Plume

I was sitting opposite Mo on a cushion in her room. The queen poured some more tea into a delicate small porcelain cup. The liquid had a vague bluish tint to it. I took the offered cup with hands that shook lightly. My heart, that some days didn't so much as stir, was pounding in my chest. And there was nothing I could do about it. To my shame.

"So..." the Queen started. "Yesterday, you wanted to go to the Forest. You lived in a house that exploded earlier today. Tonight, you have no inclination to go away. And furthermore, you are telling me, it was I who called you away from that house before last night. All this is right, isn't it?"

I nodded. I was looking at the cup. And wished furiously I had had at least some kind of a robe as a cover.

I didn't have a robe. Neither did Mo. We were sitting naked. And just that day, I really felt it. I had sat here at least half a dozen times without so much as boxers, but tonight I felt truly uncomfortable in my skin. I supposed that was the purpose of Mo's insistence on nakedness inside her own room. You couldn't bring anything to cover your intentions nor any object that was yours. Just your naked body.

"I really cannot tell why I would have wanted to go to the elves. Maybe I was drunk. I don't remember drinking anything. But that is really the only explanation I can offer."

"Mmm."

I didn't need to lift my gaze to perceive her movement as she leaned back. Or rather straightened up, as the cushion offered little backrest.

"You know, Plume, you are really the only person who has any links to that house. I can see in my documents that I bought it only days before the explosion. But you tell me you have lived there for weeks. Do you have any explanation for this?"

I shook my head.

A silence issued.

She continued thinking aloud: "And you did show me the message advising you to come here for the day when it happened. So, clearly, I was aware something was going on in that house. But I cannot remember how I might have known that. Hellebore had called, which I can see in the log. But I called him before you came. And he doesn't know either."

I took a sip from the cup. The liquid was very hot. But drinking it was the only vain human gesture I could do. Had I had a pen, I would have fiddled with it.

"Why were you in that house, Plume? And why cannot you tell me the reason?"

I laid the cup on the table between us. Reluctantly, I lifted my eyes to hers. There was no expression to read. Her face and tone were devoid of all emotions. So they always seemed to be. I had never seen another vampire or even a humanoid robot so devoid of any apparent emotions.

"I can describe to you the plan," I told her empty eyes. "I can tell you of the smells inside. That the kettles were in a white cupboard over a huge sink. That the sheets in the upstairs bedroom had little violet flowers as a pattern. That the downstairs sofa had wooden armrests and little curved wooden legs. The cushions wore a brown flower pattern. The house had a backyard. A glass door of bulletproof glass led there. I know the previous owner had shot it with a rifle meant for hunting to test it. It had a small pothole as proof. And despite all this, I cannot tell you why I was there or how I know these details."

"You really cannot."

It was a statement. So there was nothing to answer.

I felt a film forming. I wanted to swear. Hit something, or someone. I felt frustrated to extremes. Why couldn't I do it?

Why couldn't I answer her!

Why couldn't I drop?

I sat still and drank the tea. She poured me another steaming cup once the first was consumed.

"Why are you sad?" She asked after the third cup.

My instant response would have been to say that I wasn't sad.

I swallowed it.

"Why would you say I am sad?" I asked instead after a deeper than necessary breath. "I feel frustrated with myself. Not truly sad."

She shook her head, silky black hair falling from shoulder to shoulder.

"You are angry. And I can think of nothing that could have offended you so much as to cause genuine fury. So. Something has upset you. Something about that house."

I felt it again, the sudden rage toward the whole situation, an all consuming frustration at not having the answer.

I felt like a teenager, with emotions I had no name for and hormones running out of my control.

I grasped at the only possible explanation at hand: "I saw my sister briefly the other day. Or rather. I know she saw me."

She was silent.

Then: "Interesting. But, I cannot think your twin could..."

Her voice trailed away. She turned to the door. It was a double door of engraved wood.

"Please come on in. All three of you."

I rose with her to greet the incomers. In my agitated state, I hadn't noticed the three presences waiting behind me, hidden from sight. But not invisible to any of my supernatural senses.

Blizzard pushed the two doors in to reveal himself sided by two young human women, of which neither seemed native atlantean. Neither Valentina nor Julia were short, both must have been clearly taller than Mo. But Blizzard was still huge compared to the pair. Neither reached higher than his chest. Not that I was any taller in comparison.

Julia was the only one wearing ordinary clothes. Valentina was wearing that robe I had hoped for earlier. It was a beautiful hand-sewn silk robe, and I could only wonder why she was red faced. Though her colored cheeks were the only sign she gave outward of her embarrassment. She also clearly took heart in seeing both me and the queen wearing nothing, the color on her cheeks fading. Blizzard, of course, was naked here in the queen's own room.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Mo asked.

"I want to access a Room", Blizzard stated. "I insist."

For a moment I thought I had misheard him. So apparently did the Queen, for a silence issued.

Then Mo asked, clearly deciding she had heard him correctly after all: "Why would I let you into a Room that isn't yours?"

"Because you do nothing with it. Its owner is no longer with us. And because you don't want to forget him. So. Let me access one Room that isn't mine. I know I need your permission. That's how the Castle works. Isn't it?"

Blizzard didn't glance in my direction as my eyebrows rose in surprise. I had of course known there was some magic to the old warehouse, I could feel it. But I hadn't known the Rooms specifically had any, or that it might be tied to the Queen.

"So. Can you enlighten me about the events of today?" Mo asked Blizzard. Her neck was almost doubled over as she met the eyes of her son.

"I can," Blizzard answered. "But it will take me months. And first I need evidence. Let me access one Room that isn't mine."

Valentina

A Castle. Blizzard and Julia had talked of a Castle. The huge warehouse, with pipes running above my head as we walked to a functional staircase, somehow didn't correspond to my idea of a castle. And the small stone-faced queen that walked in front of us didn't really match my image of royalty.

And the dress code didn't at all meet my expectations.

It was also beyond unfair that Julia had gotten to keep her clothes, while I had been forced out of mine. As she didn't form part of this Court they also kept talking about. And I, as a knowing and Linked human, apparently did form part of this court. I wasn't quite naked, but to my estimate, I wasn't far from it either. Our clothes were downstairs. Blizzard had brought the silk gown with him as he had come to pick us up. After a very long phone call.

I spared a glance to my left as we ascended a staircase to the fourth landing. Julia winked. She seemed quite at ease following three naked vampires upstairs.

I wished I could have shared my unease with Lavender. Sharing the sentiment with this other was unthinkable, however, so I kept my silence.

Another corridor was revealed behind glass doors. Big windows gave to an inner yard that was only accessible through the building.

We stopped.

"It should be this one." Blizzard said, drawing my attention from the windows. "Right by Stump's old room."

"It doesn't have a name," the Queen noted. She apparently spoke with calm colorless sentences.

"I can see that," Blizzard admitted. He seemed calmer than on the phone. A mental trick called dropping, as Julia had informed me earlier.

"Well, if this is the one then..."

It seemed as if the door had been open all along as the petite queen pushed it in with no apparent effort.

Blizzard went in. Plume followed. I stood with Julia and the female vampire on the threshold, looking into an empty and dark room, no bigger than my bedroom at home.

"It's an empty room," Plume said slowly, looking around.

Blizzard didn't answer. He had crouched into the middle. He straightened. There was a thoughtful expression on his face.

"You are wrong," he pronounced.

He returned to the better lit corridor to hand to the queen a small plastic credit card. It was a pitch black piece of plastic with golden lettering. I was trying to keep my distance to the vampires and it proved thus impossible to read the small card. To my luck, the vampire queen decided to read out loud.

"Timothy," the Queen said. Her voice told of no emotions attached to the name.

She looked to Blizzard and their gazes met. "I don't remember anyone named Timothy. I am going to consult the database. You are free to follow. You can also go down and get dressed. I wish to visit the scene afterwards."

"Tell me if he is still in the system." Blizzard set back to the stairs.

I drifted after Blizzard.

Down. To get dressed.

The other vampire came with us. Plume.

It seemed prudent to avoid looking at the naked men as much as I could, but there was something familiar about this being that came after us.

I frowned.

"You... You were with him, at the Fair Marquise," I said suddenly, as the memory cleared from a haze. "I think you called Timothy uncle. You drank that..." I didn't finish the sentence. I actually still wasn't sure what the bluish liquid had been.

The man stopped. So did Blizzard. I almost collided with his back.

"Annoyingly enough," Plume said. And the emotion could be heard in his voice. "I remember you from that day, now that you mentioned it. And I know I drank blood there. But that's it. Was I at the same table as you? Accompanied by someone? Maybe. Maybe not. I go to Hellebore's every now and then."

He didn't shrug. Instead I could sense the tension.

I glanced quickly. At the corner of my eye, I saw fists being formed. I couldn't help but turn.

Plume stood rigid. He looked at his feet. Every muscle I could see was tensed. He all but shook.

"Plume," Blizzard came past me to stand by the shaking small man. Even standing on a lower step Blizzard still looked down at the other vampire.

He set a hand onto Plume's shoulder. Two sets of red eyes met. From where I stood I suddenly realized Plume's were of a brighter hue, where Blizzard's were more wine than blood red.

"Stop, son. Stop. Last I checked, you hated Timothy from the bottom of your heart. No sense in beating yourself up now that he is gone. Let's just find out if there is anything left of him to reminisce about in the first place."

"Why do you remember?" Plume asked suddenly, accusingly. "Even the Queen doesn't. What makes you special?"

Blizzard shook his head at those words.

"I don't, Plume. I don't remember. Valentina does."

Plume looked shocked only for a second. Then his eyes darted to me.

I took a step down towards where Julia was standing. But the anger seemed to have flown away, replaced by curiosity. Suddenly I saw again the polite youth I had met at the Fair Marquise.

"I'll go first," Plume said.

He disappeared. I blinked. From somewhere a raven had appeared in the stairway. It went gliding down ahead of us.

Blizzard was still standing by the place from where the other vampire had disappeared.

"Interesting," he said.

Then he continued the descent.

Hellebore

I was standing there, waiting, when they came. I didn't know who I was waiting for, or when exactly they would come. And Iris only knew, I wasn't sure where I was!

Marquise had dragged me. Through both the city and the most foul of weathers. I was drenched. No matter at which angle I tried holding the umbrella, it did me little good.

And I had no idea why I was here, where-ever here was. I knew there were houses around me. Though there was no one in any of them and one was in ruins.

Something in the scene reminded me of a castle I wished I could just forget. But the past was a resilient little bug in the human's mind. I wasn't sure though if I could really be called human. But I could remember many things, most more clearly than any human. Except, just then, just there, when the silent which-grafted car slid onto the street behind me, I felt uncannily as if I had just forgotten something absolutely crucial.

"Hellebore. Why? I am not surprised in the least." A female voice. Coupled with an essence I had wrought into existence. Yes indeed. Memory was a burden.

"Me. Where are we?" I asked.

"Checking on my investments," the one true Queen answered. Her voice gave no sign of any emotion felt, nor did the absolutely clear aura I felt.

Behind her came two vampires and two humans. The corners of my mouth twisted slightly as I recognized Julia's presence. Valentina brought me only sadness.

"Is her presence absolutely necessary?" I asked the vampires.

And was surprised when Blizzard answered me: "Yes. Absolutely. It was she who insisted."

So she remembered? When had that happened? How? And how was it that I felt so lost? I was almost never lost.

The waters and wind battered our small group as we stood there, the only living beings around the block. And of the seven six were more or less immortal. Even birds had either flown to the south or taken cover somewhere outside the reaches of the torrential wind.

"Why are we here?" I asked, as we approached something broken I had taken for a crumbled house. I could feel the water sloshing in my shoes. I wished I had had anything warming to give to the girls. Especially Julia. I feared Lavender would be very sick the following day, even when Valentina was probably protected due to her link to Blizzard. And she was more robust in build to start with.

"We are searching for clues of the existence of one Timothy," the queen answered.

I didn't ask more. I stood by the site with the girls as the vampires, mainly Blizzard and Plume, got to shifting rubble and heavier elements. I wondered what the men were wearing for the task.

Valentina came to stand by me.

"When I called," she started after a long while. "You said you didn't know what I was talking about." She had to shout over the wind. But she was good at shouting. Valentina had a strong voice that came from the bottom of her belly.

"I still have no clue of what's going on," I shouted back. "It was Marquise who dragged me here."

"You followed a dog?"

"Who claims she is just a dog?" I countered. "I hear dogs only live around twelve years. So she cannot be a dog then."

For a moment she didn't shout anything.

Then she bellowed the obvious question: "How old is she?"

"Not sure," I yelled. "But she was in an accident with me in 1282."

Valentina had nothing to say to that. Except a confession:

"I am really shocked, you know. I can't..." She gathered her thoughts. "I don't think I can live my life after this!"

She didn't seem shocked though. I couldn't help but admire her composure. I thought she must have been smiling.

Julia was silent. She had come to stand with me and Valentina. I felt she was looking at the other woman with interest. I wondered about how they had met to be here together now. Julia clearly had the ability to draw to her the interesting personas.

I stopped to ponder that thought and frowned. I had had another example in mind besides Valentina, someone interesting, but the name and feeling eluded me. Who had I been thinking about exactly?

My thoughts were interrupted when Mo opened her mouth. Her presence was so clear and pensive it was almost transparent and thus often invisible to me if I wasn't searching for it. She wasn't shouting. Her voice came right by my ear.

"Would you mind accompanying me for a moment? Plume thinks he senses something underneath one end of the house, while my son thinks he is imagining stuff. I personally think Plume is right, though the sensation is a curious one."

She offered her hand for my support. Carefully, I placed my hand on hers and let the Queen support and guide me as we climbed onto the house. The rubble still radiated warmth despite the rain that sizzled down. It was some small comfort for my wet socks.

Just when we came closer, Blizzard let out a surprised whistle. Plume was working on something. Uncovering something... odd.

My first thought was that someone small was standing maybe several meters behind him. Then I thought they had found someone so close to death they would wink out of existence within seconds. But seconds stretched to minutes as Plume and Blizzard uncovered the object.

I crouched on the ground with them, reaching my hand out. It found a smooth surface, covered by a rainwashed powder I took for soot. Something smooth and curved.

"This couldn't have caused the explosion, could it?" Mo shouted.

I could feel the negation from Blizzard. "No. That is Timothy."

My groping hand found holes. More odd surfaces. Timothy, could be a name. In which case this could be a...

"Is it a skull?" I shouted from the ground.

But I knew the answer, even before Plume answered.

"I think it's a skeleton."

Blizzard had now taken great interest in the job. He crouched down, to apparently grab the skull.

"Hey, carefully!" Plume shouted, as Mo suddenly drew me back.

Blizzard heaved. And he heaved with the force of a curious vampire, not holding back any efforts or appearances. I felt a landslide underneath where I stood as the object–that apparently was a skeleton–came free of the rest of the house, pulled out like a carrot from a garden patch.

"Is that alive?" Plume shouted. "Hey! Blizzard! Wait up!"

Blizzard wasn't listening. He had taken the object to carry it clear of the ruins. I could sense Marquise coming to meet him. Blizzard didn't even stop to pat her. Emotions twisted and contorted his presence, like a torrential wind.

He walked straight to the car.

I came after him, assisted by Mo. Valentina came with my umbrella. She came to stand with me to hold the cover over my head as well.

A door to the back seat opened. Blizzard set the skeleton inside. All of us gathered around it.

"It is kind of pretty," Julia started.

"Is that his?" Valentina asked.

"Is it alive?" Plume voiced out his thought.

I placed a hand onto the skull again. Feeling around with both my hands and mind. So distant! I could hardly feel a presence at all. As if what I was trying to sense was far from here. Yet I felt the magic almost connecting to my searching fingers. It felt somehow familiar. And absolutely alien. Yet it had something very vampiric about it.

Almost as if the magic had been brought into existence by the same alchemist.

If vampires had skeletons, what I was touching now would be a vampire's skeleton.

I withdrew my hand.

"What does it look like?" I was compelled to ask.

"Dirty," Julia offered.

Mo was somewhat more helpful: "Transparent. Like made of glass. It warps light. Mostly it's covered in soot though. And needs a good cleaning. I would also like some of Aconite's time."

I nodded. "That is probably for the best. I'll ask him to drop by the Castle one of these days."

"Timothy won't be in the Castle."

I think we all turned to Blizzard equally surprised. Even through Mo's transparent being some small shift came to my knowledge. Like the surface of a pond when a small bug lands to bend the surface ever so lightly.

"I take him home with me now, to the only place where anyone remembers who he was. Aconite is welcome to visit."

"Blizzard," Plume hissed.

Apparently Blizzard gave the young vampire a glare that shut him up.

"I am going to drive him there now, if I may. The girls can get in with us." His voice was taut. So was his core.

Julia seemed content with the arrangement. She took the passenger seat. But Valentina hesitated as she returned my umbrella. Then she faced her captor.

"Blizzard," Valentina said.

Had she dropped? Valentina seemed calm, or beyond frightened.

"I am going to drive. You are not in the condition to get behind the wheel."

I was sure Julia's jaw dropped. I couldn't suppress a smile. Plume seemed ready to burst into a laughing fit.

Blizzard stood a moment dumbfounded.

Valentina stood her ground. She waited. I assumed with her hand outstretched.

"It doesn't work with keys..." Blizzard started.

"Just show her how to drive it!" Julia had apparently pushed her head out the passenger window. "Let's get going! Lavender is returning. I can actually feel her coming."

I was soon left standing there with just Marquise, Plume and Mo.

"I'll go after them."

And Plume was gone.

I wasn't surprised when Marquise broke free as well.

"Would you like a drive, old man?" Mo asked after some time had passed.

I nodded.

Soon we were sitting inside a taxi, on our way back to the city's center where I had started my evening adventure. Over the centuries we had understood that the two of us were very different in some very fundamental ways. We were both attracted to the same people, but rarely sought each other's company. Not right now at least. But times were changing. They had changed before and they would change again. However, for right now, I sensed I would enjoy the Queen's presence more than I had during the last century or so.

"Hellebore," Mo addressed me when we turned to the narrow cobblestoned streets of the old center.

"I know you don't remember it. But tell me: Would it be possible you have been trying to make yet new immortals?"

I shook my head. Too quickly. Then gave the thought some real consideration. It took a moment. We were outside in the rain again, standing in front of the Fair Marquise, when I finally said:

"I agree with you. I think the skeleton, this Timothy, is partially my doing. It all but has my signature written on it. 

"But," I added as I stepped through the door she was holding for me. "I don't think that is all of the tale. I don't feel guilty. If I had intended to create a new vampire and just seen evidence of my success, I should have felt at least a bit guilty."

I drew a chair for her by the counter. And went to find two bottles and the same amount of glasses. I continued the thought on returning:

"And who knows. Maybe this is all Julia's doing. Or Aconite's. We are hardly the only two extraordinary beings in the Capital."

I could feel her, when she drew the glass to herself without lifting a finger. Her essence draped around where the glass was.

"How is Aconite?" Mo asked.

I placed my soaked blindfold onto the table between us and took the wet shoes off before answering:

"He is panicking. There was a difficult incident where he had to erase his nephew's memory. He is still waiting for the elders to storm his home and office."

"His secret is his best alibi, and the worst evidence against him." Mo commented.

"I hear it was taken to the Castle by Plume?"

"Yes. I was wondering when I could return it. I cannot imagine Aconite relishing his life without his morning infusion."

"No, I wouldn't think so."