"So your killing schedule means that you don't ever need to have a - a non-murderous snack?"

"Not in the sense of being in danger of starving if I don't. But it's not comfortable to go a long while without so much as a nibble, even if it won't kill me. Why?"

She hesitates, nervously fidgeting with the button on one of her sleeves.

"... It - it helps me come to terms with - with how you introduced yourself if there was more to it than, than simply wanting to see me like that. The idea of being a - a meal instead of a toy. I-I don't like either, but I hate one more than I hate the other."

"Well. It was - the thing I do when I'm planning to eat someone, if I'm not in a hurry. And I do it that way partly for fun and partly because it's better to have - 'snacks' - in between."

Avethana shivers, then nods, jerkily.

"I think I'll turn in for the night, then. It's getting kind of late."

It is much earlier than the last time she bid him goodbye, but it's not very hard to see why that's different for tonight.

"Goodnight."

He owls away.

"Goodnight."

She takes a few nights off from balcony sitting to process, and also to also not have part of her life revolve around the vampire that bit her for a little while. He - kills a lot of people. One person dead a month, one or two as - as snacks between them - and how old is he? That's a lot of people. Not as many as it could be, she knows how many people have died from other things, but it's an awfully high body count to assign to one person in order to live in comfort for eternity.

Blind terror and self preservation instincts are no longer shoving her out onto the balcony every night. Now it's just whether or not she wants to talk to the monster who violated her and who regularly and remorselessly kills people for power. He's - less bad than he could have been, but he's not good. She doesn't know what to feel about him, and she doesn't know what to do with him. She's probably a good influence on him - at the very least, he now gets to experience the negative consequences of his actions in a way that he clearly cares about - but she's not entirely sure if that's enough to persuade her to go have a chat with him. Inertia produced the last meeting, but she's not a fan of letting inertia govern her life. She's not sure. It's fascinating to talk to him, sometimes, except for when it's awful and she wants to curl up into a ball and remove herself from the world.

A few days later, she hasn't yet decided what she'd like to do, but the world spins on regardless. Doctor Relgam returns to Mr. Sialtas's house to check on the status of his abundant patients, and Avethana goes with him.

Mr. Sialtas is busier today, but looks in on them a few times over the course of their visit.

She barely notices; she has more important things to worry about. Good for him, for caring about the welfare of the people that work for him.

His staff are recovering well. A few of them need more treatment, in the form of a prescription of drugs or herbs or bed rest. For the most part, though, everyone's doing much better. They shouldn't need to come back. She keeps careful records in case they do, makes a note of who should be watched for worsening symptoms, and makes a list of under what circumstances they should call Relgam back.

Soon enough, their job is complete, and they depart.

For a few days, she still doesn't venture out onto her balcony. A few times she considers it, but decides against for a number of minor reasons that aren't really why she's not doing it. It's too rainy, she doesn't want to deal with the smell, her feet hurt from all of the walking of the day, so on. Really, she's reassuring herself that she doesn't have to adhere to his schedule. Her life is her own.

During your recent visits to my estate, I found that I admired your work very much. You have a gift for organization that surpasses the most accomplished scholars I have known, and a practical efficiency that would be the envy of any manager.

If you wish, you are welcome to return for dinner on an evening of your choosing. My housekeeper, already much improved, wishes to thank you as soon as she is able.

Sincerely and respectfully yours,
Karthian Sialtas

Oh, goodness. She actually needs a minute to remember exactly who he is, blinking at the flowers and note in confusion, then the information clicks. That's not a direction she expected to get an offer from.

As a courting overture, this really isn't a bad one. Poor thing must have written and rewritten that second sentence perhaps a dozen times over, to avoid coming on too strong to a stranger, while still expressing the things he wanted to say. He chose well, too. Of the things he could have said, the ones he did are - flattering. She's admittedly a bit of a sucker for compliments to her efficiency and organization. The flowers are a bit too expensive for her taste, they make her feel a bit like he's trying to either buy her or impress upon her that she's damned lucky to catch the attention of someone so well off, but the arrangement is approximately as painstakingly well chosen as the phrasing. She's not an expert in the language of flowers (the entire thing seems a little silly, to her) but she's pretty sure this translates to something like 'respect, admiration from afar,' or - something. She'll go look it up, later, to be sure. Either way, she gets the impression that he spent far, far too much time thinking about this, and that he's very concerned with not scaring her off.

... Yeah, all right. The major difference in social status makes her kind of nervous, and she has yet to actually hold a conversation with him, but she'll give him a chance. If he's what he seems to be, he seems - sweet. But he might not be what he seems to be, and while his assurances of his housekeeper's presence are soothing, she is not the sort of person to blindly trust him to handle it. She is a young, unmarried lady, and she is not going to be going to a strange man's house alone if she has anything to say about it. Even if nothing happened, even if she could defend herself with magic if he tried something untoward, it'd imply the wrong sorts of things about her character.

Avethana arranges to have tea with an elderly, widowed neighbor. The old woman's apartment is a depressing thing, all carefully arranged trinkets that haven't been touched in years and faint smells of outdated perfume and loneliness, but the woman herself is sweet enough. She'd probably quite like to get out of her apartment and go be personally involved in guarding a young lady's honor. As Avethana suspected, she's delighted.

With that handled, she picks a date, and carefully pens a polite reply to the flowers. She only agonizes over it a little. While it's cute that he went to the trouble, she'd rather not give the impression that she'll just fling herself at him. Maybe some other girls might, but she needs a bit more than one cute letter, some flowers, and a large and expensive estate. She has plans beyond marriage and motherhood.

Either way, this is enough in her life to make her feel like it might be safe to have a talk with a vampire without worrying about her life revolving around him, so: balcony!

Owl!

"Hello," she says, smiling a little. "You know, I'm kind of surprised that you haven't tried out other entrances. Decided to give up being creepy?"

"Birds are good for getting around without attracting attention, and the owl's my favourite. And I didn't think you'd appreciate more mist."

She blinks.

"... No. I wouldn't," she agrees, quietly. "Thank you."

Well, that's. Hard to start a conversation after, isn't it. She'll just. Try her best, won't she.

"So, um. Why is owl your favorite?"

"Flies very quietly. And such lovely soft feathers!"

"I didn't know owls were soft. That's - cute."

Giggle.