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Van entered Sheri’s room, not entirely sure on what to expect. With a smile, Sheri welcomed Van and asked him to sit down with her. Reluctantly, he did so.

“It's so nice for you to come and visit. Are you ready for some fun learning?” Sheri said with a smile.

Van sighed but nodded. Hopefully, he would finally learn something about vampire society or maybe blood and darkness magic.

“Alright then! Let's get started!” she said cheerfully, not even seeming to care about Van’s attitude.

What followed afterward was a surprisingly in-depth study session on proper court etiquette. How to bow, when to bow, who to bow to, as well what kinds of bows. How to walk, how to talk, when to talk, and what to talk about. This went on for hours until Van’s head felt like it was swimming. Which was a feat since he had his mind awakened and such things became a thing of the past.

This didn’t end there. After that, he went again the next day and the day after that. Learning every little nuance about vampire etiquette and court politics until Van felt like his head was about to explode. He wasn’t the only one there either. Luna and Anna joined in on studying how to be proper ladies. As well as how to act in front of others and what they should be careful of saying. This all accumulated into three main points of vampire society.

“The three main things you should always be aware of in vampire society is. Age, Rank, and Power. Those are the things you must always watch out for.” Sheri said with seriousness. Something the three students had never seen on her face before.

“To vampires, age is a great issue! The older you are, the more respect you get. Even if you are a commoner, if you're older then some counts and dukes. You will be treated with at least some due respect. Especially if you're over a thousand years old! The number of vampires that have reached that age are far and few. You have to think about the fact that they reached that age by surviving wars, poisons, assassins, upheavals, changes in the world and society itself, and! Literally any accident like falling down the stairs. That might sound funny. But imagine all those accidents that people go through, throughout their lives. They survived all of them to reach that age. So always respect someone older than you, they have experience, knowledge, and cunning.” Sheri said.

“Court ranks, Evo ranks, are also very important to vampires. Vampires are all about that pedigree,” she said, rolling her eyes. “But that doesn’t change the fact that for a vampire, court ranks are a literal form of power. Unlike most other race’s nobles, vampires share a special bond with the land they govern. The more they govern, the greater their power. Evo ranks are almost the same thing. Once you become a high vampire, only then are you considered truly a noble. This is because with becoming a high vampire, you gain certain powers that put you above other vampires. Including the regular extra boost in power, you would get by ranking up.” Sheri continued.

“Finally. Just plain power. Vampires are somewhat like demons in that regard. Whether it is political, economic, or just strength. Vampires will respect someone who has it and can wield it well. Even if you're a duke, if you pick a fight with someone who is a baron, who can trounce you from one end of Alcray to the other, then you're just stupid. Don’t disrespect someone stronger than you. Some old-timers and powerhouses chose to belong to smaller houses because they chose to stay out of politics. That doesn't mean they are not dangerous. And to a vampire, their honor and pride are worth fighting over. No matter your station.” Sheri ended.

After a short pause, Sheri added. “Speaking about honor… while in the wider world we are considered monsters or undead. Mostly because of the few ferals they probably had to deal with. Vampires, once they give their word. Are more likely to go through with it, even if it means their deaths. For a vampire, honor is sometimes more important than their lives. If they give their word or swear by their blood, or gods forbid their house. You can bet they will do it, and that you will have to move heaven and earth to convince them otherwise or retract their promise.”

“These and more are what make vampires, vampires. You should never forget that! Otherwise, you will regret your short life.” she finished menacingly.

Van and the others were taken somewhat aback by it. But before they could ask any questions, Sheri continued her lecture, going into greater details about court ranks and those whose ages are over a thousand years old that they should be aware of.

More was learned, such as vampires' love of contracts. How to manipulate blood and create blood thralls. And most importantly. How to use shadow magic.

It was an interesting surprise to find out that Luna of all people, was almost as good as Van was at manipulating shadows. This was surprising because Van was told by Lorenzo he had great affinity for shadow magic, and that his new familiar boosted that affinity to even greater heights. And yet Luna, almost matched him and wove light magic with almost the same ease that she did shadow. Something that Van was honestly a little jealous of, not of her, just her ability, Van was the son of an aasimar after all, it made sense he had some skill in light magic. But apparently not to her level.

Later Luna admitted that she got a small boost to her light affinity when she bonded with Van. Which brought to question what other things he could boost or add to his bondmates to improve their abilities. Questions he decided to ask himself later as he was in the middle of learning from Sheri on how to properly weave shadow.

Van learned some surprising facts about the use of shadow magic, and when Van told Sheri he had some knowledge on summoning, she took interest and started to teach Van how to create special types of mana forms called shades.

These shades were essentially like mana forms, but with the properties of shadow. Allowing them to get into places easier and be slightly incorporeal, adding to their difficulty of being gotten rid of.

This and more was taught to Van, and he learned not only how to manipulate shadow, but how to keep himself from being tied up by shadow and do the same to others.

For months now Sheri seemed to finally start to teach them properly. Something that Van was only too happy for, if it weren’t for the times that Sheri asked him to do some private, ‘extracurricular activities, it would be perfect.

Finally, it seemed that Sheri was satisfied by their progress that she decided to commence a spar between him and Luna. to help gauge their ability and how far they have come.

“Alright you two, are you ready?” Sheri asked

Van nervously nodded. Not just because he was afraid of hurting Luna, but because Luna was probably the only other person who could match him at the moment. Luna on the other hand seemed extremely excited. Giddy even. It seemed for her this was her breakout moment to prove her worth to everyone by taking her husband down.

“Alright. Combatants at the ready. Ready? Begin!” Sheri swiped her hand down and all hell broke loose.

Van wasted no time bringing up his shadow, they swirled around him as he slowly put more mana into them and increased their size and depth. He didn’t have to wait long as four tendrils of shadow from Luna shot out like bolts from a crossbow right at him, scaring him into taking a defensive posture by the ferocity of the beginning salvo. A large tendril of shadow of his own coming in the nick of time to block the bolts.

Luna wasted no time, she leaned forward and a large shadow lance shot across the ground towards Van. Van responds in kind with his own lance, putting more power behind it in hopes of crushing and piercing through Luna’s shadow lance.

A small shadowy explosion took place between the two. If it was with pure mana or fire or another magic, it would have been loud and the blast would have whipped up a wind. But since it was with shadow. It was silent and the effects of the attack barely did any harm to the surroundings. This was because, with shadow magic, a shadow mage could choose how their shadow acted and how much damage they could inflict to a person or their surroundings with great control and precision. In other words, why waste extra energy on flashy explosions?

Van swung his arm out in a dramatic way and dozens of droplets of blackness formed in the air and shot outward towards Luna. Luna casually cast a shadowy barrier from the swirling darkness around her to block the attack.

Van wanted her to do that. He wanted to block her sight because he had been worming a tendril of shadow both underground and to the side, using the nearby shadows to bring them closer undetected. With shadow magic, the more shadows there are, the more powerful shadow magic you can use without using your own reserves of mana.

But despite the sneakiness of his plain, Luna somehow guessed it. Her barrier was tinted so that she could still see through it. And when she saw that Van wasn’t following up with his attack, she knew that he was up to something. So she erected a shadow barrier all around her. And in a great show of force! Expanded it outward in all directions in a massive explosion.

Van’s tendril of shadow that was creeping its way off to the side was blown away. But the tendril underground was still good to go. While protecting himself from the blast, he with a thought, he willed the shadow to connect to Luna’s slightly depleted one.

Caught unprepared, Luna was forced to not only try to destroy this new connection but struggle for control over the shadows around her and the ones she summoned. But as much as she hates to admit it. This was her defeat. Even if their affinity for shadow magic was similar. Van had a far larger mana pool than she did, and just as much affinity, if not slightly greater, for shadow. This meant unless she could do something to sever the connection and regain control of her shadow, she lost.

Sighing in defeat she gave up. Cutting off power to her shadows.

“And the winner is. Van!” Sheri yelled.

Van and Luna walked up to each other and congratulated each other for the hard-fought battle. Van even went as far as to admit that he was sweating at the end there when she was contesting him for control of the shadows. Thought to himself he thought it was a little anticlimactic since it was barely even two minutes. But he chalked it up to them still being new to fighting with shadow magic.

Thea who had been watching with bated breath watching as her precious baby fought. Cheered for her anyway for the amazing performance. Proud of how far her baby has come.

While it was true that the battle ended far sooner than they were expecting. And that they didn’t get a chance to try out all that they learned. Both of them knew it was only a matter of time before the experience they needed caught up and they were able to go all out.

With that, the two left to shower and enjoy the rest of the day off. With the both of them thinking about what else they could do to improve themselves.