The Vampire’s Templar

Camilla and Kagriss sat in front of Victoria in Victoria’s office. The curtains were drawn closed, blocking out the sunlight. The darkness made it seem like the whole room was isolated from the rest of the world, and even Ismelda that was nearly always seen around Victoria was nowhere to be seen.

The porcelain cup in Victoria’s hands made a clink as it touched the dish. 

“Don’t be shy. Try some of the tea. I’d just had it imported and I guarantee that you’ve never had anything quite like it,” she said, gesturing at the two teacups sitting in front of Camilla and Kagriss.

“We’re not here to drink tea…”

“But having good tea while talking does wonders to make everything go smoothly. Take it from someone with experience,” Victoria said, filling her cup back up.

If she insisted, then there was no reason for Camilla to continue refusing. Outside of blood, vampires had a very limited diet, and the things that they could stomach were pretty much limited to fluids of various kinds. 

No wonder Victoria had so much tea.

Camilla raised the teacup to her lips and Kagriss mimicked her. The hot liquid would’ve burned a normal human, but such temperatures were nothing to them. The flavor of the tea bloomed from the tip of her tongue to the back of her mouth with clear hints of something floral.

There was even mana in it, suggesting that the tea was made from some kind of magical plant with unknown effects. Whatever the effect was, it would not hurt or help her and Kagriss.

Camilla had to admit that the tea was really good. However, it was not what she came for.

Halfway through her cup, she set her cup back down, not touching it again even when Victoria gave her a refill. Digging through her pockets, Camilla took out a small object that was wrapped in a cotton cloth and set it on the table. She pushed it to the center, within reach of Victoria.

However, Victoria did not touch it.

“You know. Ismelda told you?”

“I figured it out myself. There were enough hints that it wasn’t very hard.”

“Did she tell you what these things are for?” Victoria asked, not meeting Camilla’s eyes. She took out a box from a drawer and opened it to reveal the collection of three feather stones Camilla had seen before.

With the exception of the one that Victoria had slotted into a pendant and wore as a necklace, the other two were identical. Camilla unwrapped the cotton, wincing as the feather stone burned her fingers, and placed the stone she obtained into the box alongside its siblings.

They really looked exactly alike. Camilla had no idea how to tell them apart.

“How can she tell us something that she doesn’t know herself? I don’t think that you’d keep secrets from her while having her help you, so clearly there’s another explanation for her ignorance.”

Victoria smiled. “Well, no one can call you stupid. Did you come up with that or did Kagriss?”

“Kagriss did,” Camilla said. She touched Kagriss’s shoulder and Kagriss grabbed her fingers in return. 

“No, Camilla did. But since she’ll deny it, we did it together,” Kagriss corrected. She leaned forward and stared with her violet eyes right at Victoria. She lifted her chin, showing that she wasn’t scared of the vampire lord at all. “Will you tell us?”

Instead of answering Kagriss immediately, Victoria took another sip of her tea. “When I first met you, you were so helpless. Now, I suspect that you’ll be able to push me a little.”

Camilla frowned. Her touch on Kagriss’s shoulder became heavier as Kagriss began to gather mana. “Wait, she’s provoking you and trying to stall. Ask her the question again.”

“Okay,” Kagriss replied in her mind. The mana slipped from her control. Out loud, she repeated her previous words to Victoria. “Will you tell us? What are you hiding.”

If Victoria was bothered by her failed provocation, she didn’t show it. As always, Victoria was right. The tea really did smooth out the conversation; it was the perfect stall tactic and at the same time, it helped eliminate the awkward silence that should’ve occurred while a cornered speaker gathered her thoughts.

It didn’t take long for Victoria to gather her thoughts at all, and a moment later when the tea cup fell once more, she sighed. “Very well. I’ll tell you. However, this begins with a story that almost no one still alive knows. It’s a story about me that no one has ever heard, but I suppose that the privilege has been extended to you.”

With a snap of her fingers, a bloody mist flooded from her hand and surrounded Camilla and Kagriss. The mist surrounding them made it seem like they were in the eye of a scarlet hurricane.

Despite the sudden use of magic, Camilla and Kagriss did no more than look around in curiosity, completely unthreatened. Before either of them could ask a question about this strange new spell, Victoria’s voice reached them, calm and soothing. Gentle, and motherly. Tinted with sadness.

“Relax and focus on my voice. Look into the red mist and imagine that you are floating away, being pulled into the blood…”

Having come this far, even if this whole thing had been a trap, Camilla did not even hesitate. She took a deep breath and as she let that breath out, she relaxed every one of the muscles in her body until she felt utterly at ease.

If she tried, she’d be able to fall asleep to the sound of Victoria’s voice.

However, now wasn’t the time to sleep. She peered into the red mist and gradually, the red mist came closer, engulfing her until her whole world was nothing but red. Her consciousness was barely enough to recognize the spell that Victoria was casting as a variation of the illusion spells that she often used to disguise herself as a human. Instead of using the body as a canvas to create a new self, the mist was used as a canvas to tell a story with a background.

With the help of Victoria’s soothing, honeyed voice, Camilla allowed herself to be captured by the spell and be taken to a whole new world.

Camilla had no idea when her eyes closed, but when she opened them again, she was sitting with Kagriss at the edge of a cliff overlooking a massive sea. Camilla’s eyes widened at the sight of the limitless blue that dropped off at the horizon.

The ocean… even Camilla had only seen the ocean once in her life. “Kagriss, look!”

“Wait, Milla, where are we?” Kagriss asked, pushing her pointing fingers down.

Camilla paused to rein in her excitement. Kagriss was right; she was being too immature. However, she had only seen the ocean once before in her life, so it wasn’t like her excitement was entirely unjustified.

Speaking of seeing the ocean, though, how many times has Victoria gone?

A moment later, Victoria walked up behind them. Camilla did a double-take as she saw what Victoria was wearing.

At the office, Victoria had worn something formal with a coat and pants, but now, Victoria wore a frilly dress with a flared bottom. It had a lot of ribbons and Victoria carried a parasol to block out the sunlight that beat down on them for the sin of standing into a place without shade.

“Where are we?” Camilla asked the strange-dressed Victoria.

Victoria did not reply out loud. Instead, she just pointed at the horizon. The sparkling waves made it difficult to make out anything in the far distance, but soon Camilla saw what Victoria was pointing to: a cluster of black dots that spread across the horizon. There were at least a hundred dots, big or small.

As someone who grew up inland, the idea of traveling by sea appealed to Camilla, and she couldn’t help but focus all of her attention on the boats or ships at the horizon.

“What are they?”

Victoria pursed her lips. “They are the reason it all began.”

“...what? The reason it all began? What began?” Camilla asked. “Kagriss, do you know what she’s talking about?”

“I don’t, but I’m sure we’ll find out in due time.” 

Camilla nodded and the questions died in her throat.

Time seemed to speed up and the ships in the distance picked up speed, sailing straight for the cliff that they were standing on, or more like the beach that was to their right. To their left was nothing but sheer rock faces and treacherous underwater spikes.

Before long, they could make out the design of the ship, as well as the flag they flew.

The leading ship looked to be over two hundred meters long as far as Camilla could tell, a monstrous vessel. It was painted black with a skeletal fish of some kind painted along its side. The flags waving from the masts was something that Camilla had never seen before in any of her history classes or books. Arvel might have known, but he wasn’t here. 

The other ships were smaller, varying in sizes. There were some large, square ships that looked like they were built to maximize capacity, while others were sleeker and more maneuverable.

Camilla stared at the fleet, a bad feeling rising up in her stomach. 

“They look like they’re here for war,” she said. “Too many ships for a trading fleet, and they’re sailing in formation. Look how even spaced apart the ships are, allowed for room to maneuver. They’re military vessels.”

“Very observative,” Victoria replied. “Correct.”

“...how long ago was this?”

“Over a thousand years.”

Camilla’s mind blanked out. A thousand years was so long ago. It dated back before humanity’s earliest histories. But… When she looked closer at the ships with her sharp eyes, she could see the people aboard. Many of them pointed toward the beach.

She could just barely make out their features, and when she focused on their ears, they were round. Camilla did not know of any race that had such round ears except humans.

That great fleet carried humans.

“Why…are they here?” Camilla asked. She didn’t want to know, but she already knew the answer. After all, she was living proof of the aftermath of all this. “Don’t tell me…” 

“Correct again,” Victoria said. She waved her hands and they were now higher in the sky, looking down at a small fortress that the newly arrived humans had built. It was made entirely of wood and looked crudely constructed, but the giant ditch filled with diverted water around the small fort made it difficult to assault on foot.

Protected within the walls of the fortresses were human soldiers bearing spears and shields. More soldiers that carried bows patrolled the perimeters of the wall.

All of that was normal. It looked exactly like the things that Camilla would see an army of ordinary humans do, but if there was one thing out of place, it would be the masses and masses of skeletons that did most of the hard labor.

There would have to have been a massacre for so many corpses, but as Camilla watched, a team of skeletons hauled a box out of a warehouse and opened it in front of a mage holding a staff, revealing pale bones. Countless bones.

Black light covered the box, and slowly, the bones began to piece themselves together, and before long, a skeleton crawled out of the box and stood at attention, awaiting its command.

“Humans are commanding undead…”

“Yes… Do you see now, Camilla?” Victoria said. “This is the history of your race—invaders from a foreign land wielding the powers of the dead. Before the arrival of your race, we did not have that particular brand of magic, but it is from the humans of the past that all necromancers originate.”