"Father, I brought you snacks"
Dorian looked up from the stacks of papers in front of him, sighting Anwen by the door, holding a tray of cookies, a jug, and two glasses.
He beckoned for her, taking off his glasses and setting it aside. "Isn't that heavy for you?"
"Not really…" Anwen beamed, "I can carry this much" She placed the tray on his desk, which was a tad bit taller than her.
"That's a good thing then" Dorian says with a clipped smile as he lifts her off the ground and onto his lap. "When you arrived a month ago, you couldn't even lift a finger."
Anwen's cheeks turned red and that's when Dorian notices the white dust coating her face, hair and upper body.
He swabs a finger across and rubs it, "Flour?"
"That's right…" Anwen picks up a cookie from the table, "I baked these myself with the help of Laia and the chef—try it"
Dorian, who wasn't a fan of sweetness, opened up to turn her down. But the watered eyes of hers made him take a bite of the cookie that was already inches away from his face.
Chewing slowly, he coughed. Why is it spicy?
"How does it taste?!"
"It's…good" In order to make it more believable, he ate the rest of the cookie, forcing the lump of spicy flour down his throat.
Dorian reached for the jug and poured out its content to one of the glass cups, cranberry juice filled it to the brim, which he gulped down in a go.
Laia said Father also likes cranberry juice, I didn't know he liked it more than Aimes. Maybe I should bring him a glass everyday?
Anwen's stomach rumbled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten anything proper, spending all her time on baking, she skipped breakfast and lunch.
She reached for a cookie but Dorian grabbed the entire plate, raising it above her head. "I didn't say you could eat them"
Huh?
"But…But I baked them!" Anwen gaped.
"—for me. So they're mine now and I get to decide who eats them—actually, no one does. This was made for me by my dear daughter, only I have the right to eat them"
His tone was very strict but he had a smug look on his face, like he was proud of receiving mere cookies from her, despite the fact that she wasn't his actual daughter.
I'm sorry Anwen, but I can't let you know that I lied about how they tasted.
Dorian thoughts were filled with Anwen getting upset over the cookies, but her expression switches from confusion, to realization.
She jumps down from his legs, "I didn't know you enjoyed them so much Father, let me go bake more—"
"This will be enough for now" Dorian was quick to dismiss the idea. "Go meet Laia, she's probably with a tray of food ready for you"
Anwen tilted her head, "How so?"
"I asked her—telepathically. It's one of the basic features of a vampire"
Although Anwen didn't understand what that meant, she couldn't press further because someone else had entered the Duke's study. He had a serious expression on his face as he showed his respect to the Duke.
"I'll go meet Laia now Father, enjoy the rest of the day! See you tomorrow!" Anwen may not be a child born from nobility, but she understood her surroundings better than any noble child her age and knows just what to do or say.
She did a bow before the informant who just arrived and skipped her way out of the room. The etiquette classes are paying off after all.
Although that was what Dorian had concluded, he knew there was more to Anwen than what anyone thought of.
"Your Grace, the spies we sent to the human village by northern borders had returned with news" The informant began and all traces of whatever expressions he had when Anwen was around were replaced with death glares sharp enough to make the man before him lower his gaze.
"Alive? I was sure they would do something to them…"
"Er—You are correct. Out of six spies, only three escape unscathed. One is at the verge of death while two are heavily injured."
"It is just like Your Grace expressed—the witches have the village under their control and use it to carry out their horrendous experiments of turning humans into corrupted vampires"
"The villagers are brainwashed periodically, as to forget about the amount of people missing, which had increased over a short time"
It's exactly as I thought. Dorian mused over the words of the informant. He lets out a dreadful chuckle, his head buried in his hands as he feels the corruption within him threatening to resurface.
"How are they able to take over an entire village that's under the jurisdiction of a pureblooded vampire—Roarke? Is he the one letting them carry out the experiments…on livestock that belong to the kingdom?"
Silence fell upon the study as the informant couldn't answer. Even though it was already obvious, they just didn't have proof of Roarke's hand in it.
He could plead not guilty before the vampire court and go away unscathed. Those bespawled coxcombs acting all high and mighty wouldn't know danger if it smacked them in the face and called itself Roarke.
"Your Grace…do you perhaps…plan on going there yourself?"
Dorian cast a side glance at the man kneeling before him. He kicked his legs onto his desk, placing one above the other. "Is there something else?"
The informant shifted his weight nervously. "The witches were aware of the spies…and they're aware that you were instructed by the court to investigate them. It seems like there's a mole amongst the members of court delivering information to the witches—"
"Or Roarke," Dorian interrupted. He picked up a cookie, staring at it intensely. "I'm aware about the mole Roarke placed in the court…I also know who he is"
His mind trailed back to the councilman who approached him while he was smoking outside the court the last time he visited.
That man that had offered him a candy all because he wanted to confirm the gender of the child Dorian had adopted.
Dorian gave it away without a thought and pretended to disappear, but actually, he went invisible and stuck around to see him speak with Roarke through an orb—an item that belonged to witches.
If Dorian's intuition was correct—which it has always been—the reason Roarke sought out Anwen so desperately was because Roarke knew that Dorian reversed time from the original timeline and took Anwen away from him before the catastrophic incident…that will happen three years from now.