"I'm sure you're all wondering why you've been brought here," the elderly woman began, her voice clipped and precise, carrying through the heavy silence.
"And I'm here to explain. But before that, introductions."
She stepped into the center of the room, her movements fluid despite her age, the dim Light Arcana casting faint shadows that danced across her face.
"My name is Leora Umbera. For the next two years, I will oversee your education. You'll learn what it means to be a vampire and what is expected of you as one of status."
She paused only briefly before continuing, not allowing any questions to surface.
"From what my husband, Lucius, tells me, one of you already has a rough idea of your situation. That's useful, but not enough. So let me be clear. Yes, you were brought here to awaken a Vampire Progenitor. And no, this isn't some ordinary bloodline revival. This is a project that's been in motion since the beginning of time."
Her gaze swept over us with calm authority, allowing the weight of her words to settle in.
"And my role," she added, "is to ensure you do not fail."
She raised a hand, and from the thin veil of dim light, seven objects shimmered into view. Necklaces, each adorned with a glimmering, implacable gemstone.
"You can't begin unless you can see," she said simply. "These are Amulets of Darkvision. You'll use them during your time here."
She handed them out one by one. The chains were wrapped in delicate gold, but it was the stone that caught the eye. They were cool, luminous, and utterly unfamiliar, as though it didn't belong in this world.
As soon as I slipped the amulet over my neck, the room shifted. The suffocating dark gave way to soft clarity. Details emerged: the contours of the walls, the worn patterns in the stone floor, even the subtle texture of the bedding.
"This is incredible," one of the girls whispered in awe.
"You'll grow used to it," Leora replied with a faint smile, as though amused by our wonder at something so trivial.
"You'll have time to marvel later. For now, we have a schedule to keep."
She straightened, her tone becoming more formal.
"Your lives will follow the pattern of vampire society. That means rest during the day, activity at night. You may feel disoriented. This place is built to exist outside of time. But you must adjust. Adapting to a vampire's rhythm is the foundation for everything else that comes."
I stepped forward, trying to mask the dryness in my throat.
"Mrs. Umbera," I began, "I understand the need for this change. But we're still human. We need food, real food." Most of us hadn't eaten properly in days. "Is there anything at all we can have?"
I hadn't meant to draw attention to myself, but as the words left my mouth, the hunger I'd been pushing down surged sharply to the surface. Judging by the quiet rustling behind me, the others felt the same.
Leora tilted her head thoughtfully.
"Yes, that does seem to be a problem," she murmured, almost to herself.
She fell silent for a long moment, her expression distant. I was just about to speak again when she suddenly stirred, her eyes refocusing.
"My apologies. I was thinking about the logistics. Human food is not something we keep in abundance here. But I'll find something. You're likely starving."
With that, she turned and left, her cloak trailing behind her as the door closed gently at her back.
In the quiet that followed, I found myself staring at the amulet in my hand, turning it slowly as it caught the faint light.
What kind of food even exists for humans in a place like this?
I glanced at the others. Their expressions mirrored my own: Tired, curious, nervous.
Whatever Leora returned with, it wouldn't be something as simple as a loaf of bread.
…
Leora returned an hour later and started to take bowls of food out of what seemed like thin air. She began setting them down on a table in the corner of our room that was wrapped in a velvet tablecloth.
"While it's definitely not the best food for humans, it's the best made with the ingredients we can get with the little amount we had. However, in the future we will be getting better food for you, so you don't have to worry about that."
As we got up from the bed and sat in the chairs that she brought in through summoning, I was able to take a good look at the contents of the bowls, and to my surprise, it seemed to be a stew of some sort that had a considerable amount of what looked like beef or something similar. As some of the other girls began to process what it was that was being given to us to eat, they burst out crying.
Leora was not expecting this reaction, and began to panic, and started asking us if anything was wrong, but Carla, seeing this reaction, started to explain.
"Mrs. Umbera, there is nothing wrong with the food, but rather, for some of us here, this is the first time we have been given actual meat to eat. You have to understand that all of us have been orphaned from a very young age, and even when our parents were alive, they were never able to afford meat. In fact, the only one here who has actually had meat was Lilya. Also, there is the fact that we weren't expecting anything we would recognize in the food we would be given, so this is a pleasant surprise to us all."
"Is that so? Well, I will leave you to finish eating and let you get some sleep. I will be back in around 10 hours to begin your lessons on Vampire Society." And with that, she left.
We finished our meal and shuffled over and got into a bed that was too small for all of us. As the cold wind of the night blew into the room, we started to snuggle close to each other, essentially laying on top of Carla, who is considered the big sister of our group, being the oldest by far at 17, with the second oldest being Rachel at age 15, almost 16 and the rest of us being ages 15 while me being the youngest at only 14. Despite my young age, I have been unanimously recognized as the leader of our group, though no decision is made without Carla's approval.
After all of us got comfortable, one by one, each of us gradually fell asleep until sleep also caught up to me, and I too entered the land of dreams.