Legacies of Blood

“What’ve ye done to my sister!” Kaethe screamed into the mercenary’s face as she held him by the neck against the back wall of the burned building. She bared her fangs to emphasize her point, heedless of what people might say about her being a vampire. “I’ll rip yer throat out, I swear to the gods.”

Karl Steinbach stared back at her in surprise. Despite Kaethe’s relatively modest physique, her strength was impressive. The seasoned mercenary captain struggled against her grip but found that there was no give. “Nothing. At least not what you think.”

“Please,” the vishanti woman groaned, holding her hands up as she attempted to calm the vampire. “I just finished patching him up. You’re likely to pop his stitches by manhandling him like this. If you’d just let me explain...”

“Kaethe,” Alister interjected sternly, narrowing his dark eyes on the redhead. “Put him down.”

Kaethe turned to face the taller vampire with an arched brow, hesitating a moment before releasing Steinbach. “Adjust yer tone with me.”

Alister folded his hands calmly in front of him over the old Solacine cuirass that was beginning to show its age. “Gladly, as soon as you rein in your temper.”

“This man is the one that tried to kill her last time,” Kaethe argued, taking a few steps closer to the warrior. Normally, they got along quite well, but as the queen’s consort, she was not to be spoken to in such a disrespectful way---especially when it involved her sister. “I refuse to believe that he wasn’t working with the witch, somehow.”

“Believe what you like,” Lenuta interrupted. “But there wasn’t much he could have done at the time. His injuries from the blast are extensive even now. He could barely move then.”

“She spared me,” Steinbach growled, coughing a few times before easing his bandaged body down into the nearest intact chair. “I was definitely going to kill her, don’t get me wrong. But it would have been in a duel with her on her feet. She’d earned that much even before tonight.”

“You’re not helping,” Lenuta muttered, staring daggers at the man. “Just sit there and be quiet. We’ll figure out what to do with you shortly.”

Kaethe frowned at the man as he rolled his eyes, looking away from the group to stare out one of the gaping holes in the wall. Outside, the soldiers that had accompanied her and Alister were loading the small chests containing the vampire artifacts that Elaina had saved into their armored carriage. A team of black draft horses waited patiently for them to get underway.

Alister motioned toward the basement door as he fixed his attention on Lenuta. “Tell me about this door you mentioned.”

“It’s a fardoor. It connects to a twin in my family’s old home in Tenebre Dontae,” Lenuta explained, exasperated. “The witch---Royce---was going to use it to return there and turn the artifacts over to her master. Elaina tackled her through it, threw the artifacts back here, and ordered me to close the door.”

“Smart,” Alister remarked, nodding in approval.

“Why haven’t you gone after her?” Kaethe prodded, impatient with the discussion. She should have been overjoyed to have the mirror in their possession now, with the added bonus of the scepter, but knowing that Elaina was once again in peril robbed the moment of any joy. She knew it would be hard to let her leave and that she would find a great deal of trouble in her travels, but something about this time felt different. It felt dire.

“We tried,” a bandaged kyrsahn female with a distinct Orpevan accent answered, leaning on the doorway as she entered the front room. Kaethe was sure that she’d heard Lenuta refer to her as Kitch. “But there is something wrong. It’s broken.”

“Even if it wasn’t,” Alister jumped in, holding a hand up to cut Kaethe off. “She would be beyond our reach. The queen’s mandate regarding Tenebre Dontae is quite clear.”

Kaethe sneered. “She’ll have to make an exception then. I’m sure I can convince her.”

“And if you do?” Lenuta argued. “My people are still strictly prohibited from suffering the existence of undead in our homeland. Vampires, in particular, are put down with a particular zeal.”

Kaethe tilted her head to the side as her hand rested on the hilt of the sword hanging from her hip. “Is that a threat, vishanti?”

“A statement of fact,” Lenuta responded calmly, though Kaethe could hear the woman’s pulse quickening. She wasn’t made of stone, only good at concealing her fear. “By my people’s standards, I’m not particularly pious, but those of Tenebre Dontae typically are. It wouldn’t matter what your intentions were or how brief you intended to make your stay. You would be hunted.”

“You mentioned a master?” Alister inquired. “What master does she serve?”

“We do not typically speak his name,” the vishanti woman answered uncertainly, her demeanor of calm cracking slightly. “It is said that he can hear his name spoken anywhere within the realm. I realize we’re in Zelmesca, but still...”

“We need a name,” Kaethe pressed, taking a step closer to Lenuta. “My sister could be in even worse danger now that she’s there. We need to know what we might be dealing with.”

Lenuta’s eyes darted between the people in the room as she took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly through her teeth as if something within her was unclenching. “He is called Shizon. He is to us what Mephisto is to humans.”

“He’s some kind of demon?” Kaethe asked, undeterred and unbothered by the implication. “A fiend from the hells?”

“He’s a vampire,” Alister responded for the vishanti. “A very old vampire from the days predating the vishanti as a whole. He’s said to be one of the eldest we have on record who still remains unaccounted for. My sire used to say he wasn’t a vampire but a nosferatu.”

“What’s the difference?” Kitch snorted, leaning a little more heavily on the door frame.

Steinbach let out a bitter laugh. “Vampires will feed on anything with a pulse that they can get their claws into, but nosferatu feed almost exclusively on other vampires. No wonder the big man there is shitting bricks about it. Gives them a taste of what it’s like to be us whenever they’re in the room.”

Alister’s silence in the face of such insults spoke volumes to Kaethe. As subtle as it was, there was no mistaking the slight changes in him that betrayed his unease and contempt. “If vampires are hunted down so zealously, then why is he there?”

“I don’t know,” Lenuta admitted. “I got a sense of his terrible power when the witch was here. Up to that point I considered the creature to be largely a myth, perhaps apocryphal or a figure of history who once existed but suffered a strange or obscure death.”

“So he might not even be real,” Kaethe scoffed. “That’s not something we should concern ourselves with.”

“No, he’s real,” Lenuta objected firmly. “I know what I sensed from her. There’s no mistaking that sort of unclean darkness.”

Alister cleared his throat. “Again, it wouldn’t matter as we are barred from entering the realm.”

Kaethe spat a curse in Caledonian and threw her arms up before storming out of the room and into the front garden. Nearby, guards of South Gate were speaking with the soldiers of the Obsidian Queen, exchanging information on what they had uncovered about the events of earlier that night. Around the side of the property, a collection of villagers who had served as the fire brigade were packing up most of their supplies now that the fire had been extinguished.

Kaethe ran her hands through her hair in frustration as she paced back and forth along the short wall near the road. Everything about the situation felt off, and all anyone could do was give excuses about how their hands were tied or that there was nothing to be done. In truth, Kaethe knew where the blame rested solely with her, and the fact was eating her up inside. She should have never asked Elaina to go to Willowridge in the first place; she should have let her go on her way uninterrupted. They’d been on much worse speaking terms because of her opaqueness, too. It was meant to protect Elaina from being tied to any vampire politics and make it so she had nothing to divulge under magical influence.

The reasons didn’t make her feel better. Nothing was going to make her feel better short of Elaina being safe and sound. “Mother is going to have me staked,” Kaethe muttered to herself.

“You seem to be doing a good job of punishing yourself already,” Alister remarked as he approached from the burned remains of the building. “Your mortal mother may have nothing left to work with by the time you’re finished.”

Kaethe punched Alister’s arm in frustration, the force hardly moving him. He didn’t so much as wince. “Yer an asshole sometimes, you know that?”

“You worry too much,” Alister responded calmly, ignoring Kaethe’s sudden aggression toward him. “She’s uncommonly talented with a sword. As the one that initially trained her, I was constantly in awe of how quickly she picked up the techniques and how determined she was.”

Kaethe arched a skeptical brow. “You never said as much to us about it.”

“I didn’t see the need,” Alister replied casually. “However, now is a good time to bring it up. So long as she keeps her wits about her and weapon at the ready, she’ll be alright.”

“There are some problems a sword can’t solve,” Kaethe argued stubbornly. She didn’t know how to explain to anyone what she was feeling or how it was more than mere concern or dread.

Alister turned slightly and pointed back up toward the gap in the building where Steinbach sat, staring out into the distance. “That man up there was the captain of the most powerful mercenary company in the realm, Kaethe. He served under the Abyssals and survived the faction war. For a human, he’s one of the toughest sonnuva bitches that Zelmesca has ever coughed up, and Elaina beat him in a duel.”

“She seemed to think it was by luck,” Kaethe grumbled doubtfully.

“Luck is just the intersection of preparation and opportunity,” Alister countered dismissively. “When you say there are things a sword can’t solve, understand that the sword is just a tool. The mind behind it is what’s important, and hers appears to be as sharp as ever.”

Kaethe nodded slowly, crossing her arms over the chest of her polished cuirass. Despite the feeling gnawing at her heart and mind, there was no denying Alister’s logic. As much as she liked to think she knew Elaina, the truth was that they had been growing apart. Alister had trained her---worked with her to hone her swordsmanship to strike out on her own---so he was in a better position to assess her chances.

“She’s my sister,” Kaethe whispered feebly.

Alister regarded her quietly for a moment before pressing the subject. “But she’s not, is she? Not really, anyway. She’s the child of a dark copy of your parents from another version of our world. She’s the sister of the twisted version of you that existed there. The version of you that exists in this world never had a sister. You were an only child.”

“You know what I mean,” Kaethe groaned, rolling her eyes. “She’s like---.”

“She isn’t,” Alister interrupted firmly. “You tell yourself that to put space between you, to deter yourself from the feelings you actually have for her. That was fine when she left, but now you’re trying to use it to assert your authority over her fate, to inject yourself back into her life. You can’t have it both ways, Kaethe.”

As swift as the slap intended for Alister’s face was, the man was just as quick to catch it. He didn’t flinch or divert his stern gaze from Kaethe as he held her hand. “I don’t care what your relationship is with her, to be honest with you. But the waffling is what led to this in the first place and will only serve to cause more problems down the road if you don’t come to terms with it. So get your shit together.”

Alister cast her hand aside with a flick of his wrist. “We’re not abandoning her. We just have to understand more of what we’re dealing with and act smartly.”

Kaethe withdrew from him for a moment, crossing her arms over her chest again and holding them tightly. She might not have cared for how he said it, but it was the truth. Not only that, but she had recklessly pursued the mirror to restore her mortality or otherwise give her the means to be a mother. She’d stepped on too many people with her single-mindedness. Even Elaina, who she cared for dearly in one capacity or another, had been twisted up in her zeal.

Kaethe Woodlock wished as she had many times before, that she had never been made a vampire. It had been entirely out of her control, and she had spent too much time grasping at straws to restore a sense of agency in her own fate. Perhaps it would have been better to simply accept her circumstances from the start and try to turn herself to more constructive things with her dark power. “So what do we do?”

“She has other allies in the area who are not constrained in the same ways that we are,” Alister began, nodding toward the burned-out structure nearby. “Some here and some back in Willowridge. We might not be able to tread on the grounds there, but the kyrsahn is still in service to the landgraf there. That should allow us to begin talks.”

“Talks,” Kaethe echoed disdainfully. “All we seem to do is talk.”

“You won’t be doing any talking,” Alister corrected. “You need to make use of your connection with her, reach out through your dreams, and determine her condition. With any luck, we may find she has things well in hand and requires nothing further of us. But if she is in trouble, she might be able to provide us with information.”

“She hates when I do that,” Kaethe laughed joylessly. “I think I fucked that up for us too.”

“Try,” Alister pressed. “She can cope with the inconvenience in this instance.”

Kaethe nodded slowly, brushing some of the hair from her face as she uncrossed her arms. “Alright. I’ll try.”

“Thank you,” Alister replied more gently.

Kaethe turned to look back at him, her lips pressed into a thin line. “It’s me that should be thanking you. I’m losing focus and falling apart at the worst of times. It’s been happening more and more lately.”

“It’s in your blood,” he responded empathetically. “It can’t be helped. I’m going to speak with the others inside. Join us when you’re ready.”

Kaethe nodded, remaining where she was as the tall, dark vampire moved back up the walkway to the remains of Sophitia’s Tears. She sighed and reflected on what he said about it being in her blood. Not only had she been turned against her will, but she had also been made an Obertite---an obscure bloodline of nearly extinct vampires. They had the tainted blood of the fae running through them, twisted and warped by the curse of vampirism. The fae part of her blood yearned to return to the Faen, but the vampire part of her blood would always distort and defile the process as it had the time she had found Elaina.

The longer Kaethe went without being able to make contact with the Faen, to feel its magic on her skin and in her heart, the more irrational and unhinged she would become. She felt like a wild animal in captivity, pacing back and forth along the length of its cage. Where other vampires sometimes struggled with the ethics of feeding on people, Kaethe also had to worry about the damage she could do to the Faen by succumbing to her fae urges.

“Ma’am,” one of the soldiers said as he approached, offering her a crisp salute with a closed hand across his chest before continuing. “South Gate has agreed to our terms and will allow us to leave in order to make it back to safety before sunup.”

Kaethe nodded, reminding herself of the various responsibilities and obligations she had yet to attend to before she could even reach out to Elaina. “Alright. Let Alister know. We may have to remain in the area for a few nights until we get everything sorted out.”

“Ma’am, the artifacts...” the soldier remarked gently, gesturing vaguely toward the carriage.

“Will be fine until Robin has the opportunity to come and collect them,” Kaethe assured him. “She’s the most qualified to handle them, anyway. She’ll be joining us shortly, I’m sure.”

“Very good, ma’am,” the soldier responded, snapping to attention and offering her another salute when she dismissed him. Now, she had to concern herself with where they would spend the daylight hours while Alister tried to play diplomat. Then, when she finally had an opportunity to get some sleep, she would be able to reach out to Elaina and see what she could learn.

“’Scuse me,” a male voice said from over her shoulder. “You wouldn’t happen to be Kaethe Woodlock would you, luv?”

Frowning, Kaethe turned to face the stranger. He was of average height with messy sandy-brown hair and eyes that reminded her of what an overcast day used to look like. His clothing appeared to be in need of laundering, and his armored coat appeared to have been patched several times recently. His posture was relaxed to the point of almost looking exhausted. “That depends on who’s asking.”

“My name’s Resius,” he said, extending a hand toward her, but she made no move to take it. The most she gave was an impatient scowl, prompting him to take the hand back slowly. “I’m a friend of Elaina’s.”

The scruffy stranger had Kaethe’s attention now. She suddenly glanced around, wondering why the soldiers standing guard hadn’t noticed the man standing right next to the carriage with her. “A friend of Elaina’s?”

“Aye,” he confirmed with a short nod. “Been helping her with her studies, charitable lad that I am. Thought I might check in on her and see how she’s doing, but I can see things here have gone pear-shaped.”

Kaethe glanced at the building briefly before turning her attention back to the man before her, a look of skepticism lingering plainly on her face. “How do I know yer one of her friends and not one of Steinbach’s lackeys looking to set him loose.”

“Bloody Steinbach is here?” Resius chuckled before letting out a long, low whistle. “Gave him another right thrashing, did she?”

A slight smirk tugged at the corner of Kaethe’s mouth. Technically, she hadn’t been the one to bring the man down this time, but the idea that someone would assume she had caused a slight swell of pride in her chest. “Not this time, I’m afraid.”

“Pity,” Resius replied, sucking his teeth briefly. “Well, can I assume she’s alright then?”

Kaethe’s faint smirk faded and turned downward as she shook her head. “I’m afraid we don’t know. We’re trying to find her.”

“Mmm,” he nodded, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he surveyed the scene. “You want some help with that?”

Kaethe’s skepticism returned. “I still don’t know if I can trust ye. I don’t know anything about ye. Ye’ve no proof that yer even a friend of hers.”

Resius shrugged dramatically, spreading his hands apart in a defensive posture while they remained in his pockets. “What if I said I thought the crimson red hair suited you more than your natural hair color?”

“Tch,” Kaethe clicked her tongue with a hint of self-consciousness. “Any well-read lore-hound digging around into Elaina’s family well enough to know my name on sight could tell ye it comes with the Oberite blood.”

“Right,” Resius agreed with a lazy nod. “But the last time I saw those natural ginger locks was on the other you---the one that kept her locked in that tower for all those years. Before she escaped.”

Kaethe froze, her body going stiff. She resisted the predatory reflex to tear him apart that came with being a vampire who felt caught unaware or forced onto the defensive. Such a detail wasn’t something she would casually share with anyone, and it was one that---as far as she knew---was impossible to discover otherwise. No amount of reading or poking around in rumor mills would have unearthed that particular nugget of her sister’s past.

Forcing herself to relax and set aside her fight-or-bite response, Kaethe uncrossed her arms and motioned for the scruffy man to join her with the others inside. “Let’s talk.”