Chapter 80: Future prospects
"Yes, fairies do, indeed, get less than three decades on average," yet another flat and dry chuckle escaped him, "I suppose the subject matter isn’t nearly as complex as I thought it was,"
Arabella’s already tame smile faded further upon locking eyes with Lady Persephone. Sitting in the same chair since the beginning, the hostess seemed to follow their conversation from afar. Undoubtedly ensuring the young woman would not blunder her first shift as an entertainer.
"... Three hundred years is quite the odd age for us,"
Lord Edward’s voice came back to jostle her out of the mind cocoon that had muted the world around her. Realizing she’d missed the first half of his sentence, her entire body tensed up, leaving her latest breath stuck in her throat.
"Is everything alright?" he titled his head slightly forward, "Your heart rate accelerated all of a sudden. I presume that is not natural,"
"No, I...," she started, but halfway through her sentence, Arabella resigned for honesty instead of rummaging for excuses, "Forgive me, it appears I’ve gotten lost in my own mind for a moment," she looked down.
"Oh yes!" in lieu of vexation, the Lord showed amusement, "phasing out is one trait we share as well. This isn’t far from our topic of discussion, in fact, I was merely stating the many attributes we share. Aside from our appearance that is,"
"Does that have something to do with the fact that three hundred years is an odd age for vampires?" Arabella had mustered the courage to ask, very sheepishly, sure, but she asked, nonetheless.
"Yes, it ties back to that neatly," his gaze flickered towards one of the balcony windows, "Both of our species experience a wide range of emotions and the older we grow the more hold we gain over them. Well, for the most sane of us. Around three hundred years there is this incomplete detachment, these questions we start to ask ourselves. It starts almost a century after the death of any and all human connections we’d made. It is the age we start to truly consider and assess every relationship we’ve built,"