Today the family had one of their regular meetings in the blue room, planning the future of the Pettonta family. Count Junato and Countess Constance only have 2 children, so if they exclude the distant family residing in Galucca, they are not that many individuals to make an impact. Planning their moves will be quite important.
Ex-Countess Maria still wants to control more than she is entitled to, but luckily she is now half deaf, missing out on most of the debates.
Galucca has definitely reached modern times. Clothing is still kinda formal here at the castle, but downtown the younger girls wear miniskirts in public, and every new establishment gets a certain dash of fresh colours, stripes and polka-dots. Hairdressers are doing well, and there's even a small shopping mall in the area where Old Town meets City.
While culture blooms, there are many political issues these days. One matter that bothers nearly everyone, is the lack of cemeteries. The old cemetery next to Church of Similius was full long ago, and the chapel is pretty full as well. There were suggestions that each region should have their own graveyard, or at least a chapel, but because people nowadays move all across Galucca, the districts are no longer as isolated as before - that's for all except Moon District, of course.
Another subject is the mis-coloured residents. They are now old enough to settle and reproduce, which many of them already did. Count Junato would like a law stopping two mis-coloured to couple, because if they marry someone with normal skin, there would be a bigger chance the toxic colours would fade in a few generations. Some councillor even suggested that all mis-coloured residents should be forced to live in a ghetto in the Dump, but Count Junato didn't support that idea at all. Besides it would be too close to the castle.
Countess Constance has supported the scientific work on the case, through her work at Constant Hope Hospital, and only sees the poor individuals, and not the problem.
Baron Gustav has not given it much of a thought yet, but for the lack of cemeteries, he supports the idea of regional chapels. I'm not sure how to handle this - how many ghosts can a world carry?
Maria never found the Pettonta Gral that she suspects to be hidden under the castle. In the past she sent the children down there to search for it, unsuccessfully. She is now 116 years old, and some might think she already found the gral, and had a sip of Youth. But no, she didn't. She now talked Lady Lincia into asking every family member about the gral mystery.
(It's so great that this family actually resided here for generations already, I don't even need to know who was the last to know about the gral )
It's well known that old Maria roams the underground net of long stony corridors, still hoping to find the gral. Her late husband, Gustavian Pettonta, told her about the gral, but he didn't know where it was located. And she already cursed him twice!
Maria's screaming and cursing could be heard all up to the library where Junato and Constance were preparing tonight's dinner party. And Junato realized he should enlighten his wife a little.
Pettonta Family Gral is a huge trophe, said to contain a small bottle of holy water. The person drinking the water will indeed earn eternal life. Junato knows a secret though, that he didn't even tell Lady Lincia when she asked lots of gral related questions the other day - The effect can only be achieved by a real Pettonta! Maria was married into this family, and if she drinks the water she would gain no effect. Junato thinks it's better this way, not telling his mother...
Then the dinner party was on! Three important men arrived the castle, and after they had checked into their guest rooms in the northern tower, everyone gathered in the Butterfly Room. The elderly is Count Vladdow from the countship of Vladinada, the blond man is son of a wealthy business man of Grapefield City, and the one with a beard, is oldest son of the Mayor of Bridgeport City.
Well, all three of them were seated near Lady Lincia, she is just a teen but will grow up very soon. She felt the situation as rather awkward.
And Maria did not like that her granddaughter got all this attention, while Maria was nearly ignored except a couple polite phrases now and then. Count Vladdow's wife died 10 years earlier, and now he was desperate because his sole heir recently died in a car accident. He will simply need to remarry to keep his countship!
Lady Lincia behaved politely, but didn't encourage anyone. As soon as everyone left the dining room, she snuck to the servants' kitchen, out into the kitchen garden. She is a dog lover, but this far they had no dogs at the castle, only the chicken and the cows. Naturally she had shared many thoughts with the cow, Rosie. And Rosie would always nod trustfully.
Well, there was probably some coffee and cigars in the library later on, or a drink in the castle garden, praising that the Autumn surprisingly had turned into Spring. Galucca never ever had Winter, what was going on with these disturbed seasons?
Next update; Seylouse family!
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