“...ah,” I mumbled, trying to open my eyes only to find that I could no longer feel them, nor any other part of my body.

It took a few seconds to recognise the sight of total darkness, finding myself suspended in absence once again. What exactly this place was and why I came here escaped my understanding.

You gaze upon me again.

A strong will of intentions and meaning barraged my psyche, manifesting as words convenient for my understanding. The hollow space lacked atmosphere yet it felt like the winds were bellowing at me in unrestrained fury.

“What are you?” I asked, curious to the nature of this cryptic oblivion.

Death… and life.

“…”

You do not believe my words?

“No, I lack a depth of understanding as to what you mean when describing yourself as “Death and life”. If you are what you say you are, then explain.”

My mind had guesses but I was unsure as to what such an answer meant. Despite the all-devouring nature of this void in front of me, I didn’t feel an inkling of fear.

That in itself estranged me slightly.

Logic told me to escape this thing, to fear it, to scream for mercy and halt it from swallowing me whole. But this world I found myself in did not abide by logic, or at least my human logic. I felt no fear not because I wasn’t scared but because there was no danger. That fact forced the emotion to cease.

I am life born from death.

Surprisingly, that made more sense.

“Forgive my request but I still fail to fully comprehend what exactly I’m talking with. Could you offer something more… digestible?”

At my request the darkness parted and swirled, shifting into a form more comprehensible for me. Seconds was all it took for the oblivion to manifest a small well, plain as could be constructed out of pale white bricks with a centralised spire that slowly leaked to the well deep red blood. A small flower with two petals curved into each other sat atop the spire, the petals identical in colour to the contents of the well and wilting away.

It was rather unremarkable besides the stone bricks being so perfectly symmetrical. I still had little to no clue what exactly this place was and even with its help my perception only grew more confused.

You still don’t understand?

“Not really.”

Then it’s in your best interest to avoid this place till you do.

***********

Regaining the feeling of flesh once more was a liberating experience. Feeling the drench of paralysing fear, not so much.

A lot of these feelings felt strange. To have such a delayed reaction caused some level of emotional whiplash I wasn’t used to. For all that fear to slowly build up and settle, finally released once I left the confines of oblivion.

The touch of soft yet sticking cotton sheets beneath me and stinging pain in my side caused me to swallow the fear for a moment and survey my surroundings.

Initially, I thought myself on a bed but the thing beneath me turned out to be a medical stretcher of some kind, sturdy and slightly bouncy as well. The room I sat in had doors on either side, a dresser filled with tools that reeked of metal and ore. Besides other unmentioned ornaments there stood a full-length mirror dead ahead of myself.

“Mmmm…” I groaned in pain as I pushed myself upright, laying a hand on my midsection that was entirely bandaged over.

My ears were still ringing like alarm bells so thankfully the smell of herbs and oils helped me conclude that this was a medical facility of some type, sharing the same deep black stone bricks as an unwelcome reminder I still resided within the crypt.

Not even a few seconds was given to get my bearings before the door to my left opened, a man who adorned himself in a red coat with shimmer almost white-blonde hair stepping through. He wore clacking black leather boots with a black vest a shirt underneath his cloak and a smile that was just a little to wide.

“Awake I see, took you a while but I guess sleep is in your nature.”

He took long confident strides towards me, plucking a book from… well, space. In one moment his hand was empty and in the next, a long brown book with skinned edges and light glowing purple symbols was there.

Another oddity to add to the list, at least this one isn’t giving me a heart attack.

The man was also not so straightforward. His bright red eyes betrayed the truth of his being, but the smell of rot didn’t follow this man. Instead, he smelled of flowers.

“We’ll skip the long-winded silences and awkward introductions, yes? I’m your healer and aid, for now, Qixi.” Qixi spoke, flicking through the pages of the book and reaching his hand out toward my bandaged midsection.

“So, you get your ass kicked for a pretty lady at least?”

“…”

“Cat got your tongue. Don’t sweat too much about it, I know everything important for treating you.”

“How much do you know?”

“You say it like you yourself don’t remember. Let me think, a fight got a little too close for comfort, Weapons galore was about to put a stop to it when you came in claws a blazing and all manic like a dog looking like you wanted to rip Grisile in two. Vale, upright of a man as he is, didn't appreciate the disrespect of you attacking him in such a disorderly state, lost his temper and now I’m stuck healing you with magic since any blood sorcery would kill you with a wound like that. Miss anything?” He asked with a placid smile, a powerful grip on my shoulder beginning to glow in a brilliant golden lustre that stung my eyes.

The stinging feeling continued through my body as the light of a golden aura rushed in, turning me into a living lantern before culminating on my lower back in the shape of a deep stab wound that had in part already healed.

While the stinging was annoying, I couldn't quell my amazement and intrigue. Magic. Real, perceivable magic like I’d only seen in my earlier years. Despite being a Baron, my father had long banned any magic within the home even if our meagre land and wealth as nobility rarely attracted someone capable of displaying it. To see it again though, felt so much like home and my youth that I couldn’t help but be enamoured.

“I thought vampires couldn’t use light magic?” I mumbled under my breath, receiving a hiss then chuckle in response.

“What kind of nonsense is that notion, magic is fair, to all. Please don’t tell me your knowledge of your own kind extends from the observations of humans?”

Yes actually, all of it does, except for what Sven told me.

I kept those thoughts to myself and just let the man slowly let the stream of light flow through me. It felt invigorating, to say the least, but still stung and prickled me slightly. Not enough to hurt but certainly enough to annoy.

During the process, I tried to limited my movement and instead just observe the magic. I found it fascinating and hundreds of questions ran through my mind, inner thoughts begging me to ask the man beside me.

Instead, I just forced myself to look away like a child refusing their unhealthy and possibly deadly dessert, staring dead into the full-length mirror in front of me. Unkempt black smooth hair running down my ears and covering parts of my eyes, features that were soft with particularly stand out eyelashes adorning a pair of striking yellow eyes. The bonus was that my limbs looked far healthier along with my weight, which was a little ironic considering I’d only…

Watching my own face scrunch in regret and disgust wasn’t a pretty sight so I decided to just lie down and shut my eyes until the Qixi was done.

“finished,” Qixi announced, pulling back his hand and causing the old and beaten looking book with glowing Symbols to vanish.

I tried to get up after but was still racked with pain as Qixi quickly pushed me back down.

“Woah Woah there, calm your striders young one. Light magic can heal us but it isn’t very effective, you’ll be resting for a week at the least.”

“What!” I shouted in response.

A week was too long and I’d come to know that I was living on borrowed time in this place. Sven had said I needed the combat lessons and considering how I stood against all the others who looked to have been decently skilled, I’d be as good as dead if the Blood Rite was anything like I envisioned it was.

"A-a week! it's, it's... too long. Please!"

My body protested as I tried to get up again, barely managing to pull myself ninety degrees up before Qixi’s hand pushed me back down.

His red eyes and expression contained no trace of annoyance or contempt, just pity. Overflowing pity behind otherwise apathetic eyes colder than any I’d ever seen.

“You will die if you don’t let the blood settle.”

“B-But the Blood Rite, I have to-“

“What, Train? So far all you've showcased is an appalling lack of control and an apparent amount of ignorance of your own situation. Besides, No one will have any use for a ghoul.” Qixi said. “A lesson more important than any other is what I shall give you first, Vannis.”

His arm reached out and a long pointed claw of deep red pushed against the centre of my chest. “Listen to the inside. Your blood will never seek you harm and more often than not will try to defend you.”

“It is in its nature to be hungry since it is hunger. Do not hate it or suppress it like so many of our kind do. This is a gift, one of life, blaming it for its nature is like blaming a newborn for their cries.”

“Do you understand?”

No, I didn’t, but I nodded anyway hastily under his watchful gaze. Hunger and blood? As in the blood that ran through my veins. I sensed that while he might have meant that in some regard, it went deeper.

“Good, a quick learner like you will make teaching that much easier. Worry not you hopeless little stray, I’ll be doing my best to get you up to date during your time in the medical ward. Though sadly I have no real way of imparting the combat experience you might need but well, you’re a beggar and you don’t have a choice.” He said with a smile that seemed too real considering the contents of his words.

“T-Thanks, Qixi” I mumbled under the chilling gaze, at least somewhat thankful for his effort.

“No need, a pitiful thing like you deserves a helping hand. The laws of our kind are often over intrusive towards the nature of our species but one thing I think most will agree on is the cowardice of leaving behind a stray. You’ve been dealt not just an unfair hand, but an unforgivable one.”

Again I just nodded. It seemed my status as a stray earned me attention, both good and probably bad. I wondered just how unreasonable it was to make a stray like myself, but just thinking about my predicament and what had been done made me feel anger in a way I didn’t think possible for myself.

My situation was too dreadful to properly process anything I felt so often then not I tried to cram it down or let my body’s innate calm take over. The lacking state of emotion though scared me just about as much as anything else in this prison so close to hell itself.

Another knock resounded, not on my door but on one a few doors down. Qixi sighed, slowly stood up and walked out of the room heading towards the knocking.

I sat there in abject silence mulling over my options and realising this wasn’t the worst thing to have happened. Now with my wound, I might have an excuse for underperforming…

No, they won’t care. The best thing about this is being able to learn from person to person. If Qixi is a good teacher, I might even be able to get him to teach me magic.

Learning magic.

Yes, that’s my only way out of this. If I can learn and use magic in a week, even just a little, I’ll stand a chance.

It was an odd idea to come to that learning magic was the best alternative but I had my reasons. Physical combat as of now was not an option and my charisma was more than a little lacking despite the many etiquette classes I had taken. The only thing I could fall back on was my mind, more specifically the knowledge from years of reading I had within my head.

That and the fact that I took after my mother the most and she was, undeniably, a very powerful Mage at one point. I knew that for sure.

I had seen it.