Chapter 13: Test

Van stayed with Luna for the next few days to help cheer her up and tell her that he didn’t think less of her for having changing eye color or damaged elf-like ears. Thea had heard about what happened and felt sad that she wasn't there when her baby needed it. Slowly, with the support of everyone, Luna was able to move past it all and realized that she overreacted. The explanation she gave was she didn’t want her first friends to see even more scars on her body.

“Luna dear,” Lorenzo said in a soothing voice. “You don’t have to worry about that at all with us. We are your family… and I think you would like to know, but your mother and Alvaroz can also change their eye color at will.”

That made Luna perk up “ really? This was the first time she had heard of such a thing, and looked at her mother and Alvaroz expectantly, with some curiosity and hope in her eyes.

Both Thea and Alvaroz glared at Lorenzo, for bringing something like that up. “What? It's true, isn’t it? I mean, kinda, but still, let the girl think she’s not alone.” he said placating.

Thea sighed and put her fork down, done with her meal, a first for her. “Luna sweety…” she said pausing as she tried to put into words what was on her mind. “Technically we can, or should I say, most vampires can change their eye color. But usually only when they are exhibiting blood lust. When they do, their eye color can change to red, and they look far more frightening, not like you whose eyes change into beautiful colors. You don’t want to be like them at all.” Thea said with conviction.

“C-can you show me anyway” Luna asked pleadingly “I want to see it for myself.”

Again, Thea sent a dirty glare towards Lorenzo’s way before looking at her daughter’s expectant and hopeful eyes. Thea wavered under it, and finally, she gave in. “alright, I’ll show you.” Thea then closed her eyes and exhaled a deep breath as she relaxed her body. Then she opened her eyes and slowly, her once blue eyes turned into a deep bloody crimson red that sent a shiver down Van and Luna’s spine.

Despite that, Luna looked a little happy “th-thanks mom.” she said genuinely thankful. Even if it's something most vampires can do, the mere fact that she shared something with her mother made her happy in a way she couldn't really explain. It felt like a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders, one she wasn’t even aware of.

Thea was surprised by how well her daughter had taken to the bloodlust that exuded from her, it took a moment for her to try and follow her daughter's thinking, but when she did her heart almost broke. She was so taken with her daughter that her eye’s reverted back to their normal color without Thea being aware, a mixed feeling of sadness and pride for her daughter.

With the mood a little lighter, the family ate their meal while quietly chatting. “You know I just finished preparing for Luna’s blood test.” Lorenzo said to the table “We can go do it right after breakfast if you want” he finished, looking towards Luna who was just finishing her meal.

Luna hesitated, a little afraid. But Van saw that he held her hand, trying to convey that it was going to be alright and that he would be there for her. “It's going to be fine,” he said, “it’s just a test, there's no pain to it, I’ll be there with you so that you don’t have to worry.

Luna shyly nodded back and was thankful for Van’s reassurance. She then turned to Lorenzo. Her expression looked like she was trying to gather her courage “okay. Let's do it!” she said, trying to look determined, but looking cuter than anything. Everyone smiled a little at that, especially Thea who gushed even more at seeing Luna’s ‘serious’ face.

“Alright” Lorenzo smiled gently “let's go” he then got up and walked towards the exit.

Luna took another breath and got up to follow Lorenzo, and marched like a soldier going to war. not realizing that she was also dragging Van along since she was still holding his hand, forcing him to do some reflex saves, trying to not topple over the chair and looking slightly amused afterward as Luna didn’t seem to have been aware of what she almost did. The rest of the adults looked on, also a little amused, their hearts warm from the sight of their two kids getting along so well. The Anna’s assigned to them, following in their wake, but at a distance so as not to be a bother.

Luna then entered Lorenzo’s study. She paused with trepidation as she did, her eyes looking at the large and complex magic circle in front of her with worry. Van squeezed her hand trying to calm her down but that only made her jump and go “eep!” as she forgot that he was there. Then looked embarrassed when she realized she most likely had dragged Van along. She still didn’t make any moves to let go of his hand though.

“Right,” Lorenzo said, messing around with a few magic floating panels in front of him. “Everything is in order. All you have to do is just sit there, right in the middle, and wait.” pointing to the center of the magic circle “That's it, you don’t have to do anything else. And It will be over before you know it.”

Luna looked worriedly at Van, who smiled gently back and guided her towards the edge of the circle. Then using his hand he moved her into the circle, towards the center as far as his hands could take her before letting go. Luna looked back at him, then painfully slowly she positioned herself at the center of the circle. Her expression was nervous and for all intents and purposes, looked like a child at her first doctor's visit.

Lorenzo smiled gently, trying to reassure her “ just sit down and relax. You’ll hardly feel a thing. It's just a simple bloodline test, nothing more”

Luna nervously did so, and waited for her fate. She looked towards Van with large puppy eyes. Van smiled back with a nod trying to be reassuring, he even gave her a small wave. “ if only she knew the pain I've been through, going through actual awakenings.” Van thought “Hopefully it won't come to that.”

Once Luna was properly sitting down, Lorenzo began with the test. It was very similar to the previous ritual that Van went through. And just as quickly if not quicker, it was over. Luna looked like she was going to have a heart attack at first, but soon realized halfway through that it wasn’t going to get much worse than this and calmed down. Also, Van being in her presence helped a bit as well.

Just like before, strange orbs floated in front of Lorenzo, who studied them with great scrutiny. “That all dear, you can come out now,” he said as the glow of the magic circle vanished. Luna got up and walked over to Van who offered his hand once more. Blushing she wasn’t sure if she should take it, but decided to do so anyway. They then proceeded to walk to Lorenzo to get some information.

“How does it look?” Van asked, slightly curious.

“This is honestly quite amazing!” Lorenzo with great intrigue at the charts and orbs in front of him. “Despite clearly having signs of elf and fae blood, it hardly shows at all!” he pointed to one of the orbs that were practically transparent and looked the smallest out of the other ones, with swirls of green. “This here is her elf and fae bloodline, it is only by pure coincidence that this bloodline was able to influence her body at all. Her eyes and ears are probably the only things that she will ever receive from her bloodline. Well, that and a few other minor things, but she is more vampire and demon-kin than anything else.” he paused then as he took a closer look at the elf/fae blood, then his eyes widened as if he realized something.

“Wait A sec, that doesn’t make sense.” he took a closer look. “No… it's actually far more powerful than that, somehow it's just not showing up in the readings clearly.” his eyes narrowed. “Is this also a chimera bloodline I see? Mixed in with the elf/fae bloodline? Is it using the human bloodline to hide its true self? So there really was more to it. What in the world did they do to Thea?” thoughts swirled as he was temporarily taken back to the past.

“She has demon blood too?” Van asked, surprised.

Taken out of it Lorenzo turned and chuckled, playing off his previous expression. “actually, many vampires have demon-kin blood running through their veins. So it's not that uncommon.” he then pointed at the orbs floating in front of him “there is so little elf blood in her that it is possible that through a ritual we can have it be fed to one of the other bloodlines to strengthen it.” he said, lying through his teeth.

“That’s possible?” van asked, “what will happen to her eyes and ears if you do that?”

“Nothing at all.” Lorenzo said “she will keep the ears and eyes the way they are. But, she can use her weak bloodline to improve one of the others. Not only that but before we do, we should make it so that her elf blood is unlocked and give her as much as it can before we use it up. Or if she wants, we can strengthen her elf blood at the expense of her human one if she want’s”

“I have human blood?” Luna asked this time, confused.

Lorenzo pointed to the next orb in line, it didn’t look as transparent as the elf orb and seemed to have a bunch of random colors and internally exploding. “ this is your human bloodline, I’m not sure where it came from, but If you wish, we can make it so that it instead empowers your elf blood. Or you can use both elf and human bloodlines to empower your vampire and demon-kin bloodline.”

“I have a question,” Van asked, “ is she also a dhampir?” also what about her demon bloodline, what's it like?”

Lorenzo smiled “yes she is a dhampir just like you, and like you, she has all the benefits that employs.” he then turned to one of the remaining orbs “ this one is the demon bloodline” he checked some of the floating panels. “ It seems that it is of the regular demon type, not like yours at all, though there is a tiny hint of succubi in her blood.”

“Does that mean I can be a succubi demon!” she exclaimed excitedly. Confusing Van as to why she would be so happy about that.

“Yes, yes, you can.” Lorenzo smiled kindly down at Luna and her excitement. “In fact, I think the only reason why you were able to gain such a bloodline, even if it's only a tiny amount, is because of the mutations made to your demon bloodline, thanks to your elf bloodline bringing it to the forefront. So in a way, you have to thank your elf bloodline for that.”

Luna didn’t seem to like the thought it was only thanks to her elf bloodline that she got her succubi one, but she really wasn’t in a position to complain so just accepted it as fact.

“Umm. Why is everyone excited about the succubi bloodline? I thought you told be to keep quiet about my-”

Before Van could say anything more, he was cut off with a glare and a movement of Lorenzo's hand. Surprising Van and confusing Luna who watched the exchange. Seeing Luna’s confusion, Lorenzo smiled and said “let's just say you two are more compatible than you think.” and left it at that.

Van was still taken aback by the sudden change in mood by Lorenzo but decided to push off questioning for later and change the subject instead. “ Sooo, what is Anna’s bloodline?” Van asked. “I’ve always wanted to know”

Lorenzo seemed only too happy to answer, as he too wanted to change the subject. “Anna’s bloodline is the same as most vampires. She has vampire and demon bloodlines, and that's really it.” he then looked between Luna and Van “would you both like a little lesson on bloodlines ranks?”

Van and Luna looked at each other and back to Lorenzo “sure...?”

“Well, you know you both have the lesser vampires race right?” Lorenzo asked, making both Van and Luna nod “well, you can evolve right?” Van nodded but Luna looked confused. “Ah I see I have some explaining to do. Looking at Luna. he then went on the same explanation he first gave Van about bloodlines, using her orbs instead. Luna listened with rapt attention to Lorenzo’s every word. Once he finished he asked, “do you understand?” Luna nodded and thanked him for the lesson.

Lorenzo smiled, “alright, now that everyone is in the know. Bloodline ranks, like a harpy becoming a greater harpy, can help make a person stronger, live longer, and unlock abilities. The ranks of vampires are lesser vampire, vampire, greater vampire, and high vampire. There are many more ranks above that, but for now, that’s all that really matters. The higher the rank of vampire, the better. For example, Van’s father is a high vampire, and so is Luna’s mother. That means unless something kills them or they get bored of life. They can live for over a thousand years if not more!”

Luna and Van’s eyes widened at the mind-boggling number. Soon Lorenzo went back into lecture mode and started explaining some of the benefits that come with being a higher rank vampire. Such as more respect from other vampires, having more personal maids, and more.” Van and Luna, paid close attention, in hopes of learning something interesting.

Lorenzo smiled, then thought about something, and nodded to himself. “Since you are all interested, perhaps I should get into more depth about ranks and maybe even bloodlines.”

“Humans also have ranks of lesser human, human, greater human, and high human. Of course there are more ranks than that, just like vampires, but those are the ones most known. If a human ranks up to be a greater human, they can see their lifespan increase about 30-40 years, if they then increase in rank again into a high human, it increases once more about another 60-80 years. Meaning a high human can live around 200 or more years on average” Lorenzo said.

“Wait… but high vampires live for about a thousand or more years, why do humans only live for a quarter or less of that?” Van asked.

Lorenzo shrugged at Van’s question. “That’s just how it works, of course, there are drawbacks to being a pure-blooded vampire, and those drawbacks and connection to being partially undead in one form or another are probably the reason. Honestly, there's much debate on that. And on why vampires have such great talent in magic and why they live for so long.”

“But… my dad can’t really use magic…” Van said a little worriedly “does that mean there's something wrong with him?”

Luna also seemed worried “ and my mom?” she asked

Lorenzo looked a little sad at that. “ of course there are exceptions. Alvaroz, unfortunately, was born without the ability to properly use magic except for the simplest of cantrips. The same can go for Thea, though less so, she just has more talent for aura. Anyway, it's the reason why Alvaroz and Thea worked so hard on their aura skills than they did their mana. They didn’t want to be looked down on, so they worked hard. They, in a way, are perfect for each other in that they had much-shared history and can understand each other better than most because of what they had to go through to prove themselves.”

“But enough about that depressing stuff, let's see, what else is there to talk about ranks?” Lorenzo thought, not wanting to talk about his friend's personal matters.

“Where did vamps and ghouls come from?” Van asked, “and why are there two different types of harpies?”

“Ah! Very good questions!” Lorenzo said “the second one is an easy one, ghouls are those who died but were brought back to life through a very powerful ritual, or from evolving from a very high-ranking zombie that developed intelligence and were able to branch off into being a ghoul. They are very loyal and honorable and serve their masters well. Of course, once a greater or high ghoul, they can start to give birth on their own, like any other race.”

“Then there are vamps. Vamps are what happens when a human Bloodbound and a vampire mate and produce offspring. That is called a vamp, they have a very small chance of becoming a lesser vampire, they also live longer and are more beautiful than the average person, and can see in the dark better, as well as an assortment of other minor benefits. Vamps who then further mate with a human produce thin blood. Thin blood's have some of the benefits of vamps, but much less so, they can rank up into vamps as well. But it's important to know that ranking up for thin blood's and vamps is very hard for them because they have to reach certain requirements. What these are, no one is sure, most of the time a vamp just evolves into a greater vamp and then a high vamp, they may never be able to become a lesser vampire, no matter how much they wish for it.”

“Why’s that?” Van asked, a little confused.

Lorenzo shrugged once more. “No one is entirely sure what brings out the evolution or rank up process. But in most cases, it's reaching a certain level of power, so many people cultivate their soul realms and mana cores and such to allow themselves to rank up and gain the benefits of their evolution.”

“Mana cores?” van asked

Lorenzo smiled “ let's leave that for another time, if I had to explain it would take a few hours to do so, so let's leave it for later, okay?” Van nodded. “Good.”

“For your final question, the best way to explain the differences you found in the harpies, is to explain what a kobold is. Let's take for example a wolf. A wolf can evolve into a greater wolf, thorn wolf, wind wolf, or many other kinds of wolves. But one of them is the lesser kobold. When a wolf develops enough intelligence and knowledge, there is a chance that it can evolve into a lesser kobold. When it does, its paws become able to grip and move independently, like what our hands can do, they also develop the ability to move upright for short periods of time. When it becomes a regular kobold, it is able to move upright constantly, with the ability to still move on all fours if it wishes to, it also becomes a little smarter forming its own language and gains a complete thumb.”

“When it becomes a greater kobold, it starts to have a more humanoid form. And finally, when it becomes a high kobold, it looks like a very furry human with ears and tail. From there it can become a lesser beast-kin or lesser beast-man. In a beast-kins case, it can look like a human but with just ears and tail. Harpies are somewhat similar to that, except only birds can become harpies. They still have wings for arms as harpies but with claws to manipulate tools, greater and high harpies have their wings on their back with regular arms. Looking like a regular woman, but with wings and maybe clawed feet or feathers on other parts of their body. Not to mention when those creatures do become a high harpy or a high kobold they may also get the racial modifier of being a lesser beast-kin or bird-kin. Do you understand now, how big a difference ranks can be and what it can do and give? Turning a little bird or wolf and putting them on the same level of intelligence of everybody else! Isn’t that fascinating!” Lorenzo’s eyes glowed at that though.

“Okay… ya it's amazing. But…some of them are bats, not birds. What up with that?” Van asked, curious.

“Ah, well… that” Lorenzo rubbed his head “ honestly speaking, no one knows how or why bats were able to become harpies, there are many theories, one being they were made by vampire mages from a long time ago. But for the most part, people just have grown to live with it and don’t really talk about it much anymore. What is known, is that they don’t evolve into bird-kin, so they don’t have much in the way of evolution. Sorry, that I couldn’t explain it any further, do you have any other questions?”

“Mages can create their own creatures!?” Van asked in surprise.

Lorenzo hesitated but nodded. “Powerful mages who have an extreme understanding of the requirements on what makes an evolution can indeed mess with what a creature can evolve into.”

Van thought about that and asked another question. “Is hob-goblin really the rank up for goblin?”

“Actually no, it is not,” Lorenzo said. “Normally when a goblin ranks up it becomes a greater goblin and then a high goblin, they just have a chance to also become a hob-goblin. So you can say that a hob-goblin is a creature that has both the races of greater goblin and lesser hob-goblin. Like a high kobold may have the race of lesser beast-kin. They have two races instead of one.

Van and Luna asked a few more questions and It took a while for Lorenzo to finally finish answering them all but when he was done, both Van and Luna were thankful for it. “Of course there is much more to it than that, but I’ve taken enough of your time as is. So i’ll leave it at that for today and explain the rest some other time during one of our lessons. Not to mention Van, you still have to go to training, I hear Thea will be the instructor today, so you probably shouldn't be late for that.” Van and Luna thanked him once more and turned to leave.

“Ah wait!” Lorenzo said as if realizing something making Van and Luna pause at the door. “Actually Van, could you stay behind, there is something I want to talk to you about before you go.

Van and Luna looked to each other, slowly, Luna left and closed the doors behind and Van turned around to look at Lorenzo. “Yes? What is it?”

Lorenzo looked a little serious “Van, I thought I told you, not to bring up the fact that you have the potential to awaken an incubus bloodline in you. Do you know how serious that is!” he sighed as he rubbed his temples. “When you were born, we tried to do everything we could to protect you, and because of that a lot of women working in the castle are pent up. It doesn't help that Thea doesn’t seem to be aware of that, or care, so her actions just make things worse.”

Van was taken aback at first, then he just looked confused as Lorenzo seemed to ramble on.

Lorenzo looked at Van’s confusion and sighed once more “ it's different for women if it's found out there are a succubus. Or at least here in the vampire lands and the demon lands, it's considered a good thing. In other places having demon blood could be considered a bad thing to have, but despite that, if it was known a woman had succubus blood in her, even those who detest demons would be far more accepting of it.”

Lorenzo then Looked Van in the eyes trying to convey his seriousness but then talking gently “ it's not a bad thing to have incubus blood or awaken it, but it can be bad if a woman found out.”

“Would women hate me if they knew?” Van asked worriedly.

“Not all. In fact, it would be the opposite if anything. Just promise me you will not tell anyone, not unless you trust them with your very life and soul, that you have incubus blood in you. Can you do that?” Lorenzo asked.

“...I can,” Van said a little sadly. “Does father know?” Van asked in return

“Yes” Lorenzo smiled gently “he does, so you can talk to him about it too if you want. But until we feel you are ready, we won’t tell you anything else. Now I think I’ve taken enough of your time. Goodbye Van”

And with that, the conversation was over. Van slowly opened and walked out the door and went down the hall followed by the Annas that were waiting for him outside. There was a lot on his mind, and he wasn’t sure the short walk to the training ground would give him enough time to go through everything. So he decided to push it back for later, one day he would know, hopefully, it would be soon.