บท 21: Quid Pro Quo
The tension had risen dramatically following Stefan's comments and neither said anything for a long moment until the priest himself spoke.
"I think we need to have a discussion about your friend Soyun."
"He's not setting us up" Soyun immediately defended.
"How can you be sure?"
"Trust me when I say he wants the vampires in charge as much as we do."
'Déjà vu.'
"What exactly do you know about him?"
"Enough" she said vaguely "what about you? Your contact is obviously Officer Hwa" she folded her hands "when did that happen?"
"I've known Chiyon for years, she's a friend and don't try to deflect young lady."
Soyun clicked her tongue in response looking away with a frown.
The reaction caused him to sigh "Soyun weren't you the one who told me 'no more secrets' the other day? Because we can't be expected to properly work together if we're keeping important information from one another."
"It's not my secret to tell."
"I understand that you don't want to give up your friend's identity but if we're going to be working together I need to know who I'm working with."
"You can ask him yourself when we meet."
"I feel like there's more to this relationship of yours that you're not telling me."
"He did me a huge favor."
"What kind of favor?"
Soyun bit her lips "it's complicated."
Stefan looked at her for a moment before speaking "Chiyon told me your friend proclaimed himself to be a wizard."
Soyun looked at him incredulously "w-what?"
"Apparently he did enough to convince her of this."
"Seriously?"
"Chiyon is one of the sharpest people I know and is not one to be fooled easily so you tell me, is she being deceived?"
Soyun opened her mouth, closed it before face palming "dammit."
"Well?" Stefan said patiently.
"He's not-ugh he's not a wizard" she rolled her eyes before adding with a tinge of uncertainty "I think…"
"So he's not using magic?"
"Magic is a thing?" her eyebrows rose before she shook her head "of course it is there's a whole hidden supernatural world out there" she cast a glare at him "speaking of…"
"You're deflecting again."
Ignoring his words she continued "we never did finish talking about how you didn't tell me there was a whole society of supernatural creatures other than vampires."
"I still maintain that it was unnecessary" he spoke first before scowling "let's stay on track here Soyun-"
She ignored him again to continue "and you being part of some secret vampire hunting organization?"
"…"
"Well?"
"I was waiting for the right time to tell you."
"I'm not a little girl anymore" she emphasized with a scowl.
"That doesn't mean you don't have much to learn" he massaged his brow "like how to subtly steer a conversation as opposed to ignoring what you don't like and throwing other topics at the front to get your way."
"It worked didn't it?" she shrugged.
'That it did' he thought but refused to admit out loud.
"Alright fine, you're obviously too stubborn to impart vital information that may very well serve to determine whether this clearly suspicious person can be trusted to work with us on life or death missions."
"And you're obviously using my perceived naiveté and inexperience in this situation to attempt putting off explaining information that may well expand my world view."
"Or shatter it" he mumbled but shook his head "fine I've been putting this off for too long anyway so how about this, we take turns laying it all out on the table. No keeping anything secret unless it's not yours to tell."
"Quid pro quo?" she asked.
He confirmed with a nod "quid pro quo."
"Who's going first? NOT IT!"
He raised a brow at her childishness "I am invoking my authority as your guardian" he announced "you go first."
Soyun's jaw dropped "wh-wha-I'm a legal adult!"
"And yet you still live under my roof."
"This is an apartment."
"And who rented it?"
Soyun's mouth worked with a look of disbelief "I can't believe you're doing this."
"You use all the tools at your disposal to get the best results Soyun."
She rolled her eyes before reluctantly beginning her tale at where she believed things to be the most relevant. Her first major reveal was that she exposed her secret in front of an upperclassman that was walking her home from a drinking party. Already he had questions: why was she out drinking so late? Who was the boy escorting her? What was her relationship with him? How did she expose her secret to him?
That last one was answered when she revealed they encountered a vampire on their way. After killing a man who turned out to be one of the local thugs who had been harassing them and their neighbors the vampire set his sights on them ultimately forcing her hand. Stefan would realize this incident was the case that sparked Chiyon's investigation into the Blood Syndicate and Stefan couldn't help but silently wonder if Soyun was involved further or if it was just a coincidence.
Chiyon didn't give much details of that case only mentioning there were two university students involved that managed to escape. She presumed that the mysterious vigilante intercepted the vampire before he could give chase to them. In any case he kept his suspicions to himself but ultimately asked the question that had been burning him since she first started talking.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
At his question Soyun looked away guiltily before collecting herself to look him in the eye "because if I did you'd overreact, pull me and the twins out of school and move out of the city" then she made a face "or worse you'd interrogate Sunbae to see if he was some kind of spy or something."
"I wouldn't overreact I would have only taken the necessary precautions to ensure your safety."
Soyun scowled "you blew up about my picture being in a small section on the corner of a small news story in the papers!" she exclaimed adding "it wasn't even a good picture, I was completely unrecognizable but you acted like I was on the front page!"
Stefan internally winced 'in hindsight I may have overreacted.'
"I just wanted to make you understand-"
"I get it" she interrupted "but I'm not a little girl anymore! You've been training me my entire life to survive with enemies on all sides so I'd like to think that you would have more trust in me."
Stefan winced both at the declaration and the frustration on her face realizing just a little how heavy handed he has been with her. He's always been like this but with her age and maturity there should have been a change. He should trust her to have more agency and not constantly looking over her shoulder.
In light of this he conceded "you're right I should trust you to make these decisions" he closed his eyes "and I'm sorry you felt the need to keep this from me out of fear."
"It's alright" she grumbled.
"How did you handle the boy?"
It turns out that problem solved itself as the boy showed up to her house the very next day because Soyun told him where she lived. Stefan chose not to voice his displeasure at that as his expression must have spoken volumes. Understandably she couldn't look him in the eye for most of that retelling of events. Luckily it turned out the boy was not bothered by her being a vampire and the two ended up becoming friends. He apparently even managed to get her out of trouble when some students attempted to find out if a vampire was among the school population by cutting random students with a scalpel to see if they healed.
He has Stefan's gratitude for that.
It was actually in the same day that she was apparently intercepted by Wolf who tracked her down using information he stole from his raid on the Blood Syndicate front company. Turns out the Noble Blood used the Blood Syndicate to spy on them which meant he already knew about her status as a Pureblood. After some back and forth Soyun managed to form an alliance with him based on the fact that he wanted to fight back against the Noble Bloods.
"And here I thought you were over that vigilante phase."
Soyun stiffened "y-you knew? How!?"
"You're not as subtle as you think."
"That doesn't answer my question."
In response Stefan merely smiled causing Soyun to swallow.
"W-whatever, anyway after that I went home and saw the Noble Blood with a whole procession of cars rounding he corner of our street."
"Hm, and what about today?"
This is where the story took a turn into the weird because as it turns out Wolf isn't a wizard but referred to himself as an esper. From the sounds of it a rather powerful one if he can take on groups of vampires by himself. The most disturbing and worrisome aspect of his abilities however is his apparent telepathy. The supernatural world has no shortage of entities with abilities based on mental manipulation and they are considered amongst the most dangerous in the world. So to have Soyun confirm that Wolf is a true telepath is disturbing to Stefan but that wasn't even the worst part.
"You let him infiltrate your mind!?" the man yelled "how could you? Why would you do that?"
Soyun for her part is eerily calm about the whole affair "he offered to restore my memories."
"That…" Stefan trailed off seeing the stern expression on her face before taking a breath "I will trust your judgment" he said tersely.
Her reply is a sarcastic "thanks."
"Did it at least work?"
"It did…sort of" at his look she went on "I remember bits of my past, my first best friend and my parents."
This time Stefan perked up "you remember your parents?"
"I remember I have parents" she paused and her shoulders slumped "or had parents."
"Soyun…"
The young vampire took a breath before continuing "he said he couldn't restore my memories all at once because the backlash of reliving my trauma might cause brain damage. So I'll have to have multiple sessions with him"
Stefan knew what the effects of trauma had on the mind and he has seen men be broken by them mentally but all the same he couldn't help but be suspicious.
"So he claims."
"He's not lying" Soyun interrupted "I've actually seen what it looks like in here" she tapped the side of her head "and it's a mess."
"What do you mean you've seen it?"
"When he went inside my mind he sort of made it so that I was there with him and the place turned into a representation of my mind. Think of a grassy plain underneath the sky except the skies are multiple screens playing different memories and my trauma is a maelstrom of fractured mirror pieces" she paused upon seeing his expression "I'm sorry is this making any sense to you?"
"...it is a lot to wrap my head around."
"It's hard to explain. It's one of those things where you have to be there to get it."
"I'll take your word for it" he grumbled "was there anything else?"
"He mentioned that my trauma might be blocking some of my Pureblood abilities. Could that be true?"
"I…I'm not sure. I've never encountered a Pureblood before though I have read that they possess supernatural abilities. I thought you were simply too young to exhibit them…"
"Can my trauma really affect my powers?"
"I won't deny it's a possibility but I truly don't know enough to give you an answer."
Soyun nodded "well that's all I have to say, your turn."
"Where do I even begin?"
"How about the beginning?"
"Now that's a hard question to answer since no one really knows how this all came to be in the first place."
There are a lot of theories but one of the most prevalent dictates that at some point thousands of years ago the world was much like your typical high fantasy novel filled with magic, other races and even Gods. That all changed when a cataclysm struck resulting in the disappearance of the Gods, the extinction/disappearance of most of the supernatural races and the depletion of magic in the world.
"Of course that's all just theory since there are no written records of this lost age to be found."
"I want to know more about the vampires."
"Out of all the factions vampires are the oldest, most numerous and are the most established. They've all but conquered Europe with ties to the major governments, corporations and wealthy legacy families. Their society is governed by a council of Purebloods with each having their own territory in the form of a country whose vampire community they govern."
"Do Purebloods usually fight each other for territory?"
"No" Stefan answered "the thing about vampires is that their society has strict rules that are enforced with extreme prejudice by the council. They don't tolerate infighting especially amongst Pureblood."
"Then how do you explain my situation? Because I'm pretty sure there's another Pureblood ordering the Noble Bloods and they might have…my parents…" Soyun trailed off with a choking sound.
She saw incomprehensible flashes in her mind's eye and she clutched her head in pain.
"Soyun?"
"I'm fine" she grunted recovering.
"No you're not."
He gestured towards her and Soyun cursed as she realized she is now in her vampire form.
"Dammit" she cursed reaching for the crucifix around her neck only to be stopped by Stefan's hand "what?"
"You're aggravated."
"I'm fine" she scowled only to wince when his eyes narrowed at her "m-maybe not."
"You recently got back some of your memories right? I can't imagine that didn't put some form of strain on your brain."
Soyun sighed "that's what Wolf said."
"All the more reason for you to rest, we'll talk more later."
She wanted to protest more however the stern look Stefan gave her sufficiently cowed her enough.
"Fine" she said begrudgingly.
"Take the bed" and before she could protest he silenced her "I have to get some things ready and I doubt you'll appreciate the noise."
As he said this Stefan picked up a duffel bag and left the bedroom heading towards the bathroom before closing it. Once inside Stefan placed the bag on the closed toilet seat before bracing himself by the sink. Looking at his reflection in the mirror Stefan took a slow exhale and made a face. There was a lot to unpack in that conversation he just had with Soyun. So many questions but none his adoptive daughter can answer, he would have to speak with 'Wolf' himself to gain answer.
He sighed "in the meantime…"
He took out his burner phone and sent a coded message to Chiyon before turning to the duffel bag and opening it to view the content inside.
"It's time to make our move."
~To Be Continued~
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Streggae
Streggae Seven Advanced Chapters available on my Pa treon.
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