Vintage Red [GL]

“Maybe, I don’t know.” Alessia started chuckling. 

“What do you mean, you don’t know? You are older than 99.999% of the human populace. No offense intended of course.” 

“That doesn’t mean we know everything.” 

“So you have no clue whatsoever if witches and curses exist?” 

“I mean… obviously witches exist.” Alessia stopped laughing for a moment. “But if you mean magic witches… I wouldn’t really know. It’s possible.” She shrugged. “But it’s already hard enough to keep track of families of vampire hunters. Let alone to keep track of groups who don’t interact with us directly, and have the means to cover up their tracks if they have to with literal magical means.” 

“If you put it like that…” 

“So, short answer, we don’t know. Long answer, we don’t know but it’s possible, it would be rather weird for us, as mythical creatures, to deny the existence of other mythical creatures.” 

“That’s true…” 

Alessia and I continued to talk a bit more about the conversation Anya and I had together until at the end of the discussion a question popped up at the top of my head. “Wait…”

“Yes?” Alessia put down the drink she’d taken for herself. 

“Anya and I didn’t break that non-interference accord, right? Because we met and now know about each other?” 

“I don’t think so, at least, I can’t imagine so. Accords like that are often read in a ‘rules as intended’ kind of way, rather than ‘rules as written’. Two people meeting and finding out completely by coincidence is not going to get you into any trouble. That said, if you want to know for sure, I can go and unseal the archive, take a quick look at the specific wording and then seal the archives up again.” 

“Are you sure you are allowed to unseal them?” 

“Yes.” Alessia replied. “Only the head of the Conclave can do so under specific circumstances, but I think this might call for it. If any accord got broken we can try to right it, if there wasn’t, we can continue like usual.” 

“If you would like to do that for me, it would be greatly appreciated.” 

“No problem at all, dear daughter of mine.” Alessia gave me a wink. “But I will do so tomorrow because it’s rather cold in the attic right now and I’d prefer not to get too far away from my nice fireplace at the moment.” 

“Understandable.” I turned myself and the camera so that Alessia could see both me and my fireplace in the background to which she had a nice chuckle. 

“Anyway, business aside, what did you all eat for your holidays?”

 

I talked about the menu in great detail while I reciprocated the question to Alessia as well. It sounded like she had prepared quite the feast for the people who work at the castle. Letting catering come from outside of the chateau for a couple of days to give everyone who worked there a real break. As it was just her with the castle staff it seemed pretty intimate. Really showing off the great relationship that Alessia had built up with everyone there. 

“Next time you, Corelia and Emma should celebrate the winter holidays at the chateau. Or at least one of the two. It’s going to become kind of your family too after all.” 

“That’s not a bad idea. I am allowed to invite more people beside that too?” 

“Of course. But try to not make it too busy as it’s already quite a lot of people here without too many extras.” 

“Right, don’t want it to become too hectic.” 

“Exactly.” Alessia nodded. 

“Speaking about invitations… Anya and Claire asked if they would be allowed to come to the castle as well in a more timely manner. I did tell them that we were going to have dinner first with Em’s family.” 

“We can surely fit that in somewhere. But yes, let’s arrange that other dinner first. Just so we don’t get too ahead of ourselves and forget about one thing or the other.” 

“I can hardly imagine you forgetting things. To be completely honest.” 

“Aurora, I have forgotten more things than you’ll ever know in the first century. Trust me. That’s why I use an agenda nowadays.” 

“I hope those things weren’t too important.” 

Alessia shook her head slowly from one side to the other. “Some of it was, some of it wasn’t. And there were also some things there that I probably wished I’d never forgotten and other things that I’m happy about that I forgot.” 

If there’s one thing about Vampires that still amazes me, it’s the memory side of things. What Alessia just told me was definitely food for further thought. 

“You learn to live with it after a while but it’s not the most fun thing about being a vampire.” Alessia continued. “That’s why I’ve actually been keeping a bit of a diary for the last couple of centuries.” 

“Really?” I shifted my weight around on the sofa. “You write in it every day?” 

“Not every day, no.” Alessia chuckled and took another drink from her glass for a good couple of seconds before she continued. “Not even every couple of days, but I do try to write in it every week at least once.” 

“And you keep them somewhere too then I suppose?” 

“I do, locked up safely in a safe specifically bought for the purpose of keeping my diaries. In fact it’s getting a bit small and I should buy a new one soon. I might buy it at the same time we buy a safe for you as we can get a group discount that way.” 

“Smart.” 

“Very.” Alessia gave me a wink.

We continued talking for a little bit longer after which I decided to let my mom have some private time for herself for the rest of the evening. On top of that, it appeared that Shima had grown a bit tired of her Amicat 5000’s food dispenser and wanted to have some actual wet food for the occasion. Who was I to deny such a request from our feline overlords? I was not going to take the risk of getting murdered in my sleep by those cute kittpaws, even though I was pretty much an unkillable vampire. 

 

I spent the rest of the extended holiday more or less alone at my house with a couple of visits to Lady Blanchet and Julie next door. Also having made sure to return the government issued sled back to where it belonged. The city seemed to have gone back to its usual state. The only reminder to those snowy days being the roofs that were still quite white in places. The temperature had risen quite a bit though and those snow-covered roofs would also soon become their regular colored selves. 

And even though it seemed like just another day, the fateful day of our return to school hath finally come. It introduced a pretty new route for me to go and pick Ria up from. But all in all it only made my walk around ten minutes longer than it usually was. It’s not like time is a big issue for me anyway. 

When I picked up Ria she looked rather happy, way happier than I had expected to be honest. I knew she said she wanted to go back to school but she seemed really really giddy about it. 

“What are you smiling about?” I teased her as I held her hand. 

“Oh, nothing much.” She decided to play coy. 

“You sure about that?” 

“Hehe.” 

“If you don’t tell me I’m going to start tickling you.” I stated and already prepared my free hand for a good old winter offensive. 

Ria reflexively covered her body with her school bag but it still left me plenty of opening to exploit in case I needed to do so. “No no no. No tickling!” 

“Then you know what you’ll have to do.” 

Ria pouted but it quickly melted back into a contagious smile. “I get to see you and Em again in your school uniform.” 

“Huh.” I chuckled. “I didn’t know you were that much into seeing us in uniform?” 

“It is very rare to see you in a skirt and I have also developed a new appreciation for Emma’s thighs.” Ria replied. 

I snorted. I had not expected that reply. 

“What? She has very nice thighs.” 

“I mean… I know. You are not wrong.” I kept chuckling for a bit longer. “If I tell Em about this, you know she’s going to turn as red as a tomato, right?” 

Ria giggled. “Yes. But that’s cute, which will make it even better.” 

“Ria, sometimes you are a real menace, you know that? A hecking cute menace, but a menace nonetheless.” 

“Hehe.” 

We chatted a bit longer while walking hand in hand until we reached the school gate where the start of our second semester waited. 

-Let’s put out best leg forward once more. Now that I had a mom who cared, I wasn’t about to start disappointing her now. Especially not since I already did my best to improve my grades in the last exam period…-