A medical emergency

[fadingworld]

A deep navy cloak hides his features and the more ornate tunic the courtesan usually wears to greet his clients. Mal hunches his shoulders and slides through the crowds hoping to avoid notice. He keeps his head down until he reaches the home of the doctor and wraps smartly on the door. "Open up," he calls in a voice that expects to be listened to.

How much time did he have? He could not have a client bleeding out. Not this one. Not one who had come to him for help, to be treated privately.

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[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis cocks his head a bit to the side, studying the young man before him. With the profession Mal had had until this very day, and having seen at least one of his clients, Regis is well aware that Mal has been intimate with not only older people but older men. For Regis this isn't really an issue, with over four centuries behind him things like time and age looks very different to him.

But now free to chose for himself, it would be a shame if such a thing as a rumor would be in Mal's way.

"Ponder this, then. If a rumor takes off, as we both suspect that it will and I then send you on your way to avoid trouble. Do you really think that my reputation would improve. Personally, I suspect not. No, Mal, let us just be about our work and let teh gossips have their fun."

[fadingworld]

"They would settle," Mal murmurs. He tilts his head up, "Could you please answer me this. I am distasteful, or is it simply the profession. If ...I found my tastes aligned to what I experienced, could you keep me in the same house as you?"

[mandragoraspiritus]

A moment them where Regis quietly studies Mal, pondering his words and what it is the young man is trying to say. "If you truly do enjoy the company and touch of men, you mean?" His expression softens and turns more kindly. "Human sexuality is a fascinating and often complex subject. Even though attraction to ones own sex is in our world more often seen as - indeed - distasteful or even abominable, it is far from as black and white as our society would have us believe. But, to answer your question simply, yes, I could and would still have you under my roof. It would not bother me in the slightest. You are deserving of happiness and I wish you all the best with whomever you eventually set you heart on, be they man or woman."

[fadingworld]

Mal sighs in relief. The answer also tells him a ltitle about Regis whether he meant it or not. The human comment plays on his mind.

"Now will you tell me how you got Madame to agree?"

[mandragoraspiritus]

"Do you still think there was some trick to it?" He smiles in good humor, lips as closed as ever. "Perhaps she simply have a weakness for persuasive, older men?"

[fadingworld]

Mal's expression says it all. "She's seen many older men come through the door and lay gold at their feet. I have never seen anyone do that, even at there most persuasive. You did something."

[mandragoraspiritus]

No, Mal is obviously not buying it. He isn't stupid, after all. How then to handle this?

"You were there, Mal. Just what do you think I could have done?"

[fadingworld]

"I'm not sure..." Mal says. He pauses, "You have a sense of power I have only seen people play at. It made my hair stand out on an end. And then there was the mirror...."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"The mirror?" Careless! He had been so focused on the Madame and to get Mal out and free that he hadn't paid attention. Still he keeps his expression mild and perhaps lightly confused. "What about the mirror?"

[fadingworld]

"You weren't there," Mal looks puzzled. "I could swear to that. I could see the back of Madame's head but I couldn't see any of you." He shakes his head as if clearing it of the memory.
"I don't mind what the reason is, as long as I am not going mad!"

[mandragoraspiritus]

It would only be a matter of time, wouldn't it? Mal would soon figure it out. Regis couldn't hope to have him around without him understanding. IF this were to ever work, there had to be trust. No lies. Honesty.

Until now he's been holding the crowbar. Now he slowly and silently holds it out for Mal to take. Once he has taken it, Regis folds his hands around the strap of his satchel as is his habit.

The change is imperceptible yet somehow profound. The oh so dark eyes, black on black, or are they solid black? The pale complexion, the long and sharp nails. The smell of petrichor under herbs. Bits and pieces that marks Regis as something altogether different.

"You asked me a question, Mal. If I would keep you under my roof if you were something others would find distasteful. Let me ask you a question in return. If I was not as ordinary as I make myself out to be, if I was not so... Human. Would you still stay in my house?"

[fadingworld]

In reply Mal lets the crowbar fall to the floor. Power, there in front of his eyes. A deep blackness that seems to draw his eyes in.


His lips part into an 'o''. He takes a steadying breath. "Why would I mind what you are? I don't believe you would hurt me, even if I asked for it." His heart is beating a little faster. "What are you?" he whispers.

[mandragoraspiritus]

"I would not hurt you. I have no wish to. I do not wish to harm anyone." Regis speaks softly, almost gently, remaining standing still right in front of Mal.

"I am a descendant of a few beings that came through to this world during The Conjunction of the Spheres. A Higher Vampire."

[fadingworld]

Mal blinks, and of all things he blushes. "Forget my fantasy," he says lightly. He bows and holds out his hand towards Regis to shake it. "Well...it is an honour to know your secret."

There are so many questions. "I am glad you do not sparkle in the sunlight. Do you mind if I ask questions occasionally?"

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis bows his head in an expression of relief, and then honestly laughs at Mal's reference to the book that still laid out by the cough. When he looks up at Mal and shakes his hand his smile is more relaxed. Wider. And, there are teeth. Long, sharp teeth that he has so far kept hidden behind his small smiles.

"I would find it strange if you did not have questions."

[fadingworld]

Mal looks at the teeth with curiousity. Well, they didn't seem grotesque to him. "Could you point me to a more accurate tale of Higher Vampires?" he requests. "I would like to make the questions intelligent."

He steps forwards and embraces Regis. "So you used powers on Madame?" He was certainly persistent!

[mandragoraspiritus]

Whatever reaction he had expected to get from this reveal, an embrace was not it. He's momentarily stunned but soon returns the gesture, for a moment resting his cheek against Mal's before releasing him and stepping back.

"Ah, yes. That. Some degree of mesmerism, I must confess. I did not want to leave you in that place for so much as a day more."

[fadingworld]

“Oh, she will be mad if she comes to her senses,” Mal does sound delighted. “Just as you accept me for who I am, I accept you. Why should it matter what you are? Especially when you have done nothing but care for me.”

[mandragoraspiritus]

"Why it should matter?" Regis frowns, then. "Mal, in just about every definition of the word I am a monster. While you do not need to fear me, you would do well in being more than cautious of my kind, and you should absolutely fear the lower vampires."

As is common with him, he falls into a more lecturing tone of voice. "Unlike most of my kin, I am rather fond of humans. Many, though, sadly will not see humans as much more than cattle and there are a few hiding in plain sight and merging perfectly well within society. Even some lower vampires manage this, such as older Katakans or Bruxae."

[fadingworld]

"It is hard to fear you after all you have done for me," Mal says simply. The others he will be very careful of. "Do many vampires come around here? What signs do I need to watch out for? I can't carry a mirror around all the time with me. I would look odd flashing a mirror at people."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"Nor should you. No-one should live their life in such wariness. I will tell you if there are any signs of any in the vicinity." He sighs deeply, then, as if a heavy weight resettles on his shoulders. "I too have cause to be wary, I fear."

[fadingworld]

Mal's eyes soften. "Is this a story you would like to tell me? he questions gently. "Or should I not pry?" It was that simple for him. He would only ask for things freely given, unless some dire emergency meant he needed to know details.

[mandragoraspiritus]

"It is a story you perhaps even have the right to know, but it is a story that would require more than one stiff drink, I dare say, so we should perhaps first see to the chores of the day."

He bends down to pick up the crowbar from the floor, gesturing for Mal to follow him out from the bare room. "Have you decided on where you would like to get started?"

[fadingworld]

"Then perhaps tonight," Mal says easily. "I thought perhaps and a desk? That shouldn't ovetax me, should it? Nor take up too much of the remainder of the day."

[mandragoraspiritus]

They go about the day, Regis by all means back to his usual friendly self. They find a simple but sturdy desk ready made rather than have to order one, and when they return back to Regis' house after a lengthy visit to the tailor for measuring that desk has already been delivered and the two of them make quick work of carrying it in to place. The bed is still absent, but Regis makes an effort to gather up all pillows and blankets that he can , and with the new blanket that Mal himself had bought the young man should have a decently comfortable night.

After dinner Regis ducks into his stores to retrieve one of his bottles of mandrake spirit. It is of his own making, a recipe he becomes more and more proud of the more he refines it. It is potent, flavorful and - putting all false modesty aside - excellent. He brings it to the study and sets out two glasses, even though he'd have been perfectly content in just swigging from the bottle.

"Close as we are to Toussaint, I assume that the news about the Beast of Beauclair a few years ago did not go without notice?" He starts with asking Mal once they are seated.