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Kellan raised his eyebrows, obviously the room was soundproof enough for Uncle Marius to discuss magic without impediment.

"You had slaves as servants?" He asked.

Marius nodded. "Most noble families get their servants from slavers... Quite often, I'll release them within a few years if they wish to go, once they work off their cost. Sometimes they choose to stay on, other times they leave. Once in a blue moon, you get one that tries to kill you... That's like a one in a million chance, though... If you're smart."

"How did you decide who to fire?" Kellan asked. "And this room is soundproof?"

"Soundproof enough..." Marius said with a shrug. "And... It wasn't so much that we fired people... More that they were either killed, or ran off in the middle of the fire."

Kellan raised an eyebrow, "So, they got literally fired." He quickly remade his expression so it looked serious, brushing aside the crude and ill-timed joke.

"Magic exists, and old families have links to magic. Why use magic to kill magic?"

Jei couldn't help but give a slight snort at Kellan's awful pun, nor could Marius.

"I haven't a clue. It might be targeted at our family specifically, or it could just be an attempt to eradicate magic entirely..." Marius said, frowning a bit. "One of our servants... A newer one... We found her a few miles down the road, half hidden in the bushes, throat slit. Her clothing was charred, but there wasn't a single burn on her. We think she may have been one of the ones to set the fire, then killed afterwards by somebody wishing to cover their tracks."

"Half-hidden in the bushes?" Kellan frowned, "That's incredibly sloppy, don't you think?"

He turned to Jei, "You wouldn't only half-hide a dead person in order to cover your tracks would you?"

Jei hummed softly, thinking it over. "No... Unless... What if the person - or people- behind this were trying to lead the search away?" He said. "Half-hidden would make it seem suspicious. Either they're that dumb, and ran in the opposite direction after dumping her... Or they were hoping we'd think they had..."

Kellan sighed, "Or they expected us to think that and now we're back to square one. They might have even just killed a random servant--"

He looked sharply at Uncle Marius, "Ones that started the fire?"

Marius nodded. "We're not sure how many were involved... Several of our servants were unaccounted for though, even after searching the wreckage... I don't know whether they were involved with it, or just abducted, or decided to run." Marius replied, frowning a bit. It was certainly frustrating.

Kellan sighed and stared blankly at Uncle Marius. "Well. That's a dilemma." He remarked, not knowing exactly what could be done about the situation. "Why would they be targeting old families anyway, whoever they are? It's not like we have magic or anything." He frowned, "Do we?"

Marius glanced between his two nephews. "History says that our line did, once upon a time. I've been doing research, and i can trace us directly to magic-users of the first family... Our line used to be mostly Air and Earth elementals." He replied, pulling a sheet of parchment from his pocket, unfolding it to show a handdrawn family tree, going all the way back to the first family, just as Marius said.

Looking it over, Jei picked out a few names that he recognized from some of the books they'd looked through.

Kellan looked at the tree and frowned, "When did our family line stop having magic? Or, when did we stop having magic as often? Furthermore, if they targeted this home--someone with magic must have had been here..." He trailed off. Did Uncle Marius or his wife, or maybe his children show signs of magic?

Marius sighed. "Our line never actually stopped... Our abilities just started getting weaker and weaker the more we tried to hide them, and the more 'watered down' our line became..." He replied softly, lifting one hand towards the fireplace, a small swirl of ashes coming towards him. "Usually, powers will manifest between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one. Sometimes, however, they might appear early, such as in times of great distress, fear, sorrow, or anger." He said, gllancing at Jei.

Jei looked back just in time to see Marius looking at him

"I don't belive your survival five years ago was any kind of miracle, Jeisyn... If your mothers account was anything to go by, at least..."

"Are... Are you saying... That my inheritance came early?" He asked, incredulous. He didnt remember much about that night, except the flames, and his father and brother burning to death. Though, now, as he thought about it, he couldn't remember the heat of the flames...

Kellan stared at the floating ashes. Magic was real? Well, he knew it was, but he'd never seen it after all. Magic was possible?

His eyes flickered back and forth between Uncle Marius and Jei. Times of great distress? It would make sense that Jei's powers had already manifested. An inheritance? It was a rather apt description of magic, he supposed. Between 18 and 21? He had turned 18 already. 3 more years to see, he supposed.

Marius smiled at the boys' reactions. They were certainly taking it better than he had when he'd come into his inheritance. Then again, his interitance had manifested in front of the whole court...

"Magic, less common nowadays, is frowned upon by most people. I believe that is why our families were targeted... When I came into my inheritance, my parents sent me away- for my own protection, they assured me, though I imagine it was to dispel threats against the rest of the family..." He said, frowning slightly. "It wasn't so bad. They'd placed me with a small family not too far from here with similar abilities as mine, and they taught me control. I believe that to be part of why your mother let the two of you go so easily. She likely worries that one or both of you will come into your powers in front of kthers, especially you, Kellan, now that you're beginning to take over the role of ruler."