A shadow of nervousness ran down Jeanne's spine and entered her brain as she gazed at and processed the strange apparition that had come before her: with typical oriental features, an elaborate traditional maid's dress that covered every square inch of her skin except her head and neck and long, tousled blond hair piled in a thick ponytail, the woman who had appeared before her possessed all the mature beauty the vampiress had failed to achieve. Her movements were concise and brief, charged with an aura of impeccable professionalism, as if they had all been calculated to convey the greatest sense of harmony possible. Her blue eyes seemed marked by the brightness of the sea and wrapped in a thick purifying mist that made them stand out when the light hit them. She was tall, somewhat slender, with a firm build and a frail, white face.
There was only one small problem with her: four huge black appendages protruded from her back in different directions, all of them having a grotesque and inhuman symmetry in common. Appearing like sharp-tipped black tentacles, they sprouted in such a way that they were situated in cardinal positions diametrically different from each other and seemed to encompass the entire visible spectrum of the maid. Together, they seemed to project a square aura that enclosed the stowaway gazes in a strange sensation of anguish.
"Is something wrong?" she asked. Suddenly, her eyes were fixed on the little disaster Jeanne had caused: “Oh, you broke them? Don't worry, milady. Allow this mere servant to take care of such trivialities.”
Without warning, the maid clapped her hands lightly, and as if nature itself answered her call, an eerie hissing sound swept through the room less than a minute later. The small blizzard of sound was almost poisonous to Jeanne's sanity, who was left with a paleness that would have increased on a human face and a boosted rigidity throughout her body. She immediately guessed the truth of the scene, but it wasn't until she finally dared to look that she had no doubts of what was happening:
Half a dozen tarantulas, all of them with monstrous long legs, halfway to being the tentacles of a miniature kraken, slithered around the room in a light, coordinated rhythm. Their furry, empty eyes looked like accursed pearls that escaped the light of the room perfectly, and their amorphous form blended with the shadows of the place in such a way that the entire room seemed like a macabre puppet show. She barely noticed those horrible beings had transported into the room a pair of shoes almost identical to the ones she had just broken.
Jeanne was frozen in place, her own appendages escaping any pain and helplessness exclusively due to their own cadaverous nature. She felt a despair welling up from her chest like a spiral of destruction that stuck into the rest of her cells, spreading through her body like an alien virus that prevented her from reacting. She could feel her soul sparkling with impetus, futilely trying to force her body to react even if it was with nausea, anything to escape from that phantasmagorical vision...
And suddenly, with the same precision with which it arrived, her surprise was gone. It died, decomposed and left a free space in a life cycle faster than that of a mosquito. The little vampiress noticed how all coldness left her body, and in its place appeared a feeling of renewal; had she been forced to make an analogy, she would have said she felt like she had just taken a cold shower.
"My deepest apologies," said Jeanne Cassandra Scarlet. “I'm afraid I made a very appropriate blunder when I had just woken up since my mind hadn't returned to reality yet. I beg you to forgive me.”
Seres Alpha smiled, unmasking two hideous fangs set a few inches in front of the others like two watchtowers.
“Something so insignificant is not worthy of praise. Please, there is no need for you to be so humble when speaking to a mere servant like me.” Without waiting for an answer, she made a subtle bow wrapped in elegance, made with an impossible mathematics that made it neither too wide nor too short, and added: “Breakfast will be ready in half an hour. Please relax until then.”
Seres then left the room, leaving Jeanne alone with her thoughts. The vampire, by mere instinct, looked around the place until her gaze fell back on that strange shield. Seeing her reflection again, Jeanne…
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