[Kai] "This place looks like shit."
The words escape my mouth as I gaze up at the cracked stone wall separating the small city from the wilderness. With no guard on duty, I'm able to stroll inside, where I quickly notice that quite a few of the houses are rundown or burned to the ground.
[Kai] "
Standing in the middle of the street, I decide to try out a detection ability. Searching for heat signatures, heartbeats, anything, I'm only able to find three areas with any concentration of people nearby. The first; a tavern that looks like it's seen better days with around 7 people present inside. The second; an alleyway with two weak heartbeats sitting still. The third; an area beneath the surface. Though I don't know how to enter, I do know that it has the largest concentration of people, being in the high twenties or thirties."
My first stop has to be the two weak heartbeats in the alley. If they're members of the dark guild, I can interrogate them, while if they're people who live here, I can probably exchange some money or healing for information. Walking along the broken stone path and down the dark alley, I start to hear faint whimpering, as though they're trying to muffle the noise in an attempt to hide. This won't work for them however. I direct my gaze towards a pitch black shadow and point my open palm in the same direction.
[Kai] "
A glowing orb of white light appears in my outstretched palm, supplying light to the previously pitch black shadow and revealing the shaking figures of two children. A girl with brown skin, messy, white hair, dark purple eyes, two small, budding horns protruding from her forehead and wearing a tattered dress. Her legs are shaking as she stands in a protective stance in front of a small, crying boy that looks similar to her behind her with blood leaking from his stomach and running down his face.
[Kai] "What happened to you two?"
Neither of the children answer, whether it's out of fear, resistance or exhaustion, I don't know, what I do know is that if this keeps up, the boy is going to die and the girl isn't going to last much longer than him.
[Kai] "
Considering how injured and exhausted the children are, putting them to sleep like this is simple and doesn't take much effort. The boy falls asleep first, alarming the little girl before she too, collapses. I manage catch her before she hits the ground and lay her down softly next to what I assume is her little brother.
[Kai] "
Placing one hand over each of the children's chests, a faint green glow escapes from my hands and spreads across the children's bodies. Their would-be-fatal wounds begin to seal up quickly, leaving not even the smallest of scars.
[Kai] "
The dried blood on their clothes regains it's liquid state, running off of their bodies as the dirt and dust is blown away by an invisible wind. The red, running blood has moved on as the two children begin to regain the colour in their cheeks. The healing process must have finished. Picking up and moving the two children to another area hidden by shadow, I place them down next to each other as they continue to get the sleep they have no doubt been avoiding.
[Kai] "
A blue glow appears around the two children before fading away, still there, only invisible to the naked eye. Set up to vanish completely once the two have woken up and leave its protection. That should prevent anyone from taking advantage of the two sleeping demons.
Satisfied with my work here, I leave a small amount of gold coins hidden behind the children who will hopefully notice it, and make my way towards the rundown tavern. The door creaks as I open it, bringing my presence to everyone's attention. Obviously they're not used to seeing a masked man walk in since they're all glaring at me like I've killed their family. Ignoring the glares, I walk up to the wooden counter at the back. Behind it, stands a middle aged, brown skinned woman with a large horn protruding from her forehead, chin-length white hair and purple eyes.
[Woman] "Something you need?"
The woman's uninterested yet suspicious tone of voice lets me know just how strange it must be for new people to come to this city.
[Kai] "You wouldn't happen to know a pair of kids with white hair, purple eyes and budding horns would you?"
The woman's eyes widen in fear.
[Woman] "I-I don't know what you're talking about."
A few of the patrons in the tavern begin to stand, likely in an attempt to stop me from harassing this woman in front of me.
[Kai] "I've healed them and they're sleeping in the alley not far from here."
The six patrons stop in their tracks and a strange silence fills the air.
[Woman] "How..."
[Kai] "Hm?"
[Woman] "How dare you take me for a fool!"
At the sight of the screaming woman with tears welling in her eyes, the patrons resume their actions, standing up and getting behind me, attempting to act menacingly. Their emaciated bodies don't help them accomplish this task. I'll play along for now though.
[Kai] "Look, I didn't come here to fight a bunch of starving idiots. I came for information on someone that attempted to harm someone important to me."
The patrons and the woman behind the counter stop for a moment when they hear my words, though a few seem to be annoyed that I called them idiots.
[Kai] "I'm a mage. Healing the injured and sick is as simple as waving my hand."
[Woman] "Then..."
[Kai] "Like I said. The kids should be fine. I plan on staying here for two to three days at the most so if something happens, just bring them to my room and I'll heal them again."
The woman begins to tear up until a curious expression appears on her face.
[Woman] "Your room?"
[Kai] "You've got a spare in this place, right?"
[Woman] "O-oh, right. It's up the stairs and to the left. Three doors down."
[Kai] "I guess I'd better get settled in then."
As I say that, I place a modest collection of gold on the counter before turning to walk up the stairs. Before I can take my first step up towards my room, the woman snaps out of her daze and calls out to me.
[Woman] "Th-this is too much! It's only 6 copper for three nights!"
[Kai] "How much did I give you?"
The woman takes a moment to count the shining gold coins before responding.
[Woman] "Seven? Seven gold!?"
[Kai] "Just consider it as a bonus for putting up with me."
I wave back nonchalantly, dismissing the woman's concerns as I walk upstairs, leaving a group of flabbergasted onlookers in my wake. Walking through the dilapidated hallway, the creaking floorboards and rotting wood gives off a true feeling of poverty. It's likely that the Dark Guild is taking a large portion of any money earned, food farmed, minerals mined and just as likely, slaves. I could see the fear rising in that woman's face, and the concern present on the patrons when I mentioned those kids. Pitiful. Either the children are forced to fend for themselves or anyone found harbouring them is taken too. Of course, this is merely a hypothesis, but no one that worried about those kids would abandon them without reason.
Reaching the end of the hallway and opening the third door, I'm greeted by an almost completely empty room. The floor boards are barely any better than the hall outside, what seems to pass for a desk looks like it would collapse if I placed a feather on it and the bed, if you can call it that, is a small platform filled and stacked with hay. Disregarding the smell of what I hope is the last resident and not some animal that couldn't hold its bowels in check, I take a seat on the floor. Closing my eyes and focusing, I direct my recently enhanced, vampiric hearing towards the downstairs area of the tavern. It takes a while to focus properly, on account of me being rather new to this whole vampire thing, but eventually, after tuning out the sounds of creaking wood, dripping water and drunken yelling, I manage to make out some useful information.
[???] "D'you see the kind'a money that masked guy handed over?"
[???] "Who didn't?"
[???] "Wha'd'ya say? If he's got more..."
[???] "Those bastards at the guild might let us go. O'course...we might hafta tell 'em about our mark."
[???] "Doesn't really matter so long as we get outta here."
[???] "Yer right...so, tonight?"
[???] "Tonight."
Tuning out the conversation once more, I place a large sum of money on the floor next to me, amongst other items of interest like small daggers and a wooden carving of one of the horses I'd made back at the castle to test my coordination. Now all that's left is to lay down on the crappy bed and wait for my prey to make its move. I can feel a chilling smile cross my face as I remove my mask, placing it in the pile next to me, my eyes switching colour to a bloody, crimson red.