There were many scenarios that played through my head of what might happen when that door opened again. Seeing the blonde girl with emerald eyes come through and sit by the side of my bed in the place of Qixi was not one of them.

Her care to visit me had got to my heart and swayed my opinion of her much more than normal. That was until she started loudly cursing at me for “acting like an animal” and “making the coven look bad”. Neither of which I could really dispute but both of which upset me greatly.

My thoughts wandered a bit and I found myself keeling over in pain after chuckling at the image of my brother in my position instead of myself. The blonde girl was undeniably exquisite to eye, a set of proportions crafted to attract its gaze and I mused that my brother would probably not be much bothered by the cruel words, letting them come in one ear and out the other as he stared at the shoddily woven cloth concealing a valley of…

Come on, have a little decency Vannis!

“Vannis… Vannis! Are you even listening!!”

“Absolutely!!” I replied quickly in response, scared the mean blonde might resort to violence.

She was glaring daggers across the small distance between us and I could sense a clear amount of hostility. But it was barred in some way, another detail I’d come to notice.

“Argh, why can’t you people just use your head’s for one moment. First I had to deal with these commoner clothes probably fashioned for a servant, then Kell’s stupid insistence on honour that almost got him killed and now you.” She heaved in apparent distaste for her current predicament, eyeing my bandage waist every now and then but otherwise leaning back and ignoring me.

Her insistence confused me, same as Kell and delphine’s. They acted like it was so natural for us to look after each other. The paranoia in her eyes every time she looked at my bandage and the cringe she made every time I assumed she imagined the searing pain was real.

I could not just see them, but feel them.

“…Did the medic say how the wound is fairing, Delphine and Kell are both in a rut thinking they might have ruined your chances at a second life.” She said, breaching the seemingly impenetrable silence like it was nothing.

She was nothing if not a natural-born leader.

“Qixi informed me that I’d be alright with a week's rest.”

“A week!!”

“Yes, a week.”

“Say it isn’t so, oh great Sol we have barely a fortnight before the Blood Rite begins.” She said with a grimace of grievance, slumping into her chair further than she had done previously.

The girl really did care, that got to me, in a weird way. There was a small underlying tone of obligation but just the empathy she showed me cracked through my heart. She had originally seemed quite confident but also uncaring, now I was left quite certain that was part of the facade.

A nice change of pace that brought a slight smile to my face even with the dire connotations of her fearful words.

“Maybe if we split taking shifts to visit you between the three of us, oh no but we can’t take notes, dammit. There’s got be some way to keep you from falling too far behind the other’s current pace-“

“Hey,” I said curtly, interrupting her inner mumbling brought to the conscious world via a loose tongue.

“Yes Vannis, what is it? I swear if this is some nonsense like the things Kell kept spouting about bar tabs and cargo trafficking I’ll smack you so hard your father’s discipline will feel like a wet dream.”

“No, nothing like that. I just wanted to know what your name is if you wouldn’t mind me requesting it?”

For the first time, while my yellow eyes looked into her emerald ones, she was taken aback. It reminded me of when Vannagrash had revealed the truth of our situation and made a small, ever creeping piece of me laugh in cruel amusement.

“Did I really not… Ella, my name or I guess my new name is Ella.”

“Suits you.”

“What does that mean?” She asked, leaning forward with a suspicious gaze while black claws extended where her nails should’ve been slowly tapped over the metal railing.

“That you don’t need to worry about me, please just focus on keeping yourself alive, for my sake. Qixi's got me covered.” I said with as genuine a smile as I could muster, thinking for others instead of myself as my mother had always said I should do.

How proud she would be to see me acting bravely in the worst of places among horrors I was growing accustomed to.

“Don’t be ridiculous, I’m doing this for my sake as much as I am yours. Do you realise what happens to a vampire if they lose a member of their coven because that’s not something that can be reversed and it does things to us that words can’t begin to describe,” She shouted in a rage reignited, making my choice of words seem poor and using that fury to illuminate my ignorance to all this.

“Everything will be fine!!” I tried to say in response as she screamed at me for almost an hour before Qixi had to drag her out.

**********

During the first night in isolation among the black stone walls that barely stretched 8 metres from side to side, everything was, in fact, not fine.

The problem I’d encountered was how much I’d come to hate staying still, particularly in a bed now that I could move freely again. It took only a few hours before Qixi chained me down to the bed which in his own words was “just a warning”. Suffice to say the chilling distinction that being chained down was just a warning served as enough of a put off for me to never try that again.

Turned out though that the lonely lapse of time between when I last saw Qixi who had other matters and patients to attend to and when my body felt tired was one hell of an educational experience. I had nothing to do, barely any hesitation left alone, and an overwhelming curiosity as was normal of myself.

The first thing I discovered, albeit by accident, was that I needed to neither relieve my bladder or bowels anymore, assuming they even functioned still.

The next line in with the last was the fact that my body got rid of its waste in a familiar yet somehow different way from what I was used to. It shed it. For the blood, my body would simply sweat it out from glands on my back, armpits, chest, inner thighs and below the ears but for any built-up waste, my body would fuse it with dead skin, then shed that skin away.

It’s as fascinating as it is creepy.

Things I also learned that showed clear discrepancies between what I read about vampires and what was fact came up as well. Firstly my strength, while impressive for a human, was nowhere near the level that Mages, knights and monsters could achieve. I could lift the iron chains, something I’d never have hoped to achieve previously, but breaking out of them?

With raw strength that’s not even remotely possible, with these though…

My nail’s had become claws that extended an inch and a half out from where my normal fingernail would end. The virtue of not wearing socks allowed me to see that this trend continued down to my toenails, which had become sharpened and almost talon-like in nature.

Through the action that felt akin to pulling back my finger from their neutral position, I found that I could retract said claws into pointed nails or extend them a full two inches further, something that would leave my hand bloody and sore should I clench into a fist even once.

Playing with that aspect of my physiology while chiselling small indents into the iron chains to test their durability and sharpness took up most of my free time that night until the woes of a Fangless started to call off my consciousness, beckoning it unto the void of sleep.

**********

(AN: My preferred style of writing for first person is to avoid multiple perspectives and either write from First-person for the Mc or third person neutral for anything else. Moving forward this will be the recurring theme. Anything that isn’t first-person perspective will be third-person neutral (omniscient third person). I’m aware it’s a little unorthodox to switch between first and third but it’s how I want to write this and I feel you’ll come to enjoy it. Note that it will only ever switch between these two and not bugle around third-person Mc perspective. Mc perspective is first, every other perspective is told through third neutral. The switches will start few and far between but become more frequent once the world is developed to a certain extent. Thanks for understanding)

The hallowed black stone Vannagrash crypt was situated in the south of Pora leaning more to the east so it would not fall or compete with the Rez clan’s land, as per instruction of the Vanna clan’s head.

Toiling breezes of snowy winter common of the middle seasons went unnoticed by the denizens, their walls built to keep out more than just the weather due to the needs of the species they were.

The place remained underground and hidden away in a gap of the Crevice unnoticed by anything not brave enough to venture deep into the recesses of another plane. Few were foolish enough to venture through the Crevice without power potent enough to fend off any creatures that might lurk within.

It was in this place that steps echoed towards the north wing. despite the shining sun unseeable above ground announcing that it was time for the restless to rest, a man paced across the floors with a simple white tunic and black leather pants. A pair of black tinted glasses on his eyes concealing their intent and serving as a clear reminder of who this man really was.

The lord and master of this place and most things within.

Wandering brought the lone figure unperturbed by the daybreak to a room built upon pillars of shining bloom and illuminated in an azure glow like most other rooms. The sole occupant of the room took notice and immediately paid heed, kneeling to the ground while keeping his gaze firmly locked on Vannagrash.

“Lord,” Vale said, making sure his kneel and posture were as perfect as could be, akin to if a master sculptor had built him for that very position.

“Please Vale, spare me the knee. You out of anyone should know why I’m here.” Vannagrash said in splitting coldness, his hand's calmly inspecting one of the many bows present among his vast collection of weapons.

“The… stray?”

“Indeed, the very one you put a hole through. I’m used to your bluntness Vale, but that was tactless and brutish by the kindest perception.”

Vale's head lowered as the man that had once scared Vannis stiff wondered whether it would be his last day. Vale was strong, he knew that. To him, it was the only thing in the world that made sense through thick and thin.

Everything else faded or was demented bedsides the immutable fact of strength. However, that very same man followed, praised and would happily die for the tall, bespectacled man in front of him that looked from a physical appearance no match for Vale.

Alas, none should judge a book by such a simple cover.

“What might my punishment be, my lord? Would you have me stake myself thrice over until the stray has healed, or would a present and apology of my own making be a more amicable solution?” Vale asked, offering his own suggestions.

Vannagrash gave a slight smile at the second idea but dashed it in the next few moments. He went back to inspecting the blade while slowly etching towards a loyal subject who also happened to be an idiot sometimes.

“Neither, since no real damage has been done. You’re just lucky that the Qixi decided to visit and spy on the reborns, else the stray's death would be on your hands.”

“I know it’s not my place to question but why let such a dangerous and unpredictable thing into a place filled with such vulnerable creatures?” Vale asked.

He had met the man, Qixi only in this place for the first time a few years ago. Vale had thanked the gods above that their first meeting was not on the battlefield. The thing might have acted like one of them, but seeing such clear discrepancies between Qixi and Vannagrash made it clear the former was something more.

Something worse.

The fact made It hard for the old knight to understand why someone wise and cunning like Vannagrash would let him in.

“Simple really. You give an old and bored thing entertainment and it will act to protect it if the need arises. Do you really think I could convince Qixi to heal someone? Even an old beast like him finds the stray pitiful. He’s not completely unreasonable as some might have you believe.”

Vannagrash purposely neglected to add the fact that Qixi actually found a lot of joy in healing sick defenceless creatures. For what reasons, the crypt’s master had no clue, it just was so. Perhaps the deranged Kin Killer had developed a sick kind of fetish or saw it as a reprieve for his actions. Regardless It wasn't Vanngrash's place to ask and quite frankly, he didn't really care.

“Regardless, take your own actions as a warning. Lead by example but try to have a little more patience, the poor thing was just trying to protect one of his own.”

“Yes, my lord. I hate to repeat myself but would it really be too much if I prepared something as an apology? The stray was basically tripping over his own feet earlier.”

“No.”

Vannagrash now stood behind his servant and Armsmaster with a solid grip on his shoulder. The man had moved so fast that even to Vale’s eyes it was nothing but a blur and burst of energy. He felt no fear despite the crushing pressure, only a renewed sense of honest respect that never seemed to fade for his lord and master.

“This batch of reborns are… particular. Father has advised me that should we show special treatment, Lady Rez may inform her family. Giving anyone, clan or clanless any type of advantage will incur their wrath, no doubt.”

“But that’s preposterous, this would be a matter between me and the stray, not something of a clan’s concern.”

Vale looked appalled but again Vannagrash just gave a light scoff at his naivety. The man didn’t understand the first thing about political intention or how one’s actions might seem or could be twisted to seem from another point of view.

“Your actions reflect on me Vale, so everything you do is of a clan’s concern. Please, let it be. From what I can tell, Vannis as he calls himself isn’t one to hold grudges.”

The old knight’s code of honour and ethics was disgruntled but he listened to his master all the same. A hand that had never led him astray was one Vale trusted through it all.

Vannagrash didn’t care much for his attitude though, only that the man understood the waves his actions could cause.

Life isn’t always fair, no matter how much I might try to bend it so.

Vannagrash thought, suddenly feeling more tired as the weight of ambition rang heavy on his shoulders. He walked back to his chambers, hoping in his heart that the boy found sleeping within a pit of the Crevice, not but a few weeks ago would at least live long enough to figure out why he was abandoned the way he was.

Even better if he could recall the face of his sire, so Vannagrash could drive a silver spear through the despicable coward’s heart.