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Post by demikara on Feb 9, 2021 16:32:41 GMT -6
"We're both weak that way." He pointed out. "We can't be good at everything. Besides, there's not a lot we can do about something we get from Grigore. Not that we're not already doing. Having a weakness though, doesn't make you weak." Magic just saw fit to take advantage of their weakness, that was all. "And I put it together, the weakness, from what I've seen. I could be wrong. It's not like Grigore would tell us." They got little enough from the man as it was. Information was doled out sparingly and only as a reward for pleasing him. It was enough to drive Tyrus to drink, if he drank anymore. His wine was barely touched as it was, given the trouble he had already gone through. He didn't fault them for serving him though. It was a sensible drink for dinner. Just not one he could have.
He really didn't want to know how badly fae wine would effect him. "Veil magic is quick to take advantage. I wise terribly that I wasn't connected so strongly to it." It had been more manageable before he was turned. But now it was as if it was woven into his blood, rather than pinned to him as it had been before. He was more part of the veil than attached to it and he couldn't say he appreciated this at all. It was much better when he wasn't. He missed days when he was richly magical, but not overflowing like he too often was now.
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Post by Circe on Feb 9, 2021 17:12:29 GMT -6
Catherine was used to going with little to no information, especially given Kasimir's sack of shit he'd handed her on release from Broadmoore. Even getting that far had been a headache and a half for all involved, and at one time had nearly resulted in all parties in more hot water than they cared to admit to. She half suspected that most of that had been punishment not from Kasimir, but Agathon, a mage with a rather high opinion of himself and his role with the Council.
"As I've been made well aware of in this last year." Catherine commented. The last year had been hell in more ways than one, and it had little to do with the fledgling Tyrus, Grigore, or anything but herself. Neither of them had expected the spell to go so badly, or for them to be in the situation they were in now. Undoubtedly she would be forced to soothe Grigore with pretty words and platitudes. "Years past were never this bad."
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Post by demikara on Feb 9, 2021 17:17:51 GMT -6
"It's been a hell of a year." He agreed quietly. And he had hated most of it. He had lost his family, bowed his head to a new court, become a vampire, and lost control of his magic. He spent his free time getting knocked down by someone half his height trying to gain control over an unwieldy beast of a thing. It wasn't remotely what he wanted to do or what he wanted anything to do with. It was madness itself, trying to handle everything all at once. "Hopefully the new year will be better. We'll have a little bit more experience with this madness at least." A year ago he had been human, he reflected. And now he was a vampire, reluctantly so, with a reluctant sire and a grandsire who would no doubt take their going missing out on his hide.
Especially once he noticed the hair.
Tyrus had no doubt he'd be the one to pay the majority of the price too. Grigore knew exactly how reluctantly he had Tyrus' support. He was lucky the other hadn't decided to mess with his mind yet. And he was fairly certain it was a yet.
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Post by Circe on Feb 9, 2021 17:56:30 GMT -6
"Hopefully." Catherine repeated, daring to hope that something could be done to escape this hell; even if it was one of their own creation. All she had ever asked and hoped for was to be made whole after the whole incident with Broadmoore. She hadn't realized exactly what the cost of her wish would be.
Dinner and the remainder of the evening had been spent in an awkward silence, shared between the two. Neither willing to talk about the nightmare that they had experienced earlier in the day, and especially Catherine who was still questioning herself.
The next day found Catherine seated in the small library reading and returning letters, with a cup of tea and a tray of pastries. There was no shortage of food to be had, and it appeared that the cook was taking full advantage of having guests.
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Post by demikara on Feb 9, 2021 18:35:40 GMT -6
He had meditated for the first part of the morning, trying to calm his magic. It was still a little erratic, and he had no doubt Catherine's was as well. Which meant it would be a bit before they could return to the human realm. If Catherine even wanted to. She may want to face her ghosts here instead. It wasn't as if the Council could get her in the fae realm. Hell, if he could learn to read fae, it might be interesting stuck here. As it was, he could just about manage it phonetically. He may not entirely know what he was saying, but he could make out the sounds and hope he said them well enough the translation spell worked.
Still, practicing his control wasn't all that interesting, and he sought out Catherine. His alternative was to work on katas so Xiaolian would knock him over less often. Somehow, he doubted it would help. She excelled in knocking him over.
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Post by Circe on Feb 9, 2021 19:03:54 GMT -6
It wouldn't take Tyrus long to find his way into the library, likely easily lured by the musty smell of books, paper, and ink. The house may have had several rooms, but most of them were closed up with their furniture covered with dust sheets. Only two of the rooms had been opened, the room that Tyrus had been given and Catherine's own room.
The library was relatively small as far as libraries went, but was one of the largest rooms in the house. With floor to ceiling bookcases lined with a veritable array of volumes pertaining to just about anything in the world of the fae. Unfortunately for Tyrus though, magic wasn't one of those things.
Catherine meanwhile sat at one side of a long table facing the door, wearing the same blue gown from earlier, except this time her hair hung in a single thick braid that vanished down towards the floor. Holding a long silver knife in one hand, and what appeared to be a letter in the other, she cleanly sliced through the parchment and opened it to read its contents.
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Post by demikara on Feb 9, 2021 19:27:38 GMT -6
Tyrus paused in the doorway, before coming in. "Good morning Catherine." It was best to start with a greeting, he supposed. He watched her open the letter curiously. "Handling correspondence? Out of curiosity, how do you handle it when you're in the human realm?" She still had to have some while she was in the human realm after all. She was, apparently, a noble and the house certainly reflected that. But it wasn't the ostentatious wealth his parents had tended to afford in public. It was the quiet sort of wealth his brother Milo had preferred.
He admired the books and sounded out the title on one of them, slowly. It wasn't like he understood what he was saying though. The translation spell didn't pick up on it.
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Post by Circe on Feb 9, 2021 19:47:25 GMT -6
"Heirs and Gods." Catherine corrected automatically, wincing as she listened to Tyrus try to read the title aloud. She couldn't have been nearly that bad learning the language as a child, she was almost certain of it. But that had been a long time ago and in what now felt like a far away, unreachable place. "If you're looking for magic books, my father didn't really collect many of those. He was more of a history type individual." She commented, squinting at the writing in the letter. Not everyone's penmanship was the excellence that stories and imagination would have led you to believe, Catherine's included. Muttering something under her breath with an annoyed tone, she tossed the letter aside to deal with later.
"Yes." She replied with a sigh, resisting the urge to dump all of the letters into the fire. None of them were terribly useful, and most were other noblemen and women asking her to visit or her thoughts on this thing or another. "Normally it's delivered to my home in the human realm by a sprite in service to her majesty the Queen. There's some magic quackery that I don't quite understand that allows it to track where I am, and since I'm here it is delivered here." Catherine explained.
She hadn't really told anyone her status as nobility or much beyond the fact that she'd been a Councilor's child. The Unseen could be cruel, especially in the human realm, and would easily latch on to anything that they perceived as possible to influence to its own ends. A Councilor's daughter, with connections to the very group that guarded the veil was one such person.
Once she had made the choice to live in the human realm full time however, she quickly found out that for the majority of the time she was on her own. It didn't help that all of her means of survival had been largely stripped and frozen from her at the time of her commitment either. Here though, in the fae realm, the Council couldn't touch any of it and it quickly became her fail safe after she'd been released.
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Post by demikara on Feb 9, 2021 19:53:56 GMT -6
"I'm not fluent in reading yet." He grumbled. "The translation spell doesn't handle the written word. That's a different one. It's better to do the written version the old fashioned way." And he didn't have a lot of chances to improve his reading skills. It wasn't like he had any fae books to practice on. He didn't even know if there was a way to get fae books easily in the human realm. They were very rare and likely very out of date. "Of course, this means actually learning the words as well. I don't get enough practice." He could definitely do more. Curious, he pulled out the book and mouthed the first few words quietly.
"It'll be around a week before we return, won't it? My magic isn't stable enough to pull off a major working yet, at least, and I'm assuming yours is worse."
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Post by Circe on Feb 9, 2021 20:09:26 GMT -6
Catherine thought for a moment, and considered everything. The idea of an extra week at home, among things that made sense, was extraordinarily tempting. Tyrus in tow or not, it was hard to admit that she missed home. Catherine missed the rhythm of the seasons and the wheel of the year that the fae adhered to. Soon, if they were lucky the first snow of the year would fall, as there had already been a heavy frost on the ground that morning. The fires lit in the bedrooms and later library by the servants had been a welcome and comforting thing.
"I'm.. not certain. I haven't tried." Catherine replied. She was still of the opinion that magic wasn't something that was necessary to get through many of the mundane tasks of the day. "And it very well may be. We should at the very least do something about your hair in the meantime." That was not a thing she wanted to explain Grigore, at all. He knew she had possible potential, but not the extent of both of them.
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Post by demikara on Feb 9, 2021 20:15:02 GMT -6
"I'll let you know when my magic is settled. There's no sense in trying until then." Besides, it would keep the possible magic incidents down. "and I've tried magic, but well..." He ran a hand down his braid. Where he touched turned briefly black before fading quickly to white. "It doesn't seem to stick." And he wasn't sure how to make it stick. They'd have to try mundane dye once they were back in the human realm, but he didn't have high hopes for that either. Plus, it would inevitably mean having to let his hair down around someone so they could dye it, and he hadn't had his hair down like that since he was a child. It felt entirely too intimate now, even if originally, it was just because it was easier to care for in a braid, or pulled back somehow.
It was chilly now, and the ill fitting clothes didn't keep him particularly warm. Tyrus moved closer to the fire to take advantage of its warmth. He didn't want to risk a warming spell when his magic was still acting up.
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Post by Circe on Feb 10, 2021 15:56:19 GMT -6
"Of course, take all the time you need. We're at an advantage here due to a number of factors." Catherine agreed readily. It wasn't that the estate or anything especially needed supervision, it was that the more time she spent away from Grigore the better. She was still convinced that she had no business in the vampire court, direct descendant of the original lines or not. Their predatory nature and political machinations could put even the worst of the unseelie to shame from what she had seen so far. It was a thing she wanted no part of, even if she technically held a claim to it all with Grigore sitting on the throne of the court.
Watching Tyrus's half hearted attempts to change his hair color back, she frowned. "You could try a glamour attached to something you wear? But.. they're not terribly sturdy." Catherine suggested. At least she tended to break them, and eventually gave up trying to maintain much past a very basic one. The one she wore working with MCU was about as bullet proof as they came, but even that one had come under fire in the past. Given that she often worked with the public more than other officers as part of the Specialists division, it was helpful to maintain a more average and decidedly human appearance. Something that she was more comfortable with having than not, even though currently she wasn't using one and had no need of one where they currently were.
"Barring that, dunk your head in ink I suppose." She added. It showed how little she knew about traditionally feminine pastimes of beauty and fashion, and at the court generally had someone decide on what was appropriate for her to wear. That had been quickly put into place once Grigore discovered that his eldest daughter would sooner show up in what he deemed was a cheap suit, than a custom tailored garment. Even her clothing in the fae realm at home at the estate was simple enough, and hardly an ostentatious display of any kind of wealth and might have even been considered austere in its lack of ornamentation. But, it was well fitted, comfortable, and appropriate for whatever tasks lay ahead that day.
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Post by demikara on Feb 10, 2021 16:03:14 GMT -6
"If we could just be rid of Grigore, then it wouldn't matter." He dared to say that here. "He certainly hasn't won the actual favor of anyone in the court. Most think he's too cruel, even for a vampire." He was too old fashioned for Dallas, when it came down to it. They were used to a much more modern court. It was still stuck in the past of course, but no where near as bad as wherever Grigore had come from.
He was pretty sure it was the Florentine court and he was equally sure he never wanted to have anything to do with any of the European courts. "I was thinking mundane dye for my hair though. It would probably last longer than ink, assuming it takes." That was probably a big ask. The best option would be to do away with Grigore. The problem with that, of course, was that Tyrus couldn't take on Grigore. Not without it being an ambush, somehow, and without significant collateral damage to Dallas.
It would take his bigger spells, he was sure.
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Post by Circe on Feb 10, 2021 16:52:59 GMT -6
"But... we could." Catherine replied hesitatingly. They could stage their own coup d'etat, they both had significantly more magic than Grigore even knew about. They had kept it hidden from him long enough for him to become complacent. And as far as he knew, Catherine was both a reluctant and unskilled magic user. But their escape from the unseelie territories had proven that neither was true, her use of magic was judicious and often well thought out. It also tended to focus on immediate weaknesses that would open an opponent for a larger and more devastating strike.
"He's quite typical of the European courts... and well vampires that old." She refused to lump herself in with the old ones, even if she did qualify based on age alone. "Between the two of us.. with a little foresight and possible assistance from allies, it would be possible." Catherine pointed out. She generally held her political cards close, and rarely tipped her hand. This was one such time where tipping her hand was necessary.
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Post by demikara on Feb 10, 2021 17:11:23 GMT -6
He hesitated a moment. "If he got wind of us even thinking this...it would be impossible to hide." He could pretend nothing was happening until the last minute, but it would be difficult at best. "His psychic abilities far out strip mine. I don't know how they compare to you. But you don't use them like he does." Grigore used his psychic abilities as a weapon and Tyrus had been on the wrong side of one the psychic blasts before. It was incredibly painful and the headache persisted for days. "Who would help us? The wolves are too weak, and the court is thoroughly cowed by him."
And it was certain death if they didn't win. That or extreme reprogramming of the sort he didn't want to think of. He'd no longer be himself, if Grigore got ahold of him. "And who would rule? Not having a ruler would plunge Dallas into chaos." He wasn't willing to risk so many lives over it. Grigore was dangerous and deadly, but the cost of the vampires not having a proper court would be significantly worse than having Grigore impose his will on them a..
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