A Shade of Vampire 83: A Bender of Spirit by Forrest Bella

Author:Forrest, Bella
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Nightlight Press
Published: 2019-12-20T16:00:00+00:00

Esme

I flew the shuttle, its invisibility shield activated, while Kalon kept an eye on the skies around us. Below, a dark blue ocean seemed to stretch forever. We’d left the mainland behind hours ago, and all there was—as far as we could see—were the rippling waters.

The occasional whale-like animal jumped and splashed around, causing foamy white waves to spread outward. The shuttle’s bio-detector pulled up images on one of the screens whenever it detected movement in the water, and we often saw huge silhouettes swimming just beneath the surface.

“What are those?” I asked, drawing Kalon’s attention to the display.

He narrowed his eyes as he studied the creature’s movement before it descended into the depths of the ocean. “They’re called Senn-fish. Enormous predators with four rows of razor-sharp fangs,” he said. “Their senses are insanely sharp, and they love to chomp on larger prey. The only ocean-dwellers they don’t dare hunt are the blue titans.”

“You mean the whales jumping around earlier?”

He nodded, somewhat amused. “That’s what you call them? Whales?”

“Well, I have to adjust the nomenclature,” I replied. “I admit, I can’t ask or remember the name of every unearthly animal I come across. Fortunately, many of the species I’ve encountered so far have been quite easy to compare to what exists back home. Nature seems to follow a similar pattern everywhere. A circle of life, if you will, from the smallest herbivore to the largest predator.”

“I used to go sailing, centuries ago, though never this far south,” Kalon mused, his gaze fixed on the blue horizon ahead. “To the west, there’s a land mass we call Scotsia. It’s mostly highlands and lakes, an annex of the empire. The people there are different. An even mixture of Aeternae, Rimians, and Naloreans, most of them prosperous landowners, not just servants or shopkeepers. A significant amount of gold for Visio’s coffers comes from Scotsia. I used to come back from there with barrels filled with spices for our Rimian and Nalorean blood supplies. Some of that would be sold to kitchens across the imperial city, as well.”

“And what’s to the east of the continent?”

“Clusters of islands. Massive patches rich in gemstone mines. Most of the jewels you’ve seen in the city—and on my mother—couldn’t have been made without the precious crystals from the Malfian Islands,” Kalon replied. “And it’s not just gemstones that we get from them. Gold, silver, copper… the underground is uniform and enormous, spreading beneath the ocean.”

“So the islands are basically the peaks of underwater mountains?”

“Yes, a chain that goes on for thousands of miles, from north to south.”

I would’ve liked to see them someday, provided we survived everything we’d set out to do here on Visio. “What’s your favorite place on Visio? Your secret little nook, where no one can find you or bother you?” I asked.

Kalon’s lips stretched into a playful smile. “There’s an island at the far north of the Malfian cluster. It’s small and mostly covered in ice and snow. It’s got a hilltop in the middle, covered in thick, evergreen woods.

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