“So, Kitty turned you, and then what happened?” Faith asked, alarmed by Seth’s agitation and his glowing green eyes that had slowly revealed over the course of his story.
“She kept me in the basement, for the most part,” he answered, his voice frantic. “They kept me down there for decades.”
“Why?” Faith asked, trying to keep up. “How did you get out? What happened?”
“She wanted me to devote myself to her,” he hissed. “But I couldn’t. Not while Angeline was — Angeline! Oh my devil! I’ve wasted so much time! I need to find Angeline! I need to apologise to Angeline! There was a farm, a dairy farm. Her father owned a dairy farm. We should start there!”
“Seth, you last saw her over three centuries ago – she’ll be long dead.”
“But that bottle! It was a damn stork! What if… what if she was carrying my child?”
“They would also be long dead,” Faith explained, as patiently as she could manage when all she wanted to do was scream in his face.
Seth ignored her. “I could have a family!” he yelled and ran towards the pathway; stopping a few metres away and looking around, disorientated and confused like he’d forgotten what he was doing.
Faith wandered over and took Seth’s shaking hand in her own as he muttered incoherently to himself.
“Are you OK?” she asked.
He shook his head, ran his hand down his face, fighting to stay upright. “What was I doing?”
Faith chewed her lip, watching him swaying before her. “Let’s get you a drink, OK?” she said in the steady voice that she usually used to reason with Joy. “Will that help? A drink?”
“A drink?” Seth repeated as if he didn’t understand the word.
“Yes, a drink,” Faith said through gritted teeth. This was so not what she’d signed up for. If she’d wanted to babysit a clueless, ancient vampire, she’d have run off with Caleb.
Seth looked at her for a while through crossed eyes before he got a sudden jolt of life and yanked his hand from her grip. “Of course!” he exclaimed.
“Oh, great,” Faith said, relieved. “The city is not far, right? We can go hunt there—”
“The cat! The cat that follows me!” Seth announced triumphantly. “What if the cat is Kitty? What if the cat is Angeline?! I need to find that cat!”
“You need to find a cat,” Faith groaned. “Right.”
“You can help me, Faith. You and your mirror!”
“My mirror…”
“Yes!” He continued ranting nonsensically about cats, mirrors, babies and long-dead, unattractive women named Angeline while Faith silently regretted everything.
Would he ever shut up?
Was this her life now? Stuck with this raving lunatic?
Could she snap him out of it?
Seth rubbed his face and was silent for a while before he spoke again, his voice quiet and unsure, “I… I needed that.” He cleared his throat. “I need a drink.”
Faith nodded, relieved that he was finally making sense but still distinctly turned off by the whole thing. Seth extended his shaking hand towards her; his voice was devoid of its smooth growl and he lacked any of his usual suaveness.
“Come. I’ll mist us to the village.”
Faith looked at Seth’s twitching face and those creepy cat-like eyes that were darting about like an antelope checking for lions. If he misted with her now, she’d definitely lose some limbs in the process. She took a step back and said something she never thought she’d say.
“I’d rather walk.”
—
It had been a long time since Lilith had last spoken to Sage, but even with her increased facial slackening and general air of senility, the old witch hadn’t changed a bit. She was still every inch the sugar-dusted, shrewd, unholy pain-in-the-arse that Lilith had always loved and hated in equal measures.
Lilith could not read Sage’s thoughts – witches had a certain resilience against mind-reading and Lilith was not in fine form – but she could still tell what was running through Sage’s extravagantly-coiffed head.
Everything.
A thousand overworked theories, no doubt. Constant analysis and interpretation of every word Lilith said, every muscle that twitched in her face and every seemingly insignificant eye movement. She would be drinking it all in, examining the facts and skewing them until they fit her assumptions.
Lilith smiled, more to confuse Sage than because she felt any great joy. Sage had a huge well of magical power to harness; she could summon forth her elements and use them to manipulate and control the world around her. But her magical ability stopped at the physical, at the external.
Sage could read Lilith’s body language, interpret every hitch in her voice and draw conclusions from that. But she could not read Lilith’s mind. So, unlike her father, Sage never really knew if she was correct in her assumptions about what Lilith was thinking.
It was pointless trying to tell her that.
“How did Caleb lose his skills and memory?” she asked for the tenth time, studying Lilith’s face.
Sage hadn’t bought the excuses of aging vampire brains and surviving on bland blood, not that Lilith expected her to, so she tried a new line. “Maybe he gave them to April,” Lilith said flippantly, throwing back her fifth gin and tonic. It didn’t have the olfactory delight of a cosmopolitan, but it contained much more alcohol, so it didn’t matter. “He is besotted with her.”
“Oh, he is, very much so.” Sage grinned. “As evidenced by his complete lack of fidelity last night.”
“I’m not sure April will mind,” Lilith smiled back. “But regardless; he’ll make it up to her. He’s going to buy her a gold house, don’t you know?”
“Not with what I’m paying him,” Sage winked. “Didn’t even ask me how I’d be paying him. Never been cut out for the real world, has he?”
Lilith offered no counter. There was no arguing that. The more she had peeled back the layers to show Caleb glimpses of the world, the less he had understood it. For now, Lilith was just relieved that he had not disclosed anything. All those sharp whacks of her spoon appeared to have drilled in the message: keep your mouth shut.
Then again, maybe he wouldn’t have had a choice here. Who knew what sort of potions the witches had at their disposal these days?
Perhaps a truth elixir that could work on a vampire?
“I simply love your top, Sage.”
No, clearly no truth elixir around here.
Sage continued to examine Lilith’s face for a while before she clicked her tongue in frustration and grabbed her drink from the table. “So, how have things been with you, Lilith dear?”
“Fine,” Lilith lied, wondering what to say next.
She took a moment to really look at the woman sitting beside her. As someone immune to the effects of time herself, it fascinated and terrified Lilith to see such drastic changes. The last time Lilith had set eyes on her meticulous, green friend was the day the treaty was agreed. Sage’s hair still fell to her waist in thick, black waves back then and her face was unlined, thanks entirely to magical intervention.
Lilith wondered what had changed in those years for Sage to allow time to unravel across her features.
She glanced around the room, full of photos and mementos of love and a, mostly, happy life. Her eyes flitted over the photo of Sage’s first son, Tarragon – a subject best avoided.
She already knew that Warren had passed away, so that was a conversational dead end, no pun intended. Her focus travelled to the wall to a more recent photo of someone who was clearly her other son who looked to be in his early twenties. How time flew; he’d been a baby when she’d last seen him. Maybe he had been the factor that drove Sage to greyness.
“How old is Wyatt now?”
“Seventy-six,” Sage replied.
Lilith nodded but witch aging always confused her. It was something to do with generational bloodlines; the more ancient the bloodline, the slower they appeared to age. Throw in the spells they could cast to change their appearance and it was often impossible to tell the age of any of them.
“Is he gifted?” Lilith asked.
“Similar to Tarragon,” Sage replied smoothly. Lilith took this cue and looked around for a change of subject, her gaze landing on a photo of Ma Hogwash.
Ma was, in Lilith’s opinion, the finest High Priestess the Windenburg Witch coven had ever seen and not purely because she was the only witch, besides Sage, who had ever shown an ounce of compassion for the vampires. In fact, Lilith would go so far as to say that Ma actually quite liked her.
“What’s Ma doing these days?” Lilith asked. “Didn’t this used to be her store?”
“It did,” Sage sang in that trill tone she used to quash emotion. “Alas, at the grand old age of 409, Ma finally departed this plane.”
“Oh?” Lilith asked, wondering if this was the catalyst for ‘letting go’. “So, did you finally make High Priestess?”
Sage set her mouth into a firm little line; all the answer Lilith needed. She took another swig of her drink, to drown out her laugh at the obvious fact; Sage’s ability to rub people the wrong way had prevented her being elected as Ma’s replacement but Lilith wondered which excuse the overly-green old crone would use.
“No, I did not,” Sage replied brightly after a moment’s contemplation. “They elected a young woman, barely in her hundreds. A former voodoo priestess from the swamps. Not that I can blame them; who wouldn’t elect someone so exotic over a wisened, local witch who had been in the coven her whole life?” She coughed politely; her irritation getting the better of her. “Especially when she was bleating on in her election campaign about gently easing us into the mainstream, bringing us out into the open, safely. She sold a dream.”
Lilith choked on her drink. “She wants to bring us out in the open?! She knows about me?!”
“Oh goodness, no! I’d burn for that!” Sage sang. “’Us’ being the witches only, dear. To say that the High Priestess is anti-vampire is quite the understatement,” Sage said quietly, peering into her glass. “And by proxy… well, she is the choice of the coven I have pledged my life to serve, so serve I must.”
This was bad. This was very bad. “How much time do you have?” Lilith managed to ask.
Sage grinned, a glint in her eyes. “As much as I want, dear. Vampire hunting is an art you know, it takes time. Maybe I can drag out my wild goose chase as long as you have.”
“If they’re looking for us—”
“I’ll hide you well.”
Lilith faltered. “You would? I mean, you don’t need to hide us. We have Forgotten Hollow—”
“Which has been all over the news and linked to that missing girl case. Hardly ‘forgotten’.” Sage hummed a little tune, a sure sign that she was approaching her limit, patience-wise. She smoothed out her skirt. “No, those days are gone, Lilith. Besides, I have reason to believe that April may be…” she paused, tossed her curls. “…related to me.”
“Related to you how?”
Sage ignored Lilith completely. “…and so the three girls – and Caleb, I suppose – will be moving in here, for everyone’s protection, until we can find a cure. First thing tomorrow we will go and get them. I’m far too old to be gallivanting around in the wilderness at this time of night.”
“April can’t leave the cottage—”
“I know. That’s easily overcome.”
“But I… I can look after them—”
“You have something else to be looking for,” Sage winked. “The girls are now my responsibility and we’ll go and get them first thing tomorrow. You’ll need to stop here tonight anyway, Lilith. I’ve sealed the apartment until dawn.”
“I hope there’s a fire,” Lilith replied drolly.
“There’s a little snack in the fridge, should you or Caleb need it.”
“Where is Caleb?”
“And I know you’re unlikely to sleep, but you two can use the guest room tonight. Oh, that’s a thought; the guest room only sleeps two,” Sage wittered on, ignoring Lilith again, “but I’m sure we’ll manage, perhaps get bunk beds. For the girls,” she reiterated. “All three of them.”
Lilith groaned and rubbed her temples. She knew. “Two girls,” she clarified. “There are only two; April and her friend Melinda. The other friend, Faith, she… they parted ways.”
“How unfortunate. Still, no vampire can freely abandon their sire forever. She’ll come back,” Sage asserted. “Unless, of course, she had a better offer, but that would require quite some persuasion. You’d have to be, I don’t know, some kind of master manipulator to achieve that.”
“Sage—”
“Sage?” a new voice echoed from across the room.
Lilith had heard the knock that had preceded this visitor, but evidently Sage’s hearing was failing, as she startled. The man teased open the door and slipped in smoothly, like he was used to being invisible. Lilith had expected to see the tousled, grinning, green-eyed fellow from the photographs on the mantlepiece, not this softly-spoken, bearded man.
“The front door appears to be stuck— Oh. You have company.”
The subtle note of surprise in his voice was all it took for Lilith to realise that Sage having company was a novelty.
“Oh, darling, I thought you’d already left!” Sage said, her voice reverting to chirpy sing-song. “I’ve locked up; you’ll need to teleport out. But while you’re here; Lilith, this is Ma’s grandson, Broof.”
“Hi Broof.” Lilith smirked. Some of these witches had such ridiculous names.
“Broof, this is a very, very old friend of mine. I suppose knowing what you now do, you may as well have the truth. She’s Caleb’s sister, Lilith Vatore.”
“His sister?” Broof repeated. “Are you also a vampire?”
“Well I’m not a three-hundred-year-old human, am I?” she scoffed.
Broof smiled and extended his hand towards her, unruffled when it was ignored. “Are you the one and same Lilith Vatore, cosmetic surgeon from Del Sol Valley?” he asked politely.
“Are you?” Sage asked. “A surgeon in Del Sol Valley?”
Lilith pouted. Trust this to come up when she wasn’t actually practicing anymore. “Yes. It’s as close as I can get to consensual blood-taking. Caleb and I have been surviving this way for, ooh, thirty years. I’ve got a great reputation, too,” she finished proudly.
“You haven’t taken any lives in thirty years,” Sage clarified. Lilith shook her head warily, feeling like she’d made a mistake.
“Yet there are still so many people going missing in Forgotten Hollow,” Sage sang, her arms flying up in excitement at Lilith’s low growl of frustration. “It’s him, isn’t it?” Sage exclaimed. “I knew it! He’s taken the third girl hasn’t he? Sweet Mother Earth, Lilith, for her sake if nothing else; where is he? How do I find him?”
“I don’t bloody know where he is!” Lilith screamed and she picked the easier target of the flowery tosser lingering in the doorway who had just blown her cover. “How did you know I was a surgeon? Are you stalking me, Broom Pigwash?” she snarled.
“Broom Pigwash,” he repeated. “You always said it, Ma,” he said quietly to the photo on the wall, “but it appears that you were right; my name could actually be worse.” He laughed politely, but Lilith returned him only a stony stare. “I can see I’m not welcome here. Forgive my intrusion, Ms. Vatore. Sage, I will see you tomorrow.”
“Good bye, darling. Apologies about Lilith; she’s always been rather prickly,” Sage said, walking over to the fireplace as the door closed behind Broof, leaving Lilith to wallow behind her.
“Can we trust him?” Lilith asked, still glaring at the door.
“We have to. He used to be Sandy’s butler and, by the sounds of it, the only one who gives a hoot about April.”
“He was Sandy’s butler?” Lilith asked. “Is there anywhere you witches haven’t penetrated?”
“You always were an interesting drunk, Lilith,” Sage mused, ignoring her. Lilith started to wonder whether she actually was deaf. “And how good to know that truth elixir does work on you – if I ply you with enough of it.”
“You didn’t. You wouldn’t risk knowing how wrong you are about everything.”
Sage winked and carried her glass towards the door, pausing only to say goodnight.
Lilith chewed her lip. How she hated the green cow and her underhanded techniques. Still, if she wanted the truth, she could have the truth.
“Your hair looks like a petrified octopus, Sage,” she said to the empty room.
Petty. But better.
< Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter >
Almost Eternal 
Alright. So both Seth and Sage are kind of looking for each other… but something tells me that wouldn´t be a happy reunion, once things start coming out. Would it? I´m really confused about Sage and her level of vampire-tolerance. And her level of family-oriented-ness. …also yeah. I don´t think Seth should mist right now, not even just himself. His own head is all over the place with all these revelations and if this thing needs focus, he really, really shouldn´t. Wasn´t going to even before, was he.
Then there is the cat. Eeeeek, it´s definitely not Angeline. Oh dear, bad feeling about that.
Then, truth serum. I see… and it´s a witchy thing, apparently. That explains Beth, then, since Sage probably gave her some. Now it looks like this and Seth´s former affliction are two completely different things, but the effects are so same-y that it still gives me the creeps.
So the High Priestess wants to out witches… that´s big. I mean, if their society is anything like ours now… then again, people would still be scared. People are always scared of anything they can´t control. It could work, but it could also end in disaster. Especially if any muggles got wind of the sheer amount of power some witches have. Right, Wyatt? Also wondering what made the High Priestess so very anti-vampire. Smelling a story there.
…oh, my. Sage sure is forceful, isn´t she? Then again the disaster if the High Priestess figured out there´s vamps on her territory…
And it´s true that Lilith doesn´t know where Seth is, right now. But why had she been preventing his meeting Sage this whole time? Because Sage would try to kill him, maybe? She did say “stop protecting him…” but there´s lots of things you can protect a person from, including painful truths.
Heh. Petrified octopus. We do know you can be petty, Lil. This sort is at least funny… >:)
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Yay! You’re up to date so now you join the others in getting top-level dodge answers! Lucky you! However, I have also had wine so lets see how this goes. 😁
Yes, both are looking for each other, but definitely safe to say it’d be a heck of a reunion. Ah, Sage, you complicated creature, whatever is going on in that precisely-styled head of yours? Oof, no he shouldn’t mist. Thankfully, Faith still maintains some sense.
Aw, but it’s just a fluffy cat who
appears to be three centuries old and linked to everythingwants a cuddle! Who’s a cute little bloodthirsty kitty! You are! 🐈Maybe Beth was using truth serum. Maybe she’s a vampire. Maybe Ralf was just really crap at keeping quiet.
The high priestess has a great backstory which will be touched on at some point. Yes, bringing the witches into the open is super risky but if you’re representing a community that lives in obscurity, selling the dream that you can make them accepted is a great election campaign! But just maybe she’ll be like every other politician ever and not carry out her pledges.
Yes, death is not the only thing one needs protection from.
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Yay for top level dodging. 😀
Yes, thank goodness for Faith this time. I have to agree, this is an unexpected turn for her, but she IS doing rather well. Better than expected. Hmm… then again, she never did complain about parenting Joy, did she?
Yikes. Safe to say, I wouldn´t hug and white, fluffy cats in your area right now. No matter how cute they might be.
M-hmmm, not the last one. Definitely not the last one. Ralf wouldn´t have told on his own…
Ha. Yes, election campaigns do seem to go similarly everywhere, don´t they. XD Especially since the High Priestess post seems to be lifelong… thinking of which, it was a bold move of the coven, to vote someone that young. Now they´re stuck with her, aren´t they?
Yes… I´m just starting to wonder how objective this harm is. As in, does he really need protecting from it? Would /he/ even think it´s a bad thing that Lilith dear is preventing? It still might be, but it might not. Might be he couldn´t even decide right now, with everything going on. XD
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No, she didn’t mind looking after Joy; it was looking after her mother that bothered her.
Once they are High Priest/ess, they stay there until they die, retire or are overthrown. And yet knowing that this random, out of town, young HP would be in office, so to speak, for possibly centuries was somehow still the preferred option over Sage. 😆
Ooh, such good questions that I cannot answer yet. 🤐
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…I mean, that must have been a lot for a teen, yeah.
Mmm, that also inspires questions. Sure, sage can rub people the wrong way, I can definitely see that. But I can think of a few things that could have also been a factor. Maybe this stranger has some powers that aren´t usual in local witches. Maybe the majority of the coven is aware that Sage isn´t utterly anti-vampire despite being a hunter and they don´t like it… maybe they even know who her father is and just don´t trust her (which would be a jerk move, but people are like that). Maybe opinions about too-powerful witch education also factor in there somewhere. So many things. 😀
*wiggles happily at not being completely off mark*
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Ya ya, Faith has never resented Joy needing care – how could she, ‘she’s only seven’. But she definitely resents those who should be able to look after themselves not doing so.
“Maybe this stranger has some powers that aren´t usual in local witches” Well well well, look at you running your knife right alone my bones. 😆 So so close with this.
As the others will testify ‘🤐’ means you’re either spot on with something, or you’re waaaaaaay off and I will not confirm which. 🤭
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Yeah, well, I understand it must have been really hard, but then again Faith can´t really /expect/ her mum to be doing much better, what with those eyes of hers, right? 😦
Eeeep, what an image. OwO Scratching at bones was most certainly not the intention. XD
Oh! I see. *shuts up*
Also, I found a puzzle piece, do not get it anymore than Caleb does and am dying at his face. Goodness. X´D
Oh, one last thing. I took it as a matter of course, but now that you mentioned Seth being “murdery” again, I realized I´m not so sure. So, the implication is that he had /killed/ his dad, right? That was his first kill, back then?
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Nooo don’t shut up! You could, after all, be totally right. 😁
Ooh, yeah, he snuffed his old man, did Seth. Not intentionally, but still.
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*grin* But you wouldn´t tell me, so I will shut up anyway and just wait to see. 😀
*nodnod* He did sound like a miserable sort. Especially the part about how nothing was ever enough. /And/ the part about settling the balance. >:7 Good riddance says me.
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Yeah he used to autonomously shove and shout at the poor boy. I was like ‘dude! No! Stop!’
As soon as Seth aged up to teen he fought his dad and won, and my imagination went wild, as per usual.
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You’re back! YAY! ❤ Welcome back!
I have to give Faith some points for maintaining her cool and not throwing an absolute tantrum at Seth’s drastic change in behaviour. Especially seeing how he’s reacting to Angeline and his possible kid – I bet there’s no room for Faith there, at least not in her head. That can’t be easy, with the way her mind works. Man, Seth really took a personality spin there.
Which is actually really interesting. I’ve mentioned this in private already, but I honestly don’t know what to make of him now. Pre-flashback Seth was an absolute monster who twisted, manipulated and destroyed people for his own gain. During-flashback Seth seemed like a completely different person, with some of the same quirks. Now that he has his memories back, which “Seth” will be the dominant one? Will it be a mixture? If it’s pre-flashback Seth, how will he handle the horrible things that he did while missing his memory? If it’s flashback-Seth with extra memories, how will it change the way he acts and feels?
He’s interesting from another perspective now, too. We know that Seth had no memories of Bob, and no memories of Angeline until Faith started bringing them to the surface. If Seth turned into the monster he is because of the trauma from his time with Bob, then why didn’t erasing his memories of it bring back the “old” Seth? Ye oldy Seth did not strike me as the abusive psychopath that modern-day Seth is. I can see how severe trauma can change someone’s personality. But if that’s the case, then shouldn’t Seth’s behaviour have been the other way around, because he was missing those trauma-character-changing-moments? It is something depper that changes, even if you don't remember it? 🤔 Hm. I feel like I’m missing something obvious and I’m too thick-headed to see it. I’ll try again tomorrow.
Man, now that we know that Sage is Seth’s daughter, it’s impossible not to see the likeness. She looks so much like Angeline and Seth both in her younger flashbacks.
Also:
“She would be drinking it all in, examining the facts and skewing them until they fit her assumptions.”
HAHAHAHAHA. I’m sorry. HAHAHAAAAAAAAAA. Oh, Lilith.
Bwahahaa oh gods, they really are alike, I love everything about this conversation. 🤣
It’s a bit worrying to hear Sage say that her own coven would burn her if they found out that Sage was protecting vampires. Oof, and they’ll make her hunt down vampires eventually, even if she stalls? I still wonder who came up with that treaty – and which parties signed it. Sage and Lilith, obviously, but if it was just them, they wouldn’t need a treaty, would they? Seems like there’s still quite a lot buried there. Where is my shovel.
Aww Broof, I like your name. It’s adorable just like your bright rosy cheeks. This comment is turning into a novel again so I’m going to post it before wordpress decides to turn it into its next meal. 😂
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I’m back! Although I never really left, I was just behind the scenes, repairing costumes, building sets and breaking up
inappropriate couplingsfights. You know how it is.This is gonna be just as confusing for Faith as it is for Seth. Ooh yes, you said your Seth-o-meter had been reset to zero. It’ll be interesting to see how that swings as we progress. Will you keep score?
“Why didn’t erasing his memories of it bring back the “old” Seth?” Who’s to say it didn’t? It was hidden for a reason… 😉
I guess the only way I can really address your questions without spoilers is to give you another question, lol: how much of current day Seth was shaped by Kitty’s treatment of him? As you identify, he was previously unaware of it yet still, by your definition, ‘an absolute monster’. Was it his treatment at the hands of the vampires that caused him to be so murdery? Was it purely him trying to establish an identity where he had none and ‘rat bastard’ just ‘fit’ him and others’ expectations of him? Maybe it’s a combination or maybe there’s something else at play. You’re not missing anything obvious and you’re not thick headed. Your musings have all the pieces, but maybe in slightly the wrong order.
Sage is such a perfect hybrid of her parents that I almost changed her face a bit because I thought it’d be obvious who she was the second she was seen. 😆 *snort laugh* I love this conversation too and had so much fun writing it. They are so similar but think they’re so different. Hopefully they still feel distinct from one another.
Sage is quite ‘old school’ in her witchery, the modern coven probably wouldn’t literally burn her, it’d be a metaphorical burn, a shunning kind of thing. Well, safe to say that Ma was likely in on the treaty too, being a vamp sympathiser/fan. All will be revealed in time, although hold on to that shovel. Shovels are always handy over here.
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Oh! 😎 We have just landed exactly in chaos and it seems that Seth has lost all sense. He is ready for a good long sleep in the tower if it would not be fatal to him.
Faith’s panic makes me laugh 😂 She has ended up with her worst nightmare and she possesses neither patience nor compassion.
Seth and Faith have thus taken over the award as the most hopeless miserable couple from Caleb and April 🏆
It is clear that Lilith and Sage have known each other extremely well in the past. Their communication consists of minimal grimaces and winks and observations. They do not need many words.
Maybe vampires are insensitive to truth serum, but Liliths penchant for strong alcohol makes a serum completely superfluous.
I’m too tired now to give them more comments right now but a lot of good bones are being revealed that can be boiled for more soup.
I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
PS: Do not forget the onions in your soup 😉
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Did you expect anything other than chaos? 😆 Well, look at that! Caleb and April are no longer the worst couple in the story! Maybe this season we’ll finally get a good pairing.
The image of boiling bones for soup is so gloriously grim. And of course, I would never forget the onions. 😉
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I’m not surprised at all!
I did not expect anything but chaos, but after your break I may be just a little out of training to digest the amount 😂
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I imagine the story right now like a grand buffet. I have cooked all the food and dumped it haphazardly on to giant table and now each character will take their plate, select the food they like the look of and explain to you what they are eating.
Hopefully digesting it plate by plate over the coming weeks will give you chance to get your full appetite back. 😁
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Yay! AE is back! So exciting! I still don’t have my pc amd am still on the road so comment is going to be on the short side. But mushy bums, suicidal roos and facepalming while holding my phone up at every outpost is the ultimate outbacking experience. I have you to thank for my strangeness. 😆
This part of Seth 180° feels jarring for me and I love it. There’s so much to unpack here, literally a can of worms opened and dunked all over Faith’s head. And while Seth needs a moment (and therapist) to organise this barrage of memories and emotions flooding him and re-ascertain his priorities and desires, Faith is right. She did not sign up to be a parent all over again. I can’t fault her for being impatient with Seth and wanting to scream at him. He was her ticket to self-expression and freedom. Given all that’s happened in her life and how hot-headed she can be, she is doing so well here as she is shoved into the role of the parent once again. She’s doing a damn good job keeping her emotions in check and containing her thoughts, being the level-headed one too(with a great backhand!) 😆.
I say there’s so much to unpack in Seth and unpacked Faith instead 😂 on the bright side, ive turned off my potato chucking machine (totally rented from yimi) and am feeling all sorts of sympathy and wanna give seth a hug at this moment. (What have you done to me Snuffy! sthap making him vulnerable!) But he’ll probably snap my neck for daring to feel that way about him. Good thing simmercury is a vampire 😏
I have to do a part 2 comment cuz i gtg lol. sneaking comments in wherever i can 😆
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Hey, I specifically said to wait until your bum had solidified before commenting, so I absolve all responsibility for your strangeness. 😆
Yay, I’m glad it feels jarring because – woah – isn’t it just? Faith’s dreams up in smoke, her obsessed, vampiric sex god has just become this distracted, quivering… thing. And yep, as you identify, she has been shoved back into a role of carer, again. But she stepped up last time, let’s see what she does this time.
Oh dear. Yimi Potato Inc’s sales are gonna be down this quarter. I hope she doesn’t go bankrupt. *looks at plot notes* no, I think she’ll be fine.
He has always been vulnerable but if you really want to hug him, I’m sure that can be arranged.
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I am a fool that I’ve missed this update. The binging begins now!
So…Seth. I…well…that took a turn. Here’s the thing, I knew he was broken and I was expecting him to fall apart a bit. But what I wasn’t expecting was Faith’s response. I mean, it makes perfect sense—she’s been playing caretaker her whole life and she is burnt out on it. I kept wondering if there was any way for Faith to get out from under Seth’s clutches and seems his vulnerability might be her ticket to safety.
But man is that also kind of sad and brutal. And Faith being jealous/turned off by his long-lost love is…not a good look. It reminds my brain that she is in fact a teenager.
WHY DO I SHIP LILITH AND SAGE? WHAT MADE ME LIKE THIS? Man, I have no loyalty. I don’t even care about Mel’s dad anymore. Lilith and Sage belong together.
Really though, I’m enjoying this lil foray into the witches and all their crazy shit. The world of AE keeps expanding and I am here for it.
(Broof, you could never. I ship you with yourself).
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Hey! Welcome back! You’re not a fool, you just have this thing called a life. I used to have one of those. It was nice.
This whole Faith and Seth situation is a disaster and exactly what each character didn’t want. Maybe it’ll drive them wide apart, or maybe, just maybe, being pushed to the edge together will make them form some wonderful, wholesome bond and it’ll all be amazing.
I have promised you all a love story, after all.
WE HAVE A NEW SHIP! I’ll add it to my spreadsheet and call it, um… Saglith? Lige? Lage? All of those sound horrible, as does the thought of that pair getting together. But never say never! See point above. I welcome all suggestions for who this might refer to. The witches are an eclectic bunch, for sure. So many weird traditions and rituals. ‘Crazy shit’ is a good summary.
Aw, poor Broof on his lonely ship.
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RE: Faith/Seth
I will not nerd out about dark romance and why I think it’s so fascinating. I will not nerd out about dark romance and why I think it’s so fascinating. I—
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Nerd out all you want. I also find dark romance interesting, obvs.
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Don’t mind me being not so fashionably late…
It’s interesting to see Seth completely unravelling like this. Not that I can blame him, that’s a lot of memories to suddenly regain. Though I suppose the memories were always there, just obstructed. Anywho, suppose we’ll see how Seth is once all the new information has settled. I wonder how fresh these memories feel to them, having just recollected it all – definitely seems more as if he’d just freshly relived it all rather than digging up something old you once “misplaced.”
Surprisingly I actually enjoyed Lilith and Sage’s quipping at each other, even though I’m not a fan of either of them. Maybe it’s because neither of them is exactly “winning” in the current scenario, regardless of how much they’re trying to save face in front of them other. Sage seems pretty confident she’s capable of making that vampire cure. Curious, considering how long she’s known Lilith and how long Lilith has been after a cure.
For some reason I’m liking that Lilith met Broof, feels like we’ve come a full circle somehow. So Broof is the son of the former high priestess? ( I can’t quite remember if we knew that already or not) Did Ma’s position have something to do with Cabbage’s fate, I wonder? And is that how he wound up at Sandy’s… suppose we shall find out some day.
Also, that little house will be cramped, haha.
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Welcome back! I have fished you out of the spam bin, so hopefully WordPress will cool its head now.
Ooh interesting point – these memories are not ‘new’ no, just ‘newly unearthed’, kind of like digging up a time capsule you buried in the garden as a kid, as an adult. But an adult who is over 300. And a vampire. I lost my point. Oh! Yes, like when I did this, I knew there was a time capsule buried, but couldn’t recall what it said until I dug it up. Then I started reading the note and it all came flooding back; I could even remember writing it with my sister and laughing because she wanted to name all her kids ‘Sam’ because it was the only name she liked. Anyway, yes, it’ll feel somewhat familiar; he’ll know these are memories and not, like, brain farts or hallucinations or whatever.
It is curious, isn’t it? Lilith wants to be cured; Sage thinks she can cure her – why is she still a vampire? 🤔💭
Broof was the grandson of the former High Priestess. As for the rest, yes, soooooooon.
Totally. Might need to ‘magic’ (build mode) a few extra rooms on. 😆
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WordPress seems bamboozled by the fact that I’ve logged in, sorry if I spammed you with the same comment 50 times 😅
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Only 3. 😉
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