Vampiris Sancti: The Elf (10 page)

Zyre needed to
recover from so many dissolves in a short span, so they sat hidden
on the roof—the Pixie drinking his coveted juniper while she ate
the heady human delight. He gulped a third of the bottle in a
single swig and something that would paralyse others merely made
him merry for Pixies and gin were old friends.

Slipping down
the slope away from sobriety Beb eyed her with concern.

“You know,” he
confided, “demons wilt flowers in the garden with the fire of their
wants. Martyc Folly on this world will make it barren, the Empire
not control the Xatn. He brings them profit so his want will not be
stopped. If he be wanting you then you need to flee—before tis too
late.”

Zyre looked at
the glowing stars, such a pretty world despite the rude way it was
treated while she tried believing in fate. “A Watcher is coming and
if he thinks Folly got hold of Xatn then disgrace make Dhaigre
retreat.”

Beb frowned.
“Myruj is failed Xatn, full of jealous misery, he not bring
profit—what safety in politics of this? You have not the craft of
the Empire, he has a Druqe and Poqir—you are what Elders throw away
and he is demon prince of wealth and power.”

Zyre didn’t
want a litany of truths thrown at her as like all Elves she
preferred not to see the cliff she was about to step off, even if
Beb was right about her situation. Watching the kaleidoscope of her
eyes as emotions tore through her had the Pixie soften.

“You are good
Elf—good friend—too good for demon wants.”

She smiled at
his affection and put her arm around him briefly because that was
all the contact the Pixie could endure before fluttering in
distress.

“He can’t
control the Vampire—they serve as link between demon, human and
Empire.”

His face wide
with surprise Beb squeaked. “Disturb the Veil and death! Death! All
protect the Vampire from human knowing.”

Emerald eyes
glowed above ruby lips. “Not disturb the Veil—instead maybe make
new Vampire friends and prince step back off.”

The Pixie
scowled at the one he was trying to save. “Pfft! If I not know
better I think you like playing with this Martyc and his demon
games!”

He suddenly
squinted at her as if suddenly suspicious of her plans. “Tis not
diveye making you be dresniq?”

Zyre didn’t
have an honest answer for the question because usually she would
abscond at the first sign of trouble, yet here she was sitting on a
roof watching Vampires in the distance. Instead, she denied the
accusation of maturation making her act like an idiot. The diveye
was a hormonal rollercoaster that would make human teenagers look
normal. Dresniq was their slang for crazy.

“You be silly
one!” she admonished her friend.

Zyre shrugged
off the accusation and returned to watching the Chambers for the
diveye, a sign of the sexual maturation of an Elf, was not
something she was willing to face. No Elves ever did because it
often meant winding up attached to a Martyc and part of the
Empire.

She was canny
enough not to approach the building until the advancing Vampire
population had entered. While their senses were not as finely
turned as magical ones Beb was not exactly a silent being. They sat
watching the strange mutants arrive and Zyre would have happily
spun tales of Vampire atrocity if it would make the Pixie flee. She
knew the failings of her own kind and terrorising an already
fearful creature only rendered it more neurotic than usual.
Watching him get drunk she had no qualms over what she had decided
the value of exchange for the gin because she really had no idea.
Unlike demons, who believed they were entitled to all they viewed,
the worth of property evaded a being that owned and wished to own
nothing.

Sitting under
the stars Zyre told the Pixie, "You know the Vampires drink blood
of the living, but the humans eat flesh like demons!”

His eyes wide
in disbelief he protested, “But this world has much life, why eat
flesh, why drink blood?”

She nodded
while explaining of the bloodlust that controlled Vampire lives as
the horrified Pixie spluttered in his gin. Moving closer towards
the Chambers she told him what little she knew of humans.

“Humans be
strange wild ones, some eat flesh, some plants, while some love
their world and others harm it. They are beautiful, ugly, wasteful,
rescuing all at once. Sometimes they are much nicer to their young
than demons and hold them with love—like a Maz.”

Beb gave a
hiccup that echoed across the rooftops. “So humans are not
demons.”

Zyre nodded.
“Not all the time.”

Her response
caused him to flutter with nervous apprehension until he was
perilously close to the edge. Grabbing his collar she moved them
across to the roof of the Chambers. She kept one hand firmly on her
companion as she searched among the skylights for the one that
covered the auction room. Finding an area filling with Vampires she
pushed the Pixie down beside her as they watched the proceedings
below with interest. The Tyro and a Fhreh demon stood behind a
large velvet curtain dividing a large stage in half. On the other
side of the curtain, facing the stage was a circular platform with
seats that rose until they met the brick wall at the back. There
seemed to be hundreds of interested Vampire watchers who sat at the
rear of the room while others moved to the front holding coloured
cards. The curtain rose and the Fhreh crossed over to a pale
Vampire standing behind a large wood podium as the girl stayed
centre stage—shivering under the focus of everyone present.

As if they
sensed their magical audience, several of the Old World Vampires
simultaneously looked up causing the Pixie to drop his bottle and
flutter in alarm until he was hovering half off the rooftop. Zyre
managed to grab the bottle before it hit the glass of the skylight,
and shimmered over to the edge of the roof to clutch the fluttering
creature. She held the bottle over the roof encouraging the Pixie
to return to safety while attempting to silence him, but she knew
it was a fruitless enterprise. She thought she felt the wisp of
another nearby, but fussing with Beb and her desire to see Vampire
life had her brush it aside. Once she worked out there was no
immediate threat she pulled Beb across the roof again.

Two late
entries into the Auction sparked her curiosity; the first was a
tawny Vampire whose presence caused a small ripple of excitement
through the observers. The other was the sandy haired Vampire, the
one almost Aunsin that she had seen stalking the girl shivering on
the stage. His presence initiated a flurry of speculation that
distracted the others until a gong summoned the attention of
all.

“Hush!”

She gave Beb a
glare and he responded with hiccup that echoed across the rooftops.
Zyre pushed him down beside her and they watched the auctioneer, a
slick Vampire, urge the proceedings into a flurry of bids as others
held up the coloured cards. This time it was the Pixie who observed
the presence of another—the scrape was the tiniest sound but of a
nature that warned him. Feeling his unrest Zyre couldn’t ignore her
own instincts again. This presence registered strongly enough for
her to gaze across the roofline and straight into the eyes of a
Varkja. Following her line of sight Beb saw the silver demon
gleaming in the moonlight and he fluttered in terror causing the
gin to slip from his fingers. Distracted by chasing the gin Beb
lost his balance and as he fell he grabbed hold of Zyre. The
Varkja, no longer requiring stealth, stood up in time to watch two
magical beings follow the bottle of precious juniper spirit through
the skylight and into the midst of an assembly of startled
Vampires.

The Reveal

It had taken
the various worlds centuries before they realised the possibilities
of the rift that created the Reveal. The revelation of this
suddenly exposed multiverse had the occupants call this doorway the
Reveal because it showed them their new truth. At first examined
with great suspicion it appeared to be a chasm that things vanished
into or mysteriously appeared. Objects were tested and then those
foolish enough threw their lives into a void that had no secure
destination. The few travellers that later returned intact regaled
their world with stories of adventures. When mastery of the Reveal
finally occurred it changed the structure of the universe bringing
of all things, peace, cooperation, and prosperity to creatures
whose greatest achievement until then appeared to be either the
spoils of war or discord. The occupants of the Reveal realised the
importance of peace. Even an uneasy, magically installed one and
once established they explored the inter-universe highway with
zeal.

As the Reveal
was the nexus between worlds the portals where beings passed
through became local transport stations for the native populace.
When knowledge of the Reveal became accessible to more and more
beings there were many disastrous attempts to enter worlds beyond
the fringe. The foolhardy, the ambitious, the greedy, and the
malevolent, leapt into the worlds beyond with death often the
result of such careless adventuring. It took many centuries before
the confirmation of safe destinations that accepted rather than
attacked the voyagers. Every world had a few doorways, and once
these spots were marked towns sprang up around them as the visitors
soon discovered which worlds they could seamlessly integrate into.
Though the entire world was at the disposal of the visitors they
tended to congregate close by the doorway ever conscious of the
possibility of requiring a quick exit.

In the human
world, the safe entry point became a main train station of the
city. This was the central depot where, human, demon, magical, all
passed during their journeys. Those wishing to traverse the Reveal
entered through their own portal, a wall to the casual observer, a
door to those who knew its purpose. While the magical world was one
that fascinated demons their history discouraged unexpected visits,
so it was the human world, the pleasure worlds of the Empire and
the Markets of Prakiesh that sustained the most traffic. While the
human world was a favoured destination for many demons the ability
to enter often depended upon the ability to remain unobserved. Even
the Elf comprehended the value of maintaining the Veil of a world
that made demon paranoia look mild.

The journey
through the doorway was a rough one with some of the more fragile
of the demons and humans unable to endure the travel. Most high
caste demons made it through without difficulty and the magical
with their ethereal physical structure had little issues during the
tempestuous crossing. All who encountered it explored the slice
between worlds, but not all worlds were receptive to visitors. Many
demon realms were not rife with friendship and tolerance with the
visitor perceived as invader, slave, or fair game.

Over time
certain portals became known to arrive at specific destinations and
therefore, were frequently used more than others were, but this
didn’t remove the possibility of arriving at a wrong address. More
than one frazzled Elf could speak of months trapped in the Martyc
world, pursued by amorous males until desperation drove them to
live in a dissolve until they slipped through the portal
unnoticed.

Once a
destination had a positive confirmation, it was demon nature to
attempt to use the doorway to conquer all before them. They removed
themselves en masse only to discover their home worlds occupied by
others upon return. This ring of conquer the next world landed them
in a bloody war for eons, ending only after the entry of the
magical world—a realm that could wreak eternal chaos upon everyone.
The humans were proving impossible to restrain, and the more they
developed the less afraid they became of things that went bump in
the night. The old ghost stories fell by the wayside, Vampire
adventures became tales to entertain, the Fairy was relegated into
cute ornaments for children, and demons were gleefully killed by
supernatural television heroes. There was no recourse but to
instigate a treaty that kept everyone safe and the human world in
ignorance for as long as possible. This world became the jewel of
the Martycs and even the magical being was wary of openly
aggravating an Empire determined to protect its resources. The
peace proved advantageous for all as the Reveal became the
superhighway for inter-world travel, the road of trade, the source
of entertainment, and in turn created a multiverse where all could
prosper.

**********

Love in action
is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.

Dostoevsky

Zyre took one
look at the horde of startled angry Vampires—grabbed Beb and
dissolved across town until she found an unoccupied roof.

Exhausted by
transporting them both such a distance she flopped down muttering,
“Blinkity, bothersome blinkity.”

Due to her
erratic companion she found herself in the unenviable position of
being an uninvited guest to a Vampire auction and she knew the
Ghuvk would squawk like a bunch of Viznix parrots. They would go
straight to the Xatn—the one beast she was trying to hide from—to
complain about the ones who defiled the private proceedings of
Vampires. The last thing she needed was more eyes looking for her
and the thought had her throwing annoyed bothersomes into the night
air. Too traumatized to squeak the Pixie fluttered around as she
ate the last of her precious chocolate while focusing on a swift
recovery. Zyre was not taking any more chances because there was a
Varkja who had her scent, about a hundred Vampires who had her
face, and a Martyc desperate to find her.

“I saw Varkja
and Vampires! Varkja! Vampires!”

A terrified Beb
repeated it as if the concept of demon creatures was a new
discovery.