My Little Ventrue Pt. 03 Ch. 10

"I d-don't understand. My necklace, I... it's just a necklace."

"From your parents. And your parents, they cared for you?"

"... yes. They... my disappearance, it killed them."

The dark side of being embraced. Many thought it was becoming an immortal blood leech doomed to never see the sun that drove many Kindred to depression. But the harshest reality was the life you had to leave behind. Many left a cut in the world, others left a crater.

"I am sorry for your loss, Vola, I truly am. But, perhaps, this will provide you with a... comfort, of a sort."

"You're n-not going to show me my p-p-p-parents, are you?"

"No, nothing so macabre." She pulled the tablet onto her lap, and used it to dim the lights, increase the power of the chandelier, and begin resonance level: light. Nothing to startle Natasha, not yet.

A quiet hum filled the room, a gentle and soothing sound. A familiar sound. She smiled as the hum filled her, and Natasha, and as the Mekhet made her own smile similar to Antoinette's, the Prince set the tablet aside. At level light, the resonance level was far from dangerous despite what she told her subordinate, but it was wise to instill caution in the woman.

"Are we w-w-waiting for something?"

"Oui." She pat Vola on the shoulder, and resumed waiting, smile on her face unwavering. It took time, sometimes hours, but she doubted it would take as long this time, not for something as simple and powerful as what Natasha's necklace held.

The room was a constant blue, and even with the chandelier at full power, the room was dim. Bright enough for Kindred though. And more important, dim enough for the subtleties to show through.

"We d-don't need the filter lens?" Natasha said.

"It would spoil the surprise. Just wait."

And wait they did, thirty minutes at that. Natasha did not seem to believe anything would happen without the device to look through and the filter it provided. If Antoinette fetched it now, no doubt it would have exposed the swirling ephemera growing, and the essence that filled the room that began to resonant since she turned on the resonance device. There was far more to the vibrations than mere kinetic vibration, but those were secrets for another time for her little assistant.

Color. Movement. Natasha gasped as a flutter of orange trickled through the air before vanishing, leaving behind a small cloud of glowing amber dust that faded moments after. But, as Natasha stared at the tiny spark of color in the dark blue of the room, another appeared. It fluttered again for a few moments, moved through the air several inches above the necklace, before disappearing again.

"What... w-what's..."

"I do not know what will come through the Gauntlet, Natasha. But I can open the door, and unique to these wisps of ephemera, make the door more appealing to... certain manifestations. That is what your necklace is for."

"My n-n-necklace? I... oh!" The wisp appeared again, and fluttered its wings a couple times before settling upon the necklace.

A butterfly. It glowed amber, orange, and varying shades of red against the blue of their surroundings. It was a small thing, only an inch in size, but its wings glowed with a subtle brilliance that covered several feet around them in its light. Its wings' patterns changed and swirled with time, slow and gentle, and it fluttered its wings in a leisurely dance, each beat causing the swirling designs to change faster between its motions, only to slow down when it stopped.

"Beautiful," Antoinette said.

"Wh... what am I... looking at?"

"Something alive, in its own, unique way."

"... n-not a ghost?"

"No. Indeed, it is not."

Another butterfly wisped into existence, larger than the other, and set itself to the floor near the necklace. Antoinette smiled down at the lovely creature, and reached out with her hand before setting her fingers down on the floor beside it. It did not react, at first, but eventually, it fluttered its wings a few more times, and hovered over to her knuckles. And from there, it turned to face her, its body and face of gentle flickering amber without features, only subtle, swirling lines of black within the glow.

She felt it, a soft warmth, as if the glow it emitted was a blanket to wrap around her and cocoon her. Such silly, poetic thoughts, and yet those were the thoughts that flooded her as the creature turned around a few times on her hand. Another butterfly of amber appeared, as large as the one before, and it fluttered close to its friend. But, with her free hand, Antoinette blocked its path with a slow and soft wave, and ushered it toward Natasha.

The poor girl was stunned. Her eyes were wide and jaw dropped. She'd have asphyxiated for lack of breathing were she human.

"These creatures were beckoned by your necklace, Natasha."

With shaking limbs, the girl raised her hands palm up and together, and stared at the butterfly of waving reds and oranges as it settled onto her hands. She gasped once it touched her, as if life had just forced its way into her chest.

"It... it's... warm! And I f-feel... it..."

"I have summoned several entities with this technique. But never have I summoned something as... gentle, and loving, as this."

"My necklace... I... this..." Natasha brought the butterfly closer to her, hands cupping it like a large bowl. It did not fly away. As it came closer to her, it fluttered its wings, and several waves of amber filled the air around her, wisps of color that fell over Natasha and again earned a gasp from her. "It's... it's the... the same f-f-feelings I... in my memory, when Mom and Dad... gave me the necklace."

"Can you describe the feeling?" She felt it too, but it was a feeling so long forgotten she could not describe it as anything more beyond a warm cocoon.

Natasha lowered her hands, and looked at her with the heaviest eyes. "It's... it's hazy. So long ago, b-b-but... it's... the feeling... when you're in bed, and you're going to sleep, and your parents come in. They... they tuck you in, kiss you goodnight, and... and..."

"You miss your parents."

"... I do."

Antoinette sighed, and motioned forward, back to the center of the symbol. The butterfly left her hand and rejoined the smaller one by the necklace. "I must apologize, Natasha. I could not be sure what was summoned, and this was... perhaps, painful."

"No! No no, this is b-beautiful, and... it's... it's so—"

Giggling cut her off. Natasha blinked at her, and Antoinette her in return, before the two of them looked back to the circle.

Another wisp of color appeared in the blue over the necklace. And with it, another giggle, childlike. The butterflies started to hover around the necklace, and their colors shined all the brighter as they circled it and each other. Until another wisp of color, something white and golden, swallowed them up.

"W-What?" Tasha backed up, sliding her butt across the floor. "What's going on?"

Antoinette peered into the growing streaks of gold and white, squinted for a moment as a burst of light flooded them, and then pulled back a couple feet like Tasha as light began to settle

"Hello," the light said. A girl's voice, maybe six years old. Bright. Innocent.

"... hello," Antoinette said.

"Hello," it said again. No longer just a sheen of light, it looked like an orb, perhaps made of glass and only a few inches in diameter, glowing white. From behind the orb, two wings were flapping in slow, deep waves, angel wings that glowed gold, each maybe three feet long.

Tasha got onto her palms and knees, and crawled forward a little to get in closer to the hovering orb. "I... what... who are you?"

The orb drifted closer to Tasha, and flapped its wings hard enough to make her hair move with the gentle breeze. "I'm Safe."

"Safe?" Tasha said.

"Safe." The orb hovered around Tasha, over her, and bits of golden dust fell from its wings onto her body. They faded, but only once they glowed extra bright upon contact. "Do you feel safe?"

"I... yes... that's the word. That's the word I needed t-t-to... describe... the feeling."

Safe. This creature was Safe.

"Hello!" it said. "Please, be safe. I'll keep you safe."

"You are a young spirit, are you not?" Antoinette smiled at the unusual creature, and reached out to poke its glass-like body. It was not glass, but something warm, and somewhat soft.

"I am! And this place, I've seen this place. Before it was different, and there were different things here. Not safe. Now it's safe. Are you safe? Big walls here, must be safe." It hovered over Antoinette as well, and over her, large wings covering her in its glow. "I'll keep you safe. Do you feel safe?"

She did. A long forgotten sensation to feel safe, and one paranoid Kindred often never felt, ever, even in the depths of underground tunnels surrounded by metal and vault doors and security. But under this creature's radiance, she did feel safe, to an unnatural degree. The entity made her feel safe by proximity then, or was it the strange glowing dust that fell from its wings? Or was it all a mere trick of the light?

"I do. Thank you, Safe."

"That's good!" Again it giggled, and started to drift around the two women in a slow figure-eight. "In the Hisil, this area is not safe! It's tall, and big, and strange, and chaotic. But then you did something, and I came."

Antoinette smiled. Chaotic indeed. Her experiments must have unbalanced the world in the other realm every time she performed them.

"Is... is this the first time... you've s-s-summoned something that's talked?" Tasha said.

"No. I have encountered other such spirits."

"Spirits... spirits... I... it's hard t-to..."

To accept that spirits exist. Such thoughts were long past for Antoinette, but there was a time long ago when she felt the same.

"The wolves would keep this world secret from us." She reached out for the spirit, and it fluttered over her hand. The strange orb landed upon her palm, and giggled again. It was not just Safe, it was something slightly different, or perhaps more specific. Something her city contained, something the necklace resonated with.

The safety a child felt with their parents. Were the spirit older, it would not have been something as simple and delightful as the little angel sitting on her hand. Perhaps it would develop into a monstrous size, with six wings, and the sphere of its body would grow strong, and envelop all it wished to keep safe.

But for now, Safe was simple little thing, and adorable.

"It pleases me that such spirits exist within my city." It was a haven for Kindred after all, and other monsters apparently. For such spirits to exist perhaps reflected on the state of her city, or nearby areas. That well of knowledge, all beyond her reach. She could do nothing but prod at it with her experiments, and hope to stumble upon new secrets.

"Yes yes! The blood tower is strange! It can be spooky and scary, but sometimes not. I can't keep things safe here! Normally. But tonight it's safe. Are you safe?"

"I... I'm safe," Tasha said. "W-Why did... what called you here?"

"Blood tower changed! The locus here is very small, and weird, and it disappears and changes. Today it's new! And warm. And safe. I must become bigger, keep it safe. Don't change it! I can feed here, and keep it safe and get bigger and keep it safe."

Antoinette sighed, long, heavy, and ushered the beautiful angel toward Tasha again, who put out her hands to catch it. The little girl's eyes were wide with wonder now, no longer shocked, absorbed in the beauty of what she was holding, the expression so clear on her face it reminded Antoinette of Jack.

"I am sorry, Safe, but the locus will disappear soon. You will have to go back to your realm."

"... ok. But stay safe!" Its wings settled as the spirit nestled into Natasha's hands, and it pressed them to her chest. "You too? You seem nice. I'll protect you."

From how Tasha was looking at the lovely creature, if she had been blushing life she would have cried a river of tears.

"D-Don't worry... I'll be safe."

Oh, poor Vola. Antoinette would have cried as well if she were blushing, just for the proximity to such eyes. No doubt the spirit was stirring her memories, as it was her necklace, carrying her emotions embedded upon its body due to years of wear. Perhaps Antoinette's request for a personal object was misguided.

But, Natasha was smiling.

Antoinette reached over for the tablet, and disabled the resonance. As it began to fade, Safe began to fly higher, and giggled its sweet little sound, before it too faded away as the hum completely silenced.

"This was perhaps an error on my part, Natasha Vola." She got up, fixed her skirt, and walked back to the wall by the main equipment to turn the lights back on. Only her, her subordinate, and the necklace in the laboratory. "This equipment is a gift from the Ordo Dracul to pursue the secrets I yearn to discover, but there are many unknowns, forces you could even describe as magical. Such a disgusting word, but here we are, summoning creatures from beyond the Gauntlet and our understanding. So, in my infinite ignorance, I test it, and test what lies beyond. Your... your necklace, summoned something that existed in that place, Natasha. And it was quite beautiful."

"Wow." The little Mekhet got up, grabbed her necklace, and held it in her hand with all the delicacy of holding one of Antoinette's ancient relics. Like a precious flower. "It... it was... wow."

"Your eyes remind me of Minerva's eyes, the first time I brought her here. She would say you are cute as a button."

"Minerva? I never did learn about her, b-b-but she's... I hear... things."

"It is a sensitive topic for Jacob, so we let him share the information if he wishes, and otherwise do not spread it. But, I must warn you since you are now a member of the Ordo Dracul and working for me, that... she was an overzealous member of the order. She spent many years in this room when these tools were still new, experimented, desperate to understand things."

"I d-don't understand. Some Uratha told me... that Avery k-killed Minerva, and that... Jacob and she were an item. B-B-But I... what happened?"

"Minerva found a way to pursue these interests outside of my tower. I do not know how; the Uratha destroyed the evidence. She tried to stop them..." She sighed, and sat down at the table to begin examining the many artifacts before her. "She was Jacob's lover, Miss Vola, and I believe they could have lived centuries together, in love, if fate had been on their side."

Better for everyone she not bring up how she had tried to stop Minerva, encouraged her to only practice such dangerous experiments in the safety of the tower where they could control the parameters, to stay with Daniel or Antoinette who were much older and stronger than her. The girl's death was partly Antoinette's own fault; do not speak ill of the dead.

"Oh..." Vola sat down across from her, head lowered, shoulders heavy, and she slipped the necklace back into her pocket as her eyes drifted over the objects in much the same way Antoinette's did. "The Uratha are... brutal, and m-m-mean... some of them."

"Some of them?" Antoinette leaned in closer and eyed her little helper. Cute as a button indeed, Natasha looked down, up, left and right, every direction except the Prince's. "Judging from how you described your encounter, I had expected you to consider them all quite vicious."

"They were! A-And they were... terrifying. But Arturo and Matthew were nice, after." A tiny grin sneaked its way onto her face, only to vanish once Natasha shook her head, no doubt realizing Antoinette could see it.

"Natasha, if I did not know better, I would think you found these two werewolves intriguing."

"I... I uh... I t-told you they let me feed, right? I... didn't tell you, that they... um..."

"Natasha Vola, did you Kiss a werewolf?" For all her attempts at being serious about the matter, the line sounded too silly to keep a straight face even for her, and Antoinette chuckled with its conclusion.

"I... did. They offered! Sort of. And... Art was... r-r-really... really tasty."

Drinking the blood of an Uratha. She had to admit, she had never done such a thing. Her interactions with wolves were limited; they rarely came to Dolareido, and Antoinette had spent nearly half her life in the city. Before, hundreds of years ago, she had interacted with the Uratha, but she could not for the unlife of her remember the details. Always a blur, always a haze memories from such a time. But, if she had Kissed a werewolf, she would surely have remembered it.

"I see a twinkle in your eye, Miss Vola."

"T-Twinkle?"

Antoinette rolled her eyes, leaned in, and set her elbows on the table before setting her chin on her knuckles, fingers netted together. "Yes, the twinkle a young woman gets when her mind wanders, and she imagines a certain person presenting her with flowers, or a love poem, or in this modern era, a text."

Aha. The girl twitched, and her gaze cast down even as her shoulders came forward and her arms wrapped around herself. Defensive, no doubt feeling exposed. Then Antoinette had struck a chord, and Natasha's imagination had indeed been pondering someone.

"Come now Natasha, I am five hundred years old and have dealt with romance in all its forms."

"... all?"

"All." The Prince smiled over her hands at her little assistant. "While I do not enjoy the implication this story of yours carries, it is true that the previous pack of wolves to arrive in my city were under a different leader. If what Jack tells me is true, only Avery is the returning party, so whoever it is that has attracted your flights of fancy, I do not know them. And, as you say, they let you feed from them. I must consider that perhaps they are not the angry dogs I dealt with before."

"They... they're b-b-brutal, and d-dangerous! Their claws felt like f-fire on my skin, and their speed and strength... their animal hunger. It was... t-t-t-terrifying. But, after, when they calmed, Art and Matt, they... they were... they flirted with me." A confident statement from her shy, stuttering little friend.

"Flirted? That must have been... thrilling." Antoinette set her hands down and leaned in closer. "In truth, Miss Vola, it has been decades since I have had a friend to speak with about simple, fun, silly things, such as flirting. Minerva was the last." And she did miss her, but it had been many decades since the woman's death. Antoinette had moved on. Jacob had not. And as much as Antoinette loved her precious ghouls, they were not Kindred.

"Are... are you... asking me t-to be... your friend?" Natasha's eyes were wider than the Prince thought possible.

"Oui... why does that shock you so?"

"B-B-B-B-B-Because you're the Prince, and you're... you!"

Antoinette laughed and shook her head before leaning back. She pulled much of her hair over her shoulder, and combed its long, white waves with her fingers over her chest.

"You and Jack have much in common, Miss Vola." Shyness and jitteriness among them. "Both of you view me as a monolith. And that is my own doing; I am to blame. I must be such to be the Prince of this city, to rule its denizens and protect them from their bloodlust. But do not forget I am Kindred, as you are, and a woman, as you are." She smiled with the word, woman, knowing full well Natasha viewed the Prince as her total opposite, mentally and physically. Such a comparison was inaccurate, lacking nuance, and perhaps she could show her little friend the error of her ways.

"W-What... would you... want to uh... t-talk about?"

"Why you of course. My ghouls are a delight to gossip with, but it is not the same as speaking with fellow Kindred." Again she combed her hair, as the motion seemed to draw Natasha's eyes, and settled her fidgeting. Normal women played with their hair, not monolithic Prince's that decided the fates of Kindred every day. "I am not Daniel, and you will find me a delight to speak with if you wish to."