The Empire's Descent (First Draft)

Chapter 55: Ancient History

LUCA'S POV

I woke in my hospital room at the sanctuary. My eyes watered as I got used to the light. A warm tongue licked my face and there was my hell-mongrel, Adam, staring at me with adoring eyes. His unconditional love put a smile on my face.

'Luca, as soon as we crossed back to the mortal plane, the artifacts we recovered from the Druidstone Edifice disappeared,' he mindlinked me.

For fuck's sake!

'Everything?', I questioned.

'Yes, the Maculae Glasses and the Magister's Crux have disappeared'.

Fuck, I had plans for those glasses!

"Hey," a soft whisper called to me. My sluggish head lolled to the direction of the sound.

Bella, with a tired face leaned against Rosalia's shoulder on the two-seater couch in the corner of the room.

"Hi, ladies," I croaked out. Rosalia gently eased Bella up and propped her up with cushions. Then, she walked over to the food service station and retrieved what I assume was tea.

"Here, some liquorice tea to improve your Qi deficiency, I brewed it with some of the Lingquan water we brought back... even though its effect is significantly lower, it should help," Rosalia spoke lowly, raised my bed slowly and spoon-fed me the tea. When I finished, my throat was moistened and my sluggish body felt refreshed.

"You seem a little upset," I directed at Rosalia who hadn't looked me in the eye since.

"Yes, I am. We'll discuss it after you two recover," she gestured to mine and Bella's weak forms.

"I had t-"

"Luca Chibueze Giordano, please, not now," she smiled curtly.

"Sorry," I mumbled, feeling a little aggrieved.

"Don't worry about it. I'm just... kinda reeling. I never thought I'd face my mother, even if it's just in an astral plane with her body and spirit split for two battles... I just don't know how I feel," Rosalia shared as she went back to holding the frail Bella.

"I don't know how to help you with that...," I admitted.

"It's okay," Rosalia whispered.

"Why won't Linquan help her recover?", I wondered and looked at Bella's paler than normal face.

"For the same reason she would be corrupted into a hell-mongrel. Amber Vampyrs are one of the 7 aboriginal clans, the Vrykolakas, they are born of strife and forged in misery-- inherently, impure and have no soul, thus impervious to spiritual filtering," Rosalia educated.

"That's fucked," I concluded, a little saddened by the conception.

"No, the fuck, I am not," Bella, feebly, called indignantly, her head facing my nightstand beside my hospital bed so, all we saw was her head top.

"Okay, you're right, sorry," Rosalia coaxed and smoothed Bella's hair.

"Yes," Bella mumbled and closed her eyes.

"M-i-n-d-l-i-n-k," Lia spelled out to me in our little squad's own sign language.

I signed, "yes," in ASL.

"L-e-t m-e i-n," she signed.

I nodded and closed my eyes, preparing to lower my defenses for Rosalia. Deep breaths regulated my heart and I saw a door. A tinkle of a doorbell drifted in pleasantly so, I opened the door and invited Rosalia into my mind.