Chapter 30: Enslaved

Styria

Blood was poured into the final chalice. Carmilla picked it up.

'Morana's a genius,' Striga declared.

'It was all my idea, though,' Carmilla pointed out.

Striga went to protest.

Morana lifted a hand. 'Leave it, Striga.'

Striga paused a moment, and then sat back in her chair. 'Say it. Morana's a genius.'

Carmilla put her chalice down. 'It was still my idea.'

'Your idea was the equivalent of the village idiot walking in here and saying "I think we should be able to light fires by punching a fish". It basically made no sense, and Morana made it work anyway.'

While she'd been talking, Carmilla had been dragging her fingernail around the lips of her chalice, causing an annoying high-pitched sound. She stopped. 'Oh, for God's sake!'

'Striga,' Morana put a hand on her lover's leg, 'she knows.'

'I certainly do not.'

'Yes, you do,' Morana said.

'How could you possibly know that?' Carmilla asked.

'I am a genius.'

The door opened. Lenore walked in. 'You're all brilliant,' Lenore said. 'Stop bickering.'

Hector was shoved in after her by a guard.

'What's he doing here?' Carmilla demanded, gesturing to Hector. 'Lenore, this is our room. We don't even let the guards in here.'

Upon that statement, the guards quickly bowed and left.

'You wanted Hector's help. So...' Lenore reached over and seized his hand. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him over. 'Hector gets to sit with us sometimes.' She tossed a small pouch to Carmilla. 'Catch.'

'What's this?' Carmilla asked.

'Well,' Lenore led Hector around the chair as Carmilla emptied the pouch into her hand. Three red and black rings fell into her palm, 'we have a few vampire magicians here. I had one of them make those. I also borrowed that book from him.'

Still confused, Carmilla showed the rings to Morana.

'Hm,' she said. 'The blacksmith magician.' She looked at Lenore. 'Brave choice. Striga almost had him staked out in the sunlight over Christmas after he melted down her old armour to make himself new feet.'

Striga shrugged.

'That's him.' Lenore sat on the edge of the table. 'Lovely old man. Strange twitch.' She then yanked Hector's hand over to show Carmilla that he was already wearing a ring. 'These are Slave Rings. One of them found its way onto Hector's hand while he was swearing his loyalty to me.' She let go of his hand.

'Excuse me?' Carmilla asked doubtfully.

'Yes. He was inside me at the time.' She crossed her legs and nudged between his legs with her toe. He stepped back. Lenore then looked at Carmilla. 'So, as you know, when Hector forges a Night Creature, they are loyal to him. But now,' she held up a hand to show she was already wearing one, 'he is bound to me by the spell on these rings. When he makes a Night Creature, they are loyal to him and he swore loyalty to me, so they're loyal to me too.' She took two of the rings from Carmilla's hand and slid them over to Morana and Striga respectively. 'All these rings are linked.'

Morana and Striga looked at the rings in astonishment.

'Wear the ring, and his Night Creatures will be loyal to you too.' Lenore turned back to the man in question. 'And if Hector ever tries to harm us or take it off or run away, his ring will cause him so much pain that he'll think he'll have shat out his own heart.' She turned back to her sisters. 'Problem solved.'

For a moment, her sisters stared at her in stunned silence.

Carmilla was the first to break it. 'Bloody hell.'

Lenore smirked. 'In return, we're going to convert one of the old outbuildings for him. To live in. We're going to make it nice. He's going to live just as well as we do.' She picked up a blood chalice. 'And he's going to have freedom of the castle.' She took a drink.

'Oh, I don't think so,' Carmilla said.

'I do,' Lenore said. 'He gets something back from this. He gets a comfortable life. He gets to feel safe. Morana—' As Hector went to say something, she shushed him. 'The real people are talking.' She continued. 'Morana will make the arrangements, Striga will organise the forging. Carmilla will agree to all of this and live with it.'

Carmilla was silent for a bit, but eventually shrugged in a "may as well" sort of way.

Morana chuckled. 'I'm not a genius.' She gestured to Lenore. 'She is.'

Striga smiled. 'The Vampire Sister had her own scheme all along.'

'Oh, my God!' Carmilla exclaimed. 'You adopted him!'

Lenore smiled reproachingly. 'Carmilla.'

'All right. Fine.'

'Oh,' Lenore said, 'and the house will need a really big bed. Turns out he's actually fairly good at sex, and I want to train him.'

'Get away from me!' Carmilla pushed her.

Striga and Morana expressed their own disgust.

'Bye-bye!' Lenore cheerfully waved.

'Did I need to know that?' Morana continued to complain even as Lenore took a shell-shocked Hector out of the room.