Chapitre 7: 5
Thornhill, Vankar Island
Northern Isle region,
Kingdom of Ashtarium
October 11th 6414
2:00 pm
Enoch estate was pretty much isolated from the rest of the town, all the way by the woods which was close to what was known as the Salish sea. So, throughout the bike ride from the mansion to the rest of the town, Ella and I saw no one but just the empty road that led to town. It was actually kind of freeing, in a way that we were far off from any prying eyes. Though I still did not like the idea of going into town. But Ella wanted to explore the town and get to know it. Unlike when we were in the Perium region, where she wasn't allowed to go out that much-not even for school. Here she was determined to be as free and unrestricted as much as possible. To the point that she had fought to become a Dungeon raider. The town of Thornhill had a Dungeon somewhere in the woods that was close to the Enoch estate. In fact we could see the tip of the building piercing out of the tree tops as we rode the bike down the road. I didn't like the idea of Ella putting her self in danger, but I kind of understood where she was coming from. Now that she had Awakened and was beginning her Cultivation journey, she needed to become stronger. We finally got off from the deserted road and into the main road that led to the town center. The buildings were exactly how I saw them last night. The decorations for Remembrance day were more prominent than they had been last night, posters of historical figures were lined around stores, figures from the Pre-war era. Some of the buildings were apartment buildings with retail stores below them. What surprised me was the fact that people were out and about, walking their pets, little kids playing outdoor games while their parents watched over them. I was shocked to see that the residents were a combination of Vampires and Humans together. And it wasn't just Vampires. I could sense the presence of other Etherborns mingled within the pedestrians. How was this possible? I had heard that in other regions there were different factions of Etherborns, but each faction always stayed in their own lane, never mingling with each other. But Thornhill was different. Here every different race were mingling together, even mixed families walked by like it was the norm. Ella tapped me on my arms and pointed to an ice cream shop.
"Stop there. I wanna check it out." She said. I steered the bike close to the pavement and parked close to the store. There was a signpost that stated that parking was not allowed past evening time. I took out my helmet and waited for Ella to get down. I couldn't help watching her as she took her helmet off. She looked striking in the outfits that she wore. Her v-neck sweater was a sapphire blue, a light pink skirt that matched with her silver hair. You wouldn't even notice her height though the gogo boots did help to make her look taller. My mind went back to that embarrassing moment in her room when she had just been in towels. I've seen Ella in just her bra and underwear before, growing up. So why did I feel uncomfortable at that moment?
"Lil, you coming," Ella said. I broke out from my thoughts and got off the bike. A couple passing us greeted us as we walked to the ice cream shop. Ella smiled and greeted them back. I willfully ignored them and opened the door for Ella.
"Why, thank you." The ice cream shop was small, with chairs and tables lined by the window of the store. I could smell the different flavors coming from the front of the store. We went to the register where a middle aged man was sitting by the counter reading what looked to be a newspaper. I couldn't remember the last time that I saw one reading the news on paper. I cleared my throat making the man put the newspaper down.
"Hello, Ladies," he said. "Sorry about that. Didn't think I was getting any custo-" He froze when he saw us. He turned from me to Ella and then back to me. I saw his eyes hover to my scar but a look from me sent him back to Ella. "You must be the new folks who took up residence at the Enoch estate."
"How did you know that?" I asked.
"It's all everyone can talk about. New folks buying the Enoch land." He said. Stupid small town. I had expected that to happen. People love to talk and gossip in a small town. Reminded me of what life was like back in the royal court. "You know that place has been pretty much deserted before I was even born."
"Oh." Was all Ella said. She looked at the menu, her legs tapping on the floor as she thought about what she wanted. She looked up at... Winston.... was the name on his badge and pointed at the mint chocolate ice cream. "I'll have that, thank you. What about you, Lith."
"The same for me," I said. Winston nodded. He typed some stuff on the old computer screen.
"Two mint chocolate coming right up." He said. "That will be seventeen point ninety-nine credits." I bought out my wallet and took the card Sanders had given to us. I swapped the card by the credit reader and a piece of paper printed out. This town had not updated to a paperless tech yet. "Do you want it in cones or cups?"
"Cones would be ok," I said. "So do you know who once owned Enoch's estate?" Winston bought two cones of ice cream for us and handed them over.
"No one knows who owns the land. The place has been pretty much vacant for a long time." Winston whispered. "Maybe since before the Long war. Urban legends have it that the building itself- Enoch manor- was the first settlement in Thornhill. Perhaps even in the entire New world continent. That's why people here in town think it's haunted." Haunted. By ghost. I had definitely sensed some weird vibe to the manor but seriously infected by ghosts. I wasn't so sure. Besides, I hardly doubt the story. Everyone knows that before the Long war the lands within the western hemisphere was undiscovered. It was the Ashtarmel family that had discovered the land and bought people to it as a sort of haven from the war. I licked my ice cream, expecting to be disappointed by it but I was quite shocked at the taste.
"That's delicious," I said. "Thanks for the ice cream." We returned back to where the bike was parked. The clouds had parted away and white light was spraying down on us. The Dome's sunlight was not as hot as the one back in the capital. I was kind of surprised at the fact that the dome even worked in this part of the Region. Since Thornhill was all the way in the North, so close to the Savage Islands, I was surprise by the maintenance of the structure. If it weren't for the fact that Thornhill attracted all sorts of business, I felt like the world would have forgotten about the damn place. What game was Sander's playing at bringing us to this place?
"I wonder what kind of ghosts are living with us." I muttered. Ella was quiet which was not normal for her. "Are you okay? You've been quiet since we left the store."
"Do you truly believe in ghosts, Lil?" She asked me.
"Huh, don't tell me you're concerned by what he said," I said. Ella didn't look me in the eye. Probably sheepish at what she had said.
"Never mind." She said. "Hey! Look, it's a vintage music record shop." She grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the shop on the other side of the road- which was not that busy with cars. The record shop was the smallest shop out of all the retail shops in the town center. There hadn't been that many old-school record shops like this back in Yorkside. Ok, the truth was that they didn't exist at all. The ones that I had gotten had been from the Royal's family's own stock. Devices like this from before the war simply didn't exist anymore.
"We don't have a record player back at the Mansion," I said trying to stop her from bringing me inside.
"Not true. There's one in the study room." Ella said. She dragged me into the stores. The bell to the store rang bringing in a boy from the back of the store. He wore a grey apron around his black shirt and sandy khakis pants. He moved around shelves of what looked to be books and went up to the counter.
"Hello.."He stopped staring at Ella like he had been struck by lighting. I recognized that look. Poor fella had barely even spoken to her and yet he was already charmed.
"Hi," Ella said leaning against the counter. She smiled at him and bash her eyelash at the dude. She wasn't even aware of the effects her looks had on the opposite sex."
Ho..w can... I help you." he stammered.
"I was wondering what kind of music do you sell here? My sister Lith is into.." I walked away to look at the records that were displayed on shelves. There were different shelves each divided into different categories by the genres it seemed. Each of these records screamed pre-war to me. How did Thornhill have so much collection of old materials? It was crazy. Old music from before the war was gone, lost in time. Not many people knew anything about them. The only place they existed was the Royal family private collections. Ariella had given me some tapes and that was how my taste in punk music began. There were records of hip-hop music, rock and roll, classical music, and... Punk music. I froze at the punk rock music album. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was the album of the punk rock band, Sex pistols. Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the sex pistols. I couldn't believe that this store of all places had the only studio album that was produced by the most controversial punk rock band of all time. As much as I wanted to geek out, I was aware that I was in a public space. I cleared my throat and looked around. I had to buy this. Though I had listened to some of their songs, I had never been able to find the full album. Who would have thought coming to this town would turn out to be so great.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing." A boy popped out of nowhere. "Those aren't toys, you know." He had long shaggy brown dreadlocks hair, medium olive skin, and wore black leather jackets with a white shirt and black boots.
"I know very well what it is," I said.
"Do you now?" He said. He treaded slowly towards me. He sniffed me like he was a dog. He frowned, making me feel mad. I was pretty sure I didn't smell bad. After all, I had showered after getting all dirty from fixing the bike. "You're not one of those Sanguine hills kids. Your human."
"Of course I'm human," I said. And the boy was a Lycan. I could tell what type of Etherborn he was. I picked up the album to check it out.
"You're not from around here," The boy said.
"What exactly gave it away," I said.
"I know everyone from around here." He said.
"Ben, hope you're not scaring off our customers." The boy from the register came around the corner with Ella. Ben- the nose-sniffer- chuckled as he took a step back from me.
"Of course not." He said.
"Plus I don't scare easily," I said as I pushed past Ben to get to Ella.
"So, did you find something?" Ella said excitedly. "Neil here said he could give it to us for a discount."
"Wait, what discount," Ben said. He followed us to the counter where I got my card ready to pay for it.
"When did you start handing out discounts?"
"Since Anna here could negotiate," Neil said. He swiped my card and handed it back to me. I turned to Ella surprised at her. She winked and turned back to Neil.
"Thank you, Neil." She said.
"You do know she's a Vampire," Ben said. "She could have charmed you into doing it."
"Anne would never do that," I said. Charm on a human was a serious crime. Only members of the R.E.T.U could use it and only on criminals.
"Don't listen to Ben," Neil said. "Your sister was quite-"
"Sister! Don't be ridiculous, they don't look anything like sisters." Ben said. I raised my eyebrows at him. He was beginning to get on my nerves, this damn dog. "What! It's true." He was quite right. But in a way, Ella was like a sister to me. Actually, she was more than a sister to me. But he didn't need to know that.
"We're sisters. I was just adopted, that's all." I said as I finished my ice cream. I threw the cone in the trash, not in the mood to eat it.
"Oh." was all Ben said.
"Ben, beside manners," Neil said. "I don't want you scaring off our teammates,"
"Teammates," Ben and I yelled at the same time. I couldn't help but frown at this dog that was as stunned as I was.
"Yes, Neil and I agreed that we should combine our team and work together as a group in the Dungeon." Ella said. The excitement in her eyes was enough to scare me. I knew she would never use Charm on an unsuspecting human but I was scared of the way she was using her natural beauty to her advantage.
"Are you guys Dungeon Raiders," I said to Neil.
"Yeah, we just recently got our license so we plan on raiding the Dungeon," Neil said. "Since you guys own the land around Enoch estate and the woods, I guess you must own the rights to the Dungeon."
"Yes, we do" Ella said. It turned out that the rights to the Dungeon and the land it was on belongs to whoever owned Enoch estate. So when Sanders mysteriously bought their new home, they became owners of the Dungeon. Before the rights were theirs, ownership of the dungeon belonged to the Dungeon Association that was also a part of the town's administration. If one wanted to become a Dungeon raider, they had to apply and show qualifications that they could handle the environment of the Dungeon. The number one qualification was that the person had to be a Cultivator. It didn't matter what race one belonged to. As long as you could cultivate the Primal power within oneself, they were allowed to become a Raider. Also to survive the dangerous environment, one had to have Awaken both their racial physique and Bloodline power. After that they could then begin the Journey of Cultivation. Ariella had awakened her Vampiric physique and her Bloodline power .Oh, when it came to the art of Cultivation, there were two systems that allowed for one to be able to cultivate. They were Martial power system or Magical power system. As someone who was born with a powerful body and had been training her body even before she awakened, Ariella chose the path of Martial cultivation. She had the talent for the art of sorcery due to her special bloodline, but apparently her physique made her more suited for the Martial arts. Looking at Neil, I could tell that he was a cultivator which was surprising. Out of all the Etherborn race, humans were the weakest and least likely to be able to cultivate or even awaken a physique or bloodline powers. In fact the truth was that the human race did not possess a racial physique or Bloodline abilities like the other races. They could cultivate and become stronger than the average humans, but their cultivation journey was a lot harder than it was for the other race. This Neil boy must have some kind of talent or something if he could cultivate.
As Neil and Ella talked about the Dungeon, I moved towards the window of the store away from the conversation. On the road was a congregation of people, all dressed in what looked like white clothing. They were following two slow, moving limousines, and from the looks of it and their articles of clothing, I knew it was a funeral procession. Vampires wore only white clothing when they buried their dead while humans wore black.
"The funeral is for the Vikram family," Ben said quietly. He was good. I didn't sense his presence as he got close to me. He definitely wasn't your average Lycan then. I wondered how old he truly was. Like Vampires, you couldn't trust most Etherborns by their appearance when it came to age. Plus, there was also the downside of cultivation which was able to slow one's natural aging process.
"The Vikram family," I said. I recognized the name. The Vikram family were a branch family of the Ruthven House-one of the seven great noble houses of the vampire race alongside the Ashtarmel house. If I remember properly, the head of the Vikram family was Lord of the Northern Isle region. So why were they here in Thornhill, when they could be in the cities outside the town?
"Yeah, the Vikram family. Michael Vikram is the mayor of the town." Ben said. Mayor, huh. " The eldest son died not long ago." Ok, that explained it. Not the Lord that I knew but another Vikram seemed to be in charge of this place.
"What happened," Ella asked. She was on my other side watching the proceeding.
"No one knows, but the leading theory says he was killed in the Dungeon" Neil said. Silence followed after what he revealed. The job of being a Dungeon raider was not for the faint of heart. It was a job with a high mortality rate. It was true that Vampires and some Etherborns were naturally immortal but they weren't indestructible as they like to believe themselves as. There were ways to kill them and put them down for good. I was well versed in those ways. And so were the monsters within the Dungeons.
"Hey, If you guys want, Ben and I can show you around town." Neil said.
"Really," Ella asked.
"Don't you have a store to run?" Ben and I spoke at the same time. I glared at him.
"What's the point? It's not like we were having much luck with customers, to begin with." Neil said. He took off the apron and dumped it on the counter. "My uncle won't mind me closing a little bit early." Ella turned to me, biting the last scrap of her cone. I knew exactly what she was going to ask of me and I knew I was better off going along with what she wanted.
"Fine," I said. She squealed so loudly in excitement and hugged me. Ben's eyes were on us, his expressions unreadable. I didn't like the way his eyes looked and I knew that I had to keep an extra eye on him.
_
Royal Palace of the Ashtarmel family
Yorkside Region,
Pandemonium city
Capital of the Kingdom of Ashtarmel
August 3rd 6406
6:50 pm
Ariella watched her Father as he discussed things with her uncle in low voices. They were in an elevator which led down to the basement of the palace. She had never been down there before, as that part of the palace was forbidden to her. Now she wondered why she was heading there. Ever since her eighth name day, Father and everyone had been acting strange. He had given her a silver dagger with the Ashtarmel's house symbol- a blood-soaked sun-carved in the hilts. Then he had decided it was time for her to learn how to fight. She didn't mind the weapon training from Sanders as long as it made Father proud of her. And he was always extremely proud of her. And now he was taking her down to the basement. Something was going on. Ariella strained her ear to try to hear what they were saying but she didn't have sharp hearing like her siblings. The elevator finally stopped and the door opened, revealing a long hallway that was lighted by floating orbs of light. Father and Uncle walked out, father holding her hands as they stepped into the corridor. Waiting for them in the corridor was Sanders. He was wearing his usual military uniform. He had his usually stern face that rarely showed any emotions. He saluted when he saw King Rafael and General Nehemiah.
"My King. My Lord." Sanders said.
"Sanders." was all Father said.
"Are you sure about this brother?" General Nehemiah said. "If they found out we have it....."
"They won't." the King said. "And it's not it. It's a person, Nehemiah. Come along now, Ella." Ella hurried to catch up with the adults. There were glass doors opposite from each other on the wall. They turned left around the corner and Sanders stopped at the first one. Ariella froze. Inside the room, on a stainless steel bed was a girl. She moved to the glass window not sure why. She felt a pull tugging at her heart. The girl seemed to have noticed their presence. She jumped off the bed and ran towards the window. There was a wild look to her, her eyes blazing with something that she could not describe. She punched the glass like it was nothing. Ariella jumped backward but she did not run away. She held her grounds by the window. Nothing happened. And then there was a rebound and the girl was sent flying backward. Ariella's heart ached at the sight of the girl being hurt. She ran to the door and tried to open it but it was locked. She rounded on Sanders without a thought.
"Open it." She said.
"I can't do that, Princess." He said.
"I command you as your First Princess to open this door," Ariella said. Sanders turned to the king.
"Your grace, that girl killed ten of my best men back in the Dread forest." He said. "St. Astarth could barely reinstate her back to proper decorum. And it took a two-full squad to quietly transfer her here. She's highly dangerous."
"I don't care," Ariella said.
"Better do as she says, Richards. Her temper is worse than mine." The King said. Sanders sighed as he bought out a card and swiped it on the door handle. Ariella did not waste time and she ran inside the room. The inside of the room was colored white and there was a toilet seat all the way in the corner. The girl was on the floor groaning in pain. She tried to stand up but her legs failed her. Ariella put forth her hands to the girl.
"Are you alright?" Ariella said.
"Leave me alone, you fucking bloodsuckers." the girl swung her fists towards Ariella but then stopped mid-swing. She blinked like she was finally seeing Ariella. Ariella couldn't help noticing how pretty she was. She seemed tall with light brown skin and midnight black hair. She had a scar on her lower lip that went all the way to her jawline. But it was her eyes, her yellow-green eyes that reminded Ariella of wild cats, that captivated her.
"You're not a vampire."
"I am. I just haven't awakened yet." Ariella said. "Do you need help getting up?" The girl shook her head and finally got the strength to stand up. She gave Ariella one more look before going back to her bed.
"What about your hands. Does it need fixing? We have a good-"
"I'm fine." The girl said as she sat on the bed. She raised her arm up, the one she had used to punch the window. It didn't seem to be broken or anything. Ariella sighed in relief. "You're strange for a vampire." The girl's eyes landed on the adults behind her. "I take it the one in the middle is your father." Ariella turned her head backward at her father and then back at the girl.
"Yes, how did you know." She asked.
"You look alike." The girl said. "Why am I here." Ariella tried to respond but she couldn't. She had no idea why the girl was here or even why Father bought her down here.
"Ariella, come here," Father called for her. She hesitated. She didn't want to leave her but Father was calling for her. Finally, she decided to return to Father. Sanders closed the door as soon as she walked out.
"Father," Ariella said.
"It's time to go back upstairs," Father said. "We don't want the Queen to be worried now, do we." She nodded. She doubled back to see the girl was staring at her. Those eyes. She would not be able to forget about them.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone