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Post by demikara on Jan 1, 2020 18:57:05 GMT -6
"I'm pretty certain my own screw up is what got me turned against my will. I seem to recall that much. In fact, I'm pretty certain it turned you against your will as well, given all I was supposed to be doing was giving you new fangs." He pointed out, blandly. "I've been a targeted since I was born, by all accounts. At least now I can defend myself. And you'd be seen as my weakness as well. Besides, the minute it gets out how we're related in the court, I'll be seen as a weakness regardless. And we won't be able to keep it quiet forever." Someone would figure it out eventually. The real question was who and when and what the fall out would be.
"I'm afraid you're rather stuck with me."
They couldn't trust Scottlynn after all, and apparently Brandon was also not to be trusted, and wasn't that great. She had raised him and he still...Tyrus didn't know who to blame for Brandon being a murderous shit.
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Post by Circe on Jan 1, 2020 19:21:07 GMT -6
Catherine sighed closing her eyes, she had secretly hoped that his mistake would have eliminated or at least lessened her connection to the veil. Instead it seemed to be as strong as ever, if not stronger due to less dissonance in herself and better reserves. But whatever had happened had happened, and even she knew that the magic could not be undone. That was the strange thing about magic based in the old ways and the veil, it tended to have more of a permanence than some of the newer charms and spells; likely due to a stronger connection in the magic. She had read something once somewhere about how a spell's structure could determine it's strength, but then quickly forgot it as she went in search of something else.
"So I am." She said after a moment of silence had passed between the two. "I no longer care if the court knows or not."
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Post by demikara on Jan 1, 2020 19:30:02 GMT -6
"If asked, I won't deny it." He said simply. "Give it time and someone will think to ask." Someone would be bold enough to actually do that, though it was no guarantee as to who would. He figured that was a decent way of breaking the news though. It would spread like wildfire through the community. "It may give us even more trouble with Cedar Ridge, but that's nothing new." Cedar Ridge was a thorn in the court's side and had been for a very long time. They were hot-headed and stubborn and pains in the ass. They were also utterly convinced that they were being wronged all the damn time.
He had no love lost for Cedar Ridge.
Tyrus sighed and offered an uncertain smile. "We'll figure out how to navigate this. You've got centuries worth of experience. I grew up in the court. Between the two of us, we can salvage what happened tonight."
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Post by Circe on Jan 1, 2020 19:46:47 GMT -6
Catherine wondered who would be curious enough to ask, she'd not exactly encouraged curiosity about herself or the other members of the royal family. That may have been half the problem they were encountering now, few people really could identify who each of the members really were. About the extent of what they knew had been that the King had two daughters, one who shared many of the duties and another who was largely still a child. Then there were the two princes, both somehow related to one of the princesses or the king; the details were hazy as always. It likely didn't help anyone's efforts that Catherine's 'day job' was a MCU Warden which required a very human looking glamour and a very human schedule.
"Tyrus, I have centuries of experience not being a vampire. You know as well as I do the last decade I spent more human than anything else." Or some combination of fae and human, she wasn't terribly sure where one ended and the other began some days. It had certainly been easy to claim fae with her coloring, height, and connections.
An uneasy silence fell between the two again as Catherine's mind swirled with the possibilities and probabilities of what could or couldn't happen to make things worse. "There's nothing left to salvage, I have no nephew. The fires tell me he may be redeemable, but.." She faltered her voice brittle and dead.
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Post by demikara on Jan 1, 2020 19:54:28 GMT -6
"Principe Bertrando will largely be on his own. I'll keep an eye on him, make certain he heals, but other than that... The most I could do is offer the services of a therapist through Broadmoore." No nephew. That was harsh, but he understood it. He'd still keep on eye on him, to make certain he didn't fall back into old habits. "The fires say he may be redeemable. I'll make him my problem, since he's still a prince of the court, if a thoroughly disgraced one."
Definitely one that was going to end up in a lot of therapy and probably some kind of spell on him to help prevent violence. There would have to be something that worked, after all. It was only a matter of discovering what, of finding the right fix for the situation. He could do that. Or rather, he could check his books for it. There would be something, though he hesitated to use most of the magic at his finger tips.
Brandon would be brought to heel though, whether of his own will or not. Tyrus didn't look forward to that either. "And experience is experience. It counts."
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Post by Circe on Jan 1, 2020 23:18:20 GMT -6
"He should not be your problem." That much she was certain of, even if the two were even more inexorably linked than they had been previously. He and Tyrus were the only ones remaining from the previous royal family, one lucky enough to be related to Grigore by Catherine's brief marriage to Izaak and the other had survived the transition simply by learning where not to be. It also didn't hurt that he had allied himself with powerful individuals.
"Bertrando has brought this disgrace upon himself, he should consider himself fortunate that he was not defanged." Catherine said flatly. There would be no second ritual, and the fact that there had even been a first one showed how much he had fooled even them. The betrayal still stung and she wasn't entirely sure how she was to cope with the facts she was now facing.
"But it's not exactly experience the court will be willing to respect, regardless of how old I am or am not." Catherine almost never spoke of her age, and usually gave some arbitrary number when asked. It was yet another layer of protection against a world that at one time had very likely and still wanted her dead.
But what most of the court knew was she was just another woman whose mother had been unlucky enough to bear her. After all there was supposedly another, younger daughter. But how much younger no one knew yet. Catherine had always been careful of who knew what, and the court was no exception.
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Post by demikara on Jan 2, 2020 15:51:01 GMT -6
"Nor should Scotlynn, but both are part of the court, whether they like it or not. And that makes them my problem. I can at least take that burden off of you." Scotlynn was still probably going to end up someone's dinner, but at least her home would be warded for safety. She was already living with someone who would keep an eye on her.They hadn't been able to convince her of much past that. She was a pain in the ass. And now it looked like Brandon would be even more of a pain in the ass. Scotlynn had never purposefully killed, after all.
"I am surprised he wasn't defanged and exiled." Perhaps that was some mercy at least, or perhaps it was a further punishment. Brandon had made it clear how little he liked being a vampire after all. Exiling him from the court probably would have made his day. That was probably why Grigore hadn't done that much.
Tyrus shrugged. "The court will learn to accept you and your experience. They don't exactly have a choice."
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