Chapter 4(Von)
A few weeks later one evening Ynarana sat in a long comfortable chair in an overcrowded sitting room squished between Torvines on one side and Sethelel on the other, with yet more Gwendils pressed in on each side of these.
In Ynarana's hands was the latest highly enthusiastic letter from her parents, the letter saying many things but most importantly saying that they were coming to the plantation for Ynarana and Torvines' imminent wedding.
These overly enthusiastic letters from her parents had been nonstop ever since she sent them a letter informing them of her engagement to a middle born dark rider herald, her parents were absolutely delighted and were already bragging about the engagement to everyone in the neighbourhood back home.
Torvines himself had sent an arrogant signed and wax sealed letter to Ynarana's parents to go with Ynarana's first letter, pompously introducing himself and informing them that he was marrying their daughter Ynarana, and Ynarana's parents had been showing this letter off to anyone who didn't believe them, using it as proof to allow them gleeful bragging rights.
It was all extremely petty, but dark elves were not known for their humility and enjoyed one-upping their peers with any social elevation they could claim, desiring to be better than those around them. Ynarana could only imagine the embarrassing spectacle of her parents strutting about like they were prized nobility, noses held high as they informed everyone that their (suddenly) "favourite" daughter Ynarana was marrying into the middle born class.
A few weeks ago Ynarana's parents had considered Ynarana virtually dead to them, for defying their wishes by running away from home to live off in the countryside before they had exploited her for at least a hundred years of wages. But the moment they learned that she was engaged to a preening affluent herald, Ynarana was suddenly their favourite child above all of her siblings and completely adored by her parents.
The vampire was still at large on the plantation, killing an average of one slave each night, and Lordling Runor had so far been unable to kill the vampire or drive her away despite considerable effort.
The vampire had gotten smarter since being wounded in the battle against Torvines' dark riders, and no longer hid in the corn fields during the day. Lordling Runor had assembled mighty forces of his various plantation employees, and had used blood hounds to sniff the trail of the vampire with this small army following just behind the hounds.
The hounds and army had followed the trail for miles through the corn, and the dark elves had then been extremely irritated to find that the trail eventually climbed over the perimeter fence into a neighbouring plantation where they couldn't follow!
The dark elves had attempted to follow the trail like this for many days in a row in the hope that the vampire would get lazy, but every time the trail simply went over the fence. It didn't even always go to the same neighbouring plantation, the vampire seemed to shelter from the sun in many different plantations without any set home. Even more intelligently, the vampire wasn't feeding on the slaves or dark elves in these other plantations, sticking to Lordling Runor's plantation as her sole feeding ground.
These tactics by the vampire made her almost impossible to hunt for during the day. Dark elf plantation Lordlings were extremely territorial and suspicious of their neighbours, and would not tolerate the forces of another Lordling entering their lands, fearing an invasion. They would completely dismiss the story about hunting a vampire as being a laughable fictional excuse to justify an invasion, and would point out that as their own plantation slaves and employees had not seen or been attacked by a vampire, obviously there was no vampire and it was just a ruse for an invasion.
As long as the vampire didn't feed on anyone on these other plantations and remained hidden from sight, she was completely safe from retribution during the day. Clever clever vampire!
Lordling Runor had raged for over a week, but no combination of tactics and strategies had yet been able to stop the vampire. Lordling Runor had been forced to buy more slaves to replace the nightly losses, which had angered him even more, and only the naked Gwendil women in his bed were able to soothe his terrible anger.
The plantation had quite a few newly hired young Gwendils over the past few weeks, and additional wooden watch towers were currently being constructed all around the slave houses. Lordling Runor intended to construct these watch towers with an enclosed sentry platform at the top with only arrow slits for openings, so that the vampire couldn't get in even if she climbed up the sides. He then planned to have many crossbow women stationed in these towers every night to shoot at the vampire if she tried to attack the slave houses.
The towers were almost complete now after a few weeks of construction, and would soon be operational. The Gwendils couldn't wait.
Lordling Runor in his misguided wisdom had reasoned that the Lahmian vampire's seductive powers would only affect men, and assumed that women, (not being attracted to other women), would be immune to the vampire's bewitching beauty.
For the Gwendils this was perfect, they got to lock themselves in a tower all night long without any chance of being disturbed by men, and even better they would get a chance to safely admire the beautiful vampire. The Gwendils really would have the time of their lives and every one of them wanted this new job.
Sethelel toyed with the corner of Ynarana's letter in boredom, flopping it around between her fingers. Ynarana smiled and offered her the letter to read.
Sethelel glanced through the letter and then handed it back, and played with Ynarana's hair instead.
Ynarana smiled and rested her head on Sethelel's shoulder, Ynarana's long black hair hung loose for Sethelel to play with.
Torvines looked to Ynarana with slight possessive jealousy, asking the pair of women what they were doing.
Ynarana and Sethelel each put a lock of Ynarana's long hair across their top lip below their nose, pouting their lips up to hold the hair in place like moustaches, and turned their faces to show Torvines their hair moustaches.
Torvines chuckled, calling their antics adorable, but still clearly wanted Ynarana's attention, and pulled her head to rest on his shoulder instead.
Ynarana kissed him on the lips with her hair moustache still in place, and Torvines laughed at this playful antic.
After weeks of being engaged to Torvines, Ynarana had confidently learned how to wrap him around her little finger. Ynarana now wore the silver engagement ring on her finger, having accepted the inevitability of this unwanted impending marriage, and had now focused her attention on how to get the most personal benefit out of this situation.
Ynarana's sexual fantasies about the vampire had continued, and were getting more graphic and extreme over time. Torvines was completely no match for the insatiable lust Ynarana got from these sexual fantasies, and every time they had sex he was eventually forced to exhaustedly beg her to stop. Lordling Runor had also noticed Ynarana's recent impressive sexual stamina when she had group sex with the Lordling, and she was very popular with him as a result.
Torvines seemed to be in awe of Ynarana's sexual performance, and maybe even a little bit afraid. His obsession with Ynarana had only increased and she was learning to manipulate him to get what she wanted.
Ynarana still slept in Lordling Runor's bed, but she also had sex with Torvines at least a few times a week. After the upcoming wedding Ynarana would sleep in Torvines' bed as his wife, and Torvines actually seemed to be a little bit nervous of the amount of sex that would follow.
Ynarana smirked inwardly. She got enormous satisfaction from forcing Torvines to beg her to stop during sex, he was always so eager at the start and so humiliated at the end when she outlasted him. He hated and feared his continual sexual defeat, but he desired the sex even more than he feared it.
At the moment Torvines seemed to need at least a day to rest in between each time they had sex, and Ynarana got enormous satisfaction from trying to talk him into having sex on his rest days just to see his feeble excuses. When they were married and slept in the same bed, Torvines wouldn't be able to escape, and she would torture him with extreme amounts of nightly sex and make him beg her to stop.
Thinking about this now, Ynarana discreetly put her hand inside Torvines' pants and handled his exhausted private parts. Today was Torvines' rest day, having had 4 hours of sex with him yesterday, and he seemed to be in quite a lot of pain.
Torvines flinched slightly as Ynarana handled his tender exhausted reproductive anatomy, and Ynarana brazenly licked the side of his face just to toy with him.
"I, erm, Ynarana, what are you doing?", Torvines asked her, obviously hiding the fact that he was nervous.
Ynarana licked the side of his face again and made aroused noises.
Torvines shifted about.
Ynarana played her hand all over his tender parts, and he shifted worse than ever.
Ynarana was having fun tormenting him like this. Torvines was a horrible person who deserved to be tormented, and this particular form of torment was safe from retribution. As his betrothed Ynarana was entitled to demand sex from him, and he would look weak and impotent if he refused her.
Torvines was obviously in terrible pain from far too much sex yesterday, but he would look weak in front of everyone right now if he let this show.
Torvines was eyeing the room around them, a lot of dark elves were looking at them, including dark riders and Lordling Runor himself. Torvines could not afford to look weak in front of them and simply endured what Ynarana was doing to him, carefully not letting his torment show on his face.
Ynarana was delighted, and deliberately played with his aching testicles, making his discomfort almost unendurable.
Torvines appeared to be thinking hard of a way to save face and immediately got up, leading Ynarana out of the room by the hand, his entire body language suggesting to all that he was taking her to his bed to have sex with her.
Ynarana waved fondly to Sethelel as she left with Torvines, and Sethelel waved back with a playful smile, completely aware that Ynarana was deliberately torturing Torvines.
Ynarana thought about the vampire as she walked hand in hand with Torvines, and was quickly completely moist and slimy.
"I'm so wet", Ynarana whispered in Torvines' ear just to torment him.
Torvines flinched in dread and nodded, still walking towards his bedroom.
Ynarana guided Torvines' hand down her pants to feel the slimy mess and he flinched at the feel, his legs seeming to close involuntarily in some defensive instinct.
Torvines was almost trembling when they got to his bedroom, and Ynarana happily entered, stripping naked immediately.
Torvines looked distinctly grey skinned as he closed the door and gazed at her provocative naked body, his legs closing tightly in self defence.
Ynarana crawled around on his bed as provocatively as possible, waving her bare hind quarters at him as she playfully crawled around the bed. She was enjoying his suffering so much!
Torvines paused, still fully dressed, and seemed desperate to delay having sex as long as possible.
Ynarana rolled over on her back and spread her legs, using her hands to flop her largish breasts from side to side, looking him right in the eyes provocatively.
"By Khaine...", Torvines murmured, but still made no move to undress or approach her.
"Don't keep me waiting," Ynarana purred provocatively to him, having so much fun making him suffer like this.
Torvines seemed to be fumbling for some excuse now.
"Is something wrong my love?", Ynarana asked him in a careful tone that seemed uncertain if it considered his delay a sign of weakness or not.
Torvines stiffened, unable to endure any suggestion of being seen to be weak, and miserably forced himself to undress.
Torvines reluctantly moved naked to the bed, being as slow as possible.
Ynarana simply grabbed him as soon as he was on the bed and became as sexually aggressive as possible, relishing this chance to torture him without retribution.
Torvines had no opportunity to delay or slow the sex down with Ynarana aggressively sexually wrestling with him, and she gleefully forced him into the pain of his empty sore anatomy.
Torvines was barely even hard with his anatomy so exhausted, but Ynarana energetically inserted him into her and aggressively made love to him, relishing his obvious suffering.
Torvines was proud, but his pain was stronger than his pride, and he was soon begging her to stop with profuse apologies and made up excuses.
Ynarana thrilled with pleasure at his pain and humiliation, and set her face to look sympathetic but deeply deeply disappointed.
The look of Ynarana's disappointment only seemed to torment Torvines even more, as he obviously loved her and wanted to be able to sexually please her, and Ynarana sadistically drank in this delicious suffering.
Ynarana lay naked beside her betrothed on the bed, and deliberately guided his hand to hold her breast just to make him feel even worse, and smiled sweetly at him like a horrible vindictive bitch, (the average dark elf woman).
"I love you Torvines", Ynarana lied, pressing his hand into her breast.
"I love you too Ynarana", Torvines replied truthfully, and gave her breast a squeeze.
Ynarana moaned insincerely at this squeeze just to make him feel even worse, and began to stimulate her own vagina with her hand.
Ynarana had a lovely time using sex to make Torvines feel terrible, and was buzzing with satisfaction when she finally left the bedroom with Torvines.
Torvines made a point of leading Ynarana triumphantly back to the sitting room, his body language carefully set to look sexually triumphant, and Ynarana let him have his face saving public spectacle without ruining it for him.
Ynarana happily sat back down with Sethelel and snuggled together with her, immediately making a hair moustache with Sethelel's hair.
Torvines gingerly squeezed down beside Ynarana, with a Gwendil on the other side shifting slightly so that he could fit, and Ynarana joyfully continued canoodling with Sethelel.
"That was so fun", Ynarana loudly whispered to Sethelel so that Torvines could hear.
Torvines smiled proudly at overhearing this whisper, but Sethelel understood that what had been fun for Ynarana was tormenting and humiliating Torvines.
"Why don't you do it again?, That herald of yours looks like he has the stamina of a mighty horse," Sethelel whispered back extremely loudly so that Torvines could easily hear this.
Torvines froze at these words. He of course could not get offended by such deeply flattering words, and his ego was obviously gratified to hear such words, but his agonised private parts were probably screaming at him for mercy right now.
Ynarana giggled loudly.
Torvines cleared his throat and shifted nervously.
"I want more sex," Ynarana whispered so loudly that half the room could hear it.
"Tell that dashing handsome man that you want more, he will be happy to oblige. Just look at how red blooded and strong he is. He must have the stamina of a god," Sethelel whispered back just as loudly.
Half the room was unsubtly eavesdropping on this whispered conversation, and Torvines seemed painfully aware of all the people overhearing this.
Ynarana giggled loudly and looked as aroused as possible, and turned expectantly to Torvines.
This was obviously torture for Torvines just as Ynarana and Sethelel had intended it to be, and Ynarana mercilessly made very sexual body language towards Torvines, draping herself against him and being utterly brazen.
Torvines seemed to almost want to cry as he led Ynarana back to his bedroom to save face in front of everyone. Ynarana was just so happy torturing him like this!
***...
Ynarana was standing guard inside her watch tower a few days later, standing basking in the warm sun. With daily early morning blood hound patrols to track the movements of the vampire, it was now possible to walk in the corn again during the day, safe in the knowledge that the vampire wasn't there, and the women were once again safe to walk to work through the corn.
The plantation was losing a slave to the vampire every night, and 7 new slaves had to be imported to the plantation every week now, at least until the new watch towers were fully built. Lordling Runor was no longer tipping the women as generously for additional sex with these significant drains to his profits, and seemed to be spending a lot of his usual disposable income on new slaves and tower construction.
The slaves were hard at work in the corn fields, the slave drivers whipping them more than ever to generate the maximum profit before the vampire ate them, and the plantation was even more of a living hell for these miserable slaves.
The plantation would soon enter the first of the two annual corn harvest seasons, and the slaves were working very hard to spread reeking sewerage and manure around the base of the corn plants to fertilise the soil. The air stank with so much shit spread evenly over the land, and walking through the corn fields was absolutely disgusting during mass fertilisation periods like this.
The manure (and worse) would give the exhausted depleted soil the extra kick of fertility needed to get a decent harvest of slave food grade corn grains, and the corn would then be harvested. The harvested corn plants would then be slashed, and the soil would be plowed immediately for the next crop of corn.
It took an incredible amount of abuse to get two entire harvests out of this exhausted soil during the relatively short warm seasons of southern Naggaroth, and it was a testament to the ruthlessness of the dark elves that they could even manage it. The trick was to plant as early as possible in spring, harvest in mid summer, plant again immediately, and then harvest a second crop in autumn with barely days to spare before the land was too cold for growth.
The soil had nothing left as a result of this strategy, as the snow of winter froze the soil and prevented any soil fertilisation until spring when the abuse would start again with a new crop of corn. Nothing but manure and sewerage kept the exhausted abused soil capable of even supporting plant life, but so long as manure and sewerage was available the plantation could continue to produce profit.
The vampire would soon have no corn fields to hide in, but unfortunately some of the neighbouring plantations grew shade offering crops that were not harvested at the same time as the corn, so the vampire would still have places to hide during the day.
Ynarana stifled a bored yawn as she stood watching the surroundings, trying not to smell the stench of the manure in the air.
Activity at the single gate through the perimeter fence caught Ynarana's attention, and she squinted into the distance.
The gate was relatively simple, little more than a high wooden gate with a locking mechanism that required a key to open, with a tiny watch tower to one side that contained a group of four heavily armed male gate keepers during the hours of daylight. None could enter or leave the plantation gate during the hours of night, and all who passed the gate were searched for anything concealed.
Beyond the gate was a public country road belonging to the witch king, and all of the nearby plantations used this single public road as their sole passage to the rest of Naggaroth. The witch king's roads were safe from bandits, patrolled regularly by dark riders in the service of the witch king himself, and were absolutely essential for Naggaroth.
The gate was currently open, and a pair of elves on foot were entering the gate.
The gate keepers stopped the pair of elves and searched them, and then let them pass.
A solitary wide rutted pathway through the corn fields connected between the gate and the settlement of buildings that included the plantation house, the only pathway the greedy dark elves permitted in their lust for exploiting as much growing land as possible, and the pair of elves had little choice but to follow this path towards the plantation house.
The watchtower at the gate then used signal flags to inform the plantation of this arrival, the flags saying "Ynarana's parents have entered the plantation grounds for their daughter's wedding".
Ynarana did a double take, looking at the distant pair of elves intently. They were here rather early, the wedding was still many days away.
Ynarana was still on duty doing her job, and couldn't go to greet them now without permission from Lordling Runor to leave her post. She simply watched them and used signal flags to say "Hello Mother and Father".
Her distant parents were not even looking in the right direction to see Ynarana's flags, and continued walking obliviously up the pathway.
The plantation was now fully aware of their presence, and Torvines himself was trotting pompously down the path on horseback at the head of ten dark riders to greet them, his preening arrogance visible even to the distant Ynarana.
Torvines trotted like a triumphant hero right up to Ynarana's parents, and greeted them with dialogue that Ynarana couldn't hear from this distance.
Ynarana's parents had fawning body language towards Torvines, and seemed to be instantly enamoured with the preening middle born herald.
They seemed to stop and talk for ages, and Ynarana was embarrassed even thinking about what they must be saying right now.
Torvines and his dark riders eventually escorted Ynarana's parents the rest of the way to the plantation house, and it appeared that Lordling Runor himself was greeting them on a veranda.
Ynarana's parents bowed down like total boot licks before Lordling Runor, and he seemed to bid them to stand and welcomed them into his home with famous southern Naggaroth hospitality to invited guests.
Ynarana was forced to wait many hours until her shift ended, (all outdoor shifts now ending a good hour before sunset due to the vampire), and she then made her way through the corn back to the plantation house.
The sun hadn't set yet, but Ynarana didn't tarry outside just in case. The doors were closed and barred shortly after sunset and it was perilous to be left locked outside for the night.
Ynarana gratefully entered the warm plantation house, and one of the Gwendils discreetly informed her where she would find her parents.
Ynarana entered the plantation house's most prestigious sitting room located in the south wing of the ground floor, and found her parents sitting alone together on a magnificent wide padded chair, in a place of honour three sword lengths from Lordling Runor's own chair, with Lordling Runor happily talking to them.
These southern Naggaroth Lordlings prided themselves on hospitality to invited guests, and seemed to enjoy nothing more than showing off to guests with lavish hospitality as a display of wealth and power to the outside world. As guests invited to a wedding Ynarana's parents were experiencing this full southern hospitality experience, and they looked extremely impressed.
Ynarana's parents got up as soon as they saw her and walked over to embrace her with an enthusiasm they had never shown before. Both of them were wearing relatively expensive new clothes that they had obviously purchased in an effort to show off and look less low born, and only the distinctive smell of tanners gave them away as being quite obviously lowest born.
Ynarana happily greeted her mother and father, somewhat genuinely happy to see them, and allowed them to gush over her in front of Lordling Runor to feed their own vanity.
Torvines had been sitting nearby, and he now also stood, going over to Ynarana.
Ynarana kissed Torvines on the lips in greeting, and introduced him to her parents for the sake of formality even though they already met him hours ago.
Ynarana's parents gushed sycophantically over Torvines, preening with vanity to have such a high ranking future son in law. Ynarana sighed inwardly and simply tolerated this embarrassing selfish behaviour by her parents.
Ynarana's parents, (unsurprisingly), looked very similar to Ynarana, only older. Her mother, Filovha Mekrath, was rather big breasted, even more so than Ynarana was, but her face was rather plane, and Ynarana seemed to get her own physical body attributes mostly from her mother. Ynarana's father, Tuvak Mekrath, was more good looking in the face but not much to look at body wise, and Ynarana seemed to get most of her facial good looks from her father. Ynarana seemed to fortunately combine the most attractive features of the pair and not the negative traits, and was profoundly grateful for this fact.
The pair of them were looking at Ynarana with hungry possessiveness, seeing her as a ticket to bragging rights, and gushed obscene amounts of praises on Ynarana in a way they never would have dreamed of had she not been engaged to Torvines.
Ynarana was bid to sit down with Torvines in a comfortable two person chair across from her parents and Lordling Runor, and she sat happily enough, laying her repeater crossbow on the floor, still dressed in her armour and work clothes.
Torvines put a possessive arm around Ynarana in the chair, and she leaned into his affectionate embrace.
"It's so nice to see you being so affectionate with a man, honestly I got a little concerned by your lack of interest in the past my dear daughter," her father said approvingly.
"Oh?, Do tell," Torvines said immediately in interest.
"Well, she just wasn't very interested in boys growing up, never showed any interest." Her father explained carefully.
"Is that so?", Torvines asked her fondly.
"The boys back home were nothing special", Ynarana replied with a shrug.
Torvines seemed gratified by her response but still pressed for more details.
"There is not much to tell, I just wasn't interested", Ynarana shrugged.
"Well, I am just glad that you are showing an interest in a man now," her father told her in approval.
"You were worried?", Torvines pressed.
Ynarana's mother and father exchanged a look.
"Worried without just cause, clearly Ynarana just has extremely high standards in men," Ynarana's mother said placatingly.
Torvines smiled at this, his vanity deeply gratified to have been judged worthy by such a deeply discerning woman.
"Clar Karond wasn't agreeable to me, that's why I left. I hope you can forgive me for leaving," Ynarana said to her parents.
Ynarana's parents just about fell over themselves saying that she was completely forgiven for leaving.
"You didn't want your daughter to come here?", Lordling Runor asked curiously.
"Well, at the time it was very sudden and unexpected. She did not give us much notice of her departure," her father explained fawningly to Lordling Runor.
"I had just had enough of the city, I desired a change of scenery, the open air of the countryside," Ynarana replied slightly truthfully.
"I certainly understand the appeal of this beautiful plantation," Ynarana's mother said sycophantically for Lordling Runor's benefit.
"It's a lovely place, I would very much enjoy a tour of the grounds," Ynarana's father added.
"You will have to wait until the sun is up," Ynarana apologised.
Lordling Runor cleared his throat and cut in at this point.
"This region has a slight problem with the undead at night,"
Ynarana's parents were shocked by this news.
"The undead vampires, we are not sure where they are hiding during the day or how many there are, but during the night they pick off slaves to eat and attack anyone else outside after dark," Lordling Runor bent the truth slightly so that he didn't appear weak.
"I wounded it," Torvines added proudly.
"Yes, Torvines managed to wound, erm, one of the vampires in this area," Lordling Runor agreed, again bending the truth to make it sound like there was more than one vampire.
"The vampire didn't die when you wounded it in combat," Ynarana's mother asked gushing with respect.
"It, erm, it was a confusing affair. The vampire was hiding in the tall corn field, I couldn't see it. My horse was killed in the fighting, one of my men also died. I wounded the vampire but didn't finish it off in the confusion of the corn field without my horse," Torvines lied shamelessly.
Lordling Runor looked amused by this bold faced lie but said nothing, the truth would only make Lordling Runor lose face.
Ynarana's parents looked deeply impressed by this fabricated tale.
"So it's not safe to go outside even with other elves like our future son in law Torvines to escort us?", Ynarana's father asked curiously.
"The vampire, the erm, the one vampire that I saw, she was incredibly fast," Ynarana began.
"She?", her father asked.
"You saw one?", her mother asked at the same time as her father.
"Yes, I was in the corn one day walking to my watch tower. I stumbled across a vampire hiding from the sun in the corn. It was a blonde haired human woman, well a vampire but a former human. She tried to bite me," Ynarana recounted.
Ynarana's mother was shocked and asked if she had been hurt.
"I didn't get bitten, I got out of the corn into the sunlight where she couldn't follow me. She came right up to the edge of the corn and hissed at me. I fired two shots at her with my repeater crossbow. The vampire was so fast that she plucked the bolts out of the air and tossed them aside," Ynarana recounted.
"Really?, fast enough to pluck bolts out of the air?", Ynarana's father asked in slight disbelief.
"Yes that is true, vampires can move very quickly. Being out of doors after dark is not advisable even with an armed escort because they are fast enough to grab one elf from the group and steal away with them before the escort can react," Lordling Runor slightly bent the truth to save face.
Ynarana's parents shuddered at the thought and agreed that they didn't want to go outside.
"Honestly the vampire problem is just an irritating pest problem. They drain slaves dry of blood and then run away and hide before we can find them. It is a nuisance mostly," Lordling Runor lied to save face.
"How many slaves have been lost?", Ynarana's father asked with interest.
"Oh?, I would have to check the book work to find out. It is mere pocket change for me to replace them, I hardly notice such trivial expenses," Lordling Runor lied to make himself look good.
Ynarana's parents were deeply impressed at the thought of losing expensive slaves being viewed as a trivial expense, gratifying Lordling Runor's desire to appear especially strong and powerful.
The conversation continued for a time on various topics, much of it shameless utter bullshit to make various people look good, and Ynarana's parents seemed none the wiser.
Eventually after a generous meal and more talking, Ynarana's parents wanted to see where Ynarana slept...
Lordling Runor quickly lied that Ynarana slept in Torvines' room, embarrassed to admit to these invited guests that Lordling Runor in fact sexually exploited their daughter every night, and Ynarana and Torvines both repeated this lie to let him save face.
Lordling Runor called over a servant, going out of earshot to whisper instructions, and the servant then ran off. Lordling Runor then delayed Ynarana's parents by showing them other grand rooms in the plantation house first.
A servant discreetly returned to Lordling Runor and after a brief inaudible conversation, Lordling Runor led them to Torvines' room.
Torvines opened the door, letting Ynarana and her parents enter first, and Lordling Runor himself entered last, fearful of assassins like any wise Lordling and not entering a room first.
Ynarana was surprised to find that all of her chests of belongings from Lordling Runor's bedroom had been placed in Torvines' bedroom, and Ynarana suspected that Lordling Runor's earlier discreet conversation with servants had been to command them to move Ynarana's belongings here.
Torvines proudly showed the guests around his generously sized room, pointing out the finest things he owned. Ynarana pointed to her own chests of belongings, opening one to show folded clothing stored inside.
Ynarana's parents were then given a pompous tour of the rest of the plantation house by Lordling Runor, given wine and refreshments, and then finally shown to a guest bedroom and bid good night.
Once Ynarana's parents were out of earshot Lordling Runor approached Ynarana and Torvines.
"You both did well and said the right things. It is in none of our best interests if we let any negative gossip spread about the plantation", Lordling Runor said surprisingly candidly.
"It wasn't necessarily a lie, we don't know for a fact how many vampires there are, there might be a whole nest of them," Ynarana reassured.
"That is extremely unlikely going by what I have read on the topic. The closest recorded major nest of Lahmian vampires is in the human district of Arnheim down south. The vampires operate a number of high society brothels and discreetly feed on a number of very willing human men, draining these men of non lethal amounts of blood as they have sex with them as a sexual fantasy act the brothels offer." Lordling Runor said and continued.
"This vampire we face here is very obviously a Lahmian vampire, but her mode of operation is not typical for her blood line. Lahmian vampires are typically discreet and don't kill their meals, simply milking small amounts of blood from many individuals to meet their needs without killing".
"My readings indicate that what we have here is a Lahmian vampire thrall that has fled it's master who sired it and gone rogue. Rogue vampire thralls, especially very young ones, are extremely violent and leave a lot of bodies completely drained of blood. That would fit the description of our resident vampire."
"I think that one of the older Lahmian vampires in Arnheim recently sired a new vampire thrall, lost control of her, and this vampire thrall has fled north and ended up here. The damn high elves guarding the wilderness around Arnheim probably deliberately let her go north unharmed to wreck havoc in Naggaroth,"
Ynarana and Torvines both trembled with bitter racial hatred at the mental image of the hated detestable high elves deliberately allowing a berserk vampire to enter Naggaroth!
"Damn those high elves!", Torvines cursed with hatred.
Almost without even thinking about it, the dark elves had automatically decided that this entire mess was the high elves' fault, (the way dark elves do), and the three of them trembled with deep hatred.
"I want this vampire captured alive if possible, I will torture her for information and then sell what is left of her. Vampires are worth a fortune," Lordling Runor told them.
"Alive?", Ynarana asked apprehensively.
"You may still wound her. A crossbow bolt through the heart will paralyse her, and blood can then be used to heal her once she is firmly bound," Lordling Runor informed Ynarana.
Ynarana nodded obediently.
***...