Nemo had been scared for so long that he barely even felt the emotion anymore. It had faded, fallen back into the hind of his mind like some casual thing. Wallpaper, unnoticed and insubstantial, too solid a part of his new normalcy to even be felt in any given moment.

He’d been sent away, but not from the city. Nemo’s new home was not a library, nor did it seem to have much of anything in the way of books at all. It was a large room, though tucked deep within the bowels of the castle, unfamiliar and cold. Its walls were thick stone, furniture strange and unworn. Interior empty, save for himself and Xekanis.

At the moment, his friend was in his standard form. Roughly head-sized and vaguely ovular, hovering a few feet from the ground where he crackled and spat with embers. It was an illusion Nemo had long since grown tired of studying. There was no fuel within him to be making any sort of noise, nor, for that matter, to produce the heat. Where there ought to have been logs and kindling at the centre of his fiery core was only air.

It wasn’t that the form Xekanis now occupied was fake, it was as real, tangible and physical as Nemo’s own. It simply wasn’t constructed with the same understanding of natural law that was required of any functional organism native to the world. Xekanis had made his own body the moment he was summoned, and done a close enough job of it. Fundamentally, though, it would never be more than mere emulation. An imperfect copy of a real thing, betrayed in its falsity by lacking all those concessions and flaws that were required of the things that played by reality’s rules.

Nemo smiled at the sight of it. There was, in his opinion, nothing in all the world even half so beautiful.

“You’re sad.” Xekanis noted, humming the words in that curious way he had. Human speech had never quite been something he’d mastered anymore than the laws of combustion. There was a sad note to his voice, however. Emotion he understood. Perhaps above all other things, emotion he understood.

“I’m a coward.” Nemo whispered, curling up a shade tighter as his legs folded more closely and hands curled more painfully about him. Nothing ever hurt like the truth, after all. Particularly when it was a truth about one’s self.

“That’s okay.” Xekanis replied.

Nemo blinked, turning to his friend. Usually, they did not speak about such things as cowardice. Xekanis had been summoned by Nemo to fulfil a singular purpose, and he’d done so perfectly for years. To be his friend. They played, laughed, joked- insofar as a Demon’s understanding of irony and subversion permitted that- and spoke of the endless stories Nemo had awaiting his eye around him.

Serious conversation, of the sort which usually spawned discussion about cowardice, was rarely a factor in it. Nemo had rarely spoken of such things with Al, after all.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t expected Xekanis to answer the way he had, more that he hadn’t prepared for it. Hearing the response outloud felt somehow more confounding than knowing it would come.

“People are getting hurt because of me.” Nemo muttered, eyes growing wet again at the very thought. Wet, and impotent. His tears never helped people. They hadn’t gotten him from that library, or saved Al, they certainly wouldn’t be saving anybody else.

“That’s fine.” Xekanis assured him. “People get hurt all the time, it is actually very funny and good.”

Nemo stared at him, almost without words.

“That’s a horrible thing to say!”

For a moment, Xekanis paused. The only sound was that of air churning around him, and that ever-persistent, phantom crackling that came from his body. Finally he spoke.

“I’m sorry, I’ve upset you. I didn’t mean to do that.”

Nemo sighed, turning away from Xekanis. It wasn’t his fault, not really. He was a Friend. His essence was to be whatever the little boy who’d half-accidentally summoned and bound him wished for. It was the boy’s fault for not thinking that his friend ought to value human lives beyond his own, while he was concentrating on making him funny and nice.

“It’s okay.” Nemo assured him, feeling the warmth touch his skin a moment later. Xekanis could never truly be cool enough to touch, and so such gestures had become their hugs.

“Do you feel better?” The Demon asked, hopefully.

Nemo hesitated, then forced a smile.

“Yes.” He lied.

----------------------------------------

It had been a strange location Silenos had been given, to meet the apparent Vampire Queen. Strange for several reasons.

Well within sight of Ironbane, yet rather far from it walls, the site offered no great comfort to either side of the negotiation- which was, perhaps, the point. It was an old place, covered with etchings as ancient as the sandstone pyramids in Silenos’ new city, and reeking of a magic even he had only ever seen once before.

Most strangely of all, however, was that it was a forest. SIlenos had made a more comprehensive study of organic matter than was physically possible for any singular human lifespan, and he was quite sure that such altitudes were far from nurturing for trees of the sort he now found himself surrounded by. It was almost as if the growths were there out of spite, towering purely to defy the world itself.

That thought struck him with the sudden urge to strike them all down, which Silenos did not come close to humouring. He did, however, think rather hard about the impulse.

His emotions seemed to be fraying more by the day. Why did he still suffer them? The moment he returned, Silenos would finally be rid of his pitiful cognitive spasms. Deciding as much struck him with a sense of finality and comfort, but it was not to last long. Movement ahead of him, deep in the forest, made all other considerations redundant.

More than just one body emerged from the shadows, of course. Silenos would have been horrifically disappointed had they not. All wore dark armour, and moved with the twinned grace and strength which was found only in the bodies of uncommonly well-crafted undead. They came on as a single, sweeping wave of darkness; faces hidden behind lowered visors, hands resting beside dark weapons. They carried with them such a terrible unity that Silenos almost felt as though he were watching constructs of his own House stride forwards.

Amid them, one sole figure broke the monotonous blacks and greys of their colouration, and broke with them the invariable trend towards plated armour. She did so by approaching in a flowing dress of arterial crimson.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

She was not a tall creature, but a single glance at her told Silenos how foolish a metric of power that would have been. She radiated magical energy as did an open furnace radiate heat. Her skin was pale and bloodless, eyes a deep scarlet, hair whiter by far than her flesh. She walked as if even the ground was beneath her dignity, seeming to glide over it through sheer force of contempt. In moments, she was almost upon him.

“Master Shaiagrazni.” She greeted him, speaking in a voice twisted with emotions Silenos lacked the social context to properly identify. “I am here for your surrender.”

It was refreshing to be dealt with in so efficient a way. Silenos decided, eagerly, to respond in kind.

“I have no intention of surrendering.” He informed the creature.

She blinked, frowning. It was all a transparently deliberate gesture, he knew. Her kind made no involuntary facial twitches, which meant any he saw- she wanted him to see.

“I was under the impression that you called for this meeting specifically to discuss terms of surrender.” The Vampire replied.

“I did.” Silenos confirmed. “Your surrender, however, not my own. I am rather uncertain how you mistook my intentions given the inherent superiority of my glorious power and unfathomable intellect over all others of this world.”

The Vampire tilted her head a fraction, perplexion worn openly- perhaps even intentionally.

“Interesting. You do not speak like a mad man.” She noted. “And yet you behave like one, are you somehow ignorant of the Dark Lord’s approach?”

“Not at all.” Silenos assured her. “I merely have no particular phobia of rats or insects, and so see no reason to be concerned with it.”

The Vampire smiled, a tongue running along her lips for a moment. It was strange how slowly it occurred, gesture taking almost unnaturally long. Emphasised, for some reason? Silenos made a note to investigate further when he could.

“You seem remarkably confident.” The Vampire observed. “Might I guess that you know something I am not privy to?”

“More than you could learn in a decade.” Silenos informed it. “But in this case, the most fundamentally relevant piece of information you lack is that I have seized Prince Nemo, and am on the verge of taking over Ironbane and crystallising my rule. Your mission to interfere has failed, and whatever favour you hoped to gain with the Dark Lord by executing it will have soured.”

The Vampire expressed no more than Silenos had expected, but his focus was upon its pause. A fractional thing, barely as long as most creatures took to react, but it was an age by the standards he’d seen set by the undead’s quick wits so far. Clearly, his words had given it something to reconsider. A promising start.

“And you would have us defect to you, as an alternative?”

“What I would have is somewhat irrelevant.” Silenos noted, frankly. “As I understand it, you really do not have many other options. Your kind are viewed as abominations by most in this world, and those few who differ from the opinion are in no position to provide you any sanctuary.”

“Unless, of course, you or the Dark Lord weaken the other so much that, even in victory, they are forced to accept whatever help they can- and thus provide more favourable terms in exchange for the protection and security that comes with an alliance to my people. We are powerful beings, caster, and old. I have walked this world for two thousand years, I know well enough how easily tides can change when circumstance does.”

Two thousand years was, if a true claim, quite a considerable number of them. That would have made her one of the oldest things even among House Shaiagrazni, and Silenos suddenly found himself rather less infuriated to have experienced so competent an attack. It was like speaking with…

Yes, like speaking with one of his fellows from House Shaiagrazni. Refreshing, almost, and beyond stimulating. Conversation with an equal had been something Silenos had gone far too long without, he felt the great rust shivering free of his synapses as he turned them to the challenge.

“Which brings things back to the fundamental issue at play for you; I am wholly capable of destroying the Dark Lord if I see fit, I simply need time and chance to build my strength.”

It was half a lie, at most, which made it a convincing truth. If Silenos had the time and chance he described, he’d certainly have considerable odds against the Dark Lord, and if he won he would likely do so in such a way as to remain potent afterwards. The Vampire, though, was too sharp for even such a deception as that to deter its scrutiny.

“Which only incentivises me to ensure that whichever of you wins, does so scarcely. I can certainly tip the scales to my own best interests, and do so with a great level of care. As you have seen already. The Dark Lord is the better bet, at worst I shall throw my soldiers against yours and sacrifice some to save the rest.”

Silenos had seen it, and he had fully anticipated the answer. His own was tailor-made to cut away the root of its merit.

“Which would foil my plans, and likely destroy me.” He replied, evenly. “And leave me with nothing to lose in seeking retribution by destroying all of you as my final act.”

To her seemingly unending credit, the Vampire appeared rather unperturbed by Silenos’ promise. He would have expected nothing less.

“You strike me as a rational man.” It noted. Silenos held its eye. “Perhaps too rational for revenge, and certainly too rational for so expensive a vengeance as that.”

“There are very few things I will not do to avenge myself upon one who has so senselessly foiled my plans.” Silenos corrected it. “Believe me, House Shaiagrazni’s sense of propriety is more than strong enough to motivate such a thing as that. It is your own life, of course. I would just advise you gamble it more carefully than you are.”

“Threats won’t work.” The Vampire Hexeri scoffed. Silenos turned to it.

So far, the creature had remained largely silent, seeming content to allow its leader to speak for it. Silenos could hardly blame the thing- House Shaiagrazni had just such a custom. Remaining silent in the presence of intellectual superiors was an excellent habit for any subordinate to learn. It was curious to see the undead breaking it now.

“Hm…” The older Vampire murmured, face turned to a slight frown as she eyed Silenos, not even bothering to glance at her subordinate. He supposed, in the absence of an immediate retributory maiming for its disrespect, Silenos could accept indifference as an almost appropriate reaction. Few beings were perfect, after all.

“He is not bluffing.” The Elder said, at last. There was no particular fear or concern at the observation, none clear at least, but Silenos suspected his new opponent was rapidly reconsidering their situation. It was what he’d be doing, in her position.

“Now that we have established as much, I shall elaborate upon the terms of your surrender.” He began. “You will provide your aid to my securing of Ironbane. I know, already, that you have considerable influence among its population, no doubt you have been seeding that for quite some time, and I deduce further that you were thorough enough to extend your powers into the city’s nobility and wealthier classes. As such, you shall use this influence to stabilise the region. You will do so subtly, and keep your hand in it both unobserved and unattached to me. Then, once the city is irreversibly mine, you shall reveal yourself and take your place within House Shaiagrazni as a retainer.”

It was the younger Vampire which answered first, evidently emboldened by finding its previous outburst unpunished.

“Ridiculous.” It spat, seemingly caught between the twin points of outrage and derision. “You’re asking that we suborn ourselves to you, forever I assume?”

“Yes.” Was all Silenos told it, finding the very act of debasing himself by even answering revolting enough. “Now be silent, I did not call for this parlay to negotiate with you.”

The Vampire was clearly not happy about the retort, which only made it more satisfying to hand out. Silenos kept his quietude in anticipation of the Elder’s response, and was not kept waiting for long.

Her answer did not come as a speech, sentence or even as an individual word. She merely lowered her eyes, bowed her head, and took a knee before him. Silenos remained silent, eying the genuflection and drinking it in. It had been so long since he had received such a show from one worthy of even considering, he had forgotten the satisfaction of doing so.

“Good.” Silenos declared, finding nothing more worthwhile to comment upon. “Then our business is completed.”

He turned, catching a satisfying glance of the lesser Vampire’s face as it stared in horror at the events. Silenos had taken only three steps before the Elder’s voice rang out again, pausing him mid-stride.

“Do you know what the people have started calling you, Shaiagrazni?” She asked. Silenos turned, letting his silence be its own answer, awaiting her elaboration. “They are calling you the New Dark Lord.”

It was, he decided, only somewhat inappropriate.