Recalled to Life

VI

       Cassiel would go on to teach me more than the shortcomings of mortals and of how I should be grateful of this new life, showing me the various things I was now able to do with my self. The ability to manipulate beings through the mind, forcing them to do my bidding was but the first taste of my power. I was also able to hide myself, vampyrically so, and then of course there was that unnatural strength.

     The rest of my abilities and my knowledge about the occult was to come a few hundred years later in my Un-Life.

     Despite her telling me these things, and already knowing that I was adept at them, she wished to test them out to see the true extent of how far my limits extended. Of course, these tests had to do with mortals, and when I was in their society and midst.

     The first, the ability to manipulate creatures, I already knew of. It was why that woman in the inn so long ago was rendered powerless, and possibly why those rats had listened to me when I was entombed within the dungeons of my Sire. It was quite remarkable: with eye contact, however brief, I could have them follow simple commands. The humans didn’t know what was taking place of course, thinking that it was their own will that made them act, though I found that I couldn’t make them do things truly horrible. Trying to make them hurt themselves, for instance, took more concentration than trying to get them to pick something up or go somewhere specific. The stealth, or so Alexander liked to call it, for now only worked when I stood still or moved slowly. I had to consciously avoid being seen, though the strength, I found, could never be lessened: I could never be broken out of it like I could with my other abilities, and I had to take care and force myself to have a gentler touch, lest I break or maim whatever was within my grasp, like crushing commonplace objects or even bones by gripping them too hard.

     I found I wasn’t as strong as the others of my bloodline, however, but I was young, and the heightening of my preternatural self would increase with time. What new powers would be at my disposal in the coming years? Cassiel had inklings, but besides the natural progression of the abilities I already had, she didn’t tell me the details.

     “There are far too many paths open to you right now, Israfel,” she advised, “But if you wish, sometime in the future I can show you the wonders of the occult, and how they tie in with our eternal selves.”

     I swallowed at the mere word, occult, for it went by other names. “Magic, witchcraft.” And while I didn’t distinguish between the two, they apparently had some separation.

      “Are we witches?” Cassiel questioned, and I could only nod my head, a deft ‘no’. “We do not use witchcraft. We are something far greater than them. Witches mainly stick to themselves and with the lesser supernatural creatures, such as ghouls or psychics. There are some, however, that become hunters of our kind, both for the pleasure and the money. Nobles and lords aware of the supernatural sometimes hire them out- witches are able to pass occasionally as someone trained in medicine because of their knowledge of herbs and nature.”

     I soaked in all of this potentially useful information, which she was sharing with me what seemed like a week after the incident at the inn. We were situated in an unused room of the castle that I now called my home; Cassiel and I were seated across from one another at a wooden table. Candlelight flickered, accentuating her jade-green eyes, and I leaned forward to rest my forearms on the table. All at one, I felt something within my blood: a sort of tugging towards the outside, where the moon was high and my fellow vampyres congregated.

     "So you feel him,” Cassiel asked, noting the changed expression in my face, “He is a newcomer, from another bloodline. A vagrant, without a home or ties, or good intentions. Tzan doesn’t like outsiders on his territory, and has ordered him to be executed.”