The gathering of those just outside the Gallows Woods was not one would see quite often. These were, to put it mildly, a bunch of vampires who got along like oil and water at high temperatures. Each group was from a different Vampire House, each group had wildly differing takes on how conflict should be waged and how territory should be controlled. However, the one thing that kept them from engaging in fights here and now was the presence of a woman and man who were seated under a canopy.

Even though these vampires were young, brash and in some cases quite arrogant and full of themselves, they were smart enough to realize that causing problems while in the presence of the Primogenitor and her husband, the Abominable King, was damn near suicidal. They had all been told the fate of the two younger members of House Dracones who, during the meeting called by the two monarchs a fair bit of time ago, had made a scene and been brutally put down. This had cast a shadow over House Dracones for a decent while, and only recently had they finally regained their honor and prestige, although they still smarted at the mention of the ‘incident’.

But, there was something that confused the lot of them. They were the youngest members of their respective Houses and had no tales of glory or prestige of their own to speak of. What were they summoned here to do, and why would the two rulers of the Midnight Aristocracy send the elders and veterans to assume control of the former Siempre Dorado Kingdom while they, the youngest and most inexperienced, were called to meet them? This uncertainty only increased the unease and caused the House Initiates to eye the members of the other Houses with concern and suspicion. All the while, the two dark rulers sat and watched the young vampires and vampiresses grow more and more uneasy.

“Well, the night is still young, and we are soon to be needed elsewhere, so let us cease the mingling and begin informing you of your mission.”

The angelic, no, divine voice of the Vampiric Primogenitor, Alexis Draculina Nekronus von Darksol, caused all the vampires to turn and face her. The mere sound of her voice filled them with an ecstasy that they were sure they had never experienced before in their lives (and unlives). All at once they fell to their knees, their faces pointed towards the ground while still straining to try and keep the slightest bit of her form in their gaze.

“You mission, should you choose to accept it, is to assist the armies my beloved husband and I will be directing in our attempt to retake the lands seized by the Crusaders. Of course, you are free to decline such a mission, however I cannot begin to tell you how disappointed I will be with both you and your House if that occurs. Needless to say, your superiors in your House will be none too happy if you embarrass them in such a way, so please do the intelligent thing and accept your duty with full enthusiasm.”

At Alexis’ words, a small chuckle came from the man seated to her right. While the vampires were upset that he found some kind of humor in the words of their mistress, they knew better than to risk the displeasure of both of their rulers by displaying anything remotely similar to anger or frustration. They did what the ones from the previous meeting had not, and kept their mouths shut and their faces stone cold and emotionless. They would not face oblivion so soon after gaining ‘immortality’.

“As my beloved wife has said, you will be working alongside our combined forces.” Kain stated. “However, you will not be working as individual Houses. You will be working together as a cohesive whole, all of you putting aside your differences and petty rivalries to achieve something greater. Needless to say, the bar is set quite low. Your Houses failed to impress us when we had them storm the mansion of that former ‘Leader’ of the former Teutonian Knightly Junta. In case you were not aware, they not only failed to seize the objectives before their mortal competition, but they did not even realize that they had failed until several hours after the mortals had extracted the package and made it back to safety.”

These words made the vampires realize that the stakes were actually higher than they realized. Alexis’ next words further invoked dread and unease.

“Indeed. It was quite a shameful display and made my ‘gift’ look like an absolute joke. While I am not so petty as to eliminate those who have already proved their worth after a single embarrassment, those who have proved nothing will not find me so merciful. You are the next generation, and I expect you to be impressive. Remember that you have no achievements to your names, and nothing to count against any colossal failures. You will either work together or you will humiliate yourselves and myself together, and I do not suffer those who humiliate me and have no merits to count against such failure.”

“As my wife has so eloquently put it, you are on thin ice due to no true fault of your own. I must admit, we could have sent you to the front, but we didn’t and thus you have no achievements to speak of.” Kain said, his words laced with a bit of pity. “Add in the fact that those who are older than you embarrassed the Houses and my wife by failing their task and that Lexi has been quite irritable lately, what with the Crusaders still occupying some of our territory, and you have a perfect storm that you, unfortunately, have found yourselves thrown into.”

Kain’s words were, in the eyes of the vampires, filled with pity and yet seemed to be a bit of light mockery. Still, what were they going to be able to do about it? If they tried to voice a counter opinion, they would be crushed to dust!

“But it isn’t hopeless.” Kain said with a bit of mirth. “You will have to work together while working alongside our forces, but don’t expect us and your fellows to pull you along to an easy victory. Each of you will be grouped up with at least one, but no more than two members of each of the other Houses and you will work together, or your individual group will be deemed a lost cause. You will each pull your own weight and act in whatever way your group decides is most appropriate. You have only a week and a half to prove that you are worth your existence, so go out there and break a leg, either literally or metaphorically, whichever you choose.”

Alexis and Kain let the vampires and vampiresses stew in the information they received for a few moments before they bade the young members of the Midnight Aristocracy to stand and decide for themselves who among them that they would group up with. As they tried to find a decent group, they could not help but feel that this too was a test of their abilities. As they tried to find appropriate partners, Kain and Alexis watched as a grand experiment went underway. It is said that a house divided upon itself cannot stand, and both Alexis and Kain were sick of the Houses refusing to cooperate unless the need was dire.

This would be the test to see if they could indeed work together and form bonds with those beyond their own House. If the test was successful, then it meant that the same procedure could be used again to try and force the barriers between the Houses to fall, but if it failed…

Well, there were plenty of mortals who wanted to live forever, and thus plenty of potential times in which they could repeat this experiment to get a wider range of results. Just because an experiment failed once did not mean that it would fail again. You just needed more data to add to it to see what the problems were and if, by some chance, the sample used was simply not up for the test.

There were many who would jump at the opportunity to join the ranks of the Midnight Aristocracy, and thus there were many, many potential test subjects and chances for the test to produce good results.