The Obsidian Queen scowled in Alister’s direction as one of her servants helped to pry the damaged chest plate off of Kaethe. The last solid hit she’d taken in the fight when they had fled dented the metal considerably and wedged it into place against her ribs. For a moment the sound of the fire crackling in the hearth and the drumming of the rain against the window was the only sound that existed in that room. Then the armor groaned in protest as it came free and Kaethe inhaled sharply through her teeth.

“You had better have a good explanation for this, Alister.” The queen said darkly. The strange crown of obsidian horns protruding from her head added even more to her already prodigious height, though Alister showed no sign of being intimidated in her presence.

“It’s as she said,” he confirmed, unbuckling his own cuirass as he spoke. He had no intention of taking it off entirely, he just needed to loosen it a little. It was an old piece of Solacine armor and no matter how well he took care of it, it was beginning to show its age with how uncomfortable it would get after being worn for too long.

“We somehow ended passing through a looking-glass of some kind, through a path in the Faen. I can’t explain the mechanism by which it operates, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Robin, a much shorter be-speckled vampire than the queen, even when she was standing, shifted in her seat by the window before she spoke, “How did you even manage to get into the Faen? Such a thing shouldn’t be possible for vampires.”

Alister spread his hands in response to the question a little, “that’s more your department than mine, I think.”

He brushed back some wet black hair that had stuck to his forehead and glanced over at the girl they had brought back with them on a lounger on the other side of the room. She was small, frail, wrapped in a thick blanket and hadn’t moved a muscle since he had put her down.

“Probably my blood if I were to venture a guess,” Kaethe offered in her Caledonian accent as the armor was set aside and her clothing was lifted to expose the massive bruising along her ribs, “like ye said, the fae blood in my lineage is having some unexpected effects.”

Robin’s brows knit as Queen Morrigan looked over to her for answers,“I thought perhaps a few quirks. But it seems as though you may have the full suite of Oberite abilities. It’s believed they had the abiity to be able to traverse the Faen.”

Alister glanced between the injured redhead and the academic brunette as they debated the merits of the theory. The Oberites were a bloodline of vampires some time ago, but Kaethe had only recently been created by some madman in an experimental procedure. It was an interesting topic for most, but Alister’s attention kept wandering to the motionless heap on the other side of the room. Their voices seemed to fall away for a moment, giving way to the crackling fire and the droning of the rain.

“What about her?” he asked, gesturing with a thumb toward the girl as he cut across their conversation about the mechanics of how they had gone to and returned from the realm of the faeries.

Obsidian Morrigan turned her head slightly, craning her long slender neck elegantly in her direction,“She appears to be in rather poor condition,” she observed.

“The animals starved and beat her on the regular, I suspect,” Alister said with a slight edge to his voice, “but she should be able to recover if tended to.”

“Why, precisely, did you bother to bring her back here and make her our problem?” the queen asked.

“She’s my sister,” Kaethe said quietly, a slight quaver in her voice.

The queen looked back over to Kaethe, her severe expression softening visibly at the pain she heard in her lovers voice. The redheaded vampire didn’t meet her gaze immediately as the servant quietly excused himself to take the armor out and fetch new clothes for the queen’s consort.

Robin pushed her glasses up her nose a little before opening her mouth to speak, but thought better of it and closed it without a sound. The confusion was understandable but the question being spoken aloud seemed somehow disrespectful.

“The whole castle was almost entirely the same. But everything felt off there. They didn’t have as many servants and they certainly weren’t taking as much care of it. There was a lot missing. But the wing she was in..”

Kaethe winced as she adjusted how she was sitting on the bed. Alister continued for her, “Almost entirely abandoned. Except for her room,” he motioned to the heap, “But she wasn’t much better off.”

“They were ashamed of her,” Kaethe said, a spiteful edge beginning to creep into her voice, “so they treated her like an animal. Hid her away and cleared out a whole wing of our home so no one would happen upon her.”

“But it wasn’t your home?” The queen asked, attempting to clarify.

“No,” Kaethe said shaking her head, “no, not really. Cosmetically, I suppose.”

“They fed her out of some kind of dog bowl,” Alister added, “the bed looked like it hadn’t been turned in ages. They had her in rags. No firewood to keep her warm, it looked like she’d broken apart pieces of furniture to use at some point but ran out.”

Robin glanced at the heap, horrified. Alister was seeing more of each vampire’s humanity here than in the entire time he had known them, “Why!? Why would they do something like that?” Robin’s Winder’Laen accent was a little thicker when she got riled up, Alister noted.

“She’s cursed,” Kaethe answered, “Or so they believe, anyway.”

“Cursed?” Morrigan asked skeptically.

Alister took a step forward, now that he felt like he might have been off the hook for what had transpired, “It’s a radically different history there, Highness. The humans there aren’t allied with the elves or on good terms with their fae neighbors. They’ve been systematically wiping them out. Any trace of such blood in a noble family would have to be hidden away.”

Robin got to her feet now, “what trace? She has a little magic about her but no more than any other natural born sorcerer. Do you mean physically?”

“Not important,” Alister waved a hand to cut her off, “what’s important is they believed she was a threat to their position in the royal court. They couldn’t bring themselves to just kill her for some reason, so they kept her around. Barely.”

The servant from before re-entered the room and handed the redhead on the bed some fresh clothing to change into. Robin took it as her queue to go and sit next to Kaethe to begin working on her ribs. The only way to heal a vampire was either a great deal of feeding or blood magic, and Robin was one of the best Hemomagi around.

“When I was wee thing,” Kaethe began, “my mother had a stillborn girl. Complications from it made it so that they couldn’t have another baby after that. It’s why I’m an only child. They wouldn’t have stopped at one otherwise.”

Morrigan frowned a little, looking away from Kaethe.

There was something else to this explanation that Alister wasn’t catching on to but he didn’t let it distract him, “regardless, I think it falls to us to take care of her, don’t you?”

The queen let out a sigh but said nothing at first, instead crossing the room to stand over the small shadow of a woman curled up in the fetal position on the lounger. The rest of the vampires in the room waited with bated breath on the queen’s decision. Alister knew that it wasn’t an easy choice, even with the girl essentially being some kind of long lost sister to the queen’s consort. There were rules about mortals in the Obsidian court and she had to be careful to abide by them.

“Your sister,” Morrigan said aloud, “a living version of the one you lost, taken from another reality- a darker timeline of some kind. Does the version of your family from that Caledonia have a way to come after her? To pursue you across the Faen to reclaim her?”

Kaethe shrugged as Robin’s fingers moved from one rib to another, mending the damage with the faint crimson glow of her Hemomagic, “Honestly, I don’t know. I dinnae even know how we got there. We explored the fae gate, looking for answers on my situation. We were told that we would be contacted on the new moon and bid to return. So we did. But when we came out, everything was different.”

Morrigan frowned, her posture becoming visibly frustrated. If this had been a mortal noble family of this world, the answer would be clear. They would certainly have to return her and likely pay some manner of restitution so as not to invoke the wrath of a nation. But they were talking about another world, a warped dark reflection of the one they already lived in.

“Your Highness,” Alister began as he stepped toward her but she raised a clawed obsidian hand to silence him. She didn’t want to hear from him right now, while it was clear that none of this was really his fault, he was the low man on the totem pole here in a few different ways.

“There are too many risks. We know very little about this other world and its dark history. These people could be much more adept at navigating the Faen than us. They could..”

“With all due respect,” Alister said more firmly, taking a risk by cutting her off, “I find that high unlikely.”

Morrigan’s gaze met with his, subjecting him to even more risk considering the power she wielded just by locking eyes with someone. He didn’t look away. Instead, he stood his ground to let her know how confident he was in his assertion.

“Elaborate,” she said simply.

Alister motioned to the girl, “they’re wildly unfamiliar with the nature of fae magic. They fear it, despise it. From what we gathered of their history they’ve done everything they can to erase everything of the elves and the fae from their lands. Down to the magic even! What was it you said, Kaethe? When we were there?”

Kaethe took a moment to think, “that it felt...sickened. Somehow the nature of our surroundings felt less healthy, the faen seemed more distant and harder to cross into.”

Alister snapped his fingers, “Now see, I think that only her connection and the blood from her sister allowed us to pass back into the Faen. Otherwise we would have been trapped there, stranded.”

Morrigan considered this, pursing her lips a little before looking to Robin for her thoughts on the theory.

“It makes sense to me. If they’ve been hacking away at the connecting paths between their world and the Faen, it’s possible a sympathetic connection between the two is the only way to travel between them now.” Robin toyed with the red necklace around her neck.

“Of which they no longer have,” Alister said motioning to the crumpled redhead in the lounger, “we do.”

“I don’t know,” the queen said skeptically.

“Morrigan,” Robin said with an unusual amount of directness to the Vampire Queen. There weren’t many people who could address her in such a way. Alister had heard that once Robin had been Morrigan’s mentor before she had been turned,

“I think we should take care of her,” Robin watched Morrigan pointedly.

Kaethe looked up at Robin with a thankful look of relief in her eyes for the support. Robin clearly had a measure of clout that had to be wielded sparingly and she was possibly using it up to keep Kaethe’s new sort-of-sister safe.

Morrigan nodded, acquiescing to the demands of the other three, “very well.”

Alister nodded his head in thanks as he approached the lounger and leaned over the woman. The queen looked down at her as she stood alongside him before turning her attention to Alister directly, a sort of shimmer of curiosity in her eyes.

“It’s not like you to take such an interest in a stranger’s welfare like this,” she noted.

Alister shook his head, normally that was true but this was different, “she’s not entirely a stranger though, is she?”

Morrigan shrugged vaguely, “perhaps not. Even so, it’s a big responsibility to take on.”

“I understand,” he acknowledged.

“I see. Then humor me, if you will. What is it you intend to do with her? Turn her?”

Alister reached down to the girl and adjusted the blanket on her. She stirred a little when he touched her and opened her eyes a little, like two emerald’s staring up at him. Kaethe had been Turned against her will and had nearly paid for it with her short unlife. But her family, the Woodlocks, had lost their only remaining heir. It was heartbreaking in a lot of ways, but now it was possible for them to get one back. It felt somehow right to be able to give them something in return for what was taken.

“No,” he whispered as Elaina’s eyes looked around the room confused as she began to realize what was happening, “I’m going to train her.”

Thunder rolled in the distance.