{To the Vaults}

"This is it." Valera hovered over a cocoon of thickly woven grey matter. Unlike the gaseous clouds, this was a far more solid structure, as if someone had taken the cloud matter and turned it into thread to spin and weave with.

The cocoon was just big enough to contain one large person, and Valera knew who that was: Aldrich. She could sense it from the magical energy radiating around the cocoon in shimmering waves of pure blue.

In this dimension of lifeless, color-drained grey, the blue of mana stood out in sheer, stark contrast. The mana had given Valera the connection she needed to pinpoint Aldrich's presence. She had lost track of how long she had spent traveling.

It was most definitely more than a month. But after a month, she simply lost track of time. It was easy to do for her. Vampires like her that lived for many centuries, if not an eternity, had an innate capacity to mentally phase through time.