Arkhelios Adventures
Yvette Durant's funeral was the largest event in Arkhelios in a long time. The matriarch of the Durant family had been well liked, and well respected over the course of her long life. She had touched the hearts of so many Arkhelian citizens and the size of the crowd gathered to mourn her was proof of that.
Unlike so many people in her country, Yvette had died peacefully in her sleep as an elder, having lived a fulfilling life, and outliving most of her enemies. Jorah had come to check on her when she missed breakfast one morning, and found her peacefully in her bed.
Now he truly was the head of the Durant family. He had been acting as its head for years now, but his grandmother still held most of the power and respect. His father had thrown his allegiance in with the Helios family, so it was up to Jorah to lead their family in mourning. Most of the Durant family was in attendance, including the queen consort of Twikkii Island, Ulyssa, and several of her children. Queen Maura sent her regards, but refused to leave Twikkii Island undefended for even an afternoon, and baby Coby was much too young to risk attending a funeral.
Lucy Helios-Diablo was in attendance as Yvette's former law protégé, as well as Emilia Rivales, Yvette's closest friend for the last sixteen years. A younger couple had also asked to attend as "distant family". Jorah hadn't known what that meant, but he'd been too busy preparing a funeral to follow up with it.
Hunter Bellamy had brought his children, as well as his biological parents. Launce was recording the funeral to show to Benvolio, who was too weak to attend.
"Welcome. Thank you for coming to remember my grandmother, Yvette Durant. She was a wonderful mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She was a brilliant lawyer and friend, and the love of my grandfather's life. When things in Arkhelios got too strange or frightening, Yvette knew just how to react and guided her family through the crisis. We will all miss her deeply. Does anyone have anything that they'd like to say about Yvette?"
"Are those the people from my party?" Noelle whispered to her mother to confirm that the couple who had crashed her birthday party were in fact standing in front of them. When her mother nodded, Noelle grinned. "They're going to chase Grandma Elaine out of this event too! Dinner was so much better without her yelling at me."
Lucy frowned.
"You're not wrong, but you can't talk like that during a funeral. Someone might hear you, and then we'll have to have a talk about your attitude and you'll be grounded. Keep your thoughts to yourself and don't give your enemies ammunition."
"Adrion isn't paying attention either, and Grandma's not yelling at him," Noelle pointed out angrily.
"Adrion is the future king of Twikkii Island," Lucy replied. "He can do whatever he wants at a funeral and only his mother can correct him."
Noelle watched as Ulyssa's eyes followed her son across the room. She and Maura had lost two children, and she wasn't about to let anything happen to her precious heir. It brought Noelle actual pain to see how her biological mother doted on the prince. Adrion was Noelle's half-brother; Ulyssa had to have some kind of feelings for her too.
But she didn't. Noelle had heard Ulyssa rant about having an unwanted bastard daughter herself. Her mother was a few feet away from her, and there was nothing Noelle could do. Ulyssa would never care about her.
Lucy squeezed her daughter's arm in a rare display of affection.
"Don't pay any attention to her," Lucy whispered. "She's not worth it. She didn't deserve a grandmother like Yvette. You're a Durant by blood and that will never change. Maybe one day, we can make a scandal exposing her, but the time isn't right for that now. Bide your time. Wait for the right moment. She'll get what's coming to her some day."
Noelle nodded. It didn't feel right to not scream at the entire Durant family that she was Ulyssa's daughter, but with everything going on in the world at the moment, a royal scandal wouldn't be worth it. She looked at the couple in front of her, who also had a secret about the Durants they were trying to expose. Her mother was right; watching the reaction to them revealing the truth might be help Noelle navigate the fallout to her own revelation one day.
"Ulyssa, are you even paying attention? It's only our grandmother's funeral. You didn't have to come if you were just going to stare at the wall. At least look sad."
Cindra stared at her older sister incredulously. Everyone in their family had been gutted to lose their matriarch, aside from Ulyssa, who hadn't been interested in the Durant family for years now. Her focus was on raising proper Siew princes and princesses, which Cindra could understand if Ulyssa also cared about the family she'd come from. She didn't even look upset to be at a funeral, and she certainly wasn't preventing her royal children from wandering around during the ceremony.
Her sister's behaviour made her glad that Jorah was now the Durant head of the family, and not Ulyssa. Jorah had empathy and understanding, where Ulyssa had ambition and self interest.
"I know I'm not a Durant, but I owe my career to Yvette. Yvette took me under her wing when I needed guidance, and taught me everything I needed to know to practice law in Arkhelios. When my interests changed to demonic law, Yvette still helped me study. She was maternal and encouraging when I needed help and was always happy to answer late night calls to debate how a law should be interpreted."
"Who invited Lucy?" Ulyssa asked, rolling her eyes. "She doesn't actually mean all this, you guys know that, right? Lucy doesn't have feelings, especially about my grandmother. This has to be some kind of scheme she's working."
Jorah and Cindra were touched by Lucy's words, despite Ulyssa's suspicions. They had seen first hand how close Lucy had been with their grandmother. For Lucy to volunteer to make a short speech about anyone, her feelings had to be genuine.
"You know, Lucy brought Noelle along with her," Cindra replied. "You should go over and say hi and thank her for her and her mother's support of our family."
Ulyssa made an angry grunt as a reply, turning away from her sister, but mercifully ending her complaints about Lucy.
"Anyway, we'll miss you, Yvette, but Jorah has things handled now that you're gone. Your family will be in good hands and I'll always remember you when I'm working on a tough case. Rest in peace."
Lucy left the podium, cheering on the next speaker like it was an open mic night and not a funeral.
Hunter groaned when he saw who took over the podium. Thank god that Wanda had been too busy to attend the funeral, because Hunter hadn't been able to catch her up with everything that had happened at Elaine's house. Wanda had come in from work at 8pm, changed into her pjs, and locked herself in her office with a tall glass of wine. Hunter had been trying to think of a way to broach the subject of his surprise bastard son, but Wanda hadn't given him a chance. If the news blew up at the funeral and a scandal developed, then he wasn't to blame. If Wanda wanted to get ahead of scandals, she should come home at a proper time and spend time with her family.
"Uh, hi. Hi. Um, you don't know me, but I recently found out that Yvette was my great-grandmother with a DNA test. I was really hoping to get to meet her, but I feel like I already have in a way, hearing about how she touched the lives of so many people. She was a wonderful woman, and I'll always regret never being able to meet her myself."
Gavin cleared his throat nervously, trying to reduce some of the stress he felt staring into the eyes of his biological family. They were practically strangers, but there was a connection between them now. That didn't make it any easier to relax. People were going to have questions and opinions about his parentage. They might not be as accepting as the Helios' former servo had been.
To his horror, Gavin could feel the beginnings of his dark form emerge. Like most demon hybrids, Gavin had accidentally shifted into a dark form when he was nervous or angry throughout his life. Things made sense now that he saw some of the other Rivales' dark forms and how similar they were to his own, but he still struggled to control his shifts, especially when he was nervous.
"I can't believe this. This is insane." Hunter turned away from the sight of his demonic son, just knowing that this was going to be the headline in the paper for at least a week. Wanda was going to murder him when she finally returned his calls.
Lucy glared at Hunter. Making a fool of himself at dinner last night was one thing, but ruining her mentor's funeral with anti-demon sentiment? That was too far.
"Once again, Hunter Bellamy shows his bigotry against demons," she announced. "His own nephew fled from him and the rest of the Bellamys as a teen because of they couldn't handle his demonic heritage. Now Hunter has a demonic bastard of his own, and he's too good for him. Dark forms are a natural part of a demon's biology. Poor Garth here is just nervous and upset that he never got to meet a woman we all loved."
"It's Gavin, actually, but thank you. I am really nervous."
"Are you Benvolio's son or a bastard of Consort Ulyssa? We've all heard the rumours about her."
Gavin couldn't place the voice asking the question, but it had definitely come from the direction of Lucy and her daughter.
"Actually, I'm-"
"He's apparently mine. There. I'm said it. Are you happy now? Now everyone knows how badly Ginevra screwed me over. I'm a victim here too, you know. I wasn't told that I had a son. This is all news to me!" Hunter practically shouted his words, his voice rising the angrier he got.
People began to whisper, no doubt making all sorts of assumptions that Hunter couldn't control. Beside him, Gavin's wife was emitting a faint blue glow, no doubt a magical indicator of how angry she was. Pissing off a witch of her power and a foreign princess at that, was going to make his wife furious with him.
"You're not a very patient man," Lexy said, staring daggers at her new father-in-law. "And this is hardly an appropriate outburst for a funeral."
There was a threat underlining her words, of that Hunter was certain, though he didn't know exactly what it was. Wanda had spoken at length about the Maricourt family, and she'd be furious if she found out that he'd insulted one of them. They controlled much of the magical world and could easily make things difficult for Wanda's coven if they felt slighted. Hunter had a sinking feeling that Wanda was going to make sure she was home tonight to talk.
His son, Morcant, was watching him and the scene developing around him with interest. Wanda was going to have an opinion on that too, no doubt.
"Yvette would have loved you. I know that without question." Emilia Rivales wrapped the young man in a hug, hoping to reassure him. A slow clap started again in the direction of Lucy and Noelle Helios and quickly spread across the room.
"And you're welcome to stay after the funeral and talk," Jorah added, hoping to rein in the room and resume the serious business of a funeral. "The Durant family accepts people, even if they're demonic. Especially if they are. Just like Lucy said, my grandmother was incredibly supportive of other cultures. Did anyone else want to say anything about Yvette? Emilia? Since you're already up there?"
"Of course," Emilia answered, detaching from Gavin. She stood at the podium, collecting her thoughts.
"Yvette was my best friend. We may not have gotten along when we first moved to Arkhelios, but she was my rock when Giovanni died. We had so many adventures together, seeing the world and then returning to help better the home we left. I can't imagine what my life will be like without her."
While Emilia spoke at length about her friendship with the deceased, Adrion scurried all over the room, completely unchecked by his mother.
"Hey! You're funny. We should be friends," he announced, standing far too close to Noelle for her liking. "My mom says that it's good to have friends in Arkhelios like my cousins. How do you know my great-grandma?"
"Go away," Noelle hissed. Not only was her spoiled half-brother annoying, he just assumed that everyone in the room would want to talk to him. Noelle did not want to talk to the prince, and she didn't know how much more she could communicate that.
"My mom was born here," Adrion continued. "It's hot like at home, but there's less flowers. Have you ever been to Twikkii Island? I think you'd like it."
"I would hate it, now leave me alone!" Noelle hissed again, trying to keep her voice low to respect Emilia's remembrance of her friend.
"My Uncle Jorah says that there's going to be ice cream after the funeral. We had ice cream after my brother and sister's funeral too. Is that something that always happens after a funeral? My brother and sister's funeral was much bigger and I had to wear a crown for it. Mom says that I don't need to wear a crown for this funeral, which is good, because I didn't bring one with me. Mom keeps them all organized in my closet, but I'm not allowed to open the door and play with them. Does your mom do that too or are you old enough to sort your closet by yourself? My mom says-"
"Your mom is a deadbeat, lying whore," Noelle snapped, earning a severe look from her mother. Fortunately, most people were either listening to Emilia speak or typing on their phones about the paternity drama to pay attention to Noelle. "She doesn't care about you. She doesn't care about anyone but herself. She-"
"Noelle! Not another word out of you!" Lucy quickly jumped between her daughter and the prince, shooing Adrion away before Noelle could spill any dark family secrets. "This is not how we behave at funerals, especially the funeral of another family's leader! You are the Helios heir after me, and you need to control yourself better than this! And to speak of the consort of another country like that? Your step-mother would be humiliated if you spoke like that at one of her events. Now you are going to stand beside me and not say another word until this funeral is over, is that clear?"
"But, his mother-"
"His mother is a giant self-involved bitch, yeah, I know," Lucy replied, as if her opinion was fact. "You can't tell a child who is talking to you about his dead siblings that his mother is a whore, Noelle! I thought that I raised you to be better than this, more discrete. Your stepmother is important and Adrion is important. Important people need to be given a certain respect or you could find yourself in a world of trouble. Do I make myself clear?"
Noelle pouted, shooting a nasty look at the confused prince who had moved on to speak with someone else.
"Yes, mother."
Emilia sighed heavily, soaking up as much of the Arkhelios sun as she could. The funeral had been better than she'd expected and Yvette would have probably appreciated all the nice things that were said about her. Emilia was going to miss Yvette's company, truth be told. It had been very easy to watch over her, but now that obligation was over. The rest of the Durant family would have to look after themselves. Now that her oath was fulfilled, she had business of her own to conduct.
"Hello? Yes, I'm going to need my things transferred from the Durant estate back to the Rivales estate. Tell my granddaughter to move to another room. I'm coming home."