Helen of Wyndhorn #2

 Written by Ninja Jupi

It took a while, but I finally managed to get Issue 2 of this series thanks to Mark! Appreciate you, man. It seemed to be sold out everywhere despite it just having come out at the time. Luckily I didn’t have that problem with issue 3 since I preordered that and the same will go for future volumes. Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get into it.

This volume opens with a book signing event. The author is Thomas Rogers, and the book that’s being signed is for a fan who happens to be the niece of Lilith Appleton from the previous volume.  It’s been three years since the interview she had and within the past year, she’d passed away. It seems the niece didn’t know much about her time working for the estate. 

So, we get a flashback to the aftermath of how the last volume ended. They’re sitting down to a meal with Helen’s grandfather. Of course she wants some clarification of what happened and why it happened. It also seems that after the incident, Helen didn’t seem to drink heavily, still wasn’t able to smoke, and also seemed to stay in Lilith’s room.

Helen would constantly ask her grandfather, in her rude kind of way, about the incident, but her pleas would go unanswered. At one point, her seemingly distant grandfather, just told her “No” when demanding an explanation. Lilith being the no-nonsense, reserved governess that she is, pretty much asserted that what had happened and what they encountered wasn’t anything to be concerned over…that it was only some exotic animal on the grounds. Of course this didn’t satisfy Helen.

We are back in the present and we see the author from earlier looking for recordings from the interview conducted with Lilith.  Rogers seems to want to go back over them. Unfortunately, they seem to be lost, but he did eventually find them and listened. He seemed a bit disappointed due to the fact that Lilith’s account of things was passed off as mostly nonsense and second guessing himself. At this point, he has no one else he can even talk to about what happened.

Going back to the past, we find out that Lilith did indeed feel some agitation over what had occurred, but was setting those feelings aside to keep up appearances and not let it show.  While going over lessons with Helen, the young girl asked if Lilith could conduct them outside in the garden or some other part of the grounds, just to get out for a while.  During one of the sessions, Helen took off, claiming that someone else was around. Lilith didn’t sense or see anyone and went after the fast girl to fetch her.

The person that Helen seemed to have been sensing was Barnabas in a clearing feeding some type of animal. Helen identified the creature immediately, recognizing it as a creature from one of her father’s stories, who was an author.  Barnabas did acknowledge this but then told Helen that she should return to her studies. He wasn’t seen for dinner that night.

That night Lilith awaited Helen to inevitably show up to her room, but didn’t. She went to check on her to see the girl in thought, while smoking (Barnabas had them delivered to her earlier). She started reminiscing about her father and going on about not having his books. It seemed that her father wasn’t keen on Helen reading his books or didn’t think highly of them despite seemingly being rather accomplished. She continued on, about how she dreamed of the creatures from her late father’s books. It’s almost like she’s saying the things in the books would materialize in a physical form. It was also pointed out that her father would drink by Helen, who would fall into deep slumbers.

Lilith, being concerned about Helen, who is revealed to be 16 this issue, confronted Barnabas. She shared her thoughts, insisting that Helen is “a good girl” and as the one responsible for her health and education feels something should be done. Barnabas pointed out how he drank just as much as Helen at her age. Lilith made the mistake of pointing out that his son drank a lot as well and how he should probably spend actual time with her. The conversation grew hostile, and Barnabas angrily ordered her to get out of his sight. Luckily for the apologetic,anxious Lilith she wasn’t fired. After that incident, Barnabas was even more scarce.

Later on, Helen gets into the sword room after drinking. She’s swinging the sword around at Joseph and Lilith, threatening to slay monsters. Sherry even accused Lilith of being one, but Lilith talked her down and hugged her.  That night, after a month of being absent from meals, Barnabas joined them. He didn’t seem bothered by the sword incident at all, and told them that he’s going on a journey, which will take a few days, to reunite the creature he was feeding earlier, known as a Flyune, with its mother. The surprising part was his explaining how he’d need help and was taking Helen with him.

This issue was interesting, but there’s still a lot of secrets. How is this creature and the one from the last issue actually exist. Earlier, Helen made the quip that her grandfather understands why she left the manor. The drinking seems to run in the family. That aside, I still have questions and there was a little background revealed on Helen’s father, C. K. Cole and Lilith bringing up his means of death with Barnabas during their conversation. Welp, time for issue 3 to see how Helen’s excursion with her grandfather goes.