Pudictia Aeterna

In my last journal entry with the 9 Facts About Claris meme, I mentioned that she has three ghouls, all with flower names. Most of you have seen Rose already, but this is Claris's second girl. Who is... decidedly younger. This is Blancheflor. A backstory for her. (As always, feel free to skip if it's not your thang. )

After Leland left her, Claris inherited everything he left behind, which represents a very substantial amount of wealth accrued over many centuries. So technically, it's not as if he left her with absolutely no means to provide for herself... but over the time she spent with him, she'd made almost no contacts of her own either in the mortal or vampire worlds, and even with Rose, she couldn't bear the loss of her closest and oldest companion, so she decided to retreat from the world at large. Using her new resources, she was able to purchase an abandoned monastery at the village of Abingdon outside of London, and hole up there for several decades in a life of solitude and prayer, with Rose as her liaison to the living world. Over time, Rose began to bring stray travelers and distressed ladies, mortal and vampire alike, to take shelter at the abbey, and Claris offered a permanent home to the vampire women who sought refuge and rest from the mortal world, and temporary shelter to mortal travelers. Claris, now known as Sister Saint Clair to the other "nuns", became the prioress of the Sisterhood of the Holy Chalice.

The Sisters had been active for many years as of 1341, when a young French noble maiden's entourage traveled through Abingdon en route to London. They were delivering her to her future bridegroom, a lord many years her senior; in fact, the maiden in question, Blancheflor, was scarcely physically a woman. Even though she matured early, 12 was suspiciously young for marriage, even at that time. To top it off, the girl was ashamed of becoming an adult woman, and deeply disturbed by the idea of being married and doing her "wifely duty". During her stay at the abbey, she befriended Rose and confided these doubts to her, who of course mentioned it to Claris. Claris had already observed Blancheflor distantly, and was intrigued by her piety, her obsession with her own purity, and her obvious longing for a cloistered, quiet, religious life... and she, being what she is, could easily offer Blancheflor all of those things and save her from marriage and ever "growing up" at the same time.

She approached the girl and explained that if she chose, she could enter into the same arrangement Claris has with Rose, and tell her family and future husband that she had taken vows; and that if she wished, she could remain a child and an eternal virgin, and would never have to suffer childbearing or even her monthly courses again. In agreeing, Blancheflor sought refuge from the pressures and tumult of womanhood; and although she wouldn't stoop to turning the girl into a vampire proper, Claris nevertheless attained something Rose could never be and that even Leland could never have given her: a true, living child willing to be her "daughter", maybe even forever.

And even if her family or future husband gave them trouble, who's really going to argue with the prioress of an order of nuns who will literally eat you or tear your head off? Nobody, that's who.

This... can only end well.

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