Brasenose College

Nora hesitates, her lips parting as though to protest, but the trace of indignation in her eyes slowly gives way to intrigue. The idea that Aubrey lays out stirs something deep within her — a mix of anticipation and trepidation. She glances down at her hands, then back up at her regnant, as if searching for reassurance. "Do you really think that she’ll come?" Nora finally asks, her voice soft, but laced with a growing curiosity. "I mean, if I invite her… she might think that it’s weird, after everything."

Aubrey shrugs. "I mean the worst that happens is she, what? Says no to hanging out? Okay, you try again then. But she won't . For like a thousand reasons but most importantly, you're better than her now. You have my gifts." As if to demonstrate, her majesty flares ever more, Aubrey's radiance billowing before her squirming thrall. "Plus, it's an event I'll be at. Who would ever say no to that?" "But honestly luv, just tell her whatever you want. Tell her you hate how things have gotten and you wanna, like, put the bad blood behind you both, you know?"

Nora sits in silence, Aubrey’s words wrapping around her like a velvet noose. The power of majesty coursing through the room tugs at her emotions, leaving little room for resistance. She bites her lip, fidgeting slightly under the weight of Aubrey's gaze, then nods hesitantly. "Okay," she whispers, her voice trembling but resolute. "I’ll do it. I’ll message her, tell her I want to fix things… and bring her to you." Her fingers curl tightly against her knees, a flicker of determination breaking through her otherwise timid demeanour. "I’ll make her regret everything."

Aubrey’s smile widens into a mischievously delighted grin. And yes, she’s sure now, a tinge of pride. For herself. “Wonderful.”  She leans forward, placing a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “One more thing…”  The regnant leans her thrall’s head up, then bites through her own wrist and offers it forth. “You’ve earned this.”   And I’ve earned you.   It was as win-win of a situation as she could imagine. Nora gets rid of Claire. Aubrey has a satisfied ghoul. Odin gets his personalised sacrifice. She probably wouldn’t even need her backup plan with the Dean… …though on the other hand she very much wouldn’t mind finding that little twerp from Blenheim. 

Unable to resist, Nora leans closer, instinctively drawn to the Vitae offered to her. The blood bond between the two tightens ever further as Aubrey’s blood flows, solidifying her control.

When the vitae had been drunk and their bond had reached its maximum, Aubrey pulled Nora into her arms for a hug. "You've done so well so far, make me proud now luv." With that, she tells the girl the details of her 'gig' -- a hush hush small meeting for fans she'd be having on Monday at 2 in Brasenose, and -- and sends her on her way, leaving her to deal with her own issues for the rest of the evening. At last acknowledging the cat in the room, she looks to the dead bird it'd brought her and sighs. "So is that a 'Regular cat' thing or a 'magic cat' thing?" She blinks, then rolls her eyes. "Nod for "regular cat thing", Meow for "magic cat thing"."

Amun meows indignantly at Aubrey, before hopping back up onto the bed. He paces about a few times, pawing at the covers to create a comfortable spot, and then settles down in a neat circle.

Fantastic.  Aubrey rolls her eyes, using the tip of her toes to nudge the bird out of the way at least, to be dealt with later. In the meantime, she started her reply to the dean. Monday at 8 was… unhelpful. She needed her sacrifice by 2 in the morning that day. That said, if things panned out with her ghoul, the boy wouldn’t be necessary.  That won’t work for what I’— Hmm, no.  She pauses, deleting what she’d written. It took effort she didn’t truly want to expend speaking in the sort of banal professional tone she knew the Dean required, and that was almost worse in and of itself than any stake to the heart. Fortunately, inspiration came easily here: What would Rae-rae say-say? Thank you immensely for your assistance in this matter. I appreciate your help, especially given the short notice of the request. That time sounds reasonably adequate to me. If it were to become at all possible to host such a meeting earlier than Monday, I would also greatly appreciate it as the nature of this request does have a bit of a time pressure on it. But if it isn’t possible, I then Monday is certainly okay. Thank you again for your help, AK How Raziel ever went more than 5 minutes without gagging on all that unnecessary prose she had no idea,  but with that email out of the way, the only question still up in the air was what to do between now and the Strix hunt. She resolved first to go feed. Whatever would happen, being on a full stomach would likely be beneficial more than anything else after all, and so with that she set out for her usual hunting grounds. Continued in Cowley ...