"So." Vivienne clasped her hands, pointer fingers out toward Rognan, the group now sitting by the fire he created. She fidgeted, a thousand questions coming to her mind. "You're attached to that book." Rognan smiled softly. "Indeed." She pursed her lips, shaking her head from side to side. "Okay, but why?"

"Why indeed? I was a faithful servant of Wohena for all of my life. I came to the monastery when I was just a lad. It was that or be a grunt in my father's smithy. By the age of twenty, Wohena gifted me her power of Sanctification. She bade me to use it well and cleanse the world of the blight of the Altera Vita."

Vivienne and Milo glanced at each other.

Altera Vita? I've never heard that phrase before.

They stayed silent, waiting for Rognan to continue.

"I set out on my way, ready to seek evil and do the will of my Goddess. Though, as I traveled, I learned, I saw, I felt! These creatures were no more evil than I, most born to their status and not made through force." Rognan sighed, a weariness came upon his face.

"I re-dedicated my life to learning and cataloging everything that I could about the lands I traveled, starting with Adalsindis. The book I am in is the first copy that I created. One hundred years had passed by as I traveled. My aging slowed to a crawl by my Sainthood. One night while in a coastal town in Sedrad I was set upon by a vampire and turned." He licked one of his sharpened teeth, as if their presence was still unusual.

"For my folly of truly becoming an Altera Vita, the Goddess bound me to the work that I dedicated my life to. These past thousand or so years I have passed through hundreds of hands and never been brought out. I suppose it took the blood of a Saint to rouse my specter."

Vivienne's leg bounced, agitation gnawing in the pit of her stomach. "How long do Saints live then when not bound to books?"

Rognan handed her the codex. "Here, I have an entry in the back here. I have continued to work on my book despite being stuck inside it. It's less of a history now and more of an anything I find interesting. The index is up to date, however."

Vivienne flipped through the book, the light still emanating from its pages. Reading aloud, "Saints and their life span: Saints are a curious creature, extreme life spans, superb healing, but still quite mortal. Expected to live at least 150 years."

Vivienne sat confused. "This sounds so...clinical! Rognan, did you ever meet another Saint?"

Rognan scrubbed his face. "Ah, no. Most of this is purely conjecture. I'm afraid I spent most of my time in the taverns. But I lived to over one hundred and I felt very spry! So, one hundred and fifty seems reasonable."

"Well, alright then."Vivienne said, deflating slightly, her own mortality hanging over her head. A prickly idea came over her. Excuses let her stay up around the dying embers of the fire.

Stolen novel; please report.

Once everyone else had gone to bed, Vivienne snuck into the index again.

Vurkolak Life Span: Vurkolak live an extended age into the low 160's. Their hot blood and slow metabolisms contribute to this slowed aging considerably.

Vivienne sighed a strange sort of relief that she couldn't place.She couldn't even place the reason why she checked.

Camp picked up quickly the next day. No one wanted to talk about the possessed book, but he wanted to talk to everyone.

"Vivienne, how do you feel about aging everyone out? Milo, did you know you can live to be Vivienne's age?"

Vivienne piped up, "I am right here! And I am 28 Summers at the most, so if Milo aspires to 28 then I would say he has past it!"

Seeing a book ghost blush is rare, but in this case, soon to be not unheard of.