Birthright
Chapter 5: The Antidote
Sofia had given Cedric the most accurate report of what transpired in his absence as she could, given the circumstances, and not a word had passed between them since she finished trying to describe the hooded figure and how suddenly her fainting spell had come on. Now she sat at the table drinking a steaming hot cup of black coffee and watching over the rim of his 'World's Greatest Sorcerer' mug as Cedric dug through his spell books, stopping every so often to scratch his head and mutter to himself. As he assured her it would, the caffeine had helped the throbbing in her head, but it did little for the way the room spun every time she moved even the slightest bit. He slammed his current tome shut, and she nearly jumped out of her skin as the loud thud echoed through the stone workshop. With a groan, he slid down into the desk chair and shot her a reproachful glare that made her shift uncomfortably in her seat.
"Couldn't find anything?" she ventured cautiously.
He huffed in response, crossing his arms and leaning back to study her more intently. The silence stretched on, interrupted only by the sounds of her diligently trying to choke down the bitter beverage as instructed despite never having developed the taste for it that Cedric seemed to possess.
"I don't think it was a spell", he finally interrupted the stillness, regaining her full attention.
When he offered nothing further, she decided it was up to her to ask. "No?" She rubbed her temples and gagged down another sip despite the lurching protests of her otherwise empty stomach. "Whatever it was really packed a punch."
"I believe you were dosed with something", Cedric informed her, spinning his chair to face away from her again. "You should consider yourself lucky that it wasn't more potent. Considering the effects, it likely could have been lethal."
"I don't... They didn't seem like they wanted to harm me", she mused, trying again to recall anything useful about her mysterious rescuer. "Why save me just to poison me?"
"Damned if I know", Cedric replied, his shoulders shrugging to emphasise that he hadn't any more to go on than she did.
"So... you're not angry?" Sofia winced, and not entirely from the after effects, as Cedric swept the stack of books off of his desk, sending them clattering to the floor with a groan.
"I'm furious. You were reckless, and stupid, and you directly defied me." Cedric twirled around to stare at her again, but his expression quickly softened and he sighed. "I'm also too knackered to deal with you right now. I'm likely to say something I'll only regret later, so just... finish your coffee and get out."
Sofia dutifully gulped down the last of it, though it burned her tongue to do so, then stood to take the first few tentative steps toward the exit, only to pause and turn back again. "Shall I come up later for training?"
Cedric only grunted and turned his back to her again, leaving her to wonder whether she was meant to take the throaty noise as an affirmative.
She held the wall for stability as she crept slowly down the stairs, finding herself oddly wishing Cedric would've just had his fit and got it over with. Whatever he had to say to her would certainly be preferable to his awful silence broken only by short, restrained responses. I've never seen him this cross before. Not toward me, at least. Some Slayer she was. The third day, and she had already disappointed Cedric, allowed two vampires to go free, and nearly died at least twice — possibly three times. Oh, and thanks to her, the Council had placed her Watcher on probation. So much for fate. Emily was right, clearly the universe chose the wrong person. She scoffed at the absurdity of it all as she carefully trailed the winding corridors that led to her chambers. Rather, the ones she thought were supposed to lead her there. Blinking in confusion, she searched frantically in every direction, realising that she didn't recognise anything in this section of the palace. Where... but she didn't finish the thought. Her vision blurred, painting the strange surroundings red. She was vaguely aware of her feet slipping out from under her, and then there was nothing.
...
"Sofia, can you hear me?"
She woke in an unfamiliar bed, covered in scratchy black sheets that were thoroughly saturated with her own sweat. A cool compress was pressed firmly against her forehead, the only small source of comfort she could find.
"Where am I?" The words didn't come out right, so she frowned at herself and meant to try again, only to be stopped by the sound of Cedric's voice.
"That's not important right now. I think I know what you came into contact with."
She pried her eyelids open, startled to find a monster looming over her, grotesque and terrifying in appearance. She drew away from his touch and shrieked, scrambling away from him as far as she could until her back came into contact with the wall. An enormous claw reached out and... stroked her fringe away from where it was plastered on her face. That couldn't be right. Calming somewhat, she cocked her head to the side, taking in the oddly familiar gold-speckled eyes that peered down at her with deep concern.
"Cedric? Why do you look like that?"
The beast glanced down at himself, then shook his head frantically. "You're hallucinating, it's a side effect." He dismissively waved his massive hand through the air between them. "I need to administer the antidote, but I warn you, it isn't pleasant."
Sofia squeezed her eyes shut and focused on the relaxing baritone of his voice instead of his nightmarish visage. After a deep breath eased her frazzled nerves, she gave a firm nod in response. "So what, I drink some foul tasting tea, or–" she began, daring to peek out at him again.
"Tea would be too slow. The poison has already been in your system for far too long, and you're only getting worse. If you were an ordinary girl, it would have killed you by now." He brandished a long metal tube, one end jutting out into a sharp pointed tip.
Though she didn't have much experience with such things, she recognised it for what it was - a needle.
"Why do you have that?" Sofia demanded, crossing her arms defensively over her chest.
It wasn't that she didn't trust him, she did. Implicitly. She was, however, petrified of the object he held and what he intended to do with it.
"There will be time for questions later, girl. A simple yes is all I need", he pressed, gritting his teeth at her stalling.
She scrunched her eyes closed again, gathered all of her courage, and nodded. There was a sharp pain in the side of her neck, and she sucked in a breath through clenched teeth, then hissed at the sensation.
"Sorry. I did try to numb it while you slept, but you were thrashing around, and..."
She unscrewed her eyes to see Cedric, the normal human one, standing over her, his anger from earlier gone without a trace, replaced with nothing but genuine worry for her well-being. She tried to scoot to the edge of the bed and stand up but he was quick to stop her, resting a hand on her shoulder and urging her to stay put.
"You need to rest. That was Calabar bean extract, no telling how you'll handle it." He stood to place the needle on top of his dresser, muttering to himself, "Ironic..."
"What is?" she questioned, overhearing him.
He returned to the bedside and lifted the covers, gesturing for her to climb back underneath and lie down. "That it takes a poison to counteract a poison." He sighed, perching on the edge of the bed next to her. "Belladonna. That's what he drugged you with."
"How can you be sure?" Sofia asked, rolling onto her side and propping her head up on her bent arm to face him better.
"Are you feeling better?"
She nodded, truthfully already feeling the dreadful symptoms of the poison lessening with each passing second.
"That's how I'm sure." He shrugged, and Sofia's eyes grew wide at the revelation.
"You didn't know if it would work!" she spat the accusation, and he ducked his head sheepishly. "Why would you-"
"Your symptoms were an exact match, and if I'd waited any longer you'd be dead. Besides, I only used enough Calabar to give you a stomach ache, at most."
She should be angry with him for using her as his guinea pig, but the remedy was working perfectly. Besides, it was a huge relief to see him relatively back to his usual self.
"Next time, be sure first."
Cedric nodded apologetically, leaning against the cherry wood headboard, his cheerful facade melting away to show how truly exhausted he was.
"Don't tell me you intend for this to happen again", he teased weakly.
Sofia stuck her tongue out at him.
"I don't think I could survive another night like this one, and I'm not even the one who was poisoned."
Sofia sighed, honestly sorry for all she had put him through since leaving his tower the night before. She shifted until her head rested on his chest, wanting to be closer to him despite how heated her body felt. His hand reached around her back to rub comforting circles across her upper arm and she sighed into the light embrace.
"I never wanted to be a Watcher, you know", Cedric confessed, tucking his chin to see the surprise blossoming on her face. "Quite the contrary. I spent the better part of my life trying to get out of it. But, well you know better than anyone, don't you? Can't escape destiny, no matter how hard you rail against it."
"What happened?" Sofia quizzed, though the remedy, or perhaps the previous evening's events, made her eyelids grow steadily heavier.
"I finally agreed, if only to get my father off my back. Then the Council failed to identify my potential Slayer, and I thought I had somehow lucked my way out of the whole thing." Cedric chuckled, and Sofia smiled at the way the sound reverberated through the fabric of his tunic. "I could pretend to be cooperating without ever having to actually do it."
"You seemed to take it so seriously yesterday", she mumbled sleepily, then shifted to gaze up at him. "Did something change?"
"Of course it did. I found out you were my Slayer", he explained simply, squeezing her closer to him. "Sofia… if it had been anyone else, I would still be trying to escape my fate. Look, my point is, I'm a terrible Watcher. I never took the training seriously, and I've probably forgotten most of it. My Slayer already nearly died. More importantly, I almost lost my best friend."
Sofia couldn't have prevented the laughter that escaped her, and he stared down at her in utter confusion as she buried her face to at least muffle it somewhat.
"I'm being serious here, the least you could do is not laugh at me."
"I'm not, honestly. Before I fainted, I was thinking the same thing about how I'd already let you down", she admitted once she regained her composure.
"We're bound to disappoint each other, Sofia. We're going to have disagreements, and fail to see eye to eye. That's just life. We're our own people, so it's only natural."
She did her best to hear him out, though it was difficult to follow his words with the pulsing of his heart lulling her into slumber.
"What counts is what we do afterwards, how we move forward from those moments. You and I, we've always handled that part pretty well, haven't we?"
"Because that part's easy", she reassured him, finally giving in to her weariness and allowing her eyes to stay closed instead of forcing them back open. "We're a team, remember."
"S'right. We're in this together."
She smiled to herself as she slipped off into a dreamless sleep. 'We're in this together'. It seemed to be rapidly becoming their motto.
...
Sofia woke again to find herself alone in the bed and pouted at the empty expanse of mattress beside her. While she and Cedric were often affectionate with one another, they certainly had never snuggled like that before, and she doubted she'd be afforded the opportunity to do so again. It had been rather pleasant, to say the very least, to drift off to the steady beating of his heart and the low murmurs of his comforting words. Setting aside the palpable sense of loss the empty room filled her with, she rose and stretched muscles that, thankfully, no longer seared with pain. Her stomach, too, was better, though now it demanded her attention for other reasons.
She stood and exited the room, surprised to find herself standing in the hallway of what appeared to be a hidden private residence within the tower. She twirled around to take in the space, only to find herself face-to-face with its occupant.
"Oh good, you're up." He smiled warmly at her, but she could sense something was amiss just below the surface of his cheerful expression.
What that something could be, though, she hadn't the faintest idea and with Cedric it was often best not to pry before he felt like discussing things.
"You, uhm… you slept well?"
She scrutinised him more closely, growing increasingly certain in her assessment that all was not right with the sorcerer. If there was one thing Cedric held in particular contempt, it was small talk, and his strained efforts at it spoke volumes.
"Yes… Yes, of course. Did you?"
His only answer came in the form of a distracted 'hm?'. "Is something the matter?" She placed a hand on the crook of his elbow, but he stared down at it with such intensity that she pulled back without thinking.
"I'm fine, Sofia", he promised, failing to look her in the eye. "Why don't you go get yourself something to eat?"
She was about to argue that he clearly was not 'fine', but her stomach growled its agreement at the suggestion and she flushed in embarrassment.
Cedric hastily showed her how to exit his private quarters, stopping at the door instead of heading out into the workshop with her.
"Should I come back after?" she asked him.
Cedric shook his head. "We've both been through a lot today. Let's just– we'll work on your training tomorrow, alright?"
She opened her mouth to respond, perhaps to point out that they could just enjoy each other's company without worrying about training, but the door shut in her face much the way it used to when she was a child.
...
After checking to make sure the coast was clear, Sofia snuck out of the palace under the cover of night, covering the distance between the grand entrance and the bridge in astonishing time thanks to her enhanced speed. When she was safely within the boundaries of the village she stopped to catch her breath, then ambled through the lesser used cobblestone roads that led to the cemetery.
It didn't matter that Cedric was acting strangely, or that Emily was watching them like a hawk. It especially didn't matter that no one, not even herself, believed that she could do this. It was her duty, her calling, and the only way to both prove herself capable and protect others was to finish what she'd started the night before. Training or no training, there were at least two vampires still lurking in the village, and no one who lived there was aware of the danger in their midst. She knew the things that went bump in the night, and it fell to her to do something about them. If doing the thing she was born for just so happened to temporarily clear the chaos in her head, forcing her to focus only on the here and now of the battle, well… that was just an added bonus, wasn't it?
She slid to a halt in front of the gates, staring up at the ornate black metal before shoving it aside. It was easy to pick out the path back to the old mausoleum, especially with her instinct acting as a better guide than any map ever drawn. She'd kill Benjamin, and that other vampire, and the one after that. She'd rid the kingdom of every demon with enough nerve to show its hideous face if it meant Cedric would have a Slayer he could be proud of and the Council would leave them be. Perhaps Goodwyn would even find it in him to swallow his pride and admit he'd been wrong about them. Now that would be no small miracle.
The crypt was just coming into view when a pair of hands grabbed her from behind, yanking her off the path. She flipped herself around and threw a punch at her attacker before even bothering to see who it was.
The hooded figure stumbled backwards, a hand to their obscured face. "Ow, fuck!" A man's voice. "What did you do that for?"
"You poisoned me!" Sofia accused him.
Sure, it wasn't really why she'd hit him, but he did have it coming after what he put her through.
"A simple miscalculation, I assure you. My intention was to knock you out, not cause you any harm. I thought you'd be..." He paused, and though Sofia couldn't see the face beneath the hood, she was acutely aware of his scrutinising gaze and her flesh goose-pimpled everywhere she imagined him to be appraising. "bigger", he finished plainly.
For the first time that day Sofia was glad to have earned someone's disapproval, but that wasn't the part that struck her most.
This man had imagined her. He had expected a Slayer, albeit a larger one, when he found her in the mausoleum.
"You're with the Council", she stated, taking a step back from him.
She knew enough about the group to have no desire to speak with one of them alone, especially after her blatant missteps during the confrontation with Emily.
"Not as such."
She rather disliked the mockery in his tone, and thought to tell him as much, but she had more questions now and didn't suppose that bickering with him over manners would lead to her curiosity being sated.
"Then how do you know about that?"
The thick covering of his shoulders raised up and dropped down in an exaggerated shrug.
"I could be wrong. Perhaps you're only a stupid girl who marched herself into a den of vampires, the lair of a Master no less, drastically unprepared." He reached into the front of his robe and began to draw something. "Perhaps you have a death wish of some sort. On the off chance that I'm right..."
Assuming he was getting a weapon, Sofia retrieved her stake and raised it between them. "Drop it!" she hissed, fixing her steely gaze on him again.
He held the item — a hefty leather bound journal — in one hand as he raised his arms above his head. "It's only a book, Sofia."
She suppressed a shudder at the sound of her name and, keeping her aim trained on the general location of his heart, took one hesitant step towards him.
"One I believe you may be quite interested in."
Her eyes flickered from it to him, studying him suspiciously. He had poisoned her and tricked her into all but confessing her secret. There wasn't a single reason for her to trust this stranger. The logical thing would be to turn and flee, to seek out the shelter of Cedric's side and tell her Watcher everything that had transpired while she was away.
"What's in it?" She slid closer to him, reaching a tentative hand out to take the book.
He tugged it away at the last second. "You didn't say please", he taunted, wagging a finger in her direction. "This is the Watcher's Diary kept by Goodwyn the Great."
Sofia wasn't sure why he expected her to be interested in such a thing. After all, anything useful in Goodwyn's journal was just as likely to be imparted to her by the man himself, or at the very least his son.
"It seems his proficiency at being a sorcerer is exceeded only by his knack for being a Watcher. His Slayer lived a lot longer than most girls."
"Good for her." Sofia crossed her arms and resisted the urge to roll her eyes like a petulant child, no longer interested in what he had to offer her. "Now if you'll excuse me–" She turned to leave, but he was faster than she'd anticipated, gripping her arm with a strength nearly rivalling her own.
"Two years", he spat as she fought to dislodge his fingers.
Sofia froze, trying to wrap her head around what he'd just said. "What?"
He released her of his own accord, apparently believing she was now willing to hear him out. "Goodwyn's Slayer. She lived two years after being chosen."
She put some space between them, urging her mouth to form something more coherent than the inane stream of random consonants that fell from her lips.
"What's wrong, Sofia? Not impressed? That's double the average, quite an accomplishment."
Double the... that isn't true! She refused to believe that most Slayers died within the first year. Slayers were strong and fast. They healed at an incredible rate and they could sense danger when it approached. Memories from the night before came flooding in, no matter how hard she tried to shove them back into her subconscious. For all her supernatural strength, the vampire he'd saved her from held her easily, stilling her attempts to escape and very nearly...
"You're lying." She made another failed attempt to collect the journal, but his size advantage won out.
Distant footsteps behind him disrupted the brief quiet that followed, and Sofia noticed the way he shifted nervously at the sound.
"Maybe, maybe not", he muttered, then gestured his head in the direction of the noise. "Does Daddy know you're here?"
She shook her head slowly, shifting her attention away from him to see who was coming. "No one does. I came alone", she informed him as he scooted closer, reaching back into his robe for what she guessed really was a weapon this time.
"Sofia!" There was no doubt that it was Cedric searching for her, and he was getting close.
"Alone, right? We'll meet again, Sofia." He dashed off down the path and through the back gates.
Sofia tried to pursue him but a barrier of thick, thorny vines sprung up to cover the opening. She grunted in frustration, kicking the fence beside it to unleash some of her anger.
Author's Note: Season 2! Thanks to everyone who has been waiting for this, and to the people who liked posts on tumblr for being incredibly patient while there were some delays. Not a lot to say except that I hope this chapter makes up for the very long break, and that you guys enjoy. Can't remember where I read the one year average thing first, possibly my old copy of the Watcher's Guide. Internet search confirmed it while I was looking it up for this chapter.
