It immediately left a sour note in his mouth, but he decided it wasn’t worth fighting over. The man was clearly as curt as they came, and was unlikely to apologise no matter what Sebek said.
“We love you, okay?” His mother pressed one final kiss to his forehead. His father ruffled his hair, and his siblings handed him his backpack.
“I love you all too.” He promised.
He turned to look at the open door behind him. The black Bugatti. The stern looking man putting his Darkwing suitcase into the boot of the sleek car.
The man stood up as he closed the boot, and beckoned him forward.
Sebek took his first steps towards his life for the next year.
The ride to Faeburg, and subsequently, Draconia Manor, was a long one.
It was tense. And quiet.
Sebek’s grandfather didn’t put on the radio, didn’t attempt to try and fill the silence. The two Zigvolts just sat, listening to the sounds of the motorway as they approached the metropolis Sebek had often seen from his bedroom window. He tried not to look too impressed, not wanting to give his possibly serial killer grandfather any reason to serial kill him, but Baul didn’t seem to be paying too much attention to him regardless.
Sebek wondered if this was how his life was to be for the next year or so. Staring out of windows, wondering if anyone cared enough to watch. But wasn't that what he wanted? Independence? A way to prove himself?
Just as they hit the forty minute mark, Baul made a swift turn off the motorway, and onto a secluded road leading to a bridge.
Great. I didn’t even make it an hour.
Just as he debated trying to open the door and diving into the Faeburg harbour, they came up to a large gate.
His grandfather turned and spoke his first words since they had gotten into the car. “Can you open the glove box?”
“Yes.” He said quickly. Too quickly. He reached down, trying to keep one eye on the man as he pulled the lever.
He kept staring.
The glove box opened.
“Uh.”
Sebek refused to blink, not breaking eye contact.
“The fob for the gate is in there. If you could just…”
“Oh!” He jolted, before reaching in hastily and dropping the small black fob into his grandfather’s awaiting hand. The man gave him a strange look, before the large metal gates, crested with what looked like gold, began to slowly pull open. Instead of giving the small contraption back to Sebek for him to close the gate, he simply placed it in one of the cup holders.
The silence was now incredibly awkward.
Sebek wondered if there was any way to recover from that one. Probably not.
The man cleared his throat. “Young Master Malleus has his own wing, so I doubt you’ll run into him very often. If you do, however, you’re not to bother him.”
Sebek didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. He’d seen a lot of conflicting reports around the Draconias.
His old history teacher was a bit of a conspiracy buff, and there was no bigger local mystery than the disappearance of the Spear of Selene. Maleanor and Levan Draconia had just hopped onto a private rocket one day, promoting their new business venture and declaring space was just a land man hadn't conquered, you know, insane rich people talk, and then never came back. The fall out of their probable deaths had shaken the economic world, and everything they had was left to their only son, who had been a teenager at the time. Malleus Draconia.
It was widely accepted that the two had simply blown up in space after not preparing their ship adequately, but his history teacher had told them all last June before they got out for summer break that there were videos on the dark web from government satellites that claimed the ship had crashed into the moon. Sebek was also very assured in the knowledge that that man smelled a little bit too much like Cedric's friend who smoked funny cigarettes, but who was he to judge?
Even if the ship had crashed into the moon, there was no way the two weren't deader than doornails.
Many people would argue that the Draconias were geniuses. World class adventurers, practitioners of magic, scientific prodigies and incredible business moguls. They were at the top of every field, and even after the death of his parents, Malleus Draconia hadn't let that slip.
But… the man was also known as a bit of a hermit.
Sebek still wouldn't have been surprised if the man ate people in that house. Sebek was definitely morally opposed to it, but he was also a big believer in minding your own business, and what he didn't know didn't hurt him.
His grandfather sighed, probably taking Sebek's lack of reply as inattention.
“I often won’t have much time on my hands to supervise you, but I expect you to continue with your schooling based on the materials I have left for you.”
Homeschooling?
“Alright.” He nodded. He hated school anyway. He would probably do better on his own, and anything he didn’t understand, well, that’s what he had YouTube for, wasn’t it? He’d been informed by his mother and father that he would have to change schools, but he was sure it would just be one more local to the city. But what else was he to expect with these people?
His grandfather finally approached the large hill they'd been drawing towards since they went through the gates.
The shrubbery was perfectly maintained despite the emptiness of the estate in its entirety. The roads were smooth, not a pothole in sight, and Sebek briefly wondered how much money Mister Draconia spent on maintenance a year for himself and his grandfather.
After another ten or so minutes, with Sebek turned to look at the wide expanse of Faeburg from the height of the hill, they finally got to a point where they could see Draconia Manor itself.
Sebek felt his jaw fall slightly.
He didn’t want to look like a fool in front of his grandfather, but he had never seen wealth like this in his entire life.
Nor had he ever seen so many gargoyles.
The well maintained Victorian design was peppered with the statues, many roofs, lots of windows. He wasn’t quite sure how to describe it. The grandeur was far more than he knew how to explain. Everything was black, gray and white, as though all colour was banned except for the crawling ivy and rose bushes that surrounded the house.
“Young Master Malleus redesigned the gables and the spandrels just last autumn. He’s quite the designer.” His grandfather began, proudness laced deeply within his tone. “He added that last turret then too.”
“Oh.” Sebek did his best to look invested. What was so important about Malleus that his grandfather could talk about him like that and smile, and act so coldly towards Sebek’s mother?
“Hop out here. I’m going to take the car to the garage.” The man said abruptly. Sebek fiddled with his seatbelt, before quickly allowing himself out of the car with a touch of relief, and a handful more fear. He half expected Malleus Draconia to appear behind him like a vampire from one of Becky's terrible romance shows.
His grandfather pulled into an outbuilding that Sebek now recognised as a garage, and Sebek looked around in apprehension.
The entire area was quiet.
Too quiet.
He didn’t know what he expected. Perhaps someone tending the gardens, or perhaps a cleaner. Just-
Anyone.
But aside from himself and his grandfather, there wasn’t a sign of life for miles.
It was a far contrast from suburbia.
He looked up at the house.
Each window was clean, though covered from the inside by large curtains. He’d seen so many photos of old houses where the paint was peeling, the roof tiles were hanging on by a thread, yet this house was perfectly maintained. It was like someone had picked it up from the 1800s and plopped it right into 2018.
“Sebek.”
He resisted the urge to shriek as his grandfather suddenly appeared beside him, his shoulders tensing so hard that they nearly hit his ears. He had let his guard down.
“I didn’t mean to startle you. Come along now.” Sebek had no other way to describe his tone other than dismissive. The ten year old spied his luggage in Baul's hand.
“I can-” He reached out for the suitcase, but his grandfather moved it to his other hand, simply approaching the front porch and opening the front door.
Sebek felt his shoulders slump, before trailing along after him.
The entrance hall was filled with things Sebek had only seen in movies. Suits of armour, bookcases that were so tall they hit the ceiling. Lavish carpets that the boy was scared to walk on.
Yet, despite all of this showcased wealth…
“Welcome home.” His grandfather stated.
There was no warmth. No tenderness.
It was nothing more than words.
Sebek hiked his backpack up further on his shoulder, trying to fight off the invading cold that had begun to spread through his body.
The entire mansion was like a crypt. All of the curtains were closed, the rooms filled with a dark sort of misery only to be found in extreme loneliness.
Sebek shivered, before turning to his grandfather, trying one last time to reach out for that desperate connection.
“Is it just you and the… the Young Master?”
“There is one other. You’re unlikely to run into him, though.” His grandfather shut it down once more. He turned away, looking anywhere but Sebek. “This way. I’ll take you to your room.”
The doors closed behind them, and ice seeped into every facet of his person.
His grandfather walked away from the outside world.
Sebek followed.