"Rebecca Arden."

"A pleasure to meet you, sorry about the circumstances. I have dozens of logistical questions but none of them are urgent; do you want to settle in first, pick a bedroom, put your stuff in it, have another glass of water, that general sort of thing?"

"Yes please. Do I, uh, need a maid outfit. Am I dropping out of school. D'you have a piano."

"You don't need a maid outfit, you don't need to drop out of school but how exactly to safely keep you in school is one of my logistical questions, we very much do have a piano and you can play it if you like."

"Ooh." She will go grab her bags for room-picking.

"We have three guest bedrooms ready right now and a few more we could dust off if needed," says Rosy, following. "Are you more of a spooky attic person, really good view of the lake person, or right by the kitchen person?"

"Lake, I think."

"Third-floor guest room it is, can I help you carry your stuff?"

"I would appreciate that."

She grabs the duffel bag and leads the way up the stairs. They're very pretty stairs, and it's a very pretty bedroom, once they get there; the decor is mostly pale greens and creams, with the occasional forest green or mellow amber accent, and the huge bay window at the far end of the room does indeed provide a spectacular view of the lake. There's a big four-poster bed and a desk that looks like it takes two people to lift and a tall sturdy dresser and a vanity, all in the same type and style of wood.

"Wow, this place is so nice. I hope you don't wind up wanting my immortal soul or anything."

"Definitely not, we'd have no use for it. I can speculate about what my mother is thinking but you'd probably rather just talk to my mother who is still right downstairs. Do you want to, like, chill here for a bit and not have to deal with things, or go downstairs and talk to Mom about stuff?"

"Proooobably I should talk to your mom about what non-immortal-soul stuff you guys are into. Honestly I was kind of expecting to have to try a few houses and am not caught up to having gotten a helpful magic family first try."

"That's pretty fair! I'm glad you hit us before the Favreaus, they might actually have gone for the soul thing."

"I would probably have tried another house if the first one I hit up wanted my soul. But actually I started with you 'cause you're all girls in this family, at least around our age? Seemed like that might, uh, help."

"Oh, yeah, that's a magic thing, Blakes have girls."

"And Capris have... eggs.

Why does no one know about this."

"The short answer is 'secret magic politics' and the slightly longer answer is 'a bunch of different people who can't agree on a whole lot can all agree that they would be really mad if it got out, so they make sure to shut up anybody it might get out of, and this phenomenon is called the Veil Laws.' Probably don't tell anybody yourself until you know more about stuff."

"What's my family going to think?"

"Thaaaaat is a good question and I really don't know. I guess Mom might be able to come up with a way for them to be allowed to remember that there's magic and eggs and stuff? I am not as good at magic politics as Mom."

"I'm kind of mad at my parents but they were, like, mind controlled, so maybe I shouldn't be? And I have brothers and sisters."

"No yeah that's super fair. Um. Okay this is a little awkward because I know Mom wasn't allowed to tell her in-laws until after she and Dad were actually married. Maybe... maybe once your kid is definitely a super alive baby who is yours and not an egg that the Capris might still steal, that'll, uh, grandfather your family in? I dunno, you'll have to ask Mom."

"Will they quit trying to steal it once it hatches?"

"You should not take me as an authoritative source on this because I am a high schooler but my guess is that once the kid hatches and is alive and living with you in our house, Mom will be able to get the Capris off your back for good somehow or other and probably also figure out a way you can tell your family."

"That's good.

I should... go find out where I am on the polishing silver to immortal soul spectrum."