Red: Lay Down Your Hearts.

Training Never Stops

"You're scheduled to teach after the ceremony." Lord Borri draws on. His nails tap onto the handle of his throne.

Borri continues, "It is upstairs. The two staircases by the entrance lead up into the classroom. They ascend further. However, for now, keep yourself occupied with the training room."

I nod my head as his instructions carve themselves into stone in my head.

Borri motioned his dismissal of me. His hand towards the classroom. I follow his direction, my feet making muffled sticky steps on the stone.

My heart thumps in my chest with the weight of teaching and being accepted so freely into the coven. 'Dont panic. Breathing yes,alive... more than not.' I fix my gaze on the floor. The soft pearlescent hues shimmer with the surrounding torches.

The soft crackling of wood is but an echo in the back of my mind. My forehead is coated with a sheer layer of sweat. 

Lord Borri speaks briefly to a middle-aged man. The aged man looked rugged. As if his youth has been drained from all things except mentally. His eyes contained the hope of a newborn. As words exchange between the two and two men in armor walk up to the man, grasping him from under his arms.  In the instant, his legs begin to drag, and his eyes find dullness as if all things baring a glimmer of hope had been snuffed out like an amber under a boot.

It didn't take long for the list to go on, some people stayed on the sidelines with me and others were removed from the room, Some more forceably than others. 

At the end of the meeting the ceremony began. Two aged women came into the room,
They held large bowls containing blood.

'What would the point of this be?' I wonder. Borri brought forth Sven. "My child. Accepted into this coven as a blood bag and now gifted the abilities of vampirism. You are to be given life anew. Please, drink from the bowls and reinvigorated your body with my power. Feel your old life fade away." His hand outwardly motions for Sven to bring the bowls to his lips. He did just that, tipping the bowls back, blood gushes down the corners of his lips while he drinks from the bowl. 

He falls to his knees just a moment after finishing the second bowl. The first few moments linger with silence. Though, quickly it turns into a writhing pain, almost exploding from his stomach, it seems. Visually, the blood ripple through his veins, darkening each one with each pulse of his heart. The anguish screams erupting from him deafening the halls as the events unfolding were indeed a spectacle to gaze upon. After what felt like a torturous eternity, Lord Borri step forward and with a knife in hand, slice the boy's throat from jugular to jugular. The blood streaming from the wound.. no, gushing with each pulse, stream towards a grate in the floor. "Retrieve me once he has awakened." He says calmly, passing the blade off to the knight beside the throne as he steps behind to the door of his chambers.

Once Lord Borri had retired to his room I immediately found my way down the hallway leaving the sanction of the throne room.  It is easy to remember the entrance. I exit the coven only to turn right and enter the spiraling staircase. The stone begging for cleaning however I had never been a stranger to filth. The scent of musk hugging the walls just as the moss did. 

The staircase lit generously by torches. I hug the center pillar that the stairs circle. The stairs seem to never end until I finally see the edges of a door slowly expand into view. I clasp the cold door handle and push it down until the latch is freed from the strike box. I then push the door away from the frame to reveal a long, deserted room.. Well deserted from the many vampires training. All of whom look at me with judgmental eyes. Their bodies already being adorn by silvered armor. 

Calm, cool. Collected.. I walk barefoot to the front of the room, the students face the makeshift target pads in the shape of a torso with a circular head seated upon a small wooden pillar. My finger's with ease pull the bows of my armor off. I start with my shoulder panels . Slip.. clink. Slip.. Clank.