The look on Valeria's face is worth its weight in gold when she appears and sees them, and if it was any other time Sorin would have found it funny, but not now, not with Elizabeth standing beside him, glaring down at the diminutive girl, not when he'd purposefully sent her away. He sees the wheels turning in her head as she tries to figure out what's happening.

"You're..." she starts, pointing a thin finger at Elizabeth, recognizing her, somehow. "But, you were dead."

"Yes, I was, as everyone seems so keen to point out to me." Elizabeth tosses her curls over her shoulder. "I was brought back, not that it is of any concern of yours."

"I don't understand," Valeria mutters, her eyes flicking over to Sorin and back to Elizabeth. "It doesn't make sense."

"It wouldn't to a little girl like you. Why don't you wander off. Go play with your toys. " Elizabeth's antagonism is back in full force and Sorin is again shocked by the change in personality.

"Now, wait just a damn moment," Valeria snaps, fists clenching. "You have no right to talk to me like that."

"I have every right, child."

Valeria's eyes narrows. "Listen here, you-"

"Stop it, both of you," Sorin says, loud enough to be heard over the growing argument and rubbing at his temples. He doesn't need nor desire to have the two women in his life throwing insults at each other. "Valeria, I'll explain as soon as I can. Elizabeth, stop trying to antagonize her."

Both women glare at him, but the arguing does cease. Thank the hells for little miracles, he supposes. It's better than having it escalate any further than it has. Better that he doesn't have to physically intervene. It might have happened with a lot more of a mess.

"Oh, I hope so," Valeria replies to his words. He's puzzled she isn't more surprised than she is. "I have a lot of questions."

He watches her walk away and when he tears his gaze from her back to fix them on Elizabeth, he's met a hostile gaze. Why is this happening? If she were anyone else he would pluck her eyes from her skull, instead he very nearly wilts under it, something that should be ridiculous at any other time in his long life.

"I am not coming with you," Elizabeth says, ending the eye contact first. She twists a crimson colored curl around a long, pale finger. "I wish you would think about what I said. It would save you a lot of heartache in the end. However, I'm beginning to think that it's your mistake to make."

"Fine," Sorin says, weariness settling into him. "I can live with this."

He turns, grabbing Valeria more roughly than he means to around her upper arm and practically drags her away. He's certain that she can feel far too much emotion trembling through his fingers.

They've barely made it out of the old stables before Valeria starts with the questions.

"How is it possible?" She doesn't have to clarify for him to know what she means.

"I don't know." Sorin keeps walking, letting go of her arm. "But I do know who brought her back. What magic he used for it is beyond me, only that the woman he brought back is not the same woman who died. I've never seen such hostility in her before."

"I believe it." Valeria sticks close to his side but casts a wary look over her shoulder. "Is it some sort of necromantic magic? "

That's an excellent question. He guesses that it's entirely possible. After all, Elizabeth had been well and truly dead. Her body should have been completely decomposed and yet she looked as young and as in one piece as she had when she'd been living, never mind the new status as a vampire. Perhaps she's truly undead, like the vampires of other planes.

"Possibly," he murmurs.

"If Elizabeth wasn't like this in life, what was she like when you knew her?" At least Valeria is making the attempt to understand this bizarre situation that they've most recently found themselves involved in. "You never did tell me much about her. Apart from her beauty, which apparently you weren't exaggerating about."

"Much like you," he says cryptically as they continue to walk. The breeze picks up and swirls around them, carrying the scent of rain. "Sweet, compassionate, unyielding in her convictions. She did not possess your temper, that much could be said, which is what makes her current one so strange to me."

Valeria's frowning in thought, trying to decide if the comparison is s a good one or not. In light of her and Elizabeth's first meeting it can easily be taken as insult. "Is it common for personality changes when you're...anointed?"

"In a manner," Sorin explains just as rain begins to fall from the clouds. They duck beneath a cover of trees for temporary shelter, not far from the old church. "For some it does. Not everyone can keep the human parts of themselves and feed on the living. Most changes in personality happen because they cannot cope with the killing. Others just enjoy it too much."

Valeria shivers, wrapping her arms around herself. "Did it happen to you?"

"In some ways, I think. We all cope differently. I was initially angry. Not because of being what I am, but the method in which it was done. I was lied to and forced into it." Without thinking, Sorin pulls Valeria up against his side to help shield her from the chill. "Over time I embraced what I am. Although, I'm not proud of some of the things I've done."

He'd killed without remorse and became detached from his humanity. Over time he learned to find a balance between over-indulgence and survival. The aspect of drinking blood still to this day disgusts him, makes him feel weak and too human. When he'd been younger he'd hoped that perhaps over time he could stop drinking it. After all, he can travel to other worlds and is far more powerful than most can hope to be. And yet, it remains a necessity. His time with Zdena had proven that there's no way out of it.

Valeria's watching him closely, her interest hanging on his every word. She's so young. She's considered a grown woman in the eyes of humans, but to him she's still so very young. He thinks of what Elizabeth had said. Valeria will indeed wither and die, if she isn't killed first with her reckless nature. He can anoint her, but would she be the same? What would it do to her?

"I'm sorry," she says quietly.

"For what, exactly?"

"That your love has returned to you, but in the way that she has. Here I am asking invasive questions and you're probably hurting." She sighs and leans into his embrace absently, one of her little hands wrapping around his larger one. "You've been through a lot."

It's strange that a few words spoken from this girl is enough to warm some dark cold place within him. He never expected it. To be honest, he's still shaken from Elizabeth's return. All those old memories and feelings he'd forgotten or shoved into the back of his mind have returned, and old wounds are torn open. He isn't sure what to do.

"Sorin?" Valeria's craned her head up and is staring at him with concern. He must have blanked out for a moment.

"I'm fine, it's nothing."

She's giving him a strange look, tugging at her bottom lip with her teeth. A feeling passes over him and for a moment he almost considers doing something...

"There you two are."

Jace's voice breaks whatever atmosphere is forming, causing Valeria to jump away skittishly, almost tripping over the layers of skirts that she's been dressed in. Sorin's hand is quick to catch her arm before she can topple over. "Jace," Valeria breathes, relaxing, "I'm sorry."

"You were supposed to take her with you," Sorin says tersely.

"Yes, well, for a tiny thing she has a very mean right hook," Jace explains, rubbing his jaw where a bruise is beginning to bloom, visible beneath hood of his cloak.

"You are a mind reader and you didn't see that coming?" Sorin questions with a shake of his head. He glances at Valeria who at least is willing to try and look sheepish for her actions. "Why did you not just do as asked?"

She shrugs a little and shifts her weight from one foot to the other. "I don't like being told what to do. That, and I worry from time to time."

Sorin sighs, feeling tired as the events of the past twenty-four hours catch up to him. He does not have the energy to deal with fighting with her, not now, not after traveling so quickly to get her back. Sorin runs a hand through his hair. "Fine. Now that we are all back together and in one piece, I'd like to get out of the rain."


He's not pleased with her, Valeria thinks as she sits in front of him on the horse while on their way back to her village. He hasn't spoken a single word since they left their secluded wooded shelter and he's tense behind her. Although, she supposes, it could also have to do with Elizabeth. Death isn't so final on Innistrad, but a person being risen as a vampire thousands of years afterwards is new even for them. There has to be some level of shock he's experiencing. After all, the woman had been dead, properly dead, and he had mourned for her.

Valeria considers her own level of shock as she leans against Sorin for support, feeling sleepy with the movement of the horse below her. She should be suffering from something after her short stint as nearly food for vampires. Hells, she can't even remember being knocked out for the second time or why she was. There's a couple of unsettling gaps in her memory that she feels she should be concerned about.

At some point or another she dozes off mid-thought and feels a firm arm wrap around her midsection to keep her from leaning too far off the horse. When she wakes, they've made it to her home already and the sun is starting to rise. She feels achy all over from the ride and the gown is heavy with rain water and mud. She needs a bath and proper sleep. She's not sure which one will be done first.

Sorin's face comes into view as he helps her down and for the first time, she notices there's a cut down his cheek. It's not a pleasant shade of red and it looks deep enough that without proper care it'll leave a nasty scar.

"Where did that come from?" she asks drowsily. She reaches towards it and stops just short of actually tracing down the length of it. "I should take look at that."

Sorin is quick to set her back on her feet and releases her waist. "A lucky hit. It's nothing to be cornered about."

"I will be the judge of that," Valeria says. She's already considering the best way to mend it. Perhaps she'll actually try a healing spell this time. Would he object?

Sorin stares at her for a moment, growls, and throws his arms out at his sides before marching inside, leaving Jace and Valeria watching him go.

"Prideful man," Valeria mumbles, shaking her head. "He has a nice face. One would think he'd be glad to be rid of any damage done to it."

Jace chuckles sympathetically and lays a hand on Valeria's shoulder. "Give him time to come around. I'm sure by tonight he'll have changed his mind."

"It might do him some good to learn how to communicate like an adult rather than an over-sized toddler."

Valeria lifts her skirts and stomps off after him. She catches Sorin at his room and watches him go about stripping off his armaments and tunic with a wince. The stitches have, once again, given up any hope of keeping his side closed and Valeria manages to keep her mouth shut when Sorin's fingers dig too hard into the wound.

"There was once a time this would have healed without any intervention," Sorin says as he turns around to look at her. "I may heal faster than a mortal, but it's nothing as compared to half a century ago."

"What happened then?" Valeria steps past the threshold once she's sure that he isn't going to shut the door in her face.

"Something called the Mending and a plane called Dominaria. It ultimately meant that any Planeswalkers from before its events lost a large percentage of our power. There was a good reason for it. If nothing had been done even Innistrad would have felt the ripples." Sorin sits on the edge of his borrowed bed. "If I wasn't what I am and if I did not possess as much age as I do, it would have crippled my power far more."

"Why tell me this?" She hopes it isn't another one of his cautionary tales. She might actually smack him if it is.

"Because I forget sometimes that I am not the same person from before that." Sorin gestures to the wound. "Elizabeth's return has caused me to remember more than I wish to."

Valeria swallows and nods. "Are you going to be alright?"

"Yes, I'll be fine." He doesn't sound like it.

Valeria decides that it will be in his best interest to move the conversation elsewhere. "Here, do you mind if I use a healing spell on you? Stitches are apparently not going to be effective with you."

Sorin moves his arm so that Valeria can better reach the jagged, torn skin. "By all means."

"Okay, just let me know if something doesn't seem right."

She reaches out presses her fingers to the wound just enough that it touches and draws in as much mana as she can before releasing it into a spell. The sensation is warm and tingly and it should feel the same to him. She can see the skin slowly knitting itself back together with a calm golden glow. After a short moment, there's nothing but a faint white line where the cut used to be.

There's no ill effects and Valeria now wishes she'd taken the chance at healing him the day he appeared at her door rather than wait until now.

"I thought that holy magic would harm you," she admits as Sorin pulls his shirt back on over his head. "Although I guess I should have known. You created an angel and the religion for her."

"You could not have known otherwise." Sorin gives her a wave of his hand, then looks down at his wrist with a scowl. "If it wasn't for these blasted bands, I could have simply taken care of it myself."

"I wish I could help with those," Valeria sighs. If only she knew how. The magic binding them to Sorin is so strange.

"You've done what you can," he says, shifting this way and that to make sure there's nothing that feels off.

"Do you want me to heal the cut on your cheek?"

"It's the least of my concerns. It can heal on its own. Save your magic." He slips his tunic back on, but leaves his coat draped over a chair. His broadsword is leaned against it, within arms reach. Sorin's gaze flickers to Valeria and softens slightly. "You should go take care of yourself."

She should, Valeria thinks. She's aching to get out of this dress and corset. She wants to scrub her skin clean. Not to mention her head is beginning to hurt as all the adrenaline she's been feeling is wearing out. She's going to have to deal with what's happened, but she's not going to deal with it right this second.

"Okay," she tells him. She's too tired to say much else at the moment.


Once Valeria is out of the room, Sorin slumps back against the mattress and tiredly rubs his face. He could use sleep and a bath as well after the mess he's been in. Every muscle in his body feels tense.

Gods, what was Edgar thinking by bringing Elizabeth back? Yes, it certainly did the job of getting him thrown off kilter, but did the man not consider the repercussions of bringing back to life a woman who's been dead for so long? She's mentally and emotionally unbalanced, not slightly the same woman she used to be. It's not going to end favorably for anyone. She hates Edgar almost more than he does.

He considers Valeria and what Elizabeth had told him.

He has an awful track record with the women he's had in his life so far. Elizabeth and Nahiri; Valeria is likely to go the same route at some point. He's so damn afraid of getting closer to her, that he might change this soft creature into something she's not meant to be. Already he can see it happening. She's growing more reckless and putting herself at risk. And while Sorin in the past is glad to push people out of their comfort zones and face the harsh reality, he just...can't do the same to her as he has to countless others.

Sorin groans.

Why is his mind deciding now is the time to ramble onto topics that it doesn't need to? Intrusive thoughts are the last thing he needs. What he does need to do is leave here for a while, dig into things in Thraben, and possibly contact Avacyn. Speaking with her may help him decide what his next move will be. His attempt at killing Edgar turned out about as terribly as it could have, and things are not going to get any better if the man really has been working with the demon again.

Sometimes Sorin wonders why he bothers trying to make people see sense when all they're going to do is ignore him.