Chapter 34: Crann Na Beatha

Crann Na Beatha, Adrian Von Ziegler

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This was getting irritating. He was getting steadily worse, the more days went by. The worse he got, the harder it would be to fix it. Every time Lilith tried getting closer to the Charms, tried to right what had turned out so wrong, something or another got in the way. As it was, she’d been living in this tree outside their manor for the last week or something, and it was getting grating on a level Lilith had no words for.

Okay, she had a few words for it. None of them were terribly kind words.

In any case, at this point, Lilith had to figure out something else to do here. She sat in the tree, idly throwing a knife in the air, catching it, repeat, trying to figure out what there was to do. She could theoretically just go down there, maybe get herself shot at (truth be told, she had a hard time imagining Minerva could actually manage to kill her, just because Lilith was much quicker than the older woman would be), probably not get anything done, and come out of it more frustrated than before. She could keep waiting, and continue to get more frustrated. She could just knock everyone out with a quick psychic wave, though that did sort of run the risk of causing multiple cases of Darrel rather than fixing the one they already had.

Lilith slid down against the bark on the tree branch, crossed her arms, and huffed. This was rather ridiculous, if one asked her, but no one really had. She supposed that was just as well.

“-think it’ll get any better,” Emilia’s voice drifted out of a window from the house. Lilith sat up, and then shimmied down a few branches, tilting her head. Sometimes, they had interesting arguments. Often, they were very circular, and Emilia seemed to be separated from the rest of them in wording. She never seemed to consider herself a part of the ‘them’ that was the Charms, and neither did the Charms generally use language that implied they considered Emilia to be theirs. Well, Minerva didn’t, Lilith should say. Gemma had yet to speak about Emilia in a way that gave her the opportunity to exclude her.

“I don’t trust them,” Minerva’s voice said in return, and Lilith frowned. “Humans are terribly great at messing things up.”

“Yes, but it’s not like anything we’re doing is fixing it,” Emilia answered. “I want him back. I want him back, if that means I have to put up with non-spellcasters, then fine. I know I’m more tolerant of them than you are anyway, but… I’d figure we want the same thing for once. Magic doesn’t heal anyway, it’s not like we have many other choices.”

Lilith frowned deeper. What were they discussing, moving him to a hospital? Oh jeez, Lilith didn’t like that idea. The only thing that would help him now was a vampire, and admittedly, that vampire did not necessarily have to be Lilith, it’d just be easier, because Lilith caused the damage and could definitely undo it. Finding another master vampire willing to help might be a bit tricky.

Well, maybe Caleb would do it. That was useless semantics.

“In my experience,” Minerva said, “the only way to combat vampires is by using vampires. They do something with the mind, but I’ve never mastered what nor how to reverse it. I don’t have any vampire friends, do you?”

“No,” Emilia answered. “All the same, they can at least help keep him alive and stable, better than we can do on our own. If nothing else, at least he’ll be taken care of until we can find a vampire to fix this.”

They could just stop being jerks, and let Lilith fix it, but no. That would be too easy. Lilith frowned, snorting in annoyance and glancing across the street, before forcing it back down. So far, Minerva hadn’t sensed her, though she thought Gemma and Emilia had. Maybe one or the other of them were hiding Lilith’s vampirism. She was quite sure that gave off a very notable sensation. Spellcasters had commented on it before. Or perhaps it was something just the Embers could sense, because, now that she was thinking of it, Lilith only remembered Ezio and Morgyn mentioning it. That was weird, in hindsight.

“I suppose you’re right,” Minerva said. “Fine, we’ll move him to a hospital.”

“Thank you,” Emilia said.

Great, Lilith thought. Just what I need, more incidental security around sleeping beauty here. To say the least of it, her mood was quite sour, but then it’d been quite sour for the last, oh, week or two. At least Markus hadn’t been by recently, but it was probably because Lilith was here. She’d be a fool to think he didn’t know that.

On the other hand, she did have friends in varying hospitals. It was possible that, with him in one, she’d have a better chance of getting to him, even if only because she talked a doctor friend into distracting Minerva with inane questions, because doctors loved to do that anyway, and Minerva apparently wouldn’t know the difference.

* * *

“This is my fault, because I don’t want to just knock them out, I guess,” Lilith said, sliding further down in her seat on the couch. She’d been complaining about the situation with the Charms for probably a few hours by now, but, Caleb was still listening just as intently as he had been when she’d first started this complaint streak. Caleb was like that, Lilith supposed. But despite all the complaining, Lilith still didn’t have any solid answers for it.

Maybe Vladislaus was right, and she should’ve left well enough alone.

“Knocking someone out can cause damage,” Caleb said calmly, shuffling around the kitchen. He was making the Embers food again. By now, Lilith figured he did this sort of thing because he enjoyed making food for someone else, not because the Embers couldn’t. Admittedly, there were times when one or the other twin skipped meals because they were too lazy to bother with making anything, and Caleb’s insistence on keeping everyone fed came in handy during those times. Come to think of it, that was probably why Caleb still insisted. It was hard to tell when they’d fall into one of those ruts. They never seemed to know.

“Yeah,” Lilith said, sighing. “But it’s the easiest solution I’ve got. It’s almost the only solution I’ve got.”

“And if you do it, and cause more damage, you’re going to really hate yourself,” Caleb said calmly.

He was right. Lilith’s face scrunched up in mild annoyance, glancing at the wall and crossing her arms. “Maybe I should just walk away from it, then.”

“If you do that,” Caleb said, turning around to face her and pointing the wooden spoon in his hand at her, “your conscience will eat you up, and you know it. You can’t walk away from this, not now. You stopped being able to do that when you decided this was your problem to fix.”

Lilith may or may not have started pouting somewhere in there. He was right, and she knew it, and maybe that was the annoying part of it. It probably was.

Caleb laughed. “Come on, Lilith,” he said. “Once you get this worked out, everything will be fine. It just seems like a difficult thing, that’s all, but if anyone can figure this out, it’s you.”

Lilith released a sigh, resting her chin in one hand. “I’m glad you’ve got so much faith in me.”

Caleb shot her a smile over his shoulder. “Of course I do,” he said. “You’re my sister. There’s no one I have more faith in than you.”

Lilith’s features scrunched up in mild disbelief. “Even Morgyn?”

“Even Morgyn,” Caleb said. “Hey, that’s what Ezio’s for, believing in Morgyn, right? Not that I don’t, of course. Just maybe not as much as Ezio has. So, think about it. How do you get around this?”

Lilith frowned slightly. If she relied on psychic energy and rendered someone unconscious to manage it, Caleb was right. She could end up with the same problem all over again, and that wouldn’t really solve anything at all, just change the issue slightly. She could try the distraction thing, but in hindsight, it was a slightly awkward idea, considering that her doctor friends? Yeah, they were doctors. And doctors were busy.

She didn’t have a lot of resources for this. That meant, she had to rely mostly on herself.

“You know,” Caleb started, tilting his head thoughtfully, “there are ways around spellcasters.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know any of them,” Lilith said, huffing. “I’ve never had to.”

Caleb snorted, and then laughed slightly. “I mean, we have friends that know a few of those ways.”

What was he talking about? Lilith arched an eyebrow, but, then she thought about it, and huffed. “I don’t want to bother them for this.”

“Well, unfortunately I think this is a situation of you have limited options,” Caleb said, looking apologetic. “Either you figure something else out, or this is going to just have to go the way it goes. And we both know that if it goes the way it goes, and the way it goes is a bad way, you’re going to hate it. So you may as well go bother someone else to teach you something useful.”

Unfortunately, he was probably right. Lilith released a heavy sigh, sitting up a little straighter. “Have you got any ideas about what to do here?” she asked.

Caleb shrugged, turning back to the stove. “There’s always mist form,” he said. “Nothing can sense you in mist form, save for Kassander. It should be enough to get you right past the spellcasters, and none of them will sense anything. The remaining issue, I suppose, is what to do from there, but you’ll think of something, I’m sure. Or maybe one of the Essairs has a better idea. Or, heck, maybe an Ember does.”

“I’m definitely not bothering the Embers over this one,” Lilith said, her tone quite flat. “They have enough going on right now.” Between Morgyn’s issues and Ezio’s, there was always something going on, she supposed. It made it a little difficult to justify interrupting their lives for her weird vampire drama, despite knowing, in her head somewhere, that Morgyn would be absolutely thrilled to be privy to this particular mess. Morgyn had a love-hate relationship with the Charms, if she remembered right. So did Ezio, for that matter, but she was starting to understand why.

Stubborn fucking…

“Yeah,” Caleb said. “I guess you’re right. Well, if nothing else, the Essairs should be pretty happy to help if they can. Worst that happens is, they say no.”

Actually, the worst that happened was, Kassander decided to kill her for some reason, but fortunately, she couldn’t think up why he would anyway.

* * *

The Charms were gone now. Of course. Lilith had missed that short opening where she would’ve been able to figure out which hospital the Charms were moving Darrel to, but she supposed it didn’t matter. There were a very small handful of hospitals that were close to Glimmerbrook. For some reason, despite healing magic not being a standard part of the magical repertoire, those spellcasters that had settled at Glimmerbrook didn’t see a need, apparently, for a hospital.

Lilith was still debating whether this was brave or very stupid. It was possible that it was both, and that seemed the most likely, really.

Caleb was right. She needed to fix this, or it would continue to bother her, and she knew it. All the same, she still knew this was going to be trickier than she was hoping for. Of course, now she had to decide if she wanted to try finding them first, or if she would rather go straight to the Essairs and learn how to sneak past them. This was a difficult decision mostly because she wasn’t sure which one was more prudent. There was no chance that the human doctors with no supernatural powers could manage to undo a vampire-coma, that was for sure. Lilith was most certainly not concerned about that.

Lilith shifted her weight, crossing her arms and turning away from the Charm manor’s doorway. What she was worried about was the old lady deciding to be done with it and end his life or something before she could manage to get there and fix this mess. How was it, anyway, that Lilith managed to get into these messy ordeals? She hardly left the house! Fate. Destiny. Some odd being’s sick idea of a joke…

The truth was, Lilith would never really know.

The woman frowned to herself, one foot tapping rapidly against the cobblestone drive she stood on. One finger matched the pace, tapping against her arm, as she thought. It was hard to make the right choice, here, but perhaps she could also do both at once. If she went after the Essairs and sent someone she trusted to find the Charms for her, she supposed that might be a little more efficient. There was still no telling whether things would work out or not, but she had to try and have faith in some decision or she was never going to make a move at all, and that just wasn’t like Lilith in the first place.

As she considered her options, she sensed a now-familiar signature, a certain vampire that had been in and out of here, and caused this whole mess, in the first place. A strange sensation in her chest bubbled up, almost like fire burning in her heart, and Lilith turned into a bat and flew towards the signature. As she got closer, she could tell Markus was skirting just around the edge of Granite Falls.

Lilith turned back, watching him. He circled around the parameter of Granite Falls’ protections, careful not to overstep, but he was definitely looking for something, and it was in Granite Falls. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe he was trying to get into Granite Falls, but the question was, why exactly…

It didn’t matter right now. Instead, Lilith shook her head, more to herself, and threw a blast of psychic energy at him. Markus wasn’t expecting it, and skittered across the forest floor, right into Granite Falls’ protections. A loud shriek sounded, echoing through the trees, as Markus’ clothing caught fire.

He stood up, frantically scrambling out of the protection zone, hurriedly smacking his hand against his clothes in attempt to put himself out. Lilith saw it, probably the same as he did, when something just beyond the trees shimmered to life and then he was on fire. Lilith couldn’t deny a little curiosity as to what that was and how, exactly, it worked. She’d never seen magic that operated in that manner, but she could definitely tell that it was magic.

All magic had a very distinct scent. Every spell and technique had its own unique aroma, and being a vampire, Lilith could pick them out. That one? It had no scent at all. So what was it? Likely, Markus had no more idea than she did. Markus didn’t spend much time around spellcasters. She kept the question to herself.

Markus turned to her, and bared his teeth. He was out, albeit a little singed along the way.

Lilith arched an eyebrow. “Get out of here, Crow,” she said, her tone irritated. “The Charms aren’t here to chase you off, and you got us in this mess in the first place. I’ll do it for them. I owe you one anyway.”

“Tough words,” Markus answered, sneering. “You always did try to be the tough one, but sooner or later it’ll run out. You can’t fight everything, Lilith.”

“Of course I can,” she answered.

“Someday, something will defeat you,” Markus said, raising his arms in a dramatic shrug. “Everyone runs into someone, or something, stronger, sooner or later.”

Lilith’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve been fortunate enough not to,” she said. “And even if I do, I’ll just get stronger than it. It’s nice to have challenges and goals.”

Markus smirked, stepping further away from Granite Falls. “That doesn’t work so well if you’re dead!”

One of his fists drew back, and Lilith could smell the psychic burst before it left his claws. Effortlessly, she flipped out of the way, landing almost soundlessly. “You wouldn’t know anything about defeating me,” Lilith said. “Because you can’t.”

Markus snarled and threw another burst at her, but again, Lilith simply flipped out of the way. And then she smirked and fired back.

* * *

“Almost,” Sandalio said, just as Lilith gave up and fell to the floor with a loud clatter. Their flooring, surprisingly, was not made of marble, but instead, it was wood, and their manor wasn’t as big as it could be. If Lilith remembered correctly, all the splendour and extravagance was in the Drago complex. Lilith had never been inside it, but she’d seen it. The inside of their house, though, was warm, inviting, full of browns and blues, and magical lights everywhere. Both Kassander and Sandalio were spellcaster hybrids, but their magic smelled notably differently than that of the other spellcasters Lilith knew.

Neither had ever explained that, and Lilith didn’t expect them to.

Lilith stayed on the floor, for a moment, panting and staring at the glimmer of light on the wood, lighting up the grains. To the side, his arms crossed and expression level and blank, was Kassander, watching them. When she’d come to the Essairs to ask for their help, Kassander had immediately set Sandalio to teaching her how to use mist form. It wouldn’t leave a scent, he said, nor an energy signature. It was the perfect thing to scoot past spellcasters unnoticed, but Lilith was having a bit of a rough time mastering it. She was having a hard time getting into mist form to begin with, let alone holding it.

As he usually didn’t, Kassander hadn’t said anything at all, simply watched. It didn’t feel like he was judging, but rather that he was simply there, just in case. Lilith sat up on her haunches, taking a deep breath in. Sandalio reached down to offer her a hand. Lilith gratefully took it, and stood up.

“You seem to be thinking too hard about it,” Sandalio said. “Mist form is something you must find with feeling, instead.”

Lilith snorted. “Unfortunately, I’m terrible at anything that requires feeling.” Lilith tended to overthink things, and she was under no illusions. She was quite aware she was emotionally stunted. It was almost impressive how much she was, but mostly Lilith tried not to think about it. Caleb had all of his emotions, and hers, so it would seem.

“I’ve noticed this, yes,” Sandalio said, smiling. “You’ll get the hang of it. You’re already getting very close, that’s better than most of your calibre can say.”

“It’s difficult?” Lilith asked.

“Sure is,” Sandalio said. “Mist form is a reconnection to the most primal form of magic vampires have ever used, that of darkness. There are some techniques that tap into the powers of darkness that vampires use even now, but for the most part, the art has been lost. As you’re not a spellcaster, either, it doesn’t come easily to you. You’ll get the hang of it, just maybe not as quickly as you’d like.”

“I need to get it sometime this week,” Lilith said. “The guy’s life depends on it. Or at least, it probably does.”

Kassander loosed a snort. “He got himself into this mess, you know,” Kassander said. “There are things that are your job to fix, and things that are not. Lilith, this falls under things that are not.”

Part of the trouble, Lilith imagined, was that she was quite aware of that. Did it change her mind? Not at all. She intended to fix this, and she was going to fix it one way or another. Besides, when you lived forever, you had to get your entertainment somehow. Mortals were often unbearably stupid, but they had a kind of naive charm to them all the same. Of course, at Kassander’s age, she imagine he’d given up on mortals and their strange and grating ways. It’d probably be best if she did, too.

Well, maybe after this…

“I did kind of cause this mess,” Lilith said.

Kassander didn’t answer verbally, but the look he gave her said everything that needed to be said.

Sandalio laughed quietly off to the side. “You two,” he said. “You’re both too stubborn for your own good sometimes. I should think if we let you both alone too long, you’d end up in a circular argument for ten years.”

“Just because we would,” Lilith said, “doesn’t mean you’re right.”

“Yeah, that’s the definition of being right, in this case,” Sandalio said, looking amused.

Okay, so, maybe that was right. Lilith snorted slightly, but she didn’t say anything else.

“In any case, it’s honourable that you want to help,” Sandalio said. “But Kassi’s got a point. Try not to get too wrapped up in things that aren’t your problem. They take up a lot of time that could be better used on things that are.”

“Prioritising?” Lilith asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Exactly that,” Sandalio answered. He straightened up, seemingly ready to go back to coaching her through getting the hang of mist form, but Kassander loosed a squeak, and that changed very quickly.

Lilith turned, as Kassander’s hand raised to his head.

“Kassi don’t fight it,” Sandalio said, scrambling over to him.

If Kassander answered, Lilith didn’t catch it, before his hand fell away from his head, and he stared straight forward. Lines of gold light burst to life in his eyes, almost like circuits. Lilith loosed an audible gasp, taking a step backward. Sandalio shuffled around and held his arms out, like he expected Kassander to fall. Yet, when the light died off, and Kassander finally blinked again, he loosed a puff of air and his knees buckled. He fell, of course, right into Sandalio’s grasp.

“What was that?” Sandalio asked, half clinging to the blond.

“I’m fine,” Kassander said. “It just gave me a headache.”

“You collapsed, Kassi, you haven’t done that in years,” Sandalio answered.

Kassander was quiet, breathing heavily, and then looked up at Lilith. She almost looked away. “It would seem that we have bigger problems,” he said, “than your errant Charm.”

* * *

Magic had a scent, and he knew that scent. All the same, he kept playing, pressing the keys with startling fluidity and speed. Old he may look, but Vladislaus was much more agile than he tended to let on. It gave him a notable advantage, of course, when others underestimated him, but the advantage didn’t give him quite that much of an edge. By now, it was more that the whole thing was amusing to him.

The shadows slid under the door. Though he pretended not to notice them, they had a notable acrid scent to them. It was very unpleasant, but still Vladislaus ignored the discomfort and continued to play. In this, too, he gained a slight advantage by being underestimated. He knew, someday, the black witch would come for him. She looked different, these days, but her eyes were still as hollow as they’d been before. She’d lost herself to whatever dark magic she’d become entwined with, and soon enough, would destroy herself. Of course, in the meantime, she was very much a threat.

As he played, he mulled over his options. He could take a stand, and attempt to take her down, but he would be unfortunately outmatched. He knew she’d been studying vampires longer than some of them knew vampirism existed at all. Whether she’d been doing so longer than he’d been a vampire was questionable, and truth be told, he’d forgotten how long it’d been, anyway. The whole thing was rather moot. He could flee, but she’d eventually find him, no doubt, as the trouble with being someone like him, he had few friends, and even fewer places to hide.

Between one thought and another, the shadows converged together, and there she stood, a black crescent moon bound around her forehead by a chain, black hair bound in a half-bun, her silvery eyes as empty and soulless as always. Vampires may be said to be undead, but she was the one that had no life. Vladislaus supposed that was an unfortunate side-effect of the magics she chose to toy with. The black dress she was wearing fell to the floor, rustling slightly as she moved. Vladislaus finally stopped playing.

“I’d ask how you got in, but quite frankly, I don’t care,” he said.

“I’d answer, but quite frankly, I don’t care either,” Aine answered. Then, she drew her arm back, and threw magic at him. Vladislaus didn’t have the time to move, though he did vanish in a burst of mist and reappear across the room. The spell caught his sleeve all the same, burning his sleeve up. A loud shrieking loosed as he burst into mist multiple times in a row, trying to shake the spell off. Ashes fell to the floor, Vladislaus reappearing a final time, his arm scorched almost beyond recognition, bits of ash still falling.

“Unfortunately, you’re in my way,” Aine said. “It’s nothing personal, you understand.”

Of course he did. Nothing was ever really personal in the world anymore. It was all ambition and wanting things that wasn’t one’s own to have, or at least, it seemed that way. What he didn’t understand is what this one wanted so badly that she was willing to pick fights with vampires that she may or may not be able to win. It seemed like folly to him, but then, they’d never sat down and discussed their differences, either.

“There are stronger, and more terrifying, things in the Hollow besides me,” Vladislaus said. “I don’t think you quite understand what it is you’re dealing with.”

“I understand well enough,” Aine answered, raising one eyebrow. “If I take you out, then there’s no central authority remaining in Forgotten Hollow, and I can do as I please.”

“I highly doubt Kassander will leave you be if you push too far,” Vladislaus said.

“Please, Kassander won’t be able to even get in here,” Aine said, laughing. “He forgets he is also a spellcaster, and that affords him a few weaknesses. Well, just one in particular, but it’ll work for my purposes.”

The shadows slithered around on the floor and hissed, and then from the darkness rose Sarnai. Vladislaus looked annoyed.

“Heyy, look at that,” Sarnai said, her violet eyes lighting up and sparkling in amusement. “We did say there’s a first for everything, didn’t we?”

“I don’t suppose you had anything to do with this?” Vladislaus asked.

“Oh no,” Sarnai answered, her head shaking. “But it is amusing to see it, that’s for sure. You know, we never did like you much.”

“Join the club, really,” Vladislaus said, rolling his eyes. “What are you two after, anyway?”

Aine looked a bit uncertain, glancing at Sarnai.

“Oh come now, I’m not stupid,” he said. “You’re going to kill me anyway, may as well tell me why.”

Aine snorted softly. Sarnai doubled over laughing.

“Look at him, being the tough guy for once, that’s rich!” she cackled, wandering off down a hallway.

Aine shook her head slightly after her, then turned back to look at Vladislaus. “The All, of course,” Aine said. “And I will get it this time.”

“This time?” Vladislaus said, sounding surprised. It sounded as if she’d tried to get it before. But of course she had. Someone like her, he wouldn’t put it past her at all. Funny, he was the one that was supposed to be evil in this situation. Granted, he was the kind of evil that never went too far, he supposed. “If you even do manage to find the All, the only thing you will do is destroy yourself,” he said.

“Come on, grandpa,” Aine said, smirking, “as if I haven’t heard that before. That’s the best you’ve got? You’ll destroy yourself, is it? Well, welcome to the real world you’ve been hiding from so long, I suppose. In this world there is only power, and those, like you, that are too weak to use it. But don’t worry. It’s nothing personal, of course, so I’ll be kind enough not to make you suffer.”

Aine stepped forward, and threw some kind of spell at him, Vladislaus didn’t recognise the scent of it. Before it reached him, however, something in the walls began to glow and hum. The light of the spell Aine had cast suddenly went out, and as if he had never been there at all, Vladislaus was gone.

Aine straightened up, and loosed an irritated shriek. She knew that magical signature, she’d recognise Keisha’s magic anywhere. What exactly she’d just done, that one Aine had no answer for, but she wasn’t as familiar with the shaman arts as she likely should’ve been.

“Sarnai!” Aine shrieked, turning on a heel and moving towards where Sarnai had gone. Only a few moments later, Sarnai turned a corner and nearly smacked into Aine.

“What?” she asked.

“We need to work on raising the barriers,” Aine said. “Now.”

Sarnai made a clicking sound with her teeth. “Why?” she asked. “We just got here, and we would like to look around first.”

“Now,” Aine repeated. “If Kassander finds us here before we’ve had the chance to raise the barriers, then we’re both toast. I don’t think even you can stand against him. Now get to work, unless you want to die instead.”

Aine shuffled away, headed downstairs. Sarnai shook slightly where she stood in annoyance, but eventually, she turned the other direction. If Aine wanted the stupid barrier raised, she supposed that wasn’t so bad of a request, really. And then she could look around.

Down the hill, far from the Straud manor and its invaders, a grey tabby with a bald leg clung to a dusky-skinned woman’s arm. Her white hair was hidden beneath a white conical hat, violet eyes darting to and fro, as she carried the tabby the rest of the way down the hill, and towards Granite Falls.

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