Fable - Ask Malentendu

[Victoria O'Connor]

The Allir Reach was a vast ocean of flowing green. Rich soils and temperate weather lead to wide expanses of farmland, and one could travel days, even weeks, without seeing a proper town. Nevertheless, small enclaves of wealth dotted the viridian quilt like gemstones, belonging to those who had claimed the right fields, invested in the right trades... or had simply been born to the right parents.

Victoria found herself at one of these gems this evening, arriving in an ebony wood carriage while the orange of sunset still torched the sky. She had been away for months, enduring the harsh wilds in an adventure she had never foreseen, nor would she ever forget, but it felt good to make an appearance again. Others were arriving as well, each carriage coming conspicuously after the last rays of sunlight departed.

Vampires, each and every one of them, dressed to kill and with intent to follow through. Sweeping gowns complimented Victoria's own, though she did not have another on her arm this evening. It did pain her, to be separated from her love, but they would be together again soon. Tonight was about reaffirming friendships, and reminding enemies that she was very much still present.

An hour or so into the evening and Victoria had made her required greetings and clinked the appropriate glasses. She stood now in the wide hall of the manor, which had been set with dozens of small tables beneath its towering windows. The gardens of the estate had taken on an eerie beauty in the purple twilight, and warm summer air wafted in through the open doors. Dancers waltzed in a lazy circle at the center of the floor, though there was no reflection of them on the glass panes for Victoria to watch.

She took a drink from her glass, painting her lips red with its contents, and recounted the evening thus far. She had missed this, even if the rush of social combat were dulled by desires to return home.

Eleena Devonshire

 

[Edevonshire]

Eleena had not been born into nobility. Even after attending countless events over the last two hundred and seventeen years, she always felt awkward and out of place. One thing she was excellent at was faking it though. That had been perfected over all these years. The perfect vampire pet for her sire, the perfect distressed vampire after her sire died, and the perfect high society vampire that she played at now. No one just let a vampire hunter into their parties. No, they let the elite and the wealthy vampires in...it just so happened that this vampire hunter was also in that group.

The hunter had received an invitation to this party after she had heard about a coven leader coming back after months away. The perfect time to introduce herself to this leader and start the game of seduction. Eleena was not the strongest vampire so she played the long game on the stronger of her kind. She had paid handsomely to find out the Vic the Red was who she would be looking for. It seemed like a terrible moniker, but who was she to judge. This Vic would fall to her.

So now Eleena walked up the steps to the sprawling estate wearing her long dark hair in loose curls that fell over a simple, elegant black gown. She let her natural beauty shine through instead of wearing ridiculous jewels and patterns. She also preferred less attention to be drawn to her.

A few well placed comments about old friends and her excitement to see Vic the Red finally paid off as she walked around the hall towards her target. As she grew closer, her brows furrowed in confusion. The only person wearing red was a woman.

Oh, fuck, Eleena thought. It had not even crossed her mind that Vic could be short for something else. The plans may have to be adjusted but they would not be changed.

With her own glass held in her delicate hand, she came to stand beside the coven leader.

"You look beautiful tonight, my Lady," Eleena said with a smile. Whether or not Vic was a proper Lady, she had zero idea. It never hurt to be polite though.

Victoria O'Connor

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

Vic the Red.

It was a silly name, but then again vampire high society was often silly. Entertainment became more difficult when one had eons to explore it, and so little distractions like this, little secret gatherings and code names... they tended to crop up. Even ones as thin as that.

That and, should anyone discover the true purpose of the local manor's gala, none of them were keen to have their secrets exposed. Victoria was lucky enough to rule a vast yet sparsely populated land. Few of her subjects knew her face outside of her own keep, let alone kept up to date on rumors. Even so, there were gossips within every walk of life. She had already expunged one holy mission against her lands, she didn't need another.

Eleena's voice turned her head with a gentle caress, and she looked with ruby eyes at the striking vampire before her. Hardwired instinct drew in a breath over a curled lip, drinking in her scent. It was an animalistic trait seldom spoken of in "polite" society, but blood carried markers that the sensitive nose of a vampire could leaf through like a book.

She was not too old, though neither was she newly turned. She could have been close to Victoria's age, give or take a few decades. There was a coldness to her... but that was hardly out of the ordinary. A warm hearted vampire, literally or figuratively, was a novelty.

She processed all of this in the time it took for her to say, "Yes," She swept her gaze over Eleena with no attempt to hide it. Scrutinizing, calculating... admittedly enjoying. "But it is kind of you to say so." She offered an inviting smile.

Victoria was very happily engaged. This, however, was privileged information. Soon everyone would know, but her first return to the Reach's sight in months was not the time to shake the boat so violently. So, she would play the part she had played so well for so long. She would talk, she would dance, she would flirt, and she would manipulate her position amongst these people as expertly as possible.

"Have we met?"

 

[Edevonshire]

Eleena allowed the woman to drink her in and she just smiled back. Eleena knew she was beautiful, she used her looks to get an advantage over her victims. She quite enjoyed that this Vic the Red enjoyed the view as well.

"No, we have not. I saw the most gorgeous of women standing alone and I knew that I needed to come offer my company," Eleena's own red eyes sparkled even in the low light of the evening.

She had no preference when it came to lovers even when she was not on a vampire murdering rampage. As long as they were good looking and had a tolerable personality, she was could care less about what was between their legs.

"My name is Eleena Devonshire," she said with a slow bow of her head. She, of course, kept up her pretense with her next question.

"May I inquire as to your name, my Lady? If such a wonder of nature would indulge that is."

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

Quite the flatterer, this one, but far be it from Victoria to contradict the vampire stereotype of vanity. She gave a slash of a smile to the compliment, the wide fang-bearing grin that could only be offered amongst kin. "Devonshire, that has a nice turn of the tongue, does it not? Is it a family name, or taken?"

Not all vampires had the luxury of born status, nor kind associations with their past. Some saw their new existence as a chance to break free of their past lives. Keeping the O'Connor surname had served Victoria well when she had come to reclaim her family home, though it had been innocuous enough to avoid undue attention in her early days.

"My name is Victoria O'Connor, and I am blood and flesh just as you are. See for yourself." She extended a gently downturned hand to Eleena, eager to see how the noirette would take it.

 

[Edevonshire]

Eleena nodded slowly, "it is my family name but I am the only one that remains now."

That was not because she had outlived them as a vampire either. They had been decimated when she was only seventeen years old. Too young to lose an entire family. Too young to be forced into the decisions she felt she had to make in order to see her revenge come to fruition.

She was taken from her thoughts of the past when the redhead spoke again. The woman she was speaking with...the woman she had pinned as her next target was Lady Victoria O'Connor. Eleena only knew her name because of the connections she had in the successful merchant circle of Alliria. She had kept her parents name as well as their contacts. They had come in handy more than once. Lady O'Connor had deals and connections with the same people that Eleena did. Interesting.

The vampire hunter took the Lady's hand gently and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. "So you are, my Lady, so you are. Forgive me my ignorance," she smiled as she let Victoria's hand go and straightened.

"I always feel so out of place at these events," she mused out loud. "So many vampires in one place acting like there aren't blood feuds going on between the majority of them. It is laughable that they come here and play nice for an evening before going back to killing each other."

Yes, she was fully aware of the irony there.

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

Her lips were just as soft and smooth as expected. Miss Devonshire played her cards well, and Victoria withdrew her hand gently with another sip from her cup. She licked the blood from her lips.

"Would you prefer it if we just kept killing each other?" she asked with a mischievous eyebrow. "Truces are written at places like this, words instead of claws. And if we didn't hold galas like this I'd have nowhere to wear my nice clothes."

She joked, but there was truth in her words. Eleena was not wrong, of course. Many of the guests here tonight were old enemies or rivals. Nothing as ancient as those that a larger gathering would unearth, but petty grievances could be aired with required restraint. Nothing lowered one's status like starting a fight at a party. It was horribly gauche.

She cast her gaze back over her shoulder to the whirling dancers. "Besides, there is so much... information exchange here." It wasn't gossip when aristocrats were doing it. "For instance I am very surprised to see Lord Bane dancing with Lady Erendelle, though I do hope it means they have made up after the incident."

 

[Edevonshire]

Eleena took a sip from her own glass as a way of covering the small smile that crossed her lips when Victoria asked if she would prefer it if the vampires kept killing each other. Why yes...she would prefer it. It would certainly cut down her centuries of life if they could cull themselves. That would be too easy though and nothing was ever easy.

She had already strayed from her mission recently and it resulted in her killing a human for the first time. She still struggled with the fact that she had stooped to the level of her brethren. Sure, the bloodlust had been to blame but that didn't matter to her. She was a human killer. She needed to atone by killing more vampires. That was the only way.

Lord Bane. Lady Erendelle. Two more names added to her list.

"I am curious what the incident was now. I am afraid that I must have missed that news while I was..." She took a sip of the delicious blood to cover up her pause, "away."

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

Victoria closed her lips but kept the devilish smile. "Won't you join me in the gardens?" She moved to the doorway without waiting for a response, thoroughly expecting Eleena to follow. Once the pair of them were beyond listening ears they could speak more openly.

The gardens were coated in purple wisteria. Here and there other foreign-looking plants bloomed, many of them certainly poisonous. Victoria lead them to an old stone bench before a small pond that had been manicured with lilies. She look a seat, and bade Eleena join her.

"Lady Erendelle used to be 'Lady Bane,' but they split a few centuries ago. They've been off and on ever since then, but I would never have expected to see them dancing. Things are either very good, or very very bad." She shrugged. "But that sort of news is boring. Tell me more about yourself, Lady Devonshire."

She leaned back and rested an arm over the back of the bench. It was an open, vulnerable position aimed to draw Eleena in. If she were any sort of vampire she would recognize the behavior, but more than a few had been lulled into complacency by Victoria's charms.

There was something off about Eleena, something different in her blood. Victoria couldn't quite place it.

 

[Edevonshire]

Eleena nodded and walked with Victoria out to the gardens. It was beautiful and peaceful and the perfect place to speak in private. She took a seat next to the Lady on the stone bench.

"I have often wondered how breakups work among vampires. It is hard to avoid each other for centuries. I suppose it is nice to see them together..." Eleena also shrugged. She had no idea who they were but any tidbits of information would be helpful to he in the future.

Eleena allowed herself to get comfortable but she did not lean into the space the Victoria had created to draw her closer. She did not want to give in too easily.

Hmmm, she mused at the question.

"My life is not that interesting. I do not have a real home. My sire died seventeen years ago and I have just traveled since then. He left me a sizable amount of gold that has funded me." Eleena shrugged again with a small frown.

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

"Left it for you, did he?" She asked with obvious interest. "You must have been awfully close. Of course I know what that's like. At the time, my sire seemed like the only stable thing in a terrifying new world, and someone who had freed me from mundanity." She thought back. Two hundred years was not a terribly long time compared to many vampires, but even so the memories seemed distant, made even foggier by a present love that made her sire's touch feel barren. She felt a pang of longing to be back with Fallon, and comforted herself with the knowledge that she would be going back to her soon.

"What, exactly, has it funded? You must forgive my prying, but I am not aware of any Devonshires in the region, and I am sure I would have heard of you if you had built a hold in the area. Then again, I have been away, perhaps I am painfully out of the loop."

 

[Edevonshire]

"Yes," Eleena replied. "We were close. He took me in after my family was killed, he showed me a better life, and we spent two hundred years together..." And then I murdered him while we were in bed together.

She took a long drink from her glass and frowned as she realized it was close to empty. "I have only been on my own for a relatively short time in the grand scheme of our lives. I have been nomadic for the most part. I will stay some place for a while and then move on," once I have killed the occupants of said place.

"I do hope to settle in somewhere though. It is tedious being on the move constantly."

Eleena dropped the hints like breadcrumbs. She had money, she had no home, she wanted a home. The vampire hunter could only hope that Victoria would take the bait. She was not going to kill her here at this party. That would be foolish and it would mean her death.

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

"It is," she sighed. "In my former coven I was constantly on the move, with my sire and without. Sometimes I miss the long field trips, but it is better to have a true home." She drank, also finishing her cup. After a similar expression of disappointment, she raised it and gave it a little shake to signal a servant to refill it.

The attendant that came was a human. Young and glassy-eyed, she offered a pitcher of steaming blood and refilled both of their goblets. How daring of their hosts to parade about such exquisite meals, then again, feeding on your hosts thralls was generally frowned upon. Unless it was one of those parties.

Victoria had picked up a few of the breadcrumbs Eleena left for her. A wealthy independent woman would make a fine ally, but would she be too independent?

"What did take you sire?" she asked after a warm sip. "Such tragedy, to lose someone you had for so long." Her tone did not match her words.

 

[Edevonshire]

Eleena was rarely asked outright about her sire's death. The rumor that she had murdered him was the one that ran rampant but she was so young in comparison so how could she have done that?! She never confirmed nor denied any of the tales.

"Some believe that I killed him in cold blood," sip. "Other believe that it was werewolves," sip. "I believe that he was attacked by a vampire hunter, but," shrug. "It is hard to say for certain since I was in bed when it happened."

One corner of her mouth drew up into a smirk that spoke of one part heartbreak and one part freedom and all parts evil. The moment that she had watched him die was the single greatest moment of her life. Her first kill. Her proof that she could do what it took to rid the world of vampires.

The sign that she was ready.