Cornelius the Ancient Buys a New Mansion

 Cornelius the Ancient Buys a New Mansion

One the aspect of living forever is that you create layers between you and the outside world. One of the ways to do this is to buy permanent assets, like home and businesses and put them in other people's name. The beauty of this modern era is that you don't even do that anymore. You create a business, name the business and then have the business own things, including other businesses.

You put people in charge that you hire and fire every 10 years or so. No one ever suspects a thing, because the people in charge change so often, it wouldn't dawn to check the pictures.

What's even better is if you and your master have supernatural abilities to influence entire cities, to the point that they issues identification, licenses, and business names, all without even realizing it. If they ever check, when they're not under our spell, everything is in order.

You make sure the business doesn't make too much money and they keep regular people hired. You make sure the business doesn't go bankrupt so that the authorities don't check on it.

When you look at the layers we're talking about, it is 20,000 different businesses all subsidiaries of one another. It is a huge web, so complicated that the best minds would have to come together and cooperate to understand it all.

Today Cornelius is going to buy a new mansion. One of my sons is getting married. He is the CEO of one of the companies and his bride was picked out by me. I personally groomed the human family to be excellent and perfect, and made sure the daughter was of the best qualities.

We watched on closed circuit TV. We could not attend, because cameras and vampires do not mix. Sometimes equipment just does not work around a vampire and sometimes it works too well. Either the people there won't see the vampire and camera will, or the camera won't and the people will, so that people hugging the vampire will appear just bizarre to the camera.

Sometimes fine luxury glasses and plates have silver or cold iron or other strange metals in them and they do not vanish with the vampire.

So, Cornelius and I and other staff members got dressed up and watched on closed circuit television. The 3rd reception would be at the lair. The line of cars from the 2nd reception to the lair would be 50 cars long. The staff were so excited to do something other than take care of one vampire, who really didn't need them. He could, if he wanted to snap his fingers and everything would be done for him. He allowed them to serve him to make sure they weren't bored.

The lair was always busy. It was renovated and remodeled every 6 months. Right when staff got used to walking around the furniture, it changed. without fail an entire tray of food was dumped on the floor once a year.

Today was a very busy day. I was on my toes, ordering around everyone. My son was to be independent of the lair and he would be setup in his own estate. We had to choose a name for him.

I keep saying MY son. He is also related to Cornelius, very, very distantly. He was the one that would open the book of the family and choose a name. It was a magnificent book. It was huge. It took 4 servants to carry it.

The ceremony was just breathtaking by itself. Cornelius sat on one corner table, groom and bride at the center, and I sat on the other side of the groom. A bronze bell was rung, and the hall went silent. The 4 servants brought in the book on a podium. Cornelius stook up and they gingerly slid the podium in front of him on the table. They knelt and Cornelius opened the book and turned page after page.

The human guests and family members were all silent, as he flipped page after page. "Terren the 6th shall be you and your wife's name from now, forward."

Everyone stood, took their glasses and yelled, "we greet you Terren the 6th!"

It was not over. The 4 servants retrieved the book and 4 more servants removed that table so that Cornelius could walk on the inner circle of the tables. He would make a series of proclamations. Of course, they would all come true, because Cornelius stands outside of time. It's like looking out of a window, for him.

"And for you my dear, great granddaughter, I proclaim you will have 4 children...." and everyone stood up and cheered. The bride nervously giggled and said under her breath, "I was hoping for just one." My son hugged her and kissed her temple and smiled. Cornelius continued with the proclamations, which included predictions on the economy. This is the part where the family is to take note and the real reason they came. It was Cornelius' gift to them.

When the reception was over, Cornelius stood in the line, by me and everyone kissed the ringed finger. They were thanking him for the prediction. With over 200 people being prosperous all of a sudden, no one would get suspicious.

Standing in the line, though, also served another purpose. As they passed in front of us, we wiped all the mortal's minds of the true location of the laire. They would remember everything except how to get here. Also, for the next year they would feel at peace.

It took me 100 years to make Cornelius understand that, that was a good thing to do for guests.

I felt sorry for my son, though. As my son, he was born to a semi immortal father. I had taken so much of Cornelius' blood, that I was very close to being a vampire, myself. Actually, I was much more powerful than any vampire walking around, even the oldest of them. It also meant my children, without any other input, of blood, would live at least for 1,000 years.

His wife would not.

She is a normal human. What she doesn't know is all of her children will also live 1,000 years. Every year, my son had the task, on their birthdays, to age them a year, otherwise, the children would stay infants for 100 years. They would be smart infants, but they would look like infants. So each birthday party, he would cast a spell and age them. All the way till they turned 16.

The wife wouldn't know what would be going on, but the children, right around 9 years old, would catch on. My son, is 30 years old, but he looks 20. I told him to look that young, because I wanted him to hurry up and marry the young woman when she turned 18. I also made him a little taller.

2 days later, the family, not friends, would gather at the new mansion, and the newlyweds would be presented with the new mansion and a couple of brothers that agreed to be their servants for a decade or so. A few of the other relatives would act as servants too. 

The wife would know none of this. So on the steps of the new mansion, Cornelius made a big ceremony of handing over a giant key, that fit a lock, to a red ribbon that went clear around the house. You could see the wife's eyes get big, as soon as she stepped out of the car, leading up the steps. Cornelius made it a big deal to say, "I let you stay in my house for as long as ye both shall live." And with that he kissed each on the temple.

The family clapped. As Cornelius stepped down the stairs, one of the other family's young men came up to him and said, "I want to get married." Cornelius stopped and looked at the young man. He took his his hand, clasped the ear with his palm, and wiped his forehead with his thumb. "Would you like to get married?" he asked. The young man started, as if the idea had just came to him. "Yes, I would like to get married."

I don't know what he did to the young man, but I know, he changed him, somehow, fundamentally.

"Let's see now. Oh my, you're 35," Cornelius said, looking at the young man, who didn't look a day over 20. "Where are your two brothers?"

Cornelius knew everyone in the family, intimately, and didn't miss the smallest detail. I knew that this young man's father, was another retainer, like me, but he wanted to keep his children close to him, forever. He could have had 50 children, if he wanted, but instead he only had 3 boys and kept them close to him.

Aha, that's what Cornelius changed. He changed the young man from being dependent on his father, to being independent, because that's what the young man was truly asking. Cornelius loved weddings. He could have just changed the young man and left, but he loved weddings, so he also put the seed of marriage in the young man.

When we got back to the lair, after granting my son the mansion, I spoke to him. "Why didn't you change the father?" What Cornelius told me staggered me.

"Bart, sit down. I am truly all powerful. You know this. This retainer of mine. He is my grandson, like you are my grandson. His father left him, when he was very young. It was no fault of the father, but other the mother. She is not of my blood, so I had nothing to do with that. I knew he would turn out ok. So I left him be. He wants to keep his children with him forever. He wants to give them the smothering love he missed from his father.

I could change him. I could wipe his brow, and take away all the pain and sorrow he has. But, this sorrow runs deep. This pain runs deep. He breathes it. He sweats it. He gave life to it, in the form of 3 sons.

If I changed him, it would break who he is. This pain has to be balanced with triumph. I am all powerful, but I also believe in the balance of things. If I do a magical thing, it's just moving the timetable up a little bit.

The pain this man feels, must be balanced with the triumph of 3 weddings. And when each son has 10 grandchildren each, it will overflow that man's heart so much, he will cry tears of great joy, when his father shows up. He will proudly introduce him to all of his grandchildren. Also, the father is going to look, not a day over 40. He will feel, as if, he had met his father when he was a kid, all over again," Cornelius finished and kissed me on the forehead.

I was so happy for my cousin. I couldn't wait to see it all play out.