As the three sit down with one of their fears completely trumping the other, Dumnorix walks up to Maple and says, "You look rather elegant today. The twin tail braids are quite eye-catching."
Maple, as stiff as a brick, turns to Dumnorix and says, "Thank you for the compliment. I try my best!!!!"
"Is something wrong? You move like your body is frozen in ice."
Putting her hands against her head, Maple swings her head around and says, "I am so stressed. The ministers said they wanted to talk about our earlier deal at dinner tonight. I have to talk to them about one of the most critical issues in our country, and any failure will be tolerated."
Maple starts to breathe in and out rapidly, and Willow, moving up behind her, grabs her head while rubbing it, says, "There, there, everything will be ok, Maple."
"No, it won't. Or,b get the hell up and help me!"
Orb, still being restrained by Cyrus, gets up while his eyes remain closed and begins to take off his clothes. Suzuka, using her tails, quickly brushes them against Orb's head, making him salivate, relaxing his body and causing him to fall back to sleep.
"Dammit! I don't want you to wake up, that makes me feel guilty, you should have never even gotten this tired in the face place bastard!"
Abbán says, "Panicking is pointless. We all already know what we have to do; all we can do is merely face the challenges ahead of us."
Willow says, "Didn't stress and fear make you lose almost all of your body mass?"
Abbán says, "You are right. But over these last two days, I have seen that as long as we are together, even the stress Dumnorix and the world try to cause me is nothing. I spent many years as the sole leader of the Fanalis without anyone to rely on, taking all the failures on my own head. Though I can say with confidence after meeting you all, that these last two days have been far kinder to my mind due to not having to deal with my troubles by myself."
Maple, Ivana, Gheroghe, and Wadim all look around before fully calming their spirits, and Avram says, "It seems the doctor is great a healing hearts, just like he heals bodies."
"You exaggerate. Now let's go."
Cyrus says, "B-but what about Or-rb. If we leave, he will start sleepwalking to get w-work done."
Elia says, "I will watch him."
Suzuka and Cyrus quickly move to the corner of the room, wrapping their bodies around Orb to protect him.
Elia sticks out her palm and beckons both of them towards her.
Under his breath, Cyrus says, "No."
While Suzuka screams, "NOT A CHANCE!"
"Oh," Elia says while tilting her head and staring daggers directly at both of them.
Avram flicks Elia on her forehead, causing her to reel back in pain as she holds it. Then he moves over to the two and then says, "Why won't you guys hand him over?"
Cyrus says, "E-Elia is scary. I fear she will h-hurt him in his sleep."
Suzuka says, "She cannot be trusted with the innoce-. No, the vulnerable. I refuse to let Orb be left under her care."
Avram nods and then turns his head to look at Elia. then says, "I know she can be a fiendish, impish, rude, loudmouthed, prideful little girl."
"Thank you," she says with a smile.
Turning back to face them, Avram says, "But she is just like Iancu. She is full of shit."
"HEY!" Iancu screams.
"Understand this, both of them have the same core as Orb. What is best for people? Regardless of whatever she says or behaves, that's the core of her behaviour. I can assure you God gave me two little angels."
Elia puts her foot on Avram's head, presses it into the ground, then says, "I didn't like how you phrased that, but at least it is partially accurate. I am an utter angel in almost every regard. Now hand over the stupid mutt, ok?"
They both glare at her, and Suzuka tries to dive into her head, thought Suzuka quickly grabs her hands against her head, and says, "She is just as bad as Orb when he is thinking. No, she is worse. It's like she has 7 brains constantly on overdrive. It's like a monster is within that head trying its best to attack me!"
Using the moment of weakness, she grabs Orb and flings his body over her shoulder. Then says, "Now get out of here. I have some experiments to try."
Suzuka starts to growl like a mad dog, though she quickly stands up and says, "Let's go, Cyrus."
With her mood completely changing, she starts walking over to Maple, and Cyrus follows behind her. Cyrus whispers into her ear, "Are you sure we should leave Orb?"
"Her mind cleared up the moment she picked him up. Still hard to read, but it isn't scary at least anymore."
They both give Elia one last glare, and together, everyone in the room with the exception of Orb and Elia. And the moment their feet step outside the room, they are greeted with the face of the same woman who made the arrests of Žudrė and her siblings.
Everyone gets an eyeful of the woman who looks eerily similar to Iancu and Avram, with Iancu quite confused for a moment. Though the tension surrounding them all is quickly released as Avram says, "Sup unmarried, the child beater."
"CALL ME THAT AGAIN, AND I WILL SHOW YOU TRUE VIOLENCE!"
"Sorry, I was being too creative. Hag will do then."
She grabs Avram by the throat and smashes him into a wall, leaving a giant crater. Smiling as he struggles to breathe, he says, "Please go harder."
A look of disgust appears, and she quickly lets go as Avram says, "So simply. It's just like chemistry, with how easy it is to control your reactions."
"Shut up!"
Within moments, Suzuka's mind flashes through a series of scenarios, and turning to Iancu, she says, "Affair, baby?"
"KEEP YOUR IMAGINATION TO YOURSELF!" Iancu says while headbutting Suzuka.
Taking the full force of the headbutt, Suzuka merely puts her hands on his shoulder and says, "It's okay, Iancu, it doesn't change anything abou-." Unable to finish her sentence, Suzuka starts to laugh.
And the lady clapping her hands says, "I am quite a bit older than Avram."
Chiming in, Avram says, "A bit older?"
"Shut! Up!" Calming herself, she says, "I can assure you that we share no blood in the common sense that you people use."
Maple says, "But you look like you could be a female version of Avram."
"We are running late on time, so I will explain as we walk."
She turns herself around and begins to walk as everyone else follows her. "You see, Avram and I are loosely related in a sense. We belong to a particular clan of Nightmares who share the same curse. Though there is so little blood between me and Avram, I am probably more closely related to the minister's children than Avram."
Abbán says, "Wait a moment? That doesn't make sense. If you all share the same curse, there would need to be a heavy amount of blood between you. There is no way you can be that loosely related."
"You would be right if we were talking about genetics. But in reality, the curse our clan has is special. Do you know of the Second Queen of Blestemate?"
Willow says, "There was a second queen? Have I been misunderstanding everyone so far? There has really only been discussion about the first Queen, who has apparently been alive since this country was founded."
"You are correct in the fact that our current queen is the first one. Our first Queen has a long lifespan, in fact, she doesn't know when or how she will die, it's simply due to the nature of her curse."
Avram says, "So our Queen made an effort to cultivate a successor, a man by the name of Alucard Noapiubit."
Maple says, "A Queen?"
"She had held the title for so long that it had essentially become a part of our country that we are ruled by a Queen. So Alucard took it on as a gender neutral title, as a form of honour."
"Thank you for the interruptions, Avram. Over the eras of the Third Cycle, bad things have happened under her rule, which negatively impact us on the world stage, so after some time at the end of the Era of Levav, she stepped down, allowing Alucard to rule in her place."
Maple says, "When was that again? Orb said he would explain it."
Gheorghe adds, "600-1200 Third cycle, we are currently in 2026 Third Cycle."
"He had the ability to alter a Nightmare's curse into the one Me, Avram and Iancu have, and formed our clan, the Blestadrac. Who serve as the majority of the cursed heart army."
Avram says, "And have gone on to control the vast majority of the important positions in our government, and the Cursed Heart region in general. In fact, I am pretty sure having this curse is necessary to join the Curse Heart Army. Isn't that right, Stelara?"
Stelara, with an annoyed look, says, "It just so happened that during his reign, Alucard wanted those who supported him to be the closest. His curse gave him quite a bit of control over the little vampires he created, and he saw it as a great defence for national security. So, due to this, many different people from countless family lines have been blessed with this curse, allowing trash like Avram and treasures like myself to look the same."
"You say that like you didn't try to recruit me for years."
"Oh shut up. I was just extending a hand to an orphan."
"Don't worry, Stelara, I will remember all those cookies you baked for us kids. Maybe one day you'll get to bake some for your own."
"MAyBe oNe DAy yOU'll gEt To bAKe SOme foF YOur oWN!" She says back in a mocking voice.
Abbán says, "If you have a second queen, it would be smart to use them to help calm the situation around this place. I assume if they were elected, their curse would have to be something strong enough to keep them alive for some period of time."
Stelara falls quiet then says, "We can't because Alucard was killed by the Hero king of Avalon, when he came and took a large amount of the territory on the outside of the Ocrotirea Lui Dumnezeu territory, the region of Terrafide known as the Wild Lands. Following that, our Queen returned, and she had to take the reins of the country yet again. One can also say that was the day we as a country truly started to fall behind in terms of power, and it falls onto the my head."
Suzuka, confused, says, "How old are you?"
Stelara calms up, and then Avram says, "The people who received Alucard's curse first-hand have far longer lifespans than those like me who received it through birth. Stelara here was one of the last ones he ever made, so she has a good 700 years in her, of which only near 600 have passed."
The eyes of everyone behind them gleam as the true weight of her age falls upon them all. Turning with a snappy vigour, she says, "What? IS THEIR SOME KIND OF ISSUE!"
They all smile towards Stelara, which creeps her out and makes her pull back. Then, Willow says, "It's just nice knowing that someone so old can still be so dignified."
Their minds all flash back to the 2000-year-old large wolf druid who spends a large amount of his time acting like a bum known as Senán the Grand druid.
Confused, she says, "Thank you. Oh, it looks like we are here."
In front of them all, a large door stands, and as they look at it, Ivana, Gheorghe and Wadim's faces all begin to shake.