-Starlight Chibi-chan – you are getting fae and elves confused, different species. However we're not at that point yet so I haven't made the differences clear, give it time, there's a very long way to go with this fic (like several sequels of equal length).
-Kiki – Dumbledore/fawkes? Ew, just ew.
-Binnybobarino – that is correct, read the chapter, I put that detail in for a reason.
-Demonman21 – I will explain all about where they came from. There are blackmarkets for every illegal thing.
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A lot of people asked why Rahkesh doesn't want to be a vampire. Read the chapter and the note at the bottom. You'll have an answer.
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Chapter 33
Rahkesh flung himself to the ground, landing hard enough to knock the air out of him, and spun aside as massive sharp hooves pulverized the earth where he'd by lying. He rolled away and leaped to his feet, drawing a breath carefully to see if he'd broken anything. No sharp pains greeted him and he fired off several ice spells in quick succession.
Ribbons of ice materialized about the charging centaur, and were smashed by those powerful hooves and kicked aside. Rahkesh brought up a fireball and hurled it. The centaur swung his fist about and punched the fireball, sending it flinging back across the spaced between them. Rahkesh called his magic to him and absorbed it back into himself. The pain of the fireball forming back into regular magic and falling into place within him made him dizzy, but it passed quickly and Rahkesh leaped in time to avoid an arrow.
Reabsorbing deflected spells was a recent trick; the vampires already knew it so he and Ally had spent some time learning it themselves. They didn't want to give their vampire friends any reason to feel too superior after all.
A sword swung at his head, Rahkesh ducked and sent out tripping and bone splintering hexes. The centaur's hooves glowed as he casually kicked them aside. The spells hit the rocks to the trial side and shattered them. Rahkesh hit him now with a wandless spell, having used a wand previously, a bloody gash opened under one arm, cutting deep into the muscle and hopefully making movement difficult. Nets abruptly appeared around Rahkesh's feet, followed by a noose about his neck, he burned both, turning them to ash while protecting himself. He jumped back and turned to avoid a curse that would have removed a limb, it was followed in seconds by a flurry of tendon snapping curses, a blinding spell and a vomiting hex. Rahkesh threw up a massive shield and deflected most, the vomiting hex got through and he wandlessly summoned a rock in front of him to block it. The deflected spells scorched the ground and blasted pits about his feet. Rahkesh moved to firmer ground.
He saw another arrow coming, and then another, he dodged both, feeling the feather of the second brush his side. Too close. He already had one lodged in the muscle of his right shoulder and another in his right calf, both had entered sideways so the damage was minimal. But both had carried potions to slow him and enchantments to weaken him and bloodmagic enchantments to give the centaur telepathic warning of his plans, despite Rahkesh's mental shields. So far his bloodmagic had fought off the poisons, but one more arrow would probably end the fight. Rahkesh drew and knife and bent his knees, placing his feet and crouching just a little bit. He did a quick check, and shifted to rest his weight on the balls of his feet, ready to spring in any direction.
The centaur twisted left then charged, this centaur knew how to fight a human on foot, his didn't rear high enough to make his underside vulnerable, but his hooves lashed out a perfect height nonetheless. Rahkesh went to his knees and rose again as he ducked under one lashing hoof and dropped back to the centaur's flank, dropped sideways and out of striking angle to the back legs, and lashed out, dragged the knife deep across the hamstring.
He whirled around and moved back as the centaur's leg gave out and his back end dropped low, Rahkesh used his distance to get up some speed in his run and leaped, coming in from an angle, landing heavily on the centaurs back. His weight threw the centaur to the side and, already on only three legs; he overbalanced and went down sideways.
Rahkesh jumped up and caught onto a ledge overhanging the side of the trail, the sharp rocks bit into his hands and he silently praised the creator of fingerless gloves. He swung and dropped, arching in mid air to bring his weight into position, and landed across the centaur's neck as he struggled to rise. Driving his knee into the centaur's throat and sliding the knife blade under the centaur's head and twisting, so that his head was held nearly 180 degrees backwards, with the knife pressed deep so that if he turned at all it would slice into him. Rahkesh made sure to slip one knee back behind one of the front horse legs, so the centaur couldn't move it properly, then caught one arm in his left while the centaur was still choking, and shoved the arm back behind him, and leaned forward, resting his wait on the pinned arm, pressing it down at an unnatural angle.
He thought he'd won, but then magic gripped his entire body and sent him spinning into the air. Everything blurred as he spun and Rahkesh realized he was flying off the mountain. Rahkesh reached out and tried to take control of the spell, beginning to replace the magics with his own. He stopped his fall and rolled over in the air, and landed upright. A magical blow to his side hit him as soon as his toes touched the ground and Rahkesh felt several ribs give out and snap. He collapsed, landing on the other side, formed shields, calling on his bloodmagic to heal him. Then he raised a hand and made a pinching motion at the centaur's eyes, sealing both shut.
The centaur screamed and ripped the wandless magic away, but while he was blinded Rahkesh got off a succession of summoning and banishing spells. He aimed at various bones, not having time for the precision necessary for a brain or heart strike.
A loud crack of breaking bone told Rahkesh that one of his spells had worked, but the centaur blocked the others, letting them slide around him and rearrange the rocks behind him. Despite the broken arm he leaped forward again. Rahkesh felt his ribs firming up and got to his feet in time to dodge thrashing hooves. A fist came down at him. He blocked, grabbed the arm, and slit the wrist with a knife. Spinning aside to avoid a cruciatus curse and jabbed a taser against the centaur's side. The leaped away.
The jolt of electricity was washed away by defensive bloodmagics and a flying hoof caught the back of Rahkesh's head. He toppled forward and rolled, the world spun and his vision went black, then he was on his feet, moving on instinct. But the centaur had moved faster and Rahkesh froze as he felt the tip of a sword settle against one of his eyes. Rahkesh, breathed out and remained still, lowering the knife he held. Damn it.
The worst part of all of this was that he couldn't transform and attack. Neither serpent nor thunderbird would aid him here. He had learned from the school alumni records that this centaur, Viare, held what was commonly known as elemental powers. Usually abilities reserved for elves alone, though occasionally other magical creatures were born with them. This one had enough ability, though low level, that he could probably redirect lightning to hit the ground beside him, and blur the air enough to stall a basilisk's gaze. Attacking him and trying to bite him in either form was unwise, enchanted arrows were difficult to dodge when you were as large as Rahkesh's animagus forms were. While there was a dim possibility of getting lightning or killing gaze past him attempting it would reveal his animagus forms, and those were his back up weapons for more important situations. Surprise was too valuable to give up in a sparring match.
There was a long pause, and then someone blew a whistle. Rahkesh hesitated, and then moved away. The centaur limped around beside him and bent to pick up his dropped bow and arrows.
The injured leg glowed as it healed over, bloodmagic sparking over the centaur's skin. Rahkesh raise done eyebrow, curious. Viare, commander of the guardians of his herd, had some expansive and elaborate bloodmagics.
The Akren Mountains were home to two massive herds of centaurs. Their ranges were at the other end of the mountains from Akren and the distance between was covered by a handful of winding trails that ran up through the mountains. It was cold and snowy at the higher points, even in midsummer. Shortly after passing the entrance to Akren the trail nearest to them wound upwards several thousand more feet, and it mostly ice and snow from there to near the centaur's homes. As a result the centaurs didn't come by very often. But every few years a patrol made it way to Akren, to exchange news and catch up on what was going on in the outside world. They had little contact with anyone but other centaur herds. The larger of the two local herds was the herd of the centaur council, given a place in the mountains by the founder of Akren, making the Akren Mountains key to the centaurs and making them allies of the school.
"Nicely fought little one." Viare said, turning on the tiny trail beside him by moving along the rocky cliff like a mountain goat. Rahkesh said nothing about that; he was about two feet shorter than this centaur and he thought Viare had been going very easy – the centaurs had a tournament with the older students and some teachers soon, so Viare would be conserving his strength for that and hiding his abilities from those who hadn't seen him fight before. Viare shook his mane out, scattering a few blood droplets. His bruises were already gone. Including the knife wound in his side from earlier in the fight. He had some very good healing bloodmagics. Rahkesh could still feel blood seeping slowly from his own injuries. The pain from his ribs, dulled by bloodmagic and adrenaline, came back strong and he let out a breath and began breathing very carefully. He could use his bloodmagic, but Marluck had odd rules about when they were allowed to use healing spells on themselves, he'd have to wait a few minutes.
"You to, having six limbs makes a difference doesn't it?" Rahkesh asked. Viare, and professor Marluck who had been watching, laughed. Strange to be acting friendly so quickly, when if he had made a wrong move and died they would not have done anything more than shrug and bury his body in the mountain and gone back to the school to report his death.
This fight had been outside the valley, as more and more of their combat classes were now that they were past the basics. This meant that killing your opponent did not have the problems it would have in the school. And his classmates were getting more vicious as a result. Rahkesh had been startled by the change. But Daray had explained that many students were very scared of killing someone accidentally, the wards were indifferent to whether it was intentional or not. As a result they held back a bit in the school. Except for the oldest who had their abilities in hand enough that accidentally killing someone was much less likely. In retrospect he shouldn't have been at all surprised, but Rahkesh often got out of the nastier parts of Akren life; he was too much of an unknown and had early on made a few "statements" that were painful enough to make anyone think twice. An early encounter with a werewolf who got too pushy had sent the werewolf to a muggle surgeon with his testicles melted. And couple of vampires trying to get into his rooms had wound up with the walls melted from electricity and the vampires fangs burned off by acids. That had bought him a lot of respect and distance, that and Rahkesh did his best to be polite and avoid confrontation or accidental insult, he had no problem moving aside in a tight hallway to let an older student pass. As a result he didn't get a lot of trouble from others.
Rahkesh had become much more cautious outside the valley since the class had changed location. Partly because his changing blood had caught an awful lot of attention and interest, especially these last few weeks. Apparently his scent had finally changed to reflect the full alterations he had undergone recently. The werewolves and vampires had noticed, and the goblin student had asked if he could recommend a pet shop for snakes, since he smelled like he owned a lot of them. That would be his Basilisk form the goblin had smelled, and Rahkesh was using scent concealing potions now.
He had never been attacked out in the mountains, but he only ever went to the Yek caves to gather fur to sell, or to the trail head near Regina to get home. And he often took one of the portkeys that were kept at the valley entrance and at the trailhead. And of course not many were likely to be wandering out in the mountains in winter. There were other students who went to parties outside the valley, and Rahkesh never went around in the valley itself alone. He'd been warned by an older mortal that many new students went to the hot springs alone and found themselves facing the older vampire students, or werewolves interested in pushing them into turning, or just older students who had no qualms about preying on the younger ones.
"Rahkesh that trail heads back to the school, I want you to run the whole way, and have all your injuries healed by the time you arrive." Marluck said. "You have one hour to get back there starting now." He clicked a timer and dropped it into the bag he carried. It vanished. The bag was connected to one another teacher at the school entrance had. Rahkesh nodded and took off, pacing himself and pulling out his wand beginning healing spells. Seeing the trail crisscrossing the hillside in a few switchbacks he jumped down several layers to gain time. He didn't know what would happen of he didn't get back in under one hour, but it probably wouldn't be pleasant. Punishments at Akren were far harsher than at Hogwarts, though Rahkesh hadn't actually managed to make any serious mistakes yet.
He arrived at the school entrance with ten minutes to spare. One of the students from the healing class gave him a quick check to make sure he had healed everything, and the other professor Marluck checked his time and waved him away.
Immediately inside the massive front doors Rahkesh had to stop fast to avoid two groups of snarling werewolves. By the books and paper on the floor he could guess that member of one group had bumped into the other, and they were blocking the hallway he needed. A few other students were watching cautiously from the upper levels and doorways, no one really wanted to get into the middle of a werewolf brawl. Unfortunately there was no way around them. Rahkesh settled down on a tiny staircase that moved up around the walls to hidden doors and waited. Ally returned from her own fight, her clothing was stained with blood like his was. She looked the werewolves over, and made her way around the growling group to Rahkesh.
"Got any ideas?" Rahkesh asked.
"Dump a bucket of acid on their heads?" Ally growled, "There's a secret passage over here." Rahkesh got up and followed her around a column and into one of the walls that was hung with glowing magical vines. The vines rippled aside and a hole appeared in the wall.
"How do you find these things?" Rahkesh asked as they went around the fight and came out in another corridor.
"A lot of random wandering, and checking for spots on the walls containing a lot of magic." Ally said, "how did your session go?"
"Well enough. He was holding back a lot, for the sparring later today and tomorrow." Rahkesh said.
"Similar story here, all the same the burns on my side will leave a few scars…do you sense something?" Ally asked, and stopped midstep, Rahkesh twisted aside to avoid running into her. He paused and reached out mentally, feeling lightly for anything odd.
Immediately his mind encountered a roaring mass of angry magic around the corner. Images of fire and spraying blood flew in front of his eyes; he was drowning in the violent magic surging around him. Rahkesh staggered, and closed down all telepathy, wave after wave of ferocious power hit against his walls. Ally cast a spell and pale green shield appeared around them.
"Anti-telepathy shield." She said, Rahkesh pulled himself upright and examined what he was sensing. Vampire magic, a little, mixed with something else, something far more dangerous.
"Oh shit, that's Daray." He said, Ally closed her eyes as she searched as well.
"Yes, one angry demon." She said finally, before heading in the direction of the bursts of demonic energy. Not about to confront a possibly insane demon alone Rahkesh paused and sent out a telepathic call to professor Namach, focusing on the ancient's aura and trying to send the message directly to him, before following. A vague bit of telepathy caught his senses in return, and Rahkesh sent an image of the raging power he could feel. Seconds later Namach's telepathic presence vanished, and then reappeared much closer, and then vanished again.
Rahkesh followed Ally around the corner and into a hidden room; this was the massive opening that ran from the floor they were on all the way out the top of the mountain.
Daray was in his demon form, crouched on the other side of the circular room from the door. He was glowing gold and shaking uncontrollably. The light streaming down from the tiny speck of sky far above didn't touch him, but bent around him in swirling color, leaving the demon encased in shadows.
His scales seemed oddly shiny and reddish, Rahkesh crept closer, then jumped back when power flared and black and red fire rushed into his path.
"He's covered in blood." Ally said. There was a dark puddle around the demons four clawed feet, and blood dripped from his massive black wings.
Seconds later the shadows along the wall seemed to ripple and slide out into the center of the room and Namach dropped out of them. The vampire was wearing an odd combination of modern black combat boots with many-millennia-old-style black and gold robes with black silk pants and shirt. He took one look at the demon and began casting spells on the floor to stop the blood, which was slowly dissolving the floor stones. Namach smelled the air, and carefully touching the magic that was keeping the light away from the demon.
"His own blood." The ancient said finally, "it's turning acidic when it hits the light. He isn't actually injured, it's just seeping out between the scales and from his pores." Daray's eyes snapped open, the usually colors and had been washed away and glowing white. Fire spurted out through his nostrils and the demon made a screeching sound – without opening his mouth, Ally clamp her hands over her ears and Rahkesh grimaced.
"Any ideas?" He asked Namach. The ancient vampire looked up, and bricks from the walls bent inwards to close off the light. Rahkesh cast light spells, summoning small balls of blue light and attaching them to the walls.
The artificial light didn't seem to be as much of a problem as sunlight had been. The magics wrapped around Daray slowly diminished, then vanished completely.
"Daray?" Rahkesh asked cautiously, there was only the sound of low heavy breathing in response. Namach stepped forward, raising a hand, bloodmagic runes on his palm beginning to glow.
Daray lunged for the ancient vampire, who stepped aside as the demon hurtled into the space he'd been occupying. Namach moved so fast he looked like he'd apparated rather than taken a few steps. The demon roared, spewing fire, and the blood covering his body began to burn, cloaking him in bright flames. Daray turned and attacked again, raising his wings high and leaping at Namach, who once again moved too fast for him.
"Enough!" Namach's angry bark contained enough power to send a wave of dizziness shooting through Rahkesh. Ally stumbled against the wall, pushed away from it and swayed on her feet. Daray snarled and raged at the vampire facing him across the circular room. "Back to your vampire form NOW!" Rahkesh and Ally winced again at the surge of ancient magic rising around them. Rahkesh began pressing up mental walls, Ally shook her head clear, took one look at the furious demon and angry ancient vampire, and headed for the door.
"Right, you deal with the pissy demon, I'll not hang around thanks." She said, Rahkesh looked between the snarling demon and the increasingly angry ancient. Leaving was probably the smart idea. "Rahkesh?" Ally asked from the open door. Rahkesh looked back at his friend, who, by the look on Namach's face, was already in deep trouble for even thinking of ever attacking him, never mind actually doing so and the ignoring a direct command.
"One moment." Rahkesh said, reaching out gentle with a bit of telepathy. The fanged scaled head twisted to look at him, eyes glowing white. Rahkesh threw himself to the floor as a wave of fire tumbled from the demon's mouth. Ally, standing behind him dodged out of the room, the fire slammed the door shut and melted the hinges.
Rahkesh looked up, and rolled to the side and leaped away as Daray charged, claws raking great gouges into the stone floor. Rahkesh hurled the demon away wandlessly, and felt the magic burned away by the flaming blood. Daray whirled around and, screaming and roaring, attacked Namach again. This time the ancient didn't dodge. He held his ground and at the last moment grabbed the flaming jaws in one hand and forced the demon's mouth closed, stopping the blast of fire. His other hand came up from underneath and hit Daray in the chest hard enough to crack his sternum and flip him head over heels all the way across the room. Daray hit the far wall hard enough to leave a dent and slid to the floor.
For a moment the demon didn't move as its natural healing powers, coupled with the vampires usual quick healing, cleared most of the damage. Then the burning blood flared into waves of fire. Daray untangled his wings, screaming in rage, and twisted around to attack anew. Namach snarled in annoyance and tried again.
"DOWN!" The words were charged with bloodmagic induced mental control, and Rahkesh's knees buckled, he hit the floor hard, banging his head on the wall on the way down. Everything went a little grey and he began closing off his mind. When he stopped shaking and his vision returned he looked around. For a moment the demon wavered, the power of Namach's voice holding it immobile. Something changed in its eyes, as though the vampire were trying to convince the demonic side not to anger the ancient vampire further. Even possessed by demonic instinct the heavily ingrained vampiric submission to superiors was almost winning, then it shook away the command and lunged again.
Namach was not used to being disobeyed, Rahkesh had never heard of anyone not doing exactly what the ancient told them to. And surely never a student. The vampire's nostrils flared and his eyes began to glow with fury, nonsubmission was never permitted amongst vampires. Had Daray been in his vampiric form he probably would have had a shattered spine at the least by this point. Namach waited until the demon was on his feet again, then he uttered a low growl.
The cement amongst the stones first froze, and then turned to dust, the floor began to shake, Daray rocked a little, whining and shaking his wings as the vampire fought to obey the command while the demon instincts drove him to attack.
Vocalizations like growls and snarls were used as an actual method of communication amongst vampires. Magic could more effectively be maintained in the sound waves of a growl than it could in words. The intensity of the power a vampire could throw into a growl or roar was proportional to how old and how powerful they were. A vampire of Daray's age could hardly put anything but sound into a snarl, but from a vampire of Namach's age and power even a soft growl was enough to send weaker vampires to their knees. The reaction to the vocalizations of an older more powerful vampire was almost entirely subconscious and while a vampire could block telepathy or spells no one had ever found any way to fight the voice magics contained in growls and snarls.
But the demon was giving it a try, the vampire would have stopped and collapsed, begging for mercy, the first time Namach shouted, but the demon wasn't listening and its instincts were in control. With the actual demon long since dead this meant that it was basically mindless, with no more cognitive ability than the average insect had. Mentally it had stopped, but physically it kept going. Daray's vampire mind had already sustained some heavy damage from not being able to obey, but the demon wasn't stopping. It reared its head back, preparing to hurl its fire again.
Namach's growl rose sharply in volume and a mass of choking stifling power filled the room. As the demon leaped into the air Namach's growl rose again, and abruptly the power changed, coalescing into a mass of fury aimed at the demon.
The immediate telepathic command contained in the magic made Rahkesh's bones hurt and he felt his mental shields dissolving and collapsing, and when Namach growled again his vision went black, dimly he felt himself hit the floor again, and then everything went out.
Namach ignored the unconscious mortal and roared his magical command at the demon. Inches from colliding with the ancient the command hit, and the demon collapsed to the floor with an agonized scream. Namach ripped through Daray's remaining mental shields and drove the younger vampire's mind and magics aside, brining his own in, tightening a magical noose around the demonic power until it too collapsed and fell away. He followed it, trapping the demon instincts in waves of agony as he took control of Daray's magics and forced them to comply, ripping from within the demonic instincts the reason for the sudden transformation. Finished he sent bolts of magic flying invisibly into the still form at his feet, latched onto Daray's usual vampire self, and forced a transformation. Driving the demon's physical presence back with its mental one, ignoring the horrible screaming from the younger vampire as his bones snapped under the ancient's magics, knit themselves, and snapped again as his body shifted.
When Tristan Namach reigned in his powers and fixed the walls, for they were nearly collapsing, Daray was back in his vampire form, surrounded by a pool of blood. The ancient vampire glanced over the mortal, who was unconscious. A brief examination with a touch of healing magic pulled information from Rahkesh's bloodmagic, telling him that there was no real damage. Because the demon had been trying to avoid his commands bits of stray power had flowed into Rahkesh's mind, and mortal minds were not meant for that type of vampiric communication. At least not from a vampire of his power - he'd killed mortals by growling at them before. Really Rahkesh was lucky to be alive, his mind's instinctive retreat had saved it from more intensive damage, and his bloodmagic had combined with what was probably another manifestation of the dragon magics to keep his body alive. All the same Rahkesh's mind, facing a power it couldn't hope it fight, had retreated dangerously far and was shut off completely. It would take him a few hours to come around.
Tristan glanced down, Daray had woken a little and was choking on his own blood, pouring into his lungs from tears in his throat caused by his screaming, his eyes were bloodshot from burst blood vessels and his skin was charred, slowly healing with the aid of his bloodmagics. He wouldn't be fit for even a telepathic conversation for hours, his mind shredded so badly he couldn't form a coherent thought yet, and the remaining fractures were still mending while his lungs fought to clear out the blood and his vampiric powers reorganized themselves. Disobeying the commands of a more powerful vampire had severe physical consequences, one of which was the near-complete shut down of his nervous system and his senses. He was blind, deaf, and couldn't feel anything but the remnants of the angry power that had forced his body to transform. The younger vampire swayed, hardly able to lift his head off the ground, Tristan snarled softly and the young vampire flinched and collapsed immediately. One didn't need to be able to hear in order to receive the power behind vampiric vocalizations. A light mental nudge was all that was required to black out his mind as well.
Tristan, care to explain why my school's foundations are half shattered? Nvara purred into his mind. Her tone deceptively mild.
His demon form is ready for a metamorphosis. However he doesn't know what to do and the demon magics are trying to act on instinct. Tristan said, knowing from the information he'd forced the demon instincts to give up that the demon would undergo the change no matter what, and that they needed to arrange a controlled setting.
I see The headmistress said, reading the information from the uppermost layer of his mind. Rahkesh?
Alive, he has a true full-blown paranoia of having anything touch his mind in any way. I'll call him out of whatever corner of his subconscious he's hiding in. I don't think there was any actual damage, other than some light bruising.
I can feel his animagus trying to get out.
That won't be a problem. The old vampire replied, I can get the thunderbird out of the way long enough for him to wake up. The headmistress, knowing what Namach's own animaguses were, agreed to that.
I am more concerned about this pressuring one of his other forms into awakening. Too much too fast can result in a completely loss of mental stability and turn one into a squib. When he awakes I'll teach him to seal off all his other possible forms for the time being, he needs to absorb the two he has. Tristan agreed, knowing the dangers of pushing animagus transformations, there were reasons why most witches and wizards didn't bother with them. The threat of loosing your mind and/or ending up a squib was enough to frighten most away.
He has others lurking around in there, he'll need to clam them and shut them off completely, or they'll come into conflict with the thunderbird, until that has stabilized anything more is dangerous. Having put the school's foundations back to rights Namach levitated his two students and stepped into the shadows, wrapping them around himself and sliding from place to place, flowing out of them again in his rooms and conjuring two extra couches.
Do I want to know what you plan on doing with our young Ateres? Nvara asked, and reminded the vampire of what had happened the last time he and the Ateres matriarch had had a "conflict"
I do not tolerate such behavior from anyone, no matter what the circumstances. His vampiric training should have overridden any demonic instincts, no matter how powerful. He must be reminded of his place. But I won't kill him, we don't need Cyala starting another world war like she did the last time someone harmed one of her clan.
I won't ask for the details then, nothing permanent. Nvara said sternly, don't growl at me Tristan. She warned when he growled and replied that permanent damage would be the best way to ensuring Daray did not forget again. Punish him if you want but I think he's got the point already. The ancient grouchily agreed, grumbling about the lack of proper discipline among young vampires.
The reason we have a problem is the old ones being too gentle with out of control youngsters. He complained.
I would hardly call Daray out of control, and I don't recall him being any sort of problem ever before. You would be better off skinning some of the others like Atalia who are getting a little out of hand. They forget the differences in power between themselves and their elders, Daray never really has. Tristan sent her an image of what he'd recently done to that young vampire, and a handful of other young upstarts, as a reply. And felt a mental chuckle. You vampires are so pleasant to each other. I trust you returned her eyes to their previous condition eventually? Tristan didn't answer that. Next time put a ward around the room, Strawlime's complaining about ruined potions. Nvara said, sending him just a piece of the outraged multi-lingual curses she was hearing from the resident sadist potions master. The ancient vampire chuckled unapologetically and cut the link.
Tristan Namach looked over at the two unconscious students lying on the couches and smiled darkly, the most promising students he'd seen in centuries were, predictably, the ones with the most issues. Thunderbirds, Basilisks, and demons, and the others wondered why he enjoyed teaching century after century – there was rarely a dull moment, especially at Akren.
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When Rahkesh woke it was early afternoon. His skull throbbed and he felt like he might vomit if he blinked too hard, or knock himself out again. He knew where he was instantly; he could hear Eli the magical frill-neck hissing and rustling his tail over the floor stones. The lizard was nearby and as usual none to pleased with Rahkesh's presence. And Namach's rooms always had this feeling of immense dark power around them, that and the sharp dangerous feeling of a predator about.
He kept his eyes closed and did a slow review of his occlumency, bringing up layers and layers of walls surrounding his entire mind and every thought. The vampiric magic hadn't been directed at him, so he supposed he'd gotten off easy to only have a headache and not a completely ruined mind.
He wasn't sure how weakened his defenses were; they seemed okay but he'd have to head to the meditation rooms the mind magic classes used to make sure. The rooms were enchanted to aid in meditation, and had various types of incense or stone and feather magic that allowed one to work with mind magics with greater ease than meditation alone permitted. Rahkesh wasn't taking any serious mind magic classes until the next year so he had only visited the rooms twice to see how they worked and if they helped. He had done a lot of research on how to use what they offered, and maybe it was time to start incorporating mind magic in his bloodmagic, though that was usually reserved for more advanced works of bloodmagic. Some fairly easy low level ones for added stability in his shields.
"Awake?" Namach's voice asked softly somewhere off to his right. Rahkesh opened his eyes carefully – mental magical stress could over-sensitize the eyes. The gold, silver and gemstones about Namach's rooms glittered in a soft candlelight. Heavy dark red velvet drapes were closing off the massive arched windows and the glowing plants that hung from the high Greek-looking stone columns had somehow been turned down until they barely gave off any light.
"We'll be careful adding light; your optic nerves may have been a little over stressed from the magic rocketing around in your brain." Namach said, moving into Rahkesh's view.
"Daray?"
"On the other couch. He's alright." Namach answered, a slight growl in his voice. Rahkesh glanced over, but couldn't tell what state his friend was in through the bloody matted hair and blood encrusted robes. Eli stalked out from behind the couch and settled onto the fur in front of the fireplace, keeping one beady eye fixed on Rahkesh and the spines along his back on end.
"What happened?" Rahkesh asked, his headache was slowly fading. Really the Eli had nothing to worry about – he was far too tired and dizzy to pose a danger to a mouse much less a magical lizard.
"We know that demons go through metamorphosis's much like some insects do." Namach explained, falling into lecture mode. "The demon who's body Daray has was not an adult and still has one or two stages to through. We can't know how many, but it is probably more than one. There's some sort of biological clock that tells the demon's body when to begin. The demon knows what to do, with a vampiric mind the instincts kicked in, but since we don't know what demons actually do it is hard to follow through with what the demonic instincts say is required. We thought we'd have a few days between when he first started feeling the change and when he'd need to transform to set up something, but it appears that either the change is either much more sudden than anyone thought, or it was triggered by some of the tests we did recently picking through what knowledge he might have received from his other body instinctively."
"Oh. How long was I out?"
"Three hours." Namach said, "I spoke to Vaeryes, so he knows why you two weren't in class."
Three hours, that made it a little before noon. He would have time to get to the mind magic rooms.
"What do we do about him needing to go through that metamorphosis?" Rahkesh asked, pulling himself into a sitting position, the room tilted around for a moment before solidifying again.
"We need more information on demons. We've already exhausted all the known sources, so we'll have to start looking further. If it were anything else I'd talk Xanthius into looking through what the elves might know. But I'd really rather not involve them, if it is at all possible. Things get very complicated when that happens, and there's a good chance they'd kill Daray outright rather than allow anything that is even part demon to exist in this universe."
"Why?"
"The demons were sealed into another universe, commonly known as the Underworld. The presence of any amount of demon magic in this world might give them something to link to should they attempt to break the last remaining seal. Daray's existence does, to some miniscule amount, put the entire world at risk. The elves have fought several wars already to keep this world free of demons, even though they don't really reside here themselves, they wouldn't tolerate even the faintest possibility of another one if it could be prevented."
"But they already know about Daray." Rahkesh pointed out, "professor Xanthius was helping with the tests on him."
"Yes, but we convinced Xanthius, and therefore who ever he reports to, if he does, that Daray isn't going to go through any metamorphoses, not magical ones anyway. Physical ones wouldn't be unusual. So long as the elves believe he can't ever access the demon magic apart from fire breathing, and all the remnants of the demon's mind and soul are gone, along with the demonic instincts, he's safe. Xanthius doesn't know that the demonic instincts remain, and that the transformations he'll go through are magical. Xanthius only takes part in the soul magic. The demon's soul is fully gone. And Daray copies his memories into a pensive before each of those sessions then I dull them and put them aside in his mind so Xanthius can't find them. Xanthius' part of the testing is finished anyway; he won't be doing any more experiments so there'll be no way to find out about anything. Daray's scent shouldn't change with the metamorphosis and his soul certainly won't, so Xanthius can't find out unless he over hears or is told."
"Where else can we go then?"
"Auzric. His real name is Akanthos but he was last known as Auzric. He was the chieftain of the druids that summoned a dozen or so young demons, shortly after Merlin's death.
When we first realized that Daray would go through some sort of metamorphosis I contacted the book-keeper, record holder, whatever you want to call him. The vampires set up a system back near our origins of keeping track of all of us. We have a tendency to disappear for centuries and it was realized early on that there had to be someone who knew where to find us, or at least information about every vampire, in case someone needed to be contacted. However we can't trust each other, so there has been a series of vampires, living in complete isolation in anonymity, whose job it is to keep records on the lives of every vampire. As you can imagine it takes some considerable telepathic acrobatics, most vampires don't know there is someone watching and it isn't safe to actually send in reports ourselves; that would give away their location."
"Is he still alive then?" Rahkesh asked.
"He vanished days after summoning those demons. And, more interesting, he summoned the demons with the purpose of sending them after a rival religion, but they never killed anyone. In fact beyond the records of the summoning the demons have never been heard of. No one knows what became of them. It's hard to miss a dozen demons. One of them was an infant arch-demon."
"So he is dead then."
"No he isn't. The watcher gets an instant telepathic notification of every death. All vampires spring from the same bloodline and he's tapped into that. Auzric isn't dead. He may have changed names again. But a one-eyed vampire can't hide. They're too rare. And the eye was removed in such a way that illusions won't hide it and he can't regrow or replace it. Auzric is very much alive, but the watcher can't tell where." Namach said, Rahkesh noted that he seemed quite puzzled by this.
"He would have to be pretty old, and that kind of power can't hide easily." Rahkesh pointed out.
"That's another thing. Creations of new vampires are usually registered as soon as they get into their teens and start serious training, or as soon as they're seen publicly as vampires. The watcher senses them about then. But there's no record giving a clue as to when Auzric…Akanthos, was created. By the time he first emerged, seven hundred years after the fall of Rome, he already wielded power that was more than a century old, possibly much older. He had a missing eye even then, and it has always been generally known that he was turned as an adult, and he lost the eye as a child. He's like a phantom really. The only records about him longer than four or five sentences are when he summoned those demons."
"Great, we have a possibly non-existent vampire to find, and a dozen demons that did exist but then didn't exist." Rahkesh muttered.
"It goes father than that. Daray's life may be at stake here but there could be even more serious consequences into prying into this Auzric. He was part of something, something very dangerous and very important, back in Merlin's time. The record-holder wouldn't tell me what." Namach was angry about that refusal, Rahkesh could tell that instantly.
"What sort of thing?"
"He wouldn't even say what. It had to do with the elves, and it jeopardized world stability. Him and a group of other vampires. They were working on something that went too far, and it's possible the elves intervened. The watcher said he wasn't supposed to know what he knows, and he was too frightened of the elves to say anything more."
"So professor Xanthius has to stay out of this at all costs, we couldn't even get his help independently of the elf government." Rahkesh said.
"Yes, we were lucky, he's not here today. Visiting soul magic focal points or some thing with a class. I'll put a shield around Daray's mind, I don't think Xanthius would pry into yours, too much chance you'd just shut it off and die rather than letting him find out anything. All the same you need to work on your shields a lot. We know the dragon's blood intensified your mind blocks, dragons have them naturally, you need to start using that." Namach told him. Rahkesh nodded his agreement, deciding he was a good as he was going to get without some serious meditation he rose, stepping carefully over a growling Eli, and headed for the door.
As he paused to open the doors Namach spoke again.
"It is interesting though; that the elves only started returning to this world after Auzric summoned those demons. And he disappeared at the same time." Rahkesh waited, but the ancient didn't say anything more, and after a moment he realized Namach hadn't been speaking to anyone in particular and left to seek out the mind magic rooms.
The door closed behind Rahkesh, and Namach's thoughtful look vanished, replaced by dark anger. He rose and moved to stand beside the young vampire lying on the other couch. Releasing the spell holding him asleep he waited, a low growl rumbling through him, for Daray to wake. They needed to have long and bloody chat about obeying your superiors.
XXXX
It wasn't until he was meditating, the enchanted incense allowing his mind to relax and work at faster speeds, that he remembered that there was another option. One that offered similar dangers, but also a better solution – Sharahak. If Sharahak still lived. He could find Sharahak - Rahkesh had the key to doing so; the bond created when he'd saved Sharahak's life.
Rahkesh didn't awaken from his meditative trance until a few hours after lunch, skipping the meal. His mind needed a little more reconstruction than he'd thought, and his body protested the very idea of eating. Stretching, he rose and quickly left, thanking the mind magics professor who'd waited for him to finish before closing the rooms. They were kept closed from a bit after lunch until after dinner because almost everyone was in class. The professor mentioned that he'd felt what a mess Rahkesh was in when he'd come by. Rahkesh explained he'd gotten caught in the middle of a many-way vampiric mind war. It was close to the truth. The professor, a mortal, gave a sympathetic grimace.
Deciding he still wasn't likely to keep much down if he tried to eat Rahkesh didn't bother stopping by the kitchens and headed back to his rooms. Rianae and Silas were looking for a location to go hunting that afternoon and evening, and had invited him and Ally with them. Whatever city they went to he could eat there while the vampires picked out the best hunting grounds.
He met Daray on the way back to his rooms, and did a double take at the sight of him. Daray was clean of blood, but looked like a body several days dead. Beyond pale his skin was gray and had unhealthy sag to it. He was moving slower than usual and swaying a bit.
"Namach?" Rahkesh asked, falling in beside the less-than-half-conscious vampire and sending a stern look at a vampire who was watching, seeing a weaker student and an opportunity. The vampire sneered and backed away.
"Wasn't pleased with my ignoring his orders earlier." Daray replied shortly.
"And?" Rahkesh asked cautiously. He wasn't sure he actually wanted to know any of the details. Vampiric ideas of discipline were stuff that sounded like it came out of the Spanish Inquisition. Only in addition to all the usual medieval torture devices they also used bloodletting, sex, and magic. The cruciatus curse was fairly uncommon, simply because vampire preferred more physical means. Using magic to physically remove bones from the body was fairly standard. They used sex for domination, and though he couldn't see any puncture marks he was certain Namach had removed most of Daray's blood. Leaving him nearly comatose. Leaning around Rahkesh reached out mentally, and caught a vague sense of vampiric magics. Instead of the typical feeding areas Namach had used the back of Daray's neck. The marks were unhealed, held open and bleeding by Namach's magic they would probably scar over slowly and leave a lasting mark. They were also deep, very deep; deep enough to have hit the vertebrae in the back of his neck.
"I don't think you actually want to know all of it. Burned most of my skin off, tore out a few tendons." Daray replied shortly, not giving any details, and Rahkesh decided not to ask in the future. He caught Rahkesh's raised eyebrow and wrinkled nose, "vampiric dominance thing, my mind should have been capable of overriding the demon when ordered to, but I'm not all that good at following orders, nor particularly deferential to anyone."
"Uh huh. And you all wonder why I don't want to switch species?" Rahkesh asked dryly.
"Being vampire is better than being mortal. The advantages far outweigh the social aspects." Daray said defensively. Rahkesh snorted, right, and getting ripped apart by your elders and anyone more powerful than you was a good life. Even if most of them were very reasonable and didn't attack without some form of provocation.
"Since the transfiguration professor is out this afternoon and tomorrow morning Rianae and Silas are going hunting, Ally and I are going to tag along. The local vampires in the closest cities are in a mood over some power shift in their hierarchy so outsiders aren't exactly welcome. Rianae asked Ally for an American city, she suggested Vegas, I think they're headed there for the night. Are you up to coming?"
"Yes. I'll need to hunt anyway, mortal blood. Magical if possible. Fortunately there are witches and wizards who willingly let vampires drink there blood in any large city."
"They what?" Rahkesh asked incredulously.
"You've been bitten. It certainly wasn't painful was it? Quite the opposite."
"They let them drink their blood?"
"Not everyone has your paranoia."
"It's not paranoia. Why would anyone ever let anyone read their minds like that?"
"No idea. It is a little strange, but obviously no vampire is going to complain about it. And if you can't find those that actually go out with the purpose of being fed on, mortals are fairly easy to seduce."
"Since when?" Rahkesh asked. Not that a few of the vampire students hadn't tried, but they were rather pathetic at it. He'd had great fun electrocuting the pushy ones.
"I was talking about the average young foolish witch or wizard." Daray said. "Most of them aren't too bright." Rahkesh had to agree to that, most of those he'd known at Hogwarts, get them in a group and dare them to and they would. Still…Rahkesh eyed his friend, wondering if he'd seen a mirror yet.
"Not with the way you're looking. You my friend appear to be exactly what you are – a walking corpse. Better cast some really good glamours."
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I think we're getting down to an actual battle with Voldemort soon. It's a little hard to build that into everything else; Rahkesh is going to be very busy.
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I know some people have been asking after Sharahak and demons in general. There were a lot of questions as to why Rahkesh doesn't want to be a vampire, hope I've answered that. What do you think? Reason enough?
For those who were hoping for a lot of torture, sorry for no gory details of what happened to Daray. I wrote the details, but this story already has the highest possible rating and I don't want to test the owners with anything too graphic. So I had to delete that when I realized that I would need a higher rating. Read it carefully and you'll find some hints, just use your imagination. Tell me what you think.
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Please review!