(Milana)

Aaida woke me gently as always and I climbed out of bed, slinking over to my Vanity table.

"Posture." Aaida reminded me and a smiled a little, straightening my back. All of the wood in my room was light brown, the wood for a queen. The backs of the chairs made sure I sat straight. Aaida straight away went to my very light hair, pinning it up on to the top of my head.

She helped me on with a blue silk dress and the slippers to match, then I left the room and went down to the dining room.

I don't like the dining room, it's quite small, although it is loved by my family, so that makes me respect it. The table is adequate for the seven of us, made of the darker wood, James's wood.

Mother and father sit on cheap chairs made of leather and my light wood, they were for comfort, James has a gold, hard backed chair, Lychorida has a one legged stool made of iron, the twins have plush chairs draped in fur, and my chair is silver, always posture correctioning.

I walked in, curtsied, kissed mother on the cheek and then sat down next to Lycho, James across from me was looking more than usually glum and brooding. The twins were still half asleep, their hair was messy and they rubbed their eyes more than once.
The servants brought forward the dishes.

Cook put a few berries and a piece of toast onto my plate, the same as mother. The twins ate sweet dumplings, sticky with syrup.

Lychorida had six slices of toast with eggs and bacon, whilst James ate heavy porridge like father.

Bill the footman came in with a letter in his hand. The paper was fine. Father took it and raised his eyebrows. He turned the paper so we could see the seal and tapped his finger against it twice.

"Whose seal is that, Milana?"

I examined it, the fanged snake was instantly recognisable.

"We've got a letter from the Decretas?" My eyebrows raised too.

"Why have they sent us a letter, father, let me see it." James demanded and Lycho snorted.

"Your face is ugly when you're scared." She said to James and he frowned at her.

"This could be serious, Ly-"

"I'll open it." Mother said lightly, walking to the other end of the table and taking it from father. She broke the seal and we all watched as her eyes scanned the words. Her eyes found mine for a minute and the look in them scared me. Mother slowly put the letter face down on the plate and looked at our Father.

"Could you excuse your father and I for a moment? Cook, take their plates into the family room." James ushered the twins out and I took Lychorida by the shoulders, looking back as the doors began to close.

We whispered through the corridors and when we got into the family room Lycho and I sat in the massive plush armchair, big enough for three grownups. The twins climbed on right next to me and James sat down by the fireplace.

"If they've realised what I've been doing all these years..." James murmured.

"It's not all about you you know." I glared at him.

"It might not be bad." Asa piped, "They might need my expertise." I smacked him round the back of the head.

"You're sixteen, there are people much better than you out there."

"How do you know?" Hadis pushed against me to defend his twin. "You don't know what he does."

"Neither do you." Lychorida snapped. "No one knows what we do." She said rather saltily.

"Let's face it." James brought the attention back to himself. "If it's the Decretas who are writing us, it's bad news for at least one of us."

"Mother says that if it's bad news for one of us, it's bad news for us all." Lychorida scrunched up her face, "family matters."

James scowled and opened his arms, which she ran into. "It might not be any of us, you know. It might be something completely unrealated, or it might be mother and father." He murmured to our sister, who buried her head against his chest.

"If it doesn't concern any of us, then they'll come back in and ask all of us to come through at once." I decided aloud, putting my arms around the twins, now either side of me.

The door handle rattled.

One of the servants pushed her head around the door frame.

"Miss Milana?" She asked.

It was just me.