The Sworded Details

The Silvery White Knight was good at waiting but could not help feeling worry. He felt relief when he saw a small bat flutter up to the top floor to greet him.

Django transformed back and wailed, "I bit someone!"

The knight stiffened. "You did what?!"

"The guy turned into a vampire and bit me and I was cornered and I freaked out and lost control and..." Django told all with a large number of 'and's.

Tolstoy had things set up now. He looked at the many facilities Polidori had records of. The vampires loved to stockpile things and Polidori had helped plan the government. They were not sure how many things Dumas had withheld from the Immortal, but they were confident they knew where much of it was.

He had the monsters ready, the Sunflower sighted, and Lucian tracked. Where was the Solar Knight?

Alice nearly got bowled over by Aaron. He normally could run all over town but today he looked a bit winded. He was almost over the flu, but not quite.

Aaron gasped. "Alice! Did Bea come this way?"

"I didn't see her. What's wrong?"

"Toasty knows the vampire! He's not certain but he thinks it might be someone he knew!"

"Was it a Guildsman? I thought the guild kept track of everyone?"

"No! It might have been the Solar Boy before my father!"

"Do you know for sure? Even if it was him, the Dark Matter probably has erased any memories. It's been a long time since the rise of the Lord of Destruction..." The biggest occupational hazard of vampire hunting was the possibility of being turned undead and forgetting who you cared about in life. Part of the training for apprentices was this grim fact and how to handle it in fallen allies.

Toasty drooped. He had seen that happen before. "I have to know. Where has he been and why would he be with Dumas? There's too many questions."

Alice shrugged. "Well, why don't we look at the evidence file again? They've have taken the radar out to try tracking him, but it will take a while."

Looking at the evidence file proved to be a good idea. Toasty took another look at the shield Django had dropped. That alone could have been found somewhere else but Alice noted that the latest direction the Schrodinger had been seen was in the area of the Azure Sky Mound. She insisted on tagging along for the trip. As she put it, "I'd be in hot water if I left the mascots of the Guild on their own."

She, unfortunately, was the one with the bike. If they asked someone else in the guild for a ride, it was likely they would veto the trip entirely until Lucian returned from Sheridan's place. Aaron grabbed a paper on the way out the door.

Sheridan looked down at the Vanargand as Lucian talked to Carmilla. (Lucian was complaining to Carmilla about work and dealing with the annoying kid.) The dark matter blade was always an uncanny weapon. Sheridan never dared to touch it with his bare hands. Now, it made him uneasy to be in the same room as the thing. Vanargand felt more like it might wake up and bite his arm off than ever before. Nero and Lucian both swore that they heard a voice from it on the drive here but it was so faint that neither could make anything of it. Ursula, Alexander, and Ezra had not heard the voice.

Sheridan was used to alchemy taking him down dark and dangerous paths. This, he could handle. He prodded the hilt with an electrical probe.

Did the sword just blink at him?

Sheridan heard Carmilla's voice say, "I heard someone speaking, Professor. It may be that only those touched by darkness can hear it."

Nero looked at her, then back down to the sword. "You know what, Lucian? I think we should stick to Jormungandr and Hel until we know more."

Sheridan got to work before Lucian left. He, strangely, found himself explaining what he was doing to the sword. It couldn't hurt anything even though the sword felt inert again. He then made the explanations as detailed and boring as he could. Sheridan felt if the sword was waking up, it was worth a try. Boring a sword to sleep was hardly the most illogical thing Sheridan had done in his alchemical studies.

The natural inclination of the Dark Tribe towards being dramatic was starting to make itself known. Django huddled in the shadow of a wall. "I'm a terrible person, Silver..." It was a position that indicated inner turmoil with a deep well of guilt. There was a lot of angst. Silver, not knowing what to do with the transmitter that summoned a vampire lord, tossed it out the window of the second floor.

The Silvery White Knight looked down, "My liege?"

"That poor man's restaurant was destroyed! I just know some innocent bystander got hurt! There were bullets everywhere!"

"Well..."

"I lost control back there. I could have spread this curse to someone!"

Silver said, "You did not, and that is what matters. You have delivered the solar tree seed. We know more about the current state of the world than we did last week so you succeeded on that part of your mission too. It is a pity you were not able to find the Messenger of the Sun."

"I don't know if Master Otenko would want to talk to me now..."

"He will."

"At least Sabata isn't still stuck killing people as Vanargand." Django said, completely unaware of the irony. He heard Dumas say that the Beast Vanargand was separated from Sabata. Dumas had neglected to mention the sword Vanargand.

"My scrying hast shown little else of thy brother's soul. It is still trapped somewhere in this world. If it was in the moon I would have found him by now. With the blood shared betwixt you brothers, we may be able to call to his lost soul this full moon." The Silvery White Knight looked at the other things which Django had tucked in his bag. Days old newspapers were most of what he'd grabbed from the streets but among them was a Gunslinger Guild recruitment flyer. (Django loved that the world had a Gunslingers Guild. No one should have to fight alone as he had.) This gave Silver an idea.

Silver said, "Young Adventurer, if they already have a person in their ranks who is half-vampire, they can hardly refuse your application once you have relearned the Moonlight Change."

Django looked up. He started to smile as he thought about it some more. He picked up the flyer again even though he'd memorized every word.

Notes: Some minor changes made to previous chapters. No major fixes yet.