===Skotos===
Skotos felt his senses getting back to him, and he started standing up. This time, he wasn't in a cell but a pretty fancy bedroom for at least him.
"You are finally up. Took your sweet time."
Skotos turned to see an unknown female. From her pale skin, but also her 'smell,' he could tell she was a vampire.
He noticed his senses detect this distinct feeling coming from the people he interacted with, which differed between Vampires and Werewolves. But even between people of the same species, it differed, as one felt tenser than others.
Since Master's Pyre felt tenser than the rest, he was confident that the more powerful or purer a vampire's bloodline was, the feeling would get tenser.
"Who…who are you?"
The Vampire lady smiled at him as she started working closer to him.
She opened her right palm, and a stone dagger formed in an instance.
Skotos was ready to move, but for some reason, he had no control over his body. He couldn't even let out a single sound. All he could do was stare at this vampire getting closer to him, and he noticed that her eyes changed as time passed.
Her eyes were light brown at the start, but the closer she got, they changed to purple, which was a pretty strange change.
As she reached him, she raised her stone dagger. Skotos noticed parts of its edge to have changed to be metallic and not wholly stone. She brought the blade over the side of his neck and sliced it a bit.
It wasn't a fatal wound or anything, but just enough to let a bit of blood out.
She used her free hand index finger to 'scoop up' some of the blood and tasted it.
Skotos then noticed in her eyes a feeling he was very familiar with. She was in an ecstatic situation after that tasting. He couldn't remember much about his past life. Still, in the mind prison, he could hear the voices repeating the events of him using all the drugs known to man and taking part in other pleasurable activities. Those memories still existed in his mind as images, and not just voices.
"Man, it's been a while since I had something that high quality. Of course, the princess is lucky to get something that good. But you know there are things she can't offer you."
Skotos didn't like the way she looked at him or how she spoke for his Master.
"I can offer you so much more. She is a lot weaker than she used to be, but I have resources she can never dream about."
Skotos, deep inside him, knew that what she told him was true. Lady Pyre seemed to be weakened, but he didn't know the reason he knew it. He just did.
"So, what do you say? Do we have a deal?"
At that point, Skotos could feel the mysterious power that held him in place was still there, but he had control over his mouth and could speak.
"I…I…" he started hesitantly to speak.
"…I don't work with traitors. I am Skotos, servant of Lady Pyre until the end of my days, and so I will stay," he continued with new courage in his voice.
Laughing started filling the room as the female vampire found what she said funny.
"Well said, Skotos."
This time, the one who spoke wasn't the female vampire, but a voice Skotos had become familiar with; the Elder Gareth.
The strange power that heard him in place vanished, and as he turned his head towards where the sound came, he noticed Elder Gareth appearing out of nowhere like he was hiding in the shadows.
Skotos' new senses hadn't detected the Elder Vampire till this moment.
"You passed the test with flying colors, Skotos. Well done," the Elder added while he walked in front of him.
"So this was all a lie? Why? I have said that I will serve Lady Pyre already."
"You are still a man, Skotos, and you probably will always be. Some men just do things to serve their benefits, and nobody else, but we are at war and can't have something like that. You have proved your loyalty, but there are going to be more tests in the future, but they will be less secretive."
Skotos didn't like that he had to get tested like that but understood its reason.
"We are at war? You mean with humans?"
He remembered hearing some stories about vampires, werewolves, and other magical creatures, but the reports were utterly vague in his mind now.
"One would think so, but we aren't at war with humans. At least not with all of them. We are at war with the ones who tried to destroy The Balance, and humans, even if they seem to be in greater quantity in this category, they aren't the only."
"What balance?" Skotos asked with apparent curiosity in his eyes and voice.
As Gareth was ready to explain everything, the female vampire, still in the room, coughed to draw their attention.
"Elder Gareth, do you need my services anymore?"
"Everything is ok, Ramona. You can go now. Also, we need to talk about you adding the taking a tasting sample in the future. Lady Pyre won't like what you did."
The female vampire froze in place, and her body shook like a wave of electricity went through her spine.
"Don't worry. I won't mention it. But you better not try something like that again," the Elder added.
Ramona bowed towards him and left the room.
Then the Elder turned towards Skotos.
"Ok, then let's see. Where to begin? We have so much to cover. I guess let's start from how everything began."
Elder Gareth told him about the eight beings, The Balance, the Firstborns, the competition, the Ranking, and finally, the appearance of the Human Race. Then, he explained more about the Elements and spoke about the Power Shards and how they worked to let Vampires use some of their abilities.
Since he got turned into a vampire, and usually vampires had their Power Spirits since birth, he had to create them. In his case, it was more manageable to develop the ones that his Master already had. Lady Pyre had most of her Power starts removed, but not entirely, so she technically still had them; she just couldn't use them.
It would also allow Skotos to form a Power Spirit, turn it into a Power Seed, and finally create his Power Shard for each of those abilities.
Of course, it wasn't for sure that he could unlock each of these abilities, but just that he had the possibility of doing so. Everything else depended on his hard work to do so.
Finally, Elder Gareth ended his story about the disappearance of some Firstborns, and the rest found in an unconscious state. He spoke of the humans kidnapping the Princesses as also the body of King Darien.
Skotos felt discuss and anger about what those people did to his Master and how they brought the world to a threat with their foolish actions. But, if The Balance got disturbed, who knew what would happen to the world? Skotos couldn't allow it since it would affect Lady Pyre.
He still thought like a human, as Elder Gareth said, and he didn't want to harm anyone, but those people that dared to experiment on his Master, he couldn't wait to find them.
"Since the history lesson ended, for now, let's start our training for today. Since we have no blood, and Lady Pyre seemed to be occupied, we won't work on building any of your Power Shards. But we can work on your Element control."
Skotos was excited to get back training on his Element, but that excitement vanished as Elder Gareth brought out a thick tome and left it in front of him.
"Read chapter 2 and chapter 5. They contain more information about each of your Elements, but there isn't much about the Dark Element. Still better study it as much as you can. Find me when you are over with it, and you better study hard, as I am going to know if you don't."
Then the Elder walked out of the room, leaving the disappointed Skotos by himself.
But he started reading the book, as even if he wasn't a big reader, he had no choice now by what he could remember.