every king had a story, of ancient glory,sweetly told

That soft bob of Sebastian's head saw the silver eyes of the Fae remain upon him as his fingers tinkered with that tea pot, Dorian frowning softly in some internal consideration of just what could possible prompt Sebastian to believe it was his fault that Anna-Marie had struck that night. Unless he had so purposely antagonized the girl in some sense and so brought about the downfall of himself and his companions the Monarch saw little way in which this could so possible be due to the vampire himself. Those soft words a moment later saw his head tilt slightly, Sebastian assuring him that Anna-Marie had attacked because she found him 'pretty' and that he should never have been at that party to begin with. Surprise lingering upon his features now. It was almost ludicrous, to his own mind, to know that should be the reason Anna-Marie had given for her assault upon his lover that night. If one believed something pretty, by his own experience, one was rarely given to murder it- let alone those innocent companions! The girl could barely be more than seven years old within her own mind. She had no ability, at such an age, to truly perceive affection or lust or love in any sense. The colour pink to her was surely just as 'pretty' as Sebastian was to her own childish mind. That his lover had died for this was shocking to him, near incomprehendable, Dorian perhaps willing to admit he so understood, in some sense, just why Sebastian believed the deaths of his companion to be his fault even if it was surely an act of fate alone that saw them all together that night. Yet still, the idea that Anna-Marie had ended his life because she fancied him was not at all what he had expected. The violence of it even more so. It did not seem correct and yet, for once, Dorian was perhaps so struck with the disbelief of this that he found himself at a near loss for words. The Monarch taking several moments to arrange his thoughts if only to prevent himself saying something dreadfully unkind about that child. By the gods how he hated her! How potent that emotion was. He had near forgotten its force. Yet perhaps......if not for this night and all its tragedy, he surely never would have met Sebastian at all. This, perhaps, the single and only pleasing thing to come off his lover's immortality in that sense. Dorian sighing softly then.

"Much it seems was an act of fate alone that night, Mon Cher."

Sebastian could hardly blame himself for a petulant child's utter act off selfishness, nor could he truly have foreseen the outcomes of his presence upon his companions. That past could not be changed and while surely he knew that Sebastian might well dwell upon that for all eternity there was so little about that night that surely could have been changed in any sense. It was only within the wake of Sebastian attempting to apologise once more and Dorian so working to prevent him doing so lest the Englishmen became trapped in a flurry of apologies that saw that simper at last return to his own features. Dorian so having come to know his lover well enough in that near year they had been together to near predict just when the man might apologise. Such a quirk so unique to Sebastian himself that Dorian had come to find a charm all its own within the man's constant need to apologise for anything and everything whether it truly involved him or not. That soft rest of Sebastian's head upon his shoulder as he repaired yet another part of that tea pot so saw that simper widen all the more, his features softening readily at those quiet words so unobtrusively and subtly offered. Dorian well aware of the depths of meaning behind them all the same and the nervousness that surely afflicted his lover in the wake of their delivery. The Monarch finding no issue at all in so offering this reassurance that even in the wake of all this he had no intention at all off abandoning Sebastian's side or that relationship they had formed or that home they shared together. His lips readily stealing that offered kiss. The Fae himself more content in the renewed declaration of commitment before Dorian too made an effort to stand.

His silver-hued gaze so idly watched as Sebastian mixed those drinks and yet his curiosity for such a thing was largely taken instead with the word the man offered upon the nature of vampires and this bond of sorts that lingered between Maker and the one they had made. It made a great deal of sense to his mind and yet that there was not a way to undo it- did not. Nature was rarely biased in such a sense. The Fae almost assured there was a way even if Sebastian himself might not know of it. His mind positively taken with these curiosities as he considered them. The man distracted briefly by that drink that was passed to him, that taste readily seeing that simper return in response before his thoughts inclined again to the matter at hand. This matter of release, it seemed, was poorly known within the vampire community, Dorian frowning slightly once more at his lovers words that those he knew either remained connected of their Maker had died. Immortality, it seemed, content to prevail even after the death of a Maker- such an idea tucked within his mind all the same. The Fae near assured he could find more upon this in time, that drink lifted to his lips again as Sebastian continued then, speaking of Anna-Marie as she had once been. That picture his words so crafted far removed from the girl he had seen tonight. Dorian almost inclined not to believe them. His words escaping him then. The Monarch almost contrite in the wake of them. Regardless of his thoughts on the girl she was still connected to Sebastian in a sense, those age-old habits seizing him then as he made some effort to apologise for his social misstep. Sebastian near waving it away before moving to fill in those missing words himself. The vampire perhaps equally surprised to hear of what the girl had once been. That query as to whether he recalled that trip Sebastian had taken stirring the warmest of smiles to his lips.

"I remember much of that night you returned, yes."

It was, after all, the very night they had so decided to define the nature of their relationship as a couple. Dorian inclined to remember it with fondness. To think such things had plagued his lovers mind throughout! Yet, truly, Dorian could hardly fault the man for clinging to some hope that there might be a way to restore his Maker to the creature she had been if only for how much more simple it might make his own life. The Fae too considering these possibilities now and just how this missing information might be sourced, his mind readily inclined to think of Matteo in that moment and all the man knew. The often irksome Fae was rarely inclined to offer any information unless directly asked of it and even then to be given a straight answer by the man was even rarer. Dorian assured he might merely leave Sebastian with some sort of riddle for his own enjoyment. For all the Frenchman's age and ability the man was very much a Fae in every sense of the word, readily indulging that impish nature that perhaps even Dorian himself enjoyed though was more content to express in other fashions. Still- there was little Matteo did not know or possess some knowledge of in the least. Had not Sebastian said Anna-Marie was French? That alone perhaps affording Matteo knowledge. Dorian- for all his own thoughts on Sebastian's Maker- hardly inclined not to assist his lover in finding those answers if he desired them. Dorian's head nodding then a moment later in agreement of that plan, a touch of anxiety tugging at his own form at the notion of that conversation he himself need have with the man.

"Yes, this seems suitable. I shall set tea for later in the afternoon and so assuming all goes well with him, by the time we are done, it may well be dark and you should be awake to speak to him in turn."

That suggestion of AISE was met with a simple shake of the vampires head, even Dorian willing to admit that the information his lover did possess was perhaps not of a vast enough manner to truly afford his intelligence agency anything to go upon. How unfortunate it was, that Sebastian seemed to know so little of this other Anna-Marie had once made. The man hardly seeming to be aware if she even still lived and yet, if she did, she might well provide so many of those answers and yet without even a name to go upon it hardly seemed as if locating her would be any simple task. Dorian took another sip of that drink, his finger idly tracing that rim in further consideration at the bleakness of the outcome they seemed presented with in this and yet surely something might be found, somehow. Dorian inclined to consider these thoughts further and surely would for at least the next few days. Surely his status as King so afforded him some reach off information? Perhaps even the French government might know....something. Dorian as of yet so failing to consider the media and all this might bring if they caught but a scent of it. A soft sigh falling from his lips at last.

"Let us hope then that Matteo might know something. Do you know even the name off this other? Whom was she taken by?"

Perhaps they merely need approach it from another angle and yet without Anna-Marie herself to provide those answers such a task seemed decidedly difficult. Dorian not at all inclined to even consider the possibility of involving the girl herself, the man allowing any further questions to cease as Sebastian rubbed at his head in response to the sheer stress of it all. The Monarch instead so seeming to make that connection between Anna-Marie and Samantha that fateful night. That power the girl had over his own lover so explaining just how Samantha had been bitten in the first place and that ready fear she seemed to possess of Sebastian in turn. Dorian quite unable to fault the woman in that, the man truly thankful to at last understand that situation and yet with no Samantha to explain it to and little chance of the woman ever returning Dorian, as he was want to do, was all but inclined to move beyond that incident entirely now that it had been cleared. Sebastian's admittance that he had been made to bite the woman because Anna-Marie so believed him to be a poor vampire perhaps the more alarming revelation in this. How curious it was, that such a perceived stain against his lover might vex him so. That agitation turning within Dorian once more at the mere suggestion that his lover was anything less then what he was in any sense. It was almost ridiculous, truly, that Dorian should find need to defend his vampirism and yet perhaps that was simply love itself. The Fae simply prone to finding disdain with those whom might try to force Sebastian to be anything other then he was. Dorian so desperately aware of the morals of that man he adored and indeed that almost painstaking effort he went to not to bring him to others. The veritable trauma of being made too in an effort to fulfil the selfish whims of a child who did not and could not understand was....horrific to him. Dorian, for the first time, feeling almost desperately protective over his consort. That desire to keep him from harm of either the physical or emotional sense pressing heavily upon him now. That admittance of his utter dislike of the girl far tamer then what he might truly wish to say.

It was Sebastian's near determined scrubbing of that stove that at last saw the Monarch move once more, his hand rested upon his companions to cease that motion then and draw his boyfriends attention to him alone. How much weighed on his lover....and for so long. Dorian almost inclined to feel guilty that he had not somehow known of it sooner if only to....relieve it, somehow, in any way that he could. That utterance of the man's full name at last seeming to draw his attention. Anna-Marie utterly forgotten in that moment in which their might exist just them. Dorian making every effort to have Sebastian so understand that there was perhaps no shame nor burden to be had in...sharing these worries at last. That surely, with each other at least, they might not need to pretend all was well when it was not. Dorian himself assured he too need learn from his own words. Were not relationships supposed to be about trust on some level? Those rules of society perhaps, finally, needing to be broken between themselves alone. Love, after all, was not a burden. Sebastian so at last seeming to find some sense in those words, that easy smile resting upon Dorian's own lips in turn. The man quite unable to prevent that soft chuckle at but another utterance of 'sorry' that befell his lover's lips.

"There is nothing to be sorry for, Mon Cher. I am learning too."

His gaze returned then to those wines as Sebastian set about making them another drink, Dorian hardly prepared then for the fashion in which Sebastian so abruptly stepped passed them only to near bury his head against his shoulder in that final, desperate admittance of what worried him most. It was almost instinctive, really, that fashion in which his arms so wrapped about his lovers waist. Dorian's throat so momentarily thick with emotion he struggled to swallow in that moment when Sebastian so surely needed him. A part of the monarch unwilling to admit that this worry was perhaps the greatest off his own in turn. Dorian already having considered but a hundred times over what they might do if Anna-Marie turned Sebastian upon him. Yet, perhaps, he need listen to his own words.

"It worries me too-"

That admittance was little more than a whisper. Dorian swallowing once more, his grip upon his lover tightening but slightly then in that moment of silence. The Monarch willing to offer but those further thoughts now.

"-but I have some idea. I would like to believe that you love me enough to simply disobey that command, that somehow that might be enough, but I am not a complete fool to dreams either. Her own affinities are all but useless against me- she will work that out quickly- which leaves only you. If the moment should ever come to it, given her size, I believe I can render her mortal without my blood in her veins and very quickly at that. If she is not a vampire she has no power- just as when I made you live and I suspect, as a mortal, she may possess no power over you either. A loophole of sorts. I have other options, but that seems to be the most feasible. I can take everything from her in seconds- it is she who need pray that I stop at just that."

dorian aragona