Blood Shaper

“The decision about whether or not Avalon will intervene in the crisis affecting the region to our west has been taken out of our hands.” Kay addressed the assembly of his ministers, advisers, and other important minds needed for this discussion. “Evidence that has been uncovered suggests that there is someone or something with an actual intelligence directing the vampyr, and they’ve flagged Avalon as their enemy. We don’t have any clear information about their goals, but I have no intentions of sitting around and acting passively while vampyr are continuously sent to harry us. I’m not making any decisions about the final consequences of our actions, whether we take control of any of the territory is still up in the air, but we will be eliminating the vampyr threat.”

A few people exchanged worried glances, but no one protested, not that Kay expected anyone would. His people were loyal, which was good, but even better than that they were smart, smart enough to know that leaving a growing threat to fester at their doorstep was a bad idea.

“I’m not much of a fighter, as you all know, so I don’t think I’ll be contributing all that heavily to this discussion, but what do we know about this supposed leader of vampyr?” Kay’s Minister of Planning, David, was one of the original refugees that had come with Cindy to what would become Avalon. “Everyone knows that vampyr are completely mad, I wouldn’t think any of them could keep themselves together enough to direct anything, let alone other vampyr struck by their own madness.”

Zeia leaned forward so everyone at the table could see her. “Hello, I’m Zeia and I’m with the Shatterplate Order. I’m one of the two leaders left behind to manage our contingent here while our highest leadership deals with moving our headquarters to Avalon.” She conveniently skipped over how the people left behind were technically all hostages and that whether or not the Shatterplate Order or the Itarian Crusade actually capitulated to Kay’s demands was still up in the air. Zeia herself was completely behind the move, since it would mean she could remain close to Kay and his eldritch purifying powers, but she wasn’t in charge of her entire organization. “I’m also one of our leading researchers, which is why I’ve been included in this meeting. To answer you question, sir, you’re correct to say that all vampyr are mad, but not that all of them are completely mad. And that is the important distinction here.”

“You’re saying that some of them hold on to some of their sanity?”

“Yes, exactly. The worst off among vampyr when it comes to sanity descend into being totally feral beasts. They attack anything that moves, they have little to no survival instincts, and they tend to die off the fastest.” She held up a second finger as she continued to list the different conditions among vampyr, “The second up the scale and the most common, are the ones that most fit the general descriptor of ‘mad’. They all have some kind of insanity that presses on them and directs their behavior. No vampyr like this is exactly the same, although they can fall into many broad categories, but on the whole they tend to experience psychoses, delusions, or hallucinations, all of which make it very hard for them to interact in concert with one another.” She held up a third finger, “The type that we’re worried about are the least common but are the most dangerous. Vampyr that retain some sanity and sense of self.”

Murunel made a face. “Are you saying that some vampyr have th person they used to be inside of them somewhere?”

“No, not at all.” Zeia shook her head violently, “We know for a fact that the person that is infected and becomes a vampyr dies, all of them.” She glanced at Kay with a look asking him for permission.

He wasn’t sure exactly what she was going to bring up, but he wasn’t aware of her knowing anything that needed to be kept secret, so he nodded.

She nodded back. “His majesty has allowed me to accelerate my research into preventing the vampyr from spreading by supplying me with samples from his own body. We know that vampyr are the result of a vampire being corrupted by heavy exposure to eldritch energy, which is why they retain many characteristics of vampires, albeit many of them twisted. Thanks to my study of samples from a real vampire I’ve been able to make many discoveries, including definitively proving that the infected victims die when their bodies become vampyr.” She smiled sadly. “We’ve always said that, and made ourselves believe it, but its nice to have real proof of it.” She took a deep breath and slowly released it. “Apologies. Are you all aware of the fact that a vast majority of species can be dead for a short time and be resuscitated without lasting harm done? The exact time varies from species to species and tiering up increases how long someone can be physically dead by noticeable amounts, but its possible even with a child that has no Class.”

There was a general spattering of acknowledgments and nods from around the room.

“Good. Well, I’ve discovered that the transformation from another species into a vampire uses that to effect that transformation. The actual change into a vampire is quite traumatic physically and to prevent any long term damage, the virus temporary kills the individual being changed and revives them after the transformation is complete. With vampyr, the victim dies in the same way, but is never revived. The eldritch taint just, takes over the body and starts driving it.”

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“That explains why vampires are thought to be undead back home,” Kay mused.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“I would presume so, yes. Returning to the previous topic though, vampyr that don’t entirely fall into madness retain a portion of who the original person used to be, just contorted into a monster. They can still have a portion of the original person’s memories or continue to have some of their goals. Because they’re actually insane monsters fueled by energy from outside out reality though, they almost always act in completely monstrous ways to enact those goals or react to the memories they still posses in deranged ways.”

“All of which combined allows some vampyr to act intelligently. That explains one part of the issue, but how do they manage to control other vampyr that don’t have those same capabilities?” David asked, “As you’ve said, most vampyr are too mad to work together and from what I know most of the vampyr attacking us are those type.”

“Getting the news from your wife?” Eleniah asked teasingly.

David glanced away with a blush. “Fiancee, thank you.”

“Ah, congratulations?” Zeia said haltingly. “Um, anyway, the answer to that is a combination of observed evidence and supposition. We know from observing vampyr that the more put together ones can control those that are less stable and a hierarchy tends to form when vampyr gather together that’s based on strength or combat ability. Since the ability to actually think when you fight most often beats strength with no thought behind it the vampyr’s that are more sane tend to end up on top. While the relationship is ofter fraught with conflict and many subordinate vampyr rebel frequently and/or end up dead, the vampyr leaders are able to give them orders that are generally followed to the best ability of the subordinate vampyr. That isn’t saying much in a vast majority of cases, but it does explain how vampyr can act in coordinated ways. The thing we don’t know is the actual mechanics of how that relationship works, but I do have ideas.” Zeia glanced in Kay’s direction again, but this time she seemed to just be gathering her thoughts. “Based on his majesty’s description of folklore and myths around vampires from his world I’ve come to theorize that what we’ve seen among vampyr hierarchies is another bastardization of natural vampire traits. Vampires seem to flock toward forming groups of multiple vampires, usually led by a particularly powerful vampire with said powerful vampire often being the originator of many or all of the vampires beneath them. I believe that some portion of that is retained by vampyr and they form a hierarchy because of this.”

“Alright,” Kay took back the conversation, “So know that it can happen and we also have evidence that says it has. Multiple vampyr involved with what’s happening have made reference to some kind of leader, including titles such as ‘Great One’ and ‘the Visionary’. We don’t know if there’s only a single leader and the vampyr in their madness call them by many names or if there’s more than one, but they’re targeting Avalon, and we won’t be sitting back to let them do as they like. This shorter meeting was just to inform everyone where we are with this new information. There will be additional meetings regarding what we’ll need from people or their ministries as we determine exactly how we’re going to act.”

The meeting broke up as Kay dismissed everyone, and Eleniah took the opportunity to scoot her seat closer to his. “You didn’t mention the other one.”

He looked back at her out of the corner of his eye. “You mean the one who turned me?”

“I do. He also talked about a ‘Great One’ or something like that, and said he had orders to bring you to him.” She stared at him sternly, “I won’t let you do anything stupid like blame yourself for what’s happened. What evil people do-“ �

“I’m not blaming myself.”

She raised one eyebrow at him.

“I’m not. I understand why you’d think I am, I’ve definitely acted like that before, but I’m not this time. There’s too much going on with this ‘Great One’ for everything happening to be aimed at me. I think I was targeted as part of whatever greater plan they’re trying to enact, not the other way around. The vampyr set off rituals that caused the world’s defenses against eldritch incursion to break all over the world, distracting everyone, and then while no one can respond to it they take out Nelam and everything around it? That sounds like whoever this ‘Great One’ or ‘Visionary’ is, they were aiming for that spot from the beginning. I think I became a target because happened to be a new threat in the region they wanted to act in.”

Eleniah nodded along as she processed what he was saying. “If they’ve got enough left up in their head to plan at this level, they could be able to predict that you’d be a problem to their future plans and look to take you out. That definitely makes sense. Why not bring the attack on you up to further prove the point, then?”

“To avoid messy optics. I became a vampire because I was attacked by a vampyr that was likely working for our enemy, and that wouldn’t be hard for those with a grudge against me, or just Avalon in general, to turn into a nasty rumor that hurts our credibility when we can’t afford it.” He nodded subtly at Zeia, “I’d bet money that she’s already sent a dozen or more messages telling the Order to get their asses down here to help out with this, and I’ll be getting her and the Itarians to send a dozen more. The vampyr wiped out an actual nation and the equivalent of at least one more. We can’t afford to do this alone, and the people who are going to be our best allies in this are going to come in already doubting me. Just beating them in one tiny war isn’t going to change the mind of the really hard core people who want me dead just for being sort of like a vampyr. We don’t benefit anything from reminding people exactly how I came to change species, but we could lose by doing it.”

Eleniah stared at him as he talked, and her expression changed over the course of his explanation from a curious look to a very wide grin. “Can I pick ‘em or what?”

Kay looked over with a frown. “What?”

“Did you just hear yourself? You’ve still got work to do on some subjects, sure, but you are already showing that you’re an excellent leader and king.” She leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. “I am so good at spotting talent, it amazes even me.”

“… I’m glad I can make you look good.”

“Perfect, that’s going to be your job in our relationship for a long time, so I’m happy you’re finding joy in it already.”

Everyone still in the room turned to look as Kay burst out laughing, and couldn’t stop for an extended time.