“So you really did buy her roses?”, Alaric asked as he held back a laugh.

“What was I supposed to do? I have been courting her for a year and my own ideas have run out after a month. Taking Niloticus’ proposals is just so much better. I don’t have to think myself, just ask teacher, and he will have ideas for years for courting a woman”, I said.

“Makes you think what he did with his time. All those years chasing after the next romance, the next affair. Doesn’t it get boring after 200 years?”, Alaric said.

“I don’t think we will see the day teacher stops his activities in that area”, I concluded our discussion. “It doesn’t matter anyway. Did you secure the report from Juladia?”

“Yes, your capable aide did as you instructed”, Alaric said and threw the letters in my direction. A quick reaction on my part allowing me to catch most of them.

“Still too slow”, Alaric added.

I ignored him, like I often did, and quickly read the reports from my future spymaster. The next hour was spent glancing through the documents of my other potential council members. Some I already knew from previous gatherings, others were totally foreign to me.

Juladia had checked the candidates and their family for different kinds of qualities. The first was to look for signs of corruption or actual confirmed corruption cases in which the House or the candidates themselves were involved.

The second was to check for loyalty. When did they disagree with the actions of father, when did they actually refuse to follow orders or even hindered the execution of an order.

The third point was their skills and capabilities. Which kind of education have they received? What kind of experiences did they gather in their training? Where did they succeed, where did they fail? That helps me with assigning the right task to the right person.

The last one was their opinion on reforms. I needed people willing to throw old concepts overboard. No matter how loyal, incorruptible or capable a council member was if they don’t want widespread reforms they have little use in my administration.

When I finished reading through, I locked eyes with a bored Alaric.

“Congratulations my friend, it seems you are still the person most suited to be my personal adviser”, I said with a smile to the vampire, who in turn rolled his eyes.

“Somebody among them has your interest?”, he asked, while glancing over the reports himself.

“Yes several. I will have to make a decision, after announcing my most radical reforms. I doubt most of them would be willing to follow me then. The truly compatible ones will remain then. I think my best shots for most of the position are still those mother had invited to my birthday”, I said and threw the reports into the fire pit.

“That shows the foresight and skills your mother has. Or your lack of abilities to find better ones”, Alaric remarked and received a short glare from me in return. He will never change, won’t he?

A low rumble to my left told me that Quintus was awake and hungry. The wyvern climbed out of the backpack. I had to find a bigger one after he grew to the size of the biggest cat I had seen, at least when he kept his wings folded.

Quintus still liked to climb on me and couldn’t fly yet. The only problem was, that he destroyed most of my clothes when doing so. The military backpack from a legionary gave him enough space and it also was a good way for me to train my strength and stamina.

The wyvern climbed up the table and I began to scratch him where he liked it the most, behind his head. Alaric threw a piece of dried meat in Quintus direction and a black maw devoured it quickly.

“He really does grow slowly”, Alaric remarked.

“Yes. I read about it in the library. The mana here has not enough darkness element for him to grow at normal rates. I will have to visit such a place, the next time I leave the city for a longer time”, I explained.

“And when would that be?”, he asked. Interested in getting out of the city for a change.

“In a few days. I have to finish my business with Livia and the city government. Oh, and I have got an invitation from Helvallia. Want to be my plus one?”, I asked him.

“Don’t you want to ask the lady you are courting first”, he teased.

“The lady I am courting has refused because her uncle had a task for her”, I answered him honestly.

“Why are we even associating with that elven woman again?”, Alaric complained again.

“She has contacts in Antioch and access to the production of silk. Both things I need, if I want to steal the production secret. You are far too mistrusting my friend”, I said.

“And you are far too trusting. I don’t like how she just appeared out of nowhere and conveniently meet you. It was too easy to find and contact her. Too easy to get to an agreement”, he pointed out his concerns.

“Fine, if you are so concerned about our partner, why don’t we ask teacher to accompany us?”, I compromised.

“You think he has time? Although if we tell him the local ladies will be there he will come definitely. And that man can probably get us out of any situation if it comes to that”, Alaric concluded and got an agreeing nod from me.

“Wonderful. You will see it was probably just your paranoia. Sometimes you have so much luck with something, that you can’t believe it yourself", I said.

I really admired Helvallia. She was a successful elven businesswoman, in a region controlled by mostly dwarves and demi-humans. She also looked enchanting with her long white hair and blue eyes. And that smile she gave you from time to time was just mesmerizing. Her body rivalling the one of an angel from the old stories deepened the effect.

A quick bite from Quintus into my finger told me I spaced out. The wyvern jumped from the table and disappeared into my shadow. One of the things I couldn’t get used to. It was hard, even for me with my sight, to spot him, if he was in my shadow. Teacher had reassured me, that it was just the way Quintus learned and trained his abilities.

We continued to talk about the coming meeting with our partner. There were also plans made for the trip outside the city. I had planned to leave Aegyptus for Syria. With the contacts and information bought from Helvallia. I was really happy to meet her again.

“Are the preparations for our ‘guests’ ready?”, a young elven woman asked the knelling elf before her.

“Princess Helvallia all preparations are completed. Your mother has reminded you, that failure is not an option. We need to capture him. Now”, the man replied.

“Oh, so mother really lost the war. She seems desperate. Did she get her ass handled by Jagu, Duran or both?”, the man stood up and pointed at her.

“You will change the way you are speaking right now! I won’t tolerate disrespect against the queen!”, he ordered. Helvallia just sighed and nodded absent-mindedly. Her mothers' servant couldn’t do anything to her, except reprimanding.

“Yes of course. Let me guess mother wants to use him for the peace negotiations. Can’t she just take the loss she incurred through her own actions?”, she asked and suppressed a laugh, at the bulging veins of the man.

“You won’t be informed about her plans. Just manage to bring him here and disarm him”, he ordered, while trying to calm down.

“I guess I can manage that. He really is a naive little boy, just like I like them. So trusting, if it weren’t for that damn dark one, never leaving us alone for long”, she complained.

“It just shows you have still much to learn compared to your mother”, the man said.

“How will you deal with his mentor? I don’t think you will manage to defeat one from the undying”, she asked.

“They have been hunted and killed before. I also don’t need to kill him, just to stall him”, he answered.

“I wonder how that will play out. What about the vampire. Dracula would not be amused if we kill one from his house”, she said and trembled. The only time her mother showed fear was when mentioning him, despite never seeing the vampire. Helvallia also would like to never meet him.

“Again we do not need to kill either of the three. I have made preparations to deal with him as well”, he said with a confident expression.

“Well if you say so. What about Quintus?”, she asked, remembering the little black thing.

“What? Who?”, he looked generally confused.

“The black wyvern Lucius has a bond with. The thing they probably stole from house Bilibin”, she explained with a sigh.

“Ah yes, the vermin. It is just a black wyvern, not older than a year. We asked the seller if it was a mixed breed, but he said it wasn’t. The thing won’t be able to do anything except hiding in a shadow”, the man left after reminding her to follow the plan.

Helvallia opened a book with plans for her business and moved to the section assigned to Lucius. She stroked through all points. There would be no future business between them, not after him being kidnapped. A shame, she had so many plans for the heir of Neapoli, after wrapping him around her finger.

“You should have left Quintus in the mansion. He is still not able to behave, like he should as a familiar”, Niloticus reprimanded the wyvern.

“It is not his fault. He is still learning and is getting better at following commands”, I defended him.

“He hid in the wash bin four times and scared the shit out of the maids. He climbed the roof six times and got stuck in the chimney. And just last week he shadow ported into the kitchen and ate our meal. Did I forget anything?”, Alaric said.

The black wyvern may be a bit more problematic than necessary, but it was hard for me to severely punish him. I felt a bond grew between us, the weeks after his hatching. Something Aellelorn had explained to me prior. It gets stronger even now.

It allows me to roughly guess his position even if I can't really see him and feel his emotions. He probably can do the same thing with me. It was hard to explain how I felt about this bond. It was different from the love to my family, but also not the same I felt about my friends. Quintus was something in between.

“I will put more effort into his training. Happy?”, I finished the discussion about Quintus just as we rounded the corner and the mansion came into view.

“Makes you wonder where she got the money for this. A local house doesn’t have the funds for something like this”, Alaric made his concern known again.

“It isn’t bought, just rented. You really need to work on your paranoia”, I dismissed my friend worries, and we entered the building shortly after.

A servant greeted us and, after having a short discussion with Alaric, let us keep our weapons. We were led to a hall in the heart of the mansion. I spotted mostly elves and a few humans.

Teacher headed immediately to the talking ladies and integrated himself smoothly into their discussions. I ignored Alaric’s glare in Niloticus’ direction and searched for the lady in question. My eyes finally found her. She was talking next to an elven man.

A frown emerged on my head without my notice and Alaric’s hand on my shoulder brought me back to the situation at hand.

“Let’s go and greet her. It is better to end this meeting as fast as possible”, Alaric advised, and we moved towards her.

She smiled at me when she noticed us. A feeling of warmth and happiness spread through my body and I returned the smile. Alaric just shook his head.

“Hello, Lucius. It is nice to see you again”, Helvallia said and gave me a short hug to my surprise and satisfaction. Today would be a wonderful day.

“It is nice to see you as well. How have you been?”, I asked her.

“I have been well. Could I speak with you under four eyes for a moment?”, she gave the man next to her a look, and he moved away. I gave Alaric a long look, and he didn’t move.

“Alaric please, nobody is going to eat my head, if you just stay 20 meters away”, I said and this time Alaric moved as asked. I ignored his expression when doing so.

“You know ...”, she said and my heart moved faster when her hand touched my chest and went down. “I have always wondered how they work.”

I hadn’t time to comprehend the situation, as she pulled one of my crossbows, loaded, out and shot at my shoulder from point-blank range. I stumbled down, moving the healthy arm to the other crossbow, a kick in my stomach stopped the attempt.

Alaric’s shouts became fainter as the pain took over. The last thing I saw was a sudden darkness spreading out. I felt something familiar land on my chest. Everything went black.

“Niloticus are the tales about you and the elven queen true”, a lady asked me.

“Not quite, but I had my experience with the royal families of the elves”, I said and just as I was about to explain, a cry of pain rang out in the hall. I dropped the glass and my eyes snapped to my pupil.

Lucius went down after being shot in the shoulder and kicked into his stomach. Alaric slit his hand, a whip of blood took form and was swung at one of the four attackers. He would hold out for a few seconds, of that I was sure.

I moved in Lucius direction or at least tried to, as I felt danger from behind. My backside was instantly covered by crocodile skin. Something struck me from behind but didn’t manage to do anything except pushing me forward.

I noticed two more people heading my way. I sensed something again, this time coming from Lucius. Quintus jumped from Lucius’ shadow onto the boy's chest and growled at Helvallia. A sudden darkness engulfed the room. The light came back shortly after. Lucius had disappeared.

The shocked expression of the elves at least reassured me of Lucius’ temporary safety. I called on my nature magic and called the help of the river I was born in. I noticed how Alaric used the brief confusion to injure his attackers.

Every wound the boy received didn’t even bleed and his enemies wounds bleed stronger than usual. The magic of house Dracula was really one of a kind. More weapons and armour out of blood appeared on Alaric as more blood was shed.

Three persons attacked me. The first a male elf, the woman behind me, a female elf, and the one to my left, a demi-human. The elves pulled out short bows and arrows. They aimed at me, while the demi-human transformed into a bear and tried to tackle me.

My roots pierced the ground and obstructed vision and free movement. The bear bit through them in record time. I braced myself for the impact as one arrow got stuck in my arm. I got thrown towards the next wall and transformed fully before impacting the marble.

My decision being rewarded with the following arrows stopping without piercing my skin too deeply. Alaric collapsed after the pain from his wounds, even if not bleeding, was too much. Roots immediately covered the falling boy.

I saw the girl, Helvallia I think was her name, leave through one of the doors. Alaric’s attackers retreated and two of my attackers used this chance to flee as well. The demi-human continued his attack on me, nearly fanatical in his attacks.

I tried to restrain him with roots again and again, but he could cut through them without much effort. I suspect it to be part of his transformation or a special kind of anti-nature magic.

The decision to evade the bear instead of fighting was the right one. He had managed to land quite a few hits, but not one of the wounds was actually a threat to my life while in this form. I laid before a window and just as the bear jumped on me again a current of water bashed into him from the window behind me.

More water flowed into the room and pressed the bear into the next corner. I concentrated on my magic and created a prison of water for the demi-human. Slowly watching him struggle against the pressure and lack of air while thinking about old times. When was the last time I called the Nile to come to my help?

After making sure the demi-human was drowning properly on his own, I transformed back and tended to my wounds. A few makeshift bandages and nature magic had to do it for now. A grunt from the root pile made me remember the vampire boy.

I opened it and helped him to bandage his most serious wounds.

“What happened to the idiot?”, Alaric asked.

“I don’t know, but it has something to do with Quintus”, I answered.

“The black wyvern? How? They don’t have the ability to take people with them while moving through shadows”, he said with confusion visible in his expression.

“There are many variants in every race. I am one myself. We will have to search for clues on Lucius. We need to find out where Quintus took him and for that we need information on his origin”, I concluded only to stare in the unfocused eyes of Alaric.

He collapsed onto a bed of hastily created roots. I checked his breathing. Alaric was fine just exhausted and wounded. A gargle drew my attention. The bear transformed back into a demi-human and stopped all movements inside the water.

I terminated the magic and the body fell towards the ground, where a root pierced his heart and eyes. Satisfied with the result I moved to Alaric and picked him up.

We left the building and headed to our mansion. The fact, that no guards moved to the scene, did not go unnoticed by me. I would have to speak with the governor and the houses. Somebody broke his promise to a Vespasianus and would pay for it.

Somebody broke his promise with me and would feel the wrath of the Nile for it.