Lady Dhampir
Chapter 301

Milena and Blanche both pulled up the carpet. There was a whole square of it pre-cut but, because it was partially stuck under the shelf and the carpet itself was so thick, no one would have noticed unless they were on all fours and specifically looking for a mishap in the carpet. Underneath, they found a trap door, a square with only a hole for a handle. After they pushed back the shelf to make more room, they lifted it, revealing a hole, and stairs that were leading down. Raelius and Milena exchanged a glance. The hole itself wasn't very big, and wherever it led to was in complete darkness. Milena sighed, while Blanche jumped down first, sniffing ahead, her fluffy silver-white tail whipping the air with an interested demeanor. Whatever was downstairs, she didn't seem to think it would be very dangerous, which got Milena relieved. If only she could be sure they were done with the action for that day, she'd be more than happy. Sadly, it was highly unlikely.

With Raelius giving her a hand, she stepped down in the passage, following after Blanche. This place was really dark, even her dhampir eyes struggled to see anything, making her wonder if the d'Artsein family members used a candle or something. Her ancestor followed behind her, frowning.

"This place isn't as dusty as I would have expected," he muttered.

"If it belongs to the d'Artsein Family, I'm not surprised," Milena whispered. "They are particularly tedious, it's another of their family traits."

She had seen for herself how Briseis treated books sometimes better than herself. The younger children of their family even learned how to properly dust off a book and repair the damaged covers. This passage reflected their family values in that way. There was no decoration at all, just perfectly sculpted stairs going down. Milena was glad for Blanche's Silver-white fur, otherwise she would have had trouble spotting her in the darkness. Luckily, the stairs were so perfectly aligned that, even without seeing the next one, she could keep stepping down with only a small risk of falling. Behind her, she realized Raelius was perfectly silent. She frowned and turned around, but there was nothing but darkness following her.

"... Grandpa?"

She waited a second, but only silence answered. She stopped and frowned. Had she missed an opening somewhere? Or had he gone off to another place? Suddenly, a figure appeared behind her, like a shadow popping out of nowhere. "Love?" He called after a second.

"I was wondering where you went," she whispered.

"To close off the passage. This way, it'll take them a while to find us."

"I see."

They resumed walking, and Milena sighed.

"That White One is going to be a real problem," she said after a while. "I still don't really get their power, and their attitude..."

"Tell me what I missed."

Milena did, retelling her grandfather what he had missed, even to the smallest details she could remember. They were still following Blanche, and stepping further down, making her realize they really were going straight to the dungeons. From the noises they randomly heard around, she guessed those stairs were located in-between some walls between other rooms. It was a very tight passage, she wouldn't have been able to spread her arms open and instead, kept them near her hips. In fact, someone a bit larger than the norm would have struggled to get down there, and her ancestor's shoulders were brushing against the walls...

When she finished talking, although she couldn't see the details on his face, when she glanced back, it was clear he wasn't too happy.

"... Grandpa, that person is decades old. And they seemed to be particularly wary of you. Even if you became a White One, your appearance couldn't have changed much. Do you think it could be someone from... from your time?"

"I had my suspicions too," he replied, his voice colder than usual. "The Wendigos reappearing during your time, as well as the White Ones, is too much of a coincidence, Love. Both are created when vampires are f****d to consume vampire blood, and the second one can be stopped when dhampir blood is drunk shortly after. Also, you're the first noble child born as a dhampir in generations, according to your brother's memories. Since my sister, in fact. That is a strangely interesting point as well." "...Your brother Sleverin was the one who created both," she whispered. "I read what we have left of his work, and it was all the premises for what we're facing now. Whoever that White One is, I don't think they only work for the Church, I think they are behind everything. The position of Head Priest is one of the most powerful and influential. If they really are as old as you, it would make sense for them to have been working in the shadows and controlling everything all this time."

Milena felt like finally, after so long, she was starting to pull all the strings together, and find the central point of the web they had been caught on all this time. She remembered the secret investigations outside with Rayan, all the questions surrounding her mother's death and her k********g, the children's disappearances, the murder of Queen Lyriana, the Oracle and so on. Everywhere she looked, there had been conspiracies. Not only for the Queen's poisoning, but her generation was the most impacted. Rayan had been heavily burned in an attempted murder as a child, she had been kidnapped, and a White One had been placed by Philomenie's side after she had been engaged to Ellias. While it seemed like the young Prince himself had been spared, it was obvious his current status was heavily impacted by the pressure from his mother, another woman who had received a White One. Someone had been trying to influence this Kingdom's political scene for a long time now, and she had been following the breadcrumbs all along. If it wasn't for their resilience and own skills, both she and Rayan would have been gone a long time ago, leaving Ellias and Philomenie to rule unbothered, and all the vampires f****d into silence.

"I know," he said after thinking for a while. "But I'm not sure yet, Love. First, I can't remember it all, whatever happened before I died... It's foggy, Milena. What I remember is that my siblings and I struggled to keep what was left of the Kingdom. Silvius and Silvra were the overachievers, while my brothers and I were pretty much free to do whatever we wanted. Slev had his research to keep him busy, but I mostly just hung out with one or another. The truth is I was never made for the hard working part of noble life. I'd much rather organize parties and hang out with our friends from high society. Silvra always said I made the noble world spin, but I was probably just goofing around while they did all the hard work."

"Can't you remember your... death?"

"Not really... I know I always hung out with Slev the most. He was always tortured and an introvert, so it was kind of my duty to keep him company and remind him he did not need to be a hermit. His research was his whole world." "...He created monsters."

"Slev wasn't someone bothered much by right and wrong, Milena. Science was his religion. Was he capable of creating monsters like the Wendigos? Absolutely. Did he mean for them to be man-killers, to murder hundreds of vampires? I definitely think not." "....I think he talked about you", Milena suddenly remembered. "Very briefly, but... I have a copy of one of your brother's notebooks. In it, he mentions his brothers and sister, just a few times, although it's all about his research. You're the only ones mentioned other than his... subject experiments."

That was a long-lost memory for her too. The days when she had talked to Ellias about her findings on Prince Sleverin's works felt so far behind her now, yet they had only occurred a couple years ago, at best. Milena tried to chase those thoughts away, and focus on what she could remember from that notebook. She had read it several times, but she couldn't find what was bothering her. One simple piece of information that she just couldn't put her finger on. Something vital... Raelius had gone silent too, either feeling nostalgic or trying to dig in his memories.

At least, they would get more answers soon. Now that they had met with the mysterious White One, Milena had a feeling they would get to the bottom of this, as well as their identity soon.

"At least we learned a bit more through this," she muttered. "That person has been a White One for a while, only acting as a normal person. Chances are the High Priest body isn't their own either... They only possess those. That smell of death that Blanche always gets from them might be a good hint."

"What do you mean?"

"Blanche, did Hypoleus' body smell like death again?"

The fox stopped and turned to her briefly to nod once, with conviction.

"Then chances are, he was already dead when the White One possessed him."

"You think their power only works on bodies?"

"It's a theory," said Milena. "But I don't see how they would smell of death otherwise. There was also no need to throw the body over the balcony. They didn't use it to taunt me or as a hostage. My guess is that they didn't want me to inspect the body, throwing it over the balcony was the best way to take it away from me, and make such a severe and obvious wound that no one would look for another cause of death." "That's... a quite tortuous way to think, Love."

"That's what my great-grandmother taught me," she smiled. "No one looks for a poison needle on a drowned body. No one looks for a bullet on a burned body..."

It reminded her of the Sevira sisters. If it wasn't for how she had been trained, perhaps she would have never realized Euphoria had survived, either. Milena herself had no idea how many times there had been poisoning attempts on her, since taking prevention antidotes was a normal part of her routine...

"God, I wish I remembered," Raelius suddenly groaned. "I already can't believe Silvra died so young, and poisoned, too..."

"We don't have much left of that time," Milena sighed. "Whatever was kept was preciously conserved, but I guess people were busier building the Kingdom than keeping records, and there was a great fire, too. Tons of precious records were probably lost." "That's alright Love, if everything goes right, I'll remember when I need to, or so I hope. Let's just focus on this battle for now. These stairs are endless, I'll just go and take a peek on the others and join you and Blanche later, alright?" "Sure."

She didn't hear him disappear, once again, but Milena could feel his presence was gone. She kept following Blanche, in a strange silence, focusing on the noises they heard all around. In fact, it had become much more quiet for a little while now, which made her think they were below the first floors already, nearing the underground cells. The sounds were echoing a lot more, too. Milena had been to the Castle's cells before, a couple of times perhaps, but she couldn't locate where they had possibly arrived at. Suddenly, Blanche stopped in front of her, and walked up to rub her back against Milena's ankles. Milena stepped down once more, and then extended her arm. Indeed, they had reached the last row of stairs, and something akin to a door was blocking her way, just in front. The surface was cold, like a metallic panel. She hoped there was no trick to find again, because they were in the complete dark. She couldn't see the smallest opening; She tried to softly push the door but, to her surprise, it moved only towards her. She pulled it until there was light coming into their secret passage, and a one-inch space she could peek through. The bit she could see on the other side definitely looked like a cell's walls... She tried to pull more, surprised it was so easy to get out of there. Blanche shape-shifted into a rat, and ran out first, visibly feeling safe enough to venture ahead. In fact, their surroundings were so quiet, Milena wasn't worried either. Suddenly, she realized there was something in front of the door's way, like large bars. However, she quickly realized those were books! And easy to move, too. She grimaced and got down, pushing a few books to the other side, careful not to make too much noise, until the space between the shelves were enough for her to squeeze through. As expected, she had just arrived in a cell. A torture cell, no less... It was empty, and hadn't been used in a long time, according to all the perfectly lined up tools on the walls, the clean chair with ties, and how dusty their surroundings were. Milena glanced down. Most of the books were either on religion, or t*****e method. A funny mix... She stood up, and pulled the door back closed, noticing it was the exact same color as the bookshelf, and once closed, it just looked like the other side of it. She quickly put all the books back in place. Once they were all in, it really looked like any book shelf... She was impressed; Even if someone had taken one of those books, they wouldn't have noticed the back of the bookshelf was in fact a door. When she tried to push it, it didn't budge. So it was a one-way system. She grimaced. They would have to take the official way back up, then.

At least, she had reached her destination. This was an unused part of the Royal Cells, so she could roughly guess she was at one of the very ends of the prison; they didn't bother to lock prisoners there, aside from those they intended to purposely forget about... but the practice wasn't so common these days.

Milena started walking, listening for any sound that could have let her know she was about to run into trouble. Blanche was sometimes appearing ahead, but kept her appearance as a rat to be inconspicuous, mixing with the local population. If she shape-shifted into something bigger, Milena would know there was trouble ahead. For now, she had to find the prisoners and their leader, the Duke De Nova; How much time had passed? Would they be heavily guarded? She was alone to free at least a hundred or so men, she had to hope the Royal Castle had sent most of its forces outside to contain the rebels, not guarding those they had already arrested and put behind bars down there...

Suddenly, she saw them. Not only De Nova's men in the cells, but two Royal Guards that were marching ahead, visibly on their rounds. Milena found Blanche with her eyes, and the rat quickly ran ahead of the men, positioning herself right under their nose before she shape-shifted into a wolf. The two soldiers were turning their backs on Milena, and she only heard them gasp before the wolf jumped at one of them. Milena took down the other. It was only a matter of seconds before both men lay dead on the ground. They had managed to not make a sound, but if those men were here and making rounds, she was sure two more would appear soon.

"My Lady!"

She ran to the first cell containing some men of the Duke she could recognize, while Blanche licked the blood off her face, watching the corridor. They all gathered behind the bars, visibly relieved to see her. "Are you alright, my Lady?"

"I should be the one asking you that," Milena said. "Did they put everyone down here?"

"Most of us, yes, my Lady. They split us into different cells!"

"They took all the captains and the Duke away, though," said another one. "We have no idea what happened to them, they were taken elsewhere!"

The men seemed more worried about the Duke and their leaders' circumstances than their own. From what Milena could see, they had been split up across the many cells, so she guessed they had relayed the information from one cell to another. If so, then the Duke De Nova and the captains had most likely been taken elsewhere on purpose. It was most likely they had been isolated, interrogated and perhaps even tortured.... She could only hope they had been kept alive. She would have a hard time leading all those men herself.

"I need to open those cells," she grunted.

Milena ran to the two men, looking through her pockets before she found a first set of keys. The Royal Dungeons had strict rules to prevent massive evasions; guards weren't allowed to keep the keys to all the cells, so even after she tried them out, the key she found only opened two cells, just enough to give her a dozen men. The others had to stay in their cells until she got her hands on another set.

"I'll be back for you," she promised the men, who all nodded, well aware of the plan.

Milena resumed walking, careful to stay quiet, although it was harder now with a dozen men behind her. Blanche was still ahead, thankfully, sniffing and listening for any alert. Soon enough, they found another pair of guards, which didn't have time to panic before the soldiers jumped on them. Milena sighed, but she let them do the task of grabbing the keys and trying them on the nearby cells.

While she was waiting and watching the surroundings, Raelius suddenly reappeared next to Blanche, provoking shocked gasps around them.

"Oh, it's crowded in here," glancing all around at the shocked men. "Where's my Milena?"

"I'm here, Raelius," said Milena, approaching.

"It's happening, Milena," he said, running to her. "Rayan just launched the attack. The Army is coming out of the Emerald Forest all at once, and heading here. Things are about to get real ugly up above."

"We'll join them soon."