Mythos Veil

This was my first trip outside school grounds since arriving at Umbra Academy and it would've been an understatement to say I was excited.

"Bro, calm down. People are staring at us…" Daniel said with a sigh.

"Who cares what they think, babe? We'll most likely never see them unless we're here," his girlfriend replied. Her name was Emily. 

The two of them kept going back and forth, mostly bickering about how I was acting childish.

"So, how are you liking Loopenick?" Kallon instigated an hour or two after we entered the village.

It was much bigger than it looked on the outside. In all honesty, it was more like a small city than an actual village. Though, as you got further and further into the center, you could definitely figure that the outskirts were more advanced.

"I like it a lot, honestly," I replied, looking around at the surrounding buildings. They looked straight out of a novel, with medieval-styled architecture.

"I'm glad…" He leaned closer to me, "You tryna help me get Daniel to pay for us three?"

"Food?"

"Yes."

"Hell yeah I'll help you!"

Kallon and I walked up to Daniel, Emily at his side. Kallon and Emily looked at each other and gave a slight nod.

"Babe, can you buy us some food?" She pleaded, giving a chance for her succubi's side to shine.

Emily was a succubus, a demon believed throughout history to have sexual relationships with a man while they're asleep. While that itself is not entirely wrong, they just have a very high libido. They are loyal to a fault, but as they are demons, they have no problem sinning if it benefits their pleasures.

"Fine," Daniel said with an elongated sigh. He turned over to Kallon and I with a glare, "You're lucky Emily's here. When we get back to the dormitory, you're fu—"

"Okay!" Kallon interrupted, shoving him in the direction of a local diner.

The diner had a viridescent sign that was highlighted with a big and bold Harmony Diner, giving a vibe that they were welcoming any customers. We walked in and sat down at an empty booth. It looked to be a small localized diner, neatly cleaned while the scent of grease and coffee wafted from front to back.

"Hello y'all, welcome to the Harmony Diner, how may I take your order?" A woman looking to be human stood at the foot of our table, she wore all black with the diner's stamp held slightly above her left breast. She also had a small notepad which she used to write down our orders.

"So Jacob," Emily started, laying her right elbow on the table while leaning her head onto her palm, "I've heard some pretty interesting rumors about you—you lived your life as a human before getting transported here, right?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"How did you not know you were a vampire with, well, you know, your sharpened canine teeth?"

Kallon and Daniel both got interested when she mentioned it, leaving the three of them staring at me, waiting for an answer.

"I thought they were a family trait. That's what mom and dad told me all my life," I responded.

"Interesting…" she hummed, tilting her head over to Daniel. "Did you ever tell him what you are?"

"Yeah, I did."

"So he knows you're a Drus?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, cool." Her face brightened in a bright cherry color. "Emergency. Car. Now."

"Oh Typhon…"

The two left briskly, leaving Kallon and I at the table.

"He's so lucky…" Kallon said, slamming his fist on the table. "I wish I had a girlfriend with a high sex drive like that!"

"Calm down, man… You look weird."

It took a second for him to calm down. "Jacob, did he give you his wallet?"

"No."

"Daniel, I hate you!" Kallon screamed at him angrily, the words piercing through the air after we had finished our meal. In my hands, I held four to-go boxes filled with the food that Emily and her lover ordered: pancakes, bacon, sausages, and some hash browns.

"Bro, calm down," Daniel tried to reason with him. 

"No, I won't just 'calm down'. I had to pay for the food of four people!" Kallon retorted, his frustration evident.

"I would have done the same if I hadn't left," Daniel sighed, reaching into his wallet and pulling out two twenty-dollar bills. "Here, now stop complaining."

Kallon accepted the money without hesitation, quickly stuffing it into his left pocket. "Thanks."

For a town that's hidden away from the rest of the world, it had a lot of infrastructure of a major city in the west. The buildings were nestled in between each other, with so little room to create an alley.

"It's getting kinda late, ain't it?" Kallon said, grabbing hold of his fiery red hair. He shuffled it before letting his hair lay still. It was messy, like he had a case of bed-head.

"You're right," Emily responded.

The sky had a ginger tint, a reddish light casting upon the cobblestone streets. It was time for us to start heading to a local inn that Daniel had booked us for—promptly named Loopenick's Sleeping Glory. Not my go-to name, but if it drove in customers….

Inside the inn it had a common room decorated in brick and granite, with a skag's skull hanging above a fireplace, a long table-stretch on the left side of the room, some tables for resting and having drinks, and a staircase leading up to the second floor.

"Welcome to the Sleeping Glory! My name is Grace, how may I assist you all today?" A long haired blonde beauty said with a smile across her face. Her pointy ears slightly protruded through her hair.

"Hello, I have a reservation under Daniel Manul. Two rooms for one night's stay," he said, retrieving a piece of paper from the elven woman.

"Alright: Room 6 for the couple, and 7 for the two males."

Why did she say that with a hint of zest?

Kallon and I walked up to our room while Daniel and Emily walked to theirs.

"I swear to Typhon, if I hear moaning when I'm trying to sleep, I will show you what zombies are capable of."

"Try me," Daniel said with a smirk.

Before the two got into a fight, I pushed Kallon into the room and shut the door.

"Shouda let me at 'em," he laughed.

"We both know you'd get your ass beaten…"

"Probably, but you gotta have trust in your friends, Jacob."

"Yeah, yeah." I let out a sigh and sat on one of the two beds. "You know, I thought I would learn how to turn into a bat, or like, I don't know. All I've learned is how to let out my nails."

I lifted my hand out in front of me and focused on pouring my blood into the tips of my nails. They sharpened, growing two inches in size. It may sound cool, but I did not see a use in it.

"In order to reach the end, you have to learn the basics," Kallon stated. "You're new to this, so of course you're only learning the simple stuff."

"I get that…Ugh, I dunno."

"Since you're so bummed out, how 'bout I give you a cool little lesson?"

"About?"

"The Apostles of Wrath."

Spooky.

"So, what makes them special?"

"They follow Aeshma, the King of Wrath," he said with a grim look on his face. "They've killed thousands all across the world. They're a group of people wielding powers greater than most of us could ever imagine…"

"They're a cult?"

"Exactly, but it's unlike the cults you're used to. I've heard of this before, but magic for humans is fake. This cult is real, with real magic."

"Wait, so you're telling me I'm able to use magic, too?!"

"No…Only Elves and Drus—or Druids—can."

"Damn."

"Refocusing, their last target was a man in Wales, just a couple countries away from where we currently are. He was a Dragonoid, a man who looked like a cross between human and dragon—he was strong. Very strong."

"If he was so strong, how did he die?"

"Black Magic, magic forbidden throughout the world."

Black Magic, the name given to the spells that were so powerful that all the governments around the world banned them. It varies from spells to bloat you up, to ones that could kill you instantly. There's a reason they were blacklisted.

"...Sir Count Valerius may not have looked too worried anytime you have talked with him, but I'm sure it's stressing him out. His main job is to protect the whole student body, and with the Apostles of Wrath moving closer and closer to the school, we might have to initiate Lockdown…" he continued, "and if that happens, days like this would be far and few between."

"Lockdown? I've never heard of anyone using that term," I said as I tried to recall ever hearing the phrase.

"It's against school rules to say it. It causes unnecessary panic, and with panic…"

"There comes doubt?"

"Yeah," he said with an exhausted sigh. "We'll continue this conversation later, I'm dead tired."

"Alright…Goodnight, Kallon."

"Yeah, you too."

The rest of the night was eventful. After a couple of hours of me scrolling through my phone, I eventually got tired and went to sleep.