Alvaroz woke up to something hitting him repeatedly. Bleary-eyed he turned over to see Thea moaning and whimpering in her sleep, tossing and turning.

“No… my baby… mine… no…” she murmured with sweat on her brow, sounding strangely possessive.

Alvaroz didn’t even have to think about it. He turned to hug her body to his, trying to comfort her in her nightmare. Lillia also slowly woke up, confused at first, then worried, tried to comfort her as well.

Thea whimpered again. “So scary… dark… she has to be mine… she has to be…” now sounding confused and scared. “Bad trees… bad!”

Alv’s eyes widened as he realized what kind of nightmare she was having. The memories flooding back.

----

“You worry too much, what's the worst that could happen?” Thea said, rolling her eyes at Alv.

“I'm serious. We should just go the longer way.” Alv said, worried but adamant.

“The war was forever ago, no ones going to care if a few vampire’s walkthrough elf lands. You rather go through the empire? And it was you who said you don’t like taking long trips on boats.” Thea replied.

“I know what I said, and I know you are curious, but I still don’t think it's a good idea. Who knows what may happen.” Alv replied.

“You worry too much. We left to explore the world! Not avoid it.” Thea said, somewhat annoyed. She had a hard time staying still in one place and preferred to move rather than argue over where they can and cannot go. “Besides we have Lil, Lore, and Dur with us.”

“Please don’t call me that.” a brown-haired youth said, sighing into his cup. “ and I agree with Alv. It's best not to tread on any toes, elves have long memories, just as long as vampires, I would guess.”

This started a small fight between the two as it usually did, nothing serious as it usually was in good fun. But the two did like to compete with one another.

“Perhaps we can save this for later.” Lore spoke up from reading his book, breaking up the small fight and passing his eyes to the other patrons of the tavern. “And I also agree with Alv, though, I don’t think there is any harm in passing through a little of the federation, perhaps one or two towns and we just make our way up north through another nation?”

“See! See! Even Lore wants to visit! Come on, just one or two towns, or maybe just one or two villages! We don’t have to stay long.” Thea exclaimed.

Lillia giggled. “I think Lore just wants to get out of Asser as soon as possible.” she then turned to him. “You acted like you're trying to run from someone, don’t you have family you want to visit?”

Lore winced at that. “I would love to visit them… but… ah… maybe some other time.”

Alv raised a brow at that. “Who in the world could make Lore nervous? He usually likes to act confident.”

“Either way, what is true, is the fact we should move on. This town is too crowded for my taste.” Duran said.

Thea rolled her eyes. “Everything is too crowded for your taste. You should have stayed at home and hunted game if you were going to complain every step of the way.” which started another argument.

Alv decided to save the rest of the talk for later and enjoy his meal. Asser was world renown for their food and culinary skills, and it showed in even a simple dish from an everyday tavern.

After the meal, he went with Lillia and Thea to bed and decided to make plans for later.

---

“How did you convince me to go through with this?” Alv asked, annoyed that they were still going north towards elf lands.

“Come on, we're just going to through one little village, two at most and we’ll take a turn and follow the road out of the country and towards the kingdom of Amar. you always said you wanted to visit it right? This way is not only fast, but will allow us to see an elf village or two.” Thea replied, just happy to finally get her way.

Alv sighed. “Fine, but why is it taking so long to reach the village? Shouldn't we have been there by now?”

Lore took another look at the map. “Your right… but it can’t be too far now, maybe another ten minutes. Who knows, maybe we can’t see it because of all the trees? And I hear they like to make their housing blend in sometimes.”

Alv looked towards the sky. “I hope it's soon,” he said worriedly. “It's getting dark.”

“Pffft. We're Vampires! What do we care if it gets dark? It wouldn’t be the first time we had to guide the group out of a dark forest. You worry too much.” Thea said, unconcerned.

“I don’t know… I just have a bad feeling for some reason…” Alv said, looking at the darkening sky.

“Ya… I agree something is wrong with this forest…” Duran added, looking left and right. Moving his shoulder blades so that he can feel the bow and quiver that was firmly on his back and brushing a hand on his sword.

“You always worry,” Thea said, dismissing his concern.

Duran looked at her. “I'm surprised you aren’t. You usually pick up on this kind of stuff better than me and Alv.”

“Sometimes her overconfidence messes with her intuition,” Alv said. To which Thea gave a little huff at.

“Well… let's just go for a while longer and see if we can’t hit the village.” Lore said, trying to act calm, but starting to worry as two out of three of their best at sensing danger voiced their concerns. Though it is true that Duran over-worried, sometimes he sensed something that really wasn't worth the fear. It was the fact that both Alv And Duran were worried, that got Lore worried.

For another hour they walked. Lore always going back and forth between the map and the road. The road was fairly large, though deserted, and one could see clearly towards the horizon. Which was the problem, because there still was no village in sight. And the shadows of the trees stretched over them as if trying to entangle them in darkness as the sun waned ever further.

“You don’t think we might have passed it, do you?” Lillia asked, concerned.

Lore looked worriedly down at his map. “We passed all the correct landmarks, and haven’t reached any that would indicate we overshot. As far as the map is concerned, we should already be there.”

Thea looked around, now joining in on the worried bandwagon as her senses were screaming at her that something was wrong. “You don’t think-”

And like that, a wave of powerful mana crushed whatever defenses they had on their bodies. Pushing them into the ground. This was followed by another powerful wave that attacked their minds and forced them to sleep.

Duran was the first to go, followed by Lillia then Lore, who stuck it out pretty well before succumbing. Thea and Alv were the last ones since they had some resistance to sleep magic as well as being the stronger two of the group. Both tried to rise from their prone position only for someone to walk up to them from the shadows, raise their staff, and push another dose of concentrated mana directly into them.

Alv’s vision went dark, and he thudded against the ground alongside Thea.

---

Alv slowly woke up, confused. He tried to get up but found himself restrained. People in black and silver robes walked around him, ignoring him as they went about their way. Quickly he looked around trying to grasp the situation as well as what happened to his friends. He calmed somewhat as he found Lillia, Lore, and Duran nearby. Though, like him, they were also restrained to a table.

Looking around he saw that he was in some sort of large cavern, with roots from what might be a great tree helping keep the cave stable and from collapsing. A large image of a black tree with silver leaves was painted on the ceiling. As he continued to search his surroundings, he found that Thea was missing.

Quickly, he tried to strain his neck in hopes of finding her. With some great effort, he found her on her own, also restrained to a table, but in a different room connected to theirs with a large opening.

“Ah… I see you are awake.” a soft voice said behind him.

Alv strained his neck to take a look at his captor. It was another robed individual, thought slightly better dressed, and clearly holding some authority with the way she stood and the presence she exuded.

“Who are you? What do you want with us?” Alv asked, barely concealing the anger in his voice.

The women in the robe smiled. “Why I want you of course. And your friend,” she said, nodding towards Thea in the other room.

“Why?” Alv asked, concerned.

The women smiled wider. “Because it's the first time in a long time that vampires have visited our lands. Which makes you very valuable.”

What could we have that you would want?” Alv asked

“Your seed for one.” which made Alv pale. “Your bloodline for another. You see, we come from a group of people that you could consider… fringe. With ideas that are just to… advanced for the rest of elven kind.”

“What do you mean?” Alv asked, starting to worry.

“To put it simply, we believe that vampire and elf blood, woven together, could create the ultimate lifeform. The war for light, as it was called, should have shown us how weak elves truly are. For so long we thought we were the pinnacle! Then we lost the war…” she said sadly. “Proving how false that line of thought and hubris was.”

Alv’s brow furrowed in confusion. “But you won?... Alcraz was dead, you pushed us back all the way to our homelands.”

The robed women laughed. “Do you really think we won? A whole quarter to a third of your army was tied into… what was it called? The wastes? Not to mention that not every noble vampire with their army had left to join Alcraz in his conquest… if we had tried to invade your homeland… we would have been destroyed. Especially after only having a remnant of what was left of our army after that terrible battle. Not to mention... Dagon…”

Alv’s eyes widened at the name. The right-hand man of Alcraz, the only other vampire that could have taken his place of the vampire lord.

The robed woman shook her head. “We lost so much in that one battle, not to mention during the war. Plus all the losses made pushing you back towards your homeland…” she paused and then sighed before moving on.

“That’s where we come in. we realized the potential and power of the vampires, and to that end, we have made planes and prepared for the time where we can finally create the ultimate race between our two people.” she then turned to the other room with Thea still knocked out on the table. “Starting with her…”

Alv’s eyes widened in fear, turning his eyes towards Thea and back to the robed women. “If you hurt her…” he began to growl, fighting against the restraints.

The robed women laughed. “Oh, we don’t plan to hurt her. Rejoice! For centuries of developing the perfect serum can now be used to make the perfect race! We spent so long trying to figure out how to combine elf and vampire blood in the perfect way. And by using succubi blood and using human blood as a median. We have found that way! At first, the elf blood would be weak, but it will consume the human blood and bind itself to the vampire blood with the succubi blood acting as a bonding agent! With this not only will we make the perfect race! But one that will always give perfect children at an increased rate!”

“You're crazy,” Alv shouted. “You can’t do this to her!” he struggled even harder as he saw another robed woman draw closer to Thea with a large syringe.

The robed women then injected the serum into Thea’s womb through the stomach.

“NO! You monsters!” as Alv tried to use more and more of his power to break free. His aura flaring and turning to a deep crimson red alongside his eyes. Despite that, the restraints held and seemed to transfer the energy throughout the chains and down into the ground.

“I would stop struggling if I were you… if you make this hard on us… we will make it hard on you.” with a nod, another robed woman walked up to Duran and slit his throat like it was nothing.

Alv was so shocked that he literally couldn’t move for a solid minute as he watched one of his friends that he had been traveling with for the past year die right in front of his eyes.

“We don’t need any humans. So consider that a warning.” the robed leader then moved to look Alv directly in the eye. “Your friend's life is in our hands, cooperate or else…” She then pulled a vial with pink liquid from her robe. A small smile forming on her face as the horror slowly settled in Alv’s face. And he realized that this was not a battle he could win.

---

Alv shuddered at the memory. What followed after was a month of misery and torture as they tested things on him and Thea, using Lore’s and Lillia’s life as collateral. It ended when both he and Thea couldn’t take it anymore and entered a blood rage. Using the chaos, Lore was able to summon a golem that he had been preparing during their month of captivity. Yet despite that, it still was a hard-fought battle that they had to run away from.

In fact, they didn’t stop running, moving day and night nonstop, bedding wherever they collapsed from exhaustion, drinking their problems away. It was only when they made it back in Istra and were surrounded by friends that they felt safe enough to relax. But by then both Lillia and Thea were pregnant and couldn’t continue the adventure. Not that anyone wanted to after that.

Thankfully, Lillia was already pregnant before the capture, much to the annoyance of their captors. So they planned to let her birth Van before trying anything on her. Unfortunately, Thea wasn’t so lucky. She was given something that made her pregnant, and there was some debate on what to do about the child. But Thea resolutely decided to keep her, determined to give whatever life forming in her womb a proper life.

Alv and Lillia weren't so sure if that was the right decision. But they decided to remain silent.

This was also around the time that Alv realized his mistake and rushed back home as soon as he could. Only to find his family destroyed. These two blows drove him mad, and when he went to avenge his family, he went crazy and slaughtered men, women, and children alike. Only sparing one person, because she too was pregnant and it reminded him of his own child coming.

After taking a step back he realized what he had done and was horrified by it. So much so that when the other house of Moonshadow proposed reconciliation he jumped at it. Not because it was the right thing to do. But because he was afraid of something like what happened to his house and Vrankarra happening again but on a larger scale. That many more lives would be lost, and that his family would be in danger.

Something he regretted to this day.

“I was never meant to be the heir or rule the barony, was never trained for it… it was my older sister who was… if only you were here… Vanessa…” Alv silently thought to himself. It always seemed to him that he either did too much or not enough. Only one bad decision after another.

He looked gently towards Thea and gently stroked her head to help calm her down, thinking about her and what she had been through.

What was surprising. Was how much Thea loved Luna. For some reason, Thea was obsessed with Luna, she genuinely loved her from the bottom of her heart. Which is not a bad thing.

But Alv believed something in Thea broke in that time during their stay in the elven lands. While she tried to hide it. She didn’t try to explore or travel like she used to. Even traveling to the nearby woods was sometimes too much for her. Now she only traveled to her home or his, and would only travel further if she absolutely had to or if he, Lillia, or lore was with her.

He presumed her fear was from the fact that she was going to be a mother, and how the elves said they would take the baby away to do more experiments, to make sure it was genuinely perfect. That coupled with everything else must have put her under extreme stress and fear.

“She’s mine… my baby… don’t take her…” Thea said fitfully, Alv continued to stroke her head as she whimpered. slowly calming down at his touch and falling into a deeper sleep.