The apartment wasn't small.
It took up the entire floor, with wide open areas gazing out at the sea of lights in all directions. From the main entrance, I could see all the way out to the ocean. The moon hovering just above the horizon.
The interior had a minimalist layout. A simple design which felt spacious and uncluttered.
But what shocked me were the decorations.
The Wallachian coat of arms was the first thing to greet me. Painted on a battered shield. I almost gasped as a memory slammed into me. The crack of iron, A mace thudding into that very shield as I roared defiantly behind it.
I could feel a ghostly numbness in my arm as it recalled the impact.
All around it were flags, framed behind glass. Old flags. Tattered. Yellowed. Belonging in a museum. Yet, each felt alive to me.
Weapons mounted on the wall. Swords. Axes. Maces. Even a spear, shaft splintered halfway down its shaft. I had held each of them in my fists.
Each had tasted blood.
Beneath soft lights aimed to highlight each piece sat small treasures in glass cases. I paused over a medallion I recognised. My father's. The Order of the Dragon.
Every step into the apartment churned memories from the depths of the fog which shrouded them. Fragments of my past assaulted my mind, causing me to stumble more than once.
My imprisonments.
My victories.
The betrayal of Corvinus.
Hina stood behind me like a shadow, her eyes always on my back. I felt her gaze but was too swept along by my memories to acknowledge it.
I felt my throat constrict as I realised my entire life was in this place.
Arranged. Preserved. Displayed.
A museum.
My belongings had become relics. My possessions, a shrine. A temple the Renfields had dedicated themselves to maintaining.
"I feel old," I whispered.
"Molly would say you are only as old as you look."
My lip curled into a smile as I remembered the gaunt and weak creature I had seen in the mirror. "I look very old, too."
"Then she would say you are only as old as you feel."
I clicked my tongue and strode to the window. The exhaustion was pulling me to enter Torpor, but I wanted to see the new world I had awakened into.
The towers around us were equally as tall, and there seemed a vast number of them. Stretching in all directions, lights hinted at an endless number of them.
"How big is this city?"
"Eh," she said. "It is one of the biggest in the world. But Tokyo is bigger. And better."
She didn't sound like she was bragging, but I still wasn't sure I believed her.
"How many people live here?"
"I'm not sure," she said. "Molly would know. But I think it is around 20 million?"
I glanced at her, sure she was joking.
She wasn't.
"So many…"
"Yet, none of them can make proper mochi."
"What is mochi?"
"It's delicious!" Her eyes brightened and she hugged her belly, squirming in delight. "So soft and plump. And fluffy!"
"Ah," I said.
"I'll bring some to you," she said. "I know you can't eat it, but you'll agree it's the best thing in the world. Without mochi, I would die."
Something about her words bothered me, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was.
Wearily, I leaned against the thick glass.
"Where is my room?"
"Oh!" She pulled herself together and waved towards a hall. "This way, Master."
I dragged myself after her, trying not to glance at more relics. My brain was already aching enough from the avalanche of memories. I couldn't take any more.
My heart, too, was aching. The shard I'd broken off to turn her into a ghoul had left a hole that was taking too long to heal. The blood I'd drunk earlier should have been restoring me. Instead, it was still seeping away. Leaking into the void.
By the time we made it to my room, I was hunched and panting for breath.
A small stove fireplace in the corner spilled a cheery glow across slate tiles. A thick plush rug lay flat across the middle of the floor. White. Wool. It looked soft.
Glass walls revealed more of the city, this time looking out across an incredible bridge whose lights dazzled as cars traveled its sparkling spine.
I turned from it to the bed which was pressed against the wall.
Then back to the glass.
Then to Hina.
How was I supposed to sleep here?
I raised an eyebrow at her, voice little more than a breath. "The sun?"
"The glass has been treated, Master. You should be able to stand there in full daylight if you wanted. But during the day, shutters will lower automatically to keep the sunlight out completely."
"Leave me," I rasped, close to collapse. "I need… Time."
"Yes, Master." She paused in the doorway. "Thank you, Master. For saving me."
I nodded, and she closed the door.
Finally, I was alone.
With only the muffled sound of the fire crackling.
I dropped onto the rug and folded my legs beneath me. Pressing my hand to my chest, I winced as I closed my eyes.
Pain. Sharp and deep.
Greater than I thought.
Exhaustion was masking it with a creeping numbness which had spread through my body.
I could feel the desire to sink back into the void between life and death that was Torpor. It pulled at me, offering peace in the emptiness that came between dawn and dusk.
But I could not rest like this.
If I did, I wasn't sure I'd ever wake again.
I started by sensing my stomach. I still had some blood stored there, though it was flowing at a constant rate into a vein which fed my heart. Following the flow, I sent my awareness into my heart.
A vampire's heart is not like a mortal's. It has only one chamber, called the Coagulum. The Coagulum forms a gateway between the heart and Meridians.
Ignoring the wound in my heart, I focused on moving beyond my Coagulum as that's where my blood was being wasted by flowing out into the void.
Drifting deeper into myself, I slid into the space between the void which governs the universe we can't see, and the universe which is. It is the border between the material and the immaterial. The place where my True Body resides.
As I emerged into the cold dark void, I reached for my Meridians.
This time, I looked at them closely.
Each of them was connected to my Coagulum via the gateway.
The connections looked like they had weakened, but this would be due to my body being freshly resurrected and not using them to their full potential. If I wanted to improve, they would need to be strengthened.
Moving outward, the Meridians felt knotted and hard. In some places, the flow of blood was so poor it barely trickled where once it would have rushed like a river during a storm.
At the end of my Meridians, where my Crucibles should have been, the veins were frayed and loose. They floated outward into the void like lifeless tentacles. I stretched into the void but found nothing to hold onto. No scraps of my Crucibles remained.
They had taken everything.
It was truly empty.
Truly void.
I resisted frustration, keeping my concentration from breaking. I had to study everything. I had to know what damage had been done and if it could be repaired.
I found the ripped ends of the Arteries which led from my Crucibles down into my True Body's belly where my Core should have been. I followed them down.
They felt soft, not hard. Slick with rot.
With no blood to rejuvenate them, it was little wonder they were wasting away.
I hadn't expected to find any hint of my Core, and was proven correct. The soft Arteries simply dangled, swaying in the empty void. Unattached.
The Core was missing. Not even a fragment remained.
Beyond my Core was an emptiness so wide I couldn't imagine an end to it. Something about it bothered me. As though there should have been something there, too. But no matter how far I peered into it, I couldn't remember what had lay beyond.
I turned away from the void. It would have to wait.
My memory still refused to provide me with the specifics, but I knew I needed to repair at least one of my Meridians and form a Crucible if I wanted to recover.
Refining my blood would return part of it back into my system with enough potency to heal myself much faster. I would need to consider deeply which Crucible to focus on first.
And then, I thought grimly, I'd need to find a way to pull the memory of how to make it from the layers of fog which was reluctant to let them spill loose.
Following my tattered Meridians, I drifted back through the gateway of my Coagulum and into my heart.
I watched it pulse steadily, staring at the wound which had formed after I'd splintered it to save Hina's life. The wound was seeping.
The blood, instead of flowing into my Coagulum was instead being ejected into my Corporeal Body where it was reabsorbed. But the cycle of blood was broken, so it simply repeated the process and little, if any, gains were made in repairing the damage.
I circled my heart like a scavenger, trying to think of a way to heal it.
Or a way to patch my Meridians and create a Crucible.
But nothing emerged out of my memory except fragments of Rituals.
Exhausted, I felt my concentration soften. It was hard to focus. Torpor beckoned, the call of rest crooning in my ears.
I struggled to concentrate while resisting the lassitude tugging at me.
The soft beat of my heart working only to lull me further.
Deeper.
Into the silence.
The peace.
Telling me to let it all go. Telling me the damage was too great. It couldn't be fixed when I didn't even know how.
I stood at the edge of a precipice, but I didn't want to jump.
Instead, I lifted my face defiantly to the void.
"I shall rise," I hissed at it. "I always rise!"
And then, faintly, I felt it.