Had someone told me a year ago that I'd be planning for a spring ball in which I am the main jewel, I wouldn't have believed them. In fact, I might've made fun of them for suggesting something so preposterous. Being a queen, attending balls and wearing tiaras fitted perfectly for my head -- nobody except a noble would have been prepared for such a thing. Yet I'm here, in my room waiting for a flowering mint green dress to be delivered to my rooms for the final test to see if it's really the one for me. Don't get me started on how much the thing cost in the first place, it's far too expensive for someone who grew up barely having enough room to pace in their own house.

    The fact of the matter is that while I wait I know that things are happening inside these walls that have almost never happened before. Caius is getting prepared for potential insults in his office, too prideful to realize that it doesn't matter what other people think about his sexuality or mating bonds. Aro is committed to protecting the castle from any outside attackers, Romanian or otherwise. Last but not least Marcus is pulling the entire guard together for trainings that they'd been slacking on the past few months due to the innate chaos in potential war.

    My job wasn't officially gifted to me, but I knew that Astro and Ambrose were missing their father, my uncle. We hadn't written in months, worried that we would slip up and tell him about the man in the courtyard, a wizard turned vampire working with the worst of the worst of vampires. I didn't want it to come from me when I could tell him that the kings of the vampires were terrified of a man from their past, a man who would do anything to steal Caius away and force him to be his. I don't have the heart to try and tell my aging uncle that things are getting bad and all we can do is set up a spring ball in hopes of figuring out the root of our issues.

    What good would it do, explaining that to a human man already stressed from years of poverty and unfair work treatment?

    Then comes the guilt of not being honest with him and even being honest with my cousins, who haven't been told the real reason why that man came for the castle with that message. The real reason magical children seem to be turned into living weapons. There is a war coming and I'm terrified that I won't be able to save them from the pain that comes with that. I was always the one to give up meals for them, to give up my better grades to help them with math and physics.

    They can't fight what they don't understand, but I don't want them to battle anything at all.

    My mates have been loosening up restrictions on Ambrose and Astro when it comes to them being in the same room as me. Too many months have gone by without a real conversation with them. They were supposed to be here five minutes ago, but I wouldn't blame them if they'd gotten lost within the walls of our new home just as I have so many times. You could miss my room, my entire chamber, if you walked just a few feet passed the doorway. I learned that the hard way when I found the guard room rather than my chambers.

    When a quiet knock came from my door, I rushed to open it. Relief filled me as Astro smiled and came close to embrace me. "I've missed you so much, Striddy," he said as he let bout a winning laugh. "You have no idea how hard it is to stay away from you when I see you walking the halls, or when your mates pull you away from me. I know they do it because I'm a newborn... but I just want to see you, you know?"

    "Supervision just wasn't enough for you, was it?"

    Astro laughed. "It could never be good enough for me, Striddy, not when we've been together since before I can remember." My cousin pushed us inside with inhuman force and closed the door. "They're training us up, you know? My mates have made sure that we're strong enough for whatever is to come. But I think they're just paranoid after that guy came. Who would attack us, the guard? Most vampires don't even have powers!"

    I knew he was rambling, and I'd let him do it if it meant I got to be near him and hear his voice today.
    "Astraea, you've got no clue how many of us are in there. I didn't think that there were so many vampires in the world, with the stories Dad told us he made it seem like they were a small species capable of nearly nothing against humans but he's wrong. We can do anything and I can't believe any of it is happening and honestly it's crazy." Astro finally pulled himself off of me and asked, "Do you think you'll have powers when you turn."

    A question I hadn't expected him to ask, and one I had no real answer to. Those things came down to chance, fate, and whatever forces are at work outside ourselves. I have no real understanding of how the process of getting or discovering a gift is, being human. Astro and Ambrose seemed ecstatic to have one, but I don't know if I'd be the same. As cool as it seems, having that big of a change on top of being a newly changed vampire sounds stressful. Hearing everyone's thoughts, seeing the bright bonds that connect people, or even being able to inflict pain on someone with just a loom sounds terrifying.

    "I don't know," I answered honestly, "but if I have one or not, that wouldn't change who I am, not really. I couldn't say one way or another if I think I'd develop a power like yours or Ambrose's."

    Astro's smile faded ever sop slightly as he faced me. Had I said something wrong?

    "I can tell you're scared of it, you know, the idea of becoming a vampire and changing so much that you may not remember who you were as a human. You don't have to worry about that, Striddy, you'll be in control of when you turn, and you won't become something monstrous like the guy who turned Ambrose and I. You'll be the same old Astraea, just with strength and agility, and most importantly, a crown."

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ZENON'S POV

Finding the right person in this castle to get things done has been a ghastly pain in my ass. Not only has my older brother been completely unavailable, which I know he's doing on purpose, but the guards around the castle have been useless when it comes to directing me towards someone who can just tell Aro that someone has been watching the front gates for the past two weeks without many guards noticing. He's clearly masking his scent, but it's a vampire. I know a vampire when I see one.

    "Nobody will listen to me, Nancy, and I'm afraid for the future of vampires. That guy has been roaming outside the gate and if he's one of Cain's men there's a chance of a full-blown attack when we're least expecting it. What happens if one of us gets captured again? I won't stand to be tortured for information again under Cain's rule, Narcy, I simply refuse to do such a thing. I'd rather be burned alive."

    My baby sister was laying flat on the bed, a book placed neatly beside her. I'd interrupted her reading. Callidora would be back from training soon enough, and she was already getting sick of what she thinks is my paranoia. It isn't, but she's too blind to see it. Callidora would rather believe that the Volturi are perfect and are our saviors for saving us.

    No government is perfect, and neither is our oldest brother, who refuses to see us as we train. What's got him holed up in his office space anyways? We should be planning for a potential infiltration and battle! Our safety should be our top priority if he's been so distraught over the idea that we've been dead this whole time.

    "We aren't going to be captured, there's too many vampires inside of these walls for us to be able to be taken without someone noticing. If you see a rogue vampire and it's bothering you so much, take action and throw him off the ground. Or just turn him into the courts for questioning. It wouldn't be that hard to fix this, Zenon," Narcissa snarks as she turns on her side, picking up her book once more and flipping it to the middle. "Honestly, brother, Cain has no ability to win now that we're here. Even if he has mother and father, they are not enough leverage to play out the plan he's been building for the last three thousand years. We have the people, the powers, and the willpower to survive anyone's attacks. He can't have collected and forced too many more gifted vampires onto his side in the past few months. Besides, even if he had, newborns created from fear and that are not properly guides are uncontrollable fiends."

    "You don't seem concerned about any uncontrollable fiends overpowering you."

    She laughs. "After the amount of training that we've had here topped off with personal experience and age, there's no way that I'd lose in a battle against a newborn, or maybe a few. You have such little faith in me, Zenon, it's precious."

    "I simply worry for your well-being, sister, as I would with any of our family." She isn't amused in the slightest and her mouth curls downwards into a deep frown. "What's wrong, Narcy? I do worry about all of us and what would happen if we had no protection, if someone were to grab us from dark corners and do unspeakable things to us. It's happened before, and there's the chance that it could happen again. If the guards don't start making sure that people aren't peeking in from the bushes there's that chance that--"

    "This is why Callidora keeps on saying that you're paranoid, Zenon," she sighs and starts again with the same frown, "You're so worried about the chance that something bad could happen to us again that you're spending your time here all bunched up and stressed rather than enjoying yourself and making connections. You wouldn't even know anyone here if they hadn't come up to you and asked if the rumors were true about you being the king's bro--"

"Caius has nothing to do with my fears, sister!" I felt my face starting to pale as it often did when I felt threatened. "He knows the least of what we all do about Cain. He had a simple few days with him before vanishing. I love him, I do, and I am beyond happy that he is alive and well, but he has no idea of who Cain truly is. He is a monster that we can only pray to place into the deepest pits of Tartarus."

Narcissa stayed quiet, her eyes wandering to the satchel on my desk. Battle plans, the routes in and out of the castle and Cain's fortress in case we were taken -- nobody knows that I am making them. Nobody can know, honestly. I'm not the kind of person who likes to be told that completely rational fears based on experience should be pushed away. You can trust them to protect you doesn't work with a man like Cain, with the men that are under his grasp.

"You do not sound as if you are being completely honest with yourself, brother," Narcissa said as she sat herself up and lept from my bed. "There can only be trust in this house, without it, everything will fall down. Being here means you don't doubt things that are out of our control, like strategies during peacetime. Until we are at war, and until we are, you listen. Stay quiet and listen to those who have ruled longer than we've been imprisoned. There are so many ancients like us here who know what they're talking about, it would be a shame if you couldn't take a moment to learn. Do not doom yourself."

Then she walked away.

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REMINDER: if you comment anything about "please update" or "update" or "update please" or literally anything like that, the update gets pushed further and further back. You're ruining it for everyone and me.