Chapter 9
Rahkesh made his way to the stables with Ally and Rianae. They avoided other students, not really wanting everyone to know that they had been chosen to go with the older students and teachers.
The stables were lit by magical crystals and small crystal bowls filled with water and luminescent algae. They gave off pale blue and pale green glows that shimmered, water-like, across the walls and ceilings. It was warm inside, the stables enchanted to stay at a temperature the inhabitants preferred. The windows in each stall were open, showing the starry black sky.
Besides the Hell's Steeds there were also a few Pegasi, a half-dozen thestrals, and three hippogriffs that had been born very late in the year and weren't ready to join the herd yet. There was also a white eagle, two acromatula, and one Baku.
"The Fire Horses are always ridden bareback. They tolerate the harnesses for the carriages and sleighs, but they don't like saddles or bridals." Rianae said as she opened one stall and led the flaming horse outside.
"Does the cold bother them? I wouldn't think it could, seeing as how they're always on fire." Rahkesh asked.
"No it doesn't, not until it gets a lot colder than this." Professor Marluck and his wife, professor Kiara Marluck, were coming with them. Apart from himself, Rianae, Ally, Silas, and Daray there was one other first year student. A half-veela who said his name was Erik. The others were all older students and teachers. The group was twenty-five in all. They were all wearing long pants and robes for the ride to the hot springs. There was a light wind blowing the snow about. The full moon was up.
All werewolf students were given wolfsbane potion; the potions classes brewed it regularly. Outside there were nearly twenty werewolves about in the valley while ten or a dozen more had stayed in their rooms while they transformed. There was also one goblin who'd been bitten by a werewolf, the only goblin to ever survive such an attack to become a gob-wolf. The smaller scruffy wolf always seemed a little out of place amongst the other sleek animals.
Aside from a hippogriff and a thestral Rahkesh had never ridden any sort of equine. And he decided he liked Fire Horses better than the other two. His was a massive black animal who pranced as Rahkesh led him out into the cold night air. Fire Horses were the chosen steeds of Akren because they didn't shy away from any of the species of students at the school. Thestrals were invisible to many of the newer students and Pegasi were notorious for the fact that they liked goblins and veela just fine, but would never let either species ride them. Hippogriffs tended to get too aggressive around vampires.
The group raced across the snowy ground, the older students and teachers taking the lead. Soon they had left the pasture and were dodging among the trees and low hills. They crossed one of the bridges over the river and went down the other side of the valley. A few of the werewolves came out and ran along beside them until the Fire Horses kicked at them in annoyance, then they backed off and went to chase each other through the snow. They took a hidden trail up the side of the valley. Here, a few hundred feet above the valley floor, there was an indentation into the mountainside and a massive raised meadow, ringed by trees, with a slow-moving stream winding through it. Up here was the hidden hot spring.
They left the horses in the trees, untied. The animals knew to stay close by and to come when called. There was a wide pool in the ground, shallow around the edges and deep in the middle. The water flowed down the mountainside from a few hundred feet up the ravine, where a hot spring and a cold mountain brook joined. Huge plumes of steam rose from that boiling water. Even where it poured into the pool it was still hot enough, and the air cold enough, that fog and mist billowed around them, making it hard to see or hear well. Once in the mist everyone appeared as ghostly shapes and it was hard to tell what was a person and what was a tree.
The ravine had been worn smooth inside by the water and was covered with a thin layer of magical algae. The same sort used in the stables for light. The water in the bowls in the stables was magically enhanced. Here the algae were not nearly so bright. Here the algae glowed under the running water, providing a dim source of light. Between that, the moonlight glinting off the snow, and the aurora flaming overhead there was plenty of light to see by, but not too bright, as the mist tended to keep everything dulled.
A few of the older students began the climb up the ravine beside the water. At the top they slid back down, splashing into the water. The water droplets sparkled in the moonlight like crystals. With all the fog in the air you couldn't see the top, or hear them up there, they just came sliding down out of the water vapor into the pool. Some of the others climbed in and floated down the deep slow moving stream than ran out of the pool. One of them on a raft reading a book.
"What about the falls?" Rahkesh asked Professor Marluck, nodding to where the stream poured over a cliff off the meadows.
"It gets really shallow in the pool just before those falls. And given how much that stream winds about it is over a mile long. But you do have to watch out for elk or other creatures in the water. There's so much mist that one time I went right past a grizzly without noticing it until I was past her."
Rahkesh tried the slide a few times, and then found a spot on the opposite side of the pool where he could read the book he'd brought. Professor Marluck (the female one) had brought a large raft and had anchored it on one side of the pool. The air was so thick with water vapor that he couldn't see more than three or four meters, and occasionally people swimming laps would appear, giving him a start. It was very peaceful and the water felt good after the exhausting fighting class.
"Rahkesh? That you?" Someone called softly. Rahkesh looked up in time to see Silas swimming towards him across the deepest part of the pool. His panther was swimming beside him, its small furry black head just visible above the water, long tail trailing along behind. The black fur over the little panther's head had gotten wet and was sticking out in spikes everywhere.
"I thought cats didn't like water."
"It's warmer than the air. And I've been training him to swim since I got him. He's used to the water." Indeed the small creature was paddling along without complaint and seemed to enjoy the water. The vampire sat down on the shallow clay ledge and picked up the panther. "That wasn't so bad was it Nuri?"
"Where did you get him?" Rahkesh asked, something he'd wanted to know ever since he'd met the vampire and his unusual pet.
"I got him in Brazil, we were living there for a few years before coming to Akren. There are two magical schools in the country and we were going to the more rigorous one. Some of the things we learned about were the native plants, of the rainforest you know, there are some very powerful ones. And a huge variety of magical creatures. We were on a class trip to see one of the cloud cities, high up in the Andes Mountains. We were going to see some of their magics. We saw Nuri's mother get killed by poachers but I got Nuri away from them, they were muggles." Silas explained, "this was all just before we left that school. Daray got his bat in Australia when we were ten. He wouldn't tell our parents how or where but I think it was born in captivity with an owner Daray accidentally killed." Rahkesh decided that he didn't need to know about that.
"Why were you in Brazil? You travel an awful lot."
"We're cousins. My parents were killed in a fight with another vampire over their city; they were the masters of Sydney – Australia. I escaped and my uncle, Daray's father, found me. His parents are an unusual pair. You know the vampire custom of the most powerful vampires ruling over a city or small country, and killing off any other vampires that try to get in?" When Rahkesh nodded that yes he did know about that Silas continued. "His parents are easily powerful enough to take any city they wished. Instead they work as assassins. There are an awful lot of young vampires with no real power, just blood drinkers. They have a tendency to create an awful lot of new vampires. Daray's parents, the whole family actually, are the ones who get called in when someone notices that there are way too many vampires in a certain area. They hunt down the original creator and all of their children. It's the family business. The other vampires allow them into any city they wish to live in without complaint because someone has to kill off those rogues, and if his family wasn't doing it the city masters would have to. His grandmother raised us, she's a real ancient, a few hundred years younger than Namach, and she thinks the best way to raise children is to travel to interesting places every few years." Silas explained.
Rahkesh nodded his understanding, with a twinge of envy. Silas was an orphan just like himself, but a far more fortunate one. He had heard occasional whisperings of the Ateres assassins, the family his two vampire friends belonged to, but he had dismissed what he heard as gossip. Apparently some of it had been accurate. He tried to imagine what it would be like to grow up moving all over the world, with an entire family around you all the time and cousin your own age who you liked…for all that they were vampires Silas and Daray seemed to have had an amazing life so far.
Silas was playing with Nuri, drawing a feather around in the water with the little panther chasing after it, splashing along the shallow ledges then leaping into the deeper water. For cat he was awfully comfortable in the water.
Rahkesh went back to his book. He had made sure to study the cultures of all the beings he was likely to encounter at Akren before coming. This one was an overview of vampires written by a Canadian witch whose cousin had been turned at birth to avoid a lethal genetic disorder. As such it was likely to be a fairly accurate and well written account of vampire society. Though Rahkesh wouldn't know how accurate it was until he started to compare it too what his vampire friends told him.
He understood that a very high percentage of the vampire students wouldn't live to see thirty. Important family or not older vampires didn't care at all; they would kill any younger vampire they found. The vampires who ruled the major cities always permitted a fairly large number of vampire-run businesses. But there were a lot of vampires, and the city masters were very strict about how many vampires were allowed.
This was necessary so as not to overfeed on the mortal population. Only so many vampires could be in one place or the number of prey wasn't enough. Vampires did not always kill when feeding, but all the same they would run out of prey with too many of them around. The competition to either run one of the few permitted businesses, or to be allowed to live, employed in the muggle or wizarding world, in any city, or for a spot amongst the followers the city masters kept around, was very fierce. And often deadly. The city masters chose only the most reliable, the most cunning, the most powerful (so long as they weren't competition), and the most intelligent. There was no place for anyone else. Those extra vampires would search all over the world, getting chased out of one city after another with no place to call home. Eventually they would be killed, or kill themselves.
That was the second problem. The city masters were, usually but not always, the oldest, and they knew how to tell which vampires would be around for a long time. Many vampires didn't have the strength to live for centuries and would either go insane or kill themselves. Suicide or being killed off by the rulers of the vampire world would be the fate of about a fourth of the vampires currently in schooling at Akren.
The students at Akren had a huge advantage. They had all been turned into vampires as babies. Turned before the age of two a child would age as a mortal for a few decades, and stop aging sometime between twenty and thirty. Any human turned after the age of two would simply become a vampire, un-aging, an immortal child. People turned as babies had families, usually families that had an established place in the world and wanted to raise children…or if they were unlucky they had creators, which were the same thing as parents except they wanted to raise followers rather than be real parents. Either way those turned so young were wanted, and they had someone looking after them.
Those that were turned when they were adults didn't have that benefit. They didn't grow up as vampires and so they had a higher suicide rate. Usually because they realized only after being turned that they couldn't handle the new culture. Even if they were married to someone who had been a vampire from birth they rarely acquired the ability to think and live like a vampire, despite acquiring the full vampiric instincts. The disconnect between vampiric instinct and the culture the human had been raised in was often deadly.
More common were adults who were turned into vampires because they had a vampire lover or because some vampire wanted loyal followers. These also often didn't end well, for the same reasons.
A rare few humans that were turned did spectacularly well, often better than the vampires who created them. But for almost all adults who were turned into vampires either they died trying to learn how to live, or they turned out to be the type that had been obsessed with vampires while still mortal, and now went about creating many more vampires, a sure way to get yourself hunted down and killed.
Rahkesh knew that his two friends, and Rianae – though he wasn't sure if he could call her a friend – would be fine. But he was very much aware of the competition even amongst the youngest students. Vampire society worked a bit like a wolf pack, and status competition began at a very young age. Dominance over weaker vampires was essential to survival. The pecking order was laid out early on and very rarely changed.
One of the few things that could change it was blood. For vampires blood was power. If a weaker vampire drank the blood of a more powerful vampire their powers would increase. They would also wind up with a blood connection to the one who had given them that powerful blood that allowed the more powerful vampire to overpower the weaker with only a thought.
This was how the most powerful vampires kept control over their cities. They chose exceptional vampires, who were intelligent, cunning, but through no fault of their own fairly weak. They would give these vampires a little of their blood to strengthen them and in turn be assured that those vampires could never challenge them unless they first gained the blood of an even more powerful vampire. It was a complicated process but being a school with so many vampires Rahkesh saw it at its best. The stronger vampires had a tendency to pick on the weaker ones. Usually by drinking the weaker vampire's blood. This heightened the powers of the already more powerful students as they acquired whatever unique vampiric abilities the weaker vampire may have. Drinking the blood of those weaker than yourself was a way to make yourself even more powerful, especially if you killed them. Since there was no killing allowed at Akren the vampire students competed to become the most powerful before they left Akren's safety. The most powerful vampires fought among themselves, taking the blood of the weaker students to help overpower each other. Trying to find out which ones might survive to become competition.
Saul certainly would not. That was a fact he could bet real money on. There was no killing allowed within Akren. But Saul had gotten on the wrong side of everybody and if some mortal students didn't kill him went he left for winter or summer break then a vampire student would. There were even a few whispers that Tristan Namach intended to kill Saul himself. The ancient Roman vampire was responsible for keeping the vampire students under control, and the city masters relied upon him for advice about any particularly exceptional students. They also relied upon him to get rid of vampires like Saul before they got out of school and could become a real problem.
According to Rianae's assessment Saul was just the sort to turn a whole bunch of muggles into vampires as his followers and start trouble. It would not surprise anyone who understood the vampires if Saul did not even make it home for winter break. The chances of him running into Namach on the way home were very high. There was even a small betting pool amongst the more aware mortal students. Of when Saul would die and who would kill him.
Though who was actually going to ask what had happened when Saul did eventually die was a good question. Rahkesh had a disturbing feeling that they would ask him to find out. Since it would likely be Namach who "removed" the obnoxious vampire, and Rahkesh was already Namach's favorite student amongst the mortals. Rahkesh had bet a few galleons that Saul would live past winter break and then die over the summer break. If Daray – who took Saul's existence as a personal insult – couldn't find a way to make him commit suicide before then.
Suddenly water splashed all over his book, Rahkesh looked up in time to see a dark furry creature plow through the water and vanish. Seconds later Nuri bobbed to the surface and began swimming in circles looking for something. Silas was wiggling his toes just above the water's surface, his panther cub trying frantically to catch his toes. Rahkesh concentrated on his book, attempting to dry it wandlessly. He was trying to use wandless magic whenever possible. Slowly the water began to vanish. Then Nuri, startled by something, leaped out of the water and shook himself soaking Rahkesh's book again. The cub whirled around and gave a raspy sort of meow, staring out across the water.
A few seconds later Daray came up from underwater a few feet away.
"Did he sense me coming?" He asked nodding at Nuri, who had calmed down and was staring intently at Silas toes, which were sticking out above the water.
"Yes. He still hasn't learned to identify what he senses. Too young still I guess." Silas replied.
Nuri pounced.
"Ow! Nuri! That hurt!" Silas yelped as the cub's claws raked his foot.
"You were trying to get him to attack your foot, why are you surprised?" Rahkesh asked, wandlessly removing the water from his book for a third time. "Where have you been?" He asked Daray.
"The slide, it's fun. And then looking for you two. You could get lost in this mist stuff; can't see more than three meters. Good thing the pool's not too big. Have you seen the moonbows yet?"
"The what?" Rahkesh asked.
"The moonbows. Same as a rainbow only with moonlight." The darker vampire replied, treading water a few feet away, Ally followed him out of the mist.
"Never heard of them." Rahkesh said.
"Light strikes water vapor, creates big colorful bow shape." Ally explained. "The moonlight acts the same way the sunlight does. Look up towards where the slide is." Rahkesh listened for the sound of running water, and finally identified where the slide was. Looking up in that direction he was shocked to see a pale colored moonbow, several of them. They had the same colors as a rainbow, only paler with more of the cool colors. The shimmered, stabilized in the mists, and then shimmered again as the breeze blew the mists about.
"Oh, that's nice." It was really pretty, then another roll of mist moved in and he couldn't see it anymore.
"Look up." Silas said suddenly. They all looked up, even Nuri. The aurora was turning green, a curling mass of green light above the valley.
"Very cool. Wish I had a camera." Ally said. "Where did Rahkesh go?"
Rahkesh had left the minute he'd seen the aurora turning green. There was a type of magical flower that only bloomed under a green aurora. He had been watching the aurora all night. Different colors brought out different plants and creatures. And it was for this, as much as for the hot springs, that most of the teachers and older students had come. It was a full moon, the first snow had just fallen but the second one hadn't come yet. Perfect conditions for gathering plants at their most powerful. In the valley such plants would not grow, the magical creatures living in the valley would eat them. But here he had seen a ring of stones around the meadow on the way in. Warding stones that kept out all magical creatures except those accompanying humans.
Putting on his boots he trudged through the snow to look on some of the higher mounds of grass out in the meadow. He heard someone behind him call his name but he didn't answer and the mist ate up the sound. A few second later he saw other people moving about, probably also looking for plants. The herbology teachers were both out here; they hadn't even been to the water yet.
What he was looking for was one of the rarest types of plants in the world. It could be found anywhere at an altitude of six to eight thousand feet where there was a lot of magic, the aurora borealis, and the correct minerals present with no predators to eat them, since no non-magic creature could see or touch them. The hot springs brought the correct minerals into the soil so it seemed like a meadow next to a hot spring where magical creatures couldn't go would be a good place to look. The little plants could be found only during the winter and they were at their most powerful on the full moon not too long after the first snow.
He had to dig into the snow a bit but eventually Rahkesh found what he was looking for. A few small plants with tiny blood red flowers on black stems with bright green leaves, which had curled into tight balls from the cold. This was the Animus bacca plant. The name meant, literally, soul pearl.
Daray and Ally caught up to him as Rahkesh enlarged the knife he'd brought with him and cut off a handful of the flowers and few of the leaves. He then dug into the ground at the plants base. Here in the soil were things that looked like pearls attached to the roots. Rahkesh removed a few of those as well. He then carefully dug up one of the plants he hadn't removed the flowers from and placed it into a conjured flowerpot.
"Animus bacca, I hadn't even thought of those." Daray said, he had dug up another of the plants for himself and placed it in a box he had transfigured from a pebble.
"What are they?" Ally asked.
"Very, very, rare plants. One of the ten most powerful plant species. They're used in potion making – mostly poisons, healing, necromancy, soul magic, and blood magic." Rahkesh explained. He placed a few charms on the pot and started back towards the pool. "There can't be more than a few hundred of these plants in the entire valley. Most of them right here. Magical herbivores, of all species, love them. Even magical animals that usually eat meat will get these if they can." He placed the pot in some tall grasses near the water and climbed back in.
"Found what you were looking for?" Silas asked.
"Yes. Animus bacca." Daray told him, Silas's eyes went wide.
"Wow. Keeping a few of them?"
"Yeah. I can grow them out on my balcony." Rahkesh said. "But I'll need to get water from this hot spring fairly often."
"Just get a pot that's bigger inside than outside, one of those could hold enough for months." Ally suggested. The aurora changed again, becoming more blue than green. Looking at his plant Rahkesh saw that the flowers were starting to close. The plant was self-pollinating and released seeds from the flowers whenever it could bloom. They were invisible and could not be felt. Like the plant itself was invisible and untouchable to non-magic creatures. That was what made it so hard to breed the plants in captivity.
Clouds rolled in, dimming the moonlight. The two herbology teachers finally came to the water. Unable to find most of the plants they were looking for without the moon. The mist around them turned blue with the changing aurora. They could hear splashing sounds, but the sound seemed distant with the blanket of mist.
Nuri the panther cub tired of chasing Silas toes and climbed out of the water, dried off, and curled up in a fluffy heated basket Silas had brought. Ally sat down near Silas and Rahkesh, and began practicing silent freezing and thawing charms on a cup full of water. Daray lay down on a shallower section of the clay ledge on the other side, his whole body covered by the water except his head.
"Don't fall asleep there. You'll fall in." Silas warned. "Drowning isn't fun, even for a vampire, inhaling water hurts."
"You're the one who fell asleep while surfing and got overturned by a shark." Daray retorted, Silas turned pink.
"You gave me the sleeping drought."
Daray didn't dispute that. The group lapsed into silence as they watched the mists shift about, it was almost hypnotic.
The martial arts professor, a half veela who taught the most advanced students, swam silently out of the mists, followed a few seconds later by a few of the older students. The group settled onto the clay ledge that ringed the pool a few feet away.
"Like it here?" The martial arts professor, whose name Rahkesh thought was Ahmad asked.
"Yes, it's better than the other pools." Rahkesh replied.
"Hm, not so many students roughhousing about in the water splashing everyone." he said, referring to the often-overcrowded pools closer to the school. "What is that?" He asked, nodding to the small black furry kitten curled up the fluffy basket.
"My panther." Silas replied, "he's very young still."
"Headmistress's snow leopard isn't going to like that." Warned one of the older students, a female vampire who Rahkesh had heard had a reputation for picking on any vampire weaker than herself in a very nasty manner.
"That animal doesn't like having any other creatures in its territory. Do you remember what happened when Professor Namach's magical fill-neck got loose in the school?" A student who claimed to be a cross between a siren, a veela, and a human asked.
"That was great, all classes in that half of the school had to be cancelled because no one could stop them or get near them. That's no ordinary snow leopard Alefly's got. And of course Namach's giant magical frill-neck is a rather amazing creature, it's almost, what? Three hundred years old? Those two caused a whole bunch of minor earthquakes."
Silas looked at his sleeping panther. Nuri hadn't shown any sign of magical abilities yet. And probably never would, his wild parents had been perfectly normal creatures.
"That one got any interesting powers?" It was the female vampire from before.
"Not that I know of." Silas admitted, drawing a contemptuous sneer.
"What good is he then?" She asked
"Some of us like having pets just because they're good companions." Silas responded. "Of course I don't expect you to understand the fact that owning pets can be pleasant. What do you have again?" She sneered at him; Silas didn't return it, ignoring her. And thereby stopping any challenge she might have issued. Silas was probably not as powerful as she was, and in a vampire duel he would likely lose.
Silas was fairly powerful amongst the Akren vampire students, but there were plenty of them that were more powerful than he was. As a result he had to be cautious. Especially because it was hard to tell exactly what sort of beginning powers any vampire had until they stopped aging. Once they stopped physically aging power grew with age. Those that started out better off would always be a bit ahead of those their age who didn't start off with such power.
Daray was easily one of the most powerful students at Akren; being only at the beginning of his training he was still very vulnerable but any student with half a brain could tell that eventually he would surpass them, and remain ahead. All he needed was training, the magic was all there, and while drinking his blood might help another vampire out a bit it would do nothing once Daray was more fully trained. He was going to be dangerous one day, everyone could already tell that, and so he didn't have much to worry about besides the vampire teachers. There were plenty of vampires who were better fighters than Daray was; they had years more to practice. But he was inherently more powerful than they were so once he did reach their skill level it would be better if he didn't have any grudges.
As far as the teachers went, they had no qualms about taking the blood of their students. So long as that student didn't survive after leaving Akren, or didn't mind, then they were safe from revenge later. And of course no one was going to fight Namach if he wanted their blood, most of them would think it a compliment.
In fact Rahkesh was fairly sure that Namach drank the blood of every vampire student of Akren at least once, and the students in turn competed viciously for his attention. But he already was so much more powerful than any of the others that there was little point in his drinking their blood. No one challenged him and the ancients like himself all knew each other and were for the most part friends, he had no one to fight off and so didn't need the additional power.
Just as the female vampire was about to continue the argument, which would probably have led to a fight, all of the vampires stiffened as if sensing something. A few second later two forms materialized slowly out of the thick mists. Soon Professor Namach and Professor Havari Yetran, the wandless magic instructor, became fully visible.
At a stern look from Namach the female vampire moved away from Silas, and Silas over to Ally's other side, leaving a large space on the ledge for the ancient vampire. Namach glared after the retreating female, the reason students were allowed to this hot spring, which was usually reserved for the teachers, was because those allowed to come were supposed to be the ones that could be trusted not to cause trouble. It only took a lingering glance at her throat for Namach to convince the younger vampire that she ought to make herself scare. She vanished quickly into the mist at the other side of the pool. Daray sat up to make room as well, but didn't move away as the two professors sat down. He hadn't been getting into a fight after all and Namach was very fair.
"Can't chill out for an evening." Namach muttered to the other teacher as they sat down. Professor Yetran, who was part fae and had the ability to turn herself see-through, rather like a ghost, just shrugged. Now that was an unusual combination and a weird ability.
"Atalia won't last." Yetran said softly. Rahkesh rather thought she was right. Atalia, if that was her name, was too power-hungry in a thoroughly disagreeable and nasty way. None of the older vampires were likely to trust her unless they had a strong enough blood connection to completely control her. And she wasn't pleasant at all, though she was certainly powerful enough.
"Tomorrow?" Ally asked Silas, nodding in the direction Atalia had gone. He turned to stare at her.
"Yes. You are very perceptive." Silas said. Rahkesh frowned, still confused.
"It isn't hard."
"What?" Rahkesh asked.
"I'll have to find a way to either beat her, and hopefully drink her blood. Or she'll take mine. We're almost equal right now, vampiric power wise anyway. And that can never last long unless the two are very good friends. Amongst vampires…amongst young vampires…there are no equals. There are those lower than you and then there are the ones who you ought to obey if you want to live." Silas explained.
"What fun. Do kick her ass will you. I don't like her." Rahkesh said. "How could you tell?" He asked directing the question at Ally.
"It was fairly obvious. You just have to watch. It isn't hard to tell when one of the males is planning a challenge."
"That's a girl thing." They all turned to see Rianae treading water a few feet away. "Let me know how it goes. I'd like her blood too."
It occurred to Rahkesh that Rianae was more powerful than Silas, but never treated him like Atalia had. They even sparred on occasion without real hostility. They weren't in competition like all the other vampires were. Rianae wasn't in competition with anyone. She was a watcher, saw everything, outdid most, not obtrusively but quietly. She didn't threaten but she did attack, when she was good and ready, quickly, silently, and always won. She and Daray were of a kind, and the teachers, the vampire ones, listened to their opinions with more attention than they gave others, suggesting that those two had good chances of survival.
XXXX
Professor Havari Yetran was very, very, skilled at wandless magic. And she was very good at explaining how to do it. Rahkesh thought as he practiced opening and closing a door wordlessly.
"Focus on the movement, not what the movement is called. You're sitting there thinking that you want the door to open. Think about the movment as it swings, the movement you want the door to make." Professor Yetran was telling the students. A few doors were wobbling, but none were really moving. Rahkesh stopped and took a break. With wandless magic it was necessary to try everything several different ways. Each time you wanted to perform wandless magic the way you did it might be different. Doors might need just a thought, levitating might require thinking the incantation. With practice each new task would come more naturally and you would only need one try to find out what was needed for that task.
He waved his hand at the door, focusing on the movement. The door, which was not locked nor even fully closed, swung open smoothly.
"Very nice. You also used a hand movement for opening the drawer." Professor Yetran observed over his shoulder.
"Whatever works right?"
"Yes. Do you ever have to think the incantation?"
"I haven't found a case where that works yet. I try to separate spells from wandless magic. They're not identical. If you think of them the same way they get confused, they're not the same so trying to make them the same works against you." Rahkesh replied, Yetran beamed and moved away. Rahkesh looked at beginning trying to get it the door to close. This was so much better than thread magic. A week into the class and he was making amazing progress, and it was fun.
"Class over. I'll expect all of you to be working on this on your own." Professor Yetran said. They rarely had homework, just practice. If you didn't practice you'd never keep up, and it was up to each student to find the time to make the magic work correctly. For many this class took more time, outside of the classroom, than any other. Rahkesh found it a wonderful break.
Rianae, Ally, Silas, and Daray met him in the hallway and the five headed to lunch. The hallway from that part of the school to the main entranceway and dining room was still stained with blood, Silas smiled fondly at the stains as they passed.
Silas had done as he said he was going too. The day after their soak in the hot springs Ally and Rahkesh had been walking to the dining hall after a sparring match only to find vampire students fairly obviously blocking one of the hallways. Fortunately it was not the main one and they'd just gone around. Past the corner Ally had grabbed him and dragged him back into a secret passageway.
"Why are we here?" Rahkesh ha asked. Ally shushed him and began moving along the secret passageway. Akren was filled with these; the builders had been very creative, a lot like Fred and George. Further down Ally paused and cast a silent lumos spell.
"I discovered this a few days ago." She whispered, reaching up she put her knife into a crack in the low ceiling, and trap door dropped down, with a ladder inside. They climbed up and pulled it shut behind them.
"We're over that hallway they were guarding." Rahkesh stated, Ally nodded. Rahkesh remembered that the hallway had paintings on the ceiling. They were above those, Ally pointed to the floor. There were several strings attached to various pieces of stone. Ally lifted one string and pulled out a tiny piece of their floor, and the hallway ceiling. Looking down they could see what it was the vampires had been keeping people out for.
There was blood splashed across the walls and scorch marks from magic. The red liquid ran down the wall, drying into droplets and pooling at the base. The floor gleamed red in the torchlight. They had obviously just missed the end of the battle as the two vampires were currently removing all traces of their magical signature from the site. Though they removed the magical signature the blood was still on the walls and floor.
"Leave it." One of them snapped when the other went to clean it away. Rahkesh recognized Silas voice. Then the other must be Atalia. Both vampires looked worse for wear, the bite marks on the visible side of her neck were only partially healed, and both of their clothing was ripped and bloodstained. Their injuries were otherwise healed, as vampires had amazing healing abilities. The two above watched silently until the vampires were done. Silas turned toward the dining hall and Atalia hurried away in the other direction.
"Come on." Ally hissed, Rahkesh put the spy holes back and followed her back down the trap door and out of the secret passageway in time to meet Silas entering the dining hall. Rianae and Daray were waiting for them at a table and waved them over.
"Nice fight?" Daray asked, taking in Silas battered state. Silas didn't appear to notice, he was practically glowing.
"Oh yes. I've never taken the blood of a vampire almost as powerful as I am. It's nice." He said, his eyes had a slightly glazed look, almost as if he were drugged.
"There's quite a rush along with the blood of a vampire who is almost your equal or more powerful." Daray explained to the two mortals. "It's delicious, almost addictive. Right now vampires can sense the change occurring in his blood as it absorbs the added power. He'll be acting a little bit high for a while."
"And the extra energy will take awhile to work off, a fight companied by powerful blood with no loss of your own causes an excessive amount of energy and power. It might be a few days before he can sleep again." Rianae added. Silas was grinning like a loon, and not eating, or drinking any blood.
"Food would make him nauseous, and he doesn't need the blood." Daray continued, "we'll just have to see how much his vampiric magics are enhance by this, and if he suddenly manifests any abilities he didn't have before."
"You see why drinking the blood of other vampires is so addictive," Rianae said. "The more powerful they are the better." Rahkesh and Ally watched with great amusement as Silas walked back to his rooms whistling.
That had been Sunday, it was Thursday evening and he was still unusually cheerful. No one had removed the blood from the hallway. Apparently Silas was supposed to do that, whenever he got around to it. The vampires had settled down a bit, right after the fight they'd been meeting and chattering constantly. But Silas had been careful to let everyone know that he didn't fight unless given a really good reason to. Realizing that he had no wish to challenge them the vampires a little higher of the ladder from him had calmed down. At the same time his not acting hugely superior relaxed the lower vampires. Daray and Rianae treated the whole thing with amused indifference.
"It doesn't really matter, he's still my cousin." Daray said simply when Rahkesh asked. He had finished brewing a potion in his rooms only to find Daray, his bat, and Rianae in his room. Daray and Stan sprawled on the couch as usual, Rianae in one of the armchairs. And he hadn't noticed any of them. After Rahkesh got over his annoyance at them all just appearing (the vampires waited in smug amusement while he fumed) he'd started asking about why everyone was acting the way they were.
"Doesn't taking another's blood create personality shifts?" Rahkesh asked.
"Not always. Very rarely actually. The thing to be wary of is those that get too focused on blood, obsessed with it. My parents have to get rid of some of those; they say they're really creepy. Don't care about anything but killing other vampires. Do it in daylight in the middle of a muggle shopping mall. It can get bad when so many people see us feeding like that. It's usually blamed on cults and drugs of course." Daray said.
"Silas will be fine, but I don't think he's ever tried the blood of a vampire almost as powerful as himself before. Atalia's gone right back to her usual habits you know." Rianae said. "Nothing will change her."
"In some ways she's a better at being a vampire than we are." Daray added, he and Rianae laughed. "She follows the rhetoric, only blood matters. It's very amusing because that is almost true, but far enough away from the truth that she could get in trouble outside of Akren."
"And you two are so much more worldly?" Rahkesh asked skeptically.
"Yep." Rianae said, then they both laughed again. Rahkesh didn't ask what was so funny. He'd given up on understanding vampires.
XXXXX
Winter break was timed to coincide with New Years. Three weeks. Rahkesh didn't have any plans, but he was going home for at least a week. Part of this was that he intended to become a supplier of rare potions ingredients. There were several shops he was going to try. Mostly not in Europe, mostly Canada and the United States, but there was shop in Knockturn Alley that he thought might be a good place.
He had some unusual stuff. Basilisk parts he'd scavenged from the Chamber of Secrets during the month he'd spent living in real time in the Room of Requirement. A little bit of fur from the Yeck he'd tackled on the way to Akren. It was unusual and fairly powerful in only a few potions. A very potion-specific ingredient. Hairs from the tail of a Fire Horse were also rare and hard to get. They usually didn't allow anyone to get them and the hairs had to be cut right from the tail while still burning. Fire Horses didn't shed, they burned.
He'd also figured out a complex set of spells he could charm parchment with to send letters to people, such as potential buyers for some of the things he could provide. Untraceable, unreadable except for the person with the magical signature of the person being sent the letter. About as intercept-safe as it was possible to be. He would contact Fred and George first. He'd always liked them and trusted them.