8. First Fledgling #3
Tanis took them around the corner of the Spire and into one of the elaborate maze gardens that surrounded its east side.
She led them unerringly to a secluded central portion before she stopped walking and flung herself around to stare at all of them.
Her right hand flew up and she pointed at the center of Fiona’s chest.
“You! You will explain yourself!” Tanis hissed. “Are you an Eyros? Do you think to mimic my Mistress’ voice and command me?”
“If you really thought that, you wouldn’t have brought us here,” Grayson said as he loosely crossed his arms over his chest. “You know the truth, Tanis. Though I’m sure you’re wondering how it could be true.”
Tanis’ eyes flickered to Grayson and her brow furrowed. “You sound like… I don’t understand any of this! Tell me who you are!”
That last was asked of Fiona, but she meant all of them. Fiona allowed a smile to cross her lips. She let the emotions she had held back upon seeing Tanis openly fall across her face. She stepped towards her first fledgling even as Tanis took a step back. Fiona stopped.
“You know who I am, Childe,” Fiona said. “No matter what I look like or sound like or even if I’ve been taken from you by death, you know it’s me.”
Tanis shook her head violently. “No, no, it can’t be you! That monster Weryn ripped you into pieces!”
Ryder’s head lowered. Fiona reached over and touched his shoulder.
Tanis saw both actions and more alarm filled her features as she realized that maybe Fiona wasn’t the only person here that wasn’t who they appeared to be.
And Fiona realized then, too, that if they didn’t tell Tanis the full truth that she would likely run off and report all of them.
She needed to know all of it. She had to be convinced to take their side.
She’d been loyal before Fiona had died so… so it had to work.
“What is going on?” Tanis breathed.
“I would drop the glamours,” Charlie offered, evidently having figured out that the truth needed to be out there, “but I’m afraid you wouldn’t recognize them anyways. They have different bodies in the future. Because, well, as you did say, Wyvern’s was ripped apart.”
“Mine is rotting in a field outside of Lasting,” Grayson added.
“Ashyr?!” Tanis gasped.
“My body is… unused as my soul is stuck in a soul gem in Legion’s pocket,” Ryder added.
“Weryn?!” Tanis recoiled.
“And I, well, I’m still me, but hiding. You know, as one does when there are crazy fanatics running the Vampire World saying that all Immortals are the Devil.” Charlie shrugged apologetically.
“Mirryr?! And you… you…” She pointed that finger at Fiona again, but this time it shook. “You’re…”
“It’s me, Tanis. It’s Wyvern though I go by Fiona now,” Fiona explained.
Tanis covered her face with both hands and her whole body shook.
Fiona desperately wanted to go over and take Tanis into her arms, but even the slightest movement had her first fledgling cringing from her.
Those hands dropped down to her sides as she clearly thought she needed to keep a close eye on all of them.
“You–you all are–but that’s–you’re together! But you’re enemies! You’re–” Tanis swallowed the rest of her words and put a hand to her forehead.
She began to pace like a caged tigress. Muttering words of disbelief in her ancient tongue. Yet despite all she said and did, Fiona knew that she believed.
Fiona softened her tone some more as she explained, “We come from the future, Tanis. A future where Daemon is awake and things are so much better.”
Tanis froze and spun towards her. “Things are wonderful now!”
That stung. But Fiona reminded herself that Tanis didn’t know the Order was a lie. She believed in its teaching likely just as deeply as Fiona had herself.
Odd that I never saw her or heard of her in the Order. A Vampire as old as her–a Wyvern no less–would have been someone I would have looked into her, if not spoken to her. Yet I’ve never heard of her in the future. And she hasn’t come to Nightvallen.
“Things are not as they seem,” Charlie said apologetically. “Rather like us. Except while our glamours aren’t hiding monsters underneath, I’m afraid your Order is. It’s being run by Kaly as a way to gain control over the Vampire World and obscure all the evil they did.”
Tanis just stared at him. It wasn’t that she disbelieved, Fiona thought, more than it was simply too much information to take in.
“We’ve dealt with most of the things that Kaly set into motion, but we were sent back in time doing so,” Grayson explained. “And we need to speak to Seeyr in order to figure out how to get back.”
“Seeyr?” Tanis laughed shrilly. “I can assure you that Seeyr is not here!”
“Yes, she is,” Fiona said. “She’s locked in the basement of the Spire.
” And in that moment, even as her lips formed the next words, Fiona realized something else.
She hadn’t heard of Tanis in the Order and maybe hadn’t seen her in Nightvallen for the simple reason that Tanis had been given her Second Death.
And maybe that Second Death happened because of what Fiona said next, “And we need your help getting to her.”