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The Council of Thirteen

Book Seven: The Second Lord

The Kuran Restoration

Prologue: New Beginnings in a Blizzard

Beta:

On a snowy night, a young girl stumbles through a snowy woodland in a daze as the winds whipped her long chestnut brown hair and the loose fabric of her dress about. She should be freezing, such was the intensity of the blizzard that surrounded her and her lack of proper winter wear but she did not feel the cold.

She didn't feel anything. Her mind was practically blank. She didn't know where she was or even who she was. All she knows is that she needs to get out of the snow but yet has no idea which direction to head.

What's my name? She wondered as she continued to heed the imperative driving her and kept aimlessly walking through the snowstorm. What's my name?

That one persistent thought repeated itself on an endless loop for what felt like an age until suddenly like a bolt from the blue a torrent of hazy images burst into her mind. Images of the indistinct figures of a man and woman - Okaa-san, Otou-san? - and a boy slightly older than she was - Oniichan? - calling out a name. The sudden images caused her to almost trip but with preternatural dexterity she righted herself and clutched her head as she processed them.

"Y-Yuki," she whispered to herself. "My name is Yuki."

A smile spread across her face as she rediscovered part of who she was and she pushed her mind to try and recall more.

So my name is Yuki. But what is my family name? She thought as she metaphorically dug at the depths of her brain to dredge up something, anything, that could answer her question. Sadly, all she managed was to give herself a splitting headache as she seemingly ran into a wall. One that appeared in her mind's eye as a literal wall of pure black.

W-What is that!? She thought as she recoiled by what her instincts told her was an unnatural construct. Why is that inside my head?

She was still pondering that question and considering what to do about the unnatural mental construct when her musings were interrupted.

"Are you lost, little girl?" A voice called out to her suddenly.

Spinning her head to its source, she spotted an uncommonly handsome man with glowing blood red eyes stalking towards her through the blizzard.

He was clearly not normal. For one, despite the trench coat he wore, he was clearly underdressed for the storm. - She was too, but that's besides the point. - He also smelt - And how she could smell him at all over the distance and the storm, was beyond her. - vaguely of blood. But what really sent alarm bells ringing in Yuki's head was the predatory gleam in the man's eyes as he advanced towards her.

"S-Stay b-back," Yuki stuttered as she began backing away from the man.

Her fear seemed to set the man off somehow and his mouth stretched into an unnaturally wide smile as two of his canines lengthened into vicious fangs.

Yuki's eyes widened in horror at the sight even as her confused mind was filled with blurry memory and knowledge of what this man was.

"V-Vampire," Yuki breathed out in horror as she turned to run.

She never made it more than a step before he lunged at her and had her pinned to the ground.

The man was talking as he leaned down and sniffed her but Yuki could not hear him over her own terrified screams.

I'm going to die. A distant part of her mind not consumed by fear realized. I don't want to die.

It was to this thought that something inside her reacted. She didn't know what it was, but it made her body thrum with energy and the blood in her veins sing with power. Strength which she used to kick the man so hard that he was sent flying off her.

"W-Wha-" The vampire began to say before Yuki leapt at him in turn, lancing her tiny arm straight through his chest. "I-Impossible. Y-You're a Pur-"

"Die!" Yuki shouted, riding the high of the mysterious power surging through her and unleashing a burst of raw power that obliterated the vampire, leaving not even ash in its wake.

Her control over her mysterious power was non-existent however and it was not just the vampire that she destroyed but a whole section of the forest behind him. Not that Yuki paid much attention to that as she collapsed to her knees and clutched at her head, the headache that had not left her since she'd recalled her name reaching a point that it felt like her head was literally being split open.

"Stop!" She cried out in agony as she curled up into a fetal position. "Okaa-san! Otou-san! Oniichan! Anyone! Please make it stop!"

There was no one to help her however and the pain persisted, growing in intensity with each passing second. So pained was she that she began pulling at her hair, ripping whole clumps of it off, and she scratched at her scalp, leaving deep gashes. Neither set of injury lasted long though as her body repaired the damage almost as soon as she caused it.

She noticed none of it though as her vision was consumed by the black wall in her mind. When she'd first seen it, it had seemed impenetrable but now it was on the verge of a collapse as it was being attacked by the mysterious power she'd used to save herself from the vampire. It appeared in her mind as an endless ocean of raw power and was battering away at the black wall in repeated tsunami waves.

Each blow caused spider webs of cracks to spread out across the featureless black surface of the wall, allowing light and the occasional hazy image of what seemed like her memories to peek out. The wall was resisting her power's efforts though, attempting to repair itself between blows. Yuki's power was relentless though and with each blow against the wall, the strength of its waves increased and the speed in which it followed up with another was too. Soon, the wall simply could not keep up with the damage being done to it and with a sound like shattering glass it collapsed.

In response Yuki's mind was filled with memories and knowledge.

"My name is Kuran Yuki!" She shouted in hysterical joy as the last of the magic sealing her nature as a Pureblood Kuranian vampire was swept away by the power of her own magic. "I am the daughter of Kuran Haruka and Juri-"

At this she stopped herself, as the memories of her parents and what they'd done to protect her came to her. Both of them had given their lives to seal her nature away as a means to protect her from their fellows. Memories of how her father had gone out to face their brother and her uncle, Rido, who had come to drain her dry to boost his already considerable power even though he had known he'd never be able to beat him. How her mother had given her life to work the magic that had sealed away Yuki's vampiric nature and memories, so she had a chance to escape the fate of a Pureblood vampire of always having to fearful of her fellows wanting her only for her potent blood.

"Is that so?" A new, unfamiliar voice said and Yuki looked up from her position curled up on the ground to see a group of vampires had surrounded her whilst she'd been distracted by having recovered her memories. "Then your blood will be truly something, won't it? That's what they say about the blood of Purebloods, don't they?"

The vampires that surrounded her laughed at their apparent leader's words. Laughter that was tinged with a feral thirst for her blood. By that alone Yuki could tell they were at best Level Ds, maybe even Level Es. The lowest ranks of her breed of vampire and creatures just barely above beasts. If what she'd learned from her parents about such creatures were right, then she should have been able to command them with the power of her will alone, so low were they in the hierarchy of their kind.

If only I knew how. Yuki thought wistfully as she pushed herself to her feet. But I don't. So if I want to survive this, I will have to fight.

Transforming that thought into action, Yuki called on her magic and blurred forward at the leader and swiped at his waist before leaping back. In the wake of the movement of her hand, a wave of power shot out and disintegrated not just him but his two fellows unfortunate enough to be standing on either side of him.

Yuki had hoped that seeing she was no hapless prey would have sent the Level Ds and Es running away in fright at the prospect of facing a Pureblood. Sadly, it seemed their flight or fight reflexes must've been degraded by their nature or perhaps they simply realized they could overpower her with their numerical advantage. Either way, instead of fleeing they simply let out feral cries and charged her.

The brawl that followed was one that Yuki barely had the wherewithal to keep track of. Letting her instincts guide her, she ducked and weaved around the wild swings of the lesser vampires' and unleashed her power on any that got close, disintegrating them. However, with each evasion, each attacker she killed, she felt herself growing more tired and each subsequent evasion or use of her power harder.

Finally, the strain took its toll and she was just a little too slow to duck under a punch being thrown her way. It slammed into her face with the force of a speeding car - Literally. The Level E must've put all his strength into the blow. - and it sent her flying. Landing hard, her body dug a deep furrow into the ground before she finally came to a stop.

She had no time to recover though and shot to her feet. Or tried to at least. She had just pushed herself off the ground when a boot caught her in the ribs and she was kicked into the side of a tree. She barely began to fall back to the ground when a hand caught her by the neck and pinned her against the trunk.

Looking at who had her pinned, Yuki's stomach churned in terror as she saw the woman. She was dressed in an expensive looking fur coat and a fashionable dress that looked very out of place in a blizzard. But her appearance was ruined by the feral hunger in her glowing crimson eyes and the drool dripping from her lips as she ran her tongue across them expectantly. Whatever this vampiress had been before now, it was gone now, replaced instead with a beast that knew nothing but the hunger for blood.

I-Is this how I die? The little Pureblood vampire mused. I'm sorry Okaa-san, Otou-san. Your sacrifices were in vain.

"Get away from her!" A new voice shouted as a dog-like creature tackled the vampire that had been keeping Yuki pinned to the tree, dropping her to the ground and giving her a close up of her attacker being mauled to death.

It was a grisly sight and normally would have turned the little Pureblood's stomach but after what she'd just been through it barely unsettled her. Besides, her vision was already fading as unconsciousness - At least that's what she hoped it was. - began to claim her. Nevertheless, she took a moment to survey her surroundings a little and saw a woman with her coat flaring behind her teleporting around the forest, finishing off the last of the Level Es armed with a sword of crackling ebony energy even as a trio of the dog creatures from earlier - That she just noted were made of the same energy as the woman's sword. - surrounded Yuki in a protective circle.

Who is that? Was young Kuran Yuki's last thought as unconsciousness finally claimed her.

Kuran Kaname, a lanky, young teen boy with dark brown hair, rushed through the forest in desperate search of his little sister. He should have come sooner, but between finishing off Rido - As much as he was able to when the man was technically his Master and he was thus unable to actually kill him. - and the man's followers in the area, he'd not been there to stop his sister from wandering out of the house and into the forest surrounding it.

Please be safe. The ancient vampire in the shape of a young teen prayed as he raced through the trees.

Yuki was the last anchor to sanity he had in this life. A ray of sunshine and vibrancy that had kept him from losing his mind and becoming a feral monster like a Level E since he was brought back from his eternal slumber by Rido. If not for her, for her - Their, he hastily corrected himself. Juri and Haruka had done enough for him and Yuki that he owed them enough to recognise them as his parents. - parents, he would have either committed suicide somehow or done something equally ghastly. For saving him from such a fate, Kaname was determined to keep Yuki safe like their parents wanted and she deserved. That he genuinely loved her as a little sister just added to his determination.

It was also fueled by a deep sense of foreboding. He'd felt her unleashing her power earlier. She shouldn't even have had access to her power as Juri had planned to seal it away, but that she had and had to use it? Something had clearly gone very, very wrong.

I have to find her! He thought as he finally sensed her presence and poured on the speed. He was so focused on his sister that he failed to notice the other beacon of power next to her. Thus it was that when he found an unknown woman bent over Yuki's unconscious sister, he reacted violently and threw out a lance of raw power at the unknown.

"Calm yourself, Kuran." The woman said as she used a magic enshrouded hand to bat his attack away. "I am not your enemy."

"Who are you then?" Kaname growled as he finished closing the distance and knelt down beside his sister, who only now he noticed the woman appeared to be tending to. "What happened to my sister?"

"She was being attacked by a group of your kind's Level Es," the woman who radiated power on a scale unlike anything Kaname had ever felt in his thousands of years of life said as she ran what appeared to a healing spell over his sister's body. "She killed most of them but was about to be overwhelmed. Thankfully, I was able to step in before they could actually hurt her."

Kaname breathed a sigh of relief at that. He'd been worried that Yuki had been attacked but to hear it, it broke his heart. His sweet sister shouldn't ever need to fight. Especially not for her life against a pack of rabid Level Es. He was however comforted that she had survived the ordeal.

"Pardon my rudeness, my lady." Kaname said politely, having recovered some of his poise now that he knew Yuki was safe. Yes, he did not know who the powerful woman was nor what her intentions were, but she appeared to have saved Yuki and was in fact helping to heal her injuries so she was right earlier in that she was not his enemy. For now.

"Nothing to forgive, Kuran." The woman with long black hair tied in a ponytail and eyes so dark that they seemed almost like black holes said as she offered him a smile. She was stunningly beautiful - And Kaname met enough beautiful women in his long life to be able to say that objectively. - with a curvaceous figure that was likely the envy of her peers and was dressed fashionably in a woolen wide notched lapel coat lined by mock fur and a pants suit, all in black. "You were concerned for your sister. That is excuse enough for being impolite."

"I thank you for your understanding, Lady-"

"Tredecim," the woman supplied obligingly. "Dominique Tredecim, the Thirteenth Lord of the Council of Thirteen."

Kaname blinked in surprise, the only sign he allowed himself to show just how flabbergasted he was.

Why was a member of the Council here!? He thought as he tried to make sense of the situation. They are the arbiters of peace in the magical world and in charge of maintaining the secrecy of magic. But for all that Rido's actions were insane and excessive they threatened neither. This is wholly an internal matter of us Kuranians.

The mage lord noticed his confusion despite his efforts though and offered him what she probably thought was a reassuring smile but which did nothing for Kaname's anxiety as she answered his unspoken question.

"I am here to save one of my fellow Lords."

That confused him for a moment before his eyes snapped down to his still unconscious sister lying on the ground between them. Though as he did, something that in the chaos of everything had slipped his attention. He finally realized that Yuki was still a vampire.

"How is Yuki still a vampire?" He blurted out, too thrown by everything to keep his composure.

He might be an ancient but tonight's events were enough to rattle even him. Add in the fact that he currently possessed the boy of a teenage boy and its accompanying hormones and he felt it was honestly a wonder he'd managed to keep as much control over himself as he had so far.

"I take it her mother-"

"Our mother," Kaname corrected.

"Your mother," the Thirteenth Lord agreed with a nod. "I take it your mother had sealed away your sister's nature and memories? I understand that that's a common way for you Kuranian Purebloods to hide yourselves when need be."

They used it for far more than that, like using it to live a human life and die or effectively commit suicide, but the mage lord likely already knew that and Kaname did not feel the need to inform her if she did not. As such, he just nodded.

"Well, I imagine your mother never accounted for her daughter being a Lord of the Thirteen when she sealed away her nature. If she did, she'd have known that it wouldn't have worked. Our magic isn't something that can be suppressed, at least not by the spell she used."

"I see," Kaname said with a frown. "So Yuki is the Lord of the Ancients?"

The Thirteenth Lord nodded. "Representative of all the ancient races of the world. Considering how old and powerful some members of those races are and how your sister was selected over them, I think you have an idea of how powerful she is?"

"Immensely so," Kaname reasoned.

He had felt glimpses of that power in the past. Yuki was exceptionally good at matter manipulation for example. Having had an instinctive grasp of the advanced ability even though she was an untrained child. Their parents had brushed it off as her having an innate talent for the ability, but Kaname had always suspected there was more to it. It seemed like he was correct.

"Then you know that I need to take your sister with me." The Thirteenth Lord tells him with a sympathetic smile. "She will need to learn to master her power and be protected as she does."

"If you are to be her protector, you have not done well in that regard so far." Kaname sniped venomously, the prospect of having Yuki taken away from him stirring the viper within him.

"I know that," the mage lord said with a self-deprecating chuckle. "I'd have got here sooner if not for the literal horde of lesser vampires that Rido had brought with him. I underestimated their sheer numbers and they managed to ambush me, together that made dealing with them more time consuming than I'd expected. Something that I think you have experience with as well considering your own late arrival?"

Kaname frowned. Curse her, but she had a point. Rido's hordes had indeed been a very effective delaying tactic.

"I concede the point."

"Thank you. Not your understanding helps with the guilt."

"Guilt?"

"I had intended to save your parents as well." The woman confessed. "But as I said, I was too slow. I barely made it in time to save your sister. That failure will be something that will haunt me the rest of my life."

Kaname just nodded. As genuine as the woman was, and he sensed she was, he also knew it would not linger with her as more than a minor regret. She was the Assassin Lord, the Thirteen's bloody enforcer. She'd have accumulated plenty of such regrets through the length of her career. It was the nature of the job. If she could not set it aside then she would've been killed and replaced long ago. Despite all that, hearing someone express genuine regret over Haruka and Juri's passing was still a balm to his grief.

"Must you take Yuki?" He asked, despite already knowing the answer, more to deflect from his bubbling grief than anything else.

"It is the safest option." The Thirteenth Lord said, telling him what he already knew.

It hurt nonetheless to hear it and he let out a pained sigh.

"Take good care of Yuki," Kaname warned the Lord of the Thirteen sternly.

"I will treat her as if she was one of my own daughters." The woman reassured him as she gently picked Yuki up in a grip that spoke of great familiarity in carrying children around.

"You better."

The Thirteenth just nodded in reply and let out a whistle, calling to her side a pack of a dozen dog-like creatures of raw void energy from the forest where they'd presumably been maintaining a perimeter that circled around her like a bunch of overeager puppies. The mage lord spared her familiars a fond smile before with a thought she conjured a portal of spiraling darkness.

"I will contact you with details on how to stay in touch with Yuki-chan once she's settled," the Thirteenth Lord told him, covering a matter that he'd completely overlooked. "In the meantime, I suggest you settle your own living arrangements."

"I appreciate it." Kaname nodded in gratitude.

"I'll be in touch," the woman said before turning and stepping through the portal, Yuki held safely in her arms and her familiars trialing happily after her.

Done!

If you haven't noticed this arc is set in the Vampire Knight-verse. Hope you guys like it.

Not much else to say besides pointing that out. So till next chapter, suy unukaran ro!