Carlisle looks up at the painting one last time before turning from it, stepping back into the hallway to continue the tour.
"Halfway to fifteen, as I recall," he replies. "It was commissioned shortly before my father met his end."
He takes only a quick glance into the dining room as they pass by the door. The table in the center of the room is the sort one would use to host a whole family at a gathering, with chairs lining its long sides, the runner on its surface embroidered with more bear iconography; however, he remembers it only seating the immediate family at one end, and that was on the rare occasion they ate in there rather than at the smaller table in the kitchen. The days of the Longinmouth estate having enough members to fill that table were long gone. At least the tall windows on the far wall, ones with more stained glass depicting strange creatures (a bear, a long creature akin to a weasel, and a winged bird of some sort), were lovely, even in this recreation of his home.
He paused to give Qubit a moment to enjoy the room himself before moving on, feeling the need to elaborate more on his answer. "I'd nearly died earlier that year, and we had not yet realized that in my survival, I was cursed. My uncles thought it pertinent to have a portrait of all of us painted after the incident, should the worst come to pass for any one of us. We hadn't one where we were all together. Unfortunately, this became the only portrait like that."
no subject
"Halfway to fifteen, as I recall," he replies. "It was commissioned shortly before my father met his end."
He takes only a quick glance into the dining room as they pass by the door. The table in the center of the room is the sort one would use to host a whole family at a gathering, with chairs lining its long sides, the runner on its surface embroidered with more bear iconography; however, he remembers it only seating the immediate family at one end, and that was on the rare occasion they ate in there rather than at the smaller table in the kitchen. The days of the Longinmouth estate having enough members to fill that table were long gone. At least the tall windows on the far wall, ones with more stained glass depicting strange creatures (a bear, a long creature akin to a weasel, and a winged bird of some sort), were lovely, even in this recreation of his home.
He paused to give Qubit a moment to enjoy the room himself before moving on, feeling the need to elaborate more on his answer. "I'd nearly died earlier that year, and we had not yet realized that in my survival, I was cursed. My uncles thought it pertinent to have a portrait of all of us painted after the incident, should the worst come to pass for any one of us. We hadn't one where we were all together. Unfortunately, this became the only portrait like that."