Blood Shaper

Book 4: Chapter 24

“Sir, the Itarian representative is here.”

Edric Ravenhome turned away from the window in his office. “Who did they send?”

“High Crusader Vexler.”

Edric grimaced, “Damn, I was hoping we’d get Rian.” He shook his head and waved his secretary off. “So be it; bring them up, please.”

“I can inquire after High Crusader Hearthbreaker while I escort them if you’d like.”

“No, I’m sure Rian is fine; I was just hoping they’d send someone with a known good relationship with us. Sending their newest High Crusader isn’t a bad thing, but it's closer to a neutral response than I would have preferred.” He paced over to his desk. Stopping with his body halfway into his seat, he frowned. “Crap, some of this I need to put away. Buy me some time when you bring them up.”

His secretary, Alan, a retired hunter who’d gotten one too many lasting injuries to stay in the field, grinned widely. “I’ll give them the slow escort. Route them down the impressive hallway; make it seem like I’m trying to impress the new High Crusader.”

“Perfect.” Edric started collecting paper and putting them into neat piles. Some weren’t important and could be put in his desk’s drawers during the meeting, but some were a little more sensitive than that. He gathered up those documents and walked over to the bookshelf closest to the door. With a few presses of hidden buttons and one secret knock in the right spot later, the secret, warded draw popped open. After the papers were securely in the drawer and safe from any Skills that could peep at them, he sealed the drawer back up and sat back down.

Alan still hadn’t knocked, which meant Edric had time to plan for the coming conversation.

Having this talk with Rian would have been best but not absolutely necessary. Now, Vexler. What do we know about Vexler? He couldn’t pull out one of the dossiers they kept on important people and read through it, not with the subject of said dossier on his way up, but he’d learned quite a few tricks to recalling information over the years. Damn, he’s one of the Crusade’s new blood, isn’t he? That could be an issue. He pressed a hand to his forehead and sighed. “Or will it be?” He asked out loud. “If we need to go all the way, it’ll make things easier.” He clenched his eyes shut, grit his teeth, then shoved his grief and his doubts to the back of his mind.

The knock at his door had him straightening up. “Enter.”

Alan stepped inside, just out of the way of the door, and he announced, “High Crusader Vexler to see you, Commander.”

The young orcish man who stepped inside was wearing the official dress armor of the Itarian Crusade, a shiner, more ornate version of the plate that their officers wore into battle. Vexler’s armor was quite resplendent in the afternoon sun that shone through the window, with the metal glinting in the light and the decorative etchings showing a particularly famous scene, at least among the Itartians, of the Crusade battling against a tier-five vampyr and it’s spawn that had destroyed several towns and spread terror throughout the Isermani Concord.

Edric found the entire thing a waste of time and money, highlighting the differences between the Shatterplate Order and the Itarian Crusade.

“High Crusader Vexler, welcome. I appreciate the Crusade sending you to see me.”

“Good afternoon, Commander Ravenhome. The Shatterplate Order is an ally in the ongoing battle to root out the vampyric scourge; we’re more than happy to speak with you when you ask.” He turned his head and gestured to his two guards who were waiting at the door. “You can wait outside. There’s no danger here.”

As tempting as it was, Edric didn’t roll his eyes while the younger man wasn’t looking. I’m sure that you mean that in a diplomatic, helpful way, referring to how we’re “allies against the vampyric scourge” and not being insufferably arrogant about how the Crusade is better than the Order. It isn’t like I’m a tier-five combatant compared to your tier-four, and I have decades more experience than you in combat.

Edric took the brief time that Vexler spent getting comfortable in his seat to examine the younger man and get his thoughts in order. Vexler was an orc, which meant green skin, a faint minty green in this case, with small tusks protruding above his bottom lip. His hair was shaved away on the sides of his head, leaving a thin strip of hair that he’d grown long and braided, hanging down to his neck. Tall, heavily armored, and muscular, Vexler looked every bit of the Crusader he’d spent most of his time as, a heavily armed and armored melee fighter that got down and dirty with vampyr and whatever was between him and the vampyr he wanted to kill.

Edric’s impression? He was impressive looking and tough, especially if he made it all the way to High Crusader, and most likely a future problem.

He didn’t dislike the Crusade, personally or professionally, and he quite liked several of its members. The High Crusader he’d wanted to have this meeting with, Rian Hearthbreaker, was a close friend. But the Itarian Crusade was also not the organization it had been in the past. They were still a highly efficient and organized army that was dedicated to protecting people from the vampyr, but they had also had several leadership changes over the past few decades, and their internal culture and the way they handled their exterminations had changed over those decades into something that was growing more alarming by the year.

And the fact that I’m using the word extermination while thinking about them sums up the whole problem.

While their means of combating vampyr were completely different from the Order’s, they had been quite similar in how they had gone about their business. The Shatterplate Order’s modus operandi was to find the vampyr they were after and kill it as quickly and cleanly as possible without causing any collateral damage. Once the true threat was dealt with, they quietly investigated, made sure there were no newly turned hidden away that could pop back up as a problem later down the line, and gently and compassionately put down anyone that had been bit and hadn’t turned yet, and cleaned up the mess, helping anyone that had been impacted by the vampyr who they could assist before leaving.

The Itarian Crusade did things a little louder and needed more building repairs once they were done in comparison, but they acted as an actual army with General Classes and lots of Soldiers, while the Order fielded smaller hunting teams and focused on Classes like Monster Hunter, Vampyr Hunter, Tracker, and so on. That is to say, that had been the case.

With several key leadership figures dying or retiring, new blood had been promoted into their place, and with these new leaders, a distinct flavor of fanaticism had started to seep into the Crusade. The bitten and unturned were no longer gently sent off to sleep as they deserved as literal victims who deserved to be treated with respect; they were put down on the spot as “potential sources of the taint of the vampyr,” as one report from interviewed surviving witnesses had said. They no longer did their best to avoid fields and leave buildings standing so that people who had been terrorized by vampyr could continue to live; they marched right on through the shortest path to save time getting to the enemy.

The rumors he’d heard about the Crusade killing everyone in a town because they’d tried to protect one of their people who had been turned by a random attack had turned out to be false, but the fact that he’d even sent people to investigate those rumors instead of dismissing them immediately showed how much things had changed. His investigators had also told him that they were pretty sure the rumors that they’d killed the poor man’s entire family to protect him were true.

Edric was worried that in the next fifty years or so, the Itarian Crusade would need to be either disbanded or destroyed.

But fifty years from then was the future, and in the moment, there was a very good chance he would need a small army dedicated to ridding the world of vampyr to hold off another army. An army of a small nation whose leader was almost definitely a vampyr, and somehow fooling them all into thinking he was something else entirely.

“What is it that the Crusade can assist the Order with?” Vexler asked.

“You’ve heard about Avalon?”

Vexler’s brow tightened, “I have, and allow me to express my condolences for your loss. We never want one of our own to die, but falling in battle against the scourge is the most honorable death.”

The muscles in Edric’s back loosened a hair. The way things were going with the Crusade, he’d half expected the man to disparage his daughter for being turned as if it wasn’t a threat every time a hunt was undertaken. “I appreciate that. However, have you heard the rest of what’s coming out of Avalon?”

“I have,” His mouth curved down, and his nose scrunched up, his two tusks baring up and pressing against his upper lip. “Their leader, an outworlder named Kay, has apparently been turned but isn’t a vampyr. He claims he is some other kind of being called a ‘vampire’ and has some way of keeping those who have been infected from becoming vampyr, but only by transforming them into his new species. Is that what you’re referring to?”

“It is,” Edric replied, nodding, “What are the Crusade’s thoughts on that?”

“Utter bullshit. Beyond the impossibility of what he has claimed, calling himself a Class Line Progenitor of a blood Class makes him suspect. Officially, the Crusade hasn’t released our conclusions, but we suspect he may have been in league with Vampyr the entire time.”

“I have no evidence that that is true,” Edric cautiously replied. In fact, he was pretty sure that this Kay definitely had not been in league with any vampyr, thanks to his correspondence with his daughter while she had been there, and he desperately hoped that there were people with the Blood Manipulator who hadn’t been taken in by the deception and could teach the Order the Class since it could be a great weapon for the future. “However, I too believe that the claims of becoming a ‘vampire’ instead of a vampyr are false and that he is now a puppet of the vampyr who turned him and, through him, his nation.”

“And you’re calling on the Crusade because…?”

“Because I believe that it may become necessary to march on Avalon, fight against people who have been deceived and manipulated, and remove any and all vampyr who shelter there, working against our world and its people.”

“Ah!” Vexler leaned forward with a grin and smile, and the light burning in his eyes was a dangerous one, “And if such a solution became necessary, you would want the Crusade at your side.”

“Yes, I would.”

“I cannot speak officially for the Crusade on a decision of that level of importance, but I am sure that the Crusader Generals would agree to join you. Have you spoken to any other groups or individuals?”

“I have sent word to a few of the independents who would be able to help and received a few replies so far. I’ve also made overtures to the Empire to see if they would loan us any manpower.”

Vexler glanced off, slowly nodding but picking up speed. “Yes, that’s good. The Crusade has closer connections to the Concordant, so I’ll see if we can receive any help from them. Even if we don’t get official support, I’m sure a few of their noble houses will lend us aid.” He sat up suddenly with a confident grin on his face, “I’ll also contact the Coalition and see if any of their members are in the area.”

Edric hid a frown. The Coalition of Fang’s End was very close to being the kind of fanatics he was worried the Crusade was going to become in the future, the kind that needed to be removed for the safety of anyone else. Less of an organization and more of a loose collection of allied individuals, the Coalition did not care who had to die or be hurt in order to end a vampyr, and they often killed people they suspected of being vampyr, with little or no real proof. One of the Crusade’s High Crusaders being able to contact the Coalition’s very loose and very mobile leadership was worrying.

As Vexler continued to brainstorm ideas of who could be contacted and what could be done to ease the way of a force approaching Avalon, Edric’s worries that he might be making the wrong decisions reared their head again.

He shook them off. His goal was to save as many people as possible from vampyr and to prevent as many tragedies as he could. He’d lost his parents and siblings and now one of his children. He wouldn’t let anyone else lose theirs, not if he could help it.