"I am sorry Lady Dyne, but you mentioned me as a daughter?" Tiffaney couldn't help but consider the lady of house was truly insane. She was not worthy of her own family, much less hold the right to inherit someone else's.
"I am adopting you into my family, you're the new child of the house of Dyne." Mistress Dyne was an only child for reasons that no one wanted to get into or really knew about. Part of her mythos as the lord of the castle was to be mythlike and mysterious.
"There must be a mistake of some kind, I'm really not worthy of such." Bowing her head, the noble child continued.
"Surly there are far many better suited than I, I would be grateful if I could simply return. Your hospitality was more than I deserved, so I wish leave as to not overstay and burden my host."
"Well, if that's that." Lazily the women stretched her arms wildly over her head without care.
"You can sit if you want but no more than forty-two counts, anymore and you will suffer a terrible fate." Motioning to the pair of couches in the room, separated by a low tea table were two cushiony traps. Above the ceiling was layered with wood panels hung from cords. Walls had strange floating selves that didn't seem to serve any purpose. There was no desk, characteristic of most offices, rather a vast pane inscribed with lines and symbols the noble had never seen before.
"If I did not mention this before, I should perhaps mention it now, you were not given an opinion in this matter. If you don't like, escape main castle, and ill personally drop you off wherever you want to go." Radiating a childish smugness at the thought that the noble would beg and cry to be part of her family, the Lady Dyne underestimated the child before her.
"I expect the lady of the house to keep her word." Bowing the noble turned and walked out, leaving the lady of the house alone in her office.
"It's dawn now, girl should be able to see at least." The house master glanced at the large skylight above as Sir Octave approached the lounge chair the house master sat on.
"…Why hasn't she come back yet?"
"It has been seventeen seconds my lady."
"Any second than, she will come in here tears falling, begging me to take her with me." Envisioning the scene, she decided to be graceful and be understanding to the child's whims.
"My lady…" As head butler it wasn't his place to tell his master what to do. He was however the greatest butler to ever live ergo he had some ability to tactfully correct his lord without making them notice it wasn't their idea.
"One is one, two is two, not all the fruit from the same tree taste the same."
"It appears she just passed down November zero seven." Glancing at the board behind her the lady was able to decipher the strange lights and patterns to discern where the noble had gone.
"It has been one minuet seven seconds, my lady."
"Odd, she should start heading back now, if not she's going to hit this amour trap…" Staring at the board the lady seemed confused before she glanced. From his position the butler could see the churning in the ladies' mind as she was trying to figure out what was happening.
"Oh…Damn!"
Meanwhile lady Tiffaney was pacing along without care. All the candle stick holders in this area flickered. Neither the bulbs nor the candles in the rear castle corridors did so, which led the noble to wonder once more about the strange oddities that surrounded the castle.
"I wonder if this is a stewarded land?" If it had magical properties, it would explain a lot about its uniqueness, since stewarded lands were turbulent places of overwhelming power. As she passed an alcove, she stopped to look at a large suit of amour. Wondering if it was worn, she spun about when she heard a clanking behind her.
"Oh, it's just another suit." This one held a large ornament ax. It was of the same make, blackened harden steel. Turn back to the original she looked at its lack of weapon thinking that they would have been the same when she heard the same rattling clatter behind her.
"That's odd I didn't think it was that close before." Deciding she must be seeing things she laughed it off to nerves. As she turned around for the third time, she thought she saw movement out of her peripherals.
"Move!" All the nobles could see was the glint of the ax edge as the suit of amour swung down with lethal intent. White filled her vison as a sanguine blossom formed along cloudy blouse. Bracing her elbow with her other arm, the ax had split the bone.
"Octave!" From the sidelines the old man produced a large spanner and hurled at the lady. Her neck was snatched, and she was yanked back away from the two amour suits. Plucking the wrench from its arc, the lady kicked back at the joint causing the ax-wielding to try to reorient. Her spanner swung nocking the leg of as she pirouetted to knock the head of the unarmed suit. As the housemaster faced away from the decapitated suit, the wrench was driven into the shoulder socket of the ax suit knocking it back sans an armored arm.
Blindly Lady Dyne plunged her hand into the chest of the suit, grabbing a cam follower bending it ruthlessly. As the suit behind Lady dyne chattered and glitched, she used her non useless hand to repeat the process through the hole made by the missing arm joint.
Recovering the wrench, the house master turned at looked at the child that looked adorable in the yellow sundress and every reprimand died at those wide surprised eyes.
"Bandersnatch, add these to the maintenance list. Boysenberry, and send one of the stoplights to my office, the other assist her. For the rest, see her to her room for the day, we can discuss the adoption tomorrow." Without waiting Miss Dyne returned to her office leaving the stunned noble in the servant's care.
Her room was not far from the office, a few doors down. She had expected a servant's room but was shocked when she opened the door. Half the room was dedicated to an array of desk, chalkboards, bins filled with undefined parts. The other was a giant dark wood bed with soft pink sheets and trappings. A chandler made of nuts, bolts, washers, clevis, sprockets, and a few small coupler links. There were other things but most notably was a giant stuffed bear on the bed.
"You will be staying here." Stunned that she was allowed this space the noble immediately sputtered. It was interrupted as a dark purple boysenberry candy was stuffed into her mouth. It was far more tangy than sweet, but it was still delicious to a child who didn't know sour could be a good flavor.
"Thank you." She told the butler who gently ruffled her hair.
"The other two maids will help you settle; you've had a long night rest well."
"Ah wait-" Melting into the shadows the head servant disappeared leaving the noble in her fancy room.
"I didn't get to protest…Can I really stay in such a nice room?"