Eye Colours

"You don't have any of the clan's abilities? None of them? Really?" Jessie was so stunned that she had to ask the question more than once to make sure she wasn't misunderstanding something.

"That's right. I did the test with the blood and there was 'no reaction', which apparently means I don't share any abilities with the three who tested me and since they have all the abilities..." Aurik intentionally over explained so that there could be doubt about what he was saying.

It was already getting him down that he didn't have any abilities but having to explain it over and over again was making him feel even worse, so he wanted to clear up all doubts in one go so they could just move on.

"S-Sorry, I just couldn't believe it. We've all heard that it's possible for a new vampire to not have any abilities but it's supposed to be extremely rare so..." Jessie awkwardly rubbed the back of her head while actively avoiding eye contact.

"It's alright, like you said it's supposed to be rare so I don't blame you. If you want to make it up to me though then how about you answer some of my questions." Aurik really wasn't bothered too much about what happened but he wanted answers and figured that this would be a good time to ask for them.

Jessie smiled slightly and nodded. "Ask away."

"Then first of all, am I gonna be picked on for not having an ability?" Aurik had already been bullied by others in his life simply because they had something he didn't and he wasn't looking forward to it happening again. At the very least he hoped to be prepared for it.

"What!?" This was certainly not the type of question that Jessie was expecting so when the words were said she practically shouted with surprise. After processing Aurik's question again, to make sure she heard correctly, a frown appeared on her face and she answered with a tone of indignation.

"We would never do that! We may be vampires but we aren't monsters! If someone here does try to treat you differently then the rest of us will make sure they never do it again!"

It was a far more aggressive answer than Aurik was expecting but he could tell how sincere Jessie was. He even noticed that a few people who were standing nearby had overheard everything and were nodding along with her reply.

'Wow... so humans really are just the worst. Even vampires, who literally drink human blood to survive, wouldn't resort to bullying.' Aurik felt relieved for a moment but thinking about bullying caused some bad memories to resurface and his mood was immediately soured.

"Next question then." He felt bad not commenting on Jessie's answer but he desperately wanted to move on to a different topic. "What is a knight? Also, does it have something to do with our eye colour?"

Jessie took a deep breath so that she could also calm down a bit.

"That's the kind of question I was expecting." She mumbled to herself before beginning her explanation.

"All vampires fall in to one of four ranks depending on our stage of evolution, we are currently at the first stage which is called 'soldier', though I don't know why it has this name and I personally think it's stupid. Ahem! Anyways, all soldiers have grey eyes and this building is where all the youngest soldiers live, it's why that's the only colour eyes you can see in this room right now.

The stage above soldier is called 'knight' and it's at this stage that our eyes change from grey to green. Soldiers make up the majority of our society but almost all of us can evolve into a knight given enough time and blood. Oh right, the requirement to evolve is to drink enough blood, which is like our source of energy, but don't drink too much of it too quickly or you'll go insane and become Blood Crazed. Ah, sorry! I'm going off topic again.

Um... so knights are considered pretty important for our society and it's only at this stage that we can officially join one of the clans and start doing more important work. As a soldier we only do basic jobs like cleaning or working at one of the businesses we own, although we still get paid the same no matter the job.

From what I know the pay is actually decided by our evolution level instead of what they have us doing, which I think is sort of stupid since we have no reason to work harder or take on more important jobs if we're going to be paid the same anyways." 

Jessie went on to explain how she thinks the compensation system could be changed for the better and spent almost 20 minutes rambling about it before she realized that Aurik was just politely waiting for her to finish and didn't really care.

"I'm sorry... I talk a lot..." She apologised sincerely and Aurik could see her face turning red, which was easy to notice considering how pale she looked.

'Pale? Now that I think about it...' Aurik looked around the room and noticed that everyone present was pale, like they'd never set foot in the sun. When thinking back on all the vampires he had met, including the knights, he realized that all of them were pale too.

'They had those shaded areas set up outside even though it ruined the appearance of the entire property, could it be that they're trying to avoid the sun?' 

Jessie noticed that Aurik was looking around and believed that he was trying to find someone else to go talk to because she was getting distracted too easily. Most people wouldn't think like this but Jessie had been the victim of her own ramblings too many times not to consider it a possibility.

"I-I won't ramble anymore, promise! You don't have to talk to anyone else so how about you just ask another question!" She couldn't help herself and ended up voicing the concerns she would much rather have kept inside her mind.

Aurik finally focused back on the brunette and a confused look spread across his face when he saw how embarrassed she appeared to be. She had even gone so far as to bury her face into her hands.

"I uh, don't plan on talking to anyone else right now so please just calm down... I just happened to notice how pale everyone was so I was wondering if there's some kind of reason."

Aurik couldn't help but feel like he might have to console this woman a few more times during their conversation but if it was for the sake of getting answers he was ready to do almost anything.