===Pyre===
"Do you have any idea who could be behind it, then? I am certain that not just a simple person could come up with something like that."
Gareth nodded, as this was truly something challenging to come up with about how it would work.
"It must be the man they call the Professor. He seems to be behind most of their breakthroughs over the last decades since the war started. But we have found little information about who he is, unfortunately."
Gareth seemed unhappy with that report of his.
Pyre put her hands over his shoulder once again, and when he looked her in the eyes again, she motioned to him it was ok.
"Do you think we can get them back?"
Gareth thought about the answer to that question.
"They were probably using them to study our abilities, but if we found them, there is a significant chance of interacting with them, that they would become part of you once more. But we can't be certain, as this is something that has never happened before. Will let mister Vlad and our men investigate about bases of the humans that will have them. We are still looking for the whereabouts of your sister and the King."
"They got my father's body too?"
She remembered that the last memory before awakening at Vlad's camp was of her visiting her father's resting place that they had made for his body to reside. She and her sister were there, and it was actually the anniversary since their father left them.
400 years had passed since that day. As they completed a ritual reading a song of praise for her father, she remembered a mysterious white smoke feeling the room and then darkness. The human had ambushed them back then, but she wasn't certain how they could have found that place. It was a secret location that only a few knew where was.
They never shared it with the humans they were talking with now and then, so there was only one case. There was a traitor among them.
Other than the Princesses, the Elders and a few trusted members of the Council of the 8 Races knew that secret location.
She had to be careful with whom to trust, but she trusted Elder Gareth completely. He had been beside her all her life, and she was certain of his loyalty.
"Then I should progress with my Element training. It seems to have gotten weaker after all that time, not using it."
Fortunately, Vampires didn't need a Power Shard to use their Element, but they could make one to strengthen it. Losing those Power Shards just weakened their control of the Element.
She tried to use hers, and she could barely produce some sparks.
It seemed the removal of so many Power Shards related to her Element, and that she hadn't used it for a long time, had a significant effect on weakening her control over her Element.
But Elder Gareth also had the Fire Element as she did, and actually, he was the person who taught her how to use it when she was still a youngling. So since she still knew the theory of how to control her Element, she could use a special technique with him.
It would allow for her to use his Energy Core as if it was hers.
She suggested that Gareth didn't have a problem, as he knew firsthand how experienced the Princess was.
She put her left hand on his chest as he focused on making the connection. It took her a few minutes, which was more than it should, but mostly because of her current weakened state.
When the connection was made, she drew some of his Element out and gathered at her other hand.
She formed a ball of fire that continued growing in size, and after a point, changing shape too.
It formed a large bat, and when it finished forming, it started flying around the room. After a little while, the bat started splitting into smaller bats as a swarm of fire bats now flew into the room.
But soon after the swarm was formed, it completely disappeared.
"I am sorry, Princess. But this old man can't handle using that much Element in such a short time."
It seemed that she underestimated how much she could use and forgot that Elder Gareth was a brilliant teacher and researcher but hadn't had a large Energy Core, so he couldn't use too much of his Element.
"It is ok. You should rest, and I am sorry for overusing your Element. But thank you, as this was something that I needed."
Using her Element like that was feeling so good. She still had some of the blood she consumed from that person that she could use for possible help to restore her Element.
When a Vampire consumes some blood, it could either use it to heal itself or store it for later. The more time it was stored, though, it would lose some of its potential benefits.
She could either use it to heal herself as a whole or using it in for helping to restore something specific. Using her Element was important, but she decided to use it more to heal her body and so that she could move easier.
She used everything she had consumed for that reason, and now she barely needed to use the staff for support to move.
"Elder Gareth. Mind leading me on the way to our newest prisoner? Want to check his situation myself."
"Princess, I hope you don't plan on consuming more of its blood. The men shouldn't have much restored and would surely die if you would do so."
There were signs of worries in the voice of the Elder Vampire, but Pyre knew they weren't because he was afraid that the man would die or not. It would be just a waste of more potential meals and the amount of blood she could get from him.
"You don't have to worry. I know I need to be patient. I need to check something I noticed in our last encounter."
The Elder trusted his Princess and led the way down towards the cells.
On the way there, Pyre was certain that she heard some scream coming from one of the rooms upstairs. It sounded like the scream of someone quite young.