Back in Vorden's room, Logan had finished in the library and was going to call Lana and Vorden together to talk about what he'd learned. Lana wasn't in her room so he knocked on Vorden's door to update him and found her there as well. She had just initiated the "clean" function on the kitchen so she could put it away. She wanted to stay in "packed" mode as much as possible. She had stashed all the fruit she just grew in a drawer meant for clothing and repacked her things.
Cia looked tired. They decided she had been through a lot so they should let her rest.
What Logan shared was there were 15 castles, two were empty, one was the tenth. Each family had their own castle plus there was one for the king. There were seven castles on each side of the king's castle. Each family had their own ability such as Fex's family having the string ability. Logan had no idea who the last castle was for. Those residing in the castle were blood related to the leader, all Noble level or higher. They all have the family ability, about 50 people.
Around the outside of the castle lived 100 people who use the family ability but not related by blood. Each family had 1,500 people, the rest living in what is called the vampire pool. They don't learn an ability in hopes of going up the ranks in a family to get moved inside the castle walls. If Fex was part of the thirteenth, he may be in that castle in their cells.
Logan had no idea about Peter. Information on Fex was hard to find. There was no knowledge on Peter. Logan decided to put a spider in all the rooms to see if it helped gather information.
He also explained the categories of vampire. Vampire stood by itself while A was dhampir, and such. B was the undead classes and C was those who had magic.
It was time for bed but sleep was slow to come, all lost in their thoughts. Cia was now almost convinced Quinn took her memories. Logan was trying to think of where they were for sure so he could tell Quinn when they heard from him. Vorden thought the mission was a lost cause. Lana was worried Silver would see through her act.
Lana was the first to go to sleep. Sil swapped with Vorden and she slept in his arms. Sil swapped back in the morning, for the first time ever, he stayed awake all night watching over her.
The next morning, Lana lay in bed in the early morning hours listening to the trees. They were not right next to them so she had to concentrate and she was looking for information specifically on Quinn so the tree near him had to relay that information to her. Patience was also required. She got the skinny yesterday that he was in the class but she was hoping for more details.
What Lana was able to gather was when he emerged from the mountain, he climbed a tree and looked around. He jumped from tree to tree around a river and observed some beasts. He tried killing a black rabbit-looking creature after killing many white ones. A boy using vampire powers saved the rabbit. He yelled at Quinn for trying to kill his familiar. The boy held the shivering rabbit in his arms. They discussed the actions of Quinn.
The boy was as tall as Logan, based on what the trees showed Lana, with ash-grey hair that was the same style as Fex on top but swept out the back at though the wind was blowing it. He wore a dark shirt and dark pants. The trees replayed the whole conversation to her but she just sighed at this.
She always thought this information could be seen as an invasion of privacy. At the same time, it could earn her new family money in the future. In this case, she refused to relay this specific information but she did note the name Rokene. They shook hands then went off to an area in the forest that had a bunch of tents in it.
Rokene said the assessment results in being considered an adult. The class took place in an area that was square and clear yet surrounded by forest. Two sides were lined by tents. A larger tent was in the middle on the opposite side of where the boys emerged from the forest.
The older gentleman had short, purple hair, was quite young-looking and had a mole under his right eye. There were five students in front of him when they joined him. There were 24 total students once they were all there. The students lined up. The teacher asked about familiars.
This got Lana's attention because she had been asked if Caser was one so she was hoping to learn the difference. The teacher said if they didn't capture one, they were going to do a ritual right now to get one so he needed to know who needed the ritual.
The teacher's name was Clark Talon, 4th family and this class focused on familiar training. He summoned his familiar which was a demonic-looking raven. He desummoned it then pulled out a mat. She saw someone get this nasty-looking worm thing and asked the trees to fast-forward past the summoning part. She saw lines across as colors merged until the trees got to the next part.
This was yesterday after all. She needed to get to class eventually herself. The teacher then asked the students to all show their closed form which was either an object or a symbol on their body. Rokene showed it and summoned his rabbit.
When it was Quinn's turn his face turned red. Then she watched as he took off his shirt and showed the teacher a strange symbol on his back. When she saw what he looked like under his shirt, she understood the looks he got and why he hastily put it back on. Quinn told Clark he couldn't summon it but it was a bone claw.
Lana thought back to the creature in the cave and wondered if that was how Quinn was able to survive such a fall. Talk about a contract or death. Clark told him he was special. Lana smiled because she already knew that.
Clark then tasked them to communicate with their familiar and told them how. Lana was getting bored. She told the trees to fast-forward to his next conversation. This had Quinn in a tent with his teacher. Quinn described what happened when he tried to communicate with the bone claw. Quinn responded and Clark told him he was many steps ahead. Lana decided she had enough of yesterday. She asked the trees to show him today and Quinn was sitting in his tent meditating.
She picked up her mask and left a message stating they were in vampire school, doing okay. Layla was in a separate class but she had permission to go see Layla once a day. Logan thinks Fex and Peter may be in the thirteenth castle but nothing concrete yet. She ended the message there.
She felt Vorden return to controlling the body because the hands around her slid off her, gently though. "I left a message for Quinn. He's okay. I updated him on what's going on so far. I want to hit the shower then go hunting. We still have 2 hours before class."
Vorden nodded. "I'll shower after you."
Lana had noted the night before there was a washer for clothes in the bathroom unlike in the military dorms where they had to go to the basement. She washed her clothes the night before. Vorden had to suffer through seeing her naked body. She did get a giggle out of that though. Three people in there, all reacting differently. It was wild to think about.
A few minutes later, she emerged from the shower. She came out telling caser some day he was going to need to walk. Not from shoulder to shoulder or down to her chest, he needed to walk on the ground. He looked like he was ignoring her. She mentioned "food" and his head perked up. "You need to learn how to hunt for yourself."
He put his nose in the air and climbed up to her shoulder once she was done dressing and putting on his shelf. He was ready for her to help him select breakfast and serve it to him still warm.
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