The night was dark and full of terrors as Joanna and the Sevenights twins were led to the rooms prepared for them by Ghirardeli after her shameful display of screaming at Lady Campbell's maid. She had no idea what had come over her, to be so terrified. Of course a proper lady would have her maid with her, why had she assumed it was some sort of dark and terrible Dark Soul-devouring beast from the abyss? Besides the woman bearing a minor resemblance to a Dark Soul-devouring hollow that crawled out of the abyss, of course.

She tried not to imagine ghosts and murderous illusions haunting the halls of the mansion around them. Of course it was empty, she told herself. It was the middle of the night, surely everyone else had long gone to bed. Surely the sounds of laughing children, seemingly drifting down from the dark heavens, were all in her imagination…?

"Ghirardeli," she asked after grabbing her courage, "if I may ask, how large is the Campbell family?"

"It is only Lady Campbell and her mother, Lady Harker," the butler said. "My lady's father died in her youth, and she has no grandparents or other relatives."

"So…"Joana ventured as the muffled shrieks of children seemed to come with the more distant flickers of lightning and rumbles of thunder, "Does she perhaps have any younger cousins? Children, maybe?"

"I'm afraid not, Lady Harker," the butler said. "No younger cousins that I know of. And her ladyship is both an only child and yet unwed, though that state of affairs will hopefully change in time, with her ladyship's engagement. May I ask why you inquire?"

In the dark, with their echoing footsteps, Joana very clearly heard the laughter and cries of children.

"Oh, ah, tax reasons," she said hurriedly as the hairs rose on the back of her neck. Was she going mad? Perhaps it was just the wind and her imagination was playing tricks on her? The butler didn't seem to acknowledge the sounds at all. "Seeing if she has any dependents to adjust for, that sort of thing."

"Ah. Well, I'm sure her ladyship will give you the relevant documentations for such things. She is very thorough," the butler said. "Here we are. These three rooms have been prepared for you. Please feel free to choose which ever one you wish, and if there are any problems, please inform me immediately. Would you care to inspect them?"

Joana braced herself for the worst as the opened one of the doors.

It was, of course, dark as a soul, the weak light from Ghirardeli's lamp barely illuminating a slice of the floor.

"Oh, I beg your pardon," he said. "Here, let me light the candles…"

The candles were lit. To her surprise, it was a rather plain, simple room, with a bed, a wardrobe, a chest of drawers, and a chest carved in the classical style, with little wooden teeth carved on the edges to make it look like teeth, and the lock plate made to look like a tongue, making it look like a Symbol of Avarice, a common motif for chests. The bed was oversized, but that wasn't uncommon for guest rooms in noble houses. Powerful knights could grow to be much taller than most folk, and needed beds to match. The curtains had been drawn over the windows. There was even a small table and chairs if she wished to entertain, an intimate arrangement for close friends and perhaps lovers, as well as letting her eat here in privacy if she wished. She even had a small bath, with a tub, a toilet, and a sink, all connected with water pipes. The tub had already been filled, though the water had grown cold.

"Your luggage will be up soon, I should think," Ghirardeli said from the hallway, "and I will be up with some food from the kitchen and hot water for your baths. Will there be anything else Lady Harker? Mistresses Sevenights?"

"N-no, nothing for me," Joanna said. "Food and hot water will be more than sufficient, thank you." The Sevenights twins also demurred, and Ghirardeli left to fetch the food as promised. His lamp receded towards the stairs, plunging the hallway in darkness as his little bubble of light moved farther and farther away.

From above came the ghostly sounds of children laughing.

Joanna stood for a moment, then decided to lock herself in her room until the food and/or her luggage arrived. Then jammed one of the chairs under the doorknob to barricade the door, for good measure.

Ghirardeli was as good as his word, returning with a trolley bearing trays of food and buckets of boiling hot water, which he carefully added to their baths to warm up the water before departing, informing them the dishes would be retrieved in the morning. Joanna's luggage arrived soon after, pushed on a trolley by two sleepy-looking maids. How strange. Why not footmen? Still, it was literally the least of the… oddities… so far.

"If you shall not be needing anything else lady, mistresses, than I shall retire," Ghirardeli said as the maids unloaded their bags, "then I shall retire. My lady asks that you join her for breakfast in the small dining room so that she may discuss your duties with you over the meal. You will be given a wakeup call. Good night lady, mistresses. I hope you come to enjoy your employment at the estate."

With those words, the butler leads the maids away, the sounds of the wheels of the trolley soon being lost to the driving wind and the rolling of thunder as the dead gods continued their gambling of fates.

Joanna disrobed and had a quick bath to warm herself. after the cold of the ride in the carriage and the dark, drafty halls, the hot was was a bonfire of comfort in an ash-strewn world, and Joanna sighed in relief, finally finding her sprits renewed. She did not linger long, but quickly scrubbed, divesting herself of the sweat and dirt of the journey, short as it was, before enfolding herself in the towel that she had been provided. She had surely mistaken their host. Her generosity was evident in the preparations of comfort that had gone into her quarters and bath. Tomorrow she would apologize for her rude behavior…

Joanna quickly supped, finding the food to be warm and delicious and blessedly normal. The utensils did not try to feed her, and the food did not laugh like a strange merchant trying to sell you their wares. In fact, as she ate, she was more able to dismiss that strangeness as sleepiness and tiredness from the journey on her part. Surely that was it.

She slipped into her nightrobe, a thing of thin linen that clung to her in what she would have called a scandalously way had it not been for sleeping. Joanna was so tired she merely took it out from her luggage and got dressed right there, hanging her dress in the wardrobe for the morning instead of unpacking. Perhaps the maid would unpack it for her? She hoped not. Though she knew it was their job, she was more comfortable doing this herself. perhaps she should leave some kind of note…?

Well, a matter for tomorrow. Joanna left one candle burning in case she woke in the night with a need to relieve herself and blew out the others, before slipping into the bed provided for her. The sheets were very soft and cool as she slipped into them, with none of the scratchiness of neglect and parasites, and they quickly warmed as she lay upon them, staring up at the strange ceiling above her.

As she closed her eyes, seeking the realm of Quella, she thought she heard over the thunder, however distantly, the sounds of children shrieking.

When she woke up to the cold light of day to the knocking on her door that was her wakeup call, the day's light was much colder and not quite as bright as she was accustomed to. The storm continued to rage outside, and the sky was filled with the howling of the wind, the rolling of thunder, and the occasional, distant cries of Storm Rays. Through her window, the world was so dark it seemed night had fallen early, and the rain that fell was of such thickness it seemed like fog.

Joanna tried to put it out of her mind as she dressed carefully to have breakfast with her new employer, putting on a new dress and putting on her spectacles to make herself look more intellectual, though she barely needed them anymore. There was no clock in her room, and so she hurried lest she make her employer wait.

When she stepped out into the hall, she found a few candles had been lit to offset the gloom, and judging from the light at the end of the hall, the chandelier past the entryway in the atrium of the house had been lit for convenience. She hurried that way, and jumped as lightning flashed and thunder rolled.

Silly. It was only a little thunder.

That didn't stop the back of her neck from prickling as she hurried down the hall towards the light, scurrying between the islands of light cast by the candles, as if a child playing 'the shadows are the abyss'. It was silly, but with the storm outside, she felt strange, childish fears rising inside her, silly fears borne from old stories told of the Chosen Lord and old admissions to children of dire consequences if they disobeyed what they were told.

Joanna reached the light, and found herself sighing with relief as she saw the chandelier above, the lamps on the walls, illuminating the staircase and entryway that last night had merely been darkness. Abruptly she felt very silly for feeling the need to run. Such childishness was unseemly for someone who sought to be a serious accountant. Shaking her head, she looked back at the hallway she had just come from, chiding herself for being so foolishly afraid of… of…

A long dark hall, seemingly endless, lit only with small islands of light from candles, the darkness seeming as thick as ink, the abyss made manifest waiting to consume…

Joanna turned and hurried towards the stairs, avoiding looking at the other hallways that she passed that yawned just as darkly. The rain, wind and her footsteps seemed the only sound as she climbed down from–

She froze as she heard the laughter of children and looked about in sudden panic, but there was no other sound. Just the wind and the rain…

Joanna all but ran down the stairs, a feat accomplished only because she wasn't wearing heels, her footsteps echoing loudly as she reached the ground floor.

"Is everything all right, Lady Harker?"

Joanna barely strangled a scream as Ghirardeli suddenly seemed to materialize behind her in the way of butlers, and spun to find him standing behind her on the top step of the stairs. She sighed at the thankfully ordinary sight after all the unnerving elements of her morning. "Oh, Ghirardeli," she said in relief. "I was looking for the… small dining room?"

"Ah, yes," the butler said, nodding. "Allow me to guide you, Lady Harker. The arrangement of the manor is quite unusual, and you might get lost otherwise. The mistresses Sevenights have already come down and are already seated for breakfast."

Joanna felt the fear of being unprofessional course through her. "And… her ladyship?" she asked.

"Her Ladyship is still busy with an errand on the grounds, but will be joining you soon," the butler said.

Joanna blinked. "Wait, she's out on the grounds?"

"Yes, Lady Harker," the butler said, speaking as if this were perfectly ordinary.

"Now? Out in this storm?"

"Her ladyship has her reasons, I am sure," the butler said.

Lightning flashed and thunder rolled as if to mockingly accentuate his statement.

"If you will follow me, Lady Harker?" the butler said. "The small dining room is this way."

In the light of… well, not day, but rather the many candles of the small dining room, Lady Campbell, when she finally arrived, was much more striking than she had been the night before. Instead of a dress, she wore tight, well-cut trousers and a fitted white blouse of a style that had recently been taking the capital by storm and which Joanna had been lacking both the funds and the courage to follow. She had no doubt they also had the vest, coat and hat that went with it. However, unlike many of the women who tried to wear the style, the lady looked completely natural in the garb, wearing it as naturally as if she'd been borne to it. Her presence dominated the dining room, her blue eyes keen and sharp as she instructed Joanna and the other two accountants on the tasks they had been hired to do.

"I apologize for the scarcity of time you have been left with in this task," she said, and she actually did look apologetic as she said it. "Hopefully what remains is enough. You are to concentrate on the taxes to be collected of my villages, so that my villagers will not be recorded as tardy in their payments."

"But… what about your own accounts, your ladyship?" Jade Sevenights asked.

Lady Campbell waved a hand negligently. "My accounts are in order. That can be left for last, if there is time. It is the accounts of my villages that is of concern. When this storm breaks, I will arrange for you to visit with the mayors of the towns so you can calculate how much is due. See to it to err on the side of the least amount of tax each of my constituents can legally qualify for."

Joanna blinked at the specification, and she didn't need to look to see her fellow accountants were equally confused. Was it… some sort of strange arrangement or something? She couldn't think of why off the top of her head– this would mean she would be collecting the least amount possible from her constituents, which was very, very strange– but… well, the boss was the boss. "Er… we shall have to see, your ladyship," Joanna said noncommittally.

Lady Campbell nodded. "Excellent. After breakfast, I shall show you to your offices. You can get a start by looking over the reports the mayors have sent so far, and if necessary compare them to previous records…"

Well, at least Lady Campbell appeared to be much more reasonable than some people Joanna had heard of, including her own parents, who always tried to wheedle at tax time. From the looks of it, the Sevenights twins were equally impressed at Lady Maria's competence. Not one outrageous demand, as if accountants would make someone's taxes just disappear by reciting some secret prayer to perform a miracle or something. No, she faced the reality that she had to pay her taxes head on, and was only concerned that everything be done and documented properly.

A chill traveled down Joanna's spine, progressing down her back and up again, and as she met the eyes of her fellow accountants, saw the same realization coming to them.

Lady Campbell was obviously doing something horribly, terribly illegal, and the three of them would likely not live past the tax season! Only nobles with something criminal to hide were so scrupulously honest with their taxes!

The sudden sound, as if from the next room, of children laughing only seemed to mockingly confirm her realization.