The Evernight family's banquet hall's grand doors flew open with such force that platters shook.
In the doorway, Aunt Seraphina stood with her cutlass shining in the light from the chandelier. Her eyes swept over the stunned faces of her relatives, and the scar over her left eye, a remnant of the Battle of Boiling Bay, twitched.
"Twenty years," she said. "Twenty years, and not a single one of you thought to check the wine cellar?"
Silence.
Evangeline, gnawing lazily on the Holy Ladle, blinked up at her.
From the shadows, Dante's disembodied voice floated.
"Uh… the attic?"
Seraphina's eye twitched harder.
"THE WINE CELLAR!" she roared, slamming her blade into the table.
Plates jumped off the floor.
"Your imbecile grandfather locked me in there during the Coup of the Silver Platter and forgot! I survived on vinegar and sheer hatred for three months before digging my way out through the underground!"
The Duke of Evernight went pale.
"Ah. That… explains the lingering odor in the west wing."
Seraphina then told them what happened after she escaped from the castle.
The story of the twin terrors of the high seas was one of salt, steel, and betrayal.
In the past, Seraphina and Selphina had dominated the waves as the Black Broth Armada, with their flagship, The Salty Noodle, terrifying both navies and merchants.
But during the Great Spice Heist, Selphina had stolen the Jewel of Umami—a legendary relic said to season the very seas to its wielder's whim.
Seraphina, bound by pirate code, had no choice.
She left her sister stranded on the Isle of Expired Milk.
Big mistake.
Selphina hated expired milk.
"So you left Aunt Selphina in the place she hated the most?" Cedric asked.
"I place a bet that she will take a revenge on you." Theo declared as he pulls his pocket earning a smack on the head by Lucien.
"SMACK! Tone down your habit of betting Theo. Or I will throw your friends out." Lucien muttered.
The family will never guessed that Selphina is back and planning her revenge.
And now, years later, she had returned, not for forgiveness, but to erased the very concept of flavor itself.
Selphina's Vow: "If I can't have the Jewel… then no one gets soup."
Deep beneath the castle, in a crypt that reeked of spoiled broth, Selphina stirred her cauldron.
The liquid inside swirled like a tempest, dark and hungry.
"The pacifier was merely the appetizer," she murmured, her voice a velvet threat. "The main course…"
She raised the Jewel of Umami, which was now broken and had creeping shadows tainting its golden light.
"I will erase every recipe. Every memory of taste. Until the world forgets even the sweetness of sugar."
Gerard, bound in chains, shuddered. "But… why?"
Selphina had a sharp smile.
"Because Seraphina continues to dream about mangoes. And I will take even that from her."
When the sun rose, the castle awoke to horror.
The bread…. tasteless.
The jam…. like ash.
Even Whiskerton's prized tuna had lost its scent.
Selphina's curse was spreading.
And in the nursery, clutched in Evangeline's tiny fist…
The pacifier had gone completely bland.
Earth Timeline
Evangeline's sister scowled at her phone screen.
"That traitorous furball," she muttered, watching Chairman Meow's latest viral video: "How to Train Your Human: A Masterclass" (4.1 million views and counting).
With a furious tap, she uploaded her rebuttal—security footage of the cat stealing her limited-edition EX' ACT lightstick.
Caption: "#JusticeForAyaka. Also, why am I stuck in a tiny apartment with a thieving cat?!"
Chairman Meow's response?
A deliberate paw swipe sent her phone plunging into the fish tank.