"I fixed my ears."

"I'm glad to hear that. Gotten past your own security issue with talking to me? Or do you have an order for me?"

"I decided I'd rather take my chances with you than with my old master and then I noticed you're here and a castle isn't."

"Yes. There are no people here and in another two weeks I'm going to become starving and dangerous. I thought waiting here for you would be my best chance. Also, I can give you better evidence I haven't nudged you: it's not undetectable, just subtle."

"It's a good thing I came through instead of just closing the gate, then."

"I was watching for you. But that wouldn't have helped, since I didn't know you could turn invisible and inaudible. Which is a neat trick, incidentally." 

"I'm a sorceress, I can do a lot of things. Apparently you can do a lot of things too."

"Flight, not needing to breathe, better senses, generally better body, not aging, not eating in the normal way, the mind magic - all of that comes in a package labelled 'vampire' and I got it from my last master. He didn't ask if I wanted it."

A sliver-sharp smile creeps onto her face.

"I learned the healing magic myself."

"I've never heard of vampires before but I guess my information on the mortal world isn't as good as I thought."

"I guess not. At least you didn't end up in the reverse situation to me."

"Yeah. Does this have to do with why you bit me?"

"Vampires get hungry much slower than most people, but we only seem to be sustained by food that was part of someone. We can feed safely, but not all of us are careful - especially when we're starving. Which of course doesn't help with our reputation any more than the mind control."

"I suppose if you normally bite mortals they could die of blood loss."

"It's more than that. I've studied the symptoms of too-heavy feeding, and they look more like brain damage than exsanguination. In increasing order of severity: short-term memory loss, long-term memory loss, dissociation or solipsism, short-term unconsciousness, full-blown fugue states, loss of procedural memory, coma, death."

"...I didn't notice even short term memory loss when you bit me. Didn't take enough to cause it?"

"I am very careful. And fortunate enough to usually have the option." 

"How's the mind control work?"

"I can make you more likely to believe me when I speak, or nudge you towards a desired action. Phrasing orders as reasonable requests helps significantly."

She clears her throat.

"I can make you more likely to believe me when I speak, or nudge you towards a desired action. Phrasing orders as reasonable requests helps significantly."

At the first altered word Promise's eardrums burst again. "If I want a demo I'll ask for one."

Lioncourt shrugs and nods. 

The ears heal.

"Sorry."

Lioncourt sighs, then looks Promise squarely in the forehead. 

"Meeting the eyes of a vampire who wants you as their pawn is worse than being vassalized. Don't do it. I don't want to go over the details of exactly how it's worse: trust me on this. I would commit suicide rather than be enthralled again if those were my only two options." 

"Does this rely on vision, the direction eyes are pointing -"

"You need to see the vampire's eyes, and they need to see yours. It requires directed attention from both parties: casual eye-contact isn't enough. Avoid it anyway. You can still be caught by a reflection, but it's a lot harder to make eye-contact though a small mirror."

"So if I'm invisible that's safe?"