4th Sigmarzeit 2512
Morning
Lady Richilde frowns. "…a
vampire?"
Sir Mallobaude nods. "As a Questing Knight, I
should slay him. But Sir Paol recounted to me the history of Count Vlad von Carstein and I realised that as his peasants lack a human knight to protect them, he is their only defence against the mutants and monsters common in this Dukedom."
The look she gives me is significantly less friendly. "Von
Carstein? Who tried to conquer the Empire and turn it into another Land of the Dead?"
"Ah-."
"As it was recounted to
me, the peasants of Sylvania paid him and his family a tithe of blood in place of their crops. It disturbed me to think of it, but upon reflection… How different is that to what we Bretonni do?"
"Unless you drink blood, it is
quite different."
"We take the majority of the produce of their labour in return for our protection. Under a vampire a peasant may die of blood loss, it is true. But if a peasant does not have enough to eat, is his body not weakened? Is he not more susceptible to disease? Is his capacity to labour not reduced?"
"Vampires slay their peasants on a
whim."
Mallobaude's face shifts to a more sombre expression. "And if you believe that knights do not, I could recount those incidents that I myself have witnessed. Oh, they do not
eat them, but there are trivial acts which knights consider to impinge upon their honour that can result in a peasant being cut down. And not a soul will speak against it." He shakes his head. "Ultimately, it is the behaviour of the
man that I will judge, and while there are many knights more noble than Sir Gwilym, there are all too many
less."
Sir Gwilym was the chap who tried to talk Mallobaude around to the dark side when we first met. He's actually my closest neighbour, and… Yeah, he's not worse than the majority of local rulers. Which is an issue, because while I suspect that followers of the Chaos Gods are being rallied against men all over the world, he's
right there. And there are more than enough unhallowed corpses in the area for him to put together a decent sized army if he wanted to.
As far as I can tell he's a Blood Dragon but not a member of the
Order of the Blood Dragon, a descendant of
Abhorash but not of
Walach Harkon... But how closely he follows that ideal is debatable to say the least. Abhorash would have wanted him to go on a tour of the highest concentrations of monsters in the world in order to master his blade and himself, while he mostly just lives like a normal aristocrat. He
is willing to talk to people he considers to be in his social class, which is why he merely responded to my persuasion of Mallobaude with ill grace and an invitation to visit him if he changes his mind rather than going into a frenzy.
Lady Richilde takes a moment to gather her thoughts before turning to me.
"And do your plans include reuniting the Duchy of Mousillon under Sir Mallobaude?"
Mallobaude shakes his head. "By the Bretonnian Laws of Chivalry I am a Questing Knight. I cannot claim a seat until I drink from the grail, and… That seems unlikely to occur. While I consider my deeds here to be virtuous, they are not the sort which the Lady rewards."
She frowns. "Have you abandoned your quest?"
"I…
Did, but…" He sighs. "I… I misunderstood.. certain things about my faith. I was despondent when I came here, and not… Clear of thought. Having had time to reflect… Upon my faith and vows, it may be that when I am no longer needed here I will continue my quest."
I reach over and pat him on the arm. "Granting him the Duchy would be a matter for the king, though I'm not aware of any heirs of the former duke's line."
He shakes his head. "If I became duke, I would have to see to the appointment of a new Knight of the Realm to this village. Unless you wanted to take the Knight's Oath."
"Honestly, I'd be happy to hand over local administration, but I fear that we're getting off-topic. Lady Richilde, I think that's about all of it. Was there something that particularly concerned you?"
"Yes. Vampirism."
"I assure you that I'm not a vampire. Queen Khalida was killed by Queen Nerferata, and she hates all of vampire-kind. My point is that a vampire should be judged by the same metric as anyone else."
"No, though I am glad of it. I am asking because I do not see how a man could do all that you say that you want to do within a mortal lifespan."
I nod. "Not see it all to completion, certainly. I mean, if everything goes
really well and everyone pulls together, I think the Empire's road network could be completed before my fiftieth birthday." I huff-laugh. "So maybe eight times that, optimistically. Wait, did you think I was planning on becoming a vampire so I could see it all happen?"
"I was considering it."
"Oh, no. No. The ring responds to my desires."
"It can make you immortal?"
"Do you see a single scuff, notch or other flaw in the door? Any gap between the tiles, the bricks or the flagstones?"
She frowns, looking around. "No?"
"No stains on the countertop?"
She gives her head a little shake. "I don't understand the point you are trying to make."
"I abhor decay. In civilisation, yes, but also in my environment and my person. I abhor things getting worse. I'm not doing this because I'm a moral person who has decided that it's the best use of his abilities in a 'with great power comes great responsibility' sort of way. I do it because… Have you ever seen a Herdstone?"
"No, but I have heard descriptions."
"It's viscerally disgusting. The first time I saw one I was filled with the certainly that things like that Should Not Exist. So they don't. Same thing with my body decaying. I can fix injuries to my body by my own revulsion at the thought of being damaged. So… Yeah. Daemon Princes and vampires are
more immortal than me, but I don't have to worry about ageing to death."
Mallobaude looks at me quizzically. "I know that daemons who are physically destroyed return to the hell-realm that spawned them, but what mean you when you say that vampires are immortal? Any number of vampires have been slain in Bretonnia alone."
"Ah. Temporarily. You see, a normal person is connected to their own presence in the…" Not 'the warp', they wouldn't be familiar with the term. "The realm of magic. Their
soul. It's connected to their body until they die, at which point it's cast loose. If they've made the appropriate preparations then it will be picked up by their god, and if they haven't then it'll just drift until a daemon consumes it. With me so far?"
Two nods.
"Part of the process of becoming a vampire causes the soul to be brought into the physical world and merged with their body. That's why vampires can't undergo Chaos-based mutation or be marked by the Gods of Chaos. But it
also means that they can't ever enter an afterlife. Instead, when their body is destroyed, their soul is bound to their remains and gradually soaks up dhar until it can repair their body and… Then they're ready to go again. It's why I dump the bodies of the vampires I kill on
Mannslieb, and why witch hunters who've got the time burn their bodies and mix the ashes with silver and quicklime before spreading it over a wide area. It's why other vampires put the bodies of their fallen in
Black Coaches: so they can absorb power from death as they go and speed up their resurrection."
Lady Richilde's eyes
widen. "Then every vampire… Even Vlad von Carstein and his accursed heir
Mannfred-."
"Oh, Mannfred's already back. One of the reasons why I'm staying away from Sylvania is that he's one of the few people on the planet who could kill me."
At least until my armour's ready. Master Runes are not to be rushed. And assuming that I have time with everything else, because stabilising Sylvania is going to be a
long term task. There's a smaller chance of him finding out about me than Malekith, so I'm not prioritising him.
"He's back?"
"Yes, but he's trying to unify Sylvania at the moment so it's not urgent. And if we get the roads set up we could reduce his access to dhar to the point where he can't raise an entire army. So what do I need to do to win the support of the Electors?"
