Chapter Four - networking across the continent.

"It would seem you are taking quiet the fancy for my dog." Completely contrasting men adjacent of each other. Naked slaves with burn crest on their left shoulders of both men and women in a trance was placing liquid bottles across this coffee table. The guest seat is offered, it wasn't comfortable or clean but it was better then the slick sticky floor. But to prove strength and refusal to do as they say, the chair was kicked and slammed to the other side of the room. As someone who was trained to, stood ready where the chair was. Without even saying this was their deadly rotulet game, a bottle was picked from the table and drank. Downed instantly, no care for it being holy water. The owner man wearing naked lusted women, he smirks in liking this while the fancier man is irked that he didn't explain the rules of this game before it even began. The table is a mixer of bottles. The highest quality of blood, wine, drugged and holy water. The are purposely hard to tell what they are. There is four blacken bottles, as if the content wasn't for vampires or humans. There is a blue one, it seems stuck to the table. Two pope blessed bottles, placed tactically in a way to find them in case, the lid was marked in such a tell.

"I love a gamble game. This is where the stake is your life on the line. There no greater thrill of wanting to live then to purposely play around with poison." The empty bottle tossed to a random slave, on impact of a drop slashed and sizzled the converted vampire slave, "I already live life on such edge. I am not going to make this seem like I have some unfair advantage." posed open palms, "I am a half vampire. So to me holy water and blood are exactly the same."

"Its fine, there more than that here." the fancy brother nods at this in maybe agreeing with his brother then the words spoken, "At least you playing with no other lies or tricks." Now the huntress lowers to kneel on the floor, she just used to this and prefers it - the sticky floor didn't matter anymore, "Are you half anything else?"

"I was a human. I got bite. I was trying to be a hunter. But my licence master got rid of me. Stick up the ass or something. Maybe he thought I wasn't going to make the rankings. Whatever the case was, I still need to make a living and eat food like everyone else. I am good at fighting and rope tying people. A kick for defaming peoples pride when hung them from trees with nothing but what they are." that was purposely said because there as plenty of times she has ran into the chain thugs and with learning from her master, did exactly that. Left them hung in trees naked. The brother with no morals laughs at this, waved that someone fetched a rope.

"Show me." He commanded with use of vampire charms, these twins are both vampires and had been in telepathic conversation while she been talking. They been sizing her, working her out and perplex of why they can't hear her thoughts. The sharp glare of the fancy brother, being mad that his idiot sibling was trying to over step leadership. Not that it mattered, she wasn't allured to act on this command.

"Instead, why no check where your earing is now?" The smirk wipes off the faces of both as they both were empty pockets and without a speck of the bling they had on. Importantly was that she stole the signature stamp rings... replacing the stamps with fake ones and keeping the real set to make her orders the real ones. As good sport, she returned the rings to both brothers that will not suspect anything until tonight. So a short window for stamping fake messages out and getting them lost, "I had grow up being a pick pocket, got by and evade the police. It was a hunter that took pity and was going to teach me his way of life. He just sucks at being a teacher, so here I am abandoned with all this good skill. A half vampire who doesn't have a legacy, name or family. I might as well been on the meat market, but I think you both can see it be a waste. Wouldn't be nice to pick assassin pockets as they failed to walk into your business? So many failed attempts of sabotage because I stole the poison they were going to use. Drugs that you didn't order, I can track that down." She plucked another bottle, she just picking whatever she wanted. Just touching the glass bottles and they split layers, so there wasn't a risk of drinking the poison or drugs. The black liquid bottles and the blue one was the one she evaded the most.

"So what are you getting out of being hired on pay roll?" The idiot brother is straight and narrow at least.

"Does a thief that could be wanted by the police have a place to crash? I mostly steal out of every pocket going. Vampire and humans alike. I am sure I made a few noble snots want me dead." Removes some low ranked vampire ring in example, "You two vampires aren't my first. I reckon no my last. You hire me on. I get somewhere to sulk about. Keep the place from breaking into anarchy. I am sure some small skill I got from my ex-master could be used to kick out unwanted or unwelcomed. You have rivals in your industry trying to snatch your cash grabs. Why not leave it to me?"

"Trail 2 week." the fancy guy spat in snarl, "You will be meat either way, half vampire." She in a deep toned laugh at that. She pocketed several bottles, she took the ones she will use later. She knew this black stuff will be useful, the blue one too. Not to drink... but crafting or breaking into stuff.

It take no time at all for one week to sweep past, the moment she left that private back room. She spent time among the gamble tables. She stopped all the cheating folks from ruining the business. She planned her mail, notes, rings and scapegoats a plenty. The biggest scandal here was hindering the red devil's attempts to save her potential siblings to make good graces with the twin vampires. Once they were convinced of her moral stance from this, she lets those siblings slip between the grey areas and slowly many started escaping out of the way of live - for those that have a place away from the black market.

Although some were born and live life in such industry, they still have uses within this dark market. There still twilight that request humanoid meat to fill stomachs. There no denying that this dark gore place has purpose, a in a large scale. Its better to regular the meat fed to monsters then to leave this place unchecked without fail safes. Setting the place to turn inwards and dissolve. Easy to do when most of the workers here are drug addicts or street thugs. That made friends and enemies, but importantly is that she was gain a male persona reputation in the market. Using this for phase 2.

The beginning of week 2 became over ran. Trial test didn't matter or not. The market of bodies, meat and slaves was over ran with refugees from escaping the deserts that were currently being turning into ocean. It was a great time to slip in as a thugs that gets a job done better then the rest. Moving up pay grades and management. Soon becoming so relied on. She didn't hide she was slipping corrupt notes, they expected her to have the orders. Now this was the moment that she used this network to save other lives. Sending slave merchants to randomized locations to pick up 'slaves' for the 'market', transporting the twilight who needed saving.

The spiders were loving this new found use in humanoids, and began invade their own methods among the hire ones. As it turns out, the spiders can bite and mind wipe humans, make them into puppets. Which was sort of like a higher pure born vampire taking control of a weak half blood or converted vampire. The network of this industry became to collapse of humanoid rule and soon puppets took hold of all the gang leaders that run the operations smoothly. The best part is that the twin vampires that think they were running the shows, were turned against each other. The fancy brother murdering the useless lump of a addict brother. They blamed each other in her meddling, always having them as scapegoats for other excuses around human and vampire laws.

Another added bonus with how she been second hand to the true leaders of this gang, she was able to organize thugs to steal relics for her. She sent some assassin's in the chain master's name to wipe out weak and greedy vampire families. This was all have a world wide impact in the most unexpected of places. From more bones of the red devil being located and returned, paying off her redemption, only just a little more. She was able to send these stolen relics into a vault that no one was aware existed for now. It will be raided come the investigations into the massacres. That massacre was the same one she commanded the red devil to report, and it was coming soon.

This unease of pressure by the eastern flood has everyone distracted. The holy churches sending humanitarian help to those in crisis. Human governments send military power to stop excessive numbers into slave market. The royal vampires were arms deep in preparing for the human panic over the undead being released from the northern mountain keep. This was slipped word by the spiders telling the vampires of this going to happen. They know because she told the spiders instead of the ice lady of the north sending a late warning like it was meant to happen. Given humans were disrupted by the eastern acts, there wasn't human eyes keeping a tight lock of the ice wastelands - causing the undead to escape their imprisonment. The twilight ice lady would have already been too late to ask for help from vampires. The vampire should have been in arms deep like the humans about the east, but this was changed.

This wasn't the only disruption to church and vampire lords. This divided multiple attacks from the black market against churches as everyone blaming each other. Vampire queen's against themselves. Foiled plans to out do the other territories pride. The bickering was slide among the 20 princes, who had been on the short end of the receiving of many vampire queens fights. There was only 8 of them left, all deaths contributed to the queens attacking each other in sabotage and revenges.

This mass panic was perfect action for the red devil to swoon in and buy all the prized half vampire children - which was nearly what he planned most for. He was prevented and annoyed for a while, but the the addicted brother was murdered. Suddenly taking the prized market slaves was to easy. He has them sent to one duke in particular. The children are all being taught to be vampires, correctly by vampire rules.

All 139 but one, which was the lady herself that commanded over the weakened red devil. The paperwork was smooth, because she made sure of in from inside the industry. She had even put them in a proper clothing and transport - which wasn't normal for sold prize cash grabs. The last surviving chain slaver own will have his time to pay. He will continue being the blind ignorant one. Only when she will cast away her male persona will she be able to serve his head, along side some other vampires and old friends. Ash and salt. Soon.

The Prince of Twilight took seat in a meeting point in a western city tavern which was ran by twilight behind the curtains of the creepy place. A small business tavern off the main way, out of sight and mind. It was abnormally full and busy for what is empty streets and otherwise the most avoided area of the western human nation. Knocked the table and a drink was brought to him, a note slips underneath. 'Take the book'. He looked around perplexed. In the chair beside him was indeed a thick paged book... dusty and tattered. He lifted it with a slight grimmest. But in opening to the title page and the the crests baring its stamp on this print page. He slams it closed. He looked at the leather dark of a more foul expression. This was against the treaty between vampires and twilight. He slips it to his chest pocket, better to hide it close to his chest then risks. A waiter was back, a plate with a cover over it is placed down and another note. 'We did you this favour. We want something in return.' He takes a hard gulp and carefully opened the dish cover up. He slammed it back down. He gets a grip of himself, a moment of nausea and then attempt again. Lifted properly this time. The glazed over eyes of the slave chain dirty brother's head... a little gloopy from decay. The only way that a old or born vampire is dead this way, was to use their true name against them. The vampire body is functional but the soul is long gone. It might as well be a soulless corpse. It could have turned feral if not beheaded this way. He takes a paper note from the dish.

'We got rid of this useless thorn in your side. He is the one that made the deal between the vampiric hunter queen, the sun church pope's private knight and the grandmaster head bloodline's current puppet. He personally chosen who was going to buy the land deeds of the red devil manor. He bought and enslaved around 392 grandmaster children, mostly bastard mishaps from lust frenzy affairs. The more sane children are under safer care of Duke Winchester. He is helped of the guilty feeling Red Devil, he had a small part in trying to out due the grandmasters and the sun pope.'

The prince snaps that dish lid over the corpse head as the smell was distracting and this was a longer letter then what spiders send. It crosses his mind that the hand writing was to neat and held elements of someone with top educational background. The spider delivers and silk is authentic. But this writer isn't the normal lacky or puppet for spiders to control.

'I am not the average spider.' the writer is a mind reader in a creepy fashion, arguable worse then a dragons attention to emotional heart waver, 'But I will only be a short life, and when its over. War will be here. You can blame me for bringing that war. The fall of 39 gang leaders across the world. The replacement black market is being established ownership by the spiders and demons of darkness. I turned the queens to attack themselves, I am quiet the writer the pal they all have in common. I am the one that filed fake requests in 4 hunter guild buildings. These requests have been to stab the hornet nests of humans to act against you vampires. I have had my hand in the attack on the sun church, the one of escaped demons. Yeah, it was me who stolen the relics of the confessional king. I have spun my webs. Now you fleas, maggots and grasshoppers are going to dance in my threads.'

That was all was left written but the broken poker chip was underneath the dish being taken away. Someone had carved into the plastic to deface the poker chips slave chain origin. The carved indent was that of a flower but in the shadow was a broken tombstone - a sort of crest or marker hand carved as a calling card. Making anything further would best to imprint the design to paper or wax. This didn't really tell what the spiders demands of the prince, although reading between the lines - there was someone who was intermixing business across all vampire networks, human nations and twilight but is an outsider of all three. Until he is asked about this being, he will keep it hushed and provide the occasional request to the spiders to off any problems among twilight and vampire relations.

As status isn't a problem, that head was the left hand of the king's adviser. Now knowing he was the control of the slave market - his power at the side of the king made sense. Now replaced with spiders and demons. It's interesting that this writer knows and sees the twilight like vampires do. That would likely make them part born vampire. Turned by bites don't have the eye adaptions until they are blood bathed for a decade. It depends on the age of the human when bitten and the moral grey areas this entails. But it could be a bitten vampire that had recovered by the vampire method. Can't rule things out.

He take grasp of the poker chip and burned the letters, it was for the best. He could prove it to the king where this mail came from and it would have just served to fail him later. The mail like this was dangerous and served to loose his place in twilight prince title. The poker chip is all he needs.

Only 10 of the saint grandmaster children were mentally fit enough to make passing into vampire society. There were other grandmaster children intermixed in the delivery and they are treated as siblings. In mercy, the once that cant be, suffer no more. They took death for themselves. Not wishing to bite or be bitten - that was a staple sign that a higher vampire was among them if they bare such things. Medically speaking, it came as a shock to many that mostly all the good ones were virgins. Although as it seems, this was due to the blood taken from them is used for serving and convincing. The twin moon church is lending a faith of guidance but there a strange actions among four of the saint children. It was apparent when they entered the grand estate, looked at the demon butler and left the front door together. So smoothing things like the gift of sight with religious lies didn't take well at all. They were taken aside and discussed the pledge of twilight. This estate really has turned into a boarding school for young learning vampires. The Duke is ever so pleased to hold such things close to him again. He was more pleased that the highest grandmaster among the vampires was unable to take these tortured souls for puppets. He already took the next son in line and the saint that these children are from.

The pope of the sun church was in private time, the forbidden library that was broken into recently and was the route of escape for the thief that took the confessional kings sword. It maybe returned broken, but it doesn't carry the power it held. Among the opened misplaced books along this library. SO many of these were accounts of previous pope's writing about strange events in their time as pope. There was forbidden book that be taken from vampire society in the crusades. The most read books around here were the science books that are unknown language and origins. These were the most left laying around in strange places across the library. It was what the thief had been using in while reading the pope accounts. Nothing of this made sense until the pope picked up a book that been torn up. The thief stolen pages of this copy. This wasn't the only book torn of removed pages. But these books of torn pages were consistent of talking about relics. But then again, even the science books had torn pages, manuals of how to use the relics? Now, that made more sense. The thief was always been after the relics and now has knowledge to use them. This false saint can read foreign languages from forbidden sources. There was book here even vampire's couldn't read to languages of, not holy to burn them either.

"Your holy lightest." the newly appointed personal knight is as loyal and uncompromised as the one that been publicly shamed and stripped of public duties. The pope gestures that his knight can continue, "The investigation has concluded about the air ducts. It would take a trained contortionist with vampire or half vampire strength. The scripter used was that of the language of the forbidden old gods. It would be well to assume they left from the smashed window. However, it been already removed from the frame, so the smash was intentionally left for us." the pope nods and pats the knight for a good enough job, "One more thing." the knight mores from the touch, "Your.... the fallen saint." a sharp glare and snap to get on with it, "She ask to tell you a message." waved impatiently, "The bringer of the blood dusk is coming, one of many children whom will save this world in unforeseen ways. This child will not allow you the future and instead use your legacy of artifacts to bring the stars in reach. The decay has consumed this world, soon even war among us will mean nothing in the face of invasion." Cryptic and using a mix of worlds that doesn't belong in their language. Such as 'invasion' and 'artifacts'. The words are from the goddess that she is a vessel to, not his daughter directly. It is the only words he cares for from someone that was weak enough to be allured and love a vampire. Down there to ash when she done converting into such a vampire.

The warning from the goddess is meaningless, because things always disprove or contradict the fallen goddess. Two peas in a pod, both fallen favour and ruined. Wasted talents. But he can't bring himself to murder or have her murdered in mercy. Waiting to ash the woman was best, repentance for crime against humanity. Repentance to hope her soul will be in the glory of light despite her actions to love darkness.

Following the abnormality of Castle's absence and that normally when that guy was wounded, master Red was suffering worse. It was here on the train sketching random passengers on his notepad, thinking about the off changes red's phantom has been acting lately. The phantom has refused to return back to the manor and was holding a solid shape that even humans knew and seen. There was more to it. West petals have completely been under restricting itself. The human government has changed feeling towards hunters and has started executing them. Even vampires were fleeing. The black market was over saturated in lizard men from the eastern way. The south lands have been successfully left alone long enough to fill even the northern market with produce. Food seems came from thin air, human cities having a ration system have all but healthy but buy less imports. There seems a under belly about all this stuff... it doesn't bow well.

"I shall just have to make do with requesting something of you." lowered the notepad to the hunter sitting on the floor. Not just any hunter. This human was the executioner of 2 grandmaster children, several royal queens and had 3 failed attempts of both the northern kings head and the vampire king. He however has been getting on a bit and slowed down to small prey, or that was what it seemed for the past 4 years, "I left behind a welp whom was more vampire then human. I refuse to teach vampire's to kill each other. I have always refused war between our own species." Worded carefully to keep his mock human status, "She dresses and sounds like a man. She can cast divine script above the normal level. She should have been a saint in how many times I watched her drink split into layers." He makes these notes, "But she's a half vampire. She was good at hiding it from even me. Here I thought she was just having herself to look stronger and age her youth more. But now... Maybe she not even young at all. There no telling how old that half vampire is. She ages differently to everyone else, even among... people." He shook in disappointment, "She must have hide so much more from me. I didn't even bother asking her. She wouldn't tell me even if I asked."

Davy softly nods with writing all this details down. Small things even the hunter could be soothing behind his words. The undertaker wishes not to kill her, she done nothing but hide the truth and go against his moral compass. But law... well maybe she broke them. He talks of mugging people like its normal, some hunter do resort to such things because no one pays them for their service. Now that westerns on executing hunters, it isn't the time to be around here.

"Does she use any nicknames or have a name at all?" that made the undertaker flinch. He posed completely lost. It was as if he shook out of some thoughts from a second ago. Was he under an allure or vampire memory wipe, triggered by those words.

"She doesn't have a name or never told me one. She doesn't have a nickname at all. I... I never even gave her the most basic of things I would have normally for a student. I didn't even always provide her a meal. Why? Why did I go against my normal ways with her?" He reflects deeply in the poor actions and even more confused.

"Were you under a command?" Davy asked. The undertaker take plenty of time to think it over, the train track rattled underneath them. The air charged of people's talks of the eastern and northern powers.

A rumour of food prices being raised and the dislike for the flavour of city foods. The public scared of feral vampire attacks but also tense from the on going civil wars among the twin moon practices and the sun churches lack in festival holidays. The sun church having fear of the trapped spirits in the walls of holy grounds, that the minions of the sun took the hearts and skins of sinner followers. Divine punishment of the walls eating people, really has put the fear and faith on spotlight. Then again, there was talk of sickness spreading in the forest of the south western forest and attack of monsters made of darkness. That there was decaying trees and abnormal movement of tribal forest people acting not right.

A loud passenger was screaming into a phone device over the mineral contain of some ore that was delivered to a manufacturing processer. The nickel and iron should have been present... now there was less and less of it.

Davy wrote all these strange things down. He felt they weren't connected but it give a larger image of bigger things forwards. Once the food crisis was over, there could be a search for new mining locations. But there seems a large image in the unease of this crowded train. War was on the tip of tongues the most. Fear of conception for needless deaths.