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Try as he might, Aaron just couldn’t force himself to focus, distracted by everything from the halting steps of blind approaching vampires to the nervous shuffling of the mages who met them. Weird, normally he had no problem filtering out distractions when it was time to perform, but he supposed the past few nerve-fraying weeks were finally catching up to him. At the [i]worst[/i] possible time. Why did things always seem to go sideways for him when the stakes were highest? 

Eventually he conceded, figuring (or at least hoping) he’d have an easier time snapping out of his fog once they were transported into the forest and the pressure was on. It was just as well; magic wasn’t something he could wrestle into submission, and he supposed concentration was no different. Instead, he resigned himself to a few more idle moments, looking down the line of mages as they were each reunited with their vampires, one by one. Count Benjamin didn’t seem happy about his impairment, but took it in stride; he heard a disproportionately loud laugh from where Max stood with Eris, no doubt veiling his nervousness with humour, and Countess Marivaldi found Madalyn as he’d suspected she would. But what caught Aaron’s attention the most were the pairs beyond the end of the line, mages and vampires he didn’t know, or had only seen in passing. 

Surprisingly, not a single vampire looked happy to be blinded; perhaps that shouldn’t have come as a shock, but with the way he’d seen some of the lowborn purebloods or the Embraced carry on with mages like peers, Aaron was surprised that none of them thought of the practical as an exciting venture with their mage or something. Maybe there was something poetic in there about how vampires inherently craved control, but far be it from him to find it. What was more captivating, however, were the mages. Their attitudes varied far more than their masters’, ranging everywhere from nervousness to excitement to complete disregard. A few caught Aaron’s eye who looked a little more mortified than the rest, pale and skittish as their vampires approached them. Aaron couldn’t hear anything said, but from his limited view there were one or two who shrunk away from their vampires’ words, looking like their lives flashed before their eyes. 

Aaron shifted uncomfortably on his feet, and he pulled his eyes away and down out of habit. His heart went out to them; they probably faced the same ire he did if they steered their masters wrong (or even if they didn’t, and their vampires were simply stirred to rage by the concept itself as Varis was), but more than likely with a different result. Aaron had an irritating habit of occasionally slipping into self-pity no matter how hard he tried to avoid it, but even then he knew very well there were plenty of mages who had it far, far worse than him; after all, Varis was the only Sinnenodel on campus, and rare were traditionalists outside of his House who resorted to words rather than swifter and more painful means of correction. Aaron only hoped for those mages’ sakes that their nerves didn’t overcome them tonight. 

Mercifully, a voice pulled him out of his head, Count Benjamin calling over a hearty wish of good luck. Dire thoughts or no, Aaron found it difficult not to grin at the Count as he tried to face the right direction—he was a little off, too far to the left and a bit too high—before wishing luck to the rest of the group as well. His faith was appreciated (not that it really meant much to anyone but his own mage) but the word “capable” stood out almost comically from the rest. Aaron was sure he meant it in good faith, but there was no doubt Varis would be grumbling his objections to [i]that[/i] idea if he heard it. 

[color=f0d705]“Thank you, Count Benjamin,”[/color] he called back in a cheerful tone that was only a little bit faked, [color=f0d705]“and good luck to you too—not that you’ll need it, I’m sure.”[/color] The last part was directed more to Lilie, and he even threw in a little wink for good measure. The grin he flashed her was mostly cosmetic, sure, but there was no need for him to bring the rest of the line down with his burgeoning dread.
[right][sub][@Bert Macklin] [@Hero][/sub][/right]