“What exactly are we doing here?” Kaethe asked as she examined the bloodstained torture rack in the corner. “And why does she have such a ghastly thing in her room?”

Myanna glanced over at Kaethe before returning to her search of Olcaru’s bedchamber. The cuirizu had only ever been there a handful of times in the entire period she had been with the Abyssals. None of the visits had ended in the way she’d wanted at the time. Reaching up to the sheer silk curtains surrounding the immense bed, Myanna reflected on those times with nostalgia and regret. With a sudden jerk, she ripped the curtains free with ease before casting them to the ground beside her.

“Searching,” Myanna answered finally, tearing down some more of the curtains with a precise jerk of her arm. She knew they weren’t real and that no damage done to a single thing in the chamber would change anything, but it did make her feel a little better, at least.

“And this?” Kaethe motioned to the torture rack.

“For sex,” Myanna answered as she pulled the drawers from a nightstand to dump on the floor.

“There’s blood on it,” Kaethe countered.

Myanna turned to look at her before glancing at the torture rack briefly, “So there is.”

Kaethe cringed as she took a few steps away from it, realizing what Myanna was saying to her now. The cuirizu arched a thin, green brow. “An unusual reaction for a vampire to have toward blood.”

“It’s more about how it got there,” Kaethe explained.

“You don’t imbibe blood while fucking?” Myanna asked skeptically, turning her attention back to her search. She threw the doors open to a wardrobe only to find that it contained no clothes, only torture implements, sexual devices, and profane materials.

“Usually only with consent and the time taken to clean up afterward,” the vampire scoffed as she crossed her arms under her ample breasts. The fleeting thought of grabbing her up and fucking her long and deep on Olcaru’s bed crossed Myanna’s mind. However, there were more pressing matters to attend to, as exciting as it would be.

“Just like this dream?” Myanna countered as she moved some of the items in the wardrobe around. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but she felt she would know it when she saw it. “I don’t recall consenting to this invasion of my mind.”

“We’re going to go through this again?” Kaethe scowled. “I thought ye were past it.”

“I am,” Myanna agreed as she stepped away from the wardrobe. “But it may be worth considering before passing such swift judgment on others, yes?”

“Don’t tell me ye have something like this at home,” Kaethe laughed as the tall cuirizu walked past her to examine the shelves on the far wall.

“I do,” Myanna replied. “Though, I admit, I do keep it much cleaner. Disease is not something I want spreading through my Garden.”

“Ye torture them?” Kaethe gasped.

“It’s not torture when I do it.” The cuirizu glanced briefly over her shoulder at Kaethe with a slight smirk on her dark red lips. “Get on there, and I can show you.”

Kaethe blushed as she waved dismissively, “Don’t do that! We’ve got other things to be attending to!”

“I am,” the cuirizu said with a shrug. “You’re the one getting all worked up about the rack.”

“I’m not getting worked up,” the vampire protested.

“I can sense your arousal, dear,” Myanna replied. She ran her hands over a few of the strange trophy items Olcaru kept on the shelves. She remembered seeing them many times but never getting an explanation for them, where they came from, or how they had been won. Olcaru was incredibly vain, so Myanna doubted that they came from anything less than impressive kills. There were old weapons, large teeth, and a helmet that each looked like they would have an interesting story attached to them.

“How’s that?” Kaethe asked, unable to conceal her curiosity.

“There are physical markers, depending on the species,” Myanna explained as she moved on to another set of shelves filled with books and scrolls. The script on them was completely illegible, as was always the case with dreams. “But cuirizu also have a sense for such things. Our auras are tied to something called the Viridian, which is at the core of our magic and power. It allows us to sense arousal, fertility, and other related things. It also gives us greater metaphysical weight as we age and hone our abilities.”

“Like a dragon,” Kaethe responded. She wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t entirely correct either. Myanna had no idea what sort of enhanced senses a dragon possessed, but their presence in the world was more than their physical size. Whenever they took another form, they retained that sense of enormity around others unless attempting to conceal it specifically. That was what Myanna had meant by metaphysical weight, though cuirizu never grew to such sizes as dragons.

“In a way,” Myanna agreed, running her fingers over the spines of the books before stopping on one that stood out to her. Tilting her head to one side, she pulled the book from the shelf and examined the cover. Visually she couldn’t make out the words engraved on the book. But, lifting her to her cheek, she recognized the texture of it. It was a well-known book throughout the realm: the patents of the nobles of the Imperium. Every influential person in the realm owned one, poring over it obsessively to connect themselves to the nobility of the Imperium. Doing so would grant them certain privileges in Zelmesca even though it was now independent.

“Curious,” Myanna remarked quietly. “Why would she have this?”

“What is it?” Kaethe asked, moving closer to examine it. “A book of patents?”

“You can read this?” Myanna looked at Kaethe with renewed interest.

“Aye,” the redheaded vampire confirmed. “Sort of. It’s not a passive skill like reading can be. It’s an oneriomagic spell that allows me to decipher things, glean meaning from that which the mind might pass over or jumble.”

“Fascinating,” Myanna said as she passed the book off to Kaethe. “But for Olcaru, such things didn’t merely seem mundane; they were utterly boring. Beneath her notice entirely. The lineages of mortals in this realm were nothing to her, so why this book is on her shelf is a mystery to me.”

“What about these other books?” Kaethe gestured with the book toward the shelf.

“Each of these possesses something she needs. Magical information, military tactics of a foe, legends of lost artifacts, that sort of thing. But mortal bloodlines, especially those only dubiously connected to Zelmesca, would be irrelevant to her.”

“What sort of artifacts?” Kaethe’s brow furrowed.

“Anything to give her an advantage over her enemies,” Myanna replied. “It wouldn’t matter what it was.”

“Taken separately, this might seem out of place with the other books.” The vampire held the thick book up to the shelf and ran it down the line of texts as if using it to scan them. “But combined with another of these books, it might have provided her clues to something she needed.”

The hand holding the book came to rest next to another one of the thick tomes on the shelf. Taking it from the shelf, Myanna turned it over in her hands, hoping she would recognize something about it as she had with the book of patents. But the book was unfamiliar to her and held no distinguishing characteristics that indicated what it was for.

“Artifacts,” Kaethe clarified for the cuirizu. “It’s a book on artifacts.”

“Interesting,” Myanna responded, glancing between the two books. “So perhaps an artifact known to be held by a specific family.”

“That would seem to be the case,” Kaethe grunted as she tossed her book back onto the shelf carelessly. “But without ye having read that book in the past, none of its information could be accurate.”

“How were you able to determine the connection between these books?” Myanna wondered. “If it’s not contained within my mind, it shouldn’t be of note, correct?”

“It may be contained within yer mind, and ye don’t know it, but not for the purposes of reading,” Kaethe explained. “It could be something as simple as seeing her with both of these books at the same time. If it wasn’t particularly noteworthy to ye, the information is discarded from the conscious mind. It’s even possible that the information was magically removed from yer mind, leaving only a footprint of its existence behind.”

“So, which one is this?” Myanna pressed.

“This would appear to be passive information,” Kaethe answered after a silent moment of scrutiny of both books. Myanna recognized the look, similar to the various forms of mage sight and divination she’d seen used by magic users countless times in her life.

“Very well,” the cuirizu said as she approached the sizeable opulent vanity on the other side of the bed. “If we take the book of artifacts to the vault, we should be able to duplicate this process?”

“I think so,” the vampire answered.

Myanna rummaged through the vanity drawers until she found what she sought. The vault key differed from the one put into any other door. Instead, it was an octagonal metal box that filled the hand with each side lined with unique prongs and divots. A matching recess in the face of the vault door took the key, allowing the holder to then input a combination of turns that unlocked it. Myanna had owned one back then and had kept it secreted away in her room just as Olcaru had.

Around the two, the room lurched as it had before. Suddenly they were standing together in front of the towering stone doors of the vault. Originally of dwarven make, the vault had been constructed in one of the deepest parts of Willowridge, inside the mountain where the fortress sat. The doors were finely cut, with intricate inlays and long, precise lines.

“Another unprompted change,” Kaethe noted.

“It would seem that my subconscious is as eager to solve this as you are,” Myanna commented as she examined the key to ensure she correctly placed it into the recess.

“Mistress,” Gwendolyn said, suddenly appearing from nowhere on the cuirizu’s left. “A word of caution before you open the vault.”

Myanna’s hand came off the key as she glanced back at Kaethe, who had also been caught off guard. “Caution?”

“Indeed,” the nude fae nodded, clasping her hands behind her back in a way that perfectly showcased her pale, delicate breasts. “Remember that this vault is not merely a direct translation of the vault in the real world; it is also representative of the concept of secrecy.”

The cuirizu lifted her chin, glancing between Kaethe and Gwendolyn briefly as the fae continued to explain. “You will find what is supposed to be in the vault as your conscious and subconscious recall it. But alongside those things will be the things that you have hidden away. Even that which you have hidden from yourself.”

“She’s right,” Kaethe agreed. “The mind instinctively places such valuable information in places that represent security. By opening it, ye may find things ye would rather leave forgotten.”

“But if we don’t open it, we have no way of knowing what you seek is in there or not,” Myanna pointed out, her expression impassive. Despite her outwardly calm demeanor, the prospect of uncovering something she’d repressed was very unnerving. When the real Gwendolyn had removed Olcaru’s alterations to her mind, there had been a fair amount then that had left her distraught. There was no telling what manner of things might be contained within the vault.

“Unfortunately,” Gwendolyn acknowledged, spreading her hands.

“I could simply allow you to go ahead without me,” Myanna suggested to the vampire. “The vault should hold what you seek, whether I’m present or not, correct?”

Kaethe nodded in agreement. It was a suitable plan for her, but Gwendolyn shook her head. “I’m afraid not, Mistress. Without you present, I cannot allow her to enter the vault.”

“What do ye mean ‘allow’?” Kaethe retorted.

“My mandate forbids it,” the half-vila explained, brushing the pale blonde hair from her face. “I cannot allow you to enter the vault. My duty is to protect my mistress, first and foremost. Should she enter the vault, there would be nothing I could do if you were to accompany her. But the emphasis is on her.”

“I could just kill ye,” Kaethe sneered as she stepped closer to Gwendolyn, showing a hint of her fangs.

“You could try,” the fae corrected her. “But you have no power here. Not anymore.”

“Enough,” Myanna interjected, cutting across their exchange with a severe tone. “I will go into the vault.”

Without moving her head, Gwendolyn’s ice-blue eyes shifted to look at Myanna. “You’re certain?”

“Yes,” the cuirizu replied. “I have very little that I keep secret from anyone when simply asked. Whatever may be in the vault would be something I have kept from myself, and I should like to know what such a thing would be.”

“And her?” Gwendolyn indicated the vampire with a subtle nod of her head. “Do you wish for her to know such secrets?”

“We have an arrangement,” the cuirizu shrugged a shoulder. “I see no reason for her to jeopardize it now when she is so close, nor after she has obtained what she needs. She knows the consequences of betrayal.”

“Consequences?” Kaethe asked indignantly, taking issue with the veiled threat.

“I take betrayals very seriously,” Myanna reiterated as she returned to the key, entering the combination in a series of long and short turns. “Loyalty is something I value highly and reward handsomely for.”

“Noted,” the vampire grumbled as she carefully watched the series of turns beside Myanna. After nearly a dozen of them, something heavy clunking inside the walls echoed through the vast chamber. Myanna leaned forward, pushing the doors open with both arms. Even for her considerable strength, it was slow going at first. Finally, Kaethe joined her, and together, the two were able to swing the doors open wide.

Inside, the vault was lined with stacked shelves built right into the stone of the walls. Each was overflowing with valuable items, both magical and mundane. Piles of coins were scattered on the floor where the chests on the shelves had overflowed or broken open. Despite no light source, neither had difficulty seeing in the dark. The supernatural gift of darkvision that fiends and vampires both possessed allowed them to perceive things in total darkness as ineffable shades of black and approximate shapes. It wasn’t Myanna’s preferred way of seeing due to the lack of color, but it was incredibly useful in situations like this.

“There’s a fortune down here,” Kaethe gasped, her eyes taking in the vast amount of treasure that just kept going on and on into the darkness.

“The Abyssals were well funded, but it was never about the money for Olcaru,” Myanna responded. “Money couldn’t buy the kind of devotion she wanted.”

“What’s the difference?” Kaethe scoffed, “Ye pay a mercenary enough, and they’ll get the job done surely as any zealot. Often, more professionally.”

“Arguable,” the cuirizu shrugged. “But the efficacy of force was not what she needed. She needed faith; she needed the raw power of belief itself. She fed upon it to add to her power. It was how she became a goddess in the first place, minor as she was.”

“She fed on it?” Kaethe’s face scrunched up in disgust.

“They all do,” Myanna replied darkly. There was no deity, in her mind, that was not taking advantage of the faith of mortals. They were different lifeforms entirely, feeding on the hearts and minds of people they were capable of helping with a wave of a hand or the stroke of a pen. “Everything has its way of survival.”

“It looks like there wasn’t a lot of activity down here,” Kaethe remarked as she ran her finger over one of the artifacts, pulling back a thick layer of dust in the process.

“Typically, anything we put in here wasn’t being saved for later. It was to deny access to everyone else,” Myanna explained. “The more wealth hoarded here, the less of it there was for enemies to spend. Likewise, the more magical might kept behind these doors, the fewer weapons could be wielded against us.”

“Us?” Kaethe raised a brow, her expression concerned.

“I may see things a little differently now,” Myanna sighed. “But I do not exempt myself from engaging in this activity. I did so eagerly at the time, and if I am being truthful, were it the best way to protect my Garden and provide for my order, I would do it again without hesitation.”

“A bit pessimistic, isn’t it?” the vampire said as she moved the book past items on the shelves to see if they would resonate.

“Perhaps,” Myanna admitted and left it at that. She wasn’t in the mood to debate the philosophy of the cuirizu and her order when she had little personal experience with it. “Have you got anything yet?”

“No,” Kaethe sighed, brushing some cobwebs out of the way. “Nothing yet.”

On one of the nearby shelves, Myanna noticed a pair of boots that looked familiar. Then, with a gesture that resembled pulling something down from the ceiling, Myanna ushered a glowing cluster of plants into existence that hung in the center of the walkway. “*Flor Fozforicenche.”*

The glow from the cluster was a soft blue-white that allowed her to see more detail, particularly the color. The boots were made of old, worn leather that came halfway up the shins. Myanna remembered the first time she wore them, they had been a little bigger on her. The cuirizu ran her fingers over them gently as memories began to stir within her.

“Those don’t really look like yer style,” the vampire commented as she noted the old work boots.

“They were my mother’s,” Myanna whispered, her eyes taking in every last detail down to the frayed laces. “She died when I was born, but her father kept many of her things in storage for years. I found them one day, hiding in the loft in the barn. In my youth, I wore them around on adventures in the woods. It made me feel close to her.”

“That’s surprisingly sweet of ye,” Kaethe said with a smile.

Myanna gave her a sideways, withering glare. “Sad, I would say. And pathetic.”

“Ye were a kid,” the vampire scoffed. “Don’t ye think yer being a bit harsh?”

“No,” Myanna said flatly. “I don’t.”

Around them, the darkness melted away like a fog. Though the vault remained behind them, in front of them was a stream running through the woods on a late summer afternoon. Myanna watched as a young version of herself leaped awkwardly from rock to rock in the stream, managing to keep her balance despite the boots being slightly too big. The girl that was the younger Myanna looked to be in her late teens, though Myanna wasn’t sure precisely the age. She had been a tall, lanky kid who had developed early compared to the humans of the community.

“Ah, ye were a cute kid, ye see?” Kaethe laughed, vindicated. “This must be a happy memory of yers, so why is it in the vault?”

“I don’t know,” Myanna admitted as she stepped forward into the light, observing the young version of herself curiously. She seldom thought back on her childhood if it could be helped, but looking at the young version of her, she saw how content she had been then to be alone in the woods.

“I used to pretend I was an adventurer, like her,” Myanna said without taking her eyes off the young cuirizu hopping from stone to stone. “Everyone in town knew who she was and admired her. She’d gone out to see the world and returned to a hero’s welcome. She brought riches, magic, and knowledge with her that she shared freely with everyone.”

“Really?” Kaethe questioned. “It doesn’t sound like she would have agreed with yer idea of hoarding things, then.”

The annoyed cuirizu resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Her mother had died young, giving to others, so it felt like Myanna’s point still stood. But, before she could remark on that fact, she noticed movement in the treeline along the bank of the stream.

“I didn’t know anyone else was out here,” a male voice called down to the young Myanna. The sound caused her to immediately lose her balance and fall forward into the stream. It wasn’t deep and didn’t run particularly fast, so it posed little danger for most of the year. The young woman was only wet up to her knees as she pulled herself out of the water.

The man at the top of the bank laughed heartily as he watched her scramble awkwardly up the bank. “Watch it there, kiddo. You could hurt yourself that way.”

“I’m not your kiddo,” the young Myanna snapped. “And I’m practicing.”

“Practicin’?” The man said, setting down the ax he’d been carrying over his shoulder. “For what?”

“Adventuring,” young Myanna answered as she wrung out parts of her short trousers. “I need to have good balance.”

“Mhm,” the man grunted, unimpressed. He was tall, powerfully built, and conventionally handsome, with dark hair peppered with silver along the temples. Like Myanna’s mother, he was something of a hero to the locals as well, though he’d never accomplished anything on the level she had. He was a woodsman, a hunter, and a fisherman who just happened to be more athletic and wealthy than the other men in town.

“Friend of yers?” Kaethe whispered as she watched things play out.

“No,” Myanna croaked, feeling her heart race with fear for some reason. “That’s Delmont Shaw, and he’s not my friend.”