Magnificent Truth (mariusthevampire & evan-wheeler)
The centuries long relationship had been begun the moment Marius heard the whispered words, “I have watched you for a long time from afar.”
We offer shelter. We offer understanding. We are scholars. We watch and we are always here.
It was a statement that brought immediate shock and wariness, though not as much fear as it should have. Not enough fear to force Marius back into the shadows, away from life and its blinding light, which revealed all of his sins, his crimes, to those who would soon condemn him to fire.
It should have been a startling glimmer of what was to come… that it was impossible for a creature such as he to hide his nature while also enjoying the grand pleasures of presence.
Vainly charmed. I have studied you so long and with such love… Love yes, his weakness. To be needed, loved, and of some value.
Yet Marius’ secrets had been, as they remained, powerful.
The pattern of his immortality had been one of moving. Of deception, staying away from those discerning mortal who might notice an odd look or gesture. He had always thought himself quite clever to keep a secret so large, so strikingly obvious. It afforded him a sense of infallibility and safety, and also a prideful indifference to his associations.
Yes, his secrets were strong. They had seen empires rise and fall. They had watched the world change. And throughout it, he an immortal historian and philosopher, letting no event go unnoticed. It was a very lofty sense of self; Marius realized that now. The arrogant, seemingly untouchable Marius of the Venetian past had been charmed by attention, and yet still wise enough to know that his centuries of truths had to be guarded. Better than the secret of his own very essence, which Raymond and his cohorts had seen through without any effort.
Naturally, Marius had insisted upon knowing the nature of his watchers and what they intended to do with news of him.
"Commit it to our libraries. Increase the knowledge. Let it be known that what some say is legend is in fact truth. Magnificent truth."
Raymond Gallant. Marius had come to watch him with something like love, too. Not the sort of love that required closeness or revelation, but a love closer to respect and even honor. Raymond had proven himself useful within hours of their meeting. In exchange for information collected by the Talamasca, a very marvelous thing happened. Marius gave something of himself that was sacred to Raymond. Blood. Amadeo had consumed this blood in plentiful quantity, but he was a lover. Never had Marius given his blood so freely to a mortal near stranger. Raymond had accepted his kiss and taken the knowledge found in the blood back to England where it chronicled it.
Besides, these were no simple humans. No, these were powerful minds, psychics, people with magic born in their blood.
And so began a strange partnership. The order continued to give Marius information. Never one to take without giving, Marius replied to the kindness with more of his most important currency: secrets. He had shown them his powers, let them have his blood, and had not at all minded that they kept records of him and even some of his long discarded worldly goods. Marius respected the Talamasca and their purpose.
When Raymond died, Marius had grieved. It confirmed for him once again the terrible plight of immortality. Outliving everything.
With Raymond gone, the association with the Talamasca should have ended. Yet it did not. In fact, it was only further reinforced as Marius found himself under the curious and continuingly nonthreatening gaze of another generation of Talamascans. As with Raymond, there was but one of each generation charged with his secrets and his friendship.
Marius was a scholar, and so too were the members of the Talamasca. Their libraries were kept secret, their knowledge important and sacred. And it was all safe, Marius and his secrets. Marius’ own kind had done far more damage to him than any member of the Talamasca. It seemed wise to keep up the friendship if only to have someone of intellect to talk to… someone who knew what he was and therefore required no acts of pretense. Who knew what he was and respected it rather than feared it.
With Lestat causing nonstop grief, Marius also felt that it would be prudent to maintain friendships with the one group who would pose a potential threat to them. If the world were to end, Marius had no intention to end with it.
Like with every life cycle, his close associate came and went. They were assigned and then they, like all humans, died.
His most recent contact had been an elderly man. It had pained Marius quite a lot to learn of his passing, a thing confided to him in letter and not telephone, as writing was his preferable means of communicating and the Talamasca were respectful of that.
A few months had passed in silence, but this was normal. Marius knew that it was only a matter of time before the Talamasca would contact him with a new liaison.
They did.
In the most nondescript envelope, on perfectly ordinary paper, in plain hand, was a coded location. But Marius was a veteran of this code and it took no effort to understand where he must go. Of course he found it with no effort whatsoever, at least none that he would confess to. In truth, the journey exhausted his starved body, but he stood tall and strong so as not to betray his weakness. No, not even to friends.
He knew only where he had to go, but not to whom. Not that secrecy and the unknown worried Marius at all. In a way, he looked forward to it. Though the motion of lifting a hand to ring a doorbell, a most common movement, brought a smile to his lips. Supernatural creature and scholar of the preternatural… and they still had to meet like normal people.
