Sylvie

“I’ll just call the writer the prophet, so you know what I am saying.”  Sylvie resumed, “This prophet kept seeing battles and saw the vampires.  The battles probably got too close, or even exposed their so-called mountain.  In my sights, a mountain can be an obstacle or an actual hill.  In this case, the last line is the key.  This group must have lived almost like we did in Phantas.  Combine what I have seen with this passage, we can confirm the dryods were looking for somewhere to get away from the fighting, presumably because blood was not readily available.”

Using her palms to work on Sylvie’s shoulders, Casey bit on her lip for a moment as a question formed. “Why would blood not be available?”  Casey closed her eyes and sighed, the answer coming to her as soon as she asked the question. “Right, the war.  Soldiers are a healthy portion of the population, so taking women and older men off the street would be noticed.”

“Pretty much.”  Sylvie quietly confirmed due to Casey’s magical fingers. “You have to be using blood, this feels too good.”  Sylvie randomly chimed.

“Nope.  All me baby.  My mother and I took lessons when I was in high school so I could help others on the team, she did it to help me.”  Casey beamed as she spoke, “Sylvie, Sylvie…I remembered something!”

Shifting just enough so that she could kiss her partner, Sylvie planted her lips firmly on Casey’s. “I knew you’d adapt beautifully.”  She nuzzled against Casey’s neck before turning back and settling back against her partner. “I swear you were made to be a vampire, Casey.  Where the rest of us go through a tough time…just to recall our living life, you pulled it from the haze within two days.”

“I think it is because of all the time I spent with Vivienne and Faye.”  Casey stopped massaging her girlfriend momentarily and reflected on her two close friends. “I do miss them, Sylvie.  I also think Vivienne would be happy to see that I have transformed.”  Pressing her fingers along Sylvie’s shoulders until she found a knot, Casey kissed the spot and began working once again. “Well go on, before the water gets cold.”

Pressing the button to let the water drain, Sylvie set the book on the floor beside the tub then turned on the faucet and twisted the knobs until she matched the steamy flow Casey started. “There, that should keep us warmer, not that we need to be warm.”

“Enough of that, Missy.”  Casey leaned forward and stopped the drain and turned off the water. “That is my job, you relax and read.  Let me rejuvenate your squished mind, rolling pin..remember?”  Casey laughed.

Allowing Casey to take charge of her little project, Sylvie nodded and picked up the old book. “Alright, so we know they wanted to relocate because of the war.”  She flipped to the next numbered passage.

“...liquid metal captured from the Earth swirls in metal bins,
A ring of iron wrought round and thin,
promise of peace beyond,
a land where darkness gone…”

“Liquid metal.”  Casey confidently spoke. “Chemistry, that is mercury.”

Studying the layout and wording a bit longer, Sylvie affirmed what Casey mentioned. “Yeah, I am certain that is the right answer.”  She ran her fingers over the heavy penned ink, and got a flash of a candle-lit room with a slender hand neatly and slowly writing out the passage.  Sylvie shook her head to clear the vision and bit on her lip. “The next line is pretty easy, given my vision too.  The ring is referring to the portal they made.”

“I felt that..”  Casey softly urged. “Taini, what happened, what did you see?”

Somewhat upset that she didn’t immediately tell Casey what she’d seen, Sylvie lifted her fingers and wiggled them so Casey could see the faint ink stain. “I saw the prophet writing the words, slow deliberate almost like he or she was having the vision as they were writing.   Astounding, simply marvelous.  It’s vague enough to mean two things.”

“Oh?”  Casey stammered and quickly grabbed Sylvie’s hand and pulled the fingers to her lips and gave them a quick kiss. “For more good luck.”  Casey looked over Sylvie’s shoulder. “Is it common for double meaning?”

Still concentrating on the last two lines, Sylvie shrugged. “Depends on the vision and who the visionary is.  When I ran Ventricular Venus, I did it to get my regulars to come back.  So it was a half-truth.”  She paused and tapped on the page, “I have to consider that I saw whoever it was, writing it.  “It could mean a couple of things.  The obvious is what the dryods wanted.  Peace and a place to settle and live in harmony with humanity.  their idea of balance.  That would be the promise of peace, no darkness they took it to mean that their demons would be removed safely to not harm Earth.”  Sylvie took a breath so she could keep talking, “My vision when I left you wanting…”  Sylvie giggled then continued, “They’d planned to go beyond and purge their demons and come back.  Groups of five.”  Rubbing her chin thoughtfully, Sylvie added, “My vision swapped to Franco frantically closing the door with the seals.  The Shadewraiths were all over him and his group of five.  So I don’t know if the others were successful.  We can guess that some of them were successful because of the number we are facing now.”

“We will know more when we check out the place where the ring was, I hope.”  Casey kissed Sylvie’s shoulder. “I am scared to ask this, but what else could it have meant?”

“Truth?”  Sylvie sucked in a deep breath and enjoyed how her dead chest expanded and filled for a few seconds. “Peace also means death, and the last part..darkness gone, could mean sunlight.”  Sylvie opted to scoot forward in the water and turn around so she could see Casey. “That is an outcome I really don’t want to think about.”

Smiling since she could see the lovely lady she devoted herself to, Casey held up her finger again. “Don’t move, I have another idea.  I will be right back.”  Casey slowly stood up and exited the tub, then darted off into the house.

With the second passage mostly understood, Sylvie flipped to the third just as Casey returned. “Great timing.”  She noticed that Casey had one of her dining room chairs and a set of wooden chopsticks. “Should I even ask?”

“Just put the book on the chair, prop it up with one of the sticks and turn the pages with the other.”  Casey simply stated and made her way back into the tub then pulled Sylvie to her.  Locking her legs around the smaller vampire, Casey resumed searching for knots. “I know it will work, I did something similar in college when I needed to look at multiple books for research.”

Without any hesitation, the master vampire did as her progeny asked and raised her eyebrows in fascination when the book did exactly as Casey said it would. “Inventive.  Now I can get a little wet with you.”  Feeling Casey’s long legs wrap around her small waist, Sylvie smiled brightly and read the next passage.

“...prudence provides a second sight,
demon and shadow inside wake up and take to the air,
moon and sun bare bracers and cure our blight,
an eclipse to reform mercury the path is sealed by the pair…”

“That one doesn’t flow as easy, Sylvie.” Casey purred and winked as she started gently squeezing her lover's breasts. “This is medicinal.”  Casey pulled gently until both of Sylvie’s ample rounds slipped free from her hands. “It’s so I don’t start going crazy smelling baked apples.”  She winked playfully.