"His name was Bennoit Arnheim," Yuze starts, once he's got Chenzhou, wrapped in blankets due to a sudden cold, Eirian, next to him poking at an incense burner, Finn, with a stack of blank paper and quills and poised to write every word, and Marian, hovering over all of them, gathered in his cramped private office.
They left the guards outside. Eirian and Yuze were wary of information getting out before they were ready, and Chenzhou worried about news of his illness reaching his enemies.
"He was born in the Camelia during the last frost of a.c. 898."
"Almost two hundred years ago," Finn muttered as he scribbled frantically.
"The last of the Arnheims died out in the Age of Warfare." Chenzhou coughed and then sneezed when a wave of incense engulfed his face.
"Breath deep," Eirian snapped. Otherwise, it wouldn't help, and Chenzhou dutifully followed her order.
"That's right." Yuze nodded. "Or, at least that's what everyone believed. After the Five-Year Battle, there were no full blooded Arnheims left. Henric Arnheim and all three of his sons died in the battle." There were ballads written about his youngest son's desperate last stand and how, despite his death, it had spurred the devastated army onto victory. "He had two daughters, who both died in childbirth, along with their children. His wife took her own life after the youngest daughter died. None of the children left behind legitimate heirs." The Histories referred to the complete fall of a family as an annihilation, and the Annihilation of the Arnheims was one of the most well-known on the rock.
"Henric had two younger siblings. The younger brother, Allric died without issue, apparently, he was murdered on his wedding night by his new wife. Who was then executed by Henric."
Everyone glanced at Eirian and Chenzhou then, apprehensive, until Eirian rolled her eyes. "Clearly, we're not going down that road."
"That's a relief," Chenzhou remarked, ignoring Eirian's glare.
"His younger sister died a spinster with no children." Yuze continued, ignoring them. "There were a few cousins of note, but none of them succeeded in leading the family for very long. Somewhere around a.c. 459, the Arnhem's lost complete control of the Camelia."
Eirian kept one eye on Chenzhou as he breathed in the smoke from the incense burner, a medicinal recipe she'd had Marian acquire, and the other on Finn as he scrambled to keep up with Yuze. "What about illegitimate heirs? There's no way there wasn't a few somewhere."
"There were…more than a few," Yuze agreed, waving a long list in the air. "But it seems most of those lines died out in a few generations."
"Then where did Bennoit Arnheim come from?" Chenzhou wheezed. "This stuff smells terrible."
"It's good for you. Keep breathing it in."
Chenzhou did, but it didn't look happy about it.
Yuze looked at Chenzhou. "Did you know your ancestor, Ye Tang Su, was involved with a married woman?"
Chenzhou sputtered, "What?"
"Apparently, he stole the wife of another soldier, Bennedict Eagle."
"Ah, Bennoit Arnheim." Eirian said, catching up.
Yuze nodded. "Same name, different language. Apparently, somewhere along the way, Bennoit's line stopped using the Sorrian language and started using one from Antiquity. I can't be sure yet, but I think the line itself left Sorrow for a few generations and at some point in Bennoit's childhood returned. I found an enlistment date that says he joined the cavalry on his sixteenth birthday."
"And then my ancestor stole his wife? That can't be right. There's never been any mention of that in the Ye family histories." Chenzhou argued. His family had prided itself on their martial conduct, stealing the wife of another man would never have been allowed.
Not to mention, if she hadn't left her husband willingly that made his ancestor and even worse person.
"I haven't filled in all the blanks yet," Yuze cautioned. "But about ten years later, Bennoit Arnheim married a woman named Zhao Li Ling."
Chenzhou winced and then slumped over the incense burner with a groan.
Yuze nodded sympathetically, while Eirian and Finn just looked confused.
"Zhao Li Ling is the first matriarch of the Ye family. Ye was her married name." Marian explained.
"And there's a valid marriage date between Bennoit Arnheim and Zhao Li Ling." Yuze sighed, "And then five years later there's one between Ye Tang Su and Li Ling Arnheim and she never goes by Li or Arnheim again."
"Maybe they were divorced?" Chenzhou offered, a bit desperate.
Yuze shook his head, "I haven't found any mention of any death or divorce. But there is a record of an arrest the day between Ye Tang Su and Li Ling Arnheim's wedding and Fox found a diary entry from a high-ranking official that apparently mentioned an important wedding that took place around that time where the bride was…unwilling to commit herself and it was carried out anyway."
Eirian grimaced, felt a spark of fury in her chest. "Some people are pigs. They think having power means having complete control over someone else. She must have been terrified."
"So much for my noble family," Chenzhou said quietly. "We have always claimed to be righteous but how can we be if that is what we came from? No wonder it was never spoke of."
"Maybe she fell in love with him later?" Finn offered, trying to find something that would comfort Chenzhou.
Distraught, Chenzhou shook his head. "No. It doesn't matter what came of it, if that's the way it started."
He looked close to tears, and despite her rage at the story, Eirian felt a twinge of sympathy. There wasn't much anyone could do about the family they were born into, except leave it if it proved too toxic to survive. Two hundred years ago, a woman in Zhao Li Ling's position would have had to flee everything she knew to escape a forced marriage, but unless she was willing to run with nothing on her back but the clothes she wore, it was unlikely she'd ever survive.
How did one flee everything they'd ever known, alone?
~ tbc