Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Lessard Family Estate: Mansion

Tiko

Tiko

Draconic Administrator/Mentor
Administrator
Mentor
Nexus GM
as written by Alara

The interior of the manor home reflected the neglect of the grounds, and their footsteps echoed through empty rooms. Some furniture remained yet, and the sheets that had once protected them had been removed, but they held a faint musty odor to them. The draperies were faded with age as well, and the carpets worn thin from mold.

It was a step up from the Phantom Quarter though, and relatively clean save for the thick layer of dust and cobwebs that had accumulated upon every surface of the building.

The laughter of young children could be heard echoing from down one of the many halls they passed as Sanina lead Nox along.

"My daughters," she explained. "They will give you no trouble. Come, this way..."
 
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as written by Emperor Jester

Nox, for a moment, was caught off-guard. There was suddenly the tender, sweat and oil filled odor of humanity in the air. The thought of succulent flesh and sweet, syrupy blood, oh so sanguine, filled his mind, causing him to stop before the great hall before him, a desire to hunt filling his mind, almost overtaking him...

If it had not been for Sanina's words...

"Your...daughters? But...I assumed that scent was that of one whose heart still..." Trailing off, he let the question die, summoning his impressive ability to reign in his base desires before quickly following behind her once more, keeping their slow and steady pace once more.
 
as written by Alara

"Too young yet, for the change," Sanina explained.

"How long has it been, since you have been free to satiate your more... carnal desires?" she inquired curiously.

Again her head tilted with that inquisitive, almost childish demure as they walked.

"How long since you were free to live as you were meant to live... without the scrutiny of House Sylvestre?"
 
as written by Emperor Jester

"Almost fifty years," He would answer, his eyes narrowing softly, though not aggressively at her youthful demeanor, curious, interested, though slightly suspicious. Nox opted to answer the second question before the first, almost skirting around the question.

It hadn't quite been the entire duration since his family's destruction, though with the need to hide, the various laws, (or lack thereof) that hindered and threatened a vampire's way of life, and an almost constant vigil by those on watch, had led to his feeds being few and far between. This irked Nox to no degree.

"I would like to be free of it, and soon. I tire of keeping my true self held at bay."
 
as written by Alara

Sanina led them through the dining hall and kitchen, and from there to a large store room with a simple wooden door. She opened the door gently and it swung open with a low creak to reveal steps leading down into the cellar.

"I offered you all the comforts that my home possesses," she explained. "And I do believe this to be a comfort long denied..."

She retrieved a candle from a dusty shelf and lit it before gesturing for him to go ahead of her should he wish it. She didn't need the light to see in the murky lighting, but the candle wasn't for her benefit.
 
as written by Alara

The cellar itself had once been a wine cellar from the look of the empty racks, but it had since been converted into something of a laboratory. It was large and spacious, with tables covered in various alchemy and necromancer paraphernalia.

Upon one table lay a dead animal - a wolf from the look of it - in a rather advanced state of decay. It appeared to have been left in the middle of a dissection, and its abdominal cavity was split open to reveal its organs. On another table was a man who was strapped down and the front of his shirt torn open to reveal a festering wound of necrotic flesh upon his chest. The veins that spread out from the wound were black with rot, and a raven was perched atop the man where it was picking at his flesh. The rise and fall of his chest spoke of the life that remained within him yet.

It was likely the far wall that would catch Nox's attention most strongly though. Huddled there in an alcove was a small cluster of humans shackled to a large iron ring affixed to the stone wall, and the scent of fear was thick in the air from them.

"Yours, for whatever you might desire... just do leave my uncle alive," Sanina purred as she moved towards the man strapped down to the table.

He was gagged and his eyes wild with terror as Sanina traced her fingertips down his face, leaving a trail of necrosis in their wake.

"Shh, dear uncle. All will be as it should be soon," she crooned.
 
as written by Emperor Jester

The desire crept slowly into Nox's eyes, the vibrant whites slowly being overtaken by a shimmering shade of red akin to blood under the winter moon, his pupils narrowing into thin slits. It is now that the veil of illusion left him, revealing the true nature of the Caer and their ilk. The eyes, the fangs, common place for a predator of Man. His raven black hair, normally calm and line-straight seemed to float about him, twisting and ravaged now. No words were needed, and in a rushing haste, Nox cast his white leather from his body, running almost comically, on all fours, twisting and turning, claws ravaging against the stone flooring, leaving deep gouges.

By the time he reached his first victim, all notions of elegance and tempered cool resolve were lost, as well as every scrap of cloth that would leave him a shred of dignity or decency. Nude, covering himself in the blood that would soon be spilled. Opening a now distended jaw with a savage roar, Nox sank his now knife-like canines into the lower jaw of luckiest soul in the room, the one who neither had to watch nor suffer in waiting.

It was a spectacle of breaking bone, snapping sinews, ravaged arteries, and torn flesh, peppered with muffled screams and tears, all the while Nox, now having forgotten Sanina in his slaughter-lust, both shed icy tears and howled forth piercing laughter, for this was the way the Caeruleum fed.
 
as written by Alara

Sanina seemed curiously oblivious to the carnage being enacted across the room from her as she held a hand out for the raven to step up onto it.

"Come along now," she crooned to the animal. "Let us leave our guest."

She stroked the bird's breast gently and began humming a melodious lullaby to it as she made her way back up the steps while paying no mind to the inhuman shrieks and howls that followed her.
 
as written by Alara

Sanina was seated upon a red upholstered sette in a large sitting room with Sarah, a young girl of five years of age, kneeling in front of her. In Sanina's hand was an ivory brush that she was gently brushing through the child's hair while she played with a small doll.

The doll was a bit morbid looking and appeared to have been constructed from various odds and ends that had been found around the place. Human hair, tattered fabric, and buttons for eyes. Also littering the floor in front of the child were bones with various engravings etched into their surface. From the looks of them, they ranged from animal bones, to human finger bones.

Sarah's older sister, Alice, sat in a chair nearby reading a leather-bound book that Sanina had given her, and the yellowed pages spoke of its age. One of the surviving remnants from the house-fire that had claimed their manor home back in Westeria City.

The tortured shrieks from the cellar were muted out here, but it would take more than a few doors to silence them, and even a young child could understand pain. Sarah seemed somewhat withdrawn as she walked the doll through the bones, having said no more than a few words since the screaming had started.

"'nina when will we see momma again?” she asked finally.

"Don't be so dumb, Sarah," Alice said from her chair. "Sanina is our mom now."

Sarah fell quiet for many minutes before speaking again.

"'nina? Why is that man hurting those people?"

"It's in his nature, dear child," Sanina crooned. "Do not be afraid. It is no more wrong than when a wolf must kill a rabbit so that it might survive."

"Will he hurt us?" Sarah asked.

"Of course not," Sanina reassured the child. "You my dears are not rabbits. You're..." she tilted her head thoughtfully as she mused over a proper analogy for the child. "You're wolf pups. Someday to grow into the fiercest of them all."

"But what if I don't want to... hurt people," Sarah murmured.

"No one ever asked the wolf if he wanted to kill the rabbit," Sanina explained. "Such things are not for us to decide."

The sounds of the screams from the cellar had fallen silent some time ago while the two conversed.
 
as written by Emperor Jester

Nox had taken the time to admire himself, or at least what he thought his appearance would look like. With a pocket comb, he had straightened his hair. His clothes, once bundled and nearly ripped, were folded nicely now, to discourage any wrinkles. A small wash basin was easy enough to find in an old house like this, however, the water did little wash the blood away completely. Instead, his mouth and hands ended up being dyed pink, smeared with soaked-in sanguine. Its what happened when you naturally no longer hydrated, high absorption and all.

While he redressed, he sang to himself, the song of his ancestors. He did not sing loud, nor was the tune melodious, filled with emotion. It was a soft, harsh song of winters in the far north, where once the snow starts, the Winter Queen would not rest until a life was claimed. In truth, it was almost an origin tune to the creation of the clan of Caer.

Clothes a little worse for the wear, except for the supple white leather, he redressed, shirt and jacket left open, mostly because he didn't wish to stain his attire any worse than was unavoidable. Suddenly, he heard whimpering, and saw eyes as stricken and wide as a deer caught in the headlights, but dead and far away. It reminded him of the look some harlots had, once they'd been selling themselves for an age past or longer. No hope.

The uncle was still alive, of course. Though he was sure this memory would never leave with.

A cold laugh echoed now from the dungeon, across the mansion, though it was over much faster than the screams had been.

Nox, now redressed, once again disguised in his nobility and refinement, made his way from the slaughter room, searching about the mansion for anyone. Sanina preferred.
 
as written by Alara

Sanina was humming quietly again as the door to the sitting room creaked open, and she didn't look up as she ran the ivory brush through Sarah's hair.

"Is good Marius yet among the living?" she inquired.
Alice spared Nox a look over her book before she resumed reading, but Sarah seemed far more uncomfortable with his presence. The little girl got to her feet and climbed up onto the settee where she hugged Sanina's arm and buried her face against her sleeve.
 
as written by Emperor Jester

Ignoring the children, Nox would only smile as he crept into the room as silently as he could. "Of course. You said he wouldn't be joining me in my fine, so I left him on the side of the road, to watch from afar. I am not so bestial to deny a man, or a woman, of what they deserve."

He'd then stand to his full height, stretching like a stiff, sated feline. "I'm sorry if it was noisy. It had been awhile for me."
 
as written by Alara

Sarah kept her face buried against Sanina's sleeve while Nox was speaking, and Sanina finally set the ivory brush down. She picked Sarah up gently and stood her on the floor in front of her.

"Alice, dear, why don't you take your sister to go check on Uncle Marius?" she asked curiously.
"I want to stay with you," Sarah mumbled.

"Later. Go on with Alice for now," Sanina told her.

The little girl left reluctantly as Alice got down from her chair and grabbed Sarah's hand.
"Come on, stop being such a baby," Alice told her as she walked her little sister towards the door.

With Nox freshly fed, Sanina was more comfortable with him in proximity to the children, but neither did she need them distracting from the matter at hand.

"I trust you find yourself... satiated?" Sanina inquired of Nox.
 
as written by Emperor Jester

"Mmm...and then some. It was a gracious feast, and I am thankful for it. I hadn't eaten that well in...oh...a very long time. I'd go so far as to say I'm in your debt." It was honesty enough. This favor was one that Nox was glad to owe. And he'd gotten alone time to wonder about the home.

"I suppose it is now time for business however." He'd fathom at, wondering when it would arrive. They seemed to have put it off, for comfort and food, which could hardly be faulted, but now, Nox was hungry for another kind of fare.
 
as written by Alara

Sanina curled her legs up next to her on the settee so that she could lean against the arm of it while conversing with Nox. Languid was the only word to really describe her as she rested there comfortably in the presence of her guest.

"I ask nothing more of you than information," Sanina answered. "And in return I offer you the promise that when the time comes, you will have your vengeance that has been so long denied you. Things will be as they should once more..."
 
as written by Emperor Jester

With a wolfish grin, the undead opposite of her would almost mirror her actions, sinking heavily into the chair he occupied. Long limbs made it all look almost comical, what with the arms hanging over the side and the legs stretching across the floor a generous distance. Eating proper food had almost made him feel whole once more, and it was a struggle to keep himself from smiling, from feeling giddy. It all felt so right once again. And it could only get better for him, if he played his cards right.

And Nox intended to hold a winning hand.

"I know a far bit, dear lady. I may have become a recluse, but I kept my eyes and ears open, and attended every meeting or conference where my presence was specifically asked for. I'll tell you all I can..." Nox would say, before happily going into numbers and counts. Who was in charge, or at least who it seemed like to him, numbers of servants that he knew of, the ages of those who counted him as an acquaintance or dare-say a friend. Certain clique groups between lesser houses and the ruling one, or simple small-house alliances. The moves and the players and the number of players involved, everything that he knew, Nox told, and he told it to her happily.
 
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