In the gallows Fabien slept on a mattress of straw. Bugs tore through his garbs, fat grey rats stole the little food left in the corner of his cell, and the air crystallized in his lungs.

Emaciated, he struggled to open his eyes. When he did his sight set on his lord. The lord who had changed oh so much, oh so quickly. The lord whom the devil possessed.

#

“Why do you do this?” asked the knight. His words condensed into puffs of white smoke.

I who stood on the other side of the metal bars; in red cloths and golden buttons, I took my time to respond. “For your faithful service until that day I will spare your family. I heard you had a newborn son,” I said. My cheeks itched. And as to not smile, I opened my mouth and faked a yawn. “I will raise him. You have no need to worry.”

Fabien’s eyes opened wide. He too had heard the news from the church. All had heard the news. No one could hide the presence of magic even to the dullest of men. After all his child could probably already use magic. After all, if kids learned how to walk at two why couldn’t they be able to manipulate mana?

“You!” He raised his head. “Alexandre, have you gone mad? All this for the power of those children? That was a gift from God to combat the demons. We do not know how these powers will manifest. We must let the church investigate before we act. These babies, my baby, he’s but one, no devil starts training even the finest of knights at that age. They warned of this. Of being corrupted by their powers. This is a test Alexandre. Please reconsider.” He begged now on all fours. The sides of his mouth were painted white, covered by dried saliva.

“Dog,” I said. “You have no right to speak to me in such a manner. Why do you think the church gave those orders? It is so that they may monopolize this new power. Do you think kings and dukes will go along with this? No! They have surely started training these children to be the new face of their armies. The only difference being that they have the power to buy off the church, that is if they do not already control it. One cannot separate church and state. Never! The only thing that may vary is the one who controls. Unfortunately, here it is the church. But now I can change that, and I will.” My breath heavy, my chest throbbing, and teary-eyed I finished saying my part.

Something wasn’t right. Alexander’s will had started to sip into me. I needed to take back my original shape soon. However, I didn’t know if I could return to being Alexandre after. As such, I needed to at least gain power over the court before doing so.

#

Under murky sky’s knights wipped Fabien’s frail body till he reached the town square. A young executioner who lived at the edge of the city held an axe, great both in size and history. It had reaped the life of over two hundred in the past century. Past down from Father to Son, over six generations it now weighed as much as the service it delivered.

And so, the few knights who dragged their former captain with a heavy heart onto the chopping block moved back.

In front of a crowd of a few hundred, Fabien would see the face of his fellow humans for the last time. His lips twitched. I could see the words he wanted to scream. However, Dandellion had already taken over his body. Only restricting his speech. After all, if he did not resist a bit and walked to his death without any qualms it may raise suspicion. Well, maybe not but I wasn’t one to risk things. Or at least I liked to tell myself as much. The curved iron tinted sangria brown swung down. Blood painted the theatre red, and the rabble cheered. Their lord had defended their humanity.

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“Listen here all subjects,” I proclaimed. “I know that revenge is not enough to mend broken hearts. I know that prestige isn’t enough to fill stomachs. I know that gold isn’t enough to find peace and happiness. I know that God had recently graced the young clerk with a son. I know that his wife, in her grief took her life.” She did not. “As such, I will take the child in and raise him, but not only him. Every child from this day on who is without parents, or whose parents cannot, for whatever reason take care of their children will be raised by my new private orphanage. As a father and a lord that is the least, I can do. That is all. May God bless you all.”

The commoners did not connect the dots like the knight. They were too occupied with surviving to care for the church’s official stance on this matter. No, the ones who would care for this would be the priest of the city’s church, and of my castle’s private chapel. Well, both were asleep for now. However, I would need to deal with them posthaste.

#

Father Louis, my chapel’s new priest lay on the floor in front of the altar, on the sanctuary. His robes draped down the wooden stairs.

I picked him up. He was as light as a plume, this new body of mine had been trained as a knight and when you add to that my vampiric strength, I felt four times as strong as a mortal. I would need to gain more strength later.

But for now, I had to find a way to control the minds of men. I injected more mana into the priest. Already, his brain was full of mana. It kept him in a comatose state. But that couldn’t last. Wasn’t this a world of magic. Could I not encrust my mana into his heart as to control him? Why is the only way I can make use of magic through anatomical means? There had to be something else. I had to look through other axioms, through sights that are different than the ones I know so well.

“Control his thoughts and actions, make him my slave,” I told my mana. The mana in his brain twisted and turned. Now in a new configuration the man’s eyes fluttered awake. When reason seemed to have returned to him I ordered, “Do ten push-ups.”

The priest had a quizzical look. Regardless, he turned to be on his stomach. His arms pushed up; however, he just got up. I ordered my mana to comatose him once again. He fell to the ground. Thinking outside the box wasn’t the most obvious. Big words could only do so much.

Well, it did seem like the order I gave influenced his movement a bit; however, it didn’t control him. Perhaps my mana wasn’t strong enough. But how could I increase it?

That’s when I remembered that I was a vampire. Didn’t those pebbles in my lungs that absorbed mana send it in my blood stream. Perhaps the mana expunged by my lungs were just residues. After all, if a unicorn could fly at the speed of sound and walk on air. Then shouldn’t I be able to do more than simply slightly enhance my strength?

But then if I needed blood, I needed an enchanted weapon.

#

“How are the children?" I asked.

The maid I had assigned to this task smiled. “They’re doing just fine. The wet nurses you hired recently fed them so they’re all asleep.”

“That’s good.” I said, while I made her fall asleep. I took a knife from my waist and let a child breath on it. However, just as I was leaving. The grey mana he expunged disappeared from the blade.

I repeated the enchantment process, this time leaving it for a whole five minutes. But the enchantment disappeared after a few instants.

Perhaps those not born near progenitors had low amounts of mana. Well, this could be analyzed later. As such I cut myself there, accumulated a bit of blood in a ball, healed my wound, and headed back to the chapel.

In front of the priest, I parted open his eyelids and dripped two drops of my blood in his eyes. With my mana I controlled it and led it into his brain. That’s when I confirmed it. My blood contained much more mana, it felt like I could map his brain, control each of his emotions, desires, and thoughts. It all belonged to me.

When the priest awoke, I ordered, “Do not speak and do ten push-ups,” he did as ordered. “Get undressed.” He did as ordered. With this I could be certain that he would do all I wished. “Now get your clothes back on, from this day forwards you are my slave, you will live and die for my sake. Your first mission is to keep your mouth shut about the orphanage.” That’s all I had to say.

#

Now that I had found how to control men. I first went to the city church and did the same to the priest stationed there before heading back to the castle and putting everyone there under my total and absolute control.