Vampyre New Moon

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Kuro lead the group through the underground, a place in the city once used as a massive aqueduct system, long since adapted for use by the various vampire paths. As a race that took extreme damage from direct sunlight, they needed a place to conduct business during the day.

“I remember when the humans feared the night.” A voice called out to the group as he came out from a side path. He was a tall older looking man in a custom fitted black shirt and jacket. “But now they cling to it like moths to a flame.”

“Byron.” Kuro said with a proud nod. “I have brought them as you have suggested.”

“Good work.” Byron replied. “I presume you are wondering why one as me has sent for you. Many of my paths of Legacy choose not to worry about such things. Many of us are Vampires hundreds of years old and we are very good at surviving. Though I am here as I believe we think we are too good at it...and that arrogance may lead to weakness.”

Kuro nodded. “This is Val from the vigilante path and Henrik from the chaos path. They are...reasonably amicable acquaintances of mine and two that I have managed to convince in the importance of off path alliances...especially given what is currently happening.”

“A wise chain of events,” Byron nodded. “Please come with me.”

Byron led the group deeper and deeper into the labyrinthine passages that made up most of the underworld. It was a city with few like it in the world, one known as the Dark Borough.

“You were saying that humans once feared the night?” Henrik asked. “Are you speaking metaphorically or literally?”

“Both.” Byron replied as he walked, all manner of vampires and allied humans moving out of his way as if sensing his status. “Mankind developed a certain fear of the dark. There were predators that drove the earliest men to sleep in caves at night and they hid there until the light came back. The same can be said of most animals with something above them on the food chain.”

“But men mastered fire.” Kuro replied. “They conquered the night.”

“No, we conquered the night.” Byron corrected. “As long as there have been rational men, there have been vampires. Call it evolution, call it a blood anomaly, call it magic... we were there. Though we realized that even though we were immortal, stronger, faster, we could not live outside in the day. We needed to build our world at night and we spent a lot of time and effort making humans afraid of the dark, “Vlad the Impaler, Nosferatu, Dracula...all myths perpetrated by us to make the humans fear us and our dark dominion.”

“Then what happened?” Val asked with a laugh. “Humans still think we are fictitious but they are obsessed with us.”

“That is something unforeseen.” Byron replied. “Even in the early days of human’s moving pictures we thought we could inspire our tales to be retold to terrify people anew. However, something happened that we could not have predicted. Humans began to embrace that which frightened them. Instead of growing afraid, they grew curious. They didn’t fear the night, making their cities brighter and having all night shops and entire sects of people work and live awake at night. Our only protection was to make humans disbelieve in us. We made films and literature that was absurd and humans now think we are no more real than the loch ness monster.”

“The loch ness monster isn’t real?” Val commented. “I feel cheated.”

“Spoken as a child who grew up in the excitement of human media,” Byron replied. “You are lucky that I am one from Legacy that has great patience for the New Fangs.”

“Well we are all the same thing now.” Henrik added, “All Vampires.”

“I do not believe in this idea that the ancient vampires have mystical powers.” Val commented. “That is from the movies.”

“You are immortal, can heal any wound, and capable of great feats of strength and speed.” Byron replied. “Yet you disbelieve some of us can do more.”

“I believe what I can see.” Val commented.

“Well I fear you will see much more before this situation is over.” Byron commented as he stopped before a tavern called the Bishop's Folly in the Dark Borough. It was designed to look ancient, likely brought underground from somewhere in the wild world and painstakingly reconstructed. He paused by the door and looked back at the group. “Come now...we must talk with the others. I fear there are not very many of us.”

Inside the tavern were a myriad of faces, some that Val recognizes, and many she did not. The bar was a popular place for vampires to come and socialize, challenge each other, and barter. Val had never been there herself but she had heard many stories. She preferred to keep to the relatively human side of the vampire life, fearing that she would become detached from what she was by living in the world of what she is now.

Byron led the small group past the public area and upstairs to a large board room. Inside were two more people. Byron gestured to one who was a tough looking woman with olive skin and white hair. She was dressed in ragged clothes and looked more like an animal than a person. She looked up with bright gold eyes. “This is Ivy; she is from the path of the beast. She is a bit hard to handle but much more open to ideas and strategy than most of her kind.”

“I know a calamity is coming’ when I see it.” Ivy replied. “There is strength in numbers.”

“Indeed.” Byron agreed before turning to the other man. He was meek looking and dressed in tan coveralls. He had all manner of tools on him and was tinkering with some sort of device. “This is Asa from the Infrastructure path.”

“Infrastructure path?” Val replied. “That one I have not heard of.”

“We-uh fix things.” Asa replied, “We live in a complicated world that needs to work the same if not better than the one that the humans see. There are some of us that devote our infinite lives to building our world.”

“Interesting,” Val said with a nod, taking a seat with the rest of the newcomers.”

“So, is this all we have?” Kuro asked. “There might be a war coming and we are but six?”

“An alliance of this kind is not very common.” Byron began. “There has been very few times where the paths have crossed for a need that was beyond their own survival or benefit.”

“I agree.” Henrik replied. “Currently the path of chaos and the path of the vigilante are not on good terms.”

“A cleverly orchestrated situation I assure you.” Byron replied. “Though our grouping is uncommon, I fear there is another behind the scenes doing the same and their goal is to use the divides to cause a war.”

“I don’t understand.” Val replied. “We live in such a violent society. Why would anyone want to make it worse?”

“It is the way of how things work.” Byron replied. “I have been alive for a long time and I have seen the path system grow from an invention of need to a stagnant system used to manipulate the population of vampires.”

“Explain.” Henrik asked.

“Well in the early days of vampires coming together for strength in numbers it was thought that we were too dangerous.” Byron began. “We were an apex predator and if our numbers grew too large we would wipe out our food source. Also, there were a lot of us that had very different feelings about what we did to the race that we were. There was a council of elders and they composed a plan. They would divide our people not by clans, creeds, or geological distinctions; they would divide us by philosophy. The way you lived your immortal life was how you would be organized and it was something you choose for yourself. The paths were encouraged to explore their ideals and openly battle with each other. This kept everything on even ground and kept our numbers on a more manageable and secretive size.”

“One question then.” Val asked. “If it is chosen then how does one choose to be a Legacy path like you? I do not recall the one who turned me telling me about that choice.”

“There are some paths that have to be earned.” Byron replied. “Our path is that of the oldest of us. A vampire must have been a vampire for at least a hundred and fifty years to choose our path.”

“That means we can change paths?” Henrik asked. “I was not aware that was possible.”

“Long ago it was easier than now.” Byron replied. “The path idea was pure and for many years it worked as intended. However, there were those who wanted clans, wanted a class structure. So over time, the path leaders became clan leaders and began to groom their followers to believing their way was the only way. There are some behind the scenes, a group called the fulcrum and they are pathless and manipulate things for their own needs.”

“You mentioned someone purposely keeping the chaos and vigilantes apart.” Val asked. “Was that...fulcrum?”

“Indeed.” Byron replied. “Those two paths both show a compatible ideology of fairness to humans. Any paths that would theoretically unite to fight a common foe were systematically alienated against each other. The paths are carefully guided not to trust each other and that is how they like it. If anyone were to move against the fulcrum they would find themselves doing it alone.”

“Well what has changed?” Val asked, “If they have been doing this for so long, why is it suddenly now a problem that must be immediately dealt with?”

“For there is one thing that has held the path system up,” Byron answered. “A safeguard if you will. As the paths were created and those chosen to lead the paths an alliance was brokered. It was a series of rules and guidelines that every path must follow. The idea of which was to make sure that no one path could gain advantage over another. However, members of the Fulcrum were instrumental in setting it up. It was a Trojan horse; they knew they could somehow take everything over with. They put in an end date to the alliance and put nothing in place as to what would happen when it ended. They let time hide the end date and prepared on what to do when it occurred. This time is now and the paths are about to go into disarray and destroy each other. They are putting themselves in place to pick up the pieces.”

“Then what do we do?” Henrik asked. “We are but six and what could possibly stop them from doing what they have so long planned for?”

“There was one member of the fulcrum to rebel,” Byron replied. “A member who had the ability to foresee the possible calamity and planned for it, It is rumored that he had some way to keep the alliance together that he put in place even as it was forming. He is ancient, so much so that his name is gone to us...we call him the Facilitator. You must seek him out, prove to him you are dedicated to the protection of balance in our society and from him find the way to save everything.”

“Seems like a pretty vague quest to me.” Val admitted. “I presume you have more information than to just...seek this random guy out?”

“I do.” Byron replied. “Although first I must make sure you are with us on this. There will be challenges and tests as there are many that will want this information kept buried. I need to know you will stand against the coming calamity and you are with us.”

“I do not like the idea of the strong preying on the weak.” Val commented. “I am in.”

“I do not like the idea of manipulation behind the scenes.” Henrik replied, and I stand by Val.”

“Perfect.” Byron replied. “The others have already committed. Come with me now...I will now show you secrets buried so deep that most vampires even as old as I do not know them.