7 Awakening VII : Shocking Displays, Teluna

Books, clothes, a pocket watch, three flask of what was definitely blood and two of water, some utensils and more books. Though there seemed to be a loaf of bread, but it looked rather stale and unsavory. Nisi and Teluna had placed and arranged everything from the bundle in a neat and orderly line. But at the moment they only had eyes for that loaf of bread and flask of blood.

Asare had provided the bare essentials for me to survive for a while. But with the addition of Teluna and Nisi I would have to splurge and use every provision gradually. I broke a quarter of the bread and put a quarter of the flask of water into a cup and handed it to Nisi.

The young girl was so hungry that she snatched the food from my hand and gobbled it up in quick movements that saw everything disappearing in seconds. Teluna was not any different either as he downed a quarter flask of blood in one huge gulp.

"there's not much here, so we have to manage our resources."

I did not want both of them to think I was stingy based on the amount of food I had given to them. But they said nothing short of giving me a look of satisfaction.

I walked past them to lay my hand on the tower, is was not but just a huge slab of earth. But I could almost envision what it would look like when I was done carving out a home.

"hey Mr. Hero, if you want I can help you make a house. You don't even have to pay, just give me more of that bread from before and I would have it done in no time." Nisi's voice came from behind me as she tried to make an agreementwith me.

I found it funny. Looking at her size, you could almost not imagine that she would have a mouth on her, or be this sharp about some things. But I doubted there was much she could offer me. I knew gnomes were the ones usually in charge of digging and hollowing out a tower to form an abode or shelter of sorts for the prisoners, but they weren't cheap either.

Asare had told me I had to pay with ores, and I was not so sure that I could take the words of Nisi being a master builder at face value. After all she was still nothing but a child. But I saw no harm in letting her have her fun, besides at the moment I had no way to pay other gnomes for the construction and I was not into the business of disappointing little girls, after all I am Mr. Hero

"okay Nisi,but are you sure you can build my tower to very detailed specifications." I asked with mock seriousness.

"Yes sir, any how you want it, and I can deliver." She replied with all the seriousness a ten to eleven year old two foot gnome could muster.

"Very well then, this is how I want my shelter to be built."

I purposely came up with the most extravagant if not slightly insane plans for an abode. I told her I wanted her to first dig out a reception room,of about a three hundred square meters, with a door at the extreme end of it.

Each of this towers were five hundred meters in diameter so I quite believed there would be more then enough space with much to spare for such a reception.Then starting from the back door she built, I wanted her to make a narrow but long hallway,that stretched all the way to the very end of the tower, it was to much of a specification, but for some reason I couldn't understand, I wanted to make it as impossible as possible for her. It would take me at least by my estimation thirty to forty minutes to walk round the entire tower. At this point I felt as if I was just being mean.

At that end she would make a back door of sorts, which would give us an escape route to run out of in case we face danger from the front. Then from the beginning of the hallway she was to carve out four rooms on both its left and right sides.With the sizesmade at her discretion. But on both sides after two rooms were built there should be a break in her constructionand stairs for what I plan to be a second floor would be built,then she could continue on to build the remainingfour rooms.

Nisi had paid rapt attention with every word of my explanation. I could not help but find the young gnome cute and endearing,as she made such an expression.

Teluna however did something that left me surprised as soon as I was finished with my explanation. He walked up to the tower and thick black fog began to danceand seep out of the tip of his finger tips, a hum, buzz or feeling that I had gotten so used to in recent weeks and months from feeling it on my wrist filled the air.

This time however, I could almost taste it. I knew what it was thenand there,if was the feeling of magic.

That buzz was how a natural reaction formed from when a living being used the WAY as a medium to interact with the ether and bend the natural laws of nature to the favor. I also knew then and there that Teluna was a higher ranked vampire than me. This boy was a Shadower.

The swirling inky black mass, was used to mark out a huge drawing for where a set of double doors would be carved into the tower. And I still watched in abject fascination and with a dislodged jaw as the fog of darkness seeped into the rock leaving a thin black line behind as a marker for any body to carve through. I knew without a doubt that he was still making outlines deep within the sediments of the huge tower according to the specifications I made.

Ten minutes later he collapsed on his knees gasping for breath and his face pale. I quickly ran to him with the flask of water, but he refused citing that we needed to keep proper management of our resources. Also he was a vampire,the water did not have much of an effect on him,and he would rather save it for Nisi when she ran out of Mana.

Safe to say, I was thoroughly spooked by the capabilities showed by this boy. If this was what every vampire was capable of without the seal, I could see why they could be feared. But I knew the seal was more than it seemed so that was a story for another day. Nisi suddenly got up,tapped her sitting brother on the shoulders and said.

"Now its my turn."

I couldn't help my self but looked at her and followed her every movements with such focus the likes of which I have never mustered before. Standing before the outline of the double doors her brother had made, her size was even more emphasized as she looked so tiny from where she was standing.

I watched as she tentatively placed her hands on the tower, and then in the blink of an eye,a meter thick partition the tower tailored according to the lines made for the doors, turned into dust and moved to settle itself in a pile by the tower. My jaw dropped again, at such a spectacle.

Two siblings, one is supposed to be a prisoner,the other a member of a community of free gnomes who live in a whole other different section of the dancing caves, but both of them were masters of both darkness and earth magic. And that was just what I could glean from the surface. I was sure there was much more to them than meets the eye.I turned to Teluna as Nisi kept working and asked him how they met. I wanted to know their story and what would have forced them to come and hide in this hidden, desolate and solitary part of the prison.

Teluna was at first a little tight lipped I suspected that unlike Nisi who seemed so full of life and easy going. Teluna was more reserved, careful and someone who trusted no one. But I finally got him to open up though and he told me everything.

Teluna's mother is a whore, unable to mine for orhicalum like every other imprisoned vampire, she was slated for punishment. But as far she was concerned she would much rather die than let her body be defiled by werewolves or humans even. So she got mixed up in one of the gangs from the red and white districts. She sold her body instead to members of different races, preferring to dine with the devil she knows,rather than those she did not.

Teluna's mother was a beauty, in fact she was so beautiful that it has always caused no small amount of problems for those who wanted to possess her as their own personal woman.

And to give credit where it was due,she was not an ordinary vampire, but one of the last few remaining descendants of one of the last vampire Ancestor, Dracula Ahsan Aloysius The Arc Steel. I did not get the title,but apparently the dude was a big deal during his time,well doesn't matter though the dude's dead.

Her status as a princess made her even more wanted. And she liveda comfortable life for a few decades with the price being that she had to spread her legs for a few big shots in both the vampire and other races communities.

Then she discovered she was pregnant. Apart from the fact that she had no idea who the father was, she was terrified because any man who could claim ownership of her child or prove he was the father would own her indefinitely. Not to mention the horror of handing her child over to the human wardens for them to decided whether to Kill him or spare him and have him sealed, on the premise of him being a good addition to society.

It would have been nothing more than sport for them, a game with the life of an innocent child who was born much like his mother a victim of a war that had nothing to do with them. And so she fled to the blue district and became a maid to the leader of the blue district. But that did not mean she was safe or out of danger, the wardens and guards could still discover her child. So she hid him for eight years, told him stories of the child hero Kael Cor,as she somehow managed to hear outside gossip from the mouths of traveling gnome, goblins and dwarve merchants.

They brought back books and posters of his deeds,told the story of how a human noble, a child no older than six at the time ran back into a burning fire just to save the half dark elf,half vampire nanny who took care of him as a child. From them on his act inspired many equality groups to go all around Shearath,protesting to the unfair treatment of the vampirerace. And as Kael Cor grew, he became a more active speaker, fighting for the rights of the dark children at the council of light. Trying to sway the opinion of Shareath's leaders, into accepting their dark counterparts as equals and put an end to their discrimination.

Teluna grew up on those stories, he learnt to glean and believe in the ray of hope that Kael Cor, a young boy, a human for that matter gave to every single prisoner in Noxis Nyx. But his mother could not hide him forever,without the seal,Teluna had access to the way. He could communicate and interact with his system. Giving enough time Teluna could very well be the key that could help their race break their shackles of oppression. But the wardens found out,and so Teluna's mother and a handful of both vampires and dark elf sought to hide him.

While his mother sought to hide him deep in the blue district, the others created a diversion by proclaiming their beliefs and painting the wall of the guard tower. LONG LIVE KAEL COR.

The guards used an enchantment on the spikes that kept them all alive for years as they suffered through a fate worst than death. Teluna's mother safely dropped him at the edge and abandoned her son to his destiny,hoping with all of her heart that the then eight year old Teluna would be able to survive. Besides even if he died,she would make sure it was not at the hands of her oppressors.

It has been two years since then, Teluna had somehow managed to find his way back, and this time he came up at the market which was the hub where all the districts met. And there he met the orphaned Nisi who took care of him and protected his secrets ever since, becoming his elder sister even though she was not more than a year or two older than him.

Teluna occasionally snuck around to see his mother. Somehow she had avoided punishment, but she had also lost the sponsorship of the leader of the blue district after he was over thrown by someone else. She has had no choice but to go back to her life of selling herself for ores, so that she could meet the weekly quota set by the wardens.

I could not imagine the amount of pain Teluna has had to go through in his short life. I learntsomething about my past again. But this time I felt I had been foolish, or maybe it was just me loathing myself. For all the talk of me being a hero and how I stood up for their rights, my words did nothing, old me must have been thought off as nothing more than a foolish nuisance by those leaders on the council of light.

Here they all look at me in worship, respect. I get that I sacrificed a lot to stand up for this people. My position, my family, my prestige, my memories, my species. But all those has turned out to be for nothing,because here we stand and a poor mother and child had to be ripped apart from each other. My words did not stop this, none of the actions I took made any difference. I was nothing more than a little bump on the way.