Darsana was patiently taking a sip from a coffee cup, though I wasn’t sure if it was actually coffee. I had so many questions, but my previous idea of her being an entity of destruction made me hesitant to proceed with them. She watched me for a moment, then looked behind me in the direction of the door and waved her hand slightly. A figure appeared, holding out a coffee cup in front of me. I looked from the cup to the figure, meeting Deacon’s serious features before quickly taking the glass so that he wouldn’t get pissed off.

“Thank you, Deacon,” Darsana smiled sweetly and I watched as Deacon’s face softened considerably in response. He nodded, moving away into the darkness. I looked at the coffee cup, watching the steaming contents of what appeared to be hot chocolate. My body reacted to the scent, having felt deprived of nutrition due to bustle of recent events. I took a cautious sip and breathed a sigh of content at the responding rush of adrenaline that filled my limbs. “Deacon put something extra in there, to help with your strength.”

“Something extra?” I asked in confusion. Had I just been drugged?

“Don’t worry, it’s just a bit of replenishing magic,” Darsana told me, taking a drink from her own cup with a wink. I was still just as confused, but I took another drink to show that I was trying to trust her.

“Is he your… butler or something?” I asked curiously. “Aveline referred to you as his lady.”

“Deacon is my claimed human. Though, like you, he isn’t a typical human…”

“A hunter?” I inquired immediately, spinning around to try to spot him again. I hadn’t felt that familiar pull that came when I met Clio.

“A witch,” Darsana giggled most girlishly at my reaction. Had I really been within touching distance of an actual witch? It was very intimidating. “Witches don’t tend to affiliate with our kind, but you know that old saying: love knows no bounds.” I blinked at her. I hadn’t really expected much, being that I’d never met Darsana in the first place. But I had expected the usual anger and hatred that the vampires showed towards me. A pleasant, vibrant girl sat here instead, acting as though she were exactly where she was meant to be and talking about silly things like love.

“You’re not what I expected,” I told her bravely.

“Oh, that much is believable. I imagine being a vampire hunter prisoner to vampires doesn’t give you much expectation for exciting company,” She laughed then, but paused as if she saw something cross her vision. “You met my granddaughter, Zelda. She was there when you were Jacobi’s punishment. I’m sure you’re unhappy with the Royals you’ve encountered so far, but they’ve been quite lost since Eve passed away.”

“She said you were in Germany, dealing with foreign coteries,” I said slowly, “Are the Royals different there?” Darsana paused, glancing at the teen vampires sitting in front of the fireplace. I hesitated, but looked at them as well.

“The Royals there are different in the same way any culture is different in other countries. I’d say they’re less corrupt than ours, but at no less risk of extinction. The hunters have connections across the world and they’re very… skilled,” Darsana answered cautiously before indicating to the young vampires. “Those are the children of the leading Royal bloodline in Germany. Karsten and Katja Diederich; they’re twins. They’re under my protection right now, until some threats are eliminated in Germany.” The girl glanced at us, probably hearing her name being mentioned. Darsana smiled lightly at her, but she watched me intensely with those large doe-eyes. Her gaze was infinite, pulling away the world at the edges as if we were the only ones in existence.

“Katja,” Darsana scolded again, causing the girl to look away quickly. The boy, Karsten, looked back at us curiously before whispering something to his sister. He looked almost identical to her, with his caramel eyes and sandy brown hair, but something in his expression was more intelligent and serious than his sister. “Sorry about that. They wish to play with you.”

I hesitated. “Everybody seems to want to ‘play’ with me.”

“Oh, but not in that way,” Darsana erupted in laughter, “They’re far too young to think like that just yet. Can you guess how old they are, Elysia?” Darsana turned her emerald eyes on me with great intrigued. I felt like she knew something she didn’t want to directly tell me, but if I played her games I could possibly begin to understand things I hadn’t been allowed to understand before.

“Maybe low teens… thirteen?” I guessed uncertainly.

“They were born five years ago,” Darsana told me simply, causing me to widen my eyes in surprise. “In the literal sense, they’re five years old. Physically, they’d be more your age. Mentally, they’re torn between the two.” She peered at me then determinedly, looking my body over carefully.

“You’re about sixteen, aren’t you?”

“Nineteen,” I responded quickly.

“Hmm, strange,” She raised her brows in surprise, “I’ve never guessed an age wrong before. But then again you’re different, aren’t you, Elysia?” I thought about my abnormal speed and strength, the way my instinct took over in times of protection and my odd dreams.

“I guess in some ways, but probably no different from other hunters,” I said carefully. “Do all Royals age that quickly?”

“The average Royal child will age physically three years every year. So while the Diederich twins are five, they’re physically fifteen. In about two years or just a little over, they’ll reach their max physical age.” I did the math in my head. In two years, they’d look about 21 years old and they’d stay this way for eternity.

“What about mentally? Would they still only be seven years old?”

“Royals age mentally at a slightly slower pace than physically, but still faster than normal. Right now, they’re probably around the mentality of ten. In a year, they’ll be mentally pre-teen. In two years, when they’re fully aged physically, they’ll still be mentally teenagers. After a year of being full-grown, their mentality will have matched their physical age. Then it’s just a matter of experience and knowledge and such,” Darsana explained loftily, as if the aging process of Royals only vaguely fascinated her.

“How old are Royals when they’re able to have children?” I asked curiously, imagining how strange it would be for a five year old to already start popping out their offspring.

“Technically, they’re able to reproduce right now. But they usually don’t start showing interest in sex until they’re six years or more,” Darsana stated, watching the children with a frown, “In some countries, where they fear the Royal lines depleting completely, they force their young to breed the moment their bodies are formed enough to do so. Audrina Roslind is trying to pass a law that requires that very thing, due to the extinction we’re facing. Imagine that…”

I felt disgusted by the idea of forcing children to breed children.

“Who would they force them to breed with? Just regular humans or… can Royals breed with other Royals? I know both are fertile and I know turned vampires are sterile, so a Royal can’t reproduce with a turned vampire, but with another Royal… wouldn’t that be possible?”

Darsana giggled knowingly. “I’m living proof that that’s true,” She answered happily. She stood then, twirling around in her light dress. “Eve Raene was my grandmother. Her son was my father and my mother was a Thron.” She sat back down, watching me expectantly.

“Wait… why do you claim the bloodline Thron, then?” I was utterly confused. Wouldn’t it be more beneficiary to claim the more powerful bloodline as her name, so that she could be considered a part of the leading Royal family? And one would think, her father being the Raene, that she would have gained his name.

“We claim family names differently in our society,” Darsana explained, “It’s… I shouldn’t really say because it wouldn’t be good to tell a hunter how to identify certain Royal bloodlines… Okay. Let’s say we have two bloodlines: Raene and Thron. And let’s say hypothetically that all Raene have… cat ears. Yes! Cat ears. And all Thron have cat tails! So when a Raene and a Thron do the tango dance and have a child, what determines whose bloodline is dominant is what that child is born with. In my case, I was born with a cat tail, so I was dubbed that of Thron.”

I thought about the information deeply, more questions only spilling into my mind. Darsana leaned towards me, gaining my attention. “While I do enjoy this conversation, I think we should probably get more to the point as to why I’m actually here.”

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat then.

“You were here to give them permission to kill me,” I told her, anxiety beginning to flourish across my chest. Darsana didn’t respond at first, but rather watched me with those feline eyes as though trying to look through me… inside me.

“Tell me more,” She requested quietly, not giving any hints as to whether she would agree that I needed to be killed or otherwise.

“I was… taken from my house,” I started anxiously, “They were going to kill me, but when Jacobi saw my birthmark, he didn’t. He said they’d wait until you came. So I guess you’re here because of my birthmark…”

“Something tells me they wouldn’t kill you now, regardless what I find,” Darsana said knowingly, putting down her cup slowly with a small smile. I hesitated, knowing just exactly what she was talking about.

“Jacobi claimed me,” I responded, putting down my own glass. “He said I would live and once he’s… done with me… he’ll let me go free.” Darsana watched me for a moment, tilting her head curiously and once again I had a feeling she was trying to look inside of me at something nobody else could see. Then she lifted her hand slowly, pausing momentarily.

“May I?” She asked me. I knew she meant to touch the claim, just as Noland and others had. I nodded carefully. A slow, cool rush of power brushed over me slowly, shifting in a searching manner. I felt Jacobi’s electric spirit respond through me protectively, flowing around me but not pushing away Darsana as it had Noland. “Hmmm… Interesting. May I look at your birthmark?”

“I thought you might want to,” I sighed in resignation, but stood up from the chair. I turned my back to her, pulling my hair around my shoulder and indicated to the zipper of my dress. “Can you help me with the zipper?” I waited while she carefully unzipped the dress enough to bare my back to her. I knew what she saw as she froze behind me. I could imagine the pale lines of my Lichtenburg figure branching across my flesh, marred in some places now by faint scars from being whipped.

I tensed as I felt the feather light touches of her fingertips on the skin of my back. There was power in her touch. It ignited something inside me, like a dim fire that had been given oxygen. Whispers were crawling around me as a film dropped over my eyes, pulling me into a strange dreamlike trance. I frowned, trying to make sense of the voices, but none of it was clear. Then just as fast as the feeling had folded over me, it was gone along with Darsana’s touch.

“You have the sight, as well,” Darsana stated, sounding quite confused. She abruptly zipped up my dress and twirled me around to face her. She began poking me determinedly, lifting my arms and pinching my flesh in random places as if I were some test subject. I yelped when she suddenly nicked my skin, swiping her finger over the resulting blood before tasting it. “You’re definitely human… this makes no sense.”

“What do you mean by sight?” I asked, officially disturbed by her actions.

“I mean you have the sight,” Darsana waved her hand, as if the whole situation was bothering her. “It happens in some cases with humans, usually those descended from witches. You’ll get a clairvoyant human here, an empath there, but you have the mark as well. This makes absolutely no sense. And you said you are nineteen?”

“I- yes, I’m nineteen.” Darsana looked like she wanted to stomp her feet in frustration. I tried not to feel the fear that was rising as her emotions toiled in front of me, but it was beginning regardless of how brave I wanted to be. She reached for me, causing me to jerk back, but I couldn’t avoid her grip on my face.

“Calm, child. I definitely won’t harm you now. Jacobi was very right to postpone any execution, it could have been a grave mistake,” She told me absently, as though she were more talking to herself than me. She peered at parts of my face, poking my nose and running her hand over my cheeks as though my face were made of play-dough. “You look like Zachary Monet, that’s for certain. That ginger hair and those blue eyes; practically his signature written all over you.”

She released her grip on me with a deep sigh.

“Well, I can’t see anything through your damn sight. I’m practically a turned vampire at this point,” She looked at me carefully, frowning all the while. “We could try a spell. Deacon!”

Deacon appeared quite suddenly, approaching Darsana almost eagerly.

“Yes, my lady?”

“This here is a phenomenon called Elysia,” Darsana waved over to me, even though Deacon already had met me before. “I’m in need of a spell, one for information, one that requires summoning a demon…”

“I’ll work on it immediately,” Deacon answered simply, removing himself from the room.

“I… I won’t have to meet a demon, will I?” I asked uncertainly.

“Oh, no. Absolutely not. It takes training to be allowed anywhere near a demon summoning,” Darsana waved me off as though the suggestion was nothing short of insane. I breathed a sigh in relief. I was certain if I had been presented before some demon, I would no doubt be eaten whole by it. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what that would be like; an actual demon. “While we wait on more information, I do want to teach you things about your sight. Maybe it would help us if you had a better understanding of it as well. For now, we need to unpack. I have a feeling I’m going to be here longer than planned.”

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Music: And You Will Know Us by the Trail of the Dead- Caterwaul