Blinding rage consumed me as I battered the Vampyr back and forth across the collapsing pocket realm. In the depths of anger which drowned my mind, I couldn’t even remember what the creature had done to make me so angry. All I knew was that it needed to die, preferably as painfully as possible.

  I hadn’t realized just how freeing it would feel to let myself go and simply lash out at the world around me. So often, I’d find myself needing to watch what I was doing so that a stray movement didn’t break something, or hurt someone close to me. The moment I stopped caring about that, it was like chains that had been weighing down my flesh were released.

  My body was not built for raw power. I had made a conscious choice to focus on my speed and agility after fighting with my sibling. The means by which I directed my growth were instinctive. I could not explain how I did so in the same way that someone could not explain how they breathed.

  That focus on speed now paid dividends. When I was not focused on protecting someone and went all in on offense, the Vampyr struggled to keep up with me. Movement through the void was based on Intent. With my body itself built to go as fast as possible backed up by my exploding anger, my Intent was sharpened into a razor point set to slice the Vampyr to ribbons.

  The creature attempted to dodge away, to distract me, or to throw spells into my face. Our positions were now reversed from the way we’d fought before. So long as I kept pressing, it did not have time to react or throw up an effective defense.

  Perhaps the most dangerous defense was to hurt the enemy so quickly that they couldn’t attack you back.

  My blood sang with joyous purpose as my body acted on my intent. Bookshelves stacked with priceless arcane tomes became kindling to my flames as I smashed the Vampyr through bubble after bubble. Collections of rare reagents and artifacts whose purpose I had no inkling of whipped by me as my fangs and claws plowed through them.

  The pocket realm around us was falling apart. Each bubble I smashed my way through weakened it further. Flames which had been doused by magic earlier now roared back to life and set my surroundings ablaze. Though I only vaguely understood the concept, it looked for all the world like the Vampyr and I were fighting through the bowels of the Hells.

  As I continued to pursue it with no signs of stopping, the Vampyr showed genuine fear for the first time. It was the terror of a cornered predator who had finally run into something larger and more dangerous than itself, that it could not escape from. The cloak and mask that had been hiding its appearance had been torn off and burned away.

  I could see how its limbs shook, with adrenaline coursing through its stolen veins. The more desperately that it fought, the more that its appearance warped from what it had stolen. If I’d had the time to speculate, I might have wondered if it was warping its flesh into something approaching its ‘true’ form.

  But I did not have the time. I was far too focused on rending it limb from limb. If not for the lingering magic that it had stolen from Magnus infusing its flesh, the creature would already be dead.

  Whenever my claws caught the Vampyr’s flesh, the wounds resealed within moments. The rejuvenation only stopped when my teeth closed around a chunk of its hide and ripped it from its bones. The marks made by my teeth remained, despite every attempt from the creature to heal the wounds. Likewise, where my fire burned, the magic eating properties caused the creature’s flesh to slowly wither away.

  It was all the more infuriating that I needed to slowly rip apart the body of someone who had fought alongside me, who I had healed and tried to keep alive. While I may not have known Mamaet long and barely spoke to them during that time, they had fought bravely. In my time close to human civilization, I had noticed just how uncommon it was for mortals to go out of their way to defend others.

  The strong preyed upon the weak.

  That seemed to be the natural order of the world, just like with my siblings. It was also a part of myself, but I had come to realize that it did not need to be the only way. Strength could be shared, making those connected by it stronger than they would have been on their own.

  Yet time and again, I was confronted by those who only thought about taking from others, and taking from me in particular.

  This Vampyr was just the latest in a series of people who had tried to take something from me. It had stolen from me, driven me around in circles just to get close to it, and inflicted suffering upon me and those I cared for just to increase its own power. The only way to ensure that it did not come back to bother me once more was to consume it just like it had done to Mamaet and doubtless many others besides.

  The collapse of the pocket realm came suddenly. A sound like a crystal shattering boomed through the space as the magic holding the structure together collapsed. That sound built upon itself as the enchantments which attempted to repair the failing realm broke one after the other, overwhelmed by destruction that they weren’t built to handle. As each broke, massive holes in the realm were ripped open.

  Reality spilled in.

  Howling hurricane winds ripped through the void. The difference in air pressures slamming into each other rocked the structure. All around me, the ‘bubbles’ which had contained separate physical spaces were suddenly forced to reconcile their transient positions with the physical world. Miniature worlds that ranged in size from single rooms to sprawling complexes suffered catastrophic damage as they were forced to suddenly exist in the same space at the same time.

  Explosions of incompatible matter threw me around what remained of the void as it cracked and shattered. A bolt of lightning struck a fragment of burning plant matter as it sailed past me. The storm outside of the Tower of Baedain had intensified to mind numbing proportions. As the storm now swept into the pocket realm, the space’s contents were thrown into the world by the raging winds.

  Burning debris rained down on the city below. As the final remnants of the barrier between the pocket realm and the ‘real’ world broke, I could see that its shattering was just a part of the ongoing chaos sweeping over the area.

  Whatever the Vampyr had summoned to cover its escape, it was not just an ordinary storm. It was a living creature made of clouds and lightning. Hail and thunderbolts assaulted anything so foolish as to be caught in the open. Twisting tornados descended from the clouds overhead to lash the earth below like whips.

  I could see people fighting down on the streets below, but whether they were fighting each other or against the rampaging storm wasn’t evident. When the pocket realm imploded and started scattering its burning payload onto the landscape, that fighting took a new turn. Many of the people fighting seemed to be Wizards.

  When I ruptured the pocket realm, all of its contents which weren’t immediately destroyed were ejected out into the world by the howling wind. Much of that burning debris was ancient and powerful magical treasure.

  Knowing what I now knew about Wizards, the reaction was obvious. Every Wizard in the city immediately stopped whatever they had been doing before and started running after the sudden rain of loot falling from overhead. If two Wizards went for the same item falling from the sky, a fight would automatically erupt as the greedy creatures fought for whatever scraps they could get their hands on.

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  While I had no reference for the comparison, the sight was very similar to other realities, where greedy mortals sold their lives for magic treasures to ‘defy the heavens’.

  What was obvious was that I went from overpowering the Vampyr, to flying in the middle of disaster in just a moment. That brief second of distraction was exactly what the creature had been waiting for. The instant that the pocket realm started to shatter, the Vampyr let the screeching gusts of the hurricane carry it away from me.

  In the void, my rage had let me chase the creature down and tear it apart. Out here, I was just as vulnerable as anyone else. Wind and hail didn’t care about how strong your will was. It would throw you around mercilessly regardless. Trying to fly in that was basically impossible.

  But I was not going to let something like inconvenient weather stop me. I howled against the wind and pushed it back with a spell that did not have words. It sliced through the gusts and opened a corridor for me to open my wings and give chase. Ahead of me, the Vampyr was carried away like the wind was its bosom friend. The same gusts which sought to tear me out of the sky pushed the creature towards escape and safety.

  The chase did not go unnoticed. Some Wizards took to the air to try and collect burning scraps of arcane grimoires and other items which were carried by the wind rather than falling down. This brought a few of them into the vicinity of me and the Vampyr. While they may not have been aware of what exactly was going on between us, their greed made them intent on interfering.

  Spells soared through the hurricane winds to batter me as Wizards flying on enchanted brooms, carpets, and in one case an oversized cook pot tried to bring me down. Perhaps they imagined that by killing a dragon, they could use my scales to make some manner of fantastical armor, or broth made from my bones to give them eternal life.

  Frankly, I didn’t care what they wanted. Any that attacked me got a plume of dragonfire in their direction. I didn’t stop to see if they lived or died. All I was concerned with, was making sure that the Vampyr didn’t escape from me due to their idiocy.

  I finally brought the Vampyr to ground outside of the city, in the ruins of the Dusk Quarter. The wind was less intense here. As I’d cut through the gusts and hail that attempted to thwart me again and again, the elemental creature which controlled the storm seemed to weaken. By the time I had chased the Vampyr out of the city, the screaming wind had lessened to a point where I could fly normally.

  As the wind loosened its grip, the gusts carrying the Vampyr let it go. The creature thrashed against the inevitable. I could practically feel the despair and terror radiating off of it when it finally fell to the ground. It had expended an immense amount of magic both try to fight me and then to flee. In doing so, it no longer had any left to resist when I caught up to it.

  The Dusk Quarter had suffered greatly from the wind and rain. Large parts of the zone were flooded and the many ramshackle structures had been swept away. I was sure that underneath the rubble, there were many dead and dying people.

  Unfortunately for them, I was far beyond caring.

  This city had wasted far too much of my time and caused far too much suffering for me to worry about anything other than bringing things to an end. I dropped out of the sky and slid through a broad puddle as I flapped my wings to bring myself to a halt. Across the water from me, the Vampyr had fallen in the middle of a toppled structure.

  It no longer looked like Veda. It barely looked like an elf, or even humanoid. Beyond the many wounds I had inflicted on it, the transformation it had gone through to try and defend itself made it look truly monstrous. Shriveled skin clung to muscles that barely covered its bones. All the proportions were wrong for a creature that stood on two legs. It would be better suited to crawling through tunnels in complete darkness.

  Its eyes had completely sunk into its head, making it look like a living skull. Either side of its head was framed by elongated almost elephantine ears suited for locating prey in quiet environments. Each limb ended in hooked talons suited for latching onto its victims, so that it could sink its multiple rows of needle-like teeth into their flesh.

  A Vampyr, at its truest form, wasn’t a predator. It was a parasite.

  The creature tried to crawl away from me feebly through the water logged debris. As I prowled towards it, low guttural hisses erupted from the phlegm choked passage of its throat. If it was trying to speak, I didn’t understand the speech.

  I realized what it was trying to do just quick enough to rush forward and stop it. A human child, one of the Dusk Quarter’s many occupants, was still alive in the rubble of the home the Vampyr had landed in. The creature was trying to reach the small unconscious form, to steal what little life remained inside of it. Even in its final moments, the monster only thought of consuming others to preserve its miserable existence.

  I’d like to say that the Vampyr’s end was something grand or profound, but that would be a lie. There were no prophetic words or grand duels at the end. All that was, was my talons striking down and spearing it to the earth, followed by a quick snap of my teeth to wrench its head off. The spirit of the Vampyr tried to escape into an available host, but as it was already within my maw, there was nowhere for it to go.

  So ended The Mistress, master of the Tower of Baedain. Its legacy would be one more ruin in a city built on many others. All of that power and magic potential had been destroyed, with the burning remnants to be picked and fought over by Osteriath’s other residents.

  When I’d finished consuming what remained, I did not feel a sensation of triumph or accomplishment. All I felt was a vague sense of annoyance at how long and troublesome this ‘adventure’ had been. The rage which had been boiling inside of me was gone, dispersed into the persistent rain and wind that still rolled across my scales.

  In spite of everything, I felt certain that I had ultimately made the correct decision. Even if I’d managed to retrieve Magnus without all this trouble, the Vampyr would have remained in control of the Tower of Baedain. It would have come into conflict with me, sooner rather than later.

  The creature seemed to know something about me. It said that I controlled a ‘Throne’, but I had little enough idea what that meant. My best guess was that it involved the type of magic I most associated with myself. As a hatchling, blood containing vitae had been one of the most important things for me to acquire. As for Now… I hated to admit it, but the creature had been correct. I had changed since I acquired the name Sanguine.

  That was just one more thing for me to ruminate over when I got home. Now that my blood had cooled off, I could hear Sixith’s voice again. She was keeping quiet, but I could tell she was lingering at the edge of my consciousness.

  ‘Did you need something?’ I asked her mentally. The great exhaustion I felt after the battle likely made my ‘tone’ more testy than it would have normally been.

  ‘Nothing that can’t wait, Sanguine,’ Sixth responded carefully. ‘I just thought you should know that when you get home, you need to sleep. It’s not an emergency yet, but you consumed… a truly gargantuan amount of aether today. If you don’t sleep within the next couple of weeks, there’s going to be some really nasty side effects.’

  ‘... This one is going to knock me out for a really long time, isn’t it?’ My tail lashed the ground in frustration. While sleeping would certainly benefit me in terms of power and growth, the last thing I wanted to do was pass out for who knew how long.

  ‘Sorry brother… but yes. I know you were busy fighting and trying not to die, but if you could see what I see from here… It’s kind of scary, I’m not going to lie. If the others thought you were a threat before, they’re going to go absolutely nuts with the power up you’re going to get afterwards. That much growth is going to put you down for… a few months, is my best guess.’

  I stared up and the storm wracked skin, rain rolling down my ruby scales. Power. I’d only wanted enough to defend myself from things which meant me and those close to me harm. Yet soon, I would have enough power that it would bring me into conflict just by having it.

  ‘You going to save the kid right there, Sanguine?’ Sixth asked me. She was referring to the child buried in the rubble nearby. A quick examination revealed what was probably the bodies of the child’s parents laying over the top of it. They had shielded their offspring, even in death.

  It would cost me nothing to walk away right now. I could simply leave, collect My People, and then leave this wretched place. But… Cassia would be upset with me if I did that. In spite of everything we’d been through in this city, I knew she would want me to do something.

  Digging the child out of the rubble took only a few moments. There was nothing I could do for its parents. They had been crushed by the dwelling falling on top of them. As for the child itself, a mere wisp of magic was enough to ensure that it would remain alive long enough for another human to find it.

  Could I have done more? Perhaps. I’m sure many people would think that only doing that much was cruel. But I was done with Osteriath. A small bit of mercy was all that I had left in me to give.

  I spread my wings and took to the sky, letting the wind carry me towards where I felt my connection with Cassia leading me. It was time to go home.