The thirst was growing unbearable. The fever made her body feel simultaneously hot and cold. Her muscles were aching, her breathing difficult. At this moment, Aster was bitterly regretting her over-caution.

Aster had not expected to feel the withdrawal of blood so soon. She should have been able to go a good month without having to perform a blood ritual. Since her escape and arrival in Ulthar she had not had a single drop. Waiting, preparing herself, studying the habits of the inhabitants of her gilded cage had seemed to her the right thing to do first. Some time ago she had even finished engraving her stealth acoas on the piece of wood and tested it.

She could have gone hunting earlier, yesterday or even the day before, when her condition was not so serious. However, she had chosen to wait. Even as the soft, smooth, tantalising skin of Hermione's neck was only a few feet away from her, she had resisted the all-consuming instinct, burning within her like a hungry flame, to pounce on her new friend and sink her fangs into her friend's undoubtedly soft and tender flesh before drinking the vital nectar carrying magic in her veins.

Aster shook her head to try to rid herself of these thoughts. No, she would not attack her new friend, the flame would not take over her conscience. Why hadn't she simply left the manor one of the previous nights to quench her thirst? Was it for fear of being caught? Because she still feared her magical veins were too fragile, still too damaged from the idiotic overload she'd put them through during the battle to be able to handle enough magic? Because she didn't know the city and its dangers well enough?

Aster let out a long sigh. No, the answer was deeper. For years now, Aster had been repulsed by the mere thought of drinking blood. Yet it was necessary for her survival and her thirst and self-preservation instincts screamed at her to bite and drink. The sensation was wonderful, this sense of union and sharing with the person she was feeding on, the feeling of forming a unique and splendid connection. Drinking blood, such an important act, should not be so revolting to her. The first few times, it didn't. At the time, when the fangs were delicately planted in the skin, the communion was perfect and infinitely pleasant, but then...

Because of their life as Hermits, recluses far from the world, Aster and Anna did not have the luxury of a partner, which most vampires have, the person willing to share their life and blood. Their better half in every sense of the word. Having such a person was one of Aster's dearest wishes, but she had never told Anna about it, not wanting to make her feel guilty about something she could do nothing about.

Therefore, every time she and her mother went hunting, it was with a growing sense of apprehension and self-loathing. She and Anna would walk through a town or village somewhere, before choosing a target that attracted them both. What happened next was very simple. The victim would be taken to a hotel or a safe place, where Aster and Anna would drink their blood before erasing their memory and disappearing.

At the time, during the act, everything was fine, perfect, but afterwards, Aster felt horrible, filthy, deeply dirty and sick with herself. The act of drinking someone's blood is anything but harmless. A connection is created, a harmony, and with each connection broken by the fact that Aster knew she would never see the person she had joined again, her heart was torn apart a little more. So much so, that now the mere thought of going hunting made her feel sick and emotionally unstable.

Aster was aware of this, but there was nothing she could do about it, finding a partner in her situation was a hope she had long since given up. Perhaps that was why her thirst had awakened so much sooner than expected. On her last hunt she had drunk the bare minimum, too disgusted with herself to take more than the absolute barest necessities.

Tonight she would go hunting. Even if it hurt, because without it she would die.

The sun had been down for a while, by now Hermione was used to being asleep. Aster listened carefully, only Hermione's soft calm breathing disturbed the silence. Well, the girl was asleep, Aster could go out without being seen. She straightened up and sat silently on the edge of her bed. She took the piece of wood in which she had carefully carved her acoas and stuffed it into a pocket of her tunic.

Aster stood up and walked to the windowsill. The moon was in the right place in the sky, it was time, exactly when the garden guards were relieved. Aster leapt from the window gracefully before landing softly and quietly on the garden grass. Wasting no time, she ran like the wind and silently to the high wall that enclosed the property. She stopped at the bottom of the wall and listened. Not a sound. Good.

Now would be the moment of truth. Would her acoas be able to fool the powerful wards of the manor and allow her to get out? She took the piece of wood engraved with a complex network of esoteric symbols from her pocket and stuck it to the wall. Then Aster closed her eyes in concentration and simply let a tiny bit of her magic flow into the acoas.

A slight smile appeared on her lips as she felt her magic align with the wards. Once done, she put the piece of wood away and jumped with feline grace up the wall and felt the wards pass through her without detecting her in any way. Without waiting, she let herself fall back on the other side of the wall. She did not, however, see the figure of a young girl watching her anxiously from their bedroom window.

The alley was as dark as it was deserted. The high wall of the Cateris' property faced a row of garden walls of other wealthy houses in the neighbourhood. Luck was smiling on her, no one would see her here. For good measure, she let her magic run along the array of the acoas' secondary function. She felt with pleasure the veil of magic covering her like an impossibly thin cloth, the coolness and distinct sensation of a trickle of mists running against her skin.

She looked at her hand, now an almost imperceptible transparent form, everything seemed to be working. Without further ado she began to walk towards a slightly wider street in the upper town, and it was with satisfaction that she found that the part of the array intended to mask the sound of her footsteps was also active.

Less than a shadow, little more than a night breeze, silent and imperceptible, Aster moved through the streets of the upper city. She was not to dawdle. She was well aware that her magic was still too weak and wounded to support her invisibility for long. The objective was simple, go down to the lower town where there was less surveillance, find a passerby on the street, a late drunk or something, maybe even infiltrate an inn and attack a customer, then disappear without a trace.

It had been a long time since Aster had simply walked, alone, in the quiet and silence of the night. Here in Ulthar, where the streets were shrouded in darkness, she could see the countless stars in the sky, the Milky Way, an infinite number of suns so distant yet so close. A terrible nostalgia took hold of her. Aster was not used to crying or being particularly emotional, but tonight, as her fever and her physical and magical anaemia grew, exhausting her physically and mentally, she found it increasingly difficult to hold back the tears. She had travelled the paths on the surface of the starry lake with Anna countless times, to Kav-deb's house, or to other acquaintances of her mother. She had passed other travellers, caravans, beings as strange as they were fascinating... She missed Anna, she missed Sonya, she missed Kav-deb, she even missed that moron Yaesh.

She turned her gaze away from the starry sky, and clutched the small vial hanging around her neck in her hand. Her bloodlust was slowly driving her mad, now was not the time to let her sadness get the better of her. That said, she did have a good excuse, she had never lived with so little blood for so long. It was a wonder she'd even lasted this long. Maybe it was the extra dark magic that the bloodstone in her mechanical arm gave her... or maybe she was unconsciously drawing on the magic of the souls she had devoured to keep her own patern complete.

There was still some time to go before she actually reached the slums, there she had no doubt that she would find satisfactory prey. Just the thought of finally quenching her thirst made her salivate, her body trembling with anticipation. But at the same time, the thought of enduring another intimate connection made with a non-consenting person that would break again forever made her want to vomit. Without really being able to explain why, at the thought of a partner, her thoughts drifted to Hermione.

Aster had never really had a friend her own age. She had met all sorts of people, but the circles she frequented were always devoid of young people. Hermione was the first. She was certainly sanctimonious, far too easily worried and had a tendency to be inquisitive, but she was also quite kind, understanding and passionate. Often their discussions ranged from politics to science to magic, and Aster found herself particularly entertained by her exchanges. Over the last few weeks she had felt closer and closer to Hermione and shared more and more with her. The only taboo between them was the details of their lives before Ulthar. Aster winced at the thought of explaining to Hermione that she had eaten souls, or just killed people, even in self-defense... among other things. But other than that, the chemistry between them was working really well, and several times already, Hermione had proven to be more subtle and thoughtful than her.

Perhaps... perhaps she could be the partner Aster had been looking for for so long... She sighed silently. No, that was a stupid idea. Hermione had just discovered the existence of magic, and from what Aster could see, Hermione was already having a hard time wrapping her head around the idea that Aster was a grey mage and "had made a pact with some kind of weird deity with the only assurance that everything would be alright being that of a dark mage who had long since lost his humanity." (these were Hermione's words.) How would she react if she found out that Aster was a vampire on top of everything else? She felt a pang in her heart at the thought of being rejected if she was discovered. Hermione was a friend... And Aster was pretty sure Hermione wasn't ready yet, hadn't had time to get used to the idea of magic enough to accept this new information easily.

Not now, it was far too soon for her to test the strength of their friendship with such a major announcement. Besides, Aster knew the legends non-magics had about vampires, and these were not flattering to say the least. Aster had been outraged when Anna had told her that her existence was seen by non-magicals and a good portion of the world's wizards as a bloodthirsty abomination that roamed the nights draining innocent people of their blood and turning others into vampires at every turn. As if vampiric ascension were something simple to set up and of no great consequence to the progenitor vampire...

Thinking about it a little more, Aster shivered, she hadn't been very subtle, with her displayed avoidance of the daylight, her pale complexion, her little fangs... Maybe Hermione already suspected something... Fortunately, Hermione didn't know enough about the world she'd just entered to make the connection easily. And then Aster could come up with a whole bunch of different reasons other than being a vampire to explain her most visible peculiarity. Yeah, no need to worry. When she got better tomorrow she'd just tell Hermione it was a cold or that she'd eaten a poisoned fruit and mistaken it for a normal one.

The streets of the lower town were narrower and dirtier. The atmosphere had changed drastically. The houses were leaning forward into the alley, the upper floors encroaching on the sky and leaving only a thin band of stars visible. The cobblestones were uneven and often gave way to dirt. The smell of old wood from the ancient half-timbering and of moisture eating away at the stone was powerful. Aster caught a glimpse of the yellow eyes of a cat passing discreetly in the corner of an alley. Here, unlike in the upper and middle city, the darkness was thick and pugnacious, giving the slightest movement and discernible object disturbing shapes.

Aster had so far had no luck, she had not come across anyone other than a bunch of drunken, loudly snoring matagots asleep on the ground. Despite the devouring thirst and her worsening condition, Aster had retained enough self-respect not to stoop to attacking two old matagots. Besides, Aster didn't know if her magic would be compatible with a matagot's and if drinking their blood would cause a backlash that would put her in an even worse situation than the one she was currently facing.

She continued to walk through the deserted streets, and made no other encounters except for a very tall, hooded human with amber eyes walking briskly through the alley. Aster simply leaned against a wall and let the man pass. His presence alone screamed danger and her magical eye had given her a glimpse of the figure's powerful and disturbing aura. It was better to stay out of his way and not be spotted. Having to deal with this kind of individual was a pain in the ass, especially in her weakened and unarmed state (ah what she would have liked to have managed to steal a knife from the kitchens to be able to defend herself...) Fortunately the man passed by without seeming to notice her. Aster let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding and went on her way. She would come across something or someone after a while.

Desperation was beginning to overcome her as she came to a small cobbled square. In the centre of it was what must have been a beautiful carved grey stone fountain a long time ago, but now was a ruin overgrown with nettles, brambles and a few wild flowers whose petals were closed for the night. Like everywhere else the houses were silent and the windows dark, but on the other side of the square, a building a little larger than the others immediately attracted her attention.

It was an ordinary-looking inn in the same medieval style as the rest of the town. Its door was open and orange light filtered through the small diamond-shaped panes of tinted glass in the windows. Sounds of laughter and voices speaking Fahri yujul emanated from inside. As she approached, Aster turned her gaze to the sign. On it was a sitting cat with its tail wrapped around a moon. The name of the establishment was in classical Yujul. "Shoèkl ein yùjùlkal" being more versed in Fahri yujul than the classical Aster had some difficulties but managed to translate it as "At the honorable's meal" or at least something close to it.

A big smile came over Aster's face. Finding a yujul establishment was lucky. These types of inns were most often run by Fahri yujul and served a wide variety of people, but more importantly, these types of inns were most often specialized in hosting travelers and foreigners, which was not the case with most purely matagonian inns. As counterintuitive as it may seem, it was in a Yujul inn that she would have the best chance of finding a viable human.

She quickly searched her eye for possible wards she would have to pass through to enter the inn, unsurprisingly there were none, not surprising for a small inn in one of the poorest and most rundown parts of the lower city. Without further ado she entered.

The interior of the inn was smoked by clouds of tobacco and other plants that Anna had repeatedly forbidden her to smoke. Everything inside screamed old and worn, the wood of the floor was so worn that you could see the places, like in front of the counter, where the customers spent the most time just from the wear and tear. A chair with a sunken bottom and a missing leg had been left in a corner of the room. Despite the obvious age of the place, it was still fairly clean.

At this hour, only three tables out of the small fifteen that the inn contained were occupied, at one table three particularly noisy Fahri were playing a game whose rules she did not know, this one including small black marbles, writing and a lot of alcohol. At the counter sat a short, fat human grumbling, furrowing his thick, bushy eyebrows and trying to set fire to the various documents on the counter in front of him with his stare. At the back of the inn two unknown beings vaguely resembling lobsters crossed with armadillos dressed in very colourful clothes with strange patterns were smoking very long white pipes, their nine black eyes seemed to stare into the void. Behind the counter a small, thin-faced, idle-looking Fahri was reading a thick leather-covered book. His chin rested on two of his arms while the other two slowly turned the pages.

It didn't take long for Aster to find the staircase leading upstairs to the bedrooms. At this time of day, that would be where she would have the best chance of finding someone. The staircase led to a long corridor with old, weathered green wallpaper and a dozen doors. At the end of the corridor was another staircase leading to the upper floor. Driven by her terrible and ever-growing thirst, Aster almost loosened her tight grip that she had learned to maintain on her vampiric allure to spot prey more easily. Fortunately, she remembered in time that she was not in a non-magical neighbourhood, but in the capital of one of the hidden countries. A city brimming with magical creatures, mages and wizards and others who might be sensitive to her allure or resistant and spot her instantly. At the thought of what sometimes happened when vampires were captured by people without scruples or morals, she held her pace. She'd have to search room by room, and she'd have to do it fast, her magical veins were still too fragile to withstand the prolonged use of an invisibility acoas like this.

She tried to look through the keyhole of the door of the first room on her right, but the darkness was so deep that she saw nothing. Lagaelis' eye allowed her to see the magic of the individual in what must have been a bed in the back of the room but gave her no information about the person in question... The simple solution came back to her mind after a few moments. "When in doubt Meriadoc, always follow your nose!" she muttered to herself with a slight, pained smile on her lips. She concentrated on her olfactory senses, and despite the sweet smell of smoke from the two creatures on the ground floor she managed to focus on the occupant of the room. Not a human, she concluded morosely after a few seconds.

The rest of the floor proved equally inconclusive and she was running out of time. She quickly climbed the stairs to the top floor, trying not to make the old wood creak. The second floor had an identical configuration to the first, and Aster wasted no time in repeating the operation.

The first three rooms smelled of yujul, but the fourth had an intoxicating scent that in this moment of intense, near-death thirst almost made her want to simply use the strength of her mechanical arm and rip open the door to pounce on the room's occupant. However, Aster restrained herself, she breathed in slowly and then out, trying to reassert her control over herself and that her instincts in this moment heightened to the point of risking driving her insane would not screw it up.

She could see no magic other than the human's in the room, no wards or barriers were present. A quick opening rune carved into the old wood with a fingernail was enough to make the latch give way. The moment Aster stepped onto the landing, the last mental barriers preventing her thirst from taking control broke down.

After that moment her memory was a blur, a hurricane of sensations of need and satisfaction, the sensation of her long held vampiric allure slipping from her control, the feel of tender skin against her fangs, the taste of blood, a life-saving liquid in her throat, the gasping breath of her victim... The sensation of finally feeling whole, complete with the sharing of something strong and powerful as their magic mingled in the room, singing in perfect harmony. Then, nothing more, the darkness caught her in a nightmare-free sleep...

oOOOo

Aster slowly opened her eyes, her head hurt a little but she felt exceptionally well. Better than she had felt in weeks, full of energy. The constant dull pain that had spread throughout her body over the last few days had even made her forget what it was like to be pain free. Now she felt terribly light.

However, in the midst of all her good news there were several facts that were more than a little disturbing. Firstly, her memories of the previous evening were fragmentary at best. She remembered leaving the manor incognito, wandering around the town, entering an inn... then nothing, blackout. The second strange thing was that she had obviously not returned to the manor as she did not recognize the room she was in. It was not yet daylight, but the sky was slowly clearing, a sign that the sun was still just below the horizon. The bluish light of dawn was barely enough to allow her to distinguish the aspect of this unknown room.

Last but not least, the most disturbing and obvious thing she had avoided thinking about so far was the fact that her head was resting on something warm and soft rising and falling in a slow rhythm, and that an arm was firmly placed around her waist and a hand was buried in her hair. The person beneath her was obviously naked, and she herself was in a state of almost complete nudity. Aster took a long breath to stop herself from panicking completely. What had she done to get herself into such a situation. She even clearly remembered laughing when Anna had made her promise never to get into any type of situation that resulted in waking up naked in a stranger's bed.

She shouldn't panic, not now, yes she would panic, but later, now she had to get out of this mess. Aster gently lifted the closed arm around her waist before placing it a little further back on the sheets and did the same with the hand buried in her hair. Once free and satisfied that she had managed not to wake her ... victim? Who was the victim in this situation? Was there a victim? Aster got up from the bed and moved a few steps away to take a look at the person she had apparently spent the night with.

She was a fairly young looking woman, in her twenties if she was non-magical, as she was undoubtedly a witch or magician as the magic she saw in her indicated it was harder to tell. She could very well be between 30 and 60... Aster always had trouble judging the age of magical humans. She had long curly brown hair, fine features, fairly high cheekbones and an elegant nose. Her face wore an expression of peaceful satisfaction. Aster blushed as she noticed the many small bite marks. The two characteristic little red dots were present on her neck, on her arms, in the hollow of her collarbone... Aster preferred to stop looking and blush. What had she done?

On the bedside table were dozens of small empty vials, Aster grabbed one of them and smelled it to try and guess what might have been in it. Had she been drugged?

Aster winced. Blood replenisher... 13 vials... arg. The night must have been more than eventful... With each passing second Aster's idea of what had happened last night became clearer. She buried her head in her hands, mortified. She had broken into the room of a travelling witch or wizard (the various bags on the wall were enough of a clue to that conclusion). Her instincts and allure had taken control and she had thrown herself into the arms of the witch, who had apparently enjoyed this sudden disturbance in her night very much, if her satisfied smile and the many blood replenishers were any indication. What followed... Aster's face took on an even more crimson hue.

The only oddity was that Aster fell asleep immediately afterwards, normally after drinking blood she felt far too euphoric and full of energy to sleep. This was all the more surprising as Aster was not in the habit of trusting lightly and she could not stand the contact of strangers... Her state must have been worse than pitiful for such a thing to happen.

She felt like she was forgetting something important and had a strange feeling on her face, but she had to get out of here and fast. The sun would be up soon and she had to get back to the manor without being spotted by either Hermione or the Cateris' guards. She gathered up her clothes, which she didn't know how they had ended up scattered on the floor, put them on hastily, picked up the piece of wood with her acoas carved into it and clutched Anna's soul vial in her hand before turning to the window. She had to go, and fast. She took one last look at the sleeping form of the woman she had connected with in blood and magic that night. The pain of such a pure and intimate connection just made, just broken, hurt terribly again, but now was not the time to let that kind of consideration slow her down. She reactivated her pseudo-invisibility and jumped out the window into the street below.

oOOOo

Aster had been running through the streets for a little over ten minutes, she had no time to lose, soon the streets would be filled with people and not even her invisibility acoas would allow her to remain unnoticed. She was halfway through the affluent neighbourhoods a few blocks from the entrance to the upper town.

The fresh morning air, the good night's sleep (Aster, even if she didn't want to admit it, had slept surprisingly well in the arms of a stranger. Her state of mind the night before must have been even more pitiful than she had thought if she had let it happen to her) and above all the fact that she was no longer at death's door had done wonders. Her mind, which had been slow and foggy for a few days, was back to normal. With her newly recovered clarity of mind, Aster had cleverly used those few minutes to start thinking about an escape plan.

There was no way she was going to leave Anna for ten years in her vial, if she was going to be able to save her she had to get out of this country. Fleeing by clandestine embarkation in a Khré or Fahri ship was not an option, she was wanted by the former, and the latter would immediately bring her back to Ulthar to preserve their reputation or to gain favours. Just fleeing the city on foot was not an option either, she would go back to square one. Even if she had lied about her name, the magical contract keeping her here was partially active and she would probably end up with a curse. Finally, it was imperative that she retrieve her staff and other personal belongings that had been confiscated when she arrived here.

She continued to run for a while, until she finally arrived in the upper town, the wider and well-maintained streets made it easier to get around. The first rays of the sun were touching the highest towers, she had no time to wait. Staring at the heights flooded with the orange light of the rising sun of the citadel, Aster saw something. She squinted, it was a large dark shape flying over the city, the creature was magical. Reptilian by the shape of its wings, but not a dragon. Not the right morphology for it to be one. A wyvern? Meanwhile, the creature had come close enough for Aster to make out the unmistakable silhouette of a matagot in armour on its back. A tamed wyvern.

A crazy idea immediately sprang up in Aster's mind. A foolishly reckless idea, which some would call stupid, but an idea that nevertheless has its advantages. Leaving Ulthar on foot was not an option. But on the back of a wyvern? That was an idea. If Anna were here she would scold her harder than ever for even considering the idea. Sonya, on the other hand, would probably tell her to give it a try with a shrug of her shoulder.

A few minutes later she climbed the perimeter wall of the Cateris' property without too much trouble, passed the wards in the same way as the night before and slipped into the garden. She had to hide behind a tree to avoid two of the Cateris' matagot guards (Aster remembered only too well all the times Sonya had told her never to put too much faith in her invisibility arrays and to always take extra precautions if possible rather than to risk getting past them relying on her invisibility alone). Once past the guards it was a breeze to climb the wall to their room. (She didn't fail to thank the strength of her magical mechanical arm for making the climb so much easier.)

She sighed, in her thoughtlessness of the previous day she had even forgotten to close the window behind her. What could she be thinking? Stupid Aster... Hopefully Hermione would still be sleeping and Aster wouldn't have to explain. In the worst case, she would say she was just going for an early morning walk in the garden. Aster felt as if she was forgetting a very important detail for her story to hold up, but she couldn't put her finger on it... The last few days had been exhausting.

Aster crossed the window sill and jumped into the room and immediately turned her eyes to Hermione's bed. Empty... had she gone to do something so early? The toilet perhaps... she didn't have time to finish her thought before she heard the window slam shut behind her.

Aster gasped and turned around sharply. Behind her leaning against the window sill was Hermione. Her arms were crossed over her chest, her lips tight and her eyebrows furrowed. Dark circles of obvious sleep deprivation were present under her eyes.

"Good morning, Aster." She said in a harsh tone.

Without really knowing why, Aster swallowed, this version of Hermione intimidated her greatly. "Hello Hermione," Aster replied in a small voice. What was going on? It wasn't like her to grovel like that in front of Hermione...but the look on her face was enough to nip in the bud any idea Aster might have had of testing her.

Hermione let out a long sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose. "You are aware that I've been worrying a lot the last few days?"

This statement took Aster completely by surprise. She hadn't noticed a thing. True, she'd been in a fog for the past week or so, but to not notice her new friend's concern..." No..." Aster replied with a contrite look.

Hermione sighed again and indicated one of the beds with her hand. "Sit down there," she ordered in a very imperious tone.

Without thinking Aster complied. She was not used to being addressed like this and was even more surprised by the fact how young Hermione could be to have such authority in her voice. Hermion sat across from her on the other bed and stared at her for several seconds. Aster did her best not to squirm with discomfort under this intense attention.

Finally, Hermione spoke. "When were you going to see fit to tell me you're a vampire?"

Aster's eyes widened, had she been that obvious? "What... no, I..." She looked down at the floor. "How?"

"The way you dutifully shielded yourself from the sun, your too white skin, your canines, at first I thought I knew too little about magic and all that to guess the cause of it all without making a mistake, maybe it was one of the consequences of the black magic you told me you were practicing... But now, I don't see any other possibilities... Wait a minute will you?" Hermione said before getting up and leaving the room.

She returned a moment later holding a wet cloth and a small hand mirror. "Look at yourself and dare to tell me you're not a vampire."

With a slightly shaky hand, Aster took the mirror and looked at herself. She winced, she was in a pitiful state. Completely disheveled, she had no rings around her eyes and looked much healthier, but the traces of her nightly activity were still there, her lip and chin covered in dried blood. She couldn't have displayed herself as a vampire in such an obvious way even if she had tried.

Seeing her reaction, Hermione handed her the wet cloth and rolled her eyes. Aster gratefully took it and began to clean her face, she was terribly ashamed. Never again would she let herself fall so low because of her discomfort with her condition.

Hermione took advantage of the silence to speak again. "Aster, I was worried sick. You've been looking sicker and sicker the last few days. You've been getting paler and paler, which is tough given your normal skin tone. You had dark circles around your eyes, were often incoherent and had trouble talking or concentrating. I was planning today to pluck up the courage to go to Nailla for help. Last night I was thinking about the situation when I see you jump out of the window and run away from the manor. I didn't sleep all night. And now you show up in perfect health, flaunting yourself as a vampire. Care to explain?"

Aster put the wet cloth on her lap and looked Hermione in the eye. "I'm sorry, it's been a difficult few days. I... aren't you scared?"

"Why? I should be scared?" Hermione asked as if caught off guard.

"No, no... it's just... I know what non-magics think they know about vampires and it's..."

"Not flattering, I know. From what I've read you're supposed to be awful bloodthirsty creatures. Literally."

Hermione must have noticed Aster's incredulous look because she rolled her eyes again before resuming. "Aster, we live in the same room, we're together almost all the time, and have been for weeks. If you were dangerous, you would have done me long ago. Even if you were really dangerous, it wouldn't make sense for me to start panicking now. So, the last few days and tonight. What happened?"

Hermione's words had broken a dam in Aster, releasing a flood of emotion and long-held words. Not fearing to be spied on after thoroughly checking that no one could hear them a few days after their arrival, she opened up about being a vampire far more than she should even with a friend. She never imagined she would tell anyone but her family what she told. How Anna had to turn her into a vampire to save her when she arrived in the edges. How she had lived all those years away from the other vampires. The need to perform a blood ritual on a regular basis and its implications. The deep pain of breaking such intimate bonds formed during the ritual and how she hated this deep wound that kept growing after each ritual. How the fear of forming a new bond that would be broken again made her almost sick at the thought of performing another blood ritual. How she had made herself unintentionally sick just for fear of suffering that loss again. How that night was a haze of unclear memories, and how this morning she woke up in the arms of a stranger and again, as she left the inn, the terrible pain of loss was felt.

When Aster had finished speaking she was surprised to feel a tear slide down her cheek. Hermione, who throughout her monologue had only interrupted her to ask a few questions to clarify some detail or other, stood up and sat down next to Aster. Then she picked her up, put her on her lap and hugged her silently. Aster was mortified at first at being treated like this, but soon that consideration vanished and she melted into Hermione's arms. This hug was quite different from the ones Anna used to give her, she wondered for a moment when her friendship with Hermione had progressed to the point where she felt so comfortable against her before she simply forgot her considerations and pressed her forehead into the crook of Hermione's neck. For her part Hermione looked pensive, as if she was fighting an internal argument with herself. As if, even though she was holding Aster against her, something was bothering her.

After a good half hour of being against each other Aster whispered in Hermione's ear. "Do you want to run away with me? Leave Ulthar and regain our freedom?

Hermione was silent for a moment and then answered, "Yes. I would love to... You have a plan I suppose."

"The matagots, they have tamed wyverns. All we'd have to do is destroy the contracts binding us here, get the stuff they confiscated from me, steal a wyvern and ride away on its back."

"Wyvern... the big flying lizards?"

"Yes."

Hermione laughed softly. "You're completely mad, you silly girl."

"Do you have a better idea?"

"No...actually, I might."

"What's that?"

"For your wyvern idea, we'll have to investigate the guards, find out where the wyverns are and how they're kept, we'll also have to infiltrate where they keep your stuff and our contracts. And if we get caught, I doubt the matagots will be as understanding, and we might end up in a worse situation than we are now."

"You think it's too risky?"

"Yes, but listen, I propose to start investigating to judge the feasibility of your plan, and try in parallel to get more information on the legal details of our situation. Maybe there's another, less risky way to get out of this without alienating an entire kingdom.

"I..." Aster felt stupid in that moment. Hermione's proposal just made more sense. "And if there's really no other way..."

"We do your crazy plan of running away on the back of a bloody flying lizard."

oOOOo

The week that had just passed had been exhausting. In addition to their usual tasks, Aster and Hermione had begun to try to ask the other servants some discreet questions, but nothing conclusive had been found. Their situation seemed too unusual for anyone to know anything about. The only hope was that when Hermione had questioned Nailla she had looked thoughtful and told them that she might be able to do something. She had refused to tell them what so as not to "give them false hope. . Aster was not surprised, she doubted she could find out the details of their legal situation so easily. However, one thing really worried her. Ever since Hermione had discovered her vampire nature, she had been behaving strangely. She seemed more distant and withdrawn than she had been lately. Aster had tried to confront her about it once or twice, but Hermione had insisted that everything was fine. Considering that this was exactly what she herself had told Hermione a few days earlier, Aster doubted it. At least Hermione looked physically healthy.

At night, Aster went out into the city to spy on the guards and try to find any administrative or military related places where her belongings or contracts linking them partially to the city could be found. Unfortunately, nothing conclusive. She was missing some basic information. Getting hold of a detailed map of the city would be a priority. Without really having any direct connection with her investigation she had noticed some matagot guards acting suspiciously. As if they were more tense, more on guard than their colleagues. As if there was a strange underlying tension in the city. She had heard some drunken guards shouting their discontent in a filthy gambling den in the lower town. They were complaining about the political situation of Ulthar and the other nations in a very flowery language to a poor Fahri yujul. The guards spoke Fahri, otherwise Aster would not have understood a word of Ulthar's matagot language, but their accent was thick enough to make understanding difficult. Still, Aster caught most of their speech.

They were vocally complaining about the existence of the Statute of Secrecy and how the establishment of such a thing had been a calamity. They remembered the glorious hours of Ulthar's past when the Matagot nation had dominated much of Europe as allies of Vlad Basarab. The usual extremist discourse of lost past greatness. However, Aster could not help but see some of the arguments as rather legitimate. She, being humanoid, was not really concerned, but the Matagots, Veelas, Centaurs, Kobolds, all the elves, fae, nagas, mermaids, merfolk, and all the others, had to remain completely hidden since the statute, and had seen their freedoms greatly reduced. The yujul and other outworlders had completely withdrawn their trading posts and were now only present in small numbers in the hidden nations.

Aster rolled her eyes, however, when she heard them dreaming of a new status war. Enough people had already died in those wars. And now, with the vast majority of non-magical people ignorant of reality, apart from a few high ranking leaders, it was a recipe for a magical world war. In a few centuries, civilizations had just diverged too much. How would France, Germany and Switzerland react if they saw a territory as vast as Ulthar appearing between their borders? Aster was certainly not a defender of the statute, but she recognised that wanting to abolish it now by war was one of the worst ideas ever. Fortunately, the royal family ruling Ulthar seemed to agree with her, given their extreme isolationist policy of the last few centuries.

The political proclamations of the nepeta-drunk matagots ended in a fistfight when, at another table, another group of more moderate matagots began to debate. A few broken muzzles and bites... The logical resolution of a debate when alcohol is involved, Aster thought with a sneer.

oOOOo

That night, guided by her curiosity, Aster had decided to follow one of the suspicious guard groups when she saw them leaving their usual rounds. They were going further and further into the lower town, towards an almost completely abandoned area of the citadel. The stones were covered with ivy and other vines, the houses were mostly in ruins. No one seemed to live there. Even the poorest of the matagots and other inhabitants did not seem to go there. The group of guards seemed alert and regularly checked to see if they were being followed. Aster had to stay back far behind the group. The group was moving further and further into the abandoned area. They had passed for about twenty minutes the side of a cliff masking them from the view of the rest of the citadel when they arrived on a kind of old abandoned bastion. It overlooked the valley below by a hundred metres, giving a wide view of a side of the mountain that Aster had not yet seen.

On the bastion was already another group of matagot, also armed. Aster hid behind a half-collapsed wall and tried to listen, but the matagots were speaking matagon to each other, so she didn't understand anything of their discussion. What was really strange was the fact that one of the matagots was handling a strange instrument. Her Lagaelis eye told her immediately that the object was anything but innocuous. The density of magic it seemed to be handling was enormous. It reminded her vaguely of the Ley Stone that Anna had in her cellar to manipulate her wards by the structure of the magic the device seemed to be handling. However, it was very different.

The matagot turned one last piece of the device, and then to Aster's surprise, immediately afterwards, the air seemed to vibrate with magic. Thick mists began to appear in the air far in front of the bastion. A vast sheet of mist. In the mists she saw a large black shape appear. A black ceramic ship, flying towards the bastion. Aster's eyes widened, her Lagaelis eye did not register. She could see the ornaments invisible to all people who could not see magic. But to her, by the gift of Lagaelis, it couldn't be any clearer. It was a light Khre ship of the koxhkoxh dynasty. Their coat of arms was clearly visible on the front of the ship. At this, Aster jumped to her feet quickly. The Khres could see the magic, she would be spotted immediately as soon as one of them set foot on land. And as a wanted person of the Khre Empire (thanks Kav-deb.) she didn't want to be caught spying on an obviously secret meeting. Tonight she didn't stop running until she was back in her room with a worried Hermione.

oOOOo

It was a beautiful day and Aster and Hermione were on a break, they had worked in the kitchen in the morning and would have to tend to the garden in the afternoon. Frankly, Aster was worried, Hermione had continued to be weird. Even when she had told her about her strange nighttime escapade and her little spy game that had almost ended badly, Hermione had seemed elsewhere. However, today was different, Hermione had woken up this morning with a particularly determined look on her face. The hard features, the firm look. It was so different from usual that right now Aster was even more worried. At the moment, her worry was at its peak because as soon as their morning work was done, Hermione had asked her to accompany her to the gardens and once she was there, she had grabbed her hand and literally dragged her to the small wood behind the manor. Aster couldn't really help it, she was confident in her strength and ability to defend herself, but she couldn't suppress the feeling of deep anxiety that had settled over her.

Ever since Aster had revealed herself as a Vampire Hermione had not been the same. She didn't seem to hate or fear Aster as she would have expected from a wizard born among normal humans, but her behaviour had definitely changed. Aster gritted her teeth, perhaps the moment of truth had come. That Hermione would show her true colours and tell her how much Aster's nature disgusted her. How hunting other humans for their blood was something vile and Hermione couldn't accept that from her. Maybe she could negotiate for her and Hermione to continue to work together so that they could escape, but then... If her fears proved to be true, their friendship would be over. Aster hated that idea. But Hermione's cold, determined look did nothing to reassure her.

Hermione finally stopped at the property's boundary wall. Here, Aster knew, no one would come and disturb them. Aster prepared herself for the move as best she could. She gritted her teeth and looked Hermione in the eye as she waited for her to explain.

"Aster, I've been thinking a lot about what happened last week. Ah your being a vampire and all that it entails. I... I think it's horrible, the way you have to live." Aster slowly broke down and stiffened, trying to silence the part of herself screaming at her to leave now and not listen to the rest. If whatever it was between her and Hermione was ending now, she at least wanted to know the reason why.

"What you have to do to others, but also to yourself. You told me how painful it is to have to break that connection you described every time, and on the other hand, I really don't like the idea that once a month you basically kidnap someone to drink their blood. I understand that it's not painful or dangerous, but I just think it's wrong. I can't tell you what to do, or force you to do anything. And even if you choose to continue doing what you've been doing and hunting people at night... I can't really blame you. You have to do this ritual regularly to live. At this statement, Aster relaxed a little. Her worst fears seemed unjustified. She was about to open her mouth to answer when Hermione raised her hand to indicate that she wasn't finished.

Hermione cleared her throat, blushed and spoke again, her voice a little less sure, almost shy. "I... um, I have, a proposition. Just before... does it hurt to have your blood drunk?"

"Not really no, at least of all the people I've done it to, none have complained of pain."

"And, um, you explained to me that it forms a bond between you and the person, what kind of bond. Magical of course but how?"

Aster's eyes widened, she was beginning to see where this discussion was going but didn't dare get her hopes up. Was Hermione really going to offer her this? "It's a magical bond indeed. Nothing too strong really forms the first time, but if the experience is repeated, Anna told me that at first you just understand the person's emotions better, the rhythm of life synchronizes, the hours of sleep, hunger, thirst, then if it goes on long enough, the magics align almost perfectly, and the person gains characteristics of the vampire. Better night vision, greater strength and agility, less resistance to the sun, that sort of thing. Other than that..."

" And if at some time the connection is broken?"

"It revert back, painful but not dangerous."

Hermione nodded and remained silent for a moment, then let out a deep breath before saying. "Aster, how would you like to have someone to do this with? I know we haven't known each other very long, but you're my first friend, and... I'd just rather you did this with me than with strangers chased through alleyways or whatever and stopped putting yourself in constant danger to feed yourself."

Aster swallowed. "Really?"

"Yeah, I mean, we can try, and if it really doesn't work... you can do it again like you did before. And we'll forget about it."

This time Aster couldn't help herself, she never thought Hermione would go this far for her. She hugged Hermione, cursing her small size forcing her to bury her face in Hermione's chest rather than the crook of her neck. "How can I ever thank you?" Aster whispered.

Aster felt Hermione tense against her, as if surprised that Aster would want to thank her for something like this. After a long silence where Aster felt Hermione's hand rest on her back making small soothing circles she replied, "When we get away. Can you teach me magecraft? Magic in general?"

Aster smiled. The idea of teaching Hermione what Kav-deb and Sonya had taught her over the years seemed strangely pleasant. "Kav-deb would laugh in my face if I told him I was taking on an apprentice at my age."

"Maybe, but from what little I've seen you look awfully competent already." Hermione said with a smirk.

"He did say that I'm a quick learner."

oOOOo

Later that day, Aster and Hermione were helping Nailla in the garden and were harvesting the buds of the dew pearl flowers, Aster was explaining to Hermione the possible uses of the buds of the flowers of this plant and their properties. The plant being magical, it was completely unknown to Hermione. Its properties of opening the body to the surrounding magic, and calming used in potions meant to help the seers with divination seemed to fascinate Hermione. The discussion quickly drifted to the validity of divination as a discipline. Hermione seemed both disappointed and relieved that using divination to see the future was so unreliable. The seers had no way of knowing if the future they had glimpsed was actually from the future of their own universe and not from some parallel dimension. And how prophecies, no matter how serious, were always too vague to be applicable to anything concrete and were often self-fulfilling, the act of acting on the existence of the prophecy making it "come true". No one could really tell when one of them was fulfilled as a prophecy could be interpreted to mean anything and everything.

The really interesting part of the discussion had been about using divination to observe distant or past events. The observations were often even more reliable than the memories of people who had participated in one of the past events.

Aster had used the pensive as an example. Anna had told her about it when Aster had had the same questions as Hermione about divination. A pensive was a very powerful divination focus that could allow a non-seer to observe past events with a memory as a focus. Seeing only the memory without the divination aspect is of course also possible, but because of the way memory works, trying to see only the memory could be useless or even counterproductive. What was the point of seeing a memory as it was, with all its flaws, its inaccuracies, the person's views having distorted their perception of the event... Hermione quite agreed with Aster on this point, she had apparently read a few books on psychology and how memory worked to try and get a better one, and was explaining to a fascinated Aster that it was possible to create false memories in people without any magic at all, simply by suggestion. Aster couldn't believe her ears, for her, memory manipulation involved complex and precise acoas, the fact that simple suggestions could have a similar effect was fascinating. Aster was about to broach the subject of occlumency as Hermione seemed interested in being able to improve her memory and that through magic the making of a mind palace was becoming something quite literal when she was interrupted by Nailla's approaching footsteps.

"Aster, Hermione, are you all right? How is the harvest going?" Said the young nymph.

"Very well, the dew pearl buds are perfect and we haven't found any signs of disease or pests on the plants," Hermione replied with a smile. Aster had quickly realised that Hermione seemed to be displaying some affection for Nailla, even though on the other hand old Jack terrified her and he and Nailla seemed to come as a pair. Aster had not asked Hermione about this, understanding Hermione's reaction quite well. It had to be said that Nailla was one of the most pleasant people in the manor.

Nailla nodded and crouched down with them before looking into the basket filled with the little blue flower buds. "Hm, excellent work, they are difficult to harvest without being damaged.

"By squeezing the stem gently they come by themselves."

"Um, apart from that, I have good news for you both. I have spoken to Lady Nepeta and she has agreed to my request." Nailla reached into her pocket and pulled out two small pendants with a small bronze plaque engraved with the Cateris emblem, then handed one to Aster and Hermione.

Aster took it and examined the object. "What is it?"

A wide smile spread across Nailla's face. "This pendant gives you access to the first level of the Cateris' library. There you should find all the information you need about the details of your situation. If you ever need to go to a higher level of the library, Lady Nepeta told me to ask you to go to her for permission in person and that she will send someone to supervise your research should you need the higher levels. She also asked me to remind you to only go there on your free time.

Aster and Hermione exchanged a look. At last! At last their luck had changed. Without warning, Nailla found herself lying on the ground with her back against the grass as Aster and Hermione showed their gratitude in the most sincere way. Aster was overjoyed that they finally had a way to resolve their situation.