Book 1, Verse 35

No matter what I said to Vivian after that, she wouldn’t tell me what she had been trying to say. The rest of the day passed by somewhat uneventfully.

When we set camp, Niels and Elisa both decided to stay on separate sides of the campfire. As the four of us ate the rations Niels prepared for us near the fire, I tried talking to Vivian again, but she didn’t respond.

With that not working, I tried a different tactic.

“It’s only about three or four more days until we get to Kuzges, right?” I asked, looking at Niels.

He nodded.

Vivian tensed slightly.

I acknowledged Niels’ response before asking another question.

“Niels, what are ‘prevaim?’”

Elisa rolled her eyes.

Niels finished eating his food, then looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

“People who were unsatisfied with something in their lives and took to stealing the lives of others for their own benefit; but not merely in the sense that they killed people. No, prevaim literally suck the life out of people. Through a dark ritual that few people know, they grant themselves a semblance of immortality; but in so doing, they give up their own lives. They become animalistic; almost feral.”

The campfire flickered and wavered in the darkness of the night.

“Since their own life is forfeit, they must sustain themselves by taking the life from others. They are granted new powers and abilities, and they use them in order to drink the blood of their victims. They used to be rare.” Niels said wistfully. “But after people found out about the church’s use of magic, they began to thrive. Even after the church pact, many prevaim still seek victims to drain.” His voice was alarmingly calm.

There were no other sounds in the campsite. Elisa and Vivian had both become eerily quiet.

“Thankfully, they are very rare in Mandl and the surrounding countries. The Monster Hunters and similar groups hunt them nearly year-round.” He said, and his voice forcefully relaxed. “So, they aren’t a worry.”

“Y-yeah.” Elisa said, plastering a confident smile onto her face. “Not a big problem.”

I hadn’t expected there to be vampires in this world. That was an unwelcome surprise.

I looked at Vivian.

Still no response from her.

I decided to switch gears again.

“Hey Vivian, have you ever dealt with prevaim before? You are a monster hunter, right?”

She looked surprised that I had brought that up, and Elisa looked at her with newfound respect.

“U-uh, not really.” She said, sounding slightly embarrassed. “They only let really experienced hunters fight prevaim. I was usually hunting for stuff like dornits. Nothing that impressive.”

Elisa scoffed. The three of us looked at her, surprised.

“Don’t sell yourself short; I saw how you fought that axebane tree. You’re pretty powerful. Not to mention that use of speed-enhancing magic you showed off the other day when you put your arm around me.” Elisa said matter-of-factly. “You have to have at least seen a prevaim before.”

Vivian blushed at the compliment.

“Well… I have seen a listing for one.” She admitted with a smile. “I d-didn’t take it though.” She said, remembering something that made her newly formed smile disappear.

“What?” Niels said, sounding almost outraged. “Why not?! Successfully defeating a prevaim is one of the fastest ways to make a fortune! There are dozens of monster hunters who became petty lords simply by defeating one or two prevaim!”

Vivian looked at Niels with a hurt expression, then sighed and closed her eyes with a gentle frown.

“I was… scared.” She said softly, then stood up. “I’m going to go to sleep.”

Niels looked unsatisfied with her response, but didn’t press the point. He yawned.

“Well, I suppose it is that time. I’ll put out the fire.”

Me and Elisa both nodded and went to our own tents for the evening.

A few moments later, Niels extinguished the fire and we were left in the darkness of our own tents. I laid there on my back, thinking about what Vivian had said.

Why would she say that she was a bad person?

I mulled the thought over in my head.

She had broken into a church when I first met her.

Then, one of the first things she did to me was put her knife to my throat.

Heck, she was the whole reason I was claiming to be a priest in the first place.

But she’d changed.

I rolled onto my side as I remained in my tent.

She’d been a bit more self-assured when I first met her. More confident in herself.

The first time we went to Niels’ place, she had swagger; she brushed aside the accusation Niels had tossed at her like it was no big deal. Then, when we’d gotten kicked out and she was sleeping, her first reaction to finding me on top of her was to pin me down and pull out her knife, before warning me not to do that again.

Then, she’d spent the day fighting dornits and earning money, then she played cards and won us even more money. That had only been four days ago.

Now, she was telling me that she thought she was a bad person.

My eyes widened.

“Oh no.”

I was changing Vivian.

A pit formed in my stomach, and I could feel bile building up inside of me.

What I was doing; what I had said to her…

I was changing her. She was actually starting to consider what I was saying to be meaningful.

My stomach churned, and I forced myself to crawl out of my tent. I stood under a star-filled sky and looked up at it. I clutched my stomach.

No.

I may have been parroting what John told me, but in doing so, I was exposing Vivian–no, not just her, but Niels and Elisa as well, to these harmful ideas.

I walked away from the campsite a little bit and fell to my knees.

I didn’t want to do that; I only wanted them to help me!

My mind raced.

I was manipulating them for my own personal benefit; I was changing how they thought about themselves; I was filling their head with dangerous ideas.

I had accidentally become what I was afraid of.

A priest.

I emptied the contents of my stomach onto the hillside I was kneeling on.

There had to be something I could do to stop this; I just needed to find it.