What's that noise

Quentin had silently called for Temple Priest Gary, Magician Puccini, and Knight Captain Sergin. He should go unnoticed the fact that they were investigating signs of black magic and a possible curse in his mansion, so he camouflaged the matter as a necessary refurbishment of the rooms. The men would be foreign engineers in charge of the arrangements and the captain would be his escort. It was the only way not to arouse suspicion when it came to making disasters in the rooms.

Since his daughter was reluctant to appear before him, he led the men to Mabel's room and what he found upon opening the door was a girl who looked more fragile, thin and pale than he remembered. The look of her infant only made his stomach turn as he didn't expect to see her so ill. He sensed that the girl did not want to appear in front of him with that aspect, which is why he avoided meetings and also why his son was so depressed.

Gary came over to inspect her and the girl looked very confused. The others were looking for signs that would indicate the use of recent magic, when the priest said something that made everyone stop searching until the girl was sent away to continue. Gary had to break the bad news to the Marquis; the girl's aura seemed to be wasting away, she was showing signs as if she was being slowly poisoned and that possibly her loss of voice was due to an abrasive side effect of some poison.

What bothered Gary the most was the realization that the poisoning was taking place continuously and with no signs of having stopped in all this time as the poison possibly got out of control abruptly damaging Mabel's body. This surprised the marquis to the point that he clenched his fists helplessly. Someone wanted at all costs to liquidate the little girl and they had been doing it for a long time, but since it was such a repeated poisoning, he joined the story that Leticia, the maid of his daughter, had informed him the day before; that the girl looked bad on her way to the mansion with the events of days gone by. He deduced that even rats had infiltrated the academy.

The marquis's train of thought stopped when the captain lifted the bed and tossed it to one side. Puccini and Sergin were dumbfounded by the find, so much so that their gazes were fixed on the floor. Hidden under the bed were drawings of summoning and cursing sigils made in ink of fulminants lilies. What Quentin feared most had come true.

After a thorough search of the room, they found other smaller sigils behind the paintings and mirrors in the bathroom. Flooded with rage, they headed to his son's room, only to find the same scene but in fewer sigils. Puccini concluded after analyzing the circles, that they were cursing the marquis's family and the main recipient of the curse of madness and loathing turned out to be Mabel.

No place was safe for his children. They would no longer return to the academy, he preferred to keep them under surveillance and hire governesses and experts to educate them if necessary. He put to work to find or those responsible to make them pay for the hell they were about to go through if they did not meet the tests in time.

**

Mabel was sitting in front of the fireplace seeking warmth. The weather had changed dramatically that made the summer of up to two days ago seem non-existent. The maid Leticia arrives with several envelopes of invitations to tea parties and birthdays in various noble houses. Leticia, looking to give Mabel joy, gives them to her very happy but Mabel did not even look at them, she simply took them and threw them into the fire and then made herself better on the couch.

Leticia goes to the door where her work partner is to retire to lunch. She watches a Mabel who is unfazed and she stares at the burning wood. The sorrow of the maids grows day by day but since they cannot help her young lady, they only leave her alone because it seems to be her wish and they leave for the kitchen.

**

Seth came to Mabel's room to have lunch with her. He saw her very lonely and far away, so much so that he became depressed by the pain of thinking that the sister he knew was disappearing and that did not leave him calm. As much as he spoke to her, there was no response from the other side, it was like speaking to the wall. The marquess gave him a brief summary of what had happened, making the break in his heart worse. Mabel was being cursed and even though the priest had exorcised the rooms and her family, she showed no change in her behavior.

"What if maybe the curse is irreversible?" "What if she dies?" "Why did they do this to us?"

The absurd ideas that crossed his mind make him anxious and angry. When he went to see Mabel, he wanted to take her for a walk in the garden but the weather turned against her preventing her from getting him out of it. The marquis forbade Seth to try to get her out of her room without finding her culprit. They ran the risk that when they were loose he would attack the girl again. The doctor who visited her imposed complete rest on her, something that would be used as an excuse by her family to prevent Mabel from leaving her room.

Quentin convinced Seth to skip his sister's birthday party and tea parties until further notice.

That afternoon the investigation had become fruitful. They found traces of the culprits in the oldest and most trusted employees of the house. The marquis stealthily prepared his people to catch them tonight and extract the information they were looking for about the mastermind behind the curse.

**

The night was rainy, there was thunder and lightning that illuminated the mansion. Mabel saw an opportunity to escape when she noticed that the guards had diminished to disappear from the door. It was close to 4 am and she was ready to go, but amid the silence and the noise of the rain, Mabel began to hear screams and roars of gunfire coming from the other side of the mansion. She was curious, because if it was something that prevented her from continuing she would be in trouble so she chose to make sure it was nothing serious and she went outside of it.

As she made her way down the dark corridor, the noise of crying and screaming grew louder. A shot echoes and a bullet grazes his head. That noise stuns her and she falls to the ground. A woman standing in her nightgown with a shotgun was pointing it at her and as she was about to give it another shot, a bolt of lightning struck the room. The woman is incredulous of who she was about to shoot. A girl looked at her terrified. She felt scared and reassured that her shot had not escaped her, she smiled and asked if she was okay and if she hadn't happened something.

Mabel thought she was going to be executed today. Leticia had shot him and as she could, she got up. Between the terror and the tremors she ran out towards the front door. Leticia started yelling at her to stop because it was dangerous but there was no case, her young lady had fled away from the hell that was created during the night. Leticia sent her spirit to guide her to where Mabel was.