Linneus
Legacy Name: Linneus

The Earl

The Manor

He sat on his bovine leather Barcelona chair, his feet resting on the foot rest inches away. A small ornate Brazilian rosewood coffee table with a glass center was resting on top of a white tiger rug spread out on the floor next to him. On the other side of the coffee table was a matching bovine leather Barcelona couch with another small Brazilian rosewood table next to it. An ornate gold frame with a beautiful delicately designed lamp shade over it. On the walls hung expensive pieces of art and lamp like structures protruding from the wall itself. A flat screen television hanging on the wall and the smell of fresh tea filling the mansion. It was a two story Victorian era mansion surrounded by a green lawn in the front and back, a black metal fence surrounding the perimeter, and a few flower beds in the front of the house. In the back there was a beautiful flower garden with a stone walk way in, out, and around it. Tree's lined the backyard and the side of the mansion, giving the place a bit of a private feel to it. It was old but up kept and beautiful.

Laying in front of the fireplace was a silver Weimaraner shepherd mix, ears folded down, tail wrapped around it's back legs, and a beautiful leather collar hanging from its neck with a florid gold pendant. The sweet aroma of strawberry fruit tea tantalized his senses, forcing him to get up from his comfortable chair and find his way to the kitchen. He grabbed the tea pot and brought it over to a matching porcelain china with gold trim. As he poured the tea into the cup the smell resonated through the kitchen giving the house the most pleasant aroma. He brought his delicate tea cup back to his chair where he sat back down and let out a content sigh. Blowing across the surface of the warm liquid before taking a sip the subtle strawberry flavor dancing on his tongue. There was nothing better than tea in his opinion.

He was raised in this mansion that was now only home to the two of them, himself and his dog. His parents were blue blooded individuals who were born into money just as he was. The mansion used to be filled with maids and butlers catering to them at the drop of a hat. On many occasions the mansion was filled with people, his mother and father liked to entertain. The weekends were especially special for his mother she would invite her acquaintances and hold tea parties with extravagant pastries and imported teas. His father was a cigar smoker and a hunter, they usually had a couple of hound dogs running around the house begging for food and occasionally being the ones that brought food home. It was a life of luxury and it wasn't like that had changed at all, but even though he had enough money to keep him happy living his lifestyle of drinking tea in the afternoons he was bored. Why not have a little side job to keep himself busy?

Antiquity

In the middle of a bustling city, side by side with skyscrapers and stores, there was an antique shop called Antiquity. A small bell hung over the door to alert the cashier whenever someone walked in (which wasn't very common). If the bell wasn't loud enough to let the cashier know someone was there an owl in an ornate bronze cage would, with a unsuspecting hoot from inside of its cage most likely your surprised screech would alert someone. It was rather quaint in there with the faint sound of music playing in the background. There were the normal items you would usually find in an antique shop like clocks, vases, jewelry boxes, furniture, lamps, the occasional fur, and an old fashion gun or two. There were books piled around the back in an old bookcase some of them were normal books others were in different languages or about witchcraft. When strolling down the isles your eyes would find an unusual item or two every once in a while, like a hand sized shaman totem, an unusually ornate locked jewelry box, a strange yet mesmerizing ring, a if your lucky a tiny gold relic.

Next to the cash register was an black oil lamp and a rather unusual daruma doll. No one really ever read into the items more than they had too. occasionally picking something up, turning it over, and putting it back down where they found it. An item would from time to time find a new home elsewhere. Business was constantly slow but it's not like he was about to go under, he didn't need the money, this was just an extremely enjoyable hobby. Towards the back of the shop there was a large red curtain that sectioned off a private part of the shop, a place he usually emerged from when a customer came in. His Weimaraner shepherd mix, Cornellia, almost always accompanied him to the shop laying on a dog bed behind the counter sleeping. What a great guard dog right?

His shop was a little different from most antique shops, yes they had in common the abundance of old items, but strewed among the usual there were a couple of unusually special items.

Something special

Placed on an old desk that looked like it had been surely used by someone important from the past was an ornate rose vase. The handles were red and its body was cream with delicately painted on green vines and leaves and a few beautiful roses drawing your eye to the lower right side of the vase. To most it looked like something you could find at any antique shop or even a specialty shop. Assuming it was something to simply fill up with water and to stick flowers in for decoration. It could serve that purpose of course but it was made with an even deeper meaning to it. Made during an unknown era of Japan the vase had been carefully crafted for the purpose of an offering, from a man to his beloved. Before he could give his vase to the woman he loved the village he lived in was pillaged by the emperor's soldiers and the man died protecting his vase. The rumor was the vase was brought back to the emperor and sat at his grand dinning table always filled with beautiful flowers.

At night the whispers of a man could be heard in the halls calling out for a woman. The spirit of the man continued to search for his one true love living within the vase, unable to find her, continually haunting wherever his vase was moved too. Through the years the vase had eventually been dumped somewhere falling from the grace of the emperor's dinner table to a pile of junk being sold at a yard sale. A family no longer able to live in their home, being pushed out by what they called 'supernatural occurrences' at night. Linneus had been visiting Japan when he stumbled across the yard sale looking at anything he could sell back at his shop, looking for something like perhaps a vintage kimono or some ornate little hair ornaments that would sell very well but instead he stumbled upon the vase that seemed to call out to him. The aura around it was very blurry, he knew there was something special about this handcrafted vase. The woman there gave it to him for a very reasonable price and he left with some would call a cursed object. He brought it back home trying to do any kind of research about it, who had made it, who it belonged too, anything. He found nothing on it anywhere and he begrudgingly put it on a table in his shop.

On a particularly gloomy day a man walked in who looked like he was coming home from work, silently walking through the store and touching nothing. His black hair was slightly swooped in front of his eyes and they had a redish tint to them. He came across the vase as if it had been calling to him, reaching out to touched the glazed surface. Linneus turned away for a second to take a sip of tea and when he turned back the man seemed to be mumbling to himself. Linneus walked over and listened to him mumbling a name over and over a again. A woman's name, Linneus reached out a hand to touch his shoulder and ask if he was okay and the man snapped out of it. Blinking a few times and looking at Linneus confused. The man apologized and left as if nothing had been wrong. He decided to look up the woman's name and found out who she really was. She was the Emperor's mistress who was being secretly courted by a young man without the Emperors knowledge. The man was a man of many crafts and made her many clay objects such as trinkets, sculptures, etc. One day the Emperor found out about his mistress' lover and send his men to the village in which he lived and killed them all. They pillaged the homes of the dead and brought back anything valuable they could find. In a note to her mother she had wrote:"I came to dinner that night unaware of the devastation I was soon to know. I saw a beautiful vase on the table and I knew by its design and its detail he had made it. He always called me his darling rose. It was only then I knew what he had done and it destroyed me."

The Lonely Road

It turned out the woman ended up committing suicide leaving her illegitimate child with the Emperor with her elderly parents. No longer able to live in a world without her lover and tired of being the mistress of a cruel man. Now he understood, the reason the woman in Japan had sold it to him for so cheap and were so desperate to get rid of it. They had known its origin and wanted it away from their possession but too afraid to destroy it and anger the spirit that lived within it. He spent a few days tracing the bloodline of the woman who's lover had been killed. And finally with a confident smile he had a name and an address of a woman who was a descendant of the woman who committed suicide. He flew back to Japan with the vase in possession to finally satisfy the mans soul.