CONFESSIONS OF A VAMPIRE PRIEST

The night is young

I've never seen everyone that drunk before. Eldaren was so plastered that his sentences were not even making sense anymore, and Zed was so drunk that he could barely hold an argument against Eldaren. Trivistine wasn't even playing with us anymore. She would crawl around the room, giving fragmented details about the man she loved. "He was such a kind man underneath the layers upon layers of horrible he was," and then she would go silent for a long period of time, crawl around some more, feed us drinks, crawl into another corner and continue with, "He came from another world, or so he would tell me. He had dethroned a queen..." and she would continue this on and on while we played more card games. At some point, Bekah tried to use illusions to make it seem like she had a royal flush in poker, but even in my highly inebriated state, I could see straight through her magic.

If only I could have seen through the illusion put on Vivicci...

"And there was a man whose skills in craftsmanship was so renowned, so legendary that some revered him as a god. This very man made a sword for him," and Trivistine held a mug at Chance's lips, tilted it upward, and the whiskey spilled into his mouth and down his cheek. Chance held a thumbs up toward me while he pulled Trivistine in closer, but then she fell over, almost bringing Chance with him, and then she said, "He is sooo talented with magic, so confident of himself but... I question if he has a heart at all," and it was at that moment that I made eye contact with the rest of my party, each of us silently realizing, at the exact same time, that the person she was talking about was probably Kelrus.

It disgusted me to my core, but I tried to stay mindful. There was a chance she could have been vile enough to love Kelrus at face value, or perhaps she fell in love with the person he pretended to be. At that point, and maybe even in the present, none of us could know.

"I'm impressed you were able to see through my illusion," Bekah said, folding her hand in the process. I also folded my hand. Eldaren and Zed tried to bluff Chance out, but Chance actually had a royal flush so even if Eldaren and Zed were telling the truth about having better hands, they did not have the best hand. "I'm not some heroic adventurer like you are," Bekah continued. "But I am majoring in illusion magic, and Elmarath even said I'm the most gifted illusion specialist he's ever seen."

She... wasn't lying. She really did believe she was as good as she thought she was. Back then, I thought that maybe, the next time we come across illusion magic, we would have been ready.

That's right: nothing has worked on us twice. Kelrus might have defeated us on multiple occasions but—

"—You're pretty good at magic," Iona said, grabbing my attention. "Saw through Bekah's illusions, defeated a modern caster in a duel, and you can even perform small miracles. So tell me Khain—what else are you good at?"

Iona leaned forward, and positioned her arms in a way that would squeeze her breast together. Her smile drew me in like a moth to flame, and the way her eyes focused on my lips excited me.

She was confident in herself, and confident that if she wanted something, she would get it.

"I can show you," I said, my vision getting a little fuzzy. It was at this moment I felt her feet rubbing against mine. "I always find that preferable over telling. But if I do show you what I'm good at, I'm hoping you'll return the favor."

Oh I'd be more than happy to do that," Iona said. "I'm rather talented at what I do. I also like to be good at the things I do."

"What do you do for fun? Aside from," and I gestured to everyone. Trivistine was passed out, curled up in the fetal position. Chance was counting the money he won from everyone, completely immersed in his victories; Eldaren and Zed were recounting that they never played games like this before, how the studies took priority and they talked about how much fun they were having. It was good to see them like this. Even with the crushing defeat we recently endeavored, they could still have fun.

That was it... we had to enjoy our lives despite the chaos. We could literally die any day. Grieving was okay, but if we allowed that to consume us, then it would be over. It was silly to even consider at the time. The revelation I had was not new. It was something I had told myself over and over again, but the recent traumatic events had shaken me, made me forget the resolve I had built over a hundred years. I had second-guessed myself, and I had let that get the better of me.

But still, even realizing this again for who knows what time, even though I felt myself coming together, I felt an emptiness on the inside.

Honestly, most of the time I'm just hanging out with Bekah," and she pointed at her friend, who was drinking the whiskey directly from the bottle, consoling a drunken Trivistine who had woken up and began reminiscing about Kelrus again. "I might be sociable, but I'm not too fond of people," and it was very subtle, but there was a flash of despair on her face, if only for a second. "But it's whatever. People are cruel. They're entitled. But every now and then I get the pleasure of meeting deviations from the mean. Deviations such as you, Khain. Now, this is where you say 'people aren't all bad, Iona. In a world where you can be anything, be kind.' Am I right on the mark, or am I right on the mark?"

Planting the seeds of kindness is a very amiable thing to do," I said. "But you can't grow anything in a garden filled with weeds. Before kindness can be nurtured, you have to alter the environment so that it has a chance to be nurtured in the first place."

"So dark," Iona said, her eyes shimmering. "I can't wait to learn more about you."

"Neither of us have to wait much longer," I said. Judging the mood in the room, it looked like everyone was close to calling it quits. "Are there any spare rooms my friends can crash in?"

"The room and lodge that Elmarath offers is rather ostentatious. Each is built like an apartment complex, and there are two empty rooms cuz there were some enrollment issues with two of the other students that were supposed to come in. The living room is pretty big, too. Fully furnished, comfy couch that can fit two people. Your friends will be taken care of, I promise you."

"I think Chance and I are going to wander around a bit," Eldaren said. "The night is young, and we'd like to see what else the university has these days before we go off on another wild adventure. We'll come find you, eventually."

"Oh, okay," I said. "Take care, brother. Don't get into too much trouble while you're gone."

"If I ever find myself in hell, brother, I'm confident that you'll find a way to fish me out. You haven't let me down so far," and with a confident composure and a warm smile, he exited the room with Chance.

"Your friends have a lot of faith in you," Iona said.

"We're like a family, in a certain sense,"

"That's cute," and it was Bekah. She was helping Trivistine get to her feet. "I'm a little jealous. You don't see bonds like yours all that often."

"Yeah—I guess you can say we are quite fortunate."

"Maybe you lot can be the ones to win," and those were the words Trivistine muttered. It made Zed and I share a certain look at each other, but Bekah and Iona didn't pay that comment much attention. We cleaned up the room and made our way to Bekah and Iona's apartment. When we got there, I took a moment to absorb how ostentatiously spacious the apartment was. It was really high end.

When I was done appraising the apartment, I helped set up the couch for Trivistine, who didn't want to sleep in a room, and I made sure to create water so that she could hydrate and hopefully avoid having too serious a hangover. I made sure to offer the same courtesy to everyone else. After Zed went to use the bathroom, Iona led me up to her room.