A light gray light shined from the mark on Terico’s wrist and palm. Terico blinked a couple times, unsure of what to make of it.
Within a few seconds, the light spread across the rest of his body.
“The mark!” Jujor said. “It’s—”
Terico vanished before he could hear the rest of Jujor’s cry.
A moment later, Terico appeared in a bright space, and he shielded his eyes from the painful light.
“What’s wrong?” asked a familiar voice. It sounded like Febraz.
“It’s bright,” Terico said. “Where am I?”
“We are in my tent...” Febraz said. “There is only one candle lit.”
Terico slowly inched his eyes open and realized he really was inside the shadowy darkness of Febraz’s tent. It just seemed bright when compared to the pitch black of Emoser Helena. He saw he was sitting on one of Febraz’s chairs, and outside Terico could hear the continuous chattering of the marketplace. It was strange, to say the least, to be back in a normal city filled with normal people so suddenly. Well, save for Febraz.
“So why am I in your tent, exactly?” Terico asked.
“I activated your mark to bring you back to me,” Febraz said. “I realize this is pretty sudden, but I need your help with something.”
Apparently Febraz was able to bring him all the way back to Merze via the magical mark the vampire gave him. The fact Febraz already needed Terico was peculiar, and it was unnerving that Terico was whisked away like this without warning.
“But now Jujor’s left all alone in that cave,” Terico said. “And he—”
And he has the Elpis fragment, Terico was about to say. But the less people knew about what Terico was doing, the better.
“As long as he has the soul catcher, he should be fine,” Febraz said. “I do apologize for this, but we did agree that you would help me when I called for you. Complete this task, and the mark will disappear and you will be free to continue whatever it is you are up to.”
This was it, then. Time to find out what this vampire had in mind for Terico. After all he had just been through, Terico didn’t think Febraz could really come up with a task that was so terrible.
Febraz took a sip of blood from his crudely-painted mug, then set it back down on his table.
He looked down at Terico with sharp, glowering yellow eyes. “Can you please help my precious little daughter win a competition?”
4
A Deadly Game
It wasn’t quite what Terico expected to hear, but he waited for a further explanation before giving a reaction. The competition Febraz had in mind could have been any number of things.
“I am certain you will be able to handle this,” Febraz said. “Areo is a strong girl and will be all right, as long as the fight is kept fair.”
“Fight?” Terico asked.
“Yes,” Febraz said. “My sweet little darling is turning one hundred this year, so she can take part in the Rite. If she passes, she will at last be able to reunite with me, here under the sun.”
There were several things in these two sentences Terico wasn’t quite understanding. His thoughts stumbled with what to ask about first. “Wait... one hundred?”
“Ah, it must sound old to a human,” Febraz said. “One moment.”
He set his mug of blood down on the table and glanced around his dark, candlelit tent. Terico looked around as well, finding a variety of wooden chests and crates. There were a few sheathed swords atop some of the boxes, and a number of odd, shiny trinkets here and there. Febraz got up and picked up a small, framed picture lying atop one of the crates. He walked back to the table and handed Terico the picture before sitting back down.
“This was painted about four years ago,” Febraz said. “She used to have such nice long hair, but I suppose her mentor wanted her to have it cut.”
Terico lifted the picture a bit closer to the candlelight and tilted it so he could see the image. It was a portrait of someone’s face, though if Febraz hadn’t said this was his daughter, Terico would have probably guessed this was a boy. This Areo had a rather jagged, masculine face, with dark brown eyes and short brown hair. She didn’t look very happy.
“She used to be human?” Terico asked.
“Yes, until she was seventeen,” Febraz said. “Her blood parents died of illness when she was only six, so she had to live on her own for quite some time. We crossed paths one day when I was staggering down the road, almost fatally injured, and she gave me a rabbit she had caught in a trap. The animal’s blood rejuvenated me, and I learned how she had survived the last four years on her own, selling rabbit pelts for her bread. We ended up sticking together, and I raised her as best an outcast vampire could.”
“But then you made her a vampire when she was seventeen?” Terico asked.
Febraz gave a light sigh and clasped his hands together atop his table. “She caught the same illness her parents had died from. She never wished to become a vampire, and even as she lay dying, she asked me to just let her go...”
“You didn’t though,” Terico said.
“Of course not!” Febraz said. “I loved her far too much for that. She was upset at first, as you might imagine—but time heals all wounds, as they say. She’s become one of the vampires city’s best hunters.”
“So she’s in Istal?” Terico asked. He had heard stories of the city of vampires, deep in the forests west of Fiefs Kingdom.
“Yes, she had to go there after becoming a vampire,” Febraz said. “Couldn’t go out in the sunlight anymore. I would sneak into Istal whenever I could in order to see her, but for a long time she struggled with connecting with anyone there. It was against the vampiric code for me to make her a vampire, you see. I am not a Seeker, so I had no authority to do so.”
“You were an outcast already, though?” Terico asked.
“Well, not technically,” Febraz said. “I just never quite fit in well at Istal... Most of my kind are a bit more serious about life than I am.”
Terico nodded, waiting for Febraz to continue.
“But yes,” the vampire said, “I was officially outcast after I made Areo a vampire. She was shunned for not being what people call a legitimate vampire, and eventually went into hibernation to get away from the constant mistreatment.”
Terico didn’t realize vampires could hibernate. “How long was she asleep?”
“At least seventy years,” Febraz said. “When she woke up, Istal society in general had become slightly more accepting of her kind, and she managed to make a friend and find a mentor willing to help her train for the Rite.
“I suppose this is what you need to know about the Rite. There is a Nexi stone that holds transformative qualities. It is very rare, and only a few vampires a year are able to receive one. Those who pass the Rite use this stone in order to be able to walk in sunlight. Areo has been training several years now in order to receive this stone. So if she wins the competition, we will finally be reunited!
“Since I can not go to Istal myself without putting Areo’s success at risk, it would be best to send someone in my place to help Areo out. You were quite resourceful the other day when you saved my life, so I decided you would work perfectly for this.”
“Recognizing a poison doesn’t have anything to do with this, though,” Terico said.
“I trust you, boy,” Febraz said. “And aren’t you the type of person who wishes to help out people in need?”
Terico didn’t have a choice in the matter anyways, so there wasn’t much point in arguing with Febraz. “All right, I will help her out, though it seems a little wrong to help out in such a serious competition. You said it was a fight?”
Febraz nodded. “A fight to the death.”
“What?” Terico yelled. “Isn’t that a little much? Even for vampires?”
“No, these Nexi stones are very, very rare,” Febraz said. “Only the strongest of vampires will be able to make it out in the world on their own, so the Rite is really just a precursor of
what is to come. We aren’t a very beloved people amongst non-vampires, you may imagine.”
There were plenty of reasons for that, of course, but Terico knew better than to bring them up now.
Terico moved the subject elsewhere. “You can go in the sunlight. Does that mean you have one of those stones?”
“I won one in the Rite well over three hundred years ago,” Febraz said. “I was a rather good fighter back in the day.”
This man was over three hundred years old? Terico would have never guessed it.
“Don’t look so surprised,” Febraz said. “Age doesn’t hold the same meaning for vampires as it does humans. Time passes, but we don’t change so much. Take Areo, for example. She may be almost a hundred years old, but she hasn’t aged a day since becoming a vampire. She still has the heart of a seventeen-year-old, too. So bring her back to me safe and sound, okay?”
“Okay... so I just need to make sure Areo doesn’t get killed.” Terico lifted his hand with the black tattoo embedded on it. “And then this mark will disappear?”
“Yes,” Febraz said. “It holds a spatial connection to both Istal and my tent. Once we are finished here, I will have the mark send you to Istal. Once Areo has defeated her enemy in the Rite, take her hand, and then the both of you just need to place a thumb on the mark for about ten seconds. You will return to my tent in an instant, and the mark will vanish. I will count on you to make sure Areo returns to me in full health.”
Terico bit his lip a few seconds, letting his mind think over the mission. It seemed that it was more up to Areo to not get killed than it was up to him. “So... what if things don’t work out?”
Febraz closed his eyes and gave a big, stupid-looking smile. “I doubt you would wish to find out what I would do... if things don’t work out.” He spoke this last phrase slowly, giving each word special emphasis.
Terico really didn’t wish to get on a vampire’s bad side, and if all he had to do was help this man’s daughter come home safely, then it was worth going through this brief endeavor. He just had to count on Jujor being able to get out of the underground city on his own, and on being able to find the him afterward somehow. More than anything, Terico hoped Jujor wouldn’t try using the Elpis fragment for whatever plans he had in mind.
“How do you want me to help your daughter, exactly?” Terico asked.
Febraz opened his eyes and placed a softly glowing black Nexi stone on his table. “Areo’s mentor is blind. He trained her to fight in the darkness. In other words, to rely on senses other than sight. Istal is lit by white Nexi that grow on the mangroves in the dense forest. If you use this black Nexi, you will be able to absorb the light in the arena.”
“I see.” Terico took the stone and placed it in his small belt pack with his green and light blue Nexi. “It still seems like cheating, though.”
“Who cares,” Febraz muttered. “Areo has been through too much hardship in that city as it is. She will be much happier back here with me.”
Terico doubted this, considering Areo wasn’t nearly as young as he had made her out to be. But this wasn’t Terico’s concern. He just needed to get this business finished so he’d be free of the mark, and back to looking for Jujor and the Elpis fragment.
“Keep a good eye on her after the Rite, too,” Febraz said. “There are still those in Istal who do not look kindly to citizens who weren’t made vampires the official way.
“I understand,” Terico said.
“Great!” Febraz said. “Then off you go.” The vampire snapped his finger, the noise much louder than Terico thought possible.
The mark on Terico’s wrist glowed white, then in an instant, he vanished from the vampire’s tent.
The city of Istal was unlike any Terico had ever imagined. All around him, giant mangroves grew over ten meters tall, their thick, leafy treetops blocking out all sunlight. As Febraz had described, the sprawling trees were decked with small white Nexi stones, basking the wide dirt street in a light, constant glow. In the distance, Terico could see grand wooden structures with sparkling gold trimming and thin red towers. Everything glowed in the soft, white light of the mangroves’ Nexi stones, as if the city was lit by hundreds of tiny full moons.
Terico headed down the path toward Istal, a little nervous at the prospect of entering a city entirely populated with vampires. It was probably a little strange to be worrying this much when he had fought through entire legions of forsaken only a few hours beforehand, but Terico did feel out of his element in such a foreign setting. He was also very tired, his body ached terribly, and he didn’t have a sword on him. There were his three Nexi stones, but those would only help him so much if he was outnumbered in a fight with vampires. The fact they were nearly immortal was certainly a benefit in their favor, and some of them could have decades more experience at fighting than Terico ever would.
The complete silence around Terico lent an ominous atmosphere, but he walked on toward the city, ready for anything. Or at least most anything.
Just have to bring that girl to Febraz, and then it’s off to searching for Jujor, Terico thought. He recalled the picture of Areo and tried to keep it fresh in his mind, considering he’d need to recognize her before doing anything else. I suppose I shouldn’t think of her as a girl, though, but as a woman. Though she looked seventeen, she was actually almost a hundred, Terico remembered. But then again, she slept through a lot of that. Would she be in her twenties? And then Febraz was saying that vampires don’t really age, so perhaps she was just always going to be seventeen in every way? It was all rather perplexing. Terico wondered how Areo felt about it.
He gazed at the mangroves, which grew so thick and so close together, they didn’t even let in sunlight from the sides of the road. Much of the trees’ roots grew above the ground, intertwining with one another like a barrel of entangled brown snakes. The immense system of roots formed dark, tall walls to either side of the pathway, acting about as good a barrier as any stone wall of comparable size, Terico imagined.
It was a little odd that there weren’t any people going to and from the city, but when Terico thought more about it, he decided Istal probably wasn’t visited by many travelers. The city perhaps had strict regulations for who could leave it, too.
Terico passed a number of wooden homes, all of them well-kept and orderly. The sight didn’t match what he had expected—the image of gloomy, wrecked, abandoned structures. Perhaps that sort of abode was more common for vampires prowling near cities other than Istal.
Eventually Terico reached a fountain of water that stood a few meters in front of a great wooden stairway, which led up to a long building with an oddly curved roof. It was difficult to tell what the structure was for—perhaps some kind of governmental building.
Something leaped atop his back. Terico fell to his knees and yelled out in surprise. Fangs sunk into his neck, and he felt his whole body grow suddenly weak as the assailant sucked blood from him. With one quick burst of fury, Terico shoved the vampire off his back, turned around, and struggled to maintain his balance.
He looked down at what appeared to be a six-year-old girl wearing a bright purple dress with white, lacy trimmings. She had large yellow eyes and long violet hair. Terico stared incredulously as a trickle of blood dripped from the side of her lips. The girl stared up at him, her expression just as bewildered.
“I just wanted a little blood,” the child squeaked. “We don’t get human visitors very often.”
“Don’t do that!” Terico said, placing a hand over the two tiny fang marks the girl left in his neck. He felt his heart beat to the pace of a stampede of wild horses. “I don’t want to turn into a vampire!”
“I’d have to inject blood into you to do that,” the girl said, frowning. “And I’m not even a Seeker. I was just wanting a little drink.”
Terico adjusted his footing and took a few deep breaths. He didn’t feel so dizzy anymore, and it seemed the girl had only gotten a couple gulps of his blood down. “Still, you surpri
sed me. Make sure you ask next time.”
The child put on the most deadpan expression imaginable. She glanced to the side and muttered, “You just would’ve said no.”
Terico sighed. “You don’t know that.”
The girl jumped to her feet, wide-eyed and with a huge, toothy grin spread across her face. “Can I suck some of your blood?”
“No!” Terico yelled.
“You filthy brat!” the girl yelled back, waving her arms frantically from side to side.
“You pint-sized blood-sucker!” Terico replied.
“You blue-haired, stupid-faced, helpless little infestation of weakness and pointless little human dumbness!” The girl was jumping up and down at this point.
“Is something wrong?” came a man’s voice.
Terico turned around and found a vampire who looked to be in his forties. This man wore dark brown robes with a thick yellow sash, and had a red bandana covering most of his black hair. He had thin eyes and a quizzical look about him.
“I...” Terico had no idea where to start.
“I just wanted some fresh blood!” the girl said. “It was the most delicious blood I ever had! And this dumb boy has so much of it, that he shouldn’t mind sparing just a little.”
The man turned back to Terico and smiled. “Analicia is a feisty child. She was turned into a vampire just a couple years ago. A very rare case of a six-year-old becoming a vampire, but she would have died otherwise.”
Terico didn’t really understand the system used for choosing who gets to—or has to—become a vampire. But he had more pressing business at the moment.
“But I am curious,” the man continued. “How did a human get here in the first place? Have you met with the grand council?”
“No, I was sent here by a vampire,” Terico said. He decided it was best to not say it was Febraz if he could help it. “I’m hoping to find a woman, er, girl named Areo.”
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