Splinter

The advice he gave, would not be easy to follow. He would have to figure out for himself how he could tackle his own issues. He couldn’t help him with that. It was also not his place to do so. His lovely wife or his kind-hearted brother were more fit for that job. He just had to get out of that mindset he was in now. Because if he truly believed he was not worth it, then he was exactly right with his assumptions. No one should be wasting their time on saving someone that didn’t want to be saved. It was just hard to believe he truly didn’t care about anything at all. There had to be something that could inspire him to pull himself out of the mess he was caught up in.

''I can see where Mort gets his positive outlook in life from.'' The vampire noted, and he couldn’t help but raise his eyebrow for a second. ”You can clearly learn a thing or two from him”, He retorted calmly. At least the young vampire decided to give it a shot. When he worked himself up with the support of the tree, Edmund frowned. ”What’s up with your leg?” He asked, not too polite not to. Any physical wounds should be healed perfectly fine by now.

His question clearly struck a nerve with the younger vampire. He immediately took on this semi-aggressive attitude. The tone in his voice warned him to pay close attention to his movements. He was not one to let another surprise him, that was for sure. Though he didn’t really expect the other to lash out at him physically, he prepared himself for it nonetheless. His mind just worked that way, there was not much he could do about it. It had also saved himself a lot of trouble before, so he would never ignore his instincts, for that matter. The words that came his way, emphasized how the man was feeling about the current situation. He was hurting, therefore angry, therefore dangerous. Not a threat, but he would not want to make it worse at this point.

”I see”, He reacted, obviously lost in thought for a second. Afterwards, he focused back on Kaz. ”I’m sorry for what she did to you”, He said, genuinely. She did not care about the collateral damage, and he did not appreciate that. The man had not deserved to suffer, she had issues with him and only him. The fact that she had used him as a way to lure him out of hiding was not only an insult to his name but also completely unnecessary. ”I do not want to give you false hope, but I have experience with performing surgery on vampires”, He continued, implying he knew ways to fix his problem. It would not be pretty and the procedure by itself could be as painful as the torture itself. But.. He could always try to get the remainders of the wood out of his leg.

A wooden stake. One of the few weaknesses a vampire had. One that people like him had exploited more times than he could recall. Rosalie had thought him how to, had often forced him to do so until he had found a certain pleasure in it as well. Any means to trigger the monster and keep it close to the surface. It was her way of making sure he was capable of following the most awful orders she would carry out. Because they were at war, and they needed strong soldiers who would not hesitate nor question what she was asking of them. The process of brainwashing had been slow, supported by the sire bond they had shared. And now he knew that, after he had left, Isabella had been submitted to those exact same processes as well.

In the end, he had escaped from her grip. It had been a struggle, and he could have never done it without the help of his first fledgling. Leaving Isa with Rosalie had been a mistake, and this man was now carrying the consequences. While he had nothing to do with it, like he had just mentioned. He was a bit suspicious to his motives, which was only logical. ”You’re smart to doubt my intentions”, He replied, pulling up the corner of his mouth in a slight smile for a second. ”But you don’t need to worry. I came to Rhoynar to clean up the mess my fledgling caused”, He continued. If fixing Kaz’ leg was one of the things he needed to do in order to achieve his goal, he would do so without expecting anything in return.

This Duke had potential. If he could pull himself out of his own misery and grow the actual b-.. You know what I mean. Edmund was sure he and that Duchess of his could figure it out. Rhoynar was new to him, yet he had a feeling this land was hard to rule. From what he had seen it needed structure, but not too much, as the citizens were used to thinking they actually were the ones to decide over it. It was the sneakiest way of politics. Make the population feel like they are in control, while the leader was the one actually pulling the strings behind the curtain. It was how he had ruled the seethe, along with Rosalie. Her sweet talk and persuasion combined with his tactical and critical thinking and they had had the perfect balance.

Those days were long forgotten though. His love and admiration towards his sire had turned into anger and hate. Especially for what she had done to Isabella. She had messed up that beautiful mind and now he had a taste of the damage it had caused. Kaz actually considered his offer. What a nice surprise. Edmund granted him one of the few compassionate smiles he rarely showed. One that quickly faded again, though that was not because of his next words. He did not feel criticized by him, nor impressed. ”As a sire, that is my duty”, He agreed, giving a little nod. His expression was as neutral as ever though. ”I will make sure yours does the same next time we meet”, He continued on a friendly tone. If this boy really wanted to play this game, he would gladly accept the challenge and prove that he could do better.

Performing surgery on a vampire was quite the challenge. Luckily, he was quite experienced. With an army of newborn vampires it was needless to say a lot of them got hurt because they were out of control most of the time. Feeding time had always been a huge mess. Normally Rosalie didn’t care how much died during their training, but it happened one of the more useful fledglings got targeted. For those they made exceptions. It was no different when they had captured important enemy vampires, who had been tortured to force the other seethe to surrender. They had hurt them horribly but in the end they had to be in one piece when they delivered them back. And thus, Edmund had had a lot of practise.. A lot of practise.

It wouldn’t be pleasant for Kaz. Not at all. His vampiric healing would be an obstacle rather than it would be helping him this time. For now, he was still considering it. The elder vampire would explain him all the consequences of accepting the offer later on. To give him a fair warning. At this moment, they were still testing each other out. And Edmund liked little games like this one. The insults were turned against Mort now though. It didn’t please him, at all. ”Good luck catching him with that leg of yours”, He said with a perfect friendly smile. Fake as fuck. But Kaz couldn’t clock him on that. If he wanted to play it dirty, then let’s go.

Whatever Mortimer had done, it had to be very bad for his brother to make such threats. Or he was just being bitter for no reason at all. Either way, the elder vampire was not too happy when Kaz started coming for him. If anything he was very protective over the ones he cared about. He knew his fledgling well enough to know he had probably not deserved this, nor was he capable of protecting himself against these kind of insults. He had always been like that, which was what had been so appealing to him in the first place. The boy was a softie, to put it in a friendly way. In a world as harsh as this one, that had caused a lot of hurt for him. And yet, he had never changed his ways. Which made him even more dedicated to defend his son if he needed to.

The comment he made, was a low one at best. He didn’t react to the other’s reply. Didn’t ask any questions about it, as it was clear he didn’t want to get in to the matter. A few moments later, he said he didn’t want to continue this exchange of insults. Edmund only nodded in agreement. It was good he knew his place. ”I will”, He replied, a determined tone in his voice. ”If you do the same, then we certainly will”, He continued. Another kind of warning. If Kaz kept behaving like this, he wouldn’t be too enthusiastic about helping him out with his leg. If he was smart, he didn’t want to lay on a table when he wasn’t a 100 percent motivated. Edmund finally turned towards the stables, where he found his horse in perfect condition. Good. It was time to go and, indeed, fix his problems.

Never had he ever been one to say much. When he did, however, it was usually to the point. After all those centuries he had a certain confidence when he assumed how people thought, what made them take certain decisions and what their general stance in life was. It gave him the knowledge to quickly figure out when to speak and when not to. If his advice could truly make a difference. Whenever he felt like it wouldn’t, he didn’t bother giving it in the first place. He was a great observer, and he knew himself well enough to use it to his own advantage perfectly. Years and years of experience had given him the upper hand in most conversations, especially with humans. Or very young vampires like Kaz.

Though, every now and then, even Edmund could be surprised. He was good at what he did, but he was not perfect. He had realised he wasn’t the most likeable person, at all. And he was at peace with it, wouldn’t pretend he was anything else than that. To the people that mattered to him, he was. Just because he stayed true to himself. So when Kaz admitted his first impression, he was in fact surprised. He looked back over his shoulder for a short moment, granting the boy a nod that showed a sort of respect for him. Then he instructed him to take care of Mortimer. ”As always”, He commented. He wanted to add more. Tell him the person his fledgling needed the most, was his brother, not his sire. But Kaz would have to find that out by himself. When the other started to make his way back to the castle, he prepared himself to finally leave it behind him. There was a lot of work to do. Luckily, vampires didn’t need sleep.