Crowley Eusford was a Vampire Noble, a thirteenth progenitor that was sired by the seventh progenitor Ferid Bathory.
At the beginning he had started out hating him, but over the years he had started to forget why and the feelings started to fade but he could always remember him. Now he was a part of Ferids Faction and was often at the vampires beck and call simply because Ferid always made things interesting. For him that was enough reason to stick around as entertainment was something most vampires needed as boredom was the bane of their existence.
Normally it was Ferid that observed and found interestings things but it would seem that this time it was Crowley who had found something interesting.
The Human had been wearing the uniform of a lifestock but what stood out were the weapons, the skill and the fact that this girl had been much faster than a human child had any right to be. For while the speed wasn't enough to match even a common vampire it was still several times faster than what it should have been. From what he had observed, the girl had augmented herself with those strange weapons that she wore and the astral wings he had briefly seen flashing.
And that was the next strange point.
Her weapons.
They were not like anything he had seen before in his eight hundred years of walking the earth and he had seen a lot of different weapons.
The astral wings seemed to have come from some point on the shoulders where a pair of silver shoulder clasps had sat that were definitely not part of the lifestock uniform, then there were the gauntlets and the greaves that seemed to have been a single set and with a sleek black design that reminded him strangely of a wolf the didn't seem to have used them but they gave him a strange magical feeling that made him certain that they were magical in nature and so they may have given her an passive boost, but the thing that actually set him on edge had been the knife.
For while the knife may have radiated a calming aura it was what it had done to the vampires that had startled him.
The knife had only slit their throats and killed them with it. And not the normal death of a vampire where they become a demon but rather the disintegrated kind of death where the vampire ceases to exist. But that only happens when a vampires head is destroyed or a mortal wound was inflicted by a demon weapon, neither of which was the case here.
It intrigued him.
There was also the childs skill to consider. It was a level of skill he had only seen in people after many years of dedicated training. More years than it had been since the breaking of the taboo by the humans and the following apocalypse, so the girl had to have training before, indicating that the girl was not from an ordinary family as those skills were not what was taught anywhere.
Well, anywhere public at least.
And there was something else.
The child didn't seem to be affected in the least by having killed.
It even seemed as if the girl had killed before.
What a truly interesting find.
And with that Crowley Eusford turned away from the scene and made his way over to Ferid's mansion with a slight bounce to his step all the while humming a tune.
It never occured to him to inform someone else about the happennigs, for why should he?
— — — — —
Ferid Bathory was intrigued.
The day had been a relatively boring one with nothing to do and seemingly nothing to scheme until his dear Crowley came in and told him about this very interesting thing that had happened today.
He was intrigued. And pensive.
For the weapons Crowley had described rang a bell. They reminded him of something he had found a long time ago, but since he couldn't use it had forgotten about them for a while.
Standing up with a fluorish he beckoned Crowley to follow him and led him deep into the mansion.
„Where are we going", his dear Crowley asked but he didn't answer him only humming under his breath.
Once they descended into the basement of the mansion he lead Crowley over to a straight wall and gripped a portrait at the corner and turned to face Crowley with a little twirl.
„Now listen closely my dear Crowley, for if anyone who is not in my presence should enter this room there would be dire consequences indeed, and wwe wouldn't want that now would we my dear", he directed at Crowley and recieved an interested hum in return.
„Behold, thte barren room of secrets", and with that enigmatic proclamation he swung the portrait to the side revealing a hole in the wall through which an empty stone room was visible with a single plain wodden dresser inside.
„I would have expected something with more decoration knowing that it is from you", came Crowleys comment but Ferid ignored him and stepped towards the dresser pulling the first drawer open and noticing that several were missing.
Pushing the drawer shut again he opened the next drawer with trepidation.
Once the drawer was open he cursed slightly under his breath before his mind sprang into overdrive. The girl had several protection rings and two vials of Rígr Staffords blood. What if...
„What's wrong?", Crowleys voice shook Ferid out of his thoughts.
„Not necessarily wrong, but definitely unexpected. A new factor has made itself known.", was all Ferid was willing to say.
Closing the second drawer he opened the last drawer and as he had by now expected it was empty.
Pushing the drawer closed he whirled around to face my dear Crowley and sat down on the dresser with his legs crossed elegantly before him.
„Let me tell you a tale my dear Crowley, a tale of three peculiar weapons.
A knife, a set of gauuntlets and greaves and a set of shoulder clasps.
The knife is said to have been crafted from the spliter of a star that had healing properties, it is said to be able to heal any illness and heal any wound and lift any curse. The problem with curses being that it heals and not reverses. So when it ‚heals' a vampire it takes away the immortality and since we are already dead and our bodys are only being held together by the vampire curse we disintegrade.
Next are the gauntlets and greaves. They were crafted from the remains of the armor of a dying angel that fell down onto the earth and the channel the dying angels light and burning anything that comes into their way.
The shoulder claps too were crafted from the dying angels remains and they captured the essence of his wings and the wearer gets to access those wings. But since the angel was already nearly dead there isn't much strenght left in those astral wings making them unusable for actual flight."
Ferid explained in his usual dramatic fashion oonly to be interrupted by Crowley: „And you didn't try to use them yourself? They were simply left lying around?"
„Why my dear Crowley, of course I tried to use them but they burned my arms of for mearly touching them. That is why they are still here. They have to choose their wearer and while they may not really care for a vampire, they destroy any human trying to touch them with extreme prejudice. It is almost as if they despise them. And isn't that poetic, the remains of an angel, despising humans. Don't you think so too, my dear Crowley?"
„Well it certainly is ironic. Humans whorship God and his angels, while they have forsaken them. Not surprising considering human nature.", was all Crowley said to the subject while his mind flashed briefly back to the time of the crusades. Shaking those thoughts off he returned his attention to Ferid.
„Furthermore, it is said that they were part of a seal, though nothing is known of what was sealed and where. I guess we will never know. However the fact that a human was not only able to pick them up but also bond with them? Very curious. Very curious indeed."
„What do you plan to do about the girl?"
„We track her down and make an offer to alleviate all of our boredom of course!", was Ferids reply to Crowley question.
All he got in response was a deadpan stare.
„But what I really want to know is how the girl got into this room in the first place", muttered Ferid but Crowley of course heard it clearly and interested looked around the room wondering the same thing as well.
Until his gaze fell onto the ceiling of the room.
„Ferid", was all that Crowley said but it snapped Ferid out of his inane mutterings, „the ventilation system".
Ferid looked up, and let out an uncharacteristic curse and a facepalm before he got himself back under control, but not before muttering about why they even had a ventilation system, they were vampires after all!
Crowleys reaction to that was a raised brow and a muttered „Well that was entertaining" and turned away while thinking that if they find the girl again things would get not just interesting, but entertaining as well if she could vex Ferid like that without even trying.
And that was this Interlude.
I have finally decided in which direction I am going with this story and have the next story arc planned out. In the next Chapter we will find out how things are going on Anya's end of things.
Till then have a nice day and enjoy it.