Old Blood [Elizabeth]

[Alaric von der Marck]

As soon as they were within the trees, Alaric was more alert. The rustle of leaves and the breaking of twigs were easily dismissed as the movement of small animals, but should anything larger surge toward them, he would be ready. He nodded, the two separate topics of conversation nestles in his skull; he wanted to laugh, though the memories kept him from doing so.

”It is something that they did privately. They thought that I did not know. I did not care – we were far enough away from most civilization that their folk beliefs were not punished as witchcraft,” he said. The wars that ravaged his countryside while he was both alive and dead were not the only things that disrupted the working and ruling classes. Amongst it all were the witch trials, the burnings and the drownings. Never could he stay in any place too long – when in the beginning he could not control himself, he left too many drained corpses in his wake, too many dead animals, dead livestock. He was hunted as the devil himself; had once woken to searing pain as his hiding spot was burned to the ground, forced out into the sunlight, to lick his wounds in some cave somewhere, skin blistered and peeling.

He then shrugged his shoulders.

”I have not needed the council of our kin before; for so long I doubted that my sire had anything to do with my turning, I wondered whether her face was just an apparition and that I was alone. To have others to speak to now, it is a novelty now – I seek knowledge,” he said. He then turned to Elizabeth, watching her features by the moonlight that filtered in through the leaves.

”Please, will you tell me about it? Why here, and here alone?” he asked. It was the knowledge he was thirsty for. He had a family expecting him to lead, and though he would try to do his best, Alaric was still trying to catch up on all that he had missed.

[Elizabeth]

Many people that were accused and convicted of being a 'witch,' had been nothing close to what most people would imagine a witch to be. Not in that time, nor in this one. Many innocent men and woman were named in an attempt to save the life of the weaker. They believed in naming a neighbor, or a friend that they would be seen as 'without guilt,' but in fact often they remained imprisoned while investigations progressed against those they named and those close to the accuser. This would go on for months, if not years and in the end, causing many people to die from disease, or even neglect.

When Alaric looked at her and spoke of their shared sire, Elizabeth just nodded. She could not relate, for when she was not near her sire, it was due to Elizabeth's own choice and desires. They had been close once, but Elizabeth could hardly remember what the woman looked like anymore. Though, she could hardly remember any of the elders as most seemed to have retreated from the public eye, or even their familial eye. "Here is-maybe...was a special place or sorts." Elizabeth began to retell the story as she lived it and heard it time and time again when they first escaped the realms. "Our sire, she had a vision of sorts, I suppose one would say." She paused and cast Alaric a wayward glance before she continued. "A crow came to her and spoke of this place. The crow led us all here-her, her brother, her childre. Others came here as well, with some of their kin." Elizabeth began walking once again, wishing to not draw any attention to them from anyone; fae, vampire or hunter. "The crow claimed that while we were here, we would never see a true death." She laughed and shook her head slowly. "Do not confuse the words for implying we will never die. We can and do indeed still do die." While it had been a few years since Elizabeth had seen a death, she knew very well that it was possible to die. "We are able to return should death befall us. After a while, we return as if nothing had changed at all. As if we never left." Elizabeth pulled at the patterned skirt of her outfit to walk over some tiny branches and leaves. "The crow's presence has been gone for some time now. Our kind betrayed her but a few years ago and she has not been seen, nor heard from since that betrayal. What that means for our kind, I, nor anyone else knows. We simply must wait and see." Elizabeth's morose tone implied her true feelings on the matter. "I do not believe I have seen a death since her absence, so I can not tell you if her being gone affects anything."

[Alaric von der Marck]

The story should have been enough to have Alaric laughing and ludicrousness of it, but he’d long ago stopped laughing at anything faintly supernatural. Every story was given the requisite amount of consideration and only after the trustworthiness of it was accepted or denied did he judge it for its authenticity. This story was delivered by a woman who knew their sire better than Alaric did. It was a story delivered by someone older than Alaric, who knew more than he did regardless of her relationship with Isabella.

He was thoughtfully silent after Elizabeth had finished, pondering what she had said and the implications, how the story related to him.

”I have come back from the dead,” he said, finally. ”I did not expect to. I did not know that I could. But if I am here, if I have returned, then the ability to do so for others cannot have been taken away. Unless it is different, because I did not come of my own free will,” he said, his thoughts spoken out loud. A ritual brought him back. He needed to be lured. He had to bite the bait that brought him toward the light. A net had to be thrown into the deep, in the hope that he would swim right into it and be snared, and hauled into the fresh air. He had not come back earlier, with the rest of them. The question of why was on the tip of his tongue, but it was not the question that he eventually asked.

”When I left Germany, with my family, I came to Canada because it was new, because there was a war that had been ravaging my home for years and in order to ascertain the safety and longevity of my family, I felt that we had to leave our home behind. I do not know why I came to Canada, specifically. I do not know why I finally decided that we would rebuild our home outside of a small town called Harper Rock. I was here when you were. When she was, and yet I did not know. I was not fully aware of why. Or how. It is too much of a coincidence, is it not? Do you think that others might have been drawn here, regardless of visions? Or maybe it was the bond with her…” he said, again he was thinking out loud, but he was still genuinely interested in the answers that Elizabeth might give. Did she think it was possible that, rather than floating along in this ocean alone they were all in some way, shape or form connected? Whether to each other, or to something greater, did it matter?

[Elizabeth]

There was something...alarming in Alaric's words. A thought that she hadn't pondered over before now. Was he implying that he died somewhere else? And was back from the dead by other means, not of his own volition? It was possible to raise a vampire spirit, even against their will, and potentially make them whole again with a lot of ritual knowledge, but who, if not Isabella managed to bring him back from wherever he died? And that begged another question. Could Isabella and Zachariah's sire return if another willed it? The thought would have turned her blood cold were it not already that way.

"Perhaps." Elizabeth said in agreement after a few more steps, the sound of more twigs snapping in half under her weight. "I suppose not everyone had encountered our sire and decided to come here due to the crow and her knowledge." Elizabeth supposed anything was possible, though it seemed as if Staus came because of his relationship with Isabella, and then she, and Antigony...she supposed that others perhaps heard rumours from their thralls or childre in passing. "Perhaps the crow even came to others in a variety of ways. She is, or at least was, powerful." Elizabeth said softly with a shake of her head. "You would be better to ask our sire how the others may have come to know of this place. If she had encountered the others; like Mircea, Habren, Amaranthia, Cobb, and a few others..." She trailed off, still thinking about the possibility of Isabella's sire returning without any of them knowing such a thing had happened or were possible.

"I dislike being the bearer of bad news, but I am starting to feel as if we have pressed our luck by remaining here so long. Was there anything else you wish to know?" The woman started inching her way closer to the outline of the wilderness as she spoke, eyes sweeping back and forth before falling on him. "I will answer any singular question to the best of my ability, before I must return to the safety of the city." She looked at him apologetically before taking a few more steps away from him and to the city limits.

[Alaric von der Marck]

The conversation, Alaric had thought, was going well. At least it was flowing more easily than it had before, Elizabeth opening up more, speaking more, revealing more about herself. And then, like the flick of a switch she was retreating. Alaric’s head cocked to the side as he watched her, gaze sweeping their surrounds before he tentatively followed in her footsteps. Perhaps they had outstayed their welcome, though Alaric would question the validity of her statement – the city, he thought, was not at all safe. It was full of roaring machinery and flickering lights, music too loud and raucous, the air like poison to lungs unused to the pollution. If Elizabeth was determined to disappear into the riotous city centre, Alaric would not follow. The two would have to go their separate ways.

”I did not ask to meet you to interview you,” he said, shaking his head even as they picked their way back toward the city lights. Even the light was pollution. At first Alaric had marvelled at the invention, but now he often found the electric lights to be too bright, too invasive. He’d asked that the lights in the estate be mostly replaced with warm bulbs, or that most rooms be lit by the fireplaces or strategically placed lamps. He could not stand pitch darkness, but nor could he stand bright light. It was infuriating, to live thusly torn.

”I merely wished to know you. Questions I have in plenty, though they are better asked in the natural course of conversation. But if you wish to go home I will not stop you,” he said with a congenial bow of his head. He was not disappointed, nor was he happy to let her go. They had all the time in the world, and having lived what already felt like eternity, Alaric had patience in spades. This first meeting did not have to be their last; maybe next time he would be a little more inclined to venture toward the noise and light. Inching step by inching step, he might be able to breach the city, to conquer his fears.

What was life, if death was no issue? It would remain a battle with one’s own fears. Without fear, it would be meaningless.

[Elizabeth]

A wry smile fell upon her lips. Were not all meetings and introductions an interview of sorts? To her, they were. If one had a negative encounter the first go around, it was unlikely a second meeting and opportunity would arise. If a person was well received, then the likelihood of another meeting increased with each pleasant moment that passed between the two.

Her feelings about Alaric were undetermined at this particular time. Would Elizabeth be adverse to seeing him again? No. Would she seek him out, though? Perhaps not. There was nothing to dislike about the male, but Elizabeth's mind and 'spirit' for a lack of better term was just not in to encountering new individuals, or engaging in social calls and visits. Usually her nights, along with her thoughts were consumed with what was, what is, and what will be in her own life. How to progress. She had thought of asking others, but as the nights went on, it was more and more apparent to Elizabeth that her problems and burdens were hers and hers alone to sort through and bear. Everyone had their own lives and problems-she was no special or different.

Elizabeth started to dip her head and retreat when Alaric mentioned Elizabeth going 'home.' Had the telepath woman indicated that that was where she would be going? The tower once was not what it was anymore. The thought to sell it had crossed her mind more than a handful of times. "Home?" Elizabeth echoed before smiling and shaking her head. "There are many places in the city in which I feel safer than standing here, in the woods, or even on the outskirts of them." She laughed softly before taking a final step out of the woods and finding the grassier barrier that served as a notice of sorts to those either coming or going from the woods that their chosen path was about to change any second.

"I would like to continue this conversation..but..." Elizabeth shirked back just a little more as her ears caught the sound of twigs snapping. "Perhaps, if you inform me of where it is I may call upon thee...I have many of gardens within the city. Conversations always seem to flow more easily there, without the threat of a dangerous nemesis in the horizons." The offer was presented, and left in Alaric's position to take or decline. "Or perhaps, I believe I have a key to our sire's apartment...we could continue this another night." Another possibility, if that one suited him better, than going to a place where no one might know where the other elder would be. Who to trust these nights was a difficult thing to figure out, even when just discussing something as trivial as the weather.

[Alaric von der Marck]

The elder could admit that she had not mentioned ‘home’, and that there might have been plenty of other safe places in the city that they could go, but he did not know of those places. In retrospect, the entire city could be safe, but Alaric was as keen on wandering into the depths of the city as he was of staying in the woods with the fae.

”You may call on me at home,” he said, the sentence stuttering to a stop as he narrowed his eyes at the ground. It was strange, to be telling a woman that she could call on him. It should be the other way around – it was only proper. But, as he was constantly reminded, times had changed. ”I have an estate to the south of the city. The gates, you cannot miss them,” he said. While he was vacationing in the shadow realm his descendants hadn’t let the home fall into disrepair. They had instead protected its historical gravitas while respectfully expanding. The city had not encroached upon the estate due to the land that was owned by the von der Marck family.

”I would also like to see these gardens you speak of. Are they private?” he asked. It would be good to know if there were safe havens within the city limits; he said nothing about their sire’s apartment. If he thought it was strange that a woman could call on a man at his home, without escort, then he found it stranger still that he and Elizabeth could use their sire’s home, whether she was there or not. Would she be there, or was Elizabeth’s blatant use of the place a sign that Isabelle was not around? It didn’t bear asking.

”I would like to continue this conversation,” he said. When they met again, he could ask Elizabeth whether he had the contact details of the others that she had mentioned. Other elders. Alaric had spent far too long in the dark – both before and during his death. It was time, now, to step out into the light.

[Elizabeth]

The parallel of Alaric's current state of being; stuck in what was; reminded Elizabeth of her own life a little over five years ago. Their lives sort of paralleled the other at one point in time; but it would be interesting to see if Alaric transformed from what was, to what would be. Or if he would take after their sire and dig his feet in against the changes and be lost within the modern world. This did not mean, by any means, that Elizabeth believed herself to be completely modern, but she was not so lost that she could not manage to progress in a forward fashion. At least, Elizabeth believed more times than not, she was moving forward and not backwards, or remaining stagnant. Others, might believe otherwise.

A high brow was raised when Alaric mentioned Elizabeth calling upon him at his home. While she could find out where that was, just by flitting through his memories, Elizabeth did not feel compelled to rifle through them. Perhaps because he was another elder, or because they shared blood through that of their sire; whatever the reason was, Elizabeth's brow suggested her surprise at being offered such a thing. The city's southern limits was not a place Elizabeth ventured to often; the woman spending a great deal of her time in her shops, or one of her various homes. Occasionally she made a point to stop into one of the many businesses her husband owned, making sure that the bills were paid, there was still inventory and the staff were happy. That latter, she could do little about, other than promise them that Shamus would be back at some point to discuss their yearly increase in pay, as was owed to them. And for as much as Elizabeth wanted to believe that were true, Elizabeth couldn't help but know that soon just wasn't soon enough, or may never come.

Her head nodded when Alaric asked if they were private gardens. "They are indeed." She offered a small smile before elaborating on that more. "I have owned each one for a different length of time, but they are all safe to hold conversations within." Elizabeth assured Alaric before she reached within the pockets of her skirt and pulled out a copy of her tome. "I shall call upon thee soon, so that we may continue this conversation at another time." Elizabeth assured and promised him, before the woman whispered the fae words and vanished from sight.

[Alaric von der Marck]

Before Alaric could further inquire about the gardens, the woman was gone. Private gardens sounded like a perfect sanctuary; but if they were private, they would require keys to get into, would they not? And yet, what did he think he was going to ask? Whether he could use the woman’s private gardens? They had only just met, such a question was out of bounds.

And what was that she had used, anyway? She disappeared. It wasn’t a power. It was a piece of paper, with words written on it. What were those words? Questions that he may ask her next time, if he didn’t ask someone else, first. Left alone at the edge of the city, Alaric forced himself to readjust. The sounds and sights of the night fell around him. Crickets, the snap of twigs, the breeze whispering through the trees. Alaric stared into the undergrowth, wondering whether there really was a Fae on their tail, or whether it was just in their imagination. Just in case, Alaric stepped back into the confines of the city, his buffed shoes scraping the cement that was the jewel of modernity.

With his hands pushed into his pockets he headed in the direction of home; only once he’d reached the drive that led back to the estate did he veer back into the undergrowth of the wilderness. He was hungry. A diet of lions and deer was what Alaric had grown accustomed to. Human blood held no appeal, even if it had helped him out of death. It was rich, and robust. It was what a vampire’s ought to be; but Alaric was secretive, and had enough guilt to last him another hundred lifetimes. His family would keep their blood within their own veins and the animals on the estate would be kept well in check – dress jacket or no.