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Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

It was fun! We usually only see my in laws once or twice a year ^^

Okay, cool! I'm going to have a couple more free weeks and then I'm back in school for my final semester of university (huzzah)!

How was your Christmas, and boxing day?

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Caught up in his thoughts, Cas blinked dazedly when Iris suddenly rested her hand on his arm. He turned toward her, unsure what to do with the friendly gesture. She was surprisingly touchy for a high born. Throughout the time they had spent together so far, he’d noticed that she was quicker to offer small physical gestures than most of the other people he had met. It was a comforting change of pace, but it also made her difficult to read. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought that she was flirting with him, but the context of the situation and her general behavior didn’t add up to that. Instead, it seemed like she simply didn’t care about the personal space bubbles most elites erected to keep others at bay. Or, at least, she cared more about offering support than she did about intruding.

At her tentative question, he bit the inside of his cheek, certain now that his mother’s fate had been wiped with the rest of Iris’s memories. It was a heavier subject than most of the other things they had been chatting about, but like the rest of his personal life, it was something he had grown used to discussing with the public. The royal family was a spectacle for the Aspirian high borns, and there had been no shortage of snakes who had seen the queen’s passing as an opportunity to sidle up to him and his father with honeyed condolences. However, he didn’t get the impression that Iris was trying to do anything other than sympathize. With her honest track record and the fact that she had recovered a memory of her own mother’s death, he didn’t mind giving her an answer.

Before he could, he chuckled at her cheeky inquiry. “Oh god no,” he shook his head vigorously. “Nothing like that. I just spent all my time practicing for the various sports teams I had joined in high school and hanging out with my friends. You could say I was more stereotypically jock than geek, but I was still just as obstinate with my parents.” He shrugged sheepishly. “I tried to assert my independence back then. In hindsight, it was pretty stupid though, since everything I am is tied to who they are.”

Considering her first question again, Cas slowed his pace slightly. “Anyway, I’m sure you’ll remember the full story when you get your memories back, but I can fill you in on what happened,” he glanced out over the park they were walking past, going on in a clinical tone. “My mom had something called eclampsia… It’s when a woman has seizures during labor. Nobody knew she was at risk until she had me. Back then, she almost died and had to be hospitalized after the doctors removed me by cesarean. Luckily, she recovered, discussed it with my dad, and they decided it would be best for him to have a vasectomy, so she wouldn’t risk losing her life a second time. I was healthy enough as a baby, and they just needed one heir to succeed the crown, so it was the best option for them.”

He sighed, “The problem was, medical sterilization doesn’t always work, and about six years ago, my parents found out that my mom was pregnant again. My dad tried to convince her to abort for her own safety, but she was determined to keep the baby. The second time she went into labor, she had another seizure before she could get to the hospital. Neither she or my sister made it.” Another halfhearted shrug followed the grim statement. It was an account he had repeated so often that he’d learned to detach from it emotionally, focusing on his current surroundings rather than on the vivid memory of holding his seizing mother on her side while his father screamed into a cell phone for an ambulance that they had both known would arrive too late.

Eager to change the subject to something more pleasant, Caspian leapt at Iris’s next inquiry. “I’m not sure exactly how long they’ve been here, but every shop in this district is older than I am. They all have different wares too. The first one up ahead—” he gestured to the small building they were walking towards. “—has a lot of old art from countries that fell long ago. Paintings and carvings and stuff like that. The storekeeper has some interesting stories to go with them if you ask him about anything. I think you’ll like it.”

~Bonsoir~

That’s fine! I’m staying with my in laws right now and haven’t had access to WiFi, so I can’t write yet. Tomorrow is probably the soonest I’ll be able to get any posting done, if I find the time.

Hope your Christmas is going well!

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

I am! We’re visiting my in laws for Christmas.

It’s fine! I don’t have WiFi right now, so I can only access the site on my phone until tonight or tomorrow at the very earliest. Take your time ^^

~Bonsoir~

“How can I when you’ve been watching me like a hawk?” Vail teased when Victoria accused him of cheating. Truthfully, he hadn’t noticed that the move he’d played had put her in checkmate until after he’d done it. It had been a delaying tactic at the time, something to keep her distracted while he searched for a way to win the upper hand in the game. Apparently the half thought out trick had worked better than he’d expected, and he came off looking like he knew what he had been doing when his knowledge of chess strategies was actually quite limited. It had been little more than a fluke that he’d managed to best her three times in a row that night.

As her eyes met his, he exhaled quietly, reminded that it wouldn’t be much longer before they would be forced to go back to their intermittent meetings. After spending the last few days in her constant company, he felt like he’d been spoiled. Having the privilege to be with her and talk to her without any time constraints had been exactly what he’d expected from a courtship, despite his father’s insistence that he would only ever court another vampire. He had enjoyed their conversations, learning more about her and opening up to her about himself. It had felt comfortable—natural, even—to grow closer to the Crest heiress, and it was like nothing he had experienced with any member of his own race before. He would miss the ease that cohabitating had brought them while it lasted.

On top of that, he had some lingering worries about what would happen when she returned to her own home. He had been able to save her from her manic fiancé once, but what if Christopher went after her again? He had no way of knowing if she was in danger from a distance, and now that his father knew about their relationship, he was certain he couldn’t get away from the Hygrace manor often enough to keep an eye on her. It was a stressful situation. He just hoped they would be able to turn her quickly enough that the other vampire wouldn’t have another chance to take advantage of her.

At Victoria’s question, Vail nodded without hesitation. “I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it,” he replied honestly. What he kept to himself was that he still wasn’t completely sure that he could turn her to begin with. From what he’d been told by Reginald, vampires had stopped turning humans long ago, so there was a chance that the ritual could no longer be done today. However, choosing to stay optimistic, he pushed his concerns aside and added, “Besides, I don’t want to involve anyone else in this. I’ve heard enough from my father to know that he would disapprove, and I’m done letting him or anyone else make my decisions for me.”

Feeling resolved, he rose from his chair and stepped around the table to where Victoria was seated. He leaned down to press a firm kiss to her lips, trailing one hand down her arm until he reached her fingers. Her feminine scent made his heart race with a mixture of desire and hunger, and he pulled back before the urge to feed on her tempting blood grew too overwhelming to resist. “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he assured her breathily, giving her hand a squeeze as he righted his posture. Enough time had passed that he knew he could make the trip without running into any of his cousins. With that thought in mind, he headed for the door to retrieve the tome.

~Bonsoir~

The following days went about as well as Vail could have hoped. The only visitors to his room were the servants, who brought fresh meals for Victoria; the doctor, who stopped by once per day to assess her condition; and his father, who only checked in on them in the hopes of sending the Crest heiress away as soon as possible. Among the guests, the latter was the most unpleasant. Peter had become less explicitly vocal about his dislike of their unorthodox relationship, but he still made a point to remind them that as soon as she was on her feet, he would be returning her to her own family, and Vail would be expected to begin his courtship with the vampire—the subtle emphasis was always applied when the clan leader spoke of Sylvia—without any further delays.

Such encounters were the only times Vail woke during the daylight hours. The rest of the time, he slept by Victoria’s side, entangled together in the warm sheets. He usually rested when the sun was out, but as the days passed, he had another reason for dozing as often as he could: It was getting harder to resist feeding on her blood. Whenever he was awake, the predatory urge to bite her plucked at his willpower, especially if he stirred while she was still asleep. There had even been one time when, finding it too difficult to stay within close proximity, he had gotten up from the bed to pace until the drive to hunt simmered back down to a manageable level. It was simply easier to be unconscious than it was to continuously fight between giving in to his instincts and adhering to the logic that draining her of her blood yet again would only cause her to relapse.

Each night when he as active, he honored his word to Victoria that he would look for information on the turning ritual. For an hour or so after the rest of his family had retired to their rooms, he snuck down to the Hygrace archives and rifled through the journals and tomes in search of any mention of the method his ancestors had used to create new vampires out of humans. Afraid of leaving her alone for too long—he didn’t want to cause another repeat of the Caleb incident—it took three days before he finally stumbled upon a book that contained written records that described something called transmutation. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to skim the contents before the sound of footsteps outside the archive had prompted him to hastily shove the tome back into its place and return to his bedroom to make sure none of his relatives had taken advantage of his absence.

Now, on the fourth night, he was eager to finish what he’d started.

Sitting across from Victoria with a chess board in between them, Vail watched her decide on her next move. His elbow was resting on the arm of his chair and his cheek was propped languidly in his hand. It was already dusk, but some of the other Hygraces took longer to fall asleep than others, so they were biding their time with a game. His hazel eyes tracked her hand as she took his pawn with her knight, silent as he tried to calculate her strategy. If he had invested more years in the art of chess, he could have become a grand master at the game. However, having only picked it up again recently after decades of disinterest, he still had trouble predicting every move his opponent would make. It seemed like he was holding his own so far though. She hadn’t put his king in checkmate yet.

Lifting his gaze from the board, he caught sight of the smirk on her lips and paused. He was sure now that she could see something he didn’t. The only question was whether or not he could find it before she backed him into a corner. He leaned forward to study the setup of the pieces from above, idly chewing on the inside of his lip until he spotted the vulnerability. However, instead of correcting it by moving his king to a safer square, he offensively pushed a rook forward to put her king in check, hoping to change the board state into something more advantageous for himself rather than give in to her upper hand.

“Check,” he vocalized as per the rules, his eyes flicking up to her face again. His father had stopped by earlier that day and declared that now that she was feeling better, she would have to go back to the Crest manor the next morning. He would have sent her away sooner if Vail hadn’t argued that it was unsafe for her to walk home alone after dark when she could barely carry herself without assistance. The delay had earned them one more night together before their inevitable parting, but he wished she could have stayed indefinitely. He had enjoyed having her around and didn’t look forward to being pushed to court another woman before he could figure out how to turn her from human to vampire.

“That tome I found last night,” he mused, thinking about it again as he leaned back in his armchair. His family’s potential approval hinged on whether or not he could perform the old ritual, so it weighed heavily on his mind. “I’ll bring it back here once everyone is asleep, so we can read it together. I want you to know what you’re getting into before you make any final decisions.”

~Bonsoir~

Yay! I can get started on my next one for you ^^

~Bonsoir~

That sucks. Word does that to me sometimes too

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

As always, Cas found himself grinning at the glee on Iris’s face when she climbed out of the car. He enjoyed sharing his interests with her. Since she didn’t have any memories about who he was, it was easier to take her by surprise than it was with other high borns. Most of the time, everyone he met acted like they already knew him, since a decent portion of his life was broadcasted by the media for all to see. It was no secret that the heir to the crown had a penchant for speeding and enjoyed supporting the small business owners that remained in the historic district, but Iris remembered none of that. Having the opportunity to tell her about himself on his own terms and in his own words rather than battling against what the media said about him was a welcome change of pace.

His excitement simmered down slightly when he noticed her happiness fade, reminding him that her amnesia wasn’t as invigorating to her as it was to him. Apparently even this place, as memorable as it was, didn’t spark any familiarity in her injured mind. It was difficult for him to understand. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the things that triggered her memories to resurface. He hoped that didn’t mean there was nothing they could do to coax her mental fog to clear up faster. If it was left up to chance, there was no telling how many days, weeks or months it could take for her to return to normal.

“Maybe that will help,” he shrugged, trying to stay positive so they wouldn’t both be discouraged by the fact that she still couldn’t remember much. At the very least, he was optimistic that she would have a good time exploring the shops with him. There were plenty of intriguing pieces of history, some whose purposes were known and others whose uses could only be left to the imagination. To him, it felt like going back in time—getting away from all the expectations he had to carry around when he otherwise had to be the prince of Aspiria.

When Iris spoke about his past, Cas smiled melancholically. “Yeah,” he nodded. “She hated being cooped up in the house, and I needed breaks from studying to have a real childhood, so we visited places like this all the time.” As he talked, he led the way down the sidewalk that would take them to the nearest shop. His pace was purposefully slow, so he wouldn’t wear her out too quickly. If she could handle it, he wanted to complete the full circuit around the edge district before they left.

“It’s been a long time since I last came here with her,” he mused in response to her question. “I think I was around eleven or twelve. After that, I sort of went through the usual ‘rebellious teenager’ phase and spent most of my time with the friends I’d made back then than I did with her.” He shook his head. Even though the information might have been considered personal to someone else, he had grown numb to the thought of other people knowing every intimate detail of his past. The media had broadcasted it all years ago anyway. Forgetting that Iris may have forgotten the fate of the Aspirian queen, and he added in a low voice: “If I’d known how little time she had left, I would have done things differently.”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Yay! Glad you're back ^^

I've been alright! School is out for a month, so that's been great, but I've also been dealing with some post-procedure pain from a medical thing I had to get done a few days ago. Overall, things have been getting better though!

How was your trip?