Alerion sat behind his large desk in his chambers, leaned back in his overly large, overstuffed chair, his eyes closed and his hands clasped together in front of him. At first glance one might think that the great ruler was resting. However, if one were to look closer, they would notice that King Alerion was thinking (very hard, it appeared) on something. This crown was heavier today then others it would seem.

Adolfo Rafael, Commander of the Royal Guard, stood at attention, exactly where he was an hour ago when his Majesty began to think. The Commander was preparing to speak when Alerion beat him to it. “Tell me again, how many dead this makes.” He said.

Clearing his throat, Adolfo spoke, “Twelve, M’Lord. All of them dead. All apparently having had all of their blood drained, however none of them have any wounds at all. Not even a bruise, Sir. We’re baffled, to be quite honest.” He paused for a moment. Should he ask? How could he not? There were too many lives at risk not to. “Sir, I was wondering if maybe we should call in Ms. Amrit?”

The King stood so quickly that the large chair behind him flipped over backwards onto the floor with a loud bang! He followed this noise up with another, the sound of his fist hitting his desk. “DAMNIT!” he shouted. If there had been anyone else in the room with him, the reaction would have been different, calmer. As it was, Commander Rafael had been a part of a lot of his Highness’ toughest choices and this wasn’t any different. The man had earned the right to see his King’s true feelings.

“I don’t like that woman. She’s caused me a lot of pain since she came here. I can’t seem to get her “elders” off of my back. They keep demanding that I hand her over and let them punish her. “ at the look of fear in Adolfo’s eyes Alerion shook his head, “Don’t worry. I’m not planning on letting them do such a thing. Her talents are needed far too much. But still….”


All across Alerion people were dying. Of course people died everyday of natural causes, but these deaths were far from natural. One day the victim is young and strong and full of life, the next they’re just a empty juice box that someone forgot to toss in the trash.

The streets of the Grand City had started to clear early, at least of the human citizens. It was amazing how quickly word spread. The papers had been keeping most of the information out of the general public, but after the fifth or sixth death, they couldn’t. At that point word came down from “higher ups” that all information was to be kept on a need to know basis.

After the meeting with the King Commander Adolfo sent the letter requesting help. It began…

“Ms. Ciara,
I write to you on behalf of the King of Aleris. Alerion is requesting your help with the recent rash of murders taking place in the Grand City.”

Then it went on to describe the murders and how desperate they had become. Adolfo signed it and folded the letter. He put it in an envelope and sealed it with the wax seal of the Royal Guard. The Commander took it to his most trusted soldier. “I need you to take this to Amrit Ciara, in Vandual. Only give it to her, no one else. Not a servant, or butler, boyfriend or husband. Do you understand?”

The soldier nodded and bowed to him. “Of course, Sir.”

Adolfo Rafael watched as the only hope he had of solving this mystery walked off. The Vampire had better not let them down.

Post originally by Character_Amrit

The woman was sitting at her desk with a book open before her, but she wasn't really reading it. She was having trouble focusing. The death toll in the city was rising, she had heard through her various sources. It was, after all, her job to know about such things, and this case had piqued her interest. As bad as she felt for the victims and their loved ones, she did love a good mystery. She could only assume she had yet to be called in because of the controversy that her elders were determined to create in regards to her. The king had given his protection, deeming her a valuable asset, but she did have to wonder how long that would last.

She was startled from these thoughts when there was a firm rapping of knuckles against the door. She blinked, half expecting Leith to go and answer it before she remembered that he was out tending to some errands. While he should be back at anytime, she knew that he wouldn't bother knocking. There was rustling and swishing of skirts and petticoats as she stood to her feet and headed toward the door.

The vampire who greeted the messenger appeared younger, of course, than she was in actuality. Hair like white-gold framed an ovular face with delicate, refined features. There was the slightly upturned, aquiline nose, the full, cherry tinged lips that seemed such a sharp contrast to her ivory skin. Her eyes were a disconcerting, pale blue that seemed almost silver in certain lighting and moods. She was well dressed today in a dress of sage green with cream colored trim and intricate beading, and it did much to add a certain, deceptive fragility to her slender figure.

"Ms. Amrit Ciara?" The guard's questioning baritone sounded.

She nodded, regarding him curiously, though it was the envelope with the official Seal of Royal Guard he was holding that she was most interested in. "I am she.." Already, a dainty hand was extending to collect the letter that she knew was for her, and the guard placed it into it. Using a long, perfectly manicured fingernail, she loosened the wax seal to remove the letter within. Eyes scanned the letter that was written in a hand that was relatively familiar. "So, the king has swallowed his pride at last.." Her voice barely more than a whisper as she folded up the letter and returned it to its envelope. Her eyes closed, and she looked very pensive before opening them to look back at the guard.

"Of course I will help. Please send my regards to Adolfo. I will get to work on this unfortunate case right away."

Post originally by Character_Leith

Leith had gone out to get Amrit her teas. There was a special blend that he'd taken to making for her, but it required him to mix several to get the taste just right. This unfortunately meant that he had to go to several shops to get the right combination. He'd hoped that the mistress would be fine without him for the hour or so it'd take him to get the ingredients, but then he remembered that there was a time when she hadn't needed him at all. She would be fine without him for now.

As he approached the manor, he noticed someone at the door. If his eyesight was a bit better he might be able to tell that the person wore the uniform of the Royal Guard. As it was all he could tell was that they appeared to be wearing an official uniform of some kind. He was worried now. Amrit could have been in trouble. Leith wasn't young anymore, and wasn't as fast as he once was. He did make it to the door quicker then he thought possible. He made it to the house as Mrs Ciara opened a letter the messenger left her.

"So, the king has swallowed his pride at last.... Of course I will help. Please send my regards to Adolfo. I will get to work on this unfortunate case right away."

It appeared that they had a new case. To most Leith appeared to just be a servant, however Mrs Ciara took him with her on all of her cases. She valued his opinion, and take on information. Like his mistress, he'd been following the murders happening around Aleris. As far as he knew there were at least eleven dead so far. From what he'd heard, they'd all been drained of blood, only there were no wounds for it to have left.

After the messenger left, Leith looked to Amrit. "Where shall we begin M'lady? If I may suggest going to to scene of the latest crime?" he looked over the letter given to her by the Commander of the Royal Guard. "Where exactly is Al`Sir Camp?"

At the same time Miss Amrit Ciara would begin her investigation, a priestess was rushing through the halls of Elysia's temple to an altar in one of the antechambers which would summon the Goddess of Winter. She dropped to her knees, clasped her hands together and prayed fervently. Through the priestess' hurried words did Elysia finally appear parting a veil between the air in the room, her brows furrows together as if she were irritated.

"Stop, stop," Elysia said waving her hands at the priestess. "My dear priestess, what are you trying to tell me? What is going on?"

"Something is wrong with the flowers," the priestess said still breathless and wiped a hand across her forehead. "They are... wilting."

"Okay," Elysia replied and she was rather calm despite that situation at hand. And to any other onlookers, the whole conversation about flowers might have sounded strange. After all, why would such a delicate thing be important to a goddess? None of the Elysia's priests, priestesses or followers knew - only that if should there be some disturbance in their growth, that she be alerted immediately. "I will take care of them. Please rest and do not fret."

Elysia, who had been hovering in the air of the antechamber, let her booted feet finally touch the marble floor of her temple. She walked towards the main entrance of her temple, small sheets of ice forming on the ground beneath each footstep (her tracks would melt whenever she made a new one). As Elysia stood in the entrance hall of her grand temple, she found the source of the problem and moved towards the northwest corner of the room where a number of flowers had... died.

Her obsidian colored eyes counted the flowers which had fallen - eleven so far. And just then as she had been counting, a twelfth started to wilt. There would be no other cause for the flowers to wilt so rapidly - somewhere someone was using some otherworldly strength. People were dying, and it was more than just death; blood and lives were being stolen. Elysia watched as the twelfth flower curled up and wilted, knowing very well the soul it secretly held was beyond repair and there was nothing she could do. Aleris would need help and it would need it fast.

Post originally by Character_Amrit

Amrit saw Leith as he hurried forward with a fair amount of speed for a man of his age, but she didn't bother acknowledging him until the messenger had nodded his understanding and was disappearing down the street. Finally, she drew her eyes from the letter and to the man's face. The smile she reserved for him was bittersweet. She was fond of the man who had been in her service for so long now. He was her servant, yes, but he often played the part of friend and confidante as well.

A cool hand extended to give him the letter so that he could peruse it. Not that he really needed to. They had both known that, sooner or later, they would come knocking to ask for her aid. Thus they had been keeping up to date on the increasingly worrying situation.

Her nose crinkled at the mention of the last murder location. "The Al`Sir's are located in the Scorched Lands to the south." The trip into the desert would not prove a pleasant one. That much was certain, for Amrit was a woman who was accustomed to a certain level of comfort. Still, she couldn't say she'd thoroughly worked the case if she didn't get to the most recent scene and quickly. "I would prefer to leave within the hour."

The case would be solved. She had never failed in solving a case, and this would be no different. She didn't need to tell Leith that time was of the essence. After listing off some of the essentials that she would need, she went to her bedchamber to get her personal effects readied.

The vampress had taken the job. Alerion couldn’t help but be happy. Things hadn’t been going smoothly lately and this was the first bit of good news he’d been given in a while. With the violence erupting from the Outer Gates citizens, and now these killings, bad news had been something the King had become very accustomed to.

Now however these deaths were in the hands of Amrit Ciara. She’d handled many cases very similar to this one in the past and had always brought them to a conclusion relatively quickly. Even with her little quirks, she had fewer unsolved cases then any of the other guards or investigators he had on retainer. If he’d thought for a moment that one of the others could have handled it he would have passed it along to them. As it was, Alerion actually even had his doubts that the Great Amrit would be able to crack this case.

One of the reasons he didn’t like the woman was that she came with a lot of baggage. The Elders of the vampire bloodline she belonged to had been after him for a while to lift his protection of her and allow them the justice they desired. The King had demanded to know what her supposed crime was but they refused to tell him. All he knew was that whatever she had done was upsetting a lot of her kin.

Of course with the success rate that Amrit boasted in her cases there was no way he could afford to let her go. Even if that made him a target to her “Elders”. He had a kingdom to worry about and that was much more important then what one woman might have done. The needs of the many always out weighed the needs of the few. At least that was what he’d been raised to believe.

He thought for a moment that maybe he should call upon one of the other investigators as well, but quickly dismissed that idea. It would be dragging too many people into this and he didn’t want that. He wanted this settled as quickly and as quietly as possible there was already too much press involved.

Alerion almost forgot about the meeting he had scheduled with his commander when he heard the knocking at his door. “Come.” He said.

The door slowly swung open and in walked Adolfo. “Your Majesty.” He bowed. Once the guard left he began, “Sir, are you sure it’s wise to put all our faith into this one person?”

Not accustomed to being questioned, “Aleris needs hope. Amrit right now is that hope. I do however have another idea in mind. It might be considered to be more…radical.”

The King went into detail about how his plan would work, why it would work, and what they needed to do to complete it. When he was done, Commander Rafael stood in shock, not sure he’d heard Alerion correctly. “Yes, you heard me right. I want you to get our top witches and wizards on it now. And keep it quiet for now. We don’t want to over-burden the population by telling them that we’re going to close the docks and shipyards. They don't need to know that we're mystically grinding everything to a halt.”

Post originally by Character_Thanatos

Everything was red. He looked around and the street, the buildings, even the trash was red. It was as if someone had taken a bucket of paint and threw it all over the area around him. Someone had gotten into his brain, taken his dreams and made them real.

In a trance he crawled to the closest wall and licked it. The red smeared. It was still wet, and it tasted so very good. He couldn’t control himself and kept licking. The brick was rough against his tongue and fifteen minutes into it, he started to bleed. His blood mixed with the red he was licking up and grew excited.

As he moved down the wall, he didn’t even notice the red lump on the ground and tripped over it. Turning quicker then a human would be able to and at an angle very few would be able to duplicate, he turned and looked at the lump. That’s right. It was the girl. She’d yelled very loudly when he’d taken her into the alley.

It was music, her yelling. She kept it up the entire time they’d played. She would try to get around him and he would stop her. It was one of the best times he’d had lately. The last few people who’d played with him hadn’t been very nice. They called him names and yelled at him. This girl sang. Her voice was beautiful and the song she sang rang out as they played. It was so beautiful that it brought in another player.

The new player was more like the others. He didn’t want play at first, but once they got started he enjoyed it as well, singing along with the girl. The only problem with him was that he tired too easily and went to sleep early. He was too rough on his friends; every one of them had fallen asleep before he was finished playing.

He remembered crying when his first friend had gone to sleep, but now he realized that it was because they weren’t as strong as he was. They just didn’t have the energy that he did. Of course, once he got tired he needed to rest, and to eat. He’d usually just snack on whatever was laying around and looking at the girl he began to get hungry.

He threw himself onto the girl but her eyes were already almost empty. He came to realize that he’d already almost emptied this one and from looking around he could tell he’d already emptied the man. This was bothering to him. He was hungry and his friends weren’t even able to help him out this time. So, he needed to move on, find new friends, and hopefully they wouldn’t be so weak as to go to sleep so soon.

She had never remembered seeing so much blood before. Everything was a mess. The alleyway walls, the cobblestone streets, the trash that was scattered about... Cerridwen didn't know where to begin and perhaps there was no starting point. This was beyond her realm of expertise, beyond her ability to heal. The souls that had been lost were ones that were very much a mess and those bodies, lying nearly torn and shredded in the alleyway, were dripping with crimson liquid.

For a very long while, she stood there with her mouth slightly parted, as if she were on the verge of calling out and shouting for help, but no words came. After all, who was she asking for help from? The Aleris Clean-up Crew? She was starting to think that her journey here - to find her father, Dravvin - had been an utter mistake. And she started to think this even more so when she realized someone else was moving around in the darkness of the alleyway.

In any other situation, Cerridwen would have been okay with hearing laughter, but here it was just wrong. The person she saw licked the blood off the walls, rubbing his tongue against the bricks greedily as if he was trying to devour the stones. Delighted by the taste, the human-like creature squealed and cackled in delight, letting the joyous sound ripple through the night air. Cerridwen took a step backwards, almost faltering in her footing, and looked for the nearest exit.

Run... go...

She was about to, until the demented person literally pounced on the corpse of what used to be a beautiful young girl. Cerridwen wouldn't have cared to see what happened next, but she heard a weakened and strained voice suddenly call out. As the man was looming about his fallen prey, miraculously, the girl gasped for help. Between the faint line of life and death, the victim had managed to lift her hand, fingers missing and some broken and let her crackling and weakened voice ask for help.

A terrible sadness overwhelmed Cerridwen. She was so taken by the empty eyes of the girl staring at her that Cerridwen didn't realize the she was being pointed to for help. The man's eyes followed the path of that battered hand that led his line of vision to Cerridwen. A smile curled across his face and pointed teeth bared in her direction.

Finally, Cerridwen was able to find her own voice and shout for help, though she was not sure if it would do her much good at this point. The most she could do was, at last, find the strength to pick up her feet and run like she had never run in her life, regrettably leaving the girl in the alleyway, gasping and choking for someone to save her.

Since his marriage to Emily, Dravvin and the rest of his family had been able to communicate with each other via some sort of mind link. The one time he asked his wife about it, she shrugged and said that it was just something she could do. Seeing as how no other answer was forthcoming, he left it at that. Now that he was looking for his daughter however, the Elemental realized that the link they'd all been sharing hadn't worked since his return. Was it something to do with his resurrection? Or was it something to do with how they'd gotten here? There was another option as well, but he didn't know what this one meant. Had Emily shut it down? That one bothered him the most.

He was directly over the Grand City now. The Ice Man had left Elysia's temple as soon as she told him that he had other family in the city. He was fairly certain that Lysander could take care of himself and Odin was off somewhere with a random Redmont from what he'd heard. So that really only left a few possibilities.

Dravvin was beginning to worry when he heard it, a cry for help. He wasn't sure he recognized the voice, but even if it wasn't his daughter he had to stop and try to help. It wasn't in his nature not to. He used the winds to bring the noises this person was making to his ears, and then pin pointed where they were from that. He turned slightly southwest, having apparently passed not too far by them on his way to find Cerridwen.

Then he saw a form stagger from an alley and start running away from him, looking back over their shoulder every so often as if a devil were chasing them. Putting a bit more effort into his speed, Dravvin was able to move in front of the person before dropping down in front of them. He landed without a sound and the being ran straight into him as they made an effort to see if they were being followed.

A shocked cry came from within his chest as the person pushed against him and started to scream. "Calm down now." He said in his best soothing voice, one that he used to use to settle his kids after a fight or accident. "Everything's going to be okay. I'm here to help you." he put his hands on the girl's (for now he could at least tell the sex of the person he'd found) shoulders and pushed her away slightly so that he could look into her face.

This time it was him that let the shocked cry out. It couldn't be this easy could it? Holding onto her shoulders tighter he pulled his daughter back close to him, into an embrace. A tear rolled down his face as he soothed Cerridwen. "Shh. It's okay Darlin'. Daddy's here. Daddy's got you."

He held her for a while before he remembered that she'd been running from something. In his shock and relief to find her, he's completely forgotten the danger that was behind her. Looking over her shoulder quickly, he saw that there wasn't anything behind her. He looked back to the alley entrance that he saw her running from and nothing sinister was there either.

After getting out of her what she'd seen Dravvin couldn't help but be angry at himself for having forgotten the enemy close by. "Stay behind me Cerri. No matter what happens, don't get in front of me. I'll need to have a clear shot ahead if we're attacked."

They entered the alley together, the Elemental's hands glowing with energy just waiting to be released. The first thing that he noticed was the walls, road, everything, were completely clean. Cerridwen had said that they were covered in blood, but now, he didn't see anything of the sort. They hadn't been standing there holding each other that long. Had she been mistaken?

The second things he noticed, were the bodies. They were laid out beside each other. Both looked oddly proportioned, almost as if they were missing something vital within them. He could see injuries on them, however there didn't seem to be any blood anywhere in the alley.

"We need to contact the city guard. I'm sure they'll know what to do." he told Cerridwen. Dravvin looked around him, and silently prayed to Elysia that he was right.