Page 11 of Captive
The council fell quiet except for the distant drums. Boarstaff felt the weight of it all pressing down harder. Every choice carried consequences beyond their village, potential war or unlikely alliance, destruction or possibility.
"I'm going back to the sacred chamber," he said, rising from his chair. "I'll keep an eye on his transformation. The rest of you, get our people ready for trouble. If House de la Sang's scouts push deeper into our territory..."
"They're already coming farther than before," Rockbreaker cut in. "Using their old hunting tricks now that their fancy mechanical scouts break down shortly after crossing our borders. They get a few miles in before falling apart completely, it's still too far though."
Another worry to add to the pile. Boarstaff nodded and left. His path took him down worn steps carved into the Heart Tree's core. Crystal formations grew thicker as he descended, their light shifting from soft greens to warning reds as he neared the chamber where Sebastian lay.
The sacred chamber waited at the lowest level, a hollow within the Tree's largest root where pure magic had crystallized over centuries. Ancient restraints marked the stone floor, runes and binding circles designed specifically to contain vampires. Ochrehand knelt beside Sebastian's still form, placed at the center of the old workings. Her magic flowed in steady patterns that joined with powers older than her training.
Dark circles shadowed her eyes. She hadn't rested since bringing him there hours earlier. If she'd spent the early part of the previous evening heading to the spot her vision had led her to, chances were she hadn't slept in over a day.
"These old bindings won't work through his fancy clothes," Doechaser said, pointing to Sebastian's fine garments. "They were made to touch flesh directly."
Thornmaker stepped forward, blade drawn. "Strip him. The sacred magic needs to touch every spot where brass meets flesh."
Ochrehand nodded. "The old texts are clear about this. Nothing can come between the vampire and the Heart Tree's power."
With quick, efficient movements, they cut away the noble garments, removing every trace of his status in House de la Sang. Sebastian's unconscious body lay exposed on the chamber floor, the full extent of his mechanical modifications now visible, brass joints, copper threading beneath the skin, the intricate collar that controlled his voice and breathing.
"The ancient restraints were designed for exactly this," Boarstaff said, studying the vampire's body with cool detachment. "For when their nature was purer, less... mechanical."
"The old bindings are responding differently to him than the texts described," Ochrehand said without looking up. "Almost like they recognize something in him beyond all that mechanical corruption. Something that remembers what vampires were before they started turning themselves into something so far from nature."
"The council can't agree on what to do," Boarstaff replied. "Their anger makes sense, but right now, strategy matters more than punishment."
"The transformation's moving faster than our ancestors ever recorded," she continued, her hands maintaining protective barriers around Sebastian's convulsing body. "His mechanical parts are failing faster here than they did in the healing house. It's like the chamber remembers what it once held and wants to bring back that natural state."
Boarstaff moved closer, sizing up the vampire's condition with a warrior's eye. Sebastian lay still except for sudden, violent spasms when another brass component died. Black fluid, neither fully blood nor oil, leaked from seams that had once been perfectly sealed. His skin had turned grayish where metal met flesh, stark against the dark floor.
"His heart's slowing down," Doechaser reported as she entered and sent probing magic toward him. "The mechanical regulators aredying faster than his organic systems can handle."
Sebastian's body suddenly arched, a terrible grinding sound coming from his spine where components fought against transformation. Steam erupted from his collar in irregular bursts, carrying scents of mountain forges and molten metal.
"How long before the transformation finishes?" Boarstaff asked.
"Hours. Days. Maybe never." Ochrehand's exhaustion showed in her clipped response. "These ancient chambers were built to contain pure vampire nature, not these synthetic abominations they've become. We're trying to guide the magic toward transformation instead of destruction, but the old texts don't tell us much about this situation."
She didn't need to say more. The risk was obvious in Sebastian's gray-tinged flesh, in his erratic breathing. Death was still the most likely outcome, and with it, a war they couldn't afford.
"Our scouts report movement at the borders," Boarstaff said. "House de la Sang is gathering hunting parties. They're looking for their missing heir."
Ochrehand looked up sharply. "How much time do we have?"
"Days. Maybe less." Boarstaff kept his voice steady, though the implications weighed heavily.
Sebastian convulsed again, more violently this time. Something broke free from his spine, a brass component that had regulated his movements for likely centuries, suddenly torn loose by magic older than vampire nobility. It fell to the stone floor with a sound like mountain bells, vibrating with energies none of them fully understood.
"He's in agony," Ochrehand said softly. "The Tree's magic is burning through systems that have controlled his existence for centuries. Each failure brings pain beyond what we can imagine."
"Pain he earned by choosing mechanical precision over natural truth," came Rockbreaker's voice from the entrance. The warrior had followed Boarstaff down, clearly unwilling to leave his warchief alone with the transformation. "Pain his kind inflicts on others without a second thought."
Boarstaff studied the fallen component, noticing how it continued to pulse with strange dark blue light even separated from its host. Not the careful mechanical precision of vampire engineering, but something wilder. Something awakening to truths that had been buriedbeneath artificial constraint.
"I need to get back to the council," he said after a long pause. "They're still debating what happens to him if he somehow survives all this."
"If he wakes up," Ochrehand said, her focus never leaving Sebastian's transforming body, "he'll need blood. Without it, his organic systems will completely fail."
The statement hung between them, its implications clear. He'd fed the vampire already, but would he continue to? Who among them would feed a vampire noble? The heir to House de la Sang?
