With the somewhat disquieted young woman following after me, I walked into what I had designated as my living room, considering for just a moment how I wanted to play this. A part of me wanted nothing more but to channel the Grandmother for all I was worth, acting as a wise, but not necessarily benevolent, entity able to guide this young woman on whatever path she sought to tread. But, if I wanted to act that way, the props all around me didn’t quite fit that role, if anything, I had set the house up in an as homely fashion as possible, projecting a simple, if powerful, image, not that of a mysterious witch. Unless I was careful, the image I projected would be one of the wicked witch living in her gingerbread house and waiting to bake children into pies instead of the image of wise Galadriel, living in an immortal forest and watching the world through a scrying pond.
“Now, have a seat, introduce yourself and tell me why you have sought me out,” I ordered the young woman, after taking a seat myself, briefly rueing that I didn’t have any decent tea to serve, or any tea at all. Alas, the tea was gone and as of yet, I hadn’t been able to find any new tea. But what I could do was form a pair of stone cups and fill them with water, giving each of us something to hold and, if desired, drink.
Still wide-eyed, the young woman took a seat, studying me for a moment before speaking. In turn, I had more than enough time to study her myself, not that her appearance told me all that much about her. Sure, the dirt smudges and stains on her hands and clothes spoke of manual labour, gardening or something like that, but the overall lack of muscles made me think it was something recent. All in all, if not for the dirty clothes and generally dishevelled appearance, I would have thought her to be a young professional in some sort of office-job, or maybe a college student. Similarly, I could almost see where her olive skin was carrying the marks of recent, hard labour while the rest of the visible skin lacked those marks and even her wavy, black hair spoke of the difference in circumstances, something I would have suffered under, too, if not for my magic.
“My name is Maria Perez, I’m twenty-four and have been working on my media management master’s degree until this all happened,” she introduced herself, though I wasn’t quite sure about her chosen career. Media Management meant working with people, who would voluntarily do that? Certainly not me, but if it was good for her, I wouldn’t judge her too harshly. However, what I considered curious was that her introduction focused on the world before it had changed, now, her degree, or almost any degree, really, wouldn’t be worth the material it was printed on.
“As for what I want,” she continued, only to falter, obviously uncertain how to put her desires into words. Or maybe embarrassed, it wasn’t easy to tell. “I don’t know, but I know what I don’t want. I don’t want to be reduced to a farmer, scrabbling in the dirt and mud, I don’t want to be pushed into the role of housewife, serving some husband,” she growled, a sneer forming on her face as frustrations bubbled up within her.
A part of me could empathise somewhat but at the same time, I knew just how good she had it since the change. The alternative to being a farmer and working the fields would be to fight and hope to survive, or to simply die. There weren’t any cushy office jobs, at least not that I knew of, so I wasn’t sure what I could do to help her there.
Studying her for a moment, I opened myself up, looking at what little Astral Power was flowing through her body and what elements her soul was attuned to, getting a better sense for her as an individual. There was no obvious standout element in her soul, nothing that screamed to me she’d be able to become a powerful spellcaster and the volume of Astral Power wasn’t anything to write home about, either, even for her level.
“Difficult,” I admitted, considering what I might be able to do for her when I had an idea. Lia had been planning to experiment with the vampire transformation some more and while I had no interest in having Maria join us on our travels, we might be able to give her that little, initial push to become something more. “You seek individual independence but to become independent, you need to be strong enough to stand on your own, alone, if necessary. You saw what I could do, create a living space for myself within a short amount of time, that is one reason why I can be independent, living and wandering according to my will and whim. Another way would be to hold the strength to fight and overcome all those who would chain you. That is what it all comes down to at the end, Power. And right now, you don’t have that power, you are far from it,” I explained, noticing that there was anger, greed and a bit of defiance in her eyes.
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“How do I get that power?” she immediately asked, forcing me to hide a grin that wanted to form on my face.
“Depends. You can train your body, learn how to fight and walk down the Martial Path, the Path of the Warrior. It will take some time and a lot of effort but there is no reason why you wouldn’t be able to become something more than you are right now. Maybe not strong enough to stand at the top of the world and able to take on anyone who would want to chain you, but more than right now? That would certainly be possible if you put in enough effort,” I told her, noticing the look of distaste that flickered across her face at the idea.
“My own path, the Arcane Path, the Path of Magic, will be a difficult one for you. As you are right now, you lack some crucial qualities needed to tread that path, meaning it would be slow and you will likely never reach anything even close to a summit,” I shrugged, shattering some of her hopes.
“As I am right now?” she jumped on the small trap I had placed in my words, the grin I had suppressed earlier threatening to become a full-blown smirk.
“Indeed, there are some qualities you either have to be born with or acquire them with other methods. You haven't been born with them and the other methods are somewhat troublesome,” I continued to bait my trap, even while realising that I would have to tread carefully myself, so I didn’t accidentally go too far and run afoul of my promise to do no harm while within their community. Not that I considered allowing a young woman to make her own path to be harmful but some might feel that I was offering her a bad deal.
“What do you mean, acquire them? And what sort of qualities are you talking about?” she pressed, her previously subdued demeanour washed away by her desire to become something more.
“Different people have different affinities for different types of magic, allowing them to wield these types of magic with far greater ease than others. If you wish to become truly great, or lack the innate power to make do without an affinity, you need to play to your affinities. Sadly, you do not have an affinity to any type of magic, at least not to any I can detect,” I shrugged, noticing how her eyes narrowed for a moment.
“But there are ways to acquire these affinities? Or at least one of them? And what do you mean by lacking the innate power?” she continued to push forward, apparently completely convinced in her course of action.
“There are indeed ways to gain affinities you do not currently have and there also are ways to improve your innate powers. With magic, anything is possible, if one has enough power. Magic, in and of itself, it the impossible made manifest,” I continued to tempt her, watching her desires flare to the point that I could almost smell them on her soul.
“What do I need to do?” she asked and now, I only had to give her the right directions and allow her to walk the path forward herself, telling her to approach a place higher up in the mountains a few nights later. Getting there and gathering the supplies she needed would be left up to her, a test, as I phrased it.
In a way, it was a test. Either she would show and Lia, Luna and I had a voluntary test subject or she would not, in which case we could simply move on. And if she showed up and our test was successful? Well, in that case, a newly created vampire, hopefully imbued with a bit of magical talent, would need supplies. However. if the experiment failed, I would gladly take her supplies as a donation for my group.
Regardless of the outcome, if she showed, I would benefit.