Secrets and Lies

"It's from Duncan," Phoebe said as she read the text she'd just received. "He says he'll be waiting to pick us up outside the station, near the Guild Street exit."

"He also said father's going to want to speak with me as soon as we get to the house," she added with a grimace as she put her phone away.

It was just past nine in the evening, and barring any last-minute surprises we were less than fifteen minutes from Aberdeen railway station. I wasn't sure how long it would take us to get from there to Phoebe's family home, but I doubted that would be a very long trip. Which meant that meeting with her father was probably less than half an hour away. So it made sense she was feeling a little anxious.

I tried to sound supportive as I responded, "I'm sure it'll be ok."

"Aye," she nodded slowly. Then she lowered her voice and admitted, "I might feel a bit more confident if I knew that truth spell of yours. It'd be nice knowing I could trust whatever they have to say, without having to resort to full-on mind reading magic."

"Cindy didn't share her little ebook with the rest of LIES?" I frowned.

The redhead shrugged, "I can't speak for the rest of 'em, but I've not seen it."

"I'm not allowed to share it or I'd send you a copy right now," I sighed. Then I dug my phone out and opened up my email app as I grumbled, "I really need to stop giving our boss the benefit of the doubt. Or start believing her when she says she's bad at this stuff."

Feebs suppressed a laugh, but otherwise kept quiet. Meanwhile I started writing out a note to Miss Talbot, to suggest she should think about sharing her little book of spells with the rest of the LIES staff. That way we'd all be on the same page and have access to the same tools. I also mentioned that Phoebe had started teaching me a few of her old brotherhood spells and that I would have returned the favour, if not for the dire warnings not to share that information with anyone else.

That actually reminded me of something else I'd been curious about, so I went ahead and added it to my email. I mentioned during those lessons I'd been able to enspell Phoebe after she suggested I test the safe spells out on her. It hadn't occurred to me at the time, but later on I remembered our enchanted tattoos were supposed to protect against magic as well as physical harm. And that left me wondering if perhaps Phoebe's tattoo was missing that extra level of protection. Or if there was some other loophole we'd accidentally found.

With that done I sent the email, then before putting my phone away I checked the weather conditions in Aberdeen. Unsurprisingly it was cold, wet, and blustery out there this evening. It was actually going down below freezing overnight, and there was a possibility of snow by morning.

Both Feebs and I were ready when we pulled into the station a few minutes later. She knew her way around the platforms and the main concourse, so I followed her lead since I'd never visited Aberdeen before. It turned out the station was connected to a large shopping venue, but apart from some restaurants most of it was closed up for the night.

When we finally emerged onto the street it only took Phoebe a few moments to locate our ride. Her brother was waiting behind the wheel of a fairly new luxury Rover, and he didn't look happy to see us. My partner and I both climbed into the back seat together, then as soon as the doors were closed Duncan put the vehicle in gear without a word.

That awkward silence continued through the rest of the drive. It took a few minutes to get out of the city, heading west on the A944. We passed the A90 then drove through a modest-sized town before finally turning off onto a smaller country lane. It was too dark out to see much of the landscape, but I was able to spot trees lining the road as we slowed to pull onto a long private drive.

When the Rover finally came to a stop I found myself staring at the rather large structure we'd parked in front of. Phoebe described it as a 'big home' but to me it looked more like a mansion. Except as the three of us emerged from the vehicle I started to note various little details that told me this wasn't any sort of traditional manor. I was no expert on the subject, but I was pretty sure this was a relatively new building. Probably put up in the eighties, but inspired by much older designs. It was meant to be impressive though, whoever built it wanted people to know the folks who lived here had money.

"Come along," Duncan grumbled as he led the way up the steps towards the large double doors of the main entrance.

Inside was what I could only describe as a grand entry hall, with a high vaulted ceiling. During the day most of the lighting would come from the tall windows that lined the front wall to either side of the doors, but now it was lit by a massive ornate wrought-iron chandelier suspended over the centre of the space. Despite having dozens of small bulbs it didn't seem to produce much light though. Or maybe they had it dimmed for some reason.

Either way it was still more than enough to see by, and I could clearly make out some wooden benches and leather-padded chairs positioned against the walls on either side of the hall. There were also a half dozen doors leading deeper into the house. Two were on the wall to the left, two more to our right, and the rest directly across from where we stood. Those were beneath a wide curving staircase that led up to the first floor, where I could see corridors leading both left and right.

"Mother and father are in the study," Duncan told my partner. "And considering you've kept them waiting almost a full twenty-four hours, I suggest you go and attend to them immediately."

Feebs sighed, "Aye. We'll do that now. I assume Trillium and I will be staying in one of the guest rooms?"

For a moment it looked like her brother was going to make some snide comment, perhaps about the two of us sharing a room and a bed. Whatever it was, he ended up keeping it to himself as he shrugged, "If you don't want to use your old room then I suppose you can pick whichever guest room you prefer. But right now you need to speak with our parents."

With that Duncan turned and marched up the big curving staircase, then disappeared out of sight through one of the doorways up there. Meanwhile Phoebe muttered something under her breath before turning towards me.

"We may as well get this over with," she sighed. "C'mon, the study's through here."

We left our bags on one of the benches, then Phoebe led me through a doorway on the right. We continued a short distance down a hallway, then made another right-hand turn through a slightly smaller doorway. There we found ourselves in a dimly-lit room that looked like a cross between a private library and a Victorian-era office.

Although there were a couple large ceiling fixtures they weren't being used, so the only illumination came from a couple smaller lamps. One sat atop a large antique-looking wood desk in the far corner, while the other was on a smaller end table nearer the door.

Looking around I noted three of the walls were covered from floor to ceiling in bookcases, while the fourth was home to several grand windows. Beneath those was a long sideboard, with what looked to be at least a dozen bottles of Scotch and various liqueurs arrayed on top. The bottles were accompanied by an assortment of glassware. The remaining furniture was arranged towards the middle of the room, with a half dozen large comfortable-looking wingback chairs, each with its own small side table.

Phoebe's parents were seated next to each other in a pair of those big comfy chairs, but her father slowly pulled himself up onto his feet after the two of us entered the room. He was hunched over a bit rather than standing straight, but even so I could tell he was a tall man, with a rather slim build and short wispy grey hair. His eyes seemed sharp though, even in the dim light, and it was easy to imagine he must have been a very impressive-looking figure when he was younger. It was also clear that Duncan inherited a lot of his looks from his father.

Mrs. Campbell on the other hand looked to be more petite, although she definitely wasn't as small as my partner. She also shared some of Phoebe's curves, enough so that it actually made me think the short stack look wasn't random chance or something that monster did to her on purpose. It may well have been the way she'd have turned out if she'd been a girl from the start.

The older couple were both dressed somewhat formally, Mr. Campbell wore dark slacks and a button-down shirt, with a dark grey cardigan overtop. And like Duncan, he was also wearing a tartan tie. His wife was a little more casual, in dark blue pants, a light blouse, and a large grey wool jumper on top.

All four of us quietly stared at one another for the first few seconds, but in the end it was Mr. Campbell who broke the silence.

"Welcome home child," he addressed Phoebe in a soft voice with a thick Scots accent. Unlike Duncan he didn't look or sound angry or scornful. Instead he actually sounded a little uncertain, or hesitant. Then to both our surprise he asked, "What name would you prefer we use for you? And, what pronouns?"

My partner blinked before answering, "I'm going by Phoebe now. Phoebe Aileen Campbell. And uh, my pronouns are she and her. I'm a girl, er, a young woman. Your daughter."

Mrs. Campbell spoke up there, but like her husband there was no anger or scorn in her voice. Instead she sounded a little surprised when she asked, "Aileen? After your grandmother?"

"Aye," Feebs nodded.

I hadn't heard her mention a middle name before, but it was nice to know she'd picked something that seemed important to both her and her parents. Or her mother at least. It looked like her father had more questions, but Phoebe spoke up again first.

The cute redhead gestured as she did the introductions, "This is Trillium Sharpe. She's my friend as well as my partner and colleague. Trillium, that's my father William. And my mother, Moira."

"It's a pleasure to meet you both," I greeted them.

"Likewise," William responded. "I understand you've become a rather important person in my, er, daughter's life."

He didn't give me a chance to reply though, as his focus returned to Phoebe so he could continue with his questions.

"Will you tell us why you've done this to yourself?" he asked. "Why you changed yourself into a young woman? And does that have anything to do with why you left Edinburgh, why you left Scotland and moved to Cardiff?"

"Are you happy like this?" her mother added. "Is this what you truly wanted for yourself?"

Once again neither of them sounded disrespectful, I didn't get the impression their questions were meant as the opening to any sort of argument. Instead it seemed like they were curious about their child, maybe even concerned for her. I could tell she'd noticed that too, from her expression it looked like she wasn't quite prepared for the direction the meeting had taken.

After a deep breath Phoebe gestured to the nearest chairs and suggested, "Let's all have a seat. This'll be a bit of a long story, we may as well get comfortable."

"Of course," her father agreed immediately. He almost seemed embarrassed, as though he just realized he'd been so focused on Feebs he forgot his manners.

Meanwhile the cute redhead glanced over at the sideboard under the windows and added, "A drink might not be a bad idea either, all things considered."

A minute or two later all four of us were holding glasses of fine Scotch as we relaxed in the comfy wingback chairs, while Phoebe explained her situation to her parents. And despite her long obsession with secrecy, she was completely honest and open with them about what led to her transformation in November. She began by telling them it wasn't actually her choice or decision, that she was changed after a run-in with a supernatural monster.

From there she jumped back to the very beginning, and told her parents about the brotherhood and how she spent over two decades working for them when she lived in Edinburgh. She didn't go into a lot of details, but I noted she didn't make it sound like they were doing anything heroic. She didn't paint them as evil either, instead she kept things rather neutral.

Then she told her parents how the brotherhood came to an end just over a year ago, leaving her unemployed for real until her friend Owen invited her to join his new operation in Cardiff. Feebs didn't go into too many details there either, but she did say that LIES was tasked with keeping the British Isles safe from supernatural dangers, and that was why we'd been doing so much travelling lately.

Through it all the older couple remained silent, although there were several points where they appeared surprised or even shocked. Other times they seemed more sceptical, but the only interruption came when Phoebe paused her story to pour herself and her father another glass of whisky. Moira and I were sipping ours a lot more slowly, so neither of us needed a refill.

I was mostly quiet as well, although I did chime in now and then towards the end, when Phoebe's story involved me or some of the things we'd been up to recently. Although neither of us went into too many details when it came to the actual cases we'd worked together. Except for the first one, that is.

Feebs wrapped up her tale with what happened to her in Yorkshire, how she and I met on that case and together with Martin and Inspector Carter we brought an end to a monster that had killed over a dozen men. She explained how that resulted in her transformation and claimed the process was irreversible, which wasn't exactly true. Either way though she assured her parents that she was alright. She told them it only took her a couple days to adjust, and promised them she was happy. Both with how her body ended up, and with her life in general.

When Phoebe was finished we were all quiet for the next minute or two. Her parents both appeared to be processing everything she'd just revealed, and we'd all drained our glasses by that point.

Eventually it was her mother who broke the silence. The older woman slowly shook her head as she commented quietly, "That's... amazing. I don't know how else to describe it."

Then her father spoke up with another question, "Why didn't you ever tell us what you were doing? Why let us spend the last twenty-five years thinking you were a lazy playboy, living it up on the allowance I sent you?"

"The Brotherhood was all about secrecy," Phoebe replied. "If I'd told you about them, about what we were doing, they'd have killed me. And possibly you as well."

"Our new boss is a lot less concerned with that. In fact she's the one bringing magic to the world," she added with a little grimace.

Her parents seemed more than a little shocked by both of those revelations. Then her father's expression shifted slightly, to more of a thoughtful frown. After a second or two he asked, "Phoebe would you please pour us another drink? There's something else I need to discuss with you."

"Miss Sharpe," he added as his attention turned to me. "I don't mean to be rude, but would you mind excusing us? There's some things my daughter and I need to talk about in private."

Feebs took a step towards the sideboard but when her dad addressed me she stopped and gave me a worried look. "Will you be ok waiting out in the main hall? I'll join you there as soon as we're done."

"This shouldn't take more than a few minutes," Mr. Campbell added.

"Alright," I nodded as I got to my feet. Then before exiting the study I gave Phoebe a supportive smile and whispered, "Good luck!"