Lord Alexander walked along the corridor, his black shoes clacking on the marbled floor with every step as he followed the butler of the mansion. The windowless walls got darker in the corridor as they walked heading down towards the drawing room where he was supposed to meet the other Lord.
The butler halting in front of the two large oak doors pushed it open to reveal the east Lord standing in front of the crackling fire. His hair was shorter than the last time he had seen and he had dyed it black.
“Lord Alexander. Welcome to Bonelake. How was the journey?” Lord Nicholas welcomed him warmly as a maid entered with a tray of drinks.
“It isn’t the first time I have been here, Nicholas,” the Valerian Lord replied as they took seats opposite to each other next to the fireplace.
“Of course, but it is very rare for you to come see me without any notice. Unless you have come here for an inspection,” he said to see the Lord send an annoyed look at him before picking up the glass in his left hand.
When the maid brought the drink to Lord Nicholas, the man waved his hand nonchalantly and the servant bowed before she left the room with her eyes cast down.
“I have no interest in partaking in something I don’t support and you know that well,” the Valerian Lord replied swirling the glass in his hand gently to see the little whirlpool. He then looked up to see Nicholas in the eye, “I believe you haven’t sent any humans from Bonelake yet to the south.”
A slow smile rose up to Nicholas’ lips, his eyes carrying mirth in it, “My men sent few unwanted goods. Like you, I have no intention to dance on the monkey’s words. Especially not when it is a human. I had been planning to come visit you but my cousin unfortunately decided to get engaged to a human.”
“Human?” Alexander asked raising his dark eyebrow in question.
Lord Nicholas and Lord Norman were of the same coin but were of two different sides. Lord Norman wanted only humans to reside on his land and eliminate every possible vampires while Lord Nicholas had use for the humans.
As much as looks were deceiving, Lord Nicholas was one step ahead in it. Outwardly the man appeared serene and gentle but there were very few in the empire who knew the actual person he was. He was as merciless as Alexander, perhaps worse in some situations.
“She is the niece of Mr. Curtis.” Mr. Curtis was part of the high class, a social elite and when one belonged to that class it didn’t matter if the person was a human or not. Problems never evolved where there was money and class.
“Has Reuben visited you?” and then Lord Alexander smiled, “Of course, he must have if you are sitting here with such leisure time.”
“Norman is too busy focusing his attention on you to see what I am doing,” Nicholas grinned seeing Alexander roll his eyes. He then said, “I heard you went to the night theater. Was it entertaining?”
“Hmm,” Alexander hummed in response to Nicholas’ curious question.
Lord Alexander seemed didn’t bothered with his question and he tilted his head, “And here I thought I could jab some pokes at you, how boring,” he murmured.
“I think we hear a lot of things.”
“Do we now,” commented Nicholas intrigued, “And what might those be?”
“One of them being of how you spend more time than necessary with your cousin’s fiance,” Lord Alexander shrugged his shoulders keeping the glass on the plane surface of the table without taking a sip.
Lord Nicholas only continued to smile and then his tone suddenly serious, “What are we going to do with Norman? I didn’t expect the council to go through the proposal of dividing the humans and vampires, and the reason being the witches?”
“That is why it was set for a period of one month.”
“It’s going to take longer than that…” Nicholas said narrowing his eyes while gazing at the fireplace.”
“They are delirious with the recent abduction of children and young woman. And it expected for the council to take a drastic step. Did you do what I asked you for?” Alexander asked to which Nicholas nodded.
“My men found few witches in the huts residing at the far end of the south border. Only one came half alive so we couldn’t have much information if the children are held there or in a different hiding area,” he reported to continue, “But we did find something very very interesting. Apparently the entire coven is run by someone known as the witch wanderer who has taken home in Norman’s mansion.”
Witch wanderer, thought Alexander. The name sounded familiar like he had heard it when he was young. Hearing that Norman was letting the witch wanderer under his roof it didn’t feel right.
“Did you receive any reports from the south?” questioned Nicholas to see Alexander with a grim expression.
“None. The witches have stopped any communications from the south to any other empires,” he answered with a sigh.
He had his doubts when he had sent Katherine and the others there and his doubts were confirmed when the reports that Malphus was to send hadn’t reached him.
“I wonder where his hate to the vampire stems from,” murmured Nicholas and leaned forward, “He’s planning to eradicate the entire night creatures.”
“He thinks of the impossible,” the Valerian Lord replied in a bored tone, “There are somethings that never change. Of course, in this world where all of us are fighting and climbing for the ladder of control is not going to bring anything as nothing is going to change. No matter how much we speak about equality in words, the vampires will always be superior to them.”
“So it is. Norman is using the witches as the hammer to trample us but it’s going to backfire so bad,” Nicholas said shaking his head at the man’s ignorance, “The black witches have no good reputation and working with them, well…” he trailed.
Someone knocked the door abruptly, interrupting their conversation. The door was pushed forward to reveal a young maid, her eyes wide and worried.
“I-I am sorry, milord for intervening but Ms Curtis isn’t in her room,” the maid twisted her hands nervously.
“Did you check the entire mansion?” Lord Nicholas asked calmly.
“Yes, milord,” Lord Nicholas frowned and then turned to look at Lord Alexander.
“I don’t want Norman sabotaging my empire and I would be delighted to have the nuisance out of Bonelake,” he said as the Valerian Lord stood up, “If it is assistance that you ask, I shall provide it, but that is until and unless my land is mine with no interference.”
“Then we have a deal,” Lord Alexander said with a smile, “I won’t take more of your time with the urgent matter that waits you,” and this made Nicholas’ lips quirk up.
“I wonder how far you’ve spun your web across the empires to find such details. It’s frankly frightening to think,” the Lord of Bonelake chuckled as they stepped out of the room.
“Not as much as the man who tricks them with their smile,” if Lord Alexander was the spider of the moon sign, Lord Nicholas was the fox, a clever one.
Seeing the man walk away with the spluttering maid next to him as he questioned her, Alexander walked out of the mansion to place his next piece of pawn.
In Mythweald, the south empire, Katherine stood in an alert position with the wooden stick in her hand. It was the fourth day since Malphus had begun training here. They weren’t anything fancy but enough to defend her, to provide enough time to save herself if the situation ever arose.
He had made her run every morning to increase her agility. It wasn’t easy running with the dress in the forest when there were bushes and broken branches that hindered the speed.
Not a while ago the man had proposed they try a surprise attack but unfortunately he was quick and she now stood there wondering where he was. Trying to hear the movement of the wind, sound of the leaves as they rubbed against each other in the evening, the sun readying itself to deep in the horizon.
Clack, was the sound when Malphus went straight at her, both the wooden sticks against each other. A little more push and Katie was against a tree with the wooden stick aiming at her neck.
“Please don’t die soon. It would be quite troublesome,” Malphus said his slate grey eyes trained on her.
“I’m sorry,” she replied dejected when he moved the stick and stepped away from him.
Her eyes were trained down on the ground, slight sheen of sweat formed on her forehead. The young woman had been working hard, listening and abiding things he asked for. There were few instances where he had been too stern with her, pushing past her limit. He didn’t expect her to turn into a warrior overnight but she needed to learn to defend herself.
She looked like a lost puppy now. Before he died, he had never cared about people around him. He despised his family, his so called commardes but here he was worried about this one. Instinctively he flicked her forehead.
“Ow! What was that for?” Katie asked rubbing her forehead.
“A reminder to continue running tomorrow early in the morning even if I’m not there,” he said taking the sticks from her hand and placing it back in the box.