The Prince's Songbird Slave ✔️

Guilt

Thought around time of writing - I SAW MARTIN FREEMAN!!! (and took a sneaky stalker photo)
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After my parents left the room we stayed in the closet in silence for a minute or so longer.

Only once Freya was sure they were gone did she push open the door and walk out into the room, her eyes cast down to the floor, not wanting to look at the younger me.

The younger me wasn't sure where to look either, but hadn't completely understood what my parents had been talking about either.

If the older me had a physical form in this vision I would have frowned. I remembered nothing of this - sure I knew all my memories of Evelyn talking had been altered, but she was still quite a quiet girl most of the time. This whole encounter however had nothing to do with Evelyn, so I should have remembered it, the same with the games of dress up and Evelyn and Freya seeming close. It made no sense for the spell my parents altered my memory with to have made me forget this part.

"Nate..." she said softly, causing both versions of myself to look at her. "That was... you weren't meant to hear all that the adults just said..." she murmured, her forehead slightly creased as she watched me. Biting her bottom lip slightly she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, simultaneously my younger selfs eyes widened. "This is... this is what your father was talking about; these two were from assassination attempts," she said softly and painted to one scar on her forearm and one on the side of her throat. "This was a symbol to increase the rate at which I uptake magic," a more complex scar was pointed to, my expression only growing more horrified.

She gave a weak, lopsided, smile and walked over slowly too my younger self, as if not to startle me. Slowly she placed a hand on either side of my face, her eyes closing as she started muttering and chanting.

Since I had learned that my memories had been changed I'd done a large amount of research into the sorts of spells that are used to do it, several of such words were being spoken by Freya now in hushed tones. It took her about ten minutes, slightly longer than we'd been in the cupboard for, before she let go and stepped back, presumably now finished wiping away a part of my memory.
She then simply turned and left the room, not pausing to look back whilst I just stood there blankly,

For the rest of the trip Freya was distant - watching Evelyn and I from a distance and not interacting with us any more than was necessary, the behaviour fitting much more with the memories that I had.

When it came to the end of our stay she shook hands cooly with me before pausing to give Evelyn a tight hug. At the time I don't think I'd heard their exchange, or perhaps I didn't understand it and so didn't remember it, but this time what I heard meant something to me.

"You will write, won't you?" Freya whispered to Evelyn. "I know he won't, so promise me you will..."

Evelyn nodded, "I promise..." she said in a soft voice.

"I don't have much in the way of family here... will you be my sister?"
Evelyn nodded again, her arms trembling slightly as she hugged the older girl. "Y-yes..." her voice shook like her body, some fear in her tone too and I remembered that the only real family she'd known, her mother, had been killed in front of her.

"Don't be scared," Freya whispered, "please I didn't mean to scare you... Family means support, it means a person you can trust and a place you can come to... I'll always help you Evelyn I promise, I'll be here for you when you need me and I'll do my best to protect you from all I can."
The two girls released each other, Evelyn's eyes wet, a stray tear running down her cheek as she gave Freya a small little nod before running back to my younger selfs side.
In my head it all finally clicked into place.

No sooner than I'd thought that did my eyes fly open as I returned to the world bound the smoke. Memories that had spanned over a year all passed before the spinning coin had fallen back to the patterned table cloth.

It landed with a dull thud and I realised it wasn't the only thing spinning - the room was spinning too, my eyes unable to focus and my ears ringing incessantly.

I staggered, almost falling over, my body feeling heavy, no longer able to support my weight, but a hand grabbed me, keeping me in place.

"How long were you in there for?" Srn' asked, his tone sharp as he started to mutter some sort of cast under his breath.

All I managed was a weak croak, my mouth unable to form actual words.

"Witch," he hissed, his jaw clenching as he fixed her with a look. "How long was he in the visions for?"

"Well over a year," she drawled, and cackled maliciously, the twisted smirk almost audible in her tone.

"I have no qualms about killing you witch..." Srn' said softly, but the threat in his voice and narrowed gaze was clear. "Give him a sanitatem potion."

"I have none," she said cooly and I heard Srn' mutter something under his breath. "I am no healer, never had an interest in all the white magic stuff, far to genteel for my liking." She paused for a moment as she surveyed us. "You'd best let him bite you before the little princeling loses consciousness."

"I don't want a guy to bite me..."

"Well yes, I highly doubt he's in any state to ease you into it li-"

"Shut your mouth witch before I shut it for you," he growled.

"And your blood sharing mistress, little princelings fiancé, would be happy with him being unconscious for weeks?"

S'rn sore, the silver of the knife he'd pulled out on the Witch before flashed for a moment in the candlelight, blood starting to well up at his wrist. I could smell it, suddenly I became aware of how much I needed as I pulled at his wrist the same time he thrust it towards my mouth, making a noise of displeasure.

I drank the blood desperately, my body half graving the liquid and half craving the magic that buzzed around it. I heard a growl close by and I realised that the wound I'd been drinking from had closed, my fangs inching forward to rip into the flesh so I could continue.

S'rn pulled his arm back from me and it was only after standing there dazed for a moment did I realised the animalistic  growling I could hear was coming from myself.

S'rn grabbed me by my shoulder, dragging me out of the witches hut and through the streets. My eyes fluttered, the lids heavy, my feet stumbling and feeling like led as I struggled to move. He shoved me into the back of the car and I fell in, landing sprawled, face down, across the back seats.

But as my eyes slowly drifted closed for the last time, a blackness taking hold of my sight and me mind becoming still there was a new feeling building and burning inside of me.

Anger.

Rage.

All this time Freya had lied to me, I now knew that she'd know all along where Evelyn was and she'd been lying when she'd said she didn't.

With those thoughts on my mind I finally slipped into unconsciousness.

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Again something of a meh chapter... hope I managed one or two surprises at least... I bet a few of you had almost forgotten Nate was a vampire 😅