Vampiris Sancti: The Elf (2 page)

She dissolved
before the doorway into the multiverse, which was poorly guarded by
two surly Gnomes. Sturdy creatures of bad tempers and voracious
appetites they were—despite their small stature—almost impossible
to overpower. Their faces were gnarled like walnuts and covered
with impressive beards that were grown for both the prestige and
the useful ability of strangling an opponent in battle. They had
the usual conversation of sharing stale jokes since they weren’t
the most imaginative of magical creatures.

“You—Gnome,”
said one.

“Yes Gnome,”
responded his comrade.

“How many rocks
can I fit in my hand?”

“More than a
Viznix.”

The pair fell
about laughing at the well worn joke as everyone knew Viznix had no
arms and did all the famous metalwork from their world with their
feet. Zyre took a shalur from her pocket and gave the beautiful
marble of iridescent colours one last look, yet had no regrets as
she heaved it away from the doorway. Young Elves such as Zyre were
attached to remarkably little, whether it was objects, people, or
places. This gave them the opportunity to mature without baggage
before facing the emotional upheaval of bonding. She watched the
greedy Gnomes push at each other as they chased after the glowing
gem. Their attention was distracted for only a few seconds, but for
an Elf that was all she ever needed.

Travelling the
corridor between worlds was an uncomfortably tight squeeze between
walls made from a wave of energy. It passed around and through the
traveller until bones ached and heads pounding from stress
threatened to burst from the force. It could be a dangerous process
and those of a feeble physical structure were often unable to
survive the journey. Magical beings with their ability to become an
ethereal presence found the passage mildly annoying, and sturdy
demons noticed nothing at all. Vampires couldn’t go until Ancient
since their survival depended upon the strength of their age, and
humans were not known to survive passage through to multiverse.

It was the
stench—it slammed her, left her breathless. This first venture into
the world of humans was a sortie into filth as unfamiliar as it was
disturbing. Zyre had left her pristine magical world the second the
Pixie spilled his news, knowing that soon the Elders would be on
her trail. She departed swiftly, and arrived hoping that none would
notice a strange new visitor suddenly appearing. The Elf had
planned to visit this world and tried many times, but was always
distracted by the promise of mischief elsewhere. She had been told
that the human world housed the demon mutation called Vampire and a
strange breed called humans. These short lived creatures, whilst
not magical or strong, were amazing in their innovation and
remarkable in their ability to ignore their own environment. All
manner of beings floated in and out of this world, however, for the
humans only an esoteric few had been graced with the truth. A
confident Zyre slipped into the gaps between pedestrians while her
graceful entrance matched the flow of traffic and she believed no
one was the wiser to her entrance.

Reeling from
her overloaded senses she quickly turned into an opening from the
street as doors across from her invited entrance into a mall. The
large glass windows of the shops shone with the reflected glory of
world crammed with consumer durables and her eyes hurt from the
sharp lines of their shape. She required respite from the
relentless noise of this world, zooming carriages, shouting into
little boxes, the complaints of disgruntled pedestrians—these
humans must be deaf! Offensive scents seeped into the pores of her
being, the fumes of industry, transport, and filth clogged her mind
leaving her overwhelmed by the shiny new of everything. She sat
down on a bench reflecting that even the most vicious of demons
were known to clean the blood from their streets. So why was it too
much for these creatures to clean the filth from theirs?

She watched the
closed, tired faces of those who scurried past seeing only
prisoners of ambition and woe as snatches of conversation echoed,
more, not enough, too much. She couldn’t understand their words as
most travellers through the Reveal spoke Giryg, the language of
nomadic demons, but she did understand the emotion enveloping them.
She wondered if their survival depended upon never seeing more than
the span of a foot before them as an entire world was calling out,
yet none appeared to heed the song. A man caught the corner of her
eye. He was a pale, dormant creature that sat reading a large paper
while sipping a drink. The wan face with burning eyes told the Elf
this creature only looked human as she did, yet this being was not
strongly demon. She stared at her first non-ancient Vampire and
wondered how such a weak mutation survived against the comparably
robust humans.

He might have
noticed the presence of the Elf watching him for she gave off an
unmistakeable floral scent caused by her frequent munching on
flowers. However, Elves were masters at hiding in plain sight, so
while he could have perceived something he wouldn’t have been able
to locate her. She could have sat there for hours in her silent
observation if something so wonderful, it was almost magical in
quality had not wafted through the air. The door of one of the
shops swung open briefly as a customer exited and the most amazing
fragrance floated into the corridor. Zyre was entranced by the
smell—what heavenly concoction had the beasts that resided in their
own filth manage to create? Zyre abandoned the Vampire, because if
there were one in clear view then there would be others and instead
she followed the seduction of a new sensation. She entered the
store to find herself consumed with the aroma of paradise because
Elves relied upon sugar of all sorts as the base to their energy.
She could exist by eating fruit, vegetables and she could absorb
energy from living plants, but sugar would give the Elf the zap of
extra strength. Relishing the wall-to-wall glory of delight an
unobserved Elf carefully opened one of the packets to taste the
human creation.

Able to hide at
will and rarely noticed by those busy with life, busy with
thoughts, too busy to care, she wandered about the empty store. Two
employees stood gossiping behind the counter and while she couldn’t
understand their conversation, she knew vicious when she smelled
it.

“...oh I know
and did you see the dress she wore to dinner? She looked so
bloated!”

“What do you
expect—she buys bargain off the rack, no style at all. She
embarrasses everyone—I had to pretend I didn’t know her.”

The heady
delight of this discovery was the excellence of chocolate and Zyre
ignored the snatches of a conversation as she was too busy slipping
bars into every pocket she possessed. Mindful of being a first time
visitor she didn’t steal the chocolate outright as she was
unusually flush with shalurs. Leaving one in place of the missing
bars, she believed it was more than a fair trade considering the
value it had within the Reveal. Returning to the street she crammed
the joy of joys into her mouth as this unexpected discovery changed
her perspective of this strange world of contradictions.

The mutation
Vampire intrigued because he had not found her presence, but then
again it usually took an observant demon like Varkja or Poqir to do
that. She wondered how many demons currently were on world, and
hoped she could stay off their radar since they usually served the
Martyc Empire. Elves in general were more inquisitive than friendly
and though they never sought association with others they were the
obsession of many a demon. Those of the Reveal either loved or
hated Elves, depending if they had been the victim or had the
pleasure of watching one in action. If she had bothered to examine
her sudden interest in Vampires, she might have noted it was bound
to the potential of sanctuary from the Empire. While she didn’t
concern herself with the economics of the Reveal it was an
acknowledged fact the human world was a rich varied cosmos of
untold opportunity and somehow the Vampire was an important
factor.

High from sugar
and satisfied by the excellence of chocolate Zyre hummed a little
tune causing those near to her to smile unaware they had heard the
song of the Elf. She skipped lightly as she sang deciding she would
stay for a bit because this world definitely had possibilities
worth exploring.

The Magical
World

The realm of
the magical creature containing beings such as the Elf, Fairy,
Pixie, Gnome and Goblin, was a coterie of mischief and mayhem
without direction or form. The magical nature was so disinclined to
involve themselves in anything that even their own world lacked a
name and when spoken of was merely called home. This chaos of
spirit within the peoples was generally ignored since the magical
realm appeared to cope with their dysfunctional society with
surprising ease. Every aspect of their world was beautiful as the
fundamental truth of their existence was the necessity to remain in
harmony with nature. The magical employed little in the way of
industry and whatever was created was done without disturbing any
natural processes. Their power came from absorbing the organic
vibration of the energy surrounding them and so a magical being was
as infinitely formidable as the life that enveloped their world.
This realm of lush forests with exotic flowering plants, trees so
tall they could rival mountains, crystal waters and crisp air, to
new arrivals from the Reveal—this was indeed a jewel of a
world.

This seemingly
unorganised society was not the violent anarchy of some demon
worlds, but more the misdirection of energy into agendas that had
no logical conclusion. The ruling Elders did little to inform their
citizens of rules or policy since there was no point educating a
population unlikely to bother adhering to them. Travellers
encountering the magical realm perceived it to be a chaotic,
unsupported world, with no discernable defences. Demons upon
arrival were not greeted with friendship as the magical couldn’t
open themselves to the burden of reciprocation. Soon their
unexpected, not so welcome, guests cast covetous eyes upon a domain
rich with resource and potential. The lure of exploiting these
beautiful creatures, including the possibility of sexual
liaisons—provided they could work out the gender—was too great for
the jealous beasts from ugly barren worlds. Demons did what they do
best and attacked what they couldn’t comprehend nor own, but what
they didn’t anticipate was the response they encountered.

The view of
those attacking was that this society lacked proper form and
therefore would fall easily to the rigidly organised demon ranks.
The invaders flooded the world and their troops met with no
resistance at all. When attempting to move forward what they did
find were abandoned streets covered with sticky ivy that enveloped
buildings and hindered progress. The air was suddenly so moist as
to make breathing uncomfortable and there was the strange absence
of an authority to threaten. The magical realm was not ignoring the
invasion as much as floundering within an internal bedlam, because
none of the Elders could agree upon how to proceed. Their discord
was reflected in nature, and the demons found themselves impeded by
something they had not foreseen—a physical reaction to their
presence. The magical realm was not opposed to defending their own
world for they could rival and often surpass the brutality of
demons. Their issue was how to organise such action after centuries
of living out of sync with the others sharing their world.

It fell to
their most powerful and least reliable of citizens to bring order
to the disorder of the magical realm. The wayward and aloof Elf
caring enough to be present, but not enough to be active in
solution found herself at the crux of the decision process. Fairies
had dissolved into hysteria, Pixies were drunk, Gnomes buried
themselves deep underground and Goblins—well no one wanted them.
Elves knew several truths of their world, the most important being
that unity above all determined their survival. A magical being on
their own was a formidable creature with limited potential, but an
entire dominion could decimate a species into a dust upon a whim.
Elves were appointed the new Elders, and in turn organised the
ranks into a credible and effective defence. This appointment
remained long after the wars and those Elves who returned home
after raising families off world were most often the chosen Elders.
They served until boredom had them disappear back into the mists of
the Reveal.

The interlopers
were ejected, but this didn’t end the attempts of demons to
encroach upon the magical realm. So centuries of skirmishes passed,
some were on world, most off world, with disaster befalling those
caught in the crossfire. Once both sides realised there would never
be a victory without complete destruction of the other they
approached mystical sorcerers called the Mages of Sor. These beings
though did not appear magical in the same sense of the magical
world, did employ the magic of incantation and at the request of
both parties cast the unbreakable spell of the Seal of Sere. This
was only possible because both parties were completely in accord.
With such a rare unity of spirit present the sorcerers were able to
cast a binding enchantment unaffected by the motivations of future
generations.

Signed in blood
and magic the Seal removed the ability of each being to harm the
other only leaving the ability to obstruct. It was because of this
Seal that Vampires sometimes became the tool of both for in their
attempts to outwit the other they had forgotten the mutation who
lived amongst them. The ancient Vampire, having left the human
domain, was now as powerful as their demon counterpart was and far
more adept at handling the mischief of the magical. There were a
few ways to circumvent the magical binding of the Seal, such as
straying into the path of harm, or creating a situation of being
forced into defence. The Seal didn’t protect demon from demon, or
magical from magical as those disputes were internal matters.
Unlike the resolve of the worlds that instigated it, despite
skirmishes involving it, the Seal remained eternally and forcefully
intact.