A Desert Island

Vali listened to Merlynar’s account of his escape and perhaps for the first time in her life she feels a clink light in the darkness of her soul. A life with vampires had left Vali with a deeply cynical worldview, a view that had just intensified following the ‘shipwreck’. But this view, she now realised, was perhaps unwarranted; it would seem that there are those who overlook the living and are prepared to intervene, simply because it seems the right thing to do.

“How foolish was that? Getting on a ship – pure folly. We all knew it but still we did it.” Vali chuckled, her laughter died away as the blackness returned.

“But we have lost Gundren. Can you discern if she still lives?” Vali asked Merlynar. “Despite my apparent duplicity I am in my own way loyal and especially to Gundren. I have failed and she is probably dead or worse, taken by Runesabre.” Vali considered this before continuing “What now? If she is still alive do we seek her or follow our own path? What wisdom do you have Merlynar? My heart, such as it is, feels honour-bound to seek her till we know her dead, but my head wishes to seek an alternative future warning me that if she lives she has become a trap.”

“What of the katana Elina bore, was it a pair to this one perhaps?” she said tapping the golden katana she carried. We are in a bad spot. Stuck on a remote and probably uncharted islet with winter closing in. You lot will get cold before long but perhaps that it not a problem for us, but the sailors they will suffer if we cannot find a way off here. We can’t leave them to their deaths. We have lost Gundren and gained twenty odd sailors a weird result.”

“There is the possibility, if no alternatives offer, of cutting our way out of here in the manner Runesabre revealed. But surely there must be better ways off here. We could attempt to attract a ship – there is plenty of wood on this isle. Perhaps we should build you a temple.” Vali started to chuckle again. “A somewhat small and ‘fishy’ congregation but do priests select their followers or do they seek him?”

“Seriously up until recently I have held the Gods with a certain contempt. This contempt is born of cynicism and the fact my ‘family’, consider my mother and stepfather, have little time for priests and visa versa. I have felt threatened by you, constantly worrying that you will judge me somehow evil and therefore fit only for ‘cleansing’. But now … well perhaps things have changed. At first I would never have followed you into a temple, but now perhaps I will. You could discover much about me, I know next to nothing. Save that animals and others do not like the look of me a fact which served to further isolate me from your friend the cowardly and murderous Druid and thus I assumed you.”

“We must stick together; lets make an agreement and hope that we can see it come to pass. You will take me to a temple, probably quite soon, and I’ll take you to meet my stepfather as time allows. Each of us as guests will honour the host. Perhaps through this we will learn much and gain wisdom. You should not condemn all vampires. At the time I was born they fought alongside dragons, priests, kings and Jarik’s Glaennyn in the defence of Rosengrad. They faced the darkness that was Muziel and his demonic horde. Vampires should not condemn the Gods and they should not condemn all vampires.”