Redux: Lineage

I'd expected that the Vampires I'd met hadn't expected me to have the connections I did, and once I explained what my plan was, I had no ill will towards them based on their reaction. Though I questioned whether the blade to the throat was necessary. Zane was being retrained by Cassandra's magic and Verella had pinned me up against a wall, silver-hilted knife against my throat with a vicious snarl on her lips.

"Do you honestly expect us to walk into a slaughter house that willingly?" she demanded.

"No," I said in a calm manner. "But I do expect you to walk into the place where the only people who want to help you are."

"Right, you mean Alicorn?" Verella snapped. "The race that's hunted down thousands of us over the years?"

"Also the same race that's let you all exist and stay alive for all those years as well," I countered, not breaking eye contact with Verella. "Trust me, if my kind wanted yours gone, you'd be nothing more than bones and dust in a mass grave by this point."

"You're not helping your case with threats," she glared.

"And neither are you," I growled. "My kind is the ultimate in monster hunters. We know everything about everything when it comes to beasts, ghosts, and all other creepy-crawlies. So we're more than aware of the fact Vampires aren't inherently evil creatures by nature. We also know that the laws of your kind, when followed, often make sure the lives of other species aren't needlessly wasted. You have feeding regulations, thrall limitations, and a good grasp of how many pints of blood you need per House to not make an impact on the local populous. We only step in to kill you when you get out of hand."

Verella was silent for a long moment, eyeing up me up and down while I continued to silently glare at her. I felt her grip on my shirt loosen slightly, the pressure of the blade on my throat lessen, and a sigh fall from her mouth. She stepped away, allowing me to move once again while Zane was released from his stasis.

"My apologies," Cassandra said to the larger man. "I... I needed to be certain that-"

"Don't worry about it," Zane said with a small nod. "I've been protecting my charge for a long time now and have done much worse on the suspicion of him getting hurt."

"Thank you," she said, straightening her dress and turning back to Verella.

"So you want to help us?" Verella asked me.

"As an Alicorn, it's my duty to protect people," I nodded. "Not just humans, not just Elves. People. And as far as I'm concerned, Vampires are people too."

"If only other races would see us as such," Cassandra sighed, looking at me with a soft expression.

"Blind hate is born of ignorance," I shrugged, looking back at the building we were near.

We'd left the hideout, it truly being a basement underneath a butcher's shop, and were currently heading back to the Empress' castle. I needed to report in to the others, find out of Annerose and Grael were safe, and then find a way to get in contact with Luna and Celestia. The two of them needed to know the situation here as a Vampire civil war was a few thousand Vampires beyond what I could handle, even with the others with me. Not to mention Cassandra and Verella still had yet to explain the full scope of the situation, whether or not an end was in sight or what the true scale of the conflict was right now, and I didn't want to have to repeat it all to the other princesses. They needed to hear it firsthand themselves.

"Is Jhene going to be alright on her own?" I asked, referring to how Cassandra had sent the shaman off on her own mission to inform the rest of the 'rebellion' of their progress.

"She'll be fine," Cassandra nodded. "That woman could sneak through a brick wall if she needed to, so getting past a few other Vampires isn't going to be an issue here."

"I'll take your word for it," I said, noting the enormous guard presence in the streets all while worried civilians questioned and called out to them, demanding to know what had happened. "I guess Claurio wasn't wrong about the local guard being slow to mobilise."

"And it seems Selana's left the city entirely," Cassandra said, her voice shaking slightly as the loss of her daughter hit her once again.

"What drew her here to begin with?"

"She's been attempting to harvest the souls of powerful Vampires since the war started," Verella said, putting a comforting hand on Cassandra's shoulder as we walked. "Ellanora using her magic to save you was most likely detected by Selana, and she came here to steal her power."

"Fast response time," I commented bluntly.

"She's got rather antsy in her searching," Verella nodded. "So, unless absolutely necessary, we're going to try and avoid using our magic again."

"Try to wait until you're standing next to Celestia before you do," I shrugged. "I'd love to see the look on Selana's face to walk out of a portal and straight into her."

"Mhm," Verella nodded, a small smirk creeping onto her lips. "That'd be a good sight."

"I don't mean to insinuate weakness in your kind, but this ordeal should be over quickly once the other Alicorn get involved," I said. "I'd be surprised if it lasted more than a few days."

"Why the other Alicorn?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Surely one of you would be able to deal with it yourself, right?"

"I... I'm a 'special' type of Alicorn," I admitted. "The useless kind."

"How so?"

"I can't use magic," I said, scratching the back of my head in an ashamed magic. "It's a long story."

"Then I'll ask when we have more time," Verella nodded, turning her attention to the nearing castle. "Will your 'friends' be as welcoming to us as you were?"

"They trust me," I nodded. "And I trust so... so please don't betray that."

"What kind of royal works on trust with their subordinates?" Verella asked with a confused expression. "Surely they trust whatever the hell you say they have to, no?"

"I... I don't really like throwing rank around all that much," I said after a quiet moment. "It makes me feel like a bit of a jackass whenever I do."

"You're certainly an interesting one, I'll give you that," Verella said with a shake of her head.

I decided to take it as a complement, falling quiet for the rest of the walk until we made it back into the castle. We rendezvoused with the rest of the group, finding Annerose and Grael both being treated for minor injuries. A brief spat of worry shot through me, immediately going over to the two of them as maids rubbed cleaning alcohol on cuts and bandaged up larger gashes.

"What happened?" I asked them.

"We're not as sneaky as we think we are," Grael said in a grumpy tone.

"Really?" Annerose snapped. "And here I thought a six foot tall wolf was the stealthiest cunting animal this side of an explosion."

"Explosions aren't animals, Annerose," Grael said in a manner-of-fact tone.

"Eat my entire arse, Grael," she snarled, turning away from him in an enraged fashion.

"Mhm," Verella commented. "Quite an elite team, I see."

"Sorry, sweetheart, who are you again?" Annerose growled, glaring at the taller Vampiress with a rather disgusted expression.

"Too important to deal with you right now," Verella bit back.

"Right, enough out of both of you," I said, standing up and silencing them two of them with a glare. "We can get to the pissing contests once we've figured out a plan of action."

I turned back to Annerose, the raven-haired young woman clearly mad at me for not taking her side in the argument, and asked her if she knew where my father and Claurio were.

"They're still in the war room," she said. "We told them everything we learned on our fucked stealth run. It wasn't much, thanks to someone."

Grael ignored her, lying down on the stone floor and closing his eyes, seemingly exhausted after the ordeal they'd been through.

"Right, thank you," I said, my friendly smile being ignored entirely by Annerose. "You two rest up and get well, okay?"

"Whatever," she said dismissively.

"I'm gonna stay here for a while," Zane said with a nod of his head. "Keep these two miserable fuckers company and make sure they don't bite each others heads off."

"I'm counting on you," I chuckled, patting him on the shoulder as he sat down on a large box just off to the side of the maids working on the two of them.

With that, I got back to my feet and started to make my way to the war room, only to have Verella speak up once we were round a corner.

"You have such a charming set of friends," she growled.

"They're usually in a better mood than that," I sighed, looking over my shoulder as I walked. "They're proud people by nature and get more than a little bitter whenever they get their hides tanned."

"That little girl needs to learn to watch her tongue before somebody cuts it off," Verella growled.

I came to a sudden stop, almost making Verella walk into the back of me, before turning around on her with a glare in my eyes.

"Excuse me?" I spat.

"You heard," Verella responded.

"You better watch who you're threatening, Verella," I growled.

"Or what? You gonna set the Alicorn that are worth a damn on me?" she hissed, getting in my face. "Because we both know I'd smash you to pieces if you were stupid enough to throw a punch."

We kept at a stand off for a long moment, all the while I tried my hardest to keep the fact she'd smashed by bluff to pieces in a matter of seconds. I was either gonna follow through on the threat and die like a bitch, or I was going to outwardly acknowledge that I was no match for her and step down... like a bitch.

This never would've happened to Luna...

"Alright, that's enough out of both of you," Cassandra said, stepping between us and breaking it up. "Killing each other isn't going to help anyone."

Verella continued to glare at me, soon breaking eye contact and storming off ahead of me. I gritted my teeth angrily, feeling enraged and humiliated at how easily she brushed me aside... as I should've expected her to. I guess I let the whole 'dragonslayer' thing get to my head and think that I was the biggest boy in the building. Better to be humbled now rather than somewhere it would leave a bigger mark.

"I'm... I'm sorry about her," Cassandra said after Verella was a good enough distance away. "She's usually much more friendly than this. I think she's having a hard time now, what with her cousin and all."

"She was your daughter," I said, rage still boiling inside me. "And I don't see you using it as an excuse to be a cunt."

The harshness of the word used on Cassandra's ears was visible, the woman flinching at the sound of it before looking away from me. She dug her fingers into the folds of her dress, biting her bottom lip for a long moment before looking up at me with a miserable expression.

"It was never supposed to go like this..." she said, her voice trembling again. "Two months ago, everything was fine. I could go and talk to my sister, could help my daughter study, and talk to the other Houses as freely as I wanted to. But now... now it's all fallen apart and I don't know what to do with myself..."

Tears began to flow down her cheeks again, leaving me with an extremely guilty and awkward feeling in my chest. I'd never been good at comforting women I wasn't romantic with. I was especially awful at comforting women I'd barely met, as you couldn't hug them, you couldn't give them a pat on the shoulder, and you didn't know them enough to know exactly what to say to make them laugh just a little... did I say 'women'? I meant 'people'. I'm terrible with comforting people I I'd barely met.

There was only one person I could think of that knew how to cope with the aftermath of war, and I felt kind of bad about putting this on his plate. Still, having my father work a little harder was a much better alternative then sitting on my arse and letting this poor woman cry her eyes out as her entire world, life, and past crumbled to dust in her hands.

"Cassandra... I'm not sure if it's going to help, and I'm not sure if you even want to do it, but..." I began, scratching the back of my head for a long moment. "My father, Shining Armour... he's been through this routine more than a few times in his life. He's fought in every major war in the past thirty years and he's lost quite a lot. Now, losing a friend and losing a daughter aren't the same thing, but... I figure if there's anyone here that can give you advice on how to not let it destroy you... it's probably him."

Cassandra's lips continued to tremble as she sobbed, looking up at me with teary eyes, trying desperately to make it stop and failing miserably at it. I wondered at this moment if I should just fall on my sword and save her the pain of having to deal with someone as fucking useless as I was in this situation. Spare her the torment of my worthless rambling and meaningless advice while she had to deal with the open wound of losing the child she'd spent the past twenty-plus years raising.

My dying would probably make her feel better at this point...

I should really just kill myself.

"Richter?" I heard my father ask from behind me.

Oh, thank fuck. A competent human being.

I turned around, my father looking at Cassandra and moving closer to her.

"Ma'am... what's the matter?" he asked, cocking his head as she looked at her.

"I... I don't know what do to anymore," she said, clutching the sides of her head.

Shining looked at me quickly and then back at Cassandra, taking a deep breath and speaking clearly to her.

"Ma'am, I'm going to ask you to follow me to the kitchen," he said. "There's a fire going in there that'll warm you up, I'll get you a blanket you can get comfortable with, and I'll brew us a pot of tea so you can drink it while you talk to me about what's wrong. Is that okay?"

"I... thank you," she nodded, stifling her years slightly as she looked at him with a gentle smile.

He turned back to me, explaining that while he was taking care of 'my friend', I was to report the situation to Claurio and try to find out why there was a redhead in the broom cupboard loudly cursing at mops. With that, he put his arm around Cassandra's shoulders and guided her to the kitchen, doing everything that a competent and mature individual would've done to comfort and soothe a grieving mother.

I was a prince. I was a being created to save people from disasters...

I was a fucking moron.