Nothing is as frustrating as secrecy some days. Well, today is the day that people seem to be keeping secrets from the Countess of Draco county. She has heard rumor that Alptraum has been very active as of late, but no one will tell her exactly about what. True, she is supposed to meet with him for dinner that night, but beyond that information, she cannot learn more. Even her most trusted butler, Barnabas, wouldn't tell her anything.

As evening finally came, Barnabas came to her and bade her to prepare for dinner. Once she has dressed for dinner, Barnabas guides her through the castle and up the winding stairs of one of the far towers. As they reach the closed door at the top, Barnabas stopped her there and told her Alptraum had a condition entry that she wears a blindfold. Why, Barnabas would not say, other than an assurance she is not in any danger. It is just something her friend is insisting on. So … on went the blindfold.

Barnabas patted her hand gently, then knocked upon the door. A moment passed and the slide bolt of the door can be heard moving away and the door opening. "Ah, excellent," Alptraum said, "Thank you Barnabas. I will take it from here." She feels the warm touch of Alptraum's hand in hers as he guides her into the unknown room beyond.

"Before I remove the blindfold, there is something I want you to agree to," Alptraum says, tone serious and yet gentle. "When the blindfold comes off, you leave the Countess behind tonight. I am not here to have dinner with the Countess, I'm here to have dinner with a beautiful woman named Rosalind Draco. There is to be no discussion of County concerns. Nor will there be talk of issues with spirits or monsters, for tonight I am also leaving behind the Barsunala. Tonight I'm just Alptraum; just a friend. Their problems can wait until the sun rises tomorrow. They both owe us a night of where we can just be two ordinary people. Will you agree to that?"

"Ordinary people?" Rosalind asks, trying out the flavor of the words. "That… Of course. I'll do my best, Alptraum," she finally agrees.

Alptraum lets her hand go and slides around behind her. Gently, he presses up against her back, whispering in her ear, "You used to be ordinary once. A student, remember? Not so many cares and weights then, was there? Though, I imagine that studying and other concerns felt just as weighty then. Or so I've heard, at least. I've never gone to school."

"It was… a taste of freedom," Draco admits. "Back then, being away from home and court for the first time, and never having to worry about serving… "

"Well, tonight I want to give a little bit of that back to you, if you'll let me," Alptraum says as he reaches up and finally undoes the blindfold covering her eyes.

Chamber of Stars
What once was a simple and somewhat dreary tower room as been reworked by one of the Countess' guests, Alptraum Reisender. He has carefully constructed a series of spiraling shelves that circle and line the room. Equally spaced along the shelves are simple white candles, each burning with a gentle yellow flame. All the furniture as been removed from the room save a rug and a small table with two chairs placed directly in the center of the room.

The table is covered with a clean white tablecloth and upon it sits a bottle of wine that is chilling in fresh water. Like most traditional vampire meals, two small buckets have been set near the table. Next to the bottle of wine are two glasses and a small plate of fruit.

Rose blinks at the constellation of candles. "What does this all mean?" she finally asks, tearing her gaze from the lights to the table.

"Well, I couldn't take a star back to the heavens where she belonged, so I tried to bring the heavens to her," Alptraum explains as he slips from behind her and takes her hands into his two bare ones. His attire is clean and neatly tailored, but it is not of exquisite make or highly detailed. "No fancy ball rooms, no long and impersonal tables. Tonight is about you; not about what you have and what you do."

"Your hand," Rose comments after blushing from the flattery.

"The shadow has been made as dormant as possible and moved to make me look … normal tonight," Alptraum admits, though he does push his sleave up to show the bracer and the recognizable orb that's part of it. "By tomorrow night this will have reverted my hand will once again be … well, to be honest, the hand of a monster."

"If I'd known, maybe I could have gotten my eyes to glow like a normal vampire's," Draco notes, and smiles. "I never paid much notice to your hand anyway."

"I know. My hand, well, it was more symbolic, of leaving behind aspects of myself tonight. Your eyes, though, are beautiful as they are," Alptraum tells her and leads the woman to the table. There he pulls out a chair, asking, "Will you sit with me tonight?"

Hiking her skirts forward as she sits, Rose seems charmed by it all. "I can't tell if Melusine is looking in or not, I'm afraid," she says apologetically. "I've found that dragons tend to be nosy about their pet mortals."

"Kaira may be watching me too, for all I know. She's helping keep the shadow aspect of myself in check," Alptraum admits as he adjusts Rosalind's chair a bit before he goes and sits in his chair. He reaches over and picks up the wine bottle and carefully works the cork with his claws. "I'm afraid this isn't the fanciest wine around and probably not as good as you're used to having," he apologizes, "But it's all I could afford on what personal money I have. It didn't seem right to ask of your winery for a meal where the purpose was to not be reminded of the life that exists outside these walls."

"This is wine you purchased in town?" Rose asks in surprise. "I'm not allowed to eat outside of the castle, for fear of poisoning… "

"Do you really think I would poison you?" Alptraum asks rather seriously. "I'm going to be drinking it too, so the risk to me is just the same. Besides, how would the people I bought it from know why I bought it, anyway. But, if you prefer, I can ask Barnabas to get something from the cellar."

"No!" Rose says, leaning across the table. "I know it's safe, it's just that I haven't gotten to have any table-wine since College."

"I haven't had any of this table wine either, but to be honest, it has to be better than the stuff I had that was brewed back in the gypsy camp," Alptraum admits with a bit of a goofy grin. "Hard liqueur strained through socks doesn't quite compare to actual wine."

Giggling, Rose asks, "I thought gypsies made regular wine too! Or are you going to expose all of their secrets and tell me they just buy it in one town and sell it in the next?"

"Depends on what we traded for. But when you're on the road, you can't exactly make anything really good. Or well, if you did, it was purely by accident," Alptraum admits. There's a muffled pop as the cork finally comes free from the bottle and he starts pouring the glasses. "So, one thing I wanted to do tonight is get to know each other better. And by that I mean … talk about growing up, things each of us did and what our families were like. I hope you don't mind? You're welcome to ask me anything."

"Oh, I suppose I've been a little curious about something," Rose admits. "I mean, you weren't born in Sylvania, were you? But your parents are here?"

"I was born in Babel, by a Srinala who was, well, intimate with the Grand Vizier Thath," Alptraum comments as he lifts a wine glass and sets it before Rose. As he takes up his glass and sniffs it, he continues, "A lovely bloodline, that. But, anyway, because of the politics there I was secreted out and brought to Sylvania. The Yodhsunala bartered with a gypsy tribe to raise me. I was adopted by by the aerial acrobats and grew up traveling with them. They weren't vampires, I was. It was obvious enough I was adopted. The tribe they're part of is camped a few days travel by air from here. They, er, will be visiting the nearby town sometime soon."

"Oh, they're coming here?" Rose asks, her eyes lighting up (literally, in her case). "I've never gotten to see gypsies perform. Acrobats you say?"

"I'm supposed to perform with them when they come," Alptraum notes, the corners of his lips twitching into a grin as he takes a sip. "And, they want to meet you."

The woman blinks, and asks, "What, all of them?"

"They're protective of their family and I'm part of that. They prodded me enough to learn that I was spending time with a woman named Rose who worked for Draco County. They want to meet her and see if she's acceptable," Alptraum admits a bit sheepishly. "All they know is you're a beautiful woman. Your duties and title didn't come up in the conversation. I had no intention of letting them form any opinions without meeting you. Gypsies by nature don't trust authority."

"Oh my, will it be a problem when they find out who I am?" Draco asks, and takes up her glass of wine. After a sip, her nose bunches up and she says, "Ah yes, this brings back the days at College alright. The key is to drink a lot of the wine and then it starts tasting better."

"Whether they have a problem with it or not doesn't matter in the end. I have no intention of walking away from you if they don't approve," Alptraum says with a shrug and takes another drink. "I choose who I court, not them. I do have to warn you about Hexen, though… "

"Hexen?" Rose asks, blushing again (although that could be the wine). "Is he your step-brother or something?"

"Childhood cohort in crime. The kind of friend who would be sitting in jail right along side me saying, 'They didn't look owned, I swear!'," Alptraum offers by way of explanation. "A black fox, that one. Supposed son of a Rhian and a fox. Well … the entire tribe knows better, but you can't really argue with a seven foot tall Rhian who could break you in half, you see. Now, right, Hexen. We used to try to get the other in trouble, particularly if women were involved. The challenge was never so much about getting a date as making sure the other one didn't get a date… "

"You sound as if you did not enjoy the company of many females in your youth, Alptraum," Rose points out with a grin.

"Not so much, no. But I had plenty of entertainment," Alptraum replies, grinning back. "Remember how Hexen was supposedly the son of a Rhian? Well, he used to like to exaggerate his, ah, endowment. Sometimes even used various vegetables stuffed strategically… "

Rose nearly chokes on her wine then, and has to cough a bit. "That… that… Oh, I have to meet this friend of yours now!" she gasps out.

"Well, he might have had a bit of a mean friend who happened to replace one of his vegetables with a rather hot kyootcumber … rubbed with a bit of soap so that it wouldn't feel so hot at first," Alptraum admits while swirling the wine in his glass. "Let'sjust say the running around and sitting in buckets of water earned Hexen the nickname 'Hot Pants' for a few summers."

This time the Countess laughs out loud, and even slaps the table. "Oh my… I never had friends like that growing up, I must say!"

"Now, before you think all our days were spent doing ridiculous things and just generally messing around … they weren't. Most says were hard and it was questionable whether we would see the next one. So, we enjoyed what we could and made the moments of fun really memorable. It made the harder times more bearable," Alptraum adds with a bit more of a somber tone. "And I'm not saying it was all misery, either. It was just … hard. To give you an idea how scarce everything was … when I finally left home to track down Dack, my parents gave me all the money they had managed to save. Twenty shekels. I went out to face the world with nothing more than the clothes on my back, a bad-news Savanite partner, and twenty shekels."

"And look at where it has gotten you," Draco comments with a grin. "Drinking cheap wine with an older woman… under the stars!"

"Still better than sock-booze and a friend who's underpants are on fire," Alptraum retorts with a grin.

"Well… I don't know about the latter," Draco says, raising her glass. "Back in College… ah… well, my friends then were odd. It isn't like normal people would associate with the daughter of the Count, after all."

"Now, I have something to ask you … does it bother you that you're older than I am?" Alptraum asks. "As for associating with the daughter of a Count, well, I would have."

"Why should it bother me?" Rose asks. "Am I showing my age?"

"You commented on it; you called yourself an older woman," Alptraum points out. "It doesn't bother me at all. Older or not, I know who I want to court, and why."

This brings another blush from the Countess. "That last man to actually try to court me kept bringing me blood sausages in school." she admits.

Alptraum has to consider that. "Not exactly the most charming way to court someone I can think of, but … I suppose that is one approach," he says with a grin.

"Well, Twiggy was an odd one," Rose admits. "All of my real friends at College were. You've met Bunny Pike, after all. We had our little society."

Alptraum has to grin. "I liked Bunny. She was charming in her own quirky way," he says, "And very easy to fluster."

"Well, the others weren't that different, if you can imagine a group of Eeee with thick glasses and … odd interests," Draco notes, looking nostalgic. "The Galateans, they called themselves. We had a few… incidents. Like the time we tried to steal body parts from the anatomy vault, only to run into another group that was already raiding the place… "

Alptraum's brow arches a bit. "Now, why were you trying to steal body parts? And … you wore glasses?" he asks.

"Well, I didn't wear glasses, no," Rose notes. "But on that night I wish I had when I got a liver thrown in my face. Usually I was the 'front man' for the group, providing distractions and dealing with people that were easily charmed."

"Ah, you seduced and distracted the males while your friends did their deeds," Alptraum says with a nod, looking amused. "And you still haven't told me why you were stealing body parts… "

"As for why we did it," Rose continues, "well, the Galateans had some experiments they wanted to do. And of course everyone used body parts for various practical jokes… "

"What sort of experiments?" Alptraum presses, through in a rather joking manner. "And as for practical jokes, it brings 'Give me a hand' a new meaning."

"Well, this was a Sylvanian University," Draco points out.

"All right, I won't pressure," Alptraum says and holds up his hands. "Given Bunny was involved, I can guess in any event."

Rose just grins, and holds out her glass for refill. "And she was the one who 'broke you in' – it boggles the mind," she notes.

Alptraum takes the bottle and refills Rose's glass. "She brought out the actor in me. She had these dreams of being ravished by an elegant vampire … she was helpful to us … so," he says, his turn to ear blush. "I have this habit of acting for women."

"And what performance have you played for me then?" Rose asks. "I haven't asked you change your colors, after all." Apparently, the Countess keeps good enough tabs on Alptraum to know about the green and white color changes.

"For you? None," Alptraum says honestly and sits back, "You were different the moment I met you. Let me see if I can explain and do this justice." Drawing in a breath, he things for a minute, then begins, "The moment I met you I was taken by surprise with how beautiful you were. I felt some connection, if you pardon an over-used phrase. For a while I couldn't even bring myself to flirt with you; my own insecurities telling me that you deserved so much more than a gypsy and son of a monster kept me from saying much. When I realized I would do anything for you, regardless of the cost to myself, well … I knew you were the woman I wanted to truly court. I haven't performed for you because you deserve so much more than an actor and the illusions that come with that. You deserve things to be real and honest. Which also means you'll see me as I am, flaws and all. I can't claim to not make mistakes or do something stupid. I can't hide that from you, because I want you to know me, not some storybook perfected version".

His claws tap lightly on the glass in his hands and Alptraum continues, "And that time I before I merged with the shadow; I meant what I said when I asked you to pick who to bind it to. As much as I was attracted to you, as much as I wanted you to pick me … it wasn't about me. It was about you, about your future. And though I would have been sad, had you chosen another, I would have helped him bind to it without complaint. Because … it was about you, Rose. Knowing you were happy would have ultimately made me happy in time."

Alptraum sets his glass down and spreads his hands, finishing, "That's the best I can explain it."

The Countess's glass drops to the table, spilling her wine, as she leans across to grab Alptraum's shoulders and kiss him!

Alptraum reacts to this in the most romantic way he can think of! His ears splay and he makes a sort of blort! of a noise through his nose. When his brain finally catches up, though, he returns the woman's kiss.

Rose is nearly crying now, when she finally breaks off. "I've made a mess of the table," she says apologetically.

"That's what normal people tend to do," Alptraum says as he reaches over and wipes lightly under the woman's eyes. "Don't worry about it," he adds as he picks her wine glass up and sets it back on its base. "And I'm sure you know I've also been spending time with Melusine too," he says, "Besides the fact she is interesting and very unusual, I do that because I want her and I to have a good working relationship so that it would make one less complication in being with you."

"I'm glad you came here, Alptraum," Draco says, then as daintily as possible blows her nose into her napkin.

"I can only hope you will always feel that way," Alptraum says, "Because we haven't even started the food part of the meal. Plenty of time for me to still ruin things." He grins playfully, though.

Rose laughs again, and wonders, "What will our second date be like?"

"Funny you should mention that," Alptraum notes and quirks a mischievous grin, "How would you like to go to Arkold's wedding with me?"

"As the Countess, or myself?" Draco asks with a smirk.

"Well, I would prefer you," Alptraum counters and reaches over to tap on her nose tip, "But if I had to settle for the Countess, well … I'm sure I could manage."

"I'll make sure my calendar is clear then," Rose promises.

"Great. I'll have something special planned, outside of the wedding," Alptraum promises. "The wedding itself will likely be organized chaos. I'm trying to imagine Roogi and the others in bridesmaids dresses and for some reason, I get a headache… "

"Roogi?" Rose asks. "Another of your admirers?" she adds with a grin.

"One of the Yodhblakat. The one who claims to 'own' me," Alptraum explains. "Completely crazy … but I have to admit she can be mildly funny.

"Am I going to have to buy you from her then?" the woman asks, her eyebrows raising.

"You technically have to take. Yodhblakat don't trade. And given Melusine's backing, well, you could take her! Besides, she hasn't exerted her claim and if she doesn't then she loses her 'right' to it, or something. I never quite understood how that worked," Alptraum says as he rubs his chin. "And it's not like Roogi and I have been even remotely intimate."

"And why is that?" Rose asks next, looking mischievous.

"Why haven't Roogi and I? I have no idea. She's crazy!" Alptraum claims.

"She must be really crazy then!" Rose jokes. "Without your friend sabotaging you, you seem to attract a lot of female attention now."

"I honestly have no idea why," Alptraum admits. "Well, I do for those like Mave, who does hope to gain things from me."

"And Phlagaea?" Rose asks.

"Phalgaea does too, but not quite in the same way. She and I have been friends for a long time; she's the one who made Babel bearable for me when I visited it. A friend who made me feel less isolated," Alptraum explains. "With Mave … she wants something and she's ambitious. And … well, really, really, perverse."

This gets the Countess' attention too, from the way her eyebrows rise up further. "Do tell?"

"Mave? Are you really sure you want to know?" Alptraum waffles.

"I'd like to know what you consider perverse," Rose notes. "For future reference."

"If I tell you, will you tell me what you consider perverse?" Alptraum offers.

"Probably not," Rose admits, smiling.

"Why not?" Alptraum asks.

"Because, I may have to revise my list," Rose notes.

"Well," Alptraum says and rubs over his eyelids with his thumbs. "Just remember, you asked. Mave wishes me to ask Melusine to shift me into a physical copy of her for a day or so, so that she can make love to herself."

"O-kay," Draco says after awhile. "I thought… something with feet or… something… "

"No … the Yodhinala find new meanings for perverse," Alptraum admits. He now sets his forehead on the table and beats it there lightly.

"Going to do it?" Draco has to ask.

"I have no idea," Alptraum admits. "Why?"

"Just curious about how far you'd go for a woman," Rose replies, showing her fangs.

Alptraum looks up. "If you asked, I would do it," he notes. "But then I'm not sure there isn't anything I wouldn't do for you."

"Well… could you feed me then?" Draco asks, waggling her eyebrows.

Alptraum sits up, brow arched. "You wish to bite me?" he inquires … and he's already brushing his hair back from his neck and scooting his chair back some so Rose could settle into his lap. His head tilts slightly to the side and pats his lap for his answer.

Rose gets up and comes around to sit in Alptraum's lap, but then says, "I was thinking more of what you prepared for dinner… "

"Oh, various fruits and other such things," Alptraum explains as e wraps his arms lightly around her waist when she sits. "But with the way you were just now flashing those fangs, you seemed to want something more," he adds with a grin. "But, if you are mainly interested in the fruits, well, by all means I can feed those to you."

"It'll be a start," Draco says coyly.

"Ooo," Alptraum coos as he reaches over into the basket near the wine cooling bucket and extracts a strawberry. "I'll hold you to that," he teases just before he places the berry gently between his teeth. Reaching up, his fingers lightly curl around Rose's neck. He draws her down for the first part of the meal … and shared the sweetness of the berry with her through a kiss. "And the night is just starting… " he can't help but think. "Please don't mess this up, Alptraum. Don't break her heart… "