Taking For Granted (Aurelai)

[Doso]

They took it for granted many of them, the gift that was bestowed upon them. There were moments when he wanted there to be stricter rules, to see the gift only given to those who have had their minds strenuously gone through, to determine who will be a true Aurillian, and who will do what he had heard this last one had done, become a blood thirsty and somewhat violent member of the ‘North Quadrant’ gang. He gave a heavy sigh and ran an agitated hand through his already messy brown locks before lowering his notebook, filled to the brim with notes and calculations. His small home was void of a companion, and he had lived alone for six hundred years without worry. In fact on most occasions, the only company he kept by choice was that of his Queen. His job required frequent updates and she often sought out his opinion on many topics. But it was the unofficial moments he spent with her that he cherished the most. He often took walks with her, just enjoying the company she brought that he so often did not have.

His frustrations usually lingered until he had explained the situation to his Queen, and so he usually made an effort to seek her council not long after the bothersome event had occurred. But she had been so busy as of late, with the Brudjan forces mounting against them, he was sure she had, they all had their work cut out for them. He had seen the balance hang in turmoil for so long, but never had the balance slipped in one way or another before, like it was now. Bruis, the bastard child of his beloved Queen was a determined and powerful man… if you could call him that. Sighing yet again he scratched his scalp and reached for his nearest packet of cigarettes. Since cancer was the least of his problems, the nasty little habit had become a good way to relax when needed, and before long one had been lit, a wafting stream of smoke rising from its end like a beautiful dancing woman, twirling until she disappeared into the cool evening air.

“It’s only going to get worse.”

[Aurelai]

"Don't say that..."

The woeful voice that announced itself in Doso's chambers in the Aurillian Palace belonged to the Queen, and she entered then in a plain pair of dark wash blue jeans and maroon sweater. She always looked somehow out of place in modern clothing, despite the fact that she molded herself as best she could into each passing age. She always head a touch of that ancient nobility that her people had carved out of the rough hewn rock of humanity so many ages ago. It was only visible to those who, like her, had lived in that era, but its exotic touch gave an added air to her words, walk, and posture that even the least wary human could notice even if they could not identify it. As she wandered slowly into the room, her bare feet scuffling lightly against the marble floors, she did so knowing that here was a man who knew why she was the way she was, and that was comforting.

"I can pretend it's a distant problem so long as people I respect don't say anything about it out loud." It went without saying that Doso was one of those people, a man who had been with her almost as long as anyone else. Sighing lightly, she perched herself on the arm of an outdated but still plush sofa, one that was updated recently by a clever furniture crafter Aurelai had found in the Western Quadrant. Its comfort did nothing for the frustration gathering in her soul. She eventually lifted her azure gaze to that of her long time friend and confidante, studying his face as if the troubles written there might suddenly disappear. Her eyes fell onto his cigarette, though, and she knew that its presence was as clear a sign of his agitation as there was. She lowered her eyes again to the intricate rug beneath her toes.

[Doso]

“Even if I do not speak it, you would still hear me,” he replied, his voice holding a strike of sadness to it. He put out the cigarette butt in the ashtray sitting unused on his desk and turned in his chair to face her as she sat so majestically before him. Those clothes never suited her the way the dresses of the old days did, though he would never allow her to hear those thoughts.

“What’s wrong?” he then asked, his serious eyes searching out her own, in an almost desperate fashion. She had been battling against the Brudjan influence for a while now, there was something else bothering her, and when something bothered her, it bothered he twice as much. She often came to him when she needed someone to talk to, and since she had appeared so suddenly before him, his senses told him that there was something troubling on her mind.

[Aurelai]

Aurelai smiled a sweet, sad smile, raising her face to her old friend. They had been together too long not to be able to guess something from each other's behavior, but she sometimes thought he could read her far better than she could him. But maybe that was because she was half afraid of what she might glean from his thoughts if she tried too hard to read them; what if she learned that he disapproved of her?

"The Prime Minister has called a meeting," she began, threading her fingers together before her. "Both Bruis and I are to appear." She fell silent then and watched him intently, wanting to catch his initial reaction. If it was anything like her own he would look both surprised and a little frightened, though she hoped there would also be some sort of plan beginning behind his familiar eyes. For her part, she had no idea how she was to make it through such a meeting and keep her dignity intact.

[Doso]

“Have you told Sellica?” were his first words, spoken with him trying very hard to contain his anger. How dare that old human fool request that his Queen and that Brudjan fool be in the same room together. Had he no idea what she went through each day? Obviously not. If Bruis were to plan something against his estranged mother, it would be something as daring as to attack her at a gathering like that. And if anyone would be able to tip the balance in their favour, it would be Sellica.

His face turned even more serious than its usual demeanour as he considered several things. Why, firstly would the Prime Minister call a meeting that required both parties of Vampyr? The Aurillians had done nothing to upset the balance, if anything he should be scolding the Brudjans for killing mercilessly and slowly depleting the humans of numbers. He was tempted to go have a few words with the Prime Minister before this meeting to seek out his reasons.

Then, to give his Queen a feeling of relief, he pressed onto her mind the warm feeling of protection and confidence. “Everything will be fine, don’t worry.” He even gave her a smile, something so rare as to be considered only for the Queen herself. Such a pity, since it was such an adorable smile (as his mother told him in during his childhood), it had faded to the worries of time and his position.

[Aurelai]

She smiled once more, this time more genuinely, more full of real comfort. Even though she knew that Doso's sudden confidence was for the most part a ruse for her own benefit, she was happy that he had made the effort anyway. It seemed to her that some people thought her a bit too flighty to be queen. They didn't understand her trips to the Opera when a large decision was musing or the dismissal of the House of Luminares for an unofficial holiday when tensions grew to be too high or someone was celebrating a particularly exciting event. But that, she supposed, she could not blame them for. Pollao would continue to be more serious than she was and she admired him for his dedication. Still, though, she had come to Doso to be the first to hear of her meeting with the Prime Minister and her son. The people always come before their Queen, but every once in a while she got the feeling from Doso that just maybe the woman behind the duties of the Queen was important, too.

"I'm sure you're right," she replied, to give him the same feeling of warmth that he had given to her. She continued more practically, "I have no doubt that Sellica will ensure my own safety and between Pollao and yourself I will know exactly what to say to the Prime Minister." She lowered her eyes to her hands for a half a moment before continuing in a self-effacing tone.

"And I will, as always, be entirely lost as to what to say to the creature who was once my son."

[Doso]

‘I can think of a few things’ he thought to himself, in the part of his mind he kept from the rest of the Vampyr world. His face was still warm, however his mind was suddenly much darker than Aurelai probably knew he could get. His loathing of that Bruis creature ran much deeper than one would suspect. The pain it caused his Queen each and every day was something she did not deserve, and he knew that she blamed herself for the events that had unfolded that had brought him into the world.

He stood up and walked to her, standing before her a moment before crouching down, raising a hand under her chin to tilt her beautiful face up to look into her eyes.
“Do not concern yourself with what to say to him.”

[Aurelai]

How Doso could think she was not to blame for her son's betrayal, for the Brudjan's power, for everything, Aurelai would never know. Of course, he did not know how the Brudjans had come to wield the Gift of Autor - no one had yet gleaned that information from her - he only knew that her son had not been her husbands and that the result of that indiscretion had created the leader that made the Brudjans so dangerous. Had Aren been left to lead them the group would probably be extinct right now, for though they loved peace that love of honor, freedom, and right made the Aurillians fierce warriors when they should pick up their shields. Why, just look at Sellica. If not for Bruis, the Brudjans would all be dead.

And if not for her, there would be no Bruis.

It was impossible to allow herself to show these feelings when Doso was trying so hard to put her at ease, however, so she pushed them from her mind. She had good practice at tucking her immediate emotions away for later perusal, since six hundred years of practice will make anyone an expert. "You're right, of course," she conceded. "There's no reason to speak to him at all. I'll simply mind myself with the P.M. and leave Bruis to his maladjusted sense of superiority." With that she rolled her eyes, as if to show how little his opinion really meant to her.

"And now," she continued, wrapping both her hands around his one in a show of friendship, "It is your turn to tell me what is on your mind." She didn't want for Doso to think she could not offer him an ear as well. "What made you take up your terrible cigarettes?" She smiled to soften her words, to show she was only teasing.

[Doso]

It was his turn to sigh, and after allowing her touch to linger, he moved to sit on the couch.
“I had a changeling turn to the North Quadrant and all its ‘temptations’,” he shook his head and added in a note of sarcasm as he mentioned ‘temptations’. To him, there was nothing that run down hunk of Valir could offer, and he just didn’t understand what others saw in it, he did not see what they saw in the Brudjan way of life… if you could call it life.

“The cigarettes help relax me,” he added on with a small smirk. For a man who had been six hundred odd years without a woman, he was surprisingly calm to begin with, but the cigarettes helped when he was wound up or stressed.

[Aurelai]

Aaaah. Aurelai's features framed into an expression of sympathy as his situation dawned on her. She, too, moved to sit on the couch properly, turned halfway to face her advisor with her elbow propped atop the back of the couch and her fingers woven into the hair just behind her temple. She turned her attention to the half-empty pack of cigarettes, probably not the freshest considering how seldom she saw him smoking them, and chuckled softly at his explanation. "I got to the Opera, and you smoke a cigarette. I will grant you that your method is decidedly less time consuming, and much less expensive." She let the grin fade from all of her face but her eyes before continuing.

"You needn't blame yourself, you know," she murmured soothingly. "We may grant a human long life but we cannot change their mind or heart. We can only guide them." She squeezed his arm lightly in support for a brief moment. "I'm sure you did everything you could."

[Doso]

“I’m not so sure,” he sighed, lying back in into the couch and letting his head fall back, staring up at the ceiling with his intense eyes. “If we could just find a way to impress onto their young minds the importance of their choices, we might be able to save them from living like that. There are far too many Aurillians in the North Quadrant. We need to find a way to make them just as disgusted with that Quadrant as we are.”

He lowered his head, focusing on the hands that were in his lap. “There has to be something I can do.”

[Aurelai]

Aurelai's thumb slipped thoughtfully between her teeth, a position it maintained as her gaze turned inward. It was apparent that comforting words weren't enough to keep Doso from berating himself this time so instead she tried to think of a solution to a problem that she had already been up, around, and over more times than she could count. Doso had too, she was certain, and yet still they seemed to lose more and more Changelings to the other side of Valir. They should, she supposed, adopt more calculating schemes for recruitment, but in her heart of hearts she could not condone such an action. Endanger people's lives in order to increase their numbers? That was too much like the Brudjans, and she was still as convinced as she ever had been that the deliberate changing of a human should only be done with the utmost caution and committment on the part of the changer and changee.

"I can think of nothing," Aurelai asserted once more, still with that note of condolence, "short of stealing into Club Tryst and spying on a Brudjan changing, that will make them as disgusted as we have become over these six centuries." She peered at him, combing her hair behind her ear with the arm that rested on the back of the couch. "You can't make yourself responsible for every Changing an Aurillian stumbles upon, Doso. You can only ever be responsible for yourself. You do everything within your power. Don't trouble yourself this way."

[Doso]

“It’s my job,” he murmured, a tone of defeat taking over his voice and mind. “I am to care for them… they are my children.” His lips twitched into a frown and he looked into her eyes, soaking in her comforting gaze like a selfish brat takes whatever is given. It was her steady hand that had kept him sane over the centuries, her unwavering support and council that allowed his troubles to keep from swallowing him. He loved her dearly for this, and had no qualms in returning the favour when she had troubles.

“Though I suppose you’re right. It would be wrong to impose on their minds our way of life. I think I just have a tendency to take my job far too seriously… though I think you’re well aware of that.” He gave the smallest of smiles and placed his hand on her knee. “I appreciate your ever listening ear.”

[Aurelai]

Aurelai smiled at his ever-gracious and self-effacing demeanor. She didn't know how to calm him about the worries of his job - she didn't even know that it was possible - but she thought she might distract him for a while if the task proved beyond her. So with platonic affability she smoothed his hair behind his ear and leaned forward to kiss his cheek.

"Come," she told him, placing her hand over his where it rested on his knee, and keeping a light hold on it while she rose from the couch and turned to face him, imploring him to stand. "Let's go for a walk. It's not quite morning yet and it's not good for you to go to sleep with such things on your mind." Nor me either, she thought, as she wanted no nightmarish dreams of Bruis attacking her over the Prime Minister's desk. "Let's forget the palace for a while, shall we?"

[Doso]

One of his favourite pastimes with the Queen could hardly be turned down. He smiled a little more warmly and stood, following her as she led him from his chambers. The warmth of her small hand clasped over his was comforting, and he did not let go despite striding beside her now. They made their way through the seemingly endless hallways in relative silence, though their minds still filtered across to one another in glimpses of their calming emotions and contentment with one another.

His devotion and caring of his Queen was undying, something that no worries could kill. Her pure heart and caged spirit reminded him of things from the old days that were no long in existence, save the few ancients that remained in Valir. She was a precious stone, one that needed no faceting to make appealing. Yet she was so rare that she was sure to slip away if left unguarded, stolen to the night by Bruis and his heartless men. His hand squeezed hers a little tighter at the thought, that so long as there was still strength in him, he would never let it happen.