A small family was clustered together while seated at a low table, and two other individuals that could have been guards or adventurers rested wearily against the walls of a room inside the fortifications. A pair of robed figures that Kay faintly recognized were checking over the two children of the family, with streamers of blood descending into small cuts in the kid’s arms. The two people dressed in worn and in some places battle damaged armor glanced over as new people entered the room and stiffened as they took in Kay and his escort. There was no reason for them to recognize him, but unimportant people didn’t have personal guards. The family and the two Blood Manipulators, who had been in some of Kay’s early classes on the Class now that he took a moment to look at them closely, didn’t look away from the two children. The parents’ faces were pale and drawn, while the kids looked somewhere between uncomfortable and the boundless curiosity of the young. One of them kept trying to peek inside his own arm and frowning when he couldn’t see through the blood trailing into him.
Kay watched what was happening with both his eyes and his magical sense, although the former didn’t tell him much and he didn’t get a ton out of the latter either. The only way he could see into another person’s body was to send blood under his control in, so all he could sense was the blood in the air between the children and the Blood Manipulators. The tiny conglomerations of cells tainted by eldritch corruption being siphoned out of the kids told him that the taint wasn’t being purged like what he did, but it didn’t give him any clues on why that was happening.
The procedure ended quickly after that and an explanation combined with reassurances had the worried looking parents calmed down a little bit. It was when the two Blood Manipulators turned toward the two people leaning against the wall that everyone else noticed Kay and his entourage.
“Your majesty!”
The family of four all huddled together with nervous expressions, even the children looking at Kay with hints of fear. The two fighters that had been watching him silently while he’d watched the examination stiffened even more while doing their best to keep their expressions blank. They failed, looking worried and anxious.
Kay gestured for his two citizens to rise from their bows. “Hello, I hear you’re doing good work but things aren’t going the way they were expected to. I’m here to see if we can figure out why.”
“Of course, your majesty.” The more senior of the two Blood Manipulators, a male elf that Kay vaguely remembered from the earlier classes he’d taught, nodded as he rose from his bow. “How would you like to proceed?”
“First I want to see what differences you’re seeing compared to if I was doing it. I’ll send a little of my own blood in with yours during your next examination to shadow you, and then we can try more after that depending on what we figure out.”
“Of course.” He gestured at the two fighters, “We were going to continue on with these two, so we can do so now if you’d like.”
Kay glanced over at the pale-faced man and woman who were staring at him with trepidation. “If that’s alright with you two?”
The woman swallowed nosily and stepped forward, partially shielding the man behind her with her body. “I- I- I... Yes, of course...” She stammered before trailing off. “Your majesty!” She rushed out, eye wide.
“Right then. Is this the first time you’ve been through this?”
“No, your majesty, we’ve been seen to a few more times...”
“Good, this shouldn’t be any different, I’m just looking this time.”
A small cut was made in the woman’s arm and Kay sent a tiny thread of blood alongside the thicker stream from his subordinate into the limb. Kay watched as corrupted cells and bits of the tainted vampyr virus were cut and dragged out of the woman’s body, bit by bit. What seemed to be lacking was the inimical power that lurked in Kay’s blood, the sheer destruction wreaked against anything eldritch when blood Kay held power over came into contact with it. With a thought he sent a single drop racing to collide with some of the infected flesh that hadn’t been dealt with yet, and just like normal it melted away as Kay’s blood fought against the corruption.
“Oh. There’s been some debate over how you deal with the infection your majesty but that... That is indeed quite different than anything I’m capable of.”
“Which is where I think the problem is coming from,” Kay replied grimly. “Go ahead and finish up, then we can discuss.”
After stepping back from the woman Kay watched as the samples of the contamination were extracted and stored in small vials that were labeled with the date and the person they’d been removed from. After that the woman was questioned regarding how she’d been feeling, if she’d experienced any mental or physical signs that she was being corrupted faster than could be treated, and about her general well being. Everything was apparently within expectations so they healed the incision in her arm and let her step back.
“... Shit!”
“Yeah.” Kay stared down at the description for a moment before dismissing it with a thought. “Let’s table that for a second and deal with the other issue.” He gestured minutely at the six people in the room.
The parents pulled their children closer and the two combatants tensed up completely like they were expecting a fight.
Kay kept an eye on them but didn’t comment or openly react. “I’m sorry to say but our research into dealing with the vampyr infection isn’t going as well as we’d like and right now I’m the only person that can permanently remove it from anyone who’s been bitten and didn’t get the infection removed early enough.”
The mother of the family’s eyes widened and she leaned forward, still clutching her children. “Sir, I mean, your majesty. We’ll do anything to-“
“No, I’m not charging for this. It’s completely free without any cost or expectation of obligation to you or anyone else for me to remove the infection from you if you chose for me to do so.”
“That... that sounds like there’s a reason we might not let you?” The woman from the two fighters asked quietly.”
Kay nodded. “That’s because there is. You probably haven’t heard about it, or if you have you wrote it off as nonsense or lies, but the only way to permanently remove the infection that will painfully change you into a vampyr is to be changed into something else, a vampire.” He opened his mouth and pointed as his fangs and gently put them away when they all reared back. “When used my Skills to purge the eldritch corruption that was injected into me by a vampyr bite, it left behind piece of what made up the original vampires, what they should have been without something from beyond turning them into nightmarish monsters. The only way we know of to make it safe for all of you is to do the same thing, remove the corruption and leave behind the pieces of true vampirism that will slowly make you into vampires too.”
They all shared glances and the two pairs of adults whispered to each other while the children looked on, obviously confused by everything that was being discussed.
“Can we... think about it?” The mother asked.
“Of course you can. I will say to you, though, I personally won’t give you a time limit for you to decide by but there might be one anyway.” Kay grimaced as he told them, “We don’t know if the infection might overwhelm the attempts to cut if back, and at that point you have very little time to decide before its too late.” He gestured at the two healers. “Everything we know will be explained to these two as we attempt to refine and improve our treatments, so they’ll be able to answer any questions you might have.” Without saying anything else he left, taking Zeia and his guards with him.
When they were far enough away that even a tier three couldn’t overhear them he glanced down at Zeia. “Are they from Nelam itself?”
She nodded. “They are, and they’re the last refugees we’re expecting from that area. Everything’s slowed down to a trickle, but most of the people that are coming this way lately have been from isolated areas or have Classes suited to navigating hostile areas to get to safety. Or like those folks, they got incredibly lucky.”
“So they’re still stuck seeing me as some kind of villain because of propaganda and all that.”
“It’s likely.”
Kay followed Zeia after she took the lead, taking him to a room deeper in the fortifications that was obviously a research lab of some kind.
The door slammed shut behind himm and Kay turned around to see Zeia staring him fiercly in the eyes. “I want you to turn me into a vampire.”