Night's Omen

Ivy stared at her for a moment, and then just rolled her eyes.

"If I never have to see that mongrel again, you can just have her," she said finally, choosing to look at Alisoun and not even once at the small fox-girl. She didn't even wait for Alisoun's response, she just headed for the door.

"This had better be worth it, you pathetic excuse for a brother," she snapped into the phone. She wanted her Rajar, and she wanted it now.

Ivy was never described as unspoiled, that was certain. With that being her last words Zel would ever hear, she walked back out the door of Midnight.

~~~

And Ivy's done.

Zel took a step back, and looked hurt. "I am not a mongrel," she said softly, and then repeated herself more loudly. She almost wanted to cry - it shouldn't be so bad, really, and she shouldn't care so much, but... Ivy had just called her worthless. She wasn't worthless, she wasn't, and she always did try!

She looked at the new vampire, the one whom Ivy had just given her to, and wondered if the lady, the kind lady who had pet her and acted so nice, would even want her now. She wanted to touch her, to hold her hand like a child, but she wasn't sure if that would be a good thing. She wasn't sure if she would even want her anymore.

She looked back down at the floor.

Alisoun blinked, having honestly never met someone who would simply give a pet away. Especially one as obedient and adorable as Zel. Alisoun smiled and nodded politely as Ivy left, dismissing the other vampire as badly dressed, witless, and unintelligent. No matter. The woman was gone, leaving Alisoun a Pet richer than she had been five minutes ago. Ivy's desertion of Zel may have been quick and done with little thought, but Alisoun would never have purchased Zel if she did not think it fully worth her while. Alisoun rarely did things on a whim. Zel had just happened to be there, and be perfect.

Speaking of whom. The little fox was mumbling to herself and looking near tears. Alisoun put on a worried expression and went to her, kneeling beside her and looking deeply concerned. "Sweetheart, what's wrong?" She searched the shifter's mind, no longer holding back now that Zel was officially hers. Ah, so Ivy's decision to get rid of her had been without warning and swift. Alisoun didn't care; even if Zel had been attached to the other vampire, it was Alisoun's affections she desperately wanted right now. Therefore, Alisoun stroked her hair and said, "Of course you're not a mongrel. You're a beautiful creature, and a lovely girl. Don't cry, I don't want you to be sad. A girl as pretty as you should never be sad."

It wasn't particularly that Zel had been attached to the other vampire - she had liked her, and Ivy had been kind to her, but she had screamed and broken enough within the last few hours to more or less shatter the trust that Zel had put in her. No, it was more the fact that she'd just called Zel worhtless, and now she was worried that Alisoun wouldn't want her anymore and she wanted her to want her - she was so nice, and so beautiful, and she had pet the little fox and told her that her eyes were pretty.

Alisoun did the right thing, coming up to her and stroking her hair, calling her 'sweetheart.' Zel turned around and flung her arms around the vampire, burying her face in her shirt. 'Sweetheart,' that meant that she wasn't worthless, or at least Alisoun didn't think so, and she was agreeing with Zel, saying that she wasn't a mongrel.

More or less, she'd just guarenteed that the fox would love her new Mistress, love her with all her heart.

"Don't cry, I don't want you to be sad. A girl as pretty as you should never be sad."

Zel looked up at Alisoun's face - her big, mismatched eyes shining with unshead tears, then swallowed and nodded. Still, she buried her face once again in the fabric, still clinging to the beautiful vampire. What Ivy thought didn't matter, because her new Mistress didn't think she was worthless, and she was the one whose opinion mattered.

Alisoun smiled at the clinging fox and petted her hair. She had made a good choice buying (or taking in, rather) the little fox. Zel was the sort who didn't need pain or harsh punishments to be molded to love her Mistress. Scattered compliments and mixed sincere and pretended affection would assure Zel's love, and perhaps a staged or real rescue from some situation would assure her devotion and loyalty. Philip, with his jealousy, might unknowingly help with that.

Zel's face was in Alisoun's shirt, but there was no crying. Good. Gently, Alisoun lifted Zel's face to meet hers and smiled, saying, "There's a good girl. How about we leave this dusty room and find you a place of your own?" Alisoun was already planning Zel's room in her mind, a small bedroom somewhere separate with a fox-sized cushion in Alisoun's room for nights when she let Zel sleep with her. It would irritate Philip to see permenant evidence of Zel so close to his sister and Mistress. Alisoun looked forward to his discomfort.

"And some new clothes," she added. "We'll take you out for new clothes." No one could be allowed to say that Alisoun did not take care of her Pets. Free or not, Zel's appearance would reflect on her.

Zel felt cool fingers lifting her face up so that she looked once more into her new Mistress's beautiful blue eyes, smiling eyes.

"There's a good girl. How about we leave this dusty room and find you a place of your own?"

Zel smiled again and nodded a little, still not exactly her usual exuberant self. Still, she was recovering. "Yes, Mistress. Is there anything you'd like me to do right now?"

Alisoun sensed that her Pet's sorrow still had not completely lifted. That was fine. Alisoun was nothing if not patient, as long as her patience wasn't mistaken for leniency. From Zel's inquiry, she doubted very much that was what was happening here.

Dropping her fingers from Zel's chin, she said kindly, "Yes, actually, there is. I would love to see your other form, and carry you home like that." Already she was searching for the minds of slaves who were unoccupied, requesting items to be obtained and brought to her rooms. Zel would have to be fitted for clothes.

Zel nodded and smiled - not fully recovered, but still recovering as quickly as could be expected of anyone. She was still so young, so innocent - in most cases sorrow lingered for one moment, swept away the next.

"Yes, Mistress," she said, and then turned into a fox and briefly rubbed against her ankles affectionatly, almost twining around her feet like a cat. Then she looked up and yipped a little, and smiled a fox smile at her new Mistress.

She was so lucky.

Alisoun smiled at her Pet's adorable antics and picked her up off the floor. She nestled the fox comfortably in her arms and set off towards the halls, taking them away from the Lobby and to the quarters that had been prepared for her and Cynthia. The area was empty; presumably Cynthia had no yet returned with her Pet. Alisoun would take this time to get her Pet acquainted with Alisoun's rooms and expectations.

The most important part of Alisoun's quarters, at least to her, was the parlor. Alisoun had been raised to entertain company, and both Fallon and Agni had, in their own ways, encouraged that habit. It was also a place for Alisoun to spend her time if she didn't want to be in her room. Or if she wanted to play with her Pets without allowing the privilage of being in her private space. Access to Alisoun's room wasn't a right, it was a privilage, one that Zel would learn to earn and one that Philip would now have to compete for. Speaking of whom...

Philip, come to the parlor. I have a new Pet for you to meet.

While they waited for Philip, Alisoun put the fox down on a small sofa and sat beside her. She spoke gently and kindly, as though she were explaining simple house rules and not outlining the confines of Zel's very existance. "This is not where you will sleep, but you may play here, and greet visitors when I ask it of you. There is another Mistress who lives here, also, Mistress Cynthia. You will ask her for permission before going into any of her rooms or touching any of her things." Alisoun pet the fox's ears, smiling fondly at her. "Right now she is with Master Ian, finding a Pet of her own. You will meet them both when they return. I know Cynthia will love you. She might wish to play with you, as well. We will have to find you some toys."

Footsteps.

"Ah, Philip." The middle-aged Pet bloodbond's eyes went from Alisoun to Zel. They betrayed no emotion, the nearly healed wound on Philip's cheek a reminder to be blank, but his gaze didn't leave the fox even when Alisoun went to him. "Zel, this is Philip, the Pet I was telling you about. Please shift back and come say hello." She touched a nail to Philip's wound. "Philip will love you. Won't you, Philip?"


((What other rules would Ali have mentioned? I can edit them in.))

Zel sighed when Alisoun picked her up, then snuggled down in her arms contentedly. Off they went, and though Zel was warm and happy she was sure to pay careful attention to her route, so she would know exactly where her Mistress lived. It wouldn't do either of them any good if she got lost, after all.

Then they were there, and in a parlor, and the blonde vampire was placing Zel on a couch and looking at her like she was about to say something important, so the fox licked her nose and looked up at her Mistress with an attentive air. She listened carefully as Alisoun went through and outlined the rules that she was to live by from now on, carefully storing them away. She didn't want to disapoint her new Mistress, indeed she did not, not when she'd already been so kind.

Footsteps clicked on the marble as a man walked out of the room then stopped, and stared at Zel. She looked at him curiously, cocking her head a little to the side in a rather adorable way as she studied. And then her Mistress was giving her an order, and so she quickly jumped off the couch, shifted back into a girl, then walked up. "Hello," she said with a bright smile. "I'm Zel."

Philip looked down at Zel, passive. He knew what Mistress was doing, it was obvious. She was making him jealous, this time on purpose. In the hallway she had merely sensed his reaction to her words and taken the opportunity he had presented. Now, with this little shifter, she had gone out of her way to bring him pain. Mistress liked pain, more his than her own, but sometimes she would allow her worthless Pet and brother to hurt her back. This Zel could not do that, not the way Philip could. He knew Zel would never be to Mistress what he was, what he had been all these years. Mistress let him keep his soul so he could still love her purely, still hurt purely, so she could keep him around her finger and in pain. Every time he found a way to please her, she found new punishment. Fresh aching, fresh ways to make him bleed. Mistress wouldn't hurt Zel. Zel was here to taunt him, to remind him of everything he couldn't be. He could make Mistress hurt, but he couldn't make her happy. Zel had been bought to make Philip hate himself, and he did.

But Philip was a good Pet. He did not show these feelings. He would not make Mistress upset and greet Zel unkindly. "Hello," he replied. "I am Philip. You are very interesting. I am glad that you are here."

Alisoun laughed inside, at Zel's sweet ignorance and Philip's emotional self-mutilation. She couldn't have planned this better if she'd gone looking for Zel herself. On the outside, she smiled at both of them, as though fooled into thinking the introductions had gone so well. Zel would believe it; Philip would know better. "I'm going to show Zel her room, now," she told the male Pet. "Could you find us some magazines or catalogues of toys for small creatures? Zel is going to help me pick out her own toys herself. Perhaps you will play with her later?"

Zel, naturally, didn't know what was going on in the other person's eyes as she stared up, innocent and smiling. "I am too!" she said brightly, and so utterly sincerely. She meant everything she said, it was obvious. She had no idea of the pain or the torture or the sick, twisted love that lived inside the man, she didn't know that he hated himself or that she was a tool by which he was supposed to do so. And she probably never would know either.

Mistress smiled, and that was all that mattered, that she was pleased. And then she said that she was going to sit down with her, and that Zel herself would be able to pick out toys, and she looked up at the blonde vampire with shining eyes. "Thank you!"

Philip left. Alisoun lead Zel out of the parlor and through another room, this one a far more intimate setting and for keeping Alisoun entertained, not guests. There was a hallway leading off of it, whose branches lead to Alisoun's own room and bedroom, and then further off the smaller rooms belonging to Philip and Zel. Zel's room was intentionally closer to Alisoun than Philip's, but Alisoun doubted the fox would notice or care. It was yet another small thing that only Philip, in his never ending misery, would notice.

"This is where you will sleep and keep your things," Alisoun said as she opened the door, making room for Zel to enter first. She wanted to see the fox's reaction. The slaves were fortunate to have finished it so quickly, as Alisoun would have made failure a thing to regret. There was a Zel-sized bed, an elegant dresser, a closet, bedside table with lamp, and an empty bookshelf. Alisoun would not see her Pets uneducated and unintelligent, although of course she would have to approve of anything they were to read. On the far side of the room was a door leading to Zel's little bathroom. Inside she would find clean towels and gentle shampoos and soaps.

Alisoun watched her Pet survey the room. "This is how a Pet lives," she said. "How you live and care for yourself is a reflection on me, and I will see that you have the best of everything. You must be happy at all times, and want for nothing." Her tone softened, then her smile. "What do you think?"

No, she didn't notice that her room was the closer, all that she was really noticing was how beautiful everything was!

... then again, of course they were. Her Mistress clearly deserved the best. Zel shook her head a little, like she was in fox form and shaking water out of her coat. And then they were at her room. Her room? This? She looked up at her Mistress with wide eyes, and then slowly stepped inside, as though afraid she'd break something if she didn't step lightly enough. It was elegent. When she had lived with Ivy her room had been nice enough, but... any of this was nicer then anything she'd ever had before.

She stood just inside the door and looked around.

"What do you think?"

Zel swung around and hugged her Mistress once again. "Thank you!"

Zel's reception of her room was what Alisoun had been expecting, which pleased her. Good. Zel was to forget whatever life she had lead with Ivy. Ivy may have called her a Pet, but as far as Alisoun was concerned - she had taken a thorough look around Zel's mind - Ivy had treated her no better than a common slave. Making the girl run petty errands, sleep in such inelegant quarters, trail along like a shadow... No. Not any more.

The sudden hug was unexpected, but not unwanted. Alisoun wanted Zel to be comfortable touching her Mistress. Not unreasonably, of course, but Zel was not here to live in fear. She was here to be happy, and have that happy world center on her perfect Mistress.

"I am pleased that you like it," Alisoun replied. "I am going to attend to Philip, now, and I would like you to bath and find some fresh clothes. Once you do, meet me in the parlor. I will have a surprise for you." She tilted her head, still smiling. "Do you understand?"