Interlude — Sire

Akatsuki Jin, or rather the man who currently answered to that name, stood on top of a branch high above the ground. He kept his presence obscured, his heart didn’t beat, nor did he take a breath. There was no scent coming of his body that was not from the environment, as vampires didn’t produce such things, and the shirt he had borrowed from his daughter had some camouflage patterns on it that added to his intent of not being noticed.

This realm he found himself was strange. He had hardly ever seen the like in all his long years of life. It was artificial, that much he was certain about. He even had a word to describe it, halo. Despite being ancient, Jin had made it the point of keeping up with the human advancements and ideas. Being old, contrary to what some would believe, did not make one all knowing, or particularly smarter than the rest. Jin had learned much, that was certain, but he never knew more than what the collective knowledge of his world knew. He was not some great thinker, though he had met many. He did not advance the sciences, though he had inadvertently helped some make such advancements.

He was, an Ancient Vampire, one of the first of his kind. Second only to the originals in age, and one of the strongest beings that had ever walked the planet. Once, he had been arrogant enough to believe that there was little that could threaten him. That he had all the time in the world to achieve his goals.

It was one of the most common traps that young vampires fell into, thinking that the world was as unchanging as they were.

Jin had made a mistake, proving that even one as ancient and experienced as he could fall prey to such simple traps. Jin had failed, he had failed his sire, and he had failed his spawn, his daughter. But while he did feel guilt, he was also tens of thousands of years old. He understood that such emotions weren’t helpful to be dwelled on. Guilt had its purpose, as all emotion did, for vampires especially, and once that purpose was met it was far more important to act and clear the debt that guilt had inflicted.

His debt was why Jin had entered this challenge, why he was now in this strange place. To watch over and aid his daughter in the ways that he should’ve when he had first given her the gift of the thirst. Or to cut her life short if she had fallen to the temptations of her baser nature. He had many fears and many hopes before entering this place, and instead of any one of them being true, reality proved far different.

His daughter was far more than he could’ve ever hoped her to be. Emotional, strong, dangerous, all of that and more. So much more, terrifyingly so.

He sat in the tree and watched her as she conversed with her growing dragon companion. He was unsure if what he was watching was even reality. Marianna’s growth had accelerated again.

He had misled her before, when he said that she hadn’t matured because of her Mask, he was certain that it was a factor, as she probably also suspected. And when he told her that it would take her a decade to reach full maturity, the Ascension phase.

What he was feeling from her now was astounding. Her thirst had expanded, it had grown and had started the final changes. He had almost not recognized her when she returned from the trial, that was how much she had changed in mere days.

He had overheard what she had said about what she encountered within the trial. That gave him context to what he was seeing and sensing. If the shifter she killed and drank the blood from was indeed three thousand years old, then his blood would’ve accelerated her growth significantly.

Shifters were different than vampires, the version of the thirst within them was richer and calmer, it developed faster, relatively. It was one of the reasons why vampires and shifters hated one another, because vampires used to hunt them and enslave them so that they could feed on them and accelerate their growth. Vampires used to hold them as pets and slaves.

That practice ended with the shifter and human rebellion some eleven thousand years ago. When they rose up and killed one of the three original vampires and, in the aftermath, caused the fall of Atlantis and loss of most of the early generations of vampires.

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After that, Jin’s sire put a stop to the practice everywhere. She eradicated all records of shifter blood’s effects on vampires and tasked Jin with making sure that the practice never returned again.

Thankfully, only truly old shifters would give any kind of real benefit to the current older vampires, as their strain of the thirst was diluted.

Every once in a while, a vampire would realize the benefit, and Jin would usually come along and execute them before they could get any foolish ideas.

Shifters weren’t as long lived as vampires, the oldest of them that Jin knew of reached five thousand years before dying of old age. Three thousand was unheard of in the age since the fall of Atlantis. Their culture had become too driven by strength, they tended to kill each other off in pursuit of power. And they’ve lost parts of their diets that had kept them healthy for longer.

That Marianna had managed to kill a shifter that old was a miracle already. She was young, untrained, and yet she had managed it. She was… raw, in the most primal way possible. And her Mask had to be making her stronger.

She had obviously adapted to it with far greater ease than Jin had. His was the Mask of the Explorer, as had once been his life’s work. To walk and explore the world, and he had done it. Was perhaps the first person to walk it all.

His Mask had advanced quickly as he made his way across what Earth had become, though he didn’t understand much about it. Now, he knew that his travel had been gathering Investment.

Marianna’s Mask was obviously related to her growth. Even Jin could feel himself getting stronger as his Mask advanced.

And yet… from what he was sensing from her, she was right at the edge. She could make the transition tomorrow, or in a week, a month, she was so close that it was insane.

She was the fastest growing vampire he had ever seen. Even his siblings that had gorged themselves on rivers of blood had only managed to advance so far in a handful of years. Marianna had done it in three months.

True, she had been a Fledgling for years, and even then, she had reached the Adult Stage fairly quickly. But this was unprecedented.

Part of Jin was worried that this was going to affect the other vampires too, though even if their Masks halved the time it took them to fully mature it would still take them hundreds of years as there were not many vampires left that were of earlier generations. And those that remained stopped making fledglings a long time ago, so perhaps it wasn’t too bad.

He tried to decide if he should go down there and talk with her, prepare her for what was about to happen to her. The jump from an Elder to a fully mature vampire was significant.

Only, he was worried that his presence would be unwelcome. His guilt had infected him. He should’ve done better by her, done more. He had become too lethargic, too lost in his own world, unaccustomed to change. As many of his kind did when they became truly old.

He knew that such emotions were unhelpful, so he pushed them aside, suppressing them with great skill.

He decided against meddling with Marianna. Anything he said or did could color her expectations and hinder her growth. She had done well on her own, better than he could’ve hoped for. She was a monster; in all the ways humans called their kind. And she reminded him of his sire, his mother.

Jin closed his eyes for a moment, gave an old prayer to the stars, the gods of his people, then turned and left.

He shouldn’t have remained close for so long. He had already confirmed that Marianna wasn’t feral, there was no need to linger. Only his sense of obligation had kept him nearby, in case she needed help.

His daughter had grown, without him there, but such was life. They were vampires, there was time for their relationship to be mended. She was too young for the harm he had done her to be anything but fresh in her mind. Time was needed, and he would give it to her.

But that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t help her in other ways. He had overheard her goals. The young fools in Constantinople would probably try some schemes with her if she ever reached the city, but she would be far more powerful by then. He hadn’t visited since the early 500s, but he remembered the whelp that ruled the vampires there. He wasn’t even seven thousand years old. Though few older vampires remained. Jin had taught the whelp a lesson once before, and perhaps Marianna would see if he had learned it well. He didn’t worry about her, for all intents and purposes she was a queen of vampire kind, even if she didn’t know it. Her blood would sing to them, and the older ones will know her lineage. The rest would be too weak to threaten her.

She wouldn’t need his help there. Though, perhaps he could see about finding this Dubois. Humans were a far greater threat to her than any vampire. There was a reason why vampires hid in the shadows in this age. Lessons of the past were learned well.

The halo was large, but Jin was fast enough that he might have the chance at finding a single human. Though, perhaps a challenge was what Marianna needed more.

He didn’t rush his decision, for now, he would just explore. Take life as it came, it had been a long time since he was free to enjoy it. And this would probably be the last such opportunity in a while. Once he was back on Earth, he would need to focus on finding his sire.

She would be needed for once the protections surrounding them fall and the vultures come. If there was one thing he knew about his mother, it was that she was very territorial about her home. The races of Kirios haven’t seen anything yet.