(A/N): We're back with Soren and Prue in 1967. Foreshadowing- is it subtle? Extreme? You decide!
Trigger Warnings: Mentions of possible sexual assault (references to Leonides's dubious conception, plus Sebastien's creepiness, and Anthophilius's... well, let's just say Caliste is mentioned, and that's sort of... wrapped up in that.). Typical warning of Cipicia being awful- so, child abuse and abuse of power as standard. Nothing explicit in this chapter, just characters living in fear of her. References to what Cipicia made Amelia do, but it's not explicit. It's more a reference to what she said to Soren, in reference to what she did to Amelia.
October 19th, 1967
Soren
While Cipicia looked both impatient- which I was beginning to think was just a permanent fixture of her time here, that may or may not be partially my fault- and apprehensive, her daughter Miasenna only exhibited that second emotion. I don't think it would've mattered to her if we chose to take all day- her only incentives not to prolong things were her mother's rapidly deteriorating mood, and maybe the chance to see her brother sooner. As if her mother's mood wasn't perpetually terrible, and her offer to allow her children to interact wasn't almost certainly a very thinly veiled threat.
"Is it... going to hurt?" Was the first thing the little girl asked, which I think was far more telling than Mrs Joannis wanted it to be. In fact, the only thing more telling than that question was the her reaction to it.
"What does it matter? Either way, it is a necessary- if unpleasant- excursion." I think we all knew she only really cared that this was an 'unpleasant' experience for her- and even if it was unprofessional, I silently hoped I was as much part of making it so as the inconvenience of deviating from her 'busy schedule' was.
Prue, predictably, shot Mrs Joannis a dryly disapproving look, and patted Miasenna's hand. It was supposed to be reassuring; comforting- it wasn't supposed to make the poor girl flinch. Which wasn't just telling, it was screaming. Prue's face immediately softened and she carefully removed her hand from Miasenna's, in case it was the physical contact itself that'd set her off, instead of the surprise of it. "It won't hurt, dear- you shouldn't feel anything at all." She looked skeptical, and I wasn't sure if it was because her mother had already influenced her opinion, or because Prue had accidentally let another 'dear' slip. "Your brother wouldn't have even noticed, if I didn't announce what I was doing," Miasenna's skepticism lessened somewhat. "Would you like that? If I explained what I'm doing, before I do it?"
Cipicia was, of course, irritated by this, but when I cocked an eyebrow at her as challengingly as I could, I saw her make the decision to hold her tongue- and bite her cheek, by the look of it- rather than start another instance of all-out verbal warfare. "I- If you feel that's necessary." She got the word out in three parts, 'ness-ess-ary', which was quite impressive for a five-year-old, at least in my opinion, but her mother eyed her like she wanted to correct her nonetheless. How high were her standards, exactly?
"I'm sure it'll help Soren complete his training faster, as well." I perked up at this, choosing to let her semi-pointed remark slide, given the circumstances. I was, after all, the one who refused to discuss the fact that my hands-on training was supposed to conclude at the end of the year, but I'd already signed up for an extension back in June. That I was already considering extending that, too, if they'd let me. Prue made it clear she didn't approve of my decision, and beyond that, we didn't really need to talk about it, did we?
Miasenna turned those ocean eyes to me, her small brow furrowed slightly, and asked, "Training? What are you training for?" I couldn't help it, I blinked in surprise- and in my moment of distraction, her mother took the opportunity to answer for me.
"He's training to be an uncivil servant, of course." She sneered, then narrowed her eyes at her daughter now that she apparently thought me appropriately handled. "He's training to be a Healer- hence his title of 'Baby Healer'." She sounded incredibly smug, but Miasenna only looked confused- and maybe a little annoyed.
"Would you prefer he have no training?" She asked sweetly, and I barely managed to keep my snort of amusement contained by reminding myself that if Mrs Joannis wasn't aware of the fact that her daughter was being cheeky, I certainly couldn't be the thing that brought it to her attention. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure she already knew- but Miasenna didn't even react to her mother's scrutinising gaze.
Her sharp smile sent a shiver down my spine, and I found myself incredibly impressed that her daughter didn't shrink. If I'd been on the receiving end of a smile like that- well, knowing me, my hackles would probably raise to strange new heights, and I wouldn't be capable of stopping myself from lashing out. Verbally, of course, but that was almost just as bad. "I would prefer," She practically purred, and the shivers were back. "That we be treated with the respect we deserve, and provided exclusively the very best service. A half-trained cur with feral tendencies is not what I would deem, 'the best'."
A cur? Really? Even her insults were unbearably posh! I wanted to tell her exactly where she could shove her dog allegories, but since that wouldn't be appropriate for the current company, I forced myself to hold my tongue- if only because I didn't want to give her the satisfaction of a response. "Technically, I'm ten and a half twelfths trained, not half." Alright, the satisfaction of a combative response, at least.
She didn't seem to appreciate the distinction, but before she could do anything more than rear back and open her mouth, Prue started dictating her actions to the youngest Joannis. "I'm going to point my wand at you now, if that's okay. Once it's aimed at you, I'm going to cast a simple, overview diagnostic spell. Again, you won't feel anything, and I'll be the only one able to see the results, which I'll explain to you as we go through them- as we typically do with our patients whose origins are a bit more... complicated." Miasenna's brow furrowed again, but even if her nod was a little hesitant, she did give her permission.
We always performed this particular spell non-verbally, so it couldn't be replicated easily by anyone who hadn't suffered through those first few weeks of hands-on training. Since there was no way we could attempt such a spell on a patient, given that we were trying to keep the actual method secret, we often trained on each other- at least for things like this. As a result, it became a sort of competition to see who could perform the spell accurately first- and who could endure the most poorly performed attempts. A spell like this, though, even when terribly botched, was mostly harmless. Mostly, harmless.
Prue slowly leveled her wand at Miasenna, and swished it- and I knew immediately, by the slight softening of the permanent creases around her eyes, that Miasenna was not like her brother. However, I also knew by the frown tugging at the corner of her lips, that Miasenna's indicators also weren't meeting Prue's expectations. "So, it's a little hard to explain when the other person can't see it, and especially when they haven't been trained to interpret this sort of information, but I'll try my best." Miasenna's head tilted to the side, and I got the impression of a bright young child eager to learn something deemed 'too advanced' for them- gee, where had I seen that before? "It tells me your age, sex, species composition, and a rough estimation of your blood status, plus a few more in-depth-"
"Five, female, and pureblood- that is not why we are here. Get to the point; is she, or is she not?" Miasenna looked confused, which told me that her mother hadn't informed her of what had really happened during Leonides's visit yesterday- not that I'd actually expected her to, but it was exceptionally clear now.
Prue gave Miasenna a gentle smile, then turned her attention to Cipicia, and her face turned a lot less accommodating. "Speaking of 'the point'- you never answered my question, Mrs Joannis." She didn't look interested in answering any questions, but I was certainly interested in hearing them. "Now, I already know the answer, considering that both of your children are indicating a particular result, but I'm afraid hospital policy requires me to get you to confirm it before I can release any information on the subject." Release...? Oh! She meant that she couldn't reveal anything about Mrs Joannis to anyone else without her permission- including her daughter, and me. "So, Mrs Joannis- where do your children get it from?"
For a split second, I thought she meant the vampirism, and I was worried I'd vastly underestimated what sort of threat I was dealing with- antagonising- but then I remembered what Prue said about it applying to both children, which meant it couldn't be. But if that was the case, then... that meant Leonides was something else, as well- as was the already incredibly disconcerting woman in front of me. Apparently, she didn't need fangs to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up from just a scowl, but Prue merely waited patiently for a response. "It doesn't matter where they get it from," She snarled. "That affects nothing." Which... could go either way, honestly.
"Look," I said, and her icy blue eyes snapped to me alarmingly quickly. "No one here cares. You can either answer the question or not, but if you don't, it's going to be a lot harder to discuss your daughter's 'condition'." Cipicia narrowed her eyes at me, but looked like she wasn't sure whether she should be mad at me for calling it a 'condition' or not. She hadn't seemed to care when it was Leonides's vampirism on the table, but now that it might apply to her...
"We don't need to talk about it; all you have to do is tell me if she's- is she like her brother, or is she..."
As her mother trailed off, Miasenna's eyebrows furrowed. Figures it was the mention of Leonides that did it, in the end. "Why? What's- what do you mean, 'is she like her brother'? Of course I'm like Leo. Of course, I-" Cipicia cut her off with a sharp look, and I could've sworn I saw something about her eyes change; a flash, or a darkening- but maybe that was just because I was actively looking for something, now.
"Miasenna," She snapped, and the girl swallowed thickly. "You do not want-" She cut herself off, clearly amending herself as she came to terms with the fact that what her daughter wanted more than just about anything else in the world, was to be like her big brother. "Leonides- Leonides would not want this for you, either." Miasenna's expression softened at this, and the worst part was, I thought that was probably true. Cipicia turned her attention away from her daughter, back to Prue. "My mother is a full-blooded veela, which makes me half-veela. Which makes Leonides and Miasenna quarter-veela- and the heirs of two of the most prestigious pureblood families in existence." At this point, it sounded rehearsed- and it probably was, considering that the logic behind it was... questionable, at best. So questionable, in fact, that even she seemed frustrated by it.
Of course, neither Pure nor I gave a single shit about blood status nonsense at this point, so we didn't say anything- but clearly, Miasenna had her own questions weighing on her mind. "Grand-maman is a veela?" She asked, sounding incredibly confused- or maybe outright disbelieving- and when her mother nodded, Miasenna's frown grew. "Caliste?" Cipicia didn't seem to approve of her daughter calling her mother by her first name but nodded nonetheless, and Miasenna only looked even more confused. "But she's-" She floundered for a second, trying to find the right word. "His." Which wasn't something that made much sense to me, but Cipicia winced, and the expression on her face became almost... sad. Devastated, even.
"She is," She said softly, simply- in a tone I'd never heard from her, nor expected to. Like it was a foregone conclusion, and one that hurt her to acknowledge- physically, as well as emotionally. "We both are." Which, once again, didn't make sense, but at least this time, Miasenna also seemed confused by such a statement. Apparently, that was the end of the discussion though, because Cipicia turned to Prue, her face hardening again. "Is she, or isn't she?" This conversation appeared to have rendered her undone slightly, if her use of contractions was anything to go by, and Prue met her head-on.
"Are you going to run out of here with your tail between your legs the second I answer that question, leaving your daughter without any resources to manage any issues she may develop?" Ha! Two can play at the dog puns, Miss Prim And Proper- of course, Prue was a much worthier opponent than I could ever be.
Cipicia's scowl returned, and she glared at Prue like the older woman was single-handedly ruining her silver spoon life. "She doesn't need any help 'managing', if she isn't like him. And if she is... well, you gave Leonides all the information they might need, correct?" The corner of Prue's lips tugged downward.
"Even as just a quarter veela, there are difficulties that could-" It looked like Cipicia would try to argue with her, but before she had the chance, Miasenna piped up with her own questions.
"Leo needs help? What sort of help? With what? What is he? And why am I not- How are we different?" Uh oh. That was the question, wasn't it? Not just because Leonides wasn't fully human- none of them were- but also because the fact that he wasn't what they expected, meant that he wasn't... Cipicia's husband's. It wasn't just proof of 'impurity', it was proof of infidelity- intentional or otherwise. Which in and of itself, was a death sentence for a family like that.
Cipicia leveled her daughter with a stern look and Miasenna wilted a little, but she stood her ground. After a few seconds, the blonde sighed- and brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose exasperatedly. "Miasenna..." I thought for a second she might confess, or maybe she'd just snap at her daughter and reprimand her for asking questions she shouldn't, but in the end, neither of those things happened. "Leonides." She corrected, and Miasenna's lips twitched, before she turned her eyes on Prue.
"And you can't tell me, because I'm not him." Reluctantly, Prue nodded, and the girl's eyes temporarily dropped to her lap. When she raised them again a second or two later, she looked far more determined. "Answer the question. She's not going to change her mind, and I want to go home. The sooner I get home, the sooner I can see Ms Rochester- and hopefully, the sooner I can see Leo."
Before Cipicia had the opportunity to correct her again, I threw myself back into the conversational boxing ring. "Who's Ms Rochester, if you don't mind me asking? She must be quite special if you're-" I was going to say, 'if you're as excited to see her as your brother', but Cipicia interrupted me with her brow arched.
"Another would-be babysitter," She crowed, and the words she'd said to me upon arrival came swimming back. Something about already having punished one would-be babysitter, and threatening to put me on my knees- I wouldn't be forgetting that anytime soon. "She's their governess- for now, at least." Oh, right. Leonides had mentioned that his governess had been the one to cut his trouser leg open- was that why she was being punished? Or because Leonides had gotten hurt on her watch? It was hard to tell, with someone like Cipicia Joannis.
"It wasn't her fault!" Miasenna objected, then blanched as her mother narrowed her eyes at her. "I mean- you know that Leonides can be quite... sneaky, sometimes. It's one of the reasons you prefer to take him to events, isn't it? Because no one worries about children, and he's a good listener?" Cipicia flinched- because she was just now realising that these traits were byproducts of his vampirism, or because her daughter had maybe not so unwittingly revealed her willingness to use her children to eavesdrop on people? On other purebloods, no doubt? "Can you really blame her for losing track of him, when you raised him to make sure that she would?"
Her mother huffed angrily, and crossed her arms over her chest- clearly, we were past the point of propriety, here. "Perhaps if I thought Leonides was the one that had distracted her from her duties, I would hold her in higher esteem. As it is-" Miasenna mimicked her mother's crossed her arms, likely knowing she wasn't going to get in trouble for it, since they were both doing it.
"Whether she's in a relationship with one of the gardeners or not-" Excuse me? What? "-she's a good governess, and I like her. If you get rid of her, I won't take it well." She raised her chin defiantly, and Cipicia glowered at her in return.
"You never take anything well," She told her, and Miasenna shrugged tersely; jerkily, as if she wasn't used to the movement. I suspect she wasn't.
"I'll take this worse," She said, and there was a tense standoff for a few seconds before Cipicia sighed.
She shook her head like she was disappointed, but Miasenna seemed unmoved by such a thing. "If she steps a single toe out of line... Slumming it with a gardener is one thing, but I refuse to allow- She has the breeding, and she has the training, which means she has no excuse. I have given her every opportunity; if she fails me again, I will not sit idly and let her make a mockery of our family." Miasenna considered this for a second, then nodded. That wasn't the end of it, though.
"I have one request," She said, and Cipicia looked- intrigued? A little annoyed, but also maybe... begrudgingly impressed? As though she admired her daughter's boldness, even if she didn't like it. "Keep Father away from her." Uh...? "It's not fair for her to suffer the consequences of his... appetite." Uh?! She struggled a bit with the word 'consequences', breaking it down into different parts to get her point across, but we all understood her- unfortunately. And I don't know about anyone else, but consequences certainly wasn't the word I was finding issue with.
Cipicia pursed her lips, clearly thinking this through, then echoed her daughter's earlier shrug. "You are aware that dangling her out of his reach is only going to make him desire her more, right?" Miasenna arched an eyebrow at her challengingly, resembling her mother more strongly than ever.
"Admitting defeat already?" Cipicia scowled in response, and I thought maybe we suffered from the same debilitating disease- I liked to call it 'underdog syndrome'.
She didn't address the provocation, though, and turned her attention back to Prue instead- apparently finally remembering that we were here. "She isn't, is she? She's Sebastien's, I know it." Reluctantly, Prue nodded, and I saw Miasenna frown slightly. I'm sure it hadn't escaped her notice that Cipicia had pretty much revealed what, exactly, made her two children different from each other, even if she'd never once mentioned vampirism.
"She's quarter-veela, and nothing else. I couldn't tell you her exact parentage without further testing, but for now, yes. I see no reason why that wouldn't be the case." Which may have sounded like she was disparaging Mrs Joannis's commitment to her husband- or lack thereof- but in reality, I knew it was the closest to a reassurance Prue was likely to give someone of Cipicia Joannis's demeanor. 'No, I see no evidence of further vampire shenanigans- but it seems like vampires are far from your main concern when it comes to sexual assault'.
Mrs Joannis gave her a surprisingly gracious nod, and then hesitated slightly. "If you... if you absolutely must provide her with reading materials about her... unique state of being, I suppose I won't object to you doing so." Which was about as polite as I think she was capable of being, honestly... a shame it only came out now, so close to the end of her visit.
She was almost completely silent from then until they were getting ready to depart from the Arrival Hall, and it was only there, with the pamphlets clenched in her fist, that she lifted her eyes to meet mine. "Baby Healer," She acknowledged in a surprisingly soft tone- and that was the last thing she said to any of us, before she apparated them both out of there. There was an almost deafening silence for a moment, before Prue sighed, and scrubbed a hand across her forehead the way she did when she was really frustrated... and was free to show it.
"There's something very wrong with that family," She grumbled quietly, and I couldn't help but think she'd never been more right about anything in her life.
(A/N): So, if you notice this chapter was uploaded a little bit unpolished at first, it's because I woke up at 11:30pm, and went, 'fuck, I still need to upload that chapter!' I did my best to edit about half of it before it got to 11:58, so I posted it and continued to work on it until now, at about 12:55am, because I knew just the info section at the end was going to take like, twenty minutes.
Info
Cur = an aggressive or unkempt dog, especially a mongrel. (I considered mongrel or mutt, but I didn't want Cipicia to be specifically referencing Soren's lack of pureblood-edness, and I thought cur was more... posh, so I went with cur.)
Vampire Shenanigans: So, when Soren thinks 'vampire shenanigans' in relation to Prue referencing Cipicia falling pregnant with Leonides, he isn't trying to make light of the situation, he's trying to demonstrate that no one (except the vampire involved) is actually 100% aware of what went down, and even if they knew who that was, they could easily lie about it anyway. He's basically just saying, 'vampires were involved in some way or another, and whether it was consensual or not with Leonides's father, he wasn't involved in Miasenna's conception.' Which is pretty much all Cipicia wants to know.
Underdog Syndrome: Soren sees himself as an underdog (because he really is), but then says that he thinks Cipicia suffers from the same 'debilitating disease'- not because he thinks she's an underdog, but because he thinks they both need to chill out a little, but knows they're just as incapable as each other of doing so. I originally had the next part be "but the scientific term was 'don't-count-me-out-itis'", but one, that doesn't sound very 'scientific', and two, I just don't like the amount of hyphens used. He's just referencing the fact that the second someone insinuates he's incapable of something, he has the almost irresistible urge to prove them wrong. Hence him saying, 'don't count me out'. A thing to remember is that even with Cipicia being horrible and incredibly privileged, she is still a woman in the late 1960's in a very male-dominated... 'situation'. Yes, she's pureblood, but she's also a woman, and therefore likely had to fight for her position, at least a little bit. Even if everyone wishes she hadn't bothered.
Cipicia using Leo to eavesdrop/Cipicia preferring to take Leo to events: So, basically, one of the reasons people started noticing that the Joannis heir (Leo) was missing from events was because Cipicia liked to take him to pretty much every event she could, because at the end of the night she'd be able to get a bunch of information out of him about everyone in attendance. Most of what he heard was probably just either idle party gossip (from the purebloods) or more serious information passed idly from the staff of whoever's house they were in. I imagine that while the 'active' purebloods (AKA Cipicia, Sebastien, Walburga, etc.) didn't care much about the children hanging around, they were worried about other adults hearing them, the staff (also pureblood, but not treated as such, like Amelia, Annette, Nolan, etc.) were more like, 'What are you doing here, small expensive child?' and Leonides was either like, 'I'm lost, do you have any sweets?' and made friends with them that way, or was literally like, 'I'm eavesdropping, got anything good?' and they were just like, '...you know what? I do, actually.' I imagine he was very well liked, both by the active purebloods and the 'inactive' purebloods, because he was always polite, and treated the staff like people when he was given the opportunity to do so. I think it was more the 'inactive' side that started dropping hints like, 'hey, haven't seen the Joannis kid around for a while... should we look into that?' and the active purebloods were like, 'ooh, I smell a scandal!' She doesn't also prefers to take Leonides because she knows he'll behave, whereas with Miasenna it's a toss up- especially if Leo isn't also there, to distract and manage her.
Mia calling Leo 'sneaky', and a 'good listener': Mia calls Leo 'sneaky' because he often tells her they have to be 'sneaky' to get around without being seen or heard by their parents, and she didn't know what else to use. 'Good listener' because he both has very good hearing, and because I think at this point in their relationship he probably talked less, especially when they were alone. Like, he was actively trying to let her develop her speech skills, and only chimed into a conversation when she needed him to- and also because he liked listening to what his little sister had to say. (heart)
Sebastien's 'appetite': This should technically say 'Sebastien's appetites', meaning his sexual appetites, but Miasenna is a bit too young to understand the difference between what she's heard other people say about him, and what she associates the word appetite with, which is hunger for food. So basically, she means his sexual appetites, but she phrased it that way because her brain associated the two, and she went with the more common usage.