Orion would have liked to head straight to the Sanctum. The blood crystal felt like it was almost burning a hole in his pocket, and he was sure it was the key to his research on magical foci.
Unfortunately, he had to be responsible. Selene might have been the instigator of their adventure, and Esmeralda the one who actually carried it out, but he was older and wiser than his biological age. He could take responsibility.
It helped reinforce his decision that he was fairly certain his involvement would eventually be exposed. Whether through extra-sensory perception, magical analysis, or countless other methods, the inspectors would arrive in Silverpeak as soon as it was confirmed that all the maimed scions were thralls. It wouldn’t take long for them to uncover the full story after that.
Better to get ahead of it early. I can try to shape the narrative now, whereas if I let them uncover things while hiding my involvement, I’ll look suspicious.
The Town Hall was unexpectedly quiet. The few guards still there were alert, and their eyes shone with a dangerous glint.
If Orion hadn’t been there that morning, he was sure they would have thrown him out, child of the Sanctum or not.
Instead, Selene and he passed through security with only a grunt of acknowledgment.
Inside, the scene was much more chaotic than when they’d left. Clerks and servants hurried around, shouting questions and carrying stacks of documents from one office to another. More importantly, he saw several young women being led away from the elevator by grim-faced guards.
Everyone looked shellshocked, as if they had just woken from a dream only to realize they were in a nightmare.
Well, that might not be far from the truth. The thrall might not have directly hurt them, but they probably spent some time under its control. I can’t imagine what that would be like.
Ezebediel greeted them at the elevator with a serious frown. It was clear he wanted to ask questions, and he immediately noticed the absence of the two others they had left the tower with.
However, when Orion asked him to take them to the top floor, he simply nodded.
Orion valued the show of trust more than he would admit. Their situation was very suspicious, but the man was still giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Once the elevator doors opened, Orion stepped out and squared his shoulders. This situation was likely to go completely wrong no matter how he framed it, so he needed to bring his A-game. The same kind he used to persuade the dean to give him another cash infusion to buy materials for his next prototype.
Two more guards stood at the entrance to Lucina’s office, and they didn’t seem particularly eager to let them in. Before Orion could try to persuade them, however, Selene stepped forward. “We know about the vampire den.”
Everyone was stunned by her bluntness until a loud voice called from inside, “Get your asses in here!”
Ah, she’s really mad. I probably would be, too, if I were in her shoes.
Lucina was sitting behind her massive desk, looking oddly well-proportioned in the spacious room, but the frown on her face and the grim expression of the functionary standing next to her promised trouble if this wasn’t worth their time.
“What is this about? You are always welcome here, Orion, but now isn’t a good time. If you know anything, speak,” she rumbled.
Though he’d known her for years, Orion could admit he’d never seen her this way before. Lucina had always carried a gentle-giant vibe, but now that was completely gone.
She was a dangerous woman, and her patience was extremely thin.
“We were there when the manor was attacked,” he said, deciding to get it over with. He suspected he might have to repeat the same story several times, so shortening the time was crucial.
Lucina leaned back, placing her hands down. She took a breath before exhaling deeply. “Alright, start from the top. Wulbert, I’m afraid we might have to involve the Sanctum earlier than expected. Send the call.”
The man hesitated, “My lady, we had agreed that presenting a complete report—”
“This is already out of our hands, can’t you see!” she growled, looming over him without even moving. “Two students were involved, both among the most connected. We cannot waste another moment. Sound the alarm and call the witches before this mess gets even bigger."
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Wulbert bowed deeply and quickly walked away, giving them only a quick glance.
Lucina sighed. “Sorry about that. My men are still in shock over what we found here. Ah, but it’s not the kind of thing you young—”
“We were here for that, too.” Orion interrupted.
Closing her eyes as if to pray for strength, Lucina slumped back. “We might as well wait at this point. No need to repeat the story multiple times.”
Before Orion could reply, he flinched as an incredibly loud siren echoed through the mountain valleys. It rose as high as a shriek and lowered as deep as a bass, almost shaking the walls with its intensity, until it abruptly cut off a few moments later.
Before he could fully recover from the insanely loud noise, someone was standing next to him.
Orion jumped, skipped, and almost fell, regaining his balance at the last moment. Selene looked at him from where she was standing, with her hands against her ears and an amused raise of her eyebrows.
However, he couldn't respond to that because the person who had suddenly intruded grabbed his attention.
Dressed entirely in scarlet robes, with an equally bright witch’s hat and a stern frown, a middle-aged woman fixed her gaze on them all. Her eyes shimmered like molten silver, and even just standing there, her presence was impossible to ignore.
This was Elder Alcmene, the Veil Priestess responsible for the Sanctum’s Inquisitors, Inspectors, and overall security.
“Well, who is attacking? I haven’t sensed any major force, so this better be good,” she said, her voice no louder than a whisper, but perfectly audible in the silence that followed the siren.
Lucina stood and bowed deeply. “Honored Elder, I have ordered the alarm to be sounded because we have discovered a vampire den within the town, and these two students have claimed to have been present during the battle that brought it to light.”
Alcmene’s eyes felt like they had a physical weight as they fell upon him, but Orion was getting used to the gaze of a Veil Priestess, considering how often he faced them these days.
He still remembered to bow lightly. A certain level of respect was necessary to avoid offending the Elders, and Alcmene was known as one of the stricter ones.
"Explain," she grit out.
Orion gulped under the weight of her regard, deciding that trying to spin things too much was likely to backfire. Instead, he focused on facts. “We decided to take a stroll through the refugee camp, and were attacked by what we now know to have been a thrall. I handled it, but we grew curious, and once we got back to town, we were approached by a young woman, who claimed to be able to lead us to the vampire...”
He told the story in full, never embellishing anything, although he did try to make them seem a little more reasonable than they might have appeared otherwise.
Most of their decisions, after all, had been guided by Selene’s hunches, and while he trusted her by now, that didn’t sound like the kind of thing the strict Elder would want to hear.
Eventually, he reached the point where Esmeralda killed Cassius. “Once we confirmed that the thralls weren’t about to die, and couldn’t disperse into town thanks to their injuries, we left the manor.”
He hesitated to press on. Helping Esmeralda escape was probably the most likely thing to get them into trouble, but he couldn’t exactly leave it out.
“Did you get her out?” Alcmene asked, not giving him time to find a way to say it.
“We did. We had an agreement and followed it to the letter,” Selene answered for him.
The Elder’s harsh eyes turned to her, causing the girl to flinch, but she didn’t step back. To everyone's surprise, Alcmene nodded. “That was well done. Never let it be said that a witch of the Lunar Sanctum doesn’t honor her word.”
Lucina had stayed silent during his retelling, but she blinked at that, evidently surprised. “Elder, shouldn’t we send someone after the vampire?”
Alcmene shook her head. “I will send word to the sisters across the province, but I doubt we’ll be able to find her. If what she said was true and she was here on a mission from the Night Lord, then she would be protected from scrying. A vampire that capable… She might already be far enough that a search party would be pointless.”
She then swung back, eyeing them, “Obviously, this will have consequences. You were not authorized to make such deals, but your actions led to the discovery of the vampiric cell we’ve been hunting for a long time. Even if this isn’t all of them, it will still be a blow to their operations.”
A beat passed, during which Orion and Selene stayed quiet, uncertain of how to interpret her words.
“Good job,” she sighed, realizing they wouldn’t say anything else without a clearer judgment. “I will be speaking with your mothers and Magistra Eire about this, but I expect your punishment will be light.”
It felt a little surreal to return to the coven on a flying carriage, knowing they had somehow gotten away with it.
Perhaps not entirely, since Alcmene had said they would still be punished, but she didn’t seem to care much about that.
She didn’t seem to care much about the whole thing, to be honest. I’d have thought she’d be angrier that a vampire had set up an entire network of thralls through the high society’s scions, but she barely bothered to order her subordinates to prepare them for cleansing.
Lucina had looked green when that came up, but she didn't protest. Whatever method the Sanctum used to reverse vampirification, it probably wasn't pleasant if the giant reacted that way.
Eventually, the carriage descended, and the coachman opened the door for them. “Here we are, welcome back!”
Orion murmured his thanks before sliding out. Sure enough, as expected, his eyes landed on his mother, who was waiting just a short distance away alongside Selene’s mother.
Asteria looked more flustered than he’d seen her before, but surprisingly, she didn’t look angry.
Between one blink and the next, she was on him. Orion didn’t know what to expect exactly, but the gentle embrace he received wasn’t up there.
“You are not mad?” He wondered out loud.
Asteria sighed, pulling back with a fond smile. “When I first got word from the inspectors, I admit I was worried, but once they explained what you did, I calmed down.”
Seeing that he was still confused, she gently brushed his messy hair with her hand and patted his cheek. “Witches aren’t exactly the type to frown upon these kinds of deals. As long as you didn’t bring dishonor to the mother, you’ll be fine.”
“That’s not an invitation to get into more trouble!” Ciela, Selene’s mother, grumbled. “What did I do wrong to get such a reckless daughter?”
Orion snorted, glancing at his friend with smug superiority. She waved a fist at him, practically telling him to watch his back.
Somehow, they had gotten away with it.
The next day, Orion was in the middle of the delicate process of placing the blood crystal into his latest spectrometer. His result with the glasses probably wouldn't be reproduced anytime soon, especially since they had somehow been upgraded with his new rank. Still, Candra’s talk of useful materials revealed that Silverite wasn’t the only option for building some, and hematite proved capable of withstanding a complex code string that should allow him to see how mana reflected through the crystal.
Predictably, that was when the alarm blared. Orion closed his eyes, summoning every ounce of patience he had, and walked up to the door, opening it and letting Selene in.
“I want my half!” She exclaimed, looking at the contraption with great interest.
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