Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Lessard Family Estate: Gardens

as written by Alara and Lialore

The woman that joined the trio within the gardens was one of delicate stature, and she picked her way through the stone walkways with slow lingering steps. All the while she drew closer, that hypnotic voice delved deeper, caressing and coaxing max into a state of utter complacency.

"Be a pair of dears, and run along?" Sanina asked the two girls.

Sarah seemed more than happy to oblige Sanina's request and tugged at Alice's arm. Alice seemed disappointed but left with Sarah as they headed inside.

As Sanina passed by the wolf, her hand brushed along its head and the growling ceased before it turned and padded off. Alone with Max now, Sanina made her way over him.

She reached a hand up, brushing Max's messy curls back so she could trace her fingertips down the length of his face as she examined him with the inquisitiveness of a child.

"Tell me, what brings you to my lovely home?" she asked.

Her voice held the same lyrically hypnotic note as the singing had.

Max had watched the woman approach in his stupor. Words weren't coming easily to him, but majesty made it. In a terrible way. Somewhere in the back of his mind the warning bells were ringing, screaming, but he couldn't hear them over the melody that had him.

He forgot about the little girls, he forgot about the wolf monster, he was forgetting the touch of the strange woman in the midst of the very act. Then the scent of her came, squeezing through the song, but his head refused to clear.

Her proximity made him dizzy, her question made him innocently confused.

Max blinked, frowned; as if only just now noticing where he was.

"I..." he began, talking almost as though he was sleep-walking. "My home."

"You're home?" Sanina asked curiously. "Tell me, what is your name?"

"Max. Maxwell Lessard" he replied, seeming mildly amused. "But no one calls me that."

"How... curious..." Sanina crooned. "That you found your way to me. Do you know who I am?"

"No."

"My name is Sanina," she answered. "Sanina Lessard. This manor belonged to my father, Vincent Lessard."

Piecing things together was also something Max was finding difficult, but her words made him focus more. He knew little of his family, whatever his mother had told him had been passed on sourly.

“This place has been abandoned for years” he said. His retort was stupid, he knew, she didn’t look much like a squatter.

The feeling that something was extremely wrong was threatening to creep back.

“I don't believe you.”
 
as written by Tiko

The sun had set hours ago, and Sanina Lessard found herself seated within the gardens of the Lessard estate where the weeds and overgrown plants seemed to wither at her mere presence. The bits of vegetation growing up through the cracks in the flagstones was all dead beneath her feet, and those nearby were sick with a rot that had set in.

Sanina herself looked like a specter of death as she sat beneath the moonlight, her skin a ghastly pale white. At her throat hung a silver cross that she was fingering lightly, and her head was tilted slightly to one side, as if lost in thought. Something about the image was almost picturesque, as if she had been plucked out of some macabre Victorian painting.

She was expecting a visitor tonight, and she knew he would find her soon enough. The question only remained as to whether or not the creature could be tamed. As with Nox before him, associating with such a beast had its dangers, but the benefits outweighed the risks greatly.
 
as written by Knosis

The shadow walked slowly up behind the woman, silently passing her so that he was now in front of her, his back still to her. His frame had improved dramatically. Somewhere he had obtained a new leather trench coat that fit him well enough across his broad shoulders. He turned to face the woman, his eyes glowing slightly in the darkness.

"It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person." He said. "I apologize for my previous.. Madness."
 
as written by Alara

"Madness is but a gift from god... elevating us beyond sin. Beyond judgment..." she stood as she spoke to him, circling him curiously as she studied him. There was caution in her though, as she perceived Alek little more than a rabid wolf. Still, he was quite the creature, and one which she would marvel at seeing in action in the days to come... provided he could be tempered.

She paused as she rounded back in front of him, and raised a gloved hand to brush it across his cheek as if studying the contours of his face. As she looked up at him, her eyes were filled with all the gentle wonder of a child. Inquisitive and yet there was something more that lingered there in their depths. Some pull that made it difficult to look away.

"What is it you seek from me?" she asked him.
 
as written by Knosis

The vampire stiffened at the touch and his brows furrowed. It had been another age since the last time he had been touched in this gentle manner. She had been right to assess him as a wolf. His mistrust for other beings, more so of his own kind, had led him to a life of being alone except for his victims. And none had treated him as such. The last time a woman caressed his cheek in this manner, she had tried to kill him.

But his eyes never left her, nor did he move away. He found it rather difficult to even consider doing so.

"I have come to see what you seek from me." He said quietly. "I've come to see if you can really lead me to the path of redemption with our lord. You have been kind enough to show me what I am, and there lies in some trust that you know what I must do." His brow perked up slightly. "I am curious though.. Aren't you afraid of me?"
 
as written by Tiko

"Should I be?" Sanina inquired curiously.

Her hand moved from the side of his face, to his chest where it rested a moment as she felt the faint beat of his heart within his chest. Such a curious thing she noted...
 
as written by Knosis

"Most are." He answered. "Even if they aren't my next target, they know of the end I will eventually bring to all of them." He said quietly.

"Most fear me, yes.. But you seem to be wondered by me." His hands went to his pockets in order to restrain himself from grabbing at her arm. Instead, his hand found one of his weapons and his hand rested gently against the butt of it.
 
as written by Tiko

Sanina seemed unaware, or perhaps simply uncaring of Alek's hand upon his weapon as she moved to slip her glove from her hand carefully.

"May I?" she asked.

The ring of decay around her feet offered perhaps some measure of warning as to the nature of her touch, should he allow her to lay a hand upon him.
 
as written by Knosis

The man smirked slightly, his hand fully gripping the butt of the gun in his jacket. The decay around her had not gone unnoticed. "Madame, I have lived a very, very long time. I have hunted both human and non-human alike and fought them to their deaths. As I am still standing before you, you can decide for yourself how that is possible."

"So unless you can some how convince me I won't wither like the plants around you, then no, you may not."
 
as written by Tiko

"My touch is only anathema to the living," she assured him. "The dead have nothing to fear. In time... perhaps you will come to trust me..."

She slipped her glove back on.

"I seek nothing from you, but to see that you become all that you can be... all that you were created to be," Sanina explained as she finally answered his earlier question. "Our Lord does not make mistakes, and the only thing you need to do to find redemption in his eyes... is simply accept what he has given you."

"Come, walk with me," she offered.

She held her arm out for him so that she might entwine it with his own as they walked the gardens in leisure.
 
as written by Knosis

The man narrowed his eyes at the woman but did not speak. He walked forward and, although hesitantly, took her arm in his. For a long period of silence, Alek seemed to be contemplating something. "I.. Apologize." He stated, though it seemed reluctantly. "It is a lot to take in a short time." He admitted.

He held her arm gently, yet firmly, as if he use to do this once upon a time, but ages ago.
 
as written by Tiko

"All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all..."

Sanina sang the hymn softly, and her words held a hypnotic weight to them as they walked. It was a subtle caress that wormed its way deep into ones subconscious thoughts, calming and soothing deep within the recesses of Alek's mind.

"The nature of our being, or the being of others does not make us sinners within the eyes of our Lord," Sanina told him as their path took them along the winding stone walkways of the garden to the doorstep of a small stone chapel. It was of modest size, large enough for an individual, or pehaps a small family, to sit within. Thick ivy grew along the cracked stone, and the paint on the wooden door was chipped and weather worn. "What is it that God commands of us?" Sanina inquired.

She didn't yet move to open the door to the small chapel, instead seeming to study it almost curiously from outside of it.
 
as written by Knosis

Alek stared forward as he listened to her speak. It was almost like a soft lullaby, and it calmed and soothed him, making him ache to listen more. But it also raised his wary levels of her.

As they stopped, he too studied the outside of the small chapel in silence, taking in the details of the stone workings and its aging characteristics. "Our lord has demanded many things.." He answered softly. "To smite the wicked, to protect the faithful in the name of the holy one. To not give into temptation of the shadows of those who have fallen who wish to pull our souls into the fiery pits of eternal damnation with them, but to deliver them from evil.." He paused, taking in his own words for a moment. "Those were the words of the old creed of the crusades some hundreds of years ago.." He added. "And as a man, I tried to live by those words."

He was reminiscing again, his golden eyes seeming distant. "The world was much younger then. A lot less dark and foreboding as it is now. Now, every where I turn.. I feel a darkness overwhelming. Even in sacred places to our Lord." He turned to her quietly. "Am I the only one who feels as such..?"
 
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