Part Three: Influencing the Market At first, Nathaniel had thought he was out of options, and had therefore begun scouring his potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts books, looking for some way - any way - to help his mother himself, despite it being technically illegal to do so. It was important to follow rules - that was part of being Good - but it was even more important to help his mother. Family was everything.
In the midst of this, however, he had had a thought, and had bolted outside and up the steps to his and Sylvia’s treehouse to hang a flag on her side.
He still had one hope for help left, he thought as he paced up and down impatiently, silently begging her to see the signal and come meet him. He still had Sylvia.
Sylvia was Uncle Alexander’s little princess. Maybe Nathaniel was too tainted by association to convince Uncle Alexander to help his sister-in-law, but Sylvia wasn’t. Sylvia was the best of them all, and Sylvia was always there for Nathaniel. Surely, he thought, she could help. Sylvia would know what to say to his uncle, or would see some other angle he was missing, and together, they could fix all of this.
When her side of the trapdoor opened and the top of her dark hair began to rise toward him, he felt the purest wave of relief he had ever experienced in his life. He reached out to help her to her feet, tried to think of something to say, found his throat too tight for speech, and so just reached out again, this time to hug her.
Sylvia had not let Nathaniel go the previous evening without a fight, and without assurances that he would be coming back. Everyone had promised it would be so - Father had promised, and Nate had promised, and they were the two people she trusted would never break a promise or disappoint her. It felt almost like a little ray of normality when she saw the flag hanging from the treehouse, except of course she was worried for the emotional state of the person she would find inside.
She hastened from her room, climbing the ladder up from her own garden, to find that Nate had done the same from his and was waiting for her, pulling her up into their little sanctuary of comfort and secrets, the way it had always been.
“Oh Nate,” she sighed, watching him swallow his words and reach instead for a hug, “Poor darling Nate,” she soothed, stroking his hair, “It’s alright. It’s all going to be alright.”
Nathaniel made an effort to nod to Sylvia’s reassurance. “Yes,” he said, though his throat still hurt. He cleared it before continuing. “But - I need your help. I don’t know what to do, Sylvia. I can’t convince Mother to listen to me. What should we do?”
The hand that was stroking Nate’s hair paused only momentarily. Sylvia quickly resumed her ministrations, though her mind was now spinning. She could understand that Nate was shocked, anyone would be, and deeply, deeply upset. But surely he knew his mother well enough to know that getting a mad idea out of her head once it had got in there was nigh on impossible. Sylvia had not reckoned on being asked to fix this. She had come to commiserate and to console, not to conspire. Hesitant as she was to hurt Nate, she could not see any way of putting it except what she saw as the truth of the matter.
“Nate,” she said softly, “I don’t know that she’s going to. I know it’s a horrible thing to think about, that she’d make a decision such as this. It’s awful, and it’s truly shocking. But it’ll be alright. We’ll look after you - father said so.”
Nathaniel stiffened at the mention of Uncle Alexander and his promises and pulled away. “He promised Mama the same thing,” he said bitterly. “A long time ago - I heard him say that the day my father - did what he did. But he wouldn’t listen to me, either, when I told him we can’t just - that we can’t let her do this.” He scrubbed his hand through his hair. “But he might listen to you, Sylvia. Don’t you think he would?”
Sylvia blinked, hurt when talking about father caused Nate to snap and pull away from her. That wasn’t right. She was surprised to find that he’d been in private conversation with her father, though she supposed it was somewhat natural given the circumstances. But she didn’t like the thought of them discussing this without her, much less disagreeing over it.
“Don’t be cross with my father!” she returned, and whilst Sylvia was normally softness and smiles with Nate, she did lapse occasionally into a tone that suggested she expected him, like most people around her, to simply do as she wished, and this was one of those times. “Please, Nate,” she added, more gently, trading the slight pout for beseeching eyes, and a hand that reached for his. She wanted to say that father was clearly doing his best with difficult circumstances but she thought that labelling Nate’s mother as a difficult circumstance was not going to go over well, however true it was. Nate was clearly still in denial about the whole thing - he wanted to refuse to believe it could happen, and she understood that. It wasn’t like she wanted Aunt Cynthia to do this either. She just didn’t see many alternatives. “What would you have me say to him?” Sylvia asked. And in her mind, it was less an offer to intercede than a hope that Nate would not be able to find any such words, and would start to see the situation for it was.
“That we have to save her!” said Nathaniel. “Lock her up safely somewhere - get her Healers, or cursebreakers - I don’t know. But we’ll figure out how to fix her once we have her away from that man,” he added, venom creeping into his tone on the last words. “And she’ll have to stay with Uncle Alexander and Aunt Avery from now on - obviously she can’t take care of herself anymore. This never would have happened if I hadn’t had to go to school ...”
His tone moved then from vehemence to guilt. Why hadn’t he thought to have his mother go live with his aunt and uncle back then? He had known it was a bad idea to leave her alone. He had known it. He should have realized what was necessary back then, and it was therefore all his fault that this was happening now. That was why he had to fix it.
“It’s not your fault,” Sylvia stated immediately - it was almost automatic but nonetheless sincere and heartfelt. Sylvia loved Nate with absolutely her whole heart. He was sweet and reliable and kind. He was a million things that she treasured. However, she had to admit that he was not perfect. She might have argued that, if she was feeling playful. This, however, was one of the points where it was a lot easier to admit that, and to confront what it was were Nate’s flaws, and that one of those might well be that full-blown insanity ran on his side of the family. That wasn’t something she wanted to believe about Nate, and she was very, very willing to chalk it up to shock in order to continue to believe the best about him, but his other issues - perfectionism, the need to be the hero (traits which could, at the toss of a coin be brilliant strengths or crippling issues) - were going to weave their way deep, deep down into this problem.
“She didn’t seem enchanted to me, Nate,” she said carefully, “I know you must want to do everything you can to look after her, and of course we’ll help. But it may just be that she is making a bad decision. If we checked that out, very thoroughly, and found that there was no spell, no… malpractice… Then you’ll accept this?”
Nathaniel frowned. “If she’s making bad decisions, that’s all the more proof that she needs to be taken care of,” he argued. “He must have manipulated her. Her nerves are weak, you know that. But we’re her family. You don’t just...you don’t….”
He felt himself beginning to shake. You don’t just give up on your family. You take care of your family. His father had been a freak of nature, to not respect that rule - but why had they given up on him so easily? Why hadn’t they brought him back, tried to make him better, too? Why hadn’t Uncle Alexander led the charge? His own brother. Why had he been so willing to just let his own brother go, to now just let his sister-in-law go….?
“I have to take care of her,” he protested. “I can’t just let this happen”
Underneath the vehemence, there was a plea - a plea for her to agree, and to do likewise. His father had given up on family, his uncle had given up on family, his brother was prepared to give up on family - but he and Sylvia didn’t have to be like that. They could still fix this, if they just stuck together, and they always stuck together. Always.
When Nate put it that way, Sylvia could see his logic. She could still see all the holes in it too, but she knew Nate well enough to know where he’d stuck himself with the mess he’d weaved in his own head, and how he now couldn’t get back down. He couldn’t see the situation for what it was, and in that case, was bound to reach the wrong conclusions about what he ought to do. She could not expect him to abandon a mother who was sick or being hoodwinked. That would, of course, be deeply unethical. However, how could she persuade him that wasn’t the case, when any determination to act in this way by Aunt Cynthia would only prove to Nate the situation as he saw it?
“Maybe she isn’t the one who needs taking care of,” she suggested, trying for a different angle. “Maybe you deserve to be looked after for a change. And that’s what we’re trying to do.”
He wanted to say yes. He wanted it so much that his fingers trembled and his heart felt like it was going to break and pound through the sides of his skull all at once. He wanted to let her take care of him - to cry on her shoulder while she stroked his hair and told him everything was going to be alright. He wanted to shout at the heavens that he was not yet fifteen years old, damn it, and that he didn’t deserve any of this. He wanted to just let go.
All it would take was a word.
A word which, by its nature, would break a promise.
I need you to be good now.
“I can’t leave her with him, Sylvia,” he said thickly. “I just can’t.”
“I’ll talk to father. Of course I will, if that’s what you want,” Sylvia promised. And she hesitated, wondering what else to say… That she thought there was every possibility that neither grown up would change their mind? Let them say it, she didn’t want to have to be the one who did. That maybe there was no more to it than Aunt Cynthia being a bad person? Again, let her show him that herself. Especially because, and it hurt her to admit it, Nate might not believe her if she said so. “You know I’d do anything I could for you,” she reminded him. And this was for Nate. He needed to know that his mother was not crazy, just stupid and selfish. And then he could leave her and come with them, and they could go on being just as they had always been. Because that was what had to happen. The alternative was unthinkable.