When Seira wandered about, she did not expect to meet with anybody. Hargeon Town was fairly popular lately; the woman noticed larger groups of tourists than usual and in spite of summer fading away, humans still enjoyed the weather by the beach. She hardly bothered with any of that, however, and instead spent time inside until nightfall. Seira’s sleeping schedule was a mess (it had been for a while now) and the vampire decided that what little sleep she got was enough for her to survive on—it had to be. It was difficult to balance a supposedly human life alongside a second, different one, but she did fairly well according to her own statistics.  

Seira completed some late night grocery shopping, and since there wasn’t much she required to sustain herself, she stopped by a rundown bar for a few drinks. Vampyrism had made her sturdy and strong—she used to be a light weight, but Seira rarely got drunk these days. Besides, the alcohol did a decent job at suppressing the thirst for human blood, that alone was a good enough reason for her to drown herself in it. She left after an hour, perhaps a little longer, and although the drinks did put a soft damper on her senses, she was by no means defenseless or careless (not that anything ever happened here anyways).

The woman returned home to the adorable house she’d rented in the suburban streets of the town and entered the building without turning the lights on. Seira placed her groceries onto the kitchen counter and slowly dragged herself across the living room, where she would reach for a half-filled glass of whiskey and the bottle next to it. She took a seat by the table, sipped on her drink and although it took her a while, the vampire eventually began to notice the sudden change in the air—something was different. Seira sighed heavily (she would have reacted differently, but the circumstances made her lenient) and placed her glass down before crossing her arms in front of her chest.

”Who’s there?”

After a pleasant day of self-pampering - feeding her bloodthirst as well as visiting the local spa - Bianca felt ready to meet her special someone. Recently, a guildmate of hers had paid her a visit in Hargeon Town, even though she never got to find out how he discovered her address here. It didn’t matter, because his purpose was to bring her a message from the ‘special someone’ whom she had been longing to meet for quite some time now. She remembered feeling like it was her birthday. After he left her inn, Bianca began her detective work - in search for Seira’s abode. The sweet girl had rented a nice little house all for herself - or so the vampyress imagined. She liked to think she wasn’t staying with anyone else. She wanted her all for herself.

Patting her cheeks with her hands to feel the softness of her face that resulted from the spa session, Bianca found a good liquor store, purchased a bottle of her favorite wine and headed to Seira’s place. The younger vampyress wasn’t home at the time, probably out hunting. The thought of Seira going out to find prey made her giggle. She wondered how that was going for her. Bianca remembered when she first became a vampyre, everything came naturally. Hopefully, Seira was coping well with the change, too.

Bianca was a professional at breaking in at this point, and entering Seira’s house was no trouble for her. It was dark, but she didn’t bother turning on the lights. Vampyres had perfect vision in the night, so it wasn’t necessary. She held her wine bottle properly as she looked around the establishment. Of course it was only natural for her to be curious about Seira’s living condition. Everything that reminded her about the girl made her heart skip a beat. Upon reaching the bedroom, she stared at the bed for a few seconds, then took a seat at the edge, bobbing up and down on it to see if it was comfortable enough. With a nod, she stood up, and searched for a place to wait at.

A glass filled halfway with alcohol in the living room caught her attention. She wondered if Seira had been drinking to cope with her transformation. Brows knitting into a frown, she picked it up, looked inside while swirling the glass and then put it back down. The sound of footsteps echoed its way into her ears, causing her to panic a little, but she took a seat on a small stool in the corner of the living room, next to the television set.

When Seira entered, she walked towards the kitchen first, placing her groceries (Bianca assumed) on the counter, making Bianca crane her neck to see her with a satisfied smile. Then, she made her way into the living room, picking up the glass and drinking its contents. The sigh that escaped Seira’s lips made Bianca’s smile fade a little, but the moment she asked who’s there, the glow returned.

“It’s me,” said Bianca, assuming Seira would remember. She forgot, for a moment, that she had a little makeover.

Seira’s lips curled; she gasped, although the initial shock was hardly noticeable and she did well at hiding how surprised she was. ”I thought I heard something,” said the vampire as a matter of fact, turning her gaze away from the other woman to diffuse the tension. Her visuals were different now, she had bright violet hair and eyes in a similar colour and although nothing reminded Seira of her old self, her identity was still obvious. She shifted in her chair, hands reaching out for the empty glass of whiskey; her fingers grazed the cold material longingly, but she pulled back shortly after. ”I suppose this means you received my message,” it was still dark inside the house, and Seira finally stood up to turn on the lights.

She thought of Kenneth; the fragile human she had chosen as her unfortunate messenger—perhaps he was a vampire now, or perhaps he was dead (either way, she hardly cared). Seira stood up and brought two wine glasses to the table, offering the other woman to take a seat as well. ”Hargeon Town is awfully far away from Oak,” she began, opening the bottle Bianca had brought along, ”I didn’t think this is where we would meet again—out of all places,” sliding the now filled glass of wine across the table and towards the older vampire, Seira locked eyes with her for merely a moment.

She had a ton of questions—first and foremost, she wanted to know why the stranger had decided to gamble with her life. Bianca’s relation to Phantom Lord, an infamous dark guild, answered that question however and even though her transformation had been a week long struggle, Seira no longer felt as if something had been taken from her. Bianca made her better by turning her, and whereas Seira would never openly admit to her own weakness, she was still grateful in a way. There were other things she thought about asking and Bianca certainly had questions of her own, so she decided to be straightforward with the first one.

”Are there others like us where you are from?”

Scarlet irises lit up the moment Bianca noticed Seira could remember her. She waited to be invited to sit with her, although that’s pretty ironic seeing how she had already entered Seira’s home without an invitation, essentially intruding her private space. “I’m sorry I entered without your permission. I couldn’t wait for you to get back.” That was a complete lie, but hopefully she understood. Her eyes followed Seira’s hands as they reached for the glass, and then retracted. She then spoke about the ‘message’, that was delivered to Bianca by her guildmate Kenny. “Yes, I did,” she said, the smile on her face never fading. Only when Seira got up to get wine glasses and offered Bianca a seat would the sorceress sit on the chair opposite to Seira’s. She handed her bottle of wine to the host, which she opened and poured into the glasses in front of them.

“It is,” said Bianca in response to Seira saying that Hargeon Town was a great distance from Oak Town, and that she didn’t expect them to meet here out of all the places. “I remember the first time we met here so clearly.” She accepted the glass of wine and took a sip. She hadn’t actually brought it to drink herself. It was more a gift for Seira, but since the young vampyress offered, she couldn’t refuse. Bianca placed it back on the table, handling Seira’s glassware gently. “But yes, I didn’t expect us to meet here too. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Kenny. I don’t know how he found me, but I’m glad he did. Or else I don’t know how long I’d have to wait to see you again.” She took another sip.

“Are there others like us where you are from?”

Bianca wasn’t quite sure about what she meant by that last bit, but she assumed Seira could only be talking about the Phantom Lord guild, unless she had been doing some detective work to find out about Bianca’s background, though she doubted that.

“I don’t think so...” Bianca didn’t know how to exactly word what she was going to say next, so she said it in a way that probably made it sound completely irrelevant, but she said it anyways. “But uh...maybe we can find out together. Will you come back with me? To Phantom Lord?”

She placed her lips to the glass and slowly drank the red liquid. Bianca’s sudden appearance — now that she had confirmed her identity — fit surprisingly well into the vampire’s schedule. Seira had spoken to Finn about this (although his opinion hardly mattered here) and decided that it was time for her to find a place to settle down. Phantom Lord was infamous, a notorious dark guild and whereas the woman had no intentions of doing unnecessary evil, she wasn’t exactly a saint either. Seira worked for money and for herself — alignments, the law and other people’s views on good and bad did not matter to her, therefore she wasn’t as hesitant to take Bianca up on her offer as she should have been.

”Yes, I remember too,” she spoke and turned towards the other female, ”how could I possibly forget? You drained me off my blood and left me to die,” Seira forced a smile and emptied her glass of wine. She wasn’t upset anymore; the girl had gotten over that a long time ago, and since she didn’t sustain any permanent injuries it was alright for the time being. She meant no harm and Bianca wasn’t an enemy of hers — yet. When the other vampire asked her if she was going to return to the guild with her, Seira paused for a moment and put on a thoughtful expression. She didn’t think she would ever join a guild, even less a dark one, but fate had its ways and so she nodded quietly in response to her question.

”I do. I will come back with you. After all, this is the only way I can learn more about what I am now and the things I am able to do,” part of Seira was curious about other ‘creatures’ — people who were very much like her and Bianca. Whether or not there was more to be found in Phantom Lord was unknown, but she secretly hoped to find others like herself; it would be the closest thing to company she’s had in awhile, and that alone was enough to make her go. ”Tell me about Phantom Lord. There must be things I should know before coming with you, right?”

Having had more than a few sips of wine, Bianca knew it was time to take a pause. It was some kind of habit - whenever she drank a lot of wine, the craving for blood mixed into it appeared out of nowhere. It was her own fault for combining two flavors that she was fond of, in the first place. Placing the glass back on the table, she savored the wine as Seira spoke. What she said, however, made her almost spit her wine. Clearing her throat after swallowing, Bianca spoke in a gentle tone. “If that was my intention, you wouldn’t be here speaking to me, no? I made sure you would survive before I left you,” she explained with a smile. She didn’t expect a ‘thank you’ from Seira, or anything of that sort. She didn’t expect anything back from her. To be frank, the vampyress only wished to see her fledgling doing well. And it would make her the proudest if Seira agreed to follow her back to Phantom Lord.

Bianca’s wishes were fulfilled the moment Seira spoke again. “Lovely,” she said, in response. She admired how Seira was so fascinated about what she had become now, rather than panicking and resorting to unnecessary and harmful actions, even though Bianca wasn’t aware of what she went through at the beginning of the change. Plus, it had been quite a while since she bit her. Nevertheless, it was usually a painful and unpleasant process to go through. How Bianca managed to survive her own transformation, she didn’t know - or couldn’t remember exactly, but in no time, she was able to adapt to her new self. “Alright, let’s see,” she said.

First things first, she slowly stuck out her tongue to once again display the Phantom Lord guild insignia, eyes cast downwards to try and look at it herself. It was a weird place to have it, to be quite honest - and painful, too - plus, it was pretty fucking awkward to be sticking her tongue out to Seira to show it. Retracting her tongue, she shut her mouth for a moment, lips pressed together into an embarrassed smile. “Right, that’s our symbol. I’m sure you’ve seen it before even though it wasn’t that clear the last time, yeah? The reason I have it there is because it’s hard to find, as you may have already guessed...” she told the petite girl. “I think it’s better for you to find out about the rest. There is nothing you really need to know beforehand, and I don’t want to ruin your experience. I remember being very excited when I first joined.” Although, it wasn’t the good kind of excitement, because she was insane. All she wanted to do was take lives.

Ironic, isn’t it? Because now she was recreating lives. Instead of exterminating her own kind, she was doing the exact opposite - Seira being the first to be converted by her. “Our master goes by the name Cesare, and our guildhall is in Oak Town. That’s pretty much all you need to know for now, I guess,” said Bianca. She was still unaware of the fact that Cesare was dead and gone, so the information she was sharing was completely outdated, but she would find out in due time and would be able to inform Seira as well. She picked up her wine glass to take a sip.

She was deadly — Bianca’s soft voice, the gentle impression and the sweet smile could not fool her; instead, they frightened the young vampire. Phantom Lord was a dangerous place, the members were intimidating and although she feigned innocence, the woman with the scarlet eyes was everything but that. Seira placed her glass down and a heavy sigh rolled over her lips. ”Thank you for the wine,” she whispered and nervously ran her nails across the wooden surface of the table, clicking them repeatedly up and down to make an annoying sound. ”I suppose I will take your word for it,” when Bianca explained that she had, by no means, meant to harm her and instead ensured that she was safe and sound, she almost believed it.

Seira didn’t expect for the situation to turn comical, but it did when Bianca revealed the location of her guild’s tattoo — a strange place to keep an insignia, indeed. She’d seen it before, during their first meeting, but never actually thought about it until now. Leaning forward and closer to the other woman, Seira curiously inspected the shape and form of the tattoo before moving back and taking ahold of her glass again. ”That’s a weird place to keep a tattoo,” she commented and shrugged, before taking another sip from her wine. ”Of course you are right, it’s difficult to find.”

Unfortunately, Bianca didn’t rely too much information to her, she was being rather secretive which was to be expected from a person like her. Seira nodded, took another sip and sat up in her chair. ”I see,” she hesitated for a moment, paused in her tracks and took the time to rethink her decision.

Cesare, she thought with a smirk, what a weird name.

Of course Seira did not know that she would soon be operating under a different leader, but such things didn’t matter to the woman either way, she just wanted to get this over with. ”I guess that leaves me with no other choice than to find the rest of your folks,” she said and flashed the other vampire a smile, ”not that that’s been very difficult thus far.” Seira placed the wine glass down and stood up — when she realized that Bianca wasn’t going to give up any useful information regarding the guild whatsoever, the sorceress decided to give it time. ”I’m going hunting now, perhaps I’ll find more of you somewhere out there. You can stay as long as you’d like,” even though she said that, she was hoping for Bianca to disappear soon. Seira planned on leaving Hargeon Town in a few days, but she still needed some more time to prepare.

“You’re very welcome, Seira,” said Bianca, smiling gleefully at the thought of being appreciated. Maybe it was the fact that her own kind was the one to say this, which made her wonder...was she going to act this way towards every other vampyre? Sure she hadn’t met another one of her nightstalking folk, but if she was going to be this excited around them, it was definitely going to be - even if slightly - weird. Hopefully, it was only towards Seira, and the others that she might convert in the future. Maybe it was the excitement of a mother, to witness her child’s cleverness, and how splendidly she was coping with everything - at least from what she could observe.

Bianca allowed a soft chuckle to escape her lips, feeling a bit embarrassed after having shown her guild tattoo in the strangest way possible. “You should get yours somewhere people can’t see, too. As you know, it’s best to keep our affiliation to the guild a secret,” she spoke, then lifted her glass for a sip of wine. At this point, the wine had started to taste sweeter, making her lick her lips as her right foot dangled over her left. Even though she hadn’t disclosed much information about the guild, she awaited to answer Seira’s questions if she had any. However, it seemed the small vampyress had no more questions about the matter, and instead told her that she would find the rest of Phantom Lord, or at least that’s what Bianca understood from what she said. “Anyone in Oak Town knows where our guild is,” she added, so that if Seira wanted to go to the guildhall and got lost, she wouldn’t hesitate to ask around.

Their little meeting finally came to an end when Seira announced that she would be leaving to hunt now, to which Bianca nodded in response. Even though she offered Bianca to stay as long as she liked, there was really no reason for her to remain here if Seira was going to leave. “I will be going back to my inn, also,” she said, getting up from her seat and straightening her shirt. Since she was the guest, she decided to depart before Seira did. She didn’t know if she was hindering any private rituals, so the vampyress said, “I hope to see you again, hopefully in Phantom Lord,” with a large smile. Of course nothing was ever certain and the future was unpredictable. Seira did agree to following her, but who’s to say she wouldn’t change her mind later? Bianca simply hoped that never happened. She tried to push these thoughts away, but the voices were always there to haunt her. Leaving Seira’s humble abode, the vampyress silently disappeared into the darkness, traversing the shadows of night back home.