Mia opened her mouth to answer, but found her voice failing her for a moment at those hopeful ruby eyes. Looking into them, Mia knew the girl was hoping for a negative answer.

  She wanted Mia to tell her that no, a mother making a sandwich to her daughter and her friend was not normal and Helene was just weird. A one-in-a-million miracle.

  “She is …,” Mia started, chewing on her words. “Doing her best. That’s what all mothers do, and in turn I try my best for her.”

  Mia could practically see hope wilting in the vampire’s eyes, a small part of her dying at that very moment.

  Carmilla cast her eyes down, staring at the sandwich with a listless look. She looked pitiful, and from what Mia knew of the girl, she could guess what was going through her head.

  Unable to stay still, Mia stood up and wrapped the vampire up in a hug. It maybe wasn’t the best move, but it was the one that came to Mia at the moment. She just wanted to hug that sad vampire until she stopped being sad.

  It was childish and not entirely how things like that worked, despite that she felt Carmilla relaxing a bit. When the vampiress placed a warm hand on Mia’s wrapped around her waist, the smaller girl sniffled.

  How could anyone be so horrible of a mother that she’d ask a question like that? Mia knew, intellectually, that there were neglectful and even abusive parents out there. Hell, she had a father out there buying cigarettes for the last decade, but she somehow couldn’t conceptualise a mother doing the same.

  After all, Helene had been there for her always and forever. To Mia, mothers were who never betrayed you and you could always count on.

  What did Carmilla’s parents do though? They left her to die alone in a hospital, suffering through late stage cancer without anyone to rely on.

  Mia could hardly imagine in how many ways and how deeply that would break a young girl. So she squeezed that girl, trying to convey that she wasn’t going anywhere.

  It probably didn’t work, thinking stuff at people usually wasn’t the best way to communicate. People usually used words for that, but Mia didn’t feel like her voice would allow for ‘words’ at the moment, so she just hugged Carmilla tighter.

  “It’s fine, really,” Carmilla murmured, her thumb rubbing the back of Mia’s interlocked hands. Her voice was barely a whisper, like she wasn’t even talking to Mia, but trying to convince herself. “I’m not some fragile vase to break from a little … disappointment. You don’t need to worry.”

  Mia just closed her eyes, her cheek placed on the vampiress’ back as she tried to get her rampaging pity and anger under control.

  A part of her wanted to track down this pitiful girl’s ‘parents’ and beat them until they couldn’t even think straight while another just wanted to wrap the vampire up in bubble wrap and pamper her until she forgot all about everything bad that's ever happened to her.

  Taking a soft, trembling breath, Mia shifted the hug into a half hug as she slid back up into the chair next to Carmilla and laid her head over the taller girl’s shoulder.

  “I’m … sorry you had to grow up like that,” Mia managed to force out, wincing as the words left her mouth. Was that insensitive? It probably was, wasn’t it? Come on, Mia. Words. “Shit, I barely even had the mental capacity to process all the messed up shit in your story back when you told it to me. I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s fine,” Carmilla said softly, now much more sincerely as she laid her hand across Mia’s which came around her waist. “It’s behind me now. They all are. New world, new me … and all that.”

  “I hope a goblin ate them,” Mia said sourly before stiffening, realising what exactly her rebellious mouth had said. Well, it spoke her thoughts, but the large majority of those was not supposed to be spoken aloud.

  Carmilla’s snort, which transformed into a melodious giggle, relaxed her nerves instantly though.

  Have I ever heard her laugh before? Mia wondered, a smile subconsciously spreading on her lips at the sound. It made her feel all warm and fluttery inside.

  “You are a riot,” Carmilla said, mirth still clear in her voice. “Yeah. Let’s hope for that.”

  “I, uhm,” Mia opened her mouth again, drawing a still amused, but questioning glance from the vampiress. “I just, uhhhhh, I want you to know that I won’t leave you, not if you don’t want me to. I promise.”

  Carmilla stared at her, a complicated look spreading on her features.

  “You can eat me if I break that promise,” Mia said, raising her chin in a way that showed off her neck. She flushed crimson to the tips of her ears as she finished, the unintentional innuendo somehow managing to sideline even herself.

  Carmilla’s mouth closed and opened, her fangs extending for a moment as her pupils dilated. She snapped her mouth shut and closed her eyes, then let out a soft breath.

  At least the innuendo flew right over her dense head. Mia thought, trying to calm her suddenly racing heart.

  “Alright,” Carmilla murmured, a hand over her eyes. “Sure. A promise. Alright.”

  Mia beamed at her. Progress. Hurray for the power of Words!

  Even if Carmilla might not be entirely believing Mia’s promise, it was a good start. The redhead had shown that she had Mia’s back time and again so far and Mia hoped she’d shown something similar in turn.

  Mia had tried to be dependable, was still trying and was hoping she was succeeding at it. These people, Mark, Lina, Carmilla, Brent and her mother were depending on her. They’d placed their lives in her hand in fights, and trusted her to have their backs.

  The responsibility was both stifling and invigorating. A part of her wanted to throw it all off and hide in a hole somewhere, but another was thrilled to be so … useful.

  No, not the right word. Dependable, yes, that. That was better. All her efforts and struggles to get out there and fight to get stronger felt rewarded just by the fact that no one questioned her abilities and that even people like Brent and Carmilla trusted her to have their backs.

  She knew Mark and Helene would stay with her in the future, while the other three were likely a wrong day away from leaving, but it seemed Carmilla was well on her way to becoming a permanent addition to Mia’s life.

  Part of that was likely because of her blood, probably, but by the soft touch on her hand and the relaxed breathing she heard, Mia was sure that other part was growing too. Hopefully.

  The door creaked open and Mia jumped, almost falling right off of her chair in a panic.

  “Calm down honey,” Helene said with a smirk in her voice as she stepped inside. “It’s just me, but don’t you two worry, I’m going to check up on Brent and stop bothering you. See you later.”

  With that, the woman disappeared up the stairs after grabbing another slice of bread.

  “So,” Carmilla spoke up, breaking the extremely awkward silence that followed. “How is your spell-crafting going?”

  “Pretty well,” Mia said, perking up and latching onto the question like a woman drowning at sea would to a raft. “All things considered. I mean, I technically made a working spell circle in only six hours so that’s good, but then it sort of blew up in my face so maybe it’s not going that well, but, uhm, it’s still good.”

  “Any idea why it blew up?” Carmilla asked, interest seeping into her voice.

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  “Yeah,” Mia nodded. “I was using my unfiltered chaos aspected arcane mana to fuel it. I just need to incorporate a converter function that turns it into order aspected static mana.”

  “I don’t know what half of those words mean,” the vampire said with a smirk, leaning back in her chair as she took a small nibble out of her sandwich. Mia watched her savour it for a moment. Cute.

  “Which ones?” Mia asked, tilting her head curiously.

  “Aspected, function, filtered, converter” Carmilla listed. “I mean, I have some spell crafting knowledge and runic theory in my head from my bloodline memories, but … well, those are from my Progenitor and he recorded everything solely in Akkadian. I’m unfamiliar with the more specialised terms.”

  “Well, half of them are just programming terms that sort of fit,” Mia said, shrugging. “I mean, most spell circles I’ve seen are compartmentalised, separated into different parts that each do their own thing. Like, the mana battery is one part, the shaping compartment is another and then the kinetic compartment that applies the force vector to the projectile is the third part. I call those different parts ‘functions’, like in programming.”

  “I see,” Carmilla nodded, tapping her chin thoughtfully as Mia felt a flare of mana from the girl’s chest. “Huh. You’re right, and the other three?”

  “Well, those are mostly unique to Arcane magic,” Mia said, sending a drop of mana to burst out of her index finger. It sparkled, sending tiny pink arcs of angry energy around itself before it fizzled out. “Arcane mana has two states, chaotic and stable. Mine is locked in on chaotic until I get a high enough Spirit to suppress it and flip it around to stable, or static, or whatever else you want to call it. Chaos and Order aspected isn’t … really an apt description, since it really isn’t but it sort of fits so I used the word.”

  Mia stopped for a moment, waiting for any questions, but when Carmilla just stared at her questioningly, she continued with a slight blush.

  “Anyway, what the converter function does is that it changes my chaotic mana into this stable state. I was missing that converter in my spell, so it blew up at the end when the leftover mana was let loose the moment the spell construct dissipated. At least that’s what I think happened, I didn’t have enough time to make a new prototype spell circle to test it yet … wait, I just noticed, but why the hell would your progenitor who is off gallivanting in another Realm speak Akkadian of all things?”

  Akkadian was an ancient language spoken in Mesopotamia as far as Mia knew, and she was pretty sure her memory was correct. It was born in the Akkadian Empire, the first ever empire in known history at around 3000 BC and only died out in the 8th century BC when Old Aramaic took over as the common language of the Assyrians and Babylonians.

  Mia knew this. She was a history nut after all and loved old middle-eastern stuff.

  “Well,” Carmilla said, scratching her cheek uncomfortably as she drew out each syllable. “I can only make guesses, since my own earliest ancestor only arrived on earth in the fifth century BC and in Rome, so don’t take my word for it, but … well, Akkadian is the common tongue of all vampires in the Mystic Realm. So … “

  “Can’t it be just two languages with the same name?” Mia asked.

  “It isn’t,” Carmilla said. “I checked.”

  “Oh,” Mia said, blinking as the two girls stared at each other. She gave a shrug. “Well, cool. Vampires founded the Akkadian Empire and not the aliens, that’s one conspiracy theory debunked I guess.”

  “Well, depends on whether you count unliving immortals from another universe as aliens or not.” Carmilla snickered. “Technically, we are both descended from aliens, aren’t we? You even more so than me.”

  “Hmmm, how so?” Mia asked, her lips quirking up in amusement.

  “You mentioned that the origin of your bloodline is the Great Spirit King Anachreon, right?” Carmilla asked, leaning onto the table with an elbow as she gazed at Mia. “You know he comes from the deepest parts of the Astral Sea, a place where everything exists at once and even time and place loose meaning. There is no creature more alien than him and his kind in the Six Realms. Well, aside from the Constellations maybe.”

  “So what you’re saying is,” Mia mumbled, narrowing her eyes at the smiling redhead. “That I’m an eldritch horror? What’s the Astral Sea anyway?”

  “I’m sure one of your books has a better description,” Carmilla said, almost bursting into giggles midway through her sentence. “But from what I know, it’s one of the fundamental layers of reality representing ‘Everything’ and stands in contrast with the Void which represents ‘Nothingness’. It is said to be the origins of all life and magic, and the place where the first germinating seeds of new Realms are born. It is beyond infinite and also extremely dangerous to traverse even for Rank 5 people.”

  “So it’s not part of the Spirit Realm?” Mia asked, confused out of her mind. Why was a Spirit King ruling over it, and by the by, how could anyone rule over a realm that’s the manifestation of ‘Everything’?

  “No,” Carmilla said. “The Astral Sea and the Void are entirely real and physical places while the Spirit Realm and the Demon Realm are just spiritual places made up of energy, thoughts, emotions and whatnot. You can’t even enter either with your real body, you have to project your Spirit inside. Now, I have a question of my own if you don’t mind?”

  “Ask away!” Mia sat up straight in her chair, doing her best to look earnest.

  “What’s the grade and purity of your Bloodline?” Carmilla asked, wincing a little. “You don’t have to answer, but I’d like to at least get a vague idea of how-”

  “Peak Grade, High Purity and Fully Manifested at 100%.” Mia answered easily, not really caring about the propriety. Well, she did care, but she’d just promised Carmilla to stay with her until the vampire got tired of her presence. This much was nothing when compared to that.

  “That’s …” Carmilla had a strange look on her face. “Could be bad. Damn, that must be at most ten generations removed from the Origin … that technically makes you a Princess, if I remember correctly.”

  “The System probably fiddled with it,” Mia said, shrugging as she pushed the flare of worry that threatened to burst out at Carmilla’s words right back down into the depths of her mind. Nope, not gonna worry about stuff that was only going to bite her in the ass many years down the line.

  Not while she still had goblins trying to make shish kebabs out of her intestines.

  “Maybe,” Carmilla said, her tone making it clear that she wasn’t convinced. Still, she seemed to take the clue and shrugged. “Princess Mia has a nice ring to it though.”

  Mia stiffened for a moment, staring at the vampire, who was looking increasingly awkward at Mia’s strange reaction.

  “What?” Carmilla asked, leaning away from Mia’s intense gaze like it was the sun itself trying to turn her to dust.

  Did she just try to tease me? Is that a sign? Does she like me? Was that just a friendly teasing, or romantic? Wha- Stop. Mia shook her head, pulling her thoughts out of the gutter with a fair bit of effort.

  “Sorry,” Mia mumbled. “What were you saying? I got … lost in thought.”

  “I didn’t say something weird?” Carmilla asked, looking worried.

  “Nothing weird, no,” Mia said, smirking a little. “Princess Mia does roll well off the tongue, doesn’t it?”

  “If you’re the princess,” Carmilla said, seemingly deciding to double down, seeing as Mia wasn’t uncomfortable. “What does that make me?”

  “Hmmmm,” Mia said, narrowing her eyes at Carmilla as she looked the gorgeous redhead up and down. Even with just some comfy shorts and a loose t-shirt to wear, the vampire had that lethal dark femme vibe to her that was to die for. “I’d say my personal knight, but you’re more of the … hmmmm, a mysterious shadowy figure I’ve sold my soul to buy the loyalty of. You come around every night to claim a little bit of your price, and in turn protect me for the day after. Hmmm?”

  “And why don’t I just eat your soul whole?” Carmilla asked playfully, tapping at her lips with a smirk. She’s in her element. This silly girl read way too many dark fantasy and romance books.

  “Because you’d choke on it?” Mia wagered with a shrug. “Or, because you’re secretly in love with me?”

  Mia wasn’t sure which goddess of love or bravery saw fit to bless her with the burst of courage that made her say that second part. Her voice didn’t even tremble, not even a little.

  Inside, a part of her was fist pumping and patting herself over the back for that movie-grade flirt while the other was tearing more and more clumps of her hair out with every nanosecond spent waiting for Carmilla’s response.

  “R-right,” Carmilla said, the ever so slight stutter in her voice sending a thrill down Mia’s spine, and was that a slight blush on her face?

  A cascade of bells rang in Mia’s head like she’d hit the jackpot on a slot, a grin almost broke out on her face, but she suppressed it.

  She wouldn’t be embarrassed if she didn’t at the very least find the idea of loving me palatable, right? She’d be disgusted or dismissive or play it off as a joke.

  Honestly, a sizable part of Mia expected one of the latter to happen. Those were what her pitiful experiences and attempts at romance pointed towards as the most likely outcome.

  She was thrilled with even just the slightest sign that maybe, just maybe, Carmilla would finally be the one to break the pattern.

  Mia smiled slightly, staring into those increasingly confused ruby eyes and watched something bordering on panic rise in them. It seemed like Carmilla didn’t have the faintest idea of how to deal with this situation and was moments away from taking the easiest route: running away.

  Mia couldn’t let that happen. Nope, the girl clearly needed time to think, but Mia wouldn’t let her just run off with an awkward air left between them. If she wanted to go, Mia would let her leave gently.

  “I think I’m full,” she said, hopping down from the chair and placing her dirty plate into the sink. “I’m going to go back out and practise my spell-crafting some more … ?”

  “I think I’m going to go on a quick patrol,” Carmilla said with forced calm, even Mia could see the chaos storm brewing inside of her. “I haven’t been able to get a feel for the district since we came back so … see you later?”

  “I’ll be out under the willow,” Mia said, smiling at the vampire. “Have fun.”

  Yesss. I’m getting pretty good at Words.

  Today’s interactions with Carmilla couldn’t be counted as a home run, but Mia’d give herself a good eight out of ten. With a plus one point for effort, which would make it a nine.

  “Right,” Carmilla said, nodding quickly as she spun around and darted for the door. “You too!”