Both Em and Ria gave Alessia a hug as she walked in in front of us. Karin and her father decided to go with a formal kiss instead.

“I hope I am not interrupting anything?” Alessia apologized.

“No, we were just done having lunch.” Em replied. “But what are you doing here, if I may ask? We couldn’t quite hear it from over here.”

Alessia explained to everyone in the room why she had come over. In the meantime, Em’s mom joined her husband by his side. “I thought that, considering the situation, it might be best for your family to see someone who is involved in the flesh. And as Aurora’s adopted parent, doubly so.” She concluded.

“Well, we are very pleased to finally meet the famed Lady Alessia in person.” Em’s mom smiled.

“Please, just call me Alessia.” Alessia bowed ever so slightly, to which Ilse nodded in acknowledgement and then gestured for Alessia to take a seat in the living room.

We all followed, but while everyone sat down, I decided to stay standing behind the sofa Alessia was sat in.

“Well, I do think some formal introductions are in order first.” Alessia began. “My real name is Alessia Di Roma, I am currently the leader of what we call the 13th Conclave of the Chalice of the Eternal Blood, a secret order of vampires that was founded to make life easier for those who share a common fate. As far as the current governments are concerned, however, my name is Alessia Gattilusio, Marchioness of Montbrun and adoptive mother of Aurora Beaumont-Gattilusio. But as I said before, please just call me Alessia.” She chuckled awkwardly.

“It’s nice meeting you, officially, Alessia.” Ilse smiled yet again. “We are Ilse Meier and Paul Meier, parents of our two beautiful children, Karin Meier and Emma Meier.”

“I feel a bit like the seventh wheel here.” Ria commented, seemingly very serious, but from the look in her eyes I could tell it was definitely meant as humorous as it came across as.

Most of the awkwardness around Alessia disappeared as everyone started to chuckle at Ria’s comment, and Ria herself looked very pleased with her accomplishment.

“I think I can help with that, my name is Aurora Beaumont-Gattilusio, co-wife of Corelia Du Bellay together with Emma Meier.” I winked at my girlfriend, who immediately started blushing. “Is that good enough for you, Ria?”

“Y-yeah.” She nodded, her puffy pink cheeks getting even redder still.

While we had our fun, the older people and even way older person in the room continued their conversation. “With introductions made, I’d like to also officially invite your family to become affiliated with our conclave.”

“What does that mean, exactly?” Paul asked.

“In short, affiliated families are families that through one way or another have been so intertwined with our Conclave that it would be rather unfeasible to untwine those connections again. Considering you presumably don’t want to break off contact with your daughter in the future, the affiliation is a way to make that possible with the best interest of both parties in mind. Most of the time affiliation is granted to families with which the Conclave has had good and long-standing business relationships, but since what has happened to Corelia and Emma is so terribly uncommon, we would definitely like to extend the possibility to you too. That way, Emma can keep interacting with the family she loves. And this also extends to your descendants. The only thing we really ask is to keep secrecy in a high standing when it comes to the Conclave as a whole.”

“Not that we are going to refuse, but what if we would?” This time it was Ilse who asked. She looked genuinely interested but I could also feel just a tiny hint of fear.

“I’m not going to beat around the bush, but we do have ways of altering memories. This would however hurt both you and Emma in the long run so we really don’t want to do that.”

“You can actually do that? Change memories?”

“We can.” Alessia nodded and then looked at me.

“I didn’t really include that in my explanation yesterday, it didn’t really seem too important at the time and I had other things on my mind.”

“Fair enough.” Alessia looked back at Em’s parents. “There’s different kinds of vampires, some like Aurora are very very strong, others like me have special abilities and people like me in particular can alter people’s minds.”

“That does sound really scary.” Ilse replied.

“If we have to protect our people, I way rather prefer that method over other ones.”

“I do understand that.” Paul put his hand on his wife’s shoulder. “But you won’t have to do it with us, I can assure you that.”

“Uhm Alessia,” Em spoke up. “could you show my mom the good side of your power too? Like you did with me back at the chateaux?”

Em’s mom looked at her daughter and tilted her head. “What do you mean, Emma?”

“My power is not only used to erase and change memories.” Alessia picked up on what Em was after. “I can also read people’s minds, telepathically communicate with them, but what Emma is referring to here is that I can project a very vivid image into people’s minds too. Almost like a tangible dream.”

“It really helped me calm down when I was having a panic attack.” Em added.

“I would not mind doing so, if you would like to try it for yourself, that is, Ilse.” Alessia smiled at her host.

“Maybe it could help take away some of your reservations. Because I know the mental stuff does sound really scary.”

“Hmm.” Ilse ran her thumb over her chin. “And it’s totally safe?”

“It is, I am in complete control of it. I have had many many years to train it.” Alessia nodded. “The only thing is that I do need to be alone with you for a while so I can use my complete concentration.”

“Hmm.” Ilse repeated and stayed silent for a couple of seconds before finally giving Alessia a nod. “I do think I want to give it a try.”

“Good.” Alessia folded her hands and gave Em’s mom a nod. “Would you like to do it now or would you rather wait until we have finished our chat?”

Ilse looked at her husband and then at us. We all gave her a nod back that she could definitely take a bit of our time. “Now will be fine. Is the reading corner over there privacy enough for you?” She gestured to the other side of the room.

“That will do just fine.”

Ilse got up first, only for Alessia to follow suit and follow her to the other side of the room. I suppose Ilse had chosen that spot because it would still be in plain view of her husband while still being a rather isolated part of the living room.

When Ilse sat down on the comfortable looking armchair, Alessia placed her index and middle finger against Ilse’s temples, just as she had done back at the castle with Em.

“Did it really help you with anxiety, sis?” Karin asked.

“It did. It does sound like a really useful skill to have, doesn’t it?”

Her sister nodded back.

“It does put a bit of a strain on Alessia herself, though.”

“That’s the first thing I hear about it.” I reply.

“She told me right after she had done it with me. It’s not too tiring, but it’s also not like she can do that for hours on end without ‘refilling her energy’.”

“Oh.” I suppose that did make sense. I guess it’s quite useful that we can get an instant energy refill out of a bottle.

We patiently waited for Alessia and Ilse to be done. I did notice that Paul started to get a little bit anxious after five minutes had passed. But luckily for him, it didn’t really last much longer than that.

When Alessia removed her fingers from Ilse’s temple, she immediately took out a handkerchief and offered it to Em’s mom. I wasn’t sure why until, just moments after, Ilse started crying.

“Mom?” Em called out.

“Don’t worry dear.” Ilse called back with a slight chuckle. “These are happy tears. Believe me, they are.”

Alessia then offered her hand to get Ilse out of the armchair and then escorted her back to us. Ilse was just wiping away the last tear.

“That was quite the experience. Thank you for that, Alessia.” She said.

“I hope you understand my ability a bit better now.”

“I do.” She nodded. “It was such a beautiful scene.”

“What did you see, mom?” Karin asked.

“I saw you and your sister, a bit older than you are now. Laughing and smiling together at this amazingly gorgeous location. With Emma in her beautiful white wedding dress. It was so exquisite.”

“W-wedding dress?” Em started to blush quite a lot.

“Please tell me more. Can you tell me the exact design so I can order it for her already?” I grinned, to which Em quickly gave me a jab in my side.

“A-Alessia, what did you show her?”

Alessia smiled. “Just what she desired to see, nothing more, nothing less.”

“Don’t worry, Emma, Ria, Aurora and us were there too.”

I think it is fair to say our relationship does have her mom’s blessing.