We followed Alessia along for a tour through the chateaux passing through many halls and corridors which were all somehow interconnected.

“How do people not get lost in this castle? Dear Goddess.” I said while looking around the room we were in now, it had a collection of art pieces from the late Middle Ages as far as I could tell.

“There is a certain logic to it. But it takes a while to understand.” Alessia walked over and stood next to me. A certain painting had caught my attention, it was an amazing panoramic view of farmlands at dusk with in the forefront a couple that was dancing on a blanket with some food here and there. “Do you like this work?” She asked.

“It has something very romantic to it.”

“Mhmm. It’s a work I commissioned from an artist in southern Italy in the middle of the 13th century.”

“Is it you in the painting?”

“Ah, no.” She smiled. “I had befriended that couple on a trip through the countryside. This painting was a gift for them for their marriage. After they passed away without any children, it came back into my possession.” I could tell by the somber tone in her voice that she had cared deeply about those people.

“I’m sorry…”

“Hmm? Sorry for what?”

“For bringing up those memories, I guess.” I rubbed the back of my head with the hand not carrying my newly acquired cane.

“They are good memories, don’t worry about it. Immortality might not always be easy, but this is definitely one of the memories I don’t regret having.” She put her hand on my shoulder, tapped it twice, and then turned around. “Let’s get going, we still have a lot of rooms to see!”

Our journey continued through even more corridors and hallways, at one point we also passed our appointed room, but I’d probably need a guide to get back here anyway. The tour ended in a big dining hall. From what I could tell from the smell of herbs and meat, the kitchen was immediately attached to this room as well.

“Is this where the conclave will take place?” Emma asked.

Alessia shook her head. “No, it’s in the room next door, but people are still getting it ready for us, so I don’t want to disturb them.” She pointed at a double door on the far side of the dining hall.

“Can we see the kitchen too?” Ria was looking intently at one of the doors.

“Of course, that shouldn’t be an issue.” She walked to one of the doors and opened it. We followed her inside. Unlike a lot of other parts of the castle, the kitchen appeared to have all the modern equipment it would ever need. They even had one of those appliances I’d once seen in a cooking show which they used for liquid nitrogen. In the kitchen, there were four people in chef’s outfits working on all kinds of dishes.

“It smells and looks delicious, Anna.” Alessia walked to one of the younger looking cooks and leant over her shoulder, fully taking in the aromas of the dish that particular cook was busy with.

“Thank you very much, Miss Alessia.” She replied before she looked over to us. “Are these the new guests?”

“They are. They wanted to see the kitchen.”

“Could I ask what you are preparing?” Em cautiously approached the cook.

“It’s quail with sauce chasseur. We are going to serve pommes duchesse with it. You can taste the sauce if you wish.”

“Oh! Me too!” Ria raised her hand.

“What about you, Miss…”

“Aurora, but no, thanks, I’ll wait till it’s dinner time.” I smiled.

Anna nodded and took two small spoons from one of the drawers, handing them to Em and Ria-chan.

They both dipped it into the sauce and proceeded to taste it.

“Marvelous.” Emma brought her free hand to her cheek. “Very rich flavour.”

Ria didn’t say a thing, but the look on her face and the massive smile on her lips betrayed that she couldn’t agree more.

“Thank you for the compliment.” Anna smiled and got back to work.

At that moment, another person came up to us through the door whence we came. It was another girl slightly older than us dressed in a tuxedo, which contrasted quite a bit with her purple hair with pink highlights that was tied up in a high ponytail.”

“Ah, Miss Di Roma, you are here.”

“Claudia, how are the preparations going?”

“I just came to inform you that the preparations are finished.”

“Splendid.” Alessia then turned to us. “This is Claudia, she will be making sure her team provides you with everything you need during the conclave.”

“Nice to meet you.” Claudia bowed.

“Nice to meet you as well.” I smiled.

“Waaah! I really like your hair!” Ria spurted out.

“Ah… uh… thanks.” Claudia blushed at the sudden compliment.

“Don’t mind her, she’s enthusiastic by nature.” Em pulled Ria back a little and waved to our new acquaintance.

Claudia straightened up and smiled. “It’s okay, it just surprised me a little.”

“Her hair was done by the chateaux’s hairdresser. We can always make an appointment with him if you’d like.”

“Oh! Neat!”

“Thank you, but I think we will be alright for now.” I politely refused.

“Awh.” Ria pouted.

“Don’t forget, we are technically here for school, Ria.” I patted her on the head, being careful not to ruin her hair, or we’d need that appointment anyway.

“Oh...”

“Don’t tell me you really forgot about that.” Emma looked at her girlfriend.

“But the castle is so niiiice.”

Alessia giggled, she clearly had calmed down quite a bit compared to the start of the tour. “I’m happy you are having a good time.” She then walked past us back towards the door. “Are you ready to join me in the meeting room? I’d like to be there first because I am still technically the hostess of the Conclave.”

“Fine by me.” I replied. “It’s time to get some answers.” I joined her at her side, Ria and Emma followed me with a nod.

Claudia walked ahead in front of our little group through the dining hall and towards the big double door that led to the meeting room. Pushing it open with both hands, so we could enter.

The room was almost royally decorated. A big painting of some ancient battle covered almost the entire opposite wall. At the center of the room stood a dark wooden table that was also nearly as long as the entire room and was covered with gold leaf decorations. Those same golden decorations could be seen on the chairs surrounding the table, which are also upholstered with a deep red fabric. That same theme could be found on the couple of sofas that were dotted around the room, of which the biggest one was situated against the art nouveau window on the left side of the room. Because the sun had already set, the room was lit by two big golden chandeliers hanging above.

“How the heck did they get the painting in here?” I realised immediately I unintentionally said that out loud.

“They probably rolled up the painting and assembled the frame in the room, Auro.” Em shook her head at my unknowingness.

“That’d have indeed been the smart thing to do.” Alessia rubbed her neck. “Let’s just say the window is a bit newer than the rest of the room.”

Emma slowly brought her right hand to her face and pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and index finger.

-Just like most people, vampires must also be pretending to know what they are doing, just with a bit more life experience…-

Once we’d taken a look around the room, I turned myself back to Alessia. “Is there a certain seating arrangement?”

“Normally we don’t, but I’d like you and yours to be close to me for today’s conclave. I will be sitting at the head of the table, in front of the window.”

“Alright.” I nodded.

“But won’t it be hard for the people at the end of the table to hear you like that?” Em looked at the amount of chairs at the table, there were at least twenty of them.

“Many of those seats will not be filled, they haven’t been for a long while.” Alessia moved to her seat and took a little booklet out of her suit’s inner pocket. “If your girlfriends sit next to me, you can sit next to one of them, and I’ll seat Viktor next to the other, they aren’t seated next to someone you don’t know. I think you might prefer that?”

“Uh… yeah. That’s very attentive of you.” I couldn’t help but to agree. Apparently Alessia had this all thought through already. “But now that you remind me of it. Viktor mentioned something about the conclave being a lot smaller than it used to be.”

Alessia nodded. “Yes, that’s true.”

“What happened?”

She chupsed and turned towards the window after putting her booklet down. “That’s a story from one of the black pages of the conclave.”

“If you don’t want to tell it, that’s okay too.” Ria tried to comfort our hostess.

She shook her head. “No, it’s something you all should know, as you all are part of the conclave now.”

Alessia walked closer to the window and stared outside. She began her story with a notably somber tone. “There had always been some kind of ideological rift between vampires. You had those who believed that we should use our powers to attempt to steer humanity in a better direction. On the other hand, the sheer nature of vampirism also convinced another group of their own superiority over mankind. That we should be the ones to control ‘the lesser beings’...” A bird flew up in the distance, which Alessia tracked for a second before she continued. “This hadn’t been a big issue throughout the ages, obviously it was fiercely debated at times, but it never came to open conflict… but then the first world war happened and after it, the rise of fascism...”

-Oh, boi, I think I can see where this is going…-

“It was the moment that their group had been waiting on for a long time. Our leader at the time, who was a lot like you by the way, tried to fix the schism. But the die had already been cast. Open conflict tore the conclave apart and lots of blood was spilled. And it was not only our conclave that had this issue, the other conclaves worldwide had this happen too.”

“...A-aren’t vampires immortal?” I could hear Em’s hesitation in her voice.

“Yes, but to a certain degree. Some are a lot more immortal than others.” She tapped her fingers on the windowsill. “Anyhow, at the end of it all our group was the last one standing, and with the conflicts in the other conclaves resolved, we were left with severely diminished numbers. Our leader then decided to resign and retreated to a quieter life disconnected from this all, together with her partner. She’d been the key to our victory, but it took a heavy toll on her as well... That’s when I took over.”

“That’s heavy…” I puffed.

“Mhmm.” She nodded. “But luckily things have been really peaceful ever since. Because vampirism is so rare, only a couple of individuals have become vampires since. And we’ve been very lucky with who they are and have become.” Alessia turned around and smiled at me.

“Excuse me.” A strangely familiar voice called out from behind me, accompanied by a knock on the door. “Can we enter already?”

“Ah, Phania, come in.” Alessia waved the person over, to which I turned myself around as well.

The girl I saw when I turned around didn’t appear much older than me and my girlfriends. She had well groomed black hair which just reached her collar bone. And her face… I couldn’t shake the feeling I had seen her before, but I just couldn’t place her.

“Aurora, this is Epiphania Palaiologos. One of the older members of the Conclave.”

“Nice to meet you.” When she came to stand next to me to offer me her hand, I caught a whiff of her perfume. It was soft and floral…

That’s when my penny dropped. “You! You are that upperclassman!?”

“Auro, what the hell are you talking about?” Em looked Epiphania over for a second. “I’ve not seen her around at school.”

“I’m 99 percent sure it was her at the duck pond when I was with Ria!!” I looked at her in disbelief. “She even told me to get to class in time.”

“Aurora is right, that was me.” Epiphania confessed.

“But how? And why?”

“Why don’t we all take a seat, so we can talk about it?” Alessia put a hand on both mine and Epiphania’s shoulder. “And in the meantime, does anyone want a drink?”