The Vampire's Apprentice

It was almost an hour later when Alain came stumbling out of the Tribunal's chambers. He walked as if in a daze, his mind still reeling from what Thorne had told him. His head was so thoroughly scrambled that he scarcely registered Lawrence coming to escort him back to his room.

When the door finally opened, the others turned to stare at him in surprise. Alain disregarded all of them, save for Sable.

"Tell me," he said evenly as he approached her. "Did you know?"

Sable blinked. "What are you talking about?"

"Did. You. Know?"

"I don't understand the-"

Alain cut her off by grabbing her by the collar, pulling her in close. Next to him, Az tensed; Felix stared at him, one hand drifting to the holstered revolver on his hip. With their faces close enough together to touch, Alain spoke once more through gritted teeth.

"I will not ask again," he warned. "Did you know the truth about my mother?"

Sable's expression of rage turned to confusion immediately. "Your mother…? What did they tell you?"

"Did you know or not? And be honest, Sable – after everything we've been through, I think I've earned at least that much."

"Alain, I swear to you, I don't know a thing about her," Sable promised.

"Unhand her," Az growled. "Now."

A moment passed, but Alain was quick to heed Az's warning, letting go of Sable's outfit and allowing her to stumble back. Sable rubbed her throat softly, again looking to him in surprise.

"What did they tell you?" she asked. "And what makes you think any of us would-"

"My mother was a vampire hunter," Alain interrupted, silencing her. "And a famous one, at that, at least among the Tribunal."

"They told you that, and you believed it?" Felix questioned.

"They let me look at their records, Felix. They had everything about her – age, weight, height, appearance… known family and associates."

A heavy silence fell over the room before Alain broke it with a sigh. "...I thought my parents died in a house fire when I was sixteen," he explained. "That made sense to me back then – I had been away with my uncle at the time, and figured one of them had left a lamp on during the night or something, and the house had caught fire that way. But apparently not – apparently, something else happened."

"Did the Tribunal kill your mother?" Sable asked quietly.

Alain shook his head. "No. They told me they had a contingency plan for if she came for one of their high-ranking members, but aside from that… they didn't want to directly move against her. According to them, they weren't responsible for what happened, and they don't know who is, either."

Felix crossed his arms. "How convenient."

"Yeah, I know – it sounds like bullshit to me, too. But without any proof, there's nothing we can do against them."

"Even if we had proof, what are we supposed to do with it?" Az grunted. "The Tribunal has us dead to rights, at least as far as I can see. We're stuck here for as long as they want us to be stuck here."

"Ain't it a bitch…?" Felix muttered. He looked back to Alain. "So, what's your plan after we get out?"

"Did they tell you she's alive?" Sable questioned.

Alain shook his head. "No… they weren't able to confirm anything about her, not even her death. There were two bodies in the house, but both were so badly burned that any kind of identification was impossible."

"So she could still be out there," Az noted.

Alain nodded. "Yes, she could be. The only problem is that I have no idea where to look."

"No idea at all?" Felix asked.

"No, not-" Alain suddenly paused, his eyes widening. "...New Orleans."

"What?"

"New Orleans," he repeated. "It's where she was from, I remember that much. She never talked much about her past to me, but when she did, New Orleans always came up."

"Perhaps it has some kind of significance to her beyond just where she was from," Az offered.

"It's worth a shot, at least," Alain said.

"So, that's your plan?" Sable demanded. "As soon as the Tribunal is finished with us, you're just taking off to New Orleans, wherever it is?"

"If you have a better idea-"

"I'm coming, too."

Alain paused, staring at her in surprise. "...You want to come with me? Why?"

"Do I look like I have anywhere else to go?"

"...I mean, I kinda figured you'd stay here at this point."

"With the Tribunal? I'd sooner let myself get staked again. And besides, I do still intend to carve out my own kingdom."

"You were serious about that?"

"What's this about a kingdom?" Felix asked, sounding concerned.

Sable ignored him, instead crossing her arms as she stared at Alain. "Yes, I was serious about it. I am a vampire, Alain – castles and kingdoms are what we're known for."

"You're gonna have a tough time with that, then, because there have never been any of those here," Alain pointed out. "But if you insist on coming along, I won't argue. Just… try not to get us involved in anything crazy again, yeah?"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Az warned. "We still need to deal with the Tribunal."

"Of course. Any suggestions?"

"Aside from hurry up and wait? None."

Alain's brow furrowed. "Then let's hope we hear something soon-"

Right as the words left his mouth, the door opened, and Lawrence stepped in. He appraised them all for a moment, then nodded.

"The Tribunal has instructed me to allow you four a bit more leniency on how you come and go," he reported. "But do not mistake this small gesture of trust as anything more than that. We will all be watching you, and the moment one of you slips up, it will be your last. Do you all understand?"

"We get it," Alain said.

"Hm. See to it that you do."

With that, Lawrence turned and walked away, leaving the door to the room open. He had been gone for just a few seconds when Alain suddenly stepped out of the room.

"Hey, wait!" Sable called after him. "Where are you going?!"

"The archives," Alain said without looking back. "Thorne said I might find something useful there. Don't wait up for me."

With that, Alain continued on his way, paying his friends no mind as he walked and left them behind him.

​XXX

A yawn escaped him as he turned to look out the nearby window. The sun had long since dipped below the horizon, replaced by a crescent moon that was hanging high in the sky; the only thingw illuminating the ancient archives were a series of torches and light-emitting gemstones embedded in the walls.

Alain let out a small grumble, then turned back to the series of tomes splayed out in front of him. He'd pored over several of them over the past few hours, and had come up empty – there was nothing related to his mother, and very little about New Orleans, for that matter.

"Fuck me…" he said quietly.

"Something the matter, human?"

At the sudden voice, Alain nearly jumped out of his seat, turning around with one hand on his holstered gun. Thorne was standing there, one hand on her hip. Alain blinked, then allowed himself to relax.

"...Sorry," he offered.

"Don't be," she replied. "You mustn't forget that this is our territory, not yours. There are several people here who would see you as little more than their next meal. They restrain themselves because of me, but even my influence has its limits."

"I can imagine…" Alain muttered. "I'll be careful."

She nodded, then peered past him, her gaze landing on the series of books laying across the table. She shook her head. "Those will get you nowhere."

"Of course…" he grumbled. "Alright, what do you want?"

Thorne fell silent for a moment, turning to look out the window. "...You do not realize the kind of unique position you're in as a human," she said. "You can go places and do things we cannot."

"Going places, I'll give you, but as for doing things? Sable can move almost as fast as I can blink, and I once saw her crush a man's head between her palms like it was an overripe watermelon."

"Physically, you are weak, but your technological ingenuity is… compelling." Thorne turned back to him. "Our interests happen to align on this matter, believe it or not."

He blinked, surprised. "...You mean you care about my mother, too? Even though she hunted your kind?"

"She specifically hunted rogue members of my kind," Thorne pointed. "The kind of mad dogs who threaten the existence of every person who lives behind the Veil with their reckless actions. It was never personal, and I understand that. Now, that being said… I wish for you to find her."

"And why would you care if I found her or not?"

"Because whoever was attempting to kill her, while unsuccessful, ultimately succeeded in forcing her into hiding," Thorne explained. "And we have no idea who that is. Do you see the problem here?"

Slowly, he nodded. "I do. You're worried that there might be a bigger threat out there that you aren't aware of. But if that's the case, why try to find her now, rather than earlier?"

"We have tried earlier, but however she chose to hide herself, she has done an exceedingly good job of it. But that might change if her only son comes looking for her instead."

Alain couldn't help but bristle. "This sounds like a threat-"

"It is not," Thorne insisted. "Like I said, our interests align – you wish to find your mother for obvious reasons, and we simply wish to find out who attempted to kill her."

"And if I do decide to work for you?" he asked. "What's in it for me?"

"Simple – I will let you go. We will end the investigation into Los Banos here and now, and allow you to go where you need to in order to search for your mother."

Alain hesitated. Something about this didn't seem right with him – Thorne had gone from being actively hostile during his interrogation to downright cordial here. And yet, the prospect of getting the Tribunal temporarily off his back and finally being able to search for his missing mother was too good to pass up.

"You've got a deal," he said.

​XXX

"Are you fucking crazy?" Felix demanded.

"I just made a deal with yet another vampire," Alain retorted. "You tell me."

"Is now really the time for jokes?" Az asked. "You just got us involved in Tribunal business, Alain. That can't be a good thing."

"I know, I know. But if any of you have a better plan for getting us out of here fast, I'd love to hear it."

Sable let out an annoyed huff, crossing her arms. "The least you could have done was consult with the rest of us before agreeing to anything."

"Yeah, well, I didn't particularly feel like pissing Thorne off any more than I already had, given what she's capable of. Figured it was best to stay on her good side." Alain sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Look, none of you have to come if you don't want to-"

"Yeah, not happening," Felix interjected. "I'm in."

"As are we," Sable said without a moment's hesitation. "You will not get rid of us that easily."

Alain was taken aback. "You all understand what we're walking into, right? It could be dangerous-"

"And what happened in Los Banos wasn't?" Felix asked, raising an eyebrow.

"...Admittedly, you've got me there. Alright, fine, I guess we're doing this."

"Do we know how we're going to get there?" Az questioned. "We don't have transportation, you know."

"I think Thorne mentioned to me that she'd be taking care of that for us," Alain said. "Whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be fine."

​XXX

"You cannot be serious."

Lawrence crossed his arms. "Did you truly expect it would be anything else besides a horse and carriage?"

"I mean… yeah, I did," Alain said. "I was expecting something a bit more otherworldly. This is downright normal."

"This is how we got here," Felix reminded him.

"I know, but I can't help but be disappointed."

"What were you expecting, then?" Sable asked.

"I don't know, some kind of dragon or something."

"Don't be ridiculous," Lawrence chastised. "We'll be taking you to a populated area, so of course it only makes sense to give you transport such as this. And besides, nobody here is capable of taming a dragon enough to ride one – they're far too intelligent for that."

Alain stared at him. "...Dragons are actually real?"

"You're really surprised by that?" Az questioned. "After everything we've been through?"

"Good point. Alright, let's get this show on the road, I guess."