A Jaded Life

I had to give it to Ms. Maria Perez, she was showing some grit and determination. When I first met her in New Dawn, I had thought she was fairly soft, looking for cheap power to get herself set up comfortably but when she managed to make the trek to the meeting area I had designated for her, despite the brutal thunderstorm that was raging across the mountains, she showed me that she was willing to make some effort. Or maybe she had simply started her trek too early and gotten lost, the jury was out in that regard.

Regardless of the reasons, she had managed to reach the meeting area and, unless there was an impressive stealth-user in New Dawn, she had done so without bringing trouble with her. Well, trouble, other than the thunderstorm but I was confident she had nothing to do with that particular annoyance and luckily, I could use Water Magic to create an umbrella above us, keeping the torrential rain from drenching us.

“Good Evening,” I politely greeted her, speaking as if we were just meeting on the street instead of standing in the middle of a mountainous forest while the sky was doing its best ‘Great Flood’ impression and trying to drown the world.

She mustn’t have noticed our approach, causing her to let out a noise that was between a squeak and a gasp as she was whirling around, only to lose her footing and have her legs slide out from beneath her and dump her in the soggy mud. I managed to keep myself from snickering but neither Lia nor Luna were as polite, sniggering and giggling as the drenched figure tried to get back up only to slide around a little. She made for a sorry sight, hair plastered against her skull, clothes caked with mud and dripping water as they were hanging off her frame and even her face was muddy, thanks to her attempts at getting up.

And yet, despite the sorry sight she was presenting, her eyes told a different story, despite the indignity of being laughed at by my two companions her determination was unbroken.

“Good Evening,” she returned my greeting, once she was back on her feet, valiantly ignoring the state she was in. She didn’t quite manage to feign indifference to her condition, her body simply didn’t allow that and the shaking of her limbs and chattering of her teeth gave away just how miserable she was. In contrast, my group was completely dry, thanks to a wide, but thin, layer of water I was holding above our heads, the liquid umbrella keeping all the rain from falling on us with ease. Similarly, our clothes were unsullied, only our boots had any evidence of the terrible conditions on them.

“Let’s get the important question out of the way first,” I began, stretching my Mind Magic and trying to encompass Ms Perez as much as I could in an attempt to catch any fluctuations a deception would cause. “Have you told anybody where you were going or who you were planning to meet?” I asked, staring into her eyes, searching for guilt while daring her to deceive me.

“No!” came her instant and quite obviously reflexive response. Similarly, her mind flared with urgency, maybe fear, maybe indignity, I couldn’t quite tell, but from what I could sense, it didn’t feel like duplicity to me. Of course, I would have to test more and train my senses further so I could reliably discern somebody’s mental state magically, but for that, I needed to use the sense and get experience with it.

“Hm, is that so?” I mused, slowly walking forward, taking great care not to slip in the mud as I circled her, the shield of water I held above our heads stretching to protect Maria as well. “What do you think, Carnelia, is she telling the truth?” I asked, retaining the seriousness I had shown before.

Lia, to her credit, didn’t even blink but move forward, too, circling the woman herself but moving in the opposite direction I had moved. To play up the intimidation further, Lia let her eyes flare with crimson light, something I hadn’t seen before but I quickly decided to copy it, activating Overflow and channelling a bit of Blood Magic to get the right effect.

“She looks like a scared rabbit, ready to bolt, only now realising that it might have wandered into the wolves’ den. She stinks of fear, of uncertainty but also of greed,” as I was behind Maria at that moment, I couldn’t tell what sort of expression she had on her face but given the way Lia’s smile widened, turning into something with far too many and far too sharp teeth to be anything but scary, it seemed to make the right impression on my daughter.

“Ah, there’s a bit of determination in there, I was afraid I’d have to rip apart your back to see if you had a spine,” Lia nodded and kept talking to herself as she scrutinised the shivering female.

“A spine, maybe,” now Luna was getting in on the act, too, her eyes shining with the silvery light of the moon while she joined Lia and me in circling our test subject. Or maybe calling her our prey would be more appropriate in the situation we were in. “But what else does she have? She seems quite weak and worthless, does she not, Mother?”

“She certainly is weak,” I agreed to Luna, a smile starting to form on my lips as the next step of my plan took form in my mind. A quick burst of Ice Magic turned the water on her clothes into Ice, allowing me to magically take hold of them with ease and shred them apart, leaving an even more terrified, utterly naked woman in the middle of our circle. But I was a generous mistress, so while I tore away the trappings of civilisation, I granted Maria a boon as well, ridding her of the clinging mud while drying her off.

“Her worth, on the other hand, well, her talent is certainly lacking, especially when it comes to the arcane. It would take a lifetime or more for her to become a powerful spellcaster unless she received some special aid,” I judged Maria once again, my eyes piercing her soul to weigh her potential. “But she looks determined and for some paths, that is all that is needed,” I added, glancing at Lia, who had begun her path with less than Maria had right now. And yet, despite her Shattered beginnings, Lia had grown powerful and I could only take partial credit for that. Lia had taken whatever I could give her but made it her own, her determination and willingness to push and punish herself turning her into what she was now.

Amusingly, Lia made a soft noise of agreement, while Luna looked sceptical. Maybe that was due to their different individual paths, Lia’s was one walked with determination, Luna’s one that could only be walked thanks to her raw talent.

Sadly, there was no real arcane talent found in Ms Perez, to the point that I doubted she’d amount to much, even if Luna and I managed to push enough elemental energy into her to turn her into some sort of elemental creature if that was even possible for humans.

“She might need that special push first,” Lia mused, her grin growing a little wider, as impossible as that seemed. It looked like the determination of which Path Maria Perez would walk was made, or at least it was decided who would get the chance to push her onto a Path.

The slow circling from all three of us stopped, forming a roughly equidistant triangle around her, forcing Maria to twist and turn as she was trying to keep all three of us in her sight at the same time. It obviously didn’t work and Lia timed her move perfectly, surging forward just as Maria was looking in the other direction.

The only sound escaping Maria when Lia sunk her elongated canines into her neck was a soft gasp, followed by pained whimpers while her arms flailed uselessly, as Lia held her body upright, draining both Astral Power and blood from her body. Normally, the blood I was giving Lia was deliberately enriched with Astral Power but now, she had to drain all the blood from Maria’s body, a feat only possible thanks to Blood Magic, so Lia would get all the Astral Power the woman had.

At the same time, as Lia was ripping the life from her very veins, I was using my Soul Magic to shelter her Soul, keeping it tethered to her body. Otherwise, it was very likely her soul would simply fade, as it was too weak to endure the change she was forced to undergo. Studying the effect, I made a mental note to investigate the influence a person’s level had on their soul. It might be that we had to find more powerful people, or I’d have to continue tethering them, meaning Lia would never be able to create new vampires on her own.

The entire process didn’t take all that long and soon, Maria’s body gave out, causing Lia to take the next step and introduce some of her blood into the body that was, for all intents and purposes, dead. The moment Lia’s blood was flowing down Maria’s throat, I could see an instant and incredibly fascinating shift within Maria’s soul, where before, I had sheltered a fairly bright ball of glowing Light and Life, now, it was inverted, no longer glowing outwards but draining inwards and, maybe more importantly, no longer awash with Light and Life but Darkness and Death.

A shuddering, pained gasp coming from Maria’s throat told me that we had been successful and a quick Observe on the prone person confirmed my thinking. We had created a new Vampire.