===Pyre===
After consuming that much blood from that human, she felt much better, but she still didn't have enough. The werewolf who carried her on the way here stopped her before she consumed all the blood of that person, as he would die.
He ordered his men to take him to one cell downstairs and give him some food so that he could restore his blood as soon as possible.
Vlad, which seemed to be the name of the werewolf man and one of her servants, left with the human child. She didn't know what they planned to do with it, but all she wanted to do was to stand up and move around.
"I think you will need this more than me, "said the Elder Vampire named Gareth as he offered her his staff.
She accepted it, as she was still somewhat weak and couldn't stand without help. The rest of the servants seemed ready to take orders or help at any moment, but Pyre motioned them to leave her for now.
"It is good seeing you once again, Princess. This old man asks your forgiveness, " he said, kneeling in front of her and lowering his head to the ground.
"What are you apologizing for?"
She knew what he was talking about but wanted to know the details.
"I wasn't strong enough, my liege. After you and your sister disappeared, we sent many men to look for you, leaving the castle unprotected. The humans somehow broke the barrier that kept them from it, and we had no other way to retreat. Because there was so legal representative of yours, we had to leave the throne behind, and the humans stole it."
Pyre was not expecting to hear of an event like that happening. The Being from Beyond the made the Throne, and rumor had it to be that it was their race's core. Only the King or his representative could come into contact with the throne; otherwise, they would face a considerable backlash from its immense power. This backlash was something an Elder Vampire couldn't survive from, not speaking about a powerless human.
If the humans got the throne, it was like they had control of the fate of all the Vampires, but since some were still alive, it probably meant that they hadn't found a way to use it, at least.
"Stand up, Elder Gareth."
At that moment, her voice was that of an authority and power figure; even though her body was still weakened, some power was innate to her being.
Gareth stood up but lowered his head as he dared not look his princess in her eyes.
"There is no forgiveness to be given," so she put her right hand on his left shoulder.
"Because there is nothing to forgive. You had put the safety of our people above all, and that is how it should be."
Gareth raised his head to see the face of the Princess as tears started to roll down his cheeks. He had forgotten how kind the Princess was to her people after all that time of war with the humans.
"Now, let's focus on the more important stuff. First, Elder Gareth, I want you to examine me and my Power Shards. Even after having the blood, I still feel unable to access any of them."
Vampires had many abilities they could learn, but they had to create a Power Shard to use them. As long as the Power Shard was intact, they could use that ability at the maximum effect they could handle. But if something happened to the Power Shard, they would lose that ability, and restoring or recreating the Power Shard of that ability was impossible.
As a Vampire Princess, Pyre had learned almost all the abilities a Vampire could and the few she didn't know her sister had. Together, they were an unstorable duo, as they completed each other and had some common abilities, meaning they could strengthen those. But they were still weaker than their Father, who could use every Vampire ability at full power by himself.
Gareth nodded, putting his left open palm at her forehead and closing his eyes so that he could focus.
After less than a minute, Gareth opened his eyes and seemed shocked and in disbelief.
"What did you find?" the Princess asked him as she got worried that his examination was this short and from his reaction.
"They… they are gone."
That was the only thing he said, as he seemed to have gotten into deep thought and was muttering a few things to himself.
"Gone? What do you mean, gone? Did they destroy my Power Shards?"
If that were the case, she would stay weak forever. She couldn't relearn her abilities and those she didn't know she wouldn't be able to do, as she had spent hundreds of years trying to do so without success.
"No, they haven't destroyed them. If they had, pieces of them would have remained behind, and to tell the truth, even you wouldn't survive if they did so. It seems almost like they removed them from you."
This sounded absurd. The Power Shards weren't shards that existed in her body but something they created as a focus for the ability in their mental space. So removing it should be simply impossible.
"They must have found a way to attract its power," the Elder said as he seemed to have a revelation.
"The Power Shards are the core of the ability, and each has a unique energy that represents and surrounds them. Each person has a different energy, even if they have the same ability, but there are similarities between the same abilities. If they detected this energy, they might even attract it outside its user, making it the same as removing the Power Shard. These humans may have progressed more than we thought."
This seemed to be just an Elder's theory, but Pyre trusted him and knew there was a significant chance it was true. When she was still around, Gareth was in charge of keeping track of the humans' discoveries. They had made some interesting discoveries over the years that even the Magical Races were interested in how they worked.