House Sanguis (2)

"Genus?" asked Bazel, being careful to sound like he already knew rather than simply probing.

The man across from him, who had been silent up until this point, raised a brow and nodded in response.

"It seems you know a little about how our noble house runs, as expected of the great Sanguis family. Even a Rogue in a town that has never seen civilization before knows so much, as expected...as expected."

The man surely enjoyed patting himself, or rather the family he was attached to, on the back but suddenly his attitude took a 180 as he looked at Bazel with a severe expression.

"I know a little about you as well. A manipulator of shadows with an interesting technique that allows him to cross space itself. A Rogue who appears to be neutral, but had in fact interrupted the operations of one of our finest assassins. What say you to explain your actions, that you defended the heiress of those mutts?"

Allowing the harsh and downright threatening tone to wash over him, Bazel looked back with complete calm written all over his face and said,

"I do not know if this was also reported to you but I believe what I said when I stopped the attempt was, 'Do not steal my prey.' Which of course is not something I would say if I was simply saving one of my allies, correct?"

"An interesting perspective," began the Genus," but how does that explain the fact that your prey escaped completely unharmed? Do enlighten me what you accomplished by doing that."

Raising a finger and pointing at the Genus sitting across from him Bazel said, "Perhaps that would not have been the case if you had not taken action. Do you know why I came into conflict with House McGrath in the first place? No, of course you do not else you would not have said something so ill informed."

Retracting his finger and leaning forward slightly, Bazel did his best to adopt a more threatening and aggressive posture while saying, "The reason why was simple, Zaira McGrath decided to, whether it was intentional or not, cause my one and only family member to be put under great stress for a number of months. Not only that, but it went so far that said family member was even kidnapped at the end and held for ransom. For that I came into conflict with the McGrath's, going so far as to take down dozens of their neophytes and even killing two members of their branch family that has been assigned as bodyguards for their leadership in this area. I even fought Tiernan McGrath personally, which you should know if your assassin reported things properly."

The reasons that Bazel gave were acceptable indeed, for the Genus did not even comment on the rudeness that was being directed his way and instead looked rather impressed.

"That explanation of yours does connect a lot of the seemingly unrelated pieces of information that has come our way over the past day or two. Impressive-" started the Genus, who was then promptly cut off by Bazel.

"Hold your praises, for there is more to the story. I mentioned that the reason why I had to let them go so easily was because of House Sanguis and I meant what I said. You see, the very same family member of mine who I was out getting revenge for seemed to have been taken from me once again just over a day later after I rescued her the first time. This time it was by men of yet another noble faction, House Sanguis. Long golden hair, fair skin, unparalleled beauty and innocence...ring any bells? No? How about: Lily Vasa, adoptive younger sister of me, Bazel Vasa."

The Genus in front of him clearly reacted when he described her and there was an ever deeper reaction when he spoke her name. Even though the branch elder in front of him had been careful to not belay too much of his true inner thoughts, it seems Lily was important enough to break his near perfect facade.

"I see, I see. She had mentioned a brother, but to be honest I had thought it was just some random commoner who happened to take her in. How wrong it seems we were, a testament to our inefficient intelligence gathering I suppose. If we had known that her guardian was indeed someone who has your particular talents we would have done things in a different way. You see from our perspective, when we went to go and pick her up we saw a member of our own family be carted around by a bunch of filthy commoners so to us it was more like a rescue than a kidnapping. Still, you have my sincerest apologies."

Looking at the man in front of him speak about being sincere whilst adopting the most insincere look possible, Bazel almost had the urge to laugh. Almost.

Instead annoyance and anger took hold of him, as both his current self and past memories told him that the way these people carried themselves was downright insane.

"I do not need an apology, I want an explanation. Then I want to see her so I can make sure that no harm has come to her, which is a request I hope you can answer so that we can remain cordial."

"Of course," replied the Genus, "I can tell you exactly the wonderful situation that your sister now finds herself in. Your sister is a member, well ex member, of one of our Primogenitor's enclaves. She was originally sent to the mundane world due to the tragic event of her not being able to adapt to the gift, thus dooming her to a life of mediocrity. We are a House of blood manipulators though, as you most likely already know, so we keep a record of every single member's core blood that allows us to monitor them. We can tell the purity of their blood, the activation of their gift, as well as whether they are alive or not. Not too long ago, apparently, your sister's core blood tablet dimmed as if she had died before lighting back up brighter than ever before.

"Her blood purity is almost unheard of, which means that she has more than enough talent to catch up to her contemporaries who have had far longer to train with their gift. Not to mention that it seems she was blessed with some kind of additional gift or mutation which means she may be the source of the entire family's next evolution. Just like how we gained the ability to shape shift and manipulate darkness, she could be the key to the next positive change we experience.

"In fact, when we sent back a picture of her along with an in person confirmation of her blood purity the other Primogenitors went green with envy and all of them tried to at least offer up their extremely talented and handsome youths to pair up with the young miss. Alas, her own family has already decided who she shall be with: The penultimate heir to the Second Primogenitor, who also happens to be on the fast track to be the youngest pure blood to earn the rank of Prioris...an honor indeed. So know that your sisters future is completely secured, she will have access to the best training and raw materials that our House has to offer and will be protected like the treasure she is. In fact, you should also join us so that you can work to benefit the house that she will most likely co-rule alongside her husband."

The Genus ended his long speech that sounded like some kind of terrible advertisement than anything else, and looked upon Bazel expecting to see him crying tears of joy or something. How else would a family member react when hearing that one of their own just received a ticket to heaven from the depths of hell itself?

Except there was no such reaction from the older brother, in fact there was no reaction at all. This puzzled the Genus but he just assumed that perhaps this older brother was in shock. The news WAS pretty immense and surprising, a lesser man may even have fainted on the spot. A testament to the older brother's strength of will, or so the Genus foolishly thought.

Alas, Bazel did have a reaction and it was an extremely intense one. A volcano erupted from within him that quickly frosted over and turned into an icy hell, turning his seething range into a cold and muted fury but one that was far deadlier than the former. In fact, Bazel had half a mind to just leap forward and strangle the man in front of him or perhaps see what would happen if he used his shadows like spears and pierced them into someone.

'They took Lily from me, from her home and from her only family...so that she could be used as a breeding sow, so that she can bring the house to some fucking next evolution. Bullshit, HAHAHA'

His mind nearing the breaking point, a familiar cat popped out of the shadow his head was casting on the furniture behind him and out onto his head. Causing a soothing feeling to take hold, ceasing the all out madness and destruction that threatened to break loose once more.

"A Summoner too? What a talented family..." muttered the Genus, raising his evaluation of Bazel a few notches higher.

Several deep and slow breaths later, Bazel had calmed himself down enough to think things through. He crossed his right arm over his chest and scratched at his collar, an extremely natural move, but only he knew that it was in fact the signal for an all out assault to commence shortly.

Not revealing any of his insidious plans, Bazel forced himself to smile and asked, "That sounds interesting indeed, now, may I see Lily in person so that I can confirm she is fine?"

To which the Genus stood up with a slight bow, a barely noticeable one at that, and said,

"Of course you can. Once you see her for yourself, maybe then you can come to a decision and join us as well. Even though you will probably not attain too high of a position, at least compared to your impossible sister, I am sure her family will love to have a reliable and trustworthy ally."

The Genus then exited the room with swift movements to fulfill Bazel's request. Yet the moment the door was closed the temperature of the room dropped several degrees almost immediately, as Bazel's face contorted between wrath and despair.