vires acquirit eundo

Time passed oddly here. That was the first thing he had noticed upon his return. Constantine never measured how long an hour was anymore. Sometimes it felt like a minute. Other times, he thought he’d been here for months. It did not need to be stated, thought, or assumed, that he was suspended between worlds. He was hovering somewhere between the living and the dead, the whole and the broken. He felt like a white noise. There, but not quite; present, but oddly removed. he was lost in a haze of smoke with no compass, no map. Constantine had lost his sense of direction long ago. He was simply that - here. He awoke in a dark fog, and wandered around blindly. And all because of one magical seal burned on his wrist. It was making him feel unlike himself and he despised that feeling. Feeling like he was the same as everyone else. The one person who he valued aside from his sister was Ariana. And this had everything to do with her magical capabilities and not with her physical attributes. Not that he was blinded to her beauty, he just didn’t care for it.

Con. Oh, how he abhorred the use of nicknames. Everyone had a name and yet people felt the need to shorten it, change it, to make it sound more pleasant. Constantine heard her speak but every word that evaporated out of her mouth went through his like smoke. “I’m afraid not. I went to visit your mother and she told me you lived.” He paused, watching her expression change from one emotion to another. Constantine was as usual, not emotional about anything. As usual. He was not the kind of man that you would see with any kind of emotions splashed on his face, in his eyes, or anywhere on him. Even mind magics had a hard time getting through his head, not because he had formal training against it, but because his mind was such a complex thing, it was hard to find a way to the core before you found what you wanted to find. His mind was essentially a blank slate, and this was something which he enjoyed.  “Aren’t you going to invite me in?

So Constantine spoke to her mother. Wonderful... that meant dedication on his front if he decided to actually go out of his way to find her. It sounded like bad news. But the idea of Cecily Fawn cowering over the figure of a reemerged Constantine Vogel was amusing enough in her daughter’s mind that it softened the edges of her apprehension. 

Besides, this was Con. They’d known each other since childhood. And with that mark on his skin? Against her, he was now as harmless as any human. So, Aria opened the door a little further and raised her brows at her old friend. “You’re wrong about me, Constantine. You on the other hand... you’re obviously still the exact same android you always were. Save for the new ink.”

She stepped aside for him to come in. “Let’s just get some things clear and out of the way first... before you start with whatever shit you’re here for,” Aria spoke up again, closing the door behind him and sighing. “One: I don’t know what's changed about you since you’ve been in that place, Con, but everything our families’ built is over. It’s dust. And there is one thing that hasn’t changed about me...” 

“There wasn’t a moment in my life where I wanted nor will ever want to be Mrs. Vogel, the witch baby incubator. So, if you ever get the prickling desire to reminisce about the idea of family legacy... I will harshly suggest you look elsewhere. Two: I don’t want to deal with you or your sister's drama right now. Play time’s been over for years and I’m not interested. I have my own life now.”

Juliette lifted an eyebrow, patiently, as the girl spoke. Interesting. Defensive, perhaps a little bitter. The tone was too careful to pick out distinct notes, but– Ah, there it was. The girl had sussed out that Juliette was a vampire, and perhaps she was not a fan of the species. She wouldn’t fault the girl, there were plenty of reasons for a mortal to dislike a vampire. The fact that the girl would make a tasty snack was probably even the least of it. She tilted her head a fraction, never let that patient smile waiver as the girl spoke.

“Perhaps, but I have to ask a question before I go anywhere.” She offered, tone just as careful, though a touch more amused than Aria’s might have been. “How, pray tell, did you know that I was a Regium?”

It could have been a lucky guess, to the girl’s credit. If the girl had, in fact, grown up in Ashbourne, had learned enough about the bloodlines over her time, it would be easy enough to pick out certain traits that set her apart from other bloodlines. A soft chuckle left her, and she waved a hand to brush the question away. If the girl didn’t want to answer, Juliette wouldn’t force it. She just found it rather fascinating. “Perhaps connections to other vampires would be in my best bet. I’ve already got a pretty decent one, if I play my cards right, but tell me, Aria… What fun is life if we don’t branch out and get to know more than just people like ourselves?”

Aria paused, brows lifting at the question. She had... not exactly known the other was a Regium. But thinking about it now, made her lips quirk up in a subtle smile. “... I didn’t actually,” she responded honestly, her subtle smile becoming a bit of a cheeky grin. 

“Witches get the vague idea. I knew you were a vampire, but... Regium might have been my first guess, anyway... you remind me a bit of one I know already.” There was definitely something Philippe-y about the woman... Pretty words, face and posture that reminded her of movies with old timey aristocrats. She had that pretentious princess vibe about her - but far be it from Aria to judge too harshly too quickly. She’d almost made that mistake with Philippe. He turned out to be the most interesting vampire she’d met thus far.

“Mmm,” she considered, humming thoughtfully at the question. It was more a joking moment of thought. Aria was pretty certain of her answer. “Spoken like a true newcomer. You get over it. Once you’ve lived here long enough, the species just kinda... blend together. It’s a melting pot of chaos. Lucky for you, Regium are in charge of a... whole ton of it. You should fit in just fine. Juliette, was it? Yeah... Definitely.”

❛ RELATIONSHIP BOARD

Aria Fawn & Constantine Vogel

❛ RELATIONSHIP BOARD

Aria Fawn & Priscilla Stone & Willow Forysth

“Strange, you don’t look a day over 24. You age well. That will be a gift for you someday, I’m sure.” Juliette offered, grin not wavering a bit as she watched the woman. It seemed a bit sad to the vampire that the poor girl had never gotten the chance to see anything outside of this little town. Frustrating, maybe. Juliette was the person that she was because she had gotten the chance to travel, to experience everything that she had never thought she would find when she had been a girl, learning how to walk and talk like a proper lady.

“Oui, je viens de France. Unfortunately, I haven’t been back in a while. I grew up in the late nineteenth century, and the last time I stepped foot in France was sometime in the late eighties, when I was feeling a bit nostalgic. But originally, I’m from Lyon. Ireland, though. Beautiful country. Most countries in Western Europe are quite lovely. I never went too far east, can’t speak on those.” She offered a softer smile to the girl, something between sympathy and a hint of pity. “A local, though. You’ve got quite the advantage around here. You know the lay of the land better than most, I would bet. Know better spots than the obvious to enjoy yourself.”

Aria knew Latin and enough of high school Spanish to understand the French. She thought it sounded quite nice but this was hardly the place nor the person to let herself get completely blinded by intrigue and curiousity. This was a vampire, as Aria was starting to realize - though she’d never been particularly good at picking out the different species auras. Vampires were bad news. She had enough of those in her life and was trying to cut herself off of any new ones.

Good-looking people who talked to her couldn’t be werewolves, witches or merfolk? Or even human? Was she so unlucky? Aria pursed her lips after the interesting explanation of where Juliette came from turned into the insinuation she wanted advice and possibly even a tour. The witch was stressed enough she could barely afford her groceries that day, she did not want to add tour guide into her list of things-that-were-making-today-hard.

“I do,” she admitted carefully. “But- like I said,” she pursed her lips and subtly shook her head once. “I’m not a paid tour guide. Yup, so... I’d go to the Hub to find one of those. It shouldn’t be too hard for a vampire to get a place. There are a lot of your lot in town, especially those that prefer just to help each other out. So after the Hub I’d just stop by wherever the... fancy Regium or whatever lay out all your rules. Get a pamphlet there or whatever they give you as a welcome package and maybe you’ll get lucky with connections.” 

The further they walked the more strength she seemed to gather as a result of his blood in her system. Still, there was a tiredness in her body that could only be completely removed with either magic or a long rest. Malachi knew that Aria did not believe in anything that came out of his mouth. She took his words into consideration but she was smart enough to know that vampires were fickle creatures. Him, in particular. She made a joke that made him grin right before the annoying bird started to flap its wings over his head. “Even? I was unaware we were keeping score.” Apparently they were. Hardly necessary since they were supposed to be friends. But what did he know about the meaning behind a friendship? 

Ariana was sending him off, clearly under the belief that she was good to walk without his assistance. He was ready to contradict her but he suddenly remembered he wasn’t neither her dad or her babysitter. Now that she had been healed she was perfectly capable to getting home on her own.

 “What? and risk you pissing someone off between here and your doorstep?” His time to joke. “He doesn’t like me much, does he?” He asked, staring at the crow who was now perched on a street sign. It had good reason, since he almost got her killed once. His eyes darted from the animal to her with a sigh. “Get some rest. I’ll call you in the morning.” Because he needed her on her best if she was going to help him with the Henryk bullshit. “Good night Aria.” One swoosh and he was gone. 

“It’s a joke,” she said with a subtle roll of her eyes. Give and take and not being one-sided in that aspect was important to her when it came to relationships. She wanted to be able to count on someone in the same or similar ways that they could count on her. But at the point the two of them were at, she could tell he still might have helped her whether or not she’d been of use to him for some time. It was really nice to have that... Not many people made that list.

She didn’t respond when he joked, just rolled her eyes again - though her lips curled up in a bit of a grin. Touché. Stevros scoffed inside her head at Malachi’s words. ‘Curly’s not as imperceptive as I thought he was,’ he commented, turning his beady black eyes towards Aria. ‘I’ll give him that.’

The witch smiled in amusement, letting it fade into a small grimace as they said their farewells. The air then displaced with a swoosh and he was gone. Aria looked around at the empty darkness and starting making her way back to the common streets. The bird took off to scout ahead and keep watch - making sure to warn her of any incoming threats in the night. But even soaked in her own blood, her home was close as she wasn’t too far down the damsel road a bit of vampire-blood fueled magic wouldn’t keep her safe at 2am.

Maybe they could smell the fact she was tinted with V. Maybe there were none nearby or none interested in bothering a witch with torn up clothes and a tired, grumpy expression on her face. Whatever the reason, Aria made it home safely and tried not to think of the fact morning would come with news of another Trillium witch dead. She had to at least be grateful it wasn’t two.

Stomach of a Yara… Great. The witch was no stranger to dissections - one that practiced blood magic had to get accustomed to it. But damn the last place Aria wanted to go to in the forest was the particularly thick growth of forest far north and near the lake to grab one of those pesky creatures and take their internal organs for a ritual. Pesky, sometimes, dangerous many other times. She knew they weren’t too bad to deal with if it was one - especially since she had magic.

But that particular area crawled with them, resting on their branches or behind bushes... waiting for their next victim. It was a place all Ashbourne children were taught to stay away from. Some witches inevitably had to venture through if they were in need of much rarer herbs and other advanced potion supplies. Unfortunately, that included Aria. Newcomers loved the place and it wasn’t uncommon to lose people there. She was pretty sure more of the Ashbourne creepy crawlies found their niches in the thick forest near the lake and couldn’t fathom how there were still other people stupid enough to venture that way.

So needless to say, Aria wasn’t very excited to be there that morning, warily looking around her and above her head to scan the trees. A rustle and thump caught her attention and she spun around to see what it was. 

Distantly, August was aware of a ringing in his ears. What had happened? His head was screaming at him through the void and there was a voice, an incessant, nagging voice, one that scraped and scratched at the edge of his psyche. It was strange, familiar, warm without really meaning to be. He remembered the way she used to nurse him back to health, how her words could stir him from the worst tolls of physical exhaustion, when he’d spilled blood when he was still too young to even know what it meant, what he was doing, what was coursing through him. The treacheries of the dark, he thought she feared them - but no - she was merely wise enough to know better. When to push, when to pull. Blearily, his eyes blinked open - Lisa? - was a fleeting thought. 

August blinked against the strained light of the padded cell, if not for that fact, his back likely would have been broken. “Aria?” He breathed, choked, and then he gasped for air as it came into his lungs again, August looked at Aria, confused for a moment as he registered where they were, what they’d done, and what had happened. His eyes widened as he remembered Aurelio, and his head screamed in response to the exhaustive use of telekinetic magic that he had utilized. From the corner of his eye, he saw Aurelio’s twisted face, he smiled from the other side of the doorway, then, the Umbra was gone. 

The witch, Clarice. She was dead. August stood and looked at the crumpled heap on the ground, the unnatural way she’d landed when she hit the ground. August wasn’t going to dwell on what had happened there, the woman was a complete loon, it was better this way. At least, from his perspective. He groaned, loudly as he rubbed his head, a little shaky on his feet but he wasn’t done yet, “We need to get out of here.” August stated, quite obviously, in fact, an alarm started going off in the distance. Either Aurelio had alerted the guards as he’d left, or a shift rotation was about to spell their downfall. He would use the last of his magic to cloak them once again, his voice cut between the incantation as the cousins vanished, “come on, lets get out of here, we can regroup at my place.” 

August opened his familiar eyes and relief coursed through his older cousin’s veins, cool and calming at the same time. Waves of it rippled through her body. Aria exhaled shakily, almost smiling if not for everything they’d just gone through and the scare he’d just given her. “You fucking idiot,” she breathed out, giving him a quick embrace. It was the first one she’d ever given to anyone other than Willow in a long time, and certainly the first time she’d hugged August. It had been pure uncontrolled, urge in her relief.

She’d completely forgotten about Aurelio’s existence until she realized she was hugging the kid a second into it and started letting go. That was when the alarm began to sound and Aria tensed as she looked behind her. Quickly, she registered the dead body on the ground near them. Eyes open, glassy and void of life. Mouth dripping with foam. Poison. Clarice was dead, and Aria had killed her. The truth of that didn’t have time to settle in her stomach. Especially not when she realized their uncle had gotten away. Great...

August spoke and Aria forced herself to focus as she got up and nodded. “Let’s take the window by the exit. It’s dark enough. I don’t have my magic for invisibility,” she explained, helping August up and making sure he could stand. “There’s no time to go downstairs anyway. Stevros will help us to the ground.” Light as a feather spell would do the trick. Their Familiars together and whatever magic August could muster would have to do.

“Come on,” she urged, helping her injured cousin out of the room as the alarms rang in all directions. Finding out your closest witch friend is your cousin? Breaking into a psych ward? Escaping out a window off the 3rd floor like fucking James Bond? None of that had been on her bucket list but now it was crossed out.