Chapter 9: Blood Sacrifice

Previously: All Hail

 

"You are mad," Sybille Stentor cackled. "And I don't just mean coming back to Volkihar ahead of schedule again. Does Harkon know you're back?"

 

Viktoriyah was grinning from ear to ear. "My dear, I have a present for you. In fact, I think I may have just stumbled upon the answer to all our prayers."

 

"Oh, no," Sybille replied, shaking her head. "The last time you surprised me, I wound up Harkon's mistress."

 

"Don't blame that on me," Viktoriyah protested, feigning innocence. "I simply brought you here."

 

"As if you didn't already know I'd end up in his bed," Sybille said, half-scowling. "Anyway, what is this new torment?"

 

"When Harkon was mortal, he was a king," Viktoriyah explained. "His domains were vast, his rivals few. And one of them was the great House of Vantinius."

 

Sybille nodded, swallowing a sip of blood. "I read about them. They ruled Cyrodiil at one point."

 

"Harkon was obsessed with them," Viktoriyah continued. "He admired them for centuries, even after they fell on hard times and began to fade."

 

Sybille paused, realizing where this was going. "You've found them?"

 

Viktoriyah nodded excitedly. "Cassian's new mistress, and former betrothed. She just arrived at the Blue Palace."

 

The former court mage was appalled. "How dare he do that to Elisif! Didn't they just get married?" 

 

"Don't worry," Viktoriyah assured her, "I have no intention of letting that nonsense go anywhere. No... I want to bring her here. I think it's time Harkon got a new mistress."

 

Sybille's red eyes glowed with hope, but it faded just as quickly. "As much as I would love to be free of that man, I could never willingly inflict him on another woman. I may be a lot of things, but I'm no Valerica."

 

"No, no," Viktoriya said, shaking her head. "I mean her to be the last mistress. I need an alchemist to help me create a new kind of vampire." She glanced around the room until her eyes landed on Katarinya, drinking alone as always. "And I need Volkihar's most famous courtesan in history."

 

***

After all his time at Volkihar, there were still rooms Vingalmo had never seen. 

 

He didn't even know where this one was in the castle, or how Valerica was leading him there. He wondered if there was an enchantment of some sort concealing the room's whereabouts, so that one forget where it was even as they walked towards it.

 

"Harkon keeps the Alythian Relics in their own chamber," Valerica explained, her voice hushed as her footsteps were rushed. They entered a large, dimly lit room filled with oddities and paintings Vingalmo had never seen.

 

His brow furrowed. "I don't recall Alythia being a painter."

 

"She wasn't," Valerica confirmed. "These were commissioned by various lords and ladies over the centuries. They presented them to her as gifts, but Alythia was never interested in anything other than her work."

 

Valerica led him to a giant oval mirror, whose silver frame bore symbols he didn't recognize. It was the least refined object in the room, almost crudely formed. The glass surface glowed pale blue as they approached.

 

"One of her earlier works," the vampire matriarch explained. "It has the ability to display long forgotten memories. Very helpful when you begin to doubt your own mind."

 

Vingalmo stared into the swirling surface. He was about to look away, but suddenly couldn't, as though he were hypnotized. Slowly, the swirling blue lights gave way to a vision of himself playing chess... with Alythia.

 

Vingalmo was shocked. He remembered Alythia, but hadn't seen her in centuries. He was surprised by how much of her he'd forgotten. Her jet black hair, her smooth skin, her impeccable vampire armor.

 

*** 

"I see you haven't changed your clothes, as so many are doing these days," Vingalmo was saying. "Lady Katarinya has inspired all manner of new fashions at court."

 

Alythia was visibly irritated. "Why can't we just call her what she is? A whore. She is Harkon's whore."

 

Vingalmo looked up at Alythia and gently stated, "She is a lady of the court."

 

"Only because you tutor," Alythia grumbled. "Her accent used to be as common as mine. But you've given her language lessons and literature lessons and music lessons... if she's such a great lady, why does Harkon want her refined? It's not like she needs any of that just to suck his --"

 

"He needs her to be a mistress befitting his station," Vingalmo swiftly interrupted.

 

"So why doesn't he just kidnap a princess or queen and sire her instead?" Alythia spat. 

 "And destabilize a realm?" Vingalmo laughed. "Aren't you supposed to be the clever one?"

 

"I just want her gone," Alythia said through gritted teeth. "She comes to the lab and flirts with the mages in hopes of getting free potions. She's such a dithering twit."

 

Vingalmo's voice was quiet. "Were she to leave, it would be a lost opportunity for us all."

 

Alythia glared at him. "Do you favor her?" It was less of a question and more of an accusation.

 

After a pause, he finally confessed, "She will always be the one that got away. How I wish I'd been the one to meet her first." 

 

***

 

The vision faded to black, leaving a mirror that showed no reflection. 

 

"How strange," Vingalmo murmured, enthralled. "I just had a similar conversation with Viktoriyah weeks ago. Have I really been pining for Katarinya that long?" 

 

Valerica's jaw tensed before she spoke. "What else did you notice?"

 

"She played against me confidently," he said, nodding, "almost bored even, as though chess were child's play." He paused. "I wonder how I missed that before."

 

"After Harkon seized her research, he personally catalogued her items," Valerica said. "He deduced that Alythia was arguably one of the greatest minds ever to grace Volkihar."

 

Vingalmo turned to her, alarmed. "Have you found her? Is she still alive? If so, she must be brought back to court. We never should have let her go."

 

Valerica turned back to the mirror. "We were blinded," she said grimly. "I wanted Katarinya gone, you and Harkon both wanted her for yourself, and one of the most powerful mages in the world was caught in the crossfire." After a pause she added, "I believe we all owe her an apology."

 

***

 

"I have no idea what you people need me for," Katarinya grumbled, as Sybille led her and Viktoriyah into her bedchamber. "I'm no mage."

 

"You bend people to your will," Viktoriyah noted. "That's magic in and of itself."

 

"What exactly are we doing here?" Katarinya demanded.

 

"Making a new kind of vampire," Sybille told her, shrugging. She moved about her room, gathering various ingredients.

 

"We'll be combining three schools of magic -- alchemy, illusion, and alteration," Viktoriyah explained. "Effectively, we will imbue this new vampire with certain traits."

 

Katarinya sighed. "You could make this the most perfect vampire in existence, and Harkon will still tire of her."

 

"We're not creating her to be his delight," Sybille corrected. "We're designing her to be his bane."

 

"She doesn't have to be perfect," Viktoriyah said, grinning. "She just has to be perfect for him."

 

Katarinya frowned, watching Sybille whip together a potion in a cauldron. The mage was so highly skilled she didn't even need to consult her books. It was like she'd been waiting to do this for a long time.

 

"We'll give blood," Sybille said, taking out a knife. "And we say what we want her to do to him." She cut her palm and held it over the cauldron. "I'll begin. I want the Vantinian bloodline to have the ability to drain the life out of purebloods. It makes no sense for them to be so powerful, nor so long-lived. Besides... Volkihar is in dire need of new leadership."

 

Viktoriyah was next, slicing her palm with the same knife. "I want this vampire to consume and blind him to all else," she intoned gleefully. "I want her to monopolize all his time and focus, freeing the rest of us to do as we please."

 

Finally understanding, Katarinya gladly seized the knife and cut her palm. "I want her to make him feel helpless and trapped," she said. "I want him to know what it's like to be locked in someone else's cage. I want him to know true fear and desperation right before he dies."

 

The cauldron bubbled as plumes of green smoke began to rise. There was a definite shift in the air, an overwhelming feeling that welled up within each of them, threatening to burst just before it subsided.

 

Katarinya looked at the other two vampires. "Now what?"

 

Next: Awake