Jade was certainly no vampire. Vampires were long-limbed, egotistical, and fragile creatures. Blessed – or cursed depending on what one has heard – with immortality, the fanged beasts filled their endless days by playing house and they weren't particularly good at it. Strange creatures as they were, they handled their petty squabbles by having the nine largest houses group together to make a judgment.
Every judgment was violent.
When the vampires weren't playing house, they were playing aristocrats – attending prestigious universities and sleeping with the old money of the human world's fleeting generations. They were patrons of arts and music the average human would probably never see nor hear. They dressed in custom attire, going out of their way to look just fancy enough to turn heads but never so fancy as to keep those eyes on them. The most recent trend amongst the fanged was buying private planes. They never used them for anything, as far as Jade could remember, the point was simply that they had them.
Jade couldn't spend more than a few minutes amongst vampires. They talked exceedingly about nothing, and if it wasn't blood-covered gossip it was some long-winded tirade about how werewolves were the worst possible thing to ever grace the Earth. Much to the canine's amusement, of course. It was truly an exhausting experience, at least as far as Jade was concerned.
She certainly was not too fond of being lumped in with them. The most that they had in common was immortality and being alluring to humans – not that the latter was too particularly difficult. Vampires were predators, born into the shadows of night to stalk humans - the very reason humans feared the dark. Jade and her kind were far more interesting. They were protectors and defenders. It wasn't their fault humans were so dull in the mind to consistently push into sacred territory.
You'd think after so many drownings it would be obvious which reefs were not to be messed with.
Still, she was reasonable enough to understand where the confusion could come from for the simple-minded humans. Afterall, despite her distaste for their petty squabbles and gag-worthy food palette, she still dealt with them relatively frequently. Naturally, they were her most frequent customers. And speaking of the pale devils, such a customer had entered her hall.
Victoria Vanhelsing - no one said she was original when she chose her new name - stalked across the tiled floor, her dagger-like heels clicking as she walked. She held her head high, deep green eyes darting to each of the individuals in the room. There were three women, including Jade, and one Victoria. Not the best of odds and Victoria knew this, and more importantly Victoria knew Jade knew this. A false smile spread across her face as she poorly attempted to radiate a sense of warmth. "A beautiful morning isn't it?" Victoria had a lilted voice, each word following one another as though in song or poem. Tantalizing to the human mind, though uninteresting in Jade's. "I'd heard of the quickness of your work, but this is a surprise," she continued. "I had assumed it wouldn't be ready for at least another couple of months."
Jade offered a thin smile. She had no need for pleasantries, much less the poisoned-tip silver tongue of vampires. "Well, after you had informed me this would be a matter or breaking centuries worth of tradition -" Jade paused a bit, letting a wave of fear pass across Victoria's face for a few moments, the speed of which indecipherable for human eyes, " - I was simply too intrigued to focus on anything else."
Jade gestured to one of the young women in the room to approach her. The young woman approached with a small, black briefcase of no notable appearance. The only thing making it valuable was what was inside. Jade gestured again, this time towards Victoria and the young woman nodded in kind, showcasing the contents of the briefcase.
Victoria's eyes widened and her once false smile was replaced with a genuine look of wonder. Ever so gently, Jade picked up the necklace. "Is this suiting to your tastes?"
If the women in the room hadn't known any better one would think the necklace had come straight out of the 1890s, untarnished by time and full of its splendor. A 2ct blood red ruby was suspended on a simple gold chain and surrounded by a halo of gold and diamonds. From the ruby itself two gold chains were hung, a small diamond in the middle of each chain and a small ruby dangling at each end. The single, large ruby alone was worth over 6 grand USD, but that wasn't the special part. The rubies were formalities, a favorite of vampires for their ability to protect the fanged beasts from the unrelenting sun until they reached 'age of majority.'
No it was the gold Victoria had lusted after. It was the gold all vampires lusted after.
Vampires, werewolves, humans - even the fae begrudgingly eyed the gold.
Victoria reached out to touch the necklace, gently caressing it with the tip of her coffin-shaped nails. "You've certainly outdone yourself," she murmured. The gaze she held with the necklace was almost hypnotic, and in the silence of the room you hear a pin drop.
"Our agreement?" Jade pulled the necklace closer to her, breaking Victoria's gaze.
"Oh, of course." Victoria recomposed herself and grabbed a black envelope from her clutch. The young woman took it for Jade, gently opening it and counting the cash within before giving Jade a reaffirming nod.
Jade smiled, placing the necklace gently back into the suitcase, trading the suitcase for the envelope. "It was an honor working with you, Miss Victoria," she said. "And good luck to your fledgling, I'm sure they're in quite good hands."
Victoria offered a curt nod in response before walking out the hall much faster than she had arrived. Jade couldn't blame her, of course, there was nothing left to say to one another outside of formalities lest Victoria had any interest in more business - if she could afford it. The necklace alone could've easily cost the downpayment on a mortgage for those just below Victoria's status. Naturally, that's why Jade worked with them despite her distaste for the leeches. The lowest class of the vampires was still upper-middle class amongst humans - and vampires beneath that threshold didn't last long enough to be worth engaging in business with.
Victoria was part of the middle class of the vampire world, in other words just above the median upper class of the human's world. Humans who had just managed to break into the upper class still looked up to Victoria and her house as paradigms of wealth, and naturally there was still a non-inconsequential number of vampiric houses wealthier than hers. No doubt the necklace was intended to draw the eyes of said wealthy vampiric houses, perhaps to get some vampire prince-wannabe to latch themselves onto her fledgling and raise the status of the whole house. Or perhaps it was simply to rub in the faces of her peers.
"Thank you, Merila," Jade turned to the tall woman, giving her a soft smile. "Please, tell the weavers to prepare for an influx of necklace demands from the vampires. I have a feeling things will heat up in their courts soon."
Merila chuckled, waving for the other two women to accompany her to the main office of the house. As much as Jade so longed to discuss vampiric court politics and jewelry with the weavers, she had far more pressing issues on her plate. Two of the Canadian werewolf packs would be hosting a wedding - and of course, the bride needed the traditional jewelry worn to invoke their 'moon goddess.' Though, last she had remembered the bride was a Catholic when she had turned so who knew how that inquiry would go. And, of course, they needed another jewelry house in the Pacific. So far this house, a beautiful 20th century mansion not far from Manila, was doing a lot of the leg work for the Pacific jewelry making, and it was becoming a bit much. They needed something more, the question was simply - where?
Jade turned her heels and made her way out to the courtyard, a vibrant green space full of fruit trees. Naturally wanting to avoid human eyes, the house grew much of its own food and what was not grown was fresh fish brought by the merfolk before their stay. The courtyard, however, was not purely for food. In the center of its oasis was a beautiful fountain from which sprung beautiful, crystal clear water. Jade sat on the edge of the fountain, dragging her finger back and forth in the water until it started to glow a vibrant blue. With a flick of her wrist the water levitated in the air and began to twist itself into the shape of the Pacific and all its beautiful, wonderful islands.
The largest and oldest sea of the human realm, the Pacific was like a great pearl just begging to be utilized by the merfolk. It was just a matter of how. There were many beautiful islands across the Pacific, each island showcasing beautiful and vibrant cultures. More importantly, they also lacked the influence of other occult beings. Vampires, for their own biology, avoid spending an egregious amount of time in the sun. Even those old enough to stand in the light without bursting into flames were still weakened by the light. Werewolves didn't have such biological restrictions, but small islands made it particularly difficult for them to successfully hide and isolate entire packs. Sure, there may be a few furry timeshares, but they weren't year round residents. And the fae? The fae are land-dwelling creatures - they don't take too kindly to being surrounded by a relentless sea.
Naturally, this made islands an ideal. The only issue was finding the perfect island for the merfolk to have an operation that would remain undisturbed.
Jade's eyes lingered over the jewels of the Pacific - the likes of Guam, Samoa, Fiji, and Hawaii. Oases in a blue desert. Then, finally, she found herself eyeing a true pearl - an archipelago halfway between Hawaii and Guam. The archipelago, Vasanoa was well populated and easy enough to access. It had beautiful blue shores, a vibrant reef, and lush greenery. The people were welcoming and the main city, Hasanii, was large and populous enough that people wouldn't bat an eye at wealthy tourists coming in and out.
"Hmm," Jade thought aloud, gently tapping the water map. The big island would be ideal, it was just a matter of convincing the uppers to get a trade house set up there. She had earned some good will with the uppers due to her work in the Philippines Trade House, but it was still an uphill battle to get a new trade house.
Not that she could blame them, of course. It would require setting up meetings with customers and dealing with the fae. Much to Jade's chagrin, due to the nature of their treaty, a new trade house for the merfolk meant a new trade house for the fae. And the fae made an unnecessarily big deal out of any changes to anything. Not out of malice, of course, but out of laziness. They quite disliked being disturbed for anything that didn't have immediate benefits.
After trudging through the politics of getting the trade house, then there was the matter of finding and buying land. Then dealing with the politics of the human world regarding 'expanded the business' from an international base. Oh goddess. The very thought of it all was enough to give anyone a headache, and yet Jade knew that her work would be worth it. She tapped the map once again at a portion of empty land that overlooked the sea. "Perhaps I'll call it the House of Dragon Fruit," she murmured. A dragon fruit farm could soothe the interests of the local humans while the true gold was sold within the house.
It would take work to get there, naturally, but Jade was a woman who knew what she wanted - and was willing to do whatever to get it. With a wave of her hand the map of water collapsed back into the fountain to flow once more like a spring. Jade stood, brushing herself off before she turned her heels back towards the trade house.
She had a merchant to talk to and a flight to book.