Chapter Text
Lestat
There was a considerable amount of excitement in the court when I reached it that evening. Victor, in particular, was a nervous wreck. Surprisingly, he came to find me the second my feet touched the pavement outside, and was dancing alongside me the whole way in.
"I'm sorry, Father, really." he was going on, nervous energy animating his hands the way it so often animates mine, and I allowed myself a few moments to truly study him as he hurried along beside me. Immortality had been gifted him at the absolute perfect time. Exactly when he'd asked and he'd asked at the right time...twenty one years and his hair was an inch or so longer than mine, his eyes a little harder than mine, his height a little more than mine...and yet he so resembled me still it was like looking into a mirror! Well, that's Fareed's little triumph, isn't it? His and Dr. Gilman's.
"....says it's not anythying to do with me but I can't help but feel that it IS, and I'm sorry." he was still saying, and I realized I'd missed whatever he'd been saying. He was staring at me anxiously and I further realized I was expected to make some sort of reply here.
"Mmm." I said. Of course I couldn't let him know that I hadn't been listening! But he seemed to know it anyway. I can fake it with Louis and sometimes even with Armand but he and Marius....and David, of course are so damned good at telling when my attention has been wandering. Not my fault. He's a smart man. He came to a complete stop, and narrowed those familiar blue eyes at me.
"Father, what have I been saying?" he asked. In truth, I couldn't tell him and he knew it. He closed his eyes briefly in despair and I could hear someone coming up the stairs to meet us. Quick, hurried steps. Only David ever hurried like that.
"Alright, listen, it's important. It's--"
"Lestat, it's important. Please, can you come to the council room, there's someone to see you." Too late, David had interrupted. A look of momentary annoyance crossed over Victor's features. I had to admit, I was now powerfully curious.
"So what is it?" I asked, deliberately shoving my hands into my pockets of my coat as I made my way down into the castle and towards the council chamber, refusing to be hurried. Victor opened his mouth.
"Well, she...." he trailed off into silence, and when it dragged past a few seconds I glanced at him to find him and David staring at each other, apparently in the midst of a conversation that I was not privy to, and it annoyed me immediately. She, she, she.
"She who?" I demanded, my hand on the door. They exchanged looks again, and I raised an eyebrow. Really, I didn't have the patience for this, if they were going to do this -now-. There was someone in there and I couldn't tell exactly who it was, which meant I had not met them before.
"Rose?"
"What? No...no, not...not anything to do with Rose." Victor said, still having the mortal capacity to turn pink.
"Your mother? MY mother?" There weren't an awful lot of 'she's in this little universe of mine.
"N..no, I..."
We were in the council chamber then, and everyone stood....a nice little bit of decorum that I admit I'm more than a little partial to. And there he was, that presence that I did not know. A man of perhaps thirty when he had been turned. Dark hair, dark eyes. Roman, by the look of him.
"Cyrus Aurellius." he said, bowing from the waist. Very Roman. I returned the bow with a nod of my head.
"Cyrus." I said, crossing to my seat. He remained standing, they all did...until I took my own. I do love decorum.
He didn't look happy, but I was happy to let him look that way as long as he wanted.
"So. What can I do for you?" I asked, happiness to let him look that way as long as he wanted lasting only about 20 seconds or so. I had things to do.
"Redress, I hope." he said, his voice clipped with displeasure.
"Redress." I repeated, raising an eyebrow. Instead of answering me, he turned to Victor, who had taken his customary seat on Marius's left. We were going to play games, apparently. "I must say, young Victor, that I am quite pleased to have met the rest of your family, though I see only your father here." he said, his voice surprisingly pleasant. Victor glanced at me, and then chose to say nothing. That didn't really seem to bother Cyrus, who kept speaking.
"I've seen your mother and grandmother, of course. I take it from my reading that your grandmother does not care much for government, and your mother is always busy. Of course, I could have that wrong, perhaps politics here are still exclusively the realm of men. That would be the only valid reason I could think of that your sister is not here."
That little bomb drop had the effect I'm sure he intended.
"Sister?" I said blankly, before I could stop myself. "You have a sister?"
Victor closed his eyes, letting out his breath slowly, as a ripple went around the table. Looking quite pleased with himself, Cyrus sat back. I turned to Marius.
"Did you know about this?"
Marius shook his head, but Cyrus was speaking again.
"Oh yes. Quite an impressive specimen, I was told, and then of course, after my fledgling was killed, I had to see for myself." he said, and now he had my full attention again.
"Your fledgling was killed?"
"Yes. I want redress, as I've stated. My fledgling Odessa Tennant was in Norway and angered her in some way, and was killed in the resulting confrontation." he said. I wasn't sure I was hearing this right.
"This....this sister of yours is....is mortal?" I asked Victor.
"Yes, surprisingly." Again, it was Cyrus who answered, and that was beginning to annoy me. I had asked Victor, hadn't I? He must have caught the look I'm certain was on my face and made the barest gesture of apology.
"Well, then? How did he die?" I said, after a few seconds silence. I was liking him less and less.
"She put a spear through the back of his skull."
"Sh..what?"
I could feel the ripple of movement around the table. I was a part of it. This was not true, could not be true. Not to one of us, surely not to even a fledgling of this ancient one. And yet, the images were there, he was making them available as he went back through them. Vague, blurred images of a tall woman, almost as tall as Victor, hurling a jagged bit of wood. The fledgling, Odessa, a gorgeous man with rippling brown hair and a lean face...until it exploded outward in bits, a macabre yet fascinating display. I was caught in this and could not tell what, exactly, either had been doing. But the images were gone now and I had only a fading memory. How annoying. The ripple had been going around the table again, and I felt it myself.
"So your fledgling was killed by a.....a..."
"A lucky shot, that is only what I can call it." Cyrus said, lip curling.
"Fine. Your fledgling was killed by a lucky shot thrown by this woman for...what reason?"
"Whatever issue was between her and my fledgling remains unknown to me."
"I'll tell you what the issue was." Victor spoke up for the first time, and I turned to look at him. I could feel, rather than see Cyrus narrowing his eyes slightly. Victor looked like such the little politician, sitting up straight with his hair tied back, ice in those blue gray eyes.
"He didn't ask to approach and he didn't leave when she banned him. It's her land out there, our kind aren't allowed and she's made a very clear law of that--' he started, and Cyrus waved his words away with a derisive snort.
"Law, as if human laws made by individuals are meant to affect us, this law has no standing, even for us."
"Her land, her right."
"She is mortal."
"It is her right to decide-"
"She had no right to decide! Even if one were to make such a law for us, it would come from here, from a recognized seat of authority. She is unknown to the Court, she is unknown to our society, our..tribe as our little Bedouin puts it. Her land it may be, but she owns it in name only, she is no recognized ruler or any such person." Cyrus snapped, and finally, his attention turned back to me. I said nothing. Frankly, honestly.....he had a point. I shifted uncomfortably. This was....a lot to take in, really.
"Murder cannot go unanswered. I demand redress from the Court, a life for a life." Cyrus said bluntly.
"No!" Victor blurted, amid the other murmurs, and I sat forward. Those dark eyes were fixed on mine. What could I do? I'd seen the images, short as they were. "Father?"
"Murder....cannot go unanswered." I said, though I wasn't happy about this. I didn't even know this woman, I didn't want to pass judgement, especially if there was some sort of family connection. And it felt....even then....wrong, somehow. As if I were being guided to take the first step towards a long staircase of which I could not see nor judge the end.
"Father!" Victor tried again, his voice rising. Marius cleared his throat and then spoke for the first time that evening.
"Murder cannot go unanswered." he agreed with me, and held up a finger to Victor's horrified look. "But first, always, there must be an inquiry. Your sister must be given a chance to explain her actions to the court and only then should appropriate action be taken." I found myself nodding, equal parts relieved and energized. Yes. An inquiry. There were things I wanted to know, so many things I could now find out and questions answered...I noticed the two Romans were eyeing each other with a look remarkably like hatred.
"............fine." Cyrus said after the silence stretched well into the uncomfortable region. "I trust that it will be a timely inquiry."
"Thirty days is the standard is it not?" David. Bless him for keeping track of things like that. I glanced at him and then at Marius...and then at Cyrus. There was a tight lipped moment before he finally nodded again, aquiescing.
"Fine." he said again. "I will return in 30 days."
I held up a finger. "Return when I send for you, it may in fact take some time to set up this inquiry." This did not please him, I could tell. But for now he seemed to be holding his tongue on the matter, even going so far as to give me another little half bow.
"Prince." he said shortly. He wanted to leave. I could practically feel Louis' eyes boring into me, begging me not to be an ass about it.
"Will that be all, then?" I asked, hearing Louis' faint sigh of relief.
"That will be all. Until you send for me." Resentment. I didn't care, though I did let it annoy me into being just a tiny bit of an ass about it. I didn't answer him verbally, simply waved my hand. Let him make of that what he would. I could hear Louis huffing out his nose. Really, he should be grateful, I could have made it so much worse. I didn't watch him as he got to his feet, though I did the courtesy of rising along with him to let him leave with dignity. The rest of the council rose, and once he had left, I threw myself back down in my seat and simply turned to face Victor, waiting on the explanation I was sure would be immediately forthcoming.
Except it wasn't. The silence stretched out past a minute, until Victor startled as if someone had jostled him under the table. Even then he shifted uncomfortably and just looked at me helplessly. I sighed, starting to feed him questions.
"So you have a sister."
"Yes."
"That none of us knew about.....why?"
"She wanted it that way. I thought she was within her right to have it that way." he muttered. He looked uncomfortable, and I guessed why.
"Who does know?" I demanded, and thankfully, he didn't try and brush me off.
"Just....Mother of course, and...Fareed and Seth. And....Daniel." he muttered. I blinked.
"Daniel??" Of course, Daniel wasn't here. Armand was though, and he shifted as if he...
"Armand??"
"I only learned recently." he said, not sounding apologetic at all.
"Anyone else?" I demanded peevishly.
"Well. Rose, of course."
"Of course." I waited, but there didn't seem to be anyone else. "Fine. Call her on the phone and tell her to come here, that I need to speak to her, and she....what?" I stopped, because his eyes had widened, and he was shaking his head.
"Oh, she'll never come here. Not ever." he said. I blinked, just....staring at him.
"What do you mean? She'll need to come here so I can interview her about this whole.....inquiry.....thin....ju-what??" He was shaking his head again, his eyes, if possible, even wider.
"She...she won't see you. She won't talk to you."
I just stared at him, waiting wordlessly for some kind of explanation that made sense. He made another helpless little gesture with his hands.
"She...she doesn't want to see you, or meet you, or talk with you." he said, for once sounding exactly like Louis at his utter miserable-est. "Ever."
"What??" That made absolutely no sense.
Who, in their right mind, didn't want to see or meet or talk with ME?