Realm of Monsters
Chapter 622: Celebration Part 2

Chapter 622: Celebration Part 2

  A black carriage rolled up to the Veres manor. The coachman hopped off and opened the door as four nobles stepped out. A pair of guards stood at the door and waited for the nobles to approach before asking, “Names and invitation?”

  “Lady Seraphine Blackvein,” she held up her invite.

  “Lord Jaspin Morvain.” He took a protective step in front of Seraphine, as if daring anyone who might defy his mistress’ claim to face him.

  “Tavian Nindralis.” The vampire was the only one who was dressed in a military uniform rather than clothes for a ball.

  “Isolde Ravelle.” As usual, she wore a black veil that matched the color of her dress and long silk gloves.

  The guard who asked the question took their invites and gave them a cursory glance before nodding to his comrade, who took his cue and stepped away from the door. “Welcome to the Veres manor, enjoy the party,” they said in unison.

  Seraphine ignored them and walked right on through, her gait filled with purpose. Jaspin glared at the men before following his mistress inside. Tavian gave the guards a respectful nod and walked in.

  Isolde Ravelle was not so quick to follow. Blue mana flowed into her eyes as she cast her Clarity magic. A faint ring of blue wrapped around her red irises, but it was obscured by her dark veil. She glanced at the guards and the manor looming behind them.

  The guards’ auras were strong, their lifeforce a controlled, steady stream around their bodies, the kind that only came from several years of martial training. But what gave Isolde mild surprise was that both men had yellow and brown chromatic mana swirling in their hearts, respectively. Employing trained warriors was one thing, but employing mages to serve as simple doormen was something else entirely. As expected of the Ruling Great House of Veres.

  Brown mana coursed through the door and the walls of the manor. Isolde could make out hundreds of enchantments swirling through the manor’s exterior. Some part of her wanted to stay and examine the enchantments more closely, but she didn’t want to linger and give the guards a reason to question her. 

  The Great House of Ravelle boasted the greatest number of mages among vampire kind in all of Hollow Shade. Outside of the Ruling Houses, Isolde’s family commanded one of the greatest powers in the city. And yet, despite their influence and power, Isolde had never been given an invitation to the Veres manor before tonight.

  The last lord, Eldrin Veres, was never keen on hosting any grand parties or balls at his home. He was a stoic man who had come to power after coming out as the only survivor in a bloody succession war between his siblings. Few nobles had ever had the chance to visit the Veres manor until now, and she was determined to make the most of it.

  Isolde took her time as she walked down the long, winding halls of the home. Even here, there were enchantments etched into every wall. This place was a fortress. The sheer amount of time and wealth it would take to enchant an entire mansion was mind-numbing. Isolde knew the Ruling Houses had wealth that far outstripped ordinary Great Houses, but this was something else, this was power, and not a single guest here realized it.

  Challenging House Veres head-on was a fool’s journey. Even Lady Seraphine Blackvein’s plan was risky, though it had its merits. If they succeeded, then the four of them could find their House’s position elevated far more than any of them had first realized.

  When she reached the grand hall, she was met with the enticing scents of food and drink. Guests sat at the long lines of tables, eating and drinking. Isolde gave them cursory glances; most of them had faint auras that lacked any training in lifeforce.

  Unlike lifeforce that flowed naturally through the body, mana resided within a mageborn’s heart and only flowed into the rest of the body when the mage was casting a spell. To her spell-enhanced eyes, mana appeared like a small ember of colorful fire inside a person’s chest. 

  She could easily note who was a mage by the flames flickering in the center of their bodies. Some were flames the size of a fist, powerful masters and high masters. Most were half as large, the mark of an adept mage. A few had flames that burned brightly and larger than the rest, their mana was too large for their heart, and it leaked a little through their chest cavity. Archmages.

  Isolde glanced down at her own chest and saw the bright blue flames burning in a similar manner, the mana seeping into her lungs. There were easily half a dozen archmages in attendance, including herself. If Seraphine stirred up a storm, there were enough powerful guests to pressure even the Veres.

  As Isolde glided through the hall in her black dress, she noted various other magborns; these were different, their flames were so small, really just an ember, barely nascent, a common enough outcome among the nobility. Breeding mageborns into a noble bloodline was common throughout the Ebon Realm, but oftentimes, there were some who inherited only the faintest sparks of magic, a side-effect of trying to imbue an entire family with mana generation after generation. Even the realm’s greatest archmage, the late Lord Elzri Noir, had a daughter and grandson who were famously born with little to no talent in magic.

  In fact, Isolde noticed Elzri’s daughter sitting at a table not far from her. Dolores Noir ate only small bits of food, and her glass of wine was untouched. Curious. Her daughter, Lady Elohnoir, was nowhere to be seen. Rather, the rumoured sister of Elzri, Una, seemed to be in attendance. The resemblance to Elzri was uncanny.

  If the resemblance wasn’t enough, Isolde knew she was Elzri’s sister from the bright ball of black, orange, and yellow flames burning in her chest. She was an archmage alright and from the sheer intensity of her mana, Una was the strongest archmage here. Like so many others, Isolde had believed House Noir’s strength was waning after the death of their patriarch. Oh, how wrong they were. Lady Una’s power rivalled the late Elzri’s.

  A smile crept over Isolde’s lips. The Noirs and the Veres were rumored to have had a falling out. The fact that Isolde couldn’t see Lady Elohnoir anywhere nearby was a testament to that. If the Veres tried something, Isolde could instigate the Noirs to act.

  Satisfied with her discovery, Isolde was about to go find Seraphine and the others when she caught sight of something she had never seen before. Various guests were cheering on two women, humans by the looks of it, who were engaged in some kind of drinking contest. If Una Noir’s mana was a campfire, then these two women’s mana were bonfires. Their flames were without the impurities of elemental mana, the signs of a True Mage. 

  One burned orange and it seeped out from her heart and through her entire lungs. The other woman’s mana was almost twice as large and it burned a blue so bright that it made Isolde’s seem indigo. She had never seen such power, even Elzri’s paled in comparison.

  Isolde glanced around, as if asking if anyone else was seeing this. But no one seemed the wiser. These two women were beyond archmages, they were walking monoliths of power and people were cheering them on for a fucking drinking game!?

  Even stranger, there was something else wrapped around the two women’s hearts. It was a dark swirl of mana. Where chromatic magic burned like a fire, this energy moved like viscous water, slowly flowing in the womens’ hearts with small tendrils stretching out through their bodies.

  Isolde couldn’t help but stare. It certainly wasn’t chromatic mana, but it didn’t seem like any elemental mana she had seen before either. Who were these women?

  Before she could figure out what to do, she noticed two others with similar conditions. A giant of a drow, no doubt a dire, and a young petite woman, both of whom were sitting next to Una Noir. The giant had the same dark swirling mana, albeit much smaller than the two True Mage women. And the petite woman had barely a trickle of the strange energy in her heart, overshadowed by her chromatic flames and a steady aura of lifeforce.

  What sort of power was House Noir harboring and what was their relationship with the two True Mage women? Suddenly, Seraphine’s plan felt far more volatile. Were these women on the side of House Veres or were they simply here for the party? Did Lord Veres know about their power? No, that seemed unlikely. He was young, barely coming into his power. But Lady Elise Veres? That was a different story entirely.

  Isolde glanced around, but she couldn’t find Elise. She was probably in the ballroom. As Isolde began to head that way, she spotted something she could not explain. A young couple was standing next to a pillar in the corner of the great hall, whispering and laughing. Neither had an aura. There was no lifeforce, no chromatic or elemental mana, nothing.

  This wasn’t possible, Isolde thought. Clarity magic could see the true nature of ethereal energies, but this couple might as well not have been alive. Was it an illusion? But then she would have noticed the seams of purple mana that weaved around it.

  As Isolde stared, puzzled at the scene, the young man’s smile abruptly disappeared, and his gaze turned straight at her. His dark eyes flickered purple, and a shiver ran through Isolde’s spine. She stumbled back a step and hurriedly looked away. They were not an illusion, they were definitely not an illusion.

  “What in all the bloody realms is happening at this party?” Isolde muttered to herself. For once in her life, she had had enough of watching people’s auras. It was time to find Seraphine and report on her findings.

  “On behalf of House Katag, we’d like to offer you this gift. A small token of celebration in light of your awakening, Lady Aurelia.”

  Isolde stopped. She recognized Lady Evelyn Katag’s voice anywhere. Awakening? Was she speaking to the mysterious Lady Veres? There had been rumours of Lord Stryg’s mother being at the manor in some sort of coma and tonight’s ball was in part a celebration of her return to the world.

  Isolde’s eyes wandered over to the largest table in the hall, but she couldn’t see Aurelia Veres. Lady Evelyn and Lord Gian were blocking her vision. Gian was the same as Isolde remembered, an aura of lifeforce twice as large as any grandmaster she had ever met and a flame of chromatic mana worthy of an archmage.

  Isolde kept a respectable distance from the table and made her way around it to catch a better view. Finally, she spotted the woman sitting at the head of the table.

  The rumors were true, Stryg Veres was half-goblin. His mother had stark white hair like northern drows, but she was a goblin with warm green skin, bright yellow eyes, and sharp ears that pointed to the sides.

  There were several vampire nobles who would have been bothered by such a fact, and Seraphine could potentially use that for her goal, but such thoughts had left Isolde entirely. Sitting not thirty paces from Isolde was a woman whose heart glowed with all ten chromatic colors burning as bright as Lord Gian’s mana.

  An Ebon Lady. The first new Ebon Lord in three centuries. The realm had been in an uproar since the confirmation of Stryg’s Aspirant status, but this entire time, an Ebon Lady was already walking among them.

  “Lady Ravelle, there you are. I’ve been looking all over for you,” said Lord Marvain.

  Isolde turned stiffly to him. “Jaspin…?’

  He frowned. “You look like you’ve seen a dragon. Are you alright?”

  “I… I guess I have.”

  Jaspin seemed as if he wanted to ask her about it, but then he changed his mind and took her hand. “Come, Lady Blackvein is waiting for you.”

  He led her to the ballroom. She didn’t resist, her feet moved mechanically, her mind still trying to process what she had witnessed. Seraphine and Tavian were waiting next to the wall of the ballroom.

  “Took you long enough,” noted Seraphine. “Tell me, what have you seen, Lady Ravelle?”

  Isolde slowly looked up, met her gaze, and smiled bittersweetly. “I regret to inform you, but I will be stepping away from this little alliance. In fact, let it be known that House Ravelle will have nothing to do with House Blackvein, Morvain, and Nilandris.”

  Seraphine scowled. “What are you saying? We had a plan—”

  “My House and I are loyal to our liege, House Veres, and that is all I have to say about the matter. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am going to pledge my oaths to Lady Veres.” Isolde inclined her head, then turned on her heel and walked away.

  “What the fuck was that about?” muttered Tavian.

  “...I do not know.” Seraphine balled her fists.

  “My lady? The plan. Do we?” Jaspin looked at her, uncertain.

  “We proceed as planned.”