Chapter Text
In the Savage Garden you shine beautifully, my friend. You walk as if it is your garden to do with as you please. And in my wanderings, I always return to you. I always return to see the colours of the garden in your shadow, or reflected in your eyes, perhaps, or to hear of your latest follies and mad obsessions.
At long last, they crested over the mountain pass and beheld the Corellian Valley. The shadow of the castle off in the distance against the setting sun was enough to put a lump in Kore’s throat. They had struck out on their own some weeks ago – the Elders never would have sanctioned an expedition like this. It was too dangerous, they would tell her. Kore thought that explanation was stupid. If they were right, and they did nothing about it, it wasn’t like anyone would be left alive to punish her anyways. She wondered what the Elders’ plan was – run away further into the Northern Continent and pray that the vampires never discovered the concept of a winter coat?
No, Kore reasoned, that wouldn’t do. They had to do something.
A loud crash against rock and a yelp of pain brought her out of her ruminations and she brought her bike to an immediate stop. She knew what the problem was before she even turned her head to look, but that didn’t make her any less angry and disappointed.
“The alternator went…” Audron dusted himself off and picked up the smoking motorcycle off his leg.
Kore forced the kickstand down on her own and ran to the younger man, her expression one of apoplectic fury. Drax and Calix stopped their own bikes a few dozen feet ahead. She could heard Calix snickering at what was about to happen.
“You told me you fixed it before we left!”
“I did!” Audron whined in response.
Kore shook her head in disappointment. “Guess we’re walking the rest of the way to Corel.”
“Hey!” Drax shouted, “Why do we have to walk? We actually made sure our bikes worked before leaving.”
Kore walked with Audron and pushed her own bike alongside him. “Did you forget the first precept, Drax? You never leave one of your brothers behind. You can’t kill vampires if you don’t stick together. If we left him to walk on his own, what’s to stop us from leaving him to a vampire’s fangs?”
“But-” Drax protested.
“No buts. Get off your bike and push it like the rest of us.”
Drax and Calix grumbled about it, but Kore didn’t care. Unlike her, the rest of her merry band had never even come close to a vampire before, let alone killed one.
She still remembered the terror she felt as the beast snarled and dug into her throat. A phantom pain stung her awareness at the memory. When she drove her blade into the monster’s heart, she had never been so glad to feel the heat of a fire in her life.
Vampires were powerful beings. Even the weakest among them could shatter bone and tear the limbs off a human being like pulling wings off a fly. The strongest among them, the fabled vampire lords, were veritable deities in their own right. The Elders had trained them to work together to bring down regular vampires, but in the case of the lords, they only had one word of advice:
Run.
Their walk seemed to last for hours until they at last came upon an inn at the outskirts of Corel. It was nearly dawn when they made it to the front doors. The group parked the bikes at the side of the establishment.
“Do you think they’ll be open at this hour?” Audron’s face was nervous.
Kore shrugged. “We’ve seen plenty of inn keepers who kept odd hours. It’s worth a shot.”
Blessedly, the door was open and the group walked in. The establishment seemed to be empty. Off on one side was a restaurant area, and to another a bar. At the far end of the bar was an ancient looking wooden sign that read:
Welcome to Seventh Heaven
The sign itself was covered in other markings made over the years. Kore thought that they might be the signatures of children, but they were written in a runic script that she couldn’t read.
“Hello?” Calix called out to the empty air.
A whooshing sound preceded the next.
“How can I help you?” a woman asked from behind them.
Each member of the rag tag group jumped and screamed at once.
Kore turned around to behold a woman of medium height with long black hair and red eyes. She wore a white cropped shirt and a medium length skirt, with a pair of fingerless gloves. On her left hand was a wedding band with an impressive stone, and her choker was covered in dripping rubies that extended down her neckline.
“Oh, I’m sorry I scared you!” the woman apologized with kind eyes. “My name is Tifa. I’m the owner here. Can I help you guys? I was just about to close up for a couple hours.”
On closer inspection, Kore noted dark circles under the woman’s eyes. She looked tired.
“Yeah,” Kore started. “We’re travelers. We planned on staying here for a few days. Could we get a room?”
At Kore’s gesture, Drax handed the woman a bag of gil. She raised an eyebrow at them, and then went to a nearby table to count it. She seemed to grimace, but then glanced at their tired, exhausted group and seemed to change her mind. The woman gave them a smile, went behind the bar, and returned with two keys.
“Rooms 103 and 104 are all yours. Breakfast should be served in an hour or two if you’re hungry. I’m really sorry about the inconvenience. It’s early, and my employees won’t be here for an hour or two yet.”
Kore took the keys and passed them to Drax and Calix. “It’s fine, ma’am. I’m just glad we have somewhere to sleep. Say, can I get a drink while my group settles in?”
The woman looked a bit confused for a moment, but then smiled at her anyways. “I was about to close up, but of course! What kind of hostess would I be if I said no?”
Drax, Calix, and Audron went upstairs while Kore made her way for the bar. She sat down and the woman went behind it and put her hands on the nice wood.
“So, what’ll it be?”
“Well, er, just a soda, actually. I only wanted to talk.”
The woman, Tifa, seemed to purse her lips for a moment, but quickly served Kore a soda from a minifridge below the bar.
“How much do I owe you?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Right, well, we came here on our motorcycles and unfortunately, my apprentice didn’t inspect his bike properly before we left. He crashed it. I’m honestly shocked he wasn’t hurt, the damn idiot. Do you know where we could maybe get that fixed around here?”
“Well,” the woman seemed pensive for a moment, “my husband does run a mechanic shop. It’s inside of Corel proper. You guys really can’t miss it! You’ll see a large wolf logo right on the front.”
Kore sipped her soda. “That sounds great, I’m sure we’ll find it without any problems.”
The woman studied her for a moment as she absentmindedly prepared the bar for the arrival of her employees. “If you don’t mind my asking, where are you guys from? You and your ‘apprenctices’ seem to have been traveling for a long time, by the looks of it.”
Kore paled for a moment, but cleared her throat and regained her composure. “We’re from a small town on the Northern Continent. You probably wouldn’t know it.”
“No, probably not,” she agreed with a warm smile. “What brings you this far south? Northern folk almost never leave.”
“Well, errrrr…”
The woman’s warmth disarmed her.
“We’re uh, monster hunters,” she replied. It wasn’t a total lie.
“Hmm,” Tifa looked pensive. “Well, I’m afraid you guys came to the wrong place. There hasn’t been a monster attack on Corel in more than twenty years.”
“What about up in the mountains?” Kore inquired.
“Oh, those are pretty well taken care of too.”
Kore sipped her drink. A total lack of monsters around a populated area seemed unusual to her. Everywhere they had passed on their travels seems to have some need for monster hunters and mercenaries. Perhaps the castle itself served as a deterrent. Save for dragons, she felt hard pressed to think of monsters that could feasibly threaten the vampire lords who had almost certainly taken up residence there.
Broaching the subject would be difficult though. She chose her words carefully. “We saw a large castle in those mountains on our way here. Do you know who lives there?”
Tifa’s eyes seemed to darken as they washed over Kore. She felt a chill go down her spine before the owner of the inn smiled at her again. “Oh, just a nice family. They mostly keep to themselves, you know?”
At that moment, another woman walked in to the establishment. She looked to be in her late twenties, perhaps even her early thirties – she was about Kore’s own age, at any rate.
“Sorry I’m late M-” she stopped short when she saw Kore sitting at the bar. The other woman had long, dark hair that was neatly controlled in a braided bun, and kind, deep chestnut eyes.
“You’re right on time, Mina. I was just telling our customer here a bit about Corel. Her group is upstairs, but other than that we only have the nice elderly couple in 204 to worry about. Do you think you could get breakfast started?”
“Of course, Tifa,” Mina smiled. She seemed uncomfortable with calling the owner by her name. Her eyes flitted to Kore and seemed to make note of the woman’s weaponry before she scurried into the kitchens.
Tifa put her hands on her hips and exclaimed: “Right! Well, Mina should take good care of you guys. I’m going to get a few hours of sleep, but I’ll be back later. Let her know if you need anything.”
“Of course. Thank you for taking us in on such short notice,” Kore smiled and reached out her hand.
Tifa gave her a quick shake. Kore’s eyes widened for a moment. The other woman was ice cold.
“See you later!” she said before disappearing out the front door.
Kore noticed the other woman, Mina, occasionally looking at her from the port window of the kitchen as she did her morning chores.
“How long have you worked here?” Kore tried to make small talk.
“A while,” she replied. “I pick up shifts in between work with my brother.”
“Oh yeah?” Kore drained the rest of her soda. “What do you do with your brother?”
“Odd mercenary jobs, occasional monster hunting,” Mina responded.
Odd, Kore thought. “You guys must make quite a pair then; we didn’t come across any monsters at all on our way into the valley. We’re monster hunters too. Got any dens you can recommend to us?”
“Not with those weapons,” Mina gave her a confident smile. “I’ve never seen a blade like that before. Where did you get it?”
Kore stiffened. “I’m from a small town on the Northern Continent, you wouldn’t know it. It’s a local style.”
“Try me, I’ve been north before.”
Kore grew flustered. “Well, look at the time. I really should get some sleep! We still have to get my apprentice’s bike repaired, and I wouldn’t wanna sleep the day away until the shop closes, you know? Can you have breakfast sent up to our rooms? Drax should be awake. He never sleeps at all, I swear!”
“Sure.”
Kore hightailed it upstairs to her room. Drax and Calix had claimed one for themselves, of course they had, so that left her with Audron. She flopped down on the bed and let out a long, tension filled exhale.
“They really should have taught us more about the world this far south.”
Audron snored in response.
“Yeah thanks, idiot.”
Kore decided to get some shut eye.