"So," The King rose after the decision. "is there anyone who would like to offer Caroline to join her family or his?"

Silence filled the room until the man in purple rose. They called him Maurice, didn't they?

"You already have twenty-five wards. Your maximum capacity has been reached and you can sit right back down, Humanitarian!" a man next to Domenik sneered at him.

"Thanks for the reminder, Felix." Maurice bowed mockingly in his direction. "I'm not interested in making the offer. I only wish to tell you, Caroline, that I believe you to be innocent and would gladly have given you a chance in my family. As Felix stated already, I'm afraid it's not in the realm of possibility, but I'd like to make known my hope that someone will come forward." His voice rose slightly. "I found it very exciting to meet you today and I have a desire to continue this."

He sat down and Caroline suddenly had a lump in her throat. A heartfelt thank you was all she could get out. How good it felt to have someone kindly disposed towards her. It was a balm for her soul, which had been battered by fear and humiliation.

After a few seconds, the blue-robed woman, who had said nothing since her comment at the beginning, stood up.

"I can only add my voice to that. My name is Maria and I found it very exciting as well," she spoke softly. "While I am not absolutely convinced of your innocence, I believe that with the right guidance you could become a valuable member of our wonderful community. I would therefore like to offer you a place in my family as my ward." She smiled and her eyes sparkled.

Didn't you just want to see me burn? Caroline looked around. She noticed her Maurice biting his lower lip and crossing his arms. Damien looked angry and, she probably imagined, worried. Rebekka shook her head almost imperceptibly. If her intuition hadn't warned her, these signals were clear. Thomas looked at Maria, but his face remained uninterpretable to Caroline.

She took a step towards the vamiress and smiled, too.

"Thank you My Lady, I appreciate it very much," she began politely. "For me, this concept of wards and you as beings from myths and legends are still foreign."

Mary nodded in understanding.

"What I do grasp in basic terms, however, is that I am not even remotely capable of understanding your motives, values, loyalties and agendas. Of beings who are fundamentally different from humans not only physically. If I only try to imagine having lived through not only two world wars, but also famines, witch hunts, unrestricted rule of the Church and the destruction of half of Europe by the plague. I don't see how that would have shaped me." She shook her head in mock confusion. "If issues like equality, democracy, separation of church and state, recognition of science had only come up in the recent past, and even then played only a minor role in my life."

Maria's smile had disappeared, but Caroline, emphatically relaxed, took another step closer and continued, now in a low voice.

"I am sure you have gained enough experience and methods over the centuries that will leave me begging for the stake - within all your rules and laws, of course. So if you think I would even consider for a second making myself the toy of a person who has no qualms about using such methods to direct me and is quite obviously out for revenge, you could not be more mistaken."

For a brief moment she thought Maria was going to get angry, but there was that smug smile again.

"Well, it was worth a try." She sat down in a fluid motion. "Then I guess I'll settle for watching you slowly perish as we toast our fallen comrade with your blood."

Approval and scattered applause on one side, derisive snorts and disgusted shakes of the head on the other.

Caroline wondered if more such offers would come as Dominic spoke up. "Just to be sure," He leaned forward and grinned at her. "you wouldn't by any chance like to become part of my family? I'd love to take you in as well!"

Carolines rolled her eyes and an annoyed snort escaped her.

"Disrespectful bitch!" she heard a man scold her from further back, but did not turn around. She wanted all this to be finally over.

"Is there any chance you're still a virgin?" another male voice came forward from another direction.

This time she turned around. A young-looking man, maybe in his mid-twenties, with dark brown curls and a clean-shaven face let his gaze slide up and behind her expectantly.

Oh, her self-control was severely tested today.

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"That depends a little, My Lord," she said with a friendly smile, tilting her head innocently. "What kind of virginity are we talking about?"

He looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Oh,I would just like to clarify what kind experience we are talking about. Are we only talking about vaginal penetration or is anal penetration also relevant? Does oral sex, blowjob or licking apply? What about fingering or fisting and are sex toys included? So, plugs, vibrators..."

"Stop it!" He scowled, interrupting her eager listing and grimacing in disgust. "I'm certainly not going to take in a whore!"

She put on her broadest smile, wrinkled her nose.

"Ah, My Lord, there has been a misunderstanding. I never took any money for that kind of stuff."

Caroline heard loud snorts and loud laughter in the crowd. Some of the spectators even clapped their hands. She saw many broadly grinning faces and the muttered comments increased again. This time, however, the mood seemed to be less dark and more downright amused.

The man seemed to take it personally and jumped up with his eyebrows furiously drawn together. A golden cross dangled around his neck.

"I mean that I will not take in a dirty little rat who does not know what decency is!"

"Funny you should say that, My Lord." In contrast to Carolines words her tone had become more serious. "I have worked long enough with abuse victims during my internships. I know that men in particular who place such value on the artificially constructed and long since biologically disproven construct of virginity ..."

"Who do you think you are?" Are you trying to lecture me on how..."

"... are the very ones who force themselfes, unter the excuse ..."

"I have to interpret my values and..."

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"

It was the first time the king had really raised his voice and Caroline winced. The curly-haired man promptly fell silent as well, even though he looked like he was about to explode, with his lips pressed together and the vein pulsing in his forehead.

"Viktor, you should know better." The king gazed at him calmly until he settled back into his seat with a curt nod.

"And YOU!" He waited for Caroline to return his gaze. Oh, he looked angry.

"It's time you showed a little more gratitude and a better side of yourself! You get an extraordinary opportunity and this is the reaction?"

"Gratitude?" Caroline was honestly taken aback. She took a moment to consider how she was going to answer without jeopardising the current verdict.

"It is strange, but I am indeed sincerely grateful, Your Majesty." She looked the king straight in the eye and realised his expression was changing. He seemed curious again.

Her voice was now calm and sounded self-reflective.

"And please believe me, I myself am absolutely amazed that I actually feel gratitude! For having the choice to live in lifelong slavery or perish in the Extraction. I didn't assume I would ever think, let alone say, such a thing, but you have actually managed to make me regret fighting for my life and freedom. To make me grateful that my death sentence is not quite as cruel as it could have been."

Putting this absurd situation in a new light had succeeded. She could deduce this from the thoughtful and at the same time slightly annoyed expression on her counterpart's face.

"Are you trying to say, in a roundabout way, that you feel your situation is unfair?" His voice seemed neutral.

"Things are what they are. I don't argue with reality. All I am saying is that my world has completely turned in a very short time. It is not possible for me, despite my best efforts, to adjust my behaviour and personality as fast as it would be necessary."

She sighed, lowered her head and rubbed the bridge of her nose between her eyes with for a moment. Time to change the subject.

"I also don't want to waste any more resources. Would it be possible to shorten the trial, Your Majesty?"

"What are you getting at?" He had raised an eyebrow.

"My point is that there will be no alternative to the Extraction for me." She looked at him with disarming candour.

"The only people I would possibly talk to about trusting them with my life either have no capacity left," she pointed towards Maurice. "Have sworn never to take in a ward," she pointed to Eva, the King's sister, "or are out of the question as guardians." She left open who exactly she meant by this. Nevertheless, Thomas' gaze briefly turned to Rebekka and Damien.

The vampiress looked uncomfortable, but the Commander of the Guard tensed, giving the impression that he was ready to discuss the decision that he was ineligible.

"Very well then, let's end this matter. We have enough other issues to discuss," a woman commented in an impatient voice. She had spent most of the time so far looking dreamily out of the window and not actively participating. There were murmurs of agreement.

Sorry to keep you from lunch with my struggle to survive, Caroline thought bitterly, but restrained herself. She had the impression that patience with her was exhausted and she did not want to risk the current judgement.

Thomas had sat down in the meantime and she braced herself for the final verdict.

"It is a shame you feel that way." He had folded his hands under his chin and was looking at a spot on the floor in front of him. No one dared interrupt the silence that now followed.

Caroline did not know how long it lasted. It could have been two minutes or fifteen. Her sense of time had gone. The fact that she had hardly slept, eaten and been on an emotional rollercoaster of the highest order for three days was slowly taking its toll.

The fear of being burned at the stake had given her enough drive to focus in this trial. But now the remaining energy was draining out of her. She was no longer sure if she would even manage to leave the hall on her own two feet.

What was he waiting for? After all, there was only one option left that had been approved by Parliament.

"Before I pass sentence, I want to try one more thing. I want to make sure you have at least considered the option." When the leader of the vampires spoke again he sounded calm and determined.

He stood up and stopped right in front of her so that she had to raise her head a little to look him in the face. Caroline wasn't sure she could get through one more thing, but nodded.

"I would also like to offer to become your guardian and introduce you to our society under my personal responsibility."

Caroline's heart skipped a beat. She realised in a blur that she wasn't the only one who was shocked by his words. She heard people start talking to each other, shouts, annoyed, delighted, incredulous? She couldn't tell. Her mind was completely blank.

She knew it was taking too long. That she had to answer something. But for the life of her she was not able to.