Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

Chapter 435: Fantastic way of putting it

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-Von Helsing Estate-

A lie is usually best when mixed with truth. It makes it hard to pick it apart to all hell. And it usually helps when the liar appears vulnerable— sincerely vulnerable.

Arlette believed she had ticked all those boxes with the tale she spun for Alexia on her journey to becoming a Blood Alchemist.

She shifted the topic entirely from Vampirism, spinning a tale of an early life and a desire to save a loved one from a congenital disorder no other form of healing and Alchemical knowledge could fix. To heal this person from her past, she essentially needed to change them entirely and only Blood Alchemy provided a way.

Alas, in the end she hadn’t at all learned enough of Blood Alchemy to even attempt to save that life and it was all lost. It was one of the greatest tragedies of her life and one that dictated much of her human experiences thereafter.

"And who was this person to you?" Alexia asked, sitting at the other end of the sofa with a compassionate gaze on Arlette whose arm was still over her eyes.

"..."

Arlette was mute not because she didn’t know what to say to that or because she had to think hard on it but rather because, to make the lie work, she had revealed truths and was uncomfortable with revealing more.

Alexia didn’t push and also didn’t try to talk around the topic. As a Von Helsing whose senses were trained and augmented, Alexia believed herself to be very good at telling lies from truth and yet, none of the telltale signs and signals had gone off in her head. So she determined Arlette was either an impossibly good liar or all she said was the truth.

Sure, some part of her mind thought it could very well be a bit of both, but she couldn’t truly listen to that part of her mind in the face of such vulnerability.

So she said nothing and just waited.

Eventually, Arlette let out a sigh.

’She’s not going to let it go, is she?’

"It was my mother," she said.

And that completed the ’true’ part of her tale.

Arlette had indeed lost her mother but it hadn’t been due to a congenital disorder but a very avoidable case of her mother believing a cause so deeply that she wasted away for it even though it never cared for her.

Also, Arlette hadn’t tried to save her mother. And certainly not with Blood Alchemy which she knew nothing about at the time. In fact, she had hated her mother for how she placed that cause above everything else including the well-being of her family as well as herself.

Arlette usually tried not to think about those parts of her life but whenever she did, she couldn’t help but notice how her journey had been similar to her Mother’s;

Just like her mother, Arlette had given herself to a cause. One that could not have cared less if she lived or died. Sure, she had reasons for ending up that way and had very little choice but to join ’Ophiuchus’ at the time she did, but she felt those would just sound like excuses.

Anyway, despite how Arlette actually hated her mother for what she put her through, there was a strange pain and tragedy tied to her death that gave her lie to Alexia the extra validity it needed.

"Does Caius know?" Alexia asked.

"About my Blood Alchemy?" Arlette asked, raising her arm off her face to look at Alexia and chuckle,

"Of course, he does. I have no reason to hide it."

"No, about the other things," Alexia said.

"Hmm. I try not to speak of that. To anyone. It’s a downer and not at all important to anything," Arlette said and stood up to walk back to the Alchemy station in the hall.

"That’s problematic," Alexia mumbled and then stood up to join Arlette as she added in a much clearer and normal tone,

"I suppose that explains why you exploded earlier. My pointing out your errors must have triggered that memory. I apologize."

"Oh, that?" Arlette said with a stifled laugh, "Yeah, let’s go with that."

Her outburst had of course had nothing to do with the made-up sob story she just told Alexia. It was really all about how difficult she always found Blood Alchemy. With so many years of experience at Alchemy in general, she really shouldn’t be worse than Caius with merely months at it. And yet she was.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t aware of his talent but she had always believed she was talented herself and didn’t really like having to confront the possibility that she was not. A possibility that her alchemical knowledge would soon be useless to Caius.

And what if Alchemy is the first to go? How long before she had nothing to offer and got left behind?

To be honest, when spoken out loud or given even a bit of deep thought, it all seemed a bit silly and like she was making a big deal out of nothing. But that was the thing about insecurities; They are never too small and always have the power to take control of one’s life and ruin their ability to be rational.

"Alright," Arlette said, trying her best to shake off what was plaguing her as she gestured at the ingredients for the serum,

"We have enough for two more tries. Are you willing to waste them?"

Arlette’s tone was light. There was something so jovial about it that pulled Alexia and made her grin.

"Waste away," she announced, "Technically, the chances of succeeding go up the more one fails, doesn’t it?"

Arlette raised a brow looking taken aback by such wisdom,

"That’s a fantastic way of putting it, Lady Von Helsing," she said with a little laugh, "And feel free to chime in with your pointers."

"Best believe, I will," Alexia said.

And so Arlette started again. Really, now it was a collaborative effort as Alexia might as well be joining the Alchemical process herself. The one failure of the two tries they had left didn’t dampen the mood and when the sizzle and bubble of success followed that, they rejoiced.

"You did it!" Alexia said, her eyes gleaming.

"WE did it," Arlette corrected right as Alexia pulled her into a hug.

Alexia hugged Arlette like she was consoling the grey-eyed Alchemist and her actions were inspired by the tale Arlette spun. Arlette could tell and appreciated the gesture even if she felt it was misplaced.

And then she was alerted by her Loqui-link.

"Excuse me," Arlette said to Alexia as she pulled away and walked out of the Alchemy Hall, accepting the call and hearing Caius’s voice coming out of it as a recorded message she couldn’t respond to in real-time.

"Arlette, hope your time with Alexia is going great. You might be too busy to respond so this is really just a message to inform you on what is going on," Caius said before launching into the actual body of his message.

The message detailed the meeting with the Leopold Coven as it was going thus far. There was talk of a Leopold with a special sense that had allowed them to quickly locate Brogan and a mention of a Manor that, while Arlette could remember having spoken to Caius about it, she didn’t really know of in-depth.

The more of the message Arlette listened to, the harder she frowned and by the time it ended, when she learned Caius was planning to lead an army of Leopold Vampires to launch an assault on the Manor in hopes of killing Brogan Kraxia, she was already tapping the device to call him right back and ask him if he was out of his Nyx-damned mind!