Hey!

Sorry it took me so long to write a new chapter I was way too busy (you know, fighting dragons, being a ninja, the usual stuff), AND I had a gigantic problem with the timing in the story, but now that that's all worked out, I'm back on track :)

I hope you like the chapter, because I enjoyed the hell out of myself writing it :)

Thank you, yet again, to my beta treewitch703, who not only helped me correct the language-mistakes in this chapter, but also pointed out some mistakes I made against the True Blood-world (shame on me!) and thus saved me from being scolded in the review section. If there are any mistakes left, feel free to correct me (without the scolding, please ;)), and I am very sorry about them, it's been ages since I've watched the show.

Anyway, Enjoy!

Chapter 13: New information

Norah had been awake for at least fifteen minutes, but she didn't feel like moving yet. She was still lying on the couch with Godric, just as she had been when she'd fallen asleep. Instead of resting her head on his shoulder, she was now sort of using his lap as a pillow.

She would've been lying if she'd said that she wasn't a lot more comfortable that way.

She'd turned on her back, carefully, so she didn't wake Godric up, and looked up at the boy, or rather, the vampire, that had changed her life so drastically.

He didn't look particularly calm or peaceful or anything else you might say about a sleeping person. He didn't even look like he was sleeping, for that matter.

To her, he just looked very dead.

There wasn't a single thing about him that made him look alive. No twitching fingers, no drowsy, unintelligible mumbling, and as far as she could tell there weren't any signs at all that he was even breathing.

Had he been human, Norah would have had a mini-heart-attack by then.

But, she reminded herself, he is definitely not human, that much is certain. And didn't he himself tell me that vampires can only be killed by the sun or a wooden stake through the heart? This room doesn't have any windows, and as far as I can tell, there aren't any pointy wooden objects around here either.

Which means that vampires simply look dead when they're asleep.

She sighed to herself. A little warning about that would have been nice. What if she'd gone completely ballistic after finding him so, for the lack of a better word, corpse-y?

"Well," she started, answering her own question out loud, "I would probably wake Godric up with my screaming, it'd be embarrassing for a little while, and that would be it. There would be no drama, no life-altering experiences or huge disasters. I need to stop getting upset so quickly, and…" she paused for a second before adding, "… and I really need to learn to stop talking to myself. I sound like I should be in a mental institution."

She chuckled darkly as she realized that that was exactly where she would be going, should she decide to tell anybody else about the circumstances surrounding the past few days. She'd be committed without a second thought.

Sometimes, she had to admit, she herself thought she might have gone insane. The reasons varied: every now and then, she figured she was probably just making all of this up. She'd be convinced that she'd probably been living inside her own head for days on end now. Maybe her frantic parents had already taken her to a mental institution, maybe moving to Godric's house had been her mind's way of explaining the sudden change in scenery.

Whenever she thought about this theory, she'd quickly dismiss it, because it was just too improbable to be true. She'd never had any mental health problems before, so it seemed odd that that would change so drastically. Especially since she couldn't think of any causes for a mental illness. Well at least, if you assumed that all the vampire-stuff was going on inside of her own head.

No, the thing she worried about the most when she was thinking of her possible insanity, was the calm, detached way she was handling all of this (well, save for that one time when she'd started screaming and wound up throwing a book at Godric's head). It seemed odd, even to her, that she wasn't completely freaking out, that she was still able to sleep when she wanted to sleep and eat when she needed to eat. Why hadn't she developed PTSD after her mother had attacked her with a knife? Was she just paranoid since death seemed to close in on her so quickly?

She sighed and tried to turn her thoughts to other topics. She'd always felt that she might getting too far into self-analysis, but now, since she'd moved out of her house, she was definitely over-doing it. And she didn't even manage to answer any of her own questions. It was just futile, and a little bit depressing.

She went back to studying the face of the ancient teenager above her. For a little while, she wondered when she'd started to like the boy instead of seeing him as bad news. Was it just his newly achieved knight-in-shining-armor status? That didn't seem to cut it. It was the way he, the two thousand year old vampire, was worrying about a seventeen year old human. The way he was trying to make her feel at home in the huge house. The way he'd bothered to show up at the dance recital, even though his "child" was definitely not at all that eager to be there.

She knew that he was only doing it out of guilt. It was just his way of apologizing for the danger he'd put her in. It didn't really mean anything.

Be happy he's at least trying to apologize, she told herself, it seems like a very un-vampire thing to do. I couldn't imagine Eric apologizing to anyone.

The thought made her giggle. No, she couldn't imagine proud Eric apologizing to anybody, for anything, at least not genuinely.

She'd been planning on laying there a while longer, maybe even taking a nap, but her stomach started to growl in protest. It was definitely time to eat.

She cat stretched, flexing her ankles and wrists, and got up, hoping she'd be able to find her way back to the kitchen.

It was then that something caught her eye.

There was a rather formal-looking letter on the table, one that she was quite sure hadn't been there when she'd fallen asleep. She wasn't planning on reading the letter, her mother had always taught her that you should never read another person's mail, unless that person gave you permission. Just out of sheer curiosity, though, she glanced at the signature at the bottom of the page.

It read:

Yours truly,

The Magister, Magnus.

"The Magister?" she mused to herself, "Wasn't it the Magister who cleared Godric's name when Alexander accused him of breaking the law? Then he must be the one who ordered that nobody was allowed to hurt my mom. Why would he….?"

She trailed off. Why would the Magister write to Godric? It seemed very unlikely that he would have changed his mind about the verdict given at the trial that went against Alexander. It seemed even more unlikely that he'd inform Godric of such a thing by letter.

Then she thought of something.

Oh god, no.

What if the Magister had decided that Anna wasn't worth protecting? What if he'd been thinking about it, and came to the conclusion that he didn't want to be responsible for a "mere human"? Her mother didn't have Godric's protection, like she did. Alexander would kill her within seconds.

She needed to read that letter.

She glanced over at Godric. He was just as immobile as he had been; he definitely wasn't going to wake up any time soon.

She hoped he wouldn't mind her reading his mail.

She prayed that the letter was about something completely different.

Snatching up the letter, she skimmed it as fast as she could. She had to stop herself mid-sentence more than once, too nervous and worried to understand a word it said.

The letter wasn't about Anna. Not at all.

It was a fantastic letter, amazing, mind-blowing, all of those things at once. Norah was sure that its contents could change the world forever.

But it was also absolutely terrifying.

The beginning was normal, the usual salutation, inquiries about how things were going in Dallas , a brief mention of how happy he was that Godric wasn't guilty of "breaking the law of the claim", nothing extraordinary. The Magister went on to explain that he didn't send this letter to Godric because of his title as a sheriff, but because of his general status and importance in the vampire world.

Then it became interesting.

Somewhere in Japan, scientists had apparently been working on a synthetic version of whole blood for years. They wanted to be able to create an artificial blood that could be used in hospitals and ambulances, when there wasn't enough real, donated, human blood for the people who needed it.

Since blood was involved, inevitably, vampires became involved as well, as they sent a, as the Magister put it, "particularly smart, trustworthy and loyal member of their society".

His job was to work along on the project and "test" whatever the Japanese scientists came up with.

Turns out that, after much trial and error, they got it right.

Though the artificial blood was described by everybody who tasted it as "very, very disgusting", it did indeed satisfy the needs of a vampire. The blood had been tested at length and thoroughly and the conclusion was loud and clear:

Our existence drinking only this type of artificial blood is possible.

There was simply no doubt about it.

Then the Magister had started to explain what this would change. When she read it, Norah, who was already shaken up, damn near fainted.

If they managed to get the entire vampire community to live, or at least pretend to live, on artificial blood alone, they might be able to reveal themselves to the world.

The vampires. Revealing themselves. To everybody.

At that point, Norah had to sit down. She forced herself not to dwell on that part and read the rest of the letter.

The Magister went on to sum up the advantages such a drastic change would have for the vampire community. No more killing or glamouring to get the money you needed to survive, you would be able to earn it, like every other being. No more living in cemeteries or glamouring real-estate agents senseless because you don't have the identification needed to buy a house, you would have the papers, because you would be a legal citizen. No more trying to convince your neighbors you have an "allergy to sunlight" when you're trying to live a normal life, you would just be able to tell them that you're a vampire, and thus, can't come out during the day.

No more hiding.

You see, the Magister wrote, it's a win-win situation. The vampires get a lot of advantages, the humans are no longer kept in the dark about our existence.

Things had already been set into motion, he explained, decisions have been made. Important vampires are being informed. Contracts for the mass production of the artificial blood, which was to be called True Blood, are being signed with both vampires and humans who have the resources for such an operation. Important jobs have been assigned to qualified vampires who've proven their loyalty . The most important job had been given to a woman Norah had never heard of before, named Nan Flanagan. She'd be the spokeswoman for the vampire community, the public face that would show the vampires in the best light possible. A date for what was going to be known as "The Great Revelation" had been decided on: exactly six months from now.

The entire process was irreversible.

There was absolutely no way back.

Vampires would finally, after thousands of years, come out of their coffins, and into the world.

Her hands shaking slightly, Norah put the letter back on the table. She felt a bit sick. She slumped back onto the couch, thinking of Alexander.

Was the world ready to be exposed to someone like him?

So, tell me what you think :)

I'm pretty excited that I get to write about the Great Revelation, I think it's just awesome ;)

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