Alison and Kira headed through the hallway, down the steps, through the entrance hall, and into the dinning room where they found a large group of people sitting and eating breakfast like a school house.
There were five massive tables set up in the room with the middle one seeming to be reserved for the Nightshades and their guests, with the other four for the servants. Though one of the servants, that Alison reconized as Bells, was seated beside Rose who was at the end of the table and the two were talking while Bells ate breakfast, and Rose sipped a glass of blood.
Each table had what appeared to be a breakfast buffet set up across the entire table, broken up into sections where everything they offered was within a few feet of your seat.
Alison spotted Veronica who was a few seats away from Rose, eating beside Aviri and Peredite, where the former was pointing out passages in a book to the young mage while she picked at her food.
"I see that Aviri wasted no time starting Veronica's training." Alison smiled.
"Actually, Aviri tends to read while having breakfast. It's not really that new." Kira smiled.
"If you say so." Alison smiled. "Should we sit with them?"
"Of course." Kira nodded and motioned towards her sister. She and Alison then headed over where they sat across from them. "Good morning Aviri. Keeping Veronica busy I see."
"She just asked me a question." Aviri smiled, looking up from her book to give her sister attention. "I'll answer anything she wants me to."
"She's taking good care of me." Veronica admitted. "She hasn't even bit me yet."
"I get the feeling Aviri's not going to be drinking from you very often." Alison laughed.
"If at all." Peredite agreed, getting Aviri to laugh.
"I will, but I'm not interested in it for the moment." Aviri explained. "I'd rather proove that I'm serious about teaching you, before I start taking blood from you."
"Well I'm glad to hear you say it out loud. As long as you tell me you're going to bite me, and don't just drink me in my sleep."
Aviri laughed again. "As I already explained to you, the doors are designed that they can't be broken opened except in emergency situations. If you don't want me in that room, I'm not getting in unless Venus lets me."
"Seriously?" Alison asked, looking to Kira for confirmation. Her lover just nodded with a soft smile.
Alison glanced around the dinning hall looking for Drake and Jack but the brothers were no where to be seen. There were a lot of servants enjoying their breakfast, but her friends didn't appear to be at any of the tables. When she went to ask Kira where they could be, she found her girlfriend watching her mother, and she couldn't help but watch the Queen of Vampires herself.
Rose was talking and laughing with Bells like old friends, and honestly Alison was very surprised that Bells could just sit beside the head of the household without anyone threatening to kick her butt. She and Rose must be very close.
"They are." Kira spoke up, reading the wolf's mind. Alison glared back at her before looking back at Rose once more. "Rose recruited Bells around the time the castle was being built."
"Doesn't that mean she's older than you?"
"Indeed. She was a slave to a monster of a woman, and Rose rescued her. Bells asked if she could serve Rose as thanks, but Rose declined. She said she'd hire her instead." Kira smirked as she poured herself a glass of blood from one of the wine bottles in the middle of the table.
Alison returned the smile and started making a plate from all the food on the table. "So what happens to the stuff that doesn't get eaten?" The wolf asked.
"Everything that's left over gets donated to the village." Aviri answered for her sister. "Most of it gets dropped off at the Orphanage or the Inn."
"You guys really do think of every single way you could possibly be as good as you can huh?" Alison laughed.
"You act like it's not incredibly simple." Veronica scoffed.
"I mean, the Fairies do grow a lot of food, so I guess it makes sense that the castle would have a lot left over." The wolf shrugged before digging into her breakfast buffet. "Oh my god it's so good. Who's the chef? I think I'm in love with this pancake."
"Careful Ali. Kira might get jealous." Veronica warned, though Kira only scoffed and sipped on her drink.
"Kira doesn't actually get jealous that often." Alison admitted.
"Good. I was worried that you were going to try to kill me at some point." Veronica sighed.
"That's why Aviri was more than happy to help you. So I'd always be close enough to kill you if I ever thought you deserved it." The vampire grinned, though her sister just rolled her eyes and went back to her book.
"Aviri would never let you harm her new favorite student." Peredite chuckled.
"You act like my sister has had another student before."
"They never stayed long enough for them to count." Aviri agreed. "They annoyed me far too much."
"What did they do to annoy you?" Veronica picked at her food without looking up at her mentor.
"They wanted to learn things that they were not ready for, and demanded I teach them. So I removed them from the castle." Aviri explained. "You are learning things step by step, and I quite enjoy teaching them to you."
"I can't suddenly summon a dragon to do my bidding without any build up. You have to pace yourself or you could end up killing yourself instead." The mage scoffed, taking a few more bites since she had nothing to worry about. "If anyone tries to rush progress than they're just impossibly stupid."
"I have to agree." Aviri nodded. "And that's why I don't teach other people."
"I'm sure people at the tower will be greatly irritated once they discover that you've found yourself an apprentice from the Human World. Let alone a Witch." Kira noted.
"That's the best kind of apprentice. One I can talk to in my native language." Her sister grinned.
Alison went back to focusing on her food, since there was nothing else she'd rather be doing than eating as much of it as she could. She was definately going to have to get hold of the chef and find out all the receipes so she could make delicious food like this herself. Not that she would be cooking for anyone since her girlfriend doesn't eat.
Though maybe she could get the practice in for her own child.
They'd have to eat right?
"Can I ask you a question Alison?" Aviri called, jolting her out of her mental rant.
"Sure?"
"How much do you know about Exodious's creation?"
"The Realm of Demons? It was created by a Fragment of Elysium wasn't it?"
"Exodious was a True God tasked with monitoring Elysium. She was the first voice it had, before many more were added." Aviri explained. "The True Gods were tasked with creating this world by Ragnarok, to try and make the perfect existence, or so we're told. Exodious created this world, then the other True Gods began adding to it. This angered Exodious, so she created Elysium to moderate and control every aspect of the world she crafted. Eventually, the other gods grew tired of her control and sealed her away."
"What about Ragnarok?" Alison asked.
"Ragnarok allowed the True Gods to do what they wished for a while, but when one of them sought to overthrow his rule, Ragnarok destroyed him. In fear, the rest of the True Gods used all of their strength to create three shackles created with impossible ideas, to bind Ragnarok and prevent him from ever killing another god again."
"Shackles?"
"It's called Glepnir, and each shackle can only be broken when specific events are met, and only two of the three shackles are known to us, and all three must be broken for Ragnarok to be free."
"What are the shackles we know?"
"The True Ragnarok has been separated into two parts to help maintain this control over him. The first shackle prevents the two parts from ever being able to reunite. A field that deflects them from each other like a magnet. The second binds one form into the body of something it isn't, and limits it's power exponentially, leaving them powerless in comparison. We don't know the two beings, or how the second being is shackled."
"So the True Gods filled Exodious with demons then banished their own maker. Great." Alison sighed.
"The True Gods couldn't decide on what they wanted to add to this new world they created, so Exodious took it upon herself to do it for them. She dictated how the world worked, and created most of the demons even so much as to pull Fragments of Elysium down to create new races. Some of those races abandoned Exodious and her creations, separating their lands from the very Realm, but most of that information is forgotten. Other races banded together to create the Realms inside Exodious. Eventually, the races began to rebel against their creators and continue the cycle."
"Of course." Alison rolled her eyes.
"The Races joined together and began forcing the True Gods to be sealed away where they could never use their powers against the world again. Exodious thought she was safe from this new act, but soon found herself under constant attack. Her own creation, Elysium itself was rebelling against her, and cast her out of it's collective voice. It then called upon the Fragments once broken off to defeat Exodious and Rose answered the call."
"Rose defeated Exodious?"
"Truth be told, the other Fragments weaked her greatly, allowing Rose to use what was left of her connection to Elysium to bind Exodious to a rift between worlds. Not the void, but somewhere she could never escape from." Aviri explained, looking to Veronica to see if she was enamored with the story. She was satisfied to find that the mage was staring intently at her, waiting for her to continue. "We don't know if she'll ever find a way to free herself, but if she ever does, we'll be ready and waiting."
"The other True Gods created the Dragon's right?" Alison picked at her food a bit more and watched Aviri as she turned back to face her once more.
"That's correct. The other True Gods created the Dragons in their own image."
"But didn't the dragons evolve into the sentient demons they are today?"
"That's up for debate. There are still Feral Dragons about Exodious causing trouble like you would expect. But those dragons tend to be much bigger than the dragons who actually lead the Realm of Dragons. They are also of many different kinds. While the sentient dragons only possess different elements, the Feral Dragons come in all different shapes and sizes. Kira and I once battled a massive feathered serpent over a stone temple deep in the mountains."
"There was no way that was a Feral Dragon." Kira noted.
"Have you ever even heard of a creature like it before?"
"It was Kukulkan, and he was a sentient dragon, if not a Diety of his own." The younger twin rolled her eyes. "He spoke to us, was even happy to talk to you about pretty much anything at all."
"We faught him!"
"We didn't know his intention and he didn't know ours. We all didn't think we had a choice in the matter, till you started insulting me right in the middle of the battle."
"You weren't doing anything!"
"You broke my bow on the way up! How am I supposed to fight a flying dragon with daggers!?"
"You guys seriously went on a lot of awesome adventures didn't you?" Veronica grinned.
"Of course. I like to take my studies to the field as often as I can. Otherwise I'm just sitting in a study for days on end and not always learning something new or important."
"So I'll get to go on adventures with you?"
"Of course. I wouldn't dream of leaving my assistant behind." Aviri grinned.
"I would hope not. Otherwise I'd have to find some other way to entertain myself." Veronica returned the smile with one of her own more sinister ones. She was being very obvious in reminding Aviri that she was here by choice, and to leave her out of anything would certainly irritate her.
"Fear not little mage." The vampire answered, her grin becoming a smirk. "I have no intention of going back on our deal."
"Sounds like fun." Alison noted, stabbing her fork into her food, and trying not to get involved.