THE COR TOWER
ASARE
Looking at the amount of vampires in front of me made me feel nostalgic. To be honest I thought I had left this part of my life behind, but in the end it still came calling.
I looked up at the ceiling of the basement and let out a sigh, this might not have been the way I envisioned my life going, but I don't think I regret the way things are at the moment. I've gotten to complacent in recent years, especially since I've been taking care of Kael after the death of his father.
I practically raised that boy, but I hardly recognize him these days. Of course I know he's been through a lot, especially with the loss of his memories, but its as if he's Kael and someone else at the same time.
But that did not worry me much, change is the only thing constant in life, what I'm really sorry for is the pain the young man has been forced to go through. It made my heart ache so much I almost couldn't breath.
Asha says it's because Kael was like my very own son, I raised him. There were a lot of scandals surrounding his mother when he was born, especially when you consider the fact that Kael was conceived as a result of rape.
Without a doubt his mother had a deep loathing for the child and his father, so when Kael's father died from an overhaul of ether when attempting to power a summoning spell, nothing in the whole universe could convince the elven princess to stay back and look after her innocent son.
She left him behind, she left him with me. I wanted to protect him, this young boy whose bruised knee and broken bones I mended, this boy who I carried on my back when he got lost in a forest after being bullied for being an orphan.
This same boy who jumped happily and called me dad the day he finally managed to summon the twin lions of faith and grace. He's not called me dad ever since, but I knew how he saw me. But becoming a vampire changed him, my boy forgot how much he used love me.
"Master Asare! We're ready."
The call brought me out of my thoughts as I took a look at the crowd of vampires in front of me. Seventy vampires of both the Nosferatu and BloodChild ranks, the Shadowers and elders would be trained later. But for now this guys would be the foundation of a very important squad in the future, at least until things became a bit more stable.
They were a mixture of both male and female vampires, but I knew this was just a pit stop for the female vampires, another division would be made for them in time, but for now its better to put them with the men, let them struggle and fight amongst their males, let them get hurt with them, grow with them, and let them get used to the feeling of killing, even if it's a few monsters.
Because what they're being trained for, this goes beyond just siping blood from the neck of an enemy, and soon enough they'll know it.
"The 70 of you have been chosen out of the other unsealed vampires for a variety of reasons. One of them being your classes, each and every single one of you have a class that's well situated for attacks and defense. Which means you guys would be the easiest to train, and you'll learn faster than everyone else who has a specialized class. Majority of you are warriors, dark paladins, guardians, and shield warriors and maidens. All of you are a melee oriented group of vampires, and your job for now, will be to serve as the first hunting team of the blue district. You're going to go deeper than anyone ever has into the black district, and you will be hunting every monster in sight. Until such a time where other options are made available, you would be in charge of feeding everyone."
I had barely finished the first part of my speech when someone raised his hand to ask a question.
"Master Asare, isn't that dangerous, we just got unsealed and we need time to get used to, and explore our abilities and classes. We'll die!"
after he finished speaking the rest of the vampires all started murmuring as the reality of their situation dawned on them.
"I understand, but neither you nor I have a choice in this matter. This is the fastest way to train all of you and get you guys stronger as fast as possible. Will you guys get hurt? Yes! You will. You all will get hurt a lot! Will you die? Maybe, in fact there's a 70% chance that 70% of all of you will die in the black district...but there's also a 100% chance that you all can live and get stronger, if you learn and you study everything I'm about to teach you, because you only have a week! Before this all of your lives has been on the edge, your life and death could be determined at the snap of a guards finger, for many of the women, the purity of your body would be soiled if any random werewolf passing by felt an itch in his balls. But you all survived it, you went through that hell to be here, to have a chance to take control. If you all hesitate, then everything you've been through will be for nothing, because the only way to be strong right now! Is to go forward without fear. You all serve a cause bigger than yourselves now, some of you have children, others spouses or parents, or siblings or friends. Some of them incapable of fighting, it's up to you to do so for them. You're vampires, if you get hurt stand up and fight, because you will heal. If you feel tired get up and fight, because you will feed on your enemies blood. If you die...then get up and keep fighting because if you come back here as a dead body I'm going to kick your Ass!"
They stood straighter and more focused, I guess it pays that I had experience running an army for nothing shorter than two hundred years.
This guys were not ready, at least not for any serious conflict. I would have preferred to send them down to the dungeon, but the dungeon is Kael's personal monster farm, I didn't think it was good enough yet to serve as a training ground for vampires, at least not at the level that It was now.
The black district will temper them, and this group of vampires even though they're more suited to being in an infantry or group of knights that serve as the vanguard or how did Kael call them again; Tanks.
It would be better for them to take charge of the hunting for now, because they have the chance of surviving the longest due to the nature of the classes. They were a temporary fix, at least until we come up with more formal divisions and the commanders to head them.
"The first lesson your all going to learn today is very important. Turn and look at the person standing next to you. Good! Listen to me very carefully, that person is now your other half. Of course I beg you not to get attached, that's the one thing that's greatly forbidden, do not make friends or fall in love with them. Emotions cloud your judgment on a battlefield, especially when you're all supposed to be part of a formation. You must learn to trust the person at your left, right, front and your back! But don't care. Because doing so won't just get you killed, it will get others killed too. But I digress the first lesson is bound to be the hardest, and that lesson is the lesson of trust. Now all of you partner up, and when you've done so, stand away from each other at a distance of a meter. Once you've done that I want you to throw a punch at each other's face, one after the other, but don't you dare hit anybody. Just throw the punch but don't let it connect do you understand?"
"Yes Master Asare!"
"Good. The goal of this exercise is to not close your eyes, ten times out of ten you must trust that you partner will stop his or her fist before it gets to your ugly faces. If you close your eyes six times out of ten, you and your partner will run around the perimeter of this basement for an hour, and then you'll continue. There would be no water, much less a drop of blood given to any one of you until you've completed it. If not, you're all going to starve, so please for your sakes you better not close your eyes, or you'll regret it, Trust Me!"
And then I walked away to go lounge on a spread out chair close to the entrance of the basement. This is bound to be interesting. Then I heard somebody behind me.
"After all this years you've never changed. You're still a sadist." Kuyait said behind me.
"I could say the same for you, you're a woman who runs from where you would be safe and straight into the jaws of pain and a hard life, I don't think you're in a position to judge me." I replied with a lot more sting in my words than I expected.
"I'm not judging Asare, your right about me not having a right to do so. I've hurt you too much. But still you should take it easy with them. And I think you should know an exercise like that won't work on a vampire, we have way too much control over our bodies. You should make it more lethal, like say use swords or something." She said to me.
Every time she was close to me, I felt weird. I loved her, and I hated her. I could never bring myself to look her in the face, because if I did so, I don't think I would like what I see.
Would it be those same apathetic eyes that told me almost three hundred plus years ago that she didn't love me, and that she could never love me, that I was weak, and unworthy of her love. Those words changed me, and I hated her for it, but even more so I hated the fact that I let it happen.
"Aren't you supposed to be training the mages right now, do you even have any time to spare to come interrupt my lessons?" I asked her as I stood up, but made sure my back was still turned to her.
"I have them reading a few books in the library below us. While the books you guys have here are quite sparse and not enough to handle the higher levels of spell casting, you have what it takes to set a very good foundation for them. So for now they're reading, mages rely on intellect, experimentation, and intense study to actually advance. I'm just teaching them that first, being a battle mage should be a choice, not a requirement. I'm sure a lot of them will volunteer to help, but the others who choose to stay behind will find ways to strengthen the coven. So I have some free time, and I thought that I...…"
"If you have that much free time, aren't you better served spending it with your son, you've both been separated for a few years, I'm sure he misses his mother and wants to spend more time with her. At the very least he 'deserves your love'!" I said to her with my voice in a whisper.
"Teluna is still out hunting, he's really focused about helping Kael. Also he's told me about everything you've done for him, about how you trained him, and care for him and his adoptive sister Nisi. He said you were like a father to him, even when he was being stubborn he said you were patient with him. I'm grateful for your help in taking care of him Asare, you have no idea how much it means to me." She said to me as she placed her hand on my shoulder.
I shuddered, and I'm sure she felt it too, as she pulled her hand back almost immediately. I felt frustrated that even after all these years she still had this kind of effect over me. But I couldn't help it, what I am, well a part of me, forces me to love only one person for life. I've only survived this long because my other half has kept my D...…..(sigh) my dark side at bay.
Love hurt, but it was still the greatest force in existence, even I was smart enough to know that. And it was volatile, combustible and uncontrollable. In fact the only person who I've seen remotely control or manipulate love was Asha.
"I didn't take care of Teluna because he was your son. He's a good kid, talented and powerful. He needed the direction and he would have been a great asset to Kael. So don't think too much about it, I didn't know he was your son." I said to her as I moved to change the trust exercise, seems vampires would be a tough nut to crack.
"But that's a lie. I knew the same as you where the other was the moment you stepped you foot into the pit. You're strong Asare, if not the strongest being in the pit right now. The power you have is on par with a Dracula, not to mention you have a very accurate nose. If you wanted you could smell me from across the planet, so I know without a shred of doubt, that you knew Teluna was my son. But you still took care of him, and I know it's because you felt that he could have been yours."
I've had enough of this. I turned to her and glared at her, my blond hair turning blood red as my eyes became red and serpentine with pupils so yellow they glowed gold. Wisps of flames began to seep from my fingers as I said to her in the most imposing voice I could muster.
"LEAVE!"
She only smiled and gave a short bow before she turned and left. But as she was leaving she left five words behind. And it made me hate her even more.
"I'm sorry I hurt you"