"They have an abundance of gold and silver, and these make war, like other things, go smoothly." - Hermocrates
Hector, Lenore, and her assistant Elansa quietly approached the door to the chamber where the distance mirrors were kept. A single human guard stood in front of it, slouched against the wall. He appeared neither particularly enthusiastic about his post nor particularly concerned with the need to maintain appearances in front of it. Few appreciated the value of his assigned charge, and he was not among them.
Hector turned to Elansa. "Okay, you remember what you're going to say, right?"
Elansa nodded despite some trepidation. "I don't like lying." She muttered under her breath.
Lenore heard this and said in a quiet tone "You're doing this for Morana's sake." The library technically had been under Morana's charge. "Are you going to let us down?"
"No." Gathering her wits, Elansa took a deep breath, stepped out from behind the corner, and approached the guard. "Excuse me? Can you help me?" she asked.
The guard looked over with mild irritation. "What is it, bloodsucker?" His gruff tone almost threw Elansa off script.
Regaining her bearings, Elansa ignored the quasi-slur and said "I think I left an important keepsake in the dungeon, from when King Isaac temporarily placed me there. Could you guide me down there so I can retrieve it?"
"A vampire's keepsake? I'm sorry, what!?"
"Yes, a keepsake from my dad, who recently died," the diminutive vampire responded with a hint of indignation. "It's a necklace he fashioned for me, and it means a lot to me, and now I can't find it. I'm sure it's in my old cell."
The guard rolled his eyes incredulously. This particular post, guarding a meaningless locked door, was already pointless enough without someone asking him for favors. "It's been months since the king came. Don't you think you probably left it in some drawer or whatever?"
"I looked everywhere already. It's not there. Please, let me access my old cell." Elansa produced a small coin from her bookbag. "I'll make it worth your while."
The human male before her looked at the coin, made a noise combining a sigh and a snort, and nodded. "Sure, whatever. I'll escort you down to the dungeon." It wasn't like he was guarding anything of real value, and besides the door was locked.
Elansa did her best to suddenly act happy. "Oh thank you! It means a lot to me!" She followed the man down the halls, away from the door he had been monitoring. When they were out of sight, Hector, who had been standing behind a corner, peered over and gave a signal seemingly to no one. Around his feet swirled a small cloud of mist, which then flattened down low and snaked its way underneath the locked door.
Re-materializing on the other side of the door, Lenore found herself in the dark room where Isaac had locked away all of the distance mirrors present in the castle. There were four total – one originally for each of Styria's four queens, minus Striga's, and a fourth, smaller spare one allotted to Hector. It still made her uncomfortable to think that Hector had used this mirror at one point to plot against the council.
Approaching one of the mirrors, she quietly clapped twice and said, "Morana's cell." The shards arose from the box and formed an image. It did not show Morana, but rather a black, iron-clad carriage pulled by a team of especially burly horses. Two men in priestly attire flanked the carriage as it made its way along the dirt road, and a contingent of about fifty soldiers. Some were clearly equipped in the manner of vampire hunters. Whoever had seized Morana had some familiarity with beings of the night.
Next, Lenore said "The nearest river crossing to Morana's cell." The picture changed to that of a rickety wooden bridge traversing a stream of fast flowing water beneath it. She pulled out a map of the region and studied it closely before then asking for the nearest castle. Seeing the image, she took out a charcoal stick and crossed out several spots on the map, and then repeated the process, this time asking for a walled city. The more she repeated this process with various geographic features, the more crosses she drew on her map.
Lenore had narrowed Morana's location down to three rough areas when she heard Hector tap on the other side of the door. The guard was returning. She still needed more information. On the spur of the moment, she asked one final question: "Show me the local lord of the area Morana is in." The mirror displayed its image as Hector tapped again, this time more urgently. Lenore took note of the man in the mirror, circled an area in Northern Italy, and then transformed into a cloud of mist once more. Flowing out underneath the door, her vapors re-coalesced back into herself just in time to see Elansa and the guard from before turn a corner.
"Okay, look. I told you it wasn't going to be there… but I'm sorry about your dad," the guard was saying to a glum-looking Elansa as they approached. He almost seemed to feel a little guilty for his earlier coarse attitude.
Elansa sniffled and meekly said, "It's okay… Thank you for letting me look. It's not much, but take this." She dropped a small coin in the guard's hand and then walked off to meet back up with Hector and Lenore, who had "coincidentally" appeared. Her keepsake was very much real – a severed wolf-man claw her father had fashioned into a necklace for her from the front lines – but it was currently safely at home.
That night, by the light of a candle, Hector began work on his own book. After accessing the distance mirrors, Lenore and Elansa had temporarily parted ways with Hector again to pay a visit to the castle's cartographer, while Hector returned to Lenore's quarters. Sitting by himself, he hoped to write if not quite a rebuttal, then a sort of counterpoint to what Elansa was working on, an explanation of how vampires and humans could live together in relative peace, even under human rule. Present day Styria itself was an example of this, was it not? That would certainly need to be a chapter.
As he was paused for a moment, Lenore came in. Hector looked up as his mind shifted. "So, you've gotten everything ready?"
"As ready it can be," Lenore responded. She was wrapping up her preparations for her mission to Venice. Far too easily taken for granted, a diplomatic mission required a no small amount of logistics and planning. Carriages, coin, guards, gifts, and most importantly a sense of what one wanted and how far one would go to obtain it. Even a letter of goodwill, written by her but with Isaac's name affixed to it, sat ready on her desk.
But this was not of importance now. A second, more covert operation also needed attention. On the table, Lenore laid out a crinkled map covered in annotations, one of the same ones that she had brought into the room with the distance mirrors. "Based on everything on the geographic features I saw, the rivers, the towns, and even the local lord, I believe that Morana is currently around here," she concluded, pointing to the spot she had circled earlier.
Hector looked skeptical. "This seems like a lot of extrapolations based on limited information."
"It is," Lenore responded, "but thinking about who would want Morana and go to the trouble of getting her, we can rule out a number of the suspects. They are headed the wrong way entirely for any powers west of Italy, Vienna seems unlikely, and even if Baron Bakonyi were this desperate to fulfill his vampire fantasies, he is just that – a Hungarian baron. In my mind, that leaves the Vatican."
"Okay, but what can we do this knowledge?"
Lenore took a deep breath. "The odds are long, and 'knowledge' might imply more certainty than there really is… but if we assume that they are heading further south down the peninsula, and guess their path, then just maybe we could hire our own mercenaries to intercept them. The convoy is not moving particularly fast – how Striga hasn't caught them, I have no idea… But perhaps we can." Lenore looked over at where she kept her wealth hidden. She didn't know exactly how much she had left, after paying Elansa a salary and all, but hiring yet again more mercenaries would certainly eat a large chunk of it.. Still, it would be worth it. "I'm going to approach Codintero and Burginus to ask if they know anyone, and what their prices may be. They must have contacts."
"Codintero isn't going with you?"
"No. In his younger mercenary days, he had some… negative interactions with Venice. It would be best not to bring him along. Besides, I don't need an interpreter." Lenore was perfectly fluent in most of the major European human languages, including Italian.
"I see," said Hector, thinking. Silence fell upon the room as the candle flickered. He had his doubts about Lenore's plan, but clearly so did Lenore. But neither had any better idea on helping Morana.
There was one matter left to sort out though. "How long until you leave for Venice?"
"Four, if all goes well."
Hector hesitated before he said, "You get the business side sorted out, and I will manage the actual operation using the information you provided."
Lenore raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised. "Are you sure, dear?"
"I'm sure," Hector said.
Lenore departed shortly thereafter. The carriage trip to Venice took unpleasantly long. Sitting alone in her darkened carriage, Lenore had little to distract her from her darker musings on Morana, or the jolt of every little bump. The vampire diplomat and her convoy made their way down from the mountains of Styria towards the coastal territories of its southern neighbor. Accompanying her were a number of guards, a supply of coin, one of Isaac's night creatures to ensure loyalty, and a second, much smaller and less menacing looking night creature that Lenore had specifically insisted come along. It would have its uses. She did not have Hector with her, though. Just the unrefined human guards who offered little of conversational value.
Finally, she reached the shore. The last part of the journey to Venice proper required a boat. Lenore had a messenger send her letter ahead of her and waited. In the distance, she could see the city itself rising from the lagoon upon which it was built, but she was not about to set foot on one of those ferries until she knew for sure that she would receive an audience. Venice did not have a true king, but more of an elected duke, or "Doge" as they called him. Although day to day affairs increasingly came into the hands of a body of nobles and magnates that stood behind him, he would effectively speak for the republic in any deliberations.
Watching the last of the small boats dock as the sun set, Lenore recalled her last visit here decades earlier, as a newly minted Styrian Queen. So much had changed since then. Even from afar, Venice looked even more opulent, somehow even imposing, than it had all those years ago. The famed arsenal still showed signs of activity, preparing its eternal work of building and maintaining the Venetian navy. As for herself, she was no longer a queen, but a mere lieutenant of her human usurper. And here she was, waiting on Venice instead of the other way around. It was a microcosm perhaps of the new balance of power between human and vampire.
Lenore caught herself before her musings could turn any darker. Styria was still indeed a place that mattered, just as she was still a vampire who mattered as well. And sure enough, later the next day, Lenore received a reply. The Doge was willing to speak with her.
A boat took Lenore and her small retinue across the lagoon to the city proper. The city was a maze of canals and manmade rivulets, ranging from small channels akin to alleyways, to the grand canal bisecting Venice, a motionless river unto itself. Lenore moved through the city, ignoring her instinctual dislike for flowing bodies of water, however slow, as she subconsciously tugged at her daylight veil. She picked her way across a network of bridges, passing churches packed next to the abodes of merchants and money changers, and elegant plazas a stone throws away from the cacophony of docks and shipyards. Finally, she and her retinue reached her destination: the Doge's Palace. An ornate rectangular edifice the approximate size of a city block, it was large by the compact city's standards but certainly smaller than anything Lenore was used to. She felt it the work of someone with the power and money to decorate a proper palace, but not quite enough for the actual palace itself. It mattered little though. This was still the center of a prominent regional power, this was where she needed to be. Ushered inside, she and her retinue were brought before the Doge.
"Well met, Lady Lenore of Styria," the Doge said with a cordial, surface level smile. A sharp-eyed middle aged man dressed in rich silks, he gestured towards a chair.
"At your service, Your Serenity," responded Lenore with a curtsey. She obliged and took a seat. "I come here in the hopes of obtaining material, and perhaps concord too."
"So I understand. It has been a long time since a representative of Styria has set foot here, much less one of high rank. Times have changed for the old vampire kingdoms, haven't they?"
"Yes, they have, admittedly," responded Lenore, rolling with the Doge's veiled slight. "That is why I'm here. In the wake of recent events, Styria's new king – a human– needs to enhance our defenses against some of your more belligerent kin. Now, I understand that both you and the Ottomans broke off your recent war in the wake of Dracula's attacks, so perhaps you might be willing to exchange some spare cannons in exchange for some spare coin or two?"
The Doge chuckled. "How many of these 'spare coins' are we talking about?"
Lenore gestured to one of her men, who brought forward and opened the chest they brought from Styria. In it glimmered a pile of Styrian Silvers, and a few Golds for good measure. "I also have one more thing I brought. Come outside." The two of them got up and went back to the entrance of the palace, where Lenore nodded at another man besides a large cage covered in a cloth. The man removed the cloth, revealing the seated night creature Lenore had brought along. It had the size and approximate build of a lion, but spouted a fanged, elongated, almost crocodile-like head with glowing blue eyes and bull-like horns. Despite its fearsome appearance, it remained calm and docile. "A night creature," explained Lenore. "Tamed and harmless, it is a prize few humans could hold in their possession. It needs but a morsal of meat a week, and it can obey simple commands."
"I see," the Doge said with a raised eyebrow. He circled around the night creature with curiosity. "Now this wasn't created using any sort of dark or unnatural –" He paused. "Don't answer that question. I like it the way it is. Let us return inside." The Doge led Lenore back to their seats. There they haggled a formalized marketplace exchange. "Two dozen cannons, with a supply of ammunition and powder, is my final offer, Lady Lenore. Take it or leave it," The Doge said after some back and forth.
"I'll take it, but on the condition of a further matter. Remember, I came here for an accord too, not just artillery pieces." Lenore put forward a piece of paper she drafted. "It is a simple treaty, a mere pact of non-aggression and refusal to aid one another's enemies."
The Doge looked over the papers for some time, and then back at Lenore. "Now, before you say anything further, I want to double check something. Less than three decades ago, an earlier round of negotiations between Styria and Venice fell apart, and shortly afterwards the men of the Da'Traviso family who represented our side met grisly ends at the hands of an unknown assassin. The fate does not threaten me, does it?" he asked in a wry, half-challenging tone.
Lenore chortled and shook her head. "Styria had nothing to do with their regrettable ends, I swear to your God. Also, it's my understanding that they never lacked for human enemies too. Is that fair?"
The Doge's tone turned serious. "The matter remains the same though. In wake of everything that has happened, with that family, with Dracula, and with the fall of the vampiric kingdoms, what does Venice have to gain from Styria's newfound friendship?"
"Friendship or otherwise, our nations have common cause." Lenore pulled out a map and pointed to Styria. "Right now, Styria acts as a buffer between Austria and the Holy Roman Empire, and the Commonwealth of Venice. Should we fall, nothing will shield you from their ambitions. The Holy Roman Emperors of past tried to assert dominion over Italy, and vampires or no, the emboldened Habsburgs who now occupy the throne will happily try again." She paused. "What was their motto again? Oh yes. 'All the World is Subject to Austria.'"
"The Holy Roman Empire is a fractured mess," the Doge responded with a raised eyebrow.
"Perhaps, but its Austrian rulers are not, and a decisive victory against us 'godless heathens and abominations' could just be the thing they need to consolidate it. And that should terrify vampire and Venetian alike."
"I'm sorry, Lady Lenore," responded the Doge in a not particularly remorseful tone. "If you hope Venice to enter some sort of defensive alliance, you are mistaken."
"I ask nothing of you but a non-aggression pact," responded Lenore. On the map, her finger drifted to the Papal States south of Venice. "The papacy and the empire do not always see eye to eye, but on us, they may. Should war break out to your north, and the Papal States seek to aid the Holy Roman Emperor, we ask that you refuse to join them or aid their march through your land. Is that too much to ask?" As the Doge stroked his chin, Lenore added, "Aiding such a war would only expand the Vatican's influence northward, at Venice's expense."
"You still are asking a Christian to side against the Vatican for a vampire's sake."
"Again," Lenore responded with concealed irritation, "we're not asking you to side with us. We only ask you not to side against us… Is that too much task given our common enemies, and these gifts of coin and creature? Besides, Styria is no longer even ruled by a vampire, but by a human." Lenore clenched her fist and grimaced inwardly with humiliation. "I am merely the servant of my new human king."
The Doge took a deep breath, and then nodded. "Very well, Lady Lenore, I agree to these terms. It is a simple treaty, so the terms as they are presented will suffice."
Lenore smiled and bowed her head in thanks. "You have my deep gratitude, Your Serenity, and that of my king too."
"You would make a good Venetian," the Doge responded with a slight smile.
When Lenore exited, satisfied with a decent diplomatic success, one of her guards suddenly pulled her aside. "My lady, listen," he said in a hushed tone. "While you were chumming up with that Doge fellow, word seems to have spread that an important vampire was within the city. The common folk seem unhappy."
A look of concern appeared on Lenore's face. "How unhappy?" she asked.
"My Italian's crappy to say the least, but I am pretty sure I heard things like 'monster' 'evil' and 'what do we do?'"
The vampire diplomat sighed. Knowing that humans generally hated vampires was one thing. Being the one vampire they hated specifically was another, far more dangerous situation. "I see. We better shorten this trip."
It was a shame. Lenore had planned to stay some extra days to endear herself to the city's aristocratic council, go to the arsenal to check the build quality of the cannons being purchased, and perhaps even buy some souvenirs for herself and for Hector. Instead, she would only make the trip to the arsenal before wrapping up as quickly as possible before any simple-minded zealots gained too many ideas.
The next day, Lenore and a pair of guards made their way to the city's arsenal to inspect the cannons. A man working there had already set aside the twenty-four or so slated for sale. They were mostly old ship guns, perhaps not entirely the best for static fortifications, but they would do. Of course, Lenore had little expertise regarding artillery, so she mostly confined her inspection to the basics, making sure that none were cracked or obviously defective.
As far as she could tell, they were all workable. Perhaps Minister Codintero would have had more to say, but it wasn't her fault that he had once taken a job fighting against Venice. Lenore thanked the man who showed her around the armory, and made arrangements for the materials to be delivered back to Styria. The logistics were a tiresome matter to figure out, given the weight and difficulties of transportation. In retrospect, perhaps it may have been better to hire men who could instead train Styria in producing its own versions of these human weapons. It was a times like this Lenore wished Striga or Morana were here to help.
Morana… Lenore's focus momentarily lapsed before she caught herself. With great effort, she pushed the thought about her sister to the back of her mind. Everything on that front was in Hector's hands.
By the time the transportation logistics were sorted out and Lenore left the arsenal, the midday sun had already begun its downward journey back towards the horizon, covering the city in long shadows. It was a relief to Lenore, who despite her veil had little love for the mild sting and ashen coating that direct sunlight still managed to produce on her half-concealed face. Her path took her and her retinue directly along the grand canal bisecting the city. It was between tides. The water's surface almost resembled a mirror, reflecting the sky and scenery above it. From the comfort of the shade, Lenore had to admit that there was something picturesque about the city after all, with its tranquil waterways, ornate if cramped architecture, and relative lack of the stink that usually permeated human cities. The crowds of people were beginning to thin, and those that remained seemed to give the entourage a fair berth, be it respect or fear.
Not bad, for humans, Lenore thought to herself.
As the Styrian vampire looked down at the canal, someone to her side shouted, "Take this, hellspawn!" The next thing she knew, she saw a glass bottle of water hurtling towards her head in the corner of her eye. Lenore immediately shielded her head with her forearm, and the bottle smashed into her elbow and shattered, splashing Lenore with its contents. In an instant, her skin began to dissolve and burn wherever the water touched. Screaming in pain as the substance seeped into her clothes, Lenore realized it was holy water.
Lenore's mind raced. The bottle's contents ate into her flesh like boiling oil. If she ripped off her soaked clothes, it would expose herself to the sun and seal her fate. She had to somehow neutralize the water, but how? She looked towards the waterway and realized her only option. Lenore hurled herself into the canal, splashing into the saltwater below. The water stung her eyes and her wounds alike, but it diluted the holy water immediately and halted any further harm. Still in agony, she managed to swim up and reach the artificial stone embankment at the canal's edge. Lenore grabbed the stonework with her good arm and hauled herself out of the canal, burned, soaked, but alive. She could only hope that no skin was exposed from beneath her waterlogged clothes. Then someone – she was pretty sure her guard based on his voice– raced over and threw a blanket over her. Sensing that she was safe at last, it was at this point that Lenore allowed herself to pass out.
Well, that was dramatic, wasn't it?