Chinook, Audience House Late September
Niculai was angry, strike that he was livid, rip snorting mad and ready to kill. He knew it wasn't a good idea for him to be around others. Which was why he was still here at the Audience House long after he would normally of either gone home or out into the field to fight. Nope his foul mood was why he was pacing back and forth on one of the second story balconies not talking to any of his siblings in the Ashen War-Kin. If only because they didn't deserve it eat the result of his temper. He wasn't mad at them after all, no it was the Clan-Head of the Foress clan that he wanted to kill with his bare hands.
Niculai's usually warm amber eyes flashed cold in the night like they were lit from within. His shoulder length dark mahogany hair was whipping in the late September wind like a flag. The anger that radiated off of him made the air seem more like the dead of winter, not the fall that it actually was. Pacing was definitely the better option, punching something would only make his hand hurt and not relieve a bit of his anger. Niculai knew that he had to work off some of his anger before he could do anything else. Otherwise he was going to kill someone, that yeah probably deserved it, but it still wasn't the best course of action out there.
Behind him in the sitting room that abutted the porch he was pacing on his twin sat with their best friend Rhuv. They were waiting for him to calm down and it was going to be a long wait. Unlike Niculai, Rhuv and Tomas were wearing their fighting clothes. Niculai really wanted to get out of the finery that he had to wear for these little get togethers. He really wanted out of the silk shirt and wool dress pants he was currently sporting. He really wanted to find a good fight to burn off his mood. But it was never a good idea to fight distracted and distracted was an understatement for where Niculai's head was tonight.
Niculai wished that he'd gone out fighting with Tomas and Rhuv tonight instead of having the meeting he'd just gone through. That wasn't an option though, not after the letter he'd received the night before. Nope, he'd needed to meet with Troov Foress and Ehric, the Foress clan's Weaver, to find out what had been kept from him. The head of the clan that he's left Ingretta with when she was only hours old had sworn to look after the infant.
To say the least the meeting had not gone well. On a good night Niculai had very little patience for the excessive formality of the aristocracy in general and the DeNeam, the highest level of the aristocracy, in particular. And thanks to tonight's meeting this was in no way a good night. So hearing all of the excuses the two of them made had not gone over well. Nic was just glad had Mikal call that fucker Troov yesterday and tell him to be here tonight an hour after sunset. Instead of calling him himself. Nic doubted that he would have been able to keep his temper even over the phone.
Niculai needed to find out why he hadn't been told about Ingretta's disappearance when it had happened, almost twenty-five years ago. He had serious doubts that he would ever have been told and that was definitely unacceptable. Niculai was fairly certain that he'd been clear as to his wishes about the child. And to not have those wishes followed had wound him up like nothing else could.
It had taken all of his self-control to not take out his forty and shoot the whiny S.O.B. in the head as soon as the fucker had arrived. At first Niculai had contemplated wearing his fighting leathers to the meeting. Just to show Troov just how pissed he was about his orders being ignored. But had decided not to since the impropriety would have stunned the guy stupid. Not to mention that the clans Weaver would of had heart failure when he saw the War-Prince in fighting clothes. Neither of those two would have handled seeing their War-Prince dripping in weapons at all well. The look on his face and the obvious anger he felt was enough of a stunner for the duo as it was.
Troov had thought that Niculai wanted to talk to them about the trainee the clan had dropped of earlier in the week. That one was being considered for membership in the Ashen, not that they knew about that. A clan was told if and when a new member was inducted. Something that was a feather in the cap for any clan even now. But nope Niculai had wanted to talk to them about something completely unrelated to the trainee. Tonight he wanted facts and details about Ingretta and nothing else.
Although he planned to talk to them about that as well later. There was no reason that she hadn't been sent to them decades ago. Other than the fact that she hadn't been born to the Foress clan. God save him from the small minded Tolartha was a highly skilled fighter. A natural in fact and the loss of her defending the race was almost as criminal as the loss of Ingretta. That it had taken almost seventy years for them to send her for training unconscionable but wasn't the topic for tonight. No tonight he'd wanted to talk to them about Ingretta.
At first Troov, the Foress Clan Head, and Ehric, the clan's Weaver had tried to lie and tell him that all was well with the girl. That she'd just been to busy to contact him. It was clear that they had originally thought it was a lack of communication that had prompted the meeting. Nope it had been the letter he had received from Ingretta that had done that. And boy did they squirm as soon as they learned that. There was a lot of hemming and hawing along with numerous excuses. But in the end Niculai had gotten the truth.
The Foress clan and it's leaders hadn't considered Ingretta to truly be one of the clan. So when her adoptive mother had died when she was about twelve, only a year or so after he'd last seen her. Her adoptive father had died years earlier. Ingretta had been passed around from family to family none of who considered he to a member of the new family much less the clan. An attitude that Nic wished he could change but so far had had no luck doing so. Damn those hidebound assholes and their beliefs about clan purity. When would they figure out that the old ways were killing the race and only by coming together and helping each other would the Anvidai survive.
So by the time she'd gone through her Tempering and reached adulthood she was more then willing to wash her hands of all of them. Not that Niculai blamed her for that, and it explained why she hadn't contacted him in any other method. Ingretta had evidently never been told any of the other ways to contact him. Not because children were never told how to reach the Ashen or him. Which was true and something that Niculai was going to make sure was changed. What would happen if Humans had found the child that had survived the attack that Anthony had told him about. That poor kid would have been lost in the Human world and there was no guarantee that they would even of known to look for him.
Niculai's loafers struck hard on the floor of the porch he was pacing on. An audible exclamation point to the thoughts that were running around his brain. His breath streamed out into the cold air, briefly obscuring his face as he paced. The sky was clear tonight which only added to the cold. No clouds blocked the stars that shone like diamonds on black velvet. The moon was a sliver so the only light came from the city around him. Fall was well on its way here in the Pacific Northwest which meant clouds and rain were the norm. So tonight's clear skies were an unforeseen bennie that didn't happen often at this time of year.
For his part Niculai neither noticed or cared about what the weather was doing. Usually being outside would ease his mood but not tonight. Tonight it was all he could do to keep from tracking down and slaughtering that small-minded, prejudiced, arsehat of a Clan Head and quite likely the majority of the clan as well. This kind of behavior was beyond needing to change and Nic just hoped that the younger generation was more accepting of that fact. Cause the older one was beyond hope as far as he was concerned.
It hadn't been a lack of weapons that had save those males lives. Because Niculai was always armed no matter where he was. Nope, what had saved them was that Niculai had sworn an oath to protect all of the Anvidai, not just the ones that he liked. And boy wasn't that a bummer. Unfortunately failing to keep him appraised, especially since he'd asked to be, wasn't a capitol offense. That one bit into his soul too. The head of the Foress clan wasn't the only one that Niculai thought would look better with an extra hole in his head, built he was on top of the list right now. With the Foress Weaver a very close second. After all the attitude of the leaders often guided those of the followers.
The guilt that Niculai felt over Ingretta and now her daughter only made his temper worse. After all if he hadn't placed her with the Foress clan in the first place. Or if he'd kept a better eye on her after the clan had moved to the States. Maybe, just maybe she might not have gone missing in the first place. It was hard to say though. So many had gone missing in the chaos that was Eastern Europe during World War Two. That was why Niculai and the Ashen had gone to Romania in the first place. It was to rescue as many of their people as they could. As well as any other groups that wanted to go with them. Many of those that had traveled with them hadn't been Anvidai. They had been a hodge-podge of other races including Human.
Even though Niculai had been War Prince for almost forty years at that point he hadn't felt easy or comfortable in the position that his father had filled so well. It hadn't been his first relocation of the Anvidai, after all Niculai had also done so during World War One too. This time however there had been no hiding in the mountains until the trouble passed like there once had been. This time the only thing that the Anvidai and their followers could do was flee to the new world and hope for succor. Thankfully the Anvidai had already been moving to the States for generations. In fact Niculai had already moved the seat of power to Washington state long ago. It had been his fathers wish and the twins had done as he had asked.
Among the Anvidai the War Prince didn't lead from behind but from the front, at least they didn't anymore. Since the death of his grandfather the War-Prince had stopped being another way to say king and had gone back to being a war leader in truth. After all they were called War Princes not desk princes, at least to Nic's thinking. So when it had come time to remove his people from Eastern Europe completely he'd come himself not just sent the Ashen War-Kin to go and do it.Nic wasn't sure when or why the leadership of the Ashen War-Kin had become ceremonial but he was glad his father had started to change it back to the original way. A change that Niculai gratefully embraced.
So it had been Tomas, Rhuv and himself that had gone out ahead of the main group warning people that they needed to either join up with his group or go deep into the mountains to hid from the Nazis. That was how the three of them had come across a fatally wounded woman trying to escape from a village that was under attack. Niculai had done the only thing that he could have and still looked himself in the mirror. He'd killed the soldier that was chasing her and rescued her and her newborn. Turned out that the woman was one of his people but that didn't matter he still would have saved the infant even if she hadn't been. Unfortunately the woman hadn't survived but the child had.
So yeah, Niculai was almost as angry at himself as he was at the Foress leadership. Even though he'd had no choice but to leave the infant in the care of the Foress clan initially. He now wished that he'd taken the child back after they'd gotten to a safe place. But instead he'd decided to leave her with the woman who had been caring for her. He'd never made sure she was okay, that she was happy. He'd always planned on bringing her here but the rest of his life had gotten in the was. And she had seemed happy where she was. something that he now knew was a facade put on by her to stay out of trouble.
That was why he was disgusted and angry with himself. That didn't however excuse the behavior of the Foress. A clan tended to act like their leaders did. They tended to reflect their mindsets and behaviors and if they didn't they were likely to find another clan to join if they could. But many clans treated people from other clans as second class citizens so it didn't happen as often as it probably should. Thankfully he and his father had ended many of the worst offensives. Now at least it was no longer the entire clan that did the damage. Now it usually an individual causing the pain. But the damage was worse if the ones causing it were the leaders. Such as in this case.