*Eldovian Era 1722, 5th day of the 12th month*

“And you’re saying Layton came up with this idea?” asked Ebony, her voice filled with what most in their coven considered an appropriate amount of disbelief.

“Careful with your tone there, Ebony. One would think we were dismissing a perfectly good idea just because I said it,” Layton huffed from beside Rassa. He would rather not be sitting at the table, but Rassa didn’t give him much of a choice.

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Ebony glared at him.

Rassa rolled his eyes, “The use of slaves to build the railroad and to populate the city is well-founded. And from your expressions I can tell that none of you came up with better ideas”.

No one spoke up to rebuke him.

“Very well then, we buy as many slaves as you see fit, make sure they are fit for labour. While you’re at it you can advertise the building project to the commoners, I’m sure there are plenty that would make their way up there regardless. I’ll need Ebony to work on both the building supplies and transport of the slaves to the Northern end of the Endless Lake, which one might want to think about renaming when we’re done with it. Also, Neva, you handle supplies such as food, clothing and temporary housing for the workers. Mathius, you start working on the long-term handover of our Eldovian Bases. By this time next year, I want Eldovia to be a place we only come to for business and holidays. Our home is in the North, beyond the Desolate Lands, a place no Emperor, Army nor Holy Order can hope to touch or interfere in our way of life. We leave the wills of humans behind and build our home in the Coven City of Lyserna,” Rassa proclaimed, “Begin your preparations. I’m off to go and alert Talo and Elsbeth”.

Rassa reached out and touched the communication charm, turning to Layton.

“So, we’re going South tonight?” asked Layton.

“I’m going South,” said Rassa, “You have unfinished business here”.

Layton frowned, “I’m your guard, Rassa. I admit last time I deserved to be left behind, but this time-”

“This time, you have a connection that you should at the very least say your goodbyes to,” Rassa replied.

“You told me you weren’t going to pry,” said Layton.

Rassa nodded, “I did. Then I found a little human girl making deserts out of blood and waiting for two hours only for nobody to show up”.

Layton frowned, the thought clearly bothering him.

“I’ll fly out an hour after sun down, if you’re by my side, so be it. If you decide that you want to stay here a few more weeks, I will not hold it against you,” said Rassa, “Our life may be longer, but we only get one of them, Layton, and when you start out-living those whom you have grown to care about, you will understand”.

“From what I hear, you’re not that much older than the rest of us,” Layton snapped.

Rassa smiled, “Oh? Well, if you think I am wrong, forget I said anything”.

Rassa stood and left the room.

Layton frowned after him, “I know what you’re trying to do!”

Rassa smirked, “I have no idea what you’re talking about Layton, I’m only a few years older than you, I couldn’t possibly out-scheme you”.

Layton let a snarl escape, and Rassa spun, flashing red eyes at him, “I will play with you if you want me to, Layton, but snarling is not a way to ask for a fair fight”.

Layton extended his claws, his anger at Rassa pouring over his well-constructed boundaries.

His Sire’s eyes narrowed at the challenge to his authority, “Very well, you asked for it”.

Rassa pulled on the shadows, and Layton felt himself pulled away from the Charm room and into darkness. He emerged just as quickly, on a little uninhabited island north of Rouke. As soon as he felt the ground beneath his feet once more, Layton pulled his whip from the shadows and snapped it at Rassa.

Rassa’s hand snapped up, catching the end of the whip and gripping it before snapping it back.

Layton, not one to be overpowered in a weapon he had trained with for over a decade, pulled the whip back. Rassa’s feet left the ground and Layton ducked under him as the whip coiled over the top of his body. Rassa snagged the branch of a tree and withdrew a short sword.

“What, one?” Layton growled, “Don’t you dare hold back!”

“If I didn’t, you’d die, Layton”.

Rassa lunged forward, Layton’s whip springing up from the ground with a flick of his wrist. Rassa raised his sword, letting the whip coil around it before he sent the sword flying into the trunk of a nearby tree, continuing on his path to Layton.

Layton rolled forward, sweeping his leg around as Rassa landed. Rassa barely even touched the ground before he flipped back onto his hands then drew his other short sword, landing on his feet and pausing his blade just as it cut into Layton’s neck.

Layton sucked in a breath as he met Rassa’s red gaze.

“Is that all the Warrior’s Arena gave you, fancy ribbon skills and the guts to snarl?”

“The snarling was all you!” Layton whacked the blade away from this neck and cut through the air with his extended claws as he stood. Rassa stepped back as Layton withdrew his own twin blades from the shadows. Rassa smirked, calling on the shadows to return his other sword to him as he stood opposite Layton. Of course, Layton didn’t give him the time to retrieve it, launching forward at Rassa.

Rassa parried Layton’s first blade, dodged his second. His spare hand grabbed the hilt of his second blade as the shadows passed it to him and he launched forward in an attack. The two clashed with enough strength and speed that the blades couldn’t withstand it, shattering at the immense force before the two Vampires began sparring with their claws instead.

They fought for an hour, perhaps two. Both of them focused on the fight for different reasons. Layton trying to prove his will was enough. Rassa waiting for the drive in his opponent to run low. Finally, Rassa saw Layton falter. It was just a flicker in his gaze, but it was enough. Enough that Rassa knew Layton had realised how utterly pointless this battle was. That he wasn’t going to win.

Rassa drew another blade from his shadows and threw it at Layton. The blade skewered Layton straight through the shoulder and into a large fallen tree that had taken significant damage in their battle.

“Ah, fuck!” Layton growled at the pain. He reached up to remove the blade, only for another to pin his free arm down.

Layton swore again, red eyes turning to Rassa as he stood several metres away, brushing down his vest and fixing his collar, “Alright, I fucking concede! I’m sorry I snarled at you”.

Rassa barely even flinched as he glanced up at Layton then approached him, standing before him. He placed his hands on Layton’s temples, “I am your Sire and Head of the Moonshadow Coven. If you desire to leave, I am not keeping you, but when you stay, you stay under my rule. When I give you advice, do not throw it aside like an old rag. I give it for good reason”.

Layton kept Rassa’s gaze for all of a second before he turned away in submission, “Yes, Lord Moonshadow”.

“I’m going to give you a memory, Layton Wolfsbane. A memory of one like us who lived long before either of us were a whisper in the wind. A memory of a Vampire who fell in love with a human”.

“I do not love her,” Layton replied.

“If you didn’t you would not be so reluctant to leave,” Rassa replied.

Layton briefly met Rassa’s gaze again before he turned away, then Rassa pushed the memory to Layton.

Layton had never experienced anything like it. It was as if he was a ghost. Observing all life as it moved around him but unable to interact with it or change anything. He watched the female vampire as she travelled from one great Coven City to another on a Trade Mission. He watched as she indulged herself amongst mortals and found herself a talented bard. He watched as she found herself entranced, and spent a passionate night with the bard before she left, promising to return.

She did, five years later. The bard had not aged much, but while he had waited for a few months, nothing had come of it, so he had moved on. Met and married another woman who had been lost in childbirth. The child was only young now. Still, seeing him alone and still with that enchanting voice, the Vampiress again coaxed him to her bed and promised to return.

And so, the cycle repeated on her Trade missions, until she arrived one day to find him far older than she expected, his daughter already grown and married to a husband of her own.

“I’m only human, Francesca, I’m supposed to grow old and die”.

Layton felt it when he passed with her at his bedside, and the heartbreak that ensued.

He gasped, coming out of the memory as Rassa withdrew the blades from him.

Layton collapsed to his knees, and Rassa squatted down before him as the younger vampire drew in deep breaths, his skin, muscles and bones tingling as they knitted back together.

“Our body heals quickly even if the wounds are grievous,” Rassa said, “Our power keeps us young and stronger than any mortal can ever claim to be. Our instinct draws us to blood like a moth to flame. But none of those will carry us through eternity sane. For that we need something more, and when you find it, you would be foolish to let it slip through your fingers”.

“How are you so sure that she is it for me?” asked Layton.

“I can’t be,” Rassa said, “I’m just saying that you would be foolish not to find out for yourself”.

Layton stayed on that island, deep in thought, for many more hours. When the sun finally set, he moved back to Rouke Island, and found himself on the building opposite that little tea shop rather than at the pier where Rassa waited.

He watched as she baked, mixing pig’s blood into the cakes. And when he watched Rassa’s line rapidly begin to fade as it moved south, he pocketed the tracking charm and found himself knocking on the door of her little shop.

“Layton,” Allyra said, then she gave a warm smile, “Come in”.

Layton’s eyes were drawn to that smile. The way it lit up her face. The way her eyes were so genuine in joining it. No one looked at him like that. He was too good at evoking fear. It was all he had ever been good for after all. But here…

Layton stepped inside, “You baked again…with blood”.

The little cold red cakes on the tray next to the window were too obvious to miss. Besides the fact that he’d watched her bake them.

“Yes, well, you know how last time I baked them in an oven, this time I decided to try a cold desert so that the blood was more…raw,” said Allyra, she glanced between the cakes and Layton, “Do they…ah…smell okay?”

Layton tilted his head to the side as he slumped into the seat beside the tray, “Better than last time, I can still smell a lot of…other things though”.

Allyra frowned, “Bugger. I was afraid of that”.

Allyra sighed, slumping into the seat opposite him as she glanced out the window, “So…how was Rassa?”

Layton sighed, “Full of new plans”.

“By this stage, I shouldn’t even be surprised,” said Allyra.

There was silence between them before Layton spoke again.

“How old are you, Allyra?”

Allyra frowned, “Is that really a question you have to ask. It’s quite rude-”

“Please,” Layton said, “Just answer”.

Allyra raised an eyebrow before she replied, “24. Why?”

Layton sighed, “I met you when you were 18”.

“Yes, you did,” Allyra replied, “Are you okay?”

“Did you know I should have turned 27 this year,” said Layton.

Allyra raised an eyebrow, “You look…younger”.

Layton nodded, “I look 20. And I’ll look 20 for decades, perhaps centuries to come if I don’t lose my head first”.

Allyra was silent for a long moment before she sighed, “What’s brought all this sentimentality on, Layton? It doesn’t suit you”.

“Neither does Companionship, but here we are,” said Layton, “The truth is that I didn’t ever think I needed somebody else in my life. I had brothers, perhaps a couple of sisters, all of them chosen rather than born. But nobody who could look at me and see me as something beyond a mad and blood-crazed child”.

Layton said nothing more, and it was silent for a long moment before Allyra spoke again.

“What do you want, Layton?”

Layton huffed, his gaze turning from the night outside to the cakes on the tray.

“Right now? I really want you to keep trying to make me these stupid blood deserts forever,” said Layton.

Allyra didn’t move for a long moment before she leaned forward and placed her hand on the table with a soft knock. Layton’s eyes went to the sound as she removed her hand, revealing a truth charm.

“You can ask me the same question, if you want to,” said Allyra, “Though I’ve been told it works a lot better if you want to know the answer”.

Layton rolled his eyes, “Rassa spoke with you”.

“He asked me what I wanted,” said Allyra.

Layton turned to Allyra, “And what did you tell him?”

Allyra tilted her head in confusion, “You aren’t going to pick up the charm to make sure I’m telling the truth?”

Layton, “Your eyes are so clear you can’t possibly lie to me”.

Allyra sighed, huffing a laugh, “I suppose they are”.

She turned away a moment before she looked back at him, “I told him that I wanted someone by my side who would challenge me to be more than the meek and docile lady I was raised to be”.

Layton stared back a long moment before he spoke, “Truth, I think I’d really hate losing you, Allyra Cavahall”.

Allyra smiled, “Truth, I think I’d really hate losing you too, Layton Wolfsbane”.