For an instant, I could see the floor below me, all but being consumed in fire. I felt the harshest sensation of fear I’ve ever felt at that moment. Fear of falling, fear of fire, fear of death. Everything happened so quickly, but to me, it had slowed down enough for me to understand everything but do nothing about it. I was about to die. I would crash to the bottom and die, or break my bones and then burn to death.

Whatever the cause, it was going to kill me nonetheless. It shouldn’t have mattered how I would die if all I was going to do is die in the end, but let us all be honest, here: it does matter how you die. I really didn’t want to die burning while my broken body wasn’t capable of moving due to broken bones or a contusion.

So, I panicked. And panicked a lot.

That was until I hit the outside wall of the mansion and noticed my leg being stuck on something -- no, held by something.

So, I panicked. And panicked a lot -- a whole lot more than before.

I looked up to see the monstrous figure of the ghoulish vampire holding me by the leg, hissing, and cackling as it looked at me.

“You’re not going anywhere, little sheep!” it mocked and kept cackling before it pulled me up and swung me back through the window.

My hands almost let the file slip from my finger when dragged as hard as the vampire did. I managed to hold on to it by my nails -- not really, but I using my last bits of energy to hold on to it. It was that desire and force of will that didn’t let me prepare for the world of hurt that was waiting for me. The world of hurt being the bookcase that I just smashed into.

My back felt the full force of the crash and it started aching badly. It was sharp and it was deep. I felt it on my spine and my ribs. I felt it on my back muscles and my intestines. I was left sprawled on the floor gasping for air and completely immobile for a few seconds.

“Trying to escape, are you?” the vampire questioned me, sounding mockingly concerned. “Oh, you little fool. That was dangerous. You could have died,” and he smirked with long, sharp, unorganized teeth while saying the last word with his voice suddenly changing into a deeper, raspier voice. “Stay inside, little sheep. You’re safer where you can’t run away. There are wolves outside.”

The vampire walked slowly to me like I was already checkmated. To be fair, it also looked like that to me. The mansion was on fire and there was no way of stopping that. The vampire was determined to die and taking me along with him.

I was unable to move on the floor, I could barely lift my upper body using as much strength as I could, while also making my back hurt like hell. I’d used two strong spells inside and two outside the dream. The vampire held all the cards, he wasn’t hurt or exhausted. I was hurting and tired.

“Yes, little sheep,” he said, sweetly -- as sweetly as a nightmarish rotten corpse could be. “Stay here, with me. Stay where it is safe.”

And then I noticed something. The vampire was making time. Time for something. Maybe I could use this against him. Maybe I could buy time.

“Screw you, leech,” I groaned. “I am free! I’ll do what I want.”

“And has that brought you? To this. Your certain death.”

“I am happy with whatever outcome it is so long as I am free to choose my own death.”

“Arrogant little sheep. All you lot are,” he said and this time I felt contempt. “Waving you free will left and right. Throwing it around like it is nothing.”

“Are you jealous?” I mocked.

The vampire snarled loud. It hurt my ears. I winced.

“What? You don’t like it when I use it however I like?” I smirked and lifted a little bit to see the vampire straight at his eyes. “It’s mine.”

I wasn’t afraid of a Soul Gaze, I wasn’t looking at his real eyes, these were dream eyes we had, fake ones made by our consciousness and shaped by our cognition. Real eyes are more than just the concept, they are material and they hold Power -- the Power -- they are windows to the spirit and, to mortals, the soul.

In here we weren’t in danger of soul gazing, but the vampire didn’t know that and before the moment almost became too long, it adverted its eyes and hissed. Looking away he turned and walked to my side, leaving me unable to look at his face. That was scary, he was stalking me like the true predator he was.

“It’s more than you deserve, caster,” he said and stopped addressing me like I was cattle. Maybe it stopped feeling like he could taunt me into something. He was looking for another approach. While he did I started feeling my body shiver a tiny bit at my back. That was the vampire giving into his predatorial instincts, wanting to jump at my throat and rip it apart to savor the sweet metallic taste of blood.

“What--” I was about to do the foolish thing and ask a question that gave him a bit of room to act, enough free will to use it for something sinister. Not happening. But what should I do? I am almost good enough to stand up, I just need a little time. The vampire was against the rope, he couldn’t hold it any longer.

“This is your end, caster,” he said. And when he finished speaking I heard the mansion starting to creak and crack. The walls, floors, and ceiling were falling apart and falling to the ground.

Certainly, our end was nigh. But I still had hope.

“Hey, vampire,” I called for his attention, giving him enough of a push to keep away from my throat. “What do you call a vampire burning in his own mansion?”

The vampire looked at me quizzically. He was confused. The sudden surge in small free will and the confusing joke of a question made him startle and stutter as it opened its foul mouth to speak but couldn’t. So, it settled for the classic, tried and true: “what?”

That was the safest bet, true… but it was what I was expecting. Confusion. Hesitation. Time.

“Tempesta!” I snarled as quick as I could and slammed the gust against the vampire and used my badly placed center of gravity to push me the other way. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Magic might be supernatural, but it doesn’t mean it breaks all physics laws when it makes contact with the real world.

I was pushed and rolled through the door of the library while the vampire was slammed against the bookcase. The sudden gust, that came from the door I was thrown through, grabbed air from inside the mansion.

Physics lesson number two. If I pull air from a tube from one side, what happens to the inside of the tube? Of course, the inside air is replaced by the outside air coming in from the far side of the tube. The tube was the mansion. And the fire… was the fire.

WHOOM! I heard the mansion roar as the fire inside was suddenly fueled with fresh new air and oxygen from outside the house. The heat almost burned my skin to form blisters. If I did it again, I might just burn myself. The mansion had to be burning faster now.

“Not good, not good, not good!” I wailed as I stood and ran to the earlier-destroyed stairs and followed down. The second floor was just now catching on fire, which meant that the bottom floor was certainly completely engulfed in it.

My route of escape had been cut to just the second floor. And my only options were windows. Again.

So, I ran to the far left side of the second-floor hall, opposite where the library was on the third floor. But just as I started running I heard a crash coming from the second floor right side.

“This is bad, this is bad, this is bad!” I wailed again and ran for my life.

The stomping was getting closer while I ran.

“BLOODY SHEEP!” the monster screeched.

And for only that moment I felt like an actual sheep running away from the big bad wolf trying to eat me alive. That was the power of a vampire. Sex and violence. Vampires could make you feel pleasure like they were the best thing that has ever happened to you, but also make you fear like there was nothing worse in the world. And I was certainly not aroused. I was very much scared to my bone.

“Sweet Mary, come on!” I pleaded and ran. Pleaded and ran. “Oh, Sweet Mary, please!”

I was halfway through the hall but I wasn’t going to waste time running to the farthest end. So, I turned at the closest open doorway, entered the room, scanned it as quickly as possible, found a window, and proceeded to jump through it.

The same thing happened. The window was harder to break than what they make it look like in the movies. I swear I’ve just spoiled me every future good action movie. Never believe what you see there.

And, just to be sure that action movies were never the same to me, my leg was once again grabbed, and I had only the small moment to think dammit, not again!

Until just now I had forgotten that I was still holding the file and only remembered it because it slipped through my fingers, this time for sure had fallen slowly outside the window.

I held myself ready to get smashed against a wall and I did. It hurt like hell but not as much as before. I still fell to the floor when I was no longer glued to the wall for a millionth of a second.

I fell, and I swear I sometimes surprise myself when I think this fast.

I grabbed my wand and swung it, pointing it at the vampire. The thing had good reflexes and moved before I could finish my incantation. “Flam--!” But I was counting on that, then swung my crossbow from my back and pointed it at the leech, waited for a hundredth of a second, watched the vampire sidestep to avoid the bolt, but then I corrected my aim and pulled the trigger.

The bolt found the vampire's gut. The blood bladder is a real thing that vampires have where they store their blood. If it breaks, the vampire loses all strength. Blood is energy, life energy in a liquid, and vampires use it to maintain their power and youth. No blood, no power. No power, no vampire. You get the idea.

The blood bladder didn’t burst when the bolt hit but it did make the vampire sway and trip, back-stepping and almost falling on its ass.

I didn’t use my fire because I had barely any juice to spare. I would end up being too weak to jump from the window and fall safely enough.

I turned and ran from it.

“WIZARD!” the vampire screamed again, eerily, and shiver-inducing. I could never get used to eldritch wails that scare you to the core. As if anyone could.

I was about to jump when I was pulled by my coat. The vampire was on it. He was desperate. He wanted me dead at all costs. He didn’t care about how he looked down on the floor.

“Wizard! You’re dead!” he kept convincing himself.

I twisted and tried to get out of my coat. A wooden plank, from under my right foot, gave up and I fell to thigh level. Stuck on the floor, my leg burning bellow, flailing desperately to get away from the heat.

“Ahh!” My left arm got twisted and my leg was burning.

“Aaaargh!” the vampire gasped in happiness. He was getting his wish granted.

The last of the wooden floor under me gave way to the rest of my body and I fell to the flames below. It wasn’t until this point that I finally found the scariest thing in my life.

Falling, fire, and vampire, all in one accessible bundle. Life Ending Bundle Box, for all your suicidal desires.

The floor below was mostly gone and had hot burning ashes that began blistering my skin and burning my clothes. The leather coat saved me from most of the burns to my body, but, obviously, not all of them.

The vampire next to me writhed in agony. It thrashed and as it did, throwing the smoldering coal in all directions. After clearing the surface layer of coal, it discovered more below it, along with hot ash and rocks. Burning itself more and more as it thrashed on.

I lifted myself up and quickly grabbed my leather coat, covered myself in it to defend against the flames, and ran.

Again, my coat was grabbed, and this time I just let it go.

“Noooooo!” the monster wailed in anger, agony, and anguish.

I ran and, for the third time, jumped through the glass window. I am sure I was ready to become a stunt double after this escapade. Fire, risky jumps, and summersaults. These were, definitely, the right qualifications.

When I did, I felt to the bare soil, a lot colder than I could remember, and the air was soothing to the skin, embracing me lovingly like a mother would her baby. I let myself rest on the floor to cool off and get some fresh air in my lungs, trying to handle the pain that vailed me.

“Wizard!”

I looked up to the mansion and saw the monster, lit on fire climbing out of the window.

“Sweet Mary,” I swore, “you have got to be kidding me! You don’t give up!”

I reincorporated myself and saw the paper file on the floor, half-burned, half dirty. My eyes shone and quickly snapped it from the floor and crammed it into my pocket.

Now, I had a flaming vampire -- excuse the pun -- right in front of me to deal with. It still walked with swiftness despite the damage and the fire that surrounded it. I swore I could make another pop-culture reference but I didn’t felt like it. Burning it sounded like a good way to end it, but I felt so exhausted I could barely muster another grand spell to finally finish it off. There had to be a more efficient way to do it.

I thought of something quick and on the fly, put it into my mind, gave it a quick magical review in my head, and then named it. I filled myself with a will, this was the most efficient magical spell I had ever thought of, and I only needed a bit of my power to make it work. Hopefully, I hadn’t butchered it. I'm not a good scholar, so making up spells isn’t my forte, much less making them up on the fly.

I moved my wand to point at the vampire and I worded the spell aloud: “Igni!”

The vampire turned into a ball of fire as if someone had suddenly dropped oil and gasoline over it. Then continued like a human torch for a few steps in complete silence, then fell to the ground and kept burning like a massive bonfire.

It burned and burned. The stench was horrid. The vampire’s dream was dead.

I panicked. “The file!” I took the file from my pocket and opened it as quickly as I could through the disgusting creases of the impromptu pocket origami.

I felt the vampire’s cognitive world waver as I peered on the file and saw my nephew’s name, age, size, height, weight, etc. And right at the bottom, I saw a small clause that said ‘Location,’ and began reading it.

“Havelhill,” I read aloud. “St. Louvre Street… that’s a real name?” I kept reading and tried memorizing the complete address before the vampire died with me in it.

It was getting too close for comfort when I decided to drop the mind spell and suddenly appeared in a different world.

I was colder, calmer, better smelling, and the sight before me--

The vampire laid there half-turned to his real form with a silent expression of agony, his facial features twisted into extremes. It was a horrible sight, something you’d think you’d only be able to see in paintings, videogames, or nightmares. Yet, there it lay before me. A dead vampire showing his last bits of moments in this world were of pain and suffering.

“Ed--!” Tedet came close and placed a hand on my head. “You’re alright… I was beginning to worry.”

“Worry? You?” I snorted and saw confusion in Tedet’s face. “I’m alright.”

“When I saw its face twisting silently, and saw nothing coming from you, I thought the worst.”

“You underestimate my power,” I said smugly. But he looked at me with a concerned look. Or I imagined that was a concerned look. I’ve never seen him look concerned before, and he doesn’t have facial expressions, so sue me for not knowing. “I’m alright. No scratches.”

“Right,” he groaned silently. “That’s good.”

“Aaaand,” I elongated the word then waited for a second or two.

“And?”

“I know where he is.”

“Your nephew?”

“Damn right, I know!” I said proudly. “It was one hell of a battle. That guy never gave up, even after death it kept its dream world going for just enough time for me to read his file.”

Tedet spoke something in his weird croaking language and then continued in English. “So?”

“Havelhill,” I said sighing. “Damn, ostentatious, Havenhill.”

“That’s a long trip,” he was pensive. “Am I really going to tag along for this? Your nephew?”

“You love me too much,” I said mockingly.

Tedet scowled. “Dammed wizards.”

I sighed in relief, the adrenaline still pumping through me after that encounter in a dream. Dreams can affect your real body. “Man, I love alchemists.” I slapped Ted on the shoulder and beckoned him “come on” as I walked to his car.

This was going to be a long journey and I still didn’t know what my nephew had to do with the torviela, Uderach, and his champion request.