Alice watched the woodland fairies, nymphs and spriggans dance about the indoor garden without a care in the world. They splashed through the small pond and sprayed water everywhere. They played loud music on their woodland instruments, and were all around happy people.
She glanced to the fairy who had sat on the stone to her left as she overlooked the small pond.
The fairy had green hair and her clothes were made of leaves and vines. Her wings were see through, but had a spiral pattern that sparkled ever so wonderfully in the bio-luminecent lights. She was human sized as she sat on the rock over the pond right beside Alice, where she smiled at the vampire.
"Why are you out here watching? You could always participate?" The fairy asked, shouting a bit so she could be heard over the music.
"I don't dance very well I'm afraid. And I'm currently spoken for, so I don't really want anyone getting the wrong idea." The vampire answered, looking back at everyone who was dancing.
The Spriggans looked humanoid, but instead of skin, they were covered in tree bark. They were also very tall, with long limbs with one extra joint on each one, giving them the appearance of walking on their toes. They also had horns on their heads, and their torso's were woven together like a wooden rib cage protecting it's inner organs. A bright green, blue, amber or red color shown through their bark and in their eyes, which were simply a solid color.
The Nymphs looked like humans, but dressed like the fairies, except they didn't have wings.
"If you think they're dancing to look good then you don't know what a party is." The fairy answered, smirking at the vampire like it was a dumb thing to say.
"Well, I've never been to one so lively without trying to destroy it." Alice looked down at her hands before crossing her arms over her chest so she could no longer see them.
"Well, now's your chance to experience one first hand." The fairy answered.
Alice looked up at the woman with a raised eyebrow. "Who are you?"
"I'm Lillian, thanks for asking." The woman bowed without standing back up.
"Why'd you come over here and talk to me if you're so good at parties?"
"You looked like you needed a friend." Lillian shrugged. "Why are you here if your significant other isn't? Are they here?" Lillian looked towards the people like she was trying to spot the person who would have dragged a depressed vampire into a party.
"I came here on my own to watch. Like I said, I've never been to a party without trying to destroy it... other than the balls, but those were just for show." The vampire answered.
"Well you still didn't answer my first question." Lillian smirked, looking back at the vampire.
"We're not technically together yet, but I'm mated to her. She's human so she doesn't quite understand how I can just know. She said she wants to try, but she wants to take it very slow. I was a psychotic murderer after all." Alice raised an eyebrow like she was surprised people didn't reconize her.
"HOLY SHIT! YOU'RE ALICE DAYBREAKER!" Lillian shouted as loud as she could, faking a fearful expression as she leaned away. The people closest to them turned to look in shock, getting Alice to cringe like she was about to be attacked. But then they just smiled at her and turned away to return to the party.
"No one cares who you were. The fact your here now, watching a party, and looking so damn depressed proves you're not that person anymore." Lillian explained.
"How can you not care?"
"Partly because I can sense that you have part of a spriggan in you. A gift from Venus I assume?"
"You can sense that?" Alice placed a hand over her own chest without breaking eye contact with the fairy.
"Of course I can. Spriggans are living trees, which is part of nature. Most of the spriggans have Fairies that live inside them." Lillian motioned to a spriggan who's chest opened up like fingers unclasping from each other. A fairy ended up shrinking down to a very small size and flying inside it's chest before the ribs closed back up again and the spriggan waved to its friends before taking it's leave, walking deeper into the garden.
"Is it common place to do that?" Alice asked.
"In the case of the garden yes. We all live here together in harmony, so we make friends very easily. If a fairy resides inside a spriggan, that spriggan has much more magical power and can repair damage much faster. At the same time, that fairy gets a mobile home that will protect them with their lives. Fairies don't do so well in combat situations after all. We're more suited to support anyway."
"Do you have a partner?" The vampire asked.
Lillian shrugged. "I mostly maintain order around the garden. I've been thinking about leaving and going on an adventure, but none of the spriggans would ever come with me. Why would we leave the garden where we're safe, have plenty of food, and anything we could ever want. We literally tend to Venus's roots. There's no greater honor for us."
"But you want more out of life?"
"I wouldn't say out of life, but I think it would be a good experience."
"What does picking a partner entail?"
"It's much less permanent than when you partner with a shade." The fairy smiled softly. "The spriggan can kick the fairy out at any time."
"But why would they?"
"Maybe they have a disagreement or just don't get along as well as they did."
"You make it sound like it's picking a lover."
"It has the same concept, but without all the drama." Lillian smiled. "It's hard to have any kind of physical relationship between a spriggan and a fairy, even when we take on our larger human forms. Spriggans don't exactly have reproductive organs for that sort of thing."
"I suppose that makes sense."
"Though it is interesting that you have part of a spriggan in your body. Is it an actual spriggan?"
"I don't know." The vampire shrugged. "Peredite just implanted it in me so that Venus could control me if she ever needed to. They say they've disconnected it from Venus to give me my freedom, but I wouldn't be surprised if they only told me that do see how I would react."
"You have such little faith in them." Lillian smirked.
"Like I said, I am a murderer."
"Would you like to find out if it's sentient?"
"I doubt they would stick a sentient spriggan in my body. It would be surrendering it's entire life to be used by me, and I live forever."
"But you said you didn't know for sure?"
"I don't hear it speak to me, and it doesn't exactly do anything."
"I can find out, and you don't have to do anything."
"Are you going to live in my ribcage?"
Lillian laughed. "Only if you ask nicely." She then took Alice's arm, and pulled her hand out so she was holding her palm up. She then held her own palm over Alice's, and wiggled her fingers a bit like she was using some sort of magic. She waited a moment, but nothing happened. "Well, it doesn't grow when I tell it to, so it might be."
"Why would they force a living thing to sit inside my body forever?" Alice asked.
"Well... I don't think it's sentient, because like you said, it would be rather cruel." Lillian reached up behind Alice's head and brushed her hair to the side so she could see the back of her neck. Sure enough the tree bark grew up the entirety of the back of her neck, only disappearing under her hairline. It also seemed to fade under her skin around the sides of her neck, so it couldn't be seen from the front, and barely seen from the side unless you were actually looking for it.
"It looks like it's grown partially into your brain." Lillian smiled. "Or at least your spinal cord."
"If I'm completely honest, it might have replaced all of my bones, or at least the ones in my torso." The vampire shrugged.
"Well then just focus on what you want it to do."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"If the spriggan absorbed your bones, then it's probably as dense if not more so than your actual bones. Which means it can likely shrug off even the strongest of weapons, and since spriggans aren't demons, it also would be immune to the anti-demon weapons that the hunters use."
"That would be nice." Alice agreed.
"But if it really is a part of you, then you can control how it grows etcetera. Just, be mindful that if you grow it through your flesh it might hurt a lot."
"I have a high pain tolerance, but I would still like to avoid it."
"Well if you damage your skin and flesh it might not grow back the way it was."
"True." Alice looked down at her hand, wondering what the best course of action was to controlling her spriggan. "Can I grow it like armor?"
"It's possible." The fairy shrugged. "It's up to you, it's your spriggan."
Alice sighed deeply, and concentrated on her arm instead. She wanted to will the bark to grow over her arm like a sheet of metal. It took a few seconds, but the bark slowly started to grow down.
"That's awesome." Lillian smiled, gently touching Alice's arm. "Now you can protect yourself. I would certainly advise practicing some more though."
"Of course. It wouldn't be effective in combat unless I could create armor or weapons quickly." Alice rolled her eyes.
"It's still a nice thought."
"Did Rose ask you to keep an eye on me?" Alice asked, watching the fairy for a shocked expression, but she found none.
"She mentioned that you might show up here and to make sure that you were doing okay. She didn't ask me to spy on you if that's what you meant."
"She just wanted you to make sure I was adjusting okay?"
"Seemed like it. But I couldn't really give you a definate answer. Maybe she did want me to spy on you, and she expected me to tell her every little detail about you. But if that was the case I think she'd be more specific." The fairy smirked. "Don't worry too much about it. The way she said it was most certainly her way of making sure you were okay. I'm sure she's just concerned you won't know how to treat people when everyone is always nice to you. Escpecially when you keep telling people you were a murderer."
"Well I was."
"Exactly my point." The fairy laughed. "We've already been told that you're trying to change and take back your life."
"Do you happen to know what happened to the woman I brought here many years ago?"
"If you're speaking of Shiva, she spent several years talking about how you hated everything to do with your father and wanted to get away from him. She's one of the biggest reasons why most of us here are nervous of you, but don't truly fear you. We were told that you're simply broken and lonely, and just want a connection."
"That does sound like something she would say... What happened to her?"
"After being a servant here for several years, she decided that she was going to spend the rest of her eternity studying at the Tower."
"That was what she wanted."
"If you are ever looking for a partner, and not the romantic one, I'd be happy to offer my services, if it meant getting out of this castle sometimes, and helping to prove that you're not a Daybreaker anymore."
Alice smiled softly before turning her head and watching the people dancing for a few seconds more. Her smile then faded as she looked down at her hands once more before a look of determination blanketed her expression.
"I am a Daybreaker. I'm Alice Daybreaker, the most feared out of them all. I'm the face of the Daybreaker name, and no one would dare cross me. So I'm going to crush my father, and take the clan from him. Anyone who doesn't want to follow my new rules, the Nightshade rules, I'll kill them too. I'm going to change the Daybreakers into something good, no matter what it takes."