Satis House

[XCandy and LunacyX]

"I never said that," she replied, the sarcasm in her voice thick, mocking, "Perhaps my question was hypothetical." Her smile said otherwise, that she was playing with him. "Because it is considered bad manners among our family to point out who is bred of whom. We just have to figure it out along the way. Understand?"
One small laugh escaped her, something barely human, as she looked down at him. "But everyone has to learn. There is no ignorance of one's blood, because that would mean sleeping with the wrong people." God forbid, she thought sourly. And as a few Christian zealot relatives had pointed out, he did. "You know, Felix, if you join the family in truth, they will have you breed. Even if the idea is repulsive to you, they will have you lay with your cousins and sisters."

 

[Azure Halfbreed]

Felix's mind was somewhat confused, but he didn't let that be shown on face. There was a lot to this family he didn't understand. But as she said, everyone has to learn. While Felix may have been born in this family, he was here for the majority of his life. He's accustom to the life at the guild than the life of a Mayfair. Looks like there was a major chance for him ahead.

Antha tried yet again to convince him to run or something by bringing up the family tradition of incest. It was no different than the guild. But she didn't know that.

"They may be my cousins and sisters, but remember I have no memory of them. I've never met them, nor do I have any feelings for them. Even in the guild, they told us if we happen to be strong in a certain area, we would try and breed out any weakness. I usually got examined every three months to find my weakness and partnered up with a fellow sister. I am no stranger to being forced to do that."  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

Antha stood up straight as he spoke, crossing her arms and looking down at him with a sort of calculation, as if she were considering him. Most people would know that look in Antha's eyes, what she was considering, but Felix didn't know her and so she didn't know if he even noticed it.
"I think that you will do just fine in the family. But do remember this, mon frere," she said leaning over him yet again, touching her fingers to his cheek and whispering in his ear, "I am Designee of the Legacy, and so you belong to me. After this day, there is no running, because there is magic in our blood and it binds you to me."
Felix was not a full Mayfair in that he had not grown up within the family. He would never know all of their little secrets, every detail of how their system worked. But eventually---and soon, she was sure---he would fall quite completely into their particular brand of umbra and he would never be able to leave or deny her. Perhaps he would never look at her the same way the others did, as if the universe revolved around her, but he would be hers nonetheless. And she didn't deny that there were possibilities for him. After all, he was her brother by Julien, and his blood was strong.

 

[Vikteren]

In the foyer, perched on the flight of stairs, his back straight, head a little bowed, his long fingers lying lax and composed across his knees, Vikteren listened.
He did not think he had ever heard Antha talk so much on the subject of her family--of course she would not discuss such with him, though. It had been much the same among the aristocracy of the old days.
Kin was important, bloodlines were sacred, and the Mayfairs were as obsessed with their own continuation as much as any noble family.
She spoke much, and Vikteren, leaning his head back a little now, eyes closed, found the cadence of her voice strangely soothing.
It had been a while since he had heard it like this, composed so very well for so long.
You play the lady very well, don't you?
Then again, he supposed, she must have had practice over the years.

 

[Goblin In A Suit]

Kain was so shocked by her bite wound that he had his hand on his gun. However he didn't pull it. Not because he didn't think that she wouldn't hurt him but more because seeing those marks suddenly made him remember something. He could see fangs coming at him as a vampire charged at him then a flash of light putting him back in the room. He was to shocked to speak and his hold on his gun losened. He held his head resting his elbows on his knees for a moment then stood. "If you don't mind Lady Antha I will wait out on the porch for when we can speak alone." He said, for one he didn't feel like this was a conversation he should hear. All the talk of inbreeding and other things started to weird him out. Second he wanted to speak to her so that he could get some answers out of her and Felix was keeping him from that. "May I take my leave?" he asked her trying to stay polite. If she said yes he would go right that second. If not he would try to surive the rest of the conversation.  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

Antha gave a vague wave of her hand at Kain, as if to dismiss him. "Consider yourself my guest, monsieur. Only keep from my attic and my room, if you would please." The other doors beyond which he should not venture were all locked, and she did not expect him to break them in.
Her attention turned then to Vikteren, reaching out to him. Sleet. That was the only word she gave him, silent or not, but it carried a world of thoughts. Sleet was awake, and he was angry. He spoke to her over the distance, threatening, pacing his chambers. He wanted her on the ground bleeding, near death, and he wanted Vikteren dead.

 

[Azure Halfbreed]

Felix stayed where he was as Antha spoke, staring into her emerald eyes. He had already made his decision to stay with this family even before he left the guild. He wasn't turning back now. He truely believed he should be with his real family. Even if the guild raised him, he was a Mayfair. Through better or worst, he should stay with them.

"A few quick questions. How does being the Designee of the Legacy entitle you to my ownership. And does this magic in my blood, as you say, been the thing that's enabled me do this?" Felis held his arm out to the side and concentrated. He wasn't very well trained in his fire talent, but he knew he could summon up enough for an example. In the palm of his hand and fire started to burn not much bigger than his fist. His eyes, during the whole time never left Antha's as he waited for an answer.  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

Again that small, pleased smile touched Antha's lips as she extended her hand before her, the flame rising very smoothly from her palm and rolling down her fingers. She was very practiced at her talents. "Pyrokinesis---a talent of a very good witch. Yes, it is your blood that gives you that ability. Breeding is everything. The strength of your blood deigns what powers you will have." Again that smile darkened, going suggestive. "You will breed well, I'm sure." She laughed once, lightly, as if the mere idea of teasing him amused her, before her thoughts turned to the other matter he had mentioned. "Because within the Mayfair family, the Designee of the Legacy is everything. My blood is the strongest, my powers the strongest. It is passed from mother to daughter, and with the title, we gain the family fortune, as well as the greatest burden of our curses. Why you belong to me...well, I can't really explain that. There are powers at play---some the result of curses, some in the blood, and some from the umbra---that keep every generation chained to their Designee of the Legacy, in more manners than merely one."

 

[Azure Halfbreed]

Felix diverted his eyes away for a few second then returned them to Antha's. From what she said, it was the curse of which he had no clue about, something in the magic they possess, or something in his blood. It could be either or all of them. Felix found his way back to the Mayfairs. Maybe it was one of those calling him back. Only time could tell.

Felix started thinking back to his time at the guild. When they were testing him. They said the exact same thing Antha just told him. You will breed well. However, Felix was too sure about that. He's had many test and trial to find his weakness, but only a few time where he did mate with one of his sisters. And the next morning, he would have to leave. Not knowing if her body accepted him. So while they say he would breed well. He wasn't going to believe it until the facts were proven.  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

"Mon dieu, but you are hard to please." She sighed, softly, closing her eyes to get just a moment of peace. "When darkness falls, I will take you to Mayfair Manor. It has been the center point of the family for many, many years. Like the family fortune, it is a possession of the Designee of the Legacy. I would live there, but there are always a thousand aunts and uncles and cousins there. It is...loud, to say the least." In her mind, Antha was running over the things she would need to show him. The dolls, of course, the hall of portraits, the attic that had been refuge to Louis, and perhaps even Marquerite's private study, if he had the stomach for it.
That was the thing about being a Mayfair---most of them spent their entire lives in the family, learning the dirty little secrets, and yet few knew everything. There was too much, and it was too hard to explain. But Felix would learn eventually, she told herself. He just needed time.

 

[.David Talbot.]

While Sleet was in his chambers stretching like he would shrug out of his skin, his image formed in front of Vikteren. He watched him with eyes often compared to snakes and reached out with hands that were almost translucent skinned. Like the outer skin of an onion.
It was only an astral projection and he wasn't powerful enough to move things like Antha but he made a very solid image. What makes you worthy of her? He grinned in a sly twisting of lips, flashing his fangs. What do you think you could do when I have her bleeding on the floor? When I stuff her in her cage and twist her limbs until she screams?
The snake eyes flickered to the doors that led to Antha. Have you ever crushed her in your arms until her bones began to snap? She is such a warm creature. So soft.
Vikteren was smart and he knew that. But with enough taunting anyone would come to try to kick his a**. Vikteren had walked freely into his crypt before and he had no doubt he would do it again. If he had to he would show him memories of the week that nine year old Antha had been chained up in that very crypt.

 

[Azure Halfbreed]

"From what I'm gathering, it seems that, I want to say the majority lives at the Manor?" That was going to be interesting. From what he's know, only his mother and maybe his father have seen him as a child. Then he was seperated. He didn't know if anyone else knew him. It really didn't matter though. That was when he was kid. They most likely wouldn't recognize him, or his presence. It would be just like with Antha knowing he's a Mayfair, but also in the same sense not really. Maybe Antha has accepted him into the family, but would everyone else?  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

"A Mayfair is a Mayfair, Felix," she said very simply, giving a little shrug of her shoulders. It had become too natural to reply to unasked questions, so she did it without thinking. "There may be some aunts and uncle who see you as an outsider, but most of them will accept you. You mother may be...standoffish, but that is only her nature. To be frank, she is my least favorite relative. Oncle Julien and uncle Stefan will see your return to your family as a very good thing, whether they remember you or not. Your cousins---our generation---will act as if you were never gone. The chains that will bind you to me work with all of us. The sense of camaraderie is rather astounding, actually."
A light smile passed over her face, an unnaturally sweet one that softened her expression, making her momentarily childish. "Our blood is the most important thing to us, for the most part. Some may value our magic or our fortune or power or secrets above all, but they are not the ones you will care for anyways. You are our blood, Felix, and they will love you as I do."

 

[Azure Halfbreed]

"You know who my mother is already? How do you know this?" Felix tried to think this one through but came up with blanks. How did she know? He hasn't even been here for more than a half an hour and she already knew his mother. Felix has been in this family that long when he was a child, and here Antha knew about who his mother was.

"And how do you know the family will just accept me like that? Treat a total stranger as if they knew him all their live." Felix really didn't see this happening. He wasn't doubting Antha'a word, just how everyone else could just accept him. Being gone for this many years, how could they just put that behind that so soon and just love him, as Antha said. That also made him wonder. How could she love him with only a few minutes of knowing him?  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

"We never truly lose memories from infancy, Felix. They are merely locked away in parts of our minds that we cannot access. But sometimes, if we find someone strong enough, they can pry far enough into our minds to find those old, old memories."
Antha sighed once, softly, bending over to kiss his cheek. It was a faint brush of lips, nothing much, but it began tightening the chains that would bind him to her. They had been there all of his life, loose enough not to matter, but that would change if he wished to stay. "Our magic---the family's magic, not the individual's---is made through two means: blood and sex. Our family ties are not normal love, but something created through our magic. We are connected in our own way, pieces of one another. By blood you were given the chains that will bind you to us." She smiled once, that deceivingly sweet smile that held a wicked edge, the one that Nicolae loved so very dearly. "Of course, it is not completely accurate to say that it is sex that tightens those chains. It can happen a number of ways, but they are all unpredictable. Sex is the one way that we are certain of. And as the axis point for every binding chain, I must help to tighten those chains. When Cortland cried, I held him, and his chains became permanent. When Malakai felt unloved, unwanted, I followed him like his obedient little puppy, with eyes only for him, and his chains also bound forever to him. I will forever bind your chains to you, Felix, one way or another, and you will be part of us and you will love us because it is natural, just as we will love you. We are family, mon cheri, and there is nothing stronger than our common blood."