The evening’s events flow by me all too quickly, one scene follows another and I do not have a moment to keep up with it all. Each moment is a distant thing, floating through my mind like leaves along a violent river’s flow.

The guards that were standing at the door are now lying dead. Henry and Therina tend to me, leading me home, their tense expressions paint quite the unpleasant picture of my current state. The mercenary who saved me is long gone, but I can’t blame him for not staying to live with the consequences that come with killing a noble.

The dead boy’s blood still boils in my veins. His power burning pleasantly inside me, reinforcing me and making me strong.

He ought to have been dead when he was struck down, but for some reason, I can imagine his crazed eyes swimming about when I think back to the moment I drained away his blood. Perhaps my mind is embellishing the moment with a touch of fiction, I’m not sure I can really trust myself anymore, everything seems so fuzzy and unclear.

Therina hooks her arm through mine, keeping me steady on the uneven road. Somehow we’ve returned to my estate, though I can’t remember the dark roads that I’d have to have walked to get here.

She takes me to my room and cleans me up with a basin of warm water and a sponge, she’s talking, but words don’t make any sense. They should, and the language is certainly my own, but my mind just can’t put the sounds together with their proper meanings.

Have I been injured?

Wounded?

Am I broken in some way?

Therina lies me down in a soft bed, but the sheets are irritating, and the blankets are too heavy. I do not need to sleep, more than that, I cannot sleep. It denies me, refuses me even a glimpse of rest.

There is no reprieve from my new existence, no respite from my own thoughts.

As the sun warms the horizon to prepare for its proper arrival, I crawl out of bed. I stare down at the skillbook, that’s found its way into my hands.

Vampiric æther veins quality: E+ Rank

Magic:

Vampire’s Recovery: E+ Rank

-Heal your own wounds or the wounds which you drink from.

Vampire’s Gaze: E+ Rank

-Intimidate and limitedly mind control a target.

Vampire’s Strength: E Rank

-Express significantly greater physical strength

Manifest Shadows: F Rank

-Give shape to the shadows, and physically manifest them.

Illusion Magic: F Rank

-Make lies appear as if true.

Unseen Transposition: F Rank

-When unobserved, trade places with another unseen space.

I’ve drained and murdered most of a noble family, and all it’s worth is a small ‘+’ mark on my vein quality, and a few spells?

New magics available at vein rank D

I can’t recall seeing that line the last time, did I overlook it? Is it something new?

I can’t trust my own mind, and I can’t be sure of the truth. If I could rest for a night and think things through with a fresh mind… but I can’t.

Putting away the magical tome, I make my way down toward the kitchen. Therina follows me, stumbling a little and still weary from our night out.

In the kitchen, the cook pulls fresh bread from the oven, he is yet another unfamiliar face filling out this empty household. The sight of me is enough to make him stumble and fall back, nearly burning his hand on a bubbling pot.

The fear here is near as bright as within my hunting grounds last night, but today is not the day for another hunt. Only hints remain of the cursed effigies that I’ve hidden around this home, but the fear born from these servants echoes from room to room.

The walls and halls remember the blood, and they soak in the new terror, ripe and ready to accept my cruel new magics. Wisps of powerful magics gather in the corners and the shadows, but it’s without guidance. The æther stagnates, building up in whirling eddies, and painting new flows through the bones of this haunted mansion. Natural enchantments form in environments like this, as the æther cuts new channels into its surroundings.

This might just strengthen my new æther veins, but I can’t be sure without proper study, and I am no scholar. I must return to that magic skillbook, there is much I still need to learn about myself. I don’t even know who or what I am anymore.

Filling my arms with warm bread, fresh from the oven. Therina rushes to join me, carrying as much as she can.

“What are these for?” She asks, tilting her head. Her hands still twitch and there’s a nervous warble to her voice. The noble house which she ran from is now a place for only the dead that I left behind. I’m sure she has issues with how I handled the situation, and with the monster that I am, yet she doesn’t speak of it directly.

“The slaves haven’t been given proper kindness. Their work has not been rewarded as it should be, and worse yet they stay here, not so that we can show them a better world, but… for some other reason entirely.” I say, “I don’t know why they haven’t simply escaped to find a better life, but I want to know. I want to see the ways in which my father failed, the ways in which he betrayed his own ideals.”

“You are going to treat them differently?” Therina asks. “The slaves?”

“I don’t know…” I reply. “I don’t know what I want to be, or what I should do… but I was taught that we should be better than this. How we treat those who are inferior to us is an important part of that. I… don’t even know what I can trust anymore. Are they inferior, the norkit species, I mean?”

“I wouldn’t really know,” Therina replies. “But they just seem like people to me.”

“Even though they sacked the city ten years ago?” I ask. “You hold no grudges?”

“That?” She asks. “It was a bad time, but the Knights and the norkit army were both quite terrible. I don’t think many people really blame the slaves for what the army did, just like they don’t blame us for what the Knights… and nobles, have done.”

Were my lessons all nonsense, or are her experiences just coloured to her own biases? I was never much of a scholar, but I need to at least pry apart the truth from the fictions I’ve been taught. If I simply trust others to tell me the truth… Well, I trusted father so much, but it seems that he too was a liar.

I should be aiming to retake this house, but then what? What ought I stand for as a Countess? What should I use my power for?

To begin with, the reconstruction of my lands will simply fulfil the most basic duties of a noble. I’d also want to ensure that those nobles beneath me are of proper character and standing, and perhaps, those who fail can become targets for my new existence as a huntress of the night.

Considering these things, I walk past the guard that watches over the slaves and push my way into the familiar hovel. Therina enters with me, unloading her own armful of bread before leaving again, as I wave her out.

A few of the adults stir awake, one older lady watching especially close, but the children remain fitfully asleep. Piper wakes up with the adults, her violet eyes shining in the low light.

“What do you want?” She grumbles, sneaking past the children. “Everyone is sleeping.”

“I wanted to come here, and talk,” I say, sitting by the door and handing her some bread. The adults greedily accept what I offer, but their hatred isn’t affected by such a small offering.

“Talk?” She asks. “You really have no one else to talk with?”

“I have a few I can trust,” I say, sitting down. “I… cannot trust myself, however, and I want to know more about this situation. I want to know why you stay when you have every reason to run away. I want to know what I can do, and what I should do to reward you for your labours and repair what injuries have been done here.”

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“We don’t leave because we can’t leave,” Piper whispers, leaning on my side and staining me with the same filth that covers her. “We’ll die if we escape the property. These collars are enchanted to kill us the moment we step from the estate.”

“Truly?” I ask, leaning in to look closer at the thing, but she pushes me back.

“And if we tamper with it,” she hisses. “We’re here until we die.”

“That makes things difficult for you, I suppose,” I mumble. “Perhaps, I can look into getting them removed when I take my proper title. Though it would have to be a quiet affair, this entire situation is terribly illegal. As things stand today, I cannot find an expert let alone have them paid and brought through the gates to attend to this issue.”

“What?” She asks, practically biting her tongue. “Illegal?”

“The treaty to end the war ensured that the norkit be freed from all bonds of slavery. If you were human or dwarvish, or any other species there would be no issue, but as things stand this breaks the treaty and goes against the wishes of the royal family,” I explain. “I understand that it is the reason your ears and tails were removed, so you might appear human at a glance.”

She stands up and crushes the bread in her hands. Violent words escape her in whispers, as her face takes on a beastly nature. She reveals her enlarged incisors in a vicious snarl as her eyes shine bright.

The adults slump to the ground at hearing my words, apparently, they aren’t as inspired to anger as Piper.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” I ask.

“It doesn’t hurt to say it now… we were hoping for our people to come save us. To free us.”

“Well, that’s not likely,” I reply lightly. “It does make it extra cruel that others of your kin walk freely just the other side of the estate’s walls, but if those enchantments are truly so evil then I doubt it really changes things.”

“Our people are free…?” She asks, her mouth falling wide open.

“Yes. I don’t fully understand everything, but the city was sacked ten years ago, the royals and noble parts of the city still held, and a treaty was signed. Your kin walks openly alongside the peasantry and commoners now. It is… strange.”

Piper growls, and some of the smaller children wake up and stare at her in surprise. The adults are just as frustrated as the growling young woman, but they seem to be more accepting of the situation. I’m sure many of them felt that hope was already lost.

Piper’s eyes burn as she glares down at me, she burns with emotion, with anger and frustration, but also a hope that refuses to die. All are emotions that I want for myself, but my cold empty heart denies me that wish.

The adults are angry, but that gives way to numbness, whereas something is different with Piper. She smoulders with raw emotions that will not fade.

“I’ll do what I can for you,” I promise, nodding up at her.

“A noble’s daughter, with no family, and no power,” she replies. “What can you even do?”

“I don’t know yet,” I reply, thinking on what I’ve become. “I… suppose that I should be out fortifying my position with support from knights and the lesser nobility. I may also be able to entreat the royal family to intercede on my behalf, but I’m sure that would be challenging, and it’d likely stir unwanted trouble for us all.”

Father spoke ill of the royal family at times. Was he wrong about them, as well? Would that mean that I can trust them more, or less?

Regardless, a solution is best found through the powers of a proper noblewoman. All I would have to do is live up to the obligations that every other noble is disregarding.

It’s still difficult for me to believable that father didn’t live up to his own teachings. He was always proper around me, as was my stepmother and all my brothers and sisters. There was no hint that they might be doing something wrong…

Or maybe there was, and I’ve just been blind to it all this time.

My own eyes cannot lie.

Father failed our slaves, sorely and irresponsibly. Not only did he keep them when he ought to have freed them, but he mistreated them, and cursed them with collars that even now cause further suffering. His own people live in a ruined city that is yet to be rebuilt, and I can find no excuse for why he’s delayed reconstruction. Nobles in his lands treat people like beasts to be hunted, and father was either too incompetent to know it, or worse, complacent in the knowledge of their crimes.

“Get us a mage who can free us of our collars,” Piper demands, glaring down at me. She shows me no respect, but I’m not sure if she has any responsibility to do so. My family betrayed her and hers, and I’ve yet to do anything to alleviate those sins.

“I’ll do what I can,” I reply, staring out into the light of day slowly creeping up from beneath the door. My mind is not yet made, I still don’t know who it is that I am, but I do know a little of who I want to be.

Piper grumbles before going back to where she was sleeping and covering her head in her arms, likely trying to find sleep. The rest of the kids are either gnawing on their bread or resting.

I want to be the nature of noble that mother and father taught me about. I want to be dignified and proper, I want to uplift my people, and remove them from those who would cause them harm.

I want to be a good person.

Flashes of memory move through my mind, reminding me of the sweet taste that lingers in my mouth, the flavour of the boy and his family. The cruelty that was let fester in our lands by greater powers like my father, and like the reeves who are meant to hold us to our divine oaths.

A familiar voice shouts indignantly from the other side of the door, and the slaves all shudder at once at the sound of it. Though it is not for them that the man has come. It seems that uncle is still wanting to cause me trouble.

I push a path out the door, pulling my hood over my face and hiding my hands in my sleeves as I face the man in the burning light of morning. There are fires in his eyes, risen to life by the fear that fills his soul. Fear and anger are so much more tightly bound than I ever really understood before my death.

“What are you doing out here?!” He roars, waddling over towards me.

“I am ensuring that my slaves are still fed,” I reply, stepping around him to find Therina in an argument with another maid that has come with uncle. Thankfully Henry is here to assist her, I suppose he’s decided to keep close since last night’s incident.

“I ordered you to stay in your room.” Uncle glares at me, his knuckles white where he grips his sword. “I’ve finally found a maid who will stay with you, and see that you don’t wander off any more.”

“I have a maid of my own already,” I reply, lightly. “Please stop bringing in such riff-raff, we have enough pests fouling the house with their odious perfumes.”

His face turns red as his breathing grows heavy, his gurgling guts releasing more of the foul smell that perpetually hangs around him. He strikes before I see him move.

An open hand slap.

The blow itself is hard enough to rattle my teeth, and if blood still coursed through my veins, I’ve no doubt that I’d now be tasting it.

My hood falls and the light of morning sees me before I can replace it. My face burns bright, blistering before I can shield myself.

I’m still weak, even for all the blood that I’ve consumed. I’m still not strong enough to stand in the light or to stand against this particular pest.

“You insolent little…” He stops himself, but the rage doesn’t seem to be settling.

“That’s enough, dear.” My aunt steps in to defend me, her muscled body enough to make her husband hesitate. She’s still a trained knight and I’m sure that she’s able to hold her husband back.

He turns and leaves, without looking back at me, pushing his way into the estate, no doubt spreading his odorous presence through the halls of my bloodied family home.

I’m still unsure of who I am now that I’m dead, or who I might become in the days ahead, but I know that whatever path I might walk, he will not be fouling these halls much longer. As a noble I would remove him, as a huntress I would bury him.

“I’m glad that you’re safe,” my aunt says, breathing a soft sigh of relief. “There was a foul murder, one of the guardsmen, and I was worried that maybe you were made a second victim.”

“You have no need to worry for my sake,” I reply, noticing that she doesn’t comment about uncle’s violence towards me. “Perhaps you should reserve your focus for your own family.”

I leave before any more trouble finds me. As much as I need darkness to recover from the bubbling burns covering my face, I cannot stand being here another minute. I can hear every rat scrambling about in the walls, every cockroach skittering about in the ceiling, and the moist chewing of the pests lounging in the dining room.

Therina and Henry rush to join me as I make for the gates. The maid that uncle brought, we leave behind, while aunty tries to insist that we bring guards with us. I leave before they can follow, hoping to lose them in the chaotic streets.

“That’s an interesting situation back there,” Henry says lightly, leading the way by half a step to keep the various thugs from getting any ideas.

“It would be far better for me if things were less interesting,” I reply, sighing deeply as I try to consider my plans. I wish to be a better person and a proper noble, but for that, I need allies. I need knights, barons and viscounts willing to serve me, and I need counts, dukes, and the royal family themselves to recognise my authority.

“Thank you,” Therina whispers, walking closer to me. Her eyes for just a moment meet my own before she returns to the proper form of the lady’s maid. “The… incident from last night. Thank you. I… I know you didn’t do it for me, but I was always worried that they’d find me and do all sorts of awful things to me.”

“It’s not something you should need to thank me for,” I say. “These are my lands, and they are my responsibility. If the reeves could not bring them to justice, then it is only right that they be hunted like the wild beasts that they were.”

“You nearly got hurt,” Therina says. “You were rather faint when you left the house, but I saw what happened. How that strange man rushed in to save you. You nearly died.”

“That is because of my own weakness; my own failing,” I explain so that I might ease her concerns. This isn’t her responsibility. She shouldn’t have to think about these things, and it’s another failure of mine that she had to see the violence from last night.

“You could’ve called for me,” Henry says, chuckling darkly. “A chance to kill a little noble bastard like that? I should’ve come in with you.”

“Thank you,” I say, relieved that they accept me, even for the monster that I am. I’m not quite sure how much they saw of the insides of the mansion, but they know enough that they ought to hate me.

“So, what now?” Henry asks as we pause in the shadows of an alley near to the markets. It’s barely dark enough for me to start recovering, even with my hood up I’m burning very slightly every time I step into the direct light.

“I need to gather knights to my cause,” I explain. “I know of a few that served father.”

“If it’s muscle that you want, then I know a few men that wouldn’t mind helping with a job or two. Especially once I tell them what you did,” Henry chuckles, but I have to shake my head.

“I can’t throw my uncle out with muscle alone, else I’ll never have any legitimacy. It has to be knights,” I explain, catching sight of a familiar old man as he walks towards us, his cane clacking on the cobblestone.

“You…” He says, looking towards me as the crowd parts for him.

“Do you have some kind of tracking magic?” I ask him. “It seems rather odd for us to meet so often as this.”

“Would I tell you if I did?” He asks. “I’ve come to tell you about a certain incident in a noble house not far from here. I think you know the one.”

“Quite an unfortunate affair with the family striking each other down? Or is it blamed on the red-eyed monster again?”

“The former,” Lewark says, leaning heavily on his cane. The sunlight cuts down from above, shining on his face. “That murderous boy that we failed to capture, hunted down his entire family. Apparently, the windows went dark late last night, and the guards were too terrified to look inside, thinking it was another of the family’s strange parties.”

“How tragic,” I say. “So who ended his murderous spree?”

“That’s the most interesting part,” Lewark says, his eyes shining as he smiles quite unkindly. “The boy was still alive when the servants opened the doors in the morning. Thankfully, they were fast enough to evade him, even though he was terribly quick.”

“He’s still alive?!” I hiss.

“No, that’s the strangest thing of all. When the boy chased the servant out into the morning light, he burned up faster than a prick in a cheap whorehouse. Burst into flames, right outside his own home. No mages around casting either, there were enough witnesses willing to testify to that.”

I bite my tongue as I try to recall how it was that I left the boy. His body was completely devoid of blood, and the sword had impaled him through the head. Either of the two should have seen him dead.

“I would be quite interested in resolving this mystery with you when you have a moment to spare,” Lewark says, turning to walk away. “You are quite the interesting specimen young miss Greystone. I really do hope that you do not end up becoming yet another killer filling these streets.”

“I would rather hope not,” I reply, watching him head off deeper into the markets.