I heard a whisper go around the room and I nodded, "The blood price, but the lord was young and not all the advisors he chose wanted to follow what they thought of as a child even if he was an extension of god. One of the advisors came here to the south and set up his own kingdom within the lord's kingdom. This advisor didn't see the need to treat the humans as equals, or even as house pets. To him humans were a product and humanity suffered, but only here in the south, so the young lord left the rouge adviser alone."
I looked around at the priest, most of them were standing along the walls, none of them stopped me from talking, "If the rouge had been happy with his little subset the world would probably still be that way. Yet he hadn't been happy with just the land he took. To solve the problem he convinced other third gens to join him in the south and live as they wanted to live. This hurt the still young lord for who was he to tell the third gens that they were wrong? Most of them were older than him and had lived as humans through the fall of man and the trapping of the First. The lord retreated to the north and watched the south. It didn't take many generations before the problems with the treatment in the south started making itself known. The rogues didn't restrict themselves on anything, when they were thirsty they drank, when they were lonely they made others. Humans were forced to reproduce as quickly as possible but the living conditions made that an impossibility. Their supply just could not keep up with the demand and the rogues weren't going to do things like farm to feed humans that couldn't be blooded yet. So they made more and more to force people to do the jobs they didn't want to do but that increased the demand on the humans they did have. All too soon there were eighth gens wandering north for more food. If they entered the lands the lord was keeping he would destroy them without mercy, but the damage to his humans was being done as well. Humans had spread out and even a few generations after the fall there weren't that many in the world. Every human that fed another vampire was one less to help us recover or to feed the lord. The lord knew he had to do something as stronger seventh gens started wondering north into his land. Then Sixth gens and fifth gens, proving the south was becoming even more unstable. The lord is smart and realized that by this time the south had an army, an army stronger then the Rokens and that the rogues building this army were going to send them after the lord's land eventually, since they would have no choice. So the lord made tools, Scarlet, the sword for his right hand. He trained her to kill and fight but tied her to him by more than just that training, he chose a human with a strong connection to humanity and he reinforced that connection. As long as she serves him her human family is safe from him, on his word and honor. The tool for his left hand is Lady Avery, the dagger in the dark. He trained her but only he and her know why he isn't worried about her turning in his hand."
I shrugged at the surprised looks from some people, "We do know that he sent both of them south, Scarlet as the loyal friend of Avery and Avery was his newest disloyal advisor. She was very vocal about how childish and foolish the lord was. Which fit the story the leader of the rogues was still telling. Lady Avery was trying to get a feel for how the south was structured the first time she met, our lord. Our lord is a fourth gen, at the time he was third in line behind the rogue of the south at the time. He had never met the father of vampires, all he knew was what the third gens told him. Yet he still held doubts that what he knew was the truth. No one in the south guessed that Avery might not be as she seemed, if they had they would have destroyed her. Yet, she met with our lord before her first meeting with the rogue. Avery and our lord spent a whole night and day together, which was unusual for vampires, they don't normally get along even if they agree on things. Yet something with that meeting convinced lady Avery that our lord is not what he seemed. Lady Avery is very good about learning what other people don't want her to know, so maybe our lord's close held belief that he was being lied to was plain for her to see. There is no way to know. What we do know for sure is lady Avery learned quickly of the rogue's plan to remove the lord as leader of this land and install himself, thus spreading the bad policies that were wiping out humans in the south. Vampires critical to those plans started dying in record numbers. Suddenly lady Avery's and lady Scarlet's paranoia about not going anywhere near other vampires alone didn't seem so overkill. Yet, lady Avery became more closely involved in the plot and even more trusted. It was only four days before the rogue was planning on mobilizing his troops that lady Avery managed to meet with him and his second alone but for humans which didn't count. I don't know what happened in that meeting but I do know that the only person to walk out of it under their own power was lady Avery. She returned to her place and acted like she was expecting orders to attack from the rogue anyday. Two months went by and no one heard anything from the rogue, the other fourth and third gens that had been waiting on orders started to get nervous and started talking to each other. Lady Avery started feeding their fire when they talked to her. She also reached out to them exactly as you would expect a third gen to that didn't like the lord. It took two more months but she got every remaining third and fourth gen of the rogue's to agree to meet with her at once. The only strange thing was the only other third gen that made that meeting was lady Scarlet. Our lord was one of the last few to show up to the meeting. They met in a large basement room. There were human slaves serving lady Avery's guests, but lady Avery wasn't anywhere to be seen. Our lord picked a spot near the middle of the room not sure what to expect, since he should have taken the lead with the rogue missing but he had let lady Avery do that instead. I like to think he had been lost in thought when the doors slammed closed and magic locked them tight. Our lord met the Lord for the first time as he walked into the room, with Scarlet hovering at his right and Avery floating at his left. Some of the other vampires, knowing the final death had come, attacked the lord. He didn't even frown at them as Scarlet removed the heads of the fourth gens for them. Before their ashes hit the stone floor the lord nodded at Scarlet and she moved on to ending the existence of the vampires trying to escape the sealed room. The humans didn't know what was going on and they huddled in place afraid to draw the attention of the monsters that were killing each other. Our lord just stood there for a minute trying to process what had happened, who was this new vampire who was stronger then any he had ever felt before? What was lady Avery doing? She was just standing next to the lord, her part in this work was done after all."