2.17 History Lessons

When Natalie and the gang returned home from university, Lil announced that the basement was completely off limits, and that nobody, under any circumstances, was allowed beyond the hidden bookcase door, for their own safety. Dominic, Dylan, Eric, Maggie and Jazz assumed Lil was brewing something explosive or similar and didn't think much of it.

Natalie had had several visions and she confronted Lil about the special house guest as soon as she could get her alone. "WHO is she and WHY is she locked in out basement?", Nat demanded. "This is still my house young lady, and I will not allow you to tell me what I can and can't do, also don't take that tone with me.." responded Lil firmly.

"Look Lilly, I understand you and Grandma V built this place from the sweat of your brow and all that, I get that, but every vision I've had of your guest involves blood. Buckets, rivers, oceans off it, and that scares the hell out of me!", Natalie divulged, trying not to lose resolve.

"I am not in the slightest bit surprised of what your visions have shown you, knowing who she was, but that was her past, what have you seen of her future?" Lilliana asked quietly. "Her future? Nothing, I cant control my visions!", Natalie spat, "All I see is her and swords and castles, and every vision contains spilled blood!"

"If that's the case, I need to find you a guide to teach you to control your gift.", Lil suggested.
"That would be fantastic, but don't change the subject, who and why?" Natalie inquired calmly, knowing that a battle of wills against Lil wasn't going to get her any answers.

"The who is simple, my guest is Angelita Drakkenstone, the why is far more complicated.", started Lil before Natalie interrupted, "Angel Drakkenstone? 'The Angel Of Death'?, The notorious Simcinatti mafia enforcer who turned on her fellow mafia and killed them all, I though she was on death row?".

"Angelita wasn't working for the mafia. The why is infinitely more complex, what did you learn of the 'Dark Ages' on history at school, specifically regarding Fae, Werewolves, and Vampire Kindred?", Lilly inquired.

Natalie thought back to Mrs. Glibbs 'Sim History 101' at school, it was one of those boring filler classes you where forced to do.

Natalie took a deep breath, "The early Vampires lived in great castles, and the nobles fed from peasant volunteers for a one month period in exchange for sheep or cows. Werewolves lived in the forest and terrorized any peasants who went in there on full moon but mostly kept to them selves."

"Fairies are descendants from nature spirits, they always lived on the edges of forests, among the flowers, and along rivers. Vampires, werewolves, and Fae always avoided the oceans due to the vicious merfolk, until they become extinct.", Natalie recalled, "And other than a few famous super naturals since humans created Sim Nation, there is no race specific history, because we are all one now."

 "That's human history, written by short lived and forgetful humans, and tinkered with over time both by Vampires and Fae alike to hide the truth of who we once were.", added Lilliana.

"I think someone might notice if history was suddenly rewritten!", Natalie burst out. "Really? Ask your Grandmothers what Elba was like when she first moved here, compared to what it is like now.", suggested Lil. "That's not possible, they have both passed on!", Natalie said, the frustration clear in her voice.

"I remember.", stated Lil reminiscing for a moment, "Your Grandmother V and I were barely out of our teens when we moved here, and unless something untoward should happen to me, I shall live to see your great grandchildren, and maybe beyond. Vampires, Genies and Fae have much longer lifespans than anyone, most Werewolves burn out as fast as humans, and the Merfolk are not extinct. Royal Fae have the longest lifespan of all, except a vampire that obtains immortality."

"Genies and Merfolk exist?", Natalie asked. "They do, they remain hidden, but they do.", Lilliana explained, "but this distracts from your history lesson, sit quietly and don't interrupt."

An interested party pressed her ear to the wall from within the confines of the party. She still wasn't sure if she could trust her host entirely.

 Lilliana took a deep breath and began to explain the true history of the world...

"The earliest Vampires nobles lived in great castles in Simsylvania, under the reign of 'Nikolai The Merciless', but the nobles didn't feed from peasant volunteers, the Vampire nobles terrorized the human peasants, the less fortunate Vampires or Ghouls, peasants themselves, were only allowed to feed on the cattle. Any Ghoul caught feeding on a human was executed." The elder Vampires had only one fear, sharing power.

"The first Werewolves and other Werekind lived in the forests and kept away from the peasants around the full moon to avoid spreading their infection. And the first Fae were slaves to the Vampire Nobles. The first Fae were pacifists who lived in harmony with the earth spirits, although we are not descended from them."

Natalie opened her mouth to ask a question, but Lil silenced her with a motion, before revealing more.

"The oldest Vampire nobles, who were all immortal, thirsted for conquest, and having easily enslaved the Fae, and terrorized the humans, they turned against the tribal hordes of the Merfolk, this turned out to be a fruitless venture, while the initial onslaught killed thousands of Merfolk, the rest disappeared under the waters, where the Vampire or their slaves could not follow."

"Frustrated by their lack of success, the Vampire lords turned their attention to the only available target, Werekind. The Vampire attacks completely devastated all Werekind except the Werewolves, who began intentionally infecting humans to increase their numbers in a desperate attempt to stop the Vampires."

"Eventually the Werewolves had the numbers to attempt attacks against the Vampire castles with such strength that the Vampires fled inland, and the Fae slaves learned the ways of war and joined the fight against their oppressors."

"The Vampire lords turned to their children for salvation, training any children born of an immortal to be a warrior assassin and turning them into weapons to be wielded against any who stood before them, and the war once again turned in favor of the Vampire lords. The warrior assassins each achieved kills in the thousands, all their lords needed to do was point a direction."

"The Fae who, all too quickly had learned the ways of war, eventually forged an alliance between every sentient race with the will and strength to fight and the Vampires lords were all most all killed, though it cost all races greatly. The few Vampires that weren't killed disappeared into the darkness for almost four centuries."   

The head attached to the ear in the basement nodded to Lilliana's exposition, every word was truth so far, she knew it, she remembered it all as if it just happened. 

"When Vampires reappeared to the world, human population had already expanded greatly and formed Sim Nation. Supernatural creatures were so few compared to humans, that they had been forgotten altogether, particularly Vampires. The Fae who were ashamed of having turned to violence to overthrow their masters, slowly began modifying the written history of humans, softening phrases here, and destroying historical documents where they could do so inconspicuously."

"All the while, Fae guardians kept copies of the truth, eventually they realized that they were not the only ones 'softening' history, although for many years the Fae were unable to discover the source."

"The new Vampires were created, not born, and claimed to swear no allegiance to any lord, and most claimed no knowledge of becoming a Vampire. The Fae, not wanting to hold these new Vampires to the sins of their fathers allowed them to live, warning them against any rampage against humans."

"Eventually the Fae relaxed their guard, there were no higher percentage of trouble makers among the new Vampire than their were among any other race. It was at this time that the few remaining Vampire lords crept back into Simsylvania under assumed names, and attempted to restore their power base. And for a long time they were content to not revert to their ancient ways."

"The Fae did not realize until just recently who the real power brokers behind the new Vampire leadership were. With the Queens' death, and my brothers ascendance to the throne, Nikolai has decided that the Fae Nation has lost its strength and it is time for revenge. A reliable source has given my brother this information freely, and asked only for sanctuary and immunity from Fae punishment for the past in return for this information."

"Nikolai intends to annihilate the Fae first, then plans to turn on the remainder of Sim Nation."

Natalie could hold out any longer, "I still don't understand why SHE is in OUR basement!", Natalie exploded.

"Simple!", exclaimed Lilliana, "Nikolai has put his plan in motion because with the Queen gone, Fae Nation is weak, The Queen is gone because she sent a Black Fae assassin after me, I trapped her, and instead of sending her back to tell my mother I was dead, I sent her back to assassinate my Mother, putting Jasper on the throne, Jasper offered the informant sanctuary, and knowing he couldn't keep her safe anywhere, he asked me to hide her, and I said 'Yes', because it was my actions that opened a path for Nikolai to put his plan in motion!"

"Oh my maker! Why is Angelita Drakkenstone hiding out in the basement!", growled Natalie, still not understanding fully. Lilliana looked at Natalie for almost a full minute before responding, "The informant is Nikolai's daughter."            

 Angelita digested the information about Lilliana's assassin. This could be a very useful bargaining chip if it turned out that the Fae couldn't be trusted to stop her insane father.

Dominic and Dylan had already applied for, and been accepted to positions at the local fire station as recruits, before they had even finished university exams. They arrived an hour early on the first day and Station Captain Tia Rojas run the two through basic training early. She was surprised how quickly they completed it at first, until she discovered the boys had wanted to be fire men since forever and had learned all they could in advance.

Tia was introducing the boys to second in command Michale Manning, when the other recruits arrived. Tia slapped sticky name tags on each recruits shirt as they filed through the door. Dean Fritz-Smith, Darian Sherman, and Jessica Marcum. 

The recruits where still shaking hands and exchanging greetings when the first alarm went off. Tia looked at Michale and suggested he take the two Jettstar boys, as the other recruits had not even been put through basic fire safety introduction yet.

 Dominic and Dylan traded grins before following Michale out to the truck. "You know what? I'll just kick back in the rear of the cabin and see how much of what you told Tia is exaggeration," explained Michale with a hint of a french accent. "If it looks like going south, I'll step in, If you boys are the real deal, I'll fast track you."

Dominic and Dylan raced the vehicle check which would normally happen at the start of the shift three minutes ago. "Flip you for the drivers seat!" enthused Dom. "I'll call Tails, coz tails never fails", laughed Dylan. Dominic pilled a coin from his pocket and gave it a quick flip.

"Fine!" called back Dominic, "I guess I'll just have to wait my turn!"

 

 Michale grinned from the back seat as the boys did everything according to procedure.

Tia and Michale had only been able to approve one recruit from the last batch, and he had been on the job only a few weeks when he had a jet ski accident and put himself in hospital for the next few months.

The pair of them had been pulling triple shifts and sleeping at the station for too long,

the station needed reliable new blood and soon.

The boys pulled up to their first official fire a few doors down from Elba Town Hall, at the home of Estaban Snickets-McFadden. Dylan recognized the owner as old R.O.T.C buddy of Eric's, sitting in his driveway sobbing. Dylan and Dominic raced inside through the heat with fire extinguishers and put out the bedroom blaze.

Dylan and Dominic returned to find a paparazzi interviewing Estaban, who broke away to hug both of the boys for saving his house. Dylan knew he was supposed to lecture Estaban about being careless with fire, but didn't have the heart for it .

Meanwhile on the other side of town Maggie and Jazz were interviewing for jobs at 'The Flying V Cafe', Not only did they both have degrees in fine arts, but their boss Hilary was also the girlfriend of the Jettstar's neighbor Jamie Sparrow. Hilary decided to employ them both on their own merits, and seeing one of them was her girlfriend's former ward, surely that would earn brownie points at home with her lover.

Eric rejoined the military, and although what he was doing as a lowly army grunt was worse than R.O.T.C stuff, he knew it was the only way to get onto the astronaut program. 

The couples gathered in the lounge room to discuss the days events when Maggie told them about the experimental eco-friendly house two bed room house that had just been built in Elba. "Its a shame its not three bedroom, we could all move in together, and car pool to work!", said Dominic enthusiastically, who had adopted some of his wife's eco-friendly ways at university. 

"I don't think we are ready to but a house yet." interrupted Natalie, "With Eric's career, and looking at the space program, I expect we are going to have to relocate a lot, but you and Maggie should check it out, I think it would suit you guys perfectly!", Natalie finished, turning to Dominic as she spoke.

Dominic and Maggie fell head over heels for the place the moment they saw it, and convinced Dylan and Jazz to move in as well. Lilly refused to let them pay for the house from their savings, instead the money come from an account Lil and V had set up for their descendants.

The two young couples moved in almost immediately.

Shortly after the boys and their wives moved out, Astrid announced that she too intended to leave on the nearby future. This came about after a discussion with Lil about ownership technicalities. Lil had to explain to Astrid that while she was a creation and that in the eyes of the law, she was owned by Lil, Lilly had always thought of Astrid as a free thinking individual able to make her own choices.

When Astrid decided that she was a vast repository of knowledge with almost no experience, Astrid had decided she wanted to travel the world and see it for herself. Lilly granted her access to an account, and double checked that Astrid had fully understood the difference between what was true, and the deceptions required to avoid troubles with the law.

Skitty Kitty curled up and napped at her third favorite napping place, she wasn't in the mood to

mooch pats, instead, she would wait patiently for one of her humans to bring her some.

Authors Note:
Ain't nobody got time for that! The blog has caught up to my game, I have no new pictures.
Must go play more!

:)