Chapter 52: Audience

  Lily flew back with Tessa toward Tiara. It was only a short flight, and since Lily literally owned the city now, she did not even bother with the gates. She simply crossed the walls with Tessa pulled beside her through the air. While they flew, Lily guided her a little, helping her adjust the [Fly] spell. Tessa had no feeling for it at first, which was natural, because Lily had cast it on her. But Lily could tell that the girl was somehow talented with it. Only a few minutes passed before Tessa was able to aim in one direction at an appropriate speed without wobbling like a lost bird.

  When they landed in front of the inn, Lily asked, “You never used magic before?”

  “Eh. No, not that I know at least…” Tessa said, still a bit breathless from the flight.

  “Well, I will show you the runes later. You should already have a feeling now for how it should work.” Lily’s gaze drifted past her as she looked at the door of the inn.

  Someone had nailed boards across it. A note hung crookedly from one of the planks.

  “Crime scene. Do not enter while under investigation.”

  “Really?” Lily muttered. “I was gone the whole day and nothing happened, but the moment I fly away for less than an hour, the city guard gets active?”

  In hindsight it made sense. There had probably been no real guard present during the day, and that was her fault anyway. Her first impulse, of course, was to just shatter the door. After all, who would complain about it later. But behind her she heard a startled sound.

  “I… I… did not mean to kill the boss… I…” Tessa whispered, her voice trembling.

  Lily turned around slowly.

  Oh right. The inn was not only my crime scene. Tessa also killed someone here. Vessikar mentioned it earlier.

  She stepped to the girl’s side and placed a hand on her shoulder. Tessa’s body tensed immediately, and Lily realized again how much smaller she was now. Lily’s demon form had always been tall, but next to this new, pale version of Tessa she somehow felt even taller.

  “I know,” Lily said softly. “It is fine. It is not your fault.”

  Tessa shook her head. “I still killed him. Even if I did not want to. I do not even remember how it happened, only that I was hungry and everything felt so… loud.”

  Lily tightened her grip gently. “You had just awakened. It was your first feeding. You were not in control. That is normal for a newly awakened vampire.”

  “But he is dead… because of me…” Tessa whispered again. Her voice sounded like she was sinking into herself.

  Lily moved her hand from her shoulder to the side of her arm, grounding her. “Tessa. Listen. This was not your choice. You did not decide to become this. You did not decide to lose control. And you did not understand what was happening to you. If anyone is responsible, it is me.”

  Tessa looked up sharply. “You?”

  “Yes,” Lily said. “I caused this mess. I should have handled the situation better. I should have not left you alone after what happened. I should have never let things escalate this far without watching over you. So, the responsibility is mine, not yours.”

  Tessa swallowed hard. “But I still feel like I did something terrible…”

  “You did,” Lily said honestly, “but not because you wanted to. That is the difference. Intentions matter. You will learn control. I will teach you. And no one will judge you for what you did today.”

  Tessa lowered her gaze. “You really mean it…”

  “Yes,” Lily replied. “I do.”

  Tessa hesitated for a moment, then nodded. The tension in her shoulders loosened slightly.

  “Good,” Lily said, gently letting go of her arm. “Now let us get inside. We cannot stand out here forever.”

  Lily turned back toward the door. Somehow talking with Tessa, actually seeing how the girl felt and saying out loud what had gone wrong, helped Lily more than she expected. It reminded her of the long talks she used to have back in her guild, when someone needed advice or simply someone to listen. It was not the same, of course, but it grounded her.

  And, sure, the whole situation was a far greater mess than anything she had handled before. Tessa still needed to come to terms with herself later and decide how she wanted to proceed with her new existence. It would be hypocritical for Lily to assume that Tessa would never kill again in the future, but at least she could guide her, teach her control, and prevent unnecessary harm. Yes, since I am the best candidate for this… but well…

  Also, Lily was not even sure she would be able to lift Tessa’s curse, even if she tried. She was confident that with a proper alchemy laboratory and some rare materials she could remove most curses and vampiric infections, but the problem here was simple: she had never dealt with a progenitor-demonic-vampire class before. The closest she knew was Matz, her guildmate, who had been an [Eclipse-Blood Monarch (Reality-Bender)], one of the highest evolutions of the normal vampiric class tree she had ever seen. And she had no idea how she would remove something like his curse, especially since his class had been transcended and unique-tier.

  Even though in the game it had been possible for players to remove vampirism, and many did so intentionally because it unlocked interesting class paths at higher levels, once a class reached a unique state, race changes usually became impossible. As far as she knew, no one had ever succeeded in reversing that.

  So, seeing the class [Demon God’s Progenitor Vampire (Vampire Origin)] on Tessa was highly concerning.

  Lily sighed. Yes, problems after problems.

  She reached toward the barricaded door and, without a second thought, simply punched it open. The boards cracked and splintered as she walked through.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Tessa, are you coming?” she asked.

  Tessa followed her hesitantly.

  The inn was still filled with dried blood. Nothing had really changed except for a few chalk markings on the floor and the absence of the corpse Tessa had killed.

  Yes, I need to handle this tomorrow too, Lily exhaled inwardly.

  They walked up the stairs to Lily’s suite, and headed straight toward the teleportation circle.

  “Come,” she told Tessa, who stepped carefully into the circle beside her. Then Lily spoke the command. “Activate.” And the world shifted around them.

  ???

  After her hunting tour with the demon, Vessikar, Tessa had calmed down a little, and the world finally began to move at a normal pace again. Her hunger was sated, and she could think more clearly. In fact, she could think even more clearly than she ever had before. Still, it was difficult to remember everything from her former life.

  Yes… her former life. Because Tessa Noze had died a few hours ago and was now undead. There was no doubt about that. She felt it instinctively.

  When the Demon Princess had found them, Tessa had felt afraid, but also awed and… somehow safe? And the Princess, Lilithia, was much kinder than Tessa had expected. Or remembered. Or maybe both. It was still hard to bring all those threads of memories and instincts together into something coherent.

  But yes… Tessa felt more and more secure in Lilithia’s presence. She should call her like that, right? It was not only that the Princess was kind to her or treated her with worry and patience. There was something else, something Tessa could not name yet. It felt like… belonging. That was strange. Tessa was just a city girl from Tiara. She did not deserve to stand at the side of an actual princess.

  And it was strange that the Princess had even offered to lift “her curse.” What did that even mean? Make her living again? Would that not kill her now? But deep inside, Tessa felt she did not want it, and somehow, she also felt it would not even be possible anymore. So, she declined the offer.

  But the surprises had not ended there. Lilithia had given her a ring, something far more valuable than anything Tessa had ever held in her hands. And then the Princess had checked her status, something that should not have been possible, since normally only the gods allowed mortals to see their own blessings.

  After that came the biggest shock: Lilithia had decided that Tessa would become her apprentice. She had even sealed it with some kind of spell that Tessa had never heard of. The moment the runes sank into her skin, she felt something shift. It was confusing, but again that strange warmth returned. It felt… good. Gentle, almost soft. Something she had never felt before.

  Flying for the first time had been strange too. Seeing the ground from far above, the movement of the trees, the wind rushing against her skin, everything had felt unreal. But also, it had felt right. Almost natural, as if she belonged to the air. Sadly, it had ended far too fast, but she already looked forward to learning the spell herself.

  After they landed in front of the inn, she saw the sealed door and the crime scene notice. And suddenly she had a flashback. The world in her mind turned red again. She remembered how she had jumped, how she had sunk her teeth into flesh, how she had heard a scream, and the face… the face of… her boss? Or was it her superior officer in charge?

  Did she…?

  Yes, she did…!

  She had eaten him.

  Just like the animals in the forest.

  Like cattle.

  Like a monster.

  Oh goddess…

  The feelings crashed down on her, heavy and choking. What had she done?

  But again, the Princess had turned around and calmed her. Her words had been… kind. They had lifted part of the crushing weight from her chest. It was still confusing, but things were slowly becoming clearer.

  Walking behind the Princess through the inn toward her suite felt strange. Wrong, even. This was a crime scene. Her crime scene. It was her workplace, part of her old life, and she had ruined it. She almost thought she needed to clean it, because that was what she always did here.

  But no…

  When they reached the suite, the Princess guided her inside the magic circle, and the moment Lilithia spoke the activation command, the world shifted.

  Tessa blinked. A short wave of dizziness washed over her and then vanished again, and suddenly she was standing in a chamber beside Lilithia. Before she could orient herself properly, the Princess had already stepped out of the room, so Tessa followed her quickly.

  The floor outside consisted of dark stone, and the walls rose high with strange interior decorations she had never seen before. Paintings hung along the corridor, and a deep red carpet stretched ahead of them. Golden chandeliers glimmered faintly above. It felt almost like a palace, at least how Tessa imagined one. But it was silent. Only the footsteps of the Demon Princess before her and her own steps echoed in the corridor.

  Lilithia glanced back at her. “Sorry, Tessa. I wanted to show you your room and let you rest, but it seems we have some guests. So that has to wait a bit. But I think it is not a worse time than any other to introduce you to the others.” She sighed tiredly. “Really, why are they waiting for me at this time…”

  She continued walking toward a large set of doors at the end of the long corridor. As they approached, the doors opened on their own.

  Inside lay a grand hall.

  A long carpet stretched forward, red threaded with gold. Torches burned steadily along the walls, filling the room with warm, flickering light. At the far end, on a raised dais, an obsidian throne rose from the stone like a monolith. With a surface so black it seemed to drink the light around it. Skulls were carved into the armrests, hollow-eyed and silent, and faintly glowing red gems were embedded in the backrest, pulsing like dying embers.

  It was the most beautiful thing Tessa had ever seen.

  Today truly seemed to be a day in which she saw many things she had never imagined before.

  The Princess walked toward the throne without hesitation and sat down, settling comfortably into the dark seat. Then she gestured to Tessa with a small hand movement.

  “Come here. Stay beside me. They should see that your place as my apprentice is at my side.”

  Tessa still felt confused, but she nodded and stepped beside the throne. She stood close to her new master and looked back toward the entrance, where they had just come through. The doors closed behind them again, as if moved by invisible hands. Lilithia murmured something under her breath and then turned to Tessa.

  “It is maybe easier if you do not say anything. These people are a bit… complicated. But they mean you no harm.”

  Tessa nodded quickly.

  Lilithia’s gaze returned to the entrance. After perhaps thirty seconds, the doors opened again.

  A tall, hulking demon entered first. He looked nothing like Vessikar. His frame was massive, and he carried a huge hammer resting lazily on one shoulder. Behind him walked several human figures in robes, as well as a tall man with dark hair, dressed in a long mantle with armor beneath.

  Some of them glanced at Tessa in surprise, but none said anything.

  When they reached the dais, the hulking demon and the robed figures immediately dropped to one knee. The black-haired man hesitated a moment longer, but then he, too, kneeled and bowed deeply.

  The Princess’s voice cut through the silence. “Rise. And Igrath, care to explain why this is happening at this hour?”

  Everyone stood. Then the huge demon—apparently Igrath—began to speak in a deep, thunderous voice.

  “Honored Highblood, in your absence this mortal here”—he gestured toward the man with black hair—“dared to trespass upon your realm. He was on his way to a city called Tiara to make contact with… an elf named Lysaria Greenwood, and with a new cultist cell there.”

  The Princess raised an eyebrow, but Igrath continued without pause.

  “Do not worry, I have already judged and listened to his request. No trivial matter should reach your ears, my lady. I advise you to hear the mortal out. He has interesting things to say.”

  He stepped aside with his massive frame, revealing the dark-haired man more clearly.

  “Fine, Igrath,” Lilithia said. “Thank you for screening this before I arrived. So, mortal, come forward and speak. What do you want?”

  The man stepped into the center of the hall and bowed again.

  “Thank you, my lady. My name is Cale, and I am a [Shadowstalker] of the Order of Dawn—”

  Lilithia abruptly raised her voice. “Wait. The Order of Dawn? As in the Dawnspire Conclave? You people still exist?”

  The man’s face lit up with a wide grin. “Yes, my lady. The Conclave is eternal.”

  Lilithia leaned slightly forward on her throne. “Such as the Empire…”

  Her crimson eyes sharpened.

  “All right,” she said slowly. “You have my full interest now. I hope for your sake that you do not disappoint me.”