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Night was young, though Ash didn't find this saying any pleasant. For him night was always old, one of only things that were older than himself. He looked at the dark sky for a second - thousand, if not million of billions, stars looked down with cold and unwelcoming light. He felt a little chill running down his spine - he wasn't fearless, but he was also logical. His wild instincts did not approve of such late walk,but he honestly didn't care about that now. Royal adviser had an important meeting he had to attend to, though he would rather spend time in castle's halls and scare young guards.

Vampire sighed, taking last look at the castle before heading out - light from tall windows reflected in his reddish-brown eyes, and they shone, like the ones of cat. He turned around, turning his eyes West, to the direction of Speechless Forest.

  He could change, using his night form, but Queen's adviser didn't find it a necessity. Vampire started his walk uphills, following a trail, surrounded by tall, gloomy trees. Land of vampire kingdom, Tivestia, was almost totally covered in dense forest - only one of Blood Kin could find a safe path here. Even if they got lost or were in danger, they could always use night form to hide or to get away.

Ash found silence of woods both pleasant and uncomfortable. He sure loved to get away from the loud sounds of Royal Castle or any other vampire city. As Queen’s abviser, he had to talk sense into everyone, including the Blood Lady herself. The noise and stupidness of some of younger vampires would turn him into madman if he did not take walks like this one. On another hand, Speechless forest wasn’t call like that for no reason. It wasn’t just quiet. It was absolutely silent - there was no animals, no creatures and definitely no people. Actually, those weren’t trees. Speechless forest was made of mistletoe treants.
   
Treant is a type of nature elemental. Most of them are quite harmless, if not to say peaceful, but there is a certain type of them which feeds on blood and flesh of the living. They are spirits of parasitic plant - mistletoe. They would invade the trees, living on their host and changing it into a monster. who would catch anyone with drinkable blood. Then, it would entangle them with root and drink them dry - the mummified corpse would be buried with deadly roots. It would attack even a dragon, but did not care to notice a vampire, who were not living creatures. That’s why Speechless forest served as protection for Royal Castle - nothing could enter it without going through deadly woods.

Ash suddenly stopped, finding himself in the small glade, lighted with dim moon light. He signed, looking for a second on his sandwatch. It was invented by anubitats, now a very rare race whose empire used to be Tivestia’s biggest ally. It looked like a black leather bracelet with a round glass case, which contained colorful sand - color changed by the hour and position of the sand in the case showed the minutes. The sand was navy blue and was located on arabic number “15”, which meant that right now was 11 o’clock and 15 minutes past afternoon.

Vampire came too early - his agent wouldn't be here for another ten minutes. Despite his age, Queen’s adviser was impatient person - ten minutes seemed for him as an eternity. Jerome, the spy, was always punctual - he wouldn’t show up before time. Ash looked around, searching for something that will kill his boredom for some time, but Speechless forest was empty as usual.
Ugh…
Vampire stood there, fighting wish to lay on the grass on sleep until Jerome showed up. They were old friends anyway, so agent would forgive his behavior. He was very tired, though he was always tired - his job was one of the worst in the world, but he still loved it. Why? When you will meet the Queen, you will understand.

Time went by and Ash started to worry. He looked at sandwatch and his face grew dark. Jerome was running late. Jerome was never late, never once in his lifetime he dared to show up not on time. Queen's adviser started to suspect foul play, unhappy thoughts filled his mind. His best agent, who was him almost like younger brother, could have been caught or worse - killed. Ash was always pessimistic but tonight his instincts seemed to scream - danger, danger! Vampire began to feel as he was in the wrong place, as he was completely out of order. His eyes immediately rushed to the outline of the Royal Castle.

***
A big polar owl landed on the edge of the balcony, its white feathers going out like it was cold or depressed. It could look funny and comical if it wasn’t for its eyes - they were reddish-brown and clever, human-clever. Lady-vampire, who stood on the balcony, watched with surprise as bird in instant turned into Lord Ash - the Queen’s adviser. The women was about to say words of greetings, but vampire already passed her quickly. Women followed Lord with her eyes for few seconds before his figure turned into one of the hallways.

Ash wasn’t polite. He couldn’t care less for aristocrats, who were guesting in Royal castle for few days, so he ignored anyone without any shade of regret. He wanted to get to the Queen as soon as possible. He was worried, though Queen herself was powerful enough to withstand any kind of disaster. He repeated in his head,that there is no reason to worry, but instincts would not shut up. He grew more and more frustrated and angry.

Hallways of Royal Castle, known by other races as Fortress of Blood, were wide and tall - the ceiling was always covered in darkness because light of candles was unable to reach it. Sometimes, a window would appear - made of colorful glass it barely let any light inside. His steps echoed through the building no matter how quiet he tried to walk - and it made even more angry. Was it also his instincts? His heart grew cold, at least colder than usual.
He entered big room - library. Ceiling was even higher here and book shelves got lost in the darkness above. Blood library was made of books written and collected by vampires through all the years of their existence - more than seven thousand years. Some of this books were older than modern races, they came from the time when celestials and demons lived on the surface. It was so long ago that only dragons and vampires remember it, being the only absolute immortal races who weren’t eradicated in numerous wars.

Ash heard loud talking from behind on of the shelves. Well, now he has someone he can put his anger out. He slowly walked to the source of noise. As soon as he did, he saw three Castle guards surrounding…
Humans?!
Guards turned quickly and looked at Ash, who almost screamed those words. He looked at a women - no, a girl and a young man, both in dark clothes and grim faces, their eyes full rage and disgust. Ash was too shocked to say anything so he silently watched them.
L-lord Ash… - the elder guard started talking, - we found these intruders nears Lower Gates.
W-what? Where?! - vampire seemed to be completely confused.
Em...since they are citizens of Holy Empire, this makes it an interna-...
CITIZENS OF HOLY EMPIRE?! - “what the hell is going on here?” - he thought.
Y-yes, sir… I believe they are spies…

Ash put his palm on his face, which slowly turned from confused to angry. In a moment, library grew completely quiet - even humans stopped making any kind of noise. The girl, whose name was Alexandria, studied the vampire Lord, so did her brother, Dan. They were both tall, but slender, with tan skin and short black hair. If they had a chance to escape before, now they felt death creeping over them - they knew, who Lord Ash was.
We going to send them into torturi-...
STOP! - Ash screamed, frustrated. - This is gonna result into international scandal… Ugh… Send them to the jail cells…
But…
...are you talking back to me? - adviser said it very quietly, looking through elder guard.
N-no.
What?
N-no, Lord!

Ash seemed to calm down a little. He smiled in a child-like way, confusing both armored guards and human intruders. Alexandria and Dan then thought, that he looked so young - just a teen. If it wasn’t for his discolored dark-brown hair and white skin with black freckles, which looked even more unnatural due to his dark outfit, he would look much younger than them. Also humans noticed, that his hands were bird-like, with long black talons and rough skin. He didn’t look like vampire. He looked like demon.
Well, I gonna hurry to the Queen. - he said cheerfully, - Oh, if you gonna mess up… I gonna сut your insides out and rip off your legs.
He said it in the same cheerful way and guards felt a chill running down their spine.
Don’t dissapoint the Queen. - he said at last, turning around and walking away.
Guards pushed spies in front, forcing them to walk - they obeyed, though without any kind of enthusiasm.

Ash felt a little better after creeping out those guards, but now he also had an international scandal to handle - the peace between Holy Empire and Tivestia was always very unbalanced, but the present situation can lead to another war. Of course, spying clearly denied the Peace Treaty, but Queen’s adviser was against big conflicts. He lost too much to war - he won’t lose anything again.

He walked down the hallway, faster than before, almost running. Jerome’s absence, human spies… Day just got worse and worse every second. Ash’s had ached and he barely could withstand it - he was so-o-o done with all of this! He wanted to level the whole castle with the ground, turn it into dust, burn everything. He kept this feeling inside - he knew it, and he always tried to keep it in. He was full of hatred, and yet he could control - just a little.

He opened heavy doors, which were as high as the hallway and looked like gates to the realm of death - black with silver ornaments and bright rubies, it was rough and gentle at the same time. Adviser entered The Crown Hall - big room, which looked like church. The light of the moon came from the tall window from behind of the throne, it was orange with yellow and yet it seemed cold, like frozen in time. Walls were black with black and silver ornaments which looked like a living snakes, entangled together. Throne was tall and made of bone and some kind of black rock which did not reflect any light.

Ash looked at the throne with surprise and confusion. Queen wasn’t here. He looked around, but he didn’t find anyone until…
Oh, little Ash!
Oh, no…
Vampire turned around, but was too late - Queen hugged him tightly with her left hand, in the right one she hold a glass of vine. She had long, wavy ginger-blonde hair with few red curls near her face. Her eyes were bright-green and cloudy. She wasn’t tall, same as Ash, and her posture was child-like. She wore white victorian dress with black snake ornament, which looked so alive it created an illusion of moving. She giggled quietly.
My Lady… - said adviser, slowly stepping away from the Queen, - are you drunk again?
She laughed again, until little tears appeared in her eyes.
Just a little! - she said, prolonging the sounds in words.
Ash’s face went blank. Well, it wasn’t uncommon for Queen to have some fun and drink a lot, and he got used to it in a last seven thousand years, but her attitude was never amusing to him. He signed. He can’t tell her everything right now - Queen gonna get emotional and destroy half of the Castle in the same second.
Are you going to join the ball, little Ash? - she said with interest.
At least now he knows how she got so drunk. Queen never danced, but always drunk too much of alcohol.
No, my lady, I have to look after this mess when you are completely trashed.
She ignored Ash, as if he said nothing, and went away to the ball. Vampire followed her with eyes to make sure, she was in a company of nobles before going away.
He officially hated this day.

***
Hoy, Vashan, aren’t you supposed to guard those pesky little humans? - one of vampires said, sitting in Guard Barracks nearby the Castle.
There was five of them at the table. With their helmets off they drank beer and talked about what happened today.
So what, Josh?
“So what?” You are one kind of idiot! - said female guard, looking at Vashan with surprise.
Nothing will happen to those spies. They are caged anyway. What’s the point of standing there?
Well, however… Lord Ash will be angry. - said Josh.
He will not notice a thing. - confidently answered Vashan, but other vampires weren’t so sure.
They stayed there for another ten minutes and then returned to their shifts. Vashan entered the Castle, walking down the stairs to the Upper Jail. It was dark there, but he already could tell, that humans were still in the prison.
Heh, how are doing, pests? - he said, smiling.
...have same question for you.
Guard jumped up and turned around, seeing how Lord Ash slowly illudes from the shadows. And he was far from happy.
Tell me, mister Vashan… - lord was talking quietly, but very clear, - … where in the name of all unholy were you?
L-lord Ash-sh, I just went away for…
Twenty minutes, seven seconds. - said Ash, looking at his sandwatch.
Place suddenly fell silent, though Alex and Dan, who were watching, really wanted to ask both of them some questions. But first, they observed, hopping to get more information from their interaction.

Tell me… why do I, one of the Triple Darkness, the first-born of the Queen, royal adviser… - he said, being more frustrated after each title, - … have to do the job of a guard? - he still looked pretty calm, - Or you thought “it would be nice to waste some time of Lord Ash! He sure has nothing to do, being Queens adviser!”.
Guard fell to his knees in a bow.
I am very sorry, my Lord! It-t was my fault!
Ash sighed yet again. He had no intentions of punishing guard, to be honest, he couldn’t care less. It was the most minor problem he had to solve.
Just do your job.
Yes, sir!
Ash looked one more time at the prisoners. They didn’t seem to be a problem. He turned away, heading to the Ball Hall - if the Queen was drinking all this time, she is close to going out of control, and only Ash could bring some kind of sense into her.
Am I some kind of a nanny? - he whispered, looking off into distance.

There was no one upstairs and it was quiet. It was never quiet on the top floor - there were always guests and aristocrats  dancing, talking and doing something irresponsible. And now party halls were dark and empty.
The hell?..
Ash quickly ran through all of  the rooms, but they were as empty as they could be. A hundred or so of vampires and their allies couldn’t just disappear in thin air.
What in a...
He stopped, hearing light footsteps on the floor below. In the Throne Hall. His instincts screamed even louder than before. He runned down without any hesitation. Queen was in danger. He knew it.

Downstairs were even darker than floor above. The air was still, the Castle seemed to be abandoned. No guards, no nobles, no servants. Candles were blown out and window curtains were closed. Ash was panicked, running straight to the Throne Hall. He opened heavy doors and runned in the center of the room. He stopped, shocked and terrified.

The Queen was crucified in front of her Throne, black blood pouring from her nailed palms. In her chest was a dark spear. On the floor, blood slowly spilled across the room. Ash could not move.

He looked down. Adviser was in the center of a giant pentagram with thousand symbols. He could not even blink - it’s magic blocked any of his attempts to movement.

Slowly hundred of figures illuded from shadows. Nobles, all of them, coldly staring at Ash. On of aristocrats was standing next to the crucifix. He was tall and his face was young. He had long, steel-blond hair and blue eyes. His cloth was light-colored, with shades of blue and red. Ash knew this noble - he was relatively young, only four hundred years old, heir of one of eldest vampire bloodlines. His name was Asorg and he was smiling.
Well-well, pentagram works perfectly, Lord Ash. - he said, mockingly, - Never thought I would see you as helpless as now. Who thought that one of Triple Darkness could-...
Noble was stopped by sudden burst of laugh, coming from Ash. Aristocrats stepped away in disbelief. He should not be able to move. Ash should not be able even to blink.
You are the worst kind of idiot. - Ash said, hiding his face behind left palm, his shoulders lightly shaking from laughter, - And you made me angry.
Suddenly, cracks showed on the floor, breaking pentagram to shreds. Some aristocrats started to run away, others could not move from shock. Asorg was almost paralyzed by fear.
So what did you say… - he removed his palm. Dark aura surrounded vampire now and his right eye was black, with tight, snake-like pupil of purple color. From right eye, purple-black cracks moved to his skin, - ...about Triple Darkness?