Chapter 57 The Keltair Lycanthropes (1/2)

Despite Rassa's curiosity, he had to wait until the next lesson to hear more about the Lycanthropes. He spent the rest of his lesson with Victor listening to more arguments about territory, which led Rassa to the inevitable suspicion that the fall of the Chaos races weren't entirely the fault of somebody else. Their clear lack of concern for anyone other than themselves was enough to make Rassa think that the Vampires had been at least in part responsible for their own downfall. Victor never spoke of it, but he also never presented any evidence against this claim.

Was this what he was trying to show Rassa through these continuous looks at repetitive political arguments? Despite Victor's clear bias, was it possible that rather than learning how a Vampire society was run, Rassa was to learn the mistakes of the system in order to improve it? The only problem was that as it stood now, Rassa had no intention of condemning others to the reality he was faced with, and from Victor's previous lessons, Rassa was positive that none of the other Vampires had survived the fall of Chaos.

With all of this information, Rassa couldn't deny his curiosity and eagerness to learn, but in reality, he was facing more immediate problems.

The group had entered the Seisin Mountains, and though Rassa didn't know the exact location of Jerrica, he knew for certain that they were drawing closer to the centre of the mountain range.

Aegin had continued his silent companionship. Rassa didn't think that either of them really understood why they were so adamant to keep each other company, but that understanding that they'd always had remained ever present.

It was early evening when Rassa finally had the opportunity to have his questions about the other Chaos races answered.

'Very well,' Victor relented, 'What you saw during the last lesson, whilst it was not addressed in the council chambers, the subcoven was persistent. They appealed to my father, and as a potential heir at the time, I was sent to resolve their problems. I will show you the first meeting I had with the Keltair Pack Alpha'.

***

When Rassa awoke in the memory, he was seated inside what Victor referred to as a an auto-carriage. Simply put it was a carriage that didn't need any animal to pull it, it ran on crystal energy. The concept had facinated Rassa when he'd first seen the technology, and had begged Victor to tell him more, but it was clear that Victor had more pressing concerns to teach him at the moment.

The auto-carriage was making its way down into a valley. Above, at the crest of the hill, sat the subcoven town, with its high, sophisticated walls and sun stones on the border. They were smaller than the main city's stones, and there were fewer of them, but Rassa still felt they were just as magnificent.

At the base of the hill was a river, and beyond the river stretched a forest that seemed incredibly vast. Even with his heightened vision, Victor could not see the end of the forest. Though, it was during the day.

Outside of the sun stone barrier, his vision was impaired, and therefore he wore a hood, though of far better quality material than what Rassa had had in Cordon. The hood was attached to a long dark cloak that pooled around Victor, his black trousers and boots crossed elegantly as he sat. To anyone who was not used to his presence, Victor appeared above everyone around him, in reality, Rassa could tell he was just feeling lazy. He didn't want to be dragged to the outer reaches of the territory for this, but if it was what was asked of him as a potential heir, he had no way to avoid it.

As they approached the river, a Marquee of sorts came into view, and waiting outside of the entrance was a group of men dressed in far less elegant clothes than those of the Vampire procession that accompanised Victor.