PreCursive

  Over Rhiannon’s shoulder, I saw Dusk do something I’d never seen from the Gnoll woman.

  A long slow sigh of realized fear. Resignation painted her furred face, and her cheeks dropped as her apparent suspis about the noblewoman were firmed.

  I, meanwhile, was trying to my head around the cept as well.

  What even was a Vampire, in the text of Vereden? I had no point of refereo make a guess. The idea that Rhiannon was a Vampire of all things was absurd, sidering what I’d seen from the woman. Stories from ba Earth had paihem, depending on the source material, as bloodthirsty monsters with weako daylight, stakes through the heart, fire and silver, religious iography, and garlic of all things.

  But I’m not sure any of that applied to Rhiannon.

  For ohing, I’d seen the woman move about perfectly fine in the daylight. Hell, it had been the height of the day when I’d first met her in Jason’s shop. She hadn’t seemed to care about the light at all. Silver was out as well, as the previous dress I’d seen her wearing had silver csps directly resting on her pale skin.

  I had no idea about fire, which…was kind of a universal weako most things, but I kinda doubted that garlic would bother her. And…did she even have a heart?

  I felt a chill run down my spine.

  Holy fuck.

  For the first time, I realized that I wasn’t getting a reading off of Rhiannon from Lifeblood Sense. I felt nothing from the woman with either the passive sehat the Skill granted me, or the more active, focused version. I couldn’t feel a drop of blood rushing through the woman-thing’s veins.

  How…had I missed this? My only excuse was that I was used to the feeling at this point, and had just kind of…tu out, when I could directly see the person in front of me.

  God fug damnit. If I had only paid more attention, then how much of the st day could I have prevented?

  I…

  I didn’t have time for this. Even though all of these thoughts were rag through the depths of my rings, I kept them off of my face.

  I had to focus on the creature in front of me, who even the normally unfppable Dusk seemed to be almost frightened of.

  Actually…

  Why hadn’t the Solstice guards reacted to her revetion? When I cast an I over to them, I saw they were still just standing right o my suspended form, stoically staring off into the distance.

  Rhiannon had been so careful earlier about stopping her escorts from hearing about her true nature, but she didn’t care at all now.

  The woman must have noticed my attention on them after her sileion because she waved a hand nontly. “Oh, don’t look to them like they’ll save you, Nathan,” Rhiannon said, amusement thi her voice. She sauntered casually into the cell with us and approached one of the guards, patting his cheek like he was a dog. He didn’t react at all. “After Liora’s little scare from earlier, I tightened my grip on these puppets in the meanwhile. It’s a bit tiring, but so much would have been ruined if they had thought to message that buffoon Shacklock. These boys wouldn’t flinch even if I spat on them now,” She wi me. “I don’t reend you try that, my dear. They’d probably react poorly.”

  I did my best to keep my breath even as I met the woman’s glowing crimson eyes. “What are you even after, Rhiannon? Why all these…games?” I’m not sure I was able to keep my frustration out of my voice, after the way this…thing had pyed all of us against each other. And so successfully, at that.

  This time, it was my cheek that the creature reached out to pat. My skin crawled at the tact, as I felt, for the first time, just how cold her flesh was. “Oh, rest assured. It has all been for a purpose. The suffering of your trymen…the banalities of this droll little civil war. Why, even the infighting in your royal house has all been for a single purpose.”

  I blinked slowly at the words, meeting Dusk’s eyes over Rhiannon’s shoulders again. I didn’t care for the resignation I saw in her e eyes.

  There was…a lot to unpack from that statement.

  I wet my suddenly dry tongue. “Are you saying…,” I said slowly. “That you’re behind the civil war? Everything that’s happened…has been because of you?”

  Rhiannon ughed delightfully at the shock that had slipped onto my face. “Goodness no!” She said, ht g in her glee. “I’m good, darling, but I’m not that good. No, I merely…facilitated things. I happened upon a few choice pawns, and from whispering in their ears, those ears led me to more. Those whispers merely stoked fires that already existed. I ’t create anything that doesn’t already exist. Passive suggestion is so much simpler than active trol, like I’ve been forced to do with these fools,” She flicked a dismissive hand at the stoic Solstice guards. “No, I’m afraid the ses within the Herztalian nobility against the Scupted already existed.”

  Oh.

  I…guess there was no easy expnation for hatred. Would have been hough.

  While I rocessing that, Rhiannon tsked. “I don’t uand it myself, though,” She admitted freely. “Why, in my day, if we’d had access to your modern Sculpted? We would have been delighted to grant them whatever they wished. How such a marvelous creation came to be in su uninspired era is a bit baffling.”

  ‘My day’?

  “What are you talking about?” I asked with a frown. “From what I uand you’re not much older…than…me…” I trailed off, as Rhiannon started ughing in the middle of my sentence.

  “Oh me oh my. I see that upstart Grey has been a tad defit in edug his apprentice,” She tittered, amusement thi her voice. “He never did his due diligen edug you about the mohat may lie under your bed?”

  Dusk spoke up then. “That creature isn’t Rhiannon of awr,” She said bluntly. “It’s merely wearing her skin. The girl has been dead for a long time now. I’m assuming ever sihe unspecified act that occurred in this very same pace?” She asked evenly.

  Rhiannon flicked a baze over her shoulder at the Gnoll, but still nodded. “Oh, act is such a dirty word. I prefer…providence. But yes, I’ve been in this particur ge of clothes for around six years now,” She admitted freely. “It’s been a gaff, let me tell you. I don’t oftehe ce to be such a pretty young thing like poor little Rhiannon, so desperate for attention. It’s a…refreshing ge of taste.”

  I furrowed my brow, a bit perplexed at the way this versation was going. Y’know, beyond the fact that I was strung up in a dungeon and hanging from a ceiling. “Why…are you telling us all of this?” I asked, baffled. “Why expose all of this secrecy?”

  Rhiannon stilled for a moment, still fag Dusk. Slowly, her head turo face me, and when it did, I felt a rush of dread roll down my spine.

  Her pupils had twisted and elongated, narrowing into the slit of a cat’s eyes. She leaned in closer to me, only inches away from my face. “That’s the thing,” Rhiannon said breathlessly, a spark of madness evident in her inhuman gaze. “I don’t know. Why am I so ied in you, Nathan Hart? There’s something about you that sparks a hunger in me, beyond the ies of my nature. I do not thirst for your blood as I do the rest of you pathetic mortals, a I am drawn to you heless. It is as if there is an indescribable quality to the spark of your soul that entices me. I ot describe it as anything more than…divine.”

  Insane.

  Beyond being a mohat fed on men and women, this thing was crazy. Whatever it was that was drawio me, it wasn’t divinity. There was only ohing different about me that could affect her.

  My Precursor nature. Something about it was drawing her in, like ip to a tiger. But there wasn’t anything divine about that.

  At least…to the best of my knowledge.

  “Are you a Godblood, perhaps?” Rhiannon hummed, slowly starting to circle me. I did my best to keep her in view by ing my head, but the guards kept me in pce. “Is that why Grey is so ied in you? It’s the only thing I think of, really. The st of your soul reminds me ever so slightly of that of my poor mistress. I miss her so, so much,” Briefly, her voice transformed behind my back, being eerily animalisti quality. The growls in the uone of it sent shivers down my back. But it vanished when she spoke again. “I don’t bme her for leaving me behind, you know, all those millennia ago. The War in Heaven was so chaotic, mortal. You ot possibly uand the death aru that the warring of gods brings. It’s uandable, that one of her bdes was left in her wake when she was forced from the shores of this…pathetic backwater.”

  This thing was a remnant from the War in Heaven. But…that was nearly three thousand years ago…

  My eyes widened, meeting Dusk’s once more across from me.

  Slowly, Dusk nodded across from me. “Such is the nature of the Vampyr,” She said quietly, as Rhiannon slowly started to circle back around to my front. “They’re ons crafted by divine hands, from an age long past. History tells us they were meant to sow terror aru on scales we…’t imagine anymore. It was thought that all of them had been found a with. But…”

  “But that which ot truly die, only hides in the dark,” Rhiannon finished, ing to a stop in front of me. She smiled ever so slightly, the tips of her fangs peaking out. “I was defeated in those st days, but I only slumbered on this oh-so-auspicious spot until one over-ambitious noble dug too deep.”

  “Olsen,” I said quietly.

  Rhiannon ined her head. “That was the ‘act’ that Liora speaks of. Little Rhiannon was apanying one of his digs below the bedrock of Elderwyck, and they found my hiding spot. I was weak, but the girl was incautious enough to reach out and touch my former host. From there…”

  A tearing noise sounded out in the cell block, and then Thirty-Two finally spoke once more. “You dominated Olsen, and then wormed your way into every level of Herztalian governance, as your kind are meant to,” She said, disgust thi her voice. “To think Olsen had so mufluence…”

  Rhiannon rolled her eyes, her posture instantly transf from the inhuman back to that of a young woman. She leaned in closer to me. “It wasn’t just Olsen,” She said quietly with a wink, before standing up straighter. She cpped her hands suddenly. “Now! As fun as all of this was, the time for expnations is over. I wouldn’t want to spoil all of the surprises now, would I? You two,” She said, snapping her fingers and pointing them at the two Solstice guards. They finally straightened up from their near-motionless state. “Collect all three prisoners and them together. It’s time to take them to the festivities.”

  “At once, madam,” One of the guards said attentively, moving to un me from the ceiling. I would have loved to take that ce to try and escape, but I was still too…well, fucked up from the battle at the docks to do so. In particur, I was reminded of how both of my arms had been dislocated, as the guard ungly forced them behind my back.

  Thank God I had dulled my pain, or else I would have been g at that. As it was, the throb of the suppressed agony just echoed in the bay rings.

  The other bowed slightly to Rhiannon, which she didn’t aowledge, before approag Dusk’s cell and opening it. She didn’t protest the rough treatment of the Solstice guard as he uned her and force-marched the Gnoll woman out of the cell. I was shoved out of my own as well, meeting her calg eyes as I stumbled to a halt.

  She shook her head minutely. I took a deep breath before nodding just as shallowly.

  Not yet, then.

  We were ed together, with Dusk in front of me, while one of the guards approached another cell. When they ope and walked inside I heard Thirty-Two try and struggle briefly, only for a resounding impact from the cell t out. Moments ter, the rival spy was dragged out with a hood over their head. The guard dragged the stumbling presumed teen and clipped her ed form to Dusk’s.

  Now that we were all together, I couldn’t help but notice that our s and shackles were way overkill for three people that, as far as I could tell, weren’t even that powerful. The three of us were either just under, just past, or te in the first Breakpoint at level one-huhe sheer density of Mana emanating off of these things made me think they might be able to restrain someone like Hook.

  Without even needing to ask for it, the Solstice guards handed Rhiannon the keys to all our shackles. She noticed my stare, and slipped it into a pocket on his dress with a wink.

  When the guards were done, Rhiannon ied us for a moment. A slow smile grew on her painted lips. “Now,” She said breathlessly. “On with the show.”

  She turned around and walked back down the way she came, with the guards dragging us behind her.

  …………………………….

  I was barely able to pay attention to the interior of Olsen’s pace as we were force-marched behind the Vampire woman. From what little I could see, it was at least a bit more tasteful than Magnus’s manor had been, all those months ago.

  But only slightly. There was still copious amounts of wealth visible all around me.

  Most of my attention was on the humming form of the Vampire leading us through the halls, as she almost skipped down them. Whatever she was so cheerful about could only be to our detriment, and I dreaded to find out what it was.

  But I’m sure I was going to soon.

  I heard the cmor before I saw it, as we walked up what seemed to be a tral staircase. Stretg out oher side of it were dozens and dozens of Loyalist soldiers, seemingly standing at attention. They barely spared us a gnce.

  Outside, it souo me like the murmur of aremely rge crowd, not dissimir to that of a spame from ba Earth. There was a note of relief aement that u the ehing.

  When we reached the top of the staircase, I only spared a brief g the middle-aged man standing on the baly we were led to.

  Instead, my attention was stolen by the absolutely massive patial courtyard in front of it.

  It acked with what must have been hundreds of people.

  Rhiannon took a deep breath at the sight, smiling slightly. “And here…we…”

  “Go.”