The Master's Descendants

I keep my gaze up, not making eye contact with the prowling beasts playing at civility that were appraising me like they were judging stock at the slaughterhouse dressed in a chemise. My placid smile stayed put and I innocently moved my auburn hair off of my slight shoulder to expose my collar and... my throat. A taller fellow - he must have been well over six feet but had no heft to his body - passed me by and doubled back. For a moment I could not help but wonder if he was the man from the countryside and my head turned to look at him in his onyx eyes. Over the idle chatter in the salon room with its heavily outdated décor, I heard his breath fetter as his fingertips grew close. He must have been starving to be so affected by my meagerness; or he had a particular type. It was not him, the kind fledgling from the country, and my heart sank.
When he left, a breath escaped. I was not aware I held it. He was called away to a more popular consort and I slunk into the shadows behind a pillar out of sight. Hopefully out of mind. I could hear the moroi conversing nearby as they pondered idle things like the weather, annual worship approaching for Solstitia, and whether any of the consorts needed replacing. My ears perked at that and I held my breath to listen.
“Mm…” the council member swirled her crystal goblet full of honeyed blood wine as she mulled it over. “I should think not. I find them all quite satisfactory! Their flavors have yet to dilute... but a few more are never remiss.”
I sighed again. It was a wonder I was not permanently blue in the face from all the time I spent holding my breath from anxiety. I was so on edge because there was a council meeting tonight. They only occurred once a month, but for these creatures that may as well have been weekly or even nightly by comparison. Whatever they discussed got them all in a blood frenzy and it was not uncommon for a consort to go… ‘missing’. It was sadly one of the risks we took as consorts, but our positions were more than necessary. If the masters did not have us, they would feed on the general populace.
What I failed to notice was that the fledglings - the dhampir - were mixed in among their superiors in this salon. On the night of a convocation this foretold something else entirely. Had I missed something? Errors on my behalf usually did not happen. I made every effort to make myself valuable yet unobtrusive while keeping tabs on the affairs of court so I would know when to come and go and whom to approach or avoid. It was the canny thing to do and it had kept me alive thus far.
“Come with me my dear, won’t you?” the hairs on the back of my neck immediately stood upright and I slowly turned. Nearby, a fledgling council member selected a young male consort who had retreated to the edges of the hall as I had. I did not recognize him; he must be new. My teeth clenched as I watched her gently escort him away with a kind but false smile. They were not permitted privacy with consorts before meetings…
I watched her parade the young man before a small group of the masters whom I saw appraise his physique and bouquet. With the context of the night in mind and no intimacies allowed yet, something about this left my hackles raised. Searching around the room, I saw similar scenes play out as if consorts were being selected for company and entertainment.
I immediately knew it was time to go.
Hiding behind another pillar, I took a moment to force my gag reflex into action and escaped out of one of the servants’ exits past the guards to the nearest loo. As I vomited nothing in safety, I rested my head on the side of the empty basin.
The chinking of armor interrupted my reverie and I whipped my head to find a place to hide.
There was only one small wooden cupboard in the room and I suddenly thanked Koroth Sehk for granting me such a diminutive form as I scrambled to rearrange the contents and squeeze myself in. My temple touched my knees and my knees pressed to the cupboard wall. I was packed tighter than boar jerky in a tin. I pursed my lips and prayed to Sehk that the guard was a simple human and would not hear the pounding of my heart and stifled, quavering breaths.
The door opened and I heard the footsteps enter. Next to the chain shifting, my own thumping heart drowned out every other sound. I felt tears pricking my eyes as I willed myself to stay silent.
Clink…
Scrape…
Just when I was sure that the guard would leave, the door whipped open and a gauntlet seized my arm, yanking me from the cupboard. A shriek escaped my lips and I was sure I must have resembled a squealing piglet as the moroi’s vampiric red eyes examined me with disinterest. My lips trembled as I tried not to cry and any silver tongued excuse died in my throat as we shared a moment of silent understanding about what I was doing here.
He hummed and set me on my feet but did not loosen his grip. I felt the floor give out from under me and I would have fallen had he not been gripping me. He sighed and dragged me alongside regardless of my faculties and left me to get my own bearings.
I would not let them see me like a helpless little girl or something to be devoured or pitied. I righted myself and awaited my fate as I was forcibly escorted back into the salon.
My tongue was stone as the guard quietly explained to one of the higher masters that I was attempting to escape and hide from the night’s events. Rather than rage, I saw his thin lips curl up into a devilish smile. My blood ran cold and I felt my heart drop into my stomach as he turned his mesmerizing gaze on me.
“Such an intuitive girl. This is the one for tonight.”
⃟ ⃟ ⃟
When I awoke, it was on my knees. It certainly was not the first time this happened but usually I was alone with one or a few people in a bed chamber. As the fog from the moroi’s enchantment shifted in my mind I slowly took my surroundings in.
I was in an immense circular room lit with braziers and accompanied with sconces of red and blue flame, giving an eerie and unnatural air to the expansive chamber. The architecture was ancient; it must have predated the Storm with the crackling stucco and ceiling arches much like the basilica of Body and Mind. I had not attended midnight mass in so long... But we could not be there at the basilica because it was too cold as if I were in a cellar...
When I blinked, my eyelids moved out of tandem and the room continued to swim as the colors overlapped and blended together. Oddly, I was not bound. I must have been on some raised platform for it seemed a congregation stood before me in their white robes. All the faces blurred together in the mist over my mind, forming a haunting amalgam of hopeful undead.
I had trouble stringing my thoughts together as my head lolled on my shoulders. Behind me - or was it above me? - the statue of a balaur with only one draconic head entwined with an open mouth skull. What was…? Where was I…?
“Beloved kinfolk,” an androgynous figure in a flowing robe and draconic mask stood next to me, projecting their voice and broadly gesturing. I tried to focus on them since they were close, but it did not seem to matter and I collapsed forward on my hands. The stone underneath me was a strange shade of brown…
Why could I not focus…?
“It is my honor to host this night’s communion.” Applause made my ears ring. “You honor me with your presence and your faith.” Another figure stood on the opposite side dressed in the same raiment and donning a skull with large gemstones set into the eyes. It must have been terribly difficult to see… perhaps that was why they were inactive?
“The Maker decreed unto us--!”
“Give me flesh and give me blood.” The congregation finished the statement in an eerie echo.
“Or may the sun never set and the rivers flood!” Something about the person’s voice was vaguely familiar… I could not quite place it but the broad gestures and flamboyant cadence reminded me of… the duke, Lord Aleksei Dragovei. I had seen him many times in passing in court but he never showed an interest in me despite my efforts to earn his favor. Silly I suppose for a rabbit to ingratiate itself with a wolf…
His words hardly cut through my haze. He began reciting scriptures I had never heard before about the decrees of the Masters, namely those of Vaht Sugahd, the crafter of flesh and blood. Most of the verses did not make sense and he began reciting or speaking in a harsh and guttural tongue I did not know. I began to wonder if this was just a bad dream one of the moroi was forcing on me for this seemed too bizarre to be real.
My chin was forced up and I gazed at the statues and I thought I must have been dreaming as they began to wind and slither together. The fleshy wings on the dragon spread out across the sanctuary and the mouths of the two forms began to stretch open with the grating sound of stone on stone.
Terror burned away the fog as dread suddenly struck me and I tried to force myself to stand, but an unknown force paralyzed my body. From the corner of my vision I saw the person in the skull mask had their hand stretched in my direction and their bony fingers trembled with effort as the crowd chanted in that ancient language.
My ears rang and my heart pounded in my ears as the instinctive fear sent me into a panic. I knew I was about to die. The callus, faceless masses looked on in anticipation at the end of my unremarkable existence with bated breath. I could practically taste the thrill in the air for them.
Tears poured from my eyes as the mouths of jagged stone moved forward to consume me. I would not give them the satisfaction of screaming or sobbing. I closed my eyes and silently recited Death’s Plea that Koroth Sehk would be gentle with my mind and soul when it was returned to the Weave. I wondered for a moment what it was all for.
If my place as a consort had helped my family enough.
If they would miss me.
What would they be told about my absence?
Did they forgive me for leaving and would they understand why I did?
Would that nice fledgling from the countryside still resent me for just trying to survive? Did he even remember me…?

I felt no pain… Only merciful sleep.

Structure

The leaders of this organization are the Master of Flesh and the Master of Soul (a vampire lord and lich respectively). Whether the two are siblings or of appropriate gender or not, they are referred to as brothers after their progenitors Vaht Sugaad the first vampire and Koroth Sehk the first lich. 
The current rulers are Duke Aleksei Dragovei and his blood brother Andrastus Dragovei, who are rumored to have direct ties to the progenitors.

Culture

The worship of the masters falls into two elements: revelations of the Flesh and those of the Mind or Soul. The flesh refers to material existence and the blessings we can touch. The soul refers to those things that are intangible like intelligence, love, morals, and etcetera. In a more orthodox sense, these elements are literal and refer to the physical realm and the arcane. 
Nearly all citizens of Sulaste worship the Masters, but only upper echelon are aware of their more occult rituals.

Public Agenda

The moroi - or vampires - of Sulaste prefer a cultivated cattle over hunting game approach to their kept population of the nation. The masters take excellent care of their charges in providing them with safety, security, relative wealth, and prosperity in return for the general populace looking the other way when on the very rare occasion a human never returns from the castle or goes missing in the care of the masters.

Unknown - Currently active

Type

Court, Royal

Alternative Names

The Master's Kin, Conclave of Body and Mind

Location

Ulvad