Lucien Get Berated
POV: Alexandra
The meeting with Lucien was about coordinating some things for the ball. While all of us were attending the ball, we still had to help set it up. I was in charge of making sure the decorations were done since my soon-to-be aunt was hired to get that done. I was pretty sure Lucien was trying to avoid her and rightfully so. Inexplicably Vanessa was really mad at him for what she thought he did. I explained to her what happened but she believed that if he truly loved me, no amount of blood magic would turn his head away from me. Vanessa didn’t often get angry but when she did it could rival that of my mother’s wrath. Lucien was very well aware of this since he had been on the receiving end of it once. He told me about it not long ago when I had asked him why he was avoiding Vanessa. This allowed me to talk to her about the taboo detector that Lucien needed in order to prove that the guard in the dungeon was using blood magic. I knew that Vanessa was at the cottage in Blackwood but I wasn’t necessarily allowed to go back to Blackwood while the full moon was going on and I knew I couldn’t portal directly into her house. She had a ward on her cottage to prevent that. The best we could do was portal outside of her home but it wasn’t really safe. Malinus raised this concern with Lucien so the solution was to send Jynx with royal orders. I would meet Vanessa in the library so Lucien could avoid her.
I was waiting in the library when a portal opened up near the door. Vanessa and Jynx stepped out, “I have brought Her Highness as requested, Priestess.” Vanessa walked over with a smirk, “So he’s being a coward then? He could just let me yell at him for hurting you.” I sighed, “Are you still on about that?” She nodded, “I just think he needs to understand that no amount of magic should be able to affect the heart.” I shook my head, “It does if that magic is taboo.” She sat down in the chair next to me and leaned forward, “Interesting…and what taboo magic do you think it was that would affect his heart.” I looked over at Jynx then back at Vanessa and leaned in, “Blood magic, using my blood. Don’t you think that would affect his heart?” She crossed her arm around her chest, “Is it proven?” I shrugged, “I mean Teddy and Doc did a water diagnostic.” She shook her head, “They could only prove that blood magic was used on him. It could have been anyone’s blood. Proves nothing.” I chewed on my lip, “Okay, so would a taboo detector help prove it.” She shook her head, “Nope, it would only detect the use of the taboo magic on the user. I can make one to prove the person’s guilt but not whose blood it was they are using.” Jynx cleared her throat, “Priestess, Your Highness. Can I make a suggestion?” We both looked back at her but Vanessa spoke first, “What is it, little witch?” She stepped forward, “His Majesty has a tool that can detect taboo magic and everything associated with it. I would be willing to bet that if one of you asked him about it, he would willingly hand it over to you. You both are his favorite people in this world.” Vanessa nodded, “Good, I’ll ask him then. I want to know if he truly did betray my goddaughter or if he was controlled by taboo magic.”
She looked back at me, “Now what else were you here to talk about.” I smiled, “I’m in charge of discussing the decorations for the ball.” She smiled, “Well, I may be pissed off at Lucien but he did choose the right person for this job. Let’s discuss it then. I was thinking of fall colors along with bronze. Any opinions?” I rubbed my chin, “I think that’s nice and all but could we also pull in some of the fall type of decor too? Like pumpkins, leaves…that sort of thing?” She shook her head, “I’m not sure about leaves but we can definitely paint pumpkins the bronze color.” We sat and hashed out the details of what she would do to the ballroom, where decorations would be placed, and when they would start to decorate. I wrote down every single detail that she gave me. I knew that Malinus would put in that much effort and I didn’t want to bring the quality of work down from his office. That was always in the back of my mind, Malinus was admirable in his work. I would think that even if he wasn’t my mother’s cousin, no bias could take away how admirable Malinus was in his work.
Once we were done, Vanessa popped up out of her seat enthusiastically, “I’m going to go see my father then.” Jynx nodded, “Since you are a La Fey, you should be able to portal directly into the castle.” She smiled at Jynx, “Good to know that, I wasn’t aware. Thank you…um…I didn’t catch your name.” I hopped up, “I’m sorry, I didn’t make the introductions. I’m so focused on my work. Vanessa, this is Jynx. Your father assigned her as my guard since she works under the constellation I rule over…I guess?” Jynx nodded, “Precisely that, Priestess.” Vanessa nodded, “You must be very competent for my father to assign you to guard his favorite person.” I shook my head, “Second favorite person. You’re his favorite.” She shrugged, “Only by default since I’m of his blood. If he didn’t have a daughter, you’d be it.” I sighed, “Okay, I give. I don’t want to sit here and debate who is his favorite.” Jynx giggled, “It kind of figures that the lady's man’s favorite two people are actually women. He’s no longer a huge flirt and yet he still favors the women.” Vanessa laughed, “You are right about that. I had heard of his exploits in his younger days. It’s no surprise indeed. I think my mother might’ve tamed him since he quit once he was sent to Terre. Well, I’m going to be on my way.” She opened the portal and turned back at me, “Oh, and Alexandra? You need to warn Lucien that I’m coming today and he cannot avoid my lecture forever.” I sighed, “What if this tool of Mordred’s shows that it was my blood that was used?” She smiled back at me and stepped forward, “Then I will apologize but I won’t hold back before!” She was gone shortly after that.
I made my way back up to the office and Malinus rose from his seat when I came back. He was in charge of talking to the kitchen staff about the food so it wouldn’t have taken him long to do his task. He smiled at me, “How did it go?” I handed him the notes that I took, “I wrote everything down for record but essentially everything is on track. She’s going to use fall colors along with bronze and the use of orange roses that she will source from the Befents since they have a rose farm out there that is famous for their orange roses. She has the preparations underway at her building in Tarn. She has her assistant putting together samples that she will bring to me, probably tomorrow.” He smiled as he was looking at my notes, “Excellent work, Alexandra. I don’t say that as your family but as your boss. These are very good notes and a great verbal summary of them. I can see why the Elder Council chose you as one of the scribes to intern here.” I smiled, “I have you as my example so you make it easy to understand what are the right things to do. You’re likely the most excellent scribe in all of Vellum.” This caused Malinus to blush but he had to hide his face since Lucien came into the room shortly after I praised him. Lucien looked at him and narrowed his eyes, “If you weren’t her cousin, I’d probably have to worry about being jealous.” He looked at me, “You must’ve praised his work. I’ve only ever seen him blush because he had been praised.” I nodded, “Yeah, he started it though.” Lucien looked at Malinus, “Oh? Did you praise her?” Malinus cleared his throat, “Well, yes. If you look at her notes she took with Vanessa and listened to her verbal summary…you probably would have too.”
Lucien held out his hand and Malinus gave him my notebook. Lucien pulled his glasses out of his pocket and placed them on his face. He proceeded to read the notebook. He smiled and handed the notes back to Malinus and asked me to give him a summary which I did verbatim to what I had told Malinus. Lucien nodded, “On par with Malinus. Not surprising since you both are excellent people. A great teacher and a great student will produce excellent results. I wonder what is keeping Teddy though.” As if on queue, Teddy walked into the office breathlessly, “I’m sorry it took so long. The guards had a little emergency at the front of the castle. Seems like Melody was trying to get in. She was pitching a whole fit in front of the castle because the guards wouldn’t let her in.” I looked over at Lucien, “I thought all nobility were allowed in.” He shook his head, “Usually yes, but since we don’t know about what kind of magic was used on me…the Elder Council advised that she be banned from my presence until we figure that out. Speaking of which, did you talk to Vanessa about that? I figured since you were with her today, you would bring that up.” I nodded, “I did but she told me a taboo detector would only prove blood magic was used. It wouldn’t prove that my blood was used in that magic and she wants to know. Jynx told us that Mordred had an item that would detect the taboo magic as well as everything about the spell. Speaking of that, she told me to warn you that she will be here today with this item. She went directly to her father.” He looked at me shocked, “Her father?” I shrugged, “Yeah, she found out last night that Mordred was her father. She’s going to ask him for the item right now. I wouldn’t be surprised she comes straight-”
A portal opened in the room and Vanessa stepped out, I looked over at Lucien who had a panicked look on his face. She smiled at him, “Oh we’re going to go have a chat, Your Majesty.” She said the last two words with a little edge on them. She grabbed his arm and yelled back at Malinus, “No one disturbs us. I’m speaking to Lucien as royalty to royalty. Think of it as a diplomatic meeting.” Malinus looked panicked as she shut the door. I shook my head, “It’s probably just best that we listen to her. As much as I don’t think she’s justified in her attitude about the situation, she won’t rest until she gets what she wants. I know this much about her in the short time I’ve known her.” We all settled into our seats as we heard shouting coming from the room. At first, it was completely one-sided but Lucien started shouting back after a while. After a twenty-minute shouting match, it went fairly quiet for about five minutes before the door opened and Vanessa stepped out. She smiled at me, “Okay kids, we’re all going on a group field trip.” Teddy timidly asked, “Where are we going, Ms. Tannen?” She turned and smirked at Teddy, “We’re going to the dungeons at the Citadel. I want to see what the hell this guy is working with.”
