by Kade Cook
The room is silent, awaiting the vote. Vaeda and Orroryn nod at each other from across the room. They look at Gabrian who continues to hurriedly close off her mind and announce their verdict. “We believe that this is an acceptable request. One that will end the inquiry without furthering the onset of unnecessary accusations.” Vaeda and Orroryn now direct their attention toward Ethan.
“Ethan, are you prepared to do this?” Orroryn makes the official request in a solemn tone, not wanting to.
Ethan knows that Ariah was right in her suggestion, judging by the snickering comments being made in some of the less compassionate Elders’ heads. He places his hands together and rests his elbows on the table as he looks up at Gabrian. I do not want to do this, Gabrian, but please understand that by allowing me to do this, it will end the onslaught, he whispers to Gabrian’s mind. I have seen your mind. It is clear of Darkness and once they see this for themselves, their judgments will not be as harsh toward you.
Completely ticked off at how she has been treated so far by the esteemed Covenant of Shadows, Gabrian just wants this nightmare to be over and done with so she agrees to let him in, hoping she has guarded herself well.
Ethan begins his ascent into her subconscious and finds the connection. Like last time, he is in a small section of her mind that is clear and clean with only a small reminisce of Darkness. There is nothing abnormal about the way her mind looks but this time she seems to have more light and colour in her memories which will bode well for her. Feeling secure about his findings, he bends his mind to allow his visions to create pictures and snippets of her life to integrate into the mental wavelengths of the Elders. Staying clear of the corridors that last time caused him to have a migraine, Ethan decides there is no need to open that can of worms today.
Hoping that the Elders got what they asked for, he releases his connection to Gabrian. Quickly he makes a mental check in on Gabrian to see how she is holding up. Seeing that she is still ticked off and highly irritated, but with only a slight headache, he determines that she will survive.
“We will discuss our findings and then convene with you in two weeks to make our decision on what your future training needs shall entail.” Vaeda smiles sweetly as she speaks, trying not to torture Gabrian any longer than she has to. “We are aware that you will be returning to Manhattan shortly, and until then, I suggest that you continue your teachings with Ethan. From what we have observed, Gabrian, you have made great strides in your progress in such a short amount of time, and we hope that you continue to do so.”
***
GABRIAN SITS ON a large marble bench just outside the boundaries of the great hall. Having been excused from the Covenant of Shadows meeting early, she patiently waits for Ethan and Orroryn to take her back home. Managing to keep her thoughts private from the mass of people that had snooped around in her head has left her feeling exhausted, and the surge of adrenaline that she has run on has pretty much been depleted. So far, the Covenant of Shadows has been filled with beauty, wonder, and cantankerous old relics of people that she must adhere to. But she also acknowledges the level of profound significance that this world holds for her, and that it is way beyond her immediate comprehension.
Waiting for her escorts becomes a tedious chore, and she decides to wander to the outskirts of the hall, toward the flameless cauldron. She is still oddly curious as to why it is the only one not burning. The closer she gets to it, the more she becomes distracted by the beautifully engraved etchings of what she guesses are words of a language spoken within the Realm as it shows no resemblance to any language she is aware of.
She lets her fingers slide over the lip of the container, feeling its smooth edge. Her fingertips begin to get hot and sparks suddenly ignite against the subtle friction. The peculiar reaction on her skin takes her by surprise, and she lifts her hand in response to it. Gabrian has only experienced this sensation when she feels stress or anxiety, but she is quite certain that this is not the case now. She lowers her hand again, lightly sliding the tips of her fingers across the cauldron’s lip. The result is sparks.
Without warning, a strangely coloured flame engulfs the inside of the cauldron. The flame is only brief, but it is enough to scare her. Gabrian hurdles backward and unfortunately, lands on Ethan just as he arrives to escort her home.
Catching her as she falls into him, Ethan looks at her and laughs, wondering if she has tripped over her own shadow again. “Are you okay?”
Pulling herself to her feet, Gabrian quickly glances back at the cauldron. She returns her eyes forward and straightens her clothes then tucks the few strands of hair that came loose back behind her ear. “Yes, I am fine.”
“So…that was fun!” Ethan jokes hoping that she is past being upset.
“For a meet and greet, I have to admit that this was possibly the worst one I have ever been to.”
“Yes, I have little doubt about that.” Ethan raises his hand and scratches the side of his head as he looks back in the direction of the Covenant table. His eyes crinkle at the edges as his mouth turns softly upward at one side. “They mean well. They just sometimes forget that they need to use a little more refinement when dealing with issues that confuse them.”
“They made me feel as if I was a criminal on trial!” Gabrian begins to chew on her nails and glances at people moving around in the distance. “Remind me again, why I am doing all this?”
Ethan smiles at her sarcastic question. “Because…you are a part of the Realm now, and like it or not, we are your Elders.” He is pleased with how well she held herself together throughout the interrogation and hopes that she continues to fight.
“I understand that part, Ethan. But why can they not be more like you?”
He laughs at her and sighs. “Your gifts, like mine, are the most unstable and vulnerable of all the Realm’s gifts. And unfortunately, because of that, they can become very dangerous and hard to detect. This makes the Elders very uncomfortable.”
Her lips twist to the side as her eyes narrow. She tilts her head, straining her stare—struggling to gain clarity of his odd choice in words. “Detect? I thought that each Fellowship has its own distinction that is recognized by all those within the Realm.”
“Most do,” Ethan begins. “But one of the other gifts that the Boragen have is their ability to cloak themselves to resemble everyday humans, making them very hard to assimilate. They can easily disappear and remain hidden if they so desire.”
“That is understandable. If this is the kind of reception that they give all the Borrowers out there, I would not want to be found either.”
Ethan sympathizes with her and realizes that there is so much about this new world that she does not understand or even know about. He sees an empty sitting area over by the marble wall and gestures for her to go sit with him for a while. She follows and takes a seat beside him.
“The Boragen people are a very complicated one, most of which just want to live their lives to the best of their abilities like everyone else, in peace, but there are some who insist on creating chaos and havoc with every turn they take. This has been the way since the very beginnings of the Boragen. Not all Borrowers want to serve under the Realm or respect its laws.”
“Are there many out there that do not follow the Realm’s rules?”
“Yes. There are quite a few,” Ethan explains. “But there are quite a few that do. As long as they do not cause issues or draw attention to themselves, they are left alone by the Covenant and considered rogues. These rogues sometimes decide to intersect with others of their Fellowship but most of them choose to remain invisible to the Realm—like silent members if you will.”
“But the ones that don’t?”
Gabrian gives Ethan a pressing look, wanting to know the truth. Ethan frowns, trying to decide how to tell her about what the Fever is capable of—what a true Vampire is capable of. Frightening images begin to play through Ethan’s mind of missing persons signs and police activity leading to Borrowers that had gotten
the Fever. Her mind links to his thoughts and begins to float in a sea of Darkness and death, catching glimpses of all the innocent faces that have been lost to the Fever’s destruction.
Ethan observes her reactions, and his heart wrenches within his chest. He lowers his chin and closes his eyes briefly, saddened that Gabrian has to know this side of her gift. Watching her face twist in revulsion as she pulls the sordid images through her mind makes Ethan sigh. “As with all governments, there must be laws. These laws are in place to maintain order and functionality within a somewhat peaceful society. All those who do not contribute to their society in a productive manner are considered a hindrance in the eyes of the Covenant of Shadows. Tonight’s meeting was to begin the process of doing just that. They wanted to make sure that you were on the right side of the law.”
“On the right side?” A bit put off by Ethan’s last remark, she fidgets, clenching and unclenching her fists from her annoyance with the Elders’ rules. “So what, if they would have found a trace of the Vampiric Fever in me they would have locked me up so that I would not become a problem?” She exhales in a growl, feeling that she just cannot win for losing.
“Gabrian, you must understand that most of their abruptness comes from fear.” Ethan reaches out with a tender hand, gently gripping her just beneath her elbow—lowering his gaze to meet hers, needing her to see him and understand the whole truth so that she does not begin to condemn herself again like she had before they started working together. “The Boragen are a strong people. They have the ability to regenerate themselves—quickly if need be—by borrowing the energies of those around them. They can become quite a force to reckon with, especially if they choose the way of the Vampire and use pure life essences.”
“I have been meaning to ask you about that,” Gabrian spits out, interrupting Ethan’s lesson. “When you describe theses Vampires or Borrowers that suffer from the Fever, are you talking Twilight-kind of Vampires? Or Dracula-type Vampires? Or what? Because I have never actually heard anyone mention anything about sucking blood or biting.”
Ethan raises his eyes to the ceiling and searches for the words that will clarify it for her. “They are all one in the same but each will draw energy in a way that is most fulfilling for them. For some, just being close to their host is enough satisfaction. They would rather watch their victim while they pull the life sustaining essences from their prey. For others, it becomes something else. They seek a symbolic form of intimacy and with that comes varying degrees of what they consider intimate.
“I have seen those who draw life while in a lover’s embrace, tasting the essence in their mouths while their host helplessly fades away in their arms. But I have also seen those that feel the need to bite, to tear, and pierce the skin, drinking in their blood, convinced that within its warmth holds the purest forms of essence and only through these means are they able to reach their highest levels of desire and subdue their craving for life.”
With her eyebrows wrenched upward and her teeth clenched tightly, she again catches glimpses of horror scenes that continue to flip through Ethan’s mind as he answers her question. “Hm,” is all she can say, shaking her head slowly from side to side in disbelief of all the sadness and pain Ethan has endured throughout his life.
Remembering all the books on Vampires she has read, she snaps her head around recalling something. “But what about the legends about if you are bit by a Vampire, you become a Vampire?”
Ethan raises his left eyebrow in response to her question. “They are just that, legends. All beings, no matter how different they may seem, come from a common beginning. Buried deep within the subconscious mind of every human being and Realmfolk alike, lies the gifts that those of us from the Realm so freely display. The human’s gift, by some genetic switch, lies dormant within them, but is yet still very much alive.”
Ethan sees the misperception stirring in Gabrian’s eyes as he continues to try and clear her confusion. “Once the Fever is awakened and takes over, only then will the Borrower become a Vampire. They will begin to hunt until they find a host to steal from. Instinctively, they will search the minds of those they devour to see if the gift is viable. Those that have the Darkness within them are simultaneously shown the path to the surface as they are being savagely drained of their life. But those that do not are left to the Gargons.
“The Boragen have found great power in using the life energy of others, but it has also led some of them to recklessness, overindulgence, and eminently to the death of many innocents. That is not something that the Covenant of Shadows condones nor wants to be associated with. We, as part of the Realm, have a duty to the Covenant. Those that cannot be contained or controlled must be destroyed for the good of the people and an obligation to all of this Earth, to maintain order.”
Gabrian leans forward and squints her eyes, forcing herself to open her mind wide enough to catch some of the thoughts rushing around in Ethan’s mind, but they are all intertwined and confusing. “If the Covenant is so afraid of these Vampire Rogues, why do they not set up some type of special task force or something like that to go after them?”
“They have,” Ethan answers. Suddenly images of her Uncle Tynan, Orroryn, and many of her parent’s friends flash through his thoughts. The white of Gabrian’s eyes bulge painfully as her jaw drops, unhinged—her mind instantly thrown into complete shock once she sees them.
“No way!” she gasps at the preposterousness of it.
Ethan nods silently and his light-heartedness slips for a moment. “Yes.”
Gabrian shakes her head in disbelief and wonders how her gentle giant of a father and Uncle could possibly be a part of a lethal task force to take down Vampires. Vampires must be pretty easy to take down then.
“Killing a Boragen is much harder than you might think.”
Gabrian stirs from her daydream and decides to play along with the lesson. “Let me guess, you need a stake through the heart,” Gabrian, still in disbelief, jests as she suggests the use of the cliché method.
Ethan just laughs at her and shakes his head no. His dark hair falls into his face as he does. He looks at her and sweeps his hair back away from his hazel brown eyes. “With all the movies and books out there that validate this, you would think that this might be true, but because we have the ability to regenerate by drawing energy, any attempt to wound us would quickly heal. All that you would get from this would be a pissed off Vampire.” Ethan chuckles.
Gabrian envisions herself as Wolverine for a moment and chuckles. Seeing the images in her mind, Ethan regains his softness and laughs with her at her interpretation.
“All right, so if you cannot stake them...” She tries to remember all the hunting methods from her books to find another answer.
She thinks, Bullets?
Nope, Ethan shoots her down.
Silver?
Nah, not even close.
Fire.
Nope...regeneration, try again.
Finally, she finds the right answer, and it is confirmed as Ethan echoes her thoughts. Decapitation.
“Decapitation,” Ethan repeats himself. “It is the only way.”
“If that is the only way, and they know that you are coming after them, how would you ever get close enough to them to do it?” Gabrian’s voice trails off as she ponders the possibilities. “Unless…you blow them up from a distance.”
Ethan shakes his head at her in amusement from her vivid imagination. “No, we don’t blow them up,” he snorts. Tears well up, blurring his vision from the delighted burst of humor of their discussion, and he dabs at them with a folded hand—pressing his knuckles gently into the creases of his eyes. “We have a little more tact than that.” The Schaeduwe, or Shadow Walkers, are the only Fellowship that the Boragen have no effect on. Even with our ability to sense energy, we are not able to detect their life essence, and therefore cannot steal it. So because of this blind spot, the Schaeduwe can get as close as they need in order to capture and stop them.”
&nbs
p; “But you mentioned that the Vampires get strong. How could a Shadow Walker fight a Vampire?”
“Do not let their mild-mannered attitudes fool you. Schaeduwe are exceptionally strong and begin their training in the arts of fighting at a very young age. In our Realm, they are considered to be the Guardians or defenders against the Vampires and other things if need be, ” Ethan explains, leaning back against the cold stone wall behind him with a cheeky grin while pulling his ankle up to rest over his knee.
Gabrian’s eyes pull away from her Elder and stares blankly out across the gargantuan room before her, envisioning bits of imagery about some of the other gifts of the Fellowships and wonders why they would need the Shadow Walkers to defend them. From what she remembers, most of the Fellowships seemed incredibly powerful. What need would they have of the Schaeduwe?
“It is because these Vampires are still Boragen. They can feel the presence of others who may oppose them, thus eliminating the advantage of surprise. Once detected, Vampires can easily draw on their essence without them even knowing about it until it is too late, leaving them weak and defenseless, no longer able to contend with them. As for the Schaeduwe, they do not harbor this flaw, making them the ultimate choice of defense.”
Gabrian starts to understand why the Covenant may harbor a hint of contempt toward Ethan and herself. Her heart plummets as she realizes that she is doomed to a life of automatic distrust because of what she is.
“We are not completely without benefit to the Covenant,” Ethan interjects, realizing that this revelation is pulling Gabrian back into the shell that he had worked so hard to drag her out of. “Many of us exist throughout a number of respected fields. Most Boragen are naturals in the world of medicine. We work as healers along the side of the Eorden Fellowship for one.” Gabrian gives him a look of dismay. “Psychology, for another.” He grins at her impishly and bumps his shoulder into hers with a gentle nudge. She smiles back halfheartedly but feels lost again.