===Aislinn===
She was speechless at the suggestion of Lady Pyre. They focused on helping the Princess' abilities or increasing her Fire Element control, and Aislinn was okay about it.
But she now wanted to focus on one of her abilities? She didn't know what to say.
At least, not until she remembered some crucial detail.
"We are going to need blood, don't we? Mister Vlad still hasn't found one to replace the previous person. "
Pyre nodded at that. Vlad did not find a person to replace Skotos as a blood source. Back in the town, people noticed the sudden disappearance of both Skotos and Rubert, and they appeared on guard.
"We have everything we need. Come, follow me, and I will show you. "
So she followed the Princess upstairs into what she had picked to be her room.
It was one of the largest bedrooms in the castle, but its design changed little.
"So what are…."
Before Aislinn could finish her sentence, the Princess moved at an unnatural speed, the Aislinn couldn't keep up with and pressed her lips against her.
Aislinn's mind and body froze at that moment.
She wasn't sure what happened or why, but she was certain of one thing. It felt great.
She had kissed a vampire in the past, sometimes because of a dare, but it felt nothing like that. Instead, she could feel the unfamiliar energy that should be of the Princess getting inside her and strengthening her. It felt tens of times more pleasurable than she had to drink from a human for the first time.
She had lost all sense of time during it as it lasted only a few seconds, but it felt like hours to her.
Then the Princess let her go and left the still frozen Aislinn in place.
"You should snap out of it soon. We don't have time to waste. "
Aislinn left her frozen state and was ready to say something, but Pyre raised her hand and put a finger in front of Aislinn's mouth to stop her from saying anything.
"This is going to be a secret between us. I just bonded us together, in a bond similar to what I have with people that I turn to my minions as I did with Skotos. This way, you will get more powerful, and I will get more powerful. Put keep it to yourself, meaning not even Ecaps can know. "
Aislinn didn't like the fact that she had to keep a secret from her mother. Of course, it wasn't like she told them everything, but most times, if she tried to hide something big from her, she could somehow tell and would make Aislinn tell her.
"You have to keep this a secret. UNDERSTOOD? "
The last word repeated in her mind and got lower in volume with each repeat until it got silent.
She was confident that she could keep that secret now. She hat to do it since the Princess asked her to do so.
Aislinn nodded with confidence in her eyes that she could do it, and she got an approving smile from the Princess in return.
"So as part of your bond, your stamina will get restored manifolds faster when next to me. With that boost, you should be able to create your Power Shard today with no problem. "
A vampire had to create their Power Shard in one go. That's why they did as many preparations as possible. Most times, the preparations were to gather blood to restore lost stamina used to create the power shard, but a ritual had to happen for some abilities, including some rare materials.
Fortunately, the Power Shard for her summoning a familiar didn't need a ritual. It was rare for Spirits to allow others to summon them, so there weren't more requirements to make the Power Shard, other than successfully have summoned a Lesser Spirit, like the one Aislinn had.
"Have you ever created a Power Shard in the past? "
Aislinn's confidence almost completely disappeared at that point, as this was her first time doing something like that.
No Vampire outside of the royal family could have a Power Shard without permission, and she never had a reason to ask for permission to create one. Also, during her time with the Old Mana Gareth, they never had the resources for her to work on one.
"I will take that as a no. But no worries, I will help you with that. It isn't as difficult as you think. "
Aislinn got some of her confidence back as she sat on the floor and got her body to be in a mediation stance that they used to focus her Element better during training.
"Focus on your inner space, like when you focus for your Element. But you don't look for your Element; look for the seed of your Power Shard. Since you already have completed the task to make a familiar, it should be there. Remember the feeling when you get to summon your familiar and use that to detect where the seed of the Power Shard is, as that feeling will be more assertive near it. "
Aislinn closed her eyes, and she entered her inner space.
She always found it strange to be here, as she didn't have a body, but her senses of hearing and smell seemed to work. But most times, there wasn't anything to smell or hear.
She started focusing on her whereabouts, but she couldn't detect anything like what the Princess told her.
'Use all your senses, Aislinn. Not just your eyes, ears, and nose. '
The voice seemed to echo from her surroundings, so she couldn't tell exactly where it came from, but she recognized it as to be of Lady Pyre.
'I use our bond to speak with you. I can't help you much currently, but you should your intuition to feel the surroundings. '
Aislinn had heard the Old Man talking about the intuition, but she was still uncertain what it was. The Old Man himself couldn't entirely explain how it worked, but it seemed to be like an extra sense of theirs that could help them detect a few things that their other senses couldn't. But what those other things were, the Old Man did not explain.
Aislinn didn't know how to use the intuition of hers, but she had to try.
She closed her eyes. Or tried to, but she had no eyes to close since she was in her inner place. Either way, she focused on her surroundings more than ever, trying to detect anything new.
She started moving around; she focused on the best of her abilities, and even if all that focus made her a bit tired, she got her energy back in an instance.
'This should be what the Princess referred to be as an effect for our bond.'
Aislinn's confidence and will to complete the task increased as she felt the benefit of what the Princess offered her.
No matter how long she focused or walked around, she felt nothing different.
But she couldn't give up. Not only was she not a quitter, but the Princess helped her a lot and believed in her for her to ruin everything by failing.
'Hihihihi…'
She heard some giggles echoing like the voice of Lady Pyre did before, but it sounded nothing like the Princess.
The giggles kept repeating now and then, and Aislinn tried to focus on them and from where they came from.
It took her a few moments, but she confidently started making her way towards the direction she was confident the voice came from.
After a few moments, she reached the source of the giggles, which was a small flower. It was strange for something like that to exist in the dark, empty field of her inner space.
'Hihihihi, you here at last. '
The voice was clearer to hear this time and sounded like one of a young child.
'Are you the seed?'
Aislinn couldn't speak out loud since she had no mouth to speak of, but she could let out her thoughts echo similar to speaking. Just the words were bland, and she couldn't put any emphasis on them.
'I am the seed, and at the same time, I am not the seed. Will you play with me? I am so bored and waited for so long. '
'Play with you? But you are….'
Before she could finish her sentence, a light came out of the flower, which became brighter and more prominent, and formed a figure.
The figure was of a child, even younger than the boy that Vlad got as his student. The child was clearly female, and from her somewhat pale skin and pointy ears, one could tell she was a vampire.
She recognized the girl from some painting her mother had.
This girl was Aislinn.