An angel and The Devil

The Baroness was still huddled up in the corner of the room. It had gotten to the point that Valentina suspected that she had been stationary for so long that moving might be painful for the woman. Apparently that guess was accurate as finally Sabrina stood, slowly raising up and wincing from stiffness all the while.

"Well, you're going to want to listen to the whole thing before you do anything rash. Respond too fast and I fear you'll regret it."

Valentina felt her eye twitch. Although the Baroness was being amiable, what she had said had very clear undertones of a threat.

"And if I don't wait like you requested?

She shrugged. "Then, as I just said, you'll regret it. We can get into the specifics of why a little later. For now, let's settle down and talk about things that are less likely to make you respond impulsively."

Valentina was growing more and more wary of the woman. The way she carried herself looked like she wasn't risking anything. She either fully believed in her success, accepted her fate, or simply couldn't care about the outcome, regardless of what it may be. Considering she laid down the initial threat, Valentina could only assume the Baroness was confident in success.

There was an adjoining room to the current one and Sabrina entered it only to return with some cushions. She tossed a few down at the Archduchess' feet before another couple pillows were tossed at her own feet.

"There, sit. This may not be the welcome an archduchess deserves, but it'll have to do. These are better than standing as well. I'm exhausted and you don't look much better."

Sabrina had waited a while, yawning as the time passed and eventually Valentina was sitting down as well, albeit directly next to the unconscious Dahlia.

"Right, so, where do I begin. Let's start with what's certainly the most pressing issue. Those wounds all came from her father. It happened the night of the debutante the moment we entered the carriage. If I might add, his outburst was without a doubt due to your interference."

She had cast a meaningful look to Valentina and the archduchess felt her stomach drop like a brick. She glanced over at the girl beside her and found it hard to breathe.

'I did this… It may have been indirectly, but my idiocy almost killed her…'

She was allowed to wallow in her thoughts, but only briefly before Sabrina continued.

"Putting all the blame on you isn't fair. He had been wanting to beat her for a while but held off due to the debutante. She was also planning to resist her father's plans regardless of your presence, so while you exacerbated it, she was likely to get injured regardless of your interference."

Some of the words were sinking in and Valentina had her brow furrowed as she kept listening.

"As you likely noticed, I said he had been wanting to beat her for a while… well the girl has been beaten and abused for ages. It started in earnest when it was found she didn't have the Burning Lion bloodline, but even before then she was already a victim of abuse. It'd be unreasonable to spin it a different way."

The Baroness was having a hard time maintaining eye contact at this point and her gaze kept flitting around, clearly uncomfortable.

"This is where I ask you don't be rash. Remember, even if you want to, don't do anything extreme or else you'll regret it. I'm not much different from her father, at least in terms of abuse. I'd argue I was 'better' in that my abuse was not the same as my husband's penchant for extreme violence, but I imagine that hardly matters to you.

Upon the revelation, Valentina didn't budge. She was frozen in place with her rage but already thin, wire like tendrils of blood were beginning to wrap around the Baroness. Seeing what was happening, Sabrina raised an eyebrow at the Archduchess, as if asking if she were serious. When the only response was them wrapping around and tightening around her more and more, that's when she let out a sigh and revealed her trump card.

Sabrina's eyes glowed as if filled with a silver and gold flame and her body seemed to radiate a similar light. The air itself began to vibrate and almost sing if one listened close enough. The amount of magical pressure coming off of the tired noblewoman was astounding, but more than that, two things caught Valentina's attention.

First and most pressing, there was a thin glowing golden chain entwined around both mother and daughter, and a single strand spanned the gap between them. The second point of note was the halo over Sabrina's head and the six ephemeral wings of light on her back.

"You… I thought you had a griffon bloodline and an aspect of sunlight. You're telling me you're a seraphim and have fate magic?"

The vampiress was in a state of total shock. The fate attribute was known to be incredibly rare and very powerful. She hadn't seen many fate casters, but she had seen enough and read enough to recognise that golden chain as some variant of a string of fate. If it tied the two together, then their lives were forcibly linked. She swore as she came to understand why attacking the Baroness was such a bad idea.

Meanwhile there's the whole other problem. She was a powerful variant of angel; a seraphim. Maybe not a pureblood, but she seemed to have a purity around 90%, similar to Valentina's vampirism. The high purity wasn't the issue though. That bloodline wasn't supposed to exist anymore.

"How do you exist? What about The Cleansing? Also…"

She cast a glance at Dahlia and fear ran through her. If Dahlia was secretly a seraphim, things would be very bad.

"Oh, let's deal with that worry first. Dahlia isn't a seraphim, you don't need to worry there. It may be in her genepool, but it's recessive. Her actual bloodline is a mess of its own and might cause you just as much trouble. I'll need to get into that in a moment."

With the initial conflict stopped before it began, Sabrina now stretched and layed down on the ground. Decorum or respect for the Archduchess would not be shown today apparently.

"The reason I'm a seraphim is because I was born this way. I wasn't present for The Cleansing, but my mother and grandmother were. I have a pair of siblings, gods know where, but beyond that the seraphim hereditary line was probably eradicated just as the history books say."

Valentina nodded. The story made sense at least, though it was incredibly surreal. Before The Theocracy was formed, it had been a powerful kingdom named "The Heavenly Realm." Back then, a single religion dominated the area and the kingdom was ruled by a royal family. The only family to ever exist with the seraphim bloodline.

Many disenfranchised citizens eventually rose up and conducted the most one sided coup in history, later named The Cleansing. This event was a massive turning point for the entire continent and redefined how not only the one kingdom was governed, but also how all countries on the continent interacted with each other. Valentina couldn't fathom how the family had escaped the event, but it was hard to dispute the blatant demonstration of the bloodline right in front of her.

"Next up you'll probably want to know how my past affects Dahlia. Well the answer is it doesn't, at least not directly. The royal line died out a couple thousand years ago. I might be old, but I'm not that old. Even with me inheriting the bloodline at such high purity, I still have no ties to the Theocracy. The girl has even fewer things to worry about. Her bloodline is different, and while she has my hair, she lacks the distinctive metallic coloured eyes that the heavenly royals had."

She grimaced a little as she thought about Dahlia's situation. Her bloodline was something the Baroness coveted and treasured. No one knew anything about it, and currently she was the only one with the slightest lead. Sharing that information felt wrong, but if Valentina was about to take her daughter away, there were some things that needed to be made known.

"To explain how an overwhelmingly powerful bloodline like the seraphim became regressive… that's tied to how my mother and grandmother escaped The Cleanse. Apparently, my grandmother made a deal. She formed a contract with a creature or entity that she refused to tell us anything about. All I know is that it has no individual elemental affinity, its bloodline isn't recorded in any documentation I could locate, and that the original creature was powerful enough to aid in escaping The Cleanse."

There was a bit more time used to let this information sink it. Eventually, Valentina started nodding.

"If it's powerful enough to turn the seraphim into a regressive bloodline and is a total unknown, terrible things would happen to her if word got out. Some would want to experiment on her, while others would see her as a monster and a threat to society. As melodramatic as people can be, they like to act in extremes…"

She kept following her current train of thought. Dahlia's fate could range from a biological weapon to martyr, to enemy of all society. With only an unknown but extremely powerful origin for the bloodline, what might happen was incredibly hard to predict. The one thing that could be said with some certainty is that if this information got out, her life could be destroyed in an instant.

Some more time passed until Valentina finally spoke up. She was averting her eyes from the Baroness, instead looking at Dahlia's stationary body. Her emotions were clearly in turmoil and there seemed to be issues confronting her in every possible way.

"The amnesty you asked for. It was to be forgiven for the abuse you caused?"

Sabrina smirked and let out a world weary sigh.

"Yes, that's right. Forgiven isn't the right word though; I won't ask for that. I just don't want my past actions to bite me in the ass. With you taking her away and knowing the information I shared, I imagine I'll be talking to you more in the future. For now though, I want to prioritise my own escape and safety. You can do whatever you like with the Baron or any of the servants for that matter. Just do what you want and once you're done, take her and keep her safe."

The more Valentina listened, the more she began to to think that the Baroness had a twisted view on the whole situation. Nonetheless, she didn't mention it. She already knew who she needed to vent her anger on and, although Valentina was certain she could defeat and kill the woman in front of her, she had no desire to accidentally harm Dahlia in the process. Not to mention, she also wanted to at least maintain a business relationship with the person who knew so many important secrets.

"Well then, I suppose I'll do what I want then. I don't care if you're here or not when I'm back, just don't do anything to cause problems and ignore any screaming you hear…"

The Archduchess exited through the main door as Sabrina did a fake curtsey, all while she remained lying down in a state of pure lethargy.

"Good good. You have fun. This might not make you feel any better, but if you're torturing him, make sure you do a bit extra for me. He made these last couple decades hardly bearable and I wish I was the one to beat him instead of you."

The vampiress didn't acknowledge what she had heard, but it didn't stop her from mulling things over. She hadn't come to accept Sabrina and her past abuse, but with the current situation she at least knew where to redirect her anger. Perhaps she would torture the Baron a little extra, just for not quite the same reasons. It was with tumultuous thoughts of torture and recompense that Valentina began to walk towards the person on the third floor, approaching as both judge and executioner.

The adrenaline was pumping through her as she finally reached the door. In the same place where Dahlia had stood countless times shaking in fear, Valentina now stood shaking in anticipation for the ruthless act she planned to commit. She smirked a little to herself as she went over her options.

'Heh, of all the things the blood aspect is well suited for, torture may honestly be the profession best suited to it. Thank the gods, because I trully want to let loose and not hold a single thing back right now.'

More and more creative ideas flew through her head and along with each thought she tried to consider how well they paired with everything else she wanted to do. Eventually she settled on a specific torture checklist and then pulled open the door with a broad smile on her face. Tonight the screams would be sweeter than any dessert.