She was met with opposition and others were dragged off.

A presence begged Accalia's attention. Gavilis took the opportunity to attempt to probe her mind and when she took notice it was almost too late. They wrestled for a time, her head slowly turning to him. He appeared distracted by everyone he kept hostage, but she knew this was his true objective. She had to agree to save face but there was little to hide now that she would be forced to obey. Her head would be ground under the heel of their boots and her body yearned for escape. A gargantuan wall appeared before Gavilis as he tried desperately to advance but was met with relentless barriers.

“Accalia, you must choose. It is your turn. Are you with our Overlord or against us?” Ovelia pointed her saber to her and the weapon gleamed in the light. She felt the oppressive aura of the Sanguine Overlord bare its fangs upon her, the teeth sinking deep into her mind. The sheer terror she felt as the presence glossed over her for even just a fraction of a second was enough to bring her to her knees. She glanced up to Targon, who was also on his knees before Ovelia as well.

The Sanguine Overlord lowered her saber and as it gently scraped against the floor, the presence crept into the bowls of her mind. She allowed her beyond the wall, far beyond the reaches of Gavilis and many others. Even herself, at one point, when memories were far too painful to wallow in. In the vast darkness which encompassed her mind, she glimpsed Ovelia’s figure walking daintily into the blackness. Accalia raced toward her and scrambled to catch the majestic silhouette before her. Ovelia glanced over her shoulder before being swallowed into the abyss. Within the blackness more figures sprouted like weeds.

Accalia glanced about as the gargantuan tower to honor the Father rose high into the heavens. Workers sprawled in a blur, people passing her by and phasing through her. Sanctuary sprouted all around her and in the distance she spotted a young girl standing alone in the distance. Her pink hair and sapphire eyes glowered at her even though she surpassed her by a few eons in experience. Before her eyes the girl grew into a young woman, the Blessed Star emblazoned on her chest. Cold sweat beaded down her forehead as she commanded the blade at her side to kiss the air, the edge igniting the instant it breathed into the sky.

Hastily Accalia scrambled to get away. Her feet bled as she darted through the many alleyways of Sanctuary’s Market District and she clung to the hope the Main Square would simply swallow her into oblivion. Vampires surrounded the figure as it trod over to her relentlessly. No matter how many times they tried to destroy the woman as she approached, they were batted aside like flies. Their bodies were consumed in blue flames, the dust scattered to the winds. She turned to face the enemy and in a flash of steel, she gasped as the image of Ovelia returned to her and dealt the final blow.

She blinked and the room filled with aristocrats returned. They were left in a stupor, while she and Targon, had not quite gotten the same treatment. Accalia surmised they had judged them all and found them wanting. Targon and herself were the pair who remained. There was only moments now before they would be judged the same.

A voice boomed in the back of her head, which she recognized immediately. Hannibal, in his gusto, penetrated through the very foundation of Sanctuary’s Citadel.

“Give in to their demands for now. Serve them as you would serve me and in time it will all come together. Give them your full cooperation.” Hannibal’s voice faded away and they nodded, offering their wrists to Ovelia almost in unison.

“Please, allow us to give you our full cooperation.” Targon nodded to Accalia, who in turn, followed suit.

“Yes, let our hands toil with Sanctuarian soil.” Accalia lowered her head and was greeted with wholehearted smiles. She raised herself and lifted her head high.

Gavilis, however, appeared to not be convinced. He kept silent, but she knew from her experience with the old Grandmaster, he would continue his vigil. Ovelia merely watched her as the other Justicar escorted her from the chamber. There was uncertainty among the group. Unlike the brave and decorated Rena or the robust and daring Arden, they were run of the mill soldiers. They had earned their Blessed Star through various training regimens and after the meeting, seemed to only allow the situation to mull over.

Accalia hoped to remain silent and listen in on their conversation. Whatever secrets they garnered her mind opened to allow any mental links to brush with her own. There was some risk to it, they would learn of another presence and retreat to silence.

As soon as she opened her mind and allowed others to know her presence, she brushed against some mundane entities. Servants, other lesser armed individuals. They were unaware of whom she was and the aspect of sharing their space with another person’s mind was ludicrous. Justicar were all too familiar with this, for their inherent illegal practice with using the mind as their main form of intelligence gathering enabled them to be steps ahead of the competition.

“We’ve got the witch here. There is naught she can do to stop us from gutting her.” One of them thought to the others. They sent mental images of the consequences to the offender.

“She is a witch, indeed. There isn’t much documentation on her existence rather than a few scrawlings here and there.”

“Of course, who else would put themselves into exile then put Ovelia onto the Eternal Throne?”

“She would know better than us. We’re grunts, don’t think too much. Accalia plays dumb but she is on to us.” As the last thought was passed between them, they fell silent. Accalia knew from the exchange she was not discovered. Save for Ovelia, Gavilis--perhaps Arden--she knew these run-of-the-mill soldiers would not question their orders too much. They followed Justicar Doctrine closely, save for a few close calls which would force them to break protocol. This situation was one of those.

They had a mask pulled over most of their features to hide them, but Accalia took mental notes from their basic skeletal structure and their demeanor. The Blessed Star was enabling them to be more than some sellsword with magic and this was their only advantage. Her research into the soul with Hannibal would see it disrupted and soon, they would fall before her. Ernald was correct to guard the soldiers of old in this sophisticated armor.

Accalia lowered her gaze to the floor in an attempt to seem pathetic. She would soon be held to her word, though a meeting with Hannibal would be fruitless. Targon would also have to be cautious, even more so since he was the oldest vampire in existence. Gelehrter had discovered his existence and gave the old signal. She assumed Ovelia and Gavilis would be under that suspicion as well and she imagined the life he must lead.

Secrets. Mounds of secrets piled into the heavens. Keeping himself hidden away and his thirst. Another thought occurred to her then. What of the thirst which consumed lesser vampires? They appeared on this world after a fateful event which brought ruin and death. The night Ernald slew a man who challenged his might, the day when all of Sanctuary experienced murder. Whether or not it was considered to be murder was for debate, but the event was well documented in Ernald’s personal journal. After aiding all races in their search for themselves, she remembered his work fondly. It was soon after when the first vampire infected one of the first. She believed it to be Targon who wore the mantle of first. On that day, she knew he was the master of his species which would spread like wildfire.

Accalia shook her head in dismay as sounds of screams reverberated from deep within her mind and clawed desperately to escape. The escorts had abandoned her at the entrance to her quarters. She shared the space on the Sanguine Overlord’s floor, where many dared to tread. Times gone by sent shivers up her spine as she recalled being scolded for trespassing. Accalia carefully reached for the door and opened it. Several figures awaited her there, but they dared not to speak. Their mere presence had not caused panic, but she had grown accustomed to them. Her eyes darted to each of them in turn. The spirits made no motion to exercise rhetoric, but instead chose to exist in this plane. They flickered in a rhythmic fashion.

She blinked twice. The phantoms continued their exasperated blinking. She shut her right, her left eye twice, then her right again.

Continuously they would practice this ritual of communication. Spirits would vanish until one remained. Gavilis, even in all his undeniable expertise, could not detect the undead. He trained others in his wake as well. As the night would pass, she would mimic her own motions, her body appearing to vanish. Behind in the room, her body would tread on muscle memory. She would escape the mortal coil and dance from one chamber to the next until she floated deep into the bowels of Sanctuary. The ghastly air of the Lower Sector brushed past her, unable to consume the life which she clung so dearly to. It's mire was only matched with the bodies which were strewn throughout the Lower Sector. To her, since the Lower Sector’s inception, the place was a gigantic changing mausoleum. There were no burials here, only true death. She caught sight of the encampment locked deep within the Lower Sector, the vampires who breathed the poisonous air freely. They removed their masks as the ghostly visage of Accalia took shape. Their dubious expressions morphed into the positive response she had grown to love.

“My lady, it is good to see you.” One of the guards lowered their weapon, but still clung to the spear out of habit. “What is the word?”

“I am being sworn to serve the Overlord. You must know that Justicar will be coming down here. They will come to bathe the Lower Sector in your blood, be cautious. See to it they will not return home.” Accalia’s relay was met with minor skepticism, but the individuals were silenced with the education of the better informed, “Hannibal has given me full discretion. I will not meet with him, but my communications to you will not stop. Gavilis is unaware of what I am doing.”

“These flights of yours are getting longer. Are you sure you soul will remain in your feeble body for long?” One of the more decorated vampires challenged, his age shown only by the scars of his armor. “It is my understanding you are a Mortem. Are you doing this for us, or for yourself?”

“I am doing this for the will of Sanctuary. It is a wrong you were dealt and I cannot change the way an entire stubborn existence thinks of you.” Accalia combatted him and then waved her flickering hand. “I have learned to be what the ghosts are. They are my allies even when others are not.”

He scowled, but remained silent for a spell. “I will alert the scouts. We will maneuver them in circles until they are but a shadow of their former selves.”