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Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Cool! I'm trying to get some cleaning done today, so I might not reply until tomorrow or the weekend. Depends on how fast I get done and/or if I slack off xD

I've been good! Just dealing with trying to figure out where one of our cars went ^^; It might have been stolen because everyone I've called who might have towed it said they didn't do it. It was an old junker, but we were planning to sell it for some petty cash, so it's kind of a bummer.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow got fed up with how fake Liz is xD
He also stalled a little

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Liz stared at Crow, taken aback by his harsh words. A number of emotions flickered across her face, ranging from shock to hurt to anger, until she finally settled on the latter. “Forget it,” she huffed, tossing her hair. Any semblance of injury had fled from her features, replaced only by the coldness the viceroy had seen beneath her fake smiles from the start. “For the record, my father is the one who wanted this, not me. He thought that since you had slept with me once when we were younger, you would want me again when you saw the kind of woman I’ve become.” She rose from the table, smoothing down the dress that hugged her hourglass curves.

“But if you’re going to be this pigheaded, you’re not worth my time,” she went on arrogantly. “I will not sit here and be insulted when there are dozens of wealthier, more handsome men than you who would fight to have a wife like me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to spend my supper with them.”

“You do that,” Crow said in a deadpan tone, rolling his eyes as he watched her take on another hurt expression. It was obvious that she was trying to look like a victim as she walked away from him, so that some gullible fool would swoop in to save the wounded damsel in distress. He didn’t care though. As long as she was done pestering him, she could wrap as many other men around her witch finger as she pleased.

“That seemed unnecessary,” Preston, who had overheard everything while he’d been taste testing the viceroy’s food, mumbled incredulously.

“She’s too dramatic for her own good,” Crow scoffed. In the next moment, he caught sight of Penelope on her way to join him at the table and smiled, happy to see a friendlier face than the one that had just left. At her comment, he shrugged, “Actually, this time I think she got the message. She shouldn’t bother us again.” He hoped not, at least. Even if Liz had given up on winning him over, the noblewoman had a propensity for stirring up trouble. He would just have to keep an eye on her for the next few days while she was still fuming over the fact that he wasn’t as easily bought as she’d wanted.

At Penelope’s following question, the viceroy bit the inside of his lip, reminded of the mixed results of the council meeting that he still needed to share with her. “He did…” he answered slowly. “Do you want the good news or the bad news first?”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow put Elizabeth in her place pretty savagely ^^;

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow’s mind was reeling as he walked through the corridor that led to the Great Hall. It was great news that his father had decided to seek peace with Younis, but he didn’t want to leave in just three days. There was still so much left that he needed to do. He hadn’t had the chance to talk to Albin about courting Penelope, and he had been hoping that they could establish their relationship before he left the kingdom for no less than two weeks to meet with the foreign king. The thought of other noblemen flirting with the knight in his absence made his blood boil. If he was going to be gone, he wanted her to be able to tell them that she was already being courted by someone else, so she wouldn’t have to put up with bold men like Cedric who would try to win her over using whatever method they could think of, even if it meant pushing her boundaries.

He shook his head to himself as he stepped into the dining hall and took a look around for any familiar faces. Surprisingly, there were quite a few that evening. Naida was sitting with their other siblings near the back of the room, John was having a discussion with a group of older knights, and Wayne and Robyn were laughing at a table full of noblemen. The viceroy lingered by the door as he took in the sight, debating whether or not he had the energy to join his male acquaintances—he didn’t want to go near Braden or the knights in John’s company—when the sound of the last voice he wanted to hear jarred him from his thoughts.

“Hi, Crow,” Elizabeth greeted. He turned around to see that she had entered the Great Hall behind him. The noblewoman stood in an unexpectedly sheepish posture, gripping her arm with her hand and looking up at him with a half-smile. “Or would you prefer I call you Collin?”

“What do you want?” the former thief narrowed his eyes untrustingly.

“To apologize,” Liz winced. She paused for a moment before asking tentatively, “Can we sit?”

“I’d rather not.”

“Please?” she frowned. “I just want to talk… No games this time.”

Crow studied her warily, already certain that she was just playing an angle despite what she said. However, there weren’t any other groups that he felt like sitting with for supper, and he knew she would just follow him if he planted himself at an empty table, so he sighed. “Fine, but make it quick,” he shot her a warning glare. “And don’t touch me, or I will leave.”

“Fair enough,” her bashful smile returned.

They walked over to an open table and sat down across from each other. Crow folded his arms on the surface and met Liz’s gaze impassively, waiting for her to speak first since she was the one who had invited him to join her.

She shuffled her feet, seeming abashed by his stare, and took a deep breath, “I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry. I… assumed, wrongly, that you were the same man I knew before.”

“Seven years is a long time,” Crow pointed out blandly.

“I know that now,” Elizabeth grimaced. “The Crow I remember would have been thrilled to find a woman warming his bed when he retired for the night, but I can see now that you’ve changed. I swear, I never meant to offend you. I was just trying to appeal to your taste.”

“Then why did you allow that rumor to spread about me?” Crow curled his lip accusatively. “Everyone in the castle thinks I’m out to trick women into sleeping with me now, and it isn’t helping that you haven’t denied that I was the one who instigated what happened.”

“I know, and I’m sorry about that too,” Liz lowered her gaze. “I really thought you were the same man I knew seven years ago, the one who would have been proud to boast that he had convinced a noblewoman to sleep with him. And…” she shifted her weight. “I-I was embarrassed. If I had denied the rumors, everyone would know that I had put myself on the line and been turned away. I don’t want to be known as the woman who was rejected by the viceroy… It seemed easier to give you the credit for what happened, because I thought you would have been happy to accept it.”

Crow dragged his hand over his face, unsure where to even begin. “First of all, how did you not get a hint that I might have changed when I kicked you out of my bedchamber?” he asked incredulously. “As I said before, seven years is a long time. I know I used to get around, but I’m not like that anymore. I’ve—” he wavered, nearly slipping up with the ending of: found someone who means more to me than meaningless flings. Catching himself, he finished instead with: “—come to realize I want something more than meaningless flings, and I can’t find that if I’m still messing around with women with whom I have no future.”

He exhaled, frustration seeping into his voice, “And secondly, you can’t just pass blame because you’re embarrassed. The thing you don’t want anyone else to think about you is exactly what happened. If anything, you should have thought about that before you took off your dress in my bedchamber. I have no sympathy for you when you were the one who put yourself in this position.”

Elizabeth bit her lip, her chin quivering slightly, “Are you saying we have no future?”

“We don’t,” Crow confirmed without hesitation.

“But why?” she shook her head, toying nervously with a strand of her long hair. “I know I was wrong for the way I behaved, and I’m sincerely sorry, but I promise you, that’s not who I am… I just saw all the other women who want to be with you too, and thought I would be able to stand out from them by reminding you of our past. I you give me a chance, I can show you—”

“I think you showed me your true colors the moment you tried to coerce me into bed with you,” the viceroy interrupted coldly. “And honestly, I don’t believe you’re really sorry for anything you’ve done so far. I know people, love, and there’s something in your eyes that tells me you’re not here for anyone but yourself right now. If you had demonstrated even the slightest hint of remorse while you were speaking, you might have had me, but all I see is a snake who missed with her first strike and is terrified of watching her prey get away.” He turned away from her as Preston approached with his food. “Do yourself a favor and slither off before you embarrass yourself anymore.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

He deserves it though!

Aaaaand Crow just found out he doesn't have nearly as much time as he thought xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

“I’ll do whatever I can to get the king to reason with us,” Crow nodded eagerly, pleased with the sudden turn of events. It looked like Albin really had been considering his council’s opinions. Well, either that or he’d been hoping someone else would come up with a reason for him to disregard the signatures on the petition, and they hadn’t met his expectations. Whatever the case, they were finally on track to make peace with Younis and stop the destruction that the gods had been warning them about. He just hoped he would be able to negotiate well enough to convince the foreign monarch to come to an agreement that his father would be willing to take.

“Now that that’s settled, we just need to lay out the terms of the treaty,” the king announced, turning back to the rest of the noblemen. “Gerard, Malgerius and Collin, stay. The rest of you may return to your other duties.”

Crow plucked a grape from what was left of the banquet and chewed idly while the other nobles compliantly filed out of the chamber. Fischbach shot him one more spiteful look on his way out, but the viceroy just turned away from him, purposefully shrugging off the older man’s attempt to get under his skin. He would have liked to leave with the rest, since he was still clinging to the hope that he would be able to take a nap before supper, but if his father wanted him to stay, there was nothing he could do about it.

Once the room had been all but cleared, Albin leaned back in his chair. “Pay close attention,” he said to his viceroy. “Everything we discuss here will be recorded in a scroll written by Malgerius, but it is vital that you remember as much as you are able to make negotiations with the Younisian king run more smoothly. He won’t take you seriously if you fumble through your meeting with him. Do you understand?”

Crow nodded. He was still unsure how much he could trust his father in general, but when it came to the advice the monarch gave about being an ambassador, he took the man’s word as seriously as a religious text. Albin had been the youngest and arguably one of the most successful viceroys in Brerra’s history, so the insight he offered was invaluable to the former peasant who knew next to nothing about international affairs. He didn’t want to spoil the peace treaty by coming off as insecure or unprepared.

“Good,” Albin smiled at him. “Now then, I would like to arrange multiple offers for you to propose to king, three in all. The first will be intentionally unreasonable, but not so much so that Younis will be offended and unwilling to hear out the others.”

“It’s just like bartering,” Crow noticed, thinking aloud.

“It is,” his father agreed amusedly. “The first offer’s purpose is to make the second more appealing, while the third will be a last resort that you will only bring up if the king of Younis is absolutely unwilling to take the second. It is your job, Collin, to persuade him as if there is no third offer at all. Make the middle ground sound like the best deal that king will ever see in his lifetime. Do you think that’s something you can do?”

“I think so,” the viceroy shifted his weight tentatively. It was just like bartering… except the stakes were far higher.

“I’m sure you’ll do just fine,” Albin rested a firm hand on his shoulder.

On the king’s other side, the elderly man, Gerard, cleared his throat. “The most ideal agreement in this case would be a trade of resources, my liege. We have an overabundance of lumber and farmland, and a shortage of ores and fineries that are in high demand among the upper class. Negotiating for these things would bring exotic riches to the kingdom, while we would lose nothing, because we do not utilize all of our land to begin with.”

“I agree,” Albin nodded, turning to the other man at Gerard’s side. “Write this down. The first offer will be for an immediate payment in gold amounting one thousand ducats with the addition of regular sums following annually. In return, we will give the Younisians lumber from our oak and maple trees.”

Crow wrinkled his nose. Even as an uneducated criminal, he could tell that the deal was weighted absurdly in favor of Brerra.

The king went on, “For the second deal, we will propose a regular trade of goods. Lumber from our forests, produce from our farms and animal products from the pastures. In exchange we will accept ores and silk textiles from Younis.”

“We will need something more binding than a contract to make this last,” Gerard mused.

Albin drummed his fingers on the table. “A marriage,” he indicated to Malgerius to write it down. “There is nothing more binding than matrimony. We will seal our sisterhood with Younis by giving one of our own to a noble of the Younisian king’s choosing.”

“Who will you give?” Crow asked, casting his father a curious look. “Braden?”

“No,” the king shook his head. “Braden is the heir to the throne, so his hand will be reserved for a union that will benefit our kingdom far more than this. Besides, there are plenty of other eligible young men and women in the citadel, sons and daughters of high ranking nobles who would all make excellent candidates. But we can decide whom will be chosen after the Younisian king agrees.”

“And for the third offer?” Malgerius queried.

“The same as the second, with the inclusion of some of our less disposable resources,” Albin answered, rising from the table. “I’ll refine the details at a later point, but for now, we’ve made enough headway to justify making the preparations for Collin’s departure.”

“Already?” Crow blinked and looked up, surprised at how quickly his father was sending him off.

“All this planning has gone on long enough,” the king sighed. “The palace staff has already begun gathering the supplies you would have needed to make the trip to Gorm. I’ll send my attendant to notify them of the changes we’ve made today, but there’s no reason to delay this anymore.”

“So… when will I be leaving?” the viceroy asked hesitantly.

“In three days,” Albin replied.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

She was the one you were thinking about pairing with Gavin later, right?

The meeting ended up working out for the better, but it's not over yet lol

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

As soon as the noblemen on the king’s court began to discuss the situation, Crow became certain that he was ill-equipped to take part in the conversation. They raised questions about the financial tradeoffs of letting the war drag out, the political pros and cons of forming a peace treaty, and the long term benefits of negotiating with both Younis and Gorm. The majority of the information made the viceroy’s head spin, but it was also a learning experience. Listening to the older men speak, he was passively informed about the flow of supplies to the warfront as well as the costs involved in operating an army. War was an expensive endeavor, but if the nobles were right about what they would gain if they won, the profits and resources brought in from Younis would be well worth the money lost.

In fact, the more compelling argument for the side of ending the fighting seemed to lay in the politics. While Brerra would be made a richer kingdom if they enlisted Gorm to help them overpower Younis, they would risk playing with the fire that their enemies would use the same strategy. To Crow’s surprise, it sounded like Younis was on good terms with many other kingdoms through a number of long lasting trade agreements, so it was probable that they would have no trouble seeking aid from other countries that wouldn’t like to see them annexed. It was particularly troubling to the council members that they had strong ties with Waithen, since the eastern nation flanked quite a bit of Brerra’s territory.

Protesters of the peace treaty argued that Brerra was strong enough to come out on top if they kept fighting; supporters of the treaty argued that there was more to be gained by making Younis an ally; and Crow didn’t know what to think, since every man who spoke was able to conjure up persuasive reasons to side with either Gorm or Younis, and he wasn’t knowledgeable enough to form his own opinion outside of what he heard from each of them.

“We’ve come too far to give up now,” Adam, one of the most avid warmongers, pounded his fist on the table. “If we stop fighting, other kingdoms will see us as weak. This is an opportunity to show everyone that Brerra is a force to be wary of.”

“And do what, launch an attack on everyone who disagrees?” another noble scoffed. “We should be focusing on forming positive relations with our neighbors, and we don’t have to take them over to do that.”

“Exactly,” another peace supporter agreed. “Even if we don’t annex Younis, we can trade for their resources if they’re willing to discuss other options.”

“But if we defeat them, we can have all of their resources!”

“If we don’t, they could be an invaluable ally in future conflicts!”

“Men, settle down, please,” Albin lifted his hand.

Crow, who had grown weary of the constant bickering and rested his head on his folded arms, looked up at his father. It was the first time in a while that the king had said anything. He seemed to have been sitting back, considering everyone’s words on his own while his council debated. The viceroy studied his face, wondering if he had come to a decision yet.

“Both courses of action seem viable,” Albin went on thoughtfully, lacing his bejeweled fingers together on the table. “However, from what I have heard here today, there is no outstanding benefit of recruiting the knights of Gorm that can justify disregarding the voices of hundreds of my people. Here is what I propose,” he raised his hand again as Fischbach opened his mouth to protest. “We will attempt to seek peace with Younis. If they are unwilling to reach a reasonable agreement, then we will move forward with the plan to bring Gorm into this war and annex our enemies by force. I believe this is a fair compromise. Is there anyone who disagrees?”

The room was quiet, and Crow felt his heartbeat quicken with excitement. “Very well then,” his father turned to him with a nod. “Collin, it looks like you’ll be going to Younis.”

~Bonsoir~

The look on Peter’s face made it clear that he would not relent this time. Vail held his gaze for a moment longer before he gave up and climbed down from the bed after Victoria to get dressed. She had wrapped herself in the bedsheet, so he stood nude as he gathered his clothes from the floor. There were other, clean outfits in his wardrobe that he could have put on instead, but knowing that Lady Crest would be returning to her family in a matter of minutes, he couldn’t bring himself to cross even the full length of a room.

Additionally, when he bent down to pick up the discarded garments, he caught sight of the tome that had fallen during the night. He and Victoria had decided the transformation ritual was too dangerous to attempt, but he didn’t want Peter to know they had been investigating it at all, so he subtly pushed the book beneath the bed skirt with his foot. It would remain hidden there until he found time to replace it in the archive later that night.

As he finished buttoning his shirt, he glanced sideways at the Crest heiress when she declared to Peter that Lord Alabaster had killed her father. It was the same thing she had said to him the night he’d found her half frozen outside her summer house. The clan leader seemed unconvinced though, or perhaps didn’t care enough to express anything other than cool disinterest in response to the reveal. “He is already downstairs,” Peter said without empathy. Her question went ignored as well.

Vail found the news of Gerald’s appearance off-putting, but there was nothing he could do to send the man away. Peter’s word trumped his as the patriarch of the Hygrace family, and demanding that Alabaster be removed from the property before Victoria left would only result in the woman being forcibly dragged out of the manor by his father. With no good options left, he settled for walking closely by her side as they headed down to her human escorts in the foyer.

Upon seeing the two Saints in his family’s home, the vampire heir tilted his chin up untrustingly. Ray and Gerald had each attacked him before, and even though Victoria had grown fond of the former, they were both still enemies in his eyes. His father seemed to see them the same way too, as the men had been left in the watchful company of three of his cousins until Peter had returned from the upper floor. He had lived long enough to know how dangerous it was to invite members of the Order under his roof.

At Alabaster’s insinuation that Victoria might have been harmed in the care of the Hygraces, Vail narrowed his eyes. It was hypocritical of him to say such a thing after he had allowed Lord Spencer to feed on her until she had knocked on death’s door. The only ones who had caused her any harm, aside from the puncture of his own fangs, were the Wynters and the Order themselves. However, knowing how tense relations were between the Hygraces and the Saints lately, he held his tongue.

“It is our code to care for those who need us,” Peter stated plainly when thanked. “I only hope Lady Crest never finds herself in need again.” His way of saying he wanted her out of their lives.

Vail followed Victoria and her entourage with his eyes as they began to take their leave. He would have liked to arrange a time for them to meet again, but such was impossible in their current company, and she needed to finish recovering from the affliction her fiancé had caused. For now, he would just have to hope that she would regain her strength quickly and find a way to contact him when she was well enough to sneak out of the Crest manor.

With a heavy sigh, he turned his head to go back to his bedroom when her whispery voice reached his ears. He froze in his tracks, sure that his heart had just skipped a beat at the words that rolled quietly off her tongue. Ever since the day he’d met her, he had been tentative and careful, attempting to navigate his feelings for Victoria with refined logic. There had been moments when he had looked at her that he’d been overcome with a warmth that he couldn’t quite describe, but in three simple words, she had just expressed it perfectly. He loved her too. He loved her with every ounce of his being, despite everything that stood in their way and everyone who thought they were mad. He wanted to be with her, make her happy, even die for her if he must.

He loved her, and now, as the heavy oak doors closed firmly between them, he couldn’t say it back.