Transient

[Elizabeth]

The year of our lord 1538; Late Autumn

“I do not believe it is going anywhere. No matter how long one stares at it.” A baritone voice mused besides her before Elizabeth turned her gaze from off the full moon, to that of the male next to her. A small, coy smile graced the woman’s elegant features before she shook her head, laughed and removed the hand that had been against a solid oak tree that had been supporting her as she gazed absentmindedly.

“No, I believe you are most right, sir. I do not fear of it disappearing, however.” The woman mused aloud, answering his question but then taking it further. “I miss her sister. And so, I look to her, when I desire to look for the other.” Elizabeth admitted softly before her icy hues returned to the moon. “It has been a decade since I have seen her last.” There was a gentle roll of her shoulders before Elizabeth gave an unnecessary sigh and took a step back.

“I used to feel the same, for the first couple decades or so.” The male admitted before bowing to her. “My name is Reynold.” He stood straight after the gesture and then looked back to the moon. His name finally revealed, Elizabeth knew exactly to whom she was speaking to. “As humans, our lives revolved around the sun. It told us when to sleep, when to wake up, when to work the fields, when mid-day meal was. Our entire lives depended on the sun.” He smiled empathetically to the brunette, before he extended an arm to the vast of the courtyard. “Walk with me?” He smiled at her, waiting to hear her acceptance or rejection.

Elizabeth turned to face him, her lips still in an amused fashion as she circled back to the discussion before the offer. “What does a nobleman know about working a field?” It was not meant as an insult, but meant for clarification. Not a single day in her human life had Elizabeth ever recalled the nobleman her father worked, stepping onto the field, other than to bark orders from time to time. She still did not welcome Reynold's suggested proposition as she waited for him to expand on his notion.

“Believe it or not, my lady, I was not born into privilege.” He chuckled softly before continuing. “When one has eternity to live, their station and life can change significantly. It is the fortune of being a vampire.” His hand dropped to his side, shifting to a different topic for the second. “You’re her. The one. For the festivities. Miss Drake’s childe.” His face brightening at the revelation.

“Yes. I am her. She is known as Elizabeth, or Elizabeth Noble for those less familiar with her, good sir. Not as her.” Elizabeth laughed before glancing around, fingers drawing on the silhouette shape of her olive colored gown. “Is it not improper for the two of us to wander the gardens, alone? Unsupervised?” Elizabeth finally went back to his presented offer, still standing firm in two places. There, in the physical sense on a step, and there on her moral code.

Reynold chuckled, and once again reached his arm outwards. “But we are not alone, my lady.” He looked up at the moon and then back at her. “Is the moon not with us?” Reynold stood there in silence, the humor of his own words apparent in his facial features. Wit and humor in any individual was never misplaced with Elizabeth. In fact, it was refreshing to the woman, having lived a most somber life prior to being sired. And even now, under the watchful and strict Noble elder; Isabella’s sire-it was something rarely presented to the woman in any form.

“She is indeed. But I should warn you, that since she is both low and full, she shall not miss a single thing.” Elizabeth finally moved down a single step after collecting the heavy fabric of her gown, and accepted his offer of a walk before he moved his arm to his side, offering it to the woman, without vocalizing such a thing. Elizabeth’s hand would come to rest on the preferred arm. This would be their nightly pastime for the duration of a better part of a week.

[Elizabeth]

“I have been here before. Our Bloodline are friends. This is the third time.” Elizabeth confessed to the male as she turned to face him, the pair lying on some tall blades of damp grass of the colossal property. “You were not here last time my sire, sister and I came. It was an introduction Bloodline ceremony about a year ago. I would remember you.” The telepath propped up her right arm, laid on her side and looked at Reynold as her hair splayed around her face from the quick movement.

Reynold copied her movements and now faced Elizabeth instead of the night stars, blanketed in the abyss of never ending darkness. “I wasn’t there.” He said, reaching for a tall piece of grass that was between them, snapped it half way down and then tossed it aside. “I was unable to make it. Grave traveling conditions.” Reynold said as he grabbed another blade of grass and did the same thing with this one as he did the last. “If I had come, I would have remembered you too.” He said with a chuckle, teasing her lightly.

“I did not mean it in such a way.” Elizabeth cantered, not wishing to send the wrong impression to the male. “I meant I would have remembered our conversations. They are most enjoyable and forward thinking.” She concluded with a smile before lying upon the grass once again. “Which one is that?” Elizabeth pointed to a series of stars cloistered together to the south of them.

“Argo Navis.” He said without hesitation. “There is a story behind it. From the Greeks.” Reynold once again found a place on his back as his finger outlined the shape of a ship. “A man named Jason used this ship with some of his men, known as the Argonauts. Jason, was a hero and his group of Argonauts, set out on a quest for the fleece by order of King Pelias, in order to place Jason rightfully on the throne of Iolcus in Thessaly. Those are ancient cities in Greece. Older than the very ground we lie upon. They were successful in finding this fleece after many trials and tribulations. It is a grand story.” He confessed, angling his head to look at the brunette woman besides him.

“Argo Navis.” Elizabeth repeated after he gave her an introduction of how the constellation came to be named. “Do you think it to be true? Golden fleeces and the like?” Elizabeth had grown up on a farm and never in her dreams would she ever have believed such a thing existed. “It sounds like a fairy tale. Much like the ideology of our supposed lord and saviour Jesus Christ.” Elizabeth felt the downward pull of her lips start to stretch the corners of our lips, before she sighed. Once upon a time, Elizabeth yearned to be close to the word of god, but since she had been transformed into a higher being, everything she had been told and lead to believe was nothing more than a lie.

“I think like anything, that there are always two, if not more, sides to every story. It’s just trying to find the truth in those stories that is the difficult part. But, why not have some fun and pretend for the sake of a good story?” Reynold stood and offered Elizabeth a hand to assist her with getting up. The telepath moved to a sitting position, gathered her knees to her chest and then wrapped both hands around his singular one and was standing before him. “I do thank thee, good sir.” Elizabeth said with a small, appreciative smile, as her hands went to shake the bottom of her dress, removing all pieces of grass that once slung to the fabric. The feel of his hand in her hair had the woman jerking her head upwards, as he toyed with a single strand.

“You should wear your hair free more. It is very becoming.” Reynold paid her a small compliment, one that was deflected with logic. “It is not customary to do such a thing. How would I wear all my extravagant headdresses?” She retorted as Elizabeth started walking towards the massive brick home. Reynold chuckled and followed after her, once again offering the telepath an arm. “Does the lady almost always have a logical answer for everything?” He moved his gaze to her as he looked at Elizabeth from the side. “If there is to be a logical answer to be given, then she does.” Elizabeth bantered with the male as her eyes drifted off him and focused on the brick building.

“Tomorrow is your celebration. It’s unfortunate your sire can’t be here. Or your sister.” He mentioned idly, eyes off her now. “Not necessarily. What is ten years? Besides, the night will come with or without them, will it not?” She asked the older vampire, as they ascended some deteriorated cobblestone on the grassy knoll, who was drawn into his own silent thoughts.

“Indeed.” He finally said as they made it to the back entrance of the property. “I assure you the event will go off without a hitch, my dear lady.” Reynold bowed before removing Elizabeth’s hand from his arm. “I shall bid you a good night now, and see you tomorrow. Rest well, Miss Noble.” The telepath woman curtsied to her male companion too little too late, his back already to her. “Have a good eve, Reynold.” Elizabeth said regardless of knowing she would hear nothing else from the male this eve.

As she walked back to her quarters, Elizabeth carried on a private conversation with her sister Antigony, who was elated for the party she would have to miss due to something between her sire and Isabella’s. Personally, Elizabeth would love to never hear or see the male again, but was not such the way of the Noble lineage. If he was not barking orders at her uncle Zachariah, then he was being wretched to her sire. Because he could. Because he was older, stronger and wiser, and because it was what was excepted from those in this Bloodline, and any. Still, she couldn’t wait until the trio were free from his clutches. “Only one hundred and ninety years to go.” The woman muttered before closing herself off for the evening.

[Elizabeth]

“If any of the individuals here needed but a single breath to survive, we would all be in some trouble.” Reynold said behind Elizabeth as she stood near a table that ran the entire length of the room, filled with a variety of food for those that had the ability to eat, and goblets of blood that were refilled and exchanged every hour on the hour for fresher blood.

“Reynold.” Elizabeth said, amused as she turned towards the male who was on the other side of the table, his glance on her and her alone. She curtsied the male, but he moved around the table with determination and was at her side before she could finish the gesture. “It’s your occasion. You shouldn’t have to curtsey a single individual. It should be the other way around. Allow me.” He bowed to the woman, then gathered her hands in his while he stood.

“Save a dance for me some time tonight?” He inquired, as his thumb moved over the knuckles of her delicate hands. “I will dance with whomever requests it of me.” It was no secret Elizabeth had a fondness for dancing to anyone that had gotten to know her. So fond, that it would be rare for her to not take part in the activity when asked. “The night is young and there is plenty of time to dance.” She impressed upon Reynold, taking her hands back. “Why not now?” He grinned at her, but had his answer on hold as the Bloodline leader of the estate started with his host responsibilities and declaration of the reason for their gathering. It was only after that, the even truly started and Elizabeth also performed what was expected of her during the event that was circled around her.

------

“Stay here. With me. Not here, but at my own homestead.” Reynold offered the telepathic woman, turning to face her, eyes on her face, as if observing her facial expressions from the offer presented to her in the middle of the courtyard Elizabeth had become very familiar with since her returned stay. Elizabeth looked away from the male Allurist, and down to the ground at where her feet lie. “I cannot. After the celebration, I will be leaving in but a couple eves. I have to return to my own affairs and to the Noble estate. Noble needs me. We, my sire, sister and I, have been together since the night in which I was made. I do not believe that will ever change.” Elizabeth smiled apologetically to the male as her eyes reverted back to him.

Both hands from Reynold wrapped themselves around her arms, and he looked into her eyes with such ferocity in that moment. “I would very much appreciate your company. For only a while. They are free to visit whenever they so desire.” Elizabeth mulled over the offer that had been extended to her, a small smile upon her lips. “I must regrettably decline such a gener-” One of his hands moved from the woman and stroked the side of her face, keeping their eyes in constant contact. “I want you to stay. I have never met anyone like you in the almost one hundred years in which I have walked these lands.”

"People will talk. It is a most improper proposition." Elizabeth sighed. She was at a crossroad. The woman was but a decade old, and enjoyed her time with her sire and sibling. Yet, she had enjoyed her nights here as well, in Reynold’s Bloodline homestead. And most of all, she enjoyed the freedom from her sire’s sire. Yet, there was something so captivating and alluring about the male, that she felt drawn to him, or at least drawn to his conversations each night since the eve in which they met. It was not anything physical about the male that had Elizabeth’s full attention, it was the conversations and rebuttals she enjoyed the most. The battle of wits and personal experiences.

Reynold released her slowly, and then offered but a single outstretched hand to Elizabeth. “I am asking you one last time. Please reconsider, and stay.” The tiny brunette woman looked around the courtyard, staring into the abysm in which nightmares were created. Elizabeth dropped her gaze to his hand before she placed her hand within his extended hand and decided to do just that...Stay.
Stay and embrace the awaiting abyss.