After Eleanora had fully recovered, she and Chris bid Palro their goodbyes as they leave, heading for the city, Lychway City.
The faint Luna light along with the quietness of the treacherous march fades to the increasing noise of the city...
The murmurs of people, the yells in the markets, the sounds of experiments from the alchemy workshop, the screams and shouts from the night court as people train and spar... the blood smell is fresh as ever in this damned city, be it a murder in the dark alleyways, a prisoner execution or even just the smell of red juice barrels moving to the "hangedman" inn and noble houses as well.
Reaching the inn, Eleanora stops and hold Chris shoulder.
"Remember to stay close to me, this city may be a safe place, but its not as safe for humans okay?"
Chris nods, and they both walk in to the Hangedman inn.
The door creaks as it opens.
"Welcome to the Hangedman Inn, be it a drink or a room, we wont leave you 'hanging', have a seat."
A man of 30s had stated this, with his hands busy cleaning a glass cup, his eyes blankly stared at the other side, his expression shows nothing but boredom, it was as if he did over and over for at least 10 years. His sharp green eyes glow faintly, his sharp nails and his fangs clearly say that he is a vampire, he may look in 30s, but who knows how old he actually is? And for how long he worked as a bartender here? Considering this, 10 years long sounds short.
"Another boring day Keith?"
Eleanora asked as she walked towards the counter, sitting on a stool infront of him, Chris following her without questions did the same.
"Oh its you, the fledgling who always walk back clothes drenched in blood, yet no wounds. Glad to see you make it out alive again, I am sure you will be one of my best customers in the near future if you keep up."
She closes her eyes with a smile.
"Thank you, I do intend to stay as a regular here"
Eleanora then glance at Chris, then just as she started to speak again she puts her hand palm on Chris head.
"This is my little brother Chris, he will be staying at my room, make sure to keep an eye after him for me when I am out Keith, also if he orders something just write it down and I will pay it later in the day when I am back."
Keith nods.
"You know I cant say no to more business in my place!"
He smirks.
"..."
Eleanora stare blankly.
Keith smirk fades and his face gets serious, he gives a slow small nod.
"... but seriously, dont worry about it, I may be one of the Sagrava family but I dont snitch on my best customers no matter what, I have standards unlike those other filthy vampires around here."
He glances at Chris then he looks at the other direction at the window.
"And... I used to had a family too..."
Eleanora gently puts a small pouch on the counter, but the gold coins inside still clink as the small leather pouch touches the table and reveal the identity of its contents.
Keith hand smoothly take it without making any sound a d put it under the counter, this was a prepayment, while the council does pay for her rent she have to pay for other services such as drinks and food or informations from Keith but this was for protecting Chris specifically and would cover whatever he orders for a while too.
Eleanora stood up and looked at Chris, he immediately understood and stood up as well, she went to the stairs by the counter side that leads to the rooms above, opening the room creaking door, a view of an old small room comes into Chris view, a single bed, a small dusty window covered in cobwebs, a chair and a desk, a pale red carpet covered most of the wooden floor that creaks with each step, above the desk there were a set of potions and empty potion bottles, a couple bottles had deep red liquid; Vampire blood bottle, besides them were another two smaller bottles filled with cloudy grey liquid; it was the infamous cloudy mind liquid, this liquid is obtained via a complex yet well known alchemy methods, its main effect is to cause the mind to focus and in direct contract with its name to make the mind clear, it helps relieve alot of the mental pressure new vampires face as well as the mental pressure many humans face in this world, if this potion was used on earth however, it will be as powerful and harmful as a strong shot of nootropic, on the other side of the desk surface were other colorful bottles put aside from the red and grey bottles and also a paper and a small ink bottle and a quil, there was a bottle filled with purple liquid; Azure skyride, a potion that temporarily increase one's magical power slightly, near it was three bottles filled with smooth light blue liquid that kept on shimmering giving the vibes of a moon light on a lake surface; it was called Lunarium tears, a potion made mainly from Lunar grass, a herb that grows in nights were the moon Luna is bright but it also only grows in locations with dense mana in the air, thus, this potion effect is the drastic increase of mana regeneration process as well as it amplify spells effects, lastly there was a bottle filled with ashy black material within a dark blue translucent liquid; night's ash potion, it coulf increase the innate magical resistance within a person body. while at the side there where two bottles filled with clear and translucent liquid, it was the main source of all life; water.
Other than the bed, chair, desk and a small cupboard, there was nothing else visible in this tiny dusty room, Eleanora put her hand at the shoulder of Chris, she wanted to reassure him, "this is only temporary" thats what she wanted to say, but before she spoke Chris gasped in awe, in awe? Eleanora was confused, as Chris excitedly walked into the room, taking a look at the potions, then a look through the window, and finally reaching the bed and turning back to look at Eleanora.
"This room is awesome! There is a nice bed, a window and you have some alchemy stuff even! The bed even have a blanket!!"
As a happy innocent smile appeared on Chris face, a sad guilty smile appeared on Eleanora's face, contradicting each other looks.
Eleanora clearly realised that while she left the old so called orphanage and human children hideout and joined the vampire side, she have seen many comforts in life she never realised were possible, just like Chris now, but Chris and the others were left behind her and in the end they even scattered in the wild, forced to fend for their own. This room was poor, very poor, but it was the temporary residence of Eleanora until she claim back the Mirals inheritance, she could not inherit anything because she was a new turned vampire, only officially recognised vampires are capable of inheriting of vampires of their same family bloodline or directly their sire, Mirals was the one who turned Eleanora, he was her sire, but he died before he even could finish training her, assassinated on the hands of the Duke, and now that Duke was killed by Eleanora, but she was not satisfied by this hard earned victory, she couldnt even call it a revenge, because there was something amiss...
Eleanora, a fledgling vampire, was sent to kill someone called the duke, who turns out to be the person who was strong enough to sneak into not only lychway city but to the noble vampires grounds and into one of the houses, and even assassinate an "Elder-to-be" Scion vampire and actually making it out!! Does it make sense? Not one bit!!!
Eleanora's task to kill the duke first sounded like a simple task to prove loyalty to vampires by killing some human rebels camp leader, but that leader was someone capable of delivering such a hit to the vampires and not only it proved he was way stronger than an initiate vampire level -let alone a fledgling one- it was weirdly directly related to her, he was the killer of her sire, the killer of the person who recognised her as a daughter... obviously something was off.
As Eleanora thoughts clouded her mind heavily, a frown appeared on her face uncontrollably, she turned back to leave the room, but she said some words to chris before she leaves
"Go and sleep on the bed, you must be tired, consider this room yours but dont touch the things I have on the disk or the chest"
"What chest??" Chris naturally asked, he did not see any chest in this tiny room.
"By your legs." Just after she said that, she closed the door left, heading down stairs.
Chris was standing by the bed, he really wanted to get on top of this bed and have a comfortable sleep he never had in his life, but he was curious about where the chest was, "by his legs"... he looked downwards to look under the bed, there was nothing, but Chris was a clever boy, he soon figured it out, some of the wooden boards under the bed were loose and indeed after removing one he managed to take a glimpse of the chest, but Chris was not overly curious and heeded more priority to his big sister words, so he put the wooden board back as it was and decided it was time to take drift into dreams. This chest was Eleanora's stash, all the findings she get while venturing in the marsh are stored here, that if she didnt sell them, it wasnt full, actually it was rather empty with only a few items resting in its bottom until its time for them to be useful or if their price in the market rose.
Why?
Eleanora didnt have the inheritance of Mirals, to fend for herself in this world she needed money, to gain money there was two ways: doing bounty jobs for the coucil which could be dangerous, or selling various ingredients, materials and items she could gather from the black marsh nearby, she even used the ingredients to create potions and sell them to profit even more! But all of this will be only an option and not the main source of income to her now, because she completed the task given to her by Lord Savant which means all she need to do is a small trip to the council and report back what happened and she will gain decent payment along with the big prize: The title of an Initiate Vampire! An officially recognised and supported vampire!
However, Eleanora was not in a hurry, she is not like the other dogs of the council running back to them to gain a head pat, on the surface, she was siding with the council and vampire society, but the truth was that she did not side with anyone, not the human rebels, not the vampire hunters, not the Blood Council nor the hidden Cabal that was causing chaos in the vampire society, she was a survivor, she would side with the side that would help her survival the most, and currently she needed to claim back all what Mirals used to own back from the Blood Council, as well as lychway city was the safest place currently and the council have full authority and control over it, that is why she decided back then to take the initiation trial, but after seeing what they sent her for changed everything now, she needed to think this over.
She reached down stairs and sat on a chair infront of a table, Keith, the bartender and owner of the hangedman inn spoke to her in a calm and casual voice.
"The regular order?"
She didnt turn at him nor did she speak, she simply nodded her head and he immediatly headed to the kitchen in the back.
"They sent me to kill the Duke in the name of an initiation trial, but even for an initiate this was a suicide mission... if it wasnt for the primal spells I learned from my father, I wouldn't have emerged victorious at all... they dont know about this fact, so basically they sent me to die... why?"
At that moment her thoughts train was interrupted as Keith placed a plate in front of her, it was a pie covered in red, it contained raw meat and fresh blood in the middle that was added lastly to the pie as it was prepared and cooked empty, to keep the meat fresh and full of blood, this was not human meat, but rather animals meat, a deer meat to be exact, this plate if brought before a human they would immediately lose their appetite and throw up to the side, it looked awful and was smelly, however for vampires this was a regular meal between commoners, it was cheap and easy to prepare, it had blood to satisfy the vampire hunger as well as meat to do make them feel like this was a meal, many new vampires were still keeping the habit of eating food from their past human food, humans needed food to stay alive but vampires only needed blood to satisfy their hunger, even if they starved they would still be alive, eating was a thing new vampires do to satisfy their self, they still didnt get over the fact they dont need to eat, This meal provides the "eating" part along with providing the blood feeding part as well.
"Enjoy your meat pie"
"Thanks"
As Keith walked back to wait behind the counter, Eleanora started eating this meal, as well as she started to regain her train of thoughts.
"Why? Why did they need to kill me behind the curtains of an initiation trail? I didnt offend the council, I am not in touch with the rebels nor did I help them, and of course I am not on the cabal side! Then that only leaves..."
At that moment an idea flickered in her brain, she knew this idea from the start but she didnt want to believe it and avoided it, but now it seems its the only true intent behind this suicide mission they sent her to, and it was...
"Mirals inheritance..."
Eleanora frowned, since she made it out alive and she felt something amiss, if she died, there would be no legal heir to Mirals, thus all his inheritance will be owned by the Blood Council.
"...he may seem like a normal scholar at first glance but he is far more than that, he was alive ages ago, when he was a young human he was part of the mages who were first to research 'The Dark' that surrounds our lands..."
The words of The Duke suddenly appeared in her mind... the reason the rebels and vampire hunters wanted Mirals did was because if he had joined the vampires side it would strength them alot.
"...he had many priceless info and knowledge that were so important to the extend that if he joined one side of the war between humans and vampires the other side will lose no matter what, he kept all that to himself and never told anyone anything for years..."
Knowledge is the strongest weapon.
"If that is the case, I bet they are currently searching along his library in secret even though it breaks their own rules, I should head there and get back all of the inheritance as soon as possible!"
With that, she gulped down the last spoonful from the meat pie and stood up walking out of the place swiftly and as she passed by the counter she placed some coins on the counter for Keith.
"If they want Mirals knowledge so bad it makes me want to get it all for myself even more! All of it belongs only to me, I shall gain it back before I fall deeper into those geezers schemes!!"
The Blood Council was a walk away from hangedman inn, soon enough she was in front of the gate, two broad guards clad in plate armor were closing the entrance with their spears, they were from the Oberon patrol, the famous force of law in lychway city that only the elites of Oberon house could join.
"HALT! The Elders of the Council are in a meeting! No one shall interrupt them!"
Both of the guards spoke in total sync, they even looked the same, they are twin brothers.
"I am Eleanora Mirals from Malakai house, I am here to report back the death of the Duke"
Eleanora tried to use the name of this famous criminal to gain entry, and it worked smoothly as both guards showed surprise.
"The Duke?!"
"Dead?!"
Both retracted their spears clearing the entrance to Eleanora.
"Head inside at once!"
"report to Lord Savant at once!"
Eleanora nodded and went inside with quick steps.
She knew that "the elders are in a meeting" only means they dont want to see anyone at the moment, it was nothing but an excuse, and indeed, she reached the main hall and there were only two Elders, one was sitting one his chair and reading a book, while the other was by a table glancing at several maps of the region. As Eleanora entered both Elders glanced at her, the one looking over the maps had a very thin structure and his eye sockets were deeper than normal, his skin was very pale and had a faint grey color, the one reading a book had a scare on his right eye but it didnt affect the functionality of the eye it self, as they both glowed in red, his skin was neither pale nor dark, it was Lord Savant.
THUCK
The sound of the book closed shut echoed in the empty silent hall as Lord Savant focus now was at Eleanora.
"Ah! You had finally came back Fledgling, I have been waiting for your arrival and I am expecting to hear some good news."
The other Elder had stopped what he was doing and turned to see what is this about, but he didnt talk at all.
"Greetings Esteemed Elders, Lord Savant, Lord Betulugus, I have completed my trial and got rid of the Duke and also I have caused chaos in the rebels group and killed six talented elites in their ranks as well, they are totally headless and by now an Oberon patrol probably got rid of the rest of them"
Eleanora bows to show her "respect", but deep inside her heart, Lord Savant have alot to explain to her.
Lord Savant smiles and stands up, leaving the book on the chair and approached her to speak, while Lord Petelgeuse gave a small nod and turned back as he lost interest in this matter, it was nothing but a small matter unworthy of his attention in his opinion, however Lord Savant have the exact opposite opinion as he dedicated all his attention to Eleanora, he is after all the one in charge of her initiation and her current handler since she had no sire and also is not approved yet by Malakai house elders such as Lord Petelgeuse now.
"Great work! Great work indeed!" He praised and gestured her to follow him as he walked away from the main hall and went to some other chamber.
"Now after you completed such a feat, I would love to directly give you the Scion title, but such a jump is not realistic as many elders will reject it let alone other scions and monarchs... I can only go by the rules and elevate your rank by one stage, to an initiate."
As they entered the chamber it was like a treasury, filled with large chests and bags, but they did not contain money, it rather contained many weird looking items, fragments, artifacts and finally tokens from all different shapes and materials, he casually picked a token made of silver from a pile, he opened his other hand to Eleanora, she immediately realised, he wanted her hand, so she extended her hand and opened her palm, he held her hand gently and with the sharp nail on his thump of his left hand that held the token he made a small cut, and soon a single blood drop emerged, he put the token on this blood drop and as it absorbed the blood drop of Eleanora it let a faint red glow, next, he let go of her hand and made a small cut in his own hand, causing a small single blood drop of his own to fall into the token as well and be absorbed. The difference between the blood drop of Eleanora and Lord Savant was huge, Eleanora blood drop was very similar to normal blood but it was much more thick and was a bit darker, while Lord Savant blood drop was smaller, it was way thicker and as it started to fall it still hanged with his hand as if it was a sticky slime, and it was not red, it was so dark that you can barely call it dark red, it was rather black with a hint of red, this was one way to tell the different in strength between two vampires.
After the token absorbed his blood it let a faint purple glow, each token needed to be approved by an Elder, each glowing color represented a different elder, while a red glow represented it was not approved and only had the user blood but no elder blood, these tokens were used to tell between the vampire ranks, even if someone stole the token, it was useless to use if it was not approved, and if it was stolen after it was approved it wont work unless it was used by the right owner who put his blood first into it before the elder blood.
Silver token represented initiates, ruby tokens represented scions, golden tokens represented monarchs while bone white tokens represented elders, however the top three elders of each noble house represented the blood council it self, thus they are not only the ones who approve of tokens but also use a different type of tokens to prove their identity and prevent someone from pretending to be them, after all changing your looks to the looks of another person was an easy task to strong vampires, the identity is proved by your blood rather than your looks. Every token other than the elder token is empty on its surface, only when the user is approved by one of the noble houses they will engrave the house mark on it, a spear represented Oberon house, an eye represented Sagrava house while a book represented the Malakai house. A crossed version of these marks meant that the user is approved and working for that house, but they are not a member of the house by blood, thus they were looked down upon and where simply workers in the eyes of the house members.
Eleanora was happy inwardly that she got this silver empty token, with it many things will change and become a bit easier, merchants wont be able to raise the prices above the legal price to her, and wont buy what she sells with rock bottom prices, also she is now officially a vampire and can work to gain approval of the Malakai house, but more importantly, with this token she is now legally able to own the house of Mirals and all what he used to own within it and outside of it.
But soon her happiness was eradicated when she remembered the fact they tried to send her to her death.
"Congratulations Eleanora Mirals, you are now officially a trustworthy initiate vampire, I expect alot of great work from you, you were choosen by Mirals after all, sigh his death was such a loss."
He heaved a sigh, but his face was indifferent. Eleanora found that this was a proper chance since he brought this topic himself.
"Lord Savant, there was a thing on my mind that I wanted to ask about, may I?"
"you want to ask why did I sent you after the Duke right? Go on."
His eyes shined faintly as he stared at Eleanora eyes deeply, this sent a chill across her spine, not only the fact he knew what she was going to ask, but he seems like he wanted her to ask it, was there another meaning behind all this?
"Lord Savant you are very wise"
She praised while gulping down her fear, not wanting to let it show, but Lord Savant probably saw through her already.
"The Duke was the person who assassinated my sire Mirals, it is no coincidence that I was sent after him, but why? I do not comprehend"
She asked directly, there was no use of hiding anything anymore, Lord Savant gave a pleasant smile, then.he raised his arm and used some magic, causing the doors of the chamber to close, then he took a step back and sat on the table that had the small piles of tokens crossing one leg above the other.
"You probably think this was a suicide mission now and think that I set you in a scheme for your death, and my goal was to obtain what Mirals own, however you are only half right."
"Half right?"
"Yes, you were indeed sent to a suicide mission, sent to your death, for the reason of gaining the inheritance of Mirals, the knowledge he once had and kept away from everyone, the knowledge that should have belonged to you legally, but those elders of Malakai thought you are not worthy of it, thus they planned this scheme and with the agreement of the other elders, by major vote, you were sent into this mission in the name of "letting you take revenge for Mirals", I also agreed to keep face as the leading Lord in this council, however unlike them I knew this was not a suicide mission, and I know also that you are smart enough to extort some info behind this assassination as well before finishing of the Duke, unlike the other greedy geezers here, I was once a friend of Mirals, a person he trusts"
He spoke with no regret of his actions, he knew all along that Eleanora was going to survive against the Duke, he spoke in a proud manner, clearly saying that everything went as he planned.
"I do remember now that you did visit us personally couple times"
"I may seem that I took no move to prevent this scheme, but I did, I sent several of my personal guards to firmly protect Mirals house, this way no other house could send their agents to infiltrate it and search it for what they want. On the other hand, Mirals had taught you his primal spell right? Thats how you survived"
Eleanora was in awe of this clever person, on the surface, he did not reject the scheme and even agreed to it, keeping face with all the other houses and their elders, on the other hand he protected the house in the name of law, thus no one could get upset with him and they would only hope Eleanora to die by the Duke so they can freely go through Mirals property, however Lord Savant knew she had something that puts her strength above all current initiates, Mirals did not waste time after he turned her into a vampire and immediately taught her three spells, while two were offensive spells one was a primal spell, primal spells were the strongest spells, they are spells left behind by the primal vampires and only few know a primal spell while most dont even know what a primal spell is, magical spells in this world mainly are divided into three categories first: normal spells, vampire spells and finally primal spells, all of them contained various spells, offensive, defensive utility, healing, etc. But primal spells effects are very powerful, they are simply the best, The Duke only had normal spells, he was more experienced than Eleanora, but her two vampire spells and one primal spells were all compatible, together they made her strength way more than the Duke, lord Savant clearly knew this, so he was confident that Eleanora will make it alive, not only that, he even knew she will gather some extra info about the cause of the assassination, he clearly won in this small hidden political fight against all the houses, no wonder he is the acting lord regent of the Blood Council, very wise and extremely clever, who wont stare in awe if he such person in action?
He noticed that Eleanora was unable of talking back so he kept talking.
"Now listen, the political hidden war between the houses and fights for power as fierce as ever, but I know the potential you have, your foundation is strong, you have a primal spell, and you have Mirals inheritance, so I want to make a deal with you, you will be one of my personal agents in the dark, but on the surface you will act normally and try to gain the approval of the Malakai house as you originally planned, but your top priority will be the missions I assign to you, in return, I will make sure to protect you from the fire of the political war and cover your traces as well, not to mention to provide extra protection for your little Chris"
Eleanora obviously had no choice, while it was a deal offer on the surface, it was a forced employment, lord Savant used his cards wisely, by telling her he will provide protection for Chris it rather means "I know about chris and I can do whatever I want to him, I can protect him, and I can cause his death in the dark, you choose" but if we looked aside from this blackmail, he also clearly told her that he know her current plan, to gain the approval of the Malakai house was simply the first step in her plan of survival, she needed to gather strength so no one can cause troubles for her or bully her. But first, she needs to work for this guy, the profits are more than the loses, she will be doing missions for the council anyway, then why not make more gains out of it?
"Now since we cleared that up, follow me. Lets discuss our next move to make this city a better place, I have couple things in mind that i want to tell you of..."
He stood up and approached the door, with a wave of his hand, a magical light was dispelled, he had placed a barrier earlier that would make sure no one can overhear them, he walked out, gesturing Eleanora to follow, which she immediately did, they walked out of the chamber, they walked past the main hall and out of the blood council.
And so Eleanora heads to face both her new potential and the risk that comes within it, what is exactly the plan of lord Savant for this city?