Unmaking Percy

Part II - II (The Hushing Manor)

They reached their destination the following day. At first, catching sight of it in the distance, Percy thought it was a fire. As they approached, the fire broke into smaller sparks in a scattering of light. It was only when they rode closer that Percy knew it for a city.

He had never seen a city so big before. Crossing the gates was enough to make him believe that there was nothing but that city in the world. Everything was big and everyone was loud; every house was built to take up space, and every passer-by moved with an eagerness to make noise. Forged iron lampposts oozed a golden-orange glow over a grey fog, amber on velvet. Percy saw gleaming carriages and fashionable dresses – he did not know what the fashion was, but he knew only fashionable people carried themselves with such confidence. There were avenues with rows of tidy and tamed trees, loud shop windows, and crowded conversations. It slowly dawned on him that his parents' manor would not look so disproportionately grand in the illustrious company of the houses he rode past now.

By his side, Myrtle was gawking unreservedly.

"I've never been anywhere like this" she said as she craned her neck to catch sight of the top of the buildings, and turned her head about to wonder at the lights that glistened in the street like scattered pearls.

Percy had never been anywhere like that, either, but he was determined not to look awe-struck and dazzled. He had thought himself worldly; and he was, if one counted the self-contained little world of his hometown. And yet he found now that many other worlds existed, despite his ignorance of them. But he would not indulge others by revealing that: the admission of his ignorance would be prised from his cold rigid hands.

Myrtle, however, seemed glad to display her inexperience with giddy abandon. They had just ridden past a hat shop with a window that had colourful caged birds, and colourful feathers adorning the hats. He had no idea whether that was a normal sight in big cities, but he chose to play it safe, and nodded knowledgeably at the canaries in intricate golden cages.

"You do look like you've never been anywhere like this" he smirked at Myrtle.

"Well, that's because I haven't" she replied with cheerful plainness. "Does it make me look provincial? I am provincial. Don't mind looking what I am. It cuts corners and saves time for everyone."

Percy heard Valeria's chuckle, and felt he had been defeated, though he wasn't quite sure in what. He cleared his throat.

"Do we know where we're going?" he asked.

"Do you mean right now, or in life in general?" Valeria smirked.

"Right now, obviously."

"I don't know, darling, you strike me as the type to have an existential crisis here and there."

"We're here."

They both turned to Evans, and then to the house he had just stopped in front of. Percy forgot all his efforts not to gawk. The house looked like something he might have fancied to have built, if no one talked sense into him on time. The façade was monstrously crowded with friezes and frills, ornamented columns and ornamental crenellations, turrets and stained glass windows. A small park surrounded it and separated it from the other houses. Through the forged iron gate, Percy could see a gravel path flanked by luscious red roses that drooped under the weight of their own magnificence.

"Of course it had to be the weird one in the neighbourhood" Valeria muttered.

Even that house's heavy ornament warfare could not cower Valeria into awed submission.

"And what is it we have to do, exactly?" Percy asked, his eyes still fixed on the frantically busy façade.

"Break a curse" Evans said.