Chapter Text
It had been at least two weeks since the whole kidnapping fiasco. Octavia couldn’t stop thinking about everything her father had said to her at Blitz’s apartment, and clearly, others noticed. Specifically, her evil uncle and petty mom.
“Sweetie, how hard is it to master this spell, for fuck’s sake?” Stella asked irritably as Octavia's magic started glitching due to her nervousness, which neither of the adults even tried to help with, by the way.
“I say Via,” Andrealphus added in with that usual arrogant, condescending tone, “this really isn’t working out for you, is it dear? I would’ve thought you could master powerful spells like these,” subtly referencing to the way she stopped him from harming her dad and I.M.P on Sinsmas, making her shoulders tense up. "But it seems you need more help than we realize," he said with that fake concern, laced with passive-aggression.
Octavia grumbled in frustration. "I'm trying as hard as I can," she stated with gritted teeth, barely able to contain her anger towards them.
"Well try something else!" Stella snapped back. "The last thing we want is for you to embarrass us and end up like your pathetic, dead-beat daddy!" She snarled as she spat in her daughter's face, only adding fuel to the child's anger, "especially since you are turning 18 in just a few, fucking months!"
She bit her tongue as much as she could before nodding and storming off to her room with the grimoire.
---
"Andrealphus, this isn't working!" Stella stated as she drank her tea furiously on the kitchen table. "Her powers aren't getting any better and we're going to lose everything in just a few damn months! You said we'd be able to control Stolas' assets for the next century!"
"And we will, dear sister," said the peacock demon with strained patience. "But we must be smart about this. I had to tell a long string of lies for us to get where we are today. And we're not stopping here. If she can't improve her magic soon, we will find someone who can."
Stella put her cup down, intrigued by her brothers' words. "Mmm, what do you have in mind brother?"
“Well, we need someone who can manage her assets and hopefully her powers as well before she matures too much into an adult. Someone who is willing to work with us but also keep her in line. And it must also be from someone acceptable by the Goetian standards. "I'm thinking an arranged marriage as a surprise 18th birthday gift. A way to celebrate her becoming an adult."
Stella gasped in excitement. "Gen-i-uussss~" she sang as she got up. "We'll set her up with the perfect man who can break her into submission. Hopefully he'll do a much better job dealing with her than I did with my stupid ex-husband."
They laughed the evilest, and haughtiest laugh you could think of, while some servants just stood there miserable, too broken and exhausted to speak up or even react at all. Unbeknownst to them, someone heard from just outside the room, shocked at what just went on. That person ran straight upstairs to a private room and decided to call the one person who just might be able to help.