Vampiris Sancti: The Elf (12 page)

The Druqe
shuffled and if she cared to bother about his motivation she would
have realised he was skirting the edges of betrayal. The Druqe,
while intensely loyal to their employers and fiercely regulated by
their ruling body the Djiirt, would sometimes intercede upon behalf
of their employers. Whether it was wanted or not as this employee
could often be as ambitious as the one that hired them. Scowling at
his superior attitude Zyre crossed her arms while imagining this
gave her a nonchalant air of unconcern. One could never allow a
demon to see an advantage because it was their nature to exploit
anything exploitable.

The Druqe began
to drone on with the usual Empire rhetoric. “Lord Dhaigre is as
tough as Viznix steel, he tolerates disobedience from none—his word
is law.”

The Elf
suppressed an impulse to query as to why the servant of such a
master was verging upon defiance. She couldn’t be bothered to wait
for the eloquence of the Druqe to subside into facts, and so
interrupted him.

“Vryn Dhaigre
is great, blah, blah, blah.”

After a sour
glare he continued. “My Lord has been sidetracked by a detrimental
influence—a magical influence,” he paused as if waiting for a
reaction to his shocking disclosure.

Zyre by then
was more preoccupied with a sugar high that was abating quickly.
The human honey didn’t seem to have much staying power and she felt
weary from a night of too many changing factors.

“Get on with
it,” she yawned while realising that she would have to dissolve
fairly soon before she crashed.

Afir pursed his
lips—like most demons he had no love for anything magical.

“The search for
you will be relentless throughout the Reveal because the resources
of a Xatn are endless. It is considered that he is too busy running
this enterprise for the benefit of the Empire for him to play Elf
games.”

How like a
Druqe to believe she was playing hard to get in this struggle for
her freedom. The edges of her eyes clouded into a stormy teal as
blue flooded into green. Not for the first time, that she wished
the Seal didn’t bind so tightly—if only she could break a limb off
the arrogant creature. The demon noticed the telltale sign of a
cranky Elf and continued quickly.

“Sanctuary can
be made possible.”

The offer
surprised her enough to clear her eyes back into emerald. “You be
offering sanctuary from Vryn?”

She didn’t
notice the easy familiarity with which she used the Martyc’s first
name, but it didn’t escape the demon who shuffled slightly as if
fighting a losing battle.

“Not me
exactly, but on this world it has always been a contentious issue
with the Vampires that they do not control all aspects of it.
Despite that, they are wise enough to appreciate the peace and
protection of a universe that knows of their existence.”

“What I care
about mutant Vampires and their blood ways?” Zyre cheerfully
lied.

In reality, she
was very curious about them especially a particular Tyro, but it
was best not to let a demon know anything about anything.
Especially if the demon happened to be a Druqe that would no doubt
file it away as useful knowledge for future advantage.

She could see
the struggle of the Druqe while he skirted the edges of betrayal
because his duty was clear to him. He should have attempted to hold
the Elf while alerting the Varkja, but she would dissolve before
anyone could arrive. His was a delicate balancing act caught
between helping or hindering his master, and sometimes the latter
provided for the former.

“The Vampires
would be aware of his interest in you.”

Zyre was
certain the Vampires knew a great deal about her since she had made
an impromptu appearance at their auction.

“They might not
be too cheerful to see me right now.”

His face
revealed the knowledge was nothing new—so news of her escapade had
already reached the fortress. No thanks to the Varkja spying on
her, the network of information on this world was swifter than
expected and Zyre began to pay actual attention to what the demon
was saying.

“The Ghuvk is
aware that accidents can happen and that no offence was meant. They
are willing to offer a—err—comfortable place for you to reside
while you enjoy your visit to this world.”

Naughty the Elf
might be a fool she was not, so the Vampires wanted to use her as
leverage against Dhaigre. For the sake of prosperity he couldn’t
force them to give her up, and her presence would allow them to
influence a prince who took orders from no one. The Druqe would be
happy as she would be out of the way and maybe she could enjoy a
bit of peace. No matter where she turned she was fast becoming a
political pawn in a game she had never been interested in playing.
The Druqe handed her money and a card—she could recognise money
from any world because it all had the same stink.

“The Ghuvk, as
you realise, can’t offer you a public invitation—protocol you know.
But if you happened to be this address then you might be accidently
discovered and a proposal extended.”

Zyre took the
card. “What tis this? I cannot read human scratches, how I track
here?”

“It’s called a
florist shop, a place filled with flowers and plants. Humans are
fond of them and I’ve heard makes good eating for Elves. I will
arrange a taxi to arrive, hand both to the driver and he will take
you there. A Fhreh lives next door and he will scent you, then wait
until a Vampire contacts you.”

Her eyes
narrowed in suspicion at the thought of allowing a demon to scent
her,

“If this be a
trap I shall come and make Druqe soup out of you—not even the great
Vryn Dhaigre can save you then!”

The Druqe
paused for a moment as if remembering the potential damage an Elf
could do because hers was no idle threat.

He shook his
head slightly. “The Fhreh work for Vampires and this is not a trap.
I give you my word.”

She had the
word of a being that knew he couldn’t lie to blazing teal eyes and
so the two unlikely collaborators parted in the gloom. He to return
to the pretext of obedient servant, she to wait for a ride to a
place filled with blooms. It was a good choice and she had to admit
that sometimes even demons got it right.

Histories

If the worlds
of the Reveal were to be viewed from the outside it would seem that
humans wished to be Vampires, Vampires wished to be demons, demons
wished to be magical, and the magical wished for peace of mind.

While some
attributes might be unique to one particular demon world there were
others universally held by all those from the demon universe. All
demons came from worlds where survival was a constant balancing act
between environment and inhabitant. This left them, whether they
were Martyc or Poqir, with a compelling desire to regulate every
aspect of their surroundings in order to survive a nature whose
attributes were not determined by ancestry alone.

When humans
discovered the formidable beings that arrived from the Reveal, with
their seemingly supernatural qualities and ugly forms, they deemed
them evil and called them demons. This term stayed around the human
realm long after their visitors had left becoming a nightmare used
to frighten the unsophisticated into submission via story or faith.
The human realm kept vigilant in noting any recurring visits as
demons were pronounced bastions of evil—serving some malevolent
devil bent upon the destruction of the universe. While in part this
was true, demons did serve their own purpose and to the human eyes
a malevolent one, it was similar to the conquest of one human
nation over another in their own history.

The reality of
the demon was complicated by the excesses of their natures, the
quirks of their natures, and the failings of their natures. One
common characteristic of all demons was passion as they were victim
of a passionate disposition that burned through them until it
almost sparked from their fingertips. Demons had no down time for
they couldn’t comprehend the value of calm and lit from their own
internal inferno they blazed through life burning the same in work
and recreation. Barely able to control the fires within they often
failed, which caused fires without for without restriction a demon
world could indeed resemble the hell of the human mythology.

Their continued
survival was due to their excellent reading of the world as the
demon felt the fabric of their surroundings the way a human might
feel the texture of cloth. Centuries of containing inner furies
powerful enough to tear a world apart gave them the ability to read
emotions, intent, information, from the air itself. The demon would
feel the violence of movement upon the atmosphere—alerting them to
a perpetrator about to strike. They could sense the presence of,
and distinguish between, their kind and other creatures nearby. The
higher caste demons had more refined senses and could read larger
areas from a distance while the lower could only read what was
close by. Given strong bodies suitable for battle, the weakest of
demons could defeat with ease the strongest of humans and through
evolution the Ancient Vampire, once Aunsin, could match the
strongest demon.

The Vampire
lived in a frustrated world where they fought to maintain control
of their own environment. Magical creatures lived in a neurotic
realm caused by a clash with the harshness of reality. The demon
lived in a paranoid world where they could be overwhelmed by their
own barely suppressed emotions. Prisoners of their heritage they
maintain a superficial vestige of control, but the demon never
really owned their own soul. Aware of their flaws they used
self-knowledge to destroy those who would stand in their way and
sometimes wound up destroying themselves in the process.

The demon soul
consumed itself as the emotions of hatred and love, with all their
affiliations, preoccupied their every waking moment. While not all
demons appeared demonic they all carried the hell of unbridled
passion within the framework of an unchanging nature. Demons
marched throughout the Reveal, destroying, building, loving,
hating, struggling, failing, yet never able to facilitate the
transformation they so desperately desired—to allow them the simple
luxury of choice.

The demon
universe was filled with worlds ranging from black pits of hell, to
the pale gray cities of modern civilisation. Regardless of their
origin demons shared the same basic traits where obsession grew
from passion, greed replaced ambition, and power was the god of
everyone. Once discovering the Reveal they ventured forth to
conquer, fight, or trade, with the various worlds they encountered.
The demons, due to their inherent avarice, found themselves under
control of one particular world whose higher caste subjects managed
to control their vices. While the Martyc demon could have used
brute force to battle their way to the top of a demon empire they
were clever enough to realise that those who owned the banks owned
the universe. The Martyc paved the way for those of lesser power
and while not all demons were peaceful many realised that when
crossing into other worlds business was often the fastest way to
power.

The first
contact with the human world found a primordial creature who saw
the demons exactly for what they were—demons. Those unable to pass
as human found themselves under constant threat by a fearful and
superstitious world capable of a violence to rival any demon. The
interlopers quickly learned that though the human creature might
not match them in strength or skill they possessed a fierce
dedication to their gods and would willingly fight until
extinction. As civilisation tamed the wild humans it also gave them
sophistication in all things war and soon the demon found an
opponent of equal calibre in their skirmishes. This violence fell
by the wayside as a new enlightenment of economic focus dawned.
Those able to pass as human meshed into the fabric of a society
whose corruptions were as varied as they were prolific, because
this was a world the demon understood and often facilitated. While
the demon universe had sorted different worlds into bankers,
assassins, aides and mercenaries, the human world had all these
living under the one realm. As the primitive human hunted the demon
as the antithesis of their god—the modern human was more concerned
with profit margin than origin of the species.

Of all the
gifts, curses, and knowledge the demon worlds brought the human
there was one that neither could have predicted and that was the
mutation called Vampire. The first contact with demons brought not
only information, but also their infections. The human world found
itself subject to plagues, illness, and finally a virus that
created in their victim a metamorphosis in order to survive. The
virus didn’t take a strong hold until the world contained enough
deviations for the deviant to hide within and then they multiplied.
The Vampire learned as they grew in numbers using their weakness
and strength to build their shadow empire, a world within a world,
reigning in the dark shadows of a sunlit domain. As the human world
became organised, so did the Vampire and they found themselves
inextricably bound to humans in a duet of interior and exterior
worlds. The Vampire, useful to both demon and human alike,
discovered themselves protected by their influence and so any hint
of their existence was quickly erased from the mind of the
populace. The majority of humans played out their time caught up
with the frustration of unanswered desire, lives lost or wasted,
left to chase dreams of an impossible nature. Rarely examining
their source they never imagined that the aspirations of this
unsettled life often rested upon the foundations of some murky
demon world. The Vampire provided the cloak, the demon the dagger,
and the human the stage for this very unusual drama.