Eee.. Asher's response at the end of this was written by his creator, Neori, not me. There is a '!' at the beginning of each paragraph she wrote - so that's what those random exclamation points are for. A link to her site can be found on my profile if you'd like to look her up.
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"Hello Asher…" called the woman languidly at the knock, her head turning lethargically as the younger Kindred entered her room. He stopped short in the doorway, hand wavering just inches from the well-polished doorknob as questions formed on aristocratic features.
"Don't look so surprised and suspicious, băiat," Seshie mumbled with some bitterness, hand clenching in what appeared to be agitation. "Come, sit," her voice softened as she uttered the words, red eyes shifting from her keeper's face to her idle hand.
Blinking slowly, Asher realized his ward had that all too familiar spark of intelligence tonight. It was becoming more and more common, he supposed, as the years wore on. She'd stopped trying to kill him all together several years ago, muttering her efforts could be put to better use. Straightening his jacket, the young man crossed the room, taking a seat opposite the Romanian at her request.
"You wouldn't have liked my sire," she stated quite suddenly. A wistful smile appeared at the thought of the long dead man as she broke the silence that had befallen them. "He was too bold, too rugged for the French to ever take appreciation of him. Aurel Dobre was fashioned from the mountains and wilderness that surround Romania… It's beautiful country, if you've ever taken notice.
"I miss the sunrises. Imagine that. When I was alive, we would wake before dawn, gathering things to send off to the town. Laundry mostly, lists for provisions. I would always stop at the moment it happened and stare as the sun rose. It was beautiful." The woman laughed softly, amused with herself.
Abruptly she continued on a different tangent, steering the conversation away from herself. "Aurel, he had such insight into the way things worked. From simple beginnings, and look how he rose! He could have had a political career, if he'd ever taken mind of his head."
"He was a diablist." Stated Asher in unexpected flatness. He knew some of the history of his charge, but not nearly enough. Questions formed behind his eyes, though he was unwilling to voice them. Even sane the Romanian tended to have violent reactions.
A slight frown tugged at Seshie's features at her companion's words. "He was brilliant, copil. But look, you wish to ask me something. Was I a diablist? I can see the question clear as night." She laughed softly again as the blonde tried to look disinterested. "You would like to know - curious things, the French! Did the childe follow the sire? Admitting to such a thing would surely damn me more than I already am. You can't expect me to confess to such a disgusting act," came the alluding statement, something mocking and hypocritical in her words.
"Where was I? Oh yes.. The French. Far to delicate for us, the lot of them." A frown precipitated itself onto Asher's features at her statement.
"Come now, Asher, don't glare at me with such conviction. Your breed was never meant for hard labor. Aurel's stock was a different matter. But the French! You were the poets, artists, and dreamers – never meant for labors. All of you seemed to possess stamina in will, but never labor!
"Oh, but I could have watched your grandfather all evening if given the chance. You've heard the stories. I'm sure by the look in your eyes." Amusement presented itself in Seshie's words. She flicked her wrist of some unknown object, lightly starting to trace the patterns in the wooden table's frame. "We followed him from England. I had to know more about my savior, I'm sure you can understand that.
"He was delicate, your grandfather.. Armel." Another pensive smile twitched at her lips at the memory. "The way he would fawn over his family, it was… heartwarming." She laughed in spite of herself, "Such words I use.. Aurel couldn't stand it, would fly into a rage as I watched your happy forefathers from a distance. 'You're getting too close! They'll see you and find us out! We must leave at once,' he would hiss to me in the midnight hours, after they had gone to bed. I could still find the ledge I sat on, in the darkness, watching him by the candlelight and fireplaces," stated the woman softly, shaking her head before she continued.
"Armel would take his boy onto his knee, whispering stories and pointing in books. The boy, he was your father wasn't he?" A stiff nod from Asher confirmed what she already knew. "I think he was jealous of the distant attention I gave them, but you could never be sure with Aurel."
The woman quieted abruptly, lost in her memories. Asher waited patiently, used to the Romanian suddenly loosing herself to the world. Red lips twitched again as her eyes lifted, locking with charcoal grey ones. "Am I boring you?" She questioned gently, her hands withdrawing from the table to fold delicately in her lap.
"No, continue if you'd like."
"Is there something you'd like to ask? Your expression, it's brooding."
"If you say so."
"What were we talking about? I've quite forgotten."
"My father and grandfather." Replied the younger vampire, his voice constricting almost imperceptivity.
Seshie smiled gently, her hand moving to lightly caress the back of Asher's. He hid his wonder well enough at her actions. She knew she'd startled him to some degree. She did regardless now that she thought about it.
"Oh, your father, beautiful child that he was! Innocence and inquisitiveness - that's what I remember most about him. And his eyes, he had stunning eyes. I'm curious to ask what became of him. I imagine he made something of himself, I wouldn't expect less. Ah, but you look away now… I've touched something haven't I?"
Silence was her only answer.
"I loved him." She murmured quite suddenly, earning her a curious glance from her companion.
"Who?"
Seshie laughed, smiling again. "Aurel, not your father." Amusement passed over her features.
"Vampires don't love, Seshie." He replied with some force, lifting an eyebrow.
"Do you know what I think?"
"I couldn't begin to imagine," replied Asher honestly, earning another soft laugh from Seshie.
"I think we can… Or whatever I felt was very near it. I'd never been in love before, I have nothing to compare it with," she mused softly, looking thoughtful for a moment. "How about you though? Surely you were in love before your embrace, a man such as yourself. You're not very attractive when you glare, Asher." The blonde flushed slightly at the statement as Seshie quirked a smile, exposing one of her canine fangs.
"Delicate boy… But tell me, if we can feel other emotions: hate, longing, fear, anguish… Why can we not love? The whole range of human emotions, and we cannot love?"
Asher blinked, regarding his ward curiously. He didn't answer, wouldn't even attempt. "Is this what you contemplate in your free time?" questioned the Frenchman, lifting an eyebrow as his gaze caught Seshie's.
"Well, yes.. And theoretical physics," she retorted off handedly, waving her hand as if dismissing the question. The Kindred stared at each other briefly. Seshie was the first to laugh, the insane edge absent for once. Asher merely smiled at first, finally chuckling softly as he watched the girl.
"What a pair we make, you and I!" exclaimed the Romanian suddenly, red eyes glistening as they once more caught Asher's gaze. "Nobility the both of us, or at least descended," she grinned impishly; even sane she was highly unpredictable. Asher wondered what her point was – if there was even one to be made. Unexpected excitement coursed though Seshie's veins as she collected her thoughts, "Oh, but what a world I've come through. And you! Your family! What protectors they've made themselves out to be!"
She laughed again, Asher regarding her with mute fascination. "It makes me want to place my faith in God again, the way the LeBlanc's have stumbled through my life." Seshie quieted, still grinning in her maddening way. "Tell me something, Monsieur Riycroft, this I must know," her voice was strangely breathless, human in fact. Asher could almost imagine the young girl that had unknowingly beguiled Aurel Dobre so many centuries ago. "You could have sent me into torpor, easily, or killed me. Yet you have not…" her voice trailed off as she shot the Frenchman a questioning glance. "Why?"
!"Why? What a question.." the Frenchman murmured, his voice trailing off as he gazed past Seshie at something only he could see. "It is not in me to kill unnecessarily, mon cher ami. But would you hear the reason? There was a time, though it seems so long ago, that I killed as easily as any other Kindred.." Asher fell silent again, grey eyes refocusing thoughtfully on his companion. "I too believe that vampires can love--that belief is connected to everything else. Would you listen, my lady? Listen and not judge until the end of my tale?"
A faint smiled graced the woman's lips as she listened to her companion double the amount of words he'd spoken this entire time, "For you, dear Asher, I would withhold judgment all together." There was an underlying seriousness that was easy to detect. The words spoken were sincere, and without a hint of mischievousness or malice that was usually present.
!"As you must already know, I was born and raised near Marseilles," he stated, continuing after the other nodded. "I loved that region; to this day it is my favorite place on God's earth. And the society! To the public I must have lead a charmed life. And why not? I was Armel LeBlanc II, the up-and-coming young heir to a very prominent Lord. All this, of course, was before the Revolution, before Madame Guillotine. I was due for the blade myself when I was embraced. Perhaps another night you'll hear why I no longer wear Grandpére's name, but I digress." Asher smiled wryly, running a hand through his pale hair before speaking again.
!"I took to Kindred society and politics in a way I never did as a mortal. It helped, of course, that I had a powerful Sire. I was soon among the most powerful Ventrue in Marseilles. One night I came across a woman, kine, yes, but nonetheless I was entranced. Her name was Lissette. What a wonder she was to me, from such low station, yet so full of life. I brought her into my household as my ghoul, and we spent a handful of blissful years in each other's company. I loved her as I'd never loved when I walked under the sun.
!"Oh, if I'd known that could all change so quickly! I know now what I didn't then, that the Lancea Sanctum were plotting the downfall of my covenant all along. We'd known that they wanted to take control of the city, of course, but no one thought they'd do what they did. None of us imagined they'd break the very Masquerade itself to see their way to power! They leaked information out to the Catholic Church, calling me a demon and telling them everything they wanted to know.
!"My haven was raided - in the middle of the day, when all were asleep. I never learned what became of my sire, or our servants. But Lissette… if only I could forget! I had been staked, and I would guess that it was several nights later when they allowed me to wake, chained so securely to a wall that not even I could escape from that cursed dungeon below holy ground. She lay on the stones before me, a pitiful creature, beaten and unconscious. The chaste and pious men of our Lord had declared her a witch, and assaulted her in every way a woman can be. When they realized that I was awake, I too became subject to their tortures. But that was the last I ever saw of my beautiful Lissette. A rescuer came the next night, though how he heard of my plight I've never been told. Alas, he came one night to late for my love…"
!The younger Kindred sighed heavily as he came to the end of his tale, absently adjusting the lace on his cuffs as he stared down at his hands. "Mon Dieu, what sins are committed in your name…" Asher whispered, grey eyes closing briefly before raising to meet red ones. "Do you see, now? Do you understand, mademoiselle, why I let you live?"
A soft smile twitched at her lips as she calmed herself. Lifting a hand the elder vampire absently ran her fingers through short, inky black hair. "What humanistic illusions we cling to," she murmured while regarding her hand with seeming fascination as it was placed lightly in her lap.
"I am tired, Asher," whispered Seshie softly. The blonde watched her carefully; there was an untold volume of meaning to her statement that he couldn't begin to interpret. She suddenly seemed deflated as a superficial sigh rushed past her crimson lips. Scarlet eyes lifted, locking once more with charcoal grey.
"Fire," murmured the elder vampire softly, "Our eyes. They make fire. How wonderfully fitting." She turned her face from the man abruptly, staring steadily ahead at a heavily draped window. After several moments of silence, Asher took it as his invitation to leave. Standing quietly, he bowed with a grace only the Kindred possessed, Seshie watching out of the corner of her eyes.
His hand was closing the door behind him when he heard soft words slipping out from the cracked doorframe. Asher stopped as he tried to decipher the gentle voice, wondering if Seshie was calling him back into the room.
"You are quite insane, dear… Ashes to ashes… Dust to dust… Yet you have not. I wonder, when shall you return, dear Seshie? When shall you return…" The voice faded, an inexpressible sadness emanating from the room and curling around Asher in his retreat.
Băiat – boy
Copil - child