Chapter Two: Quick Adjustments.
Avery soon adjusted to her life in the castle. Though only thirteen years old, any desires that she had to venture into the city were crushed by the lavish gifts that I bestowed on her. Each mumbled disagreement was remedied by a string of pearls, and then those were matched with a bracelet, and then earrings. Soon, she had an entire set, which she wore proudly as she wandered about the castle.
I soon found that she was insightful by nature, and this gave me more hope than my initial observations had. Without being in the same room as an individual, she could tell me precisely where anyone of the guard was at any moment.
Early a particularly foggy morning made perfect for hunting beyond the city walls, I found in the library her hunched over that tatty old book of hers.
The library was a dark, dimly lit room that the majority of the guard largely ignored. Most were interested in more physical activities. The pursuit of an artistic subject was deemed a waste of time by most of them.
As per the routine of my brothers and I, a few of them were on post in the library, prepared to come to our defense at a moment's notice. Renata sat in the furthest corner from the door, her fingers clutching tightly onto a book. Every noise that emitted through the air prompted a jump out of her.
I'd tell her to accompany me for the rest of the day, once I'd finished with the business that had led me to the library.
As I stepped through the doors, Heidi stepped up from the chair she had lounged in, and gave a quick bow.
"Master, the child…" She began, her voice faltering a touch. "She's going to end up destroying the library before day's end. She's already pulled about eight books off the shelves."
I waved away her words, and moved closer to the round table that Avery sat at. Bowing her head, Heidi back away and returned to her own literature.
Books of every format and subject were spread around her- some dog-eared to mark the place, and some just laid open, face down on the table.
For a child to peruse through so many books at once, I could not tell if she had a very wide attention span or a very short one that could not remain interested in one subject for more than ten minutes.
"Dear girl," I said, and a chuckle rang in my tone as I ran my fingers along the spine of Alice in Wonderland. Alice. Quite abruptly, my expression darkened, and she cocked her head to the side, her eyes wide in confusion.
That name always caused displeasure within me. But soon, I just might have a creation that with an ability to rival that of Alice herself. "Do you mean to tell me that you're reading all these books at once?"
She placed her hand over her book to hold it open, and turned her attention directly to me.
"I have one for every day of the week. Teen fiction for Monday, a classic on Tuesday, non-fiction on Wednesday, Adult fiction on Thursday, Fantasy on Friday, Les Miserables on Saturday, and the Bible on Sunday," She declared simply. Today was Friday, and in her lap she held a copy of a book called The Clockwork Princess. Subtly, I reached forward and placed my hand on top of hers.
Through her thoughts, I learned that this had not been the first time she had had access to these books, but rather, she would steal a book a day from a library and bring it back the very same day before anyone noticed that it was missing. Already, she had stolen this particular book enough to be halfway done with it.
And it was not a slender book by any means.
"You cannot simply read one at a time?" I inquired, slipping into the high-backed chair directly across from her. She shrugged casually, as though the answers were blatantly obvious, and that I, as what deemed to be an old man, was too oblivious to know it.
"They last longer if I read them like this. I can forget one for a week, and then when I come back to it, it's far more enjoyable."
"And does your sister do the same as you?"
"No, Ami prefers to write more than read. She writes poems, sonnets, anything that comes to her mind. She doesn't like to speak much with anyone, so she transcribes all of her thoughts on paper. As for me, I can talk for days and not run out of anything to say, so I'm content with reading. It gives me things to talk about and also gives my mouth a break at the same time."
When I fell into a silence, she turned her gaze back to the book. Her eyes scanned over the passages, and I watched as she disappeared completely from this world and transcended into a world that had portals created of mere words.
"Avery," I said, and she jumped in her seat, and bowed her head meekly, "Why don't you get your sister to come down here with you? Asami cannot be enjoying herself if she stays in your room all of the time."
"Asami doesn't want to leave. Not with Demetri in the study across from our room. She's…well, she doesn't like many of the people here." Twisting her head to the side, she looked up at me with her face scrunched up in a precocious display of confusion. "Not even you, and you're the nicest out of all of them!"
I had heard, but listened to nothing of what she said after she'd declared the whereabouts of Demetri.
"Did you see him this morning when you came here?"
She shook her head. In her thoughts, I could not hear what she had seen, but I could catch snippets of the observations she had made earlier in the day.
"I just know. It's weird. I used to think I could only do it with Asami- sometimes we'd forget to tell one another where to meet up after we'd stolen, but we'd always end up in the exact same place. It's like we're magnets. We always end up in the exact same place."
I went silent as she rambled on and on, quickly proving the truth behind her words. I doubted if her sister would divulge half of what she did to me. Avery appeared to be perfectly content with revealing the extent of her life story.
There was a certain tidbit of information that particularly intrigued me- an event in which they had been separated by a snow storm in Sweden. She explained to me that they had been two cities apart, but quite easily, they came to locate one another a week later.
"I believe…that you have an extraordinary gift."
"Really?" She asked, her nose scrunched up, "It's just… I don't know. It's easy for us. I always just thought that it was luck, or maybe God acting in our favor and helping us to find each other."
"No, my dear," I assured her. Luck could not work so often, and so accurate. According to both her words and her thoughts, there had not been an instance where she had not been able to find her sister again. Perhaps it would be more convenient to change her sooner than originally planned. Not as soon as Jane and Alec, unless something were to happen to demand that, but in a year or two… fifteen was an acceptable age to join the Volturi.
"I suspect that you have what is known as a tracking ability," I explained. Rising from the chair, I paced back and forth before her. Instead of returning to her books, she gave me her undivided attention. Good. She was learning fast. "It's more of the common abilities, but the differences in the gift from one individual to another can be vast. At the present moment, the Volturi already has a tracker. You have met Demetri, yes?"
"Briefly, yes." And then, she blushed, "He gave me a flower from the courtyard. A blue rose."
Yes, that would be exactly like Demetri, who delighted in flirting with any sort of female, regardless of their species.
"His gift is the strongest of its kind. He works in the mind- picks up the essence, if you will, of someone's mind." I paused for a moment as slowly, I could see all of my plans fall into place. Quite possibly, this girl could solve all of the problems I had.
Demetri was adept with his skill to find whoever we wished to be brought to us. Thought I had not seen the value of it before, the placement of two trackers within the guard would cause everything to run with much more efficiency. We'd not have to wait until Demetri had found one individual who had broken the law when we could send both of them out at once.
"Do you think I could be able to do something like that?" She asked, her frail, childish voice filled to the brim with hope.
With an assuring nod, I allowed her to continue on with her reading, while I ventured to the throne room to consult with my brothers.
"So she's yet another tracker?" Caius spat. He gave a dismissive little wave. "What use do we have for another one of those? Demetri does the job just well enough."
"Yes, but to have two would increase the number of crimes we are able to punish drastically, brother." I responded, my irritation scarcely concealed by a calm overtone. "Do you not see how this efficiency would help our society to function at a greater level than it already does?"
"Efficiency? One is efficient enough. We do not have the time to train another in our ways. The human population will not stand to feed all of us if you keep creating newborns because you think that they will have some sort of useful talent. When you find something that can actually be of use to all of us, rather than a gift that we already have in use, then perhaps I will agree with your decisions."
"Disagree all you like, brother. I still plan to change the child when she comes of age."
"Why wait such a long time?" Marcus queried, interjecting his voice into the conversation for the first time. "When you can change her now and have it be done with?"
"At her age, she has the potential of being just as unstable and uncontrollable as an Immortal Child. At the earliest, I would have her changed in two years. Every newborn is volatile, of course, but at that age their hormones have somewhat settled down. The chance of her being uncontrollable at that point would be slim to none."
Caius made to protest once again, but his outcries would not be heard, not by me. The decision was made. When she turned eighteen, Avery would join the guard.
If fortune favored us, she would have a gift similar, but very different from Demetri's and equally as useful.
It was not difficult to keep her pleased with her life, a book there, a new gadget there, some jewelry, and she was utterly content. She'd stride down the halls, her hair tied up in ways that made her look older than she truly was.
Some of the guard was tolerant of her, while others outright stated their desire to consume her blood. They'd display their gifts if she asked, and she'd delight in watching the strange phenomena that they could create.
The more she received, the happier she became, though there was one subject that she complained quite often about.
When she asked me (and this occurred several times a day) when they would be sent to meet with the dignitaries and political officials that I had described to her on the day of her arrival, I would assure her that it would be soon.
"It's been two weeks, though." She said one day after she had spent the earlier part of the week begging to be allowed outside. I sat behind my desk, re-sorting a file that we kept on a particular type of crime, the offenders of said crime, and the punishment that they had received. "Asami doesn't come out of our room half of the time and she's going all pale. I haven't been allowed to go past the garden since we came here. I fear that she will get ill if she doesn't get some fresh air soon."
"What your sister chooses to do is none of my concern. If she wishes to waste away in the room that has been provided for the both of you, then she is free to do so. As you are so concerned about her, my suggestion would be for you to force her outside. Drag her down the hall if you must, but I will not interfere with what she desire to do, so long as she does not interrupt any of the day-to-day activities of the guard, me, or my brothers."
Brushing a lock of thick, brown curl out of her eyes, she folded her hands behind her back, and pressed on.
"What about me? When can I go outside? I want to go further than just the wall, and it's been weeks. I haven't seen anything but this castle in almost a month."
Storing the file into a cabinet just to the right of the desk, I motioned for her to sit.
"You have seen Volterra many times, I'm sure," I said as she moved into one of the chairs. "What is it about the place that draws you to it? Most would expect that you would be relieved to be free of a place that provided you with nothing but poverty, neglect and starvation for so many years. Why do you wish to return?"
"It's not the city itself… it's… it's the outdoors. I like being outside. I like when I'm in the streets with Asami and we have something nice to eat for dinner and a musician plays at a fountain, and the stars are out in the sky. It's like the perfect state of peace." With a vague gesture, she motions to the office and the space around her. "The castle is beautiful, but it's so… closed in. Everything is so big, and tall that half of the time I feel like I am being suffocated.
"I can see your point, but I am afraid that I cannot yet allow you to go on beyond the courtyard walls."
She leapt up, and gave an indignant wail.
"Why not? We won't say anything about you, or what you are. We'll be quiet and we won't talk to anyone or buy anything and we'll come back whenever you say. We just want to be let out for a little while. Please!"
" The grounds here are extensive, child. The mountain extends into the forest; the castle walls are further away from the castle than you might think. As long as you remain on the castle grounds, you are free to go from here as you please," I relented after a moment. It would be best to keep both of them strong, and humans could not remain healthy without the proper amount of sunlight.
For a moment, her expression shifted from anger, to one of blank confusion, and then she let lose a wild scream of elation that could shatter glass.
"Thank you! I'll tell Asami- I'll make her come outside with me so she can't get sick." Sick. That word rang within my head. It would not do to allow either of them to fall ill, for then I might have to change one long before the other in order to ensure that one was not lost forever. Precautions would have to be made. Small illnesses could be handle, certainly, but I could not allow for them to come into contact with any manner of fatal disease.
"I will send for someone to escort you,"
Though she claimed loyalty, Chelsea had not yet bound her to our coven. To be sure that she would return from her adventures, a guard would have to be sent along with her whenever she ventured outside.
She froze at the door. "I don't need anyone to come with me. Asami and I will be alright if we just go by ourselves."
"The grounds are very extensive, child. Even you could get lost within them," I sighed, carefully concealing the irritation that had started to build within me from all of her relentless questions. "I will send for Alec to take you when he returns later in the afternoon."
"I don't like him." She lied. From her thoughts, I saw that she liked him very much, and for that reason, she wanted to avoid him as much as possible.
"You do not have to like him. You simply have to respect him, and the guard. They are here for our protection, just as you and your sister may be one day. Do try and get along with one another. You may find that you have to work together one day."
Her nose wrinkled up in aggravation, but she protested no more. With the assurance that I would send for her whenever Alec returned, she gave a silent nod, and went on about her business.
He came to my office hours later, fresh from a small assignment in Naples. It was customary for the guard to produce detailed reports on each of their assignments, regardless of the nature of the event.
"There were only two of them," He said with a shrug as he dropped into one of the chairs. "It was an easy enough execution. They must have known that it would happen eventually, as they didn't put up too much of a resistance."
My mind instantly locked this information away in my memories. Documentation of every execution was not a necessity, as every vampire could remember every second of his or her immortal life, but in case there came a time that one of the leaders was killed in battle, we made certain that our laws would not be forgotten by new vampires after our demise. As unlikely as that was to happen, every precaution must be made so that the Volturi and the laws that we have instilled in our kind never fade away.
"Anything particularly interesting to note?" I asked. He merely gave a shrug.
"One had abnormally strong venom. He bit me on the wrist and it burned more than normal."
I jot that down. However unassuming they may seem, every detail had to be recorded.
With all that I needed to know of the mission complete and recorded, I open the drawer to the desk and slip the file back into the proper position.
"Do you have any other assignments at the moment? Have my brothers asked anything of you since you arrived back?"
He cocked his head to the side, bewildered. "I only just returned half an hour ago. I came directly here; so I haven't spoken to anyone else. I can go and see if they'd like anything of me, if you pre-"
Always eager to please, he was. It was a trait that his twin shared, though Jane had a tendency to go mildly overboard when it came to my defense. I raised a hand, and he ceased speaking mid-sentence.
"I'm actually thrilled to know that you do not have any other duties. Now, while this does not excuse you from your daily tasks, there is something that I need you to do for me. I have been informed that you have met the guests that will be staying with us for the next few weeks?"
He nodded stiffly, a poorly concealed grimace on his face. Perhaps Avery assumed correctly when she said that he did not like her.
"You are to watch over the younger of the two. I have told her that I would allow her to go outside onto the castle grounds, but she must be chaperoned at all times." I would not risk losing another potential prize, not so soon after I had secured her.
"Forgive me, Master, but why must I be the one who watches over the girl?" He asked, boldly. It was not customary for any of the guard to question a direct order.
"You are to be the one to do it, Alec, because that is what has been asked of you. It's hardly a extreme task to make sure a human does not try to escape. I am not instructing you to be kind to her, or to even speak with her at all. Just keep her inside the castle grounds."
Head lowered into a bow, he murmured some words of compliance before requesting to be allowed to leave the room.
With the promise that he would do as he had been instructed, I motioned to the door.
Hours later, Avery arrived at my office, her face flushed red from the wind and her hands cold from the icy evening air that humans like to so often complain about.
"I never knew how lovely the grounds were!" She trilled, dropping into the chair as though I was a great friend of hers. Pity how children can become so attached, but in the long run, her attachment might work to my advantage. "He showed me the river that runs through the edge of the courtyard, and I could see the fish! There were so many colors; I can't imagine how it could look any lovelier. Everything was so bright- I can't believe that you all see it as more vibrant and colorful than I do.
I sat in silence and allowed her to ramble on and on about the adventures she had found herself in during her time outside. Not once, to my surprise, did she complain about her company.
"Did you dislike the company as much as you thought?" I inquired, interested at the apparent change in her opinion.
"He isn't too bad, I'll admit that. He won't say much unless I ask him a direct question, and he isn't interested in talking much to me, but he was decent enough. Like I said, he showed me many interesting places."
I made a mental note to send him out with her when I allowed her or her sister to go outside. If Avery could convince Asami to leave her room and get the same energy and fresh air that she had received from the sun, the both of them would be in much better shape.
And so it was set in stone that every Friday, she would be allowed to explore the grounds for two hours, from six in the evening until eight. During this time, the rest of the guard would feed.
As long as a few of the humans were left for him, Alec gave no complaints about being sent to watch them. It took a week or so, but Asami came out of her room eventually, and like her sister before her, she would come to my office before they retired to bed and gush about the minor discoveries they had made during the day.
Months passed like flashes of light. When one's life has been lead for thousands of years, a minute can seem like a blink, and a month can feel like no longer than an hour.
With every passing day, Avery came to adore her life in the castle more. She was accustomed to the pretty sights, and she delighted in the gifts and clothes that she received on a regular basis.
The guard adjusted to them as well, and in some of them, one could see friendships forming. Heidi wasn't ashamed to give Avery advice when she sought it out. Demetri delighted in flirting with both of them, and Felix teased them as though they came from the same family he did.
Before anyone knew it, a year had passed, along with their fourteenth birthdays.