[OPEN]

[servessithis]

Characters: Vicente and YOU!
Setting: Floor 2 and the medical ward.
Format: Prose, but will follow you.
Summary: Vicente makes his way to the medical ward so he can get his supply of blood.
Warnings: Blood. Philosophical debate about religion.


It had been at least four days since Vicente had last had any blood. Even as ancient as he was and could no longer pass for a mortal, he still could only go so long without feeding. The collar with its green light didn't make it easy to be his usual sneaky self, which didn't help matters.

It was a good thing that the medical ward had supplies of blood for the taking. The creatures here he could kill easily enough, but he wasn't sure that it was safe to feed off them. Unlike Morrowind vampires, he couldn't subside on non-sapient creatures' blood anyway.



In a dark corner of the room, Vicente sat in the shadows, hunched over. In his hands was a blood packet, which he greedily sank his teeth into and sucked, drinking in the essence.

Comments

Floor 2

[godheals]

Raphael had been a little late in coming to the infirmary, thanks to a small need to explore the library, but when he came in, he saw and sensed..something quite unholy, and it was drinking blood from one of the packets.

"What are you doing?"

Floor 2

[servessithis]

Vicente froze at the voice. Damn this collar and its light. It made it harder to be stealthy.

The vampire wiped his chin, smearing his pale skin, and looked over his shoulder. "Nothing you need concern yourself with," He whispered.

Floor 2

[godheals]

"You are drinking human blood, something humans need in order to survive. I believe that concerns me. And..what are you? I have seen unholy things before, but I have not sensed or seen anything like you before."

Which was the truth. Angels couldn't lie.

Re: Floor 2

[servessithis]

"I need human blood to survive as well," Vicente replied. "I merely take it more directly." He had read up on this world's medicine and medical practices. Blood transfusions sounded facinating.

Floor 2

[godheals]

"However, most humans only need it when they themselves are lacking it. Are you? And..you still haven't answered my other question. What sort of creature are you?"

Floor 2

[servessithis]

Vicente wiped a stray bit of blood from the corner of his lip with his thumb before replying, "I do lack blood of my own. I am a vampire."

Floor 2

[godheals]

Raphael was from a time where the concept of vampires hadn't even been invented, and while Lucifel was probably aware of them, the other Angel hadn't shared that information with him. However, Raphael could tell, from what he saw and sensed here, that they were unholy creatures that drank human blood in order to survive.

For some reason.

"I am unaware of the word, but why do 'vampires' need blood to survive?"

Re: Floor 2

[servessithis]

"We have little blood of our own. It sates a vampire's hunger," Vicente replied. He was reminded of Count Hassildor's wife, refusing to drink blood and thus slipping into a coma. She was lucky, considering many vampires were known to go mad if they went for too long without feeding.

Floor 2

[godheals]

"So you eat blood and live as humans eat food to survive."

Raphael walked further into the room and sat down in a nearby metal chair, watching the vampire.

"How are creatures like you created? And where do you come from?"

The Vileness obviously had some part in this.

Re: Floor 2

[servessithis]

"One moment please," Vicente requested. He turned back to the blood back and sucked it dry. Now refreshed, he set the empty plastic bag aside and wiped his chin and lips, before sitting down in a chair himself.

"A vampire is made when a mortal is bitten by one of my kind," He explained. "Biting passes the sickness onto the mortal, and after three days, if left untreated, the mortal will turn into one like myself."

Floor 2

[godheals]

Raphael waited as the vampire drained the rest of the blood and the listened to his explanation.

"..Then where did the first vampire originate? And how does one treat the sickness?"

Floor 2

[servessithis]

"They say that the first vampire was born when the Daedric Prince Molag Bal raped a woman. She died and arose as the first vampire," Vicente explained. "I do not know if this is true, but we have no other tale for explaination. The sickness may be cured with a Cure Disease spell or potion, and some have found that praying at an alter to any of the Nine Divines helps."

Floor 2

[godheals]

If Raphael was the type to raise eyebrows, he would have at that explanation.

"..We must be from different worlds then. I do not know who this Prince is, but I imagine that he must have been some kind of demon, judging by what I sense from you. 'Cure Disease spells and potions' also do not exist in my world..and what are the Nine Divines?"

[silentdeath]

A shimmer drifted into the infirmary, easily recognizable by anyone with enough knowledge of magicka to recognize an invisibility spell.

Lucien had followed Vicente to the infirmary, mostly for practice, secondarily to have some fun with his brother-in-arms. It suited his sense of humor.

It also helped him decide when the time was right to show himself. There were many things he needed to speak with the vampire about.

"Vicente. It has been a long time, brother." With the first word, the spell wore off, unable to exist when attention was called on it.

[servessithis]

Vicente's head rose and whipped around at the familiar voice. He smiled, baring his teeth, stained red with blood. "Brother," He greeted, standing up. "It is good to see you again." More than he could say, since Lucien had been gone far too long as far as the vampire was concerned.

[silentdeath]

"Don't let me interrupt you." Lucien replied, stealing a chair to sit across from him. "I have gotten back from an extremely strange journey. It is true what they say, that the world we came from is destroyed."

He paused, thinking back on the travels he took through Tamriel in that six month interlude, and looked a little distant. "The silence... was magnificent."

[servessithis]

Vicente nodded and resumed drinking from the blood pack, listening to the Speaker. "Then it is true, and the others are gone," He said quietly, after swallowing a mouthful of blood. Such a shame. "May they rest with Sithis."

[silentdeath]

He sighed heavily, but not necessarily in grief. He had already come to terms with the death of the Cheydinhal Sanctuary, it wasn't much a stretch to the others he knew and the brothers and sisters in other lands.

"It is, but I have had much time to think, being alone there. I feel it is time to tell you the truth of Cheydinhal. When we met last, you indicated when you had been brought here, certain... events had not yet transpired." Here came the moment of truth. Lucien had faith in the Brotherhood, and it had even hurt ordering the execution of the Sanctuary, but that had been before they realized the traitor had been elsewhere. "I am from an amount of time after your... death."

[servessithis]

Vicente had been sucking the last few drops of blood up when Lucien finished his statement. He froze as the words sank in. The vampire set the bag aside, wiping his chin and lips clean with a handkerchief he kept in his pocket. "My death?" He asked. "And what, pray tell, were the circumstances of my death?"

[silentdeath]

Another sigh, and this time Lucien stood and paced a bit, rubbing his jaw, a sure sign he was troubled.

"I ordered Purification. A traitor or, I'm more willing to believe, a spy had infiltrated the Brotherhood. I tracked it down to the Cheydinhal Sanctuary. They were clever, devious, and was a master of secrets, almost admirably so." He stopped in front of one of the cabinets, as if examining the contents, then turned back to face Vicente. "By the time it was carried out, the traitor had already moved on. I thought all was well then. And then, more treachery! My Silencer's dead drops were being intercepted. I chose too well in that one."

"He picked the Black hand off, one by one, even the Listener! That was when the others turned on me and labeled me as the traitor." Slamming one gloved fist into his palm, Lucien glowered and then as if realizing what he was doing, shook his head and placed his hands on his hips. Remembering this was upsetting, to sat the least.

"The last thing I remember was ordering him to investigate where the dead drops were getting intercepted, and hid out. I believe they were close on my trail when I was brought here. One thing keeps going through my mind. Who could have known where my dead drops were supposed to be in the first place?"

[servessithis]

Vicente watched and listened to Lucien, eyes occassionally widening. A traitor? Within the Dark Brotherhood. It had happened in the past, but to have one slip by his notice was almost unthinkable. No wonder a Purification had been ordered.

"The Listener?" The vampire gasped, shocked. How could the Black Hand had gotten so careless? How could he have gotten so careless?

When Lucien finished, Vicente took a moment to let it all sink in, closing his eyes for a moment. "I suppose the fact that the traitor did not die during the Purification clears my own name. Nonetheless, I do not blame you for making the descision. Had I been in your place, I would have ordered it as well."

[silentdeath]

It was relaxing to know Vicente had spoken pretty much what he had expected. A loyal brother to the last.

"It is no easy thing to order the death of your own Family. I knew you would understand. It has been very... trying, weighing these things in my mind."

Folding his arms, he was finally at rest, and leaned against a counter.

[servessithis]

"I am glad you told me, Brother," Even though he would have prefered to live, and keep using his immortality to the Brotherhood's advantage.

"The traitor not only knew of your Silencer, but the rest of the Black Hand as well," Vicente mused. "They must have been highly ranked, to have such knowledge." This troubled him greatly.

[silentdeath]

Lucien looked up then, a grim expression on his face. "Precisely. Someone who knew the movements of the Black Hand, our schedules. It could have only been another. It had been no coincidence that it had been directed at framing me."

Theories were well and good. Much of his time spent on Tamriel, wandering the dead wastes, had been in travel to the dead drops. There was little he could learn without being able to question the dead bodies, but journals and mementos had left a lasting impression.

"I was able to piece a fraction of it together while I was home. I believe it was Mathieu. Arquen was a fool to believe his words, when they labeled me traitor."

[servessithis]

"Mathieu? Yes, I remember him," Lucien had brought him into the Sanctuary when the boy was very young. "He was quite the assassin, good enough to ascend to the ranks of Silencer for one of your peers." The vampire never would have guessed that he was the traitor, but it did make some sense. The traitor had been traced to Cheydinhal, but the Purification had been ordered too late, and the traitor had already become a Silencer.