Chapter 114[Marcus Connor's POV]
It was the dead of night, when tired soldiers should be long at rest. And yet, I was sitting as the only human at the council table.
Alexandru Radu and the blood knights were the only other ones present, but we had not yet found the time—or the heart—to remove all the vacant chairs.
“...They're all dead?”
Alexandru looked at me for confirmation. Seeing my solemn nod, he hung his head.
“We've been outplayed. With this, the garrison will not listen to me, and Kenneth will no doubt place the blame at our feet.”
“Sir Connor—ahem, apologies for my earlier rudeness…”
The blood knight known as Dacian Dalca, who had previously directed his anger at me, spoke up.
“The others in the estate, did you check the bodies?”
“I did. And it is as you fear.”
I knew why he was asking.
“They have all been killed by a vampire. Blood drained through bite marks matching those of a vampire's fangs. Some bodies were brutalised while others looked almost untouched, but all have this one commonality.”
“Damn.”
Dacian covered his mouth with a frown, attempting to hide his bared fangs while in the presence of a human.
“We must hide this incident.”
Flavian Maris, the one who had stood back when the others confronted me, joined the conversation.
“If this gets out, the commoners will riot against us.”
“But how? What story could we possibly spin to convince the populace that all their leaders aren't dead?”
I responded.
“We need not lie about their deaths. We need only hide the cause. At least until we find the culprit ourselves.”
“Have you forgotten that Kenneth Faelora and his crew were also attacked? They have witnesses who have seen the bodies as well.”
The third blood knight, the one who threatened me, was Narcis Rus. He was usually the voice of reason, though also held the most disdain for humans. Apparently, he was quite close to Dinu Constantine and took his death the hardest.
“We should at least get ahead of it before this blows up.”
I started.
“There will be backlash no matter what, but if Kenneth puts his spin on it, you can be sure it will be taken the worst way possible.”
“You're right.”
Alexandru nodded.
“Can we leave it to you, Sir Connor?”
“Not like there's any choice, is there?”
I shrugged. The fact was, if I refused to be the face for the humans, it was unlikely any coherent plan would go ahead at all.
There was always the option of ceding command to Kenneth, seeing as he would soon hold more faith from the townspeople than we did. But he was just a blind, retired paladin. Even during his heyday, he was no commander of armies. This was a last resort even to me, and I doubted the blood knights would ever approve, no matter how bad things became.
“Now then…”
Alexandru sat a little straighter.
“Sir Connor… What exactly happened here? How did our brothers die?”
The room fell silent, and I felt like little more than a piece of tantalising meat thrown to the wolves.
“I guess it would be best to start from the moment you three ran off all of a sudden.”
I nodded to the others, making it clear I had my own questions about recent events.
“Mayor Varley’s Ring of Warning activated right after that, and your brothers tracked the source to the easternmost part of the town, right by the wall.”
“An imperial assassin?”
Narcis asked.
“That’s what we thought, but Varley’s ring shattered completely, meaning—”
“The source of danger it detected was too great to measure with that level of magic.”
Alexandru explained to the others.
“Right. So Varley panicked and went straight to the saferoom, but not before ordering us to go handle the threat.”
I ran my finger along my abdomen, where a fresh wound was still recovering under the influence of a potion.
“We found a hooded man by the wall and called him out. That’s when everything went sideways.”
“Get to the point, Marcus. Who was he? Did he do all of this?”
Dacian, already impatient, hurried me along.
“I don’t know who he was. And no, he never came to the estate. The deaths here were done by a different creature altogether. The man we fought was at the level of a swordmaster, at the very least, and used strange magic.”
I paused to consider how to phrase it in a way that would make sense.
“Blue flames. Cold as ice, yet hotter than magma. He used these flames, along with his swordsmanship, to overwhelm all three of us. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“One man did all that?”
Alexandru frowned.
“Surely the number of people in this region capable of such a feat is few. You didn’t recognise him?”
I shook my head.
“His cloak never came off. I never got a look at his face. All I can say is that he was well built, tall, male, and used a shashka for a weapon.”
“A shashka? You mean a single-edged guardless sword? Those are more fit for duelling than group combat.”
Flavian leaned forward, deep in thought.
“I doubt we’ll find him through the sword. They’re very popular in the eastern lands of the Ledyan Theocracy and circulate among the nobility of all cultures quite frequently.”
“What about this blue flame then? You said you had never seen it before, but could you tell what kind of spell it was?”
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“It was no spell. That was his aura.”
The room fell silent once more, until Alexandru tentatively checked my response.
“Aura that burns, and can harm a blood knight… Are you certain? Perhaps it was a Gift?”
“No. I know aura when I see it.”
My refutation was immediate. How long had I studied my fellow knights in the hopes I could learn how to use aura as they did? How many esoteric sources had I gone through over the years? I felt confident I knew the theory behind aura, and its applications better than a real aura user. And so, there was no doubt in my mind…
“The assailant’s aura was powerful enough to act as a weapon without any refinement. But he’s not like Klaus, who just throws it around. This man could control it perfectly as well. The moment he infused the aura into his sword, the fight was over.”
“...How many people do you know with such an intense aura?”
Narcis asked.
“King Leonidas, his brother, and The Rozen Thorn of Esplendor.”
“Only three? If it’s so rare then…”
“Hopefully, it won’t be too hard to track this person down.”
Alexandru finished their sentence.
“Those were my thoughts too… But the problem is that I never found out why they were here, or whose side they were on.”
“Is it not clear they support the empire, given their attack?”
Dacian asked.
“I’m not convinced that’s the case…”
I shook my head, bracing myself for their reactions to what I had to say next.
“The reason I survived is that he let me go. He definitely knew his blade hadn’t pierced deep enough to kill me, and he said something strange…”
I sighed, sucked up my fear, and repeated the words whispered to me.
“A clean human like you has potential. We’ll be watching this war closely. If you ever grow tired of kings and emperors, look to the stars and forsake the gods.”
The unpleasant sound of nails digging into wood echoed as the blood knights all gripped the table.
“He spoke of human purity. He must be of the same stock as Kenneth.”
“He must work for an organisation. Are they looking down on us? Is this a game to them?”
“A demon, it must be! ‘Forsake the gods’? They must be looking to revel in the chaos of this war, the filthy mutts.”
They all hissed through gritted teeth and wore horrifying expressions.
I was just glad that none of them seemed to be directing it at me anymore. I had thought they would be suspicious of my survival, but since I already told the truth, I wouldn’t have been able to defend myself further.
“Brothers, we will make this a priority after the war. Until then, our duty—”
“Oh, to hell with the war!”
Dacian flared up again.
“I am a blood knight, loyal to the oath sworn by The Founding Four, not to Soleo and its mad King!”
“Dacian!”
Alexandru slammed the table.
“We have a duty to Soleo and its people! They have provided for us through the blood tax, and in return, we must defend them and move where we are needed! Would you have us abandon our honour and chase ghosts?”
Despite the outburst, Dacian did not back down.
“Honour? What honour is there to be seen here? Do you know why this war started? Because I don’t! You know what I do know? I know that more than a dozen death row inmates were suddenly released and vanished like the wind on more than one occasion.”
Dacian snatched a map from the wall and laid it out before us.
“Here, in Gildraven, the first instance occurred a little over a month ago. Then, in Solwick, it happened just three days later. In Beorhtmane, a psychopath murders a family in their farmstead, is quickly apprehended, but somehow slips from the dungeon along with two others facing the gallows.”
Dacian continued to point out towns and explained the strange trend.
It continued a little too long to be shrugged off, but what worried me more was the order of the town names and the timelines he presented.
“...It started from the capital and only ended at Lion’s Maw a week before the war began.”
I saw what he was leading to and mumbled my thoughts aloud.
“That’s right.”
Dacian stopped, much calmer after having vented his frustration and made his point.
“The reports I have heard say that Leonidas and his royal guard attacked with over two hundred men. Yet, nobody seems to know anything about what soldiers made up the bulk of this force. Where did they come from, Alexandru? Tell me this isn’t suspicious.”
Alexandru wore a complicated expression. It looked as though his mind had completely locked up as the pieces began falling together.
“Speculation… Nothing more.”
His dismissal was weak, though not entirely wrong.
“Dacian, I agree that this is suspicious, but what would you ask of us exactly?”
Flavian tried to play the peacemaker now that Alexandru was busy fighting his own budding doubts.
“The blood knight order is too heavily ingrained into Soleo at this point. If we left, it would mean facing starvation, and you know how that would end.”
Even as a human, I could imagine the scene. Feral vampires would appear en masse, innocent towns would run red with blood, and all the goodwill their kind had earned over the years would be lost.
“Still… That only applies if the entire order cuts ties.”
Narcis spoke dangerous words for a knight.
“For just the five of us, it would be no issue.”
“Silence.”
Alexandru snapped back to reality and stared Narcis down with a cold, murderous glare.
“We will not spit on our order’s name. We will not turn our backs on our own. I would sooner die than cast aside my pride.”
The glare between the two was enough to turn the room cold as ice. I waited patiently, but this time, the others weren’t stepping up to talk either of them down.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. They would come to blows soon if nothing were done, I could feel it.
“Ahem!”
I cleared my throat.
“Since you mentioned the ‘five’ of you, I trust you’re including the Vespertille patriarch’s son?”
I pointed to Guy, who was still passed out on a couch on the other side of the room.
“What happened to him, anyway?”
My attempt to divert the aggression worked, and both Alexandru and Narcis turned away from each other. It was Alexandru who answered me.
“Forgive us, we forgot that this matter is not as obvious to humans as it is to our kind.”
I only brought it up to diffuse the situation. I wasn’t actually expecting the answer to be a big deal. But the way the mood shifted so drastically to one of trepidation made even me uncomfortable.
“Guy did something he should not have. He consumed an emergency vial. It was one of only two that we possess, the other being with the Patriarch.”
“I’m familiar with the bloodline Gift of the Vespertille family. Whose blood did he drink?”
“We do not speak their name, for it has been stricken from all records. They are the shame of our kind, and a blight on the world. All you need to know is that it should have only been used as a last resort, and even though young Guy was only capable of using a tiny fraction of their power, it stirred our primal instincts to a startling degree.”
Alexandru finished, but Flavian added one extra tidbit.
“We had to prioritise subduing him, or else the call would grow and overrule our will entirely. Luckily, it seemed someone else had already taken him down before we arrived.”
It was odd to say that their comrade's loss was a stroke of good luck, but I believed that I understood the gist of things.
“Still… It seemed that while he was under the cursed one’s influence, he killed one of his own allies. The Soleans were busy securing the gate, but some were clamouring for his immediate execution.”
“These things happen in the thick of battle, whose to say he did it intentionally?”
I argued in support of Guy.
Surprisingly, they all looked at each other without agreeing.
“Unfortunately, that scenario is unlikely. The witnesses said he cut their throats intentionally, despite already being engaged with another combatant. This was a typical move of the cursed one to bring more blood into the battle.”
Narcis explained.
“In other words, it was indefensible.”
I sighed.
“Damn. It’s just one thing after another… So, what do we do with him?”
“We will need to keep him here under house arrest until his father arrives and can safely take him outside these walls. We understand he is not to blame, but no human court could understand the situation as we do.”
“That’s saying nothing of Kenneth.”
Dacian added.
“It would be an execution, no questions asked.”
There were no expressions of doubt in response to Dacian. Even I felt it was a death sentence to allow Guy Vespertille a public trial. In situations like these, it would be best to send him to his own people.
Technically, such an action wasn’t allowed, and I should have taken custody of him myself.
But I had come to learn that it is better to follow the spirit of the law, rather than the letter.
“Guy aside, there was only one other item to cover.”
Alexandru said.
“We have heard Sir Connor’s account regarding the monster that killed Mayor Varley, but does anybody know what exactly it is?”
“I hate to say this, but considering its abilities and the condition of the dead, it was likely a feral vampire.”
Dacian suggested.
“Hmm, I don’t think so.”
I shook my head.
“It was too intelligent. Besides, for it to have such a bizarre appearance, it would have to be a vampire that can transform, right? Isn't that a rare ability to master?”
“Yes, but even the best of us can become feral in the right conditions. I think this was likely a powerful vampire, probably one we thought dead and lost long ago, that has wandered back here through instinct alone.”
“We are not the only beings that consume blood.”
Flavian argued.
“It could have been a strigae, or perhaps a wendigo.”
“No chance. Strigae certainly do leave a mess, but what I fought had no feathers and restrained its bloodlust in a way no tainted vulture could. As for wendigos…”
I recalled the one time I had to hunt such a beast, almost eight years ago.
“It wouldn’t have fled. It would have fought us all until its dying breath, and the damage would be far worse. Besides, a wendigo wouldn’t sneak into the upper part of town when so many more victims exist among the commoners.”
“Well, what are your thoughts then?”
Narcis scowled at me.
“Either a particularly well-crafted undead by someone even more powerful than the Black Dael Banshee, or a new species entirely.”
Alexandru looked doubtful.
“Neither possibility is particularly likely. It could always be a featherless, mutant variant of the strigae, no?”
“I can’t deny mutants exist, but this felt too different from anything I know of. In my opinion, a mutation is even less likely.”
“Either way, the timing is suspect.”
Narcis continued.
“I agree with Dacian, though I don’t believe they were feral. Likely this is either someone outside our clan, or—”
“Or a traitor? Is that what you want to suggest?”
Again, Alexandru and Narcis looked to be at odds.
Five leading figures were left in all of Farrowgate, and already they were fighting amongst themselves.
Truly, things looked to be hopeless for us. It might be worth pleading with King Leonidas to allow at least the people of Farrowgate to surrender…
