Lapis ate with an enthusiasm belonging to a woman who had been personally wronged by every meal she'd had for the past six months.
"Bro," she said, around a mouthful of rice, "when did you get this good?"
"Necessity." Ashen set another portion in front of her. "And practice."
"For who?"
"Mostly Seraphine."
Lapis paused her chewing to give him a look, but he was too busy in his own thoughts to react.
He reminisced about how she complained constantly that the vampire diet lacked variety. None of them knew what an actual meal looked like; they were perfectly content with blood and had been for centuries. So he had to improvise.
"You got this good from cooking for your girlfriend?" Lapis resumed eating. "That's oddly romantic."
"She was going to keep complaining otherwise." Ashen shook his head with a fond sigh.
That earned a laugh, startling enough that she almost choked. He waited until she'd recovered before continuing. "She also cooked sometimes, but she always said mine tasted better."
"She was right." Lapis instantly cast her judgment shamelessly, without even bothering to taste the other person's cooking.
"She usually is." He grinned.
He watched her eat for a moment, and reached over and ran his hand through her hair; a slow, idle pass, the way you'd absently pet a cat. With his other hand, he quietly activated Somatic Autonomy and adjusted the perception of her taste buds, just fractionally.
Lapis's eyes went wide.
She looked at her bowl. Then at him.
Then she stopped talking entirely and just ate.
"Nom... nom..."
"Nom... nom... nom..."
"Gulp... gulp... glomp...!"
"Puah~!" She set the bowl down and pressed both hands to her cheeks. "Bro. This is the best. From now on, you are my personal cook. I have decided."
"Get in line."
Lapis's contentment shattered immediately. She sat up. "Who dares? The sister position is sacred. Do they not know that? Tsk."
"Alright, alright." He ruffled her hair again, properly this time, until she batted his hand away. "I'll cook for my favorite sister whenever she wants. Happy?"
"That's how it should be." She settled back against his shoulder with a satisfied noise. "Hehe."
They sat like that for a while. Her legs were pulled up on the couch, her head resting where she'd wedged it against his arm. Ashen ate the rest of his own bowl without rushing. Occasionally, she stole from his portion and he allowed it.
"By the way," she said eventually. "How did you do that trick?"
"What trick?"
"The one where the food suddenly tasted like it was made by a deity. That was..." She paused, searching for the word. "Blissful."
"A skill. I'll explain later."
"Uh huh."
She nodded twice, as if she'd catalogued this and filed it for future investigation, then tucked herself more securely against his side and went quiet. Ashen stayed still and let her. He could feel, in the small shift of her breathing, the exact moment she stopped fighting it.
She was asleep within minutes.
Ashen looked at her sleeping beside him on the couch, curled up almost defensively, and his expression softened.
'You must've been through a lot… rest well, little sis.'
Beneath the cheerful facade, she must have been carrying tremendous pressure and stress. Only after seeing him—her brother, the person around whom she felt safest—did she finally allow herself to let go.
As he silently observed her with unreadable thoughts, his shadow stirred. Sabrina emerged from it with a smooth curtsy.
"Master, I apologize for taking too long."
Ashen wasn't surprised by her sudden appearance. "C'mon, Brina, I'm not going to blame you for not shadowing me every second of my life. Not after I saw how comfortable you looked in Cornelia's embrace," he said, a smirk slipping onto his face near the end.
The maid actually blushed faintly at that. "...She is like a mother to me, so I unconsciously allow myself to let go in her presence more than I probably should."
"Nothing wrong with that." He smiled gently before glancing at the sleeping girl beside him. "By the way, this is my little sister, Lapis. She can't exactly say hi right now, as you can see from the drooling mess she's making on my shoulder, but she's usually very polite. I hope you don't mind."
Sabrina observed the innocent and utterly unguarded expression on Lapis's face and smiled softly. "I would never think my master's siblings lack politeness over such a minor matter. On another note, it seems the master shares a very close relationship with his sister."
"Yep. She's the best sibling I could ever ask for. Sometimes, I feel like I don't deserve her, but the thought of not having her in my life feels too absurd to even imagine. So all I can do is shamelessly enjoy having her as my sister."
"Is that so…" Sabrina murmured, her gaze carrying a faint trace of envy. Whether she envied Ashen's bond with his family or Lapis's bond with him was difficult to tell.
"You are a blessed man, master."
"I sure am. And your presence here is another undeniable reason for it." He winked at her.
The maid only lowered her head in response. Ashen had noticed long ago that she was surprisingly weak to direct praise, which naturally made him enjoy teasing her with it from time to time.
"Alright, I'm going to catch some Zs too. I'll leave guarding me to you, my precious maid."
"...Yes, master."
Ashen let his head rest against the back of the sofa and closed his eyes, seemingly falling asleep. But while his body rested, his mind wandered deep into the confines of his dreamscape.
***
The dreamscape assembled itself differently tonight.
The room was enormous. White stone walls climbed to a height that exceeded any practical purpose; that was the point. Between them, columns rose in pairs, smooth and monolithic. Above, clouds gathered loosely, white against white, leaving gaps through which sunlight fell in long columns onto the floor.
At the center, a long table of pale stone decorated with tall-backed chairs materialized.
Ashen sat at the head.
Above his backrest, letters etched themselves into the stone: ὑπερηφανία. He looked at them for a moment, then closed his eyes.
He reached along three threads; three dormant parasites sitting quietly in three sleeping minds. A brief pass confirmed what he needed. He pulled.
The first figure arrived to his left.
Lucia materialized, but she knew the feeling of sudden appearance by now, so she maintained her composure. Her eyes moved immediately across the room, and after she completed the survey, they returned to him. Above her chair: φθόνος.
The second arrived to his right.
Alice absorbed the space in a single sweep of her golden eyes. Above her chair: Πορνεία.
They looked at each other once across the table, then looked at him. Neither spoke. That was how they usually operated: observe first, then engage.
The third appeared beside Lucia.
Seraphine's eyes jumped from the pillars to the ceiling to the sun columns to Ashen, and she looked delighted by all of it. Above her chair: ἁγνεία.
"Ash!" She leaned forward over the table. "Is this your dreamscape? It's so grand, as always...! Why'd you call us here?"
"In a moment." He looked at all three of them. "There's something I want to raise. The meeting with Cornelia went well; we have our alliance, and Lucia's plan is in motion."
"So it is enough to warrant another of these fancy secret meetings?" Seraphine asked.
"It is. But that's not the main subject tonight."
He let the quiet sit for a moment. The sunlight moved slowly across the stone.
"I think it's time to expand Absentia's members." He looked at each of them in turn. "What do you think?"