Veins of Shadow and Lace

Chapter 6

The next evening was the start of my supernatural histories class and I was struggling to concentrate.

Was Merrick mad at me?

I hadn't seen him all night after the rooftop and I couldn't work up the courage to go knock on his door. What would I have said anyway? It's not like I did anything wrong?

Or did I?

A sudden jolt shook me back to reality, I turned in time to see Ri sliding her elbow back across the table. I need to get it together, graduating the academy should be my first priority.

I glanced down at my leather bound notebook, the scattered scribbles that it contained barely passing for notes. Hell of a job you're doing, Hazel I thought bitterly

I looked up to the front of the lecture hall, the instructor still meticulously transcribing notes on the board about the history of human-superhuman cultural interactions. Her beautiful green skin was framed by long locks of twisted roots, contrasted by the impeccably tailored black suit she wore.

The board glowed, the same shimmering pale blue of the bioluminescent fungi dotting the hall shone through the ink she wrote with. The hall itself was a living forest. Trees grew from the bottom of the hall, inset with bookshelves and desks, their roots snaked up the inclined stairs.

A large circular observatory port dominated the ceiling, lined with dangling vegetation the port allowed the sun to be the main light source during daylight hours. Now, soft moonlight filtered in adding to the intense glow of the fungi.

A movement in my peripheral vision drew my attention to one of the conjoined desks further down the incline. The smug face of the bone singer who read my fate was smirking back at me as if happy she finally caught my attention. She raised her hand turning back to the instructor.

"Yes, Cassandra?"

"Professor Mossheart can you elaborate further on the events leading up to and the resolution of the Craiova Accords please?"

"Certainly, I had thought it was common knowledge but I will expand upon it for those who do not know."

"Vampires were the dominant supernatural society in Romania and have been for centuries. They have always been a valuable part of our agency. However, vampires have always struggled with their own inner demons, because they live off of human blood there have been those who have operated outside the laws of our society. Driven mad by bloodlust they terrorized towns throughout the centuries."

"This led to numerous blood feuds between many different supernatural factions as vampires became increasingly invasive. At the height of the epidemic no village had been untouched by their callous fury. They took what they wanted and condemned countless peoples to slavery through infection through the vampirism virus. These tensions came to a head when a coterie of vampires from Northern Romania butchered a delegation containing the matriarch of the Bone Singers, Hilda Black.

"In hopes to turn the tide in the growing conflict Octavian gave the order for mass recruitment. We refer to this dark time as the epidemic. Octavian ordered all vampires to turn every human they encountered by force. The populations of the surrounding countries were hunted and infected en masse creating an army of slaves.

"In the subsequent years Octavian was killed and his seat of power usurped by his son Dreven who now leads what remains of their kingdom from the shadows. With Octavian's death the WSC signed the Croavia Accords into law. As you all know, vampires have been forbidden from passing on their virus without prior approval and supervision."

It was then that I realized every pair of eyes in the room were looking at me.

I wish I was anywhere else in the world right now.