FROM: VLADISLAUS STRAUD (personal)

TO: GERTRUDE FULTON (personal)

Gertrude,

I’m writing on behalf of your recent inquiry at the Marscapone School of Magic. I am not a Marscapone but I think I will be able to help with your problem.

Greg is a friend of mine from times long past. I think if I pay him a visit, I can try to get through to him. However, there are two major obstacles I can see here: his rage and his loneliness. I think everyone can understand the core of that feeling. It is nothing anyone can “fix”, old friends or not.

STRAUD


A journey, that’s what they wanted of me.

Sometimes people just get lucky. No one in the pack could have known about this long-lost association.

It was true that the letter had mentioned no name but I knew exactly who their neighbor was. We had been friends long ago, long before the first werewolf, long before the Moonpetal started its first season.


STRAUD//

I have to make a journey. I trust you can walk your dog and see to things while I'm gone?

MANDARC//

Of course, Master. It will be no trouble at all.

But what's happened; where are you going? I hope nothing is seriously the matter...?

STRAUD//

I have to tend to an old friend. Someone I've not seen in many years.

MANDARC//

Anyone I would know?

STRAUD//

This is from before your time.

MANDARC//

I see. Well, where are you off to so I can know?

STRAUD//

There is a small town upstate. It is called Moonwood Mill. It is home to a collection of werewolves.

MANDARC//

Werewolves, sir? You're going to a den of werewolves? Won't they attack you on sight?

STRAUD//

There is no requirement that our kind be mortal enemies. You've been reading too many young adult novels.

MANDARC//

Well that's part of the issue. I'm not sure I've been reading enough. I don't know why a werewolf should consider us his rival.

STRAUD//

I'd prefer not to dredge up old wounds. Particularly when they're not germane to your existence.

MANDARC//

Why isn't it relevant?

STRAUD//

You're too young to have been a party in this feud.

MANDARC//

I doubt they'll take that into account if I show up at their door.

STRAUD//

That's why you're not going.

MANDARC//

Oh, I know that I'm not going. Who'd watch Dexx and Emmitt? Can't leave the little ones alone without supervision.

STRAUD//

Precisely.

But it still stands that they have a deep-seated hatred of our kind.

MANDARC//

Why? What have we ever done to them?

STRAUD//

The answer lies with Lilith Vatore.

One of their elders is a cousin to the Vatore family.

MANDARC//

Small world.

STRAUD//

Small world indeed.

But there is more you should know. Lilith Vatore is not a vampire as was Kevin Marscapone. She was turned by me. The whole thing was fraught with half-truths and misunderstanding. And a lot of sorrow.

MANDARC//

Did you turn her against her will?

STRAUD//

The circumstance was heavy.

MANDARC//

So it's true.

STRAUD//

Lilith's future as a werewolf was dark and clouded. I would not abandon her to that fate.

MANDARC//

But she didn't want it.

STRAUD//

Not at the time, she did not.

MANDARC//

The plot thickens. She seems pretty happy with her lot in life right now.

I don't blame you, Master. You often know more about people than they do themselves.

STRAUD//

Others do not see it that way.

MANDARC//

Others are whiners. They have been given immortality and now they're looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Would they rather be mortals?

STRAUD//

Every vampire will feel the way he wants to about his own personal fate.

MANDARC//

Yeah, well, it's silly.

What, would she rather have dog breath?

STRAUD//

She felt a great fear of damnation.

MANDARC//

We're all damned.

STRAUD//

I would encourage you to have more empathy for her position.

MANDARC//

Why should I? Seems like a giant case of "grass is greener" syndrome.

STRAUD//

I removed from her the choice of her outcome.

MANDARC//

I'm sure her father didn't help.

STRAUD//

I will not lay this at his feet. Yes, he wanted his daughter to follow in his footsteps but it was I who made the final judgment.

MANDARC//

So Lilith was a bit afraid of her future. One side of the family thought she'd make a good werewolf. But you knew better. They're still holding a grudge?

STRAUD//

Many of their kind are ageless. When time cannot claim what it sees as its due, old wounds instead fester.

MANDARC//

Not that I see her around much but Lilith seems pretty satisfied with her life as of now. I doubt Quarq would be so open to the possibility of getting his furniture scratched up.

STRAUD//

The Glasswalkers are a special breed indeed.

But concerning Lilith, it is certainly possible she's found aspects of her existence to appreciate. It does not mean she will change her mind about me or the circumstances surrounding her death.

MANDARC//

Some death. Seems pretty "alive" to me.

STRAUD//

Mandarc, someday you're going to get yourself in trouble with that mouth of yours.

MANDARC//

I'm just tired of the weeping and wailing about the dark gift. Sometimes you just have to listen to your mother and father about what's right for you.

STRAUD//

As you did with Trelaine?

I am neither for Lilith.

MANDARC//

Why didn't her father --

STRAUD//

He lacked the ability.

MANDARC//

Really now.

STRAUD//

The Elder Vatore was unable to bestow the dark gift upon his children.

MANDARC//

But he still wanted them to prosper, so he went to you. Your loyalty was torn between your old friend --

STRAUD//

Make no mistake, I turned her because I knew it was the right course of action, not because of any command from her father.

MANDARC//

You received a premonition, right?

STRAUD//

Of sorts.

MANDARC//

I know it's not your style but you could always apologize to her. I am finding that people, especially Mortals, really like their apologies.

STRAUD//

...

MANDARC//

Okay, okay, I know. You can't apologize for something you don't regret doing.

STRAUD//

I try to maintain a strict code of honesty such that my words can be trusted.

MANDARC//

Yeah, yeah. Just...

it might be hard to make friends that way. Mortals are real sticklers about their sense of agency.

Maybe if you just explained to her what you saw.

STRAUD//

I did explain to her that this was the path of least pain. I stated that all kinds of existence, all paths before her, would incur a non-negligible amount of suffering for her. I explained to her that no matter what she chose, she would see her father's death. She would experience strife and loneliness as she and her brother drifted apart.

MANDARC//

Well, I'm sure you didn't tell her everything.

STRAUD//

I have found that you cannot reason a man out of an opinion he didn't reason himself into.

MANDARC//

But what if she didn't, truly, want to become a vampire?

STRAUD//

Sometimes one must give up one's wants and do what duty commands.

MANDARC//

What exactly did you see? You predicted ruin for their family if she became a werewolf? Was she fated to become a weakling as a werewolf?

STRAUD//

Quite the opposite. I saw her excelling at it. But she could not control her rage. It was all-consuming such that she declared war on all of Mankind. She insisted all join them or die. She was a terrible Queen.

MANDARC//

Have your visions ever been wrong before?

STRAUD//

Questions that should never be asked.

MANDARC//

Okay, okay.

STRAUD//

But it still stands that many doubt prophecy, particularly when it is a future they don't wish for.

MANDARC//

Did you explain this all to the werewolves? I'm still having trouble understanding why it is that they hate us so much.

STRAUD//

Lilith begrudgingly accepted her fate but she was not happy about it.

MANDARC//

Better to be middling in a state of want than to be a terrible force for evil.

STRAUD//

I do not think she believed in my words, thinking herself incapable of greatness. I wonder if she yet knows she has saved this world from a terrifying outcome.

MANDARC//

Just one.

STRAUD//

Two, actually. Her life as a mortal was similarly ill-fated.

MANDARC//

There was no real choice for her.