A few days before

I was thirteen, and Pablo said boys my age should make themselves useful.

So, I was at the market selling seafood at his stand.

When I was younger, I couldn't wait to start working for Pablo, because, back then, he forged swords and it seemed like the most beautiful job in the world to me.

I didn't like the smell of fish, even though I should have been used to it, but Pablo stopped forging swords when I was eight years old, and the only job he found was selling seafood at the market.

The job wasn't boring. I could meet a lot of new people every day. Of course, I never remembered their faces and names, but I found it didn't really matter, as soon as you didn't let it slip during the conversation.

That day, I saw a man that looked like no other. Most people in West Tallya had dark hair and dark eyes, unlike me. I had teal green eyes. But my mother was Megleni, so I wasn't exactly a Tallyard.

The man looked like someone from Cad Irr or the islands, with firey red hair and long, skinny legs.

I was glad I could assist him, instead of Pablo, because he looked rich and handsome and, if he were to come back to the market, I was sure I'd recognize him.

I had the morning shift and Pablo the afternoon's, when he was sober enough to show up.

But I agreed to it because he gave me money, and I wanted to save them up so one day I'd use them to travel the world.

And then, my mom was dead and Pablo was the only person I had, so I couldn't just say no to him.

The man approached my stall.

"You're Jonathan Loreta, right?" he asked, blushing slightly like a much younger man would.

"Yes," I replied, beaming. "Wait. I thought you were here for the seafood. I've never seen you before, how do you know me?"

The man had spoken in Tallyard, but his accent was Megleni. I was surprised to learn he was from the same country as my mother.

"I speak Megleni as well, sir," I said, effortlessly changing from one language to the other. "Were you looking for me?"

"Let's just say I knew your dad," the man said amiably. He wasn't old. I'd say he was in his mid-thirties, but he moved and spoke like an overgrown teenager. "Diego Loreta, right?"

That's when I noticed. Of course. It was early in the morning, so the sun wasn't up yet, but the man had a black cape and sunglasses. His skin looked like the one of a statue. Not only pale, translucent too.

He was a Blood Drinker.

That was how he knew me. My father was a Blood Drinker too, but he left my mother and I when I was a few months old, so I loathed the memory of him. I also loathed everything that had to do with him, like Blood Drinkers or West Tallya.

"I see," I said cooly. "You're one of them. I heard my father was too. I've never met him, though. So, if you want to talk to him, assuming he's still alive, I suggest you to talk to someone else."

Or maybe, the Blood Drinker was there to tell me my father was dead. I tried to shake off the thought from my mind.

My father left me, so, even if he was dead, I wasn't sure I cared either way. But I knew it would have hurt to know I'd never see him again.

"I don't want to talk to him," the Blood Drinker said empathetically. "I wanted to talk to you. My name is Dominic Morris, but you can call me Minx. Everyone else does."

I shook his hand.

"My companion, Mira, and I, run a school for Blood Drinkers in Meglenia," Minx added. "You're thirteen, the same age as the students in the first year. I was wondering if you'd join us. You see, I still remember your father. He was a Great Blood Drinker. You know Skills are genetic, right? Or at least, your predisposition to them. Of course, your Skill might differ from your father's."

I glared at him in a way that I hoped was threatening. I don't think I had the desired effect. "Why do you talk about my father in past tense? As if he was dead?"

Minx looked sorry he commited such a goofy mistake. "Oh, I wouldn't know about your father these days, I'm sorry," he lowered his eyes. "But I think he's still alive. See, I haven't seen him in a long time. I thought he still lived with you."

"Have we met when I was little?" I asked, leaning on my sword.

"You probably wouldn't remember it. Hey, tell me something. Why do you keep your sword with you all the time? Even when you're selling oysters?"

I looked at it. My sword was a weapon forged by Pablo. It wasn't much. Pablo was good, but he was not a genius. I don't think it was worth many coins either. But it was the object that I liked more in the whole world. Because when I fenced, I felt free. I felt powerful. I felt as if what had befallen my mother couldn't touch me. Even though it could. Because my mother had died of illness, and you don't cure those with swords.

"To defend myself," I replied, which was part true and part lie. "I even sleep with it."

Minx looked at it, impressed. "It would make you a good Blood Drinker," he said. "We could do the whole purifying process, and you could use it to slay the creatures. Which reminds me, you still haven't said whether you're willing to study in our school."

It was because I didn't have an answer yet. I didn't like Blood Drinkers. Perhaps I even hated them. My father had been one of them. I wanted to hate him, but he was a total stranger. Perhaps becoming like him would help me understand him better.

And the school was in Meglenia. My mother's country. It would have been a ticket out of West Tallya, a way to get rid of Pablo. And I could practise fencing every day.

The price to pay? Becoming one of them. It must have seemed a price too high to many people, but it wasn't to me. I wasn't leaving anything behind as a human, not a family, not friends. Not even a job worth keeping.

"Alright," I said. "I'll go."

"You know chances are that you're suitable to become a Blood Drinker," Minx warned. "But we can't be completely sure. Maybe when our Speaker offers you a card from his Sensor Deck, you'll draw a blank one. It happens. Most of the time. Are you sure you don't want to find a Speaker here, and check whether you have Skills before we make the travel? There are schools for Blood Drinkers here too, though I must say Mira's and mine is considered the best."

He grinned awkwardly.

I wasn't interested in his school. I mean, it was probably a very nice school. But I wasn't sure becoming one of them was the best idea I'd ever had. However, I wasn't looking to stay in West Tallya, and this stranger could take me to Meglenia, no questions asked.

He had the kind of face everybody trusts, and, if my judgement didn't prove to be right, I had a sword.

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"I want to come to our school," I said. "And if I don't have a Skill... well, I've always wanted to visit the country where my mother's from."

"Pick a card," the Speaker told me. He was my age, and lanky as the headmaster of the school. He had a boyish face and dirt blond curls, in a cold shade that looked almost dark grey. His name was Roman Sioban, or so I understood.

I felt immediately drawn to a card. I didn't think I'd ever been so sure of anything in my life.

"Knowledge," Roman became very pale. "The universe answers your questions."

I felt a knot in my stomach. It was real. I was about to become a Blood Drinker. I didn't even know if it was a good thing. But like many other times before, I trusted my guts, and the excitement I felt was the same before any great duel. It was something that I felt I needed to do.

"That's a rare Skill!" Mira, Minx' wife, said, covering her mouth with her hands. She seemed at a loss for words.

Minx cheered, along with a couple of other students.

They had all introduced themselves before. Their names were Atticus and Aurora, and they were dating. They were much older than me.

Then, there were the twins, Cora and Evangeline. They didn't seem interested in my fate. A girl who was older than me but not by much, Carmela, was playing with her weapon, a bow and an arrow, until the teachers mentioned the card of Knowledge. Then, she grinned at me excitedly.

The boys my age were a different matter. Jason kept looking at me scowling, and I couldn't tell whether I had done something to piss him off or whether that was the way he looked at everyone. The other, Cypress, well... I wasn't sure he was even a boy. He did not describe himself that way, so I tried to keep his words in mind. He didn't look too friendly, but he was the one I wanted to approach the most.

The Speaker was my age too, but he didn't seem like he would be great company.

"Now, we should probably tell Jonathan a few things about Blood Drinkers, in case he doesn't know all of it," Mira said. She explained the process of feeding from the animals, and of killing the Creatures. She explained how they were the embodiment of the chaos and brought death, plague, famine, and other disasters.

That was when I noticed how deep I was in it. I gripped the handle of my sword, because it somehow made me feel safer.

When she got to the point where she was saying how she expected me to trust Minx and her, because they were our teachers and, in a way, our guardians, and how we couldn't leave the school without telling them, and only had to go on patrol with them, I started polishing my sword.

I'd never liked listening, especially listening to rules. Besides, this was going to be a school like any other, and I'd never liked schools.

I looked around, only to see Cypress glaring at me. He had unsettling blue eyes that looked almost lilac.

I looked away.

During lunch, I sat between Cypress and Atticus. Cypress because he was the only other Blood Drinker my age, and I did not want to be friend with Jason. Atticus because he was charming, and he seemed like he would be a great friend.

"So," I told Cypress. "How come do you have two names?"

"Two names? Don't you have two names as well?" Cypress raised a pale eyebrow. He moved gracefully, and his expressions weren't an exception.

"Yes, Jonathan Abraham. But I wasn't talking about that. Your surname is Spaulding-Macbeth. Are your parents divorced?"

I started eating a chicken leg while I was waiting for a reply. I was beginning to feel uncomfortable, though only slightly. My accent was different from theirs. They didn't even eat the chicken like I ate it.

Cypress looked pissed off. "My mother decided I could keep both surnames. The Macbeths are an important family of Blood Drinkers here in Meglenia."

I nodded. "My father was important too, or so I've heard. Diego Loreta."

"I think I've heard of him!" Carmela squealed in delight. "I'm South Tallyard, by the way. My mother moved here in Meglenia very recently."

"Nice," I commented. "I'm West Tallyard."

There were a few differences between Carmela's part of Tallya and the one I came from, in accents and customs, but for once I did not feel so alone. For example, when I said my father was named Diego Loreta, I could swear Jason had snorted.

"Minx Morris told me they can do a purifying process for my sword, and it will become my weapon!" I said. "I will be able to kill the Creatures with it!"

"Do you only know how to talk about your sword?" Cypress muttered, but I heard him.

I was hurt. I decided maybe I had picked the wrong person to be my friend. I turned to Atticus and Aurora, who were talking to the Speaker. He was Atticus' younger brother.

"We've heard about your sword!" Aurora said. "I think it's cool that Blood Drinkers can choose any weapon they want to. Like Carmela's bow. Do you know that famous Tallyard Blood Drinker Salvatore Raso had a garrote? And yes, he's a distant relative of Carmela."

"We love fun facts," Atticus added. "Most Blood Drinkers, though, use a knife called athame. At least, it's the typical Blood Drinker's weapon."

"One of the reasons why I'd like to be a Blood Drinker," Roman mused. "Would be to have my own athame. Or at least, to make my collection of knives more useful."

"You know Minx will let you use them on the creatures from time to time," Aurora said. "He promised."

"He said only when things aren't too dangerous," Roman replied unhappily.

I thought about my Skill. The universe answers your questions. I wondered what I could ask the universe, if I had the chance. Maybe I could ask it where my father was. Or my mother.

Maybe my Skill didn't even work that way. I had to admit I didn't know the first thing about Skills.

"Can you talk to spirits?" I asked Roman.

"Yes, I'm a Speaker," he replied glumly, as if he didn't like being reminded of it.

"Could you, maybe, talk to the spirit of my mother?" I wanted to know. "Or perhaps she's already passed on. Can you contact the spirits who passed on, too?"

Atticus joined the conversation before Roman could reply. "Speaking makes my brother very exhausted," he said. "I know you would like very much to talk to your mother, Jonathan, but we don't usually use Roman's powers for things like that."

He seemed genuinely sorry, but it didn't do much to comfort me.

I took a deep breath. One step after the other. I was there, in Meglenia, the land where my mother was from. The land from all the stories she'd told me as a child. I would feel closer to her. And I would become a Blood Drinker, and it would be like my mother and my father hadn't left me, not really.

"How do you feel about the Tasks?" Cora asked. "I know they make most of the first-years feel dizzy, only at the thought they'd have to go through them."

"The Tasks?" I asked.

"What? You haven't listened to Mira? It's the three tasks the first-years go through. You won't become a Blood Drinker unless you pass them. Of course, our teachers will make sure we do. But it's not a guarantee."

"Cora, don't scare the new kid," Aurora told the other girl.

"Cora is right, Jonathan didn't even bother to hear the teachers' explanation," Cypress said cooly. "Blood Drinkers need to be prepared to fight the creatures, so we have to train to listen to our teachers a lot. We have to become quick-footed and deadly, but also merciful. Obviously, not everyone can do it."

He looked eloquently at me. I became very red in the face. The other students looked at Cypress surprised, as if he'd never spoken so much before, or perhaps as if they didn't expect him to speak so ill of me.

I had decided one thing, though. Being Cypress' friend was not worth it. Perhaps, I had even made an enemy.

"If anyone can do it, I think I can do it, Cypress," I replied cockily, though I didn't feel so sure. I'd never even thought about becoming a Blood Drinker before, I couldn't just proclaim it was my thing.

"It's only Macbeth or Lady Macbeth to you," he replied dryly.

The temperature in the room froze.

"Maybe," Evangeline said. "If you have a problem with the new student, Cypress, you can talk about it to Minx. I always tell him, or Mira, all of my problems, and they have given me answers more than once."

"That's why your grades are better than mine," Cora replied, and I didn't think she was exactly joking.

"I don't have a problem with Jonathan," Cypress tried to keep his cool. I'd noticed he tried to be well-liked by the older students, but he wasn't exactly cool headed, not even for a person our age.

"It's Loreta to you," I told him.

"Fine, I don't have a problem with Loreta. I just think that the school started a few days ago, and it's not right for him to interrupt our classes like that, and act as if he finds none of this important. As if it's all above him."

That was not what I thought. I just didn't want to become too attached to the idea of becoming a Blood Drinker, because then what? What if I became one, and didn't find out anything cool about my father, didn't feel any closer to him? What if I failed the Tasks? What if I fainted the first time I saw a Creature?

I didn't think they could send me home, but I could not risk it. I had run away from West Tallya, from my past, from Pablo, and I hated the idea that I could be sent back if I wasn't Blood Drinker material.

"Speaking of interrupting our classes," Jason said, after a long silence. "There's not all of us here. The kid my father bought at the market should join us soon."

"How long were you waiting to tell us?" Atticus asked.

"I had no interest in letting you know," Jason shrugged.

"What do you mean your father bought a kid?" I joined the conversation.

"Isn't it illegal?" Roman asked darkly.

"It's legal, in Ichor," Jason said. "Where we're from. Small island off the coast of Meglenia."

"I know what Ichor is," I let him know.

"Either way," Aurora explained, because Jason did not look like he wanted to add anything. "I've heard of it. They buy kids from orphanages and sell them, because of their Skills. People who have no Blood Drinkers as heirs can buy them. But why does your father... ? You're a Blood Drinker."

Jason shrugged. "Father was interested in Matias' Skill."

"Tomorrow," Mira announced. "We will start with the practical lessons. We'll teach you how to hunt the animals, even though you can't drink their blood yet."

Carmela snickered at that.

I shivered. "I hope we won't start getting near the Creatures for a while," I murmured to myself.

Cypress leaned closer to me. "Maybe," he commented dryly. "You won't stay at the school long enough to see it."