2006, 18th January

Space Station, Apotheosis

“Where is Michael?”

“Lord Michael-” Anisha’s grey uniformed colleague over eagerly reminded her, “-was at the ritual chambers, last time I checked.”

And that was how Anisha found herself setting off to the chambers where the Lords of Apotheosis honed their talent.

Mostly, a Hollow intruding on them was neither tolerated nor appreciated.

But Anisha knew Michael to always make his words count- If he didn’t want to be interrupted, he would have made that fact clear, instead of bidding her to meet with him at this specific hour.

At the chambers themselves, she pushed against the massive doors, and her resolve wavered as static electricity crackled against her fingers.

But she pushed through and entered regardless, to be greeted by an inferno.

Four enormous pillars of flame, no less than ten feet of height, rose from innocuous looking burners placed on the floor around Michael, making the air difficult to breathe.

Hssss.

Michael’s chest deflated visibly under the vest he wore as he exhaled audibly, and the very flames deflated alongside his breath, diminished back to their normal state.

And then he noticed her, waiting by the side, and gestured for her to wait.

She waited as he disappeared into an adjacent room, probably a washroom, and emerged from it fifteen minutes later, no longer slicked with sweat, dressed in a grey sharkskin suit over a black shirt.

“We’re going to my office. You can fill me in on what you found along the way.”

And he was off in his usual, rapid pace, not checking to see if she was following.

She caught up with him as they walked toward his office.

“I asked around about Han’s research with the library staff. They aren’t as informed as I had hoped.”

“I could have told you that. He wouldn’t have confided in Hollows. What else?”

Confided in me enough, Anisha thought, but didn’t give voice to the thought.

“He was particularly interested in the first Chief Librarian. Seemed very taken with his research, apparently.”

“I see. And what do you have for me?”

“His first work. I got a hardcover. Either he didn’t have any other work, or he didn’t make it publicly available after the first one.”

“Did you read it yourself?”

“I… might have skimmed it a bit..”

“Just as well.”

They reached his office, and Michael took his seat behind his desk, folding a leg over the other.

“Summarise it for me.”

“Sir. It’s a theory on our species and-” Anisha flipped through a few pages. “-Our divergent evolution from… you.”

Michael merely nodded.

“It goes on about traits found even in a microscopic level, with hormonal secretions from gut microbes able to influence a human’s behaviour, to the macro level with certain predators even able to influence their prey to the extent of reawakening recessive traits weeded out by evolution, or rewriting behaviour altogether, and-”

Anisha paused for a deep breath.

“It points to vampires as an example on a true macro scale.”

“Vampires? What have they got to do with this?”

“Well, he points to them as the natural predators of humanity. And they use their abilities to influence their prey’s minds-”

“And since they draw their abilities from the Astral Realm, the book theorizes that such an ability is not, in fact, supernatural, but completely natural. That it is the hollows that lead unnatural lives, cut off from the Horizon Realms.”

Anisha raised her brows.

“Right… he even points to biologically immortal organisms such as- I’m sorry, have you read this book before?”

“No. But I reached the conclusion easily enough through Hans’ behaviour. It’s obvious he sees a Hollow existence as a handicap, a deformity of some sort. His thoughts must mirror those of his influence.”

“And you?” Anisha blurted, before she could stop herself.

“And me what?”

“Ah… nevermind. Sir.”

“You have done exceptional work in just the one day I gave you, Anisha. Certainly, you’ve been more efficient than some Mages I have on the field.”

Anisha bowed.

“Yes, my Lord.”

Michael made a grasping gesture with his hand, and the hardcover text was wrenched from her grip to his waiting hand.

She tried not to let the surprised alarm on her face show too obviously.

“Leave this with me. You can go now.” Michael dismissed her.

Anisha bowed curtly, and made her exit.

Watching her retreating back, Michael pursed his lips in contemplation.

It had been quite a while since he had last met Hollows that didn’t quite seem to fit his expectations.

But not recently.

He flipped through the pages of the text, frowning.

Anisha had seemed to gloss over the most obviously important part of why the first Librarian had primarily considered vampires for his case study, or had intentionally neglected mentioning it.

And considering what Pierre had uncovered in Paris right now, his suspicion of the timing of these events being too convenient was validated.

He pulled a communicator to his ear, and called Aaron.

2006, 18th January

Paris, France

Aaron had had enough of working in the less than safe environment of this abandoned penitentiary on the outskirts of the town, especially sharing the residence with a murderous mutant for company.

Pierre was here as well, but the atmosphere between them had been strained and awkward.

And the Android assigned to assist them wasn’t much of a conversationalist.

Then his communicator vibrated in his pocket.

He plucked it out and put it to his ear.

“Michael? I- slow down… Librarian? This is about Hans? Listen- listen to me. I realise you need more to pin this man of yours down, but the three of us aren’t nearly enough. Yes, we definitely- No, what? No, that’s not what I-”

Aaron sighed as he paused for breath.

“Fine. I’ll see it gets done as well as I can, all things considered. Yeah, yeah, alright.”

He closed his fist on the communicator.

Pierre snorted from the side.

“Good talk?”

“As good as a steamrolling gets, honestly. And why haven’t I met this Lionel Bellone yet? A vampire dumps yet another assignment on our laps and fucks off, and now we’re between the rock and the hard place.”

Pierre’s eyes hardened.

“You don’t want to meet that.. Creature. Trust me.”

Aaron shrugged.

“I’ll take your word for it. Your family is way more involved in these circles than mine, anyway.”

Pierre raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“If you say so.”

Aaron didn’t want to dig further into that statement, so he contented himself with observing their subject through the tinted glass panes between them instead.

The creature seemed far more docile during daylight hours, although it did not suffer harm from exposure to sunlight like the creature whose blood created it.

“So,” Pierre broke the silence once more, “What did our generous patron have to say about the busywork we’re currently stuck with? Is he going to find us a way to get around it?”

“No. He said to stay our course. This case is more closely related to our assignment than it would first seem.”

“Of course. None of this can ever be easy.”

“He said something about vampires being the perfect link between hollows and us magi because while our transformation and connection to the horizon realms is purely metaphysical, their change is far more physical in nature, down to-”

“Aaron, please. I’m not really all that interested.”

Aaron shrugged.

“Might help you contextualise your studies- Don’t look at me like that, I know you’ve been brushing up.”

Aaron had initially been quite surprised by the fact that Pierre was actively working on honing his talents when he had shown no such inclination before but he supposed it made sense, given recent events.

A life of criminal activity had left Pierre hardened to most threats a man could reasonably expect to face in their lifetime, to the point of even being classified as one of those threats himself.

But he had been thrown up against supernatural threats that no mere man could be expected to have a reasonable replay to.

The only problem was-

“God fucking damn it!”

Pierre hurled the text he was skimming through onto the floor and stormed out, understandably stymied by his lack of progress.

Aaron, whose specialty was energy magic, could not help Pierre advance his skills in the life field, and honestly, he wasn’t that far ahead of Pierre in terms of progress, only being an apprentice of his favoured field and a novice of one other.

Ciara could probably help, seeing as she had always been a faster learner than the both of them, but he really doubted she would take his calls.

So he checked that Pierre had left earshot, and putting his communicator to his ear, called Michael once more.

Progress already?

“Err, no. I’m calling about something else.

Make it quick, will you. I have places to be.

“It’s about Pierre. He’s here working on this assignment with me, but he’s been frustrated. Thing is, he’s also been working on a bit of magic on the side-”

He’s wasting his time.

“What?”

It’s an innate defense mechanism. He will never advance further than where he currently is. He is too afraid.

Afraid? Pierre was too afraid? Of what? And what did that have to do with his magical ability?

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

Fear is an evolutionary advantage for the vast majority of organisms. But not for us. Fear and hesitation can turn our powers on us, and tear us apart in the most literal sense. But I understand Pierre was brought up in a household of lowlifes and criminals, and raised with that line of work in mind. To him, a lack of fear would just have been a disadvantage. He would have ended up dead, or stunted by fear as he is now.

“You’re telling me nothing can be done about that?”

Whatever can be done, he’ll have to do himself. Neither you nor I can hold his hand through this. And anyway, we have better things to do for now. Contact me again when you have progress on your end.

And just like that, the communicator went dead.

Aaron sighed. He supposed that was the end of this particular line of action, for now.