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The amused smile that had decorated Calliope's mouth when she had spoken vanished immediately after the consort's words. She found his remark very... Cold, but also too imperative, surely, for her to truly be willing to understand him, and a lot too serious. Her words had merely be a joke, and she might even not agree with what she had said herself. But this was not even exactly what bothered her; and she spoke with a graver tone, but also a sweeter voice.

“This world seems dreadfully gloomy to me.” She then laughed very briefly, but also with little amusement, as if she had forced herself to do it, though there was no obvious reason to. “I do know. Do not think my world has not dealt, or rather do not deal with such... masquerade. Masquerade is the word indeed.” I'm used to being such an hypocritical person myself- she wanted to say, but thought this would be giving her hosts a very bad impression on her, and so avoided mentioning the subject. She eventually added, sighed. Being told to “put it out of her head” really seemed to be extreme to her. “I do not know this world yet- but one thing we have in mine is called “Freedom of opinion”. I shall think what I want to think, whether I keep it in my mind or decide to express it freely. This I shall not do, though. But let me keep my thoughts and opinions as they are, I please you.”

The tall woman listened to Daniel very carefully, and even showed a thin smile at his words. Being used to hunting and eating alone, and not having exactly the occasion to keep reserves in any way, it clearly pleased her to know that anytime she would be hungry, she could, with a gesture of her hand, at the most, call blood to her directly. Keeping blood to be drunk later was something either difficult, or expensive, or even both. Feeding required wits, and finesse, and killing preys was absolutely out of the question if wanting to stay human... And thus conscious. Some powerful vampires had vessels though; willing preys able to give them a donation anytime, anywhere, anyhow, but this was not so frequent. You could also buy blood in hospitals mostly though- but the price was awfully high for such a deplorable quality – tasteless, not so nutritive. So, most vampires had to feed on their preys at the very moment, to disappear in the night forever. But this did not mean they were a people of endless starvation, never satisfied hunger. Apart from thin-Bloods perhaps, most vampires were able to eat each time they needed to.
Meals- she would see what were their “meals”, but three of them sounded relatively a lot more than she was used to.

“Three meals should be enough, but thank you. I will not forget this.”

She made no remark on the “goblet of blood”, though such notion seemed deeply strange to her- she assumed that she was one of her way to call their preys. Kindred in her world had themselves funny or despising nicknames for the kine- juicebags, preys, donors, and so many she probably wasn't even aware of.
As she entered the room, Calliope immediately noticed the change in The Countess's garment, and immediately wondered if changing clothing just after the meal was absolutely necessary; it seemed to the contrary, very useless to her, not even a clever idea. No matter how graceful and polite, elegant you are, eating -drinking even, in her case- could mean spilling blood on those magnificent clothes. Accidents happen so easily. But she decided not to say anything and sat very silently- at least until her hostess spoke, praising her as Daniel had done before, and making the emerald-eyed woman smiling just as pleasingly.

“Thank you. I must say you have very charming tastes; you are the one who gave me this particular dress, and those jewels and accessories to match it. Thank you again. You are the one to be stunning. Stunningly and impressively... wise.” She then paused, waiting for her interlocutor to finish. Though she was slightly puzzled there was so little green-eyed persons in this world, she showed nothing. This was not an important detail concerning any subtleties of this world. She then nodded and smiled again, replied softly. “They are absolutely perfect.” She giggled charmingly to her question, not to mock her, but because of the answer she was about to give her. “I doubt you are able to bring me the man I love; so I require nothing else.”

Yet- she remained speechless when the meal arrived in front of her so unusual green eyes, and she looked at the plates with obvious confusion, at first, followed by an ounce of disgust. So “goblets” was not a metaphor at all- those was real goblets, as if they had contained wine of some sort, but it clearly was, because of the colour, because of the smell, blood, and nothing else. She declared and asked, delicately.

“I really thought you were talking indirectly about preys when you mentioned 'goblets'. Do you never drink this forbidden pleasure right from your victims' arteries? Not that this bothers me- this is a simple question.”

But if she minded something, it was rather the flesh, warm nonetheless, on the table. Just smelling it and looking at it made her absolutely sick. Just thinking about it, even. Vampires in her world, mostly, could not eat flesh. Eating meat was just as eating regular food, and the solid nourishment would like to leave rapidly their stomachs, through their mouths. Few vampires did need to eat their victim's flesh, or at least organs, but they were seen as freak and unclean vampire, as dangerously beast-like, had been hunt and killed a long time ago so that they were only a dozen still living and hiding. And if this only was not sufficient to repel her; Calliope had been a vegetarian in her past life. Meat- this was absolutely revolting.

“Do you eat flesh?” She could surely not hide neither her astonishment, nor her disgust. “I... guess I'll have blood exclusively. To tell you the truth, the meat in front of me even troubles me. We do not eat flesh where I live. This is rather... I'm not eating this. Definitely not.”

No words could have ever delighted her more than the Countness very first sentence when she decided to reply, with details she even didn't ask for, to what she had brought as a simple remark. So, she had landed in a world were pleasures never were prohibited? She could not help smiling with an obvious joy on her now discrete lips when hearing this. Everything was forbidden in her world- even living freely. They had to be suspicious about everything : to whom they were speaking, what kine they had to eat, younger and older kindreds -with this name, they called the vampires who all were afflicted by the same Curse, and so belonged to a huge, though divided, family-. Such caution was unbearable, and let little place to frivolities. You cannot ...amuse yourself with others when there is no one you can trust. Yet fortunately, the young -at least she seemed to be young- woman had friends, surprisingly- few, friends nonetheless. She could not see them often, kindreds being such lonesome creatures, but she was always pleased when she could have a talk with them.
She eventually noticed that her thoughts were going further than the would have expected, and focused again on the main subject, opening his mouth to reply with a voice that was still so soft... So soft for now.

“Good. I like having no limits, or very few. If endless...” She hesitated, but finally chose to use the word she had thought of first, though it was not entirely adapted to the situation of her race.
“ life, is boring, a limited endless life is a lot worse.” As a very bad habit, she giggled once more, surely for the hundredth time since the beginning of her evening. “You shall rapidly see that I am a very good 'dancer'. Ah?~... Bedchambers dances?~ I shall enjoy this. Very much.”

Her smile vanished though when the blue-eyed Countess kept on speaking; she did feel like a child, as she was alluding to it, when they don't finish their meals and are reprimanded by their parents. 'Eat your vegetables.'- 'No! I hate vegetables!'. The food and context was a lot different, but the situation still presented similarities. She spoke slowly, immediately answering rather coldly -it was no doubt she had felt offended- to her first statement... and the following ones as well.

“I am not a child. I do not mind drinking blood from goblets; only that I am not used to this yet, but maybe this would be a lot less...exciting here. The bite of a vampire in my world- which we call the kiss, actually-, brings both the vampire, and the donor to ecstasy, permitting us to eat without being disturbed by the prey's screams or another kine hearing them, thus resulting in making the process pleasant and very stimulating. ” She was not a child, she had told, but as a child however, she decided to complain and to remain on her positions, folding her arms on her chest. “I told you I would not eat this. I have never eaten meat before. And spare me the old cliche 'There's always a first time.', please. ” She did took a sip of her goblet though at this very moment; she had been starving, and was hoping it would calm her down. It did not. “As far as I am concerned, eating meat is... barbarous. I do not mean to offend...Yet, if you do want me so desperately to take a bite from that...vile, disgusting solid thing, I shall do, as you are my hostess, and surely the best I could hope for in this world, but I am warning you immediately : I could give it back to you in a manner you would not like. And this would not be more appropriate manners, would it be, ma chère? Surely you would rather have me not to eat meat. ” She paused, closed her eyes, and added. “Do I still have to eat that now?”

Had the Countess not been so generous towards her before, with her garments and living quarters, surely Calliope would have been a lot more definitive on her answer, but she believed surely she had to show more respect -note that this does not mean she was entirely respectful- to her, by guarantying she would accept her orders and so as she wanted, but attempting to make her change her mind. Of course, this was not only empty words. Eating anything that was not blood in her world would compulsory lead in making her vomit at once all she could have eaten, and as she had said, she had never eaten meat before : she could not know how she would react to the consistence, to the taste. The mere smell of it, already, made her feel uneasy. The smell... Wait a minute, she was breathing? Oh, yes. Mielle had told her those vampires were living beings, how come she hadn't noticed that yet, though it was automatic. And so her heart was beating too. Ah. 'Nice'.

While her hostess was thinking and sending the servants away, which the dark-haired women did not questioned in any way, Calliope took a sip of her goblet again, enjoying the delicate taste. It seemed to be some high quality wine and a savour she had apparently never had the occasion to taste before, yet, she wondered if blood could simply have a different savor in this world, or if it was truly one unknown to her. She even asked herself if this was human blood. They could eat flesh; so maybe this was not even from a human body. She had been given no precision about the blood nor the meat, and had immediately assumed a man or woman had been killed and cut to be devoured on this table. But what could be better than a human savour? In her world; animals had an awful taste, so awful she would never demean herself by eating non-human blood unless she was starving so that she was on the verge of Frenzy or worse : Final Death.
She had to make sure about this, even only to satisfy her own curiosity, but answered the blue-eyes Countess first, shaking her head slowly, looking at her, quite neutral.

“No. It does not poison us, yet, we cannot digest it. Most of us do not have a functional digestive system, just as we cannot breathe, and our heart does not beat. This... particularity makes impossible for us to ingest any food which is not blood. We... regurgitate it, immediately. This is not exactly enjoyable.” She stopped to swallow another sip from her beverage, as if making a transition. “By the bye, I was curious to know if this food was exclusively human-composed. The taste is exquisite.”

But the green-eyed creature seemed to be more than surprised by the following question. The answer was so clear and so logical in her head that she could not even imagine someone actually asking such a thing- but she remembered at once that she was drinking in a cup, that she could hear her heart again and that meat was on a plate in front of her. She then, replied with a soft voice. She had to be more understanding towards her hostess' questions : they had a lot to learn from each other.

“I told you that we were used to drinking directly from our victim's veins and arteries. We use our fangs to puncture their skin. We often chose the neck – it is richer in blood, and the easiest way to hide what we are actually doing- but it can be any part of the body. Other teeth have no real purpose except to help us dissimulating among humans, and our fangs can be retracted for the exact same reason.”

The green-eyes woman seemed absolutely stunned when her generous hostess answered to her curiosity. She had wondered of this was human, so of course she was easily expecting it would not be, but assuming it was something completely different... She expected the Countess to answer that this blood was from upper-class humans, or from wizards, or at least from something with a human form. She looked at the red, delicious liquid in her goblet for a moment, as if she couldn't believe what she had been told; then stared at the blue eyes one again.
Animal blood was disgusting where she lived, though you could not exactly say that wyverns were mere “animals”, and furthermore, wyvern was a... fantastical creature. Surely they had existed one day, or she couldn't explain how they lived through books and legends in her world, even if she had never seen one in her life, but now, they were part of the supernatural domain. And speaking supernatural creatures... It was not always very safe for a vampire to drink their blood.

“Wyvern?” She repeated, before taking a, now, prudent sip, savouring the taste once more eventually, so that her 'fear' stopped immediately. Her hostess would never give her anything that could be dangerous to her, especially with such pleasing taste, would she? “It is definitely incredible. So dragons do exist in this world? Fantastic. They are superstitions where I live -though I'm convinced they existed and all perished long ago-. Ah- non-human blood is often particularly disgusting where I live. I would never have guessed wyvern blood would be so good, and I apparently feel no side effects. Really... captivating. I have been told that drinking from magical creatures was very risky, though I never tried myself. They say drinking from a werewolf immediately turns you to Frenzy.” She took another mouthful of blood, stopped with more difficulty, it seemed. After a moment, she added. “Speaking of werewolves- are there any around here? I hate those things.”

She stopped drinking then when, firstly, her goblet was empty, secondly, she had to answer to the remark the Countess had apparently made for herself in a way, speaking almost in an evasive manner. She licked her teeth very discretely, making sure no blood would appear on the white fangs when she decided to smile charmingly, amused even by the Countess's words.

“It would certainly have been very pleasant to have a hunt. However... This dinner pleases me a lot. I spent a terrible night, and was exhausted, though my hunger would have helped me being very efficient, I am delighted to be able just to sit and drink; and talk. Not having to chase preys and puncture their skin gives a nice change. Maybe we could go for a hunt another night, I am sure I will find it very amusing. And I am curious to see all habits of this world. I am very excited about all this, eventually.”

Indeed, Mielle's intervention had surely been a good thing, after all. Calliope began to like this world very much. Humans could only watch and keep quiet, and her new mistress, for now, bowed, according to Daniel at least, to no one – and she shared her name now. She was treated as a princess, had been offered quarters and dresses -she assumed she would be given others, or rather hoped for it- even a Queen would be jealous of! She was still looking forward to being given the Elven world Mielle had promised her after this one, but at least her errand, she did not see it as a chore now. Of course they could eat meat, and it seemed incredibly gross to her, but this was only a small white cloud in the deep blue summer sky; at least a human would approve such comparison.
Calliope listened very carefully to her hostess's warnings, advice, precautions. She nodded discretely a few times before actually speaking. To tell the truth, she hadn't though about this, but it seemed now purely logical to her to hide what she was and adopt a detailed identity, detailed enough so that if asked any further questions, she would not seem suspicious.
Of course, being only a fisherman's daughter made her frown with displeasure one second; but she assumed that the blue-eyed woman, and Daniel, had been thinking about the best possibility for a certain, probably long, amount of time, and that there was nothing she could do about this. She would have to do with it.

“Of course. I myself was not aware of the existence of other worlds before to-night. I understand very well and shall be cautious not to mention anything that could hint at my true origins. Do not worry.”

Calliope eventually smiled and nodded. The green-eyed woman had seen many things in her life, that maybe had been too long -but she would not admit it, nor she would admit being afraid of dying-, and seeing how different, how interesting this new world was truly delighted her. It seemed there was nothing else to learn and thus enjoyed in her home world, nothing exciting about it. The Countess's domain however was a brand new experience.

“Fascinating. Definitely fascinating. My sojourn here shall be excessively stimulating. Far better than a journey abroad in my home world. There are so many things to learn.” She stopped a second, now having a new question in mind she asked without thinking much. “But-... Ah. Do you have to kill your preys when feeding? Is it compulsory? You spoke as if it were the case. I mean- I can understand it is when you hunt non-humans.”

Of course, it seemed deeply stupid to let live a creature attacking you, or defending against you. But apart from that, she really wondered if the simple fact of having to fed on something would mean killing it – since it was almost a rule in her world not to kill their preys.
She nodded again, but spoke with a more serious tone. She certainly had to restrain her excitement and to remain cautious about how she would act and speak. She was maybe used to such a behaviour in her world in terms of 'respecting the masquerade', but it was not entirely similar after all : she knew all her rules by heart, she would now have to learn and apply others, and she simply hoped it would be quick enough for her to accustom to them. Then, to make it easier, of course she would do as the Countess said. She remarked though, soflty.

“The sight of it shall be more tolerable than the smell... But if it is necessary I accustom to it, I will do my best to please you. I suggest, then, you bring some as many times as you can during dinner? So that I am used to it, and do not mind anymore. This is just a suggestion though.”

It could seem surprising or contradictory, but Calliope was convinced that the best way to eradicate one's fear or disgust was to be confronted to it. Of course she would not have thought about it if she had not wanted to cure it, but she knew she had to not only for her hostess, but also simply for her own safety. When Daniel filled her goblet again, she thanked him with a charming smile, but decided not to drink immediately.
She laughed softly then, and let out only one sentence.

“Well- Maybe werewolves in your country are... different. To say the least.”

If her blue-eyed mistress wanted to know more about any differences she was talking about she just had to ask, and she would answer, but she would not, this time, take the initiative to talk about them by herself. Especially not since it concerned werewolves. She just hoped that the Countess had spoken truly about the werewolf lady and her qualities.
It pleased her -though surprised her mostly, actually- to see that her new mistress was so curious about her little habits and such. The small talk, really? She would have thought it would annoy or bore her, especially since there was nothing remotely exciting about the miserable life she had to endure. She was almost always alone, had to live exclusively by night while she loved the sun so much -she admitted it to no one, not even Frederick, though-, and it had been a long time since she had done something unpleasant to anyone or killed anyone.Lately, Frederick was more or less the only thing keeping her up. It had been a long time she had not destroyed the Japanese woman's or her blonde and brainless friends' lives. She missed it. She hesitated before speaking, first going into more general aspects, and not exactly, surely, what the Countess wanted to know.

“I would say... everything- everything really, is different between our two worlds. Mine is far more advanced in some human technologies, while magic in which you still believe was forgotten. I do not know about here; but my world is gigantic and very... disparate. Humans cannot be taken as a general state. They are torn apart by social, religious and what they call 'racial' differences. And though, they astonishingly mix while they cannot stand the sight of each other. Upper classes certainly hate lowers one; Catholics and Muslims are on their way for mutual destruction, and blacks -Do you even have black people in here?- and whites call themselves 'races'. This is certainly why we vampires, we Kindred, refuse to be assimilated to their preoccupations, in spite of our human past. But well... This is certainly not what you were curious about.” This time, she drank before she decided to carry on. She closed her eyes for a second, as if picking which information she would reveal, and which she would left hidden, or more simply, unsaid.
“I live with the man I love in a despicable and small flat-... Well, I do not think you could have heard this word before. As an example, our flat has only three rooms, living-room and kitchen stuck to each other, bathroom, bedroom. We live then in this tiny place in the most annoying, living, diversified city of all. New-York humans called it, the city that never sleeps. Very convenient for a kindred as I am; since we live by night while humans live during the day, for most of them. Though we live together, I cannot see him often for he walks among them -but I can assure you he is different from the rest of the kine. I feed on him from time to time, but most of the time, I...” She stopped. Telling her about her job, what she did, surely was a bad idea. It was already very low to mix with one human she assumed. She kept on talking then, but tried to conceal the truth as much as she could, not to use any real and shocking terms. “...Feed outside. You see, I told you already that when we fed, our kiss was ecstatic, both for us and humans. I have many customers seeking for this pleasure; and while they do not know what I do to them, I can easily feed and earn enough money to make my life pleasant.”