Petrim Arnij had a busy day: he immunized four humans that day, all around the age of fourteen years old.

From now on, these kids could have been fed upon by any vampire without the risk of infecting them with the Taint. Even if they died they will not return as zombies.

"This means, that we can leave the subcity, and go to the surface?" Asked one of the children, a girl.

"Yes, child. You will live on the surface from now on, and are actually forbidden to visit down here without explicit permission."

"I... I see. So, can I see my mom?"

"I am sorry, but I don't know who your mother is. Nobody does."

"But... you are the only healer here. You helped my mom at my birth."

"Yes, child. But we make no notes on which child belongs to which mother," he lied. "And it was fourteen years ago... I am really sorry, but I can't help you."

She didn't answer, just nodded sadly, then left.

After Petrim was finished, he was about to left for the surface. Being a healer granted him certain privileges, but even he needed permission to stay in the subcity, and he usually needed to leave once his work was done there.

Savarin was once a big city, it's population had been more than three million humans, all golems with the occasional elementals, like Petrim. Now it was mostly zombies.

He was old, very old, more than three hundred years old, a survivor of the Purge. He aged far more slowly than others, thanks to the Life aspect of the Earth. His father had been a powerful earthlord, reigning over Savarin and the nearby villages, a loyal and favored subject of Earthprince Fargohm. His mother was a water elemental from a minor noble house, which made Petrim a halfling. As all halflings he was illegitimate too, since marriage was forbidden not only between elementals and golems, but between different kind of elementals too. Still, thanks to his healing abilities he was more than welcome in his father's court, and had the easy life of the nobility for a while. Then, the Purge came. The First Purge, anyway.

He shook his head. It does no good to dwell on the past.

"Excuse me, Healer," said one of the boys whom he immunized. He was waiting for him at the entrance of the subcity, near the guards, all lesser vampires.

Some vampire lords used human guards, but Voidlord Hargvan was not one of them. He despised humans. But he was also practical and knew full well how useful an immunized human stock could be for feeding purposes. What the so called voidlord didn't know, that even humans were generally more trustworthy than vampires, and that was saying a lot about the nature of the sentient undead.

"Yes? What can I do for you, kid?"

"The guard says that I am an elemental, and that you will be my teacher."

At first he didn't know what to say. The kid must be joking. While it was possible for full golem parents to have elemental children, it was rare, and usually it only meant, that an elemental great-grandparent's ability skipped a few generations before it was inherited by one of their descendants. True neophytes, with no elemental ancestry along their family tree was extremely rare.

Also, he didn't want to believe the boy said the truth.

Humanity's chance to ever defeat the undead was slim, at best. But giving the vampires access to the power of the elements only made things worse, especially vampires like Hargvan. Then again, the undead already got quite a few of them. Petrim himself was a fine example of that.

"What's your name, boy?"

"Felim."

"Alright, Felim, wait here for a minute."

He went to the guards, and politely greeted them. In answer they scoffed at him.

"Yeah, what ya want?"

At some vampire cities healers were held in high esteem, sometimes they were the most trusted advisors of the ruling vampire. Again, Hargvan had different views and his "children" mostly shared them.

"Forgive me, sir," Petrim said. "But are you sure, that the testing device was working properly? Was the boy tested again with a different device? Or did you run a... erm, blood test? I do not mean to make a fuss about it, but..."

"But you'll do it anyway," said one of the guards. Petrim never bothered to learn their name. "Look, human. We checked the brat three times, with three different devices, two calculators and a flashlight. They all gone crazy when he tried to use them. As for the blood test, you know Lord Hargvan's orders regarding that. He has the Right of First Taste. So take that elemental bastard away, and start to teach him, and make sure he is able to breed as soon as possible. Also, you better hope he is not your son. Our lord needs no more healer, got it?"

"I took care not to sire a child, sir, rest assured. He is a neophyte, but he can still be a healer."

"Well, hope he isn't. Or you'll have an early retirement, since we have your replacement, then."

Petrim didn't answer him. They both knew that wasn't true. Having a healing ability wasn't enough to cure the Taint. It required a powerful and skilled healer to do that, so he was safe, even if the boy was indeed a healer. The kid on the other hand... Petrim was old, but he could still last a century or two, so Felim wouldn't be needed for a good while, and many a vampire found healer's blood disgusting and dangerous, since it granted them access to the Life aspect of the Earth. If a vampire used that aspect, even accidentally, it caused them great pain and injury. The Taint was a disease, after all.

"Thank you for your time, sir."

"Just get out."

Petrim went back to the kid. He needed to find out what kind of elemental he was, and quickly. It wouldn't be good, if he was a healer, but there were worse possibilities.

Many elementals fled the planet using confluxes. It was a risky move. While, for some reason, there were confluxes only where there was life, so one didn't need to worry about landing on the surface of star, for example, but that also meant the possibility to meating with sentient– and possibly dangerous– aliens. That never happened, so far as Petrim knew, explorers only found ruins of alien origin, but still, the practice of traveling to unknown confluxes became forbidden during the days of the Tetrarchy. Until the Purge, of course, when survival instinct proved stronger than caution.

To think, that the undead could travel to these worlds to follow and capture the elementals who fled there, was a terrifying thought indeed. Of course there was no guarantee they hadn't already, but even then, giving access to Hargvan to a drifter was a bad idea. It would increase his influence in the Empire a great deal, and he was one of the more cruel vampire lords.

Petrim decided, that he would kill the boy, if he had too. Or escape with him, preferably. That would be a death sentence to the unimmunized kids in the subcity, or at least to many of them in the long run, of course. That was the only reason, he didn't left the city already. Still, he had his escape plans and preparations ready just in case. One didn't survive for three centuries, and through an apocalypse just because he was a powerful healer. The Life aspect made it a possibility, caution made it a reality.

"Alright, kid, come with me," he told the boy finally.

"So, first we should see, if you really are an elemental. I have a friend who has some electronic devices."

"The guards already checked it."

"Yeah, I know. But machines can get faulty on their own, without an elemental, who's ability is just awakening."

"Three different devices? Does that ever happened?"

"No," Petrim admitted. "But there is a first time for everything. Also, there aren't that many neophytes to begin with."

"What is an elemental, anyway? And why did those calculators stopped working?"

That's right. They didn't teach future food that kind of stuff... Or much of anything.

"Elementals are humans, who possess special abilities. Like my healing."

"Oh, like superheroes?"

Petrim shook his head, amused at the irony of it all: The golems did their best to exterminate elementals, only to some two hundred years later start to write comics and make movies about them as superheroes and supervillains. Of course, those heroes were always really golems who acquired their powers with the help of science from actual elementals, or some other sources. Only the villains were true elementals themselves.

More importantly, their powers were vastly over exaggerated in those comics. Still, he has had to start somewhere.

"Yes, like superheroes. I am glad that at least they have comics down there."

"Yeah, though not much."

Petrim nodded, then he said: "As for the calculators, you see, elementalism and electricity are like fire and water. Using elemental powers nearby an electronic device causes said device to malfunction for a short time, while it weakens the elemental's power temporarily. Since your powers are just awakening, and you have no control over them, machines are go crazy around you. It will pass, and later you only have to worry about it, when you use your aspect, your ability."

The boy nodded thoughtfully.

"How do you like the surface so far?" Petrim asked the boy after awhile.

It was night, so Felim didn't need to squint to see. In fact, he likely saw better in the dark than Petrim.

He shrugged.

"I expected it to be brighter."

"Well, it will be, come morning. It will take some time till you get used to the sun. But don't worry, I have some sunglasses."

"I also thought it would be... I don't know... prettier?"

"Yeah, vampires are not much better in that regard, than zombies. At least Hargvan's vampires. They love ruins and doesn't care much about filth. This city was in ruins since the Apocalypse. Some of the human residents tried to repair some part of it, but eventually they got tired of it. Vampires drink their blood too often, and they are always tired and unmotivated. And usually high on some drug or the other. Or drunk. You would do well to stay away from stuffs like that. It can be especially dangerous for an elemental."

"Oh, I see..." Felim hesitated for a moment. "Well, actually, yesterday night we had a small celebration with some of the others, and Gerul and a few other kid bought some wine from one of the guards with blood, and... Well I drank a little. Not much, but after that, I felt a strange feeling."

"I bet you did. That's kind of the point of alcohol."

"No, I didn't mean, that I got drunk, though I did feel... well, happy, I guess. But I also felt a... warmness... And then, it was like the bottle started to levitate, for a moment. I thought I was just hallucinating, but if I am truly an elemental as the guards said..."

Petrim looked at the boy thoughtfully, then nodded slowly.

"The thing, you did with the bottle is called telekinesis. It is done by the Motion aspect of the Air. It means, that you really are an elemental, kid, a levitator, to be precise."

Which was good news, Petrim supposed. Motion was a useful aspect, but it was a relatively common power, so it would not increase Hargvan's influence much.

He sighed and murmured a silent prayer to the Spirit.