The Lemniscates

12. Victor De Maltes and Serenne

- It is done.

- Korolenko?

- Dead.

- Well, his lordship will be delighted. And the Mark?

- We managed to get it back. It is now hidden.

- You know it cannot be stopped.

- I know. It always manages to get itself to be found again. What I do not understand is how it's doing it.

- His Lordship has a theory about it. He thinks it is link to the threads of Destiny and manages to change them.

- How so?

- The Mark is more than a symbol. It is a curse engraved in the flesh, the soul and destiny.

- I do not understand.

- This is a secret that is transmitted between members of the royal family. Especially the leaders. As you will soon govern, it's natural that you should be aware.

- You're not part of the royal family...

- Yes. But I serve his lordship much longer than you exist. I am also much more powerful than you... But maybe you have doubts?

- No, thanks.

- Good. Going back to The Mark, his Lordship holds it from a group of vampires who kept charge of its holding from the First vampire.

- The First?

- Yes. Contrary to what everyone think vampires are not a mutation of blood. We were created. The First was not from this world. He came from elsewhere. Where, we do not know. This knowledge has been lost with time. It may even be deliberate. Anyway, we're sure that the First was a slave.

- A slave?

- Yes. A priori, he has found a way to escape. Arriving on Earth, someone pulled away the symbol of his slavery: The Mark. The Mark is some king of a magic tattoo that attaches itself to the body, the soul and its destiny.

- I do not understand. The fate of the First? Yet he died.

- Yes. The First died. However, he created other vampires and therefore the Mark binds us all.

- So if the Mark were to be released...?

- Well, then we would be all enslaved. Perhaps even our former masters would come to find us.

- Who were they?

- We also don't know. But to enslave us, they had to be very powerful. We studied The Mark, tried to destroy it. Without success. They truly mastered the art of magic to a level we have never reached.

- So we are slaves on probation. Do we know who manages to remove the Mark from the First and how he's done it?

- How he did, no. But we know who he is.

- So he's still alive... Do not tell me it's...

- You guessed it: Ienan.