After Kyra's father, Lord Fredrick Sivillion, returned home from his latest trip to the capital, he was greeted by his children with his second wife, Madeline, in his arm. He couldn't help but sigh to himself for many reasons but he put his negative thoughts away for the moment and focused on his children.
Fredrick spoke to each one of them for a brief moment, seeing just how they were doing while he was gone. Most of them were already adults, able to chose their own paths in life and not have to rely on the Sivillion name if they chose to.
For his two eldest children, Edgar and Eradessa, he did have plans for them however. As the eldest son and heir to the Sivillion Dukedom, Edgar had a lot to learn. He had to learn the proper etiquette for interacting with nobles, he needed to be strong and confident, otherwise he risked other nobles taking advantage of him.
He had to learn to govern others, since not only would he be the head of the household, he would be the ruling Lord of all the territory the Sivillion's ruled once he took over someday. He had to make important decisions, whether it be financial, infrastructure, or something else, no matter how miniscule.
As the two of them grew, Lord Sivillion knew that his son was lacking in some areas. It was unfortunate but he had big shoes to fill so there was no way for him to be perfect. However Eradessa had shown promise in the fields that he lacked.
While he didn't want to force his daughter to do anything, he told her to help her brother anyways. Whether he liked it or not, Fredrick was a Duke first and a father second. His duty was to his kingdom, which was why he had the title in the first place.
He had many children but hardly had much time to spent with any of them. In their younger years, he was able to spend more time with Edgar and Eradessa, but once he was basically forced to get a second wife, things began to go downhill for his family.
His first wife, Venessa Harddings, was from another noble family one rank below Duke. She hailed from a Marquess family and marrying him elevated her status and helped to tie bonds between the Harddings and Sivillion families.
While they were not the closest pair, as with most marriages made for political reasons, they got along well. Venessa was able to produce an heir with her first birth, securing the Dukedom's future. As the Duchess, she performed her job well and helped to keep this family estate in check, while also providing financial advice and such, making her the perfect Mistress in Fredrick's eyes.
However, Fredrick must have slipped up somewhere in his complacencies and another Dukedom took advantage of that. With the growing power of the Sivillion name, the Gemacio Dukedom got its hands on some dirt to use as blackmail.
In exchange for their silence, they forced Fredrick to marry their daughter, Madeline Gemacio, and take her as a second wife. Having multiple wives wasn't unheard of for a noble, especially one with so much power, but Madeline's existence was chaotic, to put it simply.
She was your typical high born, pure bred noble that believed whole heartedly that the aristocracy was above the common folk and that they should go out of their way to constantly remind the populous of that.
She would spend abhorrent amounts of money on dresses, jewelry, artifacts and more. She would torment the staff of the estate for seemingly no reason and fire many of them without consultation from the Head of the house or the first wife, Venessa.
As the second wife, Madeline did not have as much power within the estate as Venessa did, but by using her old families name, she was able to bend the power structure to an extent. As the daughter of a Marquess, it was hard for Venessa to fight back sometimes, especially since the Gemacio Dukedom was infamous for its cruelty.
Just about all members of that family were narcissistic to the point of having a God complex. The only thing holding them back was the Royal family or other Dukedoms they saw as a threat.
However as the years went by, Madeline's strong arming slowly grew weaker. She was not given tasks to do like the first wife had so the only thing she could really do was make appearances in public and birth more heirs.
However, she couldn't even do that 'properly.' Fredrick and Madeline had issues conceiving and by the time she finally got pregnant, Venessa was also pregnant again. The two of them gave birth only a few months apart with Madeline producing a baby girl while Venessa had twins.
This was the worst kind of outcome for a woman of nobility trying to fight her way up the social ladder vicariously through their children. Not only that, but one of the twins was a male, securing the second spot as the backup heir.
By this time, the first born, Edgar, had already reached maturity and began to learn the ropes as the heir. Madeline continued to try and conceive a male heir while in the process, doing what she could to take her stepchildren and sister wife down a peg.
Fredrick couldn't help but see his first wife in the four children he had with her. She was no longer in this world though, having passed from a mysterious illness a year or so before Kyle was born. While there was no evidence left behind, Fredrick had a feeling foul play was involved.
Unfortunately, he was too busy with growing unrest in the king's court with plans to expand the military and bolster defenses for no reason. He hardly had any time to return home until he was told that Venessa was bedridden.
His Head Butler, Herald, also suspected a similar thing, but could do nothing to stop Madeline's rampage. The older gentlemen had served the previous Head of Sivillion, Fredrick's own father, as well, and became Fredrick's eyes and ears when he was away.
However both were unable to save Venessa, and with her passing, Madeline did what she could to gain control of the estate. She fired as many workers as she could and put her own in their place, she took over finances and spent enormous amounts on artwork and such regardless of whether it looked good.
She couldn't touch the first wife's children as they grew into adults and became successful. Fredrick knew how much she loathed them, especially the twins who not only graduated early from the Academy of Magic, they began their own business of buying and selling magical items to both nobility and commoners alike.
The first children had proved over and over that they were immune to her attacks so she instead she began to do whatever she could to make her first son, the sixth Sivillion child, Kyle, better than the other children.
She hired the most sought after tutors, famous doctors, and even used the majority of the estate's budget on her son. She also borrowed from her own family, the Gemacios, to turn him into the "perfect heir." Fredrick was furious with Madeline, but was unable to stop her from turning their son into a puppet.
He felt as if he had failed as a father.
In a strange, twisted way, this led him to fall in love for the first time and give birth to Kyra. From his past parental failures, he made an effort to do what he could to make sure his youngest grew up happily, much to his second wife's fury.
To make matters worse, he had fallen in love with a commoner, making the household dynamic even more complicated. He was adamant about showing the rest of his family and the servants in his care that Kyra was still nobility.
While she did have the "tainted" blood of someone else in her, she had the "noble" blood of Fredrick Sivillion running in her veins. He surrounded her with trustworthy servants, including Head Butler Herald, and tried to be there for her, returning to the estate several times a year.
He could sense the resentment some of his children had but as far as he knew, none of them had acted out of line, listening to his word as the Head of the household. However Madeline was another story.
Since his third wife and Kyra's mother, Ariel, passed not long after giving birth, Madeline's hatred was directed to the little girl. When she wasn't able to torment her, she would give directions to her son who was almost 11 years her senior, to torment her as well.
Fredrick felt like his hands were always tied but he didn't give up. He would allow her to bring in 'strays' like the Armored Raptor she found most recently and dote on her as much as possible. It pained him to know his daughter was lonely enough to search for wild beasts and could only pray that once she left for the Academy, she would find friends and be happier than she was at the estate.
He 'punished' Herald for Kyra holding that magic beast but it was mostly for appearances. After heading up to his office with his wife, children, and Herald in tow, he was forced to listen to the complaints of his wife as his children argued with her.
Part of him enjoyed hearing her try to argue with them, since they knew just the right buttons to push to annoy her, but it also meant that she would need to take that anger out on something, or someone, more specifically.
After discussing the plans to return to the capital soon, and Madeline had decided to stay at the estate for some rather obvious reasons, Lord Sivillion was left with Herald and his "punishment."