I was watching them from afar, just observing, learning and berating myself. I felt like a hypocrite, I spouted all those bullshit about freedom, yet I was still caging them, of course the shackles that I was putting on them was very different from what they were used too, but it did not make it any less of a shackle. I don't think I've been around this much people in either of my lives, even if I had, I wasn't sure I had the same feeling then that I was having now. I felt responsible, burdened, but confident.
There was something about just watching them live, to see the fathers and mothers gather their children to their side and admonish them in loving strictness. The elders of a group gather all of their members to discuss their options, and make their choices.
But I loved what I was seeing, it was something that I was sure they also found hard to see at times; because of our nature as vampires. I could see unity, a community, one big family brought together by thousands of years of trials and pain.
Funny enough if the opportunity arose they would be quick to betray each other, it made them one giant conundrum, a very polarizing race. But I understood, after all the Bible itself said.
"That a man's worst enemy is from his own household."
I don't remember which book it was written, but it was a favorite of my earth father whenever he was raging about my mother and her infidelity,...…or when he was beating me to within an inch of my life.
It wouldn't do to think about such memories, it was all past now. I had to shake my head to let go of these memories, those were dark times, very dark times. As I watched them, Asha and Asare made their way towards me. When they were close enough I asked.
"How are we doing?"
"Not to well I'm afraid. So far four hundred vampires, both male and female have chosen to swear fealty, and not including their families, which would bring the amount of people we have to take care of and house within the tower to approximately 1064. You have to unseal every single one of them, but the most pressing concern now, would be to feed them. The vampires who have chosen to serve, were those who had it the hardest in the blue district, the beggars among beggars. We'll need a huge amount of blood to feed not just them and their families, but the vampires who are still standing over there, slowly looking more and more like a lynch mob." Asare said to me.
"We need to come up with a solution and fast, because honestly in this case intimidation won't work. We have to feed them." Asha added firmly.
They were right though, I believed that in any society, the biggest concern was food, then after that shelter. And then other problems following in the scale of their importance, however right now want we needed was food, AKA blood. Enough blood that it could be considered a river, and quite frankly I did not have something like that here.
But I already had a plan in place, it was a temporary plan, but it was all I had. Besides I felt as if it was also a plan that could last us a long time, decades if not centuries even. Enough time to figure out our next series of actions.
"Have Nisi craft some really huge, and water tight drums, or tanks. It must be big enough to carry a colossal amount of blood, then I need you to send Magellan, Teluna, Kodak and Varsessa to the black district. Let them go hunting, but please place emphasis on gathering blood, because Teluna is a loose canon. And for safety's sake, have Nisi accompany them." I said to Asare.
"But what about Gus, will he not be joining them?" Asare asked confused.
I shook my head no and place my hand on his shoulders, drawing him close so that the both of us were standing in a circle with Asha. I needed to keep this next part of my plan as silent as possible, because it was quite diabolical.
"The elders are throwing a banquet tomorrow, I need you and Gus to be there. Your job would be the usual, stand behind me and look intimidating, but Gus would be there on a recon mission. I guess you could say I want him to look into the heads of every elder there, fish for their secrets, and any other thing that we can use to have an edge over them." I explained to both of them.
"That's quite underhanded of you master, even more than usual. Have the elders done something to offend you?" Asare asked me confused, but it was Asha who answered him.
"Nothing of the sort, the thing is that no matter how powerful we get, the elders are the source of the most primal and traditional form of authority in the pit. Every vampire here believes in their sovereignty. We need to have quite a few if not all of them under our control, or on our side, because if we can not do so, the war that's inevitably hanging in the horizon, would reap a lot of lives, especially the innocent. And a lot of it, would most definitely happen on the orders of the elders. If we have them on our side, we can direct the coming conflict, and minimize the damage as much as we can if not completely. The power we gain along the way is just a bonus transaction."
I couldn't help but smile at this beauty and her brains. I never told her what I planned, but she had given it to Asare, detail for detail.
She knew me better than I knew myself, loved me harder than I could ever love myself. She knew my thoughts well enough to have already figured out my plans even before I could say anything, without a measure of a doubt, Asha was an awesome woman.
"Xaseah would stay behind and assume command of the tower, it would be up to her to watch over everyone here, and take care of allocating the blood when Magellan and the others return, and that's if we're not back yet. Once I've unsealed enough vampires, the work load will reduce and we all can face other pressing matters."
The plan was not foolproof, anything could go wrong, but it was the soundest and most logical course of action we could take at the moment.
The thing is, I'm known as a beacon of hope, and freedom, no one, not even my enemies would expect me to scheme, thinking me straightforward and honest because of my noble heritage. They're in for quite a shock.
.....
....
There was too many things that needed to be done right now, but with Asha and the rest getting access to the system of the tower, things were bound to be a little easier for me. But for now, I needed to check the tower out for something.
• FULLY CONSTRUCT AND OUTFIT FIVE FLOORS AND FIVE SUB BASEMENTS: 100% COMPLETED
• ASSIMILATE NEAREST TOWER AND EXPAND TOWER AWARNESS BY 100 METERS(DECONSTRUCT OR REFIT): 57% COMPLETED.
With five new floors added to the tower, it brought the entire amount of floors to seven. The same could be said for the basements. The floors were not made in similar fashion as the first floor, because the first floor had a fountain right in the middle, it's design was quite different from the others, and there was only six apartments available. The six apartments had three rooms within, not to mention a living room and, bathroom and a kitchen.
It was fully functional, the basements on the other hand, apart from the first one which still served as a farm, were practically empty. At the moment I had no idea how to outfit and design them, so for now, I will leave them just the way they are, until I find a use for them.
Though I would probably turn some of them into barracks or something, and make it so that the top floors serves as the living space to either important officers of dignitaries. I wouldn't like to segregate anybody, but I've found that the vampires really respond to things like that.
They work harder when they want to achieve something better, or aim for a better position. At the very least, such a move will work out well in my favor, at least until I've gotten everything under control and the plans are properly made and executed.
The tower that was a neighbor to me, was already under Nefisat's control, with it's assimilation I guess you could say that I had an extra building to work with, but that would be too much work, so I had her deconstruct it. She was currently still doing so now.
But I think I can focus on other tasks for now, until I start unsealing every vampire that has chosen to serve me, there would be significant changes to the tower after, since there would be a lot of soul energy, but after that's done, I'm sure I can implement quite a few new functions to it.
• CREATE TOWER ASSAULT RELAY (BLUE PRINT AND SPECIFICATIONS REQUIRED) : 0.00% COMPLETED [COST 500% EAR-E, 500% WAT-E, 500% WIN-E, 500% FIR-E, 500% LIG-E, 500% DAR-E, 500% MET-E, 500% WOO-E, 5 CRE-E, 300 SOU-E]
• CONSTRUCT TOWER ELECTRICAL SYSTEM FOR: 0.00% COMPLETED[ COST 400% MET-E, 400% WAT-E, 250% EAR-E, 400% FIR-E, 300 SOU-E, LIGHTENING ELEMENTAL CRYSTAL]
• CONSTRUCT ASCENDING PENTHOUSE: 0.00% COMPLETED [COST 1500% EAR-E, 700% MET-E, 700% WOO-E, 2000 UNITS OF SOU-E, 3 UNITS OF CRE-E]
• CONSTRUCT STORAGE BASEMENT (LIQUID OR SOLID): 0.00% COMPLETED [COST 1000% MET-E, 400% EAR-E, 500%-WOO-E, 300% WAT-E, 300% FIR-E, 1000 UNITS OF SOUL ENERGY]
• CONSTRUCT LIBRARY IN BASEMENT 7: 0.00% COMPLETED [COST 2000% WOO-E, 800% MET-E, 400% EAR-E, 400 UNITS OF SOUL ENERGY]
"Nefisat, commence task 2,3,4,and 5.use the previously gifted lightening crystal and set up the towers electrical system. As for the required essences, you can use the creation energy to exchange for it if it isn't enough."
[Okay! You got it master]
Well at least someone is excited, she sounded as if she was happy about something. But I couldn't worry about that right, now, if I should ask her what it's all about, she would probably talk my ear of.
After this banquet tomorrow, I should have more than enough time to dive into the work of unsealing every vampire that was now under me, of course it wouldn't be an easy undertaking, the sheer size of all of them had me shaken, but I think I would be able to pull through. Not until I find another solution to personally unsealing every single vampire that comes to me.
Tomorrow was going to be a rather difficult day, I was about to be thrown right into the middle of vampire politics, and I'm nervous, and a little scared.
Of course I had Asha with me, she would probably make sure everything turns out in my favor, but still, I felt as if I was about to be thrown into a nest of snakes and scorpions. But his was a game I had to play regardless, a very important one too.
All of our futures depended on it. So I had to be ready for it, even though I feel so out of place, because I knew that without a doubt, the very next chapter of my story begins tomorrow.