These hands' got blood on them.

The shock was ended by a sudden hunger. But it wasnt my stomach who craved nourishment, it was my very soul. The dim light revealed the beginning of a staircase to my left. Acting on insinct, I started to climb it.

 

“So you know each other, and we all know these things. Fine.â€￾ My body relaxed and I walked towards the door, leaving Merloc to speak with the newcomer. I felt fine, no violent heart-beating, no sweating, no goose bumps. I reached the adamantine door and knocked with my fist three times, but no sound came from the other side. Merloc and the other man were exchanging information as they got to me. I pressed against the wall and moved my hands over the wall of stone bricks until I found it.
As I took the key out of the brick, a paper feel to the floor. I picked it up and read,

“My little Eien,
If you’re reading this, it’s because I’m not in this world anymore. I pray to the almighty Velorien that the horror I’ve fathered does not reach you if you ever come back.
I leave you everything I own and has not been destroyed. Burn my books and commend my soul to whatever God you follow now.
Gwrha’l Rhea’ahla.â€￾

A tear fell on the paper. I folded the letter and put it in my pocket. I turned around; “By the way, I’m Eien,â€￾ I told the man and extended my arm to shake hands with him. “Gentlemen, are you ready to get in?â€￾

 

As the man kicked open the adamantine doors, I realized that they must have been unlocked. The doors swung open and on the other side there was only darkness, it was like a fog shrouding the room preventing our torch light from entering. We stared into the darkness for a short time. After about a minute I saw as the man get pulled into the fog, I tried to grab him but I wasn’t fast enough. I thought to my self that I had never encountered something like this before, and I jumped back. I drew my dagger knowing I was still weak and didn’t have the strength to use any strong spells. the man could be heard yelling from inside the fog, he was under attack. I didn’t approach not knowing how many of or even what was in the fog. I heard a gun shot and soon after the man came scurrying back out into the hall.

There was a roar from within the fog and a form began to emerge. It looked like a large demon of some kind but it was translucent and as it moved the fog seemed to follow it like a wake of darkness.

We began to run for the exit. The man was wounded but he was still able to fight. He was firing the occasional shot into the creature, and I tried to hit it with a small fire ball. But our attacks barley served to annoy it. In the background I could hear the hiss of several vampires following in the trail of the demon as a bullets seemed to hit one of them.



Lets see where this goes, my mind seems to come up with strange things.

 

I hurried up the steps. At the top there was an old wooden door. I ran right through it, smashing the rotten woodwork to bits. Blinded by the hunger, I sensed a figure at the far side of the room. I ran towards it with a speed no human could achieve. As I reached the figure, I grabbed him and hurriedly bit his neck, hard. There was a slight whimper, but the figure fell silent as i drew blood. After a while he reached back and threw me over his head with no effort at all.

You bite too hard and draw too much blood. Its always like that the first time.

The taste of the blood was incredibly satisfying. It was much thicker than ordinary blood, and didnt taste of iron. It tasted like... Power. Darkness spread across my vision.

When I woke up, I sat staring at a beautiful man. Or rather, a male of some sort. His hair was as black as infinity itself. His skin was pale like the moon. His lips were red as blood.

There were so many questions in my head, and he seemed to read it all like an open book.

Youre here because I need your help, and-- Oh! Where are my manners! Im sorry madam. I am Drayne.

He went on, answering everything i wondered about. He explained about the evil rising throughout Arcanum, and how we shouldnt involve ourselves. Then he talked about the evil rising in Tarant, and how we had to act. He told me about his proud heritage, about vampire customs, and about an abomination created by a man who didnt realise what he unleashed. He told me about why I had been chosen.

[OOC]im sorry for loving the letter "Y" so much [/OOC]

 

It was just as if darkness had been embodied. The newcomer shot the thing once, twice, three times; I saw Merloc’s face, a magical dagger in his hand, he knew he wouldn’t be able to put up a fight. We ran for the passage, the other man shot as he ran. I threw my flaming torch and hit the daemon – or did I?

We were almost there when I remembered: I had to burn the books. I had to come back. I halted and shouted at the men, “Open the trapdoor, let the sunlight get in!â€￾ Merloc stared at me for a brief moment with a strange look in his eyes. “Go!â€￾ I yelled, and I turned around to face whatever those things were. Not knowing whether what I wanted to do would work, or if I would be able to get back to what I was, I closed my eyes and chanted, "Swahlf retoh sah sih retoh, aqua ibim tehl". For a moment, nothing happened. And then...

I was drowning, swirling in a whirlpool, lifted by bubbles; this was how a baby should feel when it came to the world. My whole body was pure water.

 

"You! Cover her with your fancy magick! I'll open the trapdoor! "

Looking up at the man and remembering the battles before, I started thinking “what dose he expect me to do, through flaming rocks at them.â€￾ Even if the idea was better than doing nothing, I didn’t even know where to aim.

It was then that one of the vampires ran ahead of the fog trying to attack Eien, she had turned her body to water so the vampire went right through her. I decided to see what this dagger could really do. Reinforcing it with some of my magic I charged the vampire, lunging my dagger into his heart. There was a flash of light as a flame shot out his back and the area around the dagger burst into flame. I pulled out the blade and watched as the flames began to consume the creature, soon it’s body had turned to dust and I couldn’t help but to say “that was newâ€￾.

While distracted one of the other vampires jumped out and grabbed my arm, I pulled away when it tried to bite me. It’s teeth sunk into the armor right next to my neck just nicking the skin underneath. Igniting my fist I punched it in the gut burning it, it release me and I swung the dagger at it. But it had already withdrawn back into the fog.

I could feel where it’s nails had cut my arm, the pain making me grab the dagger a little tighter. I looked over at Eien, she was moving into the fog. I yelled at her “what the hell are you doing, get back here!â€￾

As I looked at the fog I saw the demonic figure standing there like a guardian of some kind. There was no way I was going in there after her, it would be suicide.

“You had better get that door open quickly!â€￾

 

When the thing passed right through me I realised that my turning into water would save me, but not the others. They would be fine as long as they reached the trapdoor.

Merloc's dagger proved to be an ally when it turned the vampires into dust. Still, one of them went for his neck and then went back to the fog.

The fog... It seemed familiar... I'd heard many legends of creatures being created from it, but I knew nothing about vampires actually coming from something like this. The little I knew about vampires didn't hint to this. I looked ahead and saw the demon standing in front of the door. My door.

I moved slowly towards it. I heard Merloc shouting at me, “what the hell are you doing, get back here!â€￾ But I couldn't go back without the books, without the legacy left to me and for me.

I was getting closer...

 

Hearing a crash and a yell behind me I looked back to see a piece of the door lying on the ground. Thinking he must have opened the door I ran for the ladder. After jumping on the ladder I looked back and then down at the floor “I hope she’ll be all right.â€￾ Then I noticed something on the floor. Thinking to my self “is that what I think it isâ€￾ I got off the ladder, the shadow was closing in on me now. It was. It was the man that went up the ladder, only he was about four inches tall. I quickly sheathed my dagger, grabbed him, and moved as fast as I could up the ladder. He had done a number on the door, there was a hole big enough for me to squeeze through. I placed the man on the other side of the door, through my back pack up and squeezed through the hole. Having regained consciousness the man started to yell something at me, I ignored him and grabbed my pack and the little man I yelled “Anna Geoffrey we need to leave, Follow me!â€￾ The sun was nearly gone and it was the only thing holding back what was in the tunnels. Seeing me running from the hole “well be right behind youâ€￾ Anna said. After fleeing the grave yard we headed to The Bridesdale Inn. Anna, Geoffrey, and me entered the inn. I was still holding the little man in my hand, I flattened my palm so the he could stand up. Looking at the man I said “I’ll see about returning you to normal size once we all get some rest. Till then, are you ok?â€￾


Well haft to go to the magic shop to fix this one, or it might ware off. Well see.

 

Me was badly hurtsed. Me fights lots of baddy wolfs jus now. Der beed lotst! Me walksed and sees human in chane armir. He looksed at mes an' sez.
"Are you lost, ogre?"
. Me den saysd "Me need magik la la la! Me need magik la la la!!!!".
"Oh, an idiot too. OK IDIOT, GO TO MORTIMER’S SHOP OF DARKE MAGICKS AND THE OCCULT!!!"
. "Wat you say?".
"Bloody idiot, OK GO TO MORTIMER!!".
"Me doo dat nice man!!!". He den chukkeld but me not no wy.

Me goesed over bridge and aksked peepils "Me need Mormetiry. Wer hee bee?" Den kummed a nise woomin and sed
"Follow me, you poor soul. I'll take you Mortimer. Why do you want to go to that strange person anyway?".
"Huh", me sed.
"Oh, just follow me".

Me den folod her and she taksed me to a beeg shop wif beeg dorrs an sed:
"Okay, here you are".
"Bi nice lady".
"Goodbye"
se sed an workkd away. Me den nokkst on dor, but it was klosed and no wun opinnd.

Me den hureed aftir ladee an sed "Laydee, mee needs to finds plase to get magik lalala.".
"What is magick la la la?"
, se asksd curyisslee. "Make me hurtses gon", me egsplaned.
"Oh, healing"
, she said. "Yup!" me sed.
"You do look a little bruised. Here, this will help"
. Se den taked a fing out off her pokket and rubbd on my hurtsed plases. Da' hirts startted too get betir very kwikly.
"Healing Salve should work fine."
"Tank yoo nise ladee".
"Oh, you poor dear. Do you need a place to stay. I hear the Bridesdale Inn have excellent rooms. Do you have money."
, she askd in smart voise. "me no gots no munnee." me said trooffullee."
"Here is 50 coin."
She gave me shiny coinz.
"It should cover room and food costs. Now, follow me, I'll take you to the Inn".
"Tanks" I sed.

I den foloed her too a beeg bilding and see sed
"If you need any more help, you can find me at 31 Devonshire Way. Will you be all right on your own?"
, se sed konserndlee. "Yep, me strong an tuff". Se den sed bi and me too. Me goesed in to da Birdsale In and inside me seed peepils der. "Me wantst room!!!!!", me shouted wen in da Inn. Me sees how evrywun luked at me an me den skreemed "Hooga!!". Evrywun looked mor and me said "Hi evryboddy me want room! Hoo geev me room?".

(Hope you understood evrything I said. If you don't understand, read it again. If you still don't understand ask me)

(That better, Bunny )

 

“You are damned,â€￾ the demon told me, smirking, a triumphant look in his face.
“So are you,“ I answered, wading through the think fog.
“You will not live long,â€￾ he added. “Why help them? Why not returning to the bosom of our Mother, the first of the Three Darks?"
“Return? After she cursed me?â€￾ I laughed, bubbling.
“You are a seer. You could be useful to our plans,â€￾ he replied.
I faced him. He looked into me. “Your friends could be useful too,â€￾ he measured every word, studying my reaction.
“The fact that you’ve lost your soul does not mean that others should pay for it, Baihl Gwrha’l.â€￾
“So... You knew,â€￾ he said, and he transfigured into the beautiful elven form he’d always had. The one I’d almost fallen for so many years ago.
“I can see more than what I’m willing to admit,â€￾ I said, still in my water body. I went through the arch of the door and looked around. He had destroyed the place, there was no book left to burn.
“Consider my offer,â€￾ he whispered persuasively. “I might be able to give you what you long for.â€￾ He tempted me, as he had always done. “We shall meet again,â€￾ he said, and disappeared in the think fog.

I waited for some time and then I returned to my flesh and blood state. I fell to the floor, panting, naked, my belongings scattered around. I dressed again and walked to the mirror. My reflection showed me an exhausted woman, with shoulder-length hair (short after Merloc had burnt it) in which another streak of white had appeared.

“Only three left,â€￾ I said to myself, covering my eyes.

I extended my right arm and my fist went through the mirror, smashing it. Blood dripping from the wrist, I withdrew my hand. The end of a rope appeared. “Good old Rhea,â€￾ I laughed. I pulled and a large hollow brick came out from the wall. I groped in the hole and found a star-shaped chakram, a diary and a book. The diary was Rhea’s, but the book, though scribbled by him, was not his.

“The House of Lords: A Horror Treatise,â€￾ I read. The letters “D.E.â€￾ were engraved in the cover.

Maybe I could check in the library. But first, I needed some bandages.

As I was walking to the trapdoor, I realised I’d lost my companions again.

[OOC=Hehehe... Look who turned out to own the book, huh?]

 

I got to the surface again. There was no sign of Anna and Geoffrey. Merloc and the man were also gone. The guard was sound asleep under a tree, the leftovers of a lunch and half a bottle of wine next to him. Security.

As I was walking out of the cemetery a thought came to my mind, “Anna can’t be in the shop.â€￾ How would I find them? Had they stayed in the city? In any case, they wouldn’t be hard to spot. I shrugged and made my way to the docks; I knew that there was a wise woman outside Tarant, there had always been one there, capable of identifying magickal objects. I didn’t think that this chakram was hexed, but I knew from experience that magickal items worked better once identified.

I walked past a junk dealer and I thought, “I have no money. Merloc has, though. I should find him first.â€￾ I raised my eyes and read, “Madam Lil’s.â€￾ I had met a Madam once, she had been kind to me and she had taught me many things, which I had not had the opportunity to test yet. I thought, “Well, I could give it a try.â€￾ And so I went in the house of pleasure.

[OOC="She works hard for the money / So hard for the money"]

 

â€￾You’ve learnt a lot the last few days… Azri. Heh, we’ll have to find you a new name. A bit more… noble and traditional vampirish. Azri isn’t a name for a woman of such nobility as you.â€￾
â€￾What nobility--?â€￾ I began.
â€￾When you become a vampire, you automatically get the name and titles of your masters family. I am one of the elders, and my… bloodline… can be traced back to one of the first vampires. This means you get the title of Duchess. And Azri is no name for a duchess. We will have to find another.â€￾

I felt rage building up inside me. How dared he say my name was not noble enough!

â€￾But that is for later.â€￾ He continued. â€￾I suppose its time I sorted out some of your feelings.â€￾

Now I was on the verge of running away, or even attacking him. He was to sort my feelings?

â€￾I’m sure you have noticed a certain… attraction to me. And you might still be scared of these feelings for a vampire. But this attraction is completely normal, and most of the time not at all sexual. You see, the bond between a Master and his Childe is thicker than that of blood. Even elven or dwarven blood. Every Childe has a natural, instinctive love for his or her master. And the master loves all his children too.â€￾

The rage died away. He smiled. I blushed, and looked down.

â€￾Now, the name. Do you have any other names besides Azri?â€￾
â€￾No…â€￾
â€￾I guess we’ll have to check our family catalogue then.â€￾
â€￾Uhm…â€￾ I hesitated.
â€￾Yes?â€￾
â€￾My friends… well, those who knew me, or at least knew who I was back home… they called me Vyenna.â€￾
â€￾Vyenna. Hmm, it has a certain edge to it. Worthy of a vampire I should say.â€￾
â€￾It means ’outsider’ in elvish.â€￾

Draynes face lit up.

â€￾Hah! Its perfect then isn’t it? Vampires have been outsiders since the beginning. All races fear what they don’t know. Especially elves and dwarves. They are the most magickal of the races, although the dwarves wont admit it. Hah. They are so caught up in tradition and keeping ways as it has always been that they can’t see the potential in things that are… different. When the only thing that can kill you is either a nice wooden stake into your chest, or a really well aimed silver bullet or sword, you tend to take an interest in really dangerous things. Hehehe, haven’t we all hired vampire slayers to hunt us? Ah, the good old days.â€￾

Drayne trailed off as he entered his state of reminiscence. Eventually, he bade me farewell for now. After a brief moment of confusion and aimlessness, I decided to go to the library.

 

“You realise your face looks damn ugly magnified to that size, elfie?â€￾

After the little man said that, I took a deep breath and was about to blow him my hand when a large ogre walked in. He was caring a very large club and I mean large for and ogres club. I started to wonder how a pure blood ogre got this far into the city like that without being challenged by guards.

"Me wantst room!!!!!"

I got wide eyed as I stared at him and started inching my way towards the bedroom.

"Hooga!!"

I darted into the bedroom, nearly dropping the little man.

"Hi evryboddy me want room! Hoo geev me room?".

“Ohhh Shit…â€￾. I started looking for a window that I could climb out of, but there where no window. I was stuck in there with an ogre blocking the door.

Looking down at the man I said “Hay little man if you have any ideas of how to get out of here, now would be the time.â€￾

[OOC=â€￾Maybe it’s writers block but I couldn’t think of anything to do here, other than ditching in to a room or ditching the DE up the ogres nose.â€￾]

 

As the little man jumped off my hand I tried to grab him, but he was to quick and ran in to a rat hole before I could catch him. I thought about plugging the rat hole with a fire ball, but then I got an idea.

I took one of the lanterns thinking “with a little help this would make a great fire starter, this could be just the distraction I needâ€￾. I emptied the lanterns oil into an empty glass that was on the dresser, and stuffing the top of the glass with a few waded up pages from a book.

I walked over to the door and the ogre was still there saying something to the lady at the counter. I aimed for the wall on the far side of the room and through the glass, it shattered covering part of the wall in oil. With just a small dart of flame I set the corner of the room aflame, the ogre was startled stared at the flames. Talking to my self “now’s my chance and I ran behind the ogre and out the door.

I headed down an ally and found a familiar sight. This was where I rested last time, but it was to close. I went don Devonshire way, and after crossing the bridge I entered the nearest building (Madam Lil’s). “It should be safe hereâ€￾ I thought as I floped down on the sofa for a rest.

[OOC: good thing the building are made of stone, or I’d be burning Tarant down one building at a time.]

 

"Aaaaaaaah!!! Wat be dees hot stuff! Dey burnts mee! Mee getst very warms!!!" Me showtid veree sirprisdlly.
"Eet birns eet biiirns!!!", mee kontinewd.
Me watshed dat evrywunn els was runeeng arownd an skreeming, so mee deed dat too. Da hole plase was latir fool of hot stuff. Sum peepil rund owt of bilding and mee deed too. Mee den almost falld ovver sumfeeng and wen mee lukked mee seed littil man. Me pikked him up in hand. he tryed too ekskape but me katshed heem.
"Hi nome!!! You bee small for nome!!", me sed wile runeeng out of room wif heem in mi hand

[What else, could I do. First you evade me from the graveyards and now you evade me from the inn.]