Pythia

Chapter 01

A/N: NSFW at the end of the chapter!

The world had become a strange one. Fast paced and driven by values Haewon did not understand. She would have been hard pressed to find more than two occasions in her long life in which she was scared. But this...this new, strange world she didn't know...this terrified her.
This new world was loud and bright and so different from what Haewon knew that she had first thought she woke up in a dream. Or a nightmare maybe.
An illusion of her starved mind to escape the darkness of death and find warmth in artificial neon lights instead of cold stone walls. But even her imagination wasn't great enough to think up something like this. Humans truly were a fascinating species. So resilient and crafty. So vicious and intense.
Maybe it was the knowledge of death that made them live life to the fullest. Maybe it was this that had always caught Haewon's envy. Now in this new world more than ever before.

Everything was so much more intense. It made her skin prickle and her head hurt and she would have gone mad by it all if she hadn't known the shadows to still be her friends and the knowledge to still seep into her skin and bones to whisper to her of a reassuring future.
Of a life lived to the fullest after one millennium of isolated nothingness that clung to her like acid and tar. She would have gone mad long ago stuck in darkness and loneliness if she hadn't known with every fibre of her immortal being that the darkness wasn't the end.
That darkness would never be how her story was written and ended.

For all the suffering it brought, for all the pain and betrayal and agony it rained down on Haewon, the knowing had always saved her, too. And she would trust that it would guide her still even if Haewon herself didn't know what to make of this strange, strange world hustling and bustling all around her in a bright, loud cacophony of unfamiliar sounds and smells.

It was knowing that nudged her to leave the shadows for a dark alley and save a human girl from being mugged.
It was knowing that guided her to the familiar cold shiver dancing on her skin that always accompanied manipulating a human mind.
And it was knowing that pushed her weeks later to take the next, terrifying step back into a world she hoped she'd still knew even if from lifetimes ago. 

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Sang Haewon was not an ancient vampiress who had quite literally crawled her way out of betrayal and pain and darkness when she crossed the threshold of Sanguis Academy. The old and esteemed boarding school for young vampires of pure blooded and half blooded descendant.
It was a large, impressive castle of early Gothic architecture, multiple stories high, noble and intimidating with large wings to each side of the main building and a lavish park extending from between the wings at the back of the castle to the open field until it reached a tranquil lake and a forest older than Haewon.
She knew the building like the back of her hand. It had, after all, been the home of her and her late mate many centuries ago. If things would have been different Haewon would have been the lady of this esteemed castle now still. But things weren't different and so here she was, returning to what had once been her home.
And no, not as the ancient vampiress she was but with the carefully crafted background of a young vampiress descendant from a strong bloodline who had been hidden from the world by her evil mate.
A mate she had killed to get free. The only other true fact of the story besides her name.

The Sanguis Academy was teaching combat and history, sciences and humanities, they were grooming the next guards and scholars of the vampire society. And with an entire millennium missing, this was exactly where Haewon needed to be to gauge where the world stood. Even if faking the paper work had been a nightmare come true.
The young human girl had been a major help in adjusting to this new era. Patiently explaining Haewon all about technology and currency and everything really. Haewon had never seen a modern toilet or shower before, nevermind a mobile phone or jeans.
It had taken Haewon four weeks to adjust enough to venture out to her next stop; learning about the present vampire society with a laptop and mobile phone in her luggage, having become fond of modern technology fast.
She was still on the fence with trousers, though.