Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17: Origins

"Back on Kragshall, only the gods know how long ago since I stepped foot there, I was a part of a rather small tribe that lived along the west coasts of the continent."

During some of his initial visits to the library, Arkyn read as much as he could about the different regions of the world and the different planes that extend outside of it.

Kragshall was a smaller island continent that was East of Odbrane. Odbrane being the largest continent that was attached to the northern ice caps of the planet, where they were currently living.

Being right along the equator resulted in most of the regions of Kragshall to either be rocky mountain ranges or dry desert lands. That's where the draconids, kobolds, and some orc species have lived and evolved for more than a millennium.

"We had trouble every now and again, being one of the weaker tribes forced us to move our settlement around a lot, but so long as we worked together, we survived." She caressed the wood carving, showing that it was a wolf in a sitting pose, howling upward with its eyes shut.

"My father was a healer, and in his spare time he made little toys like these for the children. Gods, we used to create so many little stories with these things."

"Sadly half the tribe, including our healers and shaman, were killed from animals infected by the covenant virus. Apparently some big clan from the south or maybe a group of orcs tried raising the beasts so that their hounds could grow stronger, incapacitating their prey when they performed their hunts.

They came all at once, starved and unstable, trying to eat anything that had meat and blood. I had the misfortune of surviving an infectious bite.

She pulled up a section of the covers, revealing on the side of her abdomen was a bite scar and several claw marks that were made of a dark-grey tissue, looking almost recent and somewhat venomous despite the many years after the wound was inflicted.

"So I ran to the nearest settlement I could find, crying and wishing for someone like my father would help take away the pain burning inside me. Not realising the danger I was putting on everyone else. Once I was close enough to smell their warm, flowing blood; I changed into a demented and starved animal myself.

I didn't even know what was happening at first, I started blacking in and out for days, never finding another human, orc, or creature to save me.

It wasn't until I finally reached the northern mountains, where over a hundred miles of blood flowed down the beaten paths. From then on I became Kresha V'alic, the monster who made what is now recorded as the Bloodstone Massacre."

She shut her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath to help wrangle the emotional trauma of her past.

"I cannot ever let something like this ever happen again. It's not about mistakes, it's about correcting what I once

"How did you manage to stop the killings?" Arkyn asked, he was still curious about the painting and the necklace, but the story of the covenant virus was far more interesting despite the grim circumstance.

The covenant virus was written in a lot of the historic medical tomes in the library, it was frequently written about because of its unique reactions in mammals. It is a transmittable virus through fluids that can be contracted in as little as a few minutes of exposure. Depending on the variant, the source of the infection, and genetic makeup of the victim; it can kill them, morph their bodies, alter their minds, and induce all sorts of strange side effects.

During the older ages of more ritualistic witchcraft, some mages would try to use the virus as a catalyst for making monstrous soldiers they could force to do their bidding. The rituals almost always failed, but the 'Covenant' part of its history had stuck to its name.

"It sounds as though you contracted the therianthropic variant of the virus, but I have not read about any known cure to the lingering diseases."

"That's because there isn't. It is too difficult to keep a subject alive for testing something as extensive as a complete cure. The takeover of the hunger happens too quickly, forcing everyone involved to choose to kill or be killed. If not for the Afflicted, I would have probably jumped off the Northern cliffs of Kragshall to end everyone's suffering."

"You mentioned on the day that I awoke, that you were the greatest Runesmith of the Afflicted. Though there is nothing in your library that mentions them."

"Well we aren't exactly broadcasting what we are, half the time it sounds like we are in a cult. It's just a group of rarities and weirdos with similar interests. Mainly being left alone to their own devices.

Myriad and Silvesh helped me develop the earlier substitutes for the blood craving; natural bog bloaters ended up being the perfect incubators to produce Red Fangbell once their magical makeup was physically tweaked."

Arkyn took the glass of the dark reddish-purple substance off the table and held it closer to his eyes, admiring their ingenuity.

"One day I'd like you to meet them, but for now, it's best we don't dive into everything all at once." She said while looking down at the painting wrapped by the strange necklace. "We can talk about this stuff another day too. I haven't even made up my mind about telling you about this piece of history either."

After a moment of silence and understanding she didn't want to continue the discussion. Arkyn decided it was best not to ask anymore, and to distract her instead. He sat at the side of her bed, still holding the cup.

"So they have been making you drink this stuff for decades then?"

"Hard to say no when it keeps me from going insane." She shrugged. "It suppresses the hunger and as a bonus, it stops my body from aging. The cells in my body are replaced overtime with renewed energy thanks to its magic infusion. By the time we finished making this stuff, I got to live forever in my adult youth. A lot like you are now."

"Interesting . . ." He said before looking down at the glasses for a moment in contemplation. Arkyn pretended that curiosity got the better of him and he had a sip for himself. He let the rune's programmed to translate taste activate, getting the full brunt of its flavour.

"What do you think?" Kresha asked before taking the glass out of his hands and downing it herself.

" . . . " Arkyn smacked his lips twice before making a face that said he could barely decipher the words to describe it. "Uhh, we don't age but maybe we should see about letting this stuff age in a barrel of sorts . . . it's rather pungent."

Even when he spat the fluid back up, the taste still caused him to make a face, and with that, Kresha the first Vampire of Kragshall howled with laughter for the first time in nearly a century.