Under the vampire Lord's protection-Chapter 521: A golden cage remains a cage

Eleanor kept rearranging the food on the fabric without ever taking a bite out of it.

Then again, upon closer look, that food seemed... Off.

Not that Silas was an expert when it came to human nutrition, but those dishes certainly left him different at the sight.

The fact that they had no odor did not help that either.

"Are you expecting someone?" he asked.

"Hmmm...," she hummed, looking up pensively, "I am not sure, but I do believe so,"

"Do you have any idea if I can see Arabella here?"

"No. I do not," she shook her head and carried on shifting the plates around.

Silas’s insides sank further down with every word out of her mouth. She told him Arabella wasn’t safe and yet no sign of worry dawned on her features.

Was the concept of time that warped in that space that it changed the soul so drastically?

To show such nonchalance towards her own daughter?

"What sort of trouble is she in? Can you tell me that at least?"

Eleanor halted all movement, gathered her hands on her own lap and took a deep breath, "If I tell you what she is being put through right this second, what will you do about it?" by then, no traces of a smile lingered on her face.

"I don’t know," the vampire shook his head, "But I still would like to know,"

"What good would it do if you are stuck in this place?" her eyes did not blink as they bore into his.

"I am not dead yet. This can only mean that I have the ability to leave,"

"Not on your own. You can’t," a grin peered through her lips, "You are not dead, but you are here for a reason,"

The conversation went in a closed circle... Eleanor told him nothing that he wished to hear.

Silas saw no reason to stay and so, he stood off the ground and tried to speed away all the while, Eleanor paid him no mind at all and returned to rearranging the dishes.

However, no matter how fast he ran, his legs never reached the speed they were accustomed to.

He ran no quicker than a mere human...

Furthermore, no number of steps taken brought him away from Eleanor and her picnic. It was as though he was rooted in that specific place, stuck as she so well put it.

After many attempts at exploring his surroundings, Silas gave up and went back to his previous sitting place.

"What are the rules that govern this space?" he cleared his throat.

"We come when called and you stay until your time comes," she smiled.

More riddles and no answers again... Was it in her nature or did that place mold her to its image?

"You said I cannot leave for now; then what am I supposed to do? Wait for something to happen?"

"In your condition, yes. You must wait for someone to come and get you," she nodded.

Silas inhaled deeply before exhaling a long one, "Who will come all the way here to get me?"

"Lord have mercy!" her expression finally shifted, her tone too, "Have you always been so pessimistic?"

Pessimistic? What was there to be optimistic about?

He was on the verge of death, and his wife was potentially on her way to join him!

Where was she and what was being done to her?

In the midst of that ocean of thoughts a feminine voice arose. One of the most beautiful his ears had ever had the luck to hear...

Eleanor sang her heart out right by his side, body swaying left then right in her spot.

The melody was more than familiar, but the words on the other hand, not so much.

My bright star it was. The same piece Arabella had played on the piano the week she arrived at the manor.

Hearing it for the first time from a mouth instead of an instrument struck him differently. A sense of coolness and warmth all at once.

"Do you love this song as well?" she stopped to ask.

"I do,"

As if someone had whispered something in her ear, a different expression snapped onto her face, "Oh, right! Yes! You do love it!"

"If you knew then why ask?"

"Memory is a tricky thing around these parts," she beamed sweetly.

"I wonder whose voice it was that called for you to come here," he grasped a fist full of grass before tugging at it.

"I truly couldn’t tell you. It could have been you. It could have been my daughter. I am not sure," she sighed.

"Arabella came around?" his shoulders tensed.

"I believe she did. Like I said; I sense another presence with us. One that I cannot see," her eyes travelled from one side to the other.

"I wish to explore more of this place, but no matter how far I walk I cannot seem to move away from this exact spot. Can you help me with that?"

Eleanor looked at him as though Silas had just asked the stupidest question to ever be voiced, "Well, then you can go ahead and ask me the question you truly have in mind for me. That is the only way for you to move forward,"

Right... Unfinished business! That was along the lines of what she had said before. Although, stringing the words to build a cohesive sentence turned out to be harder than anticipated.

There was indeed something he’d been dying to ask her but thought it was inappropriate to come out with it.

"The old Rubius Sterling spoke of a curse that hit the Sterling women, leading most to a premature death considering their living conditions at the time," he cleared his dry throat again, "So, I suppose what I wish to know is what made you do it? Why did you...,"

He never found the courage to finish the question.

"Well," Eleanor inhaled deeply, "The cage was certainly golden, but it remained a cage nonetheless," she chuckled.