I awoke with a bit of a start, putting my hand over my chest. Even though I couldn’t remember anything I might’ve dreamed about, there was an innate sense of danger. The closest probably source would be the stranger sleeping in the bed next to me. It took a few seconds for me to remember everything that happened with Senna. Oddly, it felt like the whole affair might’ve been my dream, contrary to what I was seeing.

“Good morning. You sleep alri-?” I started to ask before a soft snore cut me off.

I’ll use my preference for the later hours as an excuse for staring at her sleeping face. It only peeked out slightly from the bundle of blankets she was wrapped up in. With her piercing eyes closed, she looked incredibly frail. Her skin was actually pale enough to look like porcelain in the shadowy lighting of her linen cocoon.

Well, I suppose that’s the nobility for you. I thought to myself. Still a shame she’s so far from where she used to be. I think she mentioned something about her family being taken out or something in that argument. Maybe she’s actually got another relative?

Kicking my legs over the side, I stood up with a stretch and yawn. Trying not to make too much noise in my morning routine, I got up and fed myself with a few pieces of rabbit jerky. After getting into my gear, I sat at the dinner table for a few minutes, mulling over what I should do.

Well, I need to get some produce, but I shouldn’t let a stranger stay in my house in any case. She might be noble blooded, but I’m not sure she’d be above just stealing something. I thought to myself before looking at the hatchet she’d stared at. ...or something worse, honestly. She could’ve done something like that last night, but didn’t. Well, it’s not like there’s much to take from here anyhow.

With a nod to myself, I stood up and headed back into the bedroom. Not wanting to wake her up just yet, I wrote a small note explaining I was heading into town and that she should get something to eat. As I finished writing, I noticed the light from the window was trailing closer towards her. Not wanting it to wake her up, I closed the shutters. Placing the note down on a spot of the bed she’d see, I left the cabin and took a deep breath of the fresh air.

There was a quiet music of the early autumn days. Only a few birds were moving about at this time of day, making it so the occasional gust of wind was punctuated with a cheerful chirp. Shouldering a bag of some skins, I followed down a beaten path from my cabin towards the nearest town of Yowlen. It was a fairly small town outside of the woods, but was decent for trading. Back when the area was first being colonized, there was a boom of rich foreigners building their menses in the mountains around it. While openly claiming they wanted the views, it was apparent to the villagers they coveted the security and isolation the area provided.

Despite some confrontational first encounters, the townsfolk have grown accustomed to dealing with the richer members of society. While I had never spent time inside myself, there was a building within the town catered towards them specifically. It was covered in black and gold paint, giving it a costly look. After having sold my furs and buying vegetables, I entered with what little money I had left.

“Give me a second!” A panicked woman’s voice sounded off as the door opened.

The inside of the building was something close to a library, but with glass doors covering the shelves. Waiting for the woman to arrive, I went up to one of the them and tried figuring out what books were there. Most of them had no labelling on the spine, but a few had names about ancestry and land division. A loud stumble drew my attention and I headed back to the front counter.

“Hello, sir! Wait... you don’t look like my usual visitor.” She said, stepping out from a back door.

She was definitely a bookish woman. There was a set of glasses resting on her nose, and her clothes were wrinkled in a number of places. Her hair was deep black and tied back in a ponytail, leaving her features with a very soft frame. I took a step closer and she seemed to grow an inch or two taller when I did.

“No, I’m more here for a friend. This place has records of the noble families around this area, right? I’ve met someone lately that seems like she’s the victim of some kind of power struggle. Do you think you could help me find if she has any family nearby I could help her get to?” I asked, placing one hand on the counter.

“Oh dear, that’s terrible! Well, let me look over a few things, most of the families in this region come from the south. Do you have any idea what her last name is? That’d speed things up.”

“Er, no, she only told me her name was Senna.”

The woman cocked her head to the side in thought. “Huh... that name sounds familiar for some reason. It’s definitely an odd name to say the least. Let me look over an old book and see if I’m remembering right.”

She hurried off to one of the shelves and slid a key into one of the locks. Opening it up, she took three of the massive tomes and hefted them back to the counter. Given her short and spindly stature, I was sure she’d struggle with carrying so many at once. As she got back to the front counter, she stepped up onto a platform out of my view and returned to the height she was at when I moved toward her.

It was an awkward few minutes, the only noise in the room being the flickering of a candle as well as the turning of pages. She trailed over the books in an almost maddening way, her finger hanging invisibly over the pages as she read. Only after getting halfway through the volume, she planted her finger down onto the page.

“Ah ha! There it is. I remember reading about this when I first got the job, since it’s actually a fairly infamous occurrence. Senna Larune was the youngest daughter of that family when she moved here. It was only a year into her stay before the castle was attacked in the middle of the night, leaving everyone dead... except for Senna, obviously.”

“Well does she have any other family elsewhere?” I asked, feeling even worse for her.

“Doesn’t seem like it. There is mention of her parents being from somewhere else but... huh, that’s odd.” She reread the section a few times. “It seems her parents were actually killed by church vigilants. It doesn’t state why, but that’s pretty common practice for nobles. Don’t want people distrusting their landowners and all.”

I nodded, though I didn’t like the idea. Church vigilants were a group that specifically targeted the more monstrous enemies of humanity. While they were more often called upon to attack those using more villainous kinds of magic, they also killed people who were afflicted with curses.

Could it be they were trying to keep their daughter away from them because they became infected with something? She has looked fairly pale, so I can’t say for sure what she could have contracted. Then again, it could just be that they sent their daughter away and fell into cult worship or something similar... I thought to myself. Well, I should ask her myself instead, shouldn’t assume the-

“Excuse me, did you say you’ve met Senna yourself? Where did you find her?”

“Huh? Oh, right, I came across her in the woods yesterday. She looked in a pretty poor state, but healthy for the most part. She seemed to be in an argument with a nobleman, and brought up families and such, so I just kind of put them together myself. Why do you ask?”

“Ah, well, I think I might’ve pulled the wrong name then.” The woman said with a nervous laugh as she closed the book. “That family died around seventy years or so ago... I don’t think you’re talking about an elderly woman by any chance?”

I stayed silent and only shook my head. Neither of us spoke, even staying silent as the I left the building. We both put together the most likely scenario, but didn’t want to face the idea a vampire had been sleeping in my home last night. Making sure no one was looking, I rubbed both sides of my neck and down to my shoulders, looking for bite marks.

Sighing with relief when I didn’t find any, I made my way back to the cabin. Unlike before, the journey home was far slower for me. While she hadn’t bitten me, it was difficult to say for certain why she stayed with me at all last night. The reasonable thing to do would be to just pull the blanket off of her and let the sun do its work. On the other hand, it seems disgusting to murder someone that hadn’t done anything to me personally.

My eyes were locked on the trail for most of the walk, but as I got close to my cabin, the sound of a person drew my attention. I knew better than to worry about Senna breaking out and looking for me, considering it was still bright outside. Still, there was a chance someone was attempting to find me or steal from me, and in either case they might enter the cabin. If they find Senna and wake her up, it’s likely she’d take it as an attack and retaliate, given the nearness of sunlight to her.

I hid behind a tree just before the bend and peered around it. Circling around from the back of my cabin was a man in a black tabard, with white and gold cloth coverings beneath it. While his attire was oddly formal for somewhere like here, I was more concerned with the hints of chainmail I could see as I approached. He heard me coming and turned as if he was prepared to fight. Not wanting trouble, I just raised a hand in greeting.

“Are you the person that lives here?” He asked in a stiff voice.

“I am... who are you and what do you want?” I asked, lowering the arm while he approached me.

“Tell me, you’re a hunter of this area, yes? Have you noticed anything strange among the wildlife here recently? Maybe something to do with random bodies being found with strangely dry and unrotten bodies?”

“No, I haven’t. There’s been a shortage of game for the last month or so, but I don’t think that has anything to do with what you’re talking about.” I replied before I realized what was going on. “Wait... are you a vigilant?”

“You’re partially right. I used to be one, but left due to some personal reasons. These days I’ve honed in my practice on hunting vampires specifically. This area is very practically littered with them, but they’re too entrenched to fight properly.” He answered and gave his beard a thoughtful scratch. “Could you pull your feet out of your boots slightly? I want to look for any bite marks.”

I did as he asked, and the man crouched down, eyeing both of my ankles carefully. The fear I might actually have some kept me from question the odd choice of place to inspect. When he stood back up, he folded his arms and glared back at the cabin.

“Well, if you wouldn’t mind, how about we step inside and I ask you a few more questions? I won’t take up too much of your time, and I’ll gladly answer any questions you might have, so long as it’s nothing specific about my plans for while I’m here.”

If I reject his offer, will that be suspicious in of itself? Senna should still be sleeping, so I suppose it’s safe to take him inside. Then again, maybe I should just ask him to inspect Senna himself and let him deal with her. I thought, my mind racing at the situation.

“Sure, though I don’t have much to offer if you’re looking to eat.” I said with a half laugh, leading him back to the cabin.

Even with a small amount of mental preparation, I hesitated to open the door. It passed, hopefully faster than he could notice, and I opened the cabin entrance. Senna was sitting in the chair at the dining room table. She had a large chunk of raw venison in her mouth, with the rest of her body being obscured inside a blanket she’d stolen off of my bed. Her hand poked out from under the linen and waved at me slowly.

Well... at least she seems more friendly than last night.