A visit
Axel sat in his armchair. Acelot looked at the Turelim. The mastiff always looked unnatural sitting down. He looked uncomfortable. Almost abhorrent, as if his very being was offended that he dared to sit. For a near millennia with his darling Axel, he knows the Turelim only sat to respect his hosts or on the occasion he actually sat and drink. Otherwise, he stood.
The Zephonim crossed his long leg, lower hands locked talons on his lap while the upper pair rested spined elbows on the rests. In their privacy, the elder vampire's mask was resting on the nearby nightstand of smoked oak. His chitinous face flexed in something of a smile, upper mandibles flexed back from their appearance of faux jawls to show his teeth.
"So tell me,' Acelot started, his voice a flanging wobble of vocal cords. 'My darling. Have you been well? The thralls I sent been of good quality, tasted each myself. Annoying as the disgraced are at trying to raid our convoys nowadays..."
Axel grunted, his face a constant mask of stoicism. He made the slightest changes for his friend's benefit but it wasn't the same as it been...a hundred? Two hundred years ago? He can't blame the blacksmith. It isn't often nor pleasant to feel something and lose it suddenly. "They have done well, Ace. Thank you." He said with a gentle roll of his deep voice. "I am having most of them work in the ash-farms, a couple to the forge and the others are under Caspian. He had been most grateful with the assistance."
He paused a moment. Acelot recognized the twitch in Axel's ear. He was pondering something. "He might have eyes on the female Eevee with the speckled haunches and auburn brown coat. Talia, I believe he said her name was." Acelot stroked his chin, he knew the bloodline that yielded that particular coat. He was pleased the mingling of the Sootfoot and Dusters were doing well "Ah. He have taken a fancy?"
Axel twitched his snout in doubt. "It'll be a time. He enjoy tutoring, she sings well."
Acelot aah's with a wistful uncle's smile. "Singing has always been a delight. He sings beautifully." "He does." Axel say with a rare mirth of pride and that was saying something, especially with his powerful hearing. Songs and close bells had become a terrible bane to the Second Clan since their greatened evolution. All clans suffered a price for their divinity.
"Do you think she will do well?" The spitz asks, flexing a talon. Axel's glowing irises can barely be seen angling in the other's direction under his tinted goggles. He was short sighted and didn't care to really look anymore, his hearing and psychic senses did enough. "We will see."
There was nothing more to it. Axel was never one to have high hopes, even with his own works. No one was above his low expectations, even their patriatches earned that after this civil war. Only the Emperor, to think otherwise was ahborrent and Axel was like any of his kindred - Lord Kain was beyond any of their comprehension and weariness. He will return, in his own time. The Empire's stagnation and crumbling failure was their own doing.
And the Blood Obligation will continue its sworn duty.
"Did my weapons make it to their location?" Axel questioned, burying the whimsical topic with more business. Hm, they did a little better this time. "There was a Dumahim interception but..."
Acelot smiled more, arching his mandibles with his pronounced fangs showing. The sheen in his grey irises gleamed malevolently, "but they were of no issue in the end. Prying their armaments were perhaps a fortune for my guards. Dumahim armour have its value."
Axel flexed a iron talon in an arch. "For your slaves?"
Acelot giggled behind his knuckles, pleased that the Turelim's pride remain as embersome as always. "Slaves. Material. A little extra for our fledglings. I don't need to tell you, my dear." For a heartbeat, he could have sworn the spitz saw a miniscule grin on that mastiff's face.