Natalie gets lost on the lush grounds of the Kabra Estate and Ian is worried sick. Set in 2007, so Ian is 13 and Natalie is 10. (This is Part 1, Part Two is linked here.)
Trigger warnings: emotional abuse and neglect (Isabel Kabra is a terrible parent), blood
“We hated growing up there,” Ian replied. “Every year one of us would get lost on the lush grounds, and they would have to send the homing poodles after us.”
“The what?” Dan said.
Natalie sighed ruefully. “Some say it was an abusive childhood, but we didn’t know any better.”
- The Sword Thief, Peter Lerangis
Ian would never admit it - all his life it had been instilled in him that the Kabras deserved the biggest and the best of things - but he thought his mother was insane for trying to bully Marilyn Mason, their nearest neighbor, into selling her land.
If there was one thing Ian didn’t want, it was more land. More land just meant more places to get lost.
Case in point: Natalie had gotten turned around out there in training. It was long past nightfall now and the homing poodles still hadn’t located her, still hadn’t brought her back safely. And Natalie would never admit it but Ian knew she was afraid of the dark.
Ian was pacing back and forth, wearing a hole in the kitchen floor, racking his brain for the most likely places that his baby sister might be. “The statues and the fountains and topiaries, they’re all tall, they could be disorienting in the dark. Or there’s a stream about halfway through the forest, it’s very slippery there, maybe she hit her head. I should -”
“You should stop muttering, it’s giving me a headache.” Isabel cut him off, pinching the bridge of her nose. “If she is hurt then maybe she’ll learn something from it, how not to be an idiot, for starters -”
Before Ian could think of something to say to that, the doorknob turned and Natalie finally, finally stepped back into the relative safety of the Kabra Estate.
It was obvious from the look on her face that she’d caught the tailend of Isabel’s last comment. She was soaked and shivering. But, for the first time in the past few hours she was grateful to have fallen in the stream, the water helped disguise the few tears that managed to slip out.
Ian rushed over to her. He took off his suit jacket and wrapped it tight around her shoulders, before ushering her towards the kitchen table. “Are you alright? Where were you? What happened? Is that blood?” He turned and yelled over his shoulder. “Bickerduff! Bring me the first aid kit!”
“I’m fine. I slipped.”
“The blood?”
“Cut myself on some of the rocks near the stream.”
“Did you hit your head when you fell?”
“Bumped it.”
“Where?”
Natalie pointed to the side of her head, some of her hair was matted with blood.
Ian gently tilted her head so he could get a better look. “It doesn’t look too bad, but still. I think we should take you to the ER, get it checked out. Just in case. Better safe than sorry and all that.”
Before Natalie could say anything, Isabel cut in. “Oh honestly, Ian. Stop fussing over her. You heard her, she’s fine.”
“But Mum, she -”
“She’s fine.”
“You’re not a doctor, you don’t -”
“Ian.” Isabel’s tone was like a scalpel, it cut you open and left you bleeding. “You and I still need to do some preparation for our meeting with Marilyn Mason tomorrow, that old bat is going to sell us her land if it’s the last thing she does. And it might be if she doesn’t know what’s good for her. So stop the dramatics unless you plan on defecting to the Janus, the Lucians have no room for such antics.” Then she whirled on Natalie. “Go take a shower before you get blood on the Versace tablecloth. It’s silk.”
“Yes, Mum.” Natalie said, heading towards the stairs.
“Mum!” Ian tried one last time. “At least have her wait for Bickerduff to bring the first aid kit.”
Isabel waved him off. “You can tell him to leave it outside her door. Now about our strategy. I was thinking we…”
Ian looked over his shoulder, intending to call Natalie back, to make sure she was safe, to make sure she wasn’t hurt too badly. But she was already gone.
actually so crazy to me that the 39 clues serum was made before any modern view of medicine (humorism was still the dominant theory at the time!) and straight up just had liquid mercury and uranium in it and knowing all of this isabel kabra as a grown ass adult was like 'ah yes, let me DRINK THIS'??? like bro idc if this is gonna give me eternal wealth and power keep that shit as far away from me as possible
I always think about the fact that Isabel Kabra made a whole ass fake charity organization with paid actors and everything to cover up her evil nonsense when she very easily could have just...made an actual charity organization? It probably would’ve cost less to actually help people instead of paying people to *pretend* like she helped them???
But nah, bitch would genuinely rather spend twice as much money instead of doing a good thing, even as a cover. Truly iconic.
