Role

Chapter 8

'I still remember her like it all happened mere moments ago.'

Vlijerous sat quietly in the comfortable reading chair near his reclined father.
His fingers twitched slightly but that was the only indication of excitement or
responsiveness to the comment. After all these years of waiting and wondering,
it seemed his elderly inspiration was ready to divulge the tale of his breaking
and undoing.

'All the years of training and knowledge of their abilities. All the measures
and counter measures. Nothing prepared me for our first meeting. I didn't know
much about them other than there were three newly arrived to somewhere near
Aturi on the southern continent.'

His father reached out a hand shaking hand. Vlijerous placed a now warm cup of
herbal tea in it, observing the thin scars over the translucent paper-like
wrinkled skin. Whether age or excitement caused the trembling he wasn't sure. He
took the teacup back and placed it on a table before leaning back in to listen
further to the tale.

'Shtriga, Shtrigoi, Vampyre, however they are called. They leave tell tale signs
in the areas they inhabit and as you know are very territorial creatures of
great evil and powerful magics. I thought I was prepared for this hunt. The
locals had begun to suspect something evil was amiss and I was given the
contract in hopes of intercepting the small coven before it grew or caused a
mass panic in the area. I was ready and well armed, but woefully unprepared. I
saw her just before dawn. She was in a forest glade that itself looked fae in
nature. You could tell it was once a holy place to some woodland deity, but
nothing was holy about the sight before me. Directly in the center of the glade
a large crucifix had been erected. Her legs were bound at her thighs and her
ankles to the top. Her arms were tied to each side and her head hung below. She
was a pitiful creature in her current state. She had clearly been the on the
losing end of a great conflict amongst her own kind. Even in her torn and
defeated state I was caught off guard by her beauty. Looking back I should have
realized how powerful she was and even from such a distance she had begun to put
me in her thrall. This was the beginning of the end for me.'