The more she talked the more his heart began to race.  This was so much, too much.  How could he have been pulled into and made a part of something that he knew so little about?  And while his heart pulled for anyone that would end up in exile, he couldn’t help but think that how all of this was dealt with was extremely unhealthy.  What worried him more was the possibility that she had taken a high amount, enough to need assistance from him for what could be months, possibly years.  He didn’t know.  He needed to know more about this before he got himself into something.
 
He looked down at Holly’s still form, so seemingly peaceful but he knew it was anything but.  Even if he wanted to care for what would most likely be in action the same as an infant, he couldn’t do that.  Not with his profession.  As it was he had enough of a time keeping himself alive, much less another person that would be too weak to do much for themselves.  It wasn’t safe, not for him and most certainly not for her. 
 
Differences or not, he wouldn’t be able to let another person be put in more danger than himself.  This wouldn’t end well and he felt trapped.  Trapped by a decision that he hadn’t even made, a decision that had been made for him the second that poison touched her lips.  Resentment was forming, but he pushed it down.
 
It wasn’t his place, he knew that, but he couldn’t hold his tongue as he looked back to the oracle, feeling only slightly guilty that she was the one that had to hear his opinions in the first place, “No matter what decision I make, I hope you all realize how incredibly unhealthy this is.  And I’m not speaking of the poison or this demented rite.”
 
He looked back down at Holly, hoping beyond anything that all of this would be able to come to fruition for all parties involved with as little heartbreak as possible.  That chance seemed to dwindle more and more as time went on, “A shut in.  She was barely sixteen years old.”   He looked back to the oracle,
 
“Mental stability or not, this is a form of enabling.  When a person has fear that they will be alone forever then the proper way to help them is not to surround them forever as if they were a child.  I can’t begin to understand the parental fear of having one of your children a risk at suicide or performing this insane ritual again, but I do hope that some affirmative action comes from all of this.  She needs help, actual help.  Fear of being alone should not cripple a person for their entire lifespan, and she needs to be with a person that can help her see that rather than allow her to wallow.”
 
His jaw locked, he could feel his body temperature rising and he closed his eyes as they turned to bloody crimson.  All of this was too much, and while he had no idea of the many intricacies that went into this ritual, there was one thing for sure: “I’m not waking her today.”   His eyes opened and he moved away from her motionless body, walking away from this room with purpose.  “I need to speak to her mother.”

The goddess had been listening for a long while and knew that Bryony had already detected her. Or maybe it was that time of the week when Angela came home and brushed her daughter's own hair. "Momma!" She put her finger to her lips but realized as Iva yelled that they would have been heard. Pulling the little one with her Angela came up behind Naota. "We've tried to stop it. Since the rite began all those years ago. Some woman did it and left the damn rite to her children. That spread to the others. We've tried to stop it but every race has its downfall. I definitely did not want my free spirited daughter to fall prey to it over some boy!"

Iva pulled on Angela's sleeve and suddenly the rage was gone from her. "You will be waking her up today because we will talk now." Freezing up at seeing her daughter in the background she shook her head and looked towards Bryony. "Watch the girl." She patted Iva's head and sent her off to visit. The girl yelled Auntie Brybry and jumped into her arms. "Come."

Away from the Oracle's ear shot she sighed a bit. "Bryony is cold. Holly wasn't much of a shut in more so I worried about her and set limits. Obviously she didn't like to listen." She looked over Naota for a moment and frowned. "She is a good girl you know. I try to feed her good dreams but my area isn't in that expertise sadly. I am a mother that is not able to help her child. I am a mother first before all else. I have an alliance to this place before my alliance to Revaliir. This is my home. We've been wronged many times. Raped, pillaged, you name it and we've had it happen here to our people. We've become fighters. Yet for everything we win against… We lose against ourselves. This rite as Bryony calls it started around the time she was born. She more than anyone else remembers how much it hurts our community. Taboo as it may be, I think it is the fear that the women who wake up may spread it to others. We're not invincible. We fear for our daughters and our granddaughters."

The second he heard the child’s voice his footsteps paused.  He recognized her even though he’d only encountered her one time prior to this during a festival.  If not for her being a child he might have continued walking but on top of that he knew that her mother had to be close by.  He looked upon Angela as she entered and only then did he move back into the room that Holly was in, though he stayed close to the entrance at all times.  He said nothing about waking her, even as she made a clear point that she wanted it done today.  

Despite all of it, despite how so many people were being brought in for the action of one, his sympathies still went out for her mother.  Hopefully one day this entire ritual would be bested and none of them would have to worry about it again, but that wasn’t his responsibility and he couldn’t add it to his list of worries.  His resolve had already been set in what he wanted to do, now he just needed to find out if there was a way for it to be possible.

“My sympathy and condolences go out to you Mother,” He used the term as her title, it always seemed to be the most fitting for her in his eyes which is why he had been so concerned that he hadn’t seen her through this ordeal.  Her being here eased him, but only slightly, despite what she was.  He continued on, “But this is something that cannot be dealt with in the way that I’ve been told.  I cannot care for someone for a minimum of two months –possibly more than that-, not with my profession and not with my condition even if I wanted to.”

He breathed out slowly, his muscles finally relaxing as he closed his eyes, “I know that your daughter is a good person, I know that she succumbed to a moment of weakness when she made this decision but this decision was made decades ago.”  His eyes opened and he looked back at her, “I’m no longer 19, I’m no longer a boy even though I look like this.  I have aged.  I have grown.  My life has changed, and that has been without her there.”  

His voice softened, “She is not my wife…she is not my lover, she is not my daughter or sister.  She is a girl I knew nearly forty years ago during a brief season.  Great Mother the two of us did not even know each other long enough for me to love her…it could have happened, but at that time it was not what was in store for either of us.”

There was still at least one thing he wanted to say before any of this went any further, “After her attack I reacted to her in prejudice…and for that I do apologize.  It’s something I’m still struggling with to this day, getting through that forced bigotry of my upbringing, and if I could take it back and spare any of this from happening then I would have, but I cannot.  And neither can you…When Holly drank that poison she not only affected her own life, but she made a decision for me without even realizing it…or perhaps she did.  I can’t say that I know.  I did not force the poison down her throat, no one in this room did, but the moment it touched her lips it affected my life.  It is trying to force my hand.  And while I wish to help her I will not allow my life’s path to be manipulated.”

His fingers lifted up, lightly scratching the back of his neck, “If it is my genetic make up that will make the healing easier then I know of someone who would be able to aid her.  Someone that would be much more fitting to do so, but I need to know what options there are.”

Angela watched him a calmly and nodded. "Naota, we need to talk away from Iva. She doesn't need to hear this." Taking his arm she walked with him and thought about his words. "Did you know her uncle was the God of Fate? She wasn't born during his reign but I've always taught my children the lessons that he had to offer. Things never happen for a reason… Maybe in her mind there was something at work and she took it at full grasp. That might have been my fault. I know a little about you but your meetings sound like something he would ponder on for long periods of time."

Thinking more so she stopped them outside of the vault and stared at him. "My daughter did a selfish thing but she was but a child. She will come to understand her actions but like most of the others who take the rite, she was immature. Holly has hardened and I don't know if she will be the same person you knew or not when she wakes up. She is a bard and her music revolves around happiness and I just think she's stripped that herself. For whatever reason she took how you reacted to finding out what we are and applied it to how everyone must feel. It's not that she entirely loved you maybe lusted but you made her realize we're not natural. We're even more unnatural than vampires."

She found a seat and stared up at Naota. "I'm not going to put this on you. I'm also not going to scold her when she wakes up. If you have a solution lets hear it. I want my daughter awake and Iva misses her but I'm afraid that Iva does not understand fully what's going on here and I would rather keep it like that. I also don't want her with Kalyani either, that woman has a monstrous hag coming after her. Holly needs a place she will be safe and looked after. I do want you to keep in mind what Frey use to say as well. Things happen for a reason and sometimes Fate doesn't even see it coming. There's a reason you two are woven together like this. Just think about it. You both have long lives."

He nodded, following with her as she spoke.  I’m not going to put this on you.  Each syllable rung out loudly in his head and he finally felt himself relax.  Now all he had to do was hope that his alternate idea would work…Even though he and Holly were no longer close, he still worried for her safety and while his sister was trying her best to remain a part of his life, she was still a vampire and he couldn’t help that there was a level of distrust towards her merely for that.  But she, like himself, had her own code when it came to killing, hopefully she’d honor that.

“Only a few short years after your daughter did this to herself, I was approached by a woman.  That woman led me to someone whom I was told was related to me by blood.  Directly.  A sibling.”  Even now he barely spoke about it with his parents…his adoptive parents as it were.  After all of this time it was still almost too much for him to wrap his head around, but that wasn’t what was important right now.

“I have a sister.  She’s a few years older than I am but like me she’s frozen in a youthful physical state.  Mine was due to our heritage.  Hers…”  While she also would have stopped aging, she unfortunately never made it that far for it to happen.   “She was bitten and sired…She claims that she isn’t dangerous, and so far I’ve yet to see her go against that.  I believe that she would be able to help your daughter.  But I haven’t even been able to speak with her about any of this…for all I know she could decline.”

He looked down at her, feeling wrong at standing while she sat, at being above her in stature.  Even if he was having conflicts with her family he still respected her as a deity and moved to sit next to her, though a good half foot apart out of respect.
“Would something like that even be able to work…?”  

Watching over young Naota she gave him a smile and looked off into the distance. "That would work. I can make sure to give you something that can enforce it. Normally when it comes to Sularia I keep my deity powers to a minimum, however, I am a mother first. I can make necklaces of both of your hair, Holly and yours. It should strengthen it on top of your sister's."

Thinking about it for a moment she reached over and brushed her fingers over his hair. "Vampires are like people, like humans Naota." She propped herself up on her knees. "Whether you want to believe it or not. There are good and bad. My twins Nerezza and Lucian have a father, who is a vampire. He is bound by honor and correcting the mistakes in his past." Her presence was much like a mother towards him now. "Sometimes when we are hurt or trained to loathe those we don't completely understand we lose sight of the fact that all individuals are different. Sometimes it takes putting yourself out there to feel the person and moving past what makes you uncomfortable to see what really is. Don't lose your sister because of that heritage."

She moved her hand to his and smiled. "I lost a lover once. He came to me in the shortest amount of time. Even shorter than Holly and yours. He asked me for a child and I granted his request. I kept him alive but I could not cure the illness that plagued his body. He died but not before granting our child the name Iva which means life. I don't think I've ever cried so hard in my life than the day I lost him. I knew him for nine months. Nine months out of my entire two hundred years of being alive. I raise our daughter every day questioning on if I, the Mother, am doing a good job. Love has no time limit but it can come when you least expect it. I hope you find it."

Despite her gentleness he couldn’t help the instinct to pull back when she touched him, but he managed to halt his draw back halfway through.  Though his heart raced faster.  He was too on edge, far too on edge right now with everything that was going to happen.  Even though he would no longer be the one meant to take care of her, he worried about his sister’s…condition.  Even as Angela spoke he tried to take it in but there was far more than simply being raised to think one way about this group of people. 

He’d been hired against them for decades now, seen what they could do, been hunted by them in return and he couldn’t help but wonder if the damage was done too well.  Though time with Hiromi had been helping, that was just with one person…Angela was right: vampires were individuals just like humans, but so far he’d hardly been shown a reason to trust them.  After all: look what they’d done to her people.  He kept that thought to himself though.

His eyes moved down to her hand when it touched his and he kept his focus there, taking in how gentle she was.  Well, he knew that she could be gentle, but with her daughter’s well-being on the line he had expected more hostility.  That in itself helped…towards Rosenites at least.  It was difficult to listen to her story, to think of the little girl, Iva, and how she would forever be fatherless.  Life always found a way to be cruel, he’d learned that over the years.

“Fate…can be cruel.  For your daughter’s sake, more than mine, let’s hope that it’s within her favor this time.”

He looked back up at her, not moving his hand away from under hers.  It had been a while since he had felt a maternal touch even from his own mother…it made him wonder what his birth mother had been like.  Hiromi never spoke about her, and he couldn’t help but wonder if it had something to do with him personally.  “I’ll reach out to her…send her to you so that she can wake your daughter unless it’s by my hand that she has to at least be woken.”

Angela watched him and laughed. "Iva? You should meet her. Everyday she brings flowers to where he is buried. She is a bright light in a world that is so dismal. She is the hope that everyone needs. Sure she is a pain in the ass and constantly tests my damn nerves but she is a good child. When she was little Holly use to sit at her crib and play her violin. She was learning from her older sister Calanthe who is also a bard."

The goddess gripped his hand a bit and leaned over to kiss his forehead. "You have to wake her. At least let Holly see you. While you had time for your feelings to subside hers have not. I just hope your sister understands the situation. It might be a bit depressing for a while but we'll all get through this."

Thinking on the situation a bit more the Mother smiled at him. "I'll need to make the necklaces afterward. They will remain until the situation is dealt with but it should allow you to do whatever you want and not be around her. Artifacts are my speciality but they only last a certain amount of time. I can lace your hair with hers and form a crystal around it and pull some special deity magic  on it." She ran her fingers through his hair.

"Are you ready? Or do you want to ask more questions?"

All of these maternal touches were almost too much for him.  Even when he was a child his mother had never been extremely hands on when it came to coddling.  She was a very caring woman, but physical touch like this had always seemed to make her uncomfortable…most likely because her hands were usually used for such violent things.  He could understand the fear of touching your child with the same hand that had been used to kill another person.  Thankfully he would never know that fear, as children weren’t a prospect for his future, not with the curse that carried on with him.

A child shouldn’t have to visit their father at their grave…  But he didn’t say that, not wanting to draw attention to it.  It was incredibly sweet that she was able to see her father’s grave in a positive light, but it didn’t change the unfairness that he had been sent there so early in the first place.  His eyes briefly closed when she kissed his forehead, bringing about a flurry of conflicting thoughts and feelings.  He knew what she was, who she was, and while a part of him urged him to attack her from drawing so close, a greater part reminded him that she as an individual was not bringing any harm towards him.

He stood almost quickly, eyes opening and readying himself, “I have more questions than you could possibly imagine,” Which still somehow felt like an understatement, “But I must find her, speak with her.  From what I’ve grown to know about her, she can be a very direct person…I wouldn’t expect to be more than a few hours.”

He pulled a rolled up map from his vestments and pulled it to tautness between his hands.  Years back he had woven a lock of her hair into it so that he would be able to find her should he need to, and her location showed itself in a light blue glow on the next continent.  He wasn’t too surprised: it was where the courtesan house she resided in was.  “As for your daughter…”   He paused, thinking about the pros and cons that speaking to her before leaving could cause.  Not just for him, but for her as well.  “….I’ll talk to her briefly before leaving.”   The map was quickly rolled back up and replaced before he swiftly teleported away.

Angela had seen how uncomfortable he was with her. It was something he would need to work on. "I'm always around for you to ask. When you come back I'll make sure you have something of mine to find me. We've entered the spring season so I'll be all around Revaliir blessing the crops and what not. You know all those duties." She gave him another smile. "Now go get her. I'll be in with Holly and the others. Hopefully not explaining to my youngest anything too complicated."

All the goddess could do was nod as she came back in. Iva was bounding with questions as the elder goddess came in and tried to answer all that she could. "IVA breaths in between your questions please!" She groaned as she took the child next to her sister to decorate and brush her hair. "Iva! BREATHE!" The child's questions continued until Naota returned.