Alex blinks, taken off guard by his change in demeanor. "Why did I come here? Well, my family, my dad's side of the family, I mean, lived in this city for centuries. My dad left young, coming to America to make his fortune, and he only came back a few times on holiday, and not for very long." She pauses. "My mom was American, so I got to learn about her side of the family. I visited the plantation where her ancestor had been a slave, the farmsteads that he sheltered in when he escaped, the battlefields where he fought in the Civil War, and the businesses his descendants founded to bring the family out of poverty. Those stories intrigued me, and inspired me, but I never had any connection with dad's side of the family."
She looks up at him, surprised at how open she's being, but feeling compelled to keep speaking. "Dad's ancestors were a big deal in this city. They were nobles that fought in the Thirty Years War, and were rewarded with territory in this region. They got rich, and powerful, apparently even having influence at a national level, but after Carolus Rex died, they lost power, and all of them besides one small, impoverished branch ended up dead. I've been trying to figure out what the reason was for their fall from grace, but sources are pretty limited." She chuckles. "You probably wouldn't guess it, but I'm a big history nerd. I actually was a history teacher back in the States, as well as an English teacher, so the fact that there's a mystery like this in my own family is intriguing. Well, more like irresistible." She smiles at Gabriel. "Don't worry, though, whoever was responsible for my family's downfall are long dead, and I doubt their descendants particularly care about me."
