Exiting the doors into the rubble of my castle, I took a moment to breathe in the dusk air and admire this version of the sky, which I hadn’t seen yet. The beautiful twilight canvas stretched beyond the mountains, with orange hues reaching up from behind the peaks. The moon, conveniently a full one, shined down brightly enough to illuminate my surroundings. Before I could collect any of the ingredients, I’d need a bag to carry them. I focused for a moment, stretching my hand and facing it towards the sky. Imagining a cloth bag with a drawstring, I pumped blood and mana through my arm, watching as the blood swirled out of my hand and into the shape of a bag. As it came fully into existence, it folded over itself and I tied it to a loop on my belt. Taking another breath, I ventured along the twisting path I’d already explored, impatiently searching for the ingredients which would begin the castle’s restoration. I made quick work of finding the ingredients I have marked as being near to the path:
12 Moonglow Mushrooms
8 Silverthorn Leaves
As the moon continued its journey across the sky, I too continued my journey through the dense undergrowth. The moon’s light reached little of the ground through the canopy, but I never had difficulty seeing. I stopped for a moment, briefly taking out the Liber Sanguinis to make a note on the page I’d dedicated to my own race: vampires. To have night vision is a direct advantage over the humans that had eradicated my race previously. The night is certainly more comfortable.
There was little else of note in the forest, unfortunately. I had not heard or spotted another creature the entire time; the silence of the day still lingered. I would likely have to venture much deeper into the forest to discover more creatures, a fact which crushed my hope of transformation. I knew the names of birds, I even knew of the ‘bat’ that vampires were associated with, but I couldn’t picture them in my head. “How can I transform into something I don’t even know the shape of?” I wondered, staring off into the distance. I picked a direction and continued my trek, searching for the last ingredients. I now only had one left to go:
3 Starflower Petals
2 Midnight lilies
12 Moonglow Mushrooms
8 Silverthorn Leaves
Then, I spotted the most picturesque scene that the forest had gifted me so far. It was like a painting I hoped would one day adorn the walls of my castle: A golden-yellow flower sat in a clearing, the yellow petals opened in the shape of a star, and a ray of light from the moon illuminated the area around it. The beauty of the shining flower contrasting against the tree’s shadows and the brilliant violet sky would forever be implanted in my mind. The last component to the beginning of my adventure, and a beacon in the night…
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I arrived back at the castle, vividly aware of the weight of the ingredients in the bag which was now slung over my shoulder. As I opened the door to my throne room once more, it became hard to contain my excitement at the prospect of my first real step towards my goal. I eagerly approached the orb, bag in hand, and asked the castle a question:
“I’ve retrieved all of the ingredients from the forest. Do I just dump these into you, or how does this work?” The orb pulsated for a moment, and I couldn’t help but feel like I had insulted it somehow.
“Place the ingredients on the table, and use your blood magic to fuse them together into a potion. Then, you can pour the potion into the orb of blood in front of you.” I did as instructed, laying the ingredients in a pile on the ruined table ahead of me. Then, I stretched my arm and touched the pile, infusing my blood and mana into the pile. I watched as the blood swirled around and formed a ball, compressing and liquifying the insides, before finally forming into an ornate glass bottle containing the potion.
“You said to pour the potion into the blood orb ahead of me as if it were some other creature. Are you not this orb?”
“I never said I was. In fact, that is only a receptacle for power, and a representation of my current power. It is also the way I have chosen to communicate with you. I am the entire castle around you, I believe the term commonly used is Caephaelum, or the living building.”
“How long have you been around for, then? And how did you come to be here?”
“My oldest memory is of the open sky, so I don’t know how I was created. I think that must have been roughly 46,000 years ago?”
I couldn’t help but stare in amazement for a moment, before asking my next question: “Have you always been here?”
“I have never moved from this location, although I have met others who have.”
“You’ve met another Caephaelum?”
“Yes, quite a few. We’re capable of moving, I have just chosen not to. The mountain is nice and solitary. I did meet a moving castle once, though.”
I took a moment to take this new information in. The thought of the castle being alive had never crossed my mind, although it seems obvious now that I think about it. Regardless, I had resolved to find a subordinate, and this conversation was getting off topic. There would be time to ask The Castle more questions later, I had to get back on track. I began by finally pouring the potion into the orb, empowering The Castle.
“So, all is done?” I asked, peering at the door.
“Yes, you may go now. It’s important to acquire a subordinate as quickly as possible. You may want to consider a knight as well, to protect me while you’re gone.”
“Alright, I understand. I’ll be back soon. Oh, and I’ll probably want a room to sleep in, could you make that?”
“Yes.” The orb pulsated, then darkened. I stood up and walked out of the castle, taking my last look at the sorry state of the current castle. Once I came back, these ruins would be gone, and the frame of a strong castle would stand in its place. Then, I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye: a piece of rubble sunk into the ground, seemingly absorbed, then another, and another. Slowly, the rubble was being absorbed back into the castle. I watched in awe for a moment, before setting off down the path. I had waited long enough for this, and I was eager to see more living creatures.