Chapter Text
It was a bustling new era, one free of the oppressive forces of the Wights. We, as a people, were no longer trapped in the confines of our loops. We could travel, learn, get to know each other and grow. My family is rather infamous, but in some ways they changed the world for the better. The reason Peculiars from all corners of the planet can come together so easily is because of my uncle, my father and their invention. Unfortunately that's about the only bit of good they did, and now I hold the burden of their sins.
My name is Samiel Zephyr Bentham. Clearly you can see I had... creative parents. My mom is a theater obsessed hippie and my father was a megalomaniac cult leader. Adjusting here in this new way of life has been hard. After they 'killed' my father the first time my family was shocked to be taken in with open arms. By the ymbrynes, that is. I suppose that's only due to nepotism on my mother's side, being their 'queen's' only child who had run away with my father at a young age. And my aunt, Alma Peregrine, had too great a love for anything that shared her blood, weather it deserved it or not. The rest of Peculairdom was less inviting. My mother they wanted thrown in prison. And me, they wanted stoned on the street, dragged through the mud, beaten, hung, pretty much everything you can think of was shouted outside of the lunatic asylum that served as their base of operations. My younger siblings were mostly exempt from this public scrutiny, mostly because they were hardly ever outside of our fortress walls in their entire life times. They were just sheltered children while I on the other hand was an heir. A general. A spoiled child who followed my father's every command. The prince. My face was known. I had even led some of the loop raids when my father was too busy doing...what ever it is he does. That damn uniform is still in my closet. I should burn it.
I also held a unique curse. I had to live with his face pasted on top of mine. Its true. I just so happened to be born looking almost exactly identical to him. How? The gods find deep pleasure in my torture. Mother always said I was much prettier than father, which I'm sure came from her genetics, but truly if you were to look at photographs of father when he was young right beside a photo of me, you'd nary tell a difference
Well, except I've had extensive military training my entire life and can lift twice my body weight and you can clearly tell. But my point still stands.
Never once in my life have I been my own person. I was a precautionary heir, the only one of my mother's children that was actually supposed to be born. I had purpose, and that was to be him. No, not *like* him. *Be* him. This may sound insane, having a child just to condition him to be you in every conceivable way. Thankfully, my father was insane and unfortunately yet to figure out how to clone himself. When he died, I was supposed to pick up right where he left off, carry on just as he had, and he would live on. Well dad, that worked awfully well. Now I'm just suicidal with an identity crisis and no sense of self.
I suppose not everything is terrible though. When my great aunt, Miss Esmerelda Avocet died, my mother had nowhere to go. We had been living with her and mother acted as her caretaker, trying to make up for lost time before father took them away from each other permanently. Once our Aunt withered away completely, my paternal aunt helped to gift us the loop we now lived in. She still loved Adeline, as any sister would, but to me it mostly just felt like pity. I couldnt see how anyone could love a person after that.
So, my siblings and I now live in a large farm house with several acres of land in the countryside of France, near where my mother was born. It was different from the lavish and strict way we lived with father, and I couldnt help but enjoy it. My little brothers were sour about it, only because they had to share a bedroom. To me? It was almost heaven. Solitude, clear calm lukewarm whether, a perfect stable, and several kilometers of wood for Basil and I to explore. Some may find it pathetic, my only friends being a recently downsized group of horses (may they rest in peace and never be forgotten), but I never did. In fact, I'm out with one of them at this moment.
---
We slowed to a gentle trot. I didn't want to go anywhere, really. I just needed a break from Adeline. And perhaps I just felt like talking, I have no idea. He understands, better than any human I've met.
"Are you worn out yet?" I reach up to pet his dark mane that I had spent hours brushing just last night. "It must be over an hour we've been out." Basil is a warhorse, a pure bred black Percheron stallion, tall and strong. Truly magnificent. He wasn't tired. He could run for miles. My pride and joy. Despite this I often babied him, which I could tell he wasn't entirely fond of. We continued down the makeshift trail and I pulled us is to a clearer area before sliding off of him. "Are you bored yet?" Basil lowers his head and I draw in, leaning my forehead against his snout and patting the side of his face. "Yeah, I know. Riding the same place over and over again every morning cant be the best thing for you, But I cant exactly drag a horse in to my Uncle's house. You probably wouldn't fit through our loop door. I'll talk to someone when I get the chance." He lets out a "brr," which I assume is him being agreeable. I pull away and turn around to get a good look at the forest. Its a bit misty in the morning.
I take a deep breath in, letting the morning summer breeze fill my lungs. We truly couldnt have been given a better place to live, though I knew we didn't deserve it. The ones who didn't make it would love it here. "Its nice though, isn't it?" I spin around to look back at Basil once I'm a few steps away. He snakes a fly away from his face and flips his hair, giving me a less than amused look. For reasons unknown to me, he's been less than happy with me these past few weeks. Perhaps he's getting tired of me, which would be understandable. I hardly left my stable unless I was dragged away by my brother, Raiden, and Basil never got any privacy. I don't blame him
"Oh, come on. Don't give me that look. Go home then if you hate this so much." I grab his reigns when he tries to turn around. "Wait- Basil- no. I was kidding." I tug him back. I haven't been neglecting him, quite the opposite actually. Tomorrow morning, I'll bring Commodus on my morning ride, though he's less pleasant to talk to than Basil. "We've barely started. I wanted to go to the pond. What's your deal lately?"
Having a one sided conversation with a horse? Pathetic. Having a conversation with a horse that wants nothing to do with you? Worse. He huffs at me and I sigh right back. "Fine. Lets go home then, if you're going to pout the whole time." I walk right back to him and grab his reigns, putting one foot in the stirrup and pulling myself up and over. Damn horse. I don't even have to direct him, he turns right around an gallops home.
I see the woman out there on the porch as we break the tree line. Mother, the great Adeline lanner, Both whore and Madonna to the wights, their queen. I respected her to a degree. I more than anything admired her for surviving her tyrannical husband. Still, there were still some things I could never forget, looking in to her eyes. She was always good intentioned, but broken. She should have never had children in the first place. The past few months she'd been quite the morning person. She woke up only a little after me. When I was younger, It was shocking when she got out of bed before dinner, if at all.
"Sammy!" She calls, raising up her hand and waving it even though I was already coming toward her. I led basil up to the porch railing and tugged the reigns to stop and turn him. "There you are. I've been looking for you."
"I go out the at same time every morning." I remind her. I do this every single day, and she still panics every time she cant find me.
She lets out a heavy huff, tucking back her curls and pulling her robe over her body. "Well You should leave a note or something. You make me think you've run off for good."
"I wouldn't-..." I'd argue, but that's actually fair to think.
"You're done aren't you? Come inside I want to tell you something."
"Why cant you tell me here..?"
She's also tired of me, just like Basil was. "Just put him up and come inside. I made breakfast. Raiden's up. Hurry." I watch Adeline turn and walk back in to the house, leaving the back door open behind her. I carefully direct Basil around the laundry she'd hung up since I've been gone and back to the stable.
---
Through the back door is our large kitchen that Adeline gets great use of. It a bit messy at the moment, she's been making breakfast for the six of us. Seven, actually. I assumed the amputee was still upstairs. He can stay there. I walk through the archway to the dining room where I find mother setting a plate of fruit covered crepes on the already full table. She always went overboard with every meal, even more so when she had someone to impress.
"Come here. Did you wash up? Clearly not. Well that's fine, just don't touch anything."
I pull back my dirty hand that was halfway to a chocolate croissant. "What did you need?"
She wipes her hands on her apron and walks around the table to start preening me. "Alma has a job for you." Mother seems rather chipper about this, more so than she usually is about things. I'd been doing work for the ymbrynes non stop by my own choice since the first time father was 'defeated.' It was grunt work, reconstruction. My Aunt has been complaining though, saying I'm wasting my skills and that she could assign me to something I'd better enjoy. But I do enjoy this. If she put me in any position that gave me even the slightest bit of power, I'd start getting assaulted in the streets again. If you cant tell, I prefer that not to happen. Plus, I don't trust myself to lead. I'm better taking orders and lugging around heavy planks than I am telling anyone what to do.
"No."
"At least listen to me before you reject it all together, Samiel!"
"She keeps trying to push things on me that I do not want."
"I promise you'll like this one. Really. She'd like to talk to you about it herself, though. Would you go over there after breakfast?"
I sigh. I hate going to Miss Peregrine's loop. Cairnholm is a nice place, gentle weather, you can listen to the waves all day and watch the lighthouse go around at night. It'd be perfect.
If not for it's residents. Its not that they killed my dad, no, he deserved it. There's just... too many of them. Plus, Its not just a house where all my former enemies live, Its the ymbryne academy now. How do they fit all of that in one house? I have no clue. But it'd be hell if I had to live in it. I already have to share my house with four siblings, a mother who doesnt understand boundaries, and sometimes her new boyfriend who she swears isn't her boyfriend. 12 of them plus however damn many young ymbryne girls huddled together in that house? I avoid it at all costs. "Do I have to?"
"Yes." She's already quite done with me. I give in, now giving the wall a proper side eye. "Good boy, now go wash up. Wake your siblings for me." She reaches up to muss up my hair then goes back to setting the table.
Well. I guess i'm going to my Aunt's. Way to ruin a peaceful day.