“You all know my name…” Theihdow let out another long sigh. “ I suppose it can’t be helped as time goes on.”

“The day we left Norwen, a bard was singing The Epic of the Bloody Few… ironically… after stories about the pale wraith were being exchanged around the tavern.” Selian muttered unable to make eye contact with the other elf.

“I suppose you know about as much as the bards tell, then?” Theihdow, though he was still looking up, closed his eyes to avoid eye contact as well. “I am, quite frankly, surprised none of you realized you were fighting a vampire when you decided to turn on me. Most people would never cross me, let alone twice… to look my hollow form in the eye and attempt to slay me. I must confess that I’ve never met a soul so foolish or perhaps courageous as that.”

“Your praise is valued as platinum coin.” Dovhran barely whispered as he spoke. And as he clasped his shortsword back into its sheath, he continued. “And I don’t deserve it. I was merely…”

“Following orders?” Theihdow finally looked down, meeting Dovhran’s gaze with now deeply dark red eyes. “I don’t suppose you would be willing to tell me who it is that keep attempting to communicate with you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, if it’s magic you can ask…” Selian stumbled on Flip’s name, not sure if it was her place to say it, even now that it had been agreed upon to be shared.

"I was going to say that I was merely acting on instinct. But now my curiosity is also piqued." Dovhran shrugged and also changed his focus to Flip.

“I know what he means.” Flip sighed. “It is a consequence of my research and my family’s history, but we are not communicating with anyone. Something is attempting to communicate with me. Something pathetic and miserable and shriveling away in despair.”

Something changed as Flip spoke. Selian turned in mild shock as the wizard spoke, caught off guard by the way he had begun to talk.

“And if you will forgive me for prolonging my response to your name, I would share with you that my name is Faengil Finnigan. And I specialize in the eradication of demons.”

“Many things have begun to make a great deal of sense.” Theihdow hummed, a slight smile creeping across his face. “A tremendous amount of sense.”

“I don’t suppose you feel interested in sharing what it is that makes sense now?” Dovhran leaned in closer to the vampire. “Have you heard of Faengil before?”

“I have heard of the Finnigan clan. Arcane specialists... a strange lot that dabble with obscure magic and trade is secrets and lore.” Theihdow laughed lightly as he explained. “It would explain the magic you used to rend my body, the whispering in your ear… and it also explains why I feel so strongly that I should trust you.”

“Pardon?” Flip had a hard time controlling his volume as he blurted out the word. “You want to trust me?”

“My instincts are rarely wrong, though occasionally they defy logic. Just as they felt you could be trusted when logic dictated that I kill you to stop your attempts to gain access to Velsaffe’s tomb.” Theihdow had begun to mutter rapidly. “I am as confused as you are. Though, I am all the more eager to accompany you now that I know more about you.”

“I don’t care if the spell has ended…” Flip began.

Dovhran interrupted him with an answer of, “It has.”

“Regardless of if the spell has ended, I would like to ask one more question of you.” Flip continued. “You spoke of a being in the tomb that you pity. What sort of being is it?”

“I have made an agreement, among others, not to share certain information.” Theihdow sighed. “I am surprised you have been able to navigate around my various agreements thus far without notice. But I must confess, the information you are after now is beyond the scope of what I can tell you.”

“How many agreements?” Dovhran scoffed. “And how can we be sure that none of those agreements will override the ones we’ve made? Because you seem fairly honor bound to keep your agreements, and I have no idea what they are or if you can tell me them. What’s to stop you from killing us if we step on a trigger for one of them?”

“I’ve made hundreds of agreements that still bear weight... but I have also agreed not to harm you, or to allow you to be harmed by inaction…” Theihdow reasoned out slowly, as if attempting to circumvent some unspoken rule of what he could divulge. “Though you are correct. A paradox could arise. But, if that should happen, I have discretion as to which agreement takes precedence.”

Theihdow paused for a moment, as if pondering whether he should speak more. He seemed eager to speak, which struck Flip as strange. This being, a vampire, who had resigned itself to isolation to avoid detection, seemed contradictory. And, on top of the strange behavior that Flip was sensing from the vampire, he could feel himself adjusting as well. Flip felt lighter some how, as if a mental weight was lifted that had been invisibly pressing him into the earth. He felt calm, at east, safe even. Not necessarily because of or with Theihdow, but as a general sense in his life.

“It’s getting dark, vampire. We should rest.” Flip made eye contact with the vampire as he spoke, perhaps being the first to do so willingly since his name had been revealed. “Would you prefer to rest outside or inside?”

“You just picked the hatch up and now you want to put it back down?” Dovhran’s incredulity was palpable. “And you want to let him in on top of that?”

“He can’t harm us, and he has the option to say no. Regardless, as you’ve said, we need to wait until dawn to carry on to your next waypoint.” Flip grumbled as he began to set the wooden hatch back down, now closer to the entryway of the vampire’s tent. “Or, perhaps our new friend can lead us to the tomb without following your confusing system of landmarks and star mapping.”

“Is that how you’ve been navigating?” Theihdow chuckled at his own question. “The stars?”

“Partly.” Dovhran sighed, relenting his frustrations. “We had a bearing from the edge of the waste to here, but the second waypoint isn’t something you can find with a bearing.”

“You’re quite right. Not even I can take you directly to the tomb, though I have a rough idea of where it is. It is intended to be impossible to find without the proper instructions.” The vampire agreed. “And that being the case, you should get some rest. I will keep watch outside to make sure we don’t miss our navigator.”

Selian grumbled at the thought of a different navigator, but shrugged it off. They were all beginning to become frustrated with the situation they had found themselves in. This encounter had been entirely unexpected and fortunate in a bizarre way. None of the three travelers felt completely comfortable with Theihdow, though they all agreed that he no longer posed a threat to them. But there was still so much information they didn’t know, and that they knew that the vampire possessed. It was just a matter of asking him. It was akin to standing in a vast library and not knowing where to start reading to find the few shreds of information you wanted. But if you opened the wrong book, it could kill you.

After a short time, Flip reopened the hatch and beckoned his companions inside. Night had fallen stealthily around them and when Flip turned back to acknowledge the vampire one last time, Theihdow had already illuminated an oil lamp outside of his tent.

“I have many questions for you, Theirinder Meadowthorn, and I will save all but one of them for tomorrow.”

“It seems you have a surplus of final question for me, though I don’t mind…” Thiehdow hummed as he took a post in front of his tent. “You may ask one more.”

Flip assessed the cross-legged vampire once again. He appeared, as he was before him, plain… innocuous even. Without close observation, Theihdow appeared to be just an ordinary elf. And, perhaps, at his core, he was. But there was an ever present tint of red around him that made Flip nervous.

“What is this feeling around you?”

“Ah, you’re wondering why the world seems to feel different now…” Theihdow smiled, a genuine and kind expression; it was almost joyful. It was also first real emotion he had expressed. “When you stay close to me, I can stifle those that would try to wedge their way into your mind. What you are feeling, Faengil, is what your life would be like without the constant pressure of the demon that so frequently hisses in your mind.”

The explanation made sense to Flip. Though it worried the wizard more than it relieved him. He had never fully noticed the influence until it had been removed.

“This aura of mine… it has a range of a couple feet, so I doubt it will do much good once you return to your hatch. But if you would like, I can stay close while we travel… I can sense how persistent this beast is and I feel no one deserves that type of constant chatter in their mind.”

“Thank you, Meadowthorn.” Flip tilted his head down in respect as he spoke, fully obscuring the vampire from his view with the brim of his hat as he did so.

“Of course, young Finnigan.” Theihdow’s gentle smile was audible. “And be prepared. I have many questions for you as well.”

With a nod of gratitude and respect, Flip made his way through the hatch and into the flat. Four wide eyes were waiting for him, bewildered as much as he was about their new circumstances. Everyone, Flip included, had the same question they desperately wanted to ask but were too afraid to. Knowing bits and pieces about the legend of vampires, about the bloody few, what they were capable of made them all the more wary of speaking out of place. They knew there was a strong chance that they would be overheard, and that it was highly likely that if a silencing spell was used to allow them to converse freely it would be easily detected and dispelled by Theihdow.

“Now what?” Selian mouthed the words they had all been thinking.

Dovhran shrugged. “I guess, we just let him do what he wants?”

“I don’t think you two understand just how lucky you are.” Flip frowned as he grumbled out his retort. “He agreed not to harm us. That includes feed from us. He drinks blood, if you didn't realize. He drinks blood.”

Another shorter stretch of silence filled the flat. Selian in particular looked the most concerned, and when she spoke next she spoke barely above a whisper.

“You know he’s cursed too, right? About half of them are, most of the ones named in the epic at least. There’s a reason he lives out in the middle of nowhere.”

“What kind of curse?” Dovhran’s incredulity manifested in the form of a raised eyebrow as he spoke, there was little other indicator due to the low volume of his voice.

“The kind that a god puts on you and you suffer with for eternity.” Selian hissed. “I’d wager it makes him prone to causing accidents or hurting people around him in a way that he can’t prevent.”

A shuffling noise from outside the hatch brought the three back to silence, but there was no other sound to accompany it. No vampiric voice. No knock on the hatch.

After a while, Dovhran spoke up again. “That doesn’t change the fact that he knows the path to the tomb better than I do, or that he has incredible power that defies even the bounds of magic, and that he seems bound by some higher power to uphold his agreements. And frankly, I don’t want to see what happens when either he or we break an agreement.”

“I don’t think that’s even possible…” Selian whispered back, looking down at her feat. “I tried and I couldn’t.”

Dovhran was about to speak, but he was quickly interrupted by raised hand from Flip.

“I’m going to sleep.” Flip announced loudly as he slumped down on to a pile of potato sacks. “Wake me up if you decide do anything foolish.”

A quiet peel of gentle laughter reached their ears through the hatch, confirming their suspicions that he could indeed hear them well enough through the meager wooden barrier.

Neither Dovhran nor Selian spoke a word until the next morning.