The southern edge of Nightfrost wasn’t exactly a den of iniquity, or a high crime area, though it was certainly the part of the city where criminal activity was most likely to happen. When I had come through this area originally, I had been amazed by the overarching architecture of the city, the various species of its inhabitants, and the thrill of seeing something new.

Clarise specifically avoided taking me into the slums. The areas closest to the southern wall. I had only briefly passed those areas where money was rare and crime rampant. Instead, we headed to a residential district a little further in. The experience gave me an odd juxtaposition with my memories from the day prior. While coming into the city and climbing the steps and the hills, the city felt full of hope. A bastion against the darkness in the mountains.

Heading back down, straight south gave the exact opposite feeling. The wall grew taller and taller in your sights. Its imposing strength felt like less of a fortress and more of a gate to something horrific. Those who lived at the bottom were trapped in a way, between the wealth of those above them, and the wall designed to keep them safe.

All in all? It gave me the damn creeps. Even though we were avoiding the nastier parts of the area, it still wasn’t sunshine and rainbows. There were fewer guards, and more people in hoods wandering the streets. The sun was nearly down, and definitely below the gates, so the streets were already dark. Clarise didn’t seem bothered by it in the least. Did vampires get inherent darkvision? Surely. Did Demi-vampires? Couldn’t say, but I’d hazard a guess on it at least.

“Look, Lady Clarise? I’m not sure why Eliza wants to see me, but I guarantee, I’m really not that interesting.”

She let out a trilling giggle that would have sent my heart skipping a beat if it were a different situation. “Oh but you are! Our dear cousin Ophelia brought you home, so you must be something special!”

Well, that wasn’t going to work. “Do you mind if we stop in one of the taverns? I really need to relieve myself.”

Side note. This city had plumbing all throughout, which was way better than I had been hoping for after seeing the village’s latrines and ‘bathing’ area. A wooden tub in a small room does not a bath make.

“No, I think you can wait. We are almost there!” She seemed almost giddy with excitement. I glanced over at her, and could see the anticipation in her eyes. This woman didn’t see me as a person, not really. I was a thing. A toy to bring to her sister to play with. It was not a good attitude.

Back on earth, they tell you never to go to a second location with a kidnapper. That if you do, your chances of surviving drop significantly. This far, I had been treating the encounter with Clarise as an annoyance. One I could escape from eventually if I put up with it. But that look in her eyes. I had a feeling that if I made it to wherever she was bringing me, I wouldn’t be walking out again the same person.

Which left me with two options. I could scream for help. I didn’t think that would get me anywhere though. Clarise could probably carry me up to the rooftops in a moment's notice, judging by how easily she moved before. And that was if someone bothered to help a tall man arm in arm with a pretty girl.

Second option was going to make me some enemies though. And it wouldn’t be easy to pull off in any case. But I really couldn’t go wherever she wanted me to go. Not after I had seen that look in her eyes.

Clarise was tight against my left side, her arm hooked through mine so we appeared as a couple walking home together. Her grip was iron tight though, keeping me so close that I couldn’t even pretend to trip. I had a bag of coins, my tome of force bolt, and my small array of magical powers. None of which offered me an easy method out, and only one of which was offensive in any way. I still didn’t want to give away my full powerset, either. Not that I wouldn’t use the barriers, but those felt like an excellent ace in the hole for me.

I considered attacking her with the conjured spear, but saying the summoning phrase would give me away. I didn’t even have my tome with me to try and cast a force bolt at her. So I did the only thing I could. I stumbled.

My foot caught on a cobblestone that had a small lip, and I started to fall forward. Clarise braced herself, trying to hold me up. Now I'm certainly not the biggest guy in the world. But I’m not small either. I come in close to 210 pounds most days. Clarise was a little shorter than I was, and her lithe build had me thinking she was a significant amount lighter. But she was powerful. She easily kept me from falling, but it took effort. Her stance changed, her arms tightened, and she had to lean forward just a bit.

When she did, I twisted around, bringing up my fist in a horrible mix of uppercut and roundhouse punch, and clocked her right in the nose with every ounce of force I could muster.

It wasn’t as much as I wanted, considering I lacked the ability to really put my weight behind the blow. But it was enough! I could feel her nose break under my fingers, and that was an incredibly disturbing feeling, combined with the sound. Wet cracking. Clarise screamed, letting me tumble to the ground, and clutched at her nose, which had suddenly taken a career change from air exchange to blood fountain.

I rolled to my feet and began a mad dash down the street, my robes billowing out behind me as I pushed my body to go from 0 to 100 as quickly as possible. I pounded the pavement with my boots, my feet hardly touching the ground as I moved to make as much distance between us as possible.

I couldn’t hear her behind me, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t there. Her bare feet never made a damn sound any of the other times she had shown up. I didn’t dare look back either, and started to make sharp turns as often as possible, slipping between buildings, through alleys, and up and down stairs until I had gotten myself good and lost. She still hadn’t appeared in front of me. Maybe I had gotten her good enough that I wasn’t worth the chase.

Nah. No way I could be that lucky. It was far safer to assume that she was still actively searching for me. I wouldn’t be safe until I was back at the manor.

But still, fuck this shit. Fear and panic were turning to a proper anger in my stomach. I was tired of reacting to every situation. Tired of having to always be on the damn back foot. I hadn’t made a single forward step towards actively solving issues this entire time. I just followed Ophelia, or did what I needed to survive whatever situation I was in. If I made it out of this, I was going to change that. No more waiting, no more reacting. I was the ‘champion of fate’ for whatever dime store toilet paper the title was written on was worth. If I didn’t make my own destiny, then who could?

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Once I had caught my breath, I started to make my way back towards the upper west side of the city, towards the manor homes. I kept to the back alleys with the rats, making as little sound as possible. Clarise had dropped in on us twice, and I wasn’t sure how she was tracking us. Gravity seemed like the kind of thing that would be great for incapacitating enemies or empowering one’s self. Not tracking people or finding things. So it had to be a learned tallent. A skill maybe?

It was slow going, and the moon rose high overhead before the manor homes came into sight. There weren’t any more alleys to traverse through, no more places to hide. Since this was the only place I could realistically go, it made sense that she would be waiting for me here. I peeked out, looking at the gate. The guard was gone. Just gone. No replacement, nothing. That seemed bad. That HAD to be bad. No way a gated community like this, where the residents tending to be somewhat insular, would just allow their front door to be unattended.

So. wait here in the shadows and hope Clarise doesn’t spot me, leave and find a flop house to stay the night in, or try to get inside? I elected to wait. Perhaps I could catch Ophelia’s family on their way home from whatever they were doing that day. If they hadn’t already made it home that is.

That turned out not to be the best of choices.

“Here you are!” A new voice said.

“Oh, come the FUCK on.” My shoulders fell, and my breath left me in a groan. So damn close. I was SO close.

Exhausted, and feeling defeated, I turned around. A new woman was staring at me. She had a similar appearance to Clarise. Long red hair that fell down to just above her butt. A heavily curved body covered by a thin, tight black dress that stopped midway down her thighs and had a slit up the side, giving a hint of a look at bare skin.

“Aren’t you cold?” I asked, giving in to myself just a little. I was so tired of being scared. I’d rather be snarky, or at least impudent. Banter was better than terror.

She laughed, shaking her head, and approached me. She swayed her hips in an exaggerated manner, the kind that told me that she knew she looked good and liked to use it to her advantage. “Cold? Why would I be cold? It's a wonderful night! You, on the other hand, seem to be quite cold! How could you strike my poor, defenseless sister like that?”

“Lady, I don’t know what you think happened, but your sister decided to kidnap me.” I snapped back. This was not going well on my part. I was a raw nerve, easy to poke and quick to get enraged. “I’m just going to assume you are Eliza, right?”

“I am! And you are Ophelia’s first toy!” She gave me a smirk, one that showed off long canines that put Clarise’s and Ophelia’s to shame. “I so wanted to meet you before she officially took hold of you. Give you an offer.”

She stepped closer to me, circling around me. There was a sense of danger to her. My body was giving me a warning not to fuck with this woman. It was the same pressure I had felt when fighting Roquain and Titus. She was almost definitely level 2.

Name: Elise Tellus

Race: Elf (Demi-Vampire; Sanguinus)

Age: 44

Focus Core: Black Ice

Level: 2

Joy. Getting into a fight with her would be a bad idea. From what I understood so far, people who the PSD marked as ‘level 2’ were stronger than a normal human. Their powers were enough to shatter my barriers and still hit too. And Elise had won the last competition in her house, which meant she was likely quite the combat expert. I didn’t stand a chance in a stand up fight. I doubted I could even use trickery to land a critical blow like I had with Clarise.

“Why?” I asked, sighing. I tried to give off the air that I was both annoyed and amused, but I knew I was failing. If this world had given me a charisma stat, I doubted it would have been very high.

“Because, Niles Thatcher of nowhere, I am in need of a new attendant, and I couldn’t imagine Ophelia would dare to bring someone weak home.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not that strong. I barely escaped your sister after all. I’m not a fighter.” Which was true enough. At least my voice was steady.

“But you did escape. Clarise isn’t weak you know. She is only a few months away from reaching the second tier.” She seemed amused as she finished her circle around me and stopped in front of me, staring.

“That was just luck. She was cocky, and I took advantage of it.” I didn’t want her to think I was strong. I wanted her to think I was weak. A nothing, a nobody. “If she had been taking proper precautions, I never would have escaped.”

“But you did, and that’s the point. You think. Those of us who carry the blood gift tend to consider those who don’t as lessers. Weaklings to be exploited. Clarise is no exception, and once you spotted it, you used it.” Her lips cracked up in a smile. “That's what I’m really after. The people in this city are close minded and predictable. You are new blood. Popped up from nowhere and suddenly cleared a decades old trial ground with my cousin? You have a certain X factor to you.”

X factor? Did she just say X factor? How did that turn of phrase exist here? Or was it just a colloquial translation from the PSD. Odd.

“It's not that impressive. Truly, anyone could have done it.”

“True. But you aren’t anyone Niles. Come, join me. Be my attendant, and I’ll give you whatever you want. Money, power, women. If you prove yourself as useful as Ophelia thinks you will be, it is worth the expense.”

“What happened to your last attendant?” I asked, seeing a way through this that didn’t involve me getting killed or kidnapped. Or enslaved to this monster. Despite her words, she looked at me just the same as Clarise had. I was a toy. An item. A thing. Not a person.

“He failed me, and I was… thirsty.” The way she said it, like she was fondly remembering the taste of a particularly delicious food sent shivers through my spine. No way in hell.

“The official ceremony for induction won’t happen for a week right?” I asked, pushing my own plan forward anyways. “Give me until then to consider your offer. It is tempting.” I was lying through my teeth. I’d rather run naked through the mountains than put myself at this woman’s mercy.

But she bought it. I think. Maybe. She didn’t say anything for a long while. “Acceptable. Under one condition.”

“What?” I asked flatly.

“Three nights from now. You will accompany me for a night on the town. You can’t properly consider my offer if you don’t understand what it is I am offering.”

Damn. But I couldn’t say no. “Fine. It's a date.”

“Indeed it is.” She said, her lips curling up into a dangerous smile. “Go Niles. I’ll come fetch you in three days.”

She backed down the alley after that, disappearing from my sight into the darkness like a wraith. I almost fell to the ground as the tension left my body, and trudged my way back through the gate into Ophelia’s house. I wanted to sleep…