"Va...vamp...vampire?" stammered Eve, staring at Valek's glowing red eyes.
"Indeed." said Valek, leaning against the backrest. He seemed to be enjoying the effect his words and appearance were having on the five. Each of them stared at him open-mouthed as he royally observed them all; completely ruling the room.
"You...you're a...a vampire?" asked Liana, hollowly. Valek gave her a grin that sent a chill down her spine. What has Decimandria done to my brother?
Alex and Robin still hadn't been able to utter word; they just kept looking at Valek, now sitting in his armchair like it was a throne and grinning at them all. Felicia seemed shocked too, and she hadn't even been able to blink since Valek's eyes had started glowing. Somehow, Valek was holding all of them frozen in their spots.
"Va...vampire?" repeated Eve, her tone showing that her mind was faintly catching up.
"And not just any vampire." said Valek, his somehow intimidating grin still present. "I'm the ruler of all vampires...the Master Vampire." Another chime of shock went through the five.
Valek held them all in his gaze for a few seconds more, then the burning red light from his eyes faded and he sighed. "And I suspect, that is the root of the whole problem."
Valek's eyes returning to normal was if a spell had been lifted from the five. Their minds cleared and they refocused again. Alex shook his head as if to clear his fuzzy mind, then turned to Valek: "Root of the problem?"
"Yes." said Valek. "Me being a Master Vampire." Alex cringed a bit at Valek so casually addressing himself as a vampire, but suppressed saying anything for now. "What do you-?"
Valek got up and walked to the huge window; the moonlight from the two moons bathed him, and somehow, his dark figure now looked...distressed? "You see, I am powerful." said Valek. He paused and sighed. "And that means, I have powerful enemies...a great number of them. These people will stop at nothing to try and hurt me...no measure they won't take to wound me or weaken me." The five started at him, the silver in his fine clothes glinting. Valek continued: "I fear one of these people found out about you all...sought to bring you to Decimandria to kill you...hold you for ransom...hold you to control me...? I can only guess."
Felicia stared at the boy she'd seen ever since he'd been born. He looked so...different...now. As if the whole world's weight was on his shoulders. "You can't blame yourself, Val. After all, we don-"
Valek turned to her, his expression somber. "I was your only connection to Decimandria. You people were completely normal and disconnected from this world...except for me. And a trans-dimensional kidnapping isn't an easy thing...but some of my enemies do have the capability and resources for that." Everyone fell silent; it made sense. Valek was the only link they had to Decimandria. Someone wanting to control Valek would obviously turn to using his family as the bargaining chip.
"But...how did they find out about us?" wondered Alex.
"That's what I can't get either." said Valek, deep in thought. "Very few people even know my first name. Fewer still know that I wasn't born in Decimandria. And barely a handful know of my family...my life before..."
"But some do know about us?" asked Robin.
"Yes." said Valek. "But...those people are the ones I'd trust with my life. They're the people I'd trust with your lives. I...can't imagine any of them betraying me....it's impossible."
The group looked at Valek; he seemed troubled. Almost...sad? He stared through the window at the softly flowing water in the fountain.
"But one of them did..." said Valek, the coldness returning to his voice. "One of them did betray me. But...who?"
"Well, who all know about us?" asked Alex.
"Not many." Valek bowed his head and started muttering a few names to himself, completely absorbed. The five instinctively perked their ears to try and listen in. Most names didn't even make sense, but Eve suddenly caught one she hadn't heard in months. A name that made her gasp. Saphira.
"Did...did you just say Saphira?" she asked, shocked.
Valek looked up, something in his eyes showing shock...and somewhere, the pain of realization. "Yes." he said, meeting her gaze.
"As in...our Saphira? The girl we...we knew on Earth?" she asked, still not being able to believe it.
"The very same."
"What!?" the other four rung out in unison.
It was odd hearing the name of someone from back home. Eve and Felicia had gotten quite close to Saphira after they'd met her. The rest barely knew her, but it was still a surprise to hear her be named...a person they'd almost forgotten.
"Wha...ho...whe?" stammered Felicia.
Valek grinned. "Saphira and I-" he glanced at Eve. "We have history. We go a long way back. I told her about you all a long time ago."
"But...but she'd been our neighbor...and...a friend." said Eve.
"I doubt she realized you were the same people I told her about. We...weren't in touch all that much, after..." Valek trailed off, gazing up at the moons.
"But...but her aunt was our neighbor...?" muttered Felicia.
"No, that wasn't her aunt. It was her matron from back in her academy days." said Valek absently.
"Who...who even is she? Is she a vampire like you?" asked Liana.
Valek laughed. "Oh, no. Saphira...she's special. She's one of, if not the, most powerful sorceress in the world. She's...extremely talented, extremely gifted...and extremely powerful."
"You sound wistful." said Robin.
"I could use her advice right about now. It was magic that brought you here...magic that can take you back, but...." Valek trailed off again.
The five were still bursting with questions, their minds racing to process all the developments of tonight. But seeing Valek absorbed in his thoughts by the window, they respectfully gave him the silence he wanted.
The study was well lit, but somehow there was a shadow covering it all...holding them all in disquiet. After a few minutes, Eve finally cracked. "Val..." she said meekly. "Ho...how did you...did you become a vampire? Were...were you bitten? And...how did you get to Decimandria in the first place?"
Valek turned to her; her violet eyes were shining with concern, her red hair smooth and flowing. He grinned in spite of himself. "No." he said. "No, Master Vampires aren't bitten. They're born."
"Wait, what?" asked Liana incredulously. "You...were born a vampire?"
"Yes." said Valek, coming over and collapsing in his regal armchair. "Some far, far, far off relative of ours, generations up in our family tree, may have been a Master Vampire. That gene passed down for decades until in activated in me. I was born to be a Master Vampire."
"But...how? When?" asked Felicia. She was somehow feeling concerned for Valek.
"Remember that time when I was fifteen and fell dangerously ill? No doctor could figure out what was wrong with me?" The girls nodded. "That was because the gene had finally triggered." said Valek.
Liana was quiet. She remembered how worried her mother had been about Valek. How Valek himself had looked more dead than alive when his 'sickness' was at its worse. He'd go dangerously cold, his eyes unseeing. To this day, she couldn't shake the feeling that Valek's eyes lost their shine after he fell sick.
But one day, he'd suddenly gotten better. Suddenly, he was talking again...smiling again. His appetite had decreased, but he was getting better. And somehow, he'd know what was going on in the hall downstairs without even getting off his bed.
"So...how does the gene work?" asked Robin, curiously. "Is it like a puberty thing or something?"
Valek let out a bark of laughter. "It's not really a 'gene' per se, but you're not far off about it activating. When the body and mind are ready, the 'gene' comes out of hibernation. Age is irrelevant. However, in my case, I am the youngest Master Vampire in history. Never before was there one who came out of his dormancy at fifteen years old."
Robin nodded while the three girls stared in shock. Suddenly, something sunk in to Alex. "Wait!" he exclaimed. "You...you said fifteen years old. That means...that means you've been travelling to and from Decimandria all this time for three years!?"
Felicia jumped up in shock. "And that means...you can send us back!"
Valek raised a hand. "Calm down. Calm down. I...I'm afraid it's not so easy as all that."
"What do you mean?" asked Felicia, sitting back down, crestfallen.
"Yes, what do you mean?" asked Robin. "You have been travelling to and from Decimandria for years, haven't you?"
"Yes. Yes, I have." said Valek.
"Then what's the-"
"Listen." interrupted Valek. "There is so...so much you are ignorant of. You were brought here by teleportation magic. And by all accounts you should be ab-"
"Then open a portal and send us back." said Felicia.
Valek stopped and took in a deep breath. Begin at the beginning. "Let me give you a lesson in basic teleportation. There are three types of teleportations. The first is a spatial teleport; it is the movement of matter through space within the same dimension. It is quite an advanced spell, and requires a fair amount of energy. But a good mage will have no problems opening a portal. However, the greater the distance, the greater the number of things passing through, the more strain it will cause to the caster. However, portals like these can be opened from anywhere to anywhere, within the same dimension, unless there are spells and magical defenses preventing it."
Valek paused to let the five absorb his words, then continued: "The second type of portals are the dimensional teleportations. These are portals that can rip through dimensions. Very few people even know of the existence of parallel worlds, and few who can actually cast this spell. It is extremely taxing to the mage, and many have died just attempting it. Ripping dimensions is not an easy task. Fortunately, there are a few natural rips through dimensions existing in every realm. Knowing about them, let alone having the knowledge to be able locate them is a privilege known only to a few. These pre-existing portals are shut, but a talented mage can re-open them for a time and people can pass through. However, one needs to travel to the exact point wherever the portal might be located, then activate it. And each portal only opens up to a specific end. This type of teleportation only allows one to transverse dimensions, not space."
Valek paused again and saw the five's faces rapt with attention. He went on: "The third and the most difficult of all teleportaions: the space-dimensional teleport. This is very, very, difficult magic that very few people in the entire world can do it. Not just knowledge is required for this spell, but immense talent and inborn mana reserves. A normal mage would get vaporized if he even attempts the magic, and if by some miracle he gets the spell to work, due to the massive lack of mana, he'll die...and not painlessly. These elite few who can do this magic can rip through space and dimensions simultaneously. They don't need pre-existing tears. They can open a portal anywhere in the space of one dimension leading to anywhere they desire in the space of the another dimension. Very, very complicated magic that can easily go horribly wrong."
After tactfully letting them process this information for some time too, Valek started again: "Those...flashes you described. The white flashes that brought you here were precisely that; a space-dimensional portal."
The five relapsed against their backrests. So, that's what the white flashes of light had been? Finally, some answers. This clarity about the mystery that'd haunted them for so long, when suddenly dispelled, didn't seem to carry much weight anymore. None of them had really cared for those flashes for a long time.
"However, I should say flash; singular." said Valek. "All those other flashes was the failed attempts of the mage to cast such a complicated magic at a precise point without even physically being there. Finally, he got it to work, but..."
"But what?" asked Alex.
"But it didn't work. Something went wrong and you guys ended up being dropped in the middle of nowhere." said Valek. "I...don't think the hills of Lemara was somewhere your would-be abductor wanted you to be sent to."
Alex had always figured as much; that whatever had brought them to Decimandria hadn't worked properly...that something had gone wrong. The other four also guessed this. They'd even talked about it when Decimandria was still new to them.
"Ever since that time that mage has been trying to track you down." said Valek, almost talking to himself. "That wendigo that conveniently came back to his parents' homestead after years and dissolved when he was killed? I suspect...he had been sent there by someone. But they underestimated you and you lived...you fled. You got to Barfoss...and the mage started to track you again. The two assassins in the alley that day...they could've been his for all we know." Valek paused and mused on the events of the past few hours. "But the voodoo force that was sent to your homestead tonight...that was most definitely a powerful mage. He must've gotten tired of you people always evading him, and this time he didn't want to take chances. He sent an entire battalion after you."
"But he didn't count on you being there..." muttered Alex.
"No...I don't think so." said Valek. "But...I fear that word will soon reach him of what transpired here... and he'll come back with force."
Everyone fell silent; this never-ending night just seemed to bring one bad news after another. It affected Eve the worst and Valek knew he was the one to blame for it.
"About those portals..." said Robin, looking up at Valek. "Can you open a space-dimensional portal?"
"Yes."
There was a stunned silence for a second. The Robin shook his head incredulously. "Then why the fuck are we still here, man!?"
Valek raised a hand. "I was getting to that." Looking at his calm yet commanding countenance silenced Robin and he sat back down again.
"You see," said Valek. "you people are essentially wraiths now."
Liana raised her eyebrows. "Wr...wraiths?" she asked. "We...we're not dead." she said, sounding only half-convinced about the fact for some reason.
"Not yet." said Alex. He turned back to Valek. "What do you mean?"
"Wraiths aren't someone who're dead. That's ghosts. Wraiths are someone who are not of the realm they are roaming in. Most wraiths are dangerous and unpredictable, but quite a lot of them are also harmless. By definition, you people are wraiths too since you're not of this realm."
Alex mused for a second. "And...is that a bad thing?"
Valek looked at him in the eye for a second, then addressed the group again. "Wraiths cannot exist in a foreign realm for long. Since they don't belong there, nature...will correct the abnormality. They'll soon start to fade if they don't return back to their world. Even going back for a short time and coming back buys some more time for the wraith to exist in the foreign plane. But...if they don't return...simply put, they'll stop existing."
Another wave of shock went over the five. We're...dying? Eve wondered for a moment, but with a sudden realization, found out she didn't care. She didn't care if she died. This unleashed another fury of emotion inside her; bravery, recklessness...worry as to why this was.
"Ho...how much time do we have left?" asked Eve.
Valek almost grinned. She's...so strong. He turned to the group. "You people have been living here, what? Six, seven months? Eight?"
"Yeah...round about." answered Alex.
"Then you have nothing to fear." said Valek. "No wraith can survive this long in a foreign realm without even once returning to its home dimension. Have you people been experiencing headaches? Loss of grip strength?"
Robin wondered for a second. Had he experienced weakness? No. Not at all. If anything, I've gotten stronger. "No." he answered out loud. "No, I haven't." The other four nodded and Valek bowed his head in...sadness?
"What's wrong, Val?" asked Liana softly. Valek looked up. "Nothing. I figured as much. You see, the reason you haven't faded away, is because there's something binding you to this realm. Something that's holding you here. The mage...or whoever brought you here must've bound you to some object...or someone...so that you wouldn't fade. So that he could continue using you..."
"Wh...what's that mean?" asked Felicia.
"It means, if you try to change dimensions while there is something holding you to the current one, you all will be ripped apart." said Valek. "Frankly, I don't think you can even pass through a spatial portal without risking being torn at a molecular level."
Felicia let out a short breath of air. "That's...that's why we're stuck here."
"Yes." said Valek. "As long as those objects that bind you here exist, you cannot go back even if a portal is opened."
The group sat in silence for a few minutes, too engrossed in their thoughts to talk. Finally, Liana looked up. "But you can pass through portals, right?" she asked Valek.
Valek silently nodded. Liana straightened up. "Then why don't you return home? Why don't you go back and tell Mom and Dad that...that we're fine. That...that we'll be coming home soon." A single tear rolled down her cheek. "They must've been...must've been so worried. How...how are they, Val? All this time...all this time we've been gone...how...how did they cope? Are they okay?"
"They're fine." said Valek, almost dismissively.
"Then...return home and reassure them...please."
"No." said Valek simply. "Leaving you all here alone would be idiotic."
"But-"
"But nothing!" said Valek suddenly. Liana recoiled in shock. What gives? Valek took a deep breath and calmed himself. "Listen, Sis...there's...there's more to this story than you realize. I haven't been home in just as long as you've been here."
"What!?" exclaimed Felicia. "But what-"
Valek raised a hand. "Just...trust me on this. I...don't want to talk about it just yet."
Everyone silently scrutinized Valek in shock.
"All will be explained soon..." said Valek in a low voice. "For now...let's focus on getting you all back, okay?"
The girls opened their mouth to speak but Alex silenced them. We need to trust Val. He nodded to his little brother who gave him a thankful look.
Again, the heavy silence fell over the study. Valek got up and walked over to the window and looked outside. No sign of trouble...yet. He thought about those dark blue hair and those dark blue eyes...her soft hands and, in spite of himself, her soft lips. "Saphira." he muttered.
"Saphira?" asked Eve, perking up.
Valek kicked himself for letting his guard down and looked around at Eve. "Yes. Saphira. I wish I could see her right now. I could do with her counsel. She...she'd know the ins and outs." Eve raised her eyebrows and Valek continued. "She's an extremely talented mage. She'd know exactly what to do with this teleportation dilemma. I...am fairly knowledgeable in magic, but complex, intricate spells like this...she far surpasses me. She'd be able to figure out the exact situation holding you here, how to undo it, and she'd be able to answer the questions even I have."
Eve looked down at the soft carpet. Somehow, those words hurt her. Seeing Valek, the confident and in control guy look to Saphira when he was in doubt, hurt her. Somewhere she wished it was her...that it would be Eve that Valek would look to when he faltered. She'd catch him...put him back on his feet.
"Why...why don't you contact her then?" Eve asked in a small voice.
"I can't." said Valek. "She's one of the people who knew about you...she could be the one who betrayed me."
"But...but you trust her, don't you?"
"I trust all of the people who knew about my family...that's why I let them know in the first place. But...one of them did turn on me. There's no other way anyone else could've found out about you all unless I told them myself." said Valek. He fell silent as the blue eyes drifted in his vision again. "And Saphira is on the same boat...I can't trust her anymore...not right now."
Eve fell silent. Somewhere there was a spark for a second. He didn't trust her completely...does that mean he doesn't love her? Would...Val also say the same thing about me if our roles were switched. The spark disappeared.
Valek gazed out of the window again. "We...are on our own now. If the people I trust have betrayed me, then I can't even call for aid. If my Elders have betrayed me, I can't risk them finding out where you people are."
"Wait...elders?" asked Liana looking up. "So there are some old vampires that you answer to?"
Valek laughed. "No, no. It's not elders, it's Elders. The four Elder vampires that come directly below the Master Vampire. Like me, they're born not bitten. Extremely powerful and extremely dangerous...and invaluable to me."
"Elder vampires, huh?" wondered Liana. "So...there's like an entire hierarchy for vampires?"
"Yes." smiled Valek.
"And you sit at the top?"
He nodded.
"Huh." Liana fell silent. She felt...ashamed. Her brother had transformed into a vampire under her nose and she hadn't realized it. He'd...turned into a different person entirely and she didn't realize it. All the deeds he'd done in Decimandria, she would've never have found out about them...she wouldn't have really known Valek at all.
"It's not your fault. I'm just good at hiding things." smiled Valek, as if he'd read her thoughts. Liana broke into a smile too. He's changed...a lot. But, in the end, he's still the same kid who puts the people he loves above everything else.
"Something I've been wondering," said Alex, suddenly looking at Valek. "How did you find us? How were you in Decimandria? What happened to Saphira?"
Valek grinned. "I came to Decimandria with Saphira. But soon after we got here, Saphira got an urgent letter and she had to leave. I haven't seen her since." Valek excluded the part where she'd seduced him in that tower. "As for you...I found you by pure chance. Or rather," he turned to look at Eve. "I found her."
"What...what do you mean?" she asked, her heart beating faster.
"A few months ago, I came to Barfoss on a whim. On the night I got there, I decided to inspect the town; I was floating through the rooftops in the city, when I spotted a young girl running full speed down a deserted street...while a man chased after her. As I followed them with curiosity, I saw the man grab the girl...saw him drag her down into an alley...and I realized what that man wanted to do. I came down with swift anger upon him, and suddenly, when I looked at the girl, I realized...it was you, Eve."
The entire world fell away. Nothing remained but Valek sitting on his throne. Eve looked on with absolute shock. Did...did I always know...did I always know somewhere in my heart that... "It was you in the alley that night! You were the smoke that saved me! You are the Prince of Darkness!?"