"Tomorrow will be a turning day and a training day, if you want to observe, again you are welcome to. Simply be outside the inn tomorrow morning at sunrise. First will be the turning, then there will be the training." Aratos said with what was apparently his customary warm smile.

It was hard for the members of Blue Rose to not want to return it, and he shook each of their hands in turn before departing. After he was gone, Lakyus looked around as they also began to head back to their quarters. "Come to my room when we return to the inn." She said. She was met by silent nods of acknowledgement.

They walked without speaking, every one of them on pins and needles at what they'd heard, even with the charismatic young man's apparent decency, so they waved to the woman minding the counter, and walked up the stairs giving the appearance of weariness, though in fact their minds were very active. Lakyus opened the door to her room, walked in, held it open for her team, then closed it when Tia came in last.

"Thoughts?" She asked, cutting directly to the point.

"It is...different. But not without merits." Tia said.

"Yeah, I mean, they worship the undead, but they're not hurting anyone." Tina added.

But Lakyus was on a razor's edge, even now, behind a closed door in her room, and at a glance, Gagaran was equally on edge. She forced herself to breath evenly. "But what did they mean 'the unlife hereafter?' Lakyus asked.

The implication hit Tia and Tina quickly, as they hadn't taken note of it, but they looked at each other with grim expressions.

"He never did deny necromancy at all..." Evileye added with trepidation.

"And he mentioned something called, 'The Turning' several times." Lakyus added. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I think we'd best be prepared to intervene. We go out tomorrow as promised, but this may be the end of our contract, depending on what we see." She said to the team.

"It may be." Evileye said, "But for now lets withhold judgement, I'm not defending the Sorcerer King, but...we know that not all undead exist solely to prey on the living..."

"They need to be put down!" Lakyus snapped, surprised at her own sudden outburst. She lowered her voice by sheer force of will and continued, "Sure the skeletons and...by the gods, that Death Knight...are under control, but we know what they'd do if they weren't. Vampires, skeletons, death knights, liches...monsters like that always turn on the living if they get a chance. Protecting humanity requires putting them down."

"Maybe the Sorcerer King is...unusual in some ways, but anything that can unflinchingly end 200,000 lives is dangerous and we should be cautious of it. Even if its followers appear benign." Gagaran added.

Tia and Tina had expressions of agreement on their faces, and Evileye fell silent.

Evileye had lived behind a mask for so long that she'd forgotten it was there sometimes, but now in this moment, she was conscious of it in a way she had not been in centuries, and it was not only a mask, a fraction of an inch of carved and painted material, it was a wall, high as the sky and thick as a mountain, through which she could not see and the height of which she could not scale, forever separating her from her beloved sisters. She felt her eyes well up as that seemingly eternal barrier was thrown into her face by an off the cuff remark that Lakyus obviously had no idea could cut like a knife through flesh.

Evileye stood up, and said softly, "You're right of course, now...its been a long day, I'm going to take the air for a few minutes before going to bed."

Lakyus nodded, seemingly not noticing the hurt that Evileye concealed. "Good idea, but I'll feel better if we keep a watch tonight. Evileye can you take first watch?"

"Of course sister." Evileye said, barely keeping back her voice from placing special emphasis on the word, 'sister'. "I won't be long." She said, and walked out, missing the rest of the shift order, and not caring, she walked outside, missing the polite wave of the person minding the desk of the inn, and stepped into the air.

Her heart had not beaten once in over two hundred years, but as it had quickened on witnessing the power and valor of Momon, so it now ached from the unintended pain inflicted by Lakyus's dismissal of the undead as merely predatory vessels of evil.

She knew Lakyus had not intended to hurt her...how could she have, after all none of them knew they'd been fighting beside a vampire, that they called a vampire 'sister', that they would sleep while a vampire watched over them, safe having placed trust in the sort of being they usually killed without losing so much as a night's sleep over the act.

She walked alone in the moonlight, a few torches hung from sconces outside of various buildings, and these provided additional guidance to the humans out in the evening, but with her darkvision, they meant nothing to Evileye. How many times had she contemplated telling her team what she was, only to back out at the last minute, changing her mind as she imagined losing them, or worse, having to fight them...she shook her head at the last thought...she could never fight her roses. She swallowed hard, if they ever learned what she was, if they ever drew weapons to cut her down, she resolved to let it all end, she'd lived long enough, lost enough. She tried to imagine Lakyus drawing out that sword, and the feel of it cutting through her mask and ending her life.

When she'd heard Lakyus speak just a short while ago, it reminded her of how very real a possibility it seemed. Would the team feel differently if she revealed her nature? She felt the question dig at her like a spear twisting in the gut.

She was so lost in thought that she didn't even see Aratos until she'd already walked into him and knocked him to the ground. She was surprised for a moment as he lay sprawled out there, and she quickly apologized and moved to help him up.

"I'm terribly sorry." She said as she held out her hand, which he clasped in acceptance and grunted as she pulled him easily to his feet. "I'm afraid I was so lost in thought that I didn't pay attention to where I was going."

He chuckled, "No harm done." He said has he dusted himself off. "So what's the problem?" He asked with a smile. "Maybe I can help."

"Problem?" Evileye asked, and he looked at her with a little half grin.

"People don't get lost in thought wandering about in the middle of the night because they're happy. Something is bothering you, want to talk about it?" He asked.

"I suppose it can't hurt." She said.

"Alright then." He replied, and gestured for them to start walking.

"So, whats up?" He asked.

"Have you ever kept a secret?" She asked him.

"Sure. Who hasn't?" He answered.

"I mean one that could change how those who you loved, saw you?" She asked. "Something that, if they learned it, could cost you everything?" She elaborated.

"Yes." He said, "Once."

"Can I ask...?" She began.

"You already know it." He answered.

"What?" She asked in confusion.

"I'm a follower of Black Justice. My mother was a priest and my father was a paladin. I left their faith and joined this one early on." His voice grew distant in the way voices tend to do when the distance of a lifetime, either real or felt, was discussed.

"When Jaldabaoth invaded, I was captured, I prayed to the gods for relief, but the only relief I got was that the demons guarding us kept choosing people other than myself for their amusement. When I was rescued, it was because of the Sorcerer King and Neia Baraja. What good were gods that didn't do anything? Or whose only way to answer prayers was to sacrifice others instead?" He looked at her without the happy smile that normally characterized his face, instead his voice was choked up and tears trickled down, "Those other prisoners were my friends, they prayed for the same rescue I did, but I'm here and they ended up as mutilated wrecks or meals for demons or demihuman invaders. If the gods were answering my prayers, but sacrificing others who prayed the same as I did, what was the point of praying to them at all? I saw no reason to think they cared at all what happened to us." He said, speaking softly, but gradually getting the words out.

"When the Sorcerer King set us free, and not long after, Neia declared him a god of justice, I threw away my old faith to follow a god that actually cared to help us. My parents and I were reunited a few months after that, and despite the fact that he'd saved me, their own son, they disparaged him at every turn, even while they used him, relied on his power, they spoke against him to the people and to their colleagues, and for weeks I was silent, bearing up under their constant verbal assault on my savior, the savior of my nation. They didn't know how it stung me, until they did." He shrugged, "One day I lost my temper and revealed I had joined the followers of Neia Baraja, before we'd been given our current name of 'Black Justice'."

"What happened?" Evileye asked.

"Well they kicked me out, I became a pariah to people I'd grown up with...well...the ones who were still alive anyway, except for a few who had come to the same side I had, all of us lost our family, our friends, even our spouses in some cases." He replied sorrowfully.

"Have you made amends?" Evileye asked softly.

"You can't make things right with the dead." He replied with a shake of his head, "They died not long after during the fighting, my father fell in the last battle against Jaldabaoth, my mother in retaking some small village out in the hinterlands."

"I'm sorry..." Evileye said as he wiped his eyes, "Its OK, I've come to terms with it."

"Are you...glad you told them the truth?" She asked.

To her surprise, he gave a firm and decisive nod. "I am. I wish it had been done differently, but carrying that secret to save the relationship, tainted the relationship itself. It meant always having to keep some part of myself away from them that I couldn't share, and that had become a big part of who I am. Yes they ended up rejecting me because of it, but it was like removing a spear from the gut, sure while its in there it holds back the bleeding, but to heal the wound it made, it has to come out sooner or later. When it all came out, I was now open, able to speak my mind and not dance around the truth, not having to constantly watch what I said or what I did, it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I wish that I still had them, that we could still talk, that they could have had me in their life until the end...but I can't change because other people don't want me to be as I am. Black Justice, Foundoton, this is my home now, here is my family, and I've built my own life, and its one to be proud of, and I'm not having to pretend anymore, and never will again." He said, and though his voice carried bitter sweetness in its town, it sailed in a sea of sincerity and truthfulness.

"Thankyou." Evileye said. "You've given me a lot to think about, and you've helped me far more than you could ever know." She said, and she gave him not just a handshake, but a hug. "I'd better get back now, there is a long night ahead."

"Me too." He said with a blush tinting his face and contrasting to his red beard.

Evileye quickly returned to the inn, and went to each room in turn, letting them know one by one that she was back and ready to begin the watch out in the hallway. When she entered Lakyus's room, she found the woman was just getting ready to lie down.

"Goodnight Evileye. Wake Gagaran next when your shift is up" Lakyus said with a smile.

"Goodnight sister. I'll do that." Evileye said, "I'll get the light for you."

"Thankyou." Lakyus replied, as Evileye approached the candle, and gently slapped down on the top of it with her hand, extinguishing it and flooding the room with darkness. The darkest night was no obstacle for Evileye's vision, and she could see that Lakyus, exhausted from being on pins and needles, had closed her eyes and begun to slumber.

With only the most minor thought, Evileye could see every vein pumping blood through her sister's body, it was so easy, despite not having fed for centuries, she still knew how. She saw the changing in breathing when it had hit her sister, that told the experienced vampire girl that Lakyus was deep asleep, trusting a vampire with her life.

Evileye pushed back her hood and removed her mask, and for the first time in their long years of association, she looked at Lakyus's lovely face with nothing in between them, Evileye's blood red eyes were wide as she looked down at her sleeping sister, and she whispered softly...

"Someday...someday I promise, I will tell you the truth, even if it costs me everything." She said, as the soft words passed her fangs and lis and entered the world, fading to nothing with no one awake to hear them.

Evileye donned her mask again, put her hood back up, and then the vampire went out into the hallway to protect her human sisters.a