Nightly Lessons Book I: The Book of Beginnings

[Peeker]

"...its far better than doing it with friends, love." Aleksandr insisted, gently holding her, even now. "...and Dimitrius does not lie... he does forgive you..."

Aleksandr continued to carefully rock the girl, knowing she was still upset.

"As do I love. I forgive you and I understand that you feel bad... and that you feel embarassed... but your Grandsire... my sire... has requested you join us for breakfast... and if you can keep yourself acting proper, I believe you'll find that he's a very pleasant man... you just need to step around him carefully, and move quickly too."

Aleksandr brushed the hair out of her eyes. "...besides, you need to dust the ballroom today, and the longer it takes you to do that, the less time you'll have to listen to your Grandsire tell awful stories about me." He winked. "I get my awful sense of humor from somewhere, you know."

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

Alice smiled at his light joke and whipped her eyes to make sure that the tears were gone and gave him a finaly firm hug although she groaned at the mention of the ballroom.

"Don't remind me..." She smiled never the less and gave Aleks a gentle push out her door. "Alright, I'll get changed at ready now scout! Or I'll write Lucy and say you're invading a girl's privacy when she's trying to undress."

She laughed, a little stiffley as it smarted to walk, the lightly redden flash rubbing against each other, but still, it showed Aleks she was in a better mood. Once she shut the door though, she found herself wondering what to dress in.

She wanted to dress in a pair of sweats and a T-shirt but Klo had torn appart most of them, along with underwear. That and she had promised Aleks she would dress nicely for a month. Looking a bit, she found a pair of demin overalls with puppy streching on it so that it looked like it was sitting hin her front pocket and plain white T. She knew it wasn't really falling under what Aleks asked her to dress in, but she figured she might as well dressed practical if she was going to dust and then change into something more suiting later.

"He'll understand, right Klo?" She looked at the dog who had chewed on his shoe through Alice's whole spanking and cry session. "I'm sure he will.... I hope."

Tapping on a pair of red and white sneakers. Alice brushed her hair and allowed it to hang lose around her before walking slowly down stair and gave the two a small child's curtsy by pulling the sides on the overalls.

'I'll change later I promise. It's just this way I can clean without get a nice set of clothes dirty,' She looked pleadingly at Aleks. "Good evening, Lords."

She quickly joined them at th etable take a seat as close to Aleks and as far form Dimitrius as possible. He may be forgiving, but it wasn't under the young Harker to hold grudges.

[Peeker]

"Good evening, good lady." Said Dimitri, amiably. He eyed the girl's wardrobe with some confusion "You know, Aleksi, this reminds me of-"

"...which time, m'lord? The time that you strapped me three times in a day for making the same mistake at three different meals? Or the time with Victor in the fieldhouse?" Aleksandr responded, smiling cheekily.

"You're still a smart-mouthed young creature, Aleksi." Dimitrius laughed, happily. "...I'm glad you're giving your daughter mixed signals by speaking so lightly with me."

Aleksandr shrugged, a strangely youthful gesture for the man, and lowered his fork before speaking. "...she's a smart girl. She'll figure it out. ...and as for the wardrobe choice, Alice, I'll allow it until you're done with your chores, but I expect you to magic the room clean. It'll replace your arcane lessons for the day, and probably be just as taxing as doing it by hand... you're still new at it after all."

He gestured to the table, lightly furnished with eggs and ham, Alice's ever-present glass of blood not there, but a variety of juices and other drinks available, as she'd already had her morning portion.

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

Alice gave a sigh. She had hoped she could use the chore as an excuse to keep away from her Grandsire and therefore use most of the day slowly dusting off everything and polishing it.

"Yes Sir," She answered and took a glass of orange juice and sipped it, happy there was still pulp in it. She wasn't sure why but she loved it when there was. "I'lll do my best..."

She nick picked at her food a bit, her rear lightly throbbing at the pain of sittingon the slightly hard chairs, although she wasn;t about to voice it. For the most part she ignored the two, giving only short answered when she was asked something by Dimitrius, usually the words 'good', 'fine', 'it's okay, and 'I don't know' were used.

finishing the last bit of eggs she had on her plate, Alice whipped her mouth in her napkin and moved to raise only to stop halfway. If her 'Grandfather' truely was more old fashioned thenAleks, all the courtly mannerisms were then in play, which meant.

'Crud... i have to ask to leave....' Alice thought darkly although she didn't show it. " Thank you for the meal, my Lords. May I please be excused?"

She looked at Aleks much like Klo did when he would see a pair of shoes he would like to chew, or as it was currently, Dimitrius' hat, which Alice was thankful for, was well out of the dog's reach.

[Peeker]

Aleksandr beamed at the girl, a bit dazzled that she'd try to put some much effort into her manners without prompting. "Yes. You may be, love. We'll see you shortly."

The two men rose from the table after Alice hurriedly left.

"It appears she hasn't taken much of a shine to me, Aleksi." Said the older vampire. It had been obvious, of course. While she'd been civil, the girl's anxiety had been coming off of her in waves so strong the older pair had practically been able to see it, let alone smell it.

"No, Sire. My Alice is a grudge-holder. To be quite frank, I don't know how you're going to get her to like you, if she is upset... it took me over a year!"

"...perhaps we should give her time to cool off while we talk our business, then?"

"That's fine. Time will certainly help, but I don't doubt she'll have a much hotter bottom before you leave... my Alice can be... predictable, as well."

"Do you still use that cane? If anything removes predictability-"

"-I'm afraid not, Sire. Not since Gabriella." Aleksandr answered, swiftly.

"Ah. Yes." Dimitrius frowned, but put an arm around the younger vampire's shoulder, and led him towards Alek's study. "...the Elders wanted me to petition you to design a few glamours and wards for the festival. We're holding it in a rather unusual location this year, you see..."

The two headed upstairs, now deep in business, leaving the imps to clean up - and Klonoa to find his mistress.

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

Alice barely managed to give Aleks a soft kiss on the cheek and Dimitrius a bow, when she quickly left the dinning room. Happy to be away from him, Alice walked calmly down to the ballroom, a little surprised that Aleks was allowing her to practice magic without him being close by. Especially do to yesterday, which in fact was actually the day before.

It occured to her there was a reason why Aleks wanted her to use magic, and it wasn't just practic. Even if she found a ladder tall enough to reach the chanderler, there was no way she would have climb it, even if Aleks threatened to let Razziel cane her. It hurt her neck, just trying to look up at it.

"How did he get it up there to begin with?" She muttered only to heard three clunks. "Huh? Oh... cleaning supplies."

Kapad, Cheifph, and Gloumb appeared before her with two bluckles, and two mops. One bucket was filled with soapy water for the windows and the floor, the other with different cleaners and wood oils and polishes, along with a squeegy and rags for the oils and dusting. The three grinned at her, happy to get this job off their back and disappeared laughing.

"Gee... thanks..." Alice was a little surprised. She though she was just suppose to dust the ballroom not down right clean it. Still..." I'm going to be a CD player before i start this..."

It took her a moment, sneaking back to her room to avoid Dimitrius and Aleks and then back again, like it was something forbidden. Grabbing an od boom box CD player, Alice popped a new set of batteries in and shut the door, locking Klonoa out as she had the tendensy to play the music loud and didn't want it ringing down the halls.

"Right... first music," she pressed play and the loud music of Three Days Grace 'Animal inside me' fill the room as she tapped her foot to the beat. "Now for the chandaler..."

Willing the rag douced in cleaners to rise was like lifted a Saint Bernard. Despite the music was keeping her calm and reminded her of her human life, Alice brought the rag up high in the air after dropping it several times and slowly set to whip the crystals off. It took the better back of half of the CD, but she felt rather pround of herself, if not a little tired when the crystals shined.

She didn't know however, that the imps, being deviant beings as they are, had ditched her with their work of mopping and window washing, but since she didn't know exactly better, why stop her?

"Phwuu! Christ that was hard..." She whipped her brow, surprised over how hard and strenuous it had been, and sat down on the piano bench. "That wasn't as easy as I... *smap* hello?"

Looking down Alice saw a crayon of all things laying on the ground, hidden by the legs of the piano and the bench. It bewildered her as there wasn't anyone who in the house that used them unless.

"If those little bastards drew on thi so that they could blame me..." She shoved the bench and crouched down and growled. "Those little sons of bitches... ALEKS! THE DAMN IMPS DREW UNDER THE PIANO!"

Poor Alice, she had no idea it wasn't the imps but her little self that had done it. It had been during a second game of hide and seek where the tiny girl had unknowingly called crayons to herself as she had wondered a bit and then drew on the white polish surface of the bottom of the piano before she heard Aleks call and ran to him.

"I don't believe it..." Alice growled as she rubbed her temple. She starting to wish she had caught the flu and could just go back to bed. "Freaking Karma of hell..."

[Peeker]

Aleksandr and Dimitrius, on the other hand, were deep in discussion, a floor and a half away, and the combination of loud music and closed doors made Aleksandr, who for once wasn't really thinking about his fledgling, think her voice was rising while she sang along with her awful music.

"...and the latest Dornell boy - you heard about his being moved, correct? Mm. Well, since he's friends with Alice, Mikeal and I were going to have them play together... but I'll tell you - that poor girl's as afraid of the House as the rest of them were... That's what this is really about. She's afraid you won't like her."

Dimitrius stretched his legs. "Really. ...I suppose that after all the nonsense she went through this morning, she's learned otherwise."

"Hardly. She's probably convinced herself of her own mistakes... that she's accomplished it. You haven't actually gone too far, though. Lucy, I believe, has - just as Razziel did."

"...well I suppose I'm going to have to try and win her over again then." Dimitrius said. "...I'm not one for her to run from - and I won't have her doing it."

Aleksandr frowned. "It isn't that easy, of course-"

"...yes, Aleksi, I know that..."

"Yet-"

"I don't really need to be subtle, Aleksi. You've let her be herself. Obviously. Well, I'm going to be myself. I'm going to spend a bit of time with her. See if hard work helps her loosen her tongue. A couple of warm cheeks aren't going to stand between us... and that's final."

Aleksandr smiled, perhaps a little nervously. His Sire was determined, and he stepped down. "Aye, Sire."

Dimitrius nodded proudly. "Thank you, Aleksi. I'll be back soon, yes?"

"...I'll be in my library. I've a few books I'd have you take a look at regarding those wards."

...the two split ways, and Dimitrius slowly made his way down to the ballroom.

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

Alice was sitting by the piano, tapping the keys idly as she tried to think of the best way to remove wax without harming Aleks' prized posession, other then Gabby's music box. It wasn't easy, she didn't had the first clue to cleaning on that scale by either hand or magic. Huffing she wondered if she dared Aleks' wrath by used the rough side of a spounge and scrape it away. The sound of the ballroom door opening and her music suddenly lowering made her sigh.

"I swear to God Aleks, it's not my fault so don't you dare blam..." She stopped talking when she saw it was Dimitrius walking in calmly and look at her with calm eyes. Rising a little quickly, Alice felt the cold chill of doom run down her spin. This just wasn't her day. "Greetings Lord Rastline. Is there anything you need?"

He shook his head and walked over to her calmly.

"Oh.... is Aleks calling me?" Alice started getting nervous and quickly backed away from him tripping over the buckle of water. turning, she scowled and looked hard at the water holding her hands in front of her. "Sorry..."

Her ears reddened a bit, that wonderful feeling of insecurity filling her, as she felt she looked more and more like an idiot. It took a few tries and she lacked the finess that Aleks had with years of practice, but she managed to get the water to travel back into a up righted bucket in a thin arch.

She looked at him oddly, not knowing what to do before she leaned against the wall and pointed at the mop. If anything she could at lest try and show him she was learning something from Aleks, even if she felt she was terrible at it. With some heavy concintrated glares at the damnable staff, she managed to get the mop to raise a bit and drop hard into the bucket. Annoyed by it, Alice sighed in frustration and took in hand and started mopping manually. At lest she knew how to do that, an old chore of hers was to mop the kitchen every week.

"Sooo.... There's nothing I can help you with and Aleks doesn't want me... why are yo he-..." She stopped fearing the possibly results of her words and mopped a bit more in silence before looking at the piano while the boom box began to replay 'Animal Inside of Me'. A little conversation couldn't be too bad. At lest then she could look Aleks in the face and say she tried. "Soo... did you teach Aleks how to play the piano and magical and stuff?"

It seemed a safe and neutral question.

[Peeker]

"No, Miss Harker. 'Leksi was already a musician when I met him." Dimitrius walked a few steps away from Alice, and picked up the other mop, still soaking in the bucket. "...when I turned him rather." The man corrected.

"Then, however, he had no instrument of the sort - he owned a few flutes, a drum... but when the piano-forte was invented, he quickly took to it. The first one... that was real junk. He wrote to me, even then, that it broke as often as the messengers would return with the parts to fix it."

Dimitrius smiled, and went silent for a moment, working himself into a rhythm, easily working the wet mop across the floor in broad strokes. "Magic, however... yes - I began his tutelage... but when he was a sire, far more of one's work was independent. Now a days, when children go to school for more than five or six years, you are far more used to learning under another's hand... when he was learning, I simply kept tabs on his progress... until he eventually surpassed me - and so became the first of the Magi Infernum.... he has told you that, yes? That he was the very first?"

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

Alice moved a little to the musi listening carefully to what her Grandsire had to tell her of her own Sire's past. It surpised her, she still didn't know how old Aleks was, for for him to have been an owner of one of the first piano models...

"Christ how old is he?" Shemuttered to herself under the breath. "Was he born in BC or something..."

She redipped the mop in the water and looked to see Dimitrius taking up the other. It was a little odd, she exspected him to start using magic to show her how to do it, but instead he too moved to work the soapy water slowly over the floors.

"The first? No... no he didn't..." Alice mused over the little tid bit. No wonder Aleks was so focused on her learning it. If he was the first, it must almost be exspected of her to have the same talent to it. 'Grand... another thing to disappoint on...' "First Magi Infernum... A Hell's magician?"

She mood getting a little darker, Alice glared at a rage and set it flying off to clean the windows.

"He... hadn't told me a whole lot about himself..." She mopped a little more and then looked at him. "You really shouldn't be doing that. It's my chore..."

It wasn't that she didn't want the help, the room was so big, she could easily spend the whole night cleaning it. She was just imagining worest case scenerio of Aleks walking in.

"He's showed me pictures though, some his fledgling years," She continued so that things wouldn't fall silent and awkward. He didn't look like he was planning on leaving her alone so she figured him talking would be less likely to drive her nuts then him staring. "Some were of you, Lucy, Gabby.... there was the family photo with you and what's-their-face... Thomas and Vicent, that's it..."

She stopped and tried to recall the night she had sat next to Aleks and looked at old photos, Dimitrius had been very different in them.

"There was a another one too, with a bunch of girls all around Aleks..." She chewed her lip trying to remember. "Lets see.... there was Lucy, Carmilla, and... Sara I think. I don't remember the last one."