Legend of Ransera

Posted: **Fri Oct 13, 2023 7:13 pm**

The woman heard the name and a preoccupied look came over her pretty face but she continued to walk, stopping at a particular bedroom and opening the door to look inside. It was just a spare bedroom and not occupied, so, after a moment she returned to her son's side.

"I wonder what pledge he made." He murmured, then looked up at her much taller progeny, "That's what Dreyfus means, pledge, or," He mused, a bit of a scholarly expression coming over her, "Fidelity."

The last word seemed to disturb her, as though the thought of her husband using their child's life to pledge his faith to a wife who was no longer with them was not a pleasant one. Whatever her disturbed thoughts they passed as the pair found their way into the large dining room. The table was there, long and imposing as ever with its dozens of stately chairs lining it. Just as they entered another person entered from a smaller side door, as servants entrance. This made sense as, based on his clothing and the way he bowed when he saw

mother and son, a servant is exactly what he was. An older man, and not one Dreyfus remembered, or perhaps he did, in his very early childhood recollections. He bowed, first to the Lady and then to Dreyfus, clearing his throat quietly in what seemed to be a well known signal to the lady of the house that he needed to speak with her. When she nodded that he could speak he said,

"Dinner is being prepared, Madam, should I set the table for two or..." He trailed off, looking suggestively at Dreyfus, obviously asking if he would be staying for the meal.

"Set it for three, Belved, my son will be joining us." The pride in her voice, no longer so soft and unsure, shone through and she squeezed Dreyfus' arm where she held it. The servant's eyes grew briefly wide but he bowed immediately.

"Have you seen my husband, Belved? I can't seem to find him."

Belved, as seemed to be this man's name, nodded, replying,

"I believe he is in the billiard room, Madam." Before making his way to the table and beginning to set three places for dinner. The china, silver and crystal, it seemed, had been locked away where the looters had not found it. Satisfied with the answer and using it to also answer more or less the same question that Dreyfus had asked her moments ago she used her hand on his arm to lead them along at a quicker pace.

Posted: **Wed Oct 18, 2023 2:38 am**

⚔ 54th of Glade, Year 123, A.o.S ⚔

⚔ Dreyfus was too sure by his mother's recollection of the meaning of his name. Dreyfus did roughly translate to "pledge or to make a pledge" but he assumed it was his father's way of pledging her. But by the look of discomfort on her face, he assumed far too much as she made it clear from that expression it was not the case. He carefully studied her as he watched her open the door to an empty room, only to close it and move on when she saw nothing was there.

When they had reached the dining room he could see it in all its wonderous splendor, as if nothing had even touched it. His eyes quickly adverted to the movement of the man who came in about the same time they had and saw it to be one of the servants. Belved, he had remembered the man, but he was much younger now, and the vampyre quickly deduced this was nothing more than a spirit. The more he ventured with the spector of his mother the more he began to remember the lectures from his time studying as a reconciliator.

In times like this when ambient residual aether is abound, spirits can use it to manifest, or at least that was what he remembered. He could have very well been wrong in his assumption but he knew something had to be acting as a source for these phantoms. When she made the note to have a plate set for him, he was on the verge of refusing, only to stop when the other ghost mentioned
his father's whereabouts. With his location revealed she absconded with him towards the billiard room. He would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous about seeing that man again. But he was too deep into things now, so he had no choice but to trudge along with her. ⚔

"Common Speech"
"Silandris Speech"
"Self-Thoughts"

Posted: **Thu Nov 02, 2023 6:51 pm**

The manor seemed to settle, all around them the imperfections large and small faded. Between one look and the next things were more settled; rugs straightened, candlesticks that had been knocked over were righted and lit to offer the place a cheery glow. The rooms they entered now often had their fires lit to offer warmth that chased away the unseasonable chill clinging to the air outside. Servants still moved around them but mostly only seen for the briefest of moments as they made their way here and there until a specific maid servant stopped in front of them to drop a curtsy. When she came out of the bow and raised her eyes there was a hint of a saucy smile on her pretty face. About twenty years of age the girl had red-gold hair that curled naturally and fetchingly under her fine white cap and her eyes traveled over Dreyfus with interest that she did little to hide. Enough, she might hope, that her mistress did not see it, but the man on her arm did.

"Madam," The girl began, "The Lord of the House sent me with his regrets but he had to leave unexpectedly."

Dreyfus' mother took the girl in, seemingly with out noticing the way she was making eyes are her handsome son. Frowning, a look more of annoyance than of disbelief the Lady sighed.

"Are you sure?" She asked, just on the close side of sharp, but the girl nodded distinctly, adding,

"He is not to be found in this place."

"I see. Will you please go inform Belved that there will only be two for dinner after all?" It was phrased like a question but the Lady clearly expected to be obeyed and the girl responded only by bobbing another curtsy, flashing another intent look full of promises at Dreyfus before walking away in a swirl and rustle of skirts.

"I am sorry." His mother offered, "He is often away of late. As I said, I can never seem to find him anymore."

The laugh at the end felt forced, as though she had to cover for her husband's absences often and was beginning to wonder if something might be the matter with her that drove him away.

"But you'll stay, won't you? So I needn't eat alone again?" She laid a hand back on his arm and searched his eyes again for a moment before laughing again, this time it felt real. There was an intensity to her request, as though she thought he might refuse her, abandon her, but then she brightened with the laugh, adding,

"Of course you will, what am I saying? This is your home."

With that she led him back toward the dining room, through which now could be smelled familiar scents of home cooked meals from Dreyfus' childhood. Hot soups, tender roasts, fresh bread, all the traditional tastes of Zaichaer that must be so familiar to him but which he likely hadn't been able to enjoy since he had left his country.

Posted: **Sun Nov 05, 2023 1:14 pm**

⚔ 54th of Glade, Year 123, A.o.S ⚔

⚔ A sigh of relief escaped as it was revealed his father's ghost was not here. He was starting to realize what this was, or at least trying to rationalize it. It could be a residual effect of the mist and the corruption of the area. He would still play his part for he wasn't sure how things would go if he flat-out denied his mother's ghost his attention.

He nodded when she insisted he stay for dinner, turning so they could return to the dining hall. The aroma of the food hit him and he remembered the days when all of the family sat around that table and shared meals, laughed, and talked about their days. He allowed his guard to fall a bit more as he realized this would be his first meal with her. Coming to the table he pulled out her chair and helped her into her seat. Taking the chair next to her, he sat down, tying his hair into a ponytail.

"This all looks like so good. I'm glad I get to enjoy this meal with you, gods know it's been so long since I've had a home cooked meal." he noted, taking in his plate before digging in. Crimson orbs looked over at his mother, and he began filtering through the many questions he wished to know answers to. He figured he would start with the most obvious. "So, what happens now?"

He was curious what the end goal of this was. If she was truly a ghost, she was one with high cognitive functionality. He was certain that she could give him a straight answer. ⚔

"Common Speech"
"Silandris Speech"
"Self-Thoughts"

Posted: **Mon Nov 06, 2023 10:13 pm**

The pleasantries offered seemed not to surprise the seeming apparition of his mother but they did seem to please her. That her son had grown into a man with manners and sophistication was a good thing, in her mind, but, as he ascertained, she was an intelligent woman and there were things that mattered more than knowing proper dinner table etiquette.

Once he had helped her gain her chair and taken his own a set of servants entered to pour wine and otherwise assist in the meal service, but, other than a brief acknowledgment from the Lady of the house they stayed mostly on the periphery. When the soup and wine had been tasted and the question came she took a moment to consider it, not looking away from her son.

"I would hope to get to know you. I imagine you know more of me than I do of you. I wonder what your father told you, what the rest of the family did." Glancing at Belved who was overseeing the preparation for the course of roast meat from near the door she added, "What the servants did."

Surely, without a mother, Dreyfus must have had a nanny and other serving people to look after him when he was small and such people were as likely to inform a young mind as his own family was, maybe more so.

"You can tell me, if you'd like, what you know of me and ask what you will. I would like to ask of you, what your life has been like, what you chose to do with it, who you share it with. But I don't want this to be a one-sided conversation so you should also ask if you wish."

Taking up her spoon she began to eat calmly but her attention was very obviously not going to leave Dreyfus. She almost seemed to drink him in with her eyes and her manner, as though she had waited a lifetime to be able to speak to him, to know him. The servants also seemed to be quite interested, though they were more circumspect about it, as they should be. Having the master of the house return, unexpectedly, when he had been thought dead was not something that occurred every day, after all, and there was sure to be no end of gossip flowing between them downstairs. Upstairs, in the dining room they were silently efficient, moving to refill glasses or replace plates when each course was finished but otherwise only keeping eyes and ears open for any information they could glean, knowing it would make them the most popular conversational partners with their fellows once the evening concluded and they were dismissed.

Posted: **Mon Nov 06, 2023 11:20 pm**

⚔ 54th of Glade, Year 123, A.o.S ⚔

⚔ He shook his head at her words. "Father forbade it. He would always dodge the question and after so long one just stops asking. I used to to stare up at the portrait of you in the foyer all the time wondering who you were." he said as he sipped the wine. He allowed that to sit in the air as he glanced up at her. She explained to him to ask questions as she wanted to know him, so for a moment he thought about the words and began.

"Life for me.....it was not an easy thing. It was hard and challenging. I was born with an affliction, a scar on my chest, one that would cause me pain and anguish whenever magic was present. The state saw that as a valuable tool and conscripted me to be a reconciliator. I served for quite some time, being a good and obedient slave, that was until I met Venetia.......or as you know her as Veronica. She told me the truth, that your death was no ambush, but a plot of the state to lure her out. I came back here to seek revenge, but now. Now that may not happen. It seems I have people who depend on me now. It's why I've come back to this house, to restore it and then help restore Zaichaer." he explained, gripping his fork as he stared down at the plate of food.

"This place will be the beginning, along with acquiring the power to achieve what I need to achieve in order to ensure the freedom that I have been given is never taken or threatened again." he finished, fiddling with the food on the plate. He wasn't sure how she would respond to that, as from that letter he had.......that letter?! It brought up a new inquiry. "Tell me about your family in the Imperium. I have been there briefly." ⚔

"Common Speech"
"Silandris Speech"
"Self-Thoughts"

Posted: **Thu Nov 09, 2023 8:35 pm**

A frown creased the Lady's face as Dreyfus began to speak and the expression only darkened as he continued. The reality of what the grown man before her had experienced was not what one might have hoped for, for their child, or anyone they cared about.

When she as asked he spoke of her family, of her own childhood. The similarities, the mirroring of pain and repression in her life, in comparison to Dreyfus' own. The details were different, but both of them had felt pushed by their families to succeed, pulled by their governments to achieve things that, while they might have been based on higher ideas, were destructive to the individuals involved. Magic had come hard to both of them, through adversity and, ultimately, pain.

Yet, neither of the people sitting at the dinner table seemed to believe they should feel sorry for themselves, perhaps in mother, as in son, the idea of being pitied was worse than knowing that more pain was the price of avoiding it.

Eventually, as the first course of the meal was removed and the roast was served, the Lady looked over the table and said,

"I'm not going back. That world did not earn my loyalty, and it took everything, even you. Why would I choose it. You shouldn't either. Stay here, with me, with us. We can make a new life, one that we choose for ourselves."

She was entirely serious, and, for the first time, Dreyfus could see the steel in her, the titanium down to her bones that had allowed her to survive in the world she had been born to, at least until the moment he had been born. Despite her lovely gown, easy grace and youthful appearance, the woman who sat across from him was not one to be trifled with. In fact, it was becoming obvious that while she had not be faking her earlier upset, perhaps some of it had been intended to see what sort of man Dreyfus really was.

"We can make of this world what we choose, and follow the edicts of others no longer."

Posted: **Fri Nov 10, 2023 2:40 am**

⚔ 54th of Glade, Year 123, A.o.S ⚔

⚔ A sly smile caressed its way across his lips as she spoke. "Of that we are of one mind it seems." he chuckled, watching as the specters of servants came to serve the roast. He was glad they were of the same views toward the order. However, what she was proposing could be detrimental to his own machinations.

"That is part of the reason I have come back here." he spoke, resting back into his chair, arms crossed over his chest as a leg casually crossed over the other. "Are you aware of what has transpired here, in zaichaer in the past year and a half Mother? The city is in ruins. As much as I find this nostalgic, the reality is that this place is in disrepair due to the cataclysm that shook the nation.

Monsters and unimaginable creatures of nightmares overrule the city. I came back here to claim this house as my base of operations, a powerbase to act as a stepping stone in my ambition to help reforge this place into something better than what it once was." Standing he moved around the room, dismissing the servants before padding each door with a negative field. It was one he usually applied with dealing with information deemed too sensitive for normal ears.

Taking a breath he returned to his mother's side of the table, moving one of the chairs to be close to her, and took her hand in his own. "Veronica has made me a vampyre. In the year since being turned, I have already come to master this magic, but that is not enough. Is there anything here within the estate that I could use to secure my own destiny, to ensure we never have to return to such a flawed world ever again? Some sort of weapon, or artifact, fortune, or information that could be of use to me?"

It was a lot to divulge to his mother, eyes full of tears in fear that he may lose her for being what he is now, but more so cause this was the first time he had had a meaningful conversation with one of his parents, nonetheless the mother he was robbed of since birth. "Part of me has always felt regret for living and causing your death, and even though I know that not to be true, I feel it is still my responsibility to carry on this desire of yours, with your help and blessing of course." he added, chuckling an running a hand through his hair as he felt he was rambling now. ⚔

"Common Speech"
"Silandris Speech"
"Self-Thoughts"

Posted: **Wed Nov 15, 2023 9:56 pm**

A fierce, almost feral smile met Dreyfus' similar expression and, for the first time, it would have been easy to see that they were, in fact, mother and child.

The servants went as they were bid, though the head butler gave his mistress a questioning look and waited for her wave of dismissal before bowing his own way out of the side entrance.

When Dreyfus began speaking more intently of things of the world the bright feminine eyes narrowed and her mouth formed into a flat line of concentration.

"What care have I for what goes on in the places outside? This place is mine, and it could be yours. We need not worry over the trials and tribulation of a nation, of a world, that cast us out, treated us with only contempt," She gestured first to indicate herself and then her son, "Or cruelty disguised as pity? What concern do we owe that place or those people?

Standing so they were closer in height, though he would now always be taller than she, she listened as he revealed more. Eyes flashing in anger she asked,

"Was it against your will? Will the world never stop taking things from my son?"

When he had finished his second revelation she looked more considering and moved so they were more directly face to face again.

"That you should master any power made available to you is no surprise, you are, after all, a Monteliyet, and you have my blood in your veins as well." She paused as if wondering if his transformation had changed what ran through his vessels, but she did not ask, dismissing the thought and continuing, "But you can find your destiny here, with me, with our servants and our family. That world will always be flawed, always refuse to fully accept the man that you have grown to be, the man that you are. You need to artifact or weapon, you need only dedicate yourself to this world of our making and we will make of it what we will. You, your father, and me. We can have the life that was denied us, and, when the time is right, there will be others. For you, to choose a wife from, so you can continue our line. You are the only hope for it. You wouldn't let our history die out, or worse, be left in that hateful place to be treated just as badly as we were? No!"

Her passion was strong and fiery, even though Dreyfus could see it came from a place of compassion and love for him. Shaking her head she smiled, but it was a sad smile, heartbroken. Reaching out to touch his face again she said,

"You never caused my death, and here you never need to live with the consequences of those who did. We can get to know each other here, we can be a real family and nothing will be able to challenge or destroy that. This place can be whatever we want it to be. Here you can be the Lord of this Manor, or the King of Zaichaer, you only have to decide that it is so and we can make it be."

Her desire, desperate with longing, was plain on her face. Having him back was worth anything.

Posted: **Tue Nov 21, 2023 8:08 pm**

⚔ 54th of Glade, Year 123, A.o.S ⚔

⚔ As much as he wanted her to be with him, he knew he couldn't remain here, not in the way she wanted anyway. He let out a sigh and walked away from her for a moment. It was crucial that he keep her amicable and at ease lest she show her true self to him and he be forced to try and remove her from the grounds.

"As much as I would love to remain here with you, all of you, I can not sadly. My ambitions require me to be free to move at any given moment. That being said however......." he began coming back to the table and picking up his glass of wine. "I am willing to compromise mother. You....as well as the staff, are dead and are ghosts. Intelligent and coherent ghosts, but ghosts nonetheless. I do wish to use these halls as a base of operations, but I can not afford to remain here forever, in this beautiful dream." he asserted, coming to seat himself back next to his mother.

His gaze was that of a son who missed his mother, but the tone of the next words to leave his lips were that of someone unwilling to be persuaded otherwise. "So I ask this once again, what happens now?" As he awaited her response he contemplated his next move. Should she become agitated he would have to seek the means to remove her from the house. He didn't know much about ghosts except for what he read in the academic books of the Reconciliator's libraries. If she was compliant, then they would go from there, and gods know he wished for the latter. ⚔

"Common Speech"
"Silandris Speech"
"Self-Thoughts"

Legend of Ransera

What Was Lost and What Can Be Found [Dreyfus]

Re: What Was Lost and What Can Be Found [Dreyfus]

Re: What Was Lost and What Can Be Found [Dreyfus]

Re: What Was Lost and What Can Be Found [Dreyfus]

Re: What Was Lost and What Can Be Found [Dreyfus]

Re: What Was Lost and What Can Be Found [Dreyfus]

Re: What Was Lost and What Can Be Found [Dreyfus]

Re: What Was Lost and What Can Be Found [Dreyfus]

Re: What Was Lost and What Can Be Found [Dreyfus]

Re: What Was Lost and What Can Be Found [Dreyfus]

Re: What Was Lost and What Can Be Found [Dreyfus]