Vivian rarely spoke so harshly to anyone. Even when she had first argued with Lily, she had never shown such malice. Yet the few things she had just said were basically the equivalent of cursing Jean to his face. Jean froze for a moment, not quite processing it—because he had never expected Vivian to consider the matter from that angle.
Or put another way, he had never imagined that Vivian, as a member of the Bloodkin, would stand entirely outside the issue and criticize something that should theoretically benefit the Bloodkin enormously. In the eyes of any normal Vampire, that would have been utterly inconceivable.
Setting aside how much meaning there was in arguing over the identity of the original owner of ruins that had lain abandoned for thousands of years, any normal Vampire should not have questioned what Jean and the others were doing at a time like this (although, strictly speaking, the matter was indeed rather improper). But Vivian had clearly never been normal to begin with. She had an utterly incomprehensible, unique view of racial issues. Sometimes she considered matters from a Vampire's perspective and displayed certain Bloodkin traits, such as disliking Werewolves. Yet on other subjects, she would directly adopt the standpoint of a complete bystander, stripping away her identity as a Vampire to judge whether someone else's actions were reasonable. She was a Vampire with a bizarre "transcendent perspective," yet even she did not know where that perspective had come from.
In any case, this way of thinking and the things she had accused them of left all the envoys from the Lucas family extremely awkward. Even Heiserana looked at Vivian with a strange expression. "Lady Vivian... you just insulted me too. I still have half the keys."
"So why did you get involved in