A Salem Awakening

Chapter 25

Samuel ran for about ten minutes before he arrived at Tobias' house. He was careful to stay within the trees for the entire route. He could not risk being seen. After they burned his wife to death earlier, as most in Salem thought, seeing him running toward Tobias' house would make him appear to be a man seeking revenge. And in fact, he was looking for revenge. But not only because of what happened to Willa.

A little over two hundred years prior, two men were arguing over the future of the Order, as one of them was to be elected the next Master. One man, Rennik Samson from the West, argued the Order would best function in the light of day. Hidden, but in plain sight, with the members living as part of the unblood world. The other man, Junius Dracul from the East, warned of the dangers of living amongst the unbloods. Not only did it risk discovery of the bloodline, but it increased the possibility the bloodline would become contaminated and ultimately lose potency.

At first, they respectfully debated the arguments. It was almost cordial. Each man would make his respective points while the other would rebuke them – always acknowledging where the points were valid. After some time, it was becoming clear Rennik's message of hope and inclusiveness was winning the day. Junius needed to take drastic steps. As he often did, Junius consulted with the matriarch of the Dracul clan, his grandmother Chwaer. They were both ruthless in their own way, but where Junius had some capacity for empathy, Chwaer did not. She would push him to perform acts of the utmost cruelty, often against Junius' better judgement. But he never considered disobeying his grandmother. He believed she had his best interests at heart, and she knew what was best for the family. When he disagreed with his grandmother, Junius would do as she commanded and he would consider it a learning experience – his way of learning how to be a leader, how to be the Master.

Based on Chwaer's advice, Junius ultimately challenged Rennik to a duel. She was shrewd and realized a duel between the two would work out well for the Draculs no matter who won. If Junius won, then he would be the next Master, and she would make the decisions behind the scenes. If Junius lost, then Rennik was likely to use the opportunity to attempt a unification of the Order, which meant Rennik would likely spare Junius and give him a position of importance. Rennik could be so predictable. So Chwaer recommended Junius challenge Rennik to a duel, which he did.

"Only the strongest 'lock should lead the others," Junius said to Rennik, daring him to accept the challenge. Rennik ultimately relented and badly defeated Junius both in the duel and for the position as Master. But Rennik made a crucial mistake. After winning the duel, it was traditional for the winner to take the head of the loser as a trophy. Instead, Rennik stopped the killing within the bloodline to form a truce between the East and the West. Rather than taking his head, Rennik offered Junius his hand with the promise the two would work together to unify the Order for the first time since the Great Master himself. "Together, we will fulfill the prophecy from the ancient book," he said to Junius. This was exactly as Chwaer predicted.

The ancient book offered many pieces of advice and hidden, cryptic clues for the Masters to unravel. But there was one clear and concise rule – the succession of leadership. It was a rule added by the Great Master himself, many millennia after the ancient book was first scribed.

There were two, and only two, ways to change the leadership of the Order. This was unusual because the ancient book generally spoke of everything in threes. One way a change in leadership could occur was if the current leader dies completely of causes determined by nature, not by the hand of any other man, except for self defense. This prevented the murder of a leader by one jealous for the position, for if they caused the death of the leader neither they, nor any of their descendants, could ever become Master. The second, and only other, way was if another pureblood member of the order killed by their own hand, the three children of the current leader. It must be three children and the person vying for the position must be the one directly responsible for their deaths.

After Rennik became the Master, Junius started plotting for his eventual rise to leadership. At the time, Rennik had no children, but that was no matter. Junius would wait, hiding in plain sight, as Rennik wished for the Order in general.