Locked in a windowless room, I was still doing better than before. I was no longer starving nor sick. Through a slot in the door, I was fed. On my first day here, there had been a pile of moss passed to me too. A voice instructed me to place it on my wound. I don’t know how they knew about it, it had been covered the whole time. It must have been healing moss, because my infection passed and the wound was healing normally again. With no window in the room, I couldn’t see how much time had passed. Sometimes I would hear steps, or other clunking, thumping sounds. There were scratches on the wall, indicating that someone before me had tried to count. I tried to take heart when I could, I hadn’t come this far, to be stopped here.

On my way into the house, I had known that it had been a mistake to come here. I had passed a room with a door only slightly open. But it had been enough to catch a glimpse of a group of people, lying prone on the floor. They couldn’t have been vampires, they had normal hands, with the brown skin and coiled curls I had seen in the residents here. In a blur, I had been pushed down into this room. It must be a basement or a cellar. Since then, my biggest threat was boredom, and the reflection that came with it. Thoughts of what I could have done differently.

Often I kept my eyes closed, shutting out the darkness, hoping that sleep and obliviation would come. I didn’t know why I was being treated this way. So far, they hadn’t taken anything from me, not spoken to me other than with the healing moss. I knew this state of limbo would change.

The next time I opened my eyes, I saw a shadow silently staring at me from the door. I don’t know how long I had been watched. I sat up, and the shadow turned away. 

“Follow me.” It was the tall vampire, the first I had met that had opened the door.

I was taken to a room in the house, where a man sat behind a desk. He was small and shriveled. Like the tall vampire, he was white of skin and hair with red eyes. His hands were the huge black claws of the vampires, belaying the weak demeanor his body portrayed. His cheekbones were high, his face sharp with thin skin wrinkled on it. He was writing on the desk, without the clawed hands and eerie whiteness, he could have looked like a bitter grandpa.

“Sit.” The tall vampire gestured to a stool in front of the desk. The vampire behind the desk continued writing, his scratching with a quill and my breathing were the only sounds to be heard in the room. This whole situation, and the previous lockup stunk of a powerplay and I knew it, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t work. I was nervous.

“Eighteen.” The old vampire had spoken, but was still scratching something out with his quill.

“Excuse me?”

“Eighteen leeras was the cost of feeding and housing you this past week. Four for the healing moss.”

“I didn’t ask for it.”

Setting down the quill, he leaned back and made eye contact.

“And I didn’t ask for you to come here. You were free to leave anytime.”

I gaped at him. 

“I was locked in a room.”

“You were free to leave. We follow the Accords of Reconciliation. No one would have stopped you, had you left. But there is something more serious for us to talk about then a little debt. The meat of the matter is that invoking our name in false business is a crime. We can legally kill you anyway we want. But that’s bad for business. We are not barbarians. Pay what you owe us, and we’ll call it even.”

The village hadn’t used money much, relying more on a bartering system and good will. But I knew that even one leera had been a lot of money for Inparem. I could imagine that twenty two was a small fortune. 

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“Ah,” he raised a finger. “Don’t try to argue that it was anything but false business. I know everything that goes on in our little circle.”

I didn’t know what to say. I went with my original plan. “I came here looking for work, perhaps there is a way we can find a solution with that.”

“I can smell the traces of infection still on you. It will take time for your body to heal to our standards of taste. A debt like that would cost more than your little life to be worth it.”

I knew then, that I had fallen in some trap. If what he said was true, he wouldn’t have kept me locked up as long as he did, he was leading the conversation to some unknown agenda. He already had something in mind. My hand twitched, I wanted to clutch at the necklace hidden under my clothing. His eyes followed my hand, he smiled for the first time since I had come into the room. Somehow they had known that I had it.

“Stealing from nobility is a heavy crime, especially the necklaces of confirmation. The empire is not as merciful as we are, when it comes to forgiving crimes.”

“I didn’t steal it, I inherited it.”

“Well then, how lucky we are to welcome you here Marin. Tell me, from what family do you come from?”

I didn’t know what family Matre had come from. I thought of telling the truth, that we weren’t really related, but whatever scheme he had in mind for me most likely relied on it. If I wanted to be of use, to get out of here, I thought it would be best to go along with it.

“I don’t know. Matre was estranged from her family and didn’t like talking about her life before.”

“Ah Matre, an outland title, so you lived in the hills? Show me the necklace, and I will see what family it was.” His grotesque claw was already reaching out, waiting for me. I was hesitant to give it to him.

He laughed. “Silly child, show it to me.”

My hesitation was laughable. There wasn’t a choice here. I pulled out the chain from underneath my clothing and over my head, handing it to him. The sapphire winked at me. He took it by the chain, and studied the back. Poking a finger at it, an almost translucent bubble stopped him from touching the carving of the salamander. 

“Genuine.” He grunted and passed it back to me. 

“You’re from the la Mandra family. Distantly related to the cousin of the fourth prince. Not very high up.”

“Thank you. Any information on my family is valued.” I smiled sarcastically. His eyes glittered dangerously, and I regretted it.

“Last test silly child, and you might even make it out of here alive. What gift does the la Mandra family have? Even if your mother was estranged, she would have shared that with you.”

Gift? It sounded like something hereditary. Matre hadn’t said anything about that. 

“That's a secret.”

“Yes, it is. But I know it already. You need to tell me to verify that you are from the la Mandra family.” His smile was kind, but his eyes were intense.

Although Matre had many talents, I knew of only one that had been magical, I had learned from Inparem what it was.

“True-dreams.”

He leaned forward, his hands clasped together on his desk. He had a pleased expression. 

“Good. Now, I have a little business proposition for you. If you would agree, you would make me very happy. We could be friends, and forget all the unpleasantness from before.”

***

Two days later, I walked out of the vampire’s house. Unrecognizable to the feverish woman who had walked in. I was clean, my short hair was as ornantly braided as the length allowed, with ribbons braided in. I was wearing a fancy dress with embroidery that put Ava’s and my wedding dress to shame. That dress was probably only ashes now, my heart clenched at that thought. The top of this dress had a transparent veil, a strip across my shoulders. High enough to hide the beginning of my scar, but still show the gold chain of the necklace I wore underneath. Old Vetus, the accountant vampire, had told me to keep wearing it under. Flaunting my status openly was considered bad taste. That is what the translucent strip was for. The dress had been given to me this morning, and disturbingly, fit me perfectly. I was unused to the wide flare of it, that came out with every step that I walked. The thing I enjoyed most that they had given me, was my shoes. I couldn’t feel the unevenness of the road underneath me as I walked. Before I left Vetus, the second vampire with the desk, had hissed at me the new number of my accumulated debt with these objects.

“Forty-six leera now.”

He is so miserly. Next time I will ask for receipts, I thought jokingly to myself. Making it out alive from that house felt like an accomplishment. With a spring in my step and full of good spirits I walked towards my job interview.