Art by Dzyenya
000
Ja, wir reiten in den Wind,
und wir bleiben wer wir sind.
Ist der Weg auch noch so weit,
wir sind Brüder Seit an Seit.
(d’Artagnan, “Seit an Seit”)
001
“So that is what she wants,” said an old vampire by the name of Krieger after Ruprecht told him in detail about his conversation with Cordellina Wallenstein von Bluttenglitz zu Dunkelnacht.
“Well, she agreed to help us - that's already wonderful,” Krieger added, biting his finger. “But the information she wants in return is… rather hard to find.”
“The organizations powerful enough to catch a vampire should be rather rare,” Ruprecht shrugged. “We can check them one by one…”
“That's the thing, Ruprecht. No organization powerful enough would be stupid enough to attempt it.” Krieger looked at the fire in the fireplace in front of him. “Even the most powerful, like the Inquisition, prefer to deal with our kind with lethal force.”
“So we are looking for something new, stupid, and trying to make a name for themselves?”
“To make a name?” The vampire closed his left eye and pointed the right one at Ruprecht with a look of a small surprise. “That's a bit of a logical leap, but it may be our hope…”
“How?”
“To get yourself well known,” Krieger said. “You need to either do something big - like capturing a vampire - or try to recruit someone big for your ranks. Some star player whose name will elevate the whole organization.”
“And I just happen to know the whereabouts of such one player.” Krieger smiled. “Well, the whereabouts of someone who may know the whereabouts and so on. You should go check that place tomorrow morning… and take Silver with you, just in case.”
“One more thing, Krieger…” Said Ruprecht, visibly struggling with the words. “She… Lady Wallenstein said that what we're doing might bring the Void on us.”
“It's Cordellina…” Krieger shrugged. “Don't take anything she says too seriously. It's the second biggest mistake you can make.”
“And the biggest…?”
“And the biggest mistake would be not taking her herself seriously.”
“Noted.” Ruprecht nodded. “But still, aren't we playing with fire here?”
“Look…” Krieger looked at him with one eye. “We're still true to our nature. I'm eating rotten flesh daily; Weisz haunts this castle and protects what's inside; you are running errands and beating people with the stick. Even Silver hoards things better than any Western dragon - even if it's not a part of her legend, it's still a part of the Dragons legend.
“So we all are safe. All safe. Voidproof. Nothing we do will trigger the Great Equaliser.
“And if the Wallenstein girl thinks the Nothingness will get mad at us for trying to pull someone out of it… she forgets that the Void itself is emotionless. It's not a living being. It's just a law of nature, nothing more.”
“Nothing more…” Ruprecht growled slowly. “If you say so… commander.”
“How many times do I need to tell you to not call me that?”
“Not many enough.”
002
“Why would we even need her?” Asked Silver taking the seat on the bike behind Ruprecht and putting on the helmet. “From what you've told me, she sounds creepy. And slimy. And even more creepy.”
“She's a vampire.”
“So what?” Silver said, annoyed. “Vampires this, vampires that… Kings and Queens of apparitions, my dragon ass. The time of monarchs is long gone, is not, Ruprecht?”
“She has some… unique abilities.” Ruprecht started the engine and had to raise his voice so that Silver could hear him.
“Nothing I don't have, I'm sure…” The dragon, on the other hand, said these words as quietly as possible so that Ruprecht missed them. She lowered the visor on her helmet, gave Ruprecht a pat on the back, and they set off.
003
Ruprecht and Silver walked into a bar, getting some curious looks from the crowd, gathered there. Ruprecht, in his biker gear, would've fit right in with the patrons, but as a new face in a place full of the usual clients, he was a curiosity. Silver, on the other hand, with her sporty figure, tight jeans, cropped jacket, and the dragon scale “tattoos” running down her sides - she would gather those looks anywhere she went.
“What can I get you?” The barman asked when they approached the counter.
“Information,” Ruprecht growled.
“I don't think I know that drink, I'm sorry.” The barman smiled. “Beer? Vodka? Cocktails? Lemonade?”
“He thinks he's being clever…” Silver looked around the bar as if searching for someone in particular, shook her head in disappointment, then turned back to the barman. “Clever and funny, aren't you?”
“If you say so, miss.”
“We are looking for someone.” Ruprecht kept talking in his most annoyed of voices as if he was extremely unhappy about being in the present place in the present time. “He comes here to drink.”
“All of them do.” The barman finally stopped smiling. “It's just you two who apparently don't.”
“Oh, look, a nice lady!” A drunken man with a half-empty beer bottle in hand approached Silver from behind. “Hey, babe, leave that boring guy, come with me!”
He tried to put his free hand across Silver’s waist but before he managed to do that, his face met the back of Silver's fist. Met and bloodied.
“My nose!” The man yelled. “She smashed my fucking nose!”
He raised the bottle as if about to hit Silver with it, but Ruprecht turned around, caught the man’s hand, pulled it down, and shoved him back. The man fell right on someone's table, sending bottles and shot glasses down to the floor.
The crowd rose from their stools. Some in anger, some with happy smiles, but all with the same easily recognizable intent.
“Looks like the place is about to get really busy,” Silver gave out a laugh.
“Just remember,” Ruprecht took out his baton. “They're just humans… don't go too hard.”
004
The angry mob was like a body of water hitting against the rocks at the shore, then falling back to try and hit those rocks again. And so the humans first ran at Ruprecht and Silver, then walked and then limped to them only to get beaten back again and again until the dragon and the ghost were the only ones left standing.
And the barman was crouching behind the counter until Silver dragged him over to her side.
“So,” she said. “We asked you a question. Do you have any answers?”
“You've trashed the whole place! Do you really expect I will tell you anything!”
“We…” Ruprecht started but Silver interrupted him, picking the barman by the cloth of his shirt and lifting him.
“You saw us trash this sinkhole,” she said, smiling. “Do we also have to trash your face? And a few more bones while we're at it?”
“Fair point,” the barman raised his hands in front of himself. “Who were you looking for again?”
“A man in his fifties. Pretty tall and buff for an old guy. Has a scar across his right eye. Goes by ‘Han’ or something like that.”
“Hmm… I don't…” The barman said as if he was still unsure of his memories. Silver shook him in the air a few times to stir his brain.
“Enough, enough! I remember! Just put me down!”
Silver let go and the barman fell on his butt.
“He came here a few times,” he said looking at Ruprecht. “Not a very social type but drank a lot and quite the expensive stuff.”
“When was the last time he visited?” Ruprecht asked.
“About two weeks ago… haven't seen him since.”
“Oh, great,” Silver sighed. “Did he have any friends here, any drinking buddies?”
“No… I said he wasn't very sociable. Usually just sat somewhere with the bottle until the bottle was over and then left.”
“So you don't know where we could find him…”
“He… when he bothered to talk to me he always went on about buying the house with the garden.” The barman paused to grab a single intact bottle of liquor, open it, and make a big gulp out of it. Silver and Ruprecht waited patiently.
“A big house,” the barman continued. “And a large garden. Somewhere nearby, because he said he's too old to travel too far.”
“A house with a garden nearby…” Ruprecht growled. “That's something, thank you.”
“Let him be, Silver,” he said, gesturing for the dragon to leave. Then looked at the barman again. “And please inform the owner that we will repay all damages done to this place. They may expect the check soon.”
“To that!” The barman said, raising the bottle and making another gulp of liquor.
005
The next morning, Ruprecht and Silver spent time checking every nearby house big enough to be considered “big” and every garden large enough to be thought of as “large”. One by one, the possible locations of the man they were searching for were visited, explored, and, unfortunately, discarded, narrowing the number of possibilities.
Or at least that's what Silver kept telling Ruprecht, who became extremely grumpy and disappointed after the fifth or sixth visit to the home of an absolutely normal human farmer without a hint of supernatural involvement.
It was well into the evening hours of the day when the bike with Ruprecht and Silver rolled into reality near the house that immediately looked promising. At least to Silver.
“Look, Ruprecht,” she pointed at the big two-floor tall building with a small pointy tower. “If I was an inquisitor in retirement, I'd definitely live in a house like that!”
“What's so inquisitional about it?” Asked Ruprecht, turning off the bike’s engine.
“Dunno!” The dragon smiled. “But I like it. And it has a garden too…”
“Like all the previous places we checked…” Ruprecht grumbled. “Let's go check this one too and maybe take a break after.”
006
The owner of the place turned out to be a man in his late fifties. He was pretty tall and buff for an old guy. And he had a scar across his right eye.
“Inquisitor Hanging Tree?” Ruprecht asked bluntly.
“Former inquisitor,” the man waved the title away with a gesture. “And please, just call me Han. The name was stupid even when it was true. And now it's just stupid.”
“Please do come in,” he continued, stepping back and welcoming Ruprecht and Silver. “You're not the kind of visitors to keep at the door. Surely you have some important matters to discuss, or the old ghoul wouldn't send two of his most loyal guard.”
“Well, this went better than expected…” Silver half-whispered to Ruprecht.
“Oh did you really expect an old guy like me to fight a dragon?” The former inquisitor smirked. No matter how quietly it was said, he clearly heard the Silver’s remark, showing a great hearing ability for his supposed age.
“We…” Ruprecht coughed. “No, we didn't expect a fight.”
“More like a door shut at our faces immediately,” Silver continued his sentence.
“Ah, I don't get all that many visitors here and even fewer of them are as interesting as you two.” The former inquisitor shrugged, leading the guests through the house and into the backyard where a small wicker table and several stools stood under a single tall tree.
“Please, take a seat,” he said. “Tea?”
“No,” Ruprecht said. “But you insist on drinks, just give me a glass of water.”
“I don't insist on drinks,” the former inquisitor pointed a finger at Ruprecht. “I insist on tea. And don't tell me you're afraid of being poisoned… what human poison can harm the magical beings like you two?”
“I just don't like tea,” Ruprecht mumbled quietly.
“Oh, it's okay, you don't have to drink it. Just stare at the liquid… You'd be surprised what curious and wondrous things you may see if you stare at the cup of tea hard enough.”
“I'm sorry,” Silver finally lost her patience. “I'd like some tea!”
The former inquisitor looked at her with curiosity and unexpected playfulness in his gaze.
“I know exactly what to bring you, lady dragon. Let's see if my guess is correct.”
007
“They did what to whom in whose name!?” The former inquisitor’s hands started shaking and he had to put the cup with tea back on the table.
“Please tell me this story you’ve just told me is a part of some elaborate joke…” he said in disbelief. “Because if it is true, it is in itself the most stupid cruel joke I've ever heard.”
“But that's exactly what happened,” Ruprecht said and Silver nodded. “If you believe Lady Wallenstein’s own words.”
“She's… peculiar to say the least.” The former inquisitor lowered his eyes and looked intently into his cup as if trying to conjure up an image on the liquid surface. “But I don't think she'd stoop as low as lying. Wallensteins are the proud bloodline you know?”
“We know of her special abilities…” Ruprecht started but Han raised a hand to make him stop.
“These ‘abilities’ as you put it, are only the surface. The abilities, the opulence, the excess… it is all just a pale reflection of what has been.
“There were the times when the Wallenstein family led mighty armies to battle… Mighty and unstoppable they were, sweeping battlefield after battlefield, always bringing victory to whichever side they were on.
“They weren't mercenaries. They didn't do it for money. They didn't even do it for themselves. They always fought for someone else's cause - the cause they deemed worthy.
“But those times…
“Are long gone.
“Long gone are the rousing speeches and the shining armor. Now, the last of the Wallensteins is a spoiled brat, and all she has is a host of slaves pampering her. This is what this world turned into… A new world. A better world? A different world for sure.”
“You say it…” Silver spoke softly. “As if you admire her… and that old world.”
“Do I?” Han looked at a dragon. “You're old enough to remember those times. In a different place, but still. Do you wish for them to come back?”
“No. No, I don't.” Silver shook her head. “Too much violence. Too much bloodshed. I prefer the present times.”
“But is it really better? Is there less violence, or is it just better hidden from your eyes, coated in nice words and empty promises? Did humans stop spilling each other’s blood after abandoning the swords and bows… or did we just get much better at it?”
“Still, it is better to live now than it was back then.” Silver was unwavering.
“Maybe… Maybe.” The former inquisitor smiled. “After all, I am but an old man longing for simpler, more honest times.”
“Or still a man too young who's been caught up in illusions of glorious battles and chivalrous knights.”
“No matter which I am,” Han raised his hands, calling for the truce. “I know better than to argue with a dragon.”
“By the way,” he asked. “How do you like your tea?”
“It's…” Silver took a second to calm down. “It's nice… and it reminds me of… of home.”
“So I was correct,” Han smiled. “An old ruined temple in the mountains, right?”
Silver nodded in silence.
“Can we get back to business?” Ruprecht grumbled. He was visibly annoyed by the inability of others to keep the conversation on point.
“Ah, the business…” The former inquisitor wiped his eyes with his hand. “Yes, I was approached by a group of people foolish enough to attempt something like capturing a vampire. Former Inquisition colleagues, so to speak. They call themselves ‘the Circle’ - an imaginative lot they are.”
“But the inquisition is supposed to be powerful and, I don't know, wise?” Silver asked.
“It once was,” Han said. “But it all fell apart with the Grand Inquisitor Cutter’s ill-fated crusade against the vampires. The best of the best died storming your boss’ castle… The best of the rest had enough common sense to leave after that. You're dealing with the best of the worst now.
“I have no idea where they gather or where their leadership lives. But I can point you at who you need to find - and I'm sure for an organization like yours it wouldn't be a problem.
“Hopefully, you will be able to stop them before they become a problem.
“For oddities and humans alike.”
